Celebration Clone Review

This beer was brewed so that the brew club I'm it could have a clone competition with another brew club in the region. The competition was supposed to have been this last weekend but was delayed to due a series of snowstorms that set a record for most snow in shortest time, so this review was written without being biased by the results of the competition.

Appearance: Hazy dark orange. Moderate head that sticks to the side of the glass but dissipates fairly quickly, leaving a thin coating of bubbles over the surface of the beer.


Aroma: Pretty decent hop aroma. Classic aroma of Cascade and Centennial combination, similar to beers I've made before with those two hops. Fruity, peachy, mango-y. Not much dankness or piney quality in the aroma. I don't detect a malt backbone since it's overshadowed by the hops.

Taste: Follows the hop smell but adds a moderate bitterness at the finish, with some dankness in the flavor. Malty sweetness is there too but moderate. Good hop flavor.

Mouthfeel: Full mouthfeel but with moderate-low carbonation. Aftertaste is bitter but not overpoweringly so. Nice malty sweetness balances the bitterness pretty well.

Overall: I'm happy with both the hop aroma and flavor. This is a very pleasant IPA that has great Cascade / Centennial hoppiness. Bitterness is appropriate for the style but on the low to moderate range. It's not a bone-dry West-coast IPA but veers towards and East-Coast IPA, as was intended. Usually the hop aroma and flavor of my beers deteriorates pretty quickly, but for this one I may put them all in my beer / lager fridge, which currently I'm not using for any fermenting or lagering beers.

Compare and Contrast: As I recall the Celebration, my homebrew is more aromatic, more bitter, and less sweet. The color is nearly correct though mine is cloudy, while the Celebration is clear. Unfortunately I could not find any Celebration Ale at the local beer stores, since it's a seasonal brew that presumably won't be available until the end of 2015.

Review of Meads

Normally, beer is my fermented beverage of choice. But variety is good. So, I made a mead about a year ago, and let it age for some time, splitting it up into a "traditional" batch and a "fruit" batch. Since it was my first attempt at this beverage and I wanted to keep my costs down, I used mainly ingredients from Costco, with the expectation of making a drinkable but not great product. Here are my tasting notes, although I've been consuming this product slowly since maybe June 2014.

Traditional Mead
Appearance: Translucent light yellow. Crystal clear.

Aroma: White wine like. Floral, sweet, not completely like honey. Prominent but not intense. Some alcohol in the nose.

Taste: Initial taste is like the nose: sweet, floral, white wine. The honey comes in later, while definitely there it lacks the very strong taste of pure honey. Alcohol notes in the finish but fortunately it doesn't have a nasty alcohol burn.

Mouthfeel: Body is medium to medium full, smooth. Zero carbonation. Sweetness adds to perception of body.

Overall: A pretty wine-like mead, with subdued honey characteristics and medium-low sweetness. Pleasant, but I wish it had more of a distinct



Fruit Mead
Appearance: Crystal clear red, almost purple color.

Aroma: Huge sweet fruit aroma. Mainly raspberries but perhaps some darker fruits like blackberries. Honey aroma is overpowered by the fruit.

Taste: Fruity, but less so than the nose. I get a definite tannic quality from the skins of the fruits, which helps to give the mead a dry red-wine like character. Sweetness is lower than in the traditional mead. Sadly I really don't get much if any honey character. Alcohol is muted by the strong taste of the fruit and tannins.

Mouthfeel: Medium to full. Tannins give it some body. Zero carbonation. Leaves a tannic-dry aftertaste.

Overall: Pleasant, wine-like mead with an interesting mix of fruit and tannic. Lacks significant honey taste or aroma.

Overall
Next time I make mead, I think I will use better quality honey and yeast specifically made for mead. These drinks are tasty but are too wine like in my view.

King Titus Clone Re-Brew

This is a rebrew of my King Titus clone attempt, but with a couple of small changes.

King Titus Clone Attempt #2
6.250# US 2-Row
1# Munich 10L
1# Flaked Oats
8oz US Crystal 40
8oz Chocolate Malt
8oz US Crystal 80
3oz Light Chocolate Malt
3oz Roast Barley

Mash at 152F, 75minutes

5/8oz Warrior, 13.7% AA, 60min
1/4oz Columbus, 15.2% AA, 15min
1/4oz Columbus, 15.2% AA, 5min
1/4oz Columbus, 15.2% AA, 1 min

US-05

 Expected FG/OG/IBUs/ABV: 1.076, 1.017, 46, 7%

2/6/15
Made a started w/ washed US-05. Didn't get much activity from the starter but by the time I pitched into the wort it was picking up a bit. 


Brew Day 2/8/15
Prepped a starter from some washed yeast the day before the brewday. By the time I started heating the strike water the starter was slowly fermenting.

Actual mash temp was 152F.


Got about 4.5 gallons pre-boil at 1.066 gravity. Boiled for 95 minutes.

Cooling went slowly because my stupid submersible pump thought there was an electrical fault, so I used the ice-bath method.

Oxygenated with my new oxygenation wand. Cool!

Pitched when the wort was at 65F at around 3:30pm.

2/9/15, 1pm. No signs of activity yet. 63F ambient.