Oktoberfest
Feedback: Flawed. Fruity nose. Too sweet and thick body. Needs more bitterness. FG too high. Score range 25-30. But some positive comments on the malt flavor, in the right direction.
For next time: Use C60 instead, proper yeast health / pitch rate, use less Vienna and more Munich malt. Get full attenuation, and allow to lager longer.
Smokey Helles
Feedback: Most people felt that the smoke had the appropriate intensity in the aroma and was well balanced with the rest of the beer, though a few people recommended I back off the smoke. Several people found the beer too thick in body and a little too sweet for the Helles style. Some tasters detected inappropriate esters, astringency at the end, or acidity. Recommended to let more pilsner malt character shine through.
Recipe and Process Improvements for next time:
- Replace Munich mal with pils malt
- Use less phosphoric acid in mash and sparge water
- Use a short decoction to get fuller malt character
- Proper yeast handling and allow the beer to sit on the yeast longer to attenuate fully and clean up esters etc.
- I do not plan to back off the smoke for the next time since the intensity of the smoke worked for me and I think was fairly similar to the Aecht Schlenkerla smokey helles, which I was trying to clone. But I may back off on the smoke if necessary for competitive purposes.
No comments:
Post a Comment