Hefeweissen Review

Appearance: Pretty nice. Color is hazy orange, with a persistent white head.

Aroma: Yeasty esters of ripe bananas, but not strong. Bready malt notes. No hops.

Taste: Not sure. I think the initial taste is a kind of malty bread character, followed by yeasty phenolics and some cloves. I don't get a strong banana flavor  however. Good, moderate body, with solid carbonation on the high side. Bitterness is very low.

Aftertaste: Again yeasty phenolics. Not especially pleasant but not undrinkable. Similar to the failed wit beer from almost a year ago.

Generally pretty bland wheat beer, with phenolic character bordering on unpleasant. I suppose I will need to wait to have a temp-controlled fridge before I can really do well with this style. Apparently 62F is the optimal temperature and this type of yeast is sensitive to deviations from the optimal temp, but as yet I cannot maintain a fermentation at that temperature.

Maybe the yeast is the issue. Perhaps a liquid yeast will be superior?

So, it's disappointing. But I'll try again at some point.

Bavarian Hefeweissen

My in-laws were visiting from Germany for a while in June. They were very interested in the homebrewing process, so naturally the day after they arrive we just hung around and brewed a batch of hefeweissen. Of course the danger in homebrewing a German beer with a group of Germans who have ready access to the best examples of the style is that the homebrew version will suck in comparison to the commercial example. Apparently that's a risk I'm willing to take.

Note: Review to follow shortly.

Bavarian Hefeweissen
3 gallon batch

3.375# German Dark Wheat
3.375# German Munich 10L

0.625 oz Hallertau, 4.5%, 60min

Danstar Munich Bavarian Wheat dry yeast

Expected OG/FG/IBUs/ABV: 1.050 / 1.013 / 14 / 4.9%

Brewed 6/15/15 with Assistant Brewer NB

Sorry, no real brew day notes. But it went generally pretty smoothly.

Pitched yeast at around 63F, when beer was sitting the cool basement.

Let ferment at 63F for a week, then moved upstairs to around 70F to finish out fermentation. Finally put back in basement for a couple of days before bottling.

Bottled 7/22/14. Aimed for 2.75 volumes of CO2 at bottling, got 29 standard bottles.

American Pale Ale Review

It's summer. I've been busy ... or maybe lazy. In any case, it's been a while since I posted but my brewing has only slowed down for the summer, not stopped. By this point this brew is fairly old for a hoppy beer and may be past its prime as far as the hops go, but I'll supplement my tasting notes with memories of how the beer was in its prime.

Appearance: Very clear, light-medium orange color, with persistent, slightly off-white head that sticks to the side of the glass nicely. Decent carbonation bubbles on the side of the mug. Perhaps a little too dark.

Aroma: Hoppy, mostly, with an American hop character of fruity citrus, slight pine. Good bready malt smell as well. Hops could be stronger in the smell. I don't get any yeast esters.

Taste: Pretty evenly balanced between the hops and malt. Fairly dry, but bready malt flavors and a little bit of fruit, and a nice but subdued hop bite at the end. No yeasty flavors, clean fermentation. I like the bready character without the caramel sweetnes.

Mouthfeel: Good moderate body, carbonation slightly higher carbonation than most of my beers but not excessive. 

Overall: A refreshing pale ale with a pretty even balance between hops and malt. Maris Otter base malt  probably helped to put it into the maltier side for this style. I like it quite a bit.

Next Time: Try this with US 2-Row as a comparison, or try to hop it up a bit more, especially in the aroma.

American Brown 2 Review

The pace of my brewing has slowed. I've been busy, and at the moment I have nearly 3 gallons of this brown ale in bottles, 3 gallons of APA in the carboy, and around another 6+ gallons of beer in bottles, not to mention 3 gallons of mead and 5 gallons of souring beer in carboys. Not even the combined drinking power of my wife and me can handle so much beer quickly. So I've held off on brewing for a while.

In any case, this brown ale is a little over a month old, so time to review:

Appearance: Deep brown with a reddish tinge. Transparent around the bottom of the glass. Off white head that fades a little too quickly, but sticks to the side of the glass. A bit hazy.

Aroma: Malty sweetness, with some toasty character. Minimal earthy and floral hop notes.

Taste: Sweet but not cloying due to a moderate bitterness. Again malty and toasty, with moderate to low caramel flavors. A dark bitter chocolate note is in there as well but its subtle. The bitterness is there, maybe a little too much.

Mouthfeel: Moderate to low carbonation, medium body. Slightly bitter aftertaste.

Overall: Pretty solid brown ale. Easy drinking, tasty and moderate alcohol. I like it. Maybe next time reduce the bitterness slightly. Also I'm not sure why the head on this particular bottle wasn't good as previous bottles have had better foam.

American Pale Ale

Yesterday I brewed an American Pale Ale from the recipe in Brewing Classic Styles, of course scaled to 3 gallons. I also put a little more late hops in than the recipe would call for, and used Maris Otter as the base malt to give it a little more malty character.

A new homebrew store opened in my area a few weeks ago, and it's great because it's much closer to my place and therefore much less time consuming than going to the other place. And I got a new toy: a grain mill with an electric drill. The mill is used and I may need to lube it / clean it a bit because it seemed to have some trouble sucking in the grains to between the rollers, and so crushing did not go smoothly.

The brew itself, however, did.

American Pale Ale

6.25# Maris Otter
6oz Munich
6oz Victory
5oz White Wheat Malt

.4oz Nugget, 13%, 60 min
.3oz Cascade, 6%, 10min
.3oz Centenial, 10.5%, 10min
.4oz Cascade, 6%, 1min
.4oz Centenial, 10.5%, 1min

 WLP001

Mash @ 152F

Brewed 5/11/14
Hit my mash temp well, but I overheated the sparge water. I let it cool a bit but probably did not get it as low as it should have been.  Not sure if I extracted tannins and if so, how much of a problem it will create.

I also got the right volume, about 4.1 gallons, with an OG of 1.046. So, pretty good.

The boil went fine, but the cooling was a bit slow and I only got it down to 110F before putting the kettle in a tub of 60F water to finally chill.

At around 9:15pm, when the wort was about 70F, I siphoned it onto the yeast cake from the Brown Ale I recently brewed. The wort did not look as clear as it normally looks. Not sure if it's a problem with the crush or what. I hope it will clear up.

Placed the plastic carboy in a tub of 68F water. Ambient air temps around 60F, so it may cool down a little. 

5/12/14, 5pm - Nice fermentation going. 62F ambient air.

American Brown 2 Brewday

Unfortunately I have been busy / lazy for the last few weeks and as I result I am just now getting to writing up a brew day log to an American brown I brewed on April 20th. I'll only post the recipe below, since I didn't really take notes and I can't remember how exactly it went.

The recipe is based on a clone recipe for Bell's Best Brown:

Bell's Best Clone
3 Gallons
6.5# US 2-Row
9oz C-60
9oz Special Roast
9oz Victory
2oz Chocolate

.35oz Nugget, 13.2% 60min
. 25oz Cascade, 6%, 15 min
.25oz Willamette, 5%, 10 min
.25oz Willamette, 5%, 1 min
.25oz Cascade, 6%, 1min

WLP001

Expected OG/FG/ABV/IBU: 1.058, 1.015, 27, 5.6%

Mash @ 152F.

Brewed: 4/20/14
Made a yeast starter the day before. 
Fermented @ 60F, then after one week moved to 68F ambient to finish fermentation.

Bottled: 5/11/14
Tasted good, but body seemed a little bit thin.

Double IPA Review

I finally brewed a DIPA, hoping to blast as much hops into the beer as possible, especially in the aroma. I used the "whirlpool" hop technique for the first time to achieve this, as I have heard that it works quite well. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results, since it has the best hop aroma of any beer I've brewed.

Appearance: Burnt orange body, slightly hazy but overall pretty clear. Billowing off-white head that sticks around. Pretty good looking beer I would say. The lacing sticks to the side of the glass as I drink.

Aroma: Dank hop aromas dominate. Piney, resinous, but also a kind of grapefruit or citrusy note. I don't get a lot of fruitiness, it's more dank than that. It's pretty hard to describe the smell. The intensity and saturation of the aroma is good, better than most or all of my other beers, but it cannot be detected from several feet away, like some IPAs / DIPAs can be. I think I detect a bit of alcohol in the nose, but its very subtle. As it warms up, I think I get more fruity quality to the hop aroma.

Taste: Firm bitterness, but not overly harsh, tannic or grassy. I get a fruit like quality, maybe grapefruit, orange, mango or the like, but the bitterness has more piney bite than a fruity quality. It's fairly smooth however. As far as malt, I do get a subtle malty taste in there, with a little bit of sweetness. I don't taste any alcohol, despite the approximately 8% ABV.

Mouthfeel: Moderate to heavy body. It kind of coats the tounge. Mid-range carbonation. I don't think it's "bone-dry" and so I do get some residual sweetness. Aftertaste is hoppy goodness. The bitterness is smoother than many of my other IPAs, but does have a bit of spicy / tannic / vegetable "bite". Normal and / or desired for a DIPA.

Overall: A very hoppy DIPA beer, dominated by the "dank" and piney type of hops. Some malt taste and residual sweetness, with moderate body.

I'm pretty pleased with this one, as it came out as hoppy as I was hoping for: aromatic and bitter, but with a solid malt backbone. I'll will definitely be using the "hop stand" technique in the future with hoppy beers. I think an interesting experiment to try here would be to dial down the IBUs and the OG, but keep the late / dry hops schedule, and see what happens.

Also I will definitely try the Summit / Nugget combo again, even if I don't brew this exact same recipe. At some point to I should try to exactly clone the Green Flash DIPA.