Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Ultimate DIPA Tasting

Tasting my Ultimate DIPA 





This turned out pretty well, but not quite as well as I'd hoped

Appearance: slightly hazy, I didn't use finings because of the stainless dry hopper. I didn't want to gunk it up.

Aroma: Good, but one hop seems off.  my guess is the Amarillo, possibly the Mosaic. I've use much more Mosaic than Amarillo so that's where my money is.

Flavor: this is where this shines, the hop stand really comes through and presents a full, mouth coating immediate hop flavor. Fruity, piney, bitter.

Mouthfeel: A bit thin, I expected that based on the grain bill and mash schedule.  I was going for a classic 18th century IPA, which mush have had a very low FG

Overall Impression: Pretty good, not as good as I'd hoped.  I'm my own harshest critic, everyone else who's tried it has loved it.


What I'm changing next time:  Mashing a tiny bit higher, less bittering hops, swapping out to some more traditional american hops, maybe the 4 C's



Monday, August 11, 2014

Parti-Gyle Disaster

Backstory


I had a couple beers going into kegs from primary, and I decided I would do a parti-gyle mash to make 10 gallons, to pitch 5 gals with a slurry of each.

The previous beers were an american trappist clone, and a cascade lager, itself made with a slurry pitch from the lager yeast from my split batch, so it was 3rd generation.  The cascade lager was a kit I'd come into, and didn't really need so I was just having some fun with that, by brewing it as a lager, dropping some of the hops as well.


Recipe & Method


Here is the recipe for the parti-gyle batch:
18# 2 row
3# white wheat malt
2# Munich 1(7L)
.5# Caravienne 20

The plan was to take the first runnings, and make a Belgian Tripel, and take the second running and make a lighter lager.

the Tripel hops:
1oz perle 6.4aa @ 60 min
10 grams magnum at 12.4 aa @ 60 min
7 grams stryrian goldings 3.0aa @ 15 min

the lager hops:
1 oz styrian godings @ 60 min
10g magnum @ 60 min
1oz saaz @ 10 min

I built a spreadsheet to track the gravity as I drew off the wort, by taking a refractometer of the runnings every gallon, as well as the total gravity of the entire pot every gallon.  

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Split batch tasting

Split batch tasting

This was a 10 gallon batch, brewed 5/31/2014

Here is the recipe:

Malts/FermentablesMaltsterMashLbsSGCSRM%
Pilsner MaltWeyermann16.001.0381.081.0
Vienna MaltBriess3.001.0343.015.2
CarapilsBriess0.501.0321.02.5
Acidulated MaltWeyermann0.251.0301.01.3
Mash Efficiency:75 %19.751.0522.8
HopsGrownFormAAUOuncesWhenMinIBU
Hallertauer MagnumGermanyPellet12.01.00Boil6024.0
SaazCzech RepublicPellet2.92.00Boil6011.6
SaazCzech RepublicPellet2.52.00Boil102.9

38

Guest Tasting: Imperial Stout

This was passed to me via a friend of a friend

I'm referencing the BJCP guidelines, although I'm not a judge

A very gentle hiss upon opening, this pours thick and very-dark-brown-to-black leaving no head, just a faint ring of foam around the edges: