First Tasting: Hoppily Ever After (Micro IPA)

This is another late review that I’m finally getting around to posting. I brewed this beer to be the second of two kegs for my wedding in late April. It took me forever to decide what I wanted to brew for the wedding. Do I brewing something with mass appeal or do I brew something that I’m going to like? I decided that since I was getting an Irish stout from Freetail Brewing, which should appeal to those that don’t like “light beers,” that I could brew something I would like. I wanted something low in alcohol with a powerful aroma. I was pleasantly surprised that it was very popular at the wedding. I was hoping to have some to review after the wedding but I stored the kegs in my Aunt’s freezer while we were still in Austin and by the time I was able to get them back the IPA had been finished. 

Appearance: It pours a hazy pale straw yellow with orange hues and small hop particles floating in the glass. I need to work on my filtering better. The head is a thin white head with small dense bubbles. It quickly fades to a thin ring around the glass. I’m not sure whether to attribute this to the beer, the jockey box, or the fact that it was sitting in a pitcher before it was poured into my glass. 

Aroma: This is where I wanted the beer to shine and it didn’t disappoint. Big hop nose with grapefruit, citrus, guava, and mango dominating. The Citra is really shining through. There is a hint of pine in the back ground but not enough to turn people off. I would say the hop bursting and the keg hopping was a success. I’m not sure about how extended keg hopping would work because it obviously didn’t last that long, but I can always try again in the future. 

Taste: I’m very happy with the taste of this beer. I was worried that my IBU balance would have been too high since the ABV was so low. I kept it at around 40 IBUs. The flavors consisted of grapefruit and peach with some citrus notes and a slightly bready finish. I was surprised that there was still some malt body left.

Mouthfeel: Medium carbonation with a nice dry finish that had a short lingering bitterness. I was worried before I tried the keg that it would be over carbonated which would make the body seem too watery. Then I was worried after I initially tried it that the carbonation was too low. It ended up just about where I wanted it. 

Overall: This was the first beer that I have ever kegged so I was kind of winging it. I’m glad that it worked out fine. On top of never kegging I had never used a jockey box. My week at work prior to our wedding was spent reading about kegging and using jockey boxes. The glass I had at our wedding seemed as if the carbonation was fine and the jockey box seemed to have a decent flow rate. The beers were definitely cold so I guess it worked. I’m very pleased with how this beer turned out. I’m sad that I only had one glass of it but I’m glad that it was so popular. I guess it’s better to brew a beer and only have one glass because everyone liked it rather than having a lot left because everyone hated it. It turned out exactly the way I wanted it to and I’ll have to brew it again for the summer. Once I have some keg space cleared up for the beers that I’m planning on brewing. 

Side note: The first time I tried to pour from the keg and test the beer it was clogged. I’m not sure if it was hop particles or yeast or the hop bag but the flow rate was really slow. I quickly researched how to remedy the situation. Most solutions involved releasing the pressure and removing the drain spout to clean it. My problem was that this was the day before our wedding so I didn’t have the time to do that. One person mentioned putting the gas port on the liquid side and using it to blow the gunk out of the way. My recommendation for doing that is be careful. Make sure the gas is on and the valve is already open so that you do not have the beer enter and ruin your regulator. Also make sure that the pressure is already set higher than your keg pressure. The gas side is not designed to fit on the liquid side but it will fit with some force. It is also hard to remove. However, it did fix my problem and it was never clogged after that.

First Tasting: Saison du Fleur

I’m finally getting around to writing up the first tasting for this beer. The tasting happened a while ago, but luckily I took notes. I brewed this beer for wedding favors for our wedding (which is also why it took me a while to finally write a review). I’ll try to write a review for the MicroIPA but there is not much left in the keg, I guess it was popular. I only had one glass of it that night and enjoyed it. Everyone that had some told me they really liked it, I guess they could have been being nice to me since it was our wedding after all. If you have forgot the Wedding Saison was actually a double brew. The first batch was infected and it forced me to brew a second batch. I changed what I planned to brew for the second batch and made it a little closer to what was the “theme” of our wedding.

Picture provided by Day7 Photography

Appearance: Hazy reddish-orange with yellow hues and a thin white head that quickly dissipates into a thin ring around the side of the glass. The hibiscus definitely added some color. Prior to its addition the beer was a pale yellowish-orange.  There are small particles floating around in the bottom of the glass, which I’m assuming are the elderflowers. I’m not too worried about it since this was the last bottle and got the majority of the gunk at the bottom of the carboy. 

Aroma: Slight tart cranberries, very floral, with notes of citrus and spice. I like the spice from the Saison yeast. I was worried that the elderflowers would be too over powering but I guess one ounce per 5 gallon batch was just enough. You can tell they are there but they are not screaming in your face and they didn’t give the beer a green pepper taste that Mamouche can have sometimes.

Taste: Spicy and yeasty with a subtle tart cranberry taste. The elderflowers didn’t provide any taste which was good; I was also worried about that. I’m glad that the hibiscus was not overwhelming. I wanted it to be a hint of hibiscus tartness to make the beer refreshing without it being too tart for people that are not used to that kind of flavor in beer. 

Mouthfeel: Medium body with a dry refreshing tart finish. I love Saison yeast because they will dry a beer out without making it feel watery. So far it’s a little under carbonated but I did try this beer after only one week. I’m assuming with more time it should hit just the right amount. I’ll have to try another bottle later to confirm. 

Overall: I liked the beer a lot and will probably brew with hibiscus again. I might increase the amount I use next time since I like tart beers. I could see it working well with a Berlinerweis or a Tripel. I had to try this beer early to make sure it wasn’t infected like my last batch. There may or may not be Brettanomyces in it but I’m willing to let that go. If there is Brett in the beer it should add a nice extra layer of complexity to the beer for those willing to wait on it for a while. There shouldn’t be any chance of bottle bombs since they were bottled in strong Belgian bottles. I’m looking forward to trying this beer in the future to see how it has progressed.

Micro IPA

It took me a long time to decide what I wanted to brew to serve at our wedding. I finally decided that since I’m going to have another commercial beer there that I will brew something I want to drink. It will be late spring in Texas so I wanted something refreshing, thus I decided on a low ABV IPA, al la Founders All Day IPA. I decided to also try some new brewing techniques while I was at it, hop bursting and no sparge. I read on the Mad Fermentationist that a no sparge technique is ideal for a low ABV beer. It helps keep the integrity of the body and helps it not seem watered down. I also have read that hop bursting is ideal for aroma. This technique pertains to adding the hops to the last 15 minutes of the boil so that most of the aroma remains intact. Since this beer is going to be a low ABV session ale I wasn’t worried about having my IBU total too low with the hop bursting. Since I was adding about 4 ounces of hops in the last 15 minutes it should give me something pretty close to 40 IBUs, which sounds low for an IPA but when you take into account the ABV it’s pretty high. Most IPAs are in the 7-6% ABV range and the 80-60 IBU range. Going off of that ratio 4%ABV and 40 IBU should be just about right. I also attempted to adjust the water again as I have done in my last few beers. It definitely made my last IPA much better so I wanted to mimic that.

This sound great until it comes down to execution. Everything that went wrong was mostly my fault since I was multitasking and repairing my car at the same time. I didn’t have time to brew and work on my car over separate days or weekends so I attempted to do it at the same time. Well because of this I forgot to add my salts to the mash, didn’t notice that the homebrew store added my flaked oats to a separate bag, mash was too hot so I had to add ice cubes, and had a near boil over (even though it was 5 gallons in a 15 gallon keg). I decided that adding the salts to the boil should produce the same affect, but who knows I could be wrong. I also tried to rectify the oats situation by again employing another Mad Fermentationist technique by adding quick oats to the end of the boil. I was in the process of freaking out about missing the oats while my fiancée calmly searched adding oats to beer and found Mike’s old article. I also threw a little DME and table sugar in at the end of the boil as an attempt to add the lost sugar from the missing oats and I also added a little Maltodextrin to hopefully add the body I was hoping to gain from the oats. I might add more at kegging if I feel it’s too thin.  Turns out I probably didn’t need to add the sugar since my OG was 1.043, actually higher then I was expecting. I was expecting a lower efficiency due to the lack of a sparge to remove the remaining sugars. 

Biggest thing I learned from this brew day is don’t do other things while you brew. Oh and also RDWHAHB.

Stats:

Batch Size: 5.25 Gallons

Original Gravity (est.): 1.042

Final Gravity (est.): 1.011

IBU: 39.2

SRM: 8^o

Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Estimated efficiency: 60%

Grain Bill:

7.25lbs - Marris Otter – 70%

1.75lbs – Pale Malt – 17%

1lb - Caravienne – 10%

0.5lb – Flaked Oats – 3%

Hop Bill:

Centennial – 1 oz –pellet - 15 min

Amarillo – 1 oz –pellet – Flame out

Chinook – 1 oz –pellet - Flame out

Citra – 1 oz –pellet - Flame out

Amarillo – 1 oz –pellet – Whirlpool

Chinook – 1 oz –pellet - Whirlpool

Citra – 1 oz –pellet – Dry hop 7 days

Amarillo – 1 oz –pellet – Dry hop 7 days

Chinook – 1 oz –pellet - Dry hop 7 days

Citra – 1 oz –pellet - Dry hop 7 days

Amarillo – 1 oz –leaf – Keg hop 7 days

Chinook – 1 oz – leaf - Keg hop 7 days

Citra – 1 oz – leaf -  Keg hop 7 days

Yeast:

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Mash Schedule:

Mashed for 45 minutes at 155F, no sparge

Extras:

1 teaspoon of Gypsum added to the boil

0.5 teaspoon of CaCl added to the boil

Notes:

3/23/13 – Brewed by myself. As stated above everything that could have gone wrong happened. Mash read 160F when I initially added the water so I added some ice cubes and stirred until I got it down to 155F. I added the salts to the boil and the quick oats in the last 10 minutes, since the regular oats were not added as planned. Chilled to 68F and pitched a 1 liter starter that I made 3 days prior. Gravity reading was 1.043. Left to ferment in the chest freezer at 68F.

3/25/13 – Increased the temperature to 72F to help the yeast finish out.

4/3/13 - Took a taste test and turned down the chest freezer temperature to 35F to cold crash. There might be brett in it since it looked like there was a pellicle in between the hops, but I could be wrong. The beer smelled and tasted amazing. I'll dry hop it in two days and rack to a secondary carboy.

4/12/13 - Racked to the keg with 3 ounces of whole leaf hops placed into a bag. I carbonated the keg to 15psi and placed it in the freezer.

4/15/13 - The flow rate is really slow. I'm pretty sure the dip tube is clogged. I switched the gas side to the liquid side and open the valve. Then I switched it back and it's flowing fine now. A little under carbonated the but smell and taste is right where I want it. 

4/19/13 - First tasting. Everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot.

First Tasting: Feisty Otter

This was my second attempt at a barrel aged beer. After I racked my RIS into a tertiary carboy for some extended aging, I added my English style barleywine to the barrel. For this barleywine I wanted to employ an old English tactic for complexity. I chose to use 100% Maris Otter malt and give it an extended boil. The hope was to boil the wort down to a low volume, which increases the sugars and hopefully raises the temperature above boiling, and thus, increases the Millard effects on the sugars. It was an interesting procedure and next time I’ll probably just take the first running and boil it down. Adding the second running was a waste of time since I was just boiling off the water to increase the gravity. Next time I’ll probably use the second runnings for a mild or something. 

Appearance: Clear dark mahogany with deep reddish hues and an off white head about a finger thick that slowly fades to a thin lacing over the top of the beer. I would have to say this beer turned out very dark for being brewed with only pale malt. It’s kind of impressive what the extended boil contributed, or at least what I’m attributing the effects of the extended boil.

Aroma: Caramel, a hint of vanilla and oak, lots of raisins, some figs and various dark fruits with a splash of bourbon. The aroma turned out fruiter then I expected it to. I wish some of the other aspects were more pronounced then they were and that the raisin was a little toned down. 

Taste: More raisins on the front end with caramel after notes and a woody tannin finish. It’s sweet but the bourbon complements it well and I think the oak helps prevent it from being too cloying. I would have preferred it to be more complex like the aroma, but for being single malt its pretty complex.

Mouthfeel: Medium body with medium carbonation, perhaps a touch over carbonated, which makes the body feel a little thinner then it in actuality. 

Overall: I enjoy the beer and I think it should age well. The tannins should fade with time and I think some of the other aspects that I don’t particularly enjoy will also fade and it should round out. I look forward to holding on to it until next winter and see how it has changed. In the future I think I can gain further complexity from adding different malts instead of the extended boil. It was an interesting experience and I’m glad I tried it but I’m not sure it is worth it in the long run. 

 

Saison du Fleur: Wedding beer Redux

My first attempt to brew a beer for my part of the wedding favors is definitely infected. Hard to say where the infection came from since I’ve only brewed two beers on my new setup and each are sour. Only the first batch was intentionally sour, the second (wedding beer) was not supposed to be sour. I’ve narrowed it down to three areas that could have caused the infection. To date I have not had an infected batch that has resulted in a lost batch. Only one infection that I know of was infected and it was probably Brett-C in my Hoppy Hefeweizen, which was due to not having separate racking hoses at the time. The hefeweizen was designed to be consumed quickly so I didn’t really notice it until the end of its life. I also knew this was a potential problem but I didn’t have time to buy a separate hose so I just accepted the risk.

This go around I don’t have any clean batches to prove that it was from the Fantôme dregs and not my brewing system. If it is my brewing system I’m have narrowed it down to two potential locations. The hose that connects my keggle to the carboy for racking and the ball valve that connects the keggle to the hose are the points of concern. Luckily each is an easy fix. If it’s the hose I can just buy a new hose. If it’s the ball valve then I just need to spray sanitizer on it prior to racking form the keggle, which I have not done yet.

It’s been about a week since I brewed this beer and so far no sign of infections, so I’m assuming it was from the dregs. I used the exact same method, no spraying sanitizer on the ball valve (which I need to do anyways) and I didn’t replace the hose (which I should do anyways). As of last checked it was normal saison. 

Our wedding theme has morphed in the last few weeks and is currently wildflowers in general. So since I have a chance to rebrew the wedding beer I figured I would incorporate this somehow. I decided to go with a combination of hibiscus and elderflowers. The hibiscus should give it that reddish color that I was looking for as well as a subtle tartness and cranberry flavor. The elderflowers I’m hopping will add floral notes and not the green pepper notes you get from a Cantillon Mamouche. 

Specs

Original Gravity (est): 1.053

Final Gravity (est): 1.012

SRM:14^o

IBU: 27.4

Batch Size: 10 gallons

Boil time: 90 mins

Grain Bill

45% - Two Row Pils – 9lbs

25% - Two Row Pale – 5lbs

10% - Acidulated Malt – 2lbs

10% - Light Candi Sugar – 2lbs

5% - Special B – 1lb

4% - Rye Malt – 12oz

2% - Caramunich – 6oz

Hops

2oz – US Golding – 60min

1oz – US Golding – 20min

2oz – Sorachi Ace – Flame out

Yeast

WYeast 3726 – Farmhouse 

Mash Schedule

60mins single infusion at 148F

Notes:

(2/16/13): Brewed by myself. Easy brew day nothing thrilling. I did however accidently miscalculate my time and added my hops early. I added the hops at the 75 minute mark so I followed the schedule and just removed them early. I wasn’t using the Goldings for aroma so it shouldn’t be an issue. I also added 15 minutes of boiling to hit my target volume. Half way through the boil I made the candi sugar. I used a table spoon of yeast nutrient to convert the sucrose. I added the candi sugar straight to the boil. The gravity measured at 1.048. 

(2/20/13): Gravity down to 1.022. Tasted normal, no sign of an infection (Yay!). I’ll check the gravity in a few days to see if it’s any lower. If not I might rouse the yeast.

(3/11/13): Gravity down to 1.006. Bottled with 0.6 cups of table sugar. At bottling I steeped 2 ounces of Hibiscus in hot water in my coffee press for about 15 minutes. Then I added it during bottling. I had to split the batches in my bottling bucket, so I bottled roughly two separate 5 gallon batches. The Hibiscus added a nice tart cranberry like quality to the beer. It also added some redness I was looking for originally. I yielded 48 large format bottles and one small format bottle for testing. Now I just need to add labels and wax.

(3/25/13) - First Tasting. Turned out how I wanted, I like it and I look forward to see how it evolves.