Tag Archives: hop flavor

Jan24

The Final Version: the completion of a session pale ale (recipe include)

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Over the past year, I have been developing an ale that started out as a big, citrus IPA.  Overtime I kept dialing back the amount of bitterness and the IBU’s until I found a really nice balance.  This is my second time brewing this beer exactly the same way, and it has turned out to be a homerun. Easy drinking, and everyone keeps refilling their glasses. Try it out! Cheers

DSC_0358

Here is the review:

Appearance: a clear orange brown with a few hop particles floating around.

nose:  The galaxy citrus aroma shines through with hints of melon and grapefruit.  There is a malt sweetness underneath the floral characteristics that reminds me of biscuits and toasted bread.

Flavor:  A mild but assertive hop bitterness that finishes easily, but with a noticeable hop finish. Very easy to drink

mouth feel: Medium bodied and a very balanced experience

overall:  This tastes like it came from a brewery! looking forward to entering it into a competition in the future. 9/10

Here is the recipe:

10 lbs 2 row

1 lb crystal 40

.3 lb Honey Malt

.3 lb Vienna Malt

.3 lb Caramunich

.3 lb aromatic

stepped at 152 for 60 min.

.8 oz galaxy hop for first wort hop

1 oz cascade with 10 minutes left of boil

.5 ounce galaxy at flame out

.7 ounce galaxy for dry hop

British Ale yeast at 67 degrees

Oct2

Oktoberfest Again!

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It was the fall of 2005 when I first walked into a beer tent in Munich.  It was an experience of excess and awesomeness.  People were everywhere and absolutely everyone was drinking copious amounts of delicious beer.  Oktoberfest is much like a carnival for adults, and I was lucky enough see it.
Later that year, I began home brewing, with a goal being to recreate the beers that I drank at the festival.  This has been a very frustrating process.  When I first began brewing, I was like every other home brewer out there, not very familiar with proper sanitation practices and lacked any form of temperature control.  I also didn’t understand the basics of pitching rate.  Needless to say, I have made many Oktoberfests that have tasted like absolute crap.
Last year I put a lot of time working with this beer style.  I made 3 batches of Oktoberfest, each through a different process.  The first was a triple decoction, which is a very long process of taking some of the mash, boiling it, then throwing it back into the mash tun, which raises the mash temperature.  Just add 3 hours to your brew day and you can do a decoction. The next approach was single infusion, using only 1 water addition to reach mash temp, and the last was extract.  I found that a triple decoction made the best beer, but took forever for a very minimal gain. The single infusion brew was the smoothest with a very light malt character. Of course the extract example tasted the worse.
This year, I attempted to fuse the successes from the past. Instead of the triple decoction approach, I did a double step infusion, holding the grain bill at 146 for 60 minutes, then raising the mash to 158 for 20 before sparging at 160.  Next time I plan on a double decoction, with a more diverse grain bill.

The beer ended up being a damn good lager, even though I am still working on the balance between Vienna malt and Munich malt. This style is finally being made well in my brewery, just a few more tweaks until I get to a finished beer!

Oktoberfest Bier

Appearance:Perfectly clear with an amber brown color
Nose: sweet caramel nose with a slight toasted quality
Flavor: Smooth and sweet, big Munich malt flavor with a late noble hop finish
Mouthfeel: medium bodied and wonderfully carbonated
Overall: This is the first time I can even come close to being satisfied with my Oktoberfest, I give it a 7.5 / 10

Sep5

Citrus IPA: version $#!@

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My.p.a.

This is a style of beer that I have been working on for the majority of this year. I think I am finally honing in on a very smooth IPA that focuses on late hop additions to give wonderful aroma but doesn’t hit very hard with bitterness.  A very hoppy beer that you can also double as a guzzler.  I’ve really fallen in love with using Galaxy hops for bittering hops, then a melody of Citra, Cascade, and Galaxy in the last 15 minutes.  Dry hopped with 2 ounces of Citra to really bring out the citrus, grapefruit, and lemon character.  I used British Ale 1 from Wyeast, which is my preferred yeast for IPA’s, due to its ability to emphasize hop characteristics in a beer.

Citrus IPA Tasting:

Nose:  The scent comes up in the front with Citra characteristic, big lemon and citrus scents with some grapefruit underneath.

Appearance:  Very cloudy with an amber brown color.

Taste: The beer begins with a smooth round bitterness that blends into a lemon/grapefruit flavor.

mouthfeel: medium bodied, more bitter than not, but very easy to drink.

overall: This is the way it should taste.  Easy drinking citrus fruit that is mild enough to drink a few pints.    8.3/10

Jul26

Thai Tea Pale Ale (extract)

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A good friend of mine wanted to get one more batch of brewing in before he moves far far far away to Mississippi and becomes a father.  In a recent adventure, he stumbled upon a thai iced tea that was simply splendid.  He decided to brew an extract pale ale with the thai tea.  A pretty straight forward brew day, with only 1 hop addition of Galaxy at 60 min made this one of the easiest brew days I have had in a very long time.  The tea went directly into the secondary fermentation after we brewed a strong cup of the tea.  We brought it up to a camping trip and the keg went quickly.

Thai tea pale ale

appearance: a light orange brown color that is hazy. poor head

nose: a bunch of esters, but also a lot of tea and mint scents, kind of twangy

flavor: an earthy flavor that is a combination of the full flavored tea and the Galaxy hop bitterness, while dry, it is pleasant.

mouth feel: the tannin pushes the bitterness to a bit of astringency, but is still a very drinkable beer.  medium bodied and needs more carbonation.

overall: not bad for an extract brew. next time, I would like to dry out the beer, ease up on the tea, and hop with an english hop like Willamette. 6.0 / 10

Jul2

The Arrival of Summer, Pineapple IPA Tasting

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This last month has been a hectic one.  The end of the school year is always a fun time and with the month of June comes a real urge to drink some awesome fruit beers.  Being a beach bum summer guy, I really enjoy a whole bunch of tropically influence beers, and this is my latest attempt at one.  This beer is a citrus hopped IPA with around 95 IBU’s of Warrior/Citra/Pacific Gem being added predominately in the last 15 min of the boil.  After fermentation, I chopped up a whole pineapple that I had let “ripen” for about 1 -2 weeks and put that into a keg with the IPA.  A month later, I transferred off the beer and tapped it, here is what it tasted like:

Pineapple IPA

Appearance: A honey/ straw color that is semi clear with just a slight cloudiness, poor head retention, but highly carbonated

Nose: A big citrus nose with the Pineapple shinning brightly.  Mango and apricot undertones.

Taste:  A light beginning with a slight hop bitterness coming forward, followed by a big tropical finish.  A bitter pith of grapefruit and tart pineapple end into a dry finish.

Mouthfeel: Balanced, but big.  The dryness causes the taste to linger.

Overall:  a bit too dry for what I was going for, but for a highly hopped IPA, it was pretty delicious.  This will go great at the beach or a BBQ.  7/10.  Add a lot more specialty grains next time.

Apr17

New hop season is here!

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With a warm winter, I am already having my hop plants come to life! My second year Nugget  is growing very quickly and the Goldings (2nd year) is growing nicely.  I also picked up some Willamette and Sterling.  I’m planning on having a great shady spot underneath the hops to relax in this summer. Here are some pics

Goldings 4.3.2012

two weeks later:

Goldings 4.17.12

and now the Nugget

Nugget 4.3.2012

two weeks!

Nugget 4.17.12

This is a tremendous difference from last year, which didn’t see sprouts until may/june.  I’m thanking a warm winter and a pleasant conversation about being happy hops every morning.

Mar22

Coconut Porter Tasting

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Coconut Porter

Brewing with coconut has been an a desire of mine for some time.  I’ve only have had a few wonderful coconut beers, so this was my first shot in the dark. It tasted ok, but really, not too impressive.  I toasted the dried coconuts on the stove for about 15 – 20 min before putting them into the secondary for about 10 days.

Appearance: A wonderful Dark brown that has a honey/amber undertone to it

Nose: Big time Chocolate and some coconut aromas.  Malty with hints of dark fruit and plum

Taste: easy start with a big coconut, hop , dark chocolate mid flavor. the blend of flavors gave an almost metal taste.  Kinda weird, but if i cut the hop character, I think it would just be coconut flavor

Mouthfeel: nice carb, but the flavor is a bit cloying

Overall:  6/10.  Kick up the coconut and drop some hops.  The base beer was a great start on this beer.