Our Hoppy Dubbel experiment proved to be another case of the end result not matching the original vision, while still being successful in its own right. We were going for a hoppier and slightly lighter version of the classic Belgian style dubbel, but came out with what I would probably call a Belgian amber ale.

1.046 OG; 1.006 FG; 5.3% ABV; 23 IBU

Appearance: Brownish, reddish orange; very clear. Foamy, off white head.

Nose: Fresh and floral, with a hint of fruit and a nice balance of caramel malt.

Taste: Very balanced. Slight hop bitterness with subtle spicy hop flavors, complemented by hints of caramel. A subtle chocolatey finish emerges as the beer warms up.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, dry, and very clean. Leaves a tingling on the side of the tongue that says, “Yeah, drink some more.”

Overall: “Wildly refreshing,” as Mel put it. This is definitely a very satisfying quaff, and we can’t deny that hit our goal of making a hoppier and lighter dubbel. There is nothing but success in this beer.

Nevertheless, I feel like we took it too far from the base style. The use of saison yeast in particular was a big mistake. There are almost no fruity esters or residual sweetness whatsoever, which, yeah, we should have expected that. There is some chocolate there, but not enough. Same goes for caramel. Next time, I’d like to see a darker, smoother beer. We’d probably double the doses of chocolate and caramel malts, and switch to a Trappist yeast strain.

Regardless, Mel is correct in her adamance that we made a good beer here. It’s delicious and refreshing, perfect for springtime. The only complaint I have is that there isn’t enough “dubbel” there, and that’s easy to fix.

Our Brew Days, Tasting 1 Comment »

We’ve been meaning to do the tasting session for our Dry Irish Stout for a while, and time was running out because the beer has been something of a hit — we went through quite a few bottles serving it to family at our engagement party. I don’t imagine we have many more than seven or eight bottles left by now.

So, to the task at hand:

1.034 OG; 1.016 FG; 2.4% ABV; 31 IBU

Appearance: Pitch black. Fluffy, blackish-brown head.

Nose: Sharply roasty and nutty, backed by a fruity sweetness.

Taste: Very roasty. Hints of chocolate. Assertive coffee notes. A lingering black bitterness, balanced by caramel and fruit.

Mouthfeel: Light-to-medium body. Smooth in the mouth, yet dry after swallowing.

Overall: A great surprise. Satisfying and thirst quenching. The big coffee notes and the subtle fruity ester and caramel flavors really blend together well. It reminds me of Kona, actually.

I really felt like I was flying blind when I wrote this recipe, especially grain-wise. Neither of us knew a whole lot about roasted barley and malts, so I’m glad it didn’t turn out that I overdid it with them.

Do any of you out there have attenuation issues with your stouts and porters? ‘Cause this was two in a row that under-attenuated. We were shooting for 75% and ended up a little more than 50%. Maybe this was a good thing, though; according to one of our brew buddies, when she and her husband have made dry stout and gotten it to attenuate all the way, it’s tasted much too dry when carbonated instead of being kegged on nitro, whereas ours tastes great despite not having finished. Just thought I’d ask.

Our Brew Days, Tasting 3 Comments »

Ah. My first attempt at recipe writing. I wanted something bold, something rich, something dessert-like. But before I pick it apart myself, let’s look at our tasting notes:

1.057 OG; 1.020 FG; 4.9% ABV; 38 IBU (obviously the beer is a bit more bitter because IBU refer to alpha acid bitterness, and the cocoa added its own bitterness)

Appearance: Practically black with a latte colored, thick head. Decent head retention.

Nose: Hint of raspberry, unfortunately it’s a tad too artificial. Some alcohol. Woody bitterness.

Taste: The raspberry blooms in the middle of the sip — still too artificial. Roasty and woody bitterness. Hint of chocolate masked by the bitterness, which lingers.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, coats the tongue.

Overall: The flavors we’re going for are there, but a lot of it gets lost in the bitterness of the cocoa powder. Needs a bit more [real] raspberry flavor. Not great, but good, and easy to improve.

I’d like to work with this recipe again, or at least one similar to it. On the second round, I would use raspberries, not extract — for me, there is just something a bit too artificial about the extract punching your taste and olfactory senses in their nads. We also misread the recipe and used way too much cocoa. In my notes, I should have explicitly written that we needed to use 8 oz of cocoa by volume, but we used 8 oz of cocoa by weight. Trust me, that made a big difference in the finishing bitter.

Nevertheless, I’m happy I got the chance to be wildly experimentative with my first brew. Quite honestly, I think it’s humbled me and taught me that mastering classic, solid styles might be a better idea first, which we kept in mind when we brewed my second recipe this month. I’m excited. I kept it very clean, very balanced, and no crazy ingredients. Stay tuned!

Our Brew Days, Tasting 1 Comment »

We were on the moon, all right? Hey! Apple Ale! Boy this sure is yummy! Let’s see how we did!

1.061 OG; 1.012 FG; 6.5% ABV; 19 IBU

Appearance: Thick, fluffy, off white head. Reddish brown and almost opaque.

Nose: Apple apple apple. Crisp, tart, and cidery, with just a little bit of caramel maltiness.

Taste: Apple apple apple and malt malt malt. The hop bitterness perfectly balances the sweetness of the caramel malts and the tartness of the apples.

Mouthfeel: Dry, crisp, and refreshing. Medium bodied. Syrupy, but without clinging to the tongue.

Overall: Though it never forgets that it is indeed a beer, our Winter Red Apple Ale is seriously appley, which it had better be — It’s 2/5 cider and infused with five pounds of apples, after all.

Unfortunately, the spices didn’t come through as much as we’d hoped. I can spot the nutmeg if I’m looking for it, but the cinnamon, ginger, and coriander aren’t prominent enough. Maybe we’ll make a spice extract next time or steep the spices in the secondary fermenter, since the boiling tactic obviously didn’t work out.

Even without all of the spices, though, the big blast of apple and caramel really snaps the tastebuds to attention. It’s fun and playful, and if our respective families’ testimonies can be trusted, it’s also an excellent gateway beer. We’re calling this a winner.

Our Brew Days, Tasting 2 Comments »

We decided that our Goldings Shower IPA isn’t really an IPA after all. As far as what style it actually is, though, we really don’t know what to say. It’s definitely an English style, but which one? It’s got the hoppiness of an IPA, but it’s also got the stronger malt character of a brown ale, and the fruitiness of an ESB.

It can’t decide which style it wants to be. It has an identity crisis. And so, we’ve changed the name of Goldings Shower IPA to “Identity Crisis Ale”.

Given that, let us proceed.

1.063 OG; 1.016 FG; 6.3% ABV; 51 IBU

Appearance: Hazy golden brown. Creamy beige head.

Nose: Sweet with a floral brightness. Pronounced fruity esters.

Taste: Sweet and fruity. Moderate hop bitterness. Subtle biscuity notes. Fruit and bitterness linger on the palate.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied. Unexpectedly dry and crisp, even slightly astringent. A slight nip of hop bitterness encourages the next sip without being a palate killer.

Overall: I’m glad we had a few before we passed final judgment. The more I drink it, the more I like it. There is very little intensity here, but it’s an English style; it’s not supposed to be intense. It’s very balanced and smooth, which is one of the reasons why I like English beer so much. They’re always good for a session.

That said, I wish we had been more aggressive with our late hop additions. We had 2 oz of Kent Goldings for flavor, and 2 oz for aroma. I’d like to double that. The bitterness is perfect where it is, though.

Another problem is that the fruity esters are too prominent. That’s our bathroom’s fault, really. It’s a warm room, and warm fermentations produce esters. I know Burton yeast is supposed to make a fruity beer, but this almost seems like too much. The hops gets lost in it. If we’d known enough to wrap the fermenter in a wet towel to keep the temperature down a few degrees, we’d have done it, and I think we’d have been able to perceive more hop character because of it.

Ultimately, we’re happy with it! It’s not just what we were expecting. We’ll be trying this again in the future.

Our Brew Days, Tasting Comments Off

Mitch Steele, head brewer at Stone Brewing Co., needs a band, because he has the most metal name in brewing. He’s also a pretty smart guy with tons of experience in both macro- and microbrewing, having previously served as a managing brewer at Anheuser-Busch before beginning his now 2.5-year (and growing) tenure at Stone.

On November 4th, Mitch braved the airlines to trek all the way out from San Diego to Philadelphia, where he headed up Tria’s Election Night edition of Fermentation School in a lecture entitled “Get Stoned on Election Day”.

To accompany the lecture, Mitch brought seven of Stone’s best beers: Pale Ale, IPA, Arrogant Bastard, Ruination IPA, 11th Anniversary Ale, 07.07.07 Vertical Epic aged in red wine barrels, and a 2006 vintage of Double Bastard aged in brandy barrels. Tria, for its part, paired all of this with two cheeses (creamy Cherry Grove Toma from Lawrenceville, NJ, and smoky smooth Vella Dry Monterey Jack from Sonoma, CA) along with spiced, toasted almonds, a few slices of prosciutto, and soft Philly pretzels.

While guiding us through the beer list, Mitch fed us piles upon piles of rich, chewy insight into American brewing. Did you know that 19th century brewers actually prided themselves on their use of rice and corn in their beers, even going so far as to make it a selling point? Did you know that today, it’s actually more expensive to cut beer with those grains instead of simply using nothing but malted barley? Or that a lot of double IPAs are fermented with additional sugar in order to get the ABV nice and high without having to use a lot of malt?

My favorite fact was how Stone stumbles upon some of their recipes. The brewery maintains a 20-gallon pilot brewing system that employees are free to putz around with, creating a democratic process that leads Mitch and his brewers to beers that they wouldn’t have otherwise invented. National phenomenon Arrogant Bastard is one direct result of this system (turns out it was all just a big mistake that happened to taste really good), as is Stone’s impossibly delicious 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout.

Which brings us to the beers themselves. You’re probably already familiar with the first three beers on the list. Stone’s Pale Ale smells sweet and floral and fills your mouth with just enough hoppy bitterness to make you want to drink way too much of it; the Centennial dry-hopped IPA fills your nose and mouth with earthy, citrusy hop flavors; and legendary Arrogant Bastard was its usual mysterious self, assaulting you with a barrage of malts and hops. Stone is very protective of the recipe for Arrogant Bastard, even going to far as to deny it a classification, and Mitch refused to say a single word about how it is made.

Ruination IPA is Stone’s Double IPA, though double may be the wrong word. A typical American Double IPA is essentially a regular IPA with twice the malt and twice the hops, but Stone is Stone — double won’t cut it. And so, Ruination IPA uses quadruple the hops of Stone’s standard IPA recipe, and it shows. The beer is crisp and refreshing, yet somehow massive, probably owing to the sheer weight of hop oils swirling through the glass. The nose is so hugely sweet and hoppy that I wouldn’t judge anyone for using this beer as an air freshener.

Needless to say, Stone is famous for their liberal use of hops, but the last three beers show that they have more than a few other tricks up their sleeves.

The 11th Anniversary Ale is an innovative Black IPA, which combines a big IPA — bittered with Chinook and dry-hopped with Simcoe and Amarillo — with a German dark lager. Thanks to a generous helping of German Carafa malts (dark, dehusked malts that provide all of the flavors of roasted malt without the gritty bitterness), the beer boasts a complex balance, beginning with huge hop flavors and aromas and leaving in its wake lots of roasty malt. Everyone in the room agreed that this was a spectacular beer, so we were all pleased to hear that Stone is currently working on making this a year-round offering. All they need, Mitch told us, is a name.

The 07.07.07 Vertical Epic is a 10% ABV Belgian-style strong ale, spiced with grapefruit peel, lemon peel, cardamom, and ginger, and aged in red wine barrels. The nose pops with lots of spice, oak, and dry red wine aromas, making your tongue tingle in anticipation… That might have been a little too colorful. Ah well, it stays. It was delicious, okay?

The brandy-aged Double Bastard is a work of unrelenting madness. I theorize that Mitch peeled back the veils of perception and gazed into the maw of blistered, horrifying reality to bind himself to this mania. Already sinister by way of a doubled Arrogant Bastard recipe, this particular vintage of Double Bastard did hard time in a disused brandy barrel, emerging changed, mutated into a display of smooth oak, spicy brandy, and, you know, a shit ton of malts and hops. Stone claims that this beer is only 10% ABV — I think they lie. I can still feel it more than a week later.

After the lecture, I managed to grab Mitch’s attention for a few minutes to talk about his time with Anheuser-Busch. He explained that, as a managing brewer, he had quite a bit more freedom of creativity than the other brewers in the company had. He even listed several recent Michelob brews that can be credited to him. That said, he was emphatic to point out that he was a big exception: Most macrobrewers are trapped by their company’s recipes, and even Mitch didn’t have carte blanche in his work. It was easy to see that he was leagues happier working for Stone.

We extended a verbal wedding invitation to Mitch before making our way back down to street level, buzzy and full, but satisfied by our generous look into the commercial craft beer world.

Breweries, Craft Beer, Restaurants, Tasting 1 Comment »

Tripels usually take forever to get to the point where they’re ready to drink. At first, we expected to have to wait as long as two or three months for our Belgian style Tripel to age out to perfection. Imagine how surprised we were when we discovered that, other than the obviously missing carbonation, our Tripel was ready to drink right out of the primary fermenter, a mere two weeks after pitching. Nevertheless, we kept it in secondary for two more weeks to clear it out a bit, and it took a while longer to carbonate than our other beers since Trappist yeast is a little lazy. But still, a month-and-a-half to come up with a finished Tripel is pretty freaking fast.

So, let us dissect. Warning: S-words.

1.086 OG; 1.020 FG; 8.9% ABV; 13 IBU

Appearance: Hazy, honey amber color, with subtle red tones. Big, creamy (for a Belgian style), off-white head takes its time settling down, giving you all the time in the world to enjoy it.

Nose: Sweet, banana esters explode out during the pour. They’re backed by a subtle, alcoholic dryness and a generous but controlled helping of floral hops. A barely detectable hint of spice shows up if someone has already told you to expect it.

Taste: Slightly dry, semi-sweet, with lots of banana esters, balanced by a slight hop bitterness. Lots of orange sweetness completely shrouds any alcohol taste. There is a slight suggestion of coriander.

Mouthfeel: Medium-to-light bodied, and surprisingly crisp and refreshing. Finishes dry, with a subtle hop bitterness that lingers on the middle and back of the tongue and begs you to take another sip.

Overall: When Mel and I do a tasting, we each pour a glass, take an index card, and silently take notes. We do this to keep from influencing each other’s impressions. Keeps things objective. In this case, we each independently wrote the words “holy shit” on our respective cards. Gotta love parity. We both agree that it needs more coriander, and I feel like it’s a bit dark, but apart from that, it’s impossibly refreshing, and the orange, banana, and floral hop flavors completely mask the substantial alcohol, making this an extremely dangerous beer. We might have to warn our friends about it. I’ve gotten buzzy just while writing this post.

Our Brew Days, Tasting 1 Comment »

We took our sweet time getting to this tasting. We’ve actually been sampling our attempt at Steph and Tim’s Tropical Foreign Extra Stout recipe every now and then for a little while. The first bottle screamed very loudly, “Age me, please,” which we obliged to do. And now here we are, several weeks later, and we’re ready to call the stout done. Here are our combined thoughts:

Appearance: Deep, dark, just barely translucent brownish black with red highlights. Huge, foamy, latte colored head that makes the beer sound like Pepsi.

Nose: Floral and roasty with some fruity esters, but nothing really jumps out.

Taste: Very sweet, almost cloying. Banana and vanilla notes. Some roastiness manages to peek out once the sweetness makes it off of the palate.

Mouthfeel: Medium to medium-light bodied, yet creamy. Coats the tongue and lingers on the roof of the mouth, which helps to conceal a late-game alcohol bite. Overcarbonated.

Overall: We’re kind of disappointed with this one. It came out much too sweet, and the fruity esters are out of place. It’s also not as chocolatey as we think it should have been, but the vanilla notes were a nice surprise. What surprises us the most is the fact that the recipe comes out a lot better when Steph and Tim execute it. Perhaps there is some fundamental incompatibility between their recipes and our process. Our fermentation temperature is the first thing that comes to mind — our bathroom tends to be fairly warm, leading to increased ester output by the yeast. I believe the yeast we used was English Ale; using a higher-attenuating Irish yeast instead might help the sweetness and ester problems.

Our Brew Days, Tasting Comments Off

On Wednesday, August 6, I decided to join the ladies of IPA (In Pursuit of Ale) for their somewhat bimonthly gatherings. I met the group’s presiding drinker (it actually says that on her business card — how awesome?!) Suzanne Woods at the Royal Stumble, and after hearing what IPA was all about, I knew I needed to check it out.

She planned a five course pairing menu at The Latest Dish, which is a neat pseudo-hole in the wall on 4th Street between South and Bainbridge. Eight of us attended, and it just so happens that one girl, Amy, was originally from Newark, NY and knew my roommate from my sophomore year at Brockport. Bizarrely small world, right?

I started the night out with Samuel Smith’s oatmeal stout, after trying to order Rogue’s Mocha Porter (out) and Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Chocolate Stout (also out). Their taps were not working that night, so we worked with their bottle list, which was fairly extensive AND organized by region, which was nice.

I really enjoyed the Tempura Avocado with soy syrup and chile oil that was paired with Steelhead’s extra pale ale. The avocado had a great texture of crunch from the tempura mixed with the creamy softness that avocado’s are known for. This dish surprised me, because I’m a little back and forth on avocados. Suz let us know that Steelhead had a female brewer for 17 years, up until 2007 when she headed out on a cross country brewing trip.

The main course, however, really knocked my socks off. Executive chef Scott Schroeder — who took time out at the end of the evening to stop by our table — crafted a divine pork mignon with peaches and Gorgonzola, which was paired with a Corsendonk Abbey pale ale. The pork was amazingly tender, and the Gorgonzola offered so much flavor to this dish, without being overbearing.

If you’d like to know more about IPA’s night out, head over to Suz’s blog. Her post about the evening goes over all five pairings AND has pictures!

I definitely had a great time and will need to see when I will be able to join the ladies again in pursuit of some great ale.

Craft Beer, Pairings, Restaurants, Tasting 1 Comment »

We started drinking Nuts About Coffee in full force this past weekend. It came out great! Here are our notes:

1.064 OG; 1.020 FG; 5.9% ABV; 13 IBU

Appearance: Super dark brown, hazy, and barely translucent, with a tall, thick, rich, frothy, and almost stout-like latte-colored head.

Nose: Sweet and nutty. Coffee is mellow and smooth, but still the first thing that you notice. Slight hint of chocolate.

Taste: Big hazelnut coffee taste asserts itself from word one, lingering on the back of the tongue and begging you to take another sip. More sweet, general nuttiness and chocolatiness wait beneath the coffee.

Mouthfeel: Medium, slightly dry, and creamy. Very smooth. Surprisingly crisp and clean.

Overall:
My thoughts: Best yet! The coffee was a great idea. I’m glad we used it. I was worried at first that it might have been too much, but it turns out we used just enough to make it the centerpiece without overwhelming with it. I can’t imagine how we could improve on this.
Mel’s thoughts: Did we just brew a porter? Hot damn, this was a great experiment. This would make an excellent dessert beer!

Homebrewing, Our Brew Days, Tasting 2 Comments »