brew

Not Bacon-Brau, thankfully

A subtle, sweet nose with just a hint of smoke is how the rauch introduces itself. This is misleading as the taste reshuffles the flavors with a strong smokiness backed by mild malt sweetness. I really like how this turned out because smoked beers can so easily go wrong. There’s no sharp, peat related flavors nor is their anything suggesting barbequed meat. I don’t get any real hoppiness and the smoke creeps into the finish exactly where a mild bitterness would normally be. It’s not terribly complex but works wonderfully as something different. I like this as evidence that different beers can be quite distinct without relying on huge, over the top flavors.

The rauch started with four and a half pounds of Pilsner and a near equal amount of smoked malt: three pounds, ten ounces. I believe it was beechwood smoked. The recipe also included twenty-two ounces of Munich, ten of Caramunich II, three of Melanoidin, and an ounce and a half dash of black malt. The 90-minute Pilsner boil included Hallertauer additions of 1.5 ounces at sixty and 0.5 ounces at ten minutes. Starting gravity was low at 1.046 but the 1.013 finish was exactly right. White Labs #830 lager yeast was used for the whole fermentation.

Dark and lactosey

Our sweet stout is English in character with eight and a quarter pounds of Maris Otter for the base. A big thirteen ounce dose of black patent turns things dark. Ten ounces of Caramel 80 and six ounces of pale chocolate add a bit of character. Thirteen ounces of unfermentable lactose added directly to the boil shifts it into the sweet category. The only hop addition was an ounce and a half of East Kent Goldings at the beginning of a sixty minute boil. Gravity was right on target at 1.058. The recipe called for an odd yeast: Wyeast #1099 Whitbread but fermentation was nonetheless uneventful completing at 1.10.

Very, very roasty to the point of almost smelling smoky – the nose also includes sweetness that comes across as vanilla. The initial taste is definitely on the sweeter side although not overly so. The finish gives way to a slight bitterness but no big burnt or coffee flavors. If there’s a smokiness in the taste as well it’s definitely very mild. The texture is thinner than I would like. The milk sugar and unfermentables ought to result in a fuller body. A little coffee would not be unwelcome, but the general mix of sweetness and mildly bitter barley seems appropriate.

Way more than a dram

One of the behemoths mixed in at random. We started with a giant sixteen and a quarter pounds of Maris Otter malt and then a variety of supplementary specialty malts: thirteen ounces of Caramel 40, six ounces each of Munich and honey malts, and three ounces each of Caramel 120 and pale chocolate. Neither the mash nor the boil ran long, a bit to my surprise, since I expected kettle caramelization would be important. Hops were East Kent Goldings with an ounce at a half at the beginning of the boil and a half ounce at ten minutes to go. The gravity reached a borderline silly 1.104, and Wyeast #1728 (Scottish Ale) managed to get all the way down to 1.020 for 11.2% ABV.

You can smell this beer from a good distance with loads of toffee and molasses and vanilla and raisins. From up close there’s also a whiff of straight alcohol. It tastes very much like Scotch – as far as I’m concerned, the distinguishing characteristic of a good wee heavy. It’s sweet and a bit smoky as well as downright sneaky. There’s little to no heat or burn from the double-digit ABV.  Rich caramel flavors dominate with dark fruit filling in the background nicely. The finish is definitely sweet (probably unavoidable) but doesn’t range into syrupy. While the beer isn’t particularly thick bodied, the richness make for a challenging pint. It’s a sipper better suited for a ten ounce glass – in an excellent way.

Should’ve been a stein

A lovely autumn orange with mild fruity aroma, this brew has a sweet initial impression with mild yeast flavors followed by a dry, earthy finish. The body is a bit heavier than medium with a definite creaminess. The malt taste is tilted very much towards sweet rather than roasty, toasty, biscuit or bread flavors. The overall impression is brighter, for lack of a better word, than I’d imagine for an Oktoberfest. It reminds me a lot of lighter pilsner / Hallertaeur blends like a Kolsch or a Blonde ale. The mouthfeel is heavier but the beer itself doesn’t seem significantly maltier.

The marzen lacks a true base malt with a bit under four pounds of pilsner, a bit over three pounds of Munich malt, and about two and a half pounds of Vienna. Another twelve ounces of Caramunich II adds color and sweetness. Like many pilsner brews the boil was 90 minutes, and like many pilsner brews the hops were strictly Hallertauer: an ounce and a half at sixty with another half ounce at twenty. The gravity came in low but within style on both ends starting at 1.051 and finishing at 1.010.

Pale Pub Pint

The middle child of category eight was built on seven and three-quarters pounds of Maris Otter for proper Englishness. Six and a half ounces each of caramel 120 and aromatic malt as well as three ounces of special roast rounded out the grain bill. Nothing special was required during mashing. The sixty minute boil included nothing but East Kent Golding additions: 1.20 ounces at the beginning, another half ounce at twenty minutes, and a final half ounce during the final minute. Post-boil gravity checked in at 1.043. For fermentation, we used WLP002 English Ale yeast. The primary finished at 1.012 but was disturbingly weird tasting with odd vegetable flavors.

After a long time mellowing out in secondary, the bitter has rounded into drinkabilty. The aroma is decided fruity with perhaps a bit of earthiness underneath; malt is definitely absent. Despite the name, I would note describe it as particularly bitter. It tastes almost exactly how it smells with a very fruity flavor and dry finish. To my surprise this isn’t necessarily wrong as the style guide permits high yeast esters. I’m having trouble picking up much else. There’s a brief moment of bitter in the finish but then the aftertaste shifts right back to the yeast flavors. This came out way more flavorful than I was expecting, but I think the balance is off. Even if it’s technically permissible, I’d like less fruitiness or more bitterness so the latter isn’t entirely buried. A yeasty, fruity ale is great but without the early hops coming through I don’t know what distinguishes this style from other ester-heavy styles.

The first sour

Finally, the first of the sours. The near year of aging creates some definite anticipation but hopefully not too much bias. The aroma is mostly fruity. There’s a bit of acidity behind it hinting at sourness, but not an overwhelming tang. On tasting it the first word that comes to mind is mild. If I let it linger on my tongue this is a little bit of sourness sneaking in but certainly not lots. There’s a definite raspberry flavor that I know comes from the yeast mix, but if it was labeled a raspberry brown ale I doubt I could tell the difference and pinpoint the source of that flavor. I think I can taste a little bit of spicy Belgian yeast between the up front raspberry and the malty finish, but that could be entirely in my head. The good news about this style is this doesn’t have to be a final verdict. I can (and will) cellar a few bottles another year and see what develops.

Hops one, bubbles zero

The worst descriptor for this beer is subtle. The aroma is a veritable banquet bright, citrusy hops. It smells like flowers and plants and freshness. The texture of the beer is even hoppy. Heavier carbonation might have been a good idea because the hop oil adds a bit of slickness. The oil isn’t unpleasant, but I think it would take more carb to cut through and carry more aromatics. The taste, of course, brings more hops. There’s enough alcohol present to elbow its way into the palate but not in a harsh way. The boldest flavor is piney and there’s a pleasant lingering bitterness. It’s not quite dry though because of the aforementioned oil. The balance seems just right to me. The alcohol of an imperial is there, but all the malt that fueled that fermentation is buried under an avalanche of bitterness.

The recipe began with fifteen and a quarter pounds of American two row malt. A half pound of Caramel 40 added the color, and a half pound of wheat malt futilely hoped to contribute head retention. An extra pound and a half of sucrose went straight into the boil to increase gravity. The mash was a normal hour but malts aren’t the interesting side of this recipe. The wort boiled for ninety minutes, but instead of the normal pilsner related DMS reduction this was to give the hops plenty of time to give up their essence. Two ounces each of Warrior and Chinnook hops went in at the very beginning of the boil. We added an ounce of Simcoe at forty-five minutes, an ounce of Columbus at thirty minutes, and then another ounce of Simcoe and two and a quarter ounces of Centennial at flame out. The gravity checked in at 1.087. I’m actually not sure how hoppy it is. BeerSmith claims 240 IBUs but I think it’s more likely we broke the algorithm than that’s the correct number. Normal WLP001 California ale yeast took care of fermentation finishing at 1.006. For good measure, we dry hopped with 1.75 oz each of Simcoe and Centennial plus 3.25 oz of Columbus because at that point why not. That works out to an even pound of hops for a five gallon batch which is kind of ridiculous in hindsight.

A heady mild

Now there’s a name the promises so very little. The nose on the beer is actually quite nice with lots of malty sweetness and a bit of dark fruit. The carbonation that carries the aroma so well is, however, way too much. It’s aggressively acidic up front. Once the first flavor passes the beer settles into a pleasant malt sweetness then finishes up on a reasonably dry note. Given a bit of time mellowing in a glass, the carbonation eases up a little, but absolutely minimal, hand-pulled, pub-style carb would still suit it better. As the beer flattens out the body also increases to a medium level that ensures the low gravity doesn’t come across as watery. This one has promise, but the taster’s inability to patiently stare at a beer without drinking it is becoming problematic in decarbonation operations.

The recipe began with five and three quarters pounds of our standard English malt, Maris Otter. The adjuncts became darker and smaller doses simultaneously: six ounces of caramel 60, five ounces of caramel 120, three ounces of pale chocolate, and an ounce and a half of pitch Black malt. The only hop addition was 0.85 ounces of East Kent Goldings at sixty minutes. After an hour in the mash tun and another hour in the kettle we would up with a 1.044 gravity. That’s not quite Mild but certainly not a big beer. Fermentation with with WLP002 English Ale yeast finished at 1.010. Somehow the 4.4% ABV falls within style despite the extra gravity. The math there perplexes me.

Wheaty mystery

The weiss recipe couldn’t be much more basic. One part wheat malt, one part pilsner: four and a half pounds each. The mash was run of the mill with no extra steps to deal with the wheat protein. The boil was ninety minutes to account for the pils. Hops were 0.70 ounces of Hallertauer at sixty minutes. Throw in WLP300 Hefeweizen for fermentation and that’s that. 1.056 OG overshot both target and intended and style gravity but not dramatically so. With a 1.012 FG and 5.8% ABV, the net miss is only a fraction of a percent.

This one smells exactly right – a bounty of banana with hints of spice and grain. The initial flavor is equally on point. The banana yeast notes are the primary taste with a nice breadiness behind it. The wheat gives a fake full bodied effect. It’s round and creamy without being heavy. Something in the finish, sadly, seems just a bit off. There’s a slightly sour note that cuts to the edges of the tongue. I wouldn’t call it horribly unpleasant but it definitely doesn’t belong. Whatever it is, it does dissipate as I get further down the glass. I don’t know if that’s because carbonation accentuates the sour or if I’m just getting numb to it. I’m at a loss what the cause might be. The recipe is too simple to point to an ingredient, but I would expect an infection defect to be way more aggressive and pronounced. Maybe it was a fermentation temperature issue or perhaps too much time sitting on the yeast in primary.

Hops better tasted than seen

The nose full of hops on our APA is bright and citrusy. The taste is nearly perfect; it’s a solid dose of bright bitterness without assaulting the palate. The finish is distinctly bitter but light as opposed to the resiny or oily. It toes the line of an IPA without crossing it which is exactly where an American pale should land. The hop profile is more grapefruit than anything else. I get a little bit of graininess that blends nicely. This isn’t all that unique as it’s not an unorthodox or creative blend of hops, but the classics are classics for a reason. As much as I want more and crazier bitterness, the pale ale is distinguished by resisting that impulse and this recipe does so well.

The American ale is of course built on American two-row malt, a total of nine pounds. Ten ounces each of Munich and Victory malts add a bit of character and color, and there was also six ounces of wheat malt presumably mostly for head retention. The hop schedule was two thirds an ounce of Horizon at sixty minutes, then a third of an ounce each of Cascade and Centennial at ten minutes, and another half ounce each of the two Cs at flameout. The yeast was good old WLP001 that’s effective and unobtrusive; hops are the star here. Like the Belgian Dark Strong Ale, I don’t have proper gravity readings for this beer. The plan was 1.056 OG. It’s much harder to guess by taste whether or not we came close to that mark with a more session-y ABV target.