brew

OK, technically a collins glass

Or: taste-testing the quality of your Pilsen. The kölsch is a base malt showcase. Ours used 8# 10 oz of pilsner malt, 7 oz of Vienna, and that’s it. An ounce and a half of Hallertauer at 60 minutes was the only hop addition. WLP029 yeast and water round out the Reinheitsgebot-y recipe. We used a longer cool mash on this one – 90 minutes at 149F. Both the ingredients and the process are reminiscent of making a light lager. A 90 minute boil was a given considering the grain bill. The post boil gravity came in at exactly what we planned, 1.048, which is always a pleasant surprise. The finished gravity of 1.009 was also squarely in line with style.

A glassful certainly looks like a light lager. I’m really pleased with the clarity; you can see right through the glass. There’s not a whole lot of flavor to speak of yet there’s enough body to it that it’s not watery. I suppose that’s what the guidelines term delicate. It’s not sweet, or caramel, or bready, or roasty. I’d like to think that mild flavor I can’t quite place is simply malt. The finish is clean and dry enough that I could keep sipping this for hours. Like many lagers this isn’t something I would pick out at the bar or store, but as homebrew I think I like it more in terms of what it represents. It tastes like solid technique – neverminding the fact that isn’t a flavor at all.

Break out the tall glass

After several more laid back brews, here’s a beer with some nose to it. As soon the beer get near my face it’s clear this is a weizen with all the spicy banana aromas that entails. The same flavors come through the strongest. To me the banana notes are clearest and the clove notes are more secondarily – conveniently, my preference in a wheat. There’s no trace of hops although they’re definitely in there somewhere since it’s not overly sweet. I think it looks great in a glass but the malt is fairly subdued. There’s a little bit of bread or biscuit to it but nothing in the way of caramel or roastiness. This would be an excellent choice to disabuse people of the notion that dark is distinct beer flavor.

Appropriately, 5.75# of wheat malt makes up over half the grain bill. Two and half pounds of contributes the dunkel. The grain is rounded out with 1.5# of pilsner, 6 oz of special B, 5 oz of caramel 40, and 2 oz of Carafa II. A simple 0.87 oz of Hallertauer at 60 minutes cuts the sweetness. We seem to use a whole lot of Hallertauer. Perhaps it’s nobler than its siblings. We used a normal mash without a protein rest or anything else special to account for all the wheat but did extend the boil to 90 minutes. The OG clocked in at an under target but acceptable 1.046 and fermentation finished at 1.015. I believe this is the third time we’ve used White Labs Hefeweizen yeast (#300) for beers where yeast is a player in flavor instead of just a processor and I’ve been pleased with the results every time.

Common – a.k.a “okay”

A bit of an oddball beer, the California Common is effectively an Anchor Steam clone and is defined largely by its specific hops. Obviously there’s the temperature tolerant lagerish yeast, too, but that’s more of a procedural thing. The fermentation is expected to be clean with minimal yeast flavors. Ours was built on just under 8# of American two row, with a pound of Munich and 3/4# of caramel 40 and six ounces of biscuit. Two ounces of pale chocolate nudge the color into the correct range. That’s proving to be a useful ingredient when something like midnight wheat is overkill for the color change required. The requisite Northern Brewer hops went in three doses: half an ounce at sixty, one at fifteen, and one more near flame out. We missed our target gravity with pre-fermentation at 1.044. The San Francisco Lager yeast (WLP810) finished a tad dry at 1.008. Missing the style ranges at both ends put the ABV in the correct range at least.

I think I just don’t get this one. It tastes like it’s supposed to taste so far as I can tell. It’s very clean and finishes dry with a lingering bitterness. Fruity or citrusy definitely doesn’t enter the picture at all. I know the principle flavor is the hops but in a blind tasting I doubt I’d describe this a hoppy. It’s not especially bad but at the same time it doesn’t seem markedly different from other amber ales and lagers. I guess it’s blandly well-executed at best.