Second Tasting

After dry hopping one ounce of Chinook for one week the results are in.  The roast character is substantial but not overwhelming at all.  As predicted the flavor has evened out over time.  It also has a fresh, piney, resinous flavor that can only be attributed to the addition of Humulus Lupulus.

Dry Hopped

I added an ounce of Chinook hops to the 5 gallon fermenter today.  I plan on letting that soak for about a week afterwhich (if needed) I will change the hops out for another ounce.

Tasting the Winter Pepper Ale!

First preliminary tasting of batch 18, the winter pepper ale.  The turmeric is the most surprising flavor as if comes through on the nose even before you taste it and is easily discernible even from the first sip.  This is far more prominent that I had planned or wanted.  I may attempt to increase the white pepper or juniper berries (or even some sea salt???) to help battle the turmeric.

It is also quite strong in roast character.  Upon reflection it appears that I did add a pound each of black patent malt and chocolate malt (that is 3.3% of the grain bill for each).  My expected SRM was 38 so I suppose I should have expected that flavor profile, but I still expect it will mellow out greatly as the beer ages.

Initially we had discussed dry hopping this beer, but now I question whether that will help balance the flavor out or just add noise to the palate.

It is carbonating now so we will see how that affects the experience... thoughts?


Pour one for me.

A little warmth for the cold

It was decided that we should brew up an interesting winter ale for the season.  Since winter beers are often spiced with some nonsense or other I figured we should probably keep with tradition and throw something in. I thought galangal might be and interesting flavor combination since it is spicy and crisp and might combine nicely with a nice "piney," resinous hop.

Here is what we decided on.

Grain bill:

20 lbs Blegian Pils

3 lbs Crystal 80

1 lb CaraPils

1 lb Black Patent

1 lb Chocolate malt

4 lbs brown sugar

Boil additions:

2 ounces of Chinook at 60 minutes

Tincture of 2 ounces of juniper berries and 2 ounces of white pepper at 60 minutes

2 ounces of Chinook at 30 minutes

2 ounces of Simcoe at 15 minutes

2 ounces juice of galangal at and 0.5 ounces juice of turmeric at 1 minute

We are giving the conical another go.  Fingers crossed that we got rid of all the Brett.!  :)

On another note and a victorious one, we have finally finished re-assembling the pool table which means that we now need some digital displays in the pool room that read the temperature of the boil/mash and maybe some timers for how long until the next stage.  That would be nifty.  ;)

Pour one for me,

My Apologies, Eberhart.

The last one pours here.