#19 Irish Red Ale - Tasting

Recipe     -     Brewday     -     Tasting

ABV: 5.1%

Serving Temp: 45F

Grade: A-

Well this beer is certainly an odd duck.  I can't say I know what to make of it, so I guess I'll just have to have another.  And maybe another if that doesn't do the trick.  I don't know if I've had a beer quite like it.  Maybe somewhere between Smithwick's (sans the iron flavor when cold) and my hazy memories of Red Trolley, but then folded back in on itself.  It's not quite bold enough to elicit a strong reaction.  I desperately want to have something to say here, some sort of dramatic opinion, but it's too cohesive and mild to really feel comfortable dissecting it in detail.  If I would just shut up and drink it I would remember that it's a really nice, well-rounded beer, but that's not much of a blog post.  Anyway, here goes:

The primary flavors are a balance of the chocolaty bitterness from the roast malt against the fruity esters from the yeast.  At first the chocolate seemed most prominent, but as the beer warms, the fruitiness elbows its way to the front with a hint of toffee flitting around the edges, until finally the flavors meld into a nice caramel as it approaches room temperature.  That sounds extremely pretentious, but only because it is.  I challenge you to try the beer and come up with a better description yourself.

Overall I'm again pretty pleased with this batch.  I feel like I've really gotten the hang of making good beer, but the next step is to get the hang of making really good beer.  It's solid, and should be an easy sell at our St. Patrick's Day party, but it doesn't quite capture the intense, dry caramel flavor I imagined.  (I guess that makes it more true to its Irish heritage though.)  The color is a shade darker than I hoped as well, and--as you can see--significantly more hazy.

I'll have to work my way to the bottom of the keg before I decide how this rates and whether it justifies another attempt.  It's definitely an intriguing semi-session beer, but with summer coming I think that slot on the kegerator will likely be filled with hoppy American wheats and pale ales.  To those of you who try this beer, please feel free to drop your thoughts below.  I'm curious to see what comes up besides "good," "awesome," and a polite if transparent "ok."


UPDATE 4/1/14:
Now that I've had some time to drink about this beer--I mean think--I have to say this beer is definitely a win.  It may even be my best yet, hard to say.  It's so well balanced, and though it's reserved, is actually more flavorful than some of the the commercial examples I've had since.  (Field research, very important.)  This is the first beer I've brewed that I can really say stands up to what I intended, even if it's not yet perfect.

#18 Dry Irish Stout - Tasting

Recipe     -     Brewday     -     Tasting

Wow, I pretty much nailed this one.  There was a lot that didn't go according to plan on brewday, but the end result is a pretty solid beer, and definitely one I'm happy with.

After it finished carbonating, the first pour from the tap looks exactly like Guinness--complete with rolling, cascading foam--despite the lack of nitrogen.  The mouthfeel is about as you'd expect from the look of it, deliciously creamy.  I love slurping it through the cap of dense foam.  The taste is not especially bitter, with a hint of milk-like sweetness that may be a bit out of style, but is still pretty tasty.  It's--like the oatmeal stout-- not as roasty as I hoped, but definitely the kind of beer I go back for sip after sip without thinking about it.

Since it's an Irish stout and St. Patrick's Day is coming up, I better say a few words about how it compares to Guinness.  The last time I had a Guinness was almost two years ago, but I've had so many before that I'm pretty confident I remember what it tastes like.  As I mentioned above, the appearance is pretty dang similar--thicker if anything considering I don't have it on nitrogen. The foam on mine is more of a grayish tan than the clean white on a Guinness, but it's a small difference.  Once it hits your lips, the Guinness has a bit of a dry, sharp, burnt taste to it with an acidic/sulfury note in the background (it's been awhile, please leave a comment if you have a better descriptor).  The roast malt bitterness on mine is substantially more reserved, and melds into the faint, creamy sweetness for a smoother, if less flavorful package.

This beer is definitely not perfect, but I would say it's closer to what I was aiming for than it is to Guinness.  As I noted in the brewday post, the mash temperatures got way out of hand, lending it that extra body and sweetness.  A rebrew would be substantially drier, and I would definitely up the roast malt to bring the bitterness more to the front.  Then again, I'm enjoying this beer as it is, so I guess either way works.  I'm especially enjoying the flaked barley; it has a subtle flavor that I really love, and I will definitely be using it in more beers that call for that extra creaminess.  Stouts obviously, but any other ideas where it would be appropriate?


UPDATE 4/1/14:
When I wrote this I was really excited that it even came out well considering all the difficulty on brewday.  Maybe it's not quite as good as I made it sound--all the flaws mentioned in the last paragraph certainly still apply--so I have some work to do, but at least it's recipe tweaks rather than process flaws.  Drawing up new recipes is the fun part.

#12 Dry Cider - Tasting

Recipe     -     Tasting

I've been good, I've been patient.  It's now been a month and a half since we bottled the cider and 4 months since fermentation began.  We gave this cider all the time it needed, haven't popped a bottle early, and let me tell you, we've been rewarded.  Both the ale and wine yeast variants taste fantastic, and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out.

Ale Yeast (labeled Ca):
This is a beer drinker's cider.  It's extremely dry, but with a round, reserved apple character.  The yeast seems to have stripped some of the apple character--especially from the aroma, which is nearly nonexistent--and augmented it with subtle esters that, while they don't overtly remind me of beer, are certainly familiar.  A faint yeastiness (as in the smell of yeast itself, rather than esters) creeps in towards the end of the glass.

Wine Yeast (labeled Cw):
Just opening the bottle reveals how big a difference the yeast strains makes.  This version has a beautiful apple aroma, with granny smith most prominent.  The flavor is sharper than the ale version, very clean with none of the yeast flavors.  The carbonation is only barely noticeable, but the bright character is somewhat reminiscent of champagne.  While the alcohol harshness I tasted at bottling has subsided, this is still clearly a stiff drink, and I suspect it will only get better with age.

Overall I would have to say I prefer the wine yeast here, but it definitely depends on how it's used.  The crisp flavor and wonderful aroma go well with this extremely dry recipe, but the alcohol flavor is more prominent.  I think the ale yeast would go better in a semi-dry cider where there's a bit more body and apple flavor to compliment the yeast derived esters, or maybe in a hopped cider as well.

It seems like cider would be interesting to pair with food, but I'm not familiar with any traditional pairings.  A white fish or maybe oysters?  Pork?  I have some experimenting to do.  Please leave a comment below if you have a suggestion, and we can give it a shot!

#19 Irish Red Ale - Brewday

Recipe     -     Brewday     -     Tasting

Brewday 2/15/14:
It's always a relief when things go as planned, and today was one of those few instances.  I had to run a few errands before I could start brewing, and after yesterday's dry stout had so many mishaps I seriously considered just sleeping in and bagging the whole thing.  Thankfully I didn't.

Step one was to find parts to repair the immersion chiller, pickup some propane, and find some new brewing water.  Lately I've been using Seattle municipal water because it's unusually soft and I found a water report online that tells me exactly what I'm working with (I switched over from using well water because it's nearly undrinkable).  However this means I have to lug two plastic carboys back and forth between my brewing operations at the family "estate" and my apartment in the city.  It also means after brewing yesterday, I have nothing left.  As it turns out, Home Depot had everything I needed including some distilled water, but that meant I had to rework the water profile a bit.

After that things were uneventful.  I made sure to setup shop undercover so I wouldn't get drenched again.  Mash temps weren't perfect, but as close as can be hoped for with brew-in-a-bag.  I'm going to have to attribute some of the success to the Smithwick's I was drinking for inspiration (I have to admit I wasn't a fan, so hopefully mine turns out better).  Compared to yesterday, there's not a whole lot to report, so I'll just throw in more pictures.

Actually, there was one change that I forgot to mention yesterday.  It seems that the homebrew shop where I get my supplies has tightened their mill, so the grain I bought for the dry stout and this Irish red had a noticeably finer crush.  This makes the starches in the barley kernel more accessible to the mash water, increasing starch solubility and conversion.  The finer crush can also tear the husks in to smaller pieces which, in traditional mashing, can make lautering more difficult, but with brew-in-a-bag that's not an issue.  Moral of the story, I had much higher efficiency in these two beers, jumping from 55% brewhouse efficiency up to 65% which was nice, and definitely within the limits of the style.  After the mash, I had a bit more boil off than expected, so the final volume came out at 4.75 gal.  It wasn't off much, but between the high gravity and the already high hops (30 IBU), I decided to add a bit of top up water, bringing the volume to 5.25 gal.


Fermentation:
Decanted and pitched the second of the Irish yeast starters (see dry stout notes for starter information) at 55F.  Placed in fermentation refrigerator with temperature set to 65F.

After 2 days, things are bubbling along nicely.  Temp bumped up to 68F to ensure it finishes strong.

Kegged at two weeks.  Tastes pretty good already, can't wait to try it carbonated!  It's a little bit darker than I hoped but as long as it tastes good that's all that really matters.