#27 Classic American Wheat - Tasting

Recipe     -     Brewday     -     Tasting

ABV: 5.0%
IBU: 27
Serving Temp: 35F
Carbonation: 2.8 vol
Grade: B-

I intended this beer has something inspired by Widmer hefeweizen--smooth and easy drinking with a pronounced wheat flavor--but while these descriptors still hold, this apple fell surprisingly far from the tree.

The appearance was a little hazy, as you would expect, with a nice clean white puff of foam on top.  I finally got around to balancing my draft lines with this neat little trick, so while previous kegs poured glasses of foam, this one is leaves a perfect half inch of head.  Interestingly, as the keg sat on tap, it slowly cleared, so that by the time I filled my last beer it was one of the brightest beers I've served.  Stan Hieronymus mentions in Brewing with Wheat that this is an issue for Bavarian brewers who want the signature cloudy appearance, but it was still surprising to see such a drastic transformation for myself.

The flavor was very bright and crisp, with just a hint of the thicker wheat flavor.  For this brew I used Irish ale yeast instead of an american or German strain and the effect is quite apparent.  It's dry, but with a unique, mysterious character I remember from my Irish red ale.  Here it definitely comes across as more fruity--maybe some Fuji apple notes?

As a whole it's an okay beer.  The wheat and yeast don't really add anything to each other (and the Hersbrucker hops were just AWOL) to create a compelling product, but at least they don't clash.  I brought this to some friends' barbecue and it was an easy sell, so that's a good sign.  I just hope next time I can finally nail that perfect wheat beer...

#26 Heady Topper Clone - Tasting

Recipe     -     Brewday     -     Tasting

ABV: 7.0%
IBU: 130
Serving Temp: 35F
Carbonation: 2.8 vol
Grade: B-

So after brewing two IPA's that underattenuated pretty severely, I'm pretty sure the GigaYeast Vermont Ale yeast I used is not actually the famous Conan strain.  Conan is known for tearing through high gravity worts like Arnold Schwarzenegger through a cast of extras, but I only got 72% ADF before and 74% on this beer.  And that's with a highly fermentable wort and half a pound of corn sugar.  It's pretty disappointing since I prefer dry IPAs, and this one certainly isn't.

The aroma isn't bad--plenty of hops--but with the wide variety of ... varieties I used, there are no individual flavors that stand out.  At first sip, the beer is heavy with residual sugars.  The hops peak out from behind the pale malt--I like the mango of the Amarillo as it's not overbearing--and one could even call it "balanced" if they were so inclined, but it's certainly not the balance I was shooting for.  The finish is just enough bitterness to balance the malt (meaning a lot).

Your Mom (our championship-winning rec softball team) enjoyed this beer at her post-season party, and I've had some friends prefer this over the session IPA, but I can't say I share their enthusiasm.  There is nothing technically wrong with the beer, but as it turned out, it's not something I would normally choose to drink just out of personal taste.


Edit 9/10/13:
Now that the keg is almost gone, the beer seems to have dried out just a bit.  The session IPA brewed with this yeast seemed to do the same thing, so it must have continued to work very slowly in the keg.  That seems rather odd considering the cold temperature, but I guess it's possible.  I prefer the beer much more now; it's still a bit heavy but the hops pop a little more, and the flavor is very nice.  I do think the hop bill is great with it's balanced orange citrusiness, so I could see using it as a starting point for another IPA in the future.

#25 Session IPA - Tasting

Recipe     -     Brewday     -     Tasting

ABV: 3.9%
IBU: 41
Serving Temperature: 36F
Carbonation: 2.8 vol
Grade: B+

One thing you don't get to experience (or have to struggle with) buying commercial beer is how much a beer changes as it ages.  I touched on it briefly in my post on bottle conditioning, but merely sealing a beer in glass (or steel in this case) doesn't stop the myriad chemical processes happening inside the beer.  IPA's in particular are known to change rapidly in the first couple months and this beer even more particularly.  Instead of breaking down the beer tasting by sense, I think this time I'm going to do it chronologically.

3 days in the keg:  Ok first off, just pouring a glass you could smell the hops across the room.  This seems excessive and it probably is.  At this point the flavor was also surprisingly malty with a ton of that sticky/saturated hop flavor and aroma.  The dry hops still tasted pretty rough as they always do right at kegging (plus I had issues siphoning and may have got some bits from the Mosaic pellets in the bottom of the keg), and the hop flavors didn't really mesh.

2 weeks in the keg:  Now that the hops have settled in, it's starting to taste much better.  The hops are still bold and in-your-face, but I think I can finally make some observations about the hops.  I originally based my hop schedule off Topcutter IPA from Bale Breaker, and the similarity is obvious.  It has that same deep, dark, citrusy hoppiness, though theirs is a little more balanced as I went overboard with the Mosaic.  I haven't brewed a straight Citra beer, but I have had a couple IPAs where Citra was the lead actor (RPM and Purebread), and I can certainly see the similarity between Citra and Mosaic.  Citra has a more multifaceted flavor than Amarillo, with bold orange and classic american hop aroma that stops short of pine, while Mosaic has the same flavors, but a bit smoother and in a darker shade.  Some people say it has hints of blueberry, and while maybe that's what I mean by "darker," I don't think I can pick out blueberry specifically.

The malt is interesting as well.  The pale malt and Carastan form a nice smooth base, and the Victory malt jumps out with a surprisingly sharp Ritz cracker flavor.  At only 3.9%, this beer is really light on alcohol, but the malts still holds its own as interesting in its own right.  If you look specifically for the alcohol, you won't find it, but I don't know that anyone actually does that.  I could see this grain bill being really nice as the focal point, say in an English bitter. Unfortunately it just doesn't mesh with the hops.  Maybe a few more IBU (as in 5?) would help balance it out, but the sharpness from the Victory is just too much.

1.5 months in the keg:  Oh no it's almost gone!  Since the last update, the body has continued to lighten just a tiny bit.  Or maybe it's the contrast with the heavy imperial IPA on tap next to it instead of the dry belgian table beer from before?  I don't know.  The whole package just seems lighter and less saturated before which is nice.  The victory/cracker flavor has settled into place too.  The hops seem to have faded only slightly, but it seems like it's all come from the citrusy side, leaving the smooth not-really-blueberry side as the dominant hop flavor with maybe a touch of crispness from the Simcoe.  Mosaic is a cool hop, and I see why it's so popular, but like Amarillo, I think it's too fruity and mellow to really carry a beer on its own.  Maybe paired with Nelson Sauvin or Columbus?  No wonder brewers get addicted to hops, the options are tantalizing.

Overall, the individual components came out really well.  But as I said in the recipe post, there were kind of three separate ideas driving this beer, and they never really came together.  Brewing my own beer usually makes me feel like a boss, but in this case I needed to promote more synergy between the various pieces of the recipe. Still one of my better beers though.

#15 Pineapple Wine - Tasting

Recipe     -     Tasting

ABV: 8.2%
Serving Temp: 32F
Grade: C+

So now that this one’s almost gone I guess it’s about time to write up my tasting notes.  Pineapple wine was kind of an odd experiment, and indeed it came out tasting pretty odd.  Just like most fruits, sweetness is a big part of the flavor we associate with pineapple, so tasting a completely dry pineapple wine threw a lot of people for a loop.  I wouldn’t say it’s bad (although some people definitely did), but it’s pretty unique.  I bottled 5 different variants to get a feel for what goes well with pineapple and here’s how they turned out.

Plain (15):  The bulk of the pineapple wine was bottled still with no additive.  If you can imagine pineapple juice without the sweetness, then you’ve pretty well got this one nailed.  At 8.2% ABV, the alcohol is well balanced, not a primary flavor, but maybe just an edge in the background to remind you not to take big swig.  It’s just missing something.  It’s an interesting flavor as an experiment—tart and pineappley--but there’s nothing there to draw you back for another.  Also, this wine was best ice cold.  As it warmed, the background flavors—besides the bright acidity—came out more, and it felt like the wine unraveled, exposing almost a lactic the hole in its flavor profile.  Now that’s easy to account for, serve it cold, but not ideal for something that needs to be slowly sipped.

Sparkling (15s):  I bottled part of the straight pineapple portion with carbonation tablets for just a bit of carbonation.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get enough sugar in there for the carbonation to be very noticeable.  The single most common feedback I received on any of the variants was that it needs more carbonation, so next time I’ll add a few more bubbles and turn it into a pineapple champagne.

Raw Coconut (15rc):  One of my grand plans for this batch was to flavor it with coconut.  I think the raw coconut version was my favorite, out of all 5 variations.  Coconut and pineapple is a proven combination, and the pairing here was as natural as I had hoped.  The coconut aroma was wonderful--I think pineapple on its own is kind of weird--and the taste helped round out the body of flavor.  It also seemed to remain more palatable as it warmed, maybe because the nice clean coconut flavor masked some of the pineapple’s funkiness, or at least filled in the gaps. 

Unfortunately I went hard on the coconut though, so next time I’ll have to dial it back just a bit.

Toasted Coconut (15tc):  I’m not sure why I thought toasted coconut would go well with pineapple.  Maybe because that’s how it has been used occasionally in porters?  Maybe I just had an extra jug and thought I might as well try it?  Regardless, the toasted flavor didn’t really fit with the tart pineapple.  The sweet, toasty aroma was phenomenal, probably my favorite part of any of the variants.  However it didn’t match with the pineapple flavor that followed.  It was pretty similar to the raw coconut, but with a faint roastiness.  There is no reason to revisit the toasted coconut, since the raw coconut was a better fit in every way, but I would love to do something else with toasted coconut, like the aforementioned porter.

Hops (15h):  The last version was a dry-hopped pineapple wine.  Unfortunately this didn’t turn out as well as the Anthem hopped cider that inspired it.  The hops added a harsh bitter edge that maybe clashed with and maybe accentuated the acidity of the pineapple.  I thought it was disgusting and never even opened a bottle for myself, but thankfully I had a friend who absolutely loved it.  Who’d a thunk it.

So given these impressions, I think next time I’ll go with a sparkling version of the raw coconut pineapple wine.  In addition, I think next time I need to do a solid cold crash or maybe even a brief lagering period.  I ended up with significant pectin haze in this batch, and while it mostly settled to the bottom after refrigeration, it was light and wispy enough that it snuck its way into the glass with a normal pour.  The coconut versions also had some congealed globs of coconut oil around the neck of the bottle.  A good cold crash ought to settle out both of these imperfections and let the product seem less amateur.

Overall I would say this pineapple wine didn’t turn out quite as well as I hoped, but I have some easy improvements I can make, and I definitely want to try it again.