breakdown homebrew » tastings

tasting #014: weekend warrior wheat

Andy — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:26:57 +0000

Appearance: Lightly cloudy, lightly golden. Good clarity for unfiltered wheat! Low carbonation, but it is likely me rushing to open a bottle, it was just to good straight out of the fermenter.

Aroma: Rounded sweet and delicate, with good amounts of the critical bubblegum and banana esters. The background has a citrusy hop but its not overwhelming. It is prettier (?) than anything I have brewed before.

Taste: I hate to say ’rounded’ again but I do think that it is overall well balanced, with no overwhelming sweetness or bitterness. Gently sweet wheat, and possibly some late alcohol burn? The finish could be cleaned up a bit, but this is damn fine. Medium mouthfeel, thicker than those macro wheat brews; full bodied refreshment!

Overall: Suburb and simple. It will be very easy to share this will those not so familiar with beer or homebrew…if it makes it out of my house.

tasting #006 solanka stout

Andy — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:42:06 +0000

Appearance: Off white tan head with good lacing, alright! Body is dark and opaque but hints of amber come through the edges if held up to the light. Next time I’ll aim for possibly more blackness (but to do so still without excessive ‘roast burn’ will be the challenge). Strange note: this bottle had more yeast on the bottle than any of my previous, it was a thin but complete layer across the bottom! *Shakes finger at this finicky Irish ale yeast*

Aroma: Similar fruity/spice notes as smelled in my #005 Bad Bad Brown, the end is slightly roasted. Very small hop character even with the spur-of-the-moment dry hopping I did. Again nice chocolate and coffee roasted layers bring up the tail end.

Taste: The beginning is somewhat light with hints of fruity esters but it ends dry and, surprise, toasted darkness. The bittering is clean with a small hint of spice. Although the carbonation is good, the overall mouthfeel is too thin for a stout (perhaps the carapils malts will help next time).

Overall: I dig the amount of roast and chocolate, next time I will go for slightly more hoppy nose (I love those even in my stouts!). The beer has very little residual sweetness; I hope you like your coffee black! Overall the profile is very sharp and thin but with some small revisions I hope to make it a little more rounded!

tasting #005 bad bad brown

Andy — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 05:19:17 +0000

Appearance: Extremely pleased how the body looks; dark amber that’s more than adequately clear for homebrew. My only regret is that the head – although colored and ’structured’ well – doesn’t last long due to being undercarbonated.

Aroma: A strong fruity and estery nose. Complex clove-like spice (I’ve noticed this is characteristic of the Irish Ale yeast I used since also using it for my Solanka Stout) and slightly roasty/brown malts. Possibly a hint of yeast-like character in the background?

Taste: Brown/darker sugars with fruit and complex spices, reminiscent of a dubbel. Again, undercarbonated but acceptable. The hoppy spice of Northern Brewer team up with a crisp alcohol bite for a unique flavor (not what I was aiming for, but I am surprised and pleased). Mild, clean bitterness.

Overall: Fermented too hot + lessons were learned + not a big fan of Irish Ale yeast, but my beer still turned out great! RDWHAHB!

tasting #002 simcoe circle pit

Andy — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:33:19 +0000

Appearance - Look left. Crisp white head with great retention and decent lacing. Body is golden and unfiltered (it’s homebrew!) but still surprisingly clear. The ’super’ irish moss I have been using is doing an excellent job. I have been thrilled how my first two beers have looked.

Aroma – Sweet with a hoppy, citrus edge. The malt sweetness came out a little stronger than I would have liked, but the citrus zest is working well with the simcoe dry hop. Refreshing! Swirling the glass allows the lime/orange zest to punch out even more, but they could use some stronger hoppy background (considering dry hopping with a simcoe/cascade split next time).

Taste – The taste is clean and ends somewhat sweet. Not as bad as 1.001, but their is a slightly sweet malt twang on the end. Still! I am very proud of the improvement in this one! Excellent mouthfeel, the carbonation is right on. I would very much like to repeat this batch with a different seeping grain (maybe a crystal) and with 10-15 more IBUs from cascade hops. Great summer beer!

Jenny says she enjoys it as well, and gave me a 35/50…a massive step up from 9/50 in batch #1.001. I’d love to do this one again!

just finished bottling #001

Andy — Sat, 30 May 2009 03:30:01 +0000

Cluster#$@& is now in bottles are ready to be sampled maybe next weekend for the next, more effective brewday. My early idea is to do another pale ale based around Simcoe, but we will see.

#001 cleared up extremely extremely well and has a very light golden color (oh no it looks like a millerwiser! haha). I tried it from the secondary and the taste is – as expected – somewhat thin and yeasty. The aroma gives a hint of cluster but is also on the light side, this could be improved by carbonation though. Regardless, I am glad to have this first one under the belt and can’t wait to hit the kettle with something bigger and definitely better. Another note: I need to get ‘real’ sanitizer (Iodine-based) ASAP, this bleach smell is hard to deal with…