Munich Dunkel - Tasting Notes

I brewed this Munich Dunkel back in May and employed a double decoction mash as well as 6+ week lagering period.  It was pretty long process going grain to glass (over 2 months) but I think it was worth it.  Some style you can make mistakes and throw a ton of hops at it and hide some flaws (at least for a little while).  A beer like this is really a demonstration of the care that was taken in making it as there isn't any hiding of the flaws.  I'm not sure how loudly I would crow my ability to brew this style (since this is somebody else's recipe) but I'm very happy with how well I was able to execute this one.

The combination of malt complexity and smooth and easy drinking character make for a really comforting and satisfying beer.  Once I'm setup to keg I plan to have one of these on tap all the time.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Clean lager yeast along with a bit of toasted bread and burnt caramel.
• Appearance:
• Dark Amber or light brown in color with good clearity.  Pours with a finger head that settles down to a thin layer of foam after 30 s or so.
• Flavor:
• Bready and toasty malt flavor come through up front.  A very rich malt flavor.  Get a bit of the caramel I picked up in the aroma as well.  The malt flavor lingers into the finish and is carried through with a light hop bitterness.  I pick up a subtle hint of hop flavor in the beer which is herbal and tea like.  No alcohol and no yeast character come though.
• Mouthfeel:
• Light-medium bodied and fairly dry.  Goes down very smoothly.
• Overall:
• Rich and complex malt flavor which is comparable to many of the German made examples I've had.  Easy drinking and refreshing which makes drinking 2 to 3 pretty easy.  Nice clean lager profile - it was a well executed fermentation and lager period on this beer.  One interesting note:  this beer has, by far, the least sediment per bottle of any of the beers I've made.  This hasn't prevented the normal carbonation from occurring.  The six odd weeks of lagering is likely responsible but I also gave it some extra time to fine with gelatin.  I may have to try something like this with future beers.

Cherry Flanders Red (2017) - Tasting Notes

I made up this Cherry Flanders Red last year using two batches of beer which had aged more than 2 years each and then let them age on 12 lbs of sour cherries for more than 6 months.  This is my second attempt at the style (read about the first here).  This time I opted for a different blend than I used for this year's plain batch.  I chose beers that were relatively mild in flavor knowing that the cherries would lend quite a bit of complexity and sourness to the beer.

Some changes from last time:  I used sour cherries for the batch which have an interesting flavor but not the classic cherry flavor so I used a bit of black cherry juice to supplement.  My first attempt got very dry which hurt the drinkability a bit so I've added dark invert syrup to backsweeten and than pasteurized the beer once it had carb'd up.

Cherries get along really well with a Flanders Red as the base beer normally has a cherry like fermentation character.  I picked cherries again this year and plan to make another batch of this soon.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Very fruity aroma with a hint of balsamic vinegar.  Get a bit of earthy brett character mixed in as well.  Maybe a bit of alcohol comes through.
• Appearance:
• Brownish red in color.  Pours with a finder of head which dissipates down to nothing in a few seconds.  Pours reasonably clear normally but for this tasting I dumped in the dregs.
• Flavor:
• Up front the flavor matches the aroma with a strong fruit flavor mixed with a hint of acetic acid.  The finish has a good balance between sweet and sour.  There's a bit of brett character mixed in as well as a bit of malt flavor the lingers through the finish.  The cherry flavor is very nice in this one and I think that is accentuated by the fermentation character.  I think I may also detect some slightly nutty character which I suspect could be the cherry pits.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied and fairly dry.  The sourness is prickly.  It is an easy drinking beer with good refreshment value.
• Overall:
• Bold flavored with a really striking complexity.  The cherries play very well in this beer and are the obvious star of the show.  The acetic character the beer developed supports the overall package in my opinion.  I also think the slight sweetness from the backsweetening makes this a much more drinkable beer.  

Burnt Honey Mead (Bochet)

I just bottled my first attempt at mead this weekend so I've decided to try a second.  I'll be try out a Bochet which is a mead made out of honey that has been cooked until it has started to caramelize.  I've never had one before but it's reported to create some interesting caramelized flavors.

Mead making is very easy compared with beer making - they just take honey, water, yeast, and a lot of time to mellow.  The boiling necessary to make the caramelized honey makes things slightly more complicated.  The general process seems similar to making candi syrup where the temperature the mixture is allowed to get will determine the color and flavor of the mead.  I'm going to go with a relative low temperature for this first attempt - 142 F.  I'll cook it on a pretty low heat to not overshoot this.  May not get really bold flavors from this but I'll hopefully avoid burning anything.

I'm making 2 gal of this in the same pot I used last time.  I'll use Nottingham ale yeast which should dry things out pretty well.  Like my last mead, I'll give this a good 6 months or more to mature.

Recipe Details:

• 7.5 lbs of clover honey
• 1.75 gal of spring water
• 0.25 tsp Yeast Nutrient
• 1 package of Nottingham Ale Yeast

Results:

• OG:
• 1.108
• FG:
• 1.022
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 78%
• ABV:
• 12.63%

Process/Notes:

• 8/12/18 - Brewday:
• Poured the 7.5 lbs of honey into a large pot

• Rinsed out the remaining honey from the containers with some hot tap water
• Heated at medium low 
• The mixture came to a boil after a couple hrs
• The honey started to form some foam at the top.  I skimmed this off

• Stopped the boil when the mead got to 142 F
• Let it chill to the low 100s
• Hydrated the yeast in a cup of 90 F spring water
• Put 1.5 gal of spring water into the pot - mixed in the yeast nutrient
• Poured the warm honey into the pot
• Topped up the pot with water to get to about 2 gal
• Pitched the yeast
• Moved this to the basement utility sink in case there was any aggressive foaming
• 8/13/18 - Fermentation was well underway by the next day.  Only a light layer of foam on the top
• 8/14/18 - Fermentation still going.  Still pretty tame so I decided to move it off to a corner where it will age and be forgotten about for the next 6 months
• 11/23/19 - Bottled this Mead today.  Measured the gravity as 1.022.  Bottled it without any priming sugar for a still mead.  Ended up with about 2 gal which got me 22 bottles.  It is a little sweet and had a caramel and raisin flavor along with a slight bitterness.  It has an alcohol presence but is pretty smooth.

• 12/12/20 - Tasting Notes - Boldly flavor with a good amount of complexity.  Not easy to drink a lot of as it's quite sweet (half a bottle might be a good amount in one sitting) but enjoyable as a sipping drink on a cold.  I like the flavors quite a bit - fruit and caramel are very nice - and it's neat that they're all derived from just browning honey.