English Porter

It has been quite a while since I last brewed a Porter/Stout that wasn't an Imperial Strength.  These are very drinkable beers with a lot of complexity and bold flavor.  Now that I've started kegging I think I should have at least one on tap. 

For a recipe, I decided to try out a 1915 version of Porter from the Courage Brewery as published on the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins blog.  I've brewed a few of these old English recipes at this point and this, like many of them, gets quite a bit of their fermentables out of invert syrup.  This recipe calls for a #4 invert (I had previously thought #3 was the darkest) which is cooked until it reaches a black (or at least very dark brown) color.  I found this intriguing and wanted to give it a shot.

Otherwise, it's a pretty simple recipe with 3 grains (pale, brown, and black malt).  I'm using American Pale ale malt for this.  It's mashed in the low 150 Fs but then is projected to only reach 1.018.  Target OG is 1.050 so it would be expected to be about 4% ABV - nice and drinkable.

For hops it calls for Fuggle.  I don't have any of those so I'm swapping out Willamette (which I recently purchased a pound of).  Willamette are frequently called out as a good substitute for Fuggle as they were bred from Fuggle originally.

For yeast, it calls for the Whitbread Brewery's house yeast which Safale S04 dry yeast is though to be an isolate from.  This yeast produces a pleasant ester character.  Been a while since I used it but will be nice to revisit.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 7 lb Pale Ale Malt
• 2.25 lb Brown Malt
• 1 lb Black Malt
• 1.5 lb Invert #4
• Hops:
• 2 oz Willamette (Leaf, 5.7% AA) at 90 min
• 1 oz Willamette (Leaf, 5.7% AA) at 50 min
• Yeast:
• Safale S-04 - English Ale Yeast (Whitbread strain)
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 2 gal tap water
• 1 tsp Citric Acid
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 148 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 90 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 68 F
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.055 (Target 1.050)
• Efficiency:
• 76% (Target 68%)
• FG:
• 1.018 (Target 1.018)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 66% (Target 63%)
• ABV:
• 4.9% (Target 4.2%)

Brewing Notes:

• 9/26/20 - Made up about 1.5 lb of Invert #4.  I'd made #3 before which is a dark brown.  Apparently Invert #4 is cooked just up to the edge of being burnt and should be a fairly black color. 
• Used a 1.5 lb bag of Demerara sugar, 2 cups of spring water, and 1/4 tsp of Citric Acid

• Heated it on medium low for about 8 hr until it was basically black.  It has a slight bitter flavor along with dark fruit and caramel.  I pulled it before there was any sign of smoke - probably could have gone a bit longer.  My thermometer finally gave up today so no temperature reading to aid me

• 9/27/20 - Brewday - 11:50 AM to 4:15 PM - Including setup and cleanup
• Heated 5 gal of spring water and 2 gal of tap water up to 170 F
• Milled my grain.  Added the gypsum, CaCl, and Citric Acid (to try to compensate for no Acid malt) to the grain after milling
• Moved 5 gal of water to the mash tun and then cycled this through the RIMS and grant until the system settled at 160 F
• Stirred in the grain
• Let the mash settle for 10 min.  Cycled the RIMS at 150 F for 50 min.

• Brought 7 gal of water up to 180 F for the sparge
• Fly sparged until 9 gal had been collected
• Started to heat the wort at 4 gal and had at a boil before sparging ended
• Added the bittering hops

• The invert sugar had solidified into a soft mass.  Over the first 15 min of the boil I transferred boiling wort onto the sugar, dissolved a bit at a time, and poured that into the kettle.

• Added the 30 min hops
• Rehydrated my yeast in some room temperature spring water.  Lots of signs of activity 20 min later

• Added the Irish moss at 10 min
• At the scheduled end of the boil I found we were still at about 7 gal.  Extended the boil to be 90 min
• With 5 min left I added the wort chiller to sanitize.  Removed the bags of hops first
• Chilled the beer to 80 F
• Transferred into a bucket fermenter.  Let the beer fall a couple feet to aerate.  Pitched the yeast during this transfer
• Measured the gravity as 1.055
• Collected 6 gal of wort
• Moved this to the chest freezer to cool down to the desired starting fermentation temperature.  The freezer is currently cold crashing another beer so just left it in for a couple hrs and then move to ambient basement temperatures.
• 9/28/20 - The airlock is bubbling vigorously today and there is a thick layer of krausen on the beer.
• 10/23/20 - Transferred to a keg today and set it up to carbonate at 12 PSI.  Measured gravity as 1.018.  Had an extra quart which I'll drink now
• 11/22/20 - Tasting Notes - I really enjoy a roasty flavored beer and this is a very enjoyable one.  It think the balance of this recipe is quite nice - has a small bit of sweetness that prevents the roast and hop bitterness from becoming abrasive but is by no means a sweet beer.  Makes for very good drinkability.  There isn't anything extraordinary about the beer but it is boldly flavored and offers a good amount of complexity to go along with it's drinkability (quite a bit like a Guinness I would say).
• 12/8/20 - The keg has been kicked.  Sorry to see it go.  Was a very good beer.

Flanders Red 6.1.1 and 7.1.1

My final step for this year's Flanders Red Project is filling 2 fermenters which I emptied during my blending sessions.  

I have quite a bit of diversity in my fermenters with Commercial Blends (Wyeast Roeselare, Yeast Bay's Mélange, and East Coast Yeast Flemish Ale Blend) as well as a couple with yeast captured from other beers (Rodenbach Foederbier and one with a mix of Jolly Pumpkin, Lost Abby, and Russian River dregs).  This is a good thing for blending as you have a lot of flavors to choose from.  

I've brewed the most beers with Roeselare which produces really nice flavors but can produce a fairly mild beer.  The two I emptied (by distributing the remaining beers to other fermenters) were of the fairly mild variety.  To fill these, I'll seek to add a bit more bio-diversity to the mix by using a couple blends by a fairly new Yeast Provider:  GigaYeast.  One is a Brett Brux blend (GB 156) and other is a Brett and Lacto blend (GB 150).

I'm going to product a double batch of beer which should be close to 12 gal for this.  I'll try to bring them in at around 1.055 since these typically end up fermenting down to close to 1.000 which is a bit stronger than I'd like.  I also plan to hop this batch to 28 IBU to try to reign in the lacto a bit as my collection of beers is plenty sour already.  I'm thinking I'd like Fruity and Earthy flavors out of these new beers rather than more acid.

I'll give them about 4 weeks to ferment out with airlocks before I move them to secondary.  Flanders Red 6.1.1 will primary in a bucket and will be transferred into a glass carboy for secondary (along with a lot of the yeast cake) - this is Fermenter #2.  Flanders Red 7.1.1 is fermenting in a bucket which is my Fermenter #7.  I cleaned out all the previous batch of beer from Fermenter #7 and sanitized.  I did not clean Fermenter #2 and don't intend to if the small amount of dregs in it look/smell okay (as they did when I checked today)

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 9 lb Pilsner Malt
• 9 lb Pale Ale Malt
• 2 lb Flaked Corn
• 1.5 lb Aromatic Malt
• 1.5 lb Crystal 60 L
• 1.5 lb Special B
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 2 oz Cluster (Leaf, 8.1% AA) at 60 min
• Yeast:
• 6.1.1:
• GigaYeast GB156 - Brux Blend
• 7.1.1:
• GigaYeast GB 150 - Sour Cherry Funk
• Water:
• 12 gal Spring Water
• 5 gal Tap Water
• 2 tsp CaCl
• 2 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 11 gal (Target 12 gal)
• Mash:
• 160 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 70 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temperature:
• ~70 F (Ambient Basement Temps
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• 1-3+ Years

Results:

• OG:
• 1.060 (Target 1.055)
• Efficiency:
• 74% (Target 73%)
• FG:
• 1.001 
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 100%
• ABV:
• 7.88%

Brewing Notes:

• 9/25/20 - Brewday - 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM- Including setup and cleanup
• Brought 7 gal of spring water up to 180 F
• Added 6 gal of water to the mash tun and cycled until the system was at 170 F
• Milled my grain.  Added the CaCl and Gypsum to the mix
• Stopped the RIMS and stirred in the grain.  Mixed well to eliminate doughballs.  Added a couple more quarts of water to the top of the mash.  Let the mash settle for 10 min.  Started the RIMS again and cycled at 160 F.

• Heated up 10 gal of sparge water to 180 F
• Performed a fly sparge until about 8 gal had been collected

• Heated the wort after collecting about 4 gal.  Had it at a boil shortly after collecting 8 gal.
• Added my bittering hops in 2 hop sacks
• Filled the mash tun up with 180 F water for a second batch sparge.  Stirred this well and then let it settle for 10 min.
• Drained the mash very slowly and added wort to the kettle through the remainder of the boil.  Chose a slow enough rate so that the boil didn't slow significantly
• Added Irish Moss with about 15 min left
• I ended up deciding to boil for an extra 10 min to get the last bit of wort from the mash tun into the kettle
• With 5 min left I pulled out the hops - let these drain as much wort as possible
• Added the wort chiller and let it sanitize by getting the beer back to a boil

• Chilled the beer down to 80 F
• Collected 9 gal.  Divided this evenly between the two fermenters.  Let the beer fall a foot or two to aerate
• Measured gravity as 1.074.  I was going for a bit lower OG and bit more volume.  Decided to add a gal to each fermenter to get down to 1.060 and 5.5 gal in each fermenter
• Pitched my yeast into each fermenter.  I'm using a temporary bucket for the 6.1.1 batch as it will go into my Flanders Red Fermenter #2 which is a glass carboy.  7.1.1 is in its permanent fermenter

• 10/17/20 - The beers have been in the fermenter for 3 weeks now and seem to have stopped fermenting.  I'm transferring 6.1.1 to a glass carboy and setting up 7.1.1 with a vented silicon bung.  Took a gravity and flavor sample and found the following:
• 6.1.1 - Fermented with GB 156 - Brett Brux Blend
• The gravity for this one is at 1.006
• It had a vigorous ferment that drove beer up through the airlock
• The aroma is slightly fruity and malty
• There is a lot of yeast still in suspension with this one
• The flavor is primarily malty with a bit of bitterness.  No sourness to this and no real fruity character.  There may be some brett character though
• 7.1.1 - Fermented with GB 150 - Sour Cherry Funk:
• Fermented all the way to 1.000
• Malty and slightly fruity aroma
• This one is pretty much completely cleared 
• Flavor is malty with a bit of bitterness.  Only a very slight fruity ester character.  No sourness
• Added a toasted piece of oak that had soaked in red wine into Fermenter #2 with 6.1.1 and a stick soaked in Port in Fermenter #7 with 7.1.1

Malt Vinegar

A couple months ago I made my first batch of Vinegar using homebrewed hard cider.  It turned out to be a relatively simple process and the results were pleasing enough to want to try it out again.  This time I'll be making a vinegar out of un-hopped beer - a Malt Vinegar.

I'm going to make a small batch of wort for this using just pale ale malt in my kitchen (shooting for something close to 1.5 quarts).  My cider was about 6% ABV and the final vinegar was acidic but not quite as acidic as a commercial version.  I'll aim for a 1.06 OG which, depending on attenuation, should get me a 7-8% ABV - will be interesting to see how the acidity level is with this much alcohol.  I'll ferment the wort with White Labs 099 - Super High Gravity yeast which I had available.  This yeast is a strong attenuator and produces a nice ester character which I think could make for an interesting dimension for a vinegar. 

Once fermented I'll move the beer off the yeast cake and pour aggressively to aerate.  I'll then transfer the mother culture off the Apple cider vinegar into the beer and give it a month or so to perform the conversion to acetic acid.

I plan to try some more experiments with Vinegar after this one is complete (beer or wine will most likely be next).

Brewing Notes:

• 8/15/20 - Brew Day:
• Made up a mash of 1 gal of water and 4 lb of pale ale malt in muslin bags (will use part of this as a starter for a beer)

• Brought the wort to a boil for a few minutes
• Chilled
• The wort measured 1.092 SG
• Transferred this to a large jar for fermentation.  Have 4 cups of wort.  Decided to water it down with 2 more cups of spring water which brings it to 1.059

• Added a maybe 2 tsp of yeast to the wort
• 8.19/20 - Fermentation seems to be about complete.  Solids are starting to settle out of the beer and sink to the bottom.  Left this in the kitchen and it was fun watching it bubble.  Was a pretty tame fermentation which didn't really form any krausen.  I'll give this another week to clear before I rack it off
• 8/29/20 - Solids have mostly settled to the bottom.  I decanted the beer off the top of this into a new jar.  The beer had fermented all the way down to 1.000.  This is 7.7% ABV.  It's dry with a slight bit of malt flavor.  I then pulled the mother culture off the surface of my Apple cider vinegar and added it to the beer.  Put a rag over the mouth and screwed it on using the lid ring.  Will let this sit for a few weeks in the kitchen before giving it a first taste

Mother culture from Cider

• 9/18/20 - The beer has gotten very dark over the last few weeks but hasn't formed a film yet.  I tasted it and it's got a very oxidized malt flavor.  No acidity has formed so far.  I decided to add 2 spoonful of the Bragg Apple cider vinegar to get it going.

• 9/26/20 - Still no sign of a film forming after another week.  I'm thinking maybe the beer has enough carbonation left over that it's hindering the acetic acid microbes.  I attempted to de-gas the beer by transferring the contents of the jar back and forth to another container.  It did seem to be letting off a fair amount of carbonation at first which decreased significantly after 3 or 4 transfer cycles.  We'll see over the next week if this made any difference
• 10/18/20 - The malt vinegar finally has formed a thin layer of film.  It has a sort of fruity/acetic aroma starting to become prominent.
• 10/31/20 - I think this is just about done.  It has developed quite a bit of acidity (although it is still very mild compared with the Brag's Apple cider vinegar).  Has a mild but recognizable malt presence which is quite nice.  I'm going to move it into a swing top jar for keeping.  Will use the mother culture from this to make a new vinegar.

• 11/26/20 - I've been using this on salad.  It is plenty acidic and I'm really enjoying it

Rye Pale Ale Take II

 This week I'll be brewing up a low alcohol but aggressively hopped pale ale.  Up until now I've been restricted to bottling hoppy beers and, although I've made some nice ones, I've always been slightly disappointed with how quickly the hop aroma and flavor fades.  With the goal of doing better, I've finally bit the bullet and invested the $$$ and time into building a Chest Freezer based drought beer dispenser.  This will be my first beer using it.

I decided to play around with my own recipe for this beer.  I chose to use Rye malt in this beer in attempt to give the light malt bill a bit more interest.  I had used Rye in a pale ale once before to good effect.  Also added in a bit of Caramel Malt for color and hopefully to accentuate malt flavor a bit.  I'll be mashing pretty low (150 F) on this one as I'd like it to finish fairly dry.  My goal will be to bring this in at 1.045 and ferment down to around 1.012 for an ABV of around 4%.  Sometimes I'm tempted to go for a 3rd beer in the evening which should be just fine at such a low ABV (have to stop at 2 when drinking 6+% beers or I feel a bit ill the next morning).

I'll hop this beer with a combination of Cluster and some home grown Cascades a friend of mine gave me.  I got a 1 lb bag of Cluster from Hops Direct and thought they had a wonderfully bold herbal and pine character.  I'll use these for bittering and flame out.  I'm using the home grown cascades for late flavoring and then dry hops as they have a really lovely aroma (citrus and pine typical of Cascade).  I'll be using a total of 11 oz of hops in this beer:  2 oz bittering, 5 oz post boil for flavor, and then 4 oz of dry hop (first dose in fermenter and second dose in the keg).

I'll be using Wyeast 1028 London Ale with this batch as I had some in storage from recent beers.  This will be a fairly cheap beer to brew reusing yeast (on top of the light grainbill and bulk purchased/donated hops).

I'm really excited to be brewing my first keg beer.  I expect I'll be brewing a lot more sessionable hop focused beers going forward

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 6 lb 2 Row
• 3 lb Rye Malt
• 8 oz Crystal 20L
• 8 oz Crystal 60 L
• 3 oz Acid
• Hops:
• 2 oz Cluster (Leaf, 8.1% AA) at 60 min
• 3 oz Cluster (Leaf, 8.1% AA) at 0 min
• 2 oz Cascade (Home Grown Leaf) as Whirl Pool Hops
• 2 oz Cascade (Home Grown Leaf) as Dry Hop
• 2 oz Cascade (Home Grown Leaf) as Keg Hop
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1028 London Ale Yeast (3rd Pitch)
• Water:
• 10 gal Spring Water
• 5 gal Tap Water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.5 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 150 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 70 min
• Fermentation Temperature: 
• 68 F
• Primary Duration:
• 3 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.044 (Target 1.045)
• Efficiency:
• 65% (Target 72.8%)
• FG:
• 1.016 (Target 1.012)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 63% (Target 73%)
• ABV:
• 3.68% (Target 4.33%)

Brewing Notes:

• 9/7/20 - Brewday - 11:00 AM to 3:40 PM.  Including setup and cleanup
• Brought 5 gal of spring water and 3 gal of tap water to 180 F
• Milled my grain.  The rye is a smaller piece of grain so it didn't get quite as good a crush as the malted barley - hope this doesn't lead to terrible efficiency.  Added CaCl and Gypsum to the grain

Rye Malt

• Added 5 gal of strike water to the mash tun and cycled through the RIMS until the system had settled to 162 F
• Stopped the RIMS cycle and stirred in the grain.  Made sure to break up all dough balls
• Let this settle for 10 min

• Cycled through the RIMS at 152 for the remaining 50 min of the mash.  It settled to 150 F
• Heated 8 gal of sparge water to 190 F
• Performed a combo fly/batch sparge.  Collected 4-5 gal and drained the mash tun.  Then added more water to the mash tun to get back to 5 gal level and let this sit for 10 min (settled at 162 F.  Then drained this off, fly sparging with more water until I'd collected 8 gal.
• Started heating the kettle at 4 gal.  Had the beer at a boil half way through the sparge.
• Added the bittering hops once it was at a boil
• Added irish moss at 15 min
• With about 5 min left I was at a bit over 7 gal of wort.  Decided to extend the boil an extra 10 min
• Took my yeast out of the fridge to warm to room temp.  This was a 1 pt jar of yeast slurry
• Added the wort chiller to sanitize for the last 5 min of the boil
• Added flameout hops
• Chilled the beer down to 180 F and then added "whirlpool" hops.  Let the beer sit for 30 min cooling naturally.  It was down to 160 F by the end of this half hr.

• Chilled down to the 80s
• Transferred into my SS brewtech brew bucket.  Let the wort fall a foot or so to aerate
• Collected 5.5 gal of wort
• Measured the gravity as 1.044
• Moved the beer to the fermentation chamber to chill down to 68 F
• Pitched the yeast once it got down to fermentation temp
• 9/9/20 - Still no signs of fermentation this morning (a good 36 hrs after pitching).  I decided to add a second pint jar of Wyeast 1028 slurry and move the beer out of the fermentation chamber to warm to basement temps (low-70s).  This yeast was slow starting with my English Barleywine as well.  Always frustrating when this happens but I think it's going to turn out just fine regardless of this slow start.

• 9/10/20 - Airlock is bubbling rapidly today and krausen has formed on the beer.  It's producing an overripe fruit aroma on the fermentation that isn't pleasant.  Hope that flavor doesn't carry over.
• 9/19/20 - Measured the gravity today as 1.018 - still bubbling a bit so I imagine it will come down a bit more  The beer has sort of an unusual mineral flavor and aroma with malt and hops in the background - maybe from the yeast.  Doesn't have the overripe fruit from fermentation.  I'm adding the first 2 oz of dry hop to the beer today.  I put these in two muslin sacks weighed down with stainless steel nuts and bolts.  Will leave this for a week while it finishes with fermentation
• 9/24/20 - It has finally happened:  I have an infected beer.  
• The beer has formed a bit of pellicle in the last 5 days.  The unusual mineral flavor and aroma has become a bit more prominent.  It reminds me quite a bit of Brett Claussenii which I used for the first time in a Berliner Weisse
• I checked the gravity and it has only come down to 1.016
• Based on the flavor profile being there in my first tasting I suspect that my original problems with getting fermented started were the root cause for the beer ending up like this - good strong start to fermentation is important to keep other stuff (that probably is always there) from making an impact.  My handling of the yeast was careless and this is the result - should have made a starter
• Anyway, the beer isn't what I wanted but I think I could enjoy drinking it anyway (somehow feel a bit better about the extra flavor component now that I'm aware of what it is).  I'll give the beer a couple more week maybe to see if it drops further.  I believe I'll be bottling it instead of kegging unfortunately

• 9/25/20 - Thought about this a bit more and have decided to cold crash and fine the beer and then keg as originally planned.  I'll dry hop it as well.  Moved it to the chest freezer to spend a few days at 36 F
• 9.27/20 - Added about half a tsp of gelatin dissolved in hot water
• 9/29/20 - Transferred to a keg with 2 oz of dry hops.  I purged the keg with CO2 before filling to try to help preserve the beer better
• 10/7/20
• I've been keeping this keg between 40 and 45 F and force carbonating at 12 PSI.  It has started to carb up for me.  
• After further consideration of the "odd" flavor I'm starting to think that the homegrown hops were the major component.  When I rub the hops between two hands they have a lovely cascade aroma but just the bag has the same kind of odd smell I get from the beer.  As I've come to grips with the smell I've started to warm to it a bit.  I think I'll enjoy the beer
• I forgot to measure an official FG when I transferred to the keg.  Took one today and found it stopped at 1.016.  So, this is a pretty easy drinking beer at 3.6%
• 10/20/20 - Tasting Notes - A really nice sessionable keg beer.  I've had six pints of this on a brew day and was no worse for ware by the end.  This is exactly the kind of beer I was thinking I wanted to start making.  it is flavorful and complex in addition to drinkable.  I've been impressed by the hop character as it's aged - having the hops in the keg is a real help I think (as is being able to purge the keg of Oxygen)
• 10/30/20 - The keg kicked today.  The last few pints were cloud and hap hop particulate matter in suspension but were still very tasty.

Goose Island BCBS vs My Clone Attempts

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout (BCBS) is a big (13-15%) Bourbon Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout released yearly on the day after Thanksgiving.  It was one of the first Bourbon Barrel aged beers (if not the first) and has spawned many more beers brewed using whiskey barrel aging.  Despite the large amount of competition these days, I have yet to find a beer that matches its bold whiskey character.  The balance it strikes between bold whiskey and supporting stout character is really a thing of beauty. 

Goose Island has been generous and has provided the recipe details for BCBS which includes OG, FG, and percentage composition of their grainbill.  It might seem like a bit of a reckless move to share this detail for such a famous beer but, as I've found after trying to brew this twice, the grainbill by itself doesn't get you very close to the real thing.  The barrel, and whatever they're doing to extract the barrel flavor, makes this beer.

My first attempt to make this beer, in 2018, used oak that I'd toasted and charred myself and the soaked in Makers mark whiskey for several months.  I used 4 sticks of about an oz each.  The beer fermented out to 1.046 which was a bit higher than target (mid 1.03s).  It was good but just didn't have the whiskey character of the original during my initial side by side comparisons.

For my second attempt, I tried, in earnest, to increase the whiskey character of the beer.  My first batch was aged with 90 proof (45% ABV) Makers Mark when the real BCBS goes into freshly drained barrels with residual barrel-proof spirit of 60-65%.  To duplicate this I aged my toasted and charred oak on Everclear which I diluted down to 60% ABV.  I used 1 big stick (maybe 3 oz) and 2 smaller (1 oz) in this beer and aged it in my hot attic to maximize extraction.  All in all, I think this was a positive step as the 60% spirit better approximates the flavor in the real BCBS.  My fermentation ended up halting on this beer at 1.055.  The un-oaked beer was absolutely delicious so I decided to let it ride.  As you'll see, it's tough to clone a beer of 1.03s with a beer in the 1.05s.

Anyway, in preparation for my third attempt I'll do another comparison tasting to a real BCBS. I'm using a 2017 version with an ABV of 14.1%.  This will give me some final things to assess when making critical decisions for the next batch.

2018 Comparison:

• Aroma:
• Malty with a bit of alcohol coming through.  Maybe get some fruity ester.  BCBS has a significantly more prominent Whiskey and Oak Character
• Appearance:
• Same color and basically same level of head as BCBS
• Flavor:
• Malty and chocolate character.  A bit of whiskey hits in the finish and offers a slight bit of competition to the malt.  The real BCBS is quite a bit less malty and the whiskey is prominent through the middle and into the finish
• Mouthfeel:
• Very close to BCBS - perhaps just slightly more full bodied.  Sweetness level is equal
• Overall:
• Way, way off in terms of whiskey oak character.  I think it's a delicious beer and that, if oaked to the correct level, may have been a pretty close match to the BCBS base beer

2019 Comparison:

• Aroma:
• Rich chocolate malt.  A bit of alcohol but it is very much in the background.  Whiskey character much less than BCBS (and less than 2018 as well)
• Appearance:
• Same color but a bit less head on the pour than BCBS
• Flavor:
• More malty and sweet than 2018.  I think it may have a bit stronger whiskey oak character coming through.  Balance compared with real BCBS is way off though - much more malty
• Mouthfeel:
• More full bodied and quite a bit sweeter than real BCBS
• Overall:
• Balance is much more towards malt than the real thing (not surprising given the 1.055 FG).  I think the whiskey character in this one is stronger than 2018 but still a long way off from the real thing