Saison Take 4 - Tasting Notes

 I brewed up this Saison (my 4th attempt at the style) back in Early October.  I used what is supposed to be the Saison Dupont strain of yeast:  Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison.  This is a notorious yeast for stalling at a high gravity without help.  I was able to get it to ferment all the way to 1.002 by keeping the beer at 80 F for a 6 weeks.  It has produced some lovely esters which make the extra effort well worth it.

I moved the beer to a keg a bit over a month ago and it has carb'd up nicely in this time.  Time to do an official tasting before it's gone.

This is a style of beer all about the yeast really and is meant to be dry and refreshing.  I think I met the mark on all of those fronts.  Given that I'm using the Dupont strain I decided to also do a side by side comparison with the real deal.  My beer was brewed with Wheat and American hops so it was not intended to be a clone but I still think it will be interesting to compare (plus it's an excuse to buy a big bottle of Saison Dupont for myself on New Years Eve)

Excited to be doing a deep dive on the beer.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Belgian yeast ester (fruity and spicy) most prominent.  Get a bit of bready malt in the background.  Maybe some grassy hop aroma in there as well
• Appearance:
• Golden and very clear.  Pours with 2 fingers of head that lingers for 5 min or so - leaves lacing on the glass
• Flavor:
• Strong fruit ester character up front - this lingers into the finish.  Pretty good kick of bitterness in the finish as well  This is balanced by a bit of malty sweetness.  Slight malt flavor in the mix as well - maybe a bit of hop flavor in there too.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied and pretty dry.  Fairly crisp and easy drinking.  Smooth.
• Overall:
• This is boldly flavored beer and is quite refreshing with the dry and bitter finish.  I really enjoy the ester profile.  From memory, I think this is very much like how Saison Dupont tastes (will test that next).  It hides it's almost 7% ABV very well - would not guess it is that high from drinking it (but you do feel it the next morning which is my only qualm with this beer)

Side by Side Comparison:

• Aroma:
• Dupont has a strong noble hop aroma out front and the yeast ester is in the background.  Tough to compare the beers but I think the yeast ester character could very well be of a similar level between the beers
• Appearance:
• The Dupont is carbonated higher than mine and is equally clear.  Color is very close with mine being just slightly darker
• Flavor:
• The Dupont also has a fairly strong noble hop flavor (grassy, floral, and spicy) which plays nicely with the fruity ester character.  The malt in mine is much more of a presence in the balance of flavors while Dupont is all about the hops and yeast playing against each other.  I would say bitterness between the two is very close
• Mouthfeel:
• Mine has a bit more body but I would say they're equally dry and crisp.  Very similar in terms of drinkability and smoothness.
• Overall:
• I believe the Wyeast 3724 could really be the Dupont strain comparing these two although I wouldn't bet the farm on it.  The hop presence in Dupont is a bit of a surprise.  Without this side by side comparison I think I would have credited a lot of the hop flavor to the yeast since the hops compliment the yeast so nicely.  These hops have turned out to be a major difference between the two beers.  In the end, I like them both no less than I had before the head to head comparison.
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American Pale Wheat Take III - Tasting Notes

This is a very hoppy beer that I brewed up in mid November and then kegged on 12/3.  I've been drinking it pretty quickly (started before it fully carb'd) and half expect the keg to kick every time I pull a glass.  

The beer used 5 oz of kettle hops and then 6 oz of dry hop (3 oz of which are in the keg) and is mainly a showcase for Citra and Amarillo hops.  It is a low gravity beer (went from 1.040 to 1.013 for 3.5% ABV) and is very easy to drink in volume. 

It has been interesting watching it develop over the  last couple weeks.  It started out very aggressively hoppy in the first few days after kegging and had some astringency (hop burn) but mellowed out quite a bit after the first week.  It has been drinking very nicely with pungent hop aroma and taste since.  I feel like it may be started to fade slightly here in the third week (although this could be partially due to the beer dropping below the level of the hop bag which was hanging half way down the keg via dental floss).  I tried very hard to limit oxygen in this beer - tough to know if I went far enough.

The beer is slightly hazy even after cold crashing and fining.  This was also the case the first time I brewed the recipe.  Haze is a much discussed topic with the popularity of NEIPA. Could either be the wheat or hop oils causing this I guess.  I don't mind the appearance but I certainly wasn't targeting haze with the batch or intending this to be a NEIPA

It is finally well carb'd so I think now is a good time to do a tasting

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Herbal and fruity (vaguely citrus) hops come through very strongly.  Gives an impression of sweetness to the beer.  Might also add a grassy, piney, and marijuana like notes from the hop.  Not really able to pick up any yeast or malt contributions through the bold hops but they are likely contributing to the background flavors
• Appearance:
• Pours with about 1 finger of foam that leaves lacing.  Light gold in color and slightly hazy
• Flavor:
• Up front I get bold hop flavor (fruity and herbal) which is then followed up with a pretty firm bitterness.  The bitterness lingers into the finish along with the hop flavor.  The is a very light malt flavor and a slight sweetness in the finish.  Balance is strongly towards the hops.
• Mouthfeel:
• Light bodied and pretty dry.  Bitterness is slightly astringent maybe (has become less and less astringent with time in the keg)
• Overall:
• This has been a really lovely hoppy beer to drink.  The bold hop flavors were exactly what I was hoping kegging (and keg hopping) would provide.  This is a very light beer - very sessionable and easy drinking.  I think the level of bitterness is nice but it could have done with a bit more of a malt presence for balance.  When I brew this again I will maybe add a small amount of caramel malt to the mix. Additionally, I've noticed this beer drinks quite a bit better once it's warmed up from the 44 F I'm keeping the keg at - flavoring hops really come through better.  I'm going to work on increasing my serving temperature on the kegs based on this.

Timothy Taylor's Landlord Clone

This week I've brewed up an attempted clone of a well regarded English Pale Ale:  Timothy Taylor's Landlord Bitter.  I've never actually had an opportunity to try the original but I very much like English Pale ale and it's been quite a while since I made one.  I figure it would be tough to go wrong with making an attempt at this one.  The brewery has posted a very nice tour video with quite a bit of useful information on the process: see that here.  I've also based my recipe on one created by famous homebrewer Gordon Strong.

This is a beer reported to be made using only one grain:  Simpson's Gold Promise.  I picked up a 55lb sack of this for use in this recipe (will have a lot left over which is just fine by me).  The beer is about 4.3% ABV and should come in at around 1.010.  

The beer is an amber color which is a bit darker than you could expect from just pale malt.  Many of the clone recipes add a couple ounces of roasted malt to get the desired color.  I decided to try making a bit of brewers caramel, which is a fairly traditional ingredient in English Brewing used to provide color but not much in the way of flavor or fermentable sugar.  I did this by making a very dark dry caramel.  I will make 4 oz and add a bit at a time until the color looks about right (should go from about 6 SRM to 9)

The beer is hopped fairly assertively per the video referenced above with generous late hopping.  They use a combination of Fuggle, East Kent Golding, and Styrian Golding in the beer where the Styrian are the star flavoring hop.  My hopping was maybe slightly higher than the reference recipe mostly to use the full ounce of the hops I'd purchased.  Having not had the beer I don't expect I'll care much if the balance is slightly different.  I love English Hops anyway though so I don't expect I'll regret having a bit more.

Finally, the yeast used for this beer is reported to be a strain derived from the Timothy Tailor Brewery.  They do an open fermentation in square fermenters.  The yeast stays on the surface after fermentation has completed so brewery ends up skimming it off the top to discard or to culture for the next batch (top cropping).  They also rouse the yeast early in the process to encourage it to finish.  I'm going to go with an open fermentation for my batch with the lit on loosely with no airlock.  I may try to top crop the yeast.  I'm not got to go through the trouble of rousing.  They start their beer in the low 60s and then cool it through the fermentation process.  I've decided to let it start in the low 60s and then rise naturally sitting at ambient basement temps.

I'm going to keg this beer and plan to give it 4 weeks to finish out.  Really excited to be trying some new things.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 9.75 lbs Simpson's Golden Promise Pale Ale
• 2.6 oz Dark Caramel
• 2 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 2 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.4% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz English Golding (Pellet, 4.5% AA) at 10 min
• 1 oz Styrian Golding (Pellet, 3.5% AA) at 0 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale
• Water:
• 12 gal spring water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• 152 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temperature (low 60s)
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.046 (Target 1.043)
• Efficiency:
• 76% (Target 71%)
• FG:
• 1.013 (Target 1.010)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 71% (Target 76%)
• ABV:
• 4.3% (Target 4.3%)

Brewing Notes:

• 12/12/20:
• Built a yeast starter using 100 g of DME and 1 L of water.  Boiled, cooled, pitched the yeast and then set it up on a stir plate to propagate
• Cooked up 4 oz of Dry Caramel.  Put sugar on a pan and cooked it on medium low until it was all dissolved and boiling.  Smokes quite a bit in the process
• 12/13/20 - Brewday - 9:15 AM to 1:15 PM Including Setup (I did a deep cleanup this time which took several hrs)
• Brought 7 gal of spring water to 180 F
• Milled my grain.  Added CaCl and Gypsum to the grain

• Moved 6 gal of water to the mash tun.  Cycled through the grant and RIMS until the temperature had stabilized to 162 F.
• Stopped the RIMS cycle and added in the grain.  Stirred well to eliminate dough balls

• Let the mash settle for 10 min
• Cycled the RIMS at 152 F for 50 min
• Heated 7 gal of spring water to 185 F for the sparge
• Drained the mash tun and fly sparged until I had 4 gal in the kettle
• Added 5 more gal of water to the mash tun and let this sit for a second batch sparge.  Let this sit for 10 min
• Started heating the kettle after collecting 3 gal and had it at a boil prior to the second sparge
• Added the bittering hops once the boil was under way
• Slowly drained the second batch sparge into the kettle.  Slow enough to allow the boil to continue.  Fly sparged until a total of 8 gal has been collected
• Added my brewers caramel by draining boiling wort into the pan which contained the crystalized sugar.  Let this dissolve a little bit at a time and then added back into the kettle.  This took multiple cycles to get enough for color.  The wort seemed dark enough before I'd dissolved it all so I stopped (only ended up adding 2.6 oz)

• With 15 min left in the boil I added the Irish Moss
• Added 10 min hops.  These are pellet so I added them in loose
• With 5 min I added the wort chiller in to sanitize
• Added the 0 min hops

• Chilled the beer slowly to give the hops a bit more time at temps at about 180 F.  Was able to chill down to about 70 F
• Drained the wort to a brew bucket
• Collected 6 gal.  Measured gravity as 1.046 which was just a bit above target of 1.043.
• Pitched the yeast starter
• Left the beer to ferment with the lid on top of the fermenter but unsealed to try to mimic and open fermentation
• 12/13/20 - Krausen has formed

• 12/16/20 - The fermentation is producing a very fruity aroma
• 1/10/21 - Moved the beer to the chest freezer set to 40 F to cold crash
• 1/12/21 - Added gelatin to fine the beer
• 1/15/21 - Kegged the beer today and set it to carbonate at 12 PSI.  Measured the final gravity as 1.013.  So, I overshot my OG by 3 points and it's stopped 3 points higher than intended and I met my ABV target.  I'll give the beer at least a few days before I start drinking it.
• 2/7/21 - Tasting Notes - A really drinkable beer with a lovely balance between malt and hops.  Nice flavors and good amount of complexity.  I would say this is the best English Bitter I've made so far.  I feel compelled to play around with this yeast some more as I suspect that it's playing a significant background roll in flavor profile (I don't believe this beer would taste as good with Chico yeast)
• 3/15/21 - Kicked the keg sadly.  The beer was still delicious up to the last pint

Burnt Honey Mead (Bochet) - Tasting Notes

This was my second attempt to make a mead.  With it I used a procedure to boil the honey to darken the color and create toasted sugar flavors - this is called a Burnt Honey Mead or Bochet.  I made two gallons of it which seems like a good amount of a beverage that tends to be consumed slowly.

I made the mead in August 2018, let it ferment and age until November 2019 before bottling, and then have been drinking one every couple months over this last year.  It finished with quite a bit of residual sweetness without any action from me and has been very stable in the bottle which is a victory for my sanitation process.

The long aging time has produced a nice mellow beverage.  Time to record some official tasting notes.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Caramel and dark fruit are prominent along with a honey aroma.  Also has a bit of a boozy character
• Appearance:
• Dark gold and very clear.  Perfectly still
• Flavor:
• Sweet honey up front with a raisin and caramel flavor coming in next.  The finish has a pretty firm bitter bite to it which is kind of balanced by a bit of sweetness that lingers on the palate.  The fruity flavor really lingers for a while.  Get a bit of alcohol flavor on the finish
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied and a bit sticky and sweet.  Noticeable warming alcohol warming presence.  Definitely a sipper
• Overall:
• 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 night.  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.