Orange Mead - Tasting Notes

This was my first attempt at making a Mead which is a fermented honey beverage (also called a Honey Wine).  I made a version based on the famous "Joe's Ancient Orange Mead" which is a mead spiced with Oranges, Clove, and Cinnamon.  It is fermented with bread yeast, which has a lower alcohol tolerance than wine yeast, in order to leave a bit more sugar (wine yeast will typically be able to ferment mead all the way to 1.000).

I started out a bit higher than spec on OG (1.120) and ended up fermenting down to 1.036 which is 11% ABV but still pretty sweet.  I let it sit in the fermenter for about 10 months to mellow.  It has been in the bottle for about a year and a half at this point.  It was bottled still and has remained still which I'm pretty proud of.

This is a really good recipe to start with as it has some really bold flavors and makes for a tasty mead.  One could play around with the spicing level quite a bit.  The cloves are a very nice pairing with the mead (3 cloves per 2 gal makes for a very bold flavor) - coriander would also be very nice I think.

I'm excited to finally be doing a tasting.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Honey and Clove dominate.  Also get quite a bit of fruitiness which may be the honey or yeast maybe.  Some orange may come through faintly.  Very rich aroma - the other spices may be in there but mingled too much in the background
• Appearance:
• Light gold and very clear.
• Flavor:
• Sweet.  Has a very firm spice flavor in the middle - clove, honey, and a bit of orange.  There is a pretty strong alcohol bite in the finish which helps balance a the sweetness.  Really strong flavor
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied and a bit sticky from the sugar.  Drinks pretty smoothly but best consumed in small quantities.
• Overall:
• Very boldly flavored with a pretty nice complexity.  Potent at 11% ABV but hides that very well - probably a combination of the long aging and the residual sweetness.  Not a beverage I find myself reaching for on a regular basis but it does make for a nice after dinner drink on a cold winter night.

Pilsner - Tasting Notes

I brewed this Pilsner (my first attempt) in September and then lagered for about 2 months near freezing before bottling in Mid December.  It has carbed up nicely in the last couple weeks and is tasting great - I'll capture some tasting notes here while it is nice and fresh.

This was brewed using a recipe I cobbled together based on some general observations of other beers.  It is all pilsner malt (which was double decoction mashed) and uses a number of noble hops for flavor (along with a healthy dose of Magnum for bittering).  I doesn't really conform to either the German or Czech sub styles exactly.  Even so it has made a really nice bitter beer - definitely a great showcase for the noble hop.

Was having withdraws from lack of hoppy beer.  Hopefully the 50+ bottles of this pilsner I ended up with will last longer than it took to make the beer - somehow I doubt that will be the case.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Herbal and grassy hop aroma dominates.  Some bready and sweet pilsner malt comes through pretty strongly as well.  Also get a clean lager yeast aroma.
• Appearance:
• Golden in color and pretty clear.  Pours with a 3 finger head initially that slowly settles down to 1 finger which then lingers through while the beer is consumed.  A lot of cascading bubbles.
• Flavor:
• Bready malt up front followed by hop flavor (grassy, spicy, and herbal).  The finish is quite bitter (similar to a pale ale).  There is quite a bit of malt that lingers in the finish but the balance is more towards the hop.
• Mouthfeel:
• Light-Medium bodied.  Very slightly sweet.  Easy drinking and pretty smooth.
• Overall:
• A really nice hoppy beer.  Very drinkable and refreshing with a pleasing balance between the malt and hops.  I think this holds up well to many of the local Craft Lager brewed by the local SE PA brewers (Victory and Sly Fox being the main ones that come to mind)

Braggot - Mead/Beer Hybrid

I bottled up my second attempt at a Mead a couple weekends ago and decided to immediately fill the fermentor with a new batch.  Mead is easy to prepare compared with beer but, since it typically has a high OG and a lot of easily fermentible sugar, it tends to get boozy and benefits from a long aging period to mellow.  Given this long timeline for production I'm thinking minimizing the downtime of my 1 mead fermentor is a good idea.

This time I'll be trying to make a mead that includes wort - this is known as a Braggot.  This is a beverage with a history going back to the ancient Sumerians.  These had historically been made with various spices.  For mine I'll be using hops.

I'm going to try to get about 70% of my sugar from the Honey.  For 2 gal, 5 lbs of honey would get me to 1.088 SG and then 3 lbs of malt should get me another 0.040 points.  I'll mash the grain inside on the stove top and than boil for about 1 hr with the bittering hops.  I'll chill in the sink and then add the worm wort to the honey

I'm going to use the Nottingham yeast already in the fermentor from the previous batch.  I'll also throw in a bit of bread years (which did an impressive job on my first Mead) just in case the Nottingham has given up the ghost.

I plan to give this Mead a good 9-12 months to ferment out.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 3 lb Pale Malt
• 5 lb honey
• 1 oz acid malt
• Hops:
• 0.5 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.7% AA) at 60 min
• Yeast:
• Nottingham Ale Yeast (2nd pitch)
• 1 tsp bread yeast 
• Water:
• 3 gal spring water
• 0.25 tsp yeast nutrient

Results:

• OG:
• 1.127
• FG:
• 1.024
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 79%
• ABV:
• 13.82%

Brewing Notes:

• 11/24/19 - Brewday:
• Mashed 3 lbs of malt in 2 gal of spring water on the stove top.  I split the grain into 3 muslin grain sacks.  Mashed in the high 140s to low 150s

• Mashed for 2 hrs
• Removed the grain sacks and squeezed out the wort
• Boiled for about 1 hr
• Added my hops at the start of the boil in a muslin sack
• Let the post chill in a cold water bath in the sink

• Poured the 5 lbs of honey into the fermenter on top of the remaining yeast from my previous mead
• Rehydrated dry bread yeast
• Poured in the wort once it had chilled down to the 80s
• Had to top up with about half a gal more of spring water
• Stirred well until the honey was dissolved
• Added yeast nutrient
• Added the bread yeast
• Measured the gravity with a refractometer
• Moved the fermenter to to a utility sink in the basement
• 11/26/19 - Fermentation is underway and there is a karausen formed

• 11/30/19 - Krausen has fallen but still a lot of bubbling.  I needed to use the sink so I've moved the fermenter to it's permanent location (a dark corner of the basement where it will not be disturbed).  The mead is very cloudy at the moment 
• 3/7/21 - Bottled today.  Netted just about 2 gal which got me 18 bottles.  Measured the gravity as 1.024.  The mead is very strong.  Has a sweet honey flavor and I think I can detect a bit of malt in there as well.  Will do a deeper dive during the official tasting

Unfermented Sour Blonde Top Up Batch - 2019

This will be a double batch of Sour Blonde beer that I'll use to top up my Sour Blonde Fermenters after making several blends in the last couple months (Plain, Cherry, Raspberry, and Nectarine).  I had previously topped up the fermenters half way with an already fermented beer (see post here).  This batch will fill them up the rest of the way with unfermented wort which I hope will give the microbes enough to chew on over the next year.

Like my other recent sour blonde ales this will be made with a mix of pilsner malt and raw wheat which I will cereal mash.  I'm lightly hopping this to hopefully keep Lacto restrained as my beers seem to be getting more and more sour over the generations. 

Additionally, like last batch, I'll be adding a half a lb of flour to the beer in the boil kettle to increase the starch levels and give the slower microbes more to chew on.  I did this in my last top up batch and made the mistake of dumping the dry flour into the boil kettle which resulted in lots of lumps.  This time I'm going to add the liquid to the dry first and add to the kettle after the flour is well incorporated into the water.

Feeding my fermenters

Anyway, these sour blonds seem to be doing well year to year.  Hopefully the prep work I'm doing today will sow the seeds for another good one next year.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 15 lb Pilsner
• 2 lb Light Munich
• 4 oz Acid Malt
• Cereal Mash:
• 8 lb Raw Wheat
• 2 lb Pilsner
• 8 oz White Flour (added to the boil)
• Hops:
• 1 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.7% AA) at 15 min
• Yeast:
• NA - Directly into Sour Blonde Fermenter
• Water:
• 12 gal Spring Water
• 8 gal Tap Water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 13 gal
• Mash:
• Cereal Mash:
• Rest at 110 F, 155 F and then boiled for 20 min
• Main Mash:
• 160 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 90 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temperature
• Primary Duration:
• NA
• Secondary Duration:
• 1-3 years

Results:

• OG:
• 1.053 (Target 1.050)
• Efficiency:
• 73% (Target 71%)
• FG:
• Target 1.000
• Apparent Attenuation:
• Target 100%
• ABV:
• Target TBD

Brewing Notes:

• 11/17/2019 - Brewday - 11:00 AM to 6:30 PM- Including Cereal Mash, a lunch break, setup, and cleanup
• Cereal Mash:
• Milled my cereal mash grain into 3 gal of hot tap water
• Let the mash rest for 10 min
• Heated to 150s and then let rest for 20 min
• Heated to a boil for 20 min
• Let this rest while I went out for lunch

• Heated 8 gal of strike water up to 190 F
• Milled the main mash grain
• Added 7 gal of strike water to the mash tun and cycled through the RIMS at 170 F until the temperature had settled
• Temporarily halted the rims.  Added the cereal mash.  Then started the RIMS again.  Ended up with about 10 gal of volume at this point which didn't leave enough room for the main mash (in the 11 gal mash tun).  Pulled off about 1.5 gal of starchy liquid into the boil kettle.
• Stopped the RIMS and added the grain.  This ended up being a very thick mash that I could barely stir.  Started the RIMS again and just about got a stuck sparge.  Ended up cycling the RIMS very slowly to account for this.

• Mashed for 60 min
• Slowly drained the mash tun into the boil kettle.  Started heating after collecting a few gal and had it at a boil after collecting about 8 gal.  Probably boiled for 45 min before I finished the sparge 
• Mixed water into the flour mix until it was a milkshake consistency. Added this to the boil

• Boiled for probably 20 min more after the mash was done as I was stilling at about 12 gal
• Added the hops and Irish moss at 15 min.  Put the hops in a double layer cheese cloth sack to avoid them escaping.
• Added the chiller to sanitize
• Chilled down to 70 F

• Collected 11.25 gal of wort that measured 1.062 SG.  This is right about on target for efficiency.  I'm going to dilute with 1.75 gal of spring water to get down to about 1.053
• Transferred the beer into my sour blonde fermenters.  It is a very cloudy wort.  Used it as follows:
• 1 gal each into fermentors 1-6, and 8 & 9
• 0.5 gal in fermentor 10
• 2.5 gal in fermentor 11
• 2 gal in fermentor 12

Lessons Learned:

1. Mixing water into flour worked well to avoid clumps (didn't find many at all at the bottom of the boil kettle) and it produced a very starchy wort.  It will be interesting to see if these beer clear for me and if they'll have a bit higher FG due to this
2. Added the cereal mash to the mash tun before the main mash grain was a terrible mistake as I couldn't mash normally due to the sticky and starchy cereal mash partially clogging the false bottom.  I was trying to avoid a significant temperature change when adding the cereal mash but this was worse.

Nectarine Sour Blonde (2019)

This year I'll be making a fourth blend of Sour Blonde beer with Nectarine I picked from a local SE PA Orchard (Highland Orchards).  Nectarine is a stone fruit very similar to peaches with the major difference being that the skin is smooth rather than fuzzy.  Some people say they are a bit sweeter as well.  I have about 17 lbs which I picked in mid summer and then froze.  They have a nice flavor and lovely perfume like aroma (although I find the texture off putting enough to not eat them).  I believe they will work nicely in this beer.  It's not a fruit that is traditionally put in Lambic beers but Lindemans has made a peach version and De Cam has a Nectarine Lambic as have many homebrewers.  I plan to use all 17 lbs in this batch.

I cut the fruit in quarters in preparation and save off some of the pits to go in the beer.

For the beer blend I'll be using my more mild beers to let the fruit take center stage - this is based on my latest Sour Blonde Status Report.  In my Raspberry and Cherry Blends this year I went with 5-6 gal and had to pull off beer in the process of adding fruit due to beer cresting the top of the fermenter.  I'm going to go with 4.5 gal of this beer to try to avoid that.

I've chosen the following beers to make up this blend:

• Fermenter #1:
• Overview:
• Aged with Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
• Sitting on Toasted and Chardonnay soaked oak for the last year
• Mix of beers brewed with Pilsner Malt and Wheat
• Very lightly hopped beers
• Aged in a very full glass carboy with a vented silicon bung

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Earthy with a mineral character.  Slightly wine like aroma as well
• Appearance:  Light gold and slightly hazy
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with a lemon-like character.  Also get a bit of mineral flavor and bit of earthy funk
• Mouthfeel:  Light-medium bodied.  Fairly dry.  Pretty smooth - no real prickliness.
• Overall:  The flavors are pretty bold - particularly the lemon like sourness.  Not all that complex as the supporting flavors are fairly far in the background.
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #2:
• Overview:
• Aged with Bootleg Biology Funk Weapon #1 and a bit of Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
• Sitting on Toasted and Chardonnay soaked oak for the last year
• Grain bill of Pilsner and Raw Wheat
• No hops in this one
• Aged in a mostly full glass carboy with a vented silicon bung

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Fruity (citrus or peach maybe) with a bit of earthy funk.  Very pleasant
• Appearance:  Light gold and pretty clear
• Flavor:  Lightly sour.  Earthy funk and a fruity flavor are most prominent
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and dry.  Slight prickling in the back of the throat
• Overall:  Bold flavor and aroma on this one.  Has a nice amount of complexity which makes for an interesting beer.  I really like this one.
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #4:
• Overview:
• Aged with Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
• Mix of Pilsner and Flaked wheat malt
• Very lightly hopped
• Aged in glass carboy with 1 gal of head space

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Funky with a bit of fruit and an almost solvent like smell
• Appearance:  Straw colored and little murky
• Flavor:  Very slight sourness with a bit of fruit flavor.  Slight funk along with a bit of mineral
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied.  Has a slight bit of sweetness.  Prickles the back of the throat
• Overall:  Mild in flavor without all that much complexity.  Rough drinking with the astringency.
• Volume:
• 0.5 gal
• Fermenter #5
• Overview:
• Aged with ECY01 Bug Farm
• Mix of Pilsner and Raw Wheat malt bill
• Lightly hopped
• Aged in glass carboy with 1 gal of headspace

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Fruity and wine-like with a bit of funk.  Also get some malt coming through  Pretty bold aroma
• Appearance:  Light gold and very clear
• Flavor:  Quite sour.  Malty with a bit of fruit flavor and some earthy/leathery funk.  Some bandaid like brett character comes through in the finish
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and dry.  Slight prickling in the back of the throat
• Overall:  Bold flavors with a fair amount of complexity.  A bit too sour on it's own but could be a very nice part of a blend with a milder beer
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #12:
• Overview:
• Brewed with Bootleg Biology Funk Weapon #3
• Grainbill was a mix of Pilsner and Raw Wheat.  To attempt to better simulate a cereal mash I drew off a quart of very starchy wort from the cereal mash and added this to the boil
• No hops in this batch
• Aged in a bucket with a solid bung

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Musty and funky aroma along with a slight fruity character
• Appearance:  Golden and slightly cloudy
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with some fruity flavors and a bit of brett funk
• Mouthfeel:  Light-medium bodied and slightly sweet.  Smooth drinking
• Overall:  Fairly mild in flavor but it has some interesting and fairly unique elements compared with the other beers.
• Volume:
• 1 gal

Blending Notes:

• 11/10/2019 - Blending Day
• Pulled off 4.5 gal of beer into a bucket fermenter

• Added the 17 lbs of fruit

• I'm going to let this age for a couple months.  I'll probably back sweeten in the bottle and pasteurize.
• 6/14/20 - Bottled today with 1.5 lb of Invert #1 and a pack of rehydrated Champagne yeast (Red Star Premier Cuvee).  The fruit comes through pretty strongly both in aroma and flavor.  It isn't so strong that the base beer is obscured though.  Got 59 12 oz bottles from this batch.  I will monitor progress of carbonation and pasteurize to preserve a bit of sweetness

• 6/25/20 - Bottle pasteurized in a hot water bath.  30 min between 140 and 180 F.  I caught these a little later than is ideal as the bottles are highly carbonated enough to make pouring a bit difficult.  I had one bottle explode in the process of pasteurization.
• 6/4/22 - Tasting Notes - This is really nice fruit forward beer.  The Nectarine is boldly flavored but (at these usage levels) leaves a bit of room to let the base beer come through and add complexity.  The fruit and beer compliment each other nicely.  The level of sweetness retained in this beer is very nice as it counters what could have been an overwhelming level of acidity

Hard Apple Cider Take II - Tasting Notes

I made this batch of Hard Cider in December 2018.  I let it ferment and condition for 3-4 months and then bottled in April.  I made 5 gal of Plain Cider and blended another 5 gal with 12 lbs of raspberries grown in my large home garden.

This is my second batch of cider (read about the first here).  In my first attempt I backsweetened half the batch with some fresh cider just before bottling and then bottle pasteurized once they'd carbonated.  I found the sweetened half of the batch to have a much nicer apple flavor and that the slight sweetness helped the balance a bit.  For this batch I decided to sweeten both the raspberry and plain halves with some cider.  I did so with 1 gal each of cider (I used a local PA cider that is pasteurized using UV light rather than chemicals).  I realized after the fact that this was only half per volume of what I'd used for the previous batch.  This years ended up a bit drier as a result.

These ciders have been in the bottle for 6 months now and I've been drinking them quite a bit here of late.  They're tasting good but not getting any better.  Time for an official tasting for the record.

Plain Hard Cider:

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Nice apple aroma along with a slight earthy/musty character.  I also get a bit of alcohol
• Appearance:
• Straw colored and pretty clear.  Pours without any foam - some bubble cling to the side of the glass and there are some cascading bubbles though
• Flavor:
• Light tartness up front with a dry white wine like character.  Light apple flavor comes through after that.  The finish has a light bitterness
• Mouthfeel:
• Light bodied and dry.  Has a light astringency in the finish
• Overall:
• A light and refreshing drink - pretty easy to consume a few of these as dry as they came out.  The flavors are pretty mild overall and it isn't as apply or as complex as I would have liked.

Raspberry Hard Cider:

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Raspberries and apple aroma are about equal and pretty potent taken together.  They blend nicely.  A bit of alcohol comes through as well
• Appearance:
• Dark red and pretty clear.  This one poured with a 1 finger head that dissipated almost immediately
• Flavor:
• Lightly tart up front which transitions to a lightly jammy raspberry flavor.  The apple comes through with the raspberries lightly.  Finish has the light bitterness I got from the plain but the berries also linger into the finish
• Mouthfeel:
• Light bodied and dry.  Easy drinking with slight astringency in the finish
• Overall:
• I think the raspberries are a really nice addition.  They don't overwhelm the cider at this level of usage certainly but they add another dimension which increases the interest in drinking it a bit.  Still a pretty mild drink overall though

Raspberry Sour Blonde (2019)

This will be a Raspberry Sour Blonde using fruit that I grew in my large backyard raspberry beds.  I brewed one of these last year with 12 lbs of fruit.  The color was a bit light and the fruit flavor was not all that strong.  This year I've decided to increase to 20 lbs of fruit.

I'll be choosing a blend based on a sampling I did about a month ago.  The raspberries will bring a lot of acidity and complexity to the beer so I'm going to choose a blend that is a bit more mild on it's own.  I've chosen the following beers:

• Fermenter #6:
• Overview:
• Aged with  ECY 34 Dirty Dozen
• Pilsner and Flaked Wheat Malt bill
• No hops in this batch
• Aged in a glass carboy with 2 gal of head space

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma: Slightly earthy aroma along with a bit of mineral.  Very mild smelling
• Appearance:  Light gold and very clear
• Flavor:  Medium level of sourness.  Bready malt with some brett funk (bandaid like) 
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and very dry.  Slight prickling
• Overall:  Fairly bold flavors but not very complex
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #7
• Overview:
• Beer has been aged with Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
• Prior to this it spent a few months on my Belgian Yeast and Lacto house culture
• Made with a mix of Pilsner and Raw Wheat
• No hops
• Aged with some toasted oak that I soaked in Chardonnay
• Kept in a Bucket Fermenter with a solid stopper

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Light fruity and wine like aroma mixed with a bit of earthyness
• Appearance:  Straw colored and very murky.  Quite a bit of yeast in suspension - I may have drawn from too deep in the fermenter.
• Flavor:  Medium sourness with a citrus and fruity character.  Has a bit of malt character in the background along with a slight earthy brett character
• Mouthfeel:  Light-medium bodied.  Dry with a slight prickling.
• Overall:  This is a really ugly looking beer but the flavors are pretty bold and quite nice.  Not a whole lot of complexity
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #9:
• Overview:
• Aged with ECY 34 Dirty Dozen.  This is the second pitch
• Grainbill is a mix of Pilsner and Raw Wheat
• No hops in this batch
• Aged in a bucket fermenter with a vented silicone bung

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Slightly fruity (overripe) with a bit of brett funk.  Maybe smells a bit like a white wine.
• Appearance:  Light gold and pretty clear
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with a fruity flavor and a bit of earthy brett character.  It has a bit of bready malt in the finish.
• Mouthfeel:  Light and dry.  Pretty smooth drinking.  Leaves the mouth kind of sticky somehow (or maybe that's due to how many beers I've tasted so far).
• Overall:  Nice bold flavors with a nice level of sourness and complexity
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #10:
• Overview:
• Aged with Omega Yeast OYL-212 Brett Blend #3:  Bring on Da Funk
• Soured a portion of the batch with Omega Yeast OYL-605 Lactobacillus Blend (L. Plantarum and L. Brevis)
• Mix of Pilsner and Raw Wheat
• No hops
• Aged in a bucket fermenter with a vented silicone bung

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Fruity with a bit of cheesy funk.  Has a sort of wine like aroma.
• Appearance:  Light gold and a bit cloudy
• Flavor:  Fairly firm sourness.  Citrus fruit fairly bold followed by a bit of earthy brett.
• Mouthfeel:  Light and dry.  Slight prickling
• Overall:  This one is pretty boldly flavored but not really that complex
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #12:
• Overview:
• Brewed with Bootleg Biology Funk Weapon #3
• Grainbill was a mix of Pilsner and Raw Wheat.  To attempt to better simulate a cereal mash I drew off a quart of very starchy wort from the cereal mash and added this to the boil
• No hops in this batch
• Aged in a bucket with a solid bung

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Musty and funky aroma along with a slight fruity character
• Appearance:  Golden and slightly cloudy
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with some fruity flavors and a bit of brett funk
• Mouthfeel:  Light-medium bodied and slightly sweet.  Smooth drinking
• Overall:  Fairly mild in flavor but it has some interesting and fairly unique elements compared with the other beers.
• Volume:
• 1 gal

Blending Notes:

• 10-13-19 - Blending Day
• Mixed up about 5 gal of beer in a 7.5 gal bucket fermenter

• Added 20 lbs of frozen raspberries.  Ended up with a bit too much beer in the mix.  Transferred off about half a gal to a gal jug to drink now

• 5/31/20 - Bottled with 1.5 lb of invert #2 and some rehydrated Red Star Champagne yeast.  Got 6+ gal which netted me 63 bottles.  I will pasteurize this beer before all the sugar is eaten and over carbs the beer.
• 6/16/20 - The beer has reached a good level of carbonation so I pasteurized this evening in a water bath that started at 180 F.  Let them sit for 30 min (settled down to 130 F in that time).  No exploded bottles thankfully.
• 5/14/22 - Tasting Notes - Very intensely flavored fruit beer.  The raspberry is front and center here.  I make a Raspberry Wine, which I just drank a bottle of last night (so fresh in my mind, and would say this beer is much closer in character to that wine than to the Sour Blonde but that there is enough beer character that shines through to clearly make this a distinct product.  There is some brett character to beer that gives it some nice extra complexity and it compliments the overall product.