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.

American Brown Ale Take II

 This week I'll be brewing up an American Brown Ale.  This will be my second attempt at the style (read about the first attempt).  This time I'm basing the beer roughly on a recipe by Mike "Tasty" McDole (an award winning homebrewer who passed away a couple months ago):  Janet's Brown Ale.

I've decided to bring the beer in at about 5% ABV which is a bit lower than the original.  I'm cutting back on base malt to accomplish this and keeping the specialty malts at about the same level.  It's a fairly complex malt bill (I ended up using 2 base malts as I ran out of 2 Row and had to dip into a new bag of Golden Promise).  I really enjoyed the malt backbone in my last brown ale and expect this will deliver a similar experience

For hops, I've used Northern Brewer for bittering (per the original recipe) but have adjusted the late hops a bit.  The original called for Cascade for flavoring - I've opted to use Chinook for that instead (as I had some available).  Still dry hopping with Centennial and, since I'll be kegging this one, added more Keg Hops to the mix.  I think this will be a nicely hoppy beer.

For yeast, I've opted to re-use the S04 English strain I'd saved from a previous batch rather than buy a pack of Chico yeast this recipe calls for.  Yeast is expensive - nice to cut costs where you can by reusing.  I don't imagine this will make a big difference in the final flavor profile.  I'll be fermenting fairly cool with the beer at ambient basement temperature (low 60).  

I'll give it 2 weeks to ferment out and then cold crash/dry hop for a week

Recipe Detail:

• Grain:
• 6.5 lb 2 row
• 1.5 Golden Promise
• 1 lb Crystal 40L
• 1 lb CaraPils
• 1 lb Wheat
• 0.5 lb Chocolate
• 2 oz Acid
• Hops:
• 1 oz Northern Brewer (Pellet, 6.4% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz Northern Brewer (Pellet, 6.4 % AA) at 30 min
• 1.5 oz Centennial (Leaf, 10.1% AA) at 5 min
• 1.5 oz Chinook (Leaf, 12.2% AA) at 5 min
• 2 oz Centennial (Leaf, 10.1% AA) Dry Hop
• 2 oz Centennial (Leaf 10.1% AA) Keg Hop
• Yeast:
• S04 (Second Pitch)
• Water:
• 13 gal Spring Water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

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

Results:

• OG:
• 1.049 (Target 1.050)
• Efficiency:
• 71% (Target 72%)
• FG:
• 1.013 (Target 1.014)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 73% (Target 71%)
• ABV:
• 4.7% (Target 4.7%)

Brewing Notes:

• 11/27/20 - Built up a yeast starter using S04 that I'd saved from a previous batch.  Used a 1 pint jar of slurry (which included a lot of trub).  Took off quickly
• 11/28/20 - Brewday - 10:15 AM to 2:30 PM
• Brought 8 gal of spring water up to 190 F
• Milled my grain.  Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mix so I don't forget
• Added 6 gal to the mash tun and cycled through the RIMS until the temperature had settled to 164 F
• Stirred in the grain
• Let the mash sit for 10 min to settle.  Temperature ended up at 155 F
• Cycled the RIMS for 50 min with temperature set to 155 F (fermenter read a bit lower for most of that)

• Heated 7 gal of sparge water to 200 F
• Drained the mash tun into the boil kettle.  Started heating after collecting 4 gal.  Topped up the mash tun until I'd collected 6 gal.  Had the beer at a boil soon after this
• Added the bittering hops.  Threw these in loose as a muslin sack doesn't contain the pellet hops very well
• Added the remaining sparge water to the mash tun, stirred, and let sit for 10 min.  Then drained this into the boil kettle (slowly so the boil isn't interrupted)
• Ended up with 8 gal
• I had several minor boil over through the 60 min.  Had to pay quite a bit of attention to the heat to keep these to a minimum
• Added the 30 min hops.  Also put these in loose
• At 15 min, added the Irish Moss
• With 5 min left, I added the worth chiller and the flavoring hops.  I bagged the leaf hops (did 1 oz per bag which leaves a lot of room for expansion of the hops which I hope will give good contact to them
• Chilled the beer fairly slowly (took maybe 20 min) to give the hot wort more time with the hops
• Transferred the beer into a Stainless steel brew bucket.  Let it fall a couple feet to aerate
• Collected 5.4 gal.  Measured the gravity as 1.055.  This is 71% efficiency.  I'm going to top up to 6 gal which should be an OG of 1.049
• Pitched the entire yeast starter into the beer
• 11/29/20 - The beer was bubbling aggressively by the next morning
• 12/12/20 - Added the dry hops in muslin sacks weighed down with stainless steel bolts (1 oz per bag).  Will let this sit at basement temperature for a few days.
• 12/18/20 - Moved the beer to the chest freezer to cold crash at 38 F
• 12/19/20 - Added gelatin to fine the beer
• 12/20/20 - Kegged today with 2 oz of dry hops.  Used the following procedure:
• Filled the keg with star san solution
• Pushed the sanitizer out of the keg with 2 psi of pressure
• Quickly opened the keg and dropped in 2 weighted bags of the dry hop.  Didn't tie these up like last time so they should be sitting at the bottom the whole time
• Re-pressurized the keg to 2 PSI
• Drained the SS brewtech brew bucket output spigot to the keg output (so that beer comes in at the bottom of the keg with minimal splashing and hooked the keg in to the stopper hole of the brew bucket to release the keg's C02 on top of the beer in the fermenter and (hopefully) offer some protection from oxygen
• Moved the beer to my kegging chest freezer setup with 12 PSI of pressure to carbonate
• Measured the final gravity of the beer as 1.013
• 1/26/21 - Tasting Notes - This is a very hoppy beer - hopped to a level similar to an IPA.  The contributions of the brown ale are in the mix but relegated very much to a background role.  The Centennial hops are very nice - the 2 oz of keg hops really amped up hop contribution.  The fruity ester character from S04 is nice as well but it may have been better to go with a less expressive yeast to let malt and hops interplay a bit more - so much going on in the beer with a pronounced yeast component.  Still, can't complain about what is a nicely flavored beer.
• 2/17/21 - Kicked the keg today.  The beer was still very hoppy up to the last glass and the hops in the keg still smelled vibrant and fresh.  I don't recall what it was like well enough at the start ot say if it's fallen off or not but certainly not stale or bland at the end.

Raspberry Wine Vinegar

This will be my third attempt at making vinegar - I'll be using my homemade Raspberry Wine for this batch.  This wine fermented to 13.6% ABV and was backsweetened to 1.022 at bottling.  I'm hoping that, at this ABV, it will make a fairly strong vinegar with a good amount of sweetness remaining for balance.  The wine is fairly tart on it's own which may make for a bit more complexity than acetic acid would provide by itself

I'll use 2 12 oz bottles for this batch and will add them on top of the mother culture I've used for my last two vinegar (Apple Cider and Malt) which were both made using Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar Mother culture.  The mother cultured from my first batch didn't seem to be enough to get the Malt vinegar going for my last batch so I ended up adding more of the brags.  I'll try not to resort to that this time

I'm going to let this sit in a corner of the kitchen for the next couple months and test occasionally to gauge it's progress.

Brewing Notes:

• 11/1/20:
• Added the raspberry wine to the previously used jar (on top of the mother culture left behind after the transfer of the Malt Vinegar

• Draped a thin cotton cloth over the top for air exposure and secured with the lid ring
• 11/26/20 - Checked on the vinegar today.  There are bubbles forming around the outer ring of the jar.  I suspect the remaining sugar to be fermenting a bit.  I took a sample - it tastes a bit more acidic than the normal cider but doesn't have a particularly strong vinegar character just yet.  There is some sweetness to it still

English Porter - Tasting Notes

This was an English Porter I brewed up back in September based on a historic recipe published on the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins Blog: 1915 Courage Porter.  It is pretty simple recipe that features the use of Invert Syrup like most of the old English beers seem to.  It was fairly smooth brewday except for the need to extend the boil by 20 min due to having a bit more wort collected than was expected.  I ended up with a 5 points higher on gravity than expected and ended up with a 4.9% ABV beer rather than the 4.2% I'd intended.

It was nice fermentation with S04 yeast which is the Whitbread strain the recipe called for.  I let it sit on the yeast cake for 4 weeks.

I kegged the beer at 12-13 PSI and have been drinking it for the last couple weeks.  I've enjoyed having it on tap.  It has carbonated up nicely at this point so it's time to do a tasting (while it lasts).

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Roast, coffee, and a bit of chocolate aroma most prominent.  Has a slight fruity character as well and maybe a bit of a sweet smell
• Appearance:
• Black/dark brown.  Pours with a 1 finger of tan head when gentle with the beer (quite a bit thicker if agressive).  Foam fades to a thin rick after a couple minutes.  Leaves a little lacing
• Flavor:
• Roasty flavor up front which becomes more of a coffee flavor in mid palate.  A bit of sweet malt character on the finish.  Has a medium level of bitterness on the finish as well which balances the malt pretty nicely.  The roasty and malty flavors linger for a while on the palate after swallowing.  Get some chocolate in the finish along with a slight fruitiness.  Slight alcohol flavor to it
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied.  Fairly dry and pretty crisp with the roast and bitterness. This is makes it pretty easy drinking and calls you to take another sip
• Overall:
• 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).