Minerva's Cream Ale Tasting

I am drinking the last bottle of the gold medal winning Minerva's Cream Ale, while I am brewing up another batch. I thought it would be a good time to do a tasting of it.

Appearance - Macro commercial beer quality clarity and color. Perhaps a little bit more golden than a pale BMC lager. Though it didn't have a nice pop when the bottle was cracked open, the carbonation is spot on and there are plenty of bubbles rising from the bottom. The head pours two fingers thick and dissipates in about a minute. It is paper white. A tight layer of foam clings to the top throughout.

Smell - Not much. A hint of sulphur from the Cal Lager yeast. A faint smell of sugary corn flakes. Slight earthy aroma from the Saaz hops.

Taste - The best way that I can describe it is it tastes like my first beer. It has the characteristics of a macro beer, but more pronounced. It's very clean. It's got just the right amount of bitterness to it to balance the simple malt body. I taste a slight hint of corn flakes and then a rush of crisp malt, slight nutty flavor and finally just hint of breadiness.

Mouthfeel - A bit watery, but appropriate for the style. Has a nice crispness to it. It definitely leans more to the lager side on mouthfeel. It leaves your mouth feeling bubbly. I think carbonation is essential to keeping it from tasting like a watery commercial lager. The corn definitely does something distinct as well.

Drinkability - High. I could drink a lot of these. They're light and refreshing, but still full of flavor. It's got just enough complexity to keep it interesting AND you could definitely put down a couple of them easily. A great casual beer. It's going to join my Kölsch as a staple summer beer and will probably rival it at the tap.

I'd like to experiment with dry hopping it with a citrusy hop variety. I've got some Calypso that I think I'll try on this one.

I'm also really impressed with how the Cal Lager yeast performed. It gives it an incredibly distinctive lager taste, but did not create any noticeable DMS or sulphury compounds, like I was afraid of. This is especially impressive considering the turnaround time: roughly 4 weeks from grain to glass and about a month and a half from brewing to competition. It definitely has gotten better with a few extra weeks of conditioning.

Gold Medal for Minerva's Cream Ale!

I took home the gold in the Hybrid Ale category out of 13 entrants in the Cincinnati Malt Infuser's annual home brew competition! Here she is in all of her glory!

It didn't win best in show, but I'm pretty happy with it for my first competition. Unfortunately, I didn't win anything for my House Hefeweizen, Kexxxmas Ale, or Mid/West Coast IPA. Looking forward to getting some tasting notes back.

Recipe below:


BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Minerva's Cream Ale
Brewer: Adam Keck
Asst Brewer:
Style: Cream Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 13.00 gal
Post Boil Volume: 12.00 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 11.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 10.75 gal
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 4.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 17.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 73.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU      
16 lbs                Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)           Grain         1        78.0 %      
4 lbs                 Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)                   Grain         2        19.5 %      
8.0 oz                Victory Malt (25.0 SRM)                  Grain         3        2.4 %      
1.25 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min         Hop           4        12.4 IBUs  
1.00 oz               Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min            Hop           5        3.6 IBUs    
1.00 oz               Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min             Hop           6        1.4 IBUs    
1.0 pkg               California Lager (Wyeast Labs #2112) [12 Yeast         7        -          


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 20 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time  
Saccharification  Add 25.62 qt of water at 159.1 F        148.0 F       75 min      
Mash Out          Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min             168.0 F       10 min      

Sparge: Fly sparge with 9.55 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:
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Fermented for two weeks at 62 degrees ambient and then kegged it and conditioned at 32 degrees for about a month before it was sent to the competition. The beer was great even after about two weeks in the keg and dropped out this clean after just a week in the keg.

Also, I built the water profile from scratch, opting to just use distilled water and adding brewing salts to give it a pretty basic low mineral profile with right around 50 Ca.


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Mid/West Coast IPA 1.1 Brew Day

2/17/2013

I brewed up this IPA over a month ago and it didn't last long enough to even get tasting notes down for it. It turned out exceptionally tasty (though not tasty enough to place at the Cincinnati Malt Infusers home brew competition this past weekend) and accomplished what I intended it to: an IPA that has a nice body to it, but has an aggressive, hop forward flavor that oozes citrusy and floral character. I'm only making minor adjustments. This time I'm using Maris Otter 2-row barley as opposed to standard American 2-row in the hopes that I can squeeze out a little more body complexity without using more specialty malts, got rid of all of the mid-boil hops and pushed them back to flame out, started with more water in the boil to end up with a full 10 gallons after hop loss, and I'm playing around with the idea of adding 1lb of beet sugar 3-4 days into the fermentation to accentuate dryness, though I have not decided. I want to do it, but I also want to keep the amount of variables up for adjustment to a minimum so that I can taste the difference between batches.

Mashed in at 149 and held for 75 minutes. Added 5g of chalk and 10g of gypsum for the following water profile: Ca 110, Mg 3, Alkalinity as CaCO3 129, Na 13, Cl 21, SO3 160.

I didn't adjust for the additional 2 gallons of water, so the water profile is slightly different than for the first batch.

Transferred as close to 15 gallons as I felt comfortable doing. With a vicious hot break and an unfortunate spray bottle malfunction, I ended up losing a bit of wort and hops to a very short boilover. I was lucky to have Joe co-brewing and he was quick to cut the heat while I blew on the boiling wort. 

Boiled for 90 minutes, added 12 oz knockout hops and cooled to 70 degrees F in about 20 minutes, and then let settle for about 30 minutes while I had dinner with the family. This is the first time that I really allowed a whirlpool to settle and the transfer was much smoother and sediment free for it. I think I might make it a requirement for seriously hopped beers. I ended up with close to 12 gallons of 1.075 OG wort, for an efficiency of 83%. Transferred to a keg for fermentation, hit the beer with 60 seconds of pure O2, pitched 3L of Wyeast 1450 and put it in the cool corner of the basement at 62 degrees ambient.

Transferring hop soup is never fun...

Update 2/21: bubbling slowed to 1 per 1-2 minutes; added 2oz Citra, 2oz Cascade, 2oz Willamette to fermenter

Recipe below:

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com

Recipe: Mid/West Coast IPA 1.1

Brewer: Adam Keck

Asst Brewer: 

Style: American IPA

TYPE: All Grain

Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications

--------------------------

Boil Size: 15.00 gal

Post Boil Volume: 13.50 gal

Batch Size (fermenter): 12.00 gal   

Bottling Volume: 11.75 gal

Estimated OG: 1.067 SG

Estimated Color: 11.6 SRM

Estimated IBU: 68.4 IBUs

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %

Est Mash Efficiency: 71.5 %

Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:

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Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         

25 lbs                Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)         Grain         1        83.3 %        

2 lbs                 Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)    Grain         2        6.7 %         

2 lbs                 Victory Malt (25.0 SRM)                  Grain         3        6.7 %         

3.00 oz               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 90. Hop           4        68.4 IBUs     

4.00 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min          Hop           5        0.0 IBUs      

4.00 oz               Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min           Hop           6        0.0 IBUs      

4.00 oz               Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min       Hop           7        0.0 IBUs      

1.0 pkg               Denny's Favorite 50 (Wyeast #1450)       Yeast         8        -             

2.00 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days     Hop           10       0.0 IBUs      

2.00 oz               Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days      Hop           11       0.0 IBUs      

2.00 oz               Willamette [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days  Hop           12       0.0 IBUs      

Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Light Body

Total Grain Weight: 30 lbs

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Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time     

Saccharification  Add 36.25 qt of water at 159.1 F        148.0 F       75 min        

Mash Out          Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min             168.0 F       10 min        

Sparge: Fly sparge with 9.92 gal water at 168.0 F

Notes:

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Welsh Pale Ale tasting

OK. I have to admit. I wasn't terribly excited about this beer. It's a weird idea to me: get rid of the bitterness, back end the hops for aroma and flavor, and use a generic malt profile, save for special UK malt (I used Tipple). What could be so special?

Holy shit.

I brewed this with a higher ABV the first time (1.060) and it was decent. I lowered my OG to 1.045 and added some knockout and dry hops and the result is amazing. Much more complexity. I intend to increase both next time to accentuate the unique grassy, lemony end notes and take this from a killer beer to an irresistible beer.

Enjoyed from a growler straight from the tap.

Oh, also had a wonderful meal with my family and girlfriend.

House Hefeweizen tasting notes

This beer went quickly in the keg. Too quickly... It lasted about 2 weeks. Between a brew day, casual pulls and family growler fills, it didn't stand a chance. Which is why I bottled 50 of them.

I also feel that a Hefeweizen should be enjoyed out of a bottle, so I decided to do the tasting notes with a bottled one.

First, a bit about the pre-pour appearance: it is incredibly clear in the bottle. This is significant if only for how cloudy it was coming out of the fermenter after only two weeks. It seemed to referment quickly and clear out within a week and a half. The beer that I'm testing has been conditioning for about three and a half weeks. It's kind of fun because you can pretty much choose if you want to have a Kristallweizen or a Hefeweizen when you're drinking it.

Poured the first 9 oz or so. Very clear. Kristallweizen!

I poured 3/4 of the bottle and then agitated the yeast cake at the bottom and poured the rest. It poured with a beautiful 1.5" head and a pleasant straw colored body.

The aroma is dominated by sweetness, almost like a lemon drop with a hint of breadiness from the yeast.

Its taste is distinctly Hefeweizen. I can't describe it differently. I'm happy to not detect any off-flavors. More specifically, it has a very strong banana note as well as a slightly less powerful citrus flavor. The Hallertuaer hop is hardly present, but balances the banana and citrus notes well with an initial crispness and a faint bitterness at the end. The beer finishes dry. No surprise with a 1.010 FG. The malt profile is extremely light and allows the yeast phenols to shine. Mouthfeel is light, borderline watery. I'm wondering what another week in the bottle will do to the carbonation and mouthfeel.

Two concerns: head retention and mouthfeel. I think they're related. The head disippated in about a minute and, as I noted above, the mouthfeel is just slightly watery. I will judge the beer next week to see what some additional bottle conditioning will do for it. I'm thinking the carbonation is dialed in though, because there is nice bubble flow throughout the glass and the pour was picture perfect. I may adjust the recipe with a small amount of Carapils or Carafoam in the mash, depending on how it turns out a week from now. I will also do some research into what I may be able to gain in terms of head retention and mouthfeel complexity with an extended decoction mash. For a lighter beer, the decoction boil is supposed to be shorter - I used ~15 minutes - but I wouldn't mind a bit of extra color in the beer and if I can attain the desired result with just an extended process, I would prefer that.

This beer is a rockin' first attempt at a House Hefeweizen.