The Latest Taste Test

You may remember my last post, which was a little while back. I was getting my most recent batch of what I call X-Brew in the bottle for later drinkage. It was intended to be ready in time for the July 4th weekend. This is the report:

It turned out sort of dark, which was a surprise to me since it was an Amber Ale recipe. This may be because I steeped the grain bag for a longer time than I was supposed to. I tend to sparge the grain bag to get all of the whole-grain goodness out of it. Sparge is a term which refers to a rinsing or washing with the wort itself to capture the sugars produced. Anyway, it was of a brown color, not as clear as I was expecting. I also managed not to get any little floaty particles in there, which are not fun to look at when you are a hygienically clean brewer like I am. I spend a great deal of time cleaning everything that comes in contact with my beer, from the table surface to the brew kettle and the carboys, and all of the tools and instruments between.

The brew did not foam up as much as previous batches, because I now hold back on the bottling sugar. In fact, it hardly foams at all. It is still sitting at room temperature, and I think it may get a little bit more carbonation. I think it is better to give up a little foaminess in exchange for the beer staying in the glass. A couple of previous formulations of mine were excessively foamy, for reasons I was unsure of. I was told it could be contamination, but the beers didn't have any weird taste to them, so I ruled that out. The other thing was maybe the earlier brews were a little heavy on the sugar remaining after fermentation, and adding bottling sugar might actually be unnecessary. This one is lightly carbonated and well-behaved.

The smell is fruity and dry, and very clean. The taste is quite like an IPA, which is what I was aiming for. I used some agave nectar as an additional sugar source, and doubled the hops. It was 50/50 of cascade and citra hops. It has a nice finish and is kind of dry, like white wine, and leaves no aftertaste. It tastes really good. I'm pleased. The final test is the buzz factor. I just finished drinking a bottle, and I am waiting for the feeling... There it is. OK, so not too bad. Luckily I'm not driving anywhere today.

I am getting ready to start a new batch. I have to get a summer ale because it is kind of warm these days. I bought a tub to immerse the carboy in while I ferment, and a bunch of blue ice packs for the daytime when the temperatures rise. Stay tuned for my next installment.