Homegrown Hops IPA - Thought and Review

I will get some pictures up when I can. The homegrown hop IPA is not the beer that I hoped it would be. The grist seems to be alright and I am going to brew this up with the same commercial bill to see the difference, which I suspect to be quite substantial. The homegrown hops are not very potent, they lack the bitterness that I was going for, that alone would not have been a big deal, the biggest problem with the beer is the taste that the hops imparted. I think that this is a two pronged issue, one I think that the hops just are not very good as they are first year hops and were probably not dried as well as they could have been, also I used notty as the yeast and it just plain sucks if you ask me, I will never use it again, a real fruity odd taste that I can tell is coming from the yeast. The fermentation temps were on the high side, but they were no outrageous (lower 70's) and all of the other liquid and dry yeast that I have used has not had a problem like that. The beer is nice and malty with some roasted overkill from the biscuit but the beer has an overwhelming sour fruit flavor that I just don't like, I can drink it but I just am not crazy about it. The nice thing is that this beer is really strong (9.7 ABV) so I only need one any way. The hop taste is really hard to describe, it is a sort of vegetative sour fruitiness that just doesn't belong in beer. On an A to F scale I would give this beer a C- D+.

Enjoy! Eyedea,P.O.S and DoomTree

If you are into hip-hop or spoken word type stuff or if you are into local music then you should already know about these three, but just in case you don't here are three of my favorites, not only in Mpls, but just in general. I highly encourage you to check out P.O.S, the range of his music is just amazing and all of it has a vibe that I just dig, so check it out, also doomtree is a local conglomerate of artists and they follow in that same trend. Check them out and go catch a show at first ave or another local venue, you will not be disappointed. Eyedea is a lyrical genius and will truly be missed, I hope the other side finds him well. Some of my favorite lyrics of all time are in the hook of Burn Fetish, writing at its best. Cheers!

Brewclub Single Hop IPA

My contribution to the great hops experiment is in the fermenter. I did the simcoe edition. Here is the grist:

10 lbs Rhar 2 row
1 lb flaked oats
.5 lb crystal 60
.5 lb cara-pils

Hop schedule (All Simcoe Hops)
.75 oz @ 60
1 oz @ 20
1 oz @ 10
2 oz @ 1
2 oz Dry Hop for 7-14 days

OG 1.056

Brew day went smooth, mashed at 152 for 1 hour, sparged 167 for 30 min. I did a much better job hitting my temps with this brew so I am excited about that.  I also had some efficiency gains taboot. I got 6.75 gallons of wort, all of the simcoes in the boil at the right times, and I also got my wort really nice and chilled down and fast, I guess that is the one advantage to MN in the winter! Got it cooled down to 68 in 20 min and pitched my starter of 1056. I pitched around 5 and there is slow activity now @ 9:20 and the fermenter is 66 degrees. Looks like it will be right on track. Also a big shout out to SWMBO for the time!! Check back for the latest on the Nordeast Brew Clubs single hop experiment.

NE Homebrew Club Single Hop Brew Off..The Great Hops Experiment

So my next batch will be for the Northeast Homebrew Club's first ever single hop brew off. There are five of us in the club that will be brewing the same grist and using a single hop for all of the additions. I am excited about this and Dank Brewer and I have talked about doing this for awhile on our own so it is very cool that there are more people involved. I am obsessed with hops and I am really excited to see how different all of the beers turn out. Here is the grist:

10 lbs American 2 row
1 lb flaked oats
.5 lb crystal 60
.5 lb carapils

Hop Schedule is:
@ 60min  1.0 oz Simcoe
@ 20min 1.0 oz Simcoe
@ 1min 2.0 oz Simcoe
Dry Hop 2 oz Simcoe
 
I will be using simcoe! Real excited about that as that is my favorite hop and one that I have wanted to do a single series on for a while and now I have a reason to do so. The other hops in the mix for the other four people are:
 
Sorachi Ace - Really interested to try this one as it is a newer variety that I have never tried
Fuggles
Citra
Saaz
 
I will report back with brewday updates and also tastings sometime in January.  Cheer to good beer!