Orange Rye IPA Tasting and Pour

I got a chance to give the Orange Rye IPA a proper tasting. While this beer is young, word has it that it is best fresh, so here we go:

The Pour:



Nice Orange/Copper, it does remind me of the trees in the fall. A nice two finger head on the pour.

The Nose starts with some simcoe fruitiness but then you can really pick up the citrus from the centennial and the orange peel. It also has a slightly sweet aroma, think candy and caramel, and a nice bready undertone from the rye

The mouthfeel is full, the fullest mouthfeel of any of the beer that I have brewed. Carbonation is spot on. The taste is Bitter/sweet, Assertive on the sides of the tongue but also a nice sweetness that is not overpowering. The centennials @ 60 was a really with the simcoe FWH. It is smoothly bitter and it lingers and coats the mouth. The later hop editions shine.

A c-hop resin finish with some lingering bread y spice from the rye and a hint if alcohol.

Over all I am very pleased with this beer. I would mash lower next time and maybe try hops that are near the same ibu level but are a little less potent, maybe something of the traditional english IPA. I do think that with another week or two of aging, this beer will be even better as it smooths out. Keep an eye out and I will try to write a review of it then.

Orange Rye IPA Update and tasting of more beer...

Dank Brewer and I had a quick taste of the Orange Rye IPA last week, and I jotted down this post after the tasting only to hold it off as I wanted to make sure it was coherent as I also tasted quite a bit of Dank's beer, while the beer ORIPA is not totally ready, I thought it would be nice to give it a go even though it has only been in the bottle for about a week. I am excited about this beer and I think that it has some really nice potential, only time will tell. The color is a nice orange/amber color, reminiscent of autumn. The aroma is very distinct, the simcoe definitely shines through but it also has a nice c-hop type of aroma as well, a very citrus-y fare with the orange in the backround. The taste is fairly assertive on the hop bitterness followed by a nice citrus from the orange peel and a bready spicy hint from the rye, citrus also comes through on the tongue in the finish. The finish is also sporting some nice lingering bitterness which balances out the sweetness from the high mash temp. I cannot give a true verdict on this beer until it is fully carbed and chilled, but so far so good. Also I had a great opportunity to taste a nice variety of the Dank Beers. I was super impressed with the Dark Embrace and The Essence. Both IPA's and both totally different.  The dark embrace is a great take on the dark IPA. Early editions of simcoe come through really nicely and this beer does not leave one confused where the bitterness comes from, no malt bitterness from the dark grains, just pure hop bitterness with an awesome aroma, definitely one to try if you ever run across Nick. The Essence has really come along nicely. The only other time I has this beer it was very young, time was really good to this beer as it now has a wonderful pungent c-hop aroma and a crisp assertive hop bite. A touch of honey is also present and rounds out the beer nicely. One could look at the hop schedule and think No way that is going to be balanced, but it honestly is and it was a great beer, if you are a hop head brew it up, it is worth it, it checks in high on the ABV and higher on the IBU's but man it is a great beer. Stay tuned for more updates when I get the chance to post them, and a full tasting of the orange rye IPA.

Orange Rye IPA

Since I have consumed almost all of the simcoe single hop IPA, it is time to brew more beer as I am running out! I brewed up an orange rye ipa that I think will be really tasty. It is a combo of several recipes, from denny conn and don osborn with my own hop twist. Here is the grist and hop schedule:

12lbs rhar 2 row
3 lbs Rye Malt
1 lb crystal 40
.5 rhar white wheat
.5 carapils

Mash 180>156 for 1 hour (mashed high as I knew this was going to be really bitter and I wanted enough sweet left over to balance it out. Sparge at 167 for 30 min.

FWH 60+ 1oz Simcoe 12.7
60 1oz Centennial 9.7
30 1oz Centennial 9.7
15 1oz Sweet Orange Peel
5 2oz Simcoe 12.7
2oz Simcoe 12.7 Dry hop

Yeast starter of 1056

OG 1.070!
FG ?

68% brew house efficiency

Brew day was split into two, I mashed and sparged friday night and heated the kettle to 185 covered it in blankets and let it sit over night. Woke up @ 6am and the kettle was @ 170, added FWH and brought the kettle to a boil.

I am hoping that this works out just fine as I rarely have time to fit in a brewday and if I can keep splitting it up I think that I will be able to brew more as I am not spending a whole day brewing. Stay tuned for updates! Cheers to good beer.

Single Hop Simcoe Tasting

First I will start out with the review of the single hop IPA simcoe edition. This beer pours a clear orange color with a nice cap that sticks. The aroma is of pungent simcoe hops, really nice strong simcoe smell from the big late editions and the dry hop. The taste is somewhat bitter up front, assertive but not overly bitter, there is some malt balance then a burst of hops come through and it finishes with just enough lingering bitterness with a hint of sweet. Mouthfeel is really nice, the oats definitely add a touch of smoothness that i really like. Over all I have to say that is by far and away my best beer yet. It fared really well at the single hop tasting and was enjoyed by all. This beer on an A to F scale gets an A. This is a beer I would buy and drink a massive amount of, even though I love the simcoe hops, I think that many beer drinkers would really like this offering. It is a shame that I have drank nearly the entire batch as I really should have saved some and entered it into a competition to see what the scores would be just to see how it measures up. I guess I will just have to brew it again! Also be sure to stock up on your simcoe and amarillo hops as there is a reported shortage of those hops in 2011! Midwest and Northern Brewer are out of them or have very little in stock and midwest doesn't anticipate another shipment of simcoes until next year! I got a pound in the mail and I will repeat this beer and then brew a few more beers where simcoe is the finishing hop.  Check out the pictures of the Nordeast brewers alliance single hop ipa beer tasting! Cheers to great beer!

Black IPA Pour

Here is a pour of the black IPA. A very good beer with a head that lasts to the last sip, aggressive on the hops but smoothed out by the malt. A nice winter warmer. See the previous post for the grist, this batch was primed with carb tabs.

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+.

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!

Amarillo American Pale Ale - Update

The amarillo american pale ale is now in the sweet spot. The beer is crystal clear and all carbonation problems have worked themselves out. Time is really the key when having carbonation issues, this batch was bulk primed and I did not get the sugar mixed in well enough, so the last few bottles were gushers and the first ones bottled took over 5 weeks to prime. Another thing to note is the taste difference between the beer that were lightly carbed and the ones that were over carbed. The over carbed beers, at least early on, tasted so much more complex and fruity, the ones that were under carbed we harsh and extremely bitter. Strange to say the least as I thought that priming with dextrose did not change the flavor of the beer. That still may be true, if you wait long enough. Two things that I have had to admit to myself are that I am impatient when wanting to drink my beer, another is that I over bittered this batch a bit. Here is the true review of the first all grain batch I produced, the Amarillo American Pale Ale:

Pour - Pours a bright orange, almost crystal clear with a nice white two finger head.

Aroma - Citrus/spicy hop aroma. No sweetness in the aroma, a nice match of the spicy chinook hops and citrus fruity notes from the amarillo and simcoe hops, smells really nice.

Taste - Well carbonated, nice mouthfeel may be a bit thin, the bitterness is aggressive and a little over powering but not bad. Next time I would just do the 1/2oz chinook FWH and not add the other 1/2 oz @ 60. This beer would be much more balanced without the extra 1/2oz. But if you are a hophead you will like the bitterness, to an untrained palate it may taste a bit harsh and overbitter.

Finish - Lingering bitterness and some spicy notes, not sure where those came from simcoe/amarillo or just the combo? I really like the aftertaste and the flavor/aroma hops, this is a solid beer, not a competition beer. On an A to F scale I would rate this a B+!

Cheers to good beer!



Homegrown Hop IPA Brewday Update - Updated

This is kind of odd, I have not had a fermentation like this yet, here is the deal. As you can see in the video below the fermentation was really active and some krausen had formed. The video is about 14 hours into fermentation and I pitched on Saturday night. I went and checked it yesterday morning (10/26) and the krausen had already fallen. So I sat there and scratched my head as I usually have fairly long fermentation's and the krausen takes a while to fall for the majority of my beers. Also this was a fairly high starting gravity so I was really surprised. So I sanitized the thief and pulled a sample and took a gravity reading and this beer went from 1.075 to 1.025 in about 60 hours! Whoa! I am using two strains of yeast in this thing and I don't have any experience with either strain. I used Notty and WLP051.  I think the Notty took off early and then the WLP051 took over as I could definitely tell the difference in smell from the first time I checked it and how it smells this morning. Since I mashed high I am thinking that this beer is almost done, I am expecting it to finish around 1.020 - 1.015 so five to ten more points to go. I will leave it in primary and rack to secondary this weekend and start the dry hopping. Another thing that I found interesting is that when I tasted the sample of the cooled wort right after the brew session it tasted really super sweet, not a huge suprise but I thought that I would get more out of the 2oz FWH with the homegrown magnums. I did not get any bitterness in the first tasting. When I tasted it yesterday I defiantly got the bitterness, not quite as bitter as I wanted, but still enough to balance out the amount of sugars form the grist. I still have my fingers crossed but I think that this beer will turn out just fine! It tastes a little hot from the fast fermentation but it is not bad and it should mellow fairly quickly. Be on the lookout for more updates soon! Cheers.

P.S. Also congrats to Dank Brewer on getting his single tier set-up up and going! Cannot wait to see that thing in action!

SO the homegrown hop ipa is brewed up and happly fermenting. The post below has all the details, I will just tell you that brew day went extremely poorly, I started late and was rushed, but I know that I will end up with beer so it should be alright. My gravity is nice at 1.075ish and it is really sweet wort. I mashed a little high so there should be some nice sugars left over. The homegrown magnums did not get the bitterness that I was looking for but I will let you know how it turned out in about a month. Below is a pic of the sweet wort out of the kettle and a video of fermentation. Cheers!

Homegrown Hop IPA on Deck for this weekend!

I am really excited about this brew, my first with the nordeast homegrown hops! I will repost back with pics and notes from brewday.  Here is the bill for the HomeGrown IPA:

GRIST
65% 10lbs Golden Promise
6% 1lbs British Crystal 50-60L
6% 1lbs Biscuit Malt
6% 1lbs Munich Malt - 10L
3% .5lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine

With 10-15 min left in boil
13% 2lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose)
1 Whifloc Tablet
Yeast Nutrient

HOP SCHEDULE (ALL HOMEGROWN)
FW 60+ 2oz Magnum
1oz Cascade @ 20
1 oz Cascade @ 10
2 OZ Cascade @ flameout to 140 degrees
2 oz Cascade Dry Hop

Pitched a tube (no starter) of WL051 Cal V and
Since I didn't do a starter I also pitched a pack of Nottingham dry yeast (was worried about underpitching with a high SG)


Cheers and look out for the updates on brewday.

Celebration Stout Tasting

Ahh the crisp air of fall has arrived and so has the dark beer! If you remember a while back my brother-in-law and his wife are expecting an arrival in a few months. I decided we should brew up a celebration ale so that he has something to sip on when he can't get out the door to get some more beer. This was my last extract beer and one of the best extract brews that I did.  When the beer was young I had two of them and they were good but needed a little more time to come together. Well that has happened and it is ready for a proper review.

The pour - A nice black oily looking brew with an awesome head which is visible above. The head took 20 minutes to die down and a nice frothy cap lingered until the last sip!
Aroma - Dark malt, molasses, coffee, brown sugar tones dominate and it smells like a nice dry Irish stout and I felt a little like Pavlov's dog when I was taking in the aroma.
Taste - Fits in perfect with the aroma, a really nice coffee, molasses dark malt taste with just a hint of hops and a really nice dry twang finish that should be present in a dry irish stout. It is not extract twang, it is from the yeast and while I was not happy with the yeast when it was fermenting, I gotta say that it did a great job and imparted all the flavors that it should.
Overall impression - This is a nice winter beer, the mouthfeel is a little thinner than it should be but it is close, this is a highly quaffable winter warmer at around 5.8 abv. If I did brew this up again I would add some more hops for bittering and aroma, but that might upset the balance that is happening here, but I would love to give it a try. Over all I am extremely pleased with this beer and I think that the brother-in-law will be as well. So raise a glass in celebration and cheers to the expecting couple!

Black IPA Tasting

I tried one of the Black IPA's last night and I am extremely pleased with the results. There are definitely things that I would change, but overall I truly think that this is my best beer yet. The pour is a nice dark brown with a nice creamy off white head. The aroma is of coffee and dark malts with a nice hint of hops. Nothing is really overpowering in the aroma and it is nice and balanced. The taste is hard to describe, I will attempt to take you through my thoughts as I drank this, I thought wow nice bitterness but is it the hops or the dark malts? It the hops, no the malt, you can see where this is going...it is a highly drinkable beer with a really nice mouthfeel and a nice lasting bitterness from the hops and malt. The finish is spot on and begs for another sip. Again, I am extremely pleased with this beer. Things that I would change are I think that next time, and there will be a next time, most likely fairly soon, I would be more aggressive with the bittering hops and also with the aroma hops. I would dry hop this either another ounce of Anthum hops or change the dry hop and go with either cascade,centennial or simcoe. I would also mash longer to get some more color out of the black patent as I would like this to truly be a black IPA and not a brown IPA. Other than that it will stay the same. Cheers to good beer and don't drink swill.  I am planning on doing some more videos in the nearer future and there are a few projects in the works. I will let you know more when they finally happen but the should be right around the corner now and I should have those project in full motion with a few weeks! Check back for some updates!

Homegrown Hop Harvest is Complete!

The first year plants had their ups and downs, two bines, the Willamette and the Northern Brewer's were non-existent, grew just enough to ensure some action next year. The other two bines, the Magnums and the Cascades went nuts and produced BIG TIME! With those two bines I got almost a pound and a half of homegrown organic hop goodness!  1.43 pounds or 23 ounces! The tallies are 12 ounces for the Magnums and 11 ounces of cascades. The cascades were a nice late surprise as we had the nice warm October weather here in Minneapolis and the matured in those two weeks and headed to the drying racks. Both plants matured late but since mother nature was kind so were the plants. I cannot imagine having two more mature plants as I feel like I have been picking and drying hops for the past two months, but once I get to brew with the hops all of that pain will be forgotten. I think that I am going to brew a nice American pale ale with the homegrowns, I will probably brew something similar to the Amarillo pale with the homegrowns for a nice comparison. I also have a breakfast stout waiting in the wings to be brewed which I will probably use the magnums for bittering. So there you have it, homegrown hops pay off big time and they are not that much work. For those of you wondering, I ordered the rhizomes online and got them in march and planted in Late April early may. I dug a nice big hole, placed some bone meal in the hole, filled the hole with compost, placed the rhizome in the hole and covered it with about 2 inches of compost and a thin layer of mulch. I also grow bushes along the fence so I already had drip irrigation there so I just moved the hose to be near the hops as well and watered them about for a few hours every week or two and bam! Please let me know if you have any questions about the hop setup! Cheers!

Homegrown Cascade Hops!



2 Bags Homegrown Goodness


My cascade hops have finally matured. Mother nature held up nicely the past few weeks with temps in the upper 70's to mid 80's over the past two weeks! I got my rhizomes in the ground pretty late in the spring (mid may) so these needed the nice warm October weather that we had in Minneapolis to fully mature. I was worried that I would not be able to use these hops, but with the nice warm weather they came along nicely. I picked an insane amount over the weekend and I finally completed my second drying rack for them since I needed it. I went out and bought a scale yesterday to weigh the hops and they were less than I thought but with the first round that is dry I ended up with 6 ounces of homegrown cascades. I have one more drying rack that is full of hops that probably has 2-3 ounces on it when they are fully dry and I have a few more ounces left on the bine that I am going to try and get to this week! Cheers to good beer and homegrown hops! My next brew will most likely contain either some of the magnums or the cascades!




6 oz Vacuum Sealed for the freezer

 

Homegrown Magnum Hops!

UPDATE to the UPDATE:
The hops are finally weighed and I came in with 12oz of homegrown magnum hops! That should keep me busy for a while, I still have more to pick but I am guessing that I have about another ounce on the bine. My cascades are starting to mature and as long as we don't get a freeze I think that I may have quite a few ounces of cascades to pick as well. Only mother nature can tell, but it looks like the weather might hold out long enough for me to get a nice bounty of fresh hops. I cannot believe how well these two plants did for the first year! Also as of 10/10 my cascades are maturing and ready to be picked. I picked a first round on Saturday and I believe that I will get at least 5-7 ounces of cascades and I am only about 50% complete with the harvest. I think that I could quite possibly end up with a pound or more of the cascades. They went nuts and I will be picking them as long as the weather holds out, I am on the fast track but I am not sure if I will be able to get all of them off the bine in time...we shall see!  Cheers!!


UPDATE:
I have finished picking the magnums and with the second pick I got another bag full like you see below. I am estimating that the dried weight of these hops is around 1/2 to 3/4 of a pound! Cannot wait to see how these do next year! I showed them to Dank Brewer and he was the one who estimated the weight of the hops, once I get them weighed I will let you know the exact amount that I ended up with. Also I would like to congratulate Dank Brewer and his wife on the birth of their son which is their first child, life is about to get a lot more interesting for them and I wish them nothing but the best and I am glad that baby, mom and dad are all doing well! Cheers!

The first pick of my Magnum hops are dried! I will need to weigh them but this is what I have so far. I want to package them in usable weights so I am waiting on the vacuum sealer until I can weigh them out. I have at least another batch of this size on the bine and maybe more, I have at least twice this amount in cascades on the bine that will hopefully mature soon and hit the drying rack. I did not expect anywhere near this amount for first year bines so I must be doing something right! Here are some picks of the magnums.

Black IPA and Home Grown Hops Update

UPDATE:
Chalk one up to not thinking things through! The black bitter with the homegrown hops went down the drain last night. I am bummed as this is the first time that this happened, but hindsight is 20/20 and I don't know what the heck I was thinking! I was harvesting some of the cascades and I didn't dry them and just threw them into the bitter, well that is really dumb as I tasted a little bit last night and it tasted like drinking a blended up plant with some malt in it, man it was gross. Guess I will just chalk this one up and not repeat the same mistake again.

I have racked the Black IPA into secondary and I added 1 oz of Ahtanum plug hops. I also got the Amarillo pale bottled as well (I will be sure to do a tasting of this one!). I also was able to rack the black bitter with homegrown hops into secondary and I picked some of my cascades and threw those into secondary. It looks like I will have a few ounces of cascades and magnums to use up straight from the NE Mpls soil! I am excited about this and I am also excited to try the black bitter and see how the homegrown hops stack up.  Here is a pic of some of the hops that I picked last night.  Cheers!



HomeGrown Goodness!



All Grain Black IPA

I love dark beer and I love hoppy beer so why not put them together. It is worth a shot, oh to be drinking a dark but hopalicious beer in the fall time in MN! Here is the bill for the Black IPA:

12 lbs Rhar
.5 lbs carmel 80L
.25 lbs dehusked carafa III
.25 lbs chocolate malt

Hops:
1 oz Summit 60
1 oz Simcoe 15
1 oz centennial 10
1 oz cascade 5
1 oz amarillo @ flame out steeped until 140 degrees

WL001 saved/washed yeast from Amarillo Pale!

Mashed for 1 hour @ 154
Sparged a little cool ended up with 8.5 gallons of wort (Uh Oh)...

So this beer went better than the first all grain, but I still need to get my efficiency up I am hovering in the low 60's and want to get to 70-75 (barley crusher here I come), I ended up boiling the extra 2 gallons in another pot in the kitchen. I knew that I collected too much wort so I did a mini batch and used all home grown hops in this and pitched the same yeast.  I am anxious to see how that turns out! I am expecting it to be much more malty as I have no idea what the AA content of the homegrowns are, but I threw in two handfuls (getting scientific here!) of Magnums for bittering and three of cascades at flame out.

Here are some pics of the brew day:

All of the ingredients

Draining the first runnings

Look at that color!

All grain trinity, from the left, Amarillo Pale Ale, Black Bitter with homegrown hops, Black IPA

Homegrown Hops in NE...Update

My hops EXPLODED over the past moth or so. Two of the bines went absolutely nuts.  Two did not produce at all.  I planted Willamette, Cascades,Magnums, and Nothern Brewer. I did not expect this many hops for first year bines so I am quite happy. Some of them are ready for harvest and some are getting close, I think that I will pick and dry some in the near future. I used some of them on Monday in a brew which you will hear about asap.  Here are some pics of the hops.