Brewblog, Entry Six

Tasting Notes

I meant to have a section in the last brewblog to discuss how some of the beers we've made recently have turned out. But with four brew days to cover in that post, I forgot the tasting notes.

Promising beers going sour has been the biggest frustration of the last four months for me. I'm mostly annoyed by the disgustingness of the soured 112, ruining our attempt to make a simple experimental beer with only Goldings hops. The remaining bottles of 112 will be around for a very long time. The soured Belgian IPA is not quite as unpleasant as the 112, but will also have plenty of time to age. Simon's Sour Blonde was actually quite drinkable and vanished weeks ago, and Anniversary Bitter 2 is mostly gone and only a tiny bit sour. It's too early to judge what will happen with the Sour Strawberry Wheat.

But that's enough about fucking sour beers; everything else we've made lately has been good to excellent and met my taste expectations. Trevor will say that the best thing we've made is the excellent Trevor's Blonde. Simon was a surprisingly big fan of our very good Blackout Stout, amusingly mistaking it for the Bushwakker Imperial Stout from ALES' Big Brew Day. While I understand Trevor's point of view, because Trevor's Blonde is a very good example of the style, I rarely reach for one in the fridge. And Blackout Stout is pretty great considering that I made the recipe by throwing in whatever black malts we happened to have in the pantry. But I am quite confident that Blackout Stout 2 will be even better.

I am very happy with the newest iterations of our Brewniversity, Scott's Stout, and Matrimonial Ale series. The 114, where I took the 124 recipe and replaced the hops with Willamette, is an interesting bitter brew that always hits the spot for me. The 224, where I took the 124 recipe to the next level, could turn out to be a citrus masterpiece, but it's too early to really judge. Scott's Stout 4 is an evolution of the Scott's Stout 2/3 recipe, roasty and toasty and right up my alley, but not the revolution I thought it could possibly be. Matrimonial Ale 5 is pretty fantastic, crisp and refreshing despite its 8% abv, and just the right amount of piney hoppiness; however, I agree with Trevor that Matrimonial Ale 6 should return the series to its citrus hops roots.

There is a lot of potential greatness in the Honey Nut Brown and Wee Heavy, but those have yet to be bottled, so I'll revisit them with the 224 in the next Tasting Notes.

It's tough to rank our beers due to the diverse styles in play, but I've done it before and I'll try it again. So, as of this moment, the top 5 of all time from my perspective, faulty memory and all:

1. (Tie) Matrimonial Ale 4 & 5

Despite coming from the same series, Matrimonial Ale 4 and 5 are very different beers. 4 is citrus hops, 5 is piney hops. 4 is 6%, 5 is 8%. 4 has awesome aroma, but hop gunk; 5 has pleasant aroma, and no gunk. Both are fantastic, big and bitter, arguably the best beers we've made, and my hand will always gravitate towards them when they are in the fridge. The goal with Matrimonial Ale 6 will be to capture the best aspects of 4 and 5 in one awesome bitter beer.

3. Scott's Stout 3

I've liked all of the Stouts and Porters we've made, but Scott's Stout 3 is the current king. When we made Scott's Stout 2 and it turned out very, very well, I was overjoyed, especially since Scott's Stout 1 had been an early, mostly failed experiment. Scott's Stout 3 was theoretically exactly the same as Scott's Stout 2, but it has a little extra something something that I can't really describe. For Scott's Stout 5, I will be attempting to recapture this magic, but without abandoning the important changes in 4 that made it officially a Stout and not a Porter. Actually, a new Scott's Porter might be a good idea for carrying on the Scott's Stout 2 legacy...

4. 122 American Pale Ale
5. 124 American Pale Ale

The 122 is the only beer to maintain a spot in the top five list since my first ranking. Of all our Brewniversity beers, it still stands in my memory as the best we've made, perfect in every way that counts. When there was a 122 in the fridge, which sadly there never will be ever again, it was always the first thing I pulled out, because drinking it made me happy. Some other people that shall remain nameless ridiculously prefer the 124. Bah! Okay, it's pretty good, too. And there are actually a few competition bottles of 124 still around, so it's not gone for good like the 122. But the 224 (and Honey Nut Brown?) will hopefully boot both off the list shortly.

August 1, 2010 - Brewed Radical Saison (RS)

I have had a Wyeast Saison yeast in my fridge for months, so this brew day was definitely overdue. Saison is a style that I am unsure about as a whole. I have never had a Saison that was "holy god, that's awesome," but they have all had interesting elements and were very drinkable. Our brew club made a Ginger Saison during our first month of all-grain brewing, and it was definitely decent, and after a year of aging, the last bottle was quite pleasant.

Lately I have been creating my own recipes, or modifying recipes from our previous batches, for almost everything we've brewed. With BeerSmith Brewing Software as the ultimate beer recipe creation tool, I feel quite comfortable creating my own recipes for India Pale Ales, American Pale Ales, and Stouts. With a little internet research, I am also now comfortable creating my own Brown Ale and Scottish Ale recipes. But there was no way I was going to try to make up a Saison recipe. And I wanted to create something more interesting than the old Ginger Saison, so I went to one of my favourite sources: Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher.

I did, unfortunately, have to change one major component of that recipe, substituting Pale for the expected Pilsner Malt, because we are out of Pilsner. It remains to be seen whether this substitution was a mistake. In general, we have had better results with Pilsner than Pale, but this recipe is quite complex in unique ways that will likely disguise the limitations of the base malt.

The recipe also used Wheat Malt and Munich Malt for the mash, Northern Brewer, Saaz, and Goldings hops for the boil, and--here's the fun part!--one sour orange peel, twenty grams of coriander, and a gram of pepper for spice. I freshly ground the coriander and pepper and added them to a hop bag with the orange peel for the last five minutes of the boil. If my hydrometer sample of the unfermented wort is any indication, this beer is going to be a spicy bitch.

I haven't discussed our process in a while, so some brief comments are warranted. Earlier this year, we successfully introduced a 30 minute mash to our process, but we haven't actually had that many 30 minute mashes in the interim. We have had a lot of 45 minute mashes lately, including this Saison, usually because it took 45 minutes to bottle whatever previous batch was ready that day. And for big beers like the Wee Heavy and Matrimonial Ale 5, I still insist on at least 60 minutes because of the quantity of grain. Also earlier this year, we started boiling for 90 minutes regularly, theoretically to improve caramelization, but we've noticed little change and have now pretty much abandoned the 90 minute boil, with the notable exception of India Pale Ales where the extra minutes of boil give you extra hop bitterness. The Saison was boiled for the typical 60 minutes and I know it will be fine.

Next time on Brewblog

No brew day this coming weekend, so... that sucks. Boring Saturday. I might still get drunk. A little. By myself. Pathetic.

Next weekend, Matrimonial Ale 6?