Winter Warmer and Hefeweizen Tastings

The Spiced Winter Warmer I have tasted a few times since about a 4 week initial conditioning. The flavor profile has changed a bit over time to be a bit more bitter, but the overall flavor is a malty, caramel sweetness up front with some of the nutmeg and cinnamon spice in the middle, and a drying bitter finish. It poured with a thick, lasting head and the aroma reflected the sweet and spicy notes in the flavor appropriately. Overall this was a pretty good beer, but it could've done with a bit more roasty flavor to balance the sweetness. It was also best fresh off of conditioning as it developed a skunky bitterness after a couple of months.



The Hefeweizen I was really psyched to taste test after a pre bottling sample indicated the tale tell banana flavors from the weihenstephaner style yeast. My first tasting of this I was pretty dissappointed as I left most of the sediment in the bottle as I typically do since most of my beers I've felt the sediment gave too much of a funky yeast flavor. The flavor resembled a slightly old pilsner, in other words, not good. Upon the second tasting I gave the bottle a light shake to distribute the sediment and the banana and wheat flavors came through quite distinctly. At our Christmass party I went through most of the batch between myself and giving everyone tastings. Since then I've had a few more bottles and despite distributing the sediment the pilsner flavor has returned unfortunately along with a skunky bitterness. In all it was a pretty good beer at the right time and with the proper pour, but it did lack in the wheat flavor and heavier body I'd expect from a true german hef. This is probably due to the not exclusively wheat malt used in the beer. I'll probably also go easier on the hops next time to ease up on the bitterness. Some good lessons learned though to aid in the next batch to produce some good homemade german hef.

German Hef

I just bottled a batch of hefeweizen that utilized a strain of yeast based on Weinstephaner's. A little taste prior to bottling definitely indicated the tell tale banana and clove flavors that I love from a good German Hef. I can't wait the 4 more weeks until I can crack open a test batch. With the Winter Warmer also soon to be ready, December is going to be a good month.

Spiced Winter Warmer Bottled

I just bottled the recently minted Spiced Winter Warmer this past Saturday. I had a little tasting prior to bottling and this brew should be an interesting one after some conditioning. The taste started sweet with just a bit of nutmeg and cinnamon spice and then rounded out with a roasty smokiness and left a slight floral hop bitterness aftertaste. Can't wait to test out a bottle and open up the batch at our annual Brady Christmas party. Here's a preview of the label.

Currently Brewing

In the works now is a dark ale with a healthy dose of both saaz and sterling hops and a touch of nutmeg and cinnamon to make it ready for the upcoming holiday season. Should be an interesting one.

Abbey Ale Taste Test

I've been very anxious lately to test out the Abbey Ale bottled back in March and I decided yesterday it was close enough to its recommended 6 month conditioning time to crack open a bottle finally. It poured a clear coppery orange with a light, thin head. The aroma was sweet as was the flavor with an overall malty sweetness with a slight bitter and sour finish. It coated the mouth well and the slight carbonation helped to give it a lasting tingle. The orange started to come through a little as it warmed though. Overall, I wasn't all that impressed with it. It kind of fell somewhere near a tripel in flavor, but without the complexity typically found. It was decent, but the lack of flavors and the slight sour finish diminished any real pleasure from it. I'll let this one sit at least another month and see how it develops. I was hoping to have this available at my upcoming birthday party, but I think I'll just have to settle for my Lytle Creek Kolsch.

Lytle Creek Kolsch

With the weather warming up this week I was jonesing for a nice refreshing beer mid afternoon today. I decided to pop open a test bottle of my Lytle Creek Kolsch I bottled at the end of March to satisfy my craving.

The beer poured a clear golden hue with a thin white head. This had lots of carbonation (although not causing an overflow when the bottle opened) with a fast stream of bubbles up the glass. There was a yeasty aroma to this still young beer, but not much else of note on the nose.

The yeast was not nearly as dominate in the taste with a very sweet flavor with a hint of banana beyond the yeast. The extra dose of hops I used in the brew were obviously still under estimated, since there was hardly any taste of it, especially for what should be a kolsch style beer.

However with the nice bit of bubbly and light flavor, this was definitely refreshing and went down easy. Maybe this farily neutral recipe might be useful for mixing in fruit or other flavor add ins. Hmmm....

Revisit of the Dutch Apple Ale

After another Friday of working out in the yard I decided to pop open this last bottle of Dutch Apple Ale that I originally bottled at the end of November. I have now come to the realization that time is a good thing for these beers and that I shouldn't be rushing to drink them right after the end of the recommended conditioning period. The mix used a can of the Mr. Beer Englishman's Nut Brown Ale along with some apple juice and I upped the spice quotient a bit since I figured Mr. Beer took the conservative route.

There was much less carbonation now, but still a nice little fizz that gave it a light head and helped round out the rich, thick mouthfeel of the beer. The smell was stong with the cinnamon and nutmeg spices added to the beer, but unfortunately the spice was still faint in the taste of the beer. Still though, the beer had a nice caramely, roasty sweetness with just a slight yeasty taste that made it easy to drink on a warm day. Now, let's see how long I can keep my hands off that kolsch.


Here it is next to a leftover turkey and chickpea burger from dinner the other night that I made. Yum!

Brewing Update

It certainly has been a while since I’ve updated the blog. Things have certainly been busy with the wife and I. That still hasn’t kept me from doing what I do though, which is drink and make beer.

First off, I wish I didn’t have to address the raspberry dunkel, but I feel I must if for no other reason than to remind myself of the lesson learned. I drank a test bottle of the raspberry dunkel on Thanksgiving weekend and that bottle (maybe even the whole batch) must have been tainted with some bacteria since I spent the good part of the following night and next day bringing it back up and unable to eat anything. Lesson learned though, sanitation procedures are followed extremely closely now. Too bad though, since from what I remember it had a nice roasty sweet taste.

Fortunately, I already had a batch of spiced apple ale conditioning for the annual Brady Christmas Party. This meant I was forced to not be dissuaded from the raspberry dunkel experience and jump back into trusting myself to brew beer. I made sure to test the results before releasing it upon the masses. The results were pleasant although the spice (cinnamon and nutmeg) was not as prevalent as I had hoped. Again this young beer was quite yeasty and carbonated when first opened in mid December. I have one left in the fridge that I am allowing to age a bit more to see how if it rounds out a bit.

It took me a little while after that to decide on what to brew next and I decided to keep it simple to develop a nice base set of recipes to work off of. First I brewed an abbey style Belgian ale and next a Kolsch style beer that I’m hoping will be good for the soon to be summer weather. The abbey style Belgian is suggested to condition for 6 months, so we’ll see if I have the patience before I open a test bottle on that one.

During my blogging hiatus, with some constructive criticism from the wife on my previously handwritten beer labels on “Hello My Name Is” tags, I developed a simple beer label format. Hopefully this will make them a little more attractive to drink as well as reflect some of my creativity and playfulness.

Raspberry Porter or Raspberry Dunkel

Woohoo! The batch of raspberry porter i started brewing 3 weeks ago was ready for bottling today.  I took a little taste prior to bottling and it did not contain the typical smokey, chocolatey taste I'd expect from a porter. Perhaps next time I should use two cans of the Mr. Beer UME rather than one and the booster. It also didn't have much of a raspberry taste, so maybe I also went a little too easy there, but maybe the fresh brewed yeastiness was just overwhelming the taste.  It could've been just the yeast talking to me, but the taste actual reminded me more of a dunkelweiss.  So, based on this initial taste, I've decided to rechristen this batch of brew the Raspberry Dunkel.  Now let's give it another four weeks of conditioning and see how it turns out.



A little tasting prior to bottling


Bottles all lined up waiting for priming sugar and bottling

Revisit of the Orange-Coriander Witty Monk

A couple of weeks ago I discovered an old bottle of the orange peel-coriander witty monk (mr. beer) that I brewed back in March that I had left over at my in-laws.  I was attempting to recreate my everyday fav Blue Moon.  Back in April I dove into this batch of brew during a birthday party for the wife where most of it was wiped out.  Back then, when it was fresh off a 2 week brew and 3 week bottle conditioning, it was highly carbonated creating an overwhelming head and the taste was strongly yeasty. Overall, I wasn't that pleased with it at the time.

After my work was done out in the yard today, I decided to pop the bottle open and see how well (or how poorly) this brew had aged.  I was pleasantly suprised by my findings.  The carbonation had mellowed substantially to a light effervescence creating a slow dying head. The taste had improved dramatically with the yeastiness subsided, allowing for the orange and the coriander (although slightly) to come through to create a more balanced taste.  The color had also changed to more of a golden brown reminiscent of an unfiltered spiced apple cider.  It was very pleasing just to look at.  This nice little discovery definitely has taught me to be more patient with my brews and allow them to age more in the bottle to let the still living yeast do its full work and let the flavors settle.




Orange-Coriander Witty Monk