by Spence on January 11, 2010
Beer: X IPA 1 – 36/50
Tasting Date: 1/4/2010
Appearance [max 5] : 3
Solid head that keeps its form, and slowly settles into a 1/4″ blanket on the surface that slowly gets consumed through the beer.
Deep copper color. Definitely darker than what I remember West Coast IPA would have. Going to need to do a side-by-side comparison (good thing I have another couple of bottles).
Aroma [max 10] : 8
The Centennial aroma on top of Cascade finishing on top of CTZ/Simcoe backbone is definitely a pleasing hop chord. With this hop schedule it’s feint but pleasantly floral, then piny, and even a bit summer fruity?
Palate [max 5] : 4
Medium to full body, rich creamy texture, soft carbonation, clean finish
Flavor [max 10] : 7
Nice duration, with a uniform flavor curve that works from the back of the throat towards the front and sides of the tongue, then finishing in back of the mouth with a nice, bitter. Absolutely love balance of sweet to bitter.
There’s a noticeable light tart finish. Similar to light lacto in the Boulevard brewing Saison-Brett. Not really what I want on the end of this beer. Will need to investigate the underlying cause of that. It’s definitely a subtle off flavor, so not too distracting from the otherwise very pleasant beer.
The caramels from the Carastan and Cara-pils on the two row are really tasty. I feel the malt and backbone is just a hair too much.
Overall [max 20] : 14
This is a very solid IPA. I’d like to turn up the aroma, reduce the mouthfeel (maybe OG just a touch too), and clean up the tart finish. Once those items are addressed, I can turn my attention to manipulating the IPA’s crowning feature … the hop aroma and flavor.
by Spence on January 8, 2010
This was the first brew session with the new equipment, so I thought I would document some of the issues that came up. Here are my brew notes.
11/23: First run with the 1 gallon immersion “mash tun”.
Added 1/4 tsp gypsum to 2 gallons of Bend, OR tap water
Mashed in, and think I hit target 152 degree mash temp deep in the mash, not sure about the top though … 147 with digi. therm.
When I pulled the mash out, the floating thermometer was around 146, so it would appear there’s a problem with holding temperatures.
Recirculated the wort over the mash, and the gravity was way low (around a 54% efficiency). Adjusted the recipe, and
Put mash in the kettle (kept it in a grain bag), and added rest of water. Still low gravity.
Added DME to hit target grav.
New kettle: boil-off rate significantly higher than expected. Added somewhere around 1.5 quarts extra water throughout the boil.
Didn’t take OG measurement (way too tired) to get out sample for hydrometer … yeah … that lame.
12/7: No visible activity. Then I swirled the bucket like I used to when I’d make a starter in a belgian bottle … percolation nation!!!
12/8: Nasty top of the bucket from lots of activity … awesome to see this thing cranking.
12/15: Added dry hops
12/22: Bottling day. Added half a pack of dry yeast … way too much … and calculated amount of corn sugar to add to hit around 2.4 volumes of CO2. FG was measured at 9.1 brix … don’t think it was complete in retrospect. Taste: clean bitter, peach, slight grapefruit. Light caramel malt. Very very pleasant.
Takeaways … I didn’t follow any of my own advice on this brew day … so lessons learned:
- Overheat your strike water so you hit your target infusion mash temperature. Think that it was way too low.
- Take a gravity reading
- Know your equipment. This initial brew is going a long way to try and do so, but I need to really measure my boil off rate.
Hopefully I’ll have a better run next time when I formulate the adjustments to the recipe.
Cheers.
