Reviews of MY brews

Hey readers. Following the lead of such exemplary beer bloggers as The Mad Fermentationist and Ryan Brews, I have decided to start publishing critical reviews of my own beers. I think that this will really help to make me a better brewer and bring my beer into the next level of excellence. I also think that, given my fall 2010 semester hobby of reviewing commercial beers on this blog, this is a perfect way to bring it all together. Like TMF and RB, I may review my beers a couple of times to give readers an idea of how the beers are progressing over time. So without further ado, I present to you my first review of Der Winterweizen, my weizenbock that is now two months in the making:
Appearance: beer pours a dark, chestnut brown with a finger of creamy off-white head that fades slowly into a smaller, but very lingering one; some nice lacing; a little bit of haze (though hardly noticeable the beer's so dark) because it's a wheat beer aww yeah

Aroma: mmm spiced dark fruit-dates, figs, raisins- is the first noticeable aspect; beautiful banana esters/alcohol coming through; a light caramel and cocoa smoothness; truly wonderful and interestingly close to a Belgian abbey ale such as a dubbel

Flavor: lovely sweetness and smooth caramel give way to a light banana flavor and lots of dark fruit esters with a very mild but present hop brightness and a dry, slightly bitter cocoa finish

Mouthfeel: very silky with fine-bubbled medium-high carbonation; relatively full-bodied which was exactly what I was looking for and is a miracle given that I was working with a totally new system

Overall: Waiting for this beer required some patience for sure, but boy was it worth it. I will absolutely brew this again in early fall to be enjoyed in late fall/early winter. Honestly, given the wonderful complexity of this beer, the turnaround time of two months isn't bad at all! Hard to say right now, but this might be my second favorite beer that I've ever made (first of course being the BowThai).

Original Winterweizen brew day post from 1/31/11

Bottled.

Today, we finally got around to bottling the weizenbock and the stout. So excited for both of these beers. The stout was wonderful and already supremely drinkable, and though the weizenbock was still a little heavy on the alcohol in the flavor, it is showing delicious promise and should be ready in another 2 weeks or so. We'll definitely be drinking the stout some over spring break, so that's exciting! I'll let the mild just chill out for a while, and then we'll bottle and taste it after break. Won't do it any harm. Get pumped for some good stuff over the course of the next month, because I have the equivalent of 96 bottles of beer conditioning and aging right now. Booyah.

-the Tennessee brewman

Beautiful Weekend=Productive Brewing

Stout FTW

This weekend has blessed us with warmer temperatures and bright, sunny days, so I have had the opportunity to brew yet another excellent batch of beer! Saturday afternoon, I began by racking (siphoning) Der Winterweizen into a secondary fermenter. It will sit in that carboy for about another week, and by next weekend it should be ready for bottling. Thus, with my primary freed up I was able to get my second batch of 2011 going. If you remember correctly, this batch is an Irish dry stout of low gravity that should be ready to drink within about two or three weeks. Brew day went really well, and I was joined by a couple of extra friends this time who helped me in the brewing process. While Claire was a big help as usual, my good buddies Ben and Victor were good hands in the latter part of the brewing process as well.

A few things went even better yesterday than two weeks ago, not the least of which was my efficiency increasing. I think this was partially due to my doing a mashout (raising the wort to 168° at the end of the mash) and letting the batch sparge water actually sit for 10 minutes to absorb all of the sugars. Cleanup was well delegated and more efficient, too, and I think that we'll have the system down really soon. My one beef was still with the mash temperature. I realize now that I need to well overshoot the temp for my strike water and let it get down to the actual strike temp after I have poured it into my mash tun. This way, I won't end up with a lower mash temperature (and a lighter bodied beer) than what I want. I was able to raise the temp up with some boiling water, though, so the body of the beer shouldn't suffer. I also clearly got full conversion, because my starting gravity was even higher than projected. All is working well and I will have mastered my new system very soon.

Stay tuned for next week when we bottle Der Winterweizen, rack the stout into secondary for clearing, and brew a 2-gallon batch of English mild in honor of Hogsmeade Weekend!

Review and tasting notes, 3/13/11

Brew Day!

Hey readers! Yesterday was truly a glorious day, as I brewed up a new batch of beer for the first time since August, and with a few equipment improvements. First off, the gracious Matthew Clark's stove is still not working, so I ended up doing my whole batch with my new turkey fryer...and it was great. My new digital probe thermometer told me when the temp was right, and the turkey fryer got the water and wort to the right temps so dang fast! My 170° strike water was ready in less than ten minutes, and my full 6-7 gallon boil of the wort came to a boil almost as fast. The cooler mash tun held the temps great, and the bazooka screen acted as a perfect filter. My runoff went totally smoothly, and my efficiency was around 67%, which is low-ish but not bad for my first time with new equipment.

And now pictures!













My new propane turkey fryer setup


















Probe thermometer=excellent temperature monitoring














Claire stirring the grain and strike water with a mash paddle to break up the clumps














A closeup of the beautiful grain














A blanket helps to insulate the mash tun


















Collecting the first runnings. You can already see the beer's nice, nutty brown color.


















A healthy, foamy krausen forming on the beer (taken today by Herr Clark)

Review and Tasting Notes 4/3/11

Get ready for it...

Hey readers! I have exciting news. Yesterday, I made my first visit to the Nashville homebrew store, called All Seasons. I successfully picked up ingredients for my next batch of beer, to be brewed within the next week or so! With the gracious hospitality of my good friend, Matthew Warren Clark, I now have a home for my brewing. Turns out, he has a perfect closet for storage of equipment and fermenting of delicious ales! So, in addition to the stuff for my first batch, I also got some equipment so that I can mash in a slightly easier, cleaner way. If you are at all curious about my new mashing setup, there is a link describing it here.

What is my first Nashville batch, you ask? Well, I thought that since the next category of brew that I was going to review was German wheat and rye beer, I should brew a wheat beer. The beer that I will brew is a Weizenbock, a dark, malty wheat beer with nice dark fruit and spice tones but with a cocoa-like character that differentiates it from Hefeweizen and Dunkelweizen. I am very excited about this guy. My recipe is a combination of Papazian and Zainasheff inspiration, weighing in at about 7% abv with lots of fruit, spice, and cocoa deliciousness. Fourteen pounds of delicious grain, two ounces of delicious hops, and Weihenstephaner Weizen yeast await me now.

The name? Der Winterweizen, in honor of the season and Franz Schubert.