BowThai 2.0 review

It's been a while since we were first graced with the second coming of the BowThai ale, and I just now have gotten down to doing a formal review of it.  There were a few small issues with it off the bat: first off, the spices were just *slightly* harsh at first, when the beer was still "green;" second, the batch was a bit overcarbonated (I overcompensated for the fact that it was undercarbonated last time...stupid).  After relieving the batch of its excessive carbonation, I have now been able to enjoy it much more.  Here is my review:

Appearance: beautiful deep amber/copper color, slight haze, finger and a half of off-white head that slowly dissipates to a nice ring of foam with decent lacing

Aroma: lots of spice...coriander, ginger, licorice (basil) blended with smooth honey and coconut

Flavor: earthy lemongrass, melded together with same spices found in the aroma and medium hop bitterness, sweet honey and coconut balance it out with a bit of alcohol warming, and that oh-so-familiar spice (heat) on the finish

Mouthfeel: smooth and creamy feel that balances out the spice like a wonderful Thai curry, really nice body...and the *new* carbonation level is perfect

Overall: This beer is my baby, and I love it.  I still consider this a work-in-progress, and it will be perfect someday.  Next time I brew it, the one change I would make would be a cooler fermentation temperature (I didn't control the temp for this AT ALL because it wasn't my own house) for a slightly more well-rounded and mellow flavor.  Still, this is a great beer to drink with Asian food, and it's definitely not too "weird." You can still enjoy this beer anytime.

BowThai 2.0 Brew Day 4/2/11

Not the best picture ever but...

...here's the beautiful pizza braid that Claire and I made from the spent grains dough yesterday.  It was delicious.

Going green with grain and summer cider!

SO GOOD

Following a recipe from the latest issue of Zymurgy, last night I made some delicious no-knead pizza dough that included--you guessed it--the spent grains that were leftover after collecting the runoff of my last batch of beer (this time just Franco Belges Pilsener malt and a little flaked wheat.  The awesome thing about this pizza dough is that it makes a double batch and can be used to make cinnamon rolls.  I let that baby get a nice long rise overnight last night, and when I woke up this morning I had a beautiful mound of soft dough with the wonderful texture and flavor of brewer's malts.  I rolled it out on a floured surface, added some butter, cinnamon, sugar and stuff, rolled it into a log and sliced it up to bake in the oven.  The other kicker on this recipe is that it has a stout glaze that goes with it, that basically involves reducing stout (I used my own), brown sugar, and butter on the stove until you get a syrup-like consistency.  The result of both efforts was DELICIOUS.  The cinnamon rolls were light and fluffy, with a flaky outside and amazing flavor.  The glaze was out of this world...basically tasted like pralines and went amazingly with the cinnamon rolls.  All in all, it was an easy project that made a great recycled use of something that I would otherwise throw out, and the taste was incredible.  Definitely something that I'll do again.  SOON.  Also probably gonna make a pizza out of the rest of the dough tonight!  Homebrewers, if you subscribe to Zymurgy, definitely give this recipe a shot.  You will not be disappointed.

Beautiful, golden cider

 I also got another batch of my "famous" cider going, since it was so easy and satisfying the first time and should be a great thing to have around for summer.  I went with the same yeast, Fermentis S-04 (a Whitbread ale yeast), which fared me very well last time.  To do a somewhat controlled experiment, though, I decided to vary the juice this time, using Lucky Leaf instead of Mott's.  To be honest, just tasting the unfermented juice, I already liked Lucky Leaf better than Mott's as it has a little more tartness to it and in my opinion a little more complex flavor (probably because it's not totally made from concentrate).  Seeing as my last cider experiment was pretty derpy and still came out great, I am excited to get this one going.  It should be excellent and, as I mentioned, great for the summer months.

"Eye of the Storm" Belgian Table Beer

Hydrometer floating in the golden wort

Yesterday, amidst threatening weather, I was able to crank out the second brew of the summer, a Belgian Table Beer.  I read quite a few blogs of other homebrewers, and when I read this post on Ryan Brews, I knew I needed to brew this beer for summertime.  I woke up yesterday morning to start brewing, and before I even mashed in, it was as dark as night and started pouring down rain.  No problem, I thought, I'll just do the boil the next day and split my brew day up.  I happily went along with the mash, which once again went perfectly with essentially no drop in temperature (and 77% efficiency!).  I did my mashout and collected the first runnings, and I realized that the sky was getting brighter and the rain softer. 

Perfect mash temp consistency

As I did my sparge and collected the second runnings, I saw that it was no longer raining!  Upon checking the radar, I noticed that among all of the thunderstorms in the south, there was a huge opening over Nashville.  I decided to risk it, and braved the outdoors to do my (90 minute) boil.  It went great, and I again went back inside just as a few drops of rain were starting to fall (hence eye of the storm).  From there, it was just an elevator ride, wort chiller, and yeast pitch (not to mention lots of cleaning), and I was done for the day.  Fabulous.  I even "went green" (haha) with my brewing and conserved a couple of quart bags worth of spent grains with the intention of using some of them in cooking/baking (see the latest issue of Zymurgy).

Fresh whole-leaf Hallertauer hops in the boil

Here is my recipe, a slight modification of Ryan's (thanks, Ryan!):

Anticipated OG: 1.040
Actual OG: 1.044
Anticipated SRM: 2.4 °L
Anticipated IBU: 26

6 lbs. Franco-Belges Pilsener Malt
2 lbs. Soft Flaked Wheat

1 oz. Hallertauer (Whole 4.3% AA) @60
1 oz. East Kent Goldings (Pellets 7.2% AA) @10
1 oz. East Kent Goldings (Pellets 7.2% AA) @0, 10 min. steep

Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes, with an 800 mL starter, started 2 days ahead of time on a stir plate

Happy Birthday to Matt Clark, and Happy Fathers Day to my dad and all the dads out there!  Have a homebrew in their honor today.

Prost,
Jeff

Belgian Table Beer Review, 8/5/11

Summer Outlook

My imperial red, and the Wyeast 3522 starter

You all know how much I love looking ahead and planning when it comes to my brewing.  Hell, I even spent an entire semester in school reviewing commercial beers from the different BJCP style categories, all the while formulating recipes and thinking about what I would brew when I got the chance again.  Well, my first brew of the summer is nearly complete (Cicada Imperial Red baby!) and I thought I'd just do a quick mapping out of the rest of the summer as I see it right now.  Here is the plan:

Brew up my Belgian Table Beer tomorrow.  There is an amazingly lively starter on my stir plate right now, and I can't wait to unleash it on a batch of fresh wort.  It will be done really quickly and will be a great summer session beer.  The other important thing about this beer is that I will reuse the yeast cake from it to make my Père Noël de Bruxelles Belgian Christmas Ale.  Make all the jokes you want about Christmas in July, but this baby is topping out at around 8% ABV and I'm going to give it a few months to age to perfection (Cutts family and close friends, get excited for the holidays).

What I didn't mention about the Belgian Christmas Ale is that it will only be a half batch...and that it has an English brother, the Figgy Pudding Ale; a 9.2% ABV behemoth of a beer made with fresh figs, black treacle, and mulling spices.  Mmm...and both of these will be "oak aged," but more on that later.

Well with those exciting brews to look forward to, I figured that I'd want one more good one for while the weather is still warm, so with the help of some sneaky and speedy methods described by a recent issue of Zymurgy, I want to try to fit in a Berliner Weisse.

Oh, and definitely more cider.  ASAP.  Stuff was SO GOOD, SO EASY and gone SO FAST.

Andover and a Thank You

For my 100th post, I would like to give a huge shoutout to my '06 Andover classmates.  It has been amazing to see you all this weekend, and I think that those of you who have sat through my many stories/musings about beer and brewing deserve a special shoutout.  I hope that when we see each other next, I'll be able to share a homebrew with you.  GO BLUE!

I also want to give a big shoutout and thanks to everyone that has put up with my beer rambling and supported my passion over the past year and a half: to my parents, who first supported my hobby and gave me a place to get started; to Claire Merlet, who has had to listen to more beer rambling than anyone else and who has helped me more with the process (particularly cleaning!) than anyone else; to Matt Clark, who so graciously offered up his apartment space for my brewing; to John Ballard and David Sugue, who are wonderful brewing colleagues; to Peter Konjoian, who got me into hop gardening (they're already shooting up this season!); to Victor Clarke and Ben Tieslau, who helped me out on one brew day and both show the foundations of great future homebrewers; and finally to Rebel Brewer, Jasper's Homebrew Supply, All Seasons, and Beer and Wine Hobby, who have all given me invaluable advice and helped to fuel my passion with a seemingly endless supply of wonderful ingredients and equipment; to all of you I say thank you, and prost!

Dry-hopping and first taste of the imperial red

Sittin' pretty with some lovely FF dry hops

As indicated by my Twitter, yesterday I racked the Imperial Red to secondary and added an ounce of Falconer's Flight hops into the vessel to give the beer that extra fresh hop flavor and aroma that one can only achieve through dry-hopping.  My first taste of the beer was wonderful.  The specific gravity is down to 1.018, so this baby is almost fully attenuated and the taste will be pretty indicative of the finished product.  The up-front flavor is a delicious, citrusy hop bomb, but differently from your average IPA, this one has some serious biscuity, caramelly malt backing hop all of that bright hoppy flavor.  It is really tasty already and I can't wait to taste it after its two weeks of dry-hopping.  The beer is deceptively smooth for around 7.5% ABV, no nasty fusel alcohols or excessive esters, and I attribute that to the nice cool fermentation temperature (thank you, air conditioning).  Either way, this beer will be a great one to enjoy over the hot summer, and will almost definitely be one that I will re-do in the near future.  It's always nice to have a hoppy beer around for drinking, and this one will be no exception.