Jasmine

Our third batch, Jasmine, successfully brewed last night. Like I've said before, this brew falls under the category of India Pale Ale, though far stronger and (probably, we'll see) more hoppy than is typical of the style.

My only concern about the new batch is her alcohol content. Due to someone's miscalculation, whether mine or more likely something iffy on the online Beer Recipator, or an inconsistancy in grain content or who knows what, the beer, which we aimed to have an original gravity of 1.080, ended up more around 1.098, a very significant difference.

A crash course in gravity: gravity is a method of measurement to determine the sugar content in your unfermented beer (wort). A measurement like 1.098 is another way of saying that the wort is 109.8% the density of water. As the yeast ferments, it turns these sugars into ethanol and CO2, both of which are lighter than water. This reduces the overall gravity/density of the beer. Simple calculations can then be used to determine the alcohol content of the brew once it has fermented, since yeast activity and proportions of CO2 and ethenol production are apparently fairly predictable.

So back to our difference of .018 points. What this means, all in all, is that our IPA is likely going to stop fermentation with an alcohol by volume content of about 10%. This is incredibly high for beer, even for our style. Originally, the content was supposed to be just under 8%. Taste-wise, this difference is very noticable. The other problem here is that typically, especially in high-alcohol beers like IPAs, the quantity of hops added to the boil is proportionate to the expected alcohol content. We put enough hops in to offset an 8% abv level, but possibly not enough to balance another 2%.

So we're taking two measures to save this beer. First, in about a week when we rack Jasmine over to her secondary fermenter (a 5-gallon glass carboy where she'll mellow and mature for about 3 or 4 weeks), we're "dry-hopping," or adding hops unboiled directly to the fermenter. Many great beers are dry-hopped, which always adds a great floral and hop smell to the beer, as well as a small amount of bittering flavor. This, we hope, will help offset some of the extra alcohol, given that Jasmine is already quite heavily hopped (but not in a bad way). Second, when we bottle carbonate this beer, we'll give it a bit of extra priming sugar to make it extra spritzy. The extra carbonation will release more of the hop smell so that it doesn't smell like whiskey, as well as stimulate the tongue as to make the alcohol taste more like the alcohol in wine, and less like it does in spirits. That means we'll be able to savor the alcohol as a positive quality (hopefully), rather than experience what can best be described as "hotness" of many high alcohol drinks.

Jasmine may very well be our first mistake, but we didn't give up on Rachel, so I'll wait this one through until the finish. Rachel is officially finished this weekend, though our curiosity has driven us to already drink about half a case already. Also, Hannah goes into bottles this Sunday (probably), and will be done in another one or two weeks' time after that. We gave her a sip the other day after throwing her in the secondary fermenter, and we were really pleased. It's almost an Oberon clone, with absolutely no aftertaste. I'm guarenteeing good things from that batch.

Suggestions on the next brew are welcome. Something for the holidays, perhaps?

Brewmaster