Jasmine Bottled

Yeah, that's about it. We bottled Jasmine tonight.

Basically, she's not good, but she's not bad either. Final alcohol: 10% by volume. That's a shitload. But it's defintately not shitty. She's got a good hop flavor, but could use more. We had a yield of more than 50 bottles, but we only sanitized 50 so we poured the rest out. With chilling and carbonation, she should be slightly better.

Final words: not a masterpiece, but a good beverage for getting drunk. Expect us to hone this recipe in the future and make it right. Until then, one week or two until she's ready.

Ophelia will be brewed either tomorrow (doubtful) or sometime next week (more likely), since I'm spending the weekend in Madison with DJ visiting Rachel. Name sound familiar? Yeah, that's our namesake girl, and we love her.

Cheers,
Sam

Ophelia

Batch #5

Dierksenkougan Ophelia
Style: Porter
That's a link to the recipe. A porter, to those unfamiliar, is a dark ale, not quite as dark or astringent as a stout (like Guinness). This one should be very chocolatey and biscuity, but the high hop content will add a complexity not usually found in porters. This is our most complex beer yet, with five grains, two types of extract, and two types of solid, American hops. I don't plan to dry hop this because I want the roasted character to be as strong as possible. Our first shot at the darker spectrum of ales. Inspired by my newfound love of dark, flavorful beers.

The biggest news: The great artist Christopher Sell will be possibly doing artwork for the label. Here's my promise: if Chris draws up a masterpiece of a label (which is almost a given), I will make it my priority to use some birthday money to label every bottle of this and Cristin, granted they both turn out.

Ophelia's a one monther. Look for her around early December.

Sam

Brief Update

It's been a short while. Here's how things are looking...

Rachel: Dierksenkougan's first run is on it's last legs. I think there are a total of 7 bottles left, most of which I'll be packing into a sampler as Christmas gifts. So hopefully you've been good this year.

Hannah: We've about a case left of our pride and joy. Hannah turned out to be more than we were ever expecting, and it has gotten praise from every tongue it touches. This weekend's birthday party will probably be your last time to get a bottle, but plans are in order, of course, to brew it again. Look for Hannah again around springtime next year.

Jasmine: Through thick and thin, this dry-hopped India Red is looking to be at least drinkable, if not enjoyable. She's a strong one at 10% alcohol by volume, and there are a few things wrong with her that I've been able to discern. We'll have to wait until she's bottled and carbonated to really know if this one went astray. Look for Jasmine in about a two or three weeks.

Nate's Secret Ale: Nate's said he'll get on here in the next few days, so I won't spoil the secrets. Basically, she has a great name, and ingredients were bought today that will hopefully and more than likely make this one really great beer. An impressive debut from your VB.

Looking Ahead: Hopefully tonight or in the near future I'll have recipated the newest batch. Suggestions are welcome, but my recent positive experiences with some great porters and stouts are leaning me toward something dark. Again, this may not be the average beer drinker's crowd pleaser, but I'm making it a priority for Dierksenkougan to turn you on to something better.

Sam

Batch #4 and Jasmine

Brewed Batch #4 today, which is to this point unnamed. It's Nate's brainchild, and he's officially able to publish on this blog himself. Look for a synopsis written by him in the next couple of days. I won't say anything further.

What I will comment on is that Jasmine is back from the dead. We took a reading of her during the brew process today and she has somehow fully fermented. I'm not sure how, but we're continuing to treat her as if nothing bad ever happened. She's our first beer to reach tertiary fermentation, which just means we've put her in a third vessel before bottling. Tomorrow we're adding fresh hops directly to the fermenter, a process known as dry-hopping, to give her a really great fresh hop smell that's impossible to imbue by only adding hops to the boil. Hopefully this extra bit of TLC will make up for having basically forsaken her for the last two weeks. On that note, the two weeks are not necessarily a bad thing. Having kept her clean and sterile, that time, unbeknownst to us, was just an extra aging period, which is never bad for a big, alcoholic beer like an IPA. It's not like she was just sitting there rotting.

At this point, Jasmine has an alcohol content of a massive 10%, if our readings are accurate. You can't quite tell from the taste, though, which means we've done a good job this far of masking it. The dry-hopping will only help in that matter. We're giving her another two weeks in tertiary before bottling around my birthday on October 22.

By the way, party at our place October 22nd. We'll have a few Hannahs on short supply, who has been impressing people left and right. RSVP early and we'll stock a bottle away for you.

Your turn, Nate...


- Sam

Jasmine K.I.A.

Jasmine has basically been killed in action, folks. It's like she's in some sort of permanent state of beer comatose, so I'm not sure what to do with her. Upon inspection, she doesn't seem to be going bad, so we racked her over into a secondary fermenter. The best we can hope for is that while she ages, at least some of the residual sugars continue to ferment. Since the batch isn't taking up any space we particularly need, I'll just leave her there until something good or bad happens, whether she begins to ferment again or starts smelling up the freezer.

Hopefully we can tweak this recipe and brew a successful IPA by the end of the year. For now, keep checking back for news on the next batch, as soon as Nate gets off his lazy ass and writes it up.

Sam

Update

Hannah bottled today. Yield: 50 12-oz. bottles. Tastes great, very citrusy and very little aftertaste. Very smooth but not overwhelmingly sweet. Primed with Dry Malt Extract instead of corn sugar, making this officially a German "real beer," unless orange and coriander use is prohibited. Not sure.

Jasmine still giving us trouble. Gravity remains at 1.050, meaning she's only half fermented. I gave her one last big stir. If the yeast still fails to ferment any more, we'll have to toss her.

Talks about a simple pale ale in the works. Nate will be manning this one, including making the recipe and leading the brew, etc. Maybe I can get him on here to explain his thoughts once we've settled on ingredients.

Cheers! Hannah's done in two weeks!

Sam