Tripel & IPA

As an addendum to my post a few hours ago, I gave both the Tripel and the Amarillo IPA some preliminary tastes (flat and warm, of course) and I am ecstatic with the results. Even without significant aging, both beers taste excellent and exactly as expected. The bottom line: the desire to make beers without that certain "homebrewed" taste (that is, beer with the characteristics of professionally brewed samples) is as simple as going all grain. The range of possibilities available by giving up malt extract is just phenomenal. Needless to say, if you like IPAs or Tripels at all, I encourage you to let me know and I'd love to hook you up with some bottles of each of these beers, which I feel do quite a justice to what I feel I've learned over this entire process. They've renewed my love of brewing...not like I particularly needed it.

The Latest

Unfortunately because of finances, brewing will have to take a hiatus for a short while (maybe two or more weeks) until I've completely budgeted it in, but the three last batches are all turning out very well, and looking promising.

The Blackstrap Brown Ale, as I may have mentioned previously, turned out excellent. The yeast fermented the beer quite dry (meaning less residual sugar and a less malty flavor/body), leaving a good alcohol base with a bit of tartness around the finish from the unfermentables in the molasses. Probably the most successful of the all-grain batches so far.

The Amarillo IPA...well...I haven't actually tasted it yet. I suppose I haven't gotten around to it, but I recently dry hopped it with another half ounce of Amarillo hops for that extra kick of flavor/aroma, and the color is exactly as expected due to some arduous notetaking on my part of the specific colors/strengths of my ingredients. I may taste it later tonight, but I'm hoping and expecting for my exactitude to pay off in a great summer IPA.

Lastly, the Belgian Tripel is right on course. Again, I haven't tasted it, but fermentation was quick and vigorous, as typical of strong Belgian yeasts, and upon smelling it, the regional Bastogne yeast is much less estery (fruity-smelling) than the Trappist yeast used on Ella and the second run of Annabelle, allowing for a bit of a subdued Belgian character, which I have to admit I find pleasant only in nominal amounts. It has a great golden straw color that is only possible through all grain brewing, and I'm excited to bottle her up after a bit of aging in secondary and the possibility of some cold conditioning later on down the road.

Speaking of Annabelle's second run, I popped open a bottle of her today, figuring the hotter summer temperatures would lend to a fully carbonated bottle by now. In retrospect, I was foolish to have used a recycled slurry of Belgian Trappist yeast (as used before on Ella) as opposed to spending the extra $5.00 on Edinburgh's regional yeast, but I consider it a lesson learned. Since being very disappointed with the latest run of Annabelle, I've put quite a bit of time into researching yeast specifics, and found it to be far more important in the final result as I had really believed beforehand, especially when substituting the most characteristic of Belgian yeasts. But all said and done, Annabelle isn't so bad; she's kind of what I wanted Ella to taste like. By going all grain and adjusting some of the specific specialty grain ratios in the malt bill, the new Annabelle has a much more particular smoke flavor (especially as it warms in the glass) and rye character, and I will certainly preserve this malt bill upon brewing Annabelle for the third time soon to come. But this time I won't be cheap about the yeast.

As for Ella, which has proven to be almost too estery and sweet for most palates (including mine and Molly's), I'm considering doing an experiment with the remaining beer by emptying the bottles back into a carboy and trying to "cure" the cloying sweetness somehow. One idea is using Bean-O, a digestive medication; while not necessarily appetizing, Bean-O works by breaking down hard-to-convert maltodextrins in the body into smaller sugar chains. In beer, Bean-O tends to make a beer bone-dry by destroying the same naturally produced dextrins (which are the major proponent of body in a "thick" or sweet beer), which are subsequently converted to alcohol by the remaining yeast which can now handle the shorter sugar molecules. By pitching a small amount of alcohol tolerant yeast (remember Ella is currently at about 11-12 percent alcohol right now) such as Champagne yeast, the sweetness will diminish and be replaced by another good cover of alcohol. There is a good possibility that the beer will worsen, and not have enough residual sweetness now to balance out the alcohol content, but I will do some reading up to try to prevent this from happening.

Anywho, that's the scoop. Another batch of Hannah (for you) and another of Rachel (for me) are in the immediate mix, as soon as the budget allows.

Sam

Tripel

I just wrapped up another successful brew day this afternoon with a batch of a Belgian tripel style, which is a deceptively strong Belgian ale of very light color and body, but with evident alcohol undertones and fruity/perfumey yeast characteristics. It was developed only in the last century by Belgian abbots, religous brewers in a limited number of abbey breweries around Europe, specifically the monestary at Westmalle. It uses almost entirely Belgian Pilsener malt for the malt bill (the lightest, crispest malt available), though my recipe contained a pound of Vienna malt (another light malt with a stronger malt flavor/texture) to buffer what I felt was a bit of a one-dimensional grist. Perhaps just as importantly, Belgian tripel brewers use inverted sugar solids (of fructose or glucose, but not sucrose like found in table sugar) to flavorlessly increase alcohol content while keeping the residual density (body) of the beer comparibly low for the strength. This results in the type of beer that doesn't strike one as particularly potent, yet shows its strength as you stand up. To further balance the strong alcohol presense, specialized strains of Belgian yeast produce far more esters (observed as fruitiness) and phenols (observed as spice, like clove, pepper, or currant) than your typical domestic yeast. This particular batch is being fermented with a Bastogne Belgian yeast, which is excellent for subduing some of these characteristics, as Ella (the Anniversary Ale) fermented with a very estery yeast and came out perhaps a bit more fruity than expected. In this respect, the new batch should taste somewhat like an Imperial Pilsener (think Molson XXX for a less than suitable, but probably familiar example), with twice the strength of your average beer but enough other flavors to comprise an enjoyable drink. That's the plan.

Anyway, hopefully the tripel turns out as expected. Beyond that, the Blackstrap Brown ale is still carbonating in the bottle, while Annabelle is just about ready to be bottled as well (though constant surface bubbling makes me fear that she may be infected...we'll see), and the IPA has been dry-hopped and still has a bit of time left to mellow in the carboy before I can transfer her once more into another fermentor and bottle her up.

New Batch

Just a quick update:

All three fermenters are now full with yesterday's new addition, an IPA (India Pale Ale) hopped with only Amarillo hops, a recent American hop breed discovered by accident. It should fare around 7.5% alcohol, with a reddish-copper color and, as appropriate of the style, should be very hoppy, but balanced. Because of the strength of this batch, it will need significant aging, as well as some good dry hopping in the secondary. I'm throwing around whether to apply the Jasmine name to this beer, since the last Jasmine would be almost impossible to reproduce (see back postings for the trouble we had with her), or retire the name altogether and name her something different altogether.

Once the IPA is finished fermenting in about a week, I'll have to bottle up the blackstrap brown ale to free a secondary fermenter, as Annabelle is still maturing in hers, at which point I'll figure out what to brew next. I'm struggling a bit with money right now, so I may be forced to take a brewing hiatus, though I doubt I'll be able to stick to my guns about that. At only about 15-20 dollars per batch nowadays (with my store discount and reculturing expensive yeast, as well as brewing entirely from grain), it is no longer proving to be much of a financial setback.