Down the Rabbit Hole Brown Ale - Tasting Notes

Tasted 11/27/2010

Appearance

Semi-transparent dark brown, with a white head that fades quickly

Smell

Coriander and celery are predominant, but there are some rich coffee notes in the background as well, along with a little bit of grassy/fruity hop aroma.

Taste

Coriander, roasted malt, and a very slight tang (presumably from the Brett) dominate the flavor. Fortunately, the celery flavor is more muted than the aroma would seem to indicate, and only really comes in at the very end, creating an interesting, almost dry, finish to the beer.

Mouthfeel

Medium body with medium carbonation.

Notes

This is a very interesting beer. Despite all the different flavors, it actually seems to work pretty well and is surprisingly drinkable.

See the recipe for this beer.

Delta Single-Hop IPA

I recently ended up with a ton of free hops courtesy of a talk at the University of Colorado by Charlie Papazian, Darwin Davidson (a hop botanist), and Maureen Ogle (a historian who’s written about beer in America). Darwin works for Hopsteiner and showed up with about 5-6 bricks of new experimental hops, which he offered to anyone interested. I ended up with an ounce or two of some really interesting hops – one smells like a piña colada, while the other is incredibly resiny and oily – plus about 6.5 oz of Delta hops. These are a cross between Fuggles and Cascades and have a great floral, earthy, spicy aroma. To my knowledge, the Harpoon Brewery is the only brewery that has actually made anything with them thus far, but I haven’t gotten a chance to try that particular beer yet.

I thought it’d be fun to try making an IPA with all of the Delta hops to get a sense of their full flavor profile and end up with something totally unique in the process. Instead of dry-hopping the beer, I’m going to add the majority of the hops towards the end (late hopping), which I’ve read can create a fuller, smoother hop flavor.

Delta Single-Hop IPA

(Partial Mash)

Batch Size: 5 Gal

OG: 1.066

Anticipated Alcohol: 6.3% abv

Anticipated SRM: 7

Anticipated IBU: 85

Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Fermentables:

8 lbs Light malt extract syrup

2 lbs Pale ale

1 lb Crystal 10-20 L

Hops:

1.5 oz Delta (6.3% AA) – 60 min

1.25 oz Delta (6.3% AA) – 15

1.25 oz Delta (6.3% AA) – 10

1.25 oz Delta (6.3% AA) – 5

1.25 oz Delta (6.3% AA) – 3

Yeast:

Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

Mini Mash Schedule:

60 min @ 150˚ F

Notes:

Brewed 11/20/10

Looks like the scale at my local homebrew store wasn't calibrated correctly – I ended up getting about a pound less extract than I was planning on. Since the beer will still end up at around 6% abv, I'm not going to worry about adding more extract to make up for it (I've altered the recipe to reflect this change).

Racked 11/27/10

Sour Cherry Saison - Tasting Notes

Tasted 11/12/2010

 

Appearance

Beautiful reddish-orange color, crystal clear (though I poured a bit of yeast in by mistake for the photo), and with a thick white head that gradually fades but never quite goes away entirely.

Smell

Cherries, acid, funky spicy notes, and a slight bready character in the background

Taste

Slightly sweet bready character followed by tart cherry flavor, finishing dry with the classic spicy yeast characteristics and a little acid. There's a hint of grassy bitterness at the end (presumably from the dry hops) that works well with the acid from the cherries, even though it's not really in style for a saison.

Mouthfeel

Medium body with moderate to high carbonation.

Notes

Apart from being a little bit bitter at the end, this is pretty much what I was hoping for – a classic spicy saison with added complexity from the sour cherries. It'll be fun to see how it changes with age!


See the recipe for this beer.

Down the Rabbit Hole Brown Ale

Several weeks ago I tried a celery seed soda for the first time, and it seemed like the complex sweet, peppery, earthy flavors would lend themselves well to a beer. Given this flavor profile, I figured I'd use a basic brown ale recipe as a base and add several other flavors to balance out the celery. Having previously made a Reading Ale, a spiced British pale ale with coriander and grains of paradise based on a historical recipe in The Complete Practical Brewer (see page 179), coriander seemed like a good choice for balancing out the celery flavor. To add a little additional complexity and earthiness, I decided to use Brettanomyces after the primary fermentation (I’ve never used Brett in any of the beers I've made so far, but I’ve been interested in playing with it for a while).

Hopefully I’ll end up with a spicy but balanced dark session beer!

 

Down the Rabbit Hole Brown Ale

(Partial Mash)

Batch Size: 5 Gal

OG: 1.050

Anticipated Alcohol: 5.2% abv

Anticipated SRM: 18

Anticipated IBU: 28

Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Fermentables:

7 lbs Light malt extract syrup

1 lb Crystal 50-60 L

0.75 lbs British Brown

2.5 oz Chocolate

Hops:

1 oz Willamette (4.7 AA) - 60 min

.5 oz Homegrown Cascades - 15 min

.5 oz Homegrown Cascades - 3 min

Extras:

0.5 oz Coriander - 5 min

0.5 oz Celery Seed - 5 min

Yeasts:

Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

Wyeast 5112 Bettanomyces Bruxellensis

Mini Mash Schedule:

60 min @ 150˚ F

Notes:

Brewed 10/24/10

Racked 10/30/10 – Added the Brettanomyces


Took a hydrometer reading 11/5/10 - FG is 1.011 (5.9% abv)


Bottled 11/6/10


See tasting notes for this beer.

Sour Cherry Saison

I've recently been getting more interested in saisons – farmhouse ales traditionally brewed in Belgium in the fall or winter for farm workers to drink during the following harvest. These beers were comparatively low in alcohol and were made from local ingredients, making them unique and complex while also being refreshing and thirst quenching.

Now that my hop plants are finally growing and producing tons of cones, it seemed like it would be fun to make my own variation on a saison using a variety of local ingredients. I ran across several sour cherry trees with fruit that was ready to be picked, and it seemed like these could fit the style well by adding a light sourness and an interesting flavor.

Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure what types of hops I've now grown and harvested (though I suspect they're Cascades), as I planted several different types of hops around the same time and only one plant survived. Nonetheless, they look and smell good, so I decided to add them to the saison for aroma and flavor, relying on a store-bought hop with known alpha acid levels for bitterness. To help get a rough estimate the level of flavor and/or bitterness that my hops would provide compared to store-bought hops, I dried them out for a day or two before adding them.

After picking and pitting loads of sour cherries, I froze them for a couple of weeks to help break down the cell walls (this makes it easier for them to add flavor to the beer without being cut up or juiced). On brew day, I let them thaw in a large bowl, and added them slowly towards the end of the boil to preserve their flavor without not lowering the temperature of the wort too much.

The recipe itself is pretty straightforward - pilsner, vienna and wheat malts for flavor, plus some corn sugar to help dry out the beer (this is important for a partial mash recipe since it helps to increase the relative amount of fermentable sugars in the wort, ensuring that the final beer will be dry enough). Since saison yeast tends to do fine at higher temperatures, I didn't worry about trying to regulate the fermentation temperature too much.

Sour Cherry Saison

(Partial Mash)

Batch Size: 5 Gal

Anticipated OG: 1.062 (not including cherries)
Anticipated Alcohol: 6.4% (not including cherries)

Anticipated SRM: 4.8 (not including cherries)

Anticipated IBU: 45

Brewhouse Efficiency: 60%

Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Fermentables:

5 lbs Light malt extract syrup

2 lbs Pilsner

2 lbs Vienna

1 lb Wheat

1 lb Corn sugar

Hops:

1 oz Palisades (6.7 AA) - 60 min

1.5 oz Homegrown Hops - 15 min

1.5 oz Homegrown Hops - 3 min

1.1 oz Homegrown Hops - 0 min (dry hopped)

Extras:

5 lbs of pitted fresh sour cherries (frozen)

Yeast:

Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison

Mini Mash Schedule:

60 min @ 150˚ F

Notes:

Brewed 8/22/10

Transferred to a secondary 8/29/10, added dry hops

Bottled ~1 month later


See tasting notes for this beer.