Monthly Tasting Night

,Each month members of the IrishCraftBrewer forum meet up in Dublins Bull & Castle pub to sample each others home brews and to have a few beers. Last night was our May meet up and we had a great turn out. At about 7pm all of the homebrewers congregate at a few tables in the upstairs beerhall, laden with sample bottles of their lastest brew. Last night we had a great selection of beers including two weizens, four different pale ales, a wit, a bock and a number of porters and stouts. Each month we tend to get a great selection of different beer styles and it really shows the variety of beers that people are experimenting with.

The homebrewers at this meet were a selection of kit, extract and all grain brewers with varying levels of experience. It is great to be able to bring in one of your beers and get honest feedback and advice and it has really helped me to develop my brewing.

Last night the beer I brought in was my Hippity Hop Pale Ale that was brewed on the 21st of April. As you can see from my previous post I was really happy with how this turned out, but what was the concensus of my brewing peers? Overall it was very positive, a couple of guys did not like the level of bitterness (to much) but apart from that the feedback was very good. There was even one mention of the accolade 'fantastic' which was great to hear.

I am really happy with this beer and the feedback I received last night endorses that, I hope to make an all grain version of this in the coming months and it will be interesting to compare the results.

My advise for anyone out there who may be brewing in isolation, get out there and find some like minded individuals, feedback from other homebrewers will only improve your beers.

Extract #7: Hippity Hop Pale Ale - From Fermentation to Tasting

I brewed a full wort extract beer on the 21st of April and I have gathered together information in this post that brings you through from the end of fermentation to the first few tastings. This should give you a good idea of the post fermentation process that I follow but also I hope it will show how the taste of a beer develops over a pretty short period of time.

This was an extract recipe that I brewed on the 21st April, recipe can be found here. Ordinarly I would transfer my pale ales to secondary in order to either dry hop them or if I feel that they need a little more time to clear. However with this beer I was so happy with how it tasted and looked that I transferred straight from primary to keg after 10 days. It looked very clear and tasted really nice, with the cascade and amarillo hops working really well together. I think one of the main reasons this beer has turned out so well is that is was the first time that I made an extract beer using a full wort boil. This allowed me to be very precise with measurements and as a result I hit my original gravity (1048) and final gravity (1012) right on the mark (see pic to the left which shows final gravity reading). After transferring to my corny keg I allowed this beer to condition at room temperature for one week,  it was given two days in my keggerator thus allowing the beer to drop to serving temperature before being force carbonated. It was force carbonated at about 20psi for three days initially and this was reduced to 15psi for the fourth day. So the results for the first taste test on the 13th May?

First Taste - 13th May

Pours a dark golden colour with a strong persistent white head, quite a lot of chill haze apparent. Strong sharp lemon aroma out front with a more subtle grapefruit, nearly vanilla, aroma in the background. Light bodied and a little undercarbonated, good strong level of bitterness comes through at the end. Really happy with this beer so far, needs a little more carbonation and a little more time to condition, but already I can see this is going to be a really nice beer.

Second Taste Test - 17th May

This beer has developed really well in only five days since the first taste test. After the 13th I let the beer carbonate for a further day and it got to a carbonation level I was really happy with. The colour has darkened somewhat and it has a near reddish shine to it that is really nice. The up front lemony hop aroma has faded slightly and the background bitterness comes through nicely. The beer is still a little hazy, however regardless of that I am really happy with it. Normally when I brew a beer and have had a few tastings I start to make notes as to how I would alter or improve the recipe. In this case I am struggling to think of anything I would change, in an ideal world the only thing that would make this beer better is if the clarity was good, but to be honest I am much more interested in how it tastes, as opposed to the minor details of the aesthetic.

Tomorrow night I will be bringing a couple of bottles of this beer to the monthly IrishCraftBrewer tasting night. After those guys have had a taste I will post back their comments, hopefully they won't totally disagree with what I have said above.

Extract #7: Recipe - Hippity Hop Pale Ale

Decided to brew a quick extract brew while I am still working on "perfecting" my AG process. I love American pale ales and this is very typical of that style, a little bit of crystal to add a little colour and some caramel flavour, some carapils for body and then loads of citrussy American hops to provide the flavour and aroma. Based on a sneaky taste of the OG sample this is going to be all about those American hops.

Hippity Hop Pale Ale

10-A American Pale Ale
Author: Mark

Size: 17.28 L
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%

Original Gravity: 1.048 (1.045 - 1.060)

Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.015)

Color: 21.32 (9.85 - 27.58)

Alcohol: 4.7% (4.5% - 6.2%)

Bitterness: 39.6 (30.0 - 45.0)

Ingredients:

1000.0 g Dry Light Extract
1000.0 g Dry Light Extract

103.0 g Crystal 120EBC
125.0 g Carapils®/Carafoam®
250.0 g Crystal 60 EBC

19.0 g Chinook (11.3%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
19.0 g Cascade (5.4%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15 min
16.0 g Cascade (5.4%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min
16.0 g Amarillo (9.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 min

1.0 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05