What Homebrew Are You Drinking: May 2016

Currently having a Homebrewed Ginger ale that used a Amber ale as a base.

 

Just poured the first proper pint off my Mosaic Pale Ale brewed 3/19/16

A little thin I think but will be great for the hot days ahead.

 

Saison DuClone

 

Also a saison, not quite a DuClone, but similar in concept.

 

2 different session ales followed by smoked magik.

 

La Chouffe Houblon ipa clone

 

Some stout to go with dessert.

 

Citra/Mosaic DIPA

 

Just finished a southern cross Kohatu IPA with alpine Nelson grain bill. now having a citra simcoe session with 25% rolled oats 75% pearl. Both came out great

 

Was this with the Dupont dregs? If yes, do you notice any differences that you would attribute to using dregs?

good looking beer

 

I used cultured Dupont dregs, but didn't like the progress after a week... slow even by Dupont (or at least 3724) standards. So I added WLP565 and 566 at that point. The dregs seemed to have propagated through a few step-up starters okay, but I think they were just tired. I would have preferred to get them from a bottle of Avril, but could only get the saison (and even that was an hour away).

The esters seem a little more complex than with saisons I have made with Wyeast 3724. But I don't know what to attribute that to, since this was the first time trying to actually clone Dupont. But in a side by side with the real thing, mine was ~1 SRM at most lighter...couldn't spot the color difference unless looking at them together. Dupont foam was rockier than DuClone foam. And DuClone was also a little more peppery than Dupont, according to DrewF. I concurred after he pointed it out, but am not sure I would have picked it out myself. He also incorrectly guessed which beer was the clone, so I'll take that as a good thing.

I sugar-primed this in the keg, carbonating to 3.9 volumes. I had been trying to reconcile the reported OG and ABV of Dupont (even accounting for fairly high attenuation of 3724/dregs/whatever) and it hit me. Lots of priming sugar to get high carbonation and the last bits of ABV.

 

Recently finished a raspberry blonde with honey and oats.. great summer brew

 

I'm on the last few sips of an American Stout that I made about 6 weeks ago. Really proud of this beer. Doesn't really *need* any changes but I'll probably be doing minor tweaks to each re-brew if I'm being honest with myself.

 

No homebrew for me last night, hopefully tonight will be better. I had to move my keezer out from the wall on Saturday during my extended brewday and didn't notice that when I moved it back I caught the power cord and unplugged it. My beers all got up to the mid to high 50s. Got it plugged in last night and the internal temp is back down to 38, but not sure of the actual beer temps yet. We'll see tonight.

 

Cracked the first bottle of Nomegranate, my pomegranate lambic. Tastes like a raspberry/cherry blend. Delicious.

 

Extract Hefe, but picture makes it seem darker.

Anyway, this brew has convinced me that I am unlikely to brew a non-extract Hefe going forward. It's delicious, hits all the buttons, and the wife loves it (brewed for her). Simple, easy, delicious...can't ask much more than that.

 

Keeping the wife happy is much more important than keeping BA happy!

 

a few sessions and finishing with a awsum brown ale

 

Obviously keeping the wife happy is job one, but how would you compare this beer to the better commercial examples like Weihenstephaner? I ask because I've brewed a lot of hefes over the years, but I probably haven't done an extract hefe in at least 10 years (maybe I should revisit?). I can only come close to the better imports with my all grain batches by either step mashing or decoction. My single infusion batches always seem to be lacking.