Sabro Single Hop IPA: Starting the new year off with a banger. Used my 3 gal “Rotating IPA” recipe of 2-row, flaked oats, pils malt, and C-20. A smidge of Columbus for bittering but Sabro at 15, 10, 5, and whirlpool. Fermented with Omega DIPA/WY1272. Dry hop with 3oz Sabro near the end of fermentation for 4 days. Finished at 7% abv. Transferred to keg via closed transfer. Hands down, one of the cleanest hoppy beers I’ve made to date. This is the first time playing around with Sabro and I couldn’t be happier. I was worried with reviews of the overwhelming coconut but it’s so well integrated. There is definitely a Pina Colada/Dreamsicle vibe, but with a soft/rounded bitterness and pine resin on the backend. Super balanced, no off flavors or oxidation(finally), near perfect carb. I’m chalking it up to my early 2021 resolution which was closed transferring all of my kegged beer, and also my end of year goal which was buying all of my hops direct from Yakima Valley Hops. The quality has been superb compared to my LHBS. Cheers to home brewing in 2022!
Trying out a Brett fermented dandelion mead (clover honey) that I made this past spring. Super floral (surprise!), heavier honey flavor than I expected using such a light honey.
Pils finally cleared up. It was suppose to be just Wyeast 2007 but it was slow so I mixed in WLP-940 Mexican and It's perfect.
Witbier. Nice citrus notes with a slight herbal spice. I'm still amazed at how versatile my Nectarine Blossom yeast is. Super dry and crisp in the finish, medium body. Spritzy carbonation dances on the tongue.
Loving my dark mild. If memory serves. I didn't brew one of these for over a year, maybe two, but it's really a style I could keep around all the time.
I'm certain I've never knowingly had a dark mild but, reading the BJCP style guidelines (13A) and your posts, it seems like something I'd enjoy. As a point of reference how would y'alls dark milds differ from, or be similar to, the non-dark mild Sweet Josie Brown? (mainly in color, clarity, taste and aroma, without respect to the lower ABV of a dark mild)
I’m not familiar with that beer. My recipes for this style typically involve maris otter, one type of English crystal, two types of roasted malt, a bittering addition of fuggles or a close relative, although any mildly aromatic bittering hop might work, and an English yeast. I target the specialty malts probably at less than 7,5% crystal and a total if 7.5% roasted. The last batch was composed of maris, chocolate rye malt, and golden naked oats, bittered with northern brewer, and used Lallemands ESB yeast. It was 1.032 I think. The next batch will be maris, fawcett pale chocolate, midnight wheat, and muntons c60. Hops undecided but could be willamette, us fuggles, or us tettnang. Yeast will be wheats 1469. I believe it’s targeted at 1.035. The goal for me is to find something flavorful that satisfies me if I decide for a half pint, pint, or two and doesn’t wreck my sleep. As for the forumulation, I believe this represents a modern interpretation of the style. I seem to recall our beer history gurus saying historical formulations would not have chocolate malts and would rely more on brewing sugars for color. While I have made these with brewing sugars, I really do like the chocolate malts, so perhaps this is more of watery porter. That's not nearly as appealing as "dark mild."
My recipe isn’t too far off. Mostly Maris Otter, small amt of C-60/120, Chocolate, 22 ibu’s of Brewers Gold at 60 and 15, WY London ESB. 1.043 and finished at 4%. Easily one of the most easy drinking beers I’ve made to date. The abv made it very easy to snag a few pours a night.
11% Mixed ferm Imperial Stout w/ cab skins, raspberries and blackberries, aged on a brandy soaked spiral. Two years in the bottle. I pitched a plethora of dregs from some favorite beers (Allagash, JK, Offcolor, and Jolly Pumpkin) and it comes through in the finished beer. Really nice cocoa dusted and macerated berries, red wine tannins, and oak. I get a hint of plastic/rubber on the back end which I’ve gotten in some of my favorite examples of the style so I’m not too bummed out. I think it’s mostly a mix of the Brett phenols and dark malts. Light funk, cider-like acidity on the finish but still a hefty body and somewhat creamy carb. Really interesting experiment and something I’d try again.
How do you like the Lallemand ESB yeast? In terms of manufacturer descriptions, the difference between it and the other ESB strains (Wyeast 1968, WL002) is that they are described as highly flocculent (I can confirm that the Wyeast strain is highly flocculent, and I've heard the same about the White Labs strain), whereas Lallemand states that its strain has low flocculation. Did you find that to be the case? I ask because if the yeast actually performs like Wyeast 1968, I would be very interested in using it.
I usually am a dry yeast user, due to convenience. ESB is neutral and low attenuating. It's a reasonable choice for a beer that you want to with a higher gravity. I believe FG was 1.011 on this beer. IIRC it does not ferment malotriose. I believe it differ from 1968 in this regard. Lallemand Windsor attenuates similarly but produces more esters. I use both for low gravity bitters and milds because of the residual body and malt. I also have used them in higher gravity Old Ale that I've dosed with Brett and aged.
Brewing my ‘MLK’ imperial porter today. Also drinking an American stout that I brewed 2 Oktobers ago and it’s holding up nicely! 6.5% abv, 50ish IBUs. Can’t remember the grain bill exactly but Columbus for bittering and fermented with US-05. This is a recipe I’ve been trying to dial in on for a while now, inspired by Kalamazoo and Obsidian stout. Cheers
This looks/sounds amazing and would love to try something like this. I’ve only brewed one dark mixed ferm beer; It was a dark saison with wlp670, then crooked stave/jolly pumpkin dregs in secondary. Did you perform any sort of cold steep for your dark grains?
No, I actually just pulled a gallon of clean imperial stout after primary to a fermentor with the fruit and mixed culture.
At what point did you mix it back in with the rest of the fermented beer? Just curious how long you let the 1 gallon go before adding it back.
No, I never blended it back. I just pulled 1 gallon and let that sit on the fruit for a few months, then bottled. The other 2 gallons of stout I kept clean and bottled on their own.
I was at the low end of the range, 72F. I think the flavor is mostly the hops, but it is hard for me to say. Now you got me curious about brewing something more like a blond or cream ale to try to evaluate that. I'm a little wary of going into the high temp zone that these yeasts are known for. My experiences with beers going into the 80s and higher have not been great (and sometimes, quite bad)
I've brewed with the Voss strain from Yeast Bay several times, always in the 90s, and I have no regrets. The problem is those were all either sour beers or really hoppy, so all I can say is that Voss didn't do anything unpleasant. It's hard for me to say exactly what it contributed though.
I've used Voss in the 90's and really did not like the results. It was very dominant with over ripe/rotten fruit character. I may give it one more try at the low temp range.
with kveik strains that I took into the 80s I was getting pretty intense headaches from them. We often attribute that to fusel alcohols, which I’m not sure is correct. Regardless of the true chemical culprits, it has dissuaded me from embracing lower pitching rates and higher temperatures with kveik. While I might experiment with both of those dials to find a sweet spot, I don’t want any more experimental brews that make my head hurt.
Just kegged up the IPA with DH and pulled a sample... it's gonna be good when it's done. Can't drink other HB since I blew my Winter Warmer and Wit this week. Don't want to risk blowing my Saison too. I forgot how fast I go through a keg.
Pils! 100% bohemian floor malted Pilsner, magnum for bittering and German Perle at Knock-out. Augustiner lager yeast. First time trying the floor malted - it’s delicious, but next time will probably go back to good old Weyermann
Belgian Dubbel, with the intent to get close to Chimay Red. Belgian beer prices have gotten insane here, so I rarely buy them these days. Pils, Special B, Munich, D-45, Wyeast 1214. The Chimay has slightly creamier mouthfeel but this is very close.
Imperial Stout brewed July 2021. Main changes from the 3-month sample: Meaty character is gone in the aroma, less roast but definitely there. A little disappointed that the umami taste is hanging around, but I think it's dwindling and is less than it was 3 months ago (expectation bias?). Plenty of bottles left to see how it is after a year, and maybe after several years.
It's close. I thought my water additions would do it, but not quite. My beer was only 13 days bottle fermented though, so I'll do another one in it month or so. Perhaps things will have meshed. As for your stout, I did a 20% barleywine three years ago. I kegged it and was going to bottle with a beer gun, but the sample I took had a huge soy/umami flavor. I decided to hit it with gelatin in the keg and not only did it clear up, but all the soy flavor was gone. Not helpful for you at this point, but I thought it was interesting. I'll be cracking one of those bottles in two weeks.
Possibly autolysis. I used two different yeast strains, the first to get it to about 10% and the second to get it to 20%, so it's possible that the first strain died due to the high ABV. Just a guess though, I'm not totally sure.
