Pour un Pugno di Luppolo- retasting.

This is my 'Fistful of Hops' ale that I brewed last summer(6/16/10). I was inspired by a bottle of my Grisette that had been infected with Brett, and though that was completely accidental, I really liked the taste of it.
Tasting 4/25/11-
Cloudy lemon color. Great foamy white head that left nice lacing in the glass. Ample, streaming carbonation.
Brett aroma, citrus, earthy hops, dry, dusty.
Earthy brett taste. Soil, hay, citrus. Highly carbonated, light mouth feel. Champagne like effervescence. Short finish, but some hanging on flavor remains with you.
Still drinking ok, but from my previous tasting, it seems like the remainder should be drunk soon.

Some recent beers.

Well, I have apparently been way too busy to write anything recently, but I am still drinking beer of course! Here are some I have had recently.
Samuel Smiths Nut Brown Ale.
Rich, nutty aroma. Not as sweet as Newcastle, and the aroma in definitely present in the taste as well. Medium body and full mouth feel. Nice lingering finish. If you like Newcastle, make sure to try this beer.
Olde Suffolk English Ale.
I bought this despite the clear glass bottle. The promise of tasting a aged ale was too much for me to bear!
Dark mahogany color. Thin mocha head. Lightly skunky aroma from the clear bottle. Nuttiness. Tastes sort of like a rich Belgian ale, but lighter, giving way to something like a nut brown ale. Light carbonation. Very lingering finish. Worth a try, without the skunky flavor this would definitely be a must buy!
My very own Fantome @ 1 year of age!
Color may be a touch darker. Still streaming carbonation and a little white head. The aroma is more barnyardy than I recall- dark warm orange, hay. The flavor is earthy, soil, hay with light citrus, with a medium finish. Still very light mouth feel owing to a very low ending gravity.

Mine vs. Theirs.

There are two main trains of thought in homebrewing. When they start, most people start with the first, which is to make tried and true recipes out of a book or from an online source. There are many 'clones' of commercial beers, and even several books dedicated to the subject, so you can try to make your favorites such as Guinness, Sierra Nevada, or Chimay Rouge.
Then there is the other train of thought. After making a number of book recipes one may start to wonder... 'What can I really do? Will it be difficult? What if it's not good?'.
I would say at this point after spending alot of time in the first category, I am now firmly in the latter. One of my thoughts is if I can buy a beer, why would I want to try to make it? I was scared to try to formulate my own recipes. It seemed very intimidating. But it is not very hard at all. I have made some really good and interesting beers.
Of course then again, there are some commercial beers that I really love. I decided to take aim at one of those and here are the results, tasted side by side with the beer in question.
My lost for life vs. Unibroue's Maudite.
Color- Pretty darn close. Maudite looks a tad darker, with more streaming carbonation. Head color looks identical. Both are cloudy, though Maudite is clearer than mine.
(Maudite left, mine right.)
Strength- Maudite is 8% with mine being 7.6%.
Aroma- Maudite has more of the Belgiany yeasty aroma. Orange, spices, little hop perception. The hops are much more prevalent in my beer. The same yeasty aroma is there, but less so. I used Wyeasts Canadian/Belgian strain which comes from Unibroue.
Taste- Maudite is luscious and smooth as always. Nice rich mouth feel. Dark fruits, spiciness, great lingering after taste. Hops in the finish, but as a generalized bitterness. My beer has a lighter mouth feel, not as rich and filling. Both have maybe a touch of tartness. Spicy and hoppy. I added way too much in the finishing stages of the boil. More or all of that should have been at the beginning. Both seem to be retaining the head identically with a little lacing in the glass. Mine has a lingering finish as well, though it is different tasting. Hoppier for sure.
Overall- I got pretty close I would say. I think a change to the hopping plus maybe a touch more of special b malt I could be even closer. The beer under the hops tastes very close. In fact, I was close enough that one of my beer loving coworkers was able to identify what brewery I was going after, though he said he felt it was closer to Fin du Monde in taste.
I am very pleased with this beer. I wish I had thought more about the hopping ahead of time, but oh well. It is not exactly Maudite (though close enough I could say 90%), but it is good in and of itself.
Recipe and brewing information.

Continued Evolution- Grisette tasting.

Yum. This is one of my beers that I have been really digging as I continue to taste it over time. The main reason being that it was accidentally 'infected' with Brettanomyces at bottling time. Some of the bottles got a dose, and some didn't. The ones that did have evolved into something magical.
A great golden color with a champagne like effervescence and a thin but lasting moussey head. Complex wine like aromas of citrus, oak, hay, light brett touch. Dancing on the tongue with stronger flavors of those same aromas, with the brett a bit more apparent. Good bitterness present, but no hop flavors really. Toasty oakiness. Quick finish with little lingering taste, only a touch of bitterness. Very dry.
This has now had almost five months in the bottle and is at around six months after the day it was brewed. I like that each bottle continues to evolve and move on to something else. It's pretty great. It was a great summer beer and I look forward to enjoying the remaining bottles I have over time and into next summer.
First tasting.

Where we are.

I haven't posted much in the past month for a few reasons. My family was all out to visit, therefore I didn't have the time to brew much (only once in August) and a lack of fermentor space with 20 gallons of beer in my pantry. Reviews have been lacking as I have not been buying much commercial beer since I have a glut of my own and I have been buying more wine recently.
That being said, here is were several of my current brewing projects are...
Historical Saison:
This has been fermenting for nearly six months now. I haven't tasted it recently (probably since July at some time) and it's flavor was evolving as time went on. Now it has developed a nice pellicle. There seems to be little activity going on, with little gas production, but some of the organisms in the mix don't produce co2 as they ferment. I am now planning to let this beer until the one year mark and bottle it then.
Sour Mash no2:
This beer has been fermenting now for a little over three months. At this point I would say it is ready to be bottled, I am just waiting to accumulate enough cap-able champagne style bottles so I can bottle it at a higher pressure. Tastes somewhat Lambic like but no where near as complex. The color is a dark ruby red. Pretty sexy.
Berliner Weisse:
This is at a little over a month of fermentation time, and there is still a good bit of activity going on. It already tasted pretty tart when I racked it to the secondary, so I am interested in seeing how it develops. It should spend another five months or so in there, and be ready to bottle in the spring. I am excited to try it!

Last Tasting- Bokonon Bitter.

I've been holding onto the last bomber of this beer for awhile. I was going to open it when my parents were out to visit, but we tried some other stuff. Tonight seemed like a good time.
It seems to be pouring with a little more carbonation than I remember, but feels the same in the mouth. Great clear copper color.
The taste is pretty much as I remember it, however the hops seem to have lost some of their bright floral flavor though an overall perception of bitterness is still there. Rich carmelly somewhat lingering finish.
Pretty tasty and I am sad to see it go.. But of course I can make more and improve upon it!

First tasting- Per un Pugno di Luppolo.

Today I cracked open a bottle of my 'fistful of hops' ale, which used a mixed culture (Wyeast French Saison and Brettanomyces Lambicus) to ferment, hop bursting to impart all of the bitterness, dry hopping, and oak aging. Phew. Seems like alot going on in this one. Let's see...
Pours a nice pale golden color, with a foamy white head that dissipates. The aroma is reminiscent of cider, hay, barnyard, a touch of hot sand, and a vinous quality.
It hits your mouth with a constellation of carbonation, with abundant streaming bubbles visible in the glass. The taste is relatively hoppy, though I would say less so than even an American pale ale. Hay and light funk come into play as well. Very dry, and leaves a long finish of floral, earthy, and somewhat spicy hops and caramel oddly enough. Caramel is not a flavor I would expect to taste in a beer that is Pilsner and light wheat malt.
Overall I would say this is a good and drinkable beer. It would be nice on a hot day, though maybe not entirely what I was aiming for. But then again, I am not sure what I was really aiming for anyway.
I feel that fans of Belgian style beers would like this, but I am not sure if people who normally drink American hop bombs would or not. It is definitely less hoppy than an American IPA and the aroma might be off putting. I feel that I would prefer this beer over those though. It has a very nice hop character with out being too much, as I feel many beers of that style are.

Back Door Beauty- First tasting.

The Ralph Steadmanesque label...The redesque beer...
Today I am tasting my sour mash red ale. This is the half that I bottled with Brettanomyces, though I did taste the non brett half yesterday. I will write up a tasting of that half as well, though they are similar.
First off this beer pours a nice reddish brown. Hard to tell from the picture of course. It has a nice hoppy aroma, little head, no lacing, nice tingling carbonation. The taste is similar to the nonbrett half, though I would say there is less hop presence and more of maybe a cidery taste?
Similar malty finish in both beers, but neither are really sour that I can tell. I should brew this one again and do a longer sour mash.
Despite that, I would say this is still a very good American style ale. Nice hop taste and aroma but it is not overwhelming. I think the sourness would add another dimension though.

Bitter Revisited.

I finally got myself a proper pint glass instead of the jelly jars. I have been tasting and had some friends tasting this beer. I have gotten some pretty good reactions to it. One person said it could use a little more body which I do agree with and can easily do the next time around. Others said they liked the hopping and found it like an IPA with the volume turned down. I can see that as well.
I think the next time I make a bitter I will change two things. The first is that I will use darker crystal malts to obtain to color as opposed to roasted barley. There is really only a touch of that in this beer but I feel like I get a little of the roastyness in the taste and I don't feel as though that should be there. This will also contribute more body.
Second, I will add more hops later in the boil. I feel like it could use a bit more hop aroma and flavor, while the over all bitterness is fine.
I am really enjoying this beer and it is disappearing all too quickly.
I have also updated the pages for my sour mash experiment(bottled) and second Saison(moved to secondary fermentation).

Bitter - First tasting.

I am having the first taste of my bitter today, only a week after bottling and three weeks after brewing. It is nice to do a batch with a shorter maturation period after the several in a row month long plus brews that I have been doing.
In the glass this beer is a vibrant copper color. Little head, but that is fine by me. I don't think you would get a big head from a bitter unless it was nitro'ed or real cask ale. Little carbonation, just enough to feel.
As for taste... This beer is definitely better at cellar temps or around 50 degrees. The second glass had a much better and brighter taste. Nice light malt and caramel sweetness, a light amount of bitterness, floral hop bouquet both in the nose and in flavor. Nice light moderately lingering finish of caramel and malt.
Entirely too drinkable!

First tasting - Grisette.

A grisette.

Light golden ale, lots of streaming carbonation, little head surviving. Initial aroma of fruity yeast, light oak, little perceptible hop aroma. Tastes much the same. Forward fruitiness, oak after taste(some vanilla/toastiness), more perceptible hop, light astringency, very dry. The dryness is not surprising, as this beer ended up at 1.001, only .001 point above the specific gravity of water. Actually pretty good flavor while still staying very light. I am sure this will be majorly refreshing on a hot summer day, especially after a bike ride or climbing session.
I guess I have pretty much accomplished what I wanted to do with this one. In the future, I would avoid using oak chips and stick with oak cubes. I feel the chips do impart flavor too quickly and it is a bit one dimensional..

First tasting - wild ale.

Tonight I am having the first taste of my wild ale. It pours out very clear yellow, though even with a careful pour, some of the yeast got kicked back up, ending a hazy yellow/tan in the glass. There is little to no head, carbonation might be a little light at this point for my tastes. However, I can see some streaming bubbles in it and feel it dancing on my tongue.
On the nose I get some light brett funk and tropical fruit. The first sip is interesting, with both of those flavors mingling and dancing with each other. Upon swallowing, the brett flavors definitely seem to take over with some leather and maybe tobacco apparent. Maybe a touch of hay as well. The almost 8% abv doesn't come through. Be careful with this one!
All in all, an interesting and good beer. It's something I would buy occasionally if it were made commercially. Not bad for my first all grain batch!