Brew Day Today! The first one of 2011. We had a great day of brewing. Thanks to everyone who came out and joined in. Friends make brewing even more fun.-In The Kettle-
Today we brewed a beer that I've been wanting to do for a while, a Rye beer. Rye is making up 20% of the grist of this beer, and from what I understand, this is pretty high. Since Rye tends to get pretty sticky in the mash, using more than this (I'm told) is difficult at best and impossible at worst.
In addition to our rye malt, we added American pale malt for the majority of the grist and a bit of caramunich to give it some malt body and a bit of honey character (hopefully).
As far as hops, this beer features Cascade, Czech Saaz (for some reason) and Amarillo in a hop schedule that was kind of off the cuff. We'll see how the hops turn out.
My brother John is pictured here tending to the malt in the sparge.
The Rye beer is now in fermentation and should be ready to drink sometime around the end of February. check back here to find out more.
-In The Glass-
Also on the agenda today was the "official release" of the IPA brewed back on November 16. It's a classic dry Pacific coast style IPA brewed with Simcoe, Cascade and Centennial hops. American pale malt makes up the majority of the grist, with Crystal 40, Munich and Honey malts building the malt character.
I was very excited that this beer turned out very clear without having been filtered. It also has a thick fluffy white head.
The nose has a good amount of nice floral hops and just the slightest bit of honey.
On the palate the hops are nice and aggressive without being overbearing. The beer is not overly heavy but has enough malt to stand up to a really lovely peppery, bitter hop character. It's a beer in a classic style. It's not barrel-aged or infused with lavender tips or any of that crap. (some times I like that crap) It's just a really nice California IPA with a big hop kick and a good amount of alcohol (about 9.2% ABV). I'm a purest, so what can I say? I'm really happy with this beer. 8 out of 10.
Tom, I would like to try! Is that possible?
ReplyDelete~Meghan P