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Carty Cascade Vintage 2009 Review

By on Monday, February 1st, 2010 | 1 Comment

I couldn’t be more happy with the way the Carty Cascade 2009 turned out!  Recall I was shooting for a straightforward APA recipe that would showcase the hops we harvested in September.  Here’s my writeup of a recent tasting and a picture.  I really enjoy the hops and look forward to future harvests!

The beer pours a dark golden bordering on amber with a very clingy white head.  The aroma is moderately hoppy, citrus and spicy with a noticeable sweet malt in the background.  The flavor is moderately hoppy but there is also a noticeable and competing malty flavor, a bit sweet, slightly bready and something a bit different than any other beer I’ve made, perhaps the wheat malt shining through.  (I’ve only used flaked wheat previously.)  The bitterness is medium-low and provides a nice balance combined with a slightly dry finish.  The carbonation is moderate and body is quite smooth.  Overall I’m very happy and very impressed with this beer and the hops!  I don’t know I’d change much with this recipe, it is quite tasty.

CartyCascade2009_012_2

Maibock Pale Ale Review

By on Monday, January 18th, 2010 | No Comments

If you’re wondering how the marriage of Maibock grains and and a healthy helping of German hops turned out, keep reading.  I’m quite pleased with the appearance of this brew, a nice golden color with a frothy white head.  Here take a look:

MaibockPaleAle

More importantly is the aroma and flavor.  The aroma is moderately malty, quite bready and a bit sweet, the hops also shine as well, spicy and a bit floral.  I wish the hop aroma would have come through a bit more, but I’m not complaining, this beer is very inviting.  The flavor is malty upfront and remarkably smooth.  At the swallow the moderate hop bitterness and spicy German hop flavor cleanse the palate.  I very much enjoy how both the malty flavors and hops shine in this beer, it really captures what I was intending.  German malt flavors akin with Maibocks and a hoppiness typically seen with American Pale Ales (albeit a German hop flavor/aroma).

Would I do anything different next time?  Yes.  The hops just don’t come through quite as much as I wanted.  I’d prefer the hop flavor and aroma both to be a bit more noticeable, but not too much more.  The bitterness is about right.  The thing I like most about this beer is the exceptional smoothness and the fact the malt and hop flavors are both quite evident.

Brew this one up today!  Let me know how it turns out!

Justin

Carty’s Cascade Pale Ale – Vintage 2009

By on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 | 2 Comments

What better to do on a cold December morning?  Brew!  Today I brewed an American Pale Ale, using the Cascade hops grown in my buddy’s backyard this summer. The recipe I crafted was quite simple, I wanted to showcase the hops.  I’m curious to how these Cascade hops will compare to Cascade hops grown in the Pacific Northwest.  They smelled quite similar, maybe a bit more spicy and little less citrusy, but overall quite similar.

So the brew day started at a chilly 23F.  But no worries, I had my winter jacket and hat on.  The brew day went well despite the cold temperature, although running the hose to the wort chiller was kind of a pain, the hose was quite stiff.  Some of the water froze in the hose while I was cleaning, but no big deal, I’ll let it melt in the garage.  Also using so many whole hops I knew siphoning the wort might be a challenge, so I tried something new, using a copper scrubber attached to the racking cane to act as a filter, I got the idea from another brewer on the web.  It worked very well, no clogged racking cane.  Although I’ll say this, no more brewing outside in subfreezing weather…back to the kitchen until spring or maybe a mild spell.

The recipe today was quite simple:

9.0 lbs Maris Otter

1.0 lbs Wheat Malt

1.0 lbs Crystal 40L

Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast

1.25 oz Cascades 60 mins

1.20 oz Cascades 15 mins

1.20 oz Cascades 0 mins

I will ferment this batch cool, in the low 60s.  With the simple grain bill, clean yeast and cool fermentation temperatures this beer will showcase the entire 2009 harvest of our Cascade hops.  I’ve attached some pictures of brew day if you’re interested.  If I have time I’ll also post a few things about two of my other latest brews, a Northern English Brown, which tastes fantastic and an update on the Maibock Pale Ale which I’m enjoying as I write this.

The pictures:  1) a cold start!  2) the grains, toward the ‘top’ of the bag you can see the crushed wheat malt atop the other grains 3) the mash after doughing-in 4) the bittering addition 5) wort before the boil got going 6) wort with the bittering hops added

Maibock Pale Ale

By on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 | 1 Comment

So the title of this post is a bit confusing, is it a maibock is it a pale ale?  But trust me, it makes sense.  My buddy and I brewed up a batch on Saturday, we wanted something with nice malt presence and a good amount of hop flavor and aroma.  Instead of the typical American citrus hop we decided to change it up and went with the spicy German hop Tettnanger.

The recipe I came up with used a lot of German pilsner and German munich malt and a bit of caramel malt, hence the maibock part of the beer recipe, basically similar malts I would use in a maibock recipe.  We bittered with Perle and made a 15 minute, 5 minute and zero minute addition of Tettnanger hops.  For yeast we went with Wyeast 1007 German Ale yeast, as this should give a rather clean fermentation, allowing the hops and malt to shine.  If you want the recipe, give me a shout, otherwise here are a few pictures of the fermentation that is going strong in my basement.

So how’s that IPA?

By on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 | No Comments

So a couple months ago I posted about my 1120 IPA recipe I crafted.  I know the world is eagerly awaiting the report, so how was it?  Ok, no one is dying to know, but if you were curious here’s the report.  Enjoy!

Like I said in my previous reports, my racking cane got clogged so my volume was a bit light and my efficiency was a bit off being my first batch with my new water supply, so this is a high end APA or a low-end IPA, either way a damn tasty beer!

I was a bit concerned about the slow performance of the Nottingham yeast, but like I said I was fermenting this rather cool, in the 56/57F range.  Well the beer turned out great, this was the first time I used Amarillo hops and really enjoy them, I prefer this Amarillo/Cascade blend over soley Cascade.  I’ll stop rambling about the beer, here’s my review with a picture of the beer!  Try the recipe out, if you like hops, you’ll love this!

At a couple months age (and even at just over one month) this beer is fantastic. It pours fairly clear golden-orange color with a moderate white head. The aroma is quite hoppy, lemon-citrus qualities from Amarillo and Cascade hops. The flavor is moderately hoppy with a noticeable, yet not tongue splitting hop bitterness. The beer finishes with a nice linger of hop flavor and a bit of sweet, nutty malt. The carbonation is moderate and body medium.This beer turned out wonderful, a refreshing, very flavorful pale ale!

1120apa-001

1120 IPA Brew Day

By on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 | No Comments

Last Sunday I was able to brew up the 1120 IPA recipe I shared a couple weeks ago.  The brew day went well and my primary fermentation is winding down, 7 days later.  I will be adding my dry hops to the primary fermenter in the next day or two.  I’ll let those sit for about a week and then I’ll transfer the beer to the secondary.  At that point I’ll let it clear further and age for another week or two and then bottle the batch.  The only slight problem with the brew day was my auto-siphon got clogged at the end with hop flowers, so my final volume ended up a bit short, I only got about 5 gallons into the primary, I usually shoot for between 5.25 and 5.5 gallons.

Oh, and if you were curious I ended up going with Nottingham Ale yeast for this batch.  I fermented at 57F, it took a full 24 hours to see action from the yeast at this cool temperature, but once it got going it fermented slowly and steadily through much of the week.  It will be interesting to see how this beer tastes, I never have fermented an ale at this low of a temperature.  I’ll post back in a couple months with a tasting.  Here are a few pictures I thought you may enjoy from my brew day last Sunday.

1120 IPA Grains

1120 IPA Grains

Here is the grain bill mixed throughly before adding to the mash tun.  The non-barley specs are flaked barley, which I think will give this IPA just a bit of a creamy mouthfeel.

Bittering Addition

Bittering Addition

The bittering addition, added at the beginning of the boil.  The whole hops are Amarillo and the pellets are Cascades.

Mash after draining

Mash after draining

Here is the mash after draining, before the first sparge, smells SO good!

Draining into brew kettle

Draining into brew kettle

Draining the first runnings from the mash tun into the kettle.  I have the burner on low after running off to stop any further enzyme action that may be going on.

Rolling boil

Rolling boil

Ah, a full rolling boil, you can see the whole hop flower pieces if you look closely.

Well there you have it, another enjoyable brew day!  I can’t wait until this one is ready!  Are you brewing anything soon?

What’s next? An IPA!

By on Friday, March 6th, 2009 | 1 Comment

So I’ve finally got the time to brew up my next batch.  My next batch is going to be a celebratory brew, a rather strong, very hoppy IPA but with enough malt to keep it from being one dimensional.  I’ll be brewing next Sunday.  Here’s the recipe I’ve worked out so far.

Beer Name: 1120 IPA

OG: 1.061

FG: 1.012

ABV: 6.5%

IBU: 53

Grains:

10# Maris Otter

1 # Flaked Barley

0.5# Victory

0.5# Crystal 40L

Hops:

0.50 oz Amarillo – 60 min

1.25 oz Cascade – 60 min

0.5 0z Amarillo – 15 min

0.5 oz Cascade – 15 min

0.5 oz Amarillo – 2 min

0.5 oz Amarillo – 2 min

0.5 oz Amarillo – dry hop

0.5 oz Cascade – dry hop

So I wanted to have a subtle, yet noticeable nutty/toasted malt flavor hiding beneath the all those citrusy hops, so the addition Victory malt seems reasonable.  To give the beer a silky mouthfeel I thought a pound of flaked barley would fit nicely, this is what they do in a beer like Guinness to give the creamy mouthfeel.

Now the yeast and here enters my problem.  Our new basement is quite a bit colder than our old one, I have moved my thermometers around and the basement ranges from 50F to 58F.  I wanted to use a British ale yeast, but most varieties recommend mid 60sF to low 70sF for fermentation temperatures, my basement is much too cold for that.  I could use Nottingham dry ale yeast or a clean American ale yeast, but I’m hoping for something different.  I’m thinking of going with an altbier yeast, it will be a bit different, still relatively clean and dry enough.  Although a Scottish ale yeast sounds good too.  I have a feeling this yeast selection will be a game time decision.  So do you have any comments about the yeast or anything else on the recipe?  If you brew it up, drop me a line.

Justin

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