Belgian Pale & Hefeweizen & Coffee Stout Tasting, Beer & Campfires

I posted about brewing these beers a couple weeks ago here and I had the chance to enjoy them recently so I thought I would go over some tasting notes.

Belgian Pale

Appearance - Fairly clear beer, especially for a Belgian. Nice orange-amber-rusty color with a white 1/2 head that dissipates pretty quickly and doesn't leave much lacing on the glass. I'm very happy with the color.

Aroma - Not much for aroma on this beer. Even though it includes ingredients like coriander, bitter orange peel and grains of paradise it most smells of malt with a very small hint of orange citrus.

Mouthfeel - Light-Medium Light body and mouth feel. Not crisp and dry but just what you would expect for a pale ale. Almost slick/oily like a good oatmeal stout, not sure what's causing this.

Taste - There's a definite orange citrus flavor coming through on the front and back of my tongue which leads me to believe that both the coriander and bitter orange peel are in play here. There's a spicy note but not really peppery so like this is from the yeast rather than grains of paradise.

Future Changes - This beer is pretty good the way it is but I think it needs more spicy/phenolic/yeast character than it has. Ramp the temperature up to encourage yeast character. Fermented at 65 this time around, 75-80 should improve this beer.

Hefeweizen

Appearance - Hazy yellow color that reminds me of a banana Popsicle. Large foamy head that laces sticks around a moderate amount of time and leaves a nice lacing.

Aroma - Smells of banana. Not like a real banana but like a banana Popsicle, there's a theme forming.

Mouthfeel - Light body but not thin. Supports the beer perfectly.

Taste -  Very banana forward Hefe! There are some nice phenolic notes behind the banana but they're hard to put your finger on. This beer is so good but overwhelmingly banana so I assume it would not do well in competition. I would have said you wouldn't want to drink pint after pint of this beer but I've already proven that wrong.

Future Changes - None. I've brewed this recipe before with the Fermentis Wheat yeast and it came out much more balanced between phenol and fruity esters but just as good. I would not make this beer to have on tap all the time but it's a wonderful beer every now and again.

This beer is also great around a campfire:

Chocolate Coffee Stout

I brewed the bertusbrewery Chocolate Coffe Stout about a month ago for our annual memorial day party. My father-in-law loves the stouts and a strong cup of coffee so I thought I'd give this one a go.

I pretty much followed the instructions are recipe on bertusbrewery blog so have a look there if you're curious about any of that. Here are some pictures of the brew day.

Appearance - Moonless midnight black. You can't see through this beer even on the edges, very nice for a stout. Beautiful tan thick head that sticks around forever.

Aroma - Coffee! A tiny whiff of chocolate that eludes most of the time.

Mouthfeel - Medium-Medium Light and dry. This is definitely an american stout. It finished at 1.013 and with the roast and other dark malts + Coffee it finishes very dry on the tongue.

Taste - Great! I can't keep my hands off this beer which is a problem since it's earmarked for a party. It went over pretty well when I took it to our clubs big-brew-day as well. There is no chocolate taste in this beer at this point. There was a tiny amount when it was fresh out of the fermenter but the coffee has completely taken over at this point. It's still a great beer, amazing coffee flavor from the cold steeped kona and roast malt. 

Future Changes - First I would change the name to just Coffee Stout. The chocolate is barely noticeable. I would skip the cocoa nibs entirely, they're too expensive to waste on a beer where they're barely noticeable, I would split this beer into two. Leave the recipe as is for the stout removing the nibs and designing a chocolate porter minus the roast malts and coffee so the nibs can shine. I would also switch the yeast to WLP013 London Ale. This is a clean fermenting yeast that will leave a little more body in the beer which is how I prefer my stouts.

Homebrew Practices that Matter

1. Clean your equipment at the end of every brew day, sanitize before use on your next brew day! You don’t want to give any nasty critters the chance to start growing and embedding in your equipment so don’t leave it laying around with the perfect environment for this to happen. You also don’t need to use PBW to clean your equipment, dish detergent will do unless it’s a carboy you can’t get your hands into. Just make sure you clean it when you’re done using it for the day. This goes for Kettles, Mash tuns,pumps,hoses, flasks, hop bags etc… etc… etc...
2. Control your fermentation temperature and know the yeast you’re using. Some yeast perform best at 65, others 72 and still others at extremes one way or the other. Know your yeast and control that temp!
3. Know your equipment! Take the time to figure out the efficiency of your system so when you’re formulating a recipe you scale the ingredients to hit the numbers! This is important for future batches and adjustments otherwise your variables are too numerous to nail down what’s causing a certain flavor or lack thereof.
4. Know your water and the role it plays in each beer style! I know my water is high in alkalinity and total hardness. I can use my tap water for dark beers. Pale beers get RO water with gypsum and chloride added in with even ratios for malty pales, 2:1 for hoppy pales. Amber beers are just a mix of tap and RO water. Do yourself a favor and have your water tested. https://producers.wardlab.com
5. Make sure you’re not drunk by the end of your brew day! Drinking too much during the brewing process, next to ignorance, is probably the number one contributor to bad beer. It can cause you to forget to pitch your yeast, clean and sanitize an item, add hops during the boil etc... etc… etc…
6. Do not bag your hops in a beer you want to have great hop flavor and aroma. The loose hops rolling around in your boil seem to release more oils into the beer contributing more hoppy goodness.
7. Allow your hops into the fermentor. Long term contact with the hops also help in flavor and aroma contribution. Not all hops have to enter the fermentor but a significant amount will help the flavor and aroma of your beer.
8. After fermentation avoid allowing oxygen in your beer if you want it to last. If you have beer that’s going to be sitting around for a while then take extra care to avoid any splashing, vigorous stirring, air pockets in your auto-siphon etc.. etc.. etc… Oxygen is terrible for finished beers and will cause cardboard flavors, loss of hop flavor and aroma and staleness.

So says FerventBrewer

Belgian Pale & Hefeweizen

It's been awhile since my last post, mostly because the weather in my neck of the woods has gotten so nice and the honey-do-list is in full effect. That hasn't stopped me from brewing though. I still managed to fit in several brews in the last couple of months which I'll use for the next couple of posts.

My homebrew club  signed up for club night at this year's NHC (HomebrewCon) in Baltimore (look for the SLAM booth - Western Theme) but there are only four of us going so I felt the need to bring quite a few beers plus fill my own kegerator. I received a bonus day off from work when my fencing contractor called and said he needed to see the yard and the plans so I used the opportunity for a double brew day.

The first beer was 11 gallons of a Belgian Pale Ale I made up on the fly. It's about 70% pilsner, 20% munich, 5% caramunich and 5% crystal 60. I bittered with Warrior and flavored with saaz hops. There is also bitter orange peel, coriander and grains of paradise to Belgianize the beer :). I used White Labs WLP550 Belgian Ale which I've used several times and absolutely love.

The second beer was another 11 gallons of a German Hefeweizen that I've brewed before. The recipe is the same but I swapped the Safale Hefe yeast out for White Labs WLP 300 which is supposed to have more banana characteristics. I'm not competing with this beer so rather than balance I wanted it to stand out a bit more. I also added coriander and orange peel to this beer only I bagged it after clogging the kettle valve on the Belgian Pale ;-).

These beers are currently fermenting and both Hefe fermentors exploded on me. One was a bucket and the lid blew clean off. The other oozed all over my hardwood floor. Ahhh the price we pay for good beer.