So I just racked the beer I made with Jody a couple weeks back, into a keg. Final gravity was 1.010. This was the one I dry hopped in the carboy in primary, towards the end of fermentation. Gotta say, this thing tasted *awesome*. Like, *really* awesome. Candy-like, in fact. Just hops galore in there. Unfortunately, it's the second keg I have now that's *outside* the fridge and not hooked up to anything. Got a small Pale Ale in front of that one to go first. I will say that this beer was fermented with the Coopers Ale yeast and this time, I did NOT pick up any green apple flavors from the brew.. so, maybe I got it this time? Keep the ferment temp under 70 degrees and you'll be OK with Coopers? Stay tuned, kids, I'll report back in a bit when she's tapped...
Roasted the last of the 2007 Guat. Antigua the other day. First cup of that out of the chute yesterday and it was awful! Really bitter stuff. So today, I dialed back the grind a few notches, and the coffee was much improved.. not quite perfect, but much improved. Goes to show how sensitive the grind can be to a particular bean.. and goes to show how important the grinder is to the overall process. Making coffee isn't just throwing some grounds into a pot of hot water and calling it OK. It's meaningful stuff, to know how much coffee you're working with (weight being ideal.. ), the fine-ness of the coffee grounds, the temperature of the water you're brewing with and the overall amount of water to coffee ratio. Keep that stuff in mind, folks! SCAA rules here, 7 grams of coffee per 5oz of water. LIVE by it! Keep all that stuff "in the box", and work with the grinder to adjust your flavor. If your grinder sucks, all hope is lost, however. Time to whip out that credit card and live a little!
A little update on the sour Pale Ale I brewed with Pete a while back. I'm now 5 beers into it and t just gets better and better. The flavor is becoming more refined as time goes by. Focusing in on a good core taste. I'm really starting to enjoy it now, and thinking about the next one in line... this Hoppy Pale Ale with wild yeast is definitely not the normal beer.. but it has it's place.
Roasted the last of the 2007 Guat. Antigua the other day. First cup of that out of the chute yesterday and it was awful! Really bitter stuff. So today, I dialed back the grind a few notches, and the coffee was much improved.. not quite perfect, but much improved. Goes to show how sensitive the grind can be to a particular bean.. and goes to show how important the grinder is to the overall process. Making coffee isn't just throwing some grounds into a pot of hot water and calling it OK. It's meaningful stuff, to know how much coffee you're working with (weight being ideal.. ), the fine-ness of the coffee grounds, the temperature of the water you're brewing with and the overall amount of water to coffee ratio. Keep that stuff in mind, folks! SCAA rules here, 7 grams of coffee per 5oz of water. LIVE by it! Keep all that stuff "in the box", and work with the grinder to adjust your flavor. If your grinder sucks, all hope is lost, however. Time to whip out that credit card and live a little!
A little update on the sour Pale Ale I brewed with Pete a while back. I'm now 5 beers into it and t just gets better and better. The flavor is becoming more refined as time goes by. Focusing in on a good core taste. I'm really starting to enjoy it now, and thinking about the next one in line... this Hoppy Pale Ale with wild yeast is definitely not the normal beer.. but it has it's place.
I took a few pints of mine yesterday and I too am satisfied. This is a great beer. I'm hoping it clears up a bit. I'll probably put it in the fridge so the yeast crashes.
ReplyDeleteI am planning on entering it in the NHC, actaully it's already registered. I think mine is probably a little hoppier than Mikes because I dry hopped with two ounces of centennial.
I'll bring some to the big brew on 3/14.
Mine was pretty cloudy too, but I sorta expected that haze what with the dry hoping and all.. I kinda like it. Makes me think I'm getting more hops than I would be out of a clearer beer! :)
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