Tasting Day: Phunky Pumpkin

This one is a bit late.  But I finally have the tasting notes ready for the sour chocolate pumpkin ale I made.  This beer started out as a chocolate pumpkin stout.  I noticed a pellicle after two weeks in the secondary and then noticed that I put the beer in one of my sour fermentors.  Whoops. Nothing really to do other than let it go at this point.  One year later, I put it on tap.

Appearance: Pretty much black.  Bit of a burnt amber on the edge of the glass.  Little bit of head is left after the beer settles.  Bit of lace on the glass as you sip away.

Aroma: It has a vinegar sourness in the nose. A bit of chocolate maybe.  Spices are noticeable but you can't pick one out.

Taste:  This is a weird one.  A good weird.  Some sips you get chocolate.  Some you get that vinegar sourness. Others have a mixed sour and cinnamon flavor.  As the beer warms you get way more chocolate.  It's sweet while not being over powering.  Very unique and overall a great beer.  Very surprised by how this "mistake" turned out.

Overall:  I probably won't brew this one again just because I have too many sours going but if I ever had a spare carboy that I can use up for a year I just may.  I saved a few bottles worth that I can sip on next year.  So we are looking at two years at a minimum.

Sour Tastings

I have tried most of my sours that are in bottles.  I have not done proper tasting notes on these.  My goal is to do them over the holiday break.

1. sour red
2. sour stout
3. kriek
4. sour red with currant and raisin
5. sour stout with blackberry pinot noir
6. phunky pumpkin sour pumpkin stout.


These will be fun.

Look for these postings coming at the end of the month.

Speed Brewing

So I bought the new book "Speed Brewing" by Mary Izett. I hear her on the Beersmith podcast and the book sounded like it had some interesting stuff in it.  Glad I bought it.  It has a tone of little easy to brew recipes.  Ciders, meads, small beers, sodas and more.  What this book has done is showed how to make some other fermented beverages without being as involved as brewing.

I never made a cider.  I knew it was easy.  But I just needed a nudge.  This book was that nudge. I have now made three ciders since getting the book.

Cider 1: A cider made with honey crisp apples and fermented with White Labs English ale yeast.
Cider 2: A cider made with multiple apple juices and blackberry juice and fermented with champagne yeast.
Cider 3: Crab apples, fuji apple cider, honey crisp apple cider, and a regular apple juice mix. Fermented on White Labs English Cider yeast.

So I have quickly covered cider.  Got my feet wet and I am just waiting on the finished product.

Next up is a mead.  I will admit that I have been intimidated by mead.  I also have not had a mead I liked.  I find them too boozy most of the time.  I also didn't want to hold up a fermentor for a year or so for a mead.  This book is about small ABV drinks that are quick to ferment.  On the podcast Mary said these meads are light, refreshing and much more enjoyable than typical meads.  So what the hell.  Let's try one.

In the book she mentions a mead called Vikings Blood.  OK.  You have my attention.  Its a mead with cherry juice.  I just happened to have some left over sour cherry juice from my kriek.  It seemed like I had to make this one.  So I mixed up 1.5 gallons of wildflower honey with 16oz of sour cherry juice. Added water to top it off and shook it all up.  Added champagne yeast and its off and running.  Curious to see how this one turns out.

I plan to do some alcoholic sodas and maybe even some brew in a bag recipes from this book. (Im tired of brewing in the cold in the winter)

Hopefully more to come.

Brew Day: Molasses and Brown Sugar Stout

It's winter.  That means stouts for me.  And I brewed up a batch of my Molasses and Brown Sugar Stout.  Nothing crazy on the brew day.  All went well and I hit my target starting gravity.  Its currently in the secondary and going to sit for another week or two.

The only thing that I did this time different is that I took one gallon and put it on chile peppers.  My buddy had some really hot peppers this summer.  At the end of the summer I took 3 and added them to this beer.

I hate chili beers so this is for him at his request.  Curious to see how it turns out but my taste buds probably wont like it even if it turns out "great".  See how it turns out.

Follow Up: Golden Sour Mixers

I've been terrible at posting lately.  I am going to do a lot of small posts to get everything somewhat up to date.  First up is the mixers I made for a mixing with my golden sour.  The two beers that I made were a lacto sour, essentially a berliner weiss, and an American farmhouse ale.  I have been mixing a few examples and still haven't found anything that I like.  The light blonde body doesn't have much to it for any flavors to hide behind.  I have one more mix.  Basically a 0.5 to 4 blend.  If this doesn't turn out I am going to go with the golden sour as is.  I liked it striaght, but wanted some new beer to add for carbonation and added complexion.  I am going to bottle this beer, either straight or blended, next weekend.  I'm losing time and don't want to back up my production timeline.  The two beers I made will be mixed and soured until next year.

So that's where I am with this beer.  Frustration is mounting but I think the beer will be pretty good no matter how it turns out.