Way back in the end of January, my only post of this calendar year, I laid out the groundwork for what I wanted to accomplish this brewing year. I am currently failing miserably. For most of my brewing career I have been making one-off recipes or beers that are not supposed to be the same year over year (my sours for instance). This year with the wedding coming up I decided to brew my own beer for the wedding since I had the capabilities and our venue is BYOB. Perfect, right?
Here is where things went wrong. My first witbier was an amazing beer. I think mostly due to the dregs of Jolly Pumpkin adding the delicious tartness and added depth in the flavor. It was a great beer. It really way. Fast forward 2.5 years and I want to make something similar. First attempt was no good. It was medicinal. Probably from my use of tap water straight from the tap on such a light beer. So for the next batch I decided to finally purchase a water filter. The beer turned out OK. It just was not up to my standards for my "Wedding Wit". With time running out at this point I turned my attention to a beer that was maybe a bit more sturdy and not as delicate and did not rely on the yeast to bring that added complexion.
I turned my attention to an English Summer Ale. The recipe from Radical Brewing seemed to be just what I was looking for. I brewed the "old school" version that used traditional English hops. I always found English hops to be a bit too earthy – almost dirty - in flavor. This recipe was great on all fronts except the hop flavor profile. I just found that the beer was a bit too spicy or earthy for my liking. The bitterness levels where good and the malt flavor was a nice bread-like crustiness with some mellowness from the wheat. I think the hop flavor could of been tamed a bit if I used another yeast. I love dry beers. When I read the description for this beer in the Radical Brewing book I just thought it would be great to have that bone dry crisp finish. I think this let the hop flavor push all the way through without a bit of sweetness to balance.
So, now what?
I was brewing my Mango Brett IPA. This recipe got turned down to more of a Xtra Pale Ale. Too big for a pale ale technically and just a tad too small for an IPA. So what are we going to do about the other 10 gallons we needed for the wedding.
My cousin-in-law volunteered to brew up these ten gallons. He brews these types of British beers more than I do so what better way to do this than pass on my recipe and tasting notes to him?
He took my recipe and brewed five gallons. He used a more malt-flavor-retaining yeast and cleaned up the hop flavor by using Cluster. The American version of the British hops I am not a fan off.
He then brewed up a 5 gallon recipe of Kentish Ale. This should just be a really nice light ABV English Pale ale. Complex but sessionable.
I will recap the festivities and the beers that we all have. Hopefully come June I will be back on a more regular schedule.
When I get back into my routine of brewing it will be a run of IPA's and the three base sour beers.
Keep it easy for the first summer of marriage!
