Overall, it seems all of the beers were appreciated and one seems to have rose to the top. All of the beers are gone so something went right.
One downside to only having a 2.5 gallon keg for these is that we actually kicked the Kiwi Apricot Saison and the Three Blind Mice "Brett" IPA rather quickly. On the plus side, it means I can try more beers and it will force me to brew more often, something that has become harder to do with work, planning for a wedding (and making the beer for it) along with owning a house that just takes time away on the weekends.
I am going to provide a condensed tasting notes from each beer and then provide my overall impression and thoughts on how to move forward.
Here we go! Up first...
Three Blind Mice - Brett IPA with Mango Juice
I really love this beer. It has nothing to do with the fact that I made it. At 7.35% it drinks like a session. It's bitter with a fruity nose along with a fruit hop bite. What I really like is that is ends with just enough of a twist that it just isn't some other fruity hop IPA. That finish was best described by my one friend who said smoky. The smoky finish could what I call the funk bite. This of course coming from the "brett" yeast that was solely used to create the beer. As we know now, this yeast, Brett Trois, isn't actually brettanomyces (brett-a-no-mice-ez). They are saying it's a wild saccharomyces yeast strain. Hopefully by now you figured out why I called it Three Blind Mice.
Overall - I don't really plan to change this recipe. The one thing I will change is upping the bittering hop addition. I tried to match the extract potency with pellet hops and I think I miscalculated slightly. Another ounce in the beginning of the boil should do it. It will also help balance the extra sugar and ABV coming from the Mango juice. I thought the juice addition was near perfect. It made the beer have an extra fruity dimension without it punching you in the face and taking over the beer.
I do however plan to brew 5 gallons at a time when I make it going forward.
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Kiwi Apricot Saison
This beer... I don't know what to say. This is exactly what one friend said too. Another said "It's trying to be something, I just don't know what"
I think this is a case of too much going on. I tried to make a saison with New Zealand hops, apricot, Brett Trois and French Saison yeast. In theory all of the elements made sense. New Zealand hops are fruity, almost wine like. Apricot is, well, fruit. Brett Trois has tropical fruit esters and my experience of French Saison to this point was a nice fruity funk. Sounds like a decent concept.
It just did not come together in the first pint. The beer was a grassy, wine heavy beer with a slight hint of farm yard funk. One friend said he got sulfur in the finish that added that saison funk he knows of.
Why did I say it did not come together in the first pint? Because you have to get over the first pint and everything being thrown your way. Once you do its actually a really drinkable beer. It just messes with your head and it's hard to decide if you like it. The Nelson Sauvignon hops created such a wine heavy smell and flavor that you didn't know what you were drinking at first.
Overall - Solid experimental beer. I will go back to the Saison drawing board on this one and use the design philosophy of KISS - Keep it simple stupid. I think next year I am going to return to my original recipe with my original noble hops and add the apricot to that recipe and see how ti comes out.
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Barn-Cat Black - Sour Stout
Holy shit. That's all I need to say. This beer didn't taste too good in the bottle after 3 months. But now. It's almost exactly as I saw the beer coming out when my girlfriend and I mixed this batch. It has just enough roasty and toasty flavors to let you know you have a stout and it has the crispness, funk and sour edge you would expect from a sour beer. Im still in a bit of shock as to how this beer that almost turned into vinegar was saved by my first blending experience. These bottles will be savored and only come out on special occasions moving forward.
Overall - This beer has showed me that blending is a must for homebrew sours, not just commercial sours. Even though my blending method is super simplified it works out pretty well. I just took the super sour beer and made a new batch of clean Belgian inspired stout. Mixed them until I got the acidity where I wanted it along with the roast and toast flavors. The key is using a yeast that will make a really, really, dry beer. In my case WLP 550. This way you give yourself some assurance you wont create bottle bombs. So far so good. I will most likely be blending every batch to try and gain that balance. I'm sure there will be occasions where I may say screw it and go for a straight blend but this beer was a huge learning opportunity.
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Roosters Red - Flemish Style Sour Red
Double Holy Shit~!!!! This is the first bottle I opened of this beer. When me and my buddy mixed this ratio we kept getting a harshness that I couldn't explain. Maybe the tannin from the small oak barrel but it was just harsh with some sour sweetness. We mixed until the harshness was as minimized as we could get it. To my surprise this beer had ZERO harshness. I don't know what to say other than I was blown away. I can't wait to try this on a day where I don't consume as many beers as I did yesterday to get a true read on it but initial tastings are through the roof when it comes to expectations.
Overall - Pending a clean tasting day next time I crack one of these open there is nothing else to say other than FINALLY. After tasting my first two traditional sours that went from too oaky, harsh, vinegar, thin, flat and really just uninspired, I think I now have the confidence to really start making some great sour beer. One friend described this beer as "Great. As good as most and better than some commercial examples" Nothing more you need to say.
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Golden Geese - Lambic-Inspired Pale Ale
Interesting beer. It feel a bit flat. This of course came after we had the other sours listed above. It has the flavor needed in a lambic - funky, funky, funky, tart, horsey, etc. They just need turned up or dialed in more. It tastes young at 18 months. This bottle was a bottle that I saved from when I transferred the beer into the barrel. So technically, this is an unfinished product and guess what, thats what it tastes like. I will blend the barrel beer with a fresh batch and hopefully regain that balance. I amy even make a "clean" lacto belgian Blonde to mix with to punch up the acidity. I feel the beer has the funk it just needs some more to go along with it.
Overall - It tasted incomplete. That's good because this beer is incomplete. I will be bottling the barrel version in September. Around Christmas or so we should know where we landed with this one.
I would say this was a successful day of debuting some new homebrew beers to my friends. Here is how the ranked the beers for the day.
5. Golden Geese
4. Kiwi Saison
3. Three Blind Mice
2. Barn-Cat Black
1. Roosters Red
