Is it a coincidence that I started making darker beers lately? All this hooha about blond this and blond that. Yes, the blond hopshell was delicious, but I learned my lesson; nothing is the same the second time around.
The blond hopshell exploded.
My neighbor warned me. Bro, it's a crazy yeast. It does things. It attacks your fermentables like nothing you've ever seen. Oh I wasn't worried. I've done this before. I trust my gut. Ok bro, but at least have a blow off valve ready, you know, just in case. Na, it will be fine.
BOOOM.
shit.
Sometimes you gotta learn the hard way. Even if it takes a couple of tries.
Here's the scene. I wake up. Damn, it smells good in my basement. I walk out of my room. Hmm, why is the towel around the carboy looking really dark. Let me put my glasses on. HOLY SMOKES BATMAN! The blond hopshell has blown! I get a bucket to try and create a quick blowoff. Where is the airlock? Oh, there it is, 5 feet away under my amp. I look up- hops? on my ceiling? Yes. That reddish now brownish towel... full of wort. The best part is, I put the airlock back on (after sanitizing it of course) and it just blows off again! This blondie just doesn't quit! Finally I call my neighbor. He runs over and sees things are finally under control. He just laughs. Told ya brah.
Yep. lesson learned. Listen to people who know what they are talking about!!
Luckily, I didn't lose that much of the beer. When I racked it, maybe a bit less than a gallon was gone. So a few bottles lost and a hard lesson learned. The beer... well... the blond has some bite. It is extremely bitter though it should mellow out a bit. Like everything, time will help. Was I wrong to try it again? I don't think so. Sometimes you ignore warning signs and just hope to at least stick with the status quo. Sometimes it takes an explosion or two to open your eyes.
Now looking forward to dark beers. No explosions so far. I did use the same yeast on my one light colored brew, the Iggy Wit 20II.
So to recap my since last time we spoke.
I remade the blond hopshell. (it exploded if you for some reason skipped to here first)
My first black IPA came out more like a hoppy brown ale. Happy accident.
Black Rabbit 2.0. Well, I tried it tonight. The blast of citra hops lend a piney, grapefruit bouquet.
The limited dark malt still adds a big toasty bitterness. I wonder if the malt will give way to more hop flavor later on. The beer looks just like the mocha porter... but smells and tastes like an entirely different creature. This is why beer excites me more than any other beverage. If you put two red wines next to each other and said tell me specific differences i bet you would say this one is smoother, or has a slightly fruitier flavor. Put two beers that look exactly the same- one smells like grapefruit and the other like coffee! Where else can you find that?
Mocha Porter 2. (remember the Ingvoldstout, well this is her improved cousin). It's rich without being heavy. Creamy without being a guinness knockoff. It's just plain delicious. I'd pair it with spicy asian food or oysters and possibly chocolate cake. If you like that black on black action. you know, dark beer, dark food. No? Ok moving on.
Let's see. My Rye/Wheat/RoughRyeder ale is gone. That must mean it was good. It has a sweetness from all the malt, but the rye cut it a bit and the wheat smoothed it out. I think more micro's should make combination styles. Get creative. Try something new. I'm becoming a big proprietor of beer mashups. I start with a general idea of what type of beer I want and then, like jazz, improvise a bit, and let it all come back together in the end.
I made two wheat beers this month. The first, Iggy Wit 20II. Nothing out of the ordinary- bitter orange peel, coriander, grains of paradise. This is bound to be a crowd favorite. I did find a banana pudding recipe that calls for a wit beer. I'm thinking I may delve into beer infused desserts this summer.
Now for the f
un. My Hefeweizen. I started out wanting to make a german wheat beer. However, my neighbor made a delicious dunkelweiss so i thought, i dont want to duplicate that. But I also didn't want to make a plain hefe. The godfather of homebrewing, (mr. stuart) made my favorite wheat beer of all time... the hoppaweizen. So i couldn't just duplicate that. What to do what to do.Mashup. The hoppy dunkelweizen. Chocolate malt, big bitter warrior hops and enough fermentables to make this 7-8% abv. The name though, what to call it?
I am open to all suggestions.
As Mr Gump would proffer, That's all i have to say about that.
Until next time, which won't be as long, cheers!
