Hazelnut E.S.B. / Base Beer Tasting, and process REVEALED

Finally, here's an evaluation of the hazelnut beer I made a few months ago, and details on the hazelnut product I used as well as how I used it.

First, let's discuss the process, which I kept secret at first, but I promised I would get to. The hazelnut product I lucked into is produced by Freddy Guy Hazelnuts in Monmouth, Oregon. Clarissa and I regularly stock up on their dry-roasted hazelnuts at the PSU farmers market, and they are just great nuts. We put them in salads, breadcrumb mixes, desserts, and also we just snack on them when we have the munchies. A few months ago they had a little sign up that said something to the effect of "We sell hazelnut press cake for brewers, ask about it!" Hazelnut press cake is a by-product of their hazelnut oil. After the hazelnuts are pressed to extract most of (certainly not all of) the oil, a still very flavorful and largely oil-reduced hazelnut cake is left behind. As we all know, oil is the bane of foam stability in beer, and may muddle up the beer flavor in other ways.

Fritz, one of the owners of Freddy Guy, has experimented with hazelnuts in his own homebrew. He typically uses a pound of nuts in 5 gallons, 5 minutes from the end of the boil, to achieve a good hazelnut flavor in his brews. While this would be a great way to introduce them to a recipe as a homebrewer, I am always thinking of how this might pan out on a commercial system. First off, I would worry about about small chunks of hazelnuts slipping into the heat exchanger, which could be very difficult to get back out. It seems like they might even plug up or stop a runnoff completely in a worst-case scenario. Maybe not, but it could be a risk. They could be bagged up, but that would be 30 or more pounds to bag up for a in a 10 barrel brew. My aim with this homebrew was to isolate the the hazelnut contribution by having a clean version of the beer to compare it to, so I decided to add my hazelnuts to half of the beer post-fermentation.

I added 1 lb., 2 oz. of hazelnut press cake to 4.5 gallons of the base beer. The beer had finished primary fermentation and the "clean" half was racked directly to a keg. I prepped the hazelnuts by adding them to 1 quart of boiling water to semi-sanitize them. They do soak up liquid and they soaked up the quart of water completely, so they will decrease your beer yield if they are not rehydrated in some way. Then I funneled them into a large carboy which was then purged with CO2. The beer was transferred on top of this and kept at 68-ish for 2 weeks. I would have only kept it on for a week, but then, you know, life happened, and it just sat around in my back room until I found time to empty out and clean a keg to transfer it to. I periodically spun the carboy to get the nuts back up in suspension. I did see a small trace of oil on top of the beer, but I just tried to leave it behind when siphoning to a keg. The kegged beer was not fined. I just had about 3/4 inch of the dip-tube cut off to leave any sediment at the bottom.

THE COMPARISON:

Base Beer: Nutty, carmelly malt aroma, light citrus/fruity esters from yeast and late hops, but malt-balanced. A touch of tobacco aroma at the end. Deep copper-red hue, good clarity but not crystal clear, with light bubbles. Low foam stand, probably just from lower carbonation. Flavor is malty, like a good amber ale, with plenty of caramel and biscuit flavor from malts and high level of crystal malts, but not cloying. Hop flavor is moderate, spicy, and grassy. Medium-full bodied mouthfeel, finish is dry. Nice drinking beer, not really an E.S.B., more of an American Amber. I could see having a couple of pints in a row with dinner or a yard-work session.

Hazelnut Beer: Exactly the same in appearance as the base beer, no excess haze or particulate, and both have a light wispy head. Aroma is definitively hazelnutty, but it is different than that of a hazenut-extract beer (i.e. it does not smell like hazelnut-flavored coffee or Torani syrup). There is a certain smooth, creamy, nut-buttery quality to it, a light floral perfumeyness, as well as a dry-roasted presence. It's not restrained, it's very much the dominant aroma, but still smells like beer. The hops are not as present in the aroma, and the malt plays a background role. Flavor is like the base beer, but with a sweeter presence similar to almond extract, and a slight dry-roasted nut finish. Not as bitter or hoppy (going back to the base beer for a taste it seems really hoppy in comparison) but it has a nutty dryness at the end. Overall, I think it really captures the essence of the hazenut. The flavor combination works, and I would say it's a very drinkable beer. All the same, maybe the hazelnut level is a bit (like 25%) too high, because I think after a pint of this I would be ready to move on to a different beer. The hazelnut aroma/flavor seems to be powerful enough to potentially stand up to a stronger base beer like a porter or stout.

If you are interested in obtaining some press cake for brewing, and if you do not live in the area, you should contact Freddy Guy's via their website. It looks like they have a mail-order page, and although they do not have the press-cake listed their, I'll bet they would be willing to ship it if you asked nicely. It looks like minimum orders are $25, so you might want to go in on it with some friends or buy some other stuff too. I can't say the exact price they would charge for the cake, but it is probably a pretty good deal.

Ludd Lite Saison 1.0, and first impressions of Beersmith 2.0

(Above: Typical Oregon summer. You have to dress your carboys up like Kenny from South Park and, use heating pads to keep your saisons warms enough!)

This is a pretty "corny" name for a recipe...I was kind of conceptualizing a product that could be marketed one day, even though in all honesty I will probably never call it Ludd Lite (if I did I would probably get a cease and desist request in the mail from a certain macro-brewer). I have always been interested in a saison using all American ingredients, and more specifically, one brewed 6-row barley and corn. So, this was really just a daydream, but I wanted to see how the beer might actually taste: a low gravity "entry level" craft beer that is actually a saison, but takes significant influence from macro-American-lagers. I guess the real trick is making a beer that is super-drinkable but also substantial enough not to be called "watery". We'll see how it comes out. The "Ludd" part of the name is kind of a jokey reference to Ned Ludd, the legendary leader of the Luddite movement in England which rebelled/rioted against automated machinery in the workplace taking away from skilled human jobs. It seems to fit the saison/farmhouse philosophy of doing things.

I'm still pulling my hair out over this damn Wyeast 3724 (Saison Dupont) yeast. I had my first generation batch (the saison with rye) in the keg/secondary with an airlock, kept warm at 85 degrees for 3 weeks. It was bubbling slowly but constantly, so I was hopeful that it was dropping in gravity...until I pulled a sample yesterday during my brew session. It has only dropped 2 points in that time from 1.026 to 1.024! Damn, that was so frustrating I almost stopped my brew session right there. But I decided to keep going, and it did encourage me to pitch and ferment even hotter this time. So far that seems to be paying off with a visibly more vigorous ferment in the first 24 hours. I will pull about a quart off of the new beer to re-krausen the first saison, and hopefully that will do the trick in getting it going again.

Also, this is my first try at using Beersmith 2.0 for Mac. I have always used Promash in the past, even though I've had to keep a barely-working old IBM Thinkpad PC around to run it. Well, so far my opinion of Beersmith is that it's good, but in some ways incredibly over-engineered. I'm sure part of that is just getting used to a new program and figuring out how to do things, but it seems like it is trying to automate too much of the brewing decision making. For instance it is trying to tell me exactly how much water to use in my mash, when and how to do the mash steps, and I don't really brew like that. It's also trying to tell me how many days days it will take to ferment (if you know this yeast, that is even more of a knee-slapper). From the "Brewsheet" layout, I learned that on 7/29/11, I am supposed to "Drink and Enjoy", at which point I am supposed to self score my beer on a 50 point scale. It seems hard to just ignore these parts of the program, but maybe I can change my preferences or make them go away.

Also, with Promash I always used the mash-in temperature calculator to tell me what temp I should get my mash water to in order to hit my target mash temp, and it worked great within a degree every time. With Beersmith's calculator and I ended up mashing in 4-5 degrees hotter than I wanted (easy fix, just mix in a little extra cold water real fast). It is frustrating for now, but I want to try figure out these hangups before I gripe too much about it.

But...I can copy & paste the recipe reports! (Text in RED is some of the stuff that is just wrong or that I would prefer not to have automated and I don't know how to change yet.) If there's any confusion on numbers, see the "notes". They are correct.

Ludd Lite (6-Row, Corn, Crystal hops)

Belgian Specialty Ale

Type: All Grain	Date: 06/15/2011
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.70 gal	Brewer:
Boil Size: 7.21 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: 6 gallon - SS mashtun
Final Bottling Volume: 5.20 gal	Brewhouse Efficiency: 88.00
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50): 0.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 3 lbs 9.0 oz Pale Malt (6 Row) US (1.8 SRM) Grain 1 51.4 % 2 lbs Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 2 28.8 % 1 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 3 14.4 % 21.00 g Crystal [4.30 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 12.7 IBUs 21.00 g Crystal [4.30 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 6 4.3 IBUs 14.00 g Crystal [4.30 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 7 0.0 IBUs 6.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.4 % 1.0 pkg Belgian Saison (Wyeast Labs #3724) [124.21 ml] Yeast 8 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.039 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.038 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.006 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.3 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.3 %
Bitterness: 16.9 IBUs	Calories: 0.0 kCal/12 oz
Est Color: 2.5 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out	Total Grain Weight: 6 lbs 15.0 oz
Sparge Water: 5.06 gal	Grain Temperature: 60.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	Tun Temperature: 155.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Mash In Add 11.94 qt of water at 157.1 F 148.0 F 75 min
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Keg	Volumes of CO2: 2.7
Pressure/Weight: 17.22 PSI	Carbonation Used: Keg with 17.22 PSI
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 45.0 F	Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage	Storage Temperature: 65.0 F
Notes
Yeast: Generation 2 Saison. Cold stored 4 weeks. 4 Tbsp thick slurry into a 1 quart stirplate starter with a little extra yeast nutrient, 24 hours before pitching. Mash: 2 gr. gypsum, 2 gr. CaCl. Mashed in high: 153ish. Calculation said I would mash in to 149. Adjusted quickly with cold water. Fell to 140 over 45 minutes. Heated over 5 minutes to 154. Rest 20 min and sparge. Sparge: 3.75 gallons at 170. 2 gr. Gypsum, 2 gr. CaCl. Collect 5.5 gal at 1.040 = 88% efficiency Top up with 2.5 qts Boil 60 min Wyeast nutrient (1 tsp) and whirlfloc at 10 min Top up to 6 gallons (hot volume) at end of boil (should be 5.75 cold volume) Whirlpool and chill thru plate chiller to 80 degrees Collect 5.5 gallons Oxygen 90 seconds Put on heating pad immediately and dialed in to 90 degrees, it was fermenting within a couple hours. 6/16 ramped to 95 6/20 decreased to 93 6/21 decreased by 2 degrees per day, down to 85, and held there. 7/7 Racked to keg, 1.005. Force carbonate.

New Saison, and Working with Dupont Yeast

Well, I still love saisons. That's no big news. I still love the Dupont yeast profile the best out of any of the commercially available saison strains. It's also a serious bitch to work with! At least in my experience, it takes forever to ferment, as in 6+ weeks even at high temperatures, if you're lucky. On a commercial level, that would be very problematic. I have never used the Dupont yeast in a pro brewery setting, but one day I want to own a brewery that will have a year-round saison offering, and it needs to ferment much quicker than that. I think 3 weeks fermentation (4 weeks to a finished kegged product or 6 weeks for bottle conditioned) would be acceptable, but more than that is really pushing it. Some pro brewers report (relatively) fast results with the Dupont yeast, at least after a few generations to warm up. Others resort to other strategies, like pitching a secondary yeast for attenuation. For now, I still want to see how it performs after a few generations to "warm-up" before resorting to other methods like using a yeast blend, or pitching a secondary yeast.

The following recipe is a first-generation pitch, and yes, the yeast is being it's normal bitchy self. I racked it over from primary after 3 weeks at 80+ degrees (it peaked at 90), and it was still only at 1.026. The flavor sample was great though, it really has that complex fruityness and a sort of earthy aftertaste that I have never really found in the other commercially available saison strains. The beer is currently sitting a secondary/keg with a blowoff, wrapped in a towel and a heating blanket which is keeping it at 85 degrees. It's still creeping along, and if it hasn't dropped substantially in another 2 weeks I'm going to give in and pitch a more attenuative yeast.

I added twice the Wyeast nutrient that I usually do for this batch, and I also gave it an extra 30 seconds of oxygen. I was not able to increase the yeast pitch, because my big Erlinmeyer flask was tied up in another brew, but I did make a 1 quart, stirplate starter. On successive batches I will try pitching more yeast, and maybe even let it get up to 95 degrees, and see if that helps.

House Saison - Beta version

Brewed on 4/29/11

Recipe is for 5.7 gallons, all grain, post-boil volume

O.G. 1.055 F.G. 1.006 ABV 6.5% IBU's 33

9 lb. Weyermann Pilsner malt

8 oz. Munich 10L

8 oz. flaked rye

4 oz. Belgian Aromatic

2 oz. British C 75

24 gr. Sterling pellets 7%AA 90 min

6 gr. Sterling pellets 7%AA 15 min

16 gr. Goldings pellets (U.S. I think) 4.9%AA 15 min

42 gr. Goldings pellets 4.9% 0 min

4 gal H2O + 2 gr. gypsum + 1 gr. CaCl

Mash in to 147, fell to 142 over 40 min

Heated to 149, rest 50 min

total mash time 90 min, no mash-out

Sparge with 5 gal H2O + 2 gr. gypsum (ran out of CaCl or it would have gotten a gram) at 170.

Collect 6.6 gallons at 1.048 = 81% efficiency

Boil 90 minutes, hop additions as noted

1 tsp. Wyeast nutrient & 1/2 whirlfloc tab at 10 min

whirlpool 1 min

rest 15 min

transfer thru plate chiller over 10 min

oxygen 90 seconds

pitched 1 quart stirplate starter of Wyeast 3724 at 70 degrees

Fermentation time/temp, adjusted by heating pad & thermostat combo:

Day 1: Pitch at 70, ramp to 75 that night

Day 2: 80 a.m, 85 evening

Day 3: 87 a.m, 90 evening

Day 4-7: 90

Day 8-23 turn down 1 degree per day til at 80, then hold

Racked to keg on 5/22, 1.026. Sheesh! holding at 85 degrees.

6/15 Still at 1.024...added 1 quart of Ludd Lite at high krausen to try and re-kick off fermentation. That took it to down to 1.017...Christ.

7/24 Added some top-cropped WLP 530 yeast, which took it down to 1.012. Yaaargh...

8/10 Added 1 pint of B. brux infused Dubbel to further attenuation.

9/1 Finally, Finally down to 1.006! The Brett did well, should have added it earlier, but I was trying to get it down with the original yeast. Hasn't aged out long enough to take on characteristic B. Brux aroma profile, which is kind of nice. Chilling, carbing, and preparing to drink.

Hazelnut. Extra. Special. Bitter.

Looking back at some of my recent blog posts, it appears the last time I brewed was late February, about a 2 month hiatus from homebrewing! That's a lot for me, but I've been busy. I was working 6 days a week for a while, brewing and cellaring for Alameda and Cascade, and believe me, when you do that, the last thing you want to do is spend your only day off huddling over a propane burner in a cold garage while it's raining outside.

Before I get on to posting a recipe, I should get this out of the way: This month, I made the full transition to brewing full-time for Cascade Brewing. It's a bittersweet change for me, because I have really loved my time brewing for Alameda. Working with Carston, Eric, and the rest of the crew has been great, and it will always have a special place in my heart as my first job as a professional brewer. But as a 3/4 time employee, and with Cascade offering a full-time position, I had on opportunity that I just couldn't pass up. I am very excited to work with the Cascade crew, and learn in a production environment that regularly works with barrel-aged sour beers. I feel this will really make me into a strong and confident brewer who is ready to start their own brewery some day in the not-too-distant future.

This recipe that I'm about to post comes about from a few influences: First, I think I will be concentrating more on making 10 gallon batches, less frequently, of beers that are more sessionable in nature. I'm not painting myself into a corner on that one, but I feel like this is more the kind of beer I want to have on tap. I'm not into bottling or creating a lot of extra work for myself, and I can still play with variations on batches after the primary fermentation is complete. Second: I found what I think will be a really cool product that may be available to homebrewers soon. It's a hazelnut product, and I actually want to keep the nature of the product a bit of a secret for now while I am playing with methods of infusing the beer, but rest assured, it's not a bottle of hazelnut extract. It's real nuts. Of course, the problem with nuts is mainly the fact that they have a high oil content, which destroys beer head and can have an effect on flavor and mouthfeel too. This product should provide a way around the oil content problem.

So, half of this batch of a slightly maltier/less hoppy E.S.B. will get a hazelnut infusion post-fermentation, and I will reveal the product & process, whether it works well or not, when I post a recipe tasting in about a month. Since it's something that I think has potential on a pro level, it's important that I try a process that will work on a pro scale. It can't be something that, say, clogs up or detroys a heat exchanger with hazelnut bits, or requires 25 gallons of vodka to extract the flavor and aroma.

This recipe is truly based off what I already had on hand, and I wouldn't necessarily formulate a recipe for an E.S.B. like this if I were to buy everything at a homebrew shop. It's a new yeast for me too, I don't think I have used the Wyeast 1968 (Fuller's) yeast since my early days of homebrewing, if ever. Anyway, enough blabbering, here's the recipe.

Base Beer: Extra Special Bitter

Brewed on 4/20/11

12.9 gallons pre-boil, 11.6 gallons post-boil

O.G. 1.051 F.G. 1.016 ABV 4.7% IBU's 30

7.5 lb. Hugh Baird Marris Otter malt

6 lb. Great Western 2-row organic pale malt

3 lb. Crisp Crystal 35

1 lb. Munich

.5 lb. Aromatic

.25 lb. Pale chocolate

35 gr. Perle pellets 8.5% AA 60 min

24 gr. Perle pellets 8.5% AA 15 min

18 gr. Northern Brewer pellets 7.8% AA 15 min

14 gr. Styrian Goldings pellets 3.4% AA 15 min

56 gr. Styrian Goldings pellets 3.4% AA 0 min

Mash in 5 gallons H2O + 3 tsp "Burton salts", 151 degrees for 60 minutes

Add 2 gallons 200 degree water to bring up to 157

Recirc immediately and sparge with 7.5 gallons H2O + 1 tsp "Burton salts" at 170

Collect 12.9 gallons at 1.046 = 89% efficiency

Boil 65 minutes

Wyeast nutrient and Whirlfloc at 10 min

whirlpool, rest 10 min

chill to 70 with plate chiller over 15 minutes

oxygen 2 minutes

pitch 2.5 liter stirplate starter of Wyeast 1968

Ferment at 68

Clean half was racked straight to keg after primary. For details on the hazelnut process, go here.

Also, I can't remember if I've talked about my new fermenter on the blog yet? Check it out. This was actually an old yeast brink that had been sitting unused at Alameda for quite a while. It's exactly what it looks like: A full-sized keg that has been converted with a corny lid, a gas-in post, liquid-out dip tube, and a manual pressure relief. I cut off the dip tube to leave a gallon of liquid underneath. We'll see how it goes for racking the beer to secondary/keg through the dip tube this time, and if I got the height right to not pull too much yeast through and not leave too much precious beer behind. In the photo, it's sitting in our cold back room with a heating pad strapped on the outside to keep it up to 68 degrees. It's wired in through a Ranco digital thermostat to keep it right at temp.

Tired of beer, time for a big change.

This may come as a bit of a shock for some people, because I haven't really voiced these feelings here before, but I have been grappling with some very odd feelings over the last 6 months or so. I think with this last year of working a lot (sometimes too much) with brewing and going to all these beer events, yadda yadda, that beer is just getting a little...old. There, I said it. It's just like, how many IPA's or imperial stouts or even complex farmhouse ales or sours can you really drink before it all starts to taste the same?

I've been drinking a lot of nice local wines lately, and learning about different varieties, and it's been really refreshing just to taste and learn about something that's not beer for a while! I may get some flack for this, but I have always been one to speak my mind: wine just really is more complex than beer. I realized when we started the Flanders barrel project that I do want to work with barrels, it's just not beer that I want to put in them anymore.

It feels weird. It feels like I am breaking up with a girlfriend of 9 years. Will I even know how to live my life without her? Of course, but it will take a while. It's time to see other people. I'll still see her around at parties from time to time and we will have our awkward conversations, and maybe even be friends some day, but I need some time apart before that can happen.

I have been speaking with a local winemaker, a guy I met during my search for wine barrels, who says he might need some help in the fields this summer. It's a small mom & pop operation in Yamhill. Don't want to give away the name of the winery yet, but I'l fill you in with details when the time is right.

I still wish all you guys the best in your beer brewing adventures. If you're interested in reading a winemaking blog, stay tuned for future posts!

Chin Chin!

Golden Lager Tasting

Here's a tasting of the "Golden Lager" I did brewed quite a few months back.

5.2% ABV, 28 IBU's

Aroma: "Beery" Lager aroma, moderate spicy/herbal hop character, slight malt sweetness, pretty big toasted bread/ graham cracker aroma from Munich malt & melanoidins. Very clean lager fermentation with almost no noticeable esters. Clean alcohol, no diacetyl.

Appearance: Very clear, though obviously not filtered, deep golden color, not a huge head but a well-retained white head that leaves a lacing. Fairly spritzy carbonation, just right for a traditional lager.

Flavor: Big malt flavor up front with a moderate caramel flavor, big toasted bready character, and moderate residual sweetness. Bitterness is moderate with a higher than average hop flavor than most German lagers of its type. Finishes malty but a touch of natural acidity helps dry the aftertaste. Bready malts come through again after the swallow. Fermentation character is very clean, no off flavors and you almost don't notice the alcohol at all.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full body with noticeable dextrins give it a creamy texture. Lively bubbles. slight acidity provides more of a thirst-quenching impression

Overall: This beer really fits the bill for a Dortmunder or lighter-colored version of an Oktoberfest. This was a beer that, when younger, definitely had a bit too much finish hop profile going on, that sort of got in the way of the malt complexities. It still does have more than average hop aroma/flavor for a German style lager, but it's much better integrated. The additional lagering time has really helped round this beer out substantially (I use the word "lagering" a bit loosely since it really just sat in a keg at about 38 degrees for a few more months). My main complaint is that the Munich malt comes off as a bit too heavy, or maybe it's coming more from the carahell, but I get a little too much bready flavor in the finish that almost makes it seem earthy or vegetal, if that makes any sense. I would play around with the proportion of specialty malts a bit, perhaps lowering the percentage of both Munich malt and carahell, and adding back a little caramunich for color and residual sweetness. I would also reduce the finishing hops by a half-ounce. I like the yeast, but it also might be fun to play around with a "malty" lager yeast, as opposed to this "clean, dry" version that is admittedly a great workhorse lager strain. If I wanted to perfect this beer though, I would probably start by adjusting the malt and hop bill, and then play with the yeast later once I got that dialed in. Overall it's a very good drinking beer, quaff-able, with the overly bready character being slightly annoying and keeping me from going back for a second pint, but the lager brewing technique is very spot-on and that's what's most important.

Wontonamo Bay (batch 2) IPA tasting

Ah, a day off. I don't get enough of these right now, and I'm enjoying it! I haven't left the house or even put on real pants for that matter. I am wearing Clarissa's pajama bottoms because mine are in the wash. But you don't want to know about that...how about a homebrew tasting?

Wontonamo Bay IPA - Batch 2

Aroma: Piney, spicy, slightly oily hops, some general citrus/fruit aromatics with a little grapefruit. Fairly dank, with a light caramel malty note, very clean/background malt aroma, no diacetyl, clean fermentation profile with clean alcohol.

Appearance: Very clear, deep copper with moderate carbonation. Wispy white head, but OK retention, would probably persist longer if carbonation were higher. The finings seem to have helped the clarity quite a bit compared to my previous hop-hazed beers (which I really don't mind at all).

Flavor: Full-on hop blast in the first sip, a lot of flavor hops going on here. I get a little onion from the summit, an overall spicy, herbacious and piney flavor, a little grapefruit. Malt is very clean, just a touch of caramel malts let the hops really come forward. Bitterness has calmed a bit since it was first brewed, but it is still has a clean, bitter, slightly woody finish with just a touch of residual sweetness. A little flavor contribution from the Carapils. I swear there is a distinct flavor to beers with Carapils, even though most people would tell you it just adds body. A bit of alcohol at the end, but hey, this is an alcoholic beverage. It's not hot or bitey.

Mouthfeel: Slight slickness or creamyness from some residual sugars, great bubblyness, crisp finish with a little hop astringency.

Overall: I think this beer has really gotten better with a little time, and it's definitely the best IPA I have ever made. But that is compared to a lot of IPA's that just seemed to be too balanced or problematic in other ways. I'm not really sure if I would change anything. I need to drink more of it to find out! It's pairing nicely with my rustic lunch of homemade bread, sharp cheddar and stilton.

In all likelihood, with my current work schedule, I won't be doing any homebrewing for the next month or so. That will be my biggest break since moving out to Oregon. So, until I get some new brews going, I'm going to try to update the blog about once a week with a beer tasting of something that I've already brewed. I hope to get back to homebrewing at least once a month by May, and really just concentrate on brewing 10 gallon batches of lower alcohol, drinkable beers, or doing sours or strong beers that I can brew and forget about for a while.