Dec 28 - IPA & Cherry/Wine Blended Sour
Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2019 6:31 pm
IPA:
OG: 1.063
FG: 1.013
ABV: 6.6%
IBUs: "64.7"
4.7kg Pils
0.30kg Honey
56.7g each of Galaxy/Simcoe/Idaho7 steeped @90c for 15min
Escarpment Voss Kveik @ 35C with a heat belt (1.013 in <24hrs on this one) @ 3psi
113.4g of Idaho 7 3 days prior to packaging
Pressurized transfer and packaged w/ a beer gun
My thoughts on this one:
Probably over a year since I brewed an IPA and my first using whirlpool/steeped additions. I was aware of the decreased perception in bitterness, but this was still a learning experience in just how more or less meaningless IBU calculations are, especially with steeped additions on a homebrew scale. Needless to say, I ended up with something less bitter than I was intending, next time I'll add some amount of bittering at the start of the boil to cover that. Overall happy with the hop profile otherwise, wasn't planning on entering this beer so I probably wouldn't have done a hoppy beer for the 28th had my other plan not gone sidewise. First time packaging with a beer gun, didn't get to sample any of the bottles myself since I came up short on volume, but feedback I got from the Big Spruce comp leads me to believe I should have compensated a bit by overcarbing as the bottles were perceived as being a bit low. Hopefully the packaging holds up and the pressurized transfer/bottle purging minimizes oxidation.
Sour
3:1:1 blend of cherry sour/pinot noir juice/brett saison
Cherry sour base
70% Pils
20% Raw Wheat
10% Chit Malt
Escarpment Cerberus & Belgian Sour Mix, brewed Feb 2019
125g/L Black sweet cherries for ~1.5 months
Pinot Noir/brett saison added prior to bottling, packaged with EC1118. ABV/IBU/etc are anyone's guess
This was my first attempt at blending and actually sampling different ratios, and while it didn't land where I was expecting, overall happy with this experiment. The brett saison seemed to dial back the acidity to right about where I wanted it, the pinot noir I feel could have been upped however. This was definitely a case of the room temperature of the samples coming across very differently than a chilled and carbonated blend from the bottle, as it warms the wine seems to come through quite a bit more. Overall the blend leaves the beer a bit more "one note" than I was hoping, but next time I brew something similar to this I'll probably try both warm and cold samples to see if there's noticeable difference and maybe try oak chips to get a bit more depth.
Also, I did receive some feedback on the Gahan comp that this one was a gusher. None of the bottles I've had gushed (I'm guessing theirs were warm and/or agitated), but just a fair warning to serve it cold and away from anything you don't want red wine stains on just in case!
OG: 1.063
FG: 1.013
ABV: 6.6%
IBUs: "64.7"
4.7kg Pils
0.30kg Honey
56.7g each of Galaxy/Simcoe/Idaho7 steeped @90c for 15min
Escarpment Voss Kveik @ 35C with a heat belt (1.013 in <24hrs on this one) @ 3psi
113.4g of Idaho 7 3 days prior to packaging
Pressurized transfer and packaged w/ a beer gun
My thoughts on this one:
Probably over a year since I brewed an IPA and my first using whirlpool/steeped additions. I was aware of the decreased perception in bitterness, but this was still a learning experience in just how more or less meaningless IBU calculations are, especially with steeped additions on a homebrew scale. Needless to say, I ended up with something less bitter than I was intending, next time I'll add some amount of bittering at the start of the boil to cover that. Overall happy with the hop profile otherwise, wasn't planning on entering this beer so I probably wouldn't have done a hoppy beer for the 28th had my other plan not gone sidewise. First time packaging with a beer gun, didn't get to sample any of the bottles myself since I came up short on volume, but feedback I got from the Big Spruce comp leads me to believe I should have compensated a bit by overcarbing as the bottles were perceived as being a bit low. Hopefully the packaging holds up and the pressurized transfer/bottle purging minimizes oxidation.
Sour
3:1:1 blend of cherry sour/pinot noir juice/brett saison
Cherry sour base
70% Pils
20% Raw Wheat
10% Chit Malt
Escarpment Cerberus & Belgian Sour Mix, brewed Feb 2019
125g/L Black sweet cherries for ~1.5 months
Pinot Noir/brett saison added prior to bottling, packaged with EC1118. ABV/IBU/etc are anyone's guess
This was my first attempt at blending and actually sampling different ratios, and while it didn't land where I was expecting, overall happy with this experiment. The brett saison seemed to dial back the acidity to right about where I wanted it, the pinot noir I feel could have been upped however. This was definitely a case of the room temperature of the samples coming across very differently than a chilled and carbonated blend from the bottle, as it warms the wine seems to come through quite a bit more. Overall the blend leaves the beer a bit more "one note" than I was hoping, but next time I brew something similar to this I'll probably try both warm and cold samples to see if there's noticeable difference and maybe try oak chips to get a bit more depth.
Also, I did receive some feedback on the Gahan comp that this one was a gusher. None of the bottles I've had gushed (I'm guessing theirs were warm and/or agitated), but just a fair warning to serve it cold and away from anything you don't want red wine stains on just in case!