Ordinary World

Saturday was a brew day at MB. First, Justin and I transferred the Rising Sun Ginger-Sesame Red Ale to secondary. So far, so good. Very tasty right out of Primary. Lots of roasty sesame-ness, w/ some fruity esters from the yeast intermingling with the pungent ginger, then a nice bitterness at the end. A hint of sour from somewhere, but I think it was a flavor made by the ginger and the hops. To this lovely concoction, and after much debate, Justin and I kept to our written recipe and added 4 oz. of candied ginger which was boiled for 3 minutes to sanitize and remove the sugar coating. We're assuming that this will add some goodness to the nose and little, if any, taste profile. We shall see soon.

Justin had to depart early, so I was flyin' solo once the Red was transfered. So as an interim "session" brew before our venture into Imperial Stout-Land, I planned out what was supposed to be a Special/Best Bitter, but what turned out to be an underhopped bitter. I had shot for an OG of 1.043 and 30-ish IBUs. Forgetting I had made some tweaks to the hop schedule to get to the desired bitterness, I went right along with what I had originally had in my head, which was about 15 IBUs short. Plus I was 3 gravity points short. So here I am on the upper boundary of an Ordinary Bitter that's lacking the bitterness. So I'm thinking I'm going to turn out with a balanced XLTPA-ish type beer with a different hop and yeast profile. We shall soon see.

I may try to throw down with another session beer next weekend. Other than that, RIS-land is calling. Details to come.

Cheers,

Dave