Dark and Mysterious Update - a Beer Review

Oh, lord, there's still some of this abomination around? Ok, I guess that was harsh. A few weeks ago Justin dropped off a sixer of the remaining cache of the Dark and Mysterious Cinnamon Porter (MB0012-T2). Personally, I had chalked this one up to experimentation a long time ago, thinking that it was completely gone until it showed up at my door, and with this, I knew I had to give it one more shot. Time for another homebrew review.

A bit over carbonated. Pours black with shades of red and a HUGE non-dissipating, khaki head. The beer took 5 minutes to pour it. The head retention is insane. It's sticking together an inch above the top of the snifter. Nose is still a mixture of Close Up Toothpaste and Big Red chewing gum. The cinnamon taste has subsided and mildly degraded. It was too much, and still is at this point. There's some mild malt character, along with some hop flavor and a decent bitterness (mild to moderate), but it's still all cinnamon, basically bordering on undrinkable. it is much better than before with great lacing. This may still improve, but I don't think it's going to get passed the overwhelming cinnamon flavor. Maybe in a few months. Watery mouth feel.

Yup, once again a reminder of what can happen when one doesn't follow the recipe.

Cheers,

Dave

Write it down somewhere!

...that is my advice to everyone. I have yet to post an entry because after I was added to this blog, I forgot my username and password. Oops. As I'm sure Nate has posted, the Indiana Homebrewers Club met last night, a week after originally intended. The group was small, but distinguished. We even had a couple new members. This is important to Muckney Brewing, as we presented two of our beers that were to be saved for the Febtoberfest extravaganza. Fortunately, Dave and I are always willing to throw some brews out there to the public, because tasting would have been pretty slim otherwise. What did we try? I'm glad I assumed you would ask:

Excelsior Stout- This was Jon's milk stout that was rather delicious, despite his constant self deprecating feelings towards it. Personally, I thought it was really good. A little on the sweet side, but overall pretty solid. I didn't get to rate it, but I have a bottle at home. Perhaps I'll get to that soon. I really should age it for 5 years as per Jon's suggestions for most beers.

Muckney Batch XI- Dave has posted on this, and his feelings were reinforced by all in attendance. This is a really solid beer. It turned out to be a Stone XI clone, which isn't bad for gathering up the leftovers from batches 1 - 10. Coincidentally enough, it was our 11th batch as well. How serendipitous. Great hop character, but well-balanced. Possibly a little hoppy for the non-hophead's palate, but very well-received. Nowhere near as face-melting as the Show Your Hop-P-Ness. (We haven't come to terms on an accepted spelling for that beer yet.)

Dark & Mysterious Cinnamon Porter- This was actually my first crack at recipe writing. It could have worked out a little better had Dave and I not 'sampled' so many beers during the brewing process. It might have occurred to us at that point that 12 sticks of cinnamon might be a little over the top. The original recipe called for about half of that I believe. Surprisingly to me, it went over pretty well. I am putting the spin on it that it is "Dark & Mysterious" because it mysteriously has the aroma of Close Up. The taste is decent though. The comments I heard were basically "it grows on you." That is exactly how I felt about it. If we give a second crack at this, we'll probably drop a little hops and lower the cinnamon quite a bit.

I apologize if I have rambled too much for my first post. I saw that someone had commented on a previous post about suggestions for using cinnamon. My advice: Don't use 12 sticks for a 5 gallon batch. We are currently planning out our date for brewing the R.I.S. We are probably going to use some vanilla bean to pair with the bourbon flavors. I suggested we set the oak chips on fire after we soak them in bourbon to get some nice smokey-charred flavor, but sometimes it just comes down to me wanting to set stuff on fire. I'm glad Dave is there to pull the reins occasionally.

Back in the Saddle Again

Sunday was Super Brew Sunday; Muckney Brewing's first attempt at two partial mash brews in one day. On the schedule were a PM run of G-Man's XLTPA (MB0013) and Rising Sun Ginger-Sesame Red Ale (MB0014-T3). Justin and I tackled the Red Ale first but, due to an unfortunate series of events, he had skip out on the XLTPA. For a 6+ our brew day, it went surprisingly smoothly, even with having to run a boil and a mash at the same time. I would definately suggest mapping out a plan if you're going to do more than one brew in a day.

So the results? They are currently fermenting in my dining room. Bubble, bubble. The Red Ale's wort tasted rather intriguing. I'm interested in how it turns out. The XLTPA was a bit short of its predicted OG, but that could have been because I was unable to stir it since I broke my brew spoon. Yeah, um, that plastic bends, but not that much. It's currently in three pieces in my trash. Wish I would have taken a picture. FYI, don't try to bend a brew spoon to fit in a 2 gallon pot filled with sanitizer. It fits, but not as one unit.

Sunday was also First Taste Day for the Dark and Mysterious Cinnamon Porter.

Two weeks bottled. Pours black w/ little head, amber hues throughout. Nose is 100% cinnamon, maybe a touch of roast. Smells of Close-up toothpaste. Taste is cinnamon up front, followed by roast and a touch of caramel. Finish is bitter, which lingers with some cinnamon into the after. Much better than I expected at this point.

I'm very interested to see how, a) this ends up with a couple more weeks on it, and b) how well this is received.

Up next for MB, more dark brews. A partial mash run of Quad D's Deep Creek Porter. Oh, and our first attempt at an RIS, some of which will be aged on bourbon-soaked oak chips.

Cheers,

Dave

Dark and Mysterious it is. . . . .

Justin and I bottled the Dark and Mysterious Cinnamon Porter last evening amid tastings of Ommegang and Rogue's Morimoto Soba Ale (both delicious, by the way). The CP has really come of age, with the extra days in secondary really helping it to mellow, in both hoppiness and cinnamon flavor. We'll see what happens when its carbed up.

It is unfortunate to say that this is the last brew that we have in the pipeline right now. Only air occupies our vessels. This should soon change. We have the next brew date scheduled for Super Bowl Sunday, with partial mash batches of XLTPA and Rising Sun Red Ale on the ticket.

Keep checking back.

Cheers,

Dave

New Year Cheer

Happy New Year to all. Hope that everyone made it though the holiday season intact and not too worse for wear. The last day of 2007 was a work day for Muckney Brewing, as Justin and I bottled the Batch XI Dark IPA and transferred the Dark and Mysterious Cinnamon Porter to secondary. Of course we had many a tasting while doing so, tasting some delicious winter ales from Jolly Pumpkin and Sly Fox.

We then celebrated the end of '07 by popping the first Show your Hoppeeness IIPA. I must say that we did a pretty damn good job. Bitter with tons of hop flavor and aroma, with a surprisingly full body and just a hint of resiny sweetness. We may actually be learning after all.

As of now, air unfortunately resides in the fermenting buckets of MB, but that will hopefully change soon.

Stay tuned, and happy '08.

Cheers,

Dave

Sixty, Ninety, One-Twenty, . . . .

So Saturday was another brewday for Muckney brewing. Besides Justin and I, Nate stopped by to "help" (read: drink). We brewed another of Justin's aggressive recipes, this time the Dark and Mysterious Cinnamon Porter (MB0012-T2). This was the second PM brew that we attempted, and all went smoothly, again, reaching 76% efficiency. As of yesterday morning it was bubbling away nicely in the dining room (the basement is too cold) which is loved by the wifey.

We also transferred the newly christened Batch 11 IBA (End of Year Beer) (MB0011) to secondary to allow it to dry hop for a couple/three weeks before bottling. The sample we had was pretty darn decent. Interesting flavors, some resin from the Chinook hops, plus a pretty complex malt character from all of the different grains/extracts added to it. I'm excited for this to be bottled and drinkable.

Speaking of drinkable, a Show Your Hoppeeness (MB0009-T1) was opened to see how its progressing after two weeks. It was a bit flat, needing to carbonate, but this was expected. Otherwise, its money. Huge bitterness and a decent hop aroma/flavor. I think it could have been/will be bigger (not sure yet) on the nose, that is, but I suspect that our method of dry hopping (adding hops to the beer after its in the carboy, instead racking it on top of the hops) may have yielded a less-than-expected hoppy aroma. We shall see.

As for the most delicious "Parallel" tasting as Nate put it, we were privy to a bottle of each of the "minute" IPAs from Dogfish Head. Pretty decent beer. I feel that the 60 minute was a bit underhopped for an IPA, but the malt backbone was good enough to cover for the lack of hop flavor, The 90 minute was pretty spot on for an Imperial IPA, with a strong, but not overpowering maltiness to accent the citrusy and piney hop character. The 120 isn't an IPA in my opinion, but on a planet of its own stylistically. Its like a barleywine that's been overhopped and over alcoholed. It was delicious, but I'm glad that I shared a twelve oz. bottle three-ways.

And now I'm off for a beer.

Cheers,
Dave