Some Homebrew Reviews

I haven't posted any homebrew tasting notes recently, so I figured I'd throw some out there.

Eagle and Child Mild
I like me a good bitter, hence the reason we made one. The issue is I didn't follow the hop schedule and ended up with an underhopped mild (yes, my fault, Justin had booked by this time). And there's some minerally quality that I'm not quite sure about, but I think has something to do with the extract. Any rate, here's what I had to say about it.

Pours an orange-ish copper with a small, white, fizzy head that dissipates quickly to a small, white film. Nose is off, slight extract twinge with some caramel. Flavor is caramel and mild bread with a surprising dose of bitter. Notes of apple and white grapes as it warms. Finish is dry and after had a bit of extract/mineral twinge to it, which detracts from the flavor a bit. Not bad overall, but there's definitely room for improvement.

Aroma:5 Appearance:2 Taste:5 Palate:3 Overall:11

Jon's Celebes Stout

Jon was gracious enough to share a bottle of his coffee stout. Made with cold pressed Celebes coffee from The Commonplace Coffeehouse, the sweet stout balances the coffee well, or is it the other way around. . . I don't know. Any rate, here are my notes.

Pours black as night with chocolate, frothy head. Nose is all coffee with a touch of sweet chocolate and caramel. Taste is sweet with chocolate and dark fruit, mild raisin with the coffee kicking in towards the end and melding with the bitter well and continuing mildly into the after before giving way to a silky, chocolate flavor. The mouth feel is thin and oily with a mildly watery feel early. This is a tasty stout. I kind of sense some lactose or brown sugar sweetness, but according to Jon, there be no such thing in it. I guess I'm crazy, but we all new that.


Aroma:8 Appearance:3 Taste:7 Palate:3 Overall:16

Cheers,

Dave

Better Bottle Bitter Bottled

With a shoutout to my man Tolkien, Muckney Brewing would like to present our Eagle and Child Ordinary Bitter. Named after the Eagle and Child in St. Giles, Oxford, England, a pub frequented by J. R. R. and C. S. Lewis, this bitter is our take on a classic Ordinary Bitter.

"Trying" to stay in style, this batch was summarily screwed up by Dave due to a lack of attention paid to the recipe. In my defense, I was brewing from memory (read: didn't look at the computer on the bar) while bittering and reverted to my original bittering schedule. The problem: my original schedule was about 10 IBUs too low to style. It was orignally to be a Best Bitter (8B), but ended up low on the OG tip, too. Read about it here.

So what did we end up with? A well balanced, quaffable session brew. A nice copper color, decent bitterness and a good caramel malt profile. I can't wait for it to carb up. Rating to come.

After Justin and I bottled the Bitter, we turned out attention to the Ides of March RIS. Long and short of it - they're still fermenting. With SG's of 1.040 and 1.034, neither batch is anywhere near the projected 1.021 FG. Took a couple samples, replaced the lids, and we're now letting them roll for a bit. Check back for updates.

Cheers,

Dave

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