Lots of Beers

It is time to revisit the beers that I have made over the last month or so.

Starting with the beers that I entered into the Puget Sound Pro-Am, I mentioned the results slightly on this post here. I have been waiting for the written results before I write about it. Like I mentioned I entered four beers a Pale, Stout, Blonde and Amber, that is the order from best to worst. I am pretty happy with how the Pale and Stout turned out and disappointed in myself on the other two. Overall the biggest problem that I have with my beers is something that I don't really have control over on my current system, fermenting temperature. All of the beers exhibited some esters and phenolic flaws that are a result of fermenting at too high of a temperature. All the beers would have scored higher with out that and the amber and blonde would probably jump a lot because those beers were pretty much ruined due to that. As far as the stout, the biggest problem was a lack of body, which looking back at all my notes makes perfect sense. A few tweaks in the mash will improve that. The pale could also use some more body, but as much. The improvement I need on the pale is giving it some more flavor and aroma hops. While I am disappointed in some results, I am very glad to get feedback from impartial judges and can only get better from here.

I made another Blonde since then that was much better than the one I entered into the competition. I missed my starting gravity and ended up with a very light beer. Not really a bad thing, but the rye was a bit overwhelming for how light it was. I also have come to the conclusion that I do not like Brewer's Gold hops, if I didn't have a few ounces left from the free hops I got, I would be hesitant to use them again. I have had limited success with blondes so far and don't know when I will make another, but have developed a recipe that I think will be much better.

The two beers that I served during the presentations last week were the American Wheat and Pale Ale. Seemed like a good combination of beer to serve, but I didn't really realize that the beers were extremely similar. The only real difference was the amount of wheat used in the American wheat and more hops in the pale. My fermenting issue played well for the wheat because it brought out the banana and clove that are associated with wheat beers, but I will call that what it really is, dumb luck. I need to cut out any crystal malts in my wheat recipe and go back to the yeast that I used before on this. The beer was drinkable, but not stellar. The pale was great though. The taste was more along the lines of a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale than a Manny's to give market examples. Many of the people at the events have tried my pale ales before and found them to be too bitter, but this one seemed to hit the mark pretty well. Still could probably use an increase in the hop aroma though.

I have two beers carbonating right now and only the Mountain Man in a fermenter right now. I guess I need to get back to making some beers this week. I am hoping to use a pilot system at a brewery so I can get a bit more control over the process instead of the good old closet fermenters.