Waiting for good results

I finally tried the red ale turned amber ale that I brewed in early October. I brewed on the 3rd and did not taste until the 30th. In this case, waiting longer to drink the beer turned out the be a good idea. Nick and Greg actually kegged the beer a week or so after brewing and panicked when they tasted it. The descriptions I got included "tastes wine-like," "over extracted grains," and "kind of funky." I was kind of bummed that it looked like a failed brew, but I thought if we waited a bit longer, the beer would figure itself out and get to tasting right. Fortunately that turned out to be the case, and from looking around on the internet and re-reading some of my old brewing notes, it seems to be the trend. The longer you let the beer sit, the better. As Alton Brown always says: Your patience will be rewarded. As far as I can tell, the more stuff you throw into a beer during brewing, the longer it takes for all the flavors to get sorted out and settle into a palatable beverage.

Anyway, I tasted the beer on Friday without making any tasting notes but here is my memory of the beer:

It poured kind of a murky brown, probably because I forgot to add the irish moss and no one wanted to experiment with using egg whites as a fining agent. Oh well. Now we know officially that it is an amber ale and not a red ale. The head was pretty creamy with small bubbles. The retention was good but not great. The smell was not very strong, I think the keggerator is a bit too cold for this dark of a beer. The taste was mostly the toasted malts and it finished with a nice bitterness. The bitterness was a cross from what you would expect from the hops plus the burnt grains. I liked it. There was not a great hop presence, but every now and then I could taste the hop pellets. The only strange thing was the smell as I drank the beer. Once the glass was about half empty, I could really get my nose in there. The smell was weird. There was a weird fruit (cherry maybe?) and a little bit of funk. Maybe this will disappear, maybe not.

Over all, I am pleased with the way it turned out. I just need to keep in mind the impatient people brewing with me. Either I need to find beers that are quick from grain to glass, or convince them to wait for the beer to be ready before drinking.

New Brewery Location

I found a place to brew in State College. My apartment is not really conducive to brewing, so I head over to my friend Greg's place. He has a keggerator and a nice flat concrete area outside for the turkey fryer. We have brewed two beers there: the first was a clone beer from a kit bought by another guy, Nick, and the second was a new take on my Mac's Irish Red recipe. The clone beer turned out well, even though Greg's house was ridiculously hot and the fermenter went a little crazy. The new irish red (which may turn out to be an amber) is fermenting now. The wort tasted great so I am pretty excited.

Nick, Greg and I funneling the beer into the carboy. Nick seems to approve.

Amber Ale/Irish Red mystery beer:
Grains Steeped @ ~165 F for about 30 minutes

• 1 lb Caramel Malt
• 1 lb US Breiss Aromatic 21 L mildly kilned (strong malt aroma +deep color)
• 1/4 lb chocolate malt
• 1/4 lb vienna malt

Malt Extract:

• 5.4 lb (a 4lb can and a 1.4 lb pound can) of Alexanders Pale Extract
• The lid from the small can (Greg was hung over and dropped it in...oops)

I also tried cold steeping about 1/4 lb of the chocolate malt in a gallon of water because someone told me it would give a nice red color. It didn't turn red, but I added this water anyway.

Hops:

• Bittering (60 minutes): 1 oz Perle (Gr) 8.3% alpha acid
• 30 minutes: 1 oz Santium (US) 6.1% alpha acid
• Aromatic (5 minutes): 1 oz Tettnang (Gr) 5.1% alpha acid

Yeast: Safale S-04 dry ale yeast (it was in a blue packet)
O.G. 1.048

I didn't add any irish moss or other fining agent, this will be a murky beer.