These single hop beers are really informative. You can really find out what a hop tastes like. So it is with this beer. To me, it tastes a lot like galaxy, which makes sense as they are both Australian. But it's not exact. There's a certain piney, pineapple flavor in vic secret that's not in galaxy. And of course generic fruit.
The beer is a bit sweet, but I haven't drawn much from the keg, so early samples from any keg tend to be sweet, regardless of the beer. If it's like the galaxy beer, it'll taste more dry as I drink more of it.
It's opaque. More orange than the galaxy ipa, probably due to the two pounds of munich.
This is my first kegged beer that hasn't been in my kegerator, which has two kegs in it already and can only fit two. So this one has been hanging out in a spare room at room temperature. Temperatures in drafty house dip at times, though, so it's still pleasant to drink. In the coming weeks, I'll fill my fourth and final keg with either the experimental grapefruit ipa or coffee grinder ipa. And then it will be time to brew again.
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Chocolate Coffee Porter brew day and keg day
I don't often brew on week nights. My brew days usually take about 5-6 hours from start to clean-up. Usually after work, I'm too tired to start a new beer. But I have an empty keg and two fully fermented beers (each brewed over three weeks ago). And the longer I let them sit unpackaged, the greater the risk of infection, oxidation, and faded hops. So it was time to keg those. I've been thinking about a porter lately, and I wanted to use the London Ale III yeast at least one more time. It leaves a relatively high final gravity, which I think would be great for a porter.
Back in the summer, I went to Anna Maria Island, and I drank a ton of beer. I made several trips to ABC and Total Wine to buy things I can't get in Missouri. On the final day, I made a trip to Tampa and St. Petersburg. I visited Cigar City and Green Bench, both excellent breweries. The last stop was Cycle. I had read about it in a beer advocate review of yet another Florida beer. The review mentioned Cycle's Fixie IPA. So I went there with the aim of trying that. I did. It was underwhelming. But Crank was amazing, and so was Cream and Sugar Please Porter.
So the goal tonight is to brew a porter that is in the ball park of Cycle's. To achieve the chocolate and coffee flavors, I'll add those directly to the keg. As for creamy sweetness? I don't have lactose on hand, but I suppose I can try that next time.
Troublesome brew day. First, I thought I had chocolate malt, but only had pale chocolate. It's crushed and about a year and a half old. Not much aroma. As a result, I was unsure about using it. So I heated some water in the microwave and steeped a bit of grain and tasted and smelled it. I was still uncertain about the taste, but went for it. The first runnings tasted fine, though.
Then I encountered a propane problem. I've had a persistent issue with too much volume post-boil, which I attribute to a less-than-vigorous boil. I lit the burner, but it wouldn't light. Instead, there was just a flame under wherever I held the match. So I exchanged the tank, which wasn't completely empty, thinking the problem was the propane tank. I brought the new one home and had the same issue. Meanwhile, it was getting late. I consulted the internet. I attempted to clean the burner. Still didn't work. Eventually the entire ring would light, but would go out if I turned up the gas all the way. Finally, I just placed the kettle on the burner, thinking I'd at least take advantage of whatever amount of heat the burner was able to produce. Just to make sure, I turned up the gas. The flame didn't go out. Problem solved, I guess?
Next problem: a keg I've never used before. I sanitized it. Then hooked up the CO2. Started leaking around the o-rings. I adjusted the o-ring and applied some vegetable oil. That seemed to work. No leaks.
I ran into one last problem. My wort chiller sprung a leak where the vinyl tubing meets the copper. Thankfully I noticed this right after I began chilling the wort. It was a pretty severe leak, and would have ruined the beer. I tightened the hose clamp and it was fine after that.
6.5 hour brew day in total, with a lot of hiccups in between. OG is 1.068, which is well above what brewtoad anticipated. Perhaps due to an extended mash? It was over an hour. Probably an hour and 15 minutes. Sampled the chilled wort: roasty, dark fruit, raisin. Maybe because it's so sweet? Maybe the chocolate will be more apparent post fermentation?My volume was right around five gallons. I saved a small jar of 1318 yeast, but racked this beer on the rest of the yeast cake from the coffee grinder ipa.
Which I kegged while chilling the porter. I dry hopped it with three ounces Willamette, one ounce galaxy, and one ounce citra. It was very clear going into the keg. I did siphon up some of the yeast cake unfortunately. Gave it a taste. Good solid hoppy flavor. Galaxy and Citra is a good combination. I think the Willamette got lost in the mix, though. I used three ounces of it and one each of the other two for dry hopping, so hopefully it comes through. FG for this beer was around 1.010-1.012.
In other news, I received my Cyber Monday shipment from Yakima Valley Hops. Eight ounces each of the following:
Back in the summer, I went to Anna Maria Island, and I drank a ton of beer. I made several trips to ABC and Total Wine to buy things I can't get in Missouri. On the final day, I made a trip to Tampa and St. Petersburg. I visited Cigar City and Green Bench, both excellent breweries. The last stop was Cycle. I had read about it in a beer advocate review of yet another Florida beer. The review mentioned Cycle's Fixie IPA. So I went there with the aim of trying that. I did. It was underwhelming. But Crank was amazing, and so was Cream and Sugar Please Porter.
So the goal tonight is to brew a porter that is in the ball park of Cycle's. To achieve the chocolate and coffee flavors, I'll add those directly to the keg. As for creamy sweetness? I don't have lactose on hand, but I suppose I can try that next time.
Troublesome brew day. First, I thought I had chocolate malt, but only had pale chocolate. It's crushed and about a year and a half old. Not much aroma. As a result, I was unsure about using it. So I heated some water in the microwave and steeped a bit of grain and tasted and smelled it. I was still uncertain about the taste, but went for it. The first runnings tasted fine, though.
Then I encountered a propane problem. I've had a persistent issue with too much volume post-boil, which I attribute to a less-than-vigorous boil. I lit the burner, but it wouldn't light. Instead, there was just a flame under wherever I held the match. So I exchanged the tank, which wasn't completely empty, thinking the problem was the propane tank. I brought the new one home and had the same issue. Meanwhile, it was getting late. I consulted the internet. I attempted to clean the burner. Still didn't work. Eventually the entire ring would light, but would go out if I turned up the gas all the way. Finally, I just placed the kettle on the burner, thinking I'd at least take advantage of whatever amount of heat the burner was able to produce. Just to make sure, I turned up the gas. The flame didn't go out. Problem solved, I guess?
Next problem: a keg I've never used before. I sanitized it. Then hooked up the CO2. Started leaking around the o-rings. I adjusted the o-ring and applied some vegetable oil. That seemed to work. No leaks.
I ran into one last problem. My wort chiller sprung a leak where the vinyl tubing meets the copper. Thankfully I noticed this right after I began chilling the wort. It was a pretty severe leak, and would have ruined the beer. I tightened the hose clamp and it was fine after that.
6.5 hour brew day in total, with a lot of hiccups in between. OG is 1.068, which is well above what brewtoad anticipated. Perhaps due to an extended mash? It was over an hour. Probably an hour and 15 minutes. Sampled the chilled wort: roasty, dark fruit, raisin. Maybe because it's so sweet? Maybe the chocolate will be more apparent post fermentation?My volume was right around five gallons. I saved a small jar of 1318 yeast, but racked this beer on the rest of the yeast cake from the coffee grinder ipa.
Which I kegged while chilling the porter. I dry hopped it with three ounces Willamette, one ounce galaxy, and one ounce citra. It was very clear going into the keg. I did siphon up some of the yeast cake unfortunately. Gave it a taste. Good solid hoppy flavor. Galaxy and Citra is a good combination. I think the Willamette got lost in the mix, though. I used three ounces of it and one each of the other two for dry hopping, so hopefully it comes through. FG for this beer was around 1.010-1.012.
In other news, I received my Cyber Monday shipment from Yakima Valley Hops. Eight ounces each of the following:
- Citra
- Centennial
- Galaxy
- Golden 007
- Equinox
- El Dorado
- Nelson Sauvin
- Azacca
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