Homegrown hop pale ale

My first attempt at a homegrown hop pale ale in September 2021 was an unfortunate failure. I had harvested a lot of what I believe to be Centennial hops but unfortunately the yeast I had, Wyeast 1318 a day short of being expired, had very few viable cells left as it took a day or two to take off and then took a clovey, bubblegum flavor. I had just moved into my current home, which had established hop plants. I spent a lot of time harvesting the cones and was excited to use them. So it was a real shame to feed the grass with that beer. However, I still had a lot of cones leftover, so I froze them.

Those hops were put into beer three this spring, immediately following the mild and fermented with the same yeast cake. One thing I noticed upon removing them from the vacuum sealed package in the freezer was that they were ever so slightly damp, indicating they weren't completely dry when I packaged them. I'm not sure that had any effect on the finished beer.

It might have, though, or it might just be because these are homegrown hops, but anyhow the finished beer didn't seem to have grapefruit or citrus flavors. People in my homebrew club described it as piney, and I think I would agree, or earthy. 

The beer was excellently balanced between malt sweetness, bitterness, and hop flavor, so I was very pleased with that. A problem I often have with brewing is achieving balance. But this one worked out well.

Sadly this year's crop achieved peak growth in late June or July, right when we were in the thick of a terrible drought along with 100 degree heat. The plants began to look sickly and the cones turned brown. The lupulin powder in the cones still smells good, but the cones themselves definitely are not visually attractive and I'd be hesitant to try them in a beer.

Dark Mild

This mild was beer number two this year, brewed in April, following the Schlafly pale ale recipe. I pitched on the same yeast cake, Mangrove Jacks M36 Liberty Bell, a pretty good yeast. It ferments well and cleanly.

This mild is based on the SS Minnow Mild kit from Northern Brewer. It made a great beer and I am very pleased with it. It's hard to go wrong with tried and true recipes. Great dark malt flavor without being overly alcoholic or watery. Definitely worth brewing this recipe again.

Schlafly pale ale clone

First brew of the year. I’d been kicking around the idea of brewing an English bitter for awhile and settled on a Schlafly pale ale clone. Beer & Brewing had a post on the beer, but it had two different recipes. The original put out by the actual brewery would’ve put me way under the gravity I can achieve with my system. They anticipate 85% efficiency, 10 percentage points above what I get. 

Beer and brewing recommended more grain, so I did increase the malt to achieve the ideal gravity, but they also substantially increased the amount of hops too. More than would’ve been proportional to the amount of extra grain. Unfortunately I didn’t recognize this issue and in fact went above even the modified hop schedule. B&B advised about 2.5 Oz of hops but I had three since I bought three one ounce bags. I didn’t want to have a half ounce left over so I used it all. 

So the result is what I call a sort of hop saturation issue. It’s not overly bitter. It’s just that there’s a lot of hop flavor and not enough residual sweetness in this low gravity beer to support the amount of hops. In the end it leaves the beer tasting very dry, almost astringent. There’s really not any detectable malt flavor. 

Yet it’s a clean beer, no yeast defects. Pretty drinkable. If I were to make this again, I would substantially decrease the amount of hops. I also had to make substitutions based on hops that were available, so if I were able to find the specified varieties that would probably make it taste more like the real thing.