Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Holy Cow!!!

Labor Day Weekend brought friends and family to my house. It was nice to see everybody, but even with a much appreciated gift of store bought beer from my friend, I am nearly out of all of my summer beers!

The Summer beers were a hit, but surprisingly (to me at least), the overall favorite was the W2, which I have been calling a Dunkelweiss (dark wheat). It was an experimental batch of beer based on the Wheat's (W1) grain bill proportions, but added crystal malt, a more assertive hop schedule, and I skipped the coriander (but kept the bitter orange peel). Most people complained about the bitter orange and/or coriander in the W1, but the bittering and flavor of the hops masked the orange bitter in the W2. Next year (or sooner), I may try the same beer but eliminate the orange, and replace the wheat with more malt. I think I will like it better, and it was so unwheat like anyway (people who don't like wheat beers liked W2 but if they tried my W1 they might have liked that as well since I don't use wheat yeast strains).

Thankfully, my red ale will ready this month, but it looks like I need to get brewing again. I need to come to some conclusion on our fall beers. Sure we will do our pumpkin, and I am looking to concoct a different brown ale than I have done in the past, but have been considering a West Coast Ale, something a little more assertive, but not over the top. I am looking for something easy to do on my own to be ready in October. The Pumpkin Ale I would like to be ready in early November, and maybe even something dark and warm (winter warmer) by January. When am I going to find time for the Brown Ale?


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