Overdue Update
I've not been updating the brog for a while, now, I admit. Since my last entry, I've brewed two all-grain batches (a Mild and another ESB) with good success and excellent efficiencies, a Ginger Porter as previously referenced, and a pure honey-only mead destined to be a light bodied sparkling mead.
The Mild I'm particularly taken with, not for any particular robustness of flavour, but for its lightness and simplicity...it is the sort of ale one would consider nourishing, easy-drinking, and (naturally) mild, and with an ABV content of 4.0% it is my lightest homebrew, and thus I can have one with dinner and still be free to go out afterwards if need be. It has very little hops, and roasted malts impart a nice coffee/tea flavour to it that is very refreshing. It is conditioning in the bottle as I type.
I may bottle the Ginger Porter tonight...a rather tasty brew it was last time, so this is its encore appearance. I've got another St. Crispin's dinner coming up in July and I don't think it will be ready by then, but the Mild will be, and we'll polish off a lot of that I'm sure.
The intensely concentrated "apfelwein" is around 13% ABV, if I recall, and still aging in the basement. The yeast looks like they have retired/expired, because the FG is reasonably high, in the 1.030s. I've come upon a new idea, though...to use heavy toast oak in this and impart some oaky vanillins to counteract the sweet apple tones. For any of you who things the pairing of oak and apple is strange...get yourself a bottle of calvados! It is a heavenly spirit.
The sparkling mead is being prepared for the 31st of December...champagne? Bahh! Crack out a bottle of lightly effervescent mead instead, to ring in the new year! Lacking spices, fruit, and other ingredients, it will be a very delicate, dry sparkler...perhaps augmented by a small amount of medium toast French oak for complexity.
The Mild I'm particularly taken with, not for any particular robustness of flavour, but for its lightness and simplicity...it is the sort of ale one would consider nourishing, easy-drinking, and (naturally) mild, and with an ABV content of 4.0% it is my lightest homebrew, and thus I can have one with dinner and still be free to go out afterwards if need be. It has very little hops, and roasted malts impart a nice coffee/tea flavour to it that is very refreshing. It is conditioning in the bottle as I type.
I may bottle the Ginger Porter tonight...a rather tasty brew it was last time, so this is its encore appearance. I've got another St. Crispin's dinner coming up in July and I don't think it will be ready by then, but the Mild will be, and we'll polish off a lot of that I'm sure.
The intensely concentrated "apfelwein" is around 13% ABV, if I recall, and still aging in the basement. The yeast looks like they have retired/expired, because the FG is reasonably high, in the 1.030s. I've come upon a new idea, though...to use heavy toast oak in this and impart some oaky vanillins to counteract the sweet apple tones. For any of you who things the pairing of oak and apple is strange...get yourself a bottle of calvados! It is a heavenly spirit.
The sparkling mead is being prepared for the 31st of December...champagne? Bahh! Crack out a bottle of lightly effervescent mead instead, to ring in the new year! Lacking spices, fruit, and other ingredients, it will be a very delicate, dry sparkler...perhaps augmented by a small amount of medium toast French oak for complexity.
posted by SQLFunkateer at 1:46 PM
0 comments
