As far as I can tell, McLuckey ale was a resounding success. I have one bottle remaining (and I doubt she's going to be a harsh critic ;)) and one bottle which has been delivered but consumption status is unknown (and she might be a harsh critic).
I have just rebrewed it (Sunday evening). I focused on the "steep" temperature (similar to the mash, except it's an extract so it was only 1 lb of specialty grain), and really getting as much of the water out of that grain bag as possible afterwards. Whereas the first McLuckey ale varied between 170 and 150 on the steep temp, I kept this one at 153-159 with an average around 156. Also, I got a little more aggressive on flavor and ABV, since this one is just for me. When I order these kits I get a small bag of corn sugar for priming the bottles. Well, I bought a 5 lb bag of corn sugar long ago, so these small bags have been piling up. So yeah, definitely threw 1 lb of corn sugar in there.
I also got a little more aggressive with the hops. Boiled the first 1/4 oz of Citra 10-15 mins, and the last for 5 mins.
Original gravity definitely shows the efforts paid off. 1.044 corrected. If I get the same final gravity I'll have a 5.4% beer going into bottles. I will also be closer to 45 IBU than the 30 from the previous McLuckey ale batch.
My People's friend and I got to chatting last week about homebrews (this was after the McLuckey BBQ...which was epic). We decided that the best part of homebrewing is a third beer stat. Besides ABV and IBU, homebrews should have an additional statistic...PDI...this stands for Poor Decisions Inspired. This would be a statistic that would increase with the number of batches of the brew, and would have to be normalized to batch size, but only batch size. It would be an interesting stat, since a nice light beer could have a small IBU, mediocre ABV but a high PDI because it would appeal to a wider audience than, say, a big-ass double IPA. The other key to raising your PDI is sharing...which is the biggest point behind homebrewing. As much as I enjoy my beer...I enjoy others enjoying my beer even more.
As far as other beers I've consumed, I've been mainly just working on my passport lately. Lots of beers that are true to their styles, but nothing insane yet.
I'm linking this post to facebook. Please leave anon comments on McLuckey ale, and also tabulate any PDIs that may have happened.
-J
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Delicious brew for sure. Great malt character and an outstanding hop character. While the hop character may not be the paradigm for the style, it is a great complement to wheat/barley backbone of the brew. Low ABV and a stylistically high IBUs, this brew has an extremely high PDI. I could drink the hell out of the McLuckey because it is very drinkable and a very unique flavor ultimately leading to many poor decisions. Cheers to the brewer. Can't wait for another bottle!
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