Seaward tasting notes

First bottle of Seaward is carbed after 8 days in the bottle. I started drinking it with my dinner, which was venison steaks from one of my dad's deer cooked up in butter with a touch of garlic and salt...absolutely delicious. This beer goes extremely well with it, accentuating both the beer and the venison.

Now...the beer. My palate's returned to normal so this is the unadulterated tasting of this very fresh 6.8% 7 hopped IPA. As a reminder, this is a single American IPA styled beer with a touch of colored cara malt to get the color approaching amber. The highlight was the 1 oz each of 7 "C" hops. Crystal, Columbus, Cascade, Centenniel, Citra, Chinook, and Cluster hops were the victims, and my batch was dry-hopped on 1 oz of whole leaf citra for 2 weeks.

The color is beautiful. It's somewhere between Two Hearted (a very pale IPA) and Moundbuilder (more typical amber color). The smell is pretty good. I was hoping for more hop aroma, but what is there is really good. The cascade, centenniel and citras were the last few additions, so it is dominated with citrus notes.

The flavor is light and balanced. The hop flavor is almost delicate. The malty sweetness on the finish is definitely delicate. The transitions are smooth and complex. There is a grapefruit note that pokes through most aggressively, similar to Two hearted, although a little tamer. This beer finished clean and dry.

Our mash temp was a little low (which is why we missed 7%) but that may have actually helped this beer. This ended up lightening the body a little and this beer is borderline sessionable. I'm sure I'll test that statement at some point (Friday Shenanigans perhaps? or possibly watching my Spartans kill some Badgers).

I am unbelievably pleased with how this beer turned out. It's going to be difficult to do it again with the booming popularity of Citra with actual breweries. If I did it again I'd maybe bump all of the hop quantities up to try to make it a little more aggressive. On the flavor alone it actually wouldn't be out of place in an American Pale Ale category, although the ABV obviously places it solidly in the IPA realm.

I'm happy to say that Sean is considering sending some bottles to competition next year. When we get results back I'll bring this beer up again.

-J

Falling behind. Vertical Epic 11.11.11 and Seaward final

So. Stone brewing has a series called "Vertical Epic." I'm not typically a huge huge fan of Stone, but I decided to try out the vertical epic 11.11.11. Here's the brewmaster's take:

Appearance:

The Stone 11.11.11 Vertical Epic Ale pours a deep amber with a cream colored head of foam.

Aroma:

The Belgian yeast strain we used this year has more pronounced banana aromatics than the clove flavors produced by some of the yeast strains we have used in past years. Mixed in with the banana esters are toffee malt notes, hints of spice — clove and cinnamon — and a trace of very mild green chili in the back. The aromas all blend together incredibly well.

Taste:

Upfront, the yeast-derived banana flavors are blended very nicely with toasted and toffee-like malt flavors, fruity esters, and balanced hints of cinnamon. Mid palate the Perle and Pacific Jade hops and the Hatch green chili flavors come through. The beer finishes dry, and bitter with just the most subtle of hints of chili heat and a touch of alcohol.

Overall:

Not your typical chili beer! The famous mild green chilies from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico add layers of delicious flavor with a very mild heat component. The base beer itself is very reminiscent of a European amber beer, with Perle and Pacific Jade hops, Munich and other roasted German and Belgian malts, hopped and brewed to a very Stone like 65 IBU and 9.4% ABV. Cinnamon is a wonderful spice if used judiciously, which we did here-it doesn’t by any means dominate the beer’s flavor, but definitely adds a subtly complex spice note that blends amazingly well with the banana esters and green chili.

I was a wee bit hessitant since it invokes the most risky of brewing spices...chili peppers. I was surprised though. This was a very very complex beer, and I'm sure the pepper and cinnamon were in there, but they simply worked to balance out the rest of this beer (which was a big amber with belgian yeast). This was an excellent beer and was well beyond my expectations.

So, tonight I went to Chumleys for a few, and finally broke down and had Founders Breakfast Stout. I have had bad bad experiences with coffee stouts, and have thus avoided this beer. Well...I am a dumb human being. Your typical coffee stout is a mediocre stout with Maxwell's house thrown in. Founders though? Well lets just say I want like a million pounds of the coffee they used for this...for my coffee. This was an excellent stout combined with fantastic coffee. Introducing myself to this beer may have just taken years off of my life span.

I bottled my batch of Seaward tonight. After the hops stole their share, I got 26 bottles out of it. The final gravity was 1.006, which puts it at 6.7% (can we round it to 7% please?). The flavor is fantastic. Beyond fantastic. If this thing keeps this flavor as it carbonates it will be close to Two Hearted as far as awesomeness. As soon as it carbs I'll share with a select few, but I want to keep most of this to myself.

-James

Failboat.

Well, I just brewed my Amber ale. Failboated the mash pretty badly. Last time I had problems with the temperature running away on me and I obviously overcompensated. Mash temp was typically around 144-150. Obviously got awful conversion because my O.G. is around 1.026. This will put the beer around 3ish% ABV. Flavor and color isn't bad, so at least it will be drinkable.

I think in the future I'll order an extra bag of DME and take a pre-boil gravity reading to see what's going on.

-James

Boom baby...partial mash success

I'm currently transferring my partial mash Cascade pale ale into secondary (onto a nice cozy bed of fresh IN Cascade hops). The specs and taste are better than my wildest dreams. I'm looking at 5.5%, and the flavor is right there with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (which is pretty good). After dry hopping for a bit, this beer should be excellent.

Tomorrow I'm brewing an amber recipe which I developed myself. Look for an update then.

-James

Arctic Panzer Wolf

I bought a bomber of Three Floyds (Munster, IN) Arctic Panzer Wolf. I've had the beer at Chumleys, and it is good. Another reason for the bomber was the fact that the label is epic. It'll definitely go on the cool wall in my house.

No ABV listed on the bottle, but I recall it being around 9%. The smell is a bit confused. Lots of hops, but it's conflicted as to the piney hops with a touch of citrus...just a touch. It smells a little like Hopslam actually...promising.

Color is quite pale for a DIPA. It's a touch darker than what I'd call "straw colored," but not by much at all. Mouthfeel is also a touch lighter than expected.

The flavor seems actually deeper in the bottle than on tap. Much more maltiness there, finally balancing out what seemed to be a poorly balanced beer on tap. The hops do definitely dominate the middle and end of the flavor. It is quite good. I do still prefer dreadnaught (Three Floyds other DIPA) by a significant margin.

-James

Seaward to secondary, and Celebration 2011

Seaward has been racked into my new better bottle for secondary...there may be an oz of citra whole leaf in there to play with the already fantastic flavors. F.G. was 1.007, which puts it at 6.4% ABV.

My cascade pale was bubbling like mad early in the week, but has settled and will probably be put in secondary next Wed. That allows me to brew my Amber ale next weekend. Yes...that means I will 3 beers in various stages of fermentation (at least until I bottle Seaward).

For the usual Friday Shenanigans I brought a 6-pk of Sierra Nevada Celebration ale 2011. This is their winter IPA, using only hops from the fresh harvest. This beer features a ton of Cascade and Centennial hops, in many different additions, and dry hopped. Aroma is quite floral, flavor is good, although a little rough. This beer needs a little more sweetness to balance it out. It's still a good beer, but not the dangerous session beer that two hearted is.

-James