Out of the Bottle: Abbey Blonde

The last beer I brewed for my Westy XII/Candi Sugar experiment is the first I'm going to review.

This beer served as the base for my Quad and Tripel. It has no Candi Sugar, a simple grain-bill, light bitterness and a Belgian yeast strain. I figure it's best to start here and follow it up with the stronger Tripel and Quad that I built off of it.

The Blonde pours with a deep gold hue and nice clarity. A bone while cap could do with a little better staying power, but leaves a nice bit of lace behind. Of course, aroma and taste are what really matter, so let's move on.

Fresh bread, cut flowers and coriander spice make up the nose. It's quite pleasant. Letting the nose linger brings forth a hint of green grape and a touch of sourdough. In the mouth, it's the bready malts that start things out. Fresh French bread, plus raw grain is the best way to describe them. The floral characteristics of the Styrian Golding hops shine through afterward. However, the overall bitterness is quite low. Fresh bread and dry grain flavors linger through the finish. To complete the picture, the beer's body is medium-light and has about the right level of fizz.

Overall, I'd say that this beer should be a nice foundation for the brews to come. In addition, when taken on its own merits, it's just a nice beer to drink. Up next: the Tripel.

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Out of the Bottle: Oak Aged La Petite Orange

I said in my previous post that I'd saved some of Northern Brewer's La Petite Orange kit to age with Sherry Infused Oak Cubes. The aged beer is ready to go, so let's see what the Oak and Sherry did. I've had more than a few Barrel Aged beers that were completely dominated by the wood and whatever alcohol (Rum, Bourbon, Sherry, etc) the barrel originally contained. In my beer, the oak and sherry are subtle. That's what I was shooting for, so I'm quite happy with that. The flavors and aromas from the original beer are still present. There's no point in revisiting them. What I really care about is the changes the wood made. Vanilla is the most significant contribution. There's also a very mild almond note at work. The Sherry really cuts through in the aroma. It provides an extra helping of dark fruits, plus a little more alcohol heat. The beer is definitely more wine-like than before. On a side note, I took my own advice and bumped the priming su

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I'm doing a 4-for-1 with this installment, and will be bundling my finished beers going forward, rather than writing a blog for each. That should leave me space for more brewing oriented posts. This month, I've got beers I posted the recipes for back in November, December and January. First out of the gate is Enchanted Nightmare Imperial Stout. This beer is an amalgamation of extra grains and hops I had that were combined with some 2-Row and additional hops to create a 9.95% ABV Stout for the depths of Winter. So what if it wasn't actually ready until the Spring Equinox arrived? A beer like this can't be rushed. My beer pours nearly pitch black, and has nice ruby highlights. The head could stand a touch more staying power, but is appropriately dense. In the mouth, the body is a little lighter than I expected. The carbonation is very soft, and feels just about right for this beer style. When I bottled this beer, I was slightly worried that the whiskey and oak were a li

Kitchen Brewing Part 3: Sparge and Boil

The mash emerges from the oven. Now that we're finished with Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, it's time to Sparge. As you can see from the photo, the grains have absorbed a lot of liquid. In a traditional all-grain setup, your Mash Tun has a valve at the bottom to release the first running of Wort. The grains are then rinsed with the sparge water to extract any remaining sugars. My stove-top method doesn't afford such luxury, so a different method is called for. The grains have gained a little weight. There are a couple of choices at this point. One choice is to lift the grain bag out of Pot A and place it into the sparge water in Pot B to steep for 10-15 minutes or more. The other is to lift the grain bag up, put a colander under it and slowly pour the sparge water through the grains into the original pot. I prefer the former, because I get a better extraction rate from my grains. All that absorption means that the grains weigh a lot more than they did going i

Colorado Kitchen Brew

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