Out of the Bottle: Bavarian Pseudo-Pils

My Bavarian Pseudo-Pils is ready to go. It turned out even better than I expected. So much so that my fiancé and I horded it and only shared a couple of bottles with friends (from whom I have no tasting notes).

First off, the beer didn't come out as Alt-like as my Prohibition Bock did. It's extremely clean and has none of the fruity aromas often associated with ale yeasts. Instead, the nose is dominated by lemon and pepper hops, plus some cracker-like aromas from the Pils malt.

Even though the grain-bill consisted exclusively of German Pils malt and only two hop varieties were used, this beer is actually pretty complex. Things start out with light sweetness and a bit of dry grain. The bitterness comes on quick with a lemon and pepper bite that's just about right for this style of Pils. The beer finishes with a lingering bitterness. The medium-light body could stand just a touch more fizz. Time to ramp up the priming a sugar a bit.

The pour is a little hazy and won't win any clarity awards. The dense white cap is firm and possess good staying power. A fair amount of lace is left in the beer's wake.

Overall, I'm really happy with this beer. My fiancé described this as being one of her new favorites. I honestly wish I'd brewed more and will definitely be making another batch.

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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

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