Colorado Kitchen Brew

My final (well, not exactly) Candi Sugar experiment beer has finished conditioning and is ready to pour. Let's see how my experiment turned out. My beer's color is right where I wanted it. The deep mahogany hue has nice clarity and is topped by a dense head that's a bit darker than expected. Head retention is pretty good and there's some lace to be had too. Moving on to what we really care about, the beer has a prominent nose of dark fruits, plus a light, almost roasted edge that I had no idea would be there. That edge lingers through the beer's finish. While I like the sugar's dimension, it's just not quite what I was expecting. It needs to be cut with something else. The beer's bitterness is light and somewhat floral. You can definitely tell that it shares parts with its three siblings. A light body with about the right level of fizz rounds things out. So, what do I think of the final result? I think this was my least favorite of the Candi...

I'm not a huge fan of trying to clone commercial beers. I did it once with Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter , but haven't tried since. However, I'm all for a challenge. When a friend of mine asked me to try and clone Deschutes' Red Chair Northwest Pale Ale , I decided to grant his wish. Thankfully, the Deschutes website happily lays out what's actually in the beer . What their site doesn't do is tell you what lovibond Crystal Malt to use, how much of each malt to use, which maltsters provided their malts, and what yeast strain they ferment with. I did a little hunting and found all sorts of conflicting information about Deschutes' yeast strain. The only consistent thread was that they use a proprietary yeast, rather than one of the strains most homebrew shops carry. Multiple sources (including the bastion of reliable information that is Wikipedia) stated that Ringwood Ale is the closest commercial strain. Yet another source said to use London ESB .  I...

After a lot of waiting, my Wheatwine is ready to go. Let's see what happened. The beer pours with a hazy mahogany hue and sports a dense cream cap that's slow to form. Head retention is OK, but not great. However, a nice smattering of lace is left in the beer's wake. With 70 IBUs on hand, I was expecting a rather hop forward beer. That's not so much the case. Instead, there's a good sweet/bitter balance at work. Pine, citrus and candied fruits dominate the nose. There's also a healthy dose of fresh toasted bread. In the mouth, the grain flavors are dominated by toffee and sweetbread, while the bitterness carries in pine and citrus from the nose. Even with an ABV near 9.5%, the beer packs no alcohol heat. Letting the beer warm to cellar temp allows more of the woodsy and toffee flavors to come through. The beer finishes sweet, oddly enough. There's just enough residual bitterness to keep the sweetness under control. The beer's body is heavy, dense...

This space was originally reserved for an all-grain remake of my Super Easy Cream Ale . That was before I started receiving requests for Porters and Stouts. I prefer Sweet Stouts (a.k.a. Milk Stouts) to their more coffee-like Dry Stout brethren, so that's what I'm making here. As with many Sweet Stouts, I'm using Lactose to provide a sweet balance to the beer's roasted grains. Although not typical for the style, a small amount of Flaked Oats will add a slightly silky quality to the beer's mouthfeel, in addition to a mildly nutty flavor component. The argument could therefore be made that this beer is more a Sweet Stout/Oatmeal Stout hybrid, than a traditional Sweet Stout. However, being able to cross style boundaries is one of the joys of Homebrewing. Here's the five-gallon brew: Grains: 6 lbs Crisp Maris Otter 12 oz Briess Caramel 80L 8 oz Flaked Oats  8 oz Bairds Chocolate Malt 6 oz Crisp Black Patent Hops: 1 oz Newport (9.8% a.a.): 60 m...

2013 One year later, it's time to break into my cellar and revisit 2012's Golden Tripel . Let's start with appearances. First off, the beer's clarity has improved, but not by a lot. The beer definitely suffers from a bout of chill haze. The head is less dense and doesn't stick around as long. There's still some lace to be had. Of course, what we really care about are the flavor and aroma changes. I noted back in my Golden Spark blog that my beer had almost reverted back to its younger self over time. Meanwhile, my Dubbel was about the same as before, albeit spicier. This beer is a completely different animal. It's drier, spicier and much more like white wine. 2012 The pale fruits that were out front before are much more subdued. Coriander and pepper now dominate, while the sourdough aromas cut through more. The overall picture is spicy and dry, with just enough pear sweetness to balance the load. Carbonation is still soft, but not quite as...

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...