Out of the Bottle: Great Beer with a Terrible Picture

At long last, I have time to actually write about beer again! Life has been crazy busy (there are things that take precedence over beer, believe it or not), so I've been kept away from my passion for a few weeks. It's time for to that to finally change! Without further ado, it's time to talk about how my second Weizenbock turned out.

First off, the picture doesn't do the beer justice. I haven't had time to take the usual daytime shot, so this one was taken in my not so scenic kitchen. But hey, you've got to do what you've got to do.

This beer is the result of my longest brewing day ever. As I found out, a triple-decoction mash takes forever and ever and ever. I try not to think about how many hours I spent brewing this beer. Thankfully, the results were totally worth the effort.

Let's start with the pour.

My Weizenbock has the proper hazy chocolate hue and a rocky cap that stays and stays. Head retention is exemplary and a nice bit of lace is left behind.

Moving on to what I'm sure everyone really cares about, the nose is exactly what you expect from this style. Banana, clove and a touch of bubblegum are out front, with a good dose of fresh sweetbread behind them. There's a hint of chocolate at work too. Letting the beer warm slightly definitely helps things along, as the aromas get stronger as the cold goes away.

Moving along, the beer is super bready. The mouthfeel is dense, grainy and carries the carbonation tingle this style demands. A malty sweetness is out front. It's bolstered by a nice compliment of fresh wheat bread and subtle chocolate. Bitterness is mild, and has just enough going on to offset the sweeter malts. The beer finishes a little dry, with lingering sweetbread flavors.

Would I brew this beer again? Hell yes. The super long brewing day was completely worth the effort. It resulted in the best Weiss I've made to date.

Comments

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

Out of the Bottle: Big Beers and a Haze

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

Search This Blog