Citrillo American Pale Ale Review

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Nick Ladd

Tasting Notes:

Judged as a BJCP Category 10a American Pale Ale.

Aroma (8/12):
Big, juicy, citrusy hops upfront that feature notes of orange, tangerine, and some tropical mango. Aroma is very citrus forward, although there are some hints of piney hops in the background. There is substantial malt presence that is very bready and offers a whisper of sweetness. The fruity hops and malt sweetness combine for an almost candy-like impression. No alcohol or other off-aromas present. Clean fermentation.

Appearance (2/3):
Deep gold with some orange hues. Capped with a persistent white head. Beer is quite hazy.

Flavor (10/20):
Each sip fills the palate with big, juicy hops that are very citrus-forward. This is balanced against a substantial, sweet and slightly, toasty malt character. The beer is a touch sweet, which is accentuated by a bitterness that is low for the style. On the finish there is a bit of a minerally astringency that detracts.

Mouthfeel (2/5):
Medium-full bodied. Again, a touch of astringency on the finish detracts. The carbonation is a bit low, which gives the beer a very creamy mouthfeel.

Overall Impression (5/10):
This is a nice citrus-bomb American Pale Ale. Unfortunately, the beer is a bit under-attenuated giving the beer some undesirable sweetness and excessive mouthfeel. Additionally, the water feels overmanipulated and minerally. In the future, I will dial back my water additions and make adjustments to this recipe that will lead to better attenuation.

Total: 27/50 Good

Read the full recipe here.

Northern English Brown Review

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Nick Ladd

Tasting Notes:

Judged as a BJCP Category 11c Northern English Brown Ale.

Aroma (10/12):
The first thing that strikes you is the deep biscuity malt followed by some toasted sourdough bread notes. There is a hint of caramel that is pleasant and nuanced as well as some light bittersweet chocolate notes. The English yeast strain is quite apparent with esters reminiscent of apricot. Perfumey and slightly herbal hops are very low and in the background. No diacetyl or other off-flavors.

Appearance (1/3):
Very deep mahogany brown. Clear, with a tan, persistent head. Beer is a bit too dark for the style.

Flavor (15/20):
The beer is dominated by round malt flavors which emphasize deep, toasty, melanoidin filled flavors. There is only a hint of caramel-like sweetness. The malt character is slightly drying with a touch of tart acidity from the chocolate malt. Beer starts out a hair sweet, but finishes quite dry. There is a low hop bitterness that is just enough to balance and is true to the style. Malt is perhaps just a bit too intense.

Mouthfeel (4/5):
Medium-bodied with a nice creamy level of carbonation. Just a hint of roasty astringency.

Overall Impression (7/10):
This is a really well-balanced English Brown Ale. The malt is complex and toasty almost to the point that it exceeds the limit of the style. Very sessionable with malt complexity to keep you interested and modest alcohol levels to keep you coherent. A very nice beer.

Total: 37/50 Good

Read the full recipe here.

Northern English Brown 2.0 – Recipe and Brewday

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Nick Ladd

Update 3/22/14: Tasting and Review

For those who were able to get entries into the 2014 National Homebrew Competition, time is running short to brew and select the beers your want to enter. For 2014 the AHA has enacted a four-entry limit, a dramatic shift from past years, which were wide open, and a direct testament to the competition’s growing popularity.

For those hardcore competition enthusiasts, the NHC has always been a numbers game. Chasing prizes like the Ninkasi was about brewing and entering as many high-quality beers as you physically could. At first glance, the new limits seem to even out the playing field. This is generally true and dramatically changes the meaning of prizes like the Ninkasi. The opportunity, however, still exists for those wishing to play the numbers game in a more nuanced manner. Taking a look at the pre-competition selection side of the game unveils another opportunity to strategize. In many ways, the new limits not only force you to test your skills as a brewer, but also the analytic skills a brewer must use in order to select the beers they believe are the truest interpretations of their respective styles.

In order to best increase my chances, I have a pool of approximately eight beers from which I plan to select my four entries. One of the beers I’ll be selecting from is a Northern English Brown ale. This is the first time I’ve brewed this beer since it won a gold medal in the second round of the 2012 NHC. The recipe remains true to the original with slight changes for recipe size and availability of specialty grains.

Northern English Brown Recipe

Size: 3.25 gal – My goal is to net 2.75 gallons into the fermenter.
Efficiency: 64%
Attenuation: 75.0% (estimated)

Original Gravity: 1.050 SG
Terminal Gravity: 1.013 SG (estimated)
Color: 17.62 SRM
Alcohol: 4.95% ABV (estimated)
Bitterness: 25.3 IBU (calculated)

Grist:
4.75 lb (65.5%) Maris Otter (Crisp)
1.5 lb (20.7%) Vienna Malt (Weyermann)
4 oz (3.4%) Special Roast Malt (Briess)
4 oz (3.4%) Victory® Malt (Briess)
4 oz (3.4%) Crystal 60 (Thomas Fawcett)
4 oz (3.4%) Pale Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett)

Hopping:
20 g East Kent Goldings (5.8% AA) – 60 m
0.25 oz Styrian Goldings (3.2% AA) – 5 m
0.125 oz East Kent Goldings (5.8% AA) – 5 m

Kettle Additions:
0.5 ea Whirlfloc Tablets – 15 m
0.5 tsp Wyeast Nutrient – 10 m

Yeast:
WYeast 1469-PC West Yorkshire Ale – 1L 1.040 Starter on Stir Plate

Mash Regiment:
Saccharification Rest – 152 °F – 60m
Mashout – 168 °F – 5m

Fermentation:
1. Chill to 60°F and let rise to 64°F. Hold until activity begins to slow.
2. Raise temp to 70°F until all activity is complete.
3. Crash to 32°F 2 days then package.

Single Tap IPA Review

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Nick Ladd

Stylistically, I find IPA to be one of the craft beers categories with the most variation. There are many popular IPAs that have almost no malt character, while others are relatively robust and judicious in their application of toasty and caramel flavors. Some are absolute hop bombs with robust flavors of citrus, pine resin, grass, spice, and tropical fruit, while others tend to portray a more nuanced hop character. All IPAs should lean towards the bitter side, but some are so excruciatingly bitter they make you wonder if you’re damaging your tooth enamel. Some IPAs are daringly dry while others retain a hint of residual sweetness. Many are lower in alcohol—and could be argued to be pale ales—while others blur the line between single and double IPA. With this recipe, I was shooting for something towards the middle, in terms of alcohol, malt, and bitterness, while taking hop flavor and aroma to an extreme level.

Tasting Notes:

Judged as a BJCP Category 14b. American IPA.

Aroma (8/12):
High level of hop aroma which prominently features grapefruit zest upfront and a touch of pine resin in the background. There is a whisper of stone fruit (peach?) in the aroma that is quite pleasant. Some grassy, dry hop characters come out as the beer warms which lends an earthy and spicy component to the aroma. The hops are perhaps a bit muddled in their presentation. The malt aroma is very low and a bit indistinct letting the hops shine. There is no perception of caramel malt on the nose. No alcohol, DMS, or other off-aromas. Very clean fermentation character with no perceptible ester.

Appearance (2/3):
The beer is a deep golden hue with hits of red that push the beer to being nearly a copper color. There is a very distinct haze, but not nearly as muddy as some commercial beers I’ve sampled. A nice off-white, sticky head persists until the beer is finished.

Flavor (14/20):
This beer has a very strong hop flavor that couples with a firm hop bitterness. The flavors are somewhat reminiscent of the white pith of a citrus fruit. There is a touch of slightly vegetal/grassy hops on the finish. The relative depth of color in this beer would make you think there would be some fairly strong malt components to the flavor. This is not the case. The beer exhibits only a hint of light toasty malt that is difficult to extract from the large amount of hop flavor. The bitterness is clean and crisp, but perhaps a bit too intense. There is a hint of residual malt sweetness that is a touch heavy.

Mouthfeel (3/5):
Medium-bodied with a firm, clean finish. There is just a hint of residual sweetness in the finish. The beer is slightly over-carbonated giving the beer a prickly mouthfeel which improves once the gas subsides.

Overall Impression (6/10):
This is a nice IPA that showcases American hops in all of their brashness and intensity. There aren’t any of the tropical notes that are found in some of the most popular contemporary examples which may detract from in its popularity with beer geeks who tend to chase the latest novel hop flavors. This beer is right in the middle of the BJCP style, but could get dinged for not having quite enough malt depending on what a particular judge is looking for. In future recipe iterations, I plan to slightly lower the hop bitterness and further dry the beer out to allow for the hop flavors to shine even more brightly. Additionally, I will likely not use Columbus again for this beer as I feel it contributed to some of the rougher hop flavors this beer exhibits.

Total: 33/50 Very Good

A New Take on Single Tap IPA

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Nick Ladd

Update: Single Tap IPA Reviewed

In the past, I’ve had good luck brewing my IPA. My standard recipe has won a number of awards and tastes great. That being said, my attention span is short and it is time to change things up. Between the fresh 2013 hops I had ordered in bulk (from Hops Direct) and capabilities built into my current brewery, the time was nigh to make some tweaks to Single Tap.

On the brew house side, I am now able to do a pump-driven whirlpool. This allows me to better simulate the extended whirlpool often done with the best commercial IPAs. Additionally, I now have a hop back that allows for one last infusion of hops directly before going into my plate chiller to cool. Finding Amarillo hops during the 2013 brewing year was nearly impossible. I’ve overcompensated this year by purchasing massive amounts of the 2013 Amarillo crop, which this recipe has been built around. I’ve also included a small charge of Sterling hops — a tip I picked up from Mitch Steele of Stone Brewing during last year’s National Homebrewers Conference. (The idea is that the Sterling will add a bit of complexity and nuance to what is otherwise a citrus heavy hop bill.)

Single Tap IPA Recipe

Size: 4.32 gal – My goal is to net just under 3 gallons into the fermenter.
Efficiency: 70% – Calculated
Attenuation: 75.7% – Calculated based off of OG and FG readings.

Original Gravity: 1.066 SG – Measured
Terminal Gravity: 1.016 SG – Measured
Color: 10.78 SRM
Alcohol: 6.58% ABV – Calculated
Bitterness: 63.2 IBU – Actual measured IBUs will likely be a bit higher. My software doesn’t account for the whirlpool hop contribution of bitterness.

Grist:
4.5 lb (38.3%) 2-Row Brewers Malt (Briess)
4 lb (34.0%) Golden Promise Malt (Crisp)
2.25 lb (19.1%) Vienna Malt (Weyermann)
8 oz (4.3%) White Wheat Malt (Briess)
6 oz (3.2%) Caramunich® TYPE II (Weyermann)
2 oz (1.1%) Acidulated Malt (Weyermann) – for pH adjustment

Hopping:
6 g Columbus (15.0% AA) – First Wort
20 g Sterling (7.5% AA) – 15 m
14 g Centennial (10.5% AA) – 15 m
1 oz Amarillo® Leaf (9.6% AA) – 10 m
12 g Columbus (15.0% AA) – 10 m
1 oz Amarillo® Leaf (9.6% AA) – Whirlpool 20m
14 g Centennial (10.5% AA) – Whirlpool 20m
8 g Sterling (7.5% AA) – Whirlpool 20m
3 oz Amarillo® Leaf – Hop Back

1 oz Centennial (10.5% AA) – Dry hop 3 days
2 oz Amarillo® (8.7% AA) – Dry hop 3 days

Kettle Additions:
0.5 ea Whirlfloc Tablet – 15 m
0.5 tsp Wyeast Nutrient – 10 m

Yeast:
1 ea Wyeast 1056 American Ale™ – 1400ml starter on stir plate

Mash Regiment:
Saccharification Rest – 150 °F – 60m
Mashout – 168 °F – 5m

Fermentation:
1. Chill to 62 °F and keep at 64 °F until activity slows (4-6 days).
2. Raise temp to 68 °F until fermentation stops.
3. Crash to 32 °F (2 days)