My best beer so far

West Coast IPA - I only have a couple bottles left, but this one is a winner. My brother-in-law loved it too.

It is modeled after the Green Flash IPA, and inspired by the Mammoth IPA. On a related note, I got up to Mammoth last week and tried their double brown, another winner. If you are anywhere that Mammoth beer is sold, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

Recent Brew Results

West Coast IPA - Still Fermenting 4 weeks later. Gravity is down to 1.016 so it should be ready next week. Tastes promising, it is still quite cloudy but it is hard to tell if that is the yeast or other issues. I plan to crash cool this beer once it is fully fermented.

American Lager - Tasted pretty good, I made another lager after that with all barley that tasted good as well, but it was a bit sweet. The mash for that lager was a step mash and I mashed out at 165. I think for my next lager I will be more careful on the mash temperatures and not let them get above 152, and let the mash go a bit longer.

Disaster Porter 2 - Was good, it went quick. I may back off the hops a bit more next time.

Hoppy Amber Ale - Was great, I would like to have this on tap 12 months a year if I had the space.

Extra Stout - Amazing flavor. The oak really helped. I used too much agave in this beer, it could stand to have a bit more body considering the alcohol levels. I have kept several bottles of this beer to ages since I think the alcohol bite will mellow with time.

Tasting: Eric and Brad's Belgian Tripple

If you have had a Chimay you are familiar with this type of beer. Made from a Northern Brewer kit it included relatively few hops and Belgian sugar candy in the ingredients.

The problem is that my West Coast USA tongue is calibrated for hoppy ales, IPAs, stouts and porters, and I also like the Malty Bravarian Octoberfest and Czech Pilsners.

A Belgain tripple is a whole other beer, low in hops and not very malty, it has it's own taste profile. The first couple bottles I had, I didn't enjoy that much because it was so different. Finally one evening I was having a chocolate chip cookie I had just made and thought, you know, the tripple would go well with this and gave it a try.

It was delicious. So in the future if you need a beer to go with your dessert course, pour a Belgian Tripple.

Tasting: Comparison of Brew4 vs Brew6

Our first all-grain brew, and 4th brew overall was a basic Ale as was our 6th. I changed the recipe slightly for the 6th brew to give more hop bitterness in hopes that it would offset the sweetness, and to tone down the hop aroma. They have both aged so now is a good time to compare them.

Tasting: Chilled to ~50 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: Both look good now that they have aged, Brew 6 is slightly clearer and slightly darker in color.
Head: Both have very nice heads that last well down the glass
Aroma: Very similar aroma, it is difficult to tell but brew6 is a bit more subdued. The problem is that the first one you smell desensitizes your nose and the second one comes off much lighter in aroma.
Mouth feel: Both have a rich, velvety, almost heavy mouth feel, with Brew6 being slightly more bitter, slightly less sweet.
Overall: Brew6 is the marginally better beer. If the body were lighter both would benefit. I don't think I should add more hops since the bitterness is as high as an ale should go in my opinion, in fact once I do reduce the body a bit I suspect Brew6 will be a bit too bitter.

Tasting: Eric and Brad's First Brew (Pale Ale)

Tasting: Chilled to 50~60 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: 2/3 light amber color, minor haze.
Head: 3/3 Nice light head that lasts the whole glass.
Aroma: 2/3 Very pleasant fruity aroma (from the yeast), and hops. The yeast aroma, while pleasant, is stronger than it should be, probably caused by using one fermenter.
Flavor: 2/3 Mild fruit and hops pleasant, but a bit sweeter than ideal.
Mouth feel: 3/3 full bodied, light fizz, very mild hop flavor lingers.
Overall: 2/3 a great first brew, and very encouraging.
Buzz: 3/3 nice buzz after 1 glass.

I plan to replicate this recipe in one of our first all-grain brews, we will try to mash in at a moderately low temperature to reduce the sweetness. We will also use a secondary fermenter to reduce the influence of the yeast. It was good, but a bit out of balance. The hops were very balanced and we won't change that part of the recipe.