Busy Brewing Month

It's been a pretty busy month in the Bearded Brewery. I brewed the second version of my Green Beard IPA, simply an IPA using all organic ingredients (I usually don't use all organic hops). I had bought a large order of hops from Seven Bridges in California, and included was a high alpha organic hop, American Summit. In the Green Beard, I used the hop for bittering and all other additions, using 3 ounces in total. I chose not to dry hop, but instead split the batch (as mentioned in the previous post). I bottled both the Green Beard and Orange Beard (2 gallons of the GB on fermented on top of mangoes.) I'm pretty excited for both, the Orange Beard tasted amazing at bottling and I'm excited for this one, but might have to come up with a filtering technique to get less mango pulp in the bottles.
The Green Beard smells great, very citrusy and at bottling was also looking like its going to turn out to be a nice citrusy, hoppy IPA.
In addition to brewing the IPAs, I brewed a hefeweizen for my annual fantasy draft. More to come on that as well.
I've been really happy with the turn out of my hoppy beers lately. It was something I was trying toget better at, and between the IAPA Pale Ale, Bearded Fury IPA, and the Green Beard, I'm feeling pretty good about my hoppy beer brewing. So onto another area I want to perfect, dark beers. Winter is thankfully months away, but I'm getting excited to start brewing some darker beers. I'm planning on a porter, an Oatmeal stout, and a Negro-Modelo-ish dark lager (winter version of the Gringo). But I wanted to start my dark beer brewing with one of my favorite styles, a milk stout. I'm a big, big fan of Left Hand Brewing Company's Milk Stout and wanted to try one. Last year I added lactose to my Cherry Stout, but wanted to brew a straight milk stout, so I brewed La Vaca, which will be ready in time for the start of fall. I had wanted to try putting cranberries into the secondary, but have opted to split the batch and put cranberries on 2 gallons, and save 3 for the straight milk stout. Should be good. I'm excited to see the turn out, I'm planning on transferring it in the next day or two, so I'm anxious to see how it's tasting.
More to come...
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Little Experimental Fermenter

I love to experiment in my brewing. When I first started writing my own recipes, I would brew more unique beers. While I'm happy to say that a lot of my experiments went well, some didn't. When I had more time and money wasn't as tight, I loved to experiment. But given the current beer costs and my obligations outside of brewing, I'm less willing to take risks because I'm fearful that I might end up with a bad beer that used up a lot of my time and money.
But the creative side of me can't be content to just brew the standards, so I've come up with a minor solution. I bought a 2 gallon fermenting bucket at Midwest brewing for $5. I already had a 3 gallon carboy, so it works out perfectly. I recently brewed a new version of Green Beard IPA, but I had also wanted to experiment with a Mango IPA. So I split the batch, 3 gallons of the Green Beard, and in the 'lil' fermenter, roughly 2 gallons of IPA sitting on top of some mangoes. I blended 3 mangoes and froze them as ice cubes (which makes surprisingly little).
Next up, I'm brewing La Vaca Milk Stout, I had wanted to experiment with using cranberries in the secondary for a milk stout, so I'm going to do the same procedure, transfering about 1.5-1.75 gallons into the bucket on top of some cranberries, while kegging and bottling the remainder of the batch.
I think this will be a good way to test out some experimental batches that could become 5 gallon batches in the future. At the same time, if I'm spending the time and money, I'll still be getting around 3 gallons of a good, drinkable beer. Should be fun!
More to come...
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

More New Glarus Gushing

Readers of this blog know that it is no secret how much I love a Wisconsin brewery by the name of New Glarus. On a recent visit to Wisconsin, I picked up a number of New Glarus beers, including two more wheat ales. A couple of posts ago, I wrote about New Glarus Black Wheat. The Black Wheat was an interesting twist on a wheat beer, and the following two beers are also intesting wheats.
The Crack'd Wheat is quite a unique wheat. New Glarus describes this beer as "marriage of a sophisticated Bavarian Hefeweiss and an assertive American Pale Ale." This beer pours a straw yellow with a lacy white head. Right away interesting aroma of grassy/herbal hops, sweet candy, clove and cinnamon. Interesting flavors follow, citrusy and candy sweet, with hints of clove and a hoppy bite in the finish. The mouthfeel is great, creamy and slightly crisp. A very interesting take on a wheat, the Amarillo dry hopping gives it a uniqueness.
The Dancing Man Wheat is a much more traditional take on a Bavarian weiss beer. It pours a fairly clear gold with a two finger foamy white head. Spicy aromas of clove and cinnamon, along with some nice fruity aromas. Very sweet, with a smooth mouthfeel. Great sticky fruit flavors, along with some nice spicy notes. It finishes crisp and refreshing with lingering apricoty and fruity flavors. A nice drinking wheat ale.
New Glarus always does a great job with whatever style they brew. These two examples show the diversity and craft of their brewing, a unique twist and a traditional wheat. Very different from each other, but both excellent!
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Homebrew Review- Untamed Beer

Recently I exchanged some homebrew with a South Carolina homebrewer/blogger, Brian @ Untamed Beer. I've been a fan of his blog for some time, I enjoy reading his reviews, his videos, and his ever changing beard (the picture to the left a fine example). Brian and I contacted each other about doing a possible exchange awhile back and I'm glad that we were able to finally get some beers to each other. Brian recently posted his reviews of the Bearded Brews I sent him, and I was happy that he enjoyed them and appreciated his feedback.
Brain sent me three of his beers and all three were very good and very unique. I wish I had more of his excellent beer since these three selections all left me wanting to try some other Untamed offerings.
The first of his beers I opened was his Oatmeal Nut Brown Ale. Brian said that he was inspired by oatmeal cookies. He added toasted pecans to the mash and some vanilla in the finish. My thoughts:
It pours a nice cloudy light brown with some ruby red highlights and a thin white head. Wonderful aromas right away of brown sugar, molasses, vanilla, and pecans. The aroma is very enticing. What follows is a lot of sweetness, great brown sugar flavor going on, along with some nice nuttiness. The toasted pecans come out more in the aroma than in the flavor, but they really add to the experience, I think he could even add some more. A nice smooth, creamy mouthfeel. This beer was outstanding, quite sweet, almost like a desert brown ale? The beer tastes like a cookie, but the flavor combination of toasted oats, brown sugar, pecans and maltiness is really nice. I easily could have had another right away, its not overwhelmingly sweet, but is creative, well balanced and quite tasty!

Oak IPA- The second of the Untamed Beers I opened was his Oak IPA. Brian said he added steamed oak chips to the secondary for three days. This IPA pours a beautiful cloudy amber with a thick three finger off white head. Citrusy hop aromas along with some woody and caramel undertones. Right away there is some nice grapefruity, hoppy sweetness that gives way to a malty, caramelly body. The oak comes out nicely in the finish, it is definitely present in the end and adds some softness to the hops and a lingering woody flavor. There is an almost peppery bite of bitterness in the end as well. I have to admit that I have strived to achieve this wonderful balance of bitterness and citrusy sweetness in my own IPAs, without this much success. This is one of the better homebrewed IPAs I've had, the bitterness gives it a great backbone and along with the oak it has a great balance.

Saison- The third and final Untamed Brew I had was his saison. This saison pours a cloudy pale gold with a two finger foamy head. Nice complex aromas of citrus, malt, spices, and a slight funky yeastiness. Smooth and sweet at first with some nice peppery bite right away. Very easy drinking, smooth and sweet with not as much funkiness as some saisons. This is not to say it's simplistic, its quite refreshing and the peppery aftertaste makes it interesting. I think this beer is great on a hot day, and fits the bill as a hoppy, fruity farmhouse ale. Another solid Untamed Beer.

I really enjoyed the exchange and look forward to another one in the future. A great bit of creativity goes into his beers and they are all excellently crafted.

Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Back in the Saddle

Its been a busy and crazy month, with the birth of my son and a trip to Pittsburgh for a family emergency. Thankfully things look like they are going to turn out well with my wife's family situation, but I do not recommend flying last minute with a 3 week old and a 2 year old. Because of the craziness of figuring out how to handle a newborn and a toddler, I've been craving some brewing time. It's always a nice release for me, and isn't that what hobbies are for? Last week my wife's good friend stopped by for a couple hours to hang out with the kids, and I was able to brew! I brewed up another batch of the I.A.P.A. since I enjoyed this pale ale so much and after splitting half the batch with Jefe, whom I brewed with, I had already run through my supply.
Last year I was all about brewing Belgian Ales, and was happy that some recipes like Bangy Tangy, El Jefe and Burning Beard are definitely going to be permanent fixtures in the rotation.
Lately, I've been all about the hops. I have been trying to better my skills in brewing pale ales and IPAs and was very happy with the turn out of aforementioned IAPA and also the Bearded Fury. So I've decided to brew up another IPA, and I'm going to split the batch, conditioning half on mangoes because of the amazing Mango Mama IPA I had at Town Hall brewery this winter. I can still taste that amazing beer and have wanted to brew a Mango IPA ever since.
I've decided to return to extract brewing for the next couple of batches I brew to save time. I have been brewing partial mash batches for almost two years, but right now the extra hour and a half or so I could save by skipping the mash will allow me to brew more often. I for one have never been under the belief that one brewing technique was better than another since I've had good and bad brews made from every method, so I'm not worried about quality.
As for this IPA, I'm brewing up an all organic IPA, using 4 ounces of American Summit Hops I got from Seven Bridges. I put in a large order of organic hops this spring, and look forward to using these high alpha hops, that are supposed to be similar in flavor and aromas to hops like Simcoe and Cascade. It will be the first single hop beer I've made, so I'm curious of the result.

On another note, I traded some beer with Brian at Untamed Beer. I look forward to trying out some of his homebrew and some Southern beers he sent along. I will get to those reviews and I look forward to his thoughts on the Midwest and Bearded Brewing offerings I sent in exchange.
More to come...
Salud!
Bearded Brewer