Beer Review-Red Ale Revolution

I've been steadily drinking the Red Ale Revolution throughout
January and February. While I think the RAR can be improved upon in the future, I'm happy with the turn out. The color turned out perfectly and it's a great drinking session ale. I think the recipe can be tweaked to be a bit more complex, maybe some more malt, and more varieties at that. This recipe is heavily Munich malt, which is nice, but I think some additional malts could add some interesting complexity. For a nice mid-winter hoppy session beer, this beer has hit the spot. Here's the review:

It pours a clear mahogany with some ruby red highlights and a finger of off-white head. There's some nice hoppiness in the nose, grassy and slightly citrusy, with a biscuit-bready aroma as well. At first it's hoppy with more of the grassy notes and citrusy sweetness. Right away the munich malt makes itself known, with some nice malty-bisuity flavor going on with a good amount of sweetness. There's a nice amount of bitterness going on as well. A lingering sweetness in the finish, malty and citrusy.

I posted it before, but here's the recipe:
Mini Mash- 2.5 lbs Organic Munich
.5 lbs Organic Crystal 120
.75 lbs Organic Crystal 60
.25 lbs Organic Chocolate
6 lbs Pale Organic LME
3.15 lbs Munich LME
Hops: 1 oz Organic Pacific Gem @ 60 (16% AAU)
2 oz Whole Leaf Organic Cascade @ 30
2 oz Whole Leaf Organic Cascade @ 5
Dry Hop: 2 oz Whole Leaf Organic Cascade
Yeast: 1056 American Ale

More to come.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Big Ass IPA

A couple years ago I never would have imagined myself brewing an imperial IPA. Being a hop head is something that I've grown into over the years. In 5+ years of brewing, I've only been brewing IPAs in the last 2. Last summer a friend commissioned a double IPA from me. In my "research" to formulate the recipe, I drank a number of big IPAs. Like most things in life, having an open mind helped me grow into a fan of hoppy beers, and the acquired taste has slowly grown into more and more appreciation of hop bomb beers.
The Steelhead Slammer as I named Jesse's beer turned out better than expected. While the ABV didn't get as high as intended (my fault for not making a starter), the hoppiness was definitley there. The beer was well recieved, and the only real change I wanted to make was to give it some more backbone. The Slammer was 75 IBUs, but definitley lacked that "bite" for lack of a better term that great DIPAs have. I think proper bitterness is a tricky thing to accomplish in homebrewed IPAs. Aside from an outstanding one the Captain made, I've yet to taste any other homebrewed versions that achieve this or hit the mark in any of mine. At the same time, the Steelhead Slammer was a tasty array of citrusy hops and I don't want to stray too far from that.
So I've been chomping at the bit to brew another big IPA, since I can't seem to consistently get my starting gravities as I intend (a matter obviously worth exploring), I've decided to stray from the "Imperial" or "Double" label. Hence...Big Ass IPA. Because that what's its going to be...a very hoppy IPA that may or may not flirt with the 8-9% range. Regardless of the abv, if I can end up with something close to the Slammer, with some more bitterness to give you that bite that leaves you wanting another sip of citrusy hops...then I'll be happy. More to come on the recipe as I'm toying with exact hop amounts and additions that I won't decide on until brew day. At this point though, the Big Ass is going to have at least 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Amarillo, and 1 oz Centennial in the last 15. I'm excited because Simcoe and Amarillo are two hop varities I've yet to use, so I'm excited to see what they add.
More to come.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer