maltoftheearth
Well-Known Member
I have posted before about my poor fortune with brewing this summer, wanted to put a happy face on how it ended. I'll run through the beers, the problems I had with them and how I solved those problems.
Porter - brewed this in the Spring and it came out WAY too tannic, just sucked all the water out of my mouth. Tried mixing with other sweet stouts but it only ruined them. Later heard that gelatin finings might correct some of this but I dumped the batch before someone shared that trick with me.
Ballantine IPA - Took this recipe from Mitch Steele's book on IPA (page 244 or thereabouts). The recipe calls for adding gypsum, .2 oz per gallon of beer. I never used gysum before so trusted the book and later learned (from this board) that it was WAY too much. One poster here rightly called it diarrhea beer. That said, it smelled great but the little taste of it I took was a bit acrid. This did not get dumped initially, I had a use for this beer ... Although I dumped it after transferring portions to other beers (see below.)
Alt - used Apollo hops, the beer itself is nicely malty but the Apollo gave a horrible flavor profile. Too weak, not enough humulone maybe? I used something different b/c I have liked the hops in other beers and didn't like the minty profile that Spalt sometimes has. Anyway, it was drinkable but too malty and a little grapefruity but not as you might enjoy in big IPA.
Rye - I do a rye IPA every year, usually two a year, b/c I love the flavor profile. Again I used some exotic blends of hops just for fun, things like Apollo and New Zealand/Australian hops. The flavor is great but the yeast (safale 05) tore right through the beer and left it under 1.010 gravity. Not enough body for my taste so another unbalanced beer. I tossed about a quart of the Ballantine IPA in here to boost the hop profile and it worked.
Imperial stout - wow, this beer smelled fantastic at every stage and I was so excited to try it. Unfortunately this was my first stuck fermentation ever, stopping at 1.035. This was way too sweet. So I did what so many people say they won't do, I used Beano. A few weeks after starting the Beano treatment the beer measured 1.025 and had a green apple taste, likely from incomplete fermentation. I took the beer and heated it to about 150F for 15 minutes, rapidly cooled it, transferred to a keg and then dropped about 2 quarts of the Ballantine IPA in it. This kicked off a new fermentation in the keg. The result was a slightly coffee, chocolate beer with just enough bite but no hope aroma and little hop flavor. Not terrific but nice body and balanced at about 1.015.
With all these beers at different balances there was only one answer ... Blend them! And that is what I am doing now, I am pumping the Alt through a randalizer stuffed with Chinook hops and mixing it with the stout and the rye. The flavor is incredible. I won't be able to recreate this flavor exactly but wanted to share a bright light at the end of the tunnel type of story.
Porter - brewed this in the Spring and it came out WAY too tannic, just sucked all the water out of my mouth. Tried mixing with other sweet stouts but it only ruined them. Later heard that gelatin finings might correct some of this but I dumped the batch before someone shared that trick with me.
Ballantine IPA - Took this recipe from Mitch Steele's book on IPA (page 244 or thereabouts). The recipe calls for adding gypsum, .2 oz per gallon of beer. I never used gysum before so trusted the book and later learned (from this board) that it was WAY too much. One poster here rightly called it diarrhea beer. That said, it smelled great but the little taste of it I took was a bit acrid. This did not get dumped initially, I had a use for this beer ... Although I dumped it after transferring portions to other beers (see below.)
Alt - used Apollo hops, the beer itself is nicely malty but the Apollo gave a horrible flavor profile. Too weak, not enough humulone maybe? I used something different b/c I have liked the hops in other beers and didn't like the minty profile that Spalt sometimes has. Anyway, it was drinkable but too malty and a little grapefruity but not as you might enjoy in big IPA.
Rye - I do a rye IPA every year, usually two a year, b/c I love the flavor profile. Again I used some exotic blends of hops just for fun, things like Apollo and New Zealand/Australian hops. The flavor is great but the yeast (safale 05) tore right through the beer and left it under 1.010 gravity. Not enough body for my taste so another unbalanced beer. I tossed about a quart of the Ballantine IPA in here to boost the hop profile and it worked.
Imperial stout - wow, this beer smelled fantastic at every stage and I was so excited to try it. Unfortunately this was my first stuck fermentation ever, stopping at 1.035. This was way too sweet. So I did what so many people say they won't do, I used Beano. A few weeks after starting the Beano treatment the beer measured 1.025 and had a green apple taste, likely from incomplete fermentation. I took the beer and heated it to about 150F for 15 minutes, rapidly cooled it, transferred to a keg and then dropped about 2 quarts of the Ballantine IPA in it. This kicked off a new fermentation in the keg. The result was a slightly coffee, chocolate beer with just enough bite but no hope aroma and little hop flavor. Not terrific but nice body and balanced at about 1.015.
With all these beers at different balances there was only one answer ... Blend them! And that is what I am doing now, I am pumping the Alt through a randalizer stuffed with Chinook hops and mixing it with the stout and the rye. The flavor is incredible. I won't be able to recreate this flavor exactly but wanted to share a bright light at the end of the tunnel type of story.
