Reviewing for brewing

[Poopsmitherson]

Part of achieving my goal (improving this recipe by only brewing iterations of the same beer all year) is tasting commercial examples and trying to dissect what I like and/or dislike about that beer. Then comes the tricky part of determining how to bring the flavors I like into my own brew. This post tries to answer the question, where exactly are these flavors coming from?

https://brewublog.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/reviewing-dreamchasers-red-rider/

 

[friarsmith]

Read your blog post. I've never tried this beer, but here's some thoughts:

* In addition to grain bill, remember that water profile and mash temp/schedule will have significant impacts on perceived flavors

* FWIW, I brew a lot with Brewer's Gold hops because my two BG plants are extremely productive, have a relatively short shelf-life, and I hate to waste them. Using BG as a Mash/FWH/Late-Boil hop gives a nice dried fruit/prune/fig flavor.

* Chocolate malt can be added late in the mash (perhaps at mash-out or right before sparging) for color enhancement and milder non-roasty flavors. Given the beer has Crystal 40 and 120, I suspect the chocolate malt additions are minor and only for a little color and flavor.

Good luck figuring out the combination to this beer!

 

[Poopsmitherson]

Read your blog post. I've never tried this beer, but here's some thoughts:

* In addition to grain bill, remember that water profile and mash temp/schedule will have significant impacts on perceived flavors

* FWIW, I brew a lot with Brewer's Gold hops because my two BG plants are extremely productive, have a relatively short shelf-life, and I hate to waste them. Using BG as a Mash/FWH/Late-Boil hop gives a nice dried fruit/prune/fig flavor.

* Chocolate malt can be added late in the mash (perhaps at mash-out or right before sparging) for color enhancement and milder non-roasty flavors. Given the beer has Crystal 40 and 120, I suspect the chocolate malt additions are minor and only for a little color and flavor.

Good luck figuring out the combination to this beer!

I have never heard this about brewer's gold before. I'll have to look more into this. I love that I've heard at least five different suggestions for getting this flavor since I started this blog. It really shows that there are so many ways to achieve a goal in brewing, and I think that's awesome. I appreciate the input and will bring it into consideration as I make future iterations of my recipe.

Also, the chocolate, as you suspected, is a fairly small amount. But then again, most of the other specialty grains in the beer are used pretty sparingly. There's just a bunch of them.