k4df4l's beers

[Ó Flannagáin]

They were waiting at my doorstep after work! I got them chilling now, I'll enjoy and review tomorrow night.

[Ó Flannagáin]

Old Ale

I'm not very experienced with this style so I'm just going to say what I get from it. I'll look at the bjcp afterwards and give my impressions according to that as well.

Appearance: Strong fizz when I popped the lid, then I poured to have a proper head form, but it dissipated quickly into a thin layer just covering the top of the beer. Possibly my glass, but the bubbles looked pretty large when it was forming. Very light, cloudy orange. Not as straw yellow as I expected from being just MO, but k4 did mention part of it was boiled down and added back.

Aroma: Immediate yeast in the nose, fruity, funky, reminds me of a Belgian Tripel but more balanced in terms of fruit to wood/earth tones. Not picking up any malt in the nose really. Overall not a huge aroma, but definitely inviting. Had to come back up here after writing below. As it warms the aroma has clear floral notes.

Flavor: Very interesting, I don't believe I've ever had anything like this. There seems to be a dominate, flat tart flavor. Not a stinging tart, but a flat, robust tart. I get subtle oak, picking up coconut thanks to the way its blending with the yeast flavor. The yeast is strong in here. Bright, mellow fruits like apricot and also a surprise leathery finish. As it warms and flattens a bit it becomes a different beer, more malt comes through. Not a lot, but a sense of dough and some of the floral flavors you'd expect from williamette. Very pleasant.

Mouthfeel: Full, strong carb. A bit slick.

Overall: Very interesting beer. I've not had this style before but it really reminds me of a lot of belgian brews, especially in the drastic change from chilled and highly carbed to light carb and a bit closer to room temp. I think this beer is meant to be drunk at close to room temp, its surprisingly delicious with full but mellow esthery characters and a well rounded oak in the background once you are halfway through the pint. Great beer k4!!

According to BJCP: It's supposed to have lots of malty characteristics and I just didn't pick that up as much as I think it should have according to style guidelines. Definitely some as it warms, but the yeast and oak take front seat.

http://i.imgur.com/HAxdd.jpg

[Lerxst]

According to BJCP: It's supposed to have lots of malty characteristics and I just didn't pick that up as much as I think it should have according to style guidelines. Definitely some as it warms, but the yeast and oak take front seat.

Glad that you enjoyed the brew...unfortunately, all three were brewed with zero respect to the BJCP guidelines this time around. This beer in particular was inspired by a blog posting about the historical aspect of old/stale ale (it might have been zythophile...I can't remember where I saw it) that described the old ale as a pale beer of moderate gravity that would be the pub, hanging around in a cask for a good long time picking up bugs and later blended with young ale and served. When the VS strain was announced, it seemed perfect for my attempt at replicating something akin to that version of old ale rather than the higher gravity, malty old ale that we know via the guidelines. If it was cloudy, the sediment (of which there is plenty in this case) still did not have a chance to settle from shipping.

[Ó Flannagáin]

Unfortunately? :) I have no problem not adhering to guidelines. I've never really used them in a review before, but figured I should start for whatever reasons. I suspect some people expect it.

[Lerxst]

NP...this being my first brett beer, I was unsure what to expect from bottle fermentation/carbonation and the levels of funk that would develop over time. The beer sat in a carboy for a good long time before hitting the bottle so I was surprised by the amount of the sediment layer that resulted. Went conservative on the priming level and it still came out with plenty of carb. I would have liked to have been able to arrest the brett development at a certain point.....need to do more brett beers.

The tartness and the leathery funk around that has really developed from the first opened bottles until now. We recently busted this out with some really creamy cheese on french bread and it was a nice pairing. Thanks again for the feedback!!

[Ó Flannagáin]

I knew I tasted some funk!! Wanted to say it was brett, but thought I might be mistaken.

[Lerxst]

Right on point!



Wyeast 9097-PC Old Ale Blend
Beer Styles: English Barleywine, English Strong Ale, Old Ale
Profile: To bring you a bit of English brewing heritage we developed the “Old Ale” blend, including an attenuative ale strain and a Brettanomyces strain, which will ferment well in dark worts and produce beers with nice fruitiness. Complex estery characters will emerge with age. Pie cherry and sourness will evolve from the Brettanomyces along with distinct horsey characteristics.

[Ó Flannagáin]

Very cool, I'll try to taste the other beers tonight, but will have to see how my palate is after band practice.

[Ó Flannagáin]

Snow Storm Stout

Appearance: Slight hiss and bottle opened, small head formed as poured but quickly fell leaving a ring around the top of the brew. Dark, black beer.

Aroma: mmmm, definitely a stout. Right on the nose. Good solid and bright roast, with some mellow chocolate. Simple, inviting.

Flavor: Mmm, very good stout. The roast takes a back seat, but its definitely available. The tongue gets a serving of chocolate, nougat and a dash acidity with an abrupt finish that leaves the mouth clean and ready for another drink.

Mouthfeel: Dryer than expected, medium to medium-low carb, perfect for a stout.

Overall: Very happy with this beverage and glad i have a big bottle. I so badly wanted to say "snow-like" in the descriptions but that would've been overboard and probably all in my brain. The name really does fit it though and makes a very pleasant drinking experience. Another fine beverage k4 and I'm not fluffing this up. Its a very simple stout and that's how I like it. Cheers!

http://i.imgur.com/msPXd.jpg

[Ó Flannagáin]

Man, this stout just continues being tasty.

[Lerxst]

Glad that it delivered past the unique aspect of the snow!

[Lerxst]

Didja do the porter yet?

[Ó Flannagáin]

Not yet, this weekend fo sho.

[Ó Flannagáin]

Sorry for delay, just haven't had a night where I felt was a good time to review. 'Bout to pour now though. Camera's at work, so descrip will have to do.

Appearance: Pours well with a 1.5 finger head that settles down to a nice little half finger head that sticks for a bit. Black.

Aroma: Malt forward, no doubt about it. Some caramel and vanilla note and just a touch of toastiness and acidity. Very inviting and smooth.

Flavor: MMmmmm, good, but cold, gonna let it warm for a minute to really distinguish the flavors.

...

OK, warmed up. Very similar to he aroma, but a touch more acidic and some bitterness in there. This is a very simple porter as far as flavor goes. I like it, I like the simplicity. Absolutely no off flavors and the hints of caramel and grass are what really separate it from a stout for me. The acidity and toast (hesitant to say roast, not really at that level) definitely remind me of stout characteristics.

Mouthfeel: Perfect carb, body seems medium/medium light.

Overall: Excellent, all-night porter. I'd prefer a bit more mmph in body and malt complexity to counteract the bite, but that's just my style. If you were shooting for a straight up porter then you nailed it.


Thanks for all the beers man, they were a delight!!

[MrMarbleHead]

Smoked Porter

Kind of a mess of random notes. I will try to tie it all together in my overall impression.


Appearance: Pours a deep Brown/black, with Mahogany in the light. Small head dissipates to a ring around the glass.

Aroma: Malty sweet upfront, Bread, Caramel, smoke slightly in the back.

Flavor: Raisin-y was the first thing that came to mind on the first sip, then an initial sweetness carrying through to a mellow bitterness that finishes semi-sweet, slight acidic bittering, but I feel that the majority of the bittering comes from a balance of hops but No hop flavor to speak of.

Mouthfeel: Med Bod, great carb level for style.

Overall: Smooth well balanced and very easy to put back a couple of these. With a slight hint of smoke in the background it takes a well made porter and puts that slight twist on it that makes the drinker say "Hmm what is that in there", Just adds that little something different to set it apart from a run of the mill porter. I like that it doesn't have a big roasted charcoal flavor that can be off putting in some porters.

*Note* I have to say that my nose still isn't up to par after the cold I had last week, so I am afraid that my notes on Aroma might be a bit lame.

[Lerxst]

Did either of you notice any acrid flavors in the finish of the porter? There was a point where it had a slightly acrid finish but then it seemed to mellow out...I was curious if it actually mellowed or I just got used to it.

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to provide feedback.

[Lerxst]

Here's the porter grain recipe:

Ingredients:
7.38 lb Pilsen Malt
3 lb Smoked Malt
.71 lb Munich Malt
0.87 lb Caramel Malt 40L
0.87 lb Caramel Malt 120L
0.65 lb Chocolate
0.43 lb British Black Patent
.25 lb Belgian Cara-Pils
1 oz Willamette (5.6%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
.5 oz Willamette (5.6%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
.5 oz Willamette (5.6%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
.75 oz Willamette (5.6%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
.5 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1.0 ea White Labs WLP862 Cry Havoc

I don't really think that the cry havoc really added anything unique to the recipe, pretty moderate mouthfeel considering the unfermentables in the grist and that yeast's AA%. What changes do you think you guys would make now that you've tasted it? I think I'd up the chocolate and the light crystal and use a different yeast next time.

[Ó Flannagáin]

I'd say that was the acidity I was talking about, noticible especially when at cooler temps. Felt ok to me though because I'm used to it in stouts. I'm not sure if its normal for a porter or not, but seemed to fit.

[Ó Flannagáin]

DId not realize it was a smoked porter

[MrMarbleHead]

No acrid finish, but it was pretty cold when I cracked it open and as it warmed it seemed mellow and smooth to me.

I wouldn't have guessed there was 3lbs of smoked malt in a 5 gallon batch. I would tend to agree with you on upping the Chocolate malt, it was very subdued, you could even go a full pound with it. The caramel was at a nice level, I don't know about upping that one too much.

[Ó Flannagáin]

Hah, just re-read the review. I suspect the "toast" I was picking up was the smoke. Yea, no way I could tell there was 3lbs in there, but I wasn't really looking for it.

[Ó Flannagáin]

Here's the porter grain recipe:

Ingredients:
7.38 lb Pilsen Malt
3 lb Smoked Malt
.71 lb Munich Malt
0.87 lb Caramel Malt 40L
0.87 lb Caramel Malt 120L
0.65 lb Chocolate
0.43 lb British Black Patent
.25 lb Belgian Cara-Pils
1 oz Willamette (5.6%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
.5 oz Willamette (5.6%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
.5 oz Willamette (5.6%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
.75 oz Willamette (5.6%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
.5 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1.0 ea White Labs WLP862 Cry Havoc

I don't really think that the cry havoc really added anything unique to the recipe, pretty moderate mouthfeel considering the unfermentables in the grist and that yeast's AA%. What changes do you think you guys would make now that you've tasted it? I think I'd up the chocolate and the light crystal and use a different yeast next time.

I think upping the chocolate would be very nice in this brew. And, I'm not sure if you want smoke to shine more, but I'd find someway to get it more pronounced, maybe even dropping the black patent down to .25lb so it doesn't battle with the smoke flavor.

[Lerxst]

I think upping the chocolate would be very nice in this brew. And, I'm not sure if you want smoke to shine more, but I'd find someway to get it more pronounced, maybe even dropping the black patent down to .25lb so it doesn't battle with the smoke flavor.

I'm torn between keeping it a more traditional/straight forward versus what most craft breweries are doing with porter; full bodied & sweet with lots of chocolate and caramel in the flavor. The basic idea was here was a simple porter profile with smoke beer training wheels....just enough to know that it's there but not enough for the smoke to really stick out as a dominant flavor.

I tend to like the more traditional based flavor profiles for sessionability (if that's a word) but the amped up versions when you only want one.

[MrMarbleHead]

just enough to know that it's there but not enough for the smoke to really stick out as a dominant flavor.

That is exactly what makes this beer stand out to me, the fact that it isn't over the top and flashy. There is just enough there to layer it and give it one more dimension of complexity. I like it the way it was, I can see it benefiting from a touch more chocolate. But if you change too much about it I think that you are going to detract from the original concept of the beer.

I get bored with the slap in the face huge smoke/bourbon/<insert crazy ingredient> flavors that breweries are doing. Not saying that they don't have their place, but there is something to be said about a well crafted beer that has a slight hint of something in it to make the imbiber think about what they are drinking.

[Ó Flannagáin]

I'm torn between keeping it a more traditional/straight forward versus what most craft breweries are doing with porter; full bodied & sweet with lots of chocolate and caramel in the flavor. The basic idea was here was a simple porter profile with smoke beer training wheels....just enough to know that it's there but not enough for the smoke to really stick out as a dominant flavor.

I tend to like the more traditional based flavor profiles for sessionability (if that's a word) but the amped up versions when you only want one.

Well you definitely nailed that description. It was a great, simple porter with what I was calling "toast" you could say were "smoke beer training wheels."

[MrMarbleHead]

Drinking the snow storm stout right now. Really hard to believe the story behind this one from flavor alone. Very classic stout. Nice roasty sweet nose up front.With a dark raisin and slight caramel in the back perhaps is what is providing the slight sweet aspect.

The flavors follow the nose closely. With a nice dry roasted barley flavor, Following through to a semi-dry finish. Leaves a slight lingering bitterness in the mouth, nothing off putting though.

Very well done beer, didn't hold a head for too long but could be due to sitting for so long in my fridge in the PET bottle it was shipped in. No oxidation to speak of, which was a big concern that I had. I am thoroughly impressed with your ingenuity in this batch. Well done man.

I will probably tuck into the Old ale later this week. Was it bottle conditioned? If so I may hang onto it till I can get a couple of guys together to have a proper tasting of it.

[Lerxst]

Thanks! I forgot there were any beers still kickin' out there.:shark:

The old ale is bottle conditioned and is all sorts of brett at this point. I've not had one for a while but I'll warn you, you gotta pour it in one shot. Once you disturb the sediment, there's no going back for seconds unless you want that in your glass.

[MrMarbleHead]

No worries on the old ale, that is why I am going to wait till I have a couple of people over. Should be able to give you a couple of opinions on it as well.