Brew Dudes

The Brew United Challenge is nearly upon us! John is getting ready for his Brown Porter by roasting some malt at home. With the help of a recent BYO magazine article on just that topic, John took a stab at his first batch and we give it a taste in this weeks video.

I was totally blown away by this malt John made. I wasn’t expecting it to be bad by any means, but I was totally thrown by how well it came out. The color of the kernel itself was dark brown. While the husk was still strangely yellow. Maybe not as yellow as the base Pilsner malt he started with but not the deep brown red hue of the kernel.

This stuff tastes like a super biscuit malt. Very similar to Special Roast from Briess.

John’s next plan is to push the limits and try and blacken some malt using his grill outside. The reason for this vs. using the kitchen oven is that when you try to make darker malts they tend to smoke quite a bit. Not something the wife and kids need to deal with.

It will be real interesting to see how this malt shows itself in a finished beer. I wanted to try a malt tea with it, but he only toasted a small amount as a pilot. His BrewUnited batches are likely to be on the small side (<2 gallons). Can't wait for the tasting video!! BREW ON!

John keeps on finding time and new hops to run throug his one gallon SMASH beer brewing process.  This week we dig into Motueka hops from New Zealand.

To review the basic recipe and process:
1 gallon batch
2-pounds American two row
0.25oz of hops are added at 60min,15min, Flame out and then at dry hop.

That’s one ounce total in one gallon. Primary fermentation lasts about a week.

When I tasted this beer the first thing I got in aroma and flavor was a vegetal quality to it. Not strongly and not in a bad way. I got subtle pine and citrus. Now really fruity esters however.   The flavor followed suit. Maybe I picked up some green melon and more citrus pith. When pushed I said tangerine, but I was wrong.

The commercial descriptors for this highlight tropical notes, noble hop character and a lemon lime citrus quality.  It’s always seems more obvious after you hear it to actually taste it that way. Maybe that’s the power of marketing. But I do think I was on the general right rack with the earthy quality as noble hops and the citrus and melon for tropical.

This is listed as a dual purpose hop and I can see that. The bittering quality was certainly resiny and dank like. It would be well supported with other hops used in that manner. Maybe a Columbus and Motueka blend would be great early finishing with some of this and something fruitier in the dry hop.

Have you tried Motueka?  
Let us know in the comments!  Cheers!

Summer is winding down my friends. These Brew Dudes have been busy squeezing in the last drops of summer we can get. Family vacations and back to school planning occupies much of the days. Oh and we still have to work too. Anyway, I got nothing special for you this week. I just thought I’d turn the camera on and let you see the disaster area that is my brewing space. Just me in the basement on a Friday night looking for some beer to drink.

Cheers

This week we sample Mike’s Flanders Red. I brewed this up over 6 months ago. Its not really sour but there are some hints of acidity. Its got great flavor, so maybe its something we can rescue.

This brew started with a fate pointing towards failure. My Roselare yeast blend was frozen and likely dead on brew day. I knew I wasn’t getting the the LHBS anytime soon either. I had a saved pitch of Belle Saison and Brett Clausinii from over a year ago in the fridge. I warmed that up and put it along with the thawed out Roselare blend in the carboy. A month later I racked it off the yeast pack into secondary and added an ounce of toasted French oak cubes.

Today the beer is a 1.004 dry dry dry Saison. It has a great ruby garnet color with hints of vanilla, oak and a touch of cherry. The acidity level isn’t enough to make it sour, however it is enough to make it…. acidic. You can tell it wants to go somewhere but there just isn’t any nutrients or enough microbes left to really go anyway else.

I was just going to keg it and drink it as a Fall Saison. John had the good idea of splitting the batch and trying to rescue half of it. I have more Roselare and some maltodextrin on hand. The plan is to keg the first half, then I am going to add a gallon of concentrated DME/maltodextrin wort along with the smack pack of Roselare. Hopefully that will restart the process and get things moving in an interesting direction.

Stay tune for the additions and the some shots of what the beer looks like today.

Cheers