Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Blending Sour Beers That Were Sent To Us

On July 27, 2022

We are not experts in blending sour beers, that’s for sure. In our semi-illustrious homebrewing careers, we have brewed traditional sour beers and have blended them – you can see our work here. Now Ethan from PA wanted to know what we thought of the sour beers he brewed, so he shipped them to us. He asked us to taste them all and come up with a blend that would make a superior beverage – greater than the sum of its parts. Watch this video to see what we thought of each individual beer and the steps we would take to blend them.

The Four Sour Beers

Like we stated, we were sent 4 individual beers. As a bonus, Ethan sent one of his blend attempts to try but the main task was to come up with a blend for him. Here are the 4 beers.

Beer #1: The first one is a two year old Golden Sour. We thought it is the fruitiest of the bunch with a cherry note, and not a lot of Brett character. It has some detectable tannins.

Beer #2: The second beer is a 1.5 year old Golden Sour. It was aged in a whiskey barrel so it has some oak/vanilla notes. It is lighter in color than Beer #1. This one has an earthly, celery seed quality. The flavor is muted, and has zero tannins. It is lowest in terms of acid content.

Beer #3: This beer is Ethan’s attempt at an Oud Bruin. It is a dark sour ale and it is tough to take. The aroma reminded us of wet, musty, shoe leather. The flavor profile was rough but it was the most acidic. Mike thought the bad quality beer came from a bad fermentation character.

Beer #4: It is 2 year old red sour and it is his take on a Flanders Ale. This beer smelled of a solventy bananas and has just a smidge of acidity. There are no tannins present in this beer.

What Was Our Blend Plan?

One thing we learned from our own sour blending is that there is no need to be a completist. If there is a beer that isn’t good, there is no need to use it in your blending. We provided Ethan with our parts system, where we experiment by measuring out parts of beers and mixing them together. Whatever the singular measurement you want to use becomes a part, may it be a cup or a teaspoon or a glass. Use the part system to make your initial tasting mix so you can scale it up to the quantities of beers you have to blend.

We thought that he shouldn’t use Beer #3. The other three would work well in a blend in these quantities: 2 parts of Beer #1 and a part each of Beer #2 and Beer #4.

Thanks Ethan for the beer and we hope you enjoyed our blend plan. We also hope you non-Ethans learn something from this post and video.

BREW ON!

Leftover Brown Ale Recipe

By John Krochune

On July 20, 2022

In Brew Log, Recipes, Videos

Sometimes you have leftover ingredients, you make the best of it. You brew a Brown Ale. Here’s the video where Mike took a literal mixed bag of grain and made the best of it.

Mike’s Leftover Ingredient Dilemna

For his Jar of Destiny brew, the British Strong Ale, he ordered base and specialty grains but they all came in one bag. As we all know, part of this hobby is to problem solve. So, he measured out what needed for the Jar of Destiny brew and then had leftover mixed grain for another beer.

This beer.

Check out this recipe for a Session Brown Ale.

Session Brown Ale Recipe

Batch Size: 6.5 US gallon (post boil)

Ingredients:

7 pounds (3.15 kg) of Maris Otter pale malt
0.5 pounds (225 g) of Amber malt
0.5 pounds (225 g) of Double Roasted Crystal malt
0.75 pounds (338g) of Pale Chocolate malt (220 °L)
1 ounce (28 g) of Challenger hops (7.5% AA) – added with 60 minutes to go in the boil
Yeast: Lallemand LalBrew Windsor Ale Yeast

Our Tasting Notes

I thought this beer had a strong toffee note. Mike said that it may have been too strong. It was a really enjoyable beer. It probably would really good in the Fall months. It would go well with smoked brisket or other BBQ food.

BREW ON!

First Gold Hops SMaSH Tasting

By John Krochune

On July 13, 2022

In Hops, Videos

A viewer from the UK suggested we use First Gold hops in our next SMaSH beer. So, we did. We had never brewed with these hops before in our single malt and single hops format before. Here’s our experience with this variety.

First Gold Details

I wrote a First Gold hops profile over 10 years ago. They are a dwarf English hop variety that we understood to have spicy notes of cinnamon and orange peel. We were told that we should try them for the fruit flavors. So, I brewed a one gallon batch using 1 ounce of hops with American pale malt and Safale US-05. After the fermentation was done, the beer was carbed for our tasting.

What Was Our Take?

Well, the promise of fruit was not fulfilled. We experienced more earthy aromas and flavors. I detected a strawberry note but not orange. I was hoping for some zest-like expressions in this beer but there was none to be had. Now, that’s not to say this was a bad hop. We may have had an old pouch and it may not have been as potent as when it was fresh.

I think this hop would be good in traditional English ales if you are looking to shake it up a bit. There were a lot of Kent-like earthiness to it that will work well in ales.

BREW ON!

Homebrew Jar of Destiny: The Third Pick

By John Krochune

On July 6, 2022

In Style Profiles, Videos

The Homebrew Jar of Destiny series continues with the third pick of the year. What does the Jar have in store for us this time around? Watch as we choose our fates at random for our forced education of beer styles.

You Never Know What You’re Gonna Get

The idea is simple – put all the recognized beer styles in a jar and choose one to brew. We planned to do four rounds of this series and we’re on number 3. Here are the beers we selected for this round.

5B. Kölsch

When I saw the wooden nickel, I was a little disappointed since I know this style well. That doesn’t mean I can brew an excellent version of it. The challenge of this pick is to learn how to nail all right characteristics and make a worthy version.

22A. Double IPA

Again, we feel like we have a good understanding of this style too. I mean, we starting drinking beer in the 1990s. The American Double IPA was all around us and we consumed many. I think Mike will do a good job of doing the research and brewing up an excellent beer.

We plan to have these beers ready for September so keep an eye out for the post in a couple of months.

BREW ON!

Check out the British Strong Ale post
Check out the Black IPA post
Check out the International Amber Lager post
Check out the Belgian Tripel post
Check out the Double IPA post
Check out the Kölsch post

Homebrew Con 2022 Recap

By John Krochune

On June 29, 2022

In Festivals, Videos

After a long hiatus since the last in-person one, Homebrew Con 2022 offered these Brew Dudes a chance to take in a few educational sessions, see the latest offerings from different homebrewing vendors, and be amongst our people in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA. Here’s our recap video of our experiences at the convention this year.

Key Takeaways

As compared to the one we attended in Providence, RI, this Homebrew Con was smaller. Smaller in terms of the number of attendees, the number of vendors on the exposition floor, and the number of sessions. Coming out of a pandemic, we understood that in-person participation would be lower. Seeing the smaller scale does support the notion that the hobby is in decline, but we’re hoping that by next year, we’ll see numbers back to 2019 levels.

The sessions they did have were informative – that’s something that has not changed. Like the last time, you get a bit tired of the information overload. It’s all well and good but when you go to this convention as a true student of the craft, you find yourself pretty spent after 3 sessions in the day.

The vendors who were there were great. It’s always nice to meet people who make a living either selling homebrew ingredients or equipment. Special shout out to Yakima Valley Hops as they were quite welcoming and gave out some much free hops to the attendees. There were always long lines for their booth.

Other Homebrew Con 2022 Thoughts

Lastly, it’s always tremendous when people you don’t know say hello and say nice things about the content that you put out on the internet. I am always surprised to hear it but appreciative. We Brew Dudes starting this blog back in July of 2007 and to be still typing out to you right now is pretty shocking. Especially when you think about the blogs that have come and gone in those 15 years, I get a sense that if we have anything – it’s persistence.

So, if you like what you see and read, let us know. Thank to all the people who said hey. It’s always great to talk to others who love brewing beer at home. Maybe we’ll see you at next year’s convention?

Cheers and BREW ON!