Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Brew Dudes Homebrew Swap – Exchange #47

On August 3, 2022

You know what time it is. It’s time for us to taste beer that has been shipped to us. Yeah, I know – Poor us. For this post, we will be talking about a beer that Trevor from Utah brewed and we present our thoughts.

What Did He Send Us?

Trevor sent us a sour ale. Along with it, he had a handwritten note but forgot to put it in the box when he shipped his beer. Instead, he scanned the note and emailed it to us. I’ll provide the details here:

This beer is a mixed fermentation with a Belgian base consisting of Golden Dry Malt Extract (DME), 15 °L Crystal Malt, White Wheat, Demerara sugar and 3 ounces (85 g) of aged hops added a 30 minutes.

To start fermentation, he added WLP565 Belgian Saison, WLP653 Brettanomyces Lambicus dregs from a homebrew cider, Sour Batch Kidz, dregs from a local sour, and 0.5 Liters started of a bootleg solera blend.

During fermentation, he added 33 ounces (936 g) of Thompson raisins and 9.4 ounces (266 g) of toasted peach stones in 2 additions several months appart.

It soured quicker than he expected and he bottled the beer at 5.5 months into the process and used a large starter of his home Brett C. culture.

Target CO2 was 2.1 volumes on bottling day.

Original Gravity: 1.080
Final Gravity: 1.011
ABV: 9.11%

What Did We Think Of His Sour Beer?

Well, it is definitively a sour beer. There was no doubting it. We both picked up on a soft fruit note. Mike sensed a nectarine essence, it was somewhere between peaches and navel oranges.

The beer was light in body and the fermentation is clean. Although a Belgian strain was used in the beer, there are no funkiness/phenols present. It has the qualities of a kettle soured beer without the subtle yogurt note.

Overall, it is a refreshing beer. Even with all the different additions to ferment, this beer would be a great one to drink on a hot summer day.

BREW ON!

Blending Sour Beers That Were Sent To Us

By John Krochune

On July 27, 2022

In Experiments, Videos

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