Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

No Sparge Oatmeal Stout Tasting

On February 17, 2021

Mike, in his ongoing pursuit of brewing an excellent Oatmeal Stout, changes a few things for this latest iteration of his beer. The first big change was altering his brewing process and eliminate the sparge step. We talked about that at length. The second change was an ingredient substitution where he used Midnight Wheat. See what these two dudes drinking stout had to say about this no sparge Oatmeal Stout brewed with Midnight Wheat.

Our Hot Takes

First off, Mike’s stouts are pretty great. He would need to do something drastic to alter the taste of his beer for me to give it a negative review.

The no sparge technique that he followed for this beer didn’t alter his beer negatively, I can tell you that. Without having a similar beer that he brewed with a sparge step for comparison, I can’t say how much the no sparging affected the flavor. It save Mike some time, and that always tastes good.

The Midnight Wheat was a good change. It brought the right color to the stout and the flavor didn’t have any of the ashy bitterness that roasted barley can impart. I am sold on that ingredient and will try it out again.

What say you? What’s your take on a no sparge method? What is your experience with Midnight Wheat. Answer below as a comment.

BREW ON!

Triumph Hops SMaSH Beer Tasting Notes

By John Krochune

On February 10, 2021

In Hops, Videos

As a part of our series of post and videos exploring hops, we brewed a SMaSH beer with Triumph hops. Here is our thoughts about this American hop variety.

Our Triumph Hops Thoughts

Like most of our SMaSH beers, the batch size was one gallon using only American pale malt. The hops were added late in the boil and during fermentation as a dry hop.

The aroma on this beer was reminiscent of Apple Jacks. It was fruity but we were not quite clear about what fruit it was. The flavors were pretty subtle and delicate in nature. Triumph hops did not unleash an overpowering assault on the senses. We needed to take time to better understand this hop.

The lineage of this hop is one of Noble and American varieties. I felt there was a lingering spiciness that reminded me of Hallertau. Altogether, the flavor profile was faint.

We drew a comparison to Barbe Rouge hops since we felt that hop was similar in its muted profile. In the end, we felt the French hop was bolder and that Triumph hops would not be as easy to pick out from a combination of hops.

Try Triumph hops out but be warned of its delicate nature. Maybe larger quantities really bring out more of the profile from this variety.

BREW ON!

Brow Brau Porter Tasting

By John Krochune

On February 3, 2021

In Brew Log, Style Profiles, Videos

We brewed a beer on New Year’s Day, following a recipe straight from the pages of Brew Your Own magazine. After about a month, it was ready to taste. I thought this beer came out great. Could I get a strong reaction from my homebrewing counterpart? Well, I guess you’ll just have to watch and see. Take a look at how it all went down for this Brow Brau Porter clone tasting session.

Now that’s one tasty YouTube thumbnail

Brow Brau Porter Tasting Notes

I think the wonderful thing about this beer is its simple grain bill: mostly Maris Otter, some Brown malt, and a smidge of Black Patent malt. With a good charge of English hops and English yeast, they let the malt flavors shine with a solid bitterness and some estery notes.

This beer started off with a gravity of 1.049 (which was specified by the recipe), but mine finished a few points under the specified final gravity (1.015 vs. 1.017). I don’t think that was much of an issue but it may have contributed to the biggest issue Mike had with the beer.

As I sit here now, drinking another pint, the malt flavors are singing together. With some cracker flavor and some caramel in the front along with bitterness from the black malt and hops, and finishing with a vanilla extract flavor that is so pleasant. The low alcohol in this brew makes it great for a session of 2 or 3.

Mike wanted more body in this beer and I feel that. When I look at the BJCP guidelines for the English Porter, it notes a medium-light to medium body is right for the style. I think this beer delivers that and I will stand by it until the end. Or something.

BREW ON!

Testing Water Chemistry At Home

By John Krochune

On January 27, 2021

In Equipment, Videos

In our quest to better understand water chemistry, Mike created this video that shows him using the LaMotte BrewLab Plus Kit. We’ve had this kit for a while and we finally got around to giving it a try. With a kit like this one, you can test your water chemistry at home to analyze your own tap water. With the results of the test, you can figure out how to manipulate your water to best suit a flavor profile for the beer you want to brew!

Kit Contents

The kit comes with a pH meter (I think that’s the “Plus” part of the kit) along with instructions on how to the use it. The bulk of the kit is the reagents in dropper bottles and blister packs that get added to your collected water to indicate the quantity levels of minerals and compounds present that are important to brewing beer like Calcium Chloride.

Sample Tests

Mike demonstrated how he performed a few of the tests by following the instructions that came with the kit. By adding different reagents to his tap water, he was able to figure out the presence of certain substances. This determination is made by the color changes the water makes. Comparing the color of the water to a chart or counting the number of drops added to the water to accomplish a color provided the data points he needed to understand the mineral makeup of his water.

Conclusion

Mike was pretty happy with the results as compared to the ones he received from Ward Labs a year ago. He thinks there is a cost benefit to the kit since you can conduct over 50 tests. The cost of the kit is much less expensive than the cost to pay a professional lab to conduct over 50 tests for you.

Check out the LaMotte Kits here.

Brew ON!

Brew Dudes Homebrew Swap – Exchange #41

By John Krochune

On January 20, 2021

In Homebrew Club, Videos

In our continuing series of posts, we taste and review our forty-first submission from our viewers/readers. This time around, we were sent a Belgian Tripel. We don’t typically receive Belgian styles outside of Saisons, so this one was a real treat. See what we mean and watch this homebrewed beer swap video where we discuss the tripel submitted by Andy in Massachusetts.

Our Tasting Notes

The style guidelines tell us that Belgian Tripels have complex, malt and yeast-driven flavors and are on the higher end of the alcohol by volume range. These aren’t beers we drink regularly but we have had enough to talk about them and see how this example compares to commercial versions.

Appearance: Well, this beer was darker than the style guideline specifications. It was more brown than gold or yellow as noted in the guidelines. This beer was brewed from a kit so we wondered if the color difference came from an ingredient choice or oxidation

Aroma: The aroma was driven by the yeast with strong esters. There were some malty notes too.

Flavor: The esters and the maltiness that the aroma promised were delivered in the flavor. The beer was complex with interesting dark fruit flavors and yeasty esters. Maybe a slight clove flavor in the aftertaste but finished dry.

Mouthfeel: Medium to Medium light. It looked to be a bigger better but it was thinner than expected, which was a good thing.

Overall Impression: Outside of the color, the only other issue was the carbonation. These beers should be effervescent but the bottle I got was a little low in the old carbonation department. Other than that, it was a good beer to have on a spring or summer weekend on a lake somewhere.

Thanks for the submission. Cheers and Brew on!