Wow – have you ever had your likeness put on a piece of glasswear? Well, we did and we lived to tell about it. This video provides all the details.
Frost In Translation
So this particular mug is a new product from this site. They take your photo, which needs to be a head shot where you’re looking straight at the calendar, and they illustrate a characture of you onto the mug.
Our mugs came with images of our big heads put onto tuxedoed bodies.
The effect is pretty humorous and the mug is hefty. We are not really mug guys, but this one may change our mind.
Get Your Mug On a Mug
This mug will make a good gift for anyone who likes cool glasswear. You can see some time and effort went into the art and it is backed with a quality vessel for all your beer needs.
We get homebrewed beer sent to us from all over the planet. This time, the beer is from Mike in Washington State, USA. He shipped it over 3,000 miles so that we could open it up on camera, write about it here, and post a video on YouTube. Check out all the things that we thought about in our homebrew swap, exchange number 31.
Hops
1 ounce Southern Star hops – Boiled for 60 minutes – 13% AA
1 ounce XJA/436 hops – Boiled for 30 minutes – 14% AA
1 ounce N1/69 hops – Hop stand addition – 20 minutes – 13% AA
1 ounce U1/108 hops – Hop stand addition – 6.5% AA
1 ounce African Queen hops- Hop stand addition – 15.5% AA
1 ounce African Queen hops – Dry hopped for 4 days – 15.5% AA
1 ounce N1/69 hops – Dry hopped for 4 days – 13% AA
1 ounce U1/108 hops – Dry hopped for 4 days – 6.5% AA
Yeast
1 packet of White Labs California Ale WLP001
Instructions
Mashed at 149° F for 60 minutes
Mashed Out at 167° F for 10 minutes
Added 0.5 tsp Irish Moss and 0.5 tsp of Wyeast Yeast Nutrient with 15 minutes to go in the boil
Fermented for 21 days at 64° F
Calculations
IBUs: 97.4
Color: 12.6 °SRM
OG: 1.059
FG: 1.014
Tasting Notes
Here’s what we thought.
Appearance
Mike liked the color. The haze was dominant. Head was rocky and persistent.
Aroma
There were notes of orange and peach. There was also a floral component to it. Notes of violent and chamomile.
Flavor
There wasn’t a lot of bitterness. The flavor was not as strong as they were in the aroma.
Mouthfeel
Soft and smooth. Medium body.
Overall Impression
We were happy that this beer had some bitterness but not a lot. It definitely did not have the bitterness of west coast IPA from last decade. The aroma was really strong – we wished the hop flavor was as strong. For a first kegged beer, it was a winner.
In the course of aging sour beers, things can go awry. These brew dudes don’t think that should ruin everything. When you put that much time into a beer, it would be a big letdown to pour it down the sink. The beer that was known to us as the “2 year old” was a little off. Watch this video to learn more about how I added fruit to this beer and saved it from a death down the drain.
After evaluating the beers, we felt like the beer that was two years old at the time was not great. The majority of the blend came from the other beers.
The two year old was put back into the dark corner of my basement until I had an idea of what to do with it.
To save this beer, I had to add fruit to it. I debated what kind of fruit to use – raspberries were in the running – but in the end, I decided to use cherries.
Cherries and Everything Else I Added To This Beer
I typically use frozen fruit as the additions to my beers and this time around was no exception. I bought a thre pound bag of frozen cherries – a blend of sour and black cherries. Then, I added the contents of a couple of 32 ounce bottles of 100% “Just Tart” cherry juice from the R.W. Knudsen Family company.
Then, because I was getting creative or bored or both, I added 8 ounces of French oak cubes (medium toast) and two split-down-the-middle vanilla beans.
After all these additions were made, the beer sat for 9 months before I made plans to bottle it up.
When I tasted the beer, it wasn’t “cherry” enough so I added half of a bottle of pure cherry extract to push that flavor note forward.
Tasting Notes
At bottling, I added 230 grams of corn sugar boiled in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes. I then added one packet of CBC-1 Cask & Bottle Conditioning Yeast properly re-hydrated.
Here’s what Mike thought about this beer.
Lots of acidic notes on the notes. The C02 was pushing a lot of sour notes.
Cherry/berry notes on the nose with caramel and woody notes.
The taste was full of deep, mahogany fruity taste with some sour cherry notes. He got some subtle wheat cracker taste.
I am glad I was able to save this beer. It made for a great Kriek beer.
By request, we brewed this SMaSH beer to learn more about Rakau hops. Somebody somewhere asked for us to brew with this hop, so we did.
This variety is from New Zealand and it has a lot to provide to the palette. Check out our review of this Rakau hops SMaSH beer with these tasting notes.
I am sure I am mispronouncing the hop name in the video because that’s what I do. I wish I didn’t.
If you know how to pronounce the name of the hop, please add it in the comment below and enlighten everyone who reads this post.
Brewing Notes
With the flavorful hops, I tend to add the majority of my pellets at the end of the boil. If you add them at the beginning, different flavor notes come through. You get a better sense of the bittering properties of the hop but these new varieties, in my opinion, aren’t to be used early in the boil.
With the Rakau hops, they are listed as dual purpose, which means they could be used for bittering or for flavor, but my brewing method was to provide as much flavor in the final beer as possible.
Tasting Notes
I put Mike to the test and I thought he nailed it. He presented these notes for the hop flavor:
Raspberry flavor without the acid bite
Muted sweet cherry note
Blackberry
Soft, mixed berry thing – Red wine grape like character
The commercial descriptors were in line with what he said. I quoted something I read:
“Once described as the whole orchard”
It certainly reminded Mike of the mixed berry salad that his wife made last night.
The other items were stone fruit and a fig character.
Mike theorized that maybe the seedy berry taste he was getting could be in line with an earthy figgy flavor.
I though the beer has a strong strawberry note.
Final Thoughts
I think this hop could shine on its own in a hop forward beer. My thoughts were a pairing with Melba hops in an IPA.
My other thought was that this hop would work in a sour beer like a Berliner Weiss or a kettle soured beer.
Mike thought it would worked in a fruited wheat beer (50% wheat malt in the grain bill, America ale strain, some berry added during fermentation) because it would marry well with this hop’s flavor profile.
Thanks for reading – hope you give this hop a try.
