Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

A Tale of Two Sour Beers — But Really It’s Four

On June 27, 2018

Mike brewed two batches of beer. He made 10 gallons of wort each time which he split into two equal 5 gallon batches to have four different beers for us to enjoy. Even though I quote Charles Dickens, this is a tale of not just two sour beers but really four of them. Watch this video as Mike tells his story and we taste each of them.

The Sour Story

Mike started his sour brewing last year but he has been using the same culture. He used it for his two most recent sour beer batches. Splitting the 10 gallon batches, he has been able to make four distinct beers.

His grain bill for all the beers:

50% Pilsner Malt
25% Malted Wheat
25% Flaked Oats

Mike uses this grain bill to form what he calls is his “Golden Sour” base beer. The one he brewed last year, he split into two batches and added cherries to one of them. That unadulterated beer is now known as Golden Sour #1.

So for this post, we are tasting the sequels to that first batch of beer.

The Tasting Notes

Here is some information about each of the four beers and our thoughts after we evaluated them.

Golden Sour #2: Of the two Golden Sours, this one had strong sour notes. It matched up well with what I remember from #1. The body was thinner than the younger batch.

Flander’s Red: Mike looked at Jamil’s Flander’s Red recipe and steeped Crystal 120°L malt and some Munich II in the kettle before the boil for this batch. We thought this one tasted like commercial versions of this beer style. Mike thought that an oak addition would get it to taste more like a Rodenbach beer.

Golden Sour #3: It was fine but needed some age to get to the right sour.

Black Plum Sour: This beer has a peachy color and a strong plum aroma. Mike added six pounds of black plums (soaked in StarSan for 20 second before adding) to this batch and it really presented itself well, even at this young age.

Mike has some great potential here and we thank him for sharing.

Brew on!

Calypso Hops – SMaSH Beer Tasting Notes

By John Krochune

On June 20, 2018

In Hops, Videos

We’re a big fan of hops that have been branded with exciting names. This brew was made with Calypso hops so we imagined we’d be getting flavors and aromas straight from the Caribbean in this particular beer. Find out if that was the case by watching our Calypso hops SMasH beer tasting video.

Brewing Notes

The alpha acid percentage was labeled as 13.7% on the package so I took a hop schedule approach of adding the majority of my hops late in the boil. I did add a smidge at the beginning of the boil, which is was just a pinch of pellets between my two fingers out of the pouch. The rest was added at flame and I left .25 ounces of hops to be used for dry hopping.

I took a NEIPA style approach to dry hopping where I added the hop on day three of active fermentation. As Mike noted, it left the beer a little more hazy than other SMaSHs I have brewed. It also seemed to be less fragrant than other beers where I dry hopped later in the fermentation process, typically after a week of fermentation, but I don’t think I would use this beer as a data point for a dry hop experiment. There are too many factors at play here.

Tasting Notes

For the aroma, Mike got an under-ripe melon note like honeydew. I got pear instead. As for the flavor, there was more melon notes, with a white fleshy peach taste, followed by grassy, resiny bitterness.

We thought if you used this hop for bittering, you’d probably get lots of dank notes in your beer. Mike followed up that the beer had a raw hop pellet thing going on. I found that it had a pine sap like finish.

The package proclaimed the hops had smooth bittering, with notes of soft florals, lemon zest, dried apple, and pear. We disagreed with the lemon zest part. It was more resiny than pithy to us.

Final Thoughts

We think that Calypso hops are blendable – better to use with other varieties than to have them shine alone in your beer. The light fruit flavors will mesh well with other stronger citrus-focused hops.

I guess the big takeaway is that these hops are not tropical. Certainly other hops from NZ and AU fit that bill better, so maybe these hops can been rebranded…maybe.

BREW ON!

Comparing Two Czech Pilsners Brewed A Year Apart

By John Krochune

On June 13, 2018

In Brew Log, Videos

As one of my goals for 2018, I wanted to rebrew a Czech Pilsner to correct a flaw I had in the one I brewed in 2017. The big difference in the 2018 beer was eliminating the water chemistry tinkering that I tried out last year. Get our thoughts as we sit down and compare two Czech Pilsners brewed a year apart and see if I improved things or not.

Notes On The 2018 Process

So lagers are still fairly challenging for me even though I have won awards in homebrewing competitions for the ones I have brewed.

Well, maybe I should revise that statement – I don’t feel link I have brewed light-colored lagers to my satisfaction.

As most homebrewers know, light lagers are difficult because the simple ingredient list accentuate flaws that may be hidden in a more complex beer. You have to hit all the notes perfectly for it to really be excellent.

For Czech Pilsners, the commercial ones I had in Europe had a flawlessness that I wanted to replicate at home. I remember the dry, minerally, crisp aftertaste of those beers and thought I could achieve this flavor aspect by adding brewing salts to my water in 2017. I felt it gave the beer a real chalky taste. In 2018, I brewed with just spring water and hoped that would solve the flaw and to achieve the aftertaste I wanted.

Taste Comparison

Well, tasting the year old pilsner revealed its flaw to me very quickly. I was happy to report that the 2018 one did not have it but, this year’s beer wasn’t perfect either.

My fermentation in 2018 was really slow. I bought 4 packets of White Labs WLP800 because I didn’t have time to build a starter before I brewed. I really should have made that starter – my fermentation didn’t kick in fully until 1 week after the brew session. It was a horrible lag time.

The resulting beer was fine but it could be better.

The other thought I had was about the Saaz hops. The hops didn’t taste fresh in either beers. Knowing that I need a large amount, I may seek out another source for this variety since it seems to me that the packages I have been getting from the old local homebrew store are probably old.

To sum up, I am going to brew this beer again. Here are the tips I need to remember:

Use Spring Water
Find Fresh Saaz hops
Plan ahead and make a yeast starter

I know others have mentioned adding a bit of acidulated malt to my grist to lower the pH. Since I don’t know what my mash pH is, maybe I need to get the ph meter going.

BREW ON!

Ice Caps Polar Pouch Product Review

By John Krochune

On June 6, 2018

In Equipment, Videos

We were contacted by the guys at Ice Caps to take a look at their Polar Pouch product. These pouches are carry your beer bottles and keep them colder than other carrier due to their use of neoprene. Take a look as we examine them and provide this Polar Pouch product review.

Product Features

The Polar Pouch can carry up to six beers or at least it has pouches for six beers, may they be in tall bottle, small bottle, or can form. If you utilize the center pouch, you can max out the carrier and make it hold a maximum of nine bottles or 15 twelve ounce cans.

The pockets are deep so that this carrier is ideal for the homebrewer that bottles beer in 22 ounce bombers. I believe this is an important feature.

I have been gifted over the years very nice beer carriers that can only handle 12 ounce bottles and it’s a bummer because that is not the size I use. Because I don’t have bottles that fit, the carrier stays on the shelf. The Polar Pouch meets my need for depth!

The center pouch can hold ice packs so that you have the ability to keep beer colder longer. I found that the neoprene kept the condensation from the ice packs from making a mess on surfaces where I set the carrier down.

The Polar Pouches come in the colors of black or red. I choose black because it matches the color of my heart.

Final Thoughts

This carrier is well built and I hope to use it a lot this summer. The big reason we agreed to review the pouch is because the guys who are making them are guys just like us. They are trying to get something going and I root for those people. The world is better when people take chances to do something they think will benefit others and themselves. That’s what these Brew Dudes are all about.

Go find them on Amazon

Brew On!

Brew Dudes Homebrew Swap – Exchange #30

By John Krochune

On May 30, 2018

In Homebrew Club, Videos

Even with all the news to the contrary, it is amazing how the internet can connect people. These Brew Dudes are celebrating their 30th homebrew swap with Adam in Wisconsin. He has a German Alt for us which is a great malty style that we have brewed before and would like to know how his compares. Check out our thoughts about this beer in our video below.

Adam’s German Alt Recipe

Grain Bill:
68% German Pilsner Malt
17% Munich Malt – 10°L
9% Aromatic Malt
4% Caramunich Malt
2% Carafa Special II Malt

Hops
0.75 ounces of Magnum hops with 60 minutes to go in the boil
0.75 ounces of Tettnang hops with 15 minutes to go in the boil

Yeast: Two packages of Wyeast 1007 German Ale yeast

Water: 7.5 gallons of reverse osmosis water with these additives:
1.7 grams of gypsum
2.6 grams of calcium chloride
3 grams epsom salt
0.7 grams of baking soda
1.9 milliliters lactic acid

With these additions, he had a mash pH of 5.42.

Adam said he was following the “Amber Balanced” profile in Bru’n Water and got it as close as he could based on the grain bill. He used 3 grams of Epson Salt to get 10ppm of magnesium and to raise sulfates without adding a crap load of calcium.

Brewing Notes:

Mashed at 149° F for 90 minutes
Boiled for 90 minutes
Fermented at 60° F for three weeks
Raised the temperature to 68° F for three days
Kegged and lager for four weeks

ABV: 5.3%

He scored 40 out of 50 in a competition for this Alt.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Extremely clear – Mike likened the color to a copper penny. Nice lasting head.

Aroma: Toasted toffee almost s’mores aroma

Flavor: The aroma carried into the flavor. It had a strong malt richness. We thought it meshed well with the spicy, noble hop character. There is a mineral character to the beer that Mike thought it worked with the style.

Mouthfeel: The beer had a medium body

Overall Impression: Great beer. It was a good example of the style. We wondered if it needed so much magnesium but what do we know? This alt was deserving of its competition win.

Thanks Adam! Brew ON!