Welcome back to Off The Hinge Brewing! I first want to give a shout out to Steven Childs. He was asked to provide a keg of his
Hot Fuzz beer for the Portland Fruit Beer Festival Dinner. This beer is a great tasting peach beer with some heat from jalapeno peppers, good work sir! I entered my Mango Cedar Belgian into the Fruit beer homebrewer's contest, which may be a little under carbonated. I think it taste good. The mango hits you in the beginning and the cedar hits you in the end. The good thing about entering the comp is that you get a glass and three drink tickets so it is a win win! I also want to wish everyone from the collective good luck with their entries, should be a good time.
Just bottled up the Rhubarb Saison, and I believe it is going to be good. I ran into a huge problem while fermenting this beast of a beer. The Belgian Saison 3724 is a tricky yeast, and it has a reputation for stalling out before fully attenuating. I read that if you bump up the heat it will fully attenuate with time. So, I bumped up the heat (this strain can ferment up to 95 degrees F). I came back to check on it the following day to find it was 110 degrees, Oh shit! I thought that I ruined the beer. I cold crashed it as fast as I could (I don't have a refrigeration system) then transferred and repitched 3711, which is the French Saison strain and it chewed up all those sugars and got down to 1.003! I tasted it while bottling and it was tart, sweet and bitter. Can't wait to try the final product, I have a good feeling about this one.
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| Cold steeped |
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| Adding the darkness |
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| Steve stirring the mash |
Lastly, yesterday I brewed my first Cascadian Dark Ale (Black IPA) with Steve. I cold Steeped my dark grains (these grains are debittered, so this step is not a necessity) this is done to try and subdue the roastiness, plus this was a new process I wanted to attempt. The hops are the star of this style, so if you attempt this beer you do not want much roastiness to it.
You maybe curious about the title of this post? I decided to try all New Zealand hops, which have been getting great reviews. I call it,
All Blacks CDA, this is a reference to their national rugby team.
Steve brought over some Pacific Jade hops, which I used for bittering. They are a high alpha acid hop with a slight spice of pepper, very clean and no harsh aroma's. there is some citrus in this hop, grapefruit and lemon. I also used Motueka and Wakatu, which are dual purpose hops that have a great oil profile with flavors of lime zest, lemon, and tropical fruit. I have not decided what I will dry hop it with? I used American II yeast strain, which I really liked in the
Stars and Bars Pale ale. Time will tell the results, however it is bubbling away and smells fantastic! Till later, remember to drink good beer responsibly and be merry!
P.S. Here are some pics of the garden...
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| Chinook is sprouting |
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| Blowin' up |
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| New addition, 'Lemon Grass' |
