perfidy

Brew #10 - St. Anky Dark Ale

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6.6 lbs Munton's liquid malt extract, light.
3/4 lb crystal malt, 40L
1/4 lb chocolate malt
1/4 lb black patent malt
1 oz Eroica hops, 12% AAU (bittering)
1/2 oz Hallertau Mittelfreuh hops, aroma
1 oz Hallertau Mittelfreuh hops, flavor
1 packet Safale S-04 dry ale yeast (Whitbread strain)

Steeped specialty grains in 1 gallon filtered tap water for 60 minutes at 155-160 degrees. Meanwhile, brought 3 gallons filtered tap water to boil in kettle, and added steeping water. Rinsed grains off well. Added malt extract at the boil. Returned kettle to boil and added Eroica hops. Added 1/2 oz HM hops (real German ones) for the last ten minutes. Added 1 oz HM (real German ones) for the last minute. Nummy num num num.

Removed kettle to ice bath with 30 lbs ice and a couple freezer packs. Added 1 gallon 50 degree water to the fermenter, and added wort, filtering out the trub using the showercap-like contraption I have. Poured back and forth between kettle and bucket to aerate wort. I tried an experiment this time - I sprinkled the yeast into the bucket when most of the beer was in the kettle, and let the turbulence of pouring the beer back in dissolve and disperse the yeast. Twenty minutes later, I shook the bucket some more to make sure the yeast was fully distributed throughout the wort.

I was going to use some liquid ESB yeast for this brew, which probably would have been very good, but there were two reasons not to. First, the batch was a little old, and I wasn't totally confident of getting a good fermentation from the yeast. Second, since I was using Hallertau hops I wanted to have a crisper finish than the softness of ESB yeast would afford. Whitbread should do very well on that count.

This is basically a rerun of Brew #2, which I called a porter. I mean, it was a porter, but lighter than the usual American porters that are around these days. Generally people use roasted malts for the browned, toasty flavors they impart, and I haven't really done that here. Moreover, I tend to like a lot of hops with this grainbill, more aroma hops especially than are really acceptable for the porter style. So, I've decided instead that what I'm making here is more of a Dark Ale. Why the hell not? My Brew #6, Joey Porter, was more in the porter style since I used a bit of darker crystal malt as well as a London Ale yeast that offered nice, round, soft, and minerally notes. It's amazing how basically the same exact grainbill can taste completely different using a different strain of yeast, even if both strains are from the same region of the same country. I love yeast.

I love yeast.

[wik] Ok, so not great. The yeast was nice, but high-attenuating, and the quarter pound of black malt came through too much. Also, the very estery and fruity flavor profile completely hides any hop aroma. I'd need to use some flavoring hops and a load of aroma hops to get a hoppy nose out of this. Worst of all, the batch was contaminated and I had to dump the last case before the bottles blew. Dang dang dang dang.