Dark Beer Blues
My troubles with brewing dark beers continue. I thought that I had licked it after a few nice brown to very dark brown beers, but I just tasted the Irish stout (almost as black as my shriveled heart) I have in the fermenter right now and it is not good.
The very first beer I brewed back in 2006 was a brown ale, brewed with an extract + specialty grains kit. It was pretty tasty. I followed that up with a dark porter that Nora liked, but that I was never very happy with. Beer number 3 was a dark English mild that was, well the less said about it the better. After that, I switched to lighter beers, changed to a partial mash process and brewed a string of pretty nice lighter beers. When I went back to the dark beers in the fall last year, I brewed a brown ale that rapidly went south and an oatmeal stout that started out south and just kept going. That, and life events, discouraged me and put a stop to brewing for some months. When I started up again, I stuck to lighter beers and had some moderate success. I've now switched to an all-grain process, so I thought it might be safe to try the dark beers again. This started when I got laid off, which seemed an appropriate time to go dark.
Unemployment Ale was a quick recipe put together to use up some excess ingredients. It started out as an English Bitter, but I added some interesting dark grains I had laying around - some chocolate rye malt and a dark German crystal called CaraAroma. I called it a Dark English Bitter. It turned out to be a surprisingly drinkable little beer with a roasty edge.
Dark Season was inspired by the Saison Noire they sometimes have at the Cambridge Brewing Company. I used the same French Saison yeast as my Lavender Saison. This was a very simple recipe made up of the three organic grains that are available online from Midwest brewing (2-row, medium crystal and chocolate) and some of my stash of organic hops. I primed with organic cane sugar. The result was a nice, somewhat funky (in that Saison fashion), very dark brown beer. After this, I dared to hope that I could go darker still...
But first, a lighter beer. Sim Ale was a straightforward American Pale Ale brewed with some of my precious Simcoe hops, with some Vanguard mixed in for variety. The result is a nice, middle of the road pale ale with a good fruity hop flavour up front. Apparently Simcoe is going to be in very short supply in the coming years, so this will probably be a one off.
I just bottled this yesterday and the sample I took tasted damn fine. It's basically a brown ale that's hopped like an IPA with Pacific Gem, Centennial, Simcoe and Amarillo. I dry-hopped it with a bunch of Amarillo, because I love the smell of Amarillo in the morning.
So that's three dark beers that turned out well and then the stout. It's a much greater proportion of very dark grain than any of the other beers, which might cause trouble with the mash if my water pH (which I haven't checked yet) is low. Water composition is one of the reasons that different areas of the world traditionally brew different beers - the soft water of Plsen brews a great light lager, but would brew a lousy stout. Equally, I wouldn't bet on Dublin water brewing a Pale Ale to match the ones from Burton-on-Trent and vice versa. It may be that my water isn't up to a really dark beer. There were also some process issues on the day (it was a long brew day and there was one mistake at the end which might have given bacteria a foothold). The taste seems like it might be Acetaldehyde, which can a by-product of normal fermentation, or might be due to bacteria. I'll bottle it up and see how it goes, but I suspect this will be one for the "private collection".
The very first beer I brewed back in 2006 was a brown ale, brewed with an extract + specialty grains kit. It was pretty tasty. I followed that up with a dark porter that Nora liked, but that I was never very happy with. Beer number 3 was a dark English mild that was, well the less said about it the better. After that, I switched to lighter beers, changed to a partial mash process and brewed a string of pretty nice lighter beers. When I went back to the dark beers in the fall last year, I brewed a brown ale that rapidly went south and an oatmeal stout that started out south and just kept going. That, and life events, discouraged me and put a stop to brewing for some months. When I started up again, I stuck to lighter beers and had some moderate success. I've now switched to an all-grain process, so I thought it might be safe to try the dark beers again. This started when I got laid off, which seemed an appropriate time to go dark.
Unemployment Ale was a quick recipe put together to use up some excess ingredients. It started out as an English Bitter, but I added some interesting dark grains I had laying around - some chocolate rye malt and a dark German crystal called CaraAroma. I called it a Dark English Bitter. It turned out to be a surprisingly drinkable little beer with a roasty edge.
Dark Season was inspired by the Saison Noire they sometimes have at the Cambridge Brewing Company. I used the same French Saison yeast as my Lavender Saison. This was a very simple recipe made up of the three organic grains that are available online from Midwest brewing (2-row, medium crystal and chocolate) and some of my stash of organic hops. I primed with organic cane sugar. The result was a nice, somewhat funky (in that Saison fashion), very dark brown beer. After this, I dared to hope that I could go darker still...
But first, a lighter beer. Sim Ale was a straightforward American Pale Ale brewed with some of my precious Simcoe hops, with some Vanguard mixed in for variety. The result is a nice, middle of the road pale ale with a good fruity hop flavour up front. Apparently Simcoe is going to be in very short supply in the coming years, so this will probably be a one off.
I just bottled this yesterday and the sample I took tasted damn fine. It's basically a brown ale that's hopped like an IPA with Pacific Gem, Centennial, Simcoe and Amarillo. I dry-hopped it with a bunch of Amarillo, because I love the smell of Amarillo in the morning.
So that's three dark beers that turned out well and then the stout. It's a much greater proportion of very dark grain than any of the other beers, which might cause trouble with the mash if my water pH (which I haven't checked yet) is low. Water composition is one of the reasons that different areas of the world traditionally brew different beers - the soft water of Plsen brews a great light lager, but would brew a lousy stout. Equally, I wouldn't bet on Dublin water brewing a Pale Ale to match the ones from Burton-on-Trent and vice versa. It may be that my water isn't up to a really dark beer. There were also some process issues on the day (it was a long brew day and there was one mistake at the end which might have given bacteria a foothold). The taste seems like it might be Acetaldehyde, which can a by-product of normal fermentation, or might be due to bacteria. I'll bottle it up and see how it goes, but I suspect this will be one for the "private collection".