Vital Statistics:
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Recipe: 8 lb 2-row pale malt 2 oz Cara-Pils 5 AAU (26g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 60 10.7 AAU (28g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo @ 5 14.2 AAU (28g @ 14.2% AA) Citra @ 5 5.4 AAU (28g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 0 (dry-hop) 10.7 AAU (28g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo @ 0 (dry-hop) 14.2 AAU (28g @ 14.2% AA) Citra @ 0 (dry-hop) Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min Wyeast 1084 - Irish Ale | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General Notes: Used yeast cake from batch #47. Dry hops added 9 days into fermentation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tasting Notes: Tasting notes taken 9 September 2011, a mere 3 days after kegging. Poured from tap into a pint glass. Appearance: golden-silvery hue; just enough haze to create an attractive shimmer. Head poured a finger of frothy white foam but quickly dissipated. Not bad, could use more head retention. (3.5) Smell: light malt with a big, huge tropical/citrus fruit aroma. There's grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple and maybe even a little bit of banana in there; basically, it's a Dole fruit cocktail. This is precisely what I wanted out of this beer. (4.5) Taste: basic malt flavor with some prickly hops present; bitterness is nicely balanced. The aroma is ambrosial, but in the flavor the hops kind of fall apart. Not bad, at all, but this could use a lot of work. I didn't add any 10-20 minute flavor hop additions, and this might have hurt me. Not to mention, this 1084 yeast has shown itself to be a pretty bland non-contributor to flavor. (3.5) Mouthfeel: medium-light body with a moderate carbonation. Desipte its flavor flaws, the 1084 yeast seems to deliver a really smooth, creamy mouthfeel, which works well in this case. (4) Drinkability: this is a very light and refreshing beer, especially if you get the full bouquet of the aroma. Quenching and tasty, this is a very drinkable brew, if a tiny bit bland on the tongue. (4) Overall score 3.8 (B+). This beer was extremely successful at what I wanted out of it (bigass tropical aroma), and pretty mediocre at everything else. The next time I do a beer like this, it's going to have a little more malt character (something caramel, maybe) and some more flavor hop additions. Also, when I dry-hopped this beer, I didn't get full immersion of my hop bag. So, next time, I'll see if I can't use pellets. I will say, too, that this beer is another notch in the belt for Citra. When pellets are available this year, I'm going to go buck wild on some more Citra. It should be noted that I tasted this beer at a mere 3 days in the keg because I'm taking it to a tailgate party tomorrow, and there is a chance that it will all be consumed, leaving me with no more opportunities for tasting. Force-carbonating seemed to work pretty well, even after such a short time, but if I get the chance to taste it later I will do so then as well. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hops Table
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