Vital Statistics:
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Recipe: 16 lb 2-row pale malt 4 oz chocolate malt 10g gypsum spread between mash and sparge water 25 AAU (69g @ 10.1% AA) Northern Brewer @ 60 5 AAU (9g @ 15.3% AA) Calypso @ 20 5 AAU (9g @ 15.3% AA) Calypso @ 10 5 AAU (9g @ 15.3% AA) Calypso @ 5 5 AAU (29g @ 4.8% AA) Glacier @ 5 5 AAU (9g @ 15.3% AA) Calypso @ 0 (flame-out) 5 AAU (29g @ 4.8% AA) Glacier @ 0 (flame-out) 5 AAU (14g @ 10.1% AA) Northern Brewer @ 0 (flame-out) Wyeast 1272 - American Ale II | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General Notes: Used yeast cake from batch #70. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tasting Notes: Tasting notes taken 4 October 2013, 35 days after kegging. Dispensed from kegerator into a tulip. Appearance: murky brown hue with a moderate haze and two thick fingers of creamy caramel-tan foam. The head is dissipating slowly and leaving a nice chunky lace on the glass. Color is a bit darker than I intended; I wanted to darken it just a little but I guess 4oz of chocolate was just a bit too much. (4) Smell: fruity, oxidized malt. There's also a definite hop aroma, but it is kind of hard to pin down. I think the hops are kind of fruity in nature and blend in with the fruitified malt. Not bad, but not particularly intense nor to-style. (3.5) Taste: starts off with a strongly alcoholic, astringent flavor; the sweeter malt flavors and light fruitiness then come in. Midway through, the bitterness takes over -- and boy, is it bitter. Bam! It never really gels well, but overall the flavor is not bad. (3.5) Mouthfeel: medium body due to the beer's frightningly high attenuation. Creaminess is nice but not perfect -- mash higher next time. (3.5) Drinkability: very drinkable for a 10.1% ABV beer, although more of a sipper than a quaffer. I haven't really found a great food with which to pair it -- it's just way too bitter to really go with much of anything. That said ... I can easily drink too much of this in one sitting. (4) Overall score 3.65 (B). This beer came out something in between an Imperial IPA, a barleywine, a strong ale and an old ale. The oxidation really adds to the barleywine/old-ale perception -- maybe don't leave it in the plastic primary for 146 days, eh, guy? It's an interesting beer though. I may go for a more intentional old ale again in the future with the idea of a 5-month primary; something a bit less hoppy maybe. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hops Table
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