Scottish 80 (Oak) Tasting

The beer:  This is the second half of my Scott 80 beer that I brewed up 10 gallons of back in
January.  Full Recipe here.  Tasting for the 'clean' half here.  For this part, I aged it an additional 5 weeks on
1 ounce of medium toast Hungarian oak cubes.
OG=1.049, FG=1.012 ABV=4.75%

Appearance: Pours with a think head whith good retention, which leaves lacing all the way down the glass.
There is a decent clarity through the dark reddish-brown body.

Aroma:  A nice toasted oak aroma.  Some nuttyness. 
It gives it some of the toffee flavor I was looking for in the base beer.
The oak is not overly strong like cut lumber.  Something I have heard too much can give.

Taste: Again, oak is the dominant character here. A little bit of matiness sneaking in the background.  From the oak, I can taste some vanilla, caramel, wood, slight fruitines and maybe some nuts.  Its like a whisky without the burn.

Mouthfeel:   Slight creaminess, but overall a thinner beer. The carbonation is just right to not make it seltzery.  It does leave a slight dryness to the mouth afterwards; this may be from the oak tanins.

Overall:  I think the 1 ounce oak for 1 month was just about right for this.  It could go a little more,
but much more would be way too overpowering.  Much of the subtle characteristics of the base beer are lost in the oakiness, but since the primary goal of this batch was to experience what oak gives the beer, I don't mind that at all.
The extra month of aging did help the beer.  The clean half was kegged too soon and the first few pints
had way too much yeast. 
I will definitely use oak in beer again, although I will probably take a break from it for the summer. 
I might even do this recipe - the only change would be to up the malt character and possibly something to give it more body - Like flaked barley or oats.
I have the cubes I pulled from this currently soaking in some Vodka to make me some cheap imitation whiskey.  It is intersting to see what flavors you can get out of it over different lengths of time.
Some day I would love to work with barrels, but good luck talking the wife into that one!

Notes:
1/29/12 - Brewed 2x5 gal   OG=1.049
  2/15/12 Secondary Oaked Scott 80
     +1oz JD soaked Med-Toast Hungarian oak  
  3/23/12 - Keg FG=1.012    4.75% ABV
     Decent clarity.  Dark reddish brown.
     Nice oaky flavor.  there but not overpowering.  Almost a buttery sweetness to it.
  4/19/12 - This tasting

Zythos IPA - brewing

I thought it was about time to make something hoppy. Over the last 6 months, I have been making malty, roasty or sour beers. With such a long break from hops, I wanted this one to be big. As I was putting the recipe together, I decided to focus more on the citrusy side of American hops, but I soon found out that all of the good ones are sold out until the next harvest (early fall). What I did find was the hop bled from hop union called Zythos. It is apparently a blend of quite a few American hops. I ordered a pound of this and worked 1/2 of that into this recipe. 6 ounces in the boil and 2 more for dry hopping. I needed a malt bill that can stand up to that much hop flavor.
I started with a base of standard 2 row, a pound of caramel 80 (I happened to have some I wanted to use up) another pound of cara-pils and a pound of sugar to top it off. The goal is an ~8% abv beer. Full recipe here. Also with 6oz hops in the kettle, you lose quit a bit of wort, so I planned this as a 6 gallon recipe and will hopefully end up with 5 in the keg.

For today, I wanted to keep it simple and focus just on this one beer. I didn't start the water or crushing the grains until after 9am and I had the chiller going in time to make it to the farmer's market by 12:30. For the most part, the day went smoothly although during the boil, there was some boil over, but strangely no wort escaped, it just pushed all of the hops out. I scooped them back in and kept the fire going. Everything looked like it was going well, but when I checked the gravity, it was much lower than expected. 1.061, which means I only got 60% efficiency. Depending on where it finishes, I may have a 6.5% beer. Not quite as big as I was hoping, but will still be OK.
My daughter really liked sampling the sweet wort. I may have to start making some non-alcoholic malt beverages.

I then used a half gallon of the final runnings to top off my sour cultures and set a couple out in an attempt to capture wild yeast. We will see how that goes...

Second run Heffeweizen - tasting

This is the perfect beer to welcome in the spring - a German Heffeweizen. It is a refreshing wheat beer fermented with a characterful yeast that gives clove and banana esters. This year I did not dedicate a brew day to just this one beer. Instead, I made it from the second runnings from the lambic mash. The difference is that I pulled some for a small decoction. This is where you boil some of the mash before adding it back in. This is supposed to impact the color and flavor, but I cannot really say how as I have never compared two side by side.

Appearance. Pours with a thick pillowy white head that hands around forever. The body is a nice yellowish orange, hazy but with a little more clarity than it should have.

Aroma. Definitely a heffe here. The banana/clove dominates the aroma.

Taste. Tastes of a refreshing wheat beverage with a hint of tartness. No detectable hops. Neither sweet nor bitter.

Mouthfeel. Light creamy texture, which is interesting considering the low finishing gravity and high carbonation. Not sure what is keeping it from being seltzer like, but it is nice. The body is light and refreshing. I am looking forward to some hot weather so I can sit out in the sun with this.

Overall. This is a nice refreshing beer with enough character to not be boring. Considering this was the leftovers from another beer, I save times and money making it. Of course the hops, yeast and some malt extract and propane were not free.
It. Does not have as much of the banana that I was secretly hoping for. Next time I may have to raise the ferment temp.

Notes:
'Recipe' here
  2/20/12 - Brewed 5.3 Gal  OG=1.040
   Fermented cold (~60F)
  3/9/12 - Keg   FG=1.009  ABV=4%
     Great hazi-ness.  Not yeast-murky, but more of a starch haze.
     More clove, less banana, maybe a little sweet.  has potential.  will be good carb'd