Beer Brewing Blog

I did something today that no homebrewer wants to do but eventually will. After a few months of conditioning I tried a bottle of my Pumpkin Ale a few days ago and the raw pumpkin taste had not subsided at all and just overpowers the overall taste. Being that I wasn’t going to drink anymore, it was time to bite the bullet and dump the rest to free up the bottles. What is truly annoying is all the work that went into bottling the batch must be redone to get rid of it without even drinking. Such a waste, but I’ll chalk it up to a learning experience.

Just ordered the ingredients for my first partial mash brew, a smoked porter. More to come.

After about 6 weeks, the Belgian Double is all set.  I tried a couple of bottles prior and just like the Abbey Ale from last year, the “BD” took time for the sweetness to mellow and dissipate.  It is now a very good brew, very true to the Belgian, almost Trappist style.  The recipe definately could have used more priming suger, the head is very weak and even a heavy pour will only get you about a one finger head.  The taste is very deep, earthy and I would compare it to a Rochefort 8 or a Val Dieu Brown.  I think it could have used more hops, there is just a  faint hint of bitterness and almost nill hops on the nose.  Overall, I’m very pleased with the recipe and will likely keep this as a standing batch.  I’m curious how it will age so I will keep a few bottles aside to see how it is after a year and beyond.