Thursday, July 11, 2013

Batch 5: 'Merican IPA: Tasting Day

This was a major improvement over my first attempt at this recipe. The beers still tastes a little too green. I'm thinking I might step down the amount of hops that I use to dry hop in future batches. Over-pitching certainly took care of the sweetness, and so far, there are no bottle bombs. Unfortunately, after five go-arounds, I've found that all of my beers have the same flaw. It's in the front end of the taste, not unpalatable, but certainly not desirable. My guess is that it's oxidation, but I need to get a more expert opinion on this. The color now is definitely more appropriate to the style. It's all about limiting the LME in the boil and adding the rest at knockout. It ended up perfectly carbonated, though with little head retention.



I'd like to use this beer as a model for different hop varieties in the future, subbing out single varieties for the Centennial hops in the original recipe. This way, I can learn about the subtle differences in the varieties and, I think, find perhaps a better hop for this recipe.