Hop City Home Brewing Class

Enjoying Hop City's home brew class with 15 aspiring home brewers. Very good class by Keaton who's an avid home brewer and has experimented with most styles. He made a Wit today, that had mixed grain with oats, Pilsen light and Bavarian wheat. He did a quad malt that had caramel, wheat, chocolate and victory malts. Hops included pacific jade and a Soriachi Ace that has a good dill flavor and aroma with a hint lemon. Keaton added some tangerine peel at the end of the boil. Yeast used was forbidden fruit. I'll have to come back in a month to taste. The beer will be kegged which we will be attempting to do soon if we can find a barrel keg.

Jalapeno Red - Chilled, Ready and Tasted

Okay, I (William) pushed the envelope with a pepper style right out of the gate.  The previous posts showed the process and that home brewers have free license to experiment in creating beer flavors and style.  The Jalapeno Red was an adventure into into the unknown.  We added the jalapenos with 15 minutes left in the boil to give the beer flavor and heat.  And we also added about 2 cups of brown sugar as well to give the yeast something good to eat to boost something later in the process.

We used a box mix for Red Ale with between 5 - 5.5% ABV.   The beer had very good color and head.  We bottled it just right to get that carbonation solid.  The beer had a distinct jalapeno aroma but little malt and hop.  That was an early sign that the Jalapeno bum rushed the party.  So we all tasted, including Derick from next door, and had similar reviews.

It had a strong jalapeno flavor, there was only a little hint of malt and hops.  I personally felt it was unbalanced, that the jalapeno had jumped everything else and beat them up, badly.  The interesting thing about pepper beers is that there is no heat like you would get from eating a Jalapeno in a food dish or fresh.  It is a pepper taste on your tongue that you feel and I must say that was a plus.  All in all it wasn't bad but it wasn't that good either because it was out of balance.  However, it went real well with the nachos I prepared for the family later.

Corb and Kev suggested the next attempt we use a brew mixture that can fight back, such as a stout or double IPA, with strong malt overtones to give it greater balance.  Hops add bitterness and that would probably not work with the jalapeno.  Corb even suggested possibly introducing habaneros to the next attempt.  Corb mixed it with an IPA we had which give it greater balance and you could still smell and taste the pepper.

I have to agree and those other combination would also give it a higher ABV.  We'll keep y'all posted on our next jalapeno beer attempt.  We'll jump into habaneros one day too.

Bros Beer Night Out - Porter Beer Bar in L5P Part 2

Round 2 for me and round 3 for Corby. He'll post about his experience with the Allagash Curieux. It is  triple aged in Jim Beam barrels.  'Nuff said

My 2nd round was Breury Tradewinds Tripel from California. All I can say is that of the ones we tasted tonight it is my favorite. Tradewinds is made with rice in place of candy sugar and some Thai basil was added for spice. Not to dry and very smooth texture. Slight hop and with minimal malt overtones. With an 8% abv it goes down way too easy. One of the most exotic beers on PBB's list but I must say that C and W like very much.

We also tasted the Bosteels Tripel Karmeliet which was very light, and had a strong fruity/flowery aroma (pear and cloves).  We both felt it lacked a any hop aroma or flavor. However, it was really light, dry, and clean after taste. With a 9% abv and because it is a high fruit aroma/flavor beer, it is going to sneak up on some folks.

Bros Beer Night - Porter Beer Bar L5P

Corby and William are out at one of America's top 100 beer bars: Atlanta's own Porter Beer Bar in Little 5 Points. With 30 craft beers on tap you got every style and flavor to try to your hearts content. You can also sample the drafts to find the right one for you.

Tonight we sampled a Nongne Two Captains from Norway, Van Steenberge Gulden Draak from Belgium, Left Hand Twin Sisters from Colorado, Left Hand Week Sauce from Colorado and an Alagash Curieux from Maine. Big shout out to Joe And Justin for taking care of us tonight.

We both picked the Two Captains (below) to start with. Awesome color and great aroma. You can smell the grapefruit, cherry, brown sugar and a slight hint pine. Excellent over the tongue. I like the slightly sweet aftertaste while Corby enjoyed the bitter finish. It was all good going down with an 8.5% abv.