I attended my first Beer festival last weekend - The Winter Ale and Cask Ale Festival at The Franciscan Well Brewpub in Cork.
First up we (I was accompanied by another Ciddytourist) had a pint of Jule Ol from White Gypsy brewery. A 6.5% winter warmer scandinavian style beer and it tastes like it. At this point we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and if we kept drinking pints of strong ale we would not get to try all the beers available. There followed a quick succession of ales, porters and stouts - I tried to leave the hoppier beers until later so as not to ruin my palate. I shouldn't have bothered my palate was drunk by about 5pm.
There were some stand-out beers for me:
Raven Vintage Stout - Oak-aged Imperial stout blended with a young stout, even the froth had more flavour than most beers
Purgatory Pale Ale - Lovely hoppy zesty flavour
Messrs Maguire Brown Ale - Malty sweetness that made your hand stick to the glass but balanced
3 Kings Smoked Ale - think sod of turf in a glass, surprisingly tasty
There were also some interesting descriptors used , my favourite being from John: I said that Hilden brewerys Cathedral Quarter tasted a bit cardboardy and he took a sip and said "No! It tastes like old library books" and you know he was right and it wasn't a bad taste just a dusty taste.
All in all I enjoyed my first visit to a beer festival and it was nice to meet some of the brewers (Melissa of Messrs Maguires has promised to have the next beer launch at the weekend so those down the country can attend) and to put some faces to names that I have become familiar with over on Beoir.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Not so small stout after all!
Update! A colleague asked me for some beer samples to show students how to test for alcohol levels a while back and I gave her some of my stout and wheat beers.
The stout was tested this week and the results were surprising. The ABV came in at between 4.8 and 5%. The two separate samples tested came in at 4.99% but a Budweiser sample tested on the same Gas Chromatograph came in a bit higher than the expected 4.3% so with a slight percentage adjustment to allow for this my stout is at least the 4.8%.
The only way I can account for this is that I took the Original Gravity reading before the fermentables were fully mixed in to the wort as it read only 1.032 and my final gravity was 1.010 (after 2 weeks) giving an ABV of less than 3%
Anyway the upshot of this is that my beer is way stronger than I thought and I'll have to be more respectful of drinking it. And of course I have learned another brewing lesson.
Cheers!
The stout was tested this week and the results were surprising. The ABV came in at between 4.8 and 5%. The two separate samples tested came in at 4.99% but a Budweiser sample tested on the same Gas Chromatograph came in a bit higher than the expected 4.3% so with a slight percentage adjustment to allow for this my stout is at least the 4.8%.
The only way I can account for this is that I took the Original Gravity reading before the fermentables were fully mixed in to the wort as it read only 1.032 and my final gravity was 1.010 (after 2 weeks) giving an ABV of less than 3%
Anyway the upshot of this is that my beer is way stronger than I thought and I'll have to be more respectful of drinking it. And of course I have learned another brewing lesson.
Cheers!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Small stout
Last year my love of good beer was reawakened when I tried some of the Dungarvan Brewing Company's products and realised that I did not have to wait until I was abroad to taste good beer. My journey through craft beer since has been a steep learning curve, I didn't realise there were so many craft beers produced in Ireland, knowing of only a couple of brew pubs that were a long way from my home.
As a consequence of all this taste-full beer I took up home brewing last year and have done 3 brews now. These have all been kits although the last 2 were slightly tweaked in that instead of the kit and kilo of sugar I used a mixture of brewing sugar and dry malt extract. My next project is a 3 kilo kit IPA (so no extra sugars required) which will be dry-hopped with East Kent Goldings when fermented.
All these beers have been well received although the lager and wheat beers have not inspired me. However I made a stout tweaked with dark dry malt extract and brewing sugar ( a little light in fermentables hence the name "Small Stout") and I have to say it tastes great. It is 3 and a half months in the bottle now and it just gets better as it ages. It had a sharp bitterness that has mellowed out to a smooth roasty bitterness that I find really pleasing. I am chuffed to find that I have made a beer that I really like and have passed a bottle on to a proper brewer to see what he thinks.
Hopefully I have not been deluding myself. I'll keep you posted!
As a consequence of all this taste-full beer I took up home brewing last year and have done 3 brews now. These have all been kits although the last 2 were slightly tweaked in that instead of the kit and kilo of sugar I used a mixture of brewing sugar and dry malt extract. My next project is a 3 kilo kit IPA (so no extra sugars required) which will be dry-hopped with East Kent Goldings when fermented.
All these beers have been well received although the lager and wheat beers have not inspired me. However I made a stout tweaked with dark dry malt extract and brewing sugar ( a little light in fermentables hence the name "Small Stout") and I have to say it tastes great. It is 3 and a half months in the bottle now and it just gets better as it ages. It had a sharp bitterness that has mellowed out to a smooth roasty bitterness that I find really pleasing. I am chuffed to find that I have made a beer that I really like and have passed a bottle on to a proper brewer to see what he thinks.
Hopefully I have not been deluding myself. I'll keep you posted!
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