Thursday, June 7, 2012

Mild Brewday

Time for more of that delicious mild I so love.I bumped the mash temperature up from the last version, the goal being to increase mouthfeel and body through more residual dextrins left in the final product. No coffee this time, however. I did undershoot the final volume a bit, which means that the starting gravity is a bit high. I'll just consider it my attempt to give you more bang for your buck. In fact, that might just have to be the new name for this beer. Woot.

120. More Bang for Your Buck Mild
Mash:
2 lbs. Simpsons Golden Promise
2 lbs. Muntons Maris Otter
1 ½ lbs. Breiss 2-row
1 lb. Muntons 2-row Pale
½ lb. Muntons Dark Crystal 135-165° L
½ lb. Muntons Crystal 60° L
½ lb. Crisp Pale Chocolate
½ lb. Breiss Flaked Maize
2 oz. MFB Kiln Coffee
1 oz. Simpsons Roasted Barley

Mash @ 156° F for 60 minutes w/ 3 gallons of RO water; collected 2 gallons @ 1.068
Batch sparge @ 166° F for 20 minutes w/ 4 gallons RO water; collected 4 gallons @ 1.020

Collected 6 gallon, brought to a boil (60 minutes), & added:
w/60 to go: 1 ½ oz. Sonnet Golding leaf 4.1% AA

w/15 to go: 1 tsp. Irish Moss

Chilled, racked to carboy, pitched mason jar of Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire from 119. Kevin Lolli SOB

Brewed: 6/7/2012 @ 68° F; dropped to 65° F
Secondary: 7/26/2012 @ 1.018
Bottled: 7/29/2012

OG: 1.044
FG: 1.018

Tasting Notes (2/4/2012): I’ve been waiting to type up notes on this beer because I’ve been waiting to see if the off-flavors in the beer were an infection on the rise or merely something that didn’t mesh in the beer. Since it tastes nearly the same as it did when first bottled, I’m guessing the latter, but then again, I’m not certain—there is a faint slight burnt flavor that reminds me of the harsh clash found in 119. Kevin Lolli SOB—albeit a fair bit worse—along with some of the oxidized fruit that seems to hint that the problem is the attempt to marry Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire with darker grains: here, the MFB Kiln Coffee, Simpson Roasted Barley, and Crisp Pale Chocolate. It’s like the flavor of disappointment in an otherwise interesting beer. It pours a rich and clear deep chocolate with a wispy wafty thin white head—more ring than anything else—and has stone fruit and rum raisin in the nose along with a touch of oxidized paper verging on sawdust. Flavors are where the wheels start to come off the wagon: it opens with chocolate and caramel before the burnt flavor hits the tongue, accompanied by a fair amount of drying of the palate. After the crest of the burnt, there are oxidized paper and dark fruits, leading into the astringent finish with chalk and cardboard. I will point out that the harsh components of the burnt flavor have been on the wane in the last couple of months—I’ve been drinking one of these beers every two weeks or so to see where it is at as a form of penance for making bad beer—and it has moved from shame and failure to mere disappointment. I am glad to almost be finished with this beer, which I enjoy in inverse proportions to the first beer I made with this yeast, 118.Rockit Cup Chris Wyatt’s Landlord. That beer was stupendous. This one is not. Stupid failure.

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