Beers: "Southern Cross", "Blood of Emeralds", and "Revolution Ale"

Often with tragedy or a bit of rough going, time brings clarity. So it goes with beer clarity as well. If you read my last post, the beer that was giving me fits did indeed clear up with finings and a bit of extra time. So, given that, here's a rundown of the three beers in question.
 

Revolution Ale

This is a fairly basic American Pale Ale brewed mostly as a 4th of July beer but also with the theme of Assassin's Creed 3 that is due to come out late October and is based in the U.S. Revolutionary War. My son, Evan, has been an Assassin's Creed fanatic for years and is really excited about this newest installment. Anyway, back to the beer. The beer is brewed using Maris Otter pale ale malt, Crystal 45°L malt, Munich Malt, and a little bit of Torrefied Wheat. Bittering hops are Brewers Gold and the late-copper hops are Simcoe with a calculated IBU of about 50. It is supposed to have an original gravity (OG) of 1.042 but I got a little more efficiency out of the mash than normal and wound up at 1.045. It finished out at 1.009 for an alcohol by volume (ABV) of about 4.7%, again a little higher than the target. The yeast was 'Chico', White Labs WLP001 California Ale.

The aroma is earthy and piney with only a hint of maltiness. The color is light brown to amber and it finished quite clear after fining. It is medium bodied but with a somewhat dry and bitter aftertaste. The flavor is dominated by the Simcoe, almost a bit of bubblegum flavor as my friend Chad describes it. There is quite a nice malty sweetness with some caramel notes to balance the bitterness and hints of caramel/toffee linger in the finish.

Blood of Emeralds

OK, this is quite a stretch but I've wanted to do some sort of tribute beer to my favorite guitarist, Gary Moore, who sadly died last year. I've been checking out some new hops and recently ordered a fairly new German variety, Smaragd, that I wanted to try. I couldn't pronounce the word let alone know what its translation would be so I consulted the internet. Turns out it means "Emerald". Perfect, Gary Moore, Emerald Isle (he was from Belfast) and one of my favorite tunes of his was "Blood of Emeralds" so on I went. The beer is also inspired by a cask-conditioned lager brewed by Harviestoun Brewery in Alva, Scotland called 'Schiehallion'. I intend to do another beer that is a little closer to Schiehallion but I love the concept of a 'cask lager'. The point here is that the beer is fermented at lager temperature with a lager yeast but is not actually lagered (does not undergo an extensive period of conditioning at near freezing temperature). I have enough people that like lagers that I wanted to find something with lager like qualities that I didn't need to wait for weeks to drink. This beer did not dissappoint.

The beer is brewed with Belgian Pilsener malt and a touch of Bairds Caramalt and some Torrefied Wheat. Bittering hops are German Hallertau Hersbrucker and multiple late-copper hop additions of Smaragd were used for flavor and aroma for a calculated IBU of 40. The original gravity is 1.040 and this one finished at 1.012. The yeast is White Labs WLP838 Southern German Lager. I really like the Belgian Pilsener malt as it is well suited to a single temperature infusion mash program which this beer had - again, trying to minimize time and effort.

The first and most striking aspect was the beer's clarity, amazingly clear. The color is light golden, very similar to a Czech/Bohemian style Pils. The aroma is of Pilsener malt and noble hop notes. Not sure if Smaragd would be considered a noble hop or not but it certainly has those qualities in both flavor and aroma. The beer is light to medium bodied and has loads of malt character, who many would claim cannot be done without decoction mashing let alone being done with a single temperature infusion. I do understand the merits of decoction and have done it in the past. I'm all for tradition and would do decoction much more regularly were it not for the time and effort involved. Bottom line, I'm not making a statement about decoction one way or the other, that was not the point with this beer anyway. The flavor is grainy and malty sweet Pilsener malt with a very balanced bitterness. The finish is quite dry and bitter but the malty sweetness lingers despite this. This is an absolutely lovely summer beer for the Texas heat. I could not be more pleased (well, actually I could, I am a perfectionist when it comes to beer, after all) and I think this is a fitting tribute to Gary. I could have done a Dry Irish Stout but believe me, I can drink a whole lot more of this, for sure!

I do need to add one nod of inspiration here. That is to brewer Will Golden of Austin Beerworks. I've spoken with Will a couple of times about the mash program issue and he encouraged me to go for the single temperature infusion that he also uses on their outstanding Pearl Snap.

Southern Cross

This is a session strength, light bodied Bitter style beer that I would suggest is fit for a summer ale due to the light body, very pronounced citrus hop character and somewhat dry finish. It is brewed with a grist of Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter pale ale malt, Belgian Pilsener malt (although next time I will move to Baird's Lager malt), Baird's Caramalt, and Torrefied Wheat. Bittering hops are organic New Zealand Hallertau Aroma and it is heavily late-copper hopped with multiple additions of Australian Galaxy. I used one of my favorite yeasts, White Labs WLP023 Burton Ale, which I think contributes a great character to the beer. The original gravity was 1.040 and it finished out at 1.009 for an ABV of right at 4.0%. The calculated IBU level was about 50. The name comes by way of two of my Australian work colleagues, one of which is my boss - cheers Vim and Brad - and the star constellation that is visible in the southern hemisphere and used in many Australian and New Zealand images and logos.

The aroma is of citrus - orange, lime, a hint of lemon, and passion fruit - with an underlying bready and malty base. The color is light golden, very much like a summer ale. The initial flavor is full-on citrusy fruit leading to a caramel-like malty sweetness and yeasty bread notes. The finish is very dry and quite bitter - almost harshly so. I had some of my discerning beer loving friends over during the week and we debated this latter point. It was 50/50 with myself in the half that thought the aftertaste was a bit too harsh while the other half thought it was just fine. My theory is that the Galaxy hops at 13.0% AA contributed too much bittering during the 20min charge and I would drop the quantity of hops or eliminate this addition altogether next time. Overall, this is one that I will definitely brew again.

That's it this go around. A bit about Oktoberfest-Märzen and Munich Oktoberfest biers in general next time.

Yours Aye!
Neil

Back On Track

It's high time I get back on track. I started this blog mainly as an outlet for my home brewing but I've somehow allowed myself to get off topic too many times. Time for a re-focus.

Since moving house back in early 2011, I have brewed over thirty 5-gallon (US) batches of beer, probably the most consecutive run I've had in doing this for over 15 years. I still have yet to enter any contests but I have started going to some of the Austin Zealots (the local homebrew club) meetings and happy hours and attended The Dixie Cup homebrew competition in Houston last year, one of the largest in the US.

I'd like to say that I am a fairly style centric brewer but I experiment a lot with different grist profiles, hop varieties, hop schedules, types of yeast and mash programs. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I haven't been contest focused. I like to brew what I like to drink as well as what my friends like. If they're happy, I'm usually happy. I do prefer Scottish and English style ales far and above any other types of beer but do brew a few German styles that I like a lot (Helles, Kölsch, Altbier, and Oktoberfest-Märzen) as well as the odd Czech style Pilsener.

I have worked out the majority of problems in my brewing equipment and process and with the aid primarily of input from my friend John McGarva, founder of Tryst Brewery in Larbert, Scotland (near Falkirk) as well as all the fine work that Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer do at TheBrewingNetwork, my beers have improved immensely in the last few years. If one were to ask me to pick one thing that had the biggest impact on improving my beer quality, without hesitation I would say doing a proper yeast starter. Using a yeast nutrient in the copper and oxygenating the wort prior to pitching are also key factors. There are a number of other items but this has certainly been the most significant. I encourage anyone that has not done so already to read Jamil's articles on the Mr Malty website.

I do still face the odd issue, however, and as of late it has been beer clarity. I've made some improvements in this area but certain beers still give me fits. My friend and award-winning homebrewer, Kerry Martin, turned me on to the use of gelatin finings and that handles the majority of the beers. Recently, I've also tried BioFine but as yet, I've not had very good results with it. Of course, I have used Whirlfloc as a copper fining agent for years but clearly, in lieu of filtering (which I care not to do), post fermentation fining is an important aspect for clearing up the beers.

A few weeks ago, I brewed three hop heavy beers that on the face of it are all quite different. One is even a "cask lager" if I may use that term, modeled loosely after Harviestoun Brewery Schiehallion which is a great lager that is cask conditioned (the first of its kind that I was introduced to). In the next post, I'll discuss these beers in a little more detail - as soon as the one that is giving me fits clears up.

Yours Aye!
Neil