BrewBrain Sports Betting

Well, there wasn’t much brewing done last night, but I had three separate very successful taste tests. I was in a very good mood.

1) I chilled and popped open a bottle of the ESB - my first all grain brew. It was FREAKING AWESOME!! It still tasted a bit on the green side, so it will get even better, but the flavors have really matured. Plus, carbonation is perfect. I re-suspended the yeast in the bottles a few days ago by turning them over and gently swirling them for a bit. I’m not sure that was necessary, but what the heck. The beer poured a nice brown/amber color and the head was creamy and rich. It was a very attractive beer. It smelled great and the flavors, as I said, have matured into a very good beer. I’m going to leave them alone for another week, then put them in the refrigerator and drink them down.  Even now, though, if I had bought these at the store, I’d be very satisfied with them.

2) I decided to chill a pale ale and try it even though it’s only been bottled for about 5 days now. I wasn’t expecting much, but it was actually fairly well carbonated. It definitely needs to work a bit more, but it is coming along nicely. the flavors were pretty rough still, but I think the two planned bottle weeks remaining will turn it into a very nice, sessionable beer.

3) I timed the bubbles on my American Amber at just over a minute last night, so I opened up the bucket and took a sample for a reading. It measured out finished at 1.013, which is the target for my recipe. And it tasted terrific. No off flavors at all and it was very malty with a nice hop kick already. It was “muddy”, of course since it’s only finishing fermenting, but as heavy as the flavors are now, I think I’m in for a real treat in about five weeks or so. Of course, the bubbles are coming at a quicker pace now - about 50 seconds, so I’m not quite sure what to make of that. I hope it isn’t going to ferment down much more. 1.013 gives me really good alcohol numbers and should give good maltiness. If it gets lower, alcohol will go up, flavor and body will go down. We’ll see.