i <3 brewing

I like brewing. I like it quite a lot. I will now commence to relate to you an anecdote detailing why I like brewing.

My 19th beer was an experiment. Actually, all my beers are an experiment, but this was even more of an experimental beer than most. I was attempting to recreate the excellent flavor and hop aroma of my Date Beer (aka Desert Heat) without using dates, since 4 pounds of dates is freakin expensive. I also wanted to dry hop with whole hops instead of pellets, because the pellets gave me a chunky beer.

Finally -- and here's the real heart of the experiment -- I wanted to use only "late hops" inspired by an article I read (and perhaps misunderstood) about using lots and lots of hops at the end half of the boil, to impart flavor and aroma without bitterness. I wanted to make a hoppy beer that was not bitter. It was an ambitious task. Here's the recipe:

0.5 lbs victory malt
1 lbs rice hulls
0.125 lbs roast barley
0.5 lbs special b
1 lbs munich malt
2 lbs carapils
16 lbs maris otter pale malt
1 oz centennial whole
4 oz amarillo pellet
2 oz perle pellet
1 oz amarillo whole
4 oz centennial pellet
WLP001 yeast

all the pellet hops were added during the last 30 minutes of the 60 minute boil. Somehow I managed to end up with less than 5 gallons of wort, I pitched the yeast and let it sit for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, I was disappointed. It fermented from 1.071 down to 1.011, so it should not have been too sweet, but without bitterness to balance the remaining malt, it was too sweet by far. Not quite syrupy, but definitely sickly-sweet. Not good at all.

So I crossed my fingers and dumped in the 2oz of whole hops, and let it sit for another 4 weeks.

And then I had some, last night, and remembered why I like brewing. Even when I don't brew quite what I wanted (it wasn't the color I wanted, and even with the whole hops, I ended up with a cloudy beer) I quite frequently end up with something surprisingly good. In this case, I ended up with something surprisingly good and exactly what I wanted -- a sweet, non bitter beer with the hop aroma and flavor of a mighty west coast IPA.

I'll do an official tasting later on, but from what I remember of my tasting last night, it had the caramelly, raisiny notes that I enjoy, a toasty finish, a grainy, citrusy hop bouquet, and plenty of fresh hop flavor. The aftertaste was not bitter in the least, in fact, that's probably it's biggest weakness (that is, if "non-bitter hoppy beer" is not itself a weakness) -- a lingering malt sweetness instead of the crisp finish that we've all come to expect from an IPA.

Since, when I racked to secondary and had a poor tasting sample, I relaxed, didn't worry, and had a homebrew, everything came out far better than expected.

And that's why I like home brewing. Cheers!