Review: Imperial Doppelweizenbock

Imperial Doppelweizenbock

This beer was dynamite at kegging. An unkegged sample had loads of chocolate and toffee waiting for me. I liked it. kegging made the beer different but better? You'll remember this bee is inspired by, a beer inspired by a tripple weizen bock. I brewed it over a year ago and let it age. Fermentation blew the bung off and I can report no infections took hold because of that.

Appearance: (B+) it looks dark but clears up when held to the light. The picture at right doesn't do it justice showing just how beautifully brown this beer is.

Aroma: (A-) Dark fruity malts are pushed up by the carbonation, they are active where as scents reminiscent of chocolate and toffee are lost somewhere under the alcohol and fruits.

Flavor: (A) Dark fruit, sweet caramelly toffee and subtle hints of darker chocolate. No roastiness meant that the sweet flavors were not checked by that harsh coffee char flavor roasted malts can have. The beer wasn't sweet persay because of sugar but it had a sweet flavor.

Mouthfeel: (B-) Perhaps I over carbonated it but it feels thin, it's either over attenuated, which I'll check, or over carbonated which I'll fix.

Overall: (A-) One of my best efforts. of the Imperial beers I've made I think this one is a keeper while the other two might see revisions.

Improvements: I might try this as a wheat wine with an English yeast strain.

Easy Cleaning a Keg Line

So the ideal way for many to clean a keg line is to take an empty keg filled with cleaner and flush the lines. Step 1 is repeated with sanitizer. I meant to do this prior to filling my brand new keg with Imperial DoppelWeizen Bock but the timing didn't work out. What's a man to do? I could clean out a keg of old IPA or Black IPA in my tiny apartment but that seems a touch on the difficult side given a lack of space. Instead I am going to improvise using an old empty two liter bottle and a device I made myself. For my results read past the break!

(Please read more after the break.)

Review: Belgian Dark Strong Ale

Belgian Dark Strong Ale Recipe

I brewed this beer in early 2013 and let it ferment and age for ten months. The aging was to let some of the harsher byproducts of fermentation mellow out a bit. Aging big beers has almost always improved them in my experience. The priming yeast worked its magic again offering a well carbonated beer after only 2 weeks in the bottle. a bit of haze in my sample could be attributed to this yeast because the beer was beautifully clear at bottling. 

Appearance: (B+) A bit hazy and only garnet colored against the light. Without the light it was brownish and without clarity it looked like a thicker darker beer than the recipe intends for.

Aroma: (A) Significant fruit in the nose. The fruity esters filled the glass and my nose. Deep aromas of blackberries and raspberries were identified by myself and Kyle. 

Flavor: (A) Trappist monks know their stuff. The recipe was spot on and I wouldn't change it. The same fruity esters are the show in the glass. You get a lot of them. I don't know if it's the candi sugar or the yeast but it works in this style. The beer is not to sweet and without knowing the finishing gravity I would guess that it's around 1.010.

Mouthfeel: (B+) Carbonated to my desired level. Allowed a larger beer of greater strength to be less formidable than it should have been. The ease by which it went down surprised me.

Overall: (A-) No complaining here. I loved it.

Improvements: I will do a side by side with my lone bottle of Trappist Westvleteren 12 around Christmas time and discover more. I remember not liking 12 as much as the 8. I liked mine a whole lot more than 12. Being that mine was a clone of the supposed 12 recipe I think that there is insight to be gained here. Look for a tasting notes post later this month.