Review: Galactic Centennial Citra Imperial Red Ale

Galactic Centennial Citra Imperial Red Ale

Appearance:
Nice deep amber to red. Head was giant with the caramelly malts, and carried a slight reddish tint to it. The lacing is fantastic and as I drink the beer it looks wonderful in the glass.

Aroma:
Hop forward as intended. It really smelled of straight forward hops. Could have used the dry hopping I put in the wrong beer though.

Flavor:
Bitter, sweet, hoppy. The hops were really really stronger than intended I think because of the lower boil volume. It was quite bitter throughout. The sweetness from the beer was there but was just assaulted by the bitterness of the hops.

Mouth:
Silky and imperial. The bitterness is coating and the beer is sticky it hangs around on the tongue.

Overall:
Not Bad for a comedy of errors as far as brewing goes. On the college grading scale I'd label this as incomplete, I don't know what my red will taste like so I have to reserve judgement until I can compare. I like this beer as an imperial though, it packs a punch.

Review: Pumpkin Beer

Pumpkin Beer

Appearance: 
Clear brown body with visible light carbonation, the head is whispy, not enough head retention to make the beer beautiful.

Aroma:
Strong pie spices and sweetness. The malt is layered in with the spices. No one spice dominates the others.

Flavor:
The flavor was in the nose, the beer was sweet with spices.

Mouth:
The beer fell flat for me here, it needed more body to carry the flavors. It was too dry and didn't stand up to the great and substantial flavors.

Overall:
It was a good first attempt at a pumpkin beer.  I was happy with the flavor but I wanted more body. I would have added flaked wheat, oats, or Cara-pils. In the spirit of the old college try I am going to give this be a C, a good try but fatally flawed by a lack of substance.

Blogging in 2011; Blogging for 2012

2012...Happy New-year!
Well it's a new year for me and for my blog. It's been a fun six month. I've posted a few recipes, some reviews, and other things. My kegerator will be done soon. My souring project is on it's way.

2012 New Years Resolutions:
Brew a beer with lager yeast;
Blend a sour ale from my stock of sour ales, attempt blending;
Manufacture Tap Handles doe Atlas Ale, Howard Roark Red, and Golden One Pale Ale.
Work out a recipe for my house pale ale based on feedback from Kyle, Derek & others;
Work out a recipe for the house red ale based on my two past failures;
Attempt to make a few more small sours & quick sours (post incoming);
Brew and Keg at least 2 more beers;
Finish out my small brewery with a malt mill;
and, Keep detailed notes and measurements about my brewing.

(read more after the break.)

Making Hard Cider

I'll admit I didn't know the first thing about making hard cider when I started and this post is not designed to be the end all be all in cider making. This post will detail what I did (right or wrong) to make cider. I wanted to make 1.5 gallons of hard cider so I got a 2 gallon bucket. The bucket is much like the larger fermentation buckets just shrunken. I found that there are a variety of guides online as well as books to buy on the topic of cider making. I looked over the internet guides and shunned the books, this is an experiment after all.

My original intentions of making cider were to try to make some cider shandy type drinks with a continental hopped pale ale. This isn't in the cards because of work picking up and other things I just want to brew more than a continental pale ale. I can live with this because I have seven bombers of hard cider now and cider won't be back in season in Michigan until next fall.

(Read more after the break.)