April Showers and Beer Thoughts

It’s rained for the past couple of days and the temps have hovered around 60…perfect weather for cooking a casserole or two and drinking some beer.  The last of my organic American Ales are gone which leads me to

The Innkeeper

The Innkeeper extract ale recipe kit is done bottle conditioning and is being poured into glasses:

The clarity of this brew is amazing.  It is almost commercial quality.

The ale is light and effervescent.  The hop aroma is strong, but the flavor profile does not have the bitterness associated with a beer that got three ounces of hops.  Personally, if I were to do this recipe again the hops would be reduced by one-third to only two one ounce additions.  It would reduce the pretty powerful aroma without changing the profile of the beer too much.

I am also thinking about trying variations of this recipe with organic ingredients and different hops.  Homebrewing just leads to experimentation.

AK47 Ale

The Ak47 extract ale recipe kit is out of the carboy and into bottles.  It will be interesting to see how such a mild kit in terms of hopping comes out compared to the Innkeeper, which had three 1 oz hoppings at different times during the boil.

California Common

The California Common is still fermenting.  It’s really interesting to have a beer be in the carboy for so long.  I was watching to krausen in my AK47 carboy and listening to the occasional bubble escape from the California Common’s airlock.  Just enough to let me know that the odd combination of lager yeast at the lower end of ale temperature is still in process.

The only frustrating part of brewing something that takes this long is that the anticipation is killing me.  It makes me want to get a keg system so that I can force carbonate the beer and not have to wait two weeks to enjoy while it bottle conditions.

Olvalde Ode to Russian Shipwright Porter

Here is a beer that will really knock your socks off:

Earlier, I had written about Olvalde’s Auroch’s Horn and the Ode to a Russian Shipwright is the next beer from this great little brewery in southeastern Minnesota.

Imperial stouts are big beers.  Like, be ready to sit down and enjoy this beer over the course of an evening in small glasses big.  Ode to a Russian Shipwright is no different.  These are not lawnmower beers.  Drink with caution, but make an effort to try it.