Thursday, April 4, 2013

Adventures of a Beginning Home Brewer: The Outcomes

It has been a bit since I have had time to post anything on here. But don’t think I haven’t been brewing! Since I have blogged about the Merry Cherry Christmas Stout and the caramel mocha porter, which I dubbed Red Eye Porter, I figured an update on how they turned out was in order.
  
This year's Merry Cherry Christmas Stout turned out pretty good. It was very dark, but had a somewhat light taste to it for a stout. The cherries came through pretty well which added a sweetness to it that was very enjoyable. This stout came out a bit overly carbonated when compared to a typical stout. I think the lightness, sweet cherry taste, and the slightly over carbonation really made this beer what I wanted it to be; a beer everyone can enjoy together for the holidays, even the light beer drinkers. Sadly this drinkability has made it so this beer is completely gone… I already can’t wait for Christmas!
 
Red Eye Porter, which was my first 100% original recipe, came out great! The espresso really came through in this one. It is a big dark porter with about the perfect amount of carbonation in it. For a dark coffee type porter it was really drinkable. Every time I cracked some open for friends we all wanted another! The roasted chocolate malts added decent chocolate flavor. My only complaint would be the caramel didn’t quite do what I was hoping for. With the caramel grains and the caramelized sugar I made, you could taste the sweetness, but not quite enough of the roasted burnt type caramel flavor I really wanted it to have. All said though, this is the best beer I have made so far. Again, I must have done a good job as I am out! (Don’t worry Will, still have a bomber squirreled away for you)
 
 
All in all, two pretty darn good beers!


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