Blueprint Brewing – Pop This

 Beer Reviews  No Responses »
May 042010
 

Continuing on with this home brewing heavy week of posts, I have one of the two remaining brews for which reviews have yet to be shared.  Of course I have a few more beers in the works, but they are not near ready for evaluation just yet.  Soon enough though.

As usual, the name for the beer was selected (very quickly) by the Blueprint Brewing marketing department, which consists only of The Wife and myself.

For the first one this week I will start with a beer that The Wife liked somewhat, but only enough to give it a grade of C+.

Brewery: Blueprint Brewing (Winter Park, FL)

Name: Pop This

Style: Dunkelweizen / Fruit Beer

ABV: 4.56% (+/-)

Tasting Notes: Stored in the fridge and served in a pint glass.

Aroma: Light grainy/wheaty aroma with some sweet fruitiness (dark and not too strong).  Also some crispness to the overall aroma.

Appearance: Dark brown with deep red tones (more so when held to light).  Slight off-white head (with some reddish tones) that dissipates quickly without a trail.  Clear with maybe a slight haze (when held to light) and some rising bubbles visible.  The sediment was not roused during pour.

Flavor: Even, slightly roasted malty flavor as a base with an almost red wine-like fruit profile in back.  A bit of minerally quality towards the finish which is lightly dry and does not linger long.  Not a huge flavor profile overall.

Mouthfeel: Medium to light body with quite a bit of carbonation.  Pretty crisp (with some bit from the carbonation) and some faint creaminess.

Overall Impressions: Best beer that I have brewed with fruit to date though probably not a great example of the Dunkelweizen style.  Quite easy drinking.  A good start, but there are improvements to be made going forward (would like to get some sour cherries in there).

Grade: B-

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Blueprint Brewing - Pop This

 Posted by Lucas at 12:30 pm  Tagged with: ,

Bottling Time Again

 Brewing  No Responses »
Jan 302010
 

As promised, today I will announce the brewery for the month of February.  Without further delay, I am declaring February to be “Great Divide Brewing Co. Month!”  Kudos to any of you that guessed and/or expected that.  I will be posting as much information as possible about the brewery throughout the month (probably starting Tuesday).  The one constant will be that each Tuesday and Friday the beer review will be of a beer from Great Divide.  The reviews will certainly be fun for me, but I also look forward to learning a bit more about one of my favorites.  Hopefully you will enjoy it as well!

Now on to bottling the Cherry Dunkelweizen . . .

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Letting the bottles air dry a bit.

Since I posted a video of the bottling process for the Blueberry Chocolate Stout a few days ago, I will again just provide details for this beer on what was not shown.  Be sure to take a look at that video for the other processes that went on or if you haven’t already done so.

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The cherries left behind.

As usual I boiled 4.5 oz of corn sugar in 2 cups of water, cooled it, then added it to the bottling bucket before racking the wort over.  The carbonation levels have varied a bit with the batches, so I may start experimenting with the amount of corn sugar.  However, I think that I will take a beer that is slightly under carbonated to exploding bottles, so I don’t plan on adjusting too much.

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Racking to the bottling bucket.

The final hydrometer reading left it with a specific gravity of about 1.0142, giving it approximately 4.56% ABV.  It was down only slightly from when it was transferred to secondary, so I guess adding the cherries did not affect that aspect much.  This was my first time using real fruit in secondary fermentation only, so I was not sure what exactly to expect.

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My very scientific labeling system.

After tasting the sample that was pulled off, the nose had a bit of fruit and it was very smooth with some sweetness to it.  The cherries definitely imparted much of their character and I think it will be pretty darn good when carbonated.  It should be ready for a sampling in the very near future.

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Sample help up to the light.

Stay tuned for the official review!

 Posted by Lucas at 6:00 pm  Tagged with: ,

Time to Add the Fruit

 Brewing  No Responses »
Jan 232010
 

Do you remember when I said that it was probably time to do another video for the process of racking to secondary fermentation a few days ago?  Well I will say it again because I didn’t do it for this batch either and it will continue to stay at the top of the list of things to do for the next brew.  So as usual, if you are interested in the specifics of racking the wort from a primary to secondary fermenter check out the video in “Pumpkin Ale – Part 2” on the “Brewing” page above.  In this post I will just highlight the specifics of this batch to keep you up to date on the progress.

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The Chief of Sanitation is serious about his job.

This step was where I could begin my attempt to turn this recipe into a Cherry Dunkelweizen as I called it from the beginning.  Before racking I took 60 oz of frozen, dark sweet cherries and set them out to thaw.  Frozen cherries work nicely because the freezing punctures the skin a bit, making them extra juicy as they come to room temperature and perfect for steeping during secondary fermentation.  I would have liked to get some sour cherries for the mix as well, but I did not have that option where I bought them.  If this turns out well (and even if it doesn’t), there will be many other opportunities for that.

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Watching cherries thaw is exciting

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A large funnel would have been helpful.

The (soon to be) Cherry Dunkelweizen came in with a specific gravity of about 1.0139 at the time of transfer.  That leaves it with a current ABV of approximately 4.6% and I will just have to wait and see what the addition of cherries ultimately does to that number.

4290844084 b094cd089b Time to Add the Fruit

Adding the wort

The sample (without the cherries yet added) was pretty tasty, but I think the cherries will be a great addition.  With that, the cherries were added to the secondary fermenter before racking.  My (basic) understanding is that adding the room temperature fruit at this time is OK because the mix now should be acidic and alcoholic enough to keep any bacteria from doing damage.  In the future I would certainly do secondary fermentation for a beer like this in a bucket rather than a carboy (more room), but I wanted to be able to see what was going on this first time through.

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It all got a bit frothy

After the wort was racked and the airlock was in place, the cherries slowly started to float to the top.  In a very short time the fermentation became much more violent than it ever was during primary and I quickly switched the airlock with a blow off tub for that first night.  When things calmed down a bit the airlock was implemented again as fermentation continued on.

So now the batch is still in the bathtub and is still showing some signs of active fermentation.  Though in the future I might let the cherries sit for longer in secondary, I think I will end up bottling this batch sometime soon just to see what the impact was.  That will give me a better guide for what to do with future fruit infused batches.

Until bottling . . .

 Posted by Lucas at 6:00 pm  Tagged with: ,
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