March Swap ~ Stankale's Beers

Oops!! Sorry everyone, I didn't know I was supposed to start a thread here.
Thanks to FSR402 for moving my review threads.

I sent brews to:
ChillHayze
EvilToj
FSR402

EdWort's Haus Pale Ale
Black Dog Ale Clone
YooperBrew's DogFish Head 60 Minute IPA
Three Floyds Alpha King Clone

StankAle's Haus Pale Ale

My first impression as I poured it into the glass was that it's well carbonated and the color is spot on for this beer (I have made it a few times myself). The head dissipated very quickly, would like to have it stick around a little longer and lace the glass. But not a big deal.
As I take my first sip I was expecting a lot more hops in the nose being you used an extra once but there was not much really. Just enough that I could make out the cascade hops. This was a good thing, I was worried that this would be pushing more to an American IPA. But it was not, the aroma, and taste fit very nicely into the APA category. The beer was a little hazy but that could be due to being shipped and bounced around. Perhaps you could try some Whirlfloc in the last 15 minutes of boil. It really does help clear it up. But if yours that have not bounced around are clear, don't worry about it.
This is a fine, light, crisp, easy drinking beer, something I could have many pints in a night and it's sure to please the fine beer lover right down to the average BMC drinker.
You should be happy with this beer and I look forward to drinking the others.



I was able to try this one when I was feeling better from the flu/cold crap. Then the next day I got worse so I have not had anymore. I'm felling better now and I could taste the food I ate today so I think in the next few days I'll be able to enjoy beer.

Stankale's Black Dog Amber Clone.

Well I will start by saying that I have never had the said beer you were trying to clone so I can not say if you got it or not. So I could only go by what I know of an American Amber Beer.
The color was great, a nice dark red with a little hint of brown, crystal clear and clean. The carbonation was good and produced a nice head that stayed with the beer and laced the glass right to the last sip.
The body was a little on the light side, I would add some carapils to it and maybe mash a little hotter. But the flavor was nice, a medium amount of malt balanced well with the hops leaving a bitter after-taste that took me a few sips to get used to. But I grew to like it by the end of the first glass and by the end of the 2nd I was wishing I had some more.
It's a fine beer, just a little light on the body. I would give it an 8 out of 10. You did a fine job with it, maybe try it again but as an AG and see how that works. I would bet that alone fixes the body issue.
I enjoyed the beer and am happy to have been able to have it. Thank you I am really looking forward to the 60 minute IPA.:rockin:

Stankale's DFH 60 minute clone..

I want to start this with telling you that I am a HUGE fan of DFH and the 60, 90 and 120 minute IPA's. So to do this tasting I first drank a real DFH 60 minute IPA then I drank your clone of it.
As far as a clone goes, you're not even close. the color was to dark and the beer was so cloudy I could not see my fingers on the other side of the glass. The hop aroma, flavor and bitterness was really subdued compared to the real thing. I would not call this a clone...
I would give it a new name. Because a name of it's own is what it deserves.
Put aside the fact it was intended to be a clone (one that is not an easy beer to clone) and put this up as a beer of it's own and you will see a good beer.
The color was a gold, red, copper color, great carbonation that held a head and laced the glass nicely to the end. There was a sweet malty and medium body at first sip followed by a light hop bitterness and well balanced hop flavor. Not the big hop finish of DFH but a nice one by it's self.
Start using Whirlfloc and follow that with a good 3-4 day cold crash to get these things clear. IPA's should not look like a wheat beer. Then my friend, you will have a great brew. Good job on a good beer and thank you for sharing them with me.

Sweet thanks for the input FSR402. I appreciate the advice.
I like that you also added some ways to improve my beers.
I look forward to hearing more reviews from you.

Stankale's EdWort's Haus Brau

I was fortunate enough to get a beer swap that I also had a batch bottled. So here's a comparison between my batch of Ed's Haus Pale Ale and Stank Ale's batch. First I stuck both bottles in the fridge and let them crash cool for a few days. In the photo, my batch is on the left, Stank's is on the right, and the Communist party is going on on my desktop . The color on both is identical. Stank's has more bubbles, but has less head on it. There's no lacing at all but still bubbly. The pour is crystal clear.



There's a slight but noticable difference between the maltiness and hoppiness between the two. Stank's doesn't have quite the mouthfeel, and the vienna flavor is somewhat muted. Mouthfeel is actually rather thin. However, I can definitely taste more hops in it. Much more cascade flavor and aroma than mine. I made mine with the standard measurments, but are all homegrown cascades.

For any real criticism, I'd say maybe you mashed a little too low or too long and lost some of the mouthfeel. I'd say bump up the temp a little bit more, or if you mashed over an hour, uhm, don't do that! The batch I made was a a partial mash recipe.

This has also taught me a valuable lesson; that the flavors I taste in my own brew are actually supposed to be there! It's actually been quite refreshing knowing that I'm actually doing something right. This has also taught me that drinking two beers in 30 minutes for 'taste testing and comparison' will F you up.

Three Floyd's clone

This doesn't really seem like a pale ale, it's more of an IPA. It's got a pretty big hop nose that lasts all the way through a taste. The C hops completely overwhelm the special b and melanoidin malt. Good lacing and it does have some mouthfeel to it, even though there's no malt flavor at all. I'd have added maybe another 3 lbs of pale malt and just made it a full on IPA but it's an excellent beer as it is.