BrewN00b
Well-Known Member
Let me preface by stating that I am towards the tail end of one of my accidental 12.87% masterpieces. I may stutter.
Now, back on point. Why is it that the best beers are almost always the ones you simply can not replicate? You know the one; your grain bill ran short so you had to improvise with what you had laying around, or the one where you had way too much pre-boil wort, so you had to do an extra long boil to get closer to your mark. You know, the ones where the blessed Gods of Beer sprinkled extra magic pixie dust into your average brew, turning it into something, well, magical.
My examples. I brewed my first AG Dark Bitter and completely and royally screwed up how much wort I would have before the boil. I was brewing a 3gal batch, but started with 5gal of wort. So, what did I do, I boiled the hell out of it. For two hours. I thought it was going to be crap as it smelt like I had started a brushfire in my boil pot, extra charcoal. I almost dumped it right than and there, but I thought, "screw it". I dumped my yeast and let it roll. It was rough at start, all burnt, nor malt. It matured, and the burnt turned into chocolate, and the residual CARMALIZED sugars turned into nectar. Yeah, it was only 3.2%, but damn, it was sublime!
Lastly, I brewed up a dark belgian, and all went to plan; I hit my gravities, my efficiencies, and boil times after a perfect mash, but I had to improvize on the yeast. The recipe called for a seasonal Belgian yeast which my amazing local home brew shop didn't have, but being the innovative spirit, I did some checking and found the perfect yeast for my next creation Wyeast Belgian Ardennes 3522. Or so I thought. Needless to say, I have NEVER seen a yeast as aggressive and hungry as that yeast. I'm not even slightly exaggerating when I say it took this bad bot down from 1.1 down to 1.001 in about 5 days. Yeah, one point zero zero one. Five days. Wow.
Long story short it sat in secondary for an extra month because I was too lazy to bottle it, but it is now ready and damn, it is strong. At this point, being brewed about 3 months ago, it is young and likely to mellow, but even still with all its angsty juvenile heat it is ridiculously drinkable. In large amounts, for about 30 minutes anyways. God save me if that heat goes away and the 12.87% stays.
It hurts because this is as close to perfection as I may ever get, and it was by accident!
Now, back on point. Why is it that the best beers are almost always the ones you simply can not replicate? You know the one; your grain bill ran short so you had to improvise with what you had laying around, or the one where you had way too much pre-boil wort, so you had to do an extra long boil to get closer to your mark. You know, the ones where the blessed Gods of Beer sprinkled extra magic pixie dust into your average brew, turning it into something, well, magical.
My examples. I brewed my first AG Dark Bitter and completely and royally screwed up how much wort I would have before the boil. I was brewing a 3gal batch, but started with 5gal of wort. So, what did I do, I boiled the hell out of it. For two hours. I thought it was going to be crap as it smelt like I had started a brushfire in my boil pot, extra charcoal. I almost dumped it right than and there, but I thought, "screw it". I dumped my yeast and let it roll. It was rough at start, all burnt, nor malt. It matured, and the burnt turned into chocolate, and the residual CARMALIZED sugars turned into nectar. Yeah, it was only 3.2%, but damn, it was sublime!
Lastly, I brewed up a dark belgian, and all went to plan; I hit my gravities, my efficiencies, and boil times after a perfect mash, but I had to improvize on the yeast. The recipe called for a seasonal Belgian yeast which my amazing local home brew shop didn't have, but being the innovative spirit, I did some checking and found the perfect yeast for my next creation Wyeast Belgian Ardennes 3522. Or so I thought. Needless to say, I have NEVER seen a yeast as aggressive and hungry as that yeast. I'm not even slightly exaggerating when I say it took this bad bot down from 1.1 down to 1.001 in about 5 days. Yeah, one point zero zero one. Five days. Wow.
Long story short it sat in secondary for an extra month because I was too lazy to bottle it, but it is now ready and damn, it is strong. At this point, being brewed about 3 months ago, it is young and likely to mellow, but even still with all its angsty juvenile heat it is ridiculously drinkable. In large amounts, for about 30 minutes anyways. God save me if that heat goes away and the 12.87% stays.
It hurts because this is as close to perfection as I may ever get, and it was by accident!