I just read Gordon Strong's new book "Brewing Better Beer" and have decided to brew the Avant Garde Pale Ale, largely because of my love of the hop varieties, and my curiosity about trying the First Wort & Late Hopping techniques described in the book. Have any of you brewed this one yet. If so, what are your thoughts? It looks like it has promise.
Anyone brew the Avant Garde Pale Ale from Gordon Strong's new book?
- Thread starter MoeFoties
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Its funny that you ask....I just brewed up this recipe yesterday, as its currently bubbling away in the fermenter...It will be a couple weeks before I can give any definitive comments, but the yeast he calls for (WLP060) seems to be working solid. Im especially interested to see how this turns out with the mix yeast blend
Cheers
Cheers
eichlerguy
Member
I did. Just killed the keg. I must've messed something up because it came out harsh and green, even after plenty of conditioning. My judging skills are still developing, but I'd guess from the literature that it was acetaldehyde. Or astringency. Or an infection. At times it was okay. Others it was puckering. Anyway, not Mr. Strong's fault; I plan to try again. The techniques are intriguing.
speaking on kegging tasting issues, i ran into a HUGE problem when i first started kegging. I noticed that all the beer just tasted "funky". couldn't put a finger on it. But I found that if i pulled two beers off at once, the first was bad but the 2nd was good. found out that the platinum cured silicone lines and the beer faucet were leaching into the first ~4oz of beer (3/16" ID beer line hose) and if you disposed of the first 4 oz and then ran a beer, it tasted fine.
Reason i bring it up is because the off-flavor was almost NEVER the same, and could be what your experiencing, and why its hard to nail down what the "funk" is going on.
Reason i bring it up is because the off-flavor was almost NEVER the same, and could be what your experiencing, and why its hard to nail down what the "funk" is going on.
Not sure if you are still keeping up with this thread, although I was able to sample my take at the avante garde...I brewed it almost completely to detail, except I substituted the 1 lbs of sugar for 1.25 lbs of honey. Its still in the conditioning phase, so it should only get better from here. As of yet the malt aspects of the beer are quite thin, leaving a real whomp from the hops...the beer does have a somewhat mouth-puckering bitterness, but more so a complete profile of hop flavours...everything from citrusy to almost grassy - If you are a fan of robust hoppy flavours, then this is good one to brew...I like it quite a bit, but Im also one for a little more complexity...If I brew it again I may adjust with some more specialty grains...but as of yet Ill have to wait till it conditions to give you a true description of the beer - Cheers
RightHandBrewer
Member
I brewed this beer too the "T", and it turned out great. Definitively give it a shot if you can get the hops. However, it did seem very bitter, much more than 45 ibu's. Personal perception aside, I inputed the fwh addition in beer as 60 minutes as he describes in the book. (tinseth) If you change the fwh addition to 20 min. it gets closer. I also batch sparge, so it is a shorter steeping time than with fly sparging, but steeping longer would also make it more bitter i'd imagine. Also, some people pull out fwh before the boil begins, but i don't see how much of a difference this would make. Anyway, I'm brewing this beer again tomarrow, but i cut the fwh addition in half. I don't know if Mr. Strong hangs out in these forums, any advice or conformation would be appreciated.
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