BlackDogBrewhouse
Member
Hello everyone,
A few months back I made a post asking for recommendations on how to age my beer on cedar. A bunch of people commented, and wanted to know how it turned out.
The goal was to make a nice woodsy, smokey, cedar beer. I made a basic munich dunkel, but subbed out some of the crystal malt for smoked malt, and aged it on just a few ounces of cedar for 2 weeks (I know, not enough time). I didn't quite get what I was going for, but I wasn't far off. I needed more smoked malt and more time on the cedar. That being said, it was still a really good beer. The cedar aroma really came off, and there was a hint of the sweet cedar in the taste, which did a good job of masking the alcohol.
My brother and I decided to face off against each other (he made a honey porter), and added in some commercial/micro-brews in as well. In a blind taste off with 10 friends (not certified beer judges, but people who still like their beer!), they judged my cedar-aged smoked munich dunkel, my brothers honey porter, Sam Adams Boston Lager, FlyingFish's Hopfish IPA, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Heavy Seas Peg Leg Imperial Stout, and Bass Ale, using standard beer competition scoring (aroma, mouthfeel, appearance, flavor, and overall impression)
In last place was Bass Ale. Pretty light, not too much flavor, etc. In 6th was the homebrewed honey porter. 5th was the FlyingFish IPA. 4th was the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. 3rd was the Sam Adams Boston lager. 2nd was my cedar aged dunkel, and 1st was the Imperial Stout.
So thanks to everyone who added in their to cents to help me. The beer came out great, even if it wasn't what I was going for, and even beat out some quality beers in the blind tasting!
A few months back I made a post asking for recommendations on how to age my beer on cedar. A bunch of people commented, and wanted to know how it turned out.
The goal was to make a nice woodsy, smokey, cedar beer. I made a basic munich dunkel, but subbed out some of the crystal malt for smoked malt, and aged it on just a few ounces of cedar for 2 weeks (I know, not enough time). I didn't quite get what I was going for, but I wasn't far off. I needed more smoked malt and more time on the cedar. That being said, it was still a really good beer. The cedar aroma really came off, and there was a hint of the sweet cedar in the taste, which did a good job of masking the alcohol.
My brother and I decided to face off against each other (he made a honey porter), and added in some commercial/micro-brews in as well. In a blind taste off with 10 friends (not certified beer judges, but people who still like their beer!), they judged my cedar-aged smoked munich dunkel, my brothers honey porter, Sam Adams Boston Lager, FlyingFish's Hopfish IPA, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Heavy Seas Peg Leg Imperial Stout, and Bass Ale, using standard beer competition scoring (aroma, mouthfeel, appearance, flavor, and overall impression)
In last place was Bass Ale. Pretty light, not too much flavor, etc. In 6th was the homebrewed honey porter. 5th was the FlyingFish IPA. 4th was the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. 3rd was the Sam Adams Boston lager. 2nd was my cedar aged dunkel, and 1st was the Imperial Stout.
So thanks to everyone who added in their to cents to help me. The beer came out great, even if it wasn't what I was going for, and even beat out some quality beers in the blind tasting!
