dkevinb
Well-Known Member
I tried a 1-gallon extract recipe based on something I saw on Basic Brewing. It was 1 lb. amber DME and 3/8 oz. of Cascade boiled for 15 minutes. I pitched a full packet of US-05 dry because I'm lazy. Fermentation went well. At 2 weeks I hydro'd it and it looked good - 1.012. The sample tasted pretty promising, your basic Cascady light colored ale. I decided to cold crash it because it was still looking pretty turbid.
Tonight I bottled it. It was still quite cloudy and the sample tasted pretty blech. Not infected or anything, just blech. Maybe it's because I'd been drinking my SN APA clone that I like a lot, but I couldn't really taste much of any hops in the blonde. I know a blonde isn't supposed to be hoppy, but a Bud Light would have tasted better.
Anyway, the last piece of the experiment is to see if it will bottle carb after cold crashing without adding yeast. This is the first time I've cold crashed. I just added sugar to each bottle, since I didn't want to stir up the big trub cake in an already cloudy beer. I bottled it cold and am letting it come up to room temperature at, well, room temperature.
The good thing is that if this experiment is a complete bust I only have to dump 5 pints instead of 5 gallons.
Tonight I bottled it. It was still quite cloudy and the sample tasted pretty blech. Not infected or anything, just blech. Maybe it's because I'd been drinking my SN APA clone that I like a lot, but I couldn't really taste much of any hops in the blonde. I know a blonde isn't supposed to be hoppy, but a Bud Light would have tasted better.
Anyway, the last piece of the experiment is to see if it will bottle carb after cold crashing without adding yeast. This is the first time I've cold crashed. I just added sugar to each bottle, since I didn't want to stir up the big trub cake in an already cloudy beer. I bottled it cold and am letting it come up to room temperature at, well, room temperature.
The good thing is that if this experiment is a complete bust I only have to dump 5 pints instead of 5 gallons.