Tasted: Hefewitzen 8.0

As you can probably tell, we make this beer a lot.  This version (8.0) is the eighth iteration of this recipe and possibly the best.  It has been a struggle to get any kind of body or significant mouthfeel from this beer over the years.  The flavors have worked themselves out long ago, but the stubbornness of wheat has not allowed us to perfect this "style."  I write it as a "style" because we kind of made this one up.  We have always enjoyed the faux-gruit flavors of coriander and orange peel as well as the banana and clove present in the Hefeweissen yeast.  The though for this "style" was to combined the two in some unholy matrimony to create a unique and enjoyable flavor profile.  However, getting this beer to exhibit any sense of body has been a real challenge.  It wasn't until very recently in a conversation with Tom, the owner of our local home brew shop, that I realized wheat requires a high mash temp due to its highly fermentable nature.  We had been mashing this recipe at 150 to 152 over the years, thinking that this beer would be awful as a big bodied beer.  So over the years we added less and less malted wheat and more and more flaked wheat.  This did a few things, added more haze to the final product and reduced the convertibility of the mash.  To think, we were heading in the wrong direction for years with this beer.  Well, its all been made up for now, unfortunately, it has become more of a Wit than a Hef and would probably be better suited with the correct yeast.

Appearance:  8
Aroma:  10
Style:  8
Bitterness:  5
Maltiness:  5
Mouthfeel:  5
Head:  5
Balance:  5

These marks earn the Hefewitzen 8.0 a 51 out of 55 and a percentage of 93%.

Like a late summer evening, the striking visual of a gold haze filling a glass with a cloudy white head draws you into its soft pillowy top.  Before drifting off into the comfort of its bosom you are awoken by the bright scent of fresh orange peel and sweet coriander.  The first sip is cooling and refreshing leaving you with a faint hint of bananas and cloves.  The body is there, but just barely allowing you to savor only the most flavorful parts of the beverage.  Once consumed, the sweet nectar calls back to you, asking you to "have another."

As I said earlier, this version of the Hefewitzen is probably one of, if not the best versions of this beer we have made.  There's not much I would change at this point (as the recipe goes), but I would like to try it as a true Wit.  As far as this particular brew goes, I think if it had been mashed at the proper temperature (158 degrees F), it would have been perfection.

Recipe: Hefewitzen 8.0

Tasted: Rye Pale Ale 3.2

The almighty Rye Pale Ale.  Friend to all, savior to some.  As beers/recipes/flavors evolve, so do we in our ideals of what a beer "should" be.  This iteration of Rye Pale Ale arrived by the inspiration of Brewmaster Mike.  One day he was in the brew shop and saw a new hop that caught his eye.  This hop, Pacific Jade, supposedly has a very earthy, woody flavor to it that Brewmaster Mike thought would enhance the Rye Pale Ale.  This combination of new hop additions and a slightly lower mash temperature would culminate in a refreshing earthy noted beer that we would all enjoy.


Aroma:  7
Appearance:  10
Style:  7
Bitterness:  4
Maltiness:  4
Mouthfeel:  5
Head:  5
Balance:  5


These marks earn the Rye Pale Ale a 47 out of 55 and a percentage of 85%.  


The Rye Pale Ale, a well traveled beverage guides the consumer with its age and experience through an adventure through the backwoods just before dusk.  The journey begins in a field of rye where you sit enjoying some dried sunflower seeds, as the sharpness of the rye pinches at your nostrils and the sun beams light through a menacing cloud.  Your soon lead through a grassy meadow near a pine thicket as you search for cover from the ominous storm approaching, your sinuses cleared by the brightness of the needles.  Once hidden by the trees a hint of oak wafts through the air and in the darkness you realize that you are safe in the warm embrace of your guide and old friend, Rye Pale Ale.


This beer is a great variation on a theme.  The recipe that we've played with on and off has really surprised us all with every iteration.  I think this time around, the Rye exhibited itself appropriately.  It took what was changed and applied the flavors we chose as they should have been.  This beer is tough to mess up, and believe me, we have tried.  It just keeps coming back for more every time.  I think the only reason this beer received any negative marks is due to my own expectation of what I know of what the Rye is capable.  It wasnt quite as aromatic as it has been in the past, but that is most likely due to the change of hops we selected.  The style points that were lost were, again, due to my expectations.  I have preferred the version of the past to this one, but that does not mean that I did not enjoy it any less.  (In fact, at the time of this post, it is already gone!)  I think to fill out the numbers appropriately, this beer only needed a little more malt flavor and a little more bitterness.  This can be solved with a few simple additions of malt and hops (appropriate proportions to maintain balance, of course).  Other than that, this beer is fantastic and I would make it again in a heartbeat, as this style has become one of my favorites.


Recipe: Rye Pale Ale 3.2

Tasted: Chocolate Stout 2.0

The story of this beer is, unfortunately, not one I can call my own.  I have to credit Brewmaster Mike with this one.  I think, in an effort to find that one particular flavor, Brewmaster Mike has attempted time and time again a recipe which embodies the flavors contained in this Chocolate Stout.  Specifically, sweet, dry, and complex.  These flavors, in my own opinion, are a difficult combination to achieve due to their relative opposition to each other.  Nonetheless!  Brewmaster Mike has maintained his quest to find the answer to the burning question: How DO you make a beer sweet AND dry?  My metric may not be so favorable for this beer, particularly because of my own aversion to the style and flavor profile.  No offense is meant by this review; I merely mean to document my experiences so that we, as brewers and as a whole, can improve our skills.

Aroma:  6
Appearance:  8
Style:  6
Bitterness:  8
Maltiness:  3
Mouthfeel:  4
Head:  2
Balance:  3

These marks earn the Chocolate Stout 34 out of 55 and a percentage of 62%.  This beer comes at you like a coal black steam powered train of the early 1800's.  Black and intense, your eyes are met with a stark contrast between your surroundings and the flavor train barreling towards you.  Unfortunately, theres nothing that can stop it.  Once you've poured it, your nose is attacked by the pungency of chocolate malt.  Only a short buffer of creamy brown head cushions your plunge into its abyss.  A strange bitterness takes over as you imbibe.  It's not hops that are bittering this beer, but the dark and roastedness of the malt itself.  It bitters and dries this dark concoction to the point of astringency, leaving little room for the sweetness of chocolate to come through.  It is only after several convincing pints that you are able to realize the namesake of this fermented locomotive.  I think for my own purposes, I would change this recipe by reducing the amount of chocolate malt, adding a bit more darker crystal (maybe 60L or 80L), and mashing at a higher temperature (maybe 158).  I think this combination of recipe changes would reduce the malt bitterness and increase the amount of chocolate flavor presented in the bouquet.  In order to preserve the dryness desired by Brewmaster Mike, I also might use Dry English Ale yeast, rather than the Irish that was used for this one.  These suggestions, again, are merely based on my own desires and knowledge of the style.  As our skills improve, we will continue to produce better and better beers.

Recipe: Chocolate Stout (The Raven 2)
Style: Chocolate Stout

Tasted: Schwarzbier 1.0

Ah, the elusive black bear, I mean, beer.  This style, while little known, possibly due to John Q. Public's beer knowledge being severely dumbed down by Big Brewing, is a charismatic blend of soft chocolate, toffee, and coffee notes backed by the cleanliness of a lager yeast.  Having few choices to sample this style, I was lead by an example produced by my favorite brewery in the whole wide world (yes, I went there), Iron Hill Brewery of Newark, DE.  Their Schwarzbier was the best tasting dark lager I have ever had.  It was so tasty, it even impressed by very choosy wife.  Thus was the inspiration to make such a style.  After a brainstorming session with Brewmaster Mike, we came up with something we both thought appropriate.  I must applaud his gutsy use of the San Fransisco Lager yeast as it proved mightily tasty as well as the distinct lack of roasted barley in accordance with the style guidelines.  The resulting beverage suited the palates of many and has now been deemed, at least in my eyes, as a repeatable recipe/style at MSB.

Aroma:  7
Appearance:  10
Style:  8
Bitterness:  4
Maltiness:  6
Mouthfeel:  4
Head:  6
Balance:  5

These marks earn the Schwarzbier a 46 out of 55 and a rating of 84%.  The Schwarzbier is impressive in its vastly cavernous blackness.  Like a black hole of bitter chocolate and toffee this beverage sucks you in and reduces your taste buds to singularities.  The smooth caramel and bakers chocolate flavors roll off your tongue in a clean, refined bitterness that quenches as it fulfills.  Again and again you return to be bombarded with flavor by this robust dark liquid.  Being a malt-forward beer, I was afraid I wouldn't enjoy the Schwarzbier; however, it surprised me by being bitter enough to overcome the cloying sweetness I had expected.  The only changes I think I would make to this beer would be an attempt to balance it out a bit more.  As I have stated in the past, I enjoy a more bitter than sweet beer.  To suit my tastes more appropriately, I would probably add a bit more hops and maybe some simple sugars to thin out the body a bit.

Style: Schwarzbier
Recipe: Schwarzbier

Tasted: Munich Dunkel 1.0

Again, as we trace our brewing heritage, we end up time and time again in the Bavarian countryside.  This adventure has lead us to one of the brewingest cities in the world, Munich, Germany.  The beer I'm sampling bears this great city's name as little other is associated with the style than its birthplace.  Munich Dunkel merely refers to a dark colored beer that's made in Munich.  It's described as being a dark colored lager with no overwhelming characteristics of its own.  It's not roasty, chocolately, or particularly sweet or bitter.  The challenge here is to make a beer that matches what's made in the home of the Oktoberfest.

Aroma:  7
Appearance:  10
Style:  7
Bitterness:  4
Maltiness:  4
Mouthfeel:  5
Head:  5
Balance:  5

These marks earn the Munich Dunkel a 47 out of 55 and a rating of 85%.  This beer greets its consumer with a dark brown body with a slightly creamy light brown head which dissipates slowly.  Unfortunately, there's no impressive aroma to draw you in.  You have to dive right in hoping Ze Germans have lead us in the right direction.  The first sip is light and thin, as a lager should be, and waves a fond farewell as its malts slip away down your throat, leaving only the hint of roastiness as evidence that it was ever there.  It's easy drinking that keeps you coming back for more, as its light unassuming balance leads the way.

As tricksy as this style may be, I believe we are certainly close.  I'd say small changes would put us right in the style, as I remember it.  The removal of the "Carafa I" would be my first improvement.  It was only added to keep the color profile in the style guidelines.  Unfortunately for this style to be truley traditional it must be decocted to give it a darker color.  I chose melanioden malt as a substitute.  Maybe next time a longer boil or a small decoction could help the color along and possibly improve on the caramel flavor I remember so well.

Recipe: Munich Dunkel

Tasted: German Pilsener 2.0

In a ode to Deutschland and one of the cleanest beverages of all time, we created our German Pilsener, version 2.0.  After our first attempt at the style missed the mark by a close margin, and the relative success of the beer, we decided to do it again with a few enhancements.  The first version was fairly close flavor-wise, but ended up a bit too malty.  Two changes were made to get this right: mash at a lower temperature and increase the IBUs.  The results are as follows:

Aroma:  7
Appearance:8
Style:  9
Bitterness:  6
Maltiness:  5
Mouthfeel:  5
Head:  6
Balance:  3

These marks earn the German Pilsener a 45 our of 55 and a rating of 82%.  The appearance of this beer lends itself directly to what you think it is, a clean crisp pilsener, despite the overabundance of head.  Its a different story once you get close.  This beer starts out with what would seem to be an uncharacteristic nose.  It teases with hints of banana and spice then smacks you in the face with stiff bitterness as you take your first sip.  As the bitterness fades, light bodied malt rolls off your tongue to reveal the balance of true pilsener.  Personally, I prefer a drier, more bitter pilsener, but I thought this a bit unbalanced as the bitterness seemed to stark.  I think a slight decrease in IBUs can counter this imperfection.  As for the aroma, a lower fermentation temperature should decrease the bananas and spice to create an all around balanced, clean beer.

Recipe: German Pils 2.0

Tasted: English Bitter 1.0

Alright, so I used the scoring metric.  Let's hope these results make sense.  When trying the first few beers and scoring them appropriately, my methodology was to look, smell, and taste the beers, in that order.  So, here are the results.

Aroma:  8
Appearance:  8
Style:  8
Bitterness:  5
Maltiness:  7
Mouthfeel:  6
Head:  4
Balance:  4

These marks earn the English Bitter a total score of 44 out of 55.  This gives it a rating, in my book, of 80%.

I really think this beer is very close to the style and I think the results show it.  The first experience one has with this beer, besides its stunning golden color, is the distinct aroma of grain.  Its a brewer's beer, as its aromatics are reminiscent of a heap of malted barley, particularly the ever present English favorite, Marris Otter.  I think that scent brings one into the beer and allows the auxiliary flavors to present themselves accordingly.  A short sip and one is embraced by the smooth balance of the simple malts and subtle hints of English alpha acids.  The gentle current of golden liquid moves about one's mouth in a ever so slightly heavier manner than water giving the drinker a sense of refreshment and encouragement to proceed.  Being a simple session beer, the English Bitter suggests "have another" as one realizes the sparse foam rings lining the glass.

My only complaints are possibly the over presence of malt in the flavor profile, the slightly heavier mouthfeel, and the under-achieving head retention.  Future versions of this may see a reduction of grain in the grain bill to counter the over-maltiness and a slightly lower mash temperature to create a thinner mounthfeel to encourage drinkability.

Recipe: Session Bitter