Of course it isn’t good news that Bell’s Brewery had to recall some of their Two Hearted Ale, but at least it makes me feel a little better about my sour tasting summer ale. At least I can just keep telling people that the taste came from the apricots peels.
I first made a simple IPA from a kit. Then I made an imperial stout, but still from malt extract. Next I wanted to make a beer with all grain. My goal was to successfully brew a summer ale with only grain, hops, and yeast. I also ended up putting some apricots in the secondary fermentor. It has been in the bottle for about 2 weeks, so I tasted one yesterday. It seems like I was only moderately successful. I did everything right except that I must not have paid enough attention while sanitizing things. The beer has a little tart taste to it. Maybe it is from the apricots, which I left with the peels on. Regardless it isn’t bad beer, and I learned something for next time.
Here are the grains before starting.
Next is my homemade mash tun.
Finally here is the boiling wort.
Come to the dark side, we have beer.
It’s been about a month since bottling the imperial stout I made. I finally opened one up to try and it turned out pretty good. I like how strong it turned out, and I can taste a little but of oak from the chips I put into the secondary fermentor. I used air-lock caps this time, so it should keep for a very long time. I am going to attempt to leave it to age in the basement until this fall and winter, when the weather cools off and a stout is more appropriate.
