Beer Diary...

I like North Coast's 'Old Rasputin' Russian imperial stout . It's a good representation of the style that isn't crazy alcoholic and allows for easy consumption. So, when I developed the recipe for my RIS I kept Old Rasputin in mind and focused on big roastiness with balanced drinkability. I use 85% domestic 2-row and a mix of roasted and Munich malt for the remainder of the grist. I don't use any caramel malt in this brew but shoot for straight forward roasted flavor. The bittering is about a 1 to .75 ratio with a 60, 15 and 1 minute additions that imparts a small amount of citrus/pine from a charge of centennial hops.  Russian Imperial Stouts Although this beer is extremely young (8 weeks) I couldn't wait to sit down with friend and The Beer Company owner Antonio to do a taste comparison with Old Rasputin. Our focus was to evaluate the differences between the two beers and come to a consensus on improvements needed for future batches. In the pi...

I enjoy my beers on the dry side and regularly use well attenuating yeast to ferment with for the most part. My go-to's are Safale US05 , and Whitelabs Wlp001 and Wlp500 , but on occasion I will still end up with beer that is under-attenuated as the yeast leaves behind unfermented sugars when it drops out of solution and goes dormant. I scratch my head confused and frustrated by these results after feeling like I made sure I did everything right. My fermentation temperatures were within the optimum range and consistent and the wort was well aerated. I'm convinced that all of my brewing practices were perfect for a complete conversion only to be disappointed when the yeast wasn't able to complete its task. But there were a couple lessons that I had not learned yet and they needed to be addressed. Two main reasons that under attenuation occurs that I wasn't considering with the seriousness that it deserved was the accura...

I'm spending a lot of time brewing beer and trying to keep up with the growing demand for Dos Aves here in San Miguel but on occasion I have time to sit back and enjoy some of the other Mexican beers that are available. Two of my most recent samplings were from a brewery in Toluca, Mexico called Cortezana and I tasted them both at The Beer Company.   I started with the lighter one, a beer that I guessed at regarding the style since the label gave no indication of what I was about to drink. It is light gold or yellow and murky with a white thin head and low carbonation. The beer has a large phenolic taste of clove and all-spice and unfortunately a little vinegar at the end. Although this beer is light and crisp the acetobactor element detracts from my fully enjoying it. The body is light along with a low 4.4% abv. I could only guess that this beer is an attempt at a German style hefeweizen but has some elements of a hybrid yeast. Maybe a combination or blend of Whi...