This new seasonal from Ska is an awesome after dinner beer. Brewed with peppermint, spearmint, cocoa and vanilla. I love the mint in stout! And I love that it is subtle. The last seasonal I had of theirs was the Mole Stout with chocolate and spices, which I found to be a little hard to drink a whole can and it gave me heart burn. I think that restaurants should switch from Andes candy on the check to Minthe Stouts. I know it would keep me coming back :)Friday, May 10, 2013
Vernal Minthe Stout
This new seasonal from Ska is an awesome after dinner beer. Brewed with peppermint, spearmint, cocoa and vanilla. I love the mint in stout! And I love that it is subtle. The last seasonal I had of theirs was the Mole Stout with chocolate and spices, which I found to be a little hard to drink a whole can and it gave me heart burn. I think that restaurants should switch from Andes candy on the check to Minthe Stouts. I know it would keep me coming back :)
Doin' Brewin' - Belgian Blonde
On a windy spring day, the air full of red dust sweeping in from the Ouray Valley, you may see a girl running back and forth, back and forth from her house to her garage. Sometimes carrying a giant pot, buckets, hoses, some strange copper thing. What is she doing? Brewing beer of course!
Spring in the mountains equals wind. And today was particularly windy which forced me to move my brewing operation to the garage in hopes that I don't get completely contaminated by whatever is floating in the air. In anticipation of my mom coming for a visit I am trying to have mom-friendly beers on tap, which means minimal hops. This is hard for me, so I decided it would be a good opportunity to try to come up with a belgian blonde and try a few things I've never used before like red wheat and Safale T-58 yeast.
In my experience the progression of introducing non-craft beer drinkers to "real" beer is to start with stouts, browns and red, which has so far been a success. This time I am going to introduce a bit more hops with the ESB and this Belgian Blonde. We'll see how she likes it.
Somehow I completely missed the mark on my OG coming short at 1.040. I was hoping to hit closer to 1.052 but I may have misjudged how much sugar I would get from the red wheat and Vienna. I have also been playing with mash volumes. But either way I don't really mind lower ABV beers. I can drink more beers with less headaches :)
I really like the way this beer turned out. Very drinkable. Nice light golden color, a little haziness from the wheat. On the nose slight not over powering esthers from the yeast. Finishes hop bitterness instead of belgian sweetness. Again, another beer not brewed to style, but that's the fun of homebrewing, you can have it your way.
Spring in the mountains equals wind. And today was particularly windy which forced me to move my brewing operation to the garage in hopes that I don't get completely contaminated by whatever is floating in the air. In anticipation of my mom coming for a visit I am trying to have mom-friendly beers on tap, which means minimal hops. This is hard for me, so I decided it would be a good opportunity to try to come up with a belgian blonde and try a few things I've never used before like red wheat and Safale T-58 yeast.
In my experience the progression of introducing non-craft beer drinkers to "real" beer is to start with stouts, browns and red, which has so far been a success. This time I am going to introduce a bit more hops with the ESB and this Belgian Blonde. We'll see how she likes it.
Somehow I completely missed the mark on my OG coming short at 1.040. I was hoping to hit closer to 1.052 but I may have misjudged how much sugar I would get from the red wheat and Vienna. I have also been playing with mash volumes. But either way I don't really mind lower ABV beers. I can drink more beers with less headaches :)
I really like the way this beer turned out. Very drinkable. Nice light golden color, a little haziness from the wheat. On the nose slight not over powering esthers from the yeast. Finishes hop bitterness instead of belgian sweetness. Again, another beer not brewed to style, but that's the fun of homebrewing, you can have it your way.
| Batch Size | 5.000 gal | Boil Size | 5.750 gal |
| Boil Time | 60.000 min | Efficiency | 70% |
| OG | 1.057 | FG | 1.014 |
| ABV | 5.6% | Bitterness | 33.4 IBU (Tinseth) |
| Color | 5.0 srm (Morey) | Calories (per 12 oz.) | 190 |
Fermentables
| Name | Type | Amount | Mashed | Late | Yield | Color |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pale Malt (2 Row) US | Grain | 8.000 lb | Yes | No | 79% | 2.0 srm |
| Vienna Malt | Grain | 2.000 lb | Yes | No | 78% | 4.0 srm |
| Wheat, Red | Grain | 2.000 lb | No | No | 84% | 2.5 srm |
Hops
| Name | Alpha | Amount | Use | Time | Form | IBU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amarillo | 8.7% | 0.500 oz | Boil | 5.000 min | Pellet | 2.8 |
| Cascade | 6.4% | 0.500 oz | Boil | 20.000 min | Pellet | 6.3 |
| Cascade | 6.4% | 0.500 oz | Boil | 60.000 min | Pellet | 10.3 |
| Amarillo | 8.7% | 0.500 oz | Boil | 60.000 min | Pellet | 14.0 |
Yeast
| Name | Type | Form | Amount | Stage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Safbrew T-58 | Ale | Liquid | 0.000 tsp | Primary |
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