Bell's Clone Gets Kegged....IPA Lookin' Good....Where Do We Go From Here....

Bell's Clone:

After 14 days in secondary I've finally gotten the For Whom The Bell's Tolls into kegs. The beer was crystal clear and had a very nice light golden color. It is light by Pale Ale standards for sure. The ending gravity on this beer was 1.012. With a starting gravity of 1.054, that brings the estimated ABV to 5.75%. This is actually very close to the real beer that this clone emulates. The gravity sample had the signature Hallertau hop aroma and was even sporting low levels of carbonation. What? Of course I tasted the gravity sample. Tasting your beer in various stages of process, from original wort prior to pitching the yeast, to the final gravity sample before conditioning, is a great learning experience of how the fermentation process works. As you take gravity samples of your beer, save and taste them. You will be surprised at how the beer changes over time as it matures to the final product. This beer tasted very nice. The Hallertau bittering hops gave a great smooth bitterness to the beer and the malt backbone is substantial. It is a very nice tasting beer and the addition of gas can only make it better. The entire kegging process went without a hitch and the beer looks like it is going to be a good one. As always in this hobby, time will tell the final outcome. We'll know very soon, in about 10 days or so.....

IPA:

The IPA has finally subsided primary fermentation. I hope to move it to secondary tomorrow. The beer worked hard and worked long going about 7 days with noticeable fermentation activity. Today is day 9 and it has abruptly subsided. Time to get the beer of of hop trub and yeast fallout for some clean conditioning and clearing. As I stated above, this beer has already been tasted. After the brewday, the gravity sample was tasted. You could already tasted the bitterness underneath the ample sweetness of the unfermented fresh wort. The color is clearing out and this beer will be a light copper/amber color. The transfer will begin to tell the color story a little better. One thing is for sure, this beer will be hoppy. And that will make me hoppy, hoppy, hoppy.....

Next:

Now that these brews are well along, it's time to get going on the next one. I have Burton Ale yeast. I can make virtually any style of English Ale with this yeast, from bitter to stout. I can also get a little creative on the grist and see what a nice English ale strain will do to it. For example, I could run an Octoberfest grist, hop a little more aggressively, and use this yeast. I could use a maibock grist and run this yeast at it. It's too estery of a yeast to try a preprohibition ale with it, but there's not reason why I couldn't try this with say and alt bier grist. The permutations of grain bills is virtually endless and you're always surprised at the end of it all with the finished product. This is one of the great things about this hobby. I will bet you right now any amount, that the finished product I make with this yeast, will taste something like beer!! I am actually still leaning toward an ESB type of beer, but that certainly isn't written in stone. As George W. Bush so eloquently said the other day in referent to a US invasion of Iran, everything is on the table for discussion. If any of you out there have a suggestion, I'm happy to take it into consideration. Let me think on this one a little longer and when I decide, I'll let you know.....

Now get out there and get some good beer, or make it, then drink it.....

Mark, The Brewer, and finally getting some of the inventory back up to par........
- posted by Mark @ 9:12 PM

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