Carnegie and Co. Stark Porter - Tasting Notes

My first attempt at a Porter is now three months old and ready to be drunk. I chose an unassuming recipe for my first attempt and am now thinking it might be difficult letting it sit for an extra three months at which point the flavours are meant to peak.

Method: Extract

Specialty grains: Dark Crystal malt, Chocolate malt and black malt.

Hops: Northern Brewer (bittering), Styrian Goldings (flavour and aroma) 

Yeast: Irish Ale (liquid)

ABV: 5.5% (the recipe suggests 5.5%).

Yield: 23 litres

This pours with a cracking cream coloured head as you can see (possibly it's a  little too carbonated, but that doesn't appear to be a problem so far) and when you take a sip, you are presented with a very smooth bodied beer that has slight bitter notes on the back palate. Clear coffee notes are present up front and possible biscuit flavours hide in the back. It laces well, from start to finish, and that is where you find your first problem. It finishes altogether too quickly and you find yourself cursing that you didn't put more in the fridge.

Williams Brothers Scottish Midnight Sun Dark Porter Ale

Recently, the small group of chaps who have join in on my quest to taste as much craft beer as possible have been becoming obsessed by Porters and Stouts. Occasionally Dark Ales feature, but these are often disappointing. So far, on the top of our list has been Murray's Dark Knight Porter, and Holgate's Chocolate Temptress. 

The other day I grabbed a porter from Williams Brothers; the Scottish Midnight Sun. This inky black ale pours with a light brown/cream head that laces nicely throughout the drink. It's robust body slides smoothly down your throat and on the way, you are presented with heavy chocolate syrup flavours that pass all too quickly.

This is an exceptional porter that is definitely moreish, and at $8.50 AUD for a 500ml bottle, it's actually decently priced considering it's import and craft beer status. I would recommend this to anyone who says they don't like beer, and to anyone who says they do - it's an all round appeaser.

5 / 5 Coasters

Incidentally, there really is nothing that distinguishes between a Porter and a Stout apart from those styles that include special ingredients (like an Out Stout or Oyster Stout). They are essentially the same, although traditionally, the Stout had a higher alcohol content.

Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Ale, Prohibition Speakeasy beer & Anchor Summer beer

A certain fish was kind enough to bring a sample selection of beers when she returned to Oz from her USA holiday so I thought I would quickly review the ones I have tasted so far on this blog. Whilst this is a small sample - it definitely illustrates how craft beer is being dominated by the American microbreweries. All of these are sterling tipples, and whilst I feel that Australia's craft brewing scene is producing some top shelf beers (like Murray's Brewing and Holgate), I think we have a way to go to catch up with the sheer breadth of quality offerings America has.

Little Sumpin' is a very surprising beer. I hadn't heard of this little microbrewery out of Petaluma, California before and so I had no idea what to expect. It's a whopping 7.5% ABV and is 64.2 IBU, something that you usually only find when you stray into the India Pale Ale styles. What makes this even more surprising is that it's a 'Wheat-esque beer' which appears to mean they boost the body and mouth feel with the addition of wheat malt to the standard base Pale malts. As you can see, it pours a wonderful clear golden beer with a stark white frothy head that hangs around for the entire beer. Hop aromas are instantly detectable and the healthy body is just packed to the brim with hop bitterness (though not overpowering) and the passionfruit and summer fruit cocktail flavours I've come to associate with Galaxy hops. This beer finished far too quickly and I found myself craving more. It's a shame it cannot be bought in Australia yet - we really are missing out on something wonderful.

4.5 / 5 coasters

Prohibition speakeasy beer is an American Amber Ale brewed by a San Francisco Brewery that claims links to the original breweries from the Bay area. It's a hefty 6.1% ABV that pours with an off-white head that dissipates fairly quickly. The caramel sweetness of the malts are very prominent in the beer as are the fruit flavours and bitterness from the hops, which strangely make an odd combination. I feel that a lower ABV would allow the hops to take centre stage and prevent this odd dichotomy of sweetness and bitterness in the one glass. It's a nice beer, but I feel that compared with the others, it doesn't quite stack up in the quality stakes. A lingering finish that is light on bitterness rounds off the palate. It's nice, but doesn't have me wishing for more.

3.5 / 5 coasters

Anchor Summer beer is a lightly hopped wheat beer brewed out of the Anchor Brewery in San Francisco.

The Anchor Brewery has been brewing since 1896, and they are famous for their Steam Beer, a lager brewed at higher than normal temperature and characterised by a higher carbonation level.

The Summer beer is 50% wheat malt, fermented with ale yeast, and is filtered to give a clean and crisp beverage that is anything but usual. Missing are those common vanilla, banana or clove notes that one gets with traditional wheat beer. Instead we have light fruit flavours from the Golding and Glacier hops poking through a light-bodied straw-coloured beer that sits under a persistent white frothy head. It has an almost bready/biscuit like palate that finishes quickly and cleanly. It is definitely a quaffer, and could handle being downed by the pint on a hot summers afternoon accompanied by a spicy lamb burger with sweet potato wedges.

4 / 5 coasters

Victory Hop Devil Indian Pale Ale

The Victory Hop Devil IPA is a heavily-hopped American style Indian Pale Ale. It is described as having a dried fruit, roast grains and hoppy nose, with a dry and hoppy palate. It is guaranteed my wife will hate this.

The Boil

Gravity: Original Gravity: 1.065 (target 1.076) Final Gravity: 1.010 (target 1.018) ABV: 7.7% (target 6.3%)

Yield: 11.5 litres
Brew method: All-grain with US batch sparging.

Notes: I only managed to get 12 bottles out of this batch. I understand where I went wrong; foolishly, I assumed my water requirements would be the same as the previous batch without recalculating. The result was I didn't have enough. I also need to factor in more liquid for that lost during dry-hopping. We live and learn!

Fat Angel - Tasting Notes

Method: Extract
Specialty grains: US crystal malt, German dark Munich malt.
Hops: Chinook (bittering), Styrian Goldings (flavour, aroma, and dry hop) 
Yeast: Irish Ale (liquid)

ABV: 5.5% (the recipe suggests 4.8%).
Yield: 23 litres


Tasting notes: As you can see, it pours a lovely amber colour with an off-white frothy head. Basically, until I start all-grain brewing, everything is going to be a lovely amber colour.You get a fresh hit of hops on pouring, with hints of melon. On drinking you can taste the sweet malt with slight hints of caramel. The medium body carries the bitterness of the hops which lingers slightly on the palate. I don't mind this - it's quite nice. I may make this one again with an all-grain brew to see the difference that makes.

Jaggery Pale Ale

It's time to start experimenting! 


My new resolution is to move away from extract brewing, and to start brewing smaller batches of all grain beer. By brewing in smaller batches (11.4 litres which gives me 15 bottles) I can experiment more and have a higher turn over, hopefully developing a better sense for making beer.


This Jaggery Pale Ale is a recipe found in Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing which adds a twist to a classic pale ale recipe with the addition of jaggery and fenugreek.


Turns out, jaggery sugar, adds a maple flavour to the beer while the fenugreek enhances those tones in the final beer. It also has a lot of hops - 65g of East Kent Goldings in the flavouring boil which is approximately three times as much as I add to a brew twice the size. It will be interesting to see what it turns out like - I figure this would be a nice beer to accompany a curry!

Gravity: Original Gravity: 1.064 (target 1.076) Final Gravity: 1.010 ABV: 7.5% (target 6.5 - 7.3%)
Yield: 12 litres
Brew method: All-grain with US batch sparging.

Notes: Once again, my original gravity is off by almost ten points, which makes me think that possible my mash tun efficiency is quite low. The odd thing, is that I always seem to hit the ABV after fermentation. Go figure.

Long Trail Ale

We've got an all day poker match in a couple of months so I wanted a beer that would be easy drinking and in some way, remotely match the theme. I would have preferred a lager, but it's really the wrong time of year for them, and I have no way of lagering so I settled on the recipe for Long Trail Ale. 


It's a northern German alt-bier, and a motivating factor was the California ale yeast it uses. I've been wanting to make a few recipes that utilise that yeast, so I can reclaim some at the end to reuse.


It uses 4 different hops, and a touch of Wheat DME along with British Crystal malt as the specialty grain.

Frothy!

Gravity: Original Gravity: 1.046 (target 1.047-1.048) Final Gravity: 1.016 (target 1.011-1.012) ABV: 4.4% (target 4.6%)

Yield: 23 litres

Brew method: Extract with US batch sparging for the specialty grain.

Notes: It hasn't reached the recommended final gravity which, after reading a few books, I'm thinking might be down to the makeup of the DME that I'm using. A quick taste before bottling reveals a full mouth feel, almost oily, and a quick bitter finish. I think this will be a good session ale for the Poker match.