RCE: Brewbirds and jpsherman

[jpsherman]

Had my first taste, and wow is it good!!

As BB predicted my error of adding too much DME to the hop boil did in fact give this beer a maltier presence along with a darker color.

Initial taste is quite malty, with a delicate citrus flavor. Bitterness builds slowly, and ends up less bitter than a Sierra Nevada.

Not as hoppy as I intended but this beer had fantastic mouthfeel and head retention. By far the best body I've had on a beer I've made!

[Brewbirds]

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Oh yeah! This is a keeper. As you can see it retained its wonderful color. It has a great white head and lacing stays through to the end.

Wonderful, complex aroma of mild citrus, some floral and we both got a hint of clove though that wasn't present in the flavor. We can't figure that one out except that the S-05 had briefly hit 76F.

This APA has a mild malt backbone and the hops are very beautifully layered with no harsh bitterness and an earthy, floral and mild citrus flavor profile.

Like JPS stated you would be hard pressed to compare it to a SNPA it is much more mellow.

This is our first exposure to Colombus hops and we both likey.

JPS PM me so we can work out an exchange.

[jpsherman]

PM sent!

[wollffy]

Those pics would be a tremendous help for a
Beginner like me BrewBirds. I'd love to try this style already !

[Brewbirds]

We had jpsherman over for the Superbowl... well his absolutely awesome APA anyway. JP I LOVE this beer goes great with football and chili.

You can see the table through this it is so clear.

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Ya No this home brewing stuff is pretty dog on cool.

[Brewbirds]

Okay so today we finally got to do a side by side comparison with ours and JP's RCE (sorry it took so long JP spent 3 days in waiting rooms of auto mechanic shops).

Since the new RCE pairings just got announced I wanted to put this out for folks to see; this a a great thing about the RCE and I hope next time more new brewers sign up for it and hope that JP agrees. This is the exact recipe from a brewing software standpoint but we each had different ingredient and brew day issues (and both made a great beer ).

So I'm going to do it kind of as a review of JP's and describe how ours differs since I posted ours earlier in the thread.

Pic first so you can see the difference:

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Pours with a 1/4 inch of off white head and some lacing. Ours the same.

Aroma malty with hints of clove. Ours also got the clove but more citrus than malt.

Color dark red amber slightly opaque. Ours Deep orange amber slightly clearer.

Flavor some malt sweetness with mild bitterness. Ours seemed hoppier and less sweet but we could still tell it was the same beer.

Mouthfeel is slightly heavy with moderate carbing where ours seemed dryer and more carbed.

So here is what we think the differences are:
We had an error in the profile selected on the software (BS) and reduced water volumes on brew day to compensate (we made less beer).
JP added his DME all at the beginning of the boil on brew day and got less hop utilization and darkening of color.
We used extra light LME as a late addition and JP used pale (DME ?) and BB2 thinks that since our extra light is Pilsner based and your pale is 2 Row based we will have had different results, i.e. malty vs. hoppy and in mouthfeel.
I still don't know where we both got clove from but since we both got it I'm okay with that and it wasn't bad as far as taste was concerned.

I want to add for folks that the hop selection and placement are very complementary if you haven't tried these varieties before.

JP what would you add for comments for the new RCE guys out there?

[jpsherman]

I would add that this is where taking notes is really important. If I want to make a nice APA I would make sure not to boil all the UME. But when I'm in the mood for a maltier beer I now know how to manipulate hop utilization without using more malt.

I can't account for the clove you got, because I did not notice it in yours or mine. But, until recently I has not much of a fan of hoppy beers, so my palette was probably too distracted by citrus to notice clove.

I usually only pick up clove in wheat beers I have made.