Groomsman's Pride

[FedoraDave]

Just checked on this, and there was a nice, healthy krausen going on, which pleased me no little and more than somewhat. Temp is about four or five degrees higher than the other two carboys, which isn't surprising.

We're supposed to have a wicked cold snap starting tonight, so it remains to be seen if that impacts the primary fermentation, but it is what it is. I could move it upstairs to the beer closet, I suppose....

[haerbob3]

wrap it in a few towels Dave. Temp has dropped from 23 degrees since noon and is still falling!!

[FedoraDave]

Yeah, I forgot about the towel technique. Good call.

[FedoraDave]

Two weeks in. Took a grav reading. About 0.004 high yet, so it's going well.

Tasted the sample, and it's pretty good as far as malt/hops balance. It will definitely benefit from dry hopping and carbing/conditioning. A very pleasing color. Very dark, but not opaque. Slightly reddish/brown tints when held up to the light.

Very promising.

[Inkleg]

Sounding good, thanks for the update.

[FedoraDave]

I'll be interested in what my future son-in-law thinks of it once it's ready for consumption.

[FedoraDave]

Gonna take a gravity reading when I get home from work this evening, in anticipation of dry hopping tonight and bottling tomorrow evening.

Then we play the Waiting Game.

[Homer Simpson]Eh, this game sucks; let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos![/Homer Simpson]

[FedoraDave]

The sample I took was slightly high, but I saw that I got a wee bit of trub in it, so I'm not worried. It gets bottled today.

I tasted the sample, and while the malt bill is spot-on, it seems a little weak in the hops department for an IPA. Silly me, I forgot the seeming paradox that is "IBU vs. perceived bitterness". This recipe has a much more complex malt bill than the usual IPA, so while the IBUs are where they should be for an IPA, the sense of how bitter the beer is diminishes.

So that, it would seem, is the challenge of this particular beer. I must tweak the hops bill to find the correct level of perceived bitterness (and flavor and aroma, quite possibly).

This clears the way, though. I think I'd rather be facing this challenge than making tweaks to the malt bill. Of course, a lot depends on what my daughter's fiance thinks, too.

Overall, it's a good start, and I think my template is fairly solid.