Small changes mean a lot

[FedoraDave]

Since my daughter and her fiance are visiting this weekend, I took the opportunity to draw a gravity sample of the new incarnation of Groomsman's Pride that I'm trying out. It's been two weeks in the fermenter, and I felt it was worth checking the progress both numerically and to get a taste and evaluation from me and The Mike.

First, the SG is, again, lower than projected, so fermentation is complete and then some.

The taste is very good, too, and we were both quite happy with it. It's not a black IPA, but when you get right down to it, there's no reason it has to be; we just chose black IPA sort of randomly. This is a variation on the 100 Years War recipe I made recently, with some specialty grains steeped to bring some color and body to it. So it's a slightly amber IPA, and that's cool, too.

Interestingly, there's also a sweetness that lurks in the finish once the Warrior and Centennial bite up front clears, and it's pretty neat to experience.

Now, this is just a warm, uncarbonated, unconditioned beer, but I've tasted enough gravity samples to know if I'm gonna get a winner out of a batch. This is gonna be good, and The Mike concurred. Still have to dry hop and go through the rest of the process, and I'll certainly want his opinion this summer, when it's properly conditioned. But as of right now, this seems to be the go-to recipe for Groomsman's Pride.

[John Sand]

Nice!

[Inkleg]

Glad to see everyone is happy with it.

[Brewbirds]

That is great news Dave. I bet this one is going to be hard to wait on.

[Beer-lord]

I never had a doubt and think I said so.

[FedoraDave]

I assume they'll be visiting at least once this summer, or maybe we'll take a little jaunt into The City and meet up with them, so he'll be able to sample the finished product. But yeah, I'm very eager to see how it turns out.