Summer Ale - take 5

[Kealia]

Nope, temp strip (which I find to be very accurate) was at 70 at its highest point so this should turn out tasting like Chris' Four Point, right?

[BlackDuck]

You should be absolutely fine at that temp. It won't taste anything like my Four Point, it's a whole different recipe. But I'm sure it will turn out to be awesome at the same time.

[Kealia]

Day 9: Took a sample today to see how this was coming along. Still very cloudy, likely due to the hop-stand but gravity is almost where I hope it will finish @ 1.012 (it's at 1.104 right now).



I'm hoping for two more points, but 1.014 on this beer will be just fine if that is where it finishes. The model I'm using is the beer I had at Lagunitas which was a bit sweet with the hops playing along so I'm good either way.

Since my kegs are full, I'll leave this alone for a while, though. It also fermented a bit warmer than I had targeted so I'll give it extra time on the yeast to clean up, too.

When I'm ready to move it here is my plan:
- Cold crash for 3-5 days
- Transfer to 2.5G corny to use as a secondary and let it warm back up to room temp
- Dry hop for 3-5 days then either cold crash again before transferring to the serving keg, or I'll use a hop sack in the secondary and just use that for serving

The screen that I got a few months ago from my RCE partner is currently in use so I doubt that will be ready to move to the new keg.

Or I may change my mind completely in the coming week. Who knows

[BlackDuck]

MMmmmm....you're makin' me thirsty!!!

[Beer-lord]

Sure looks like 1.013 to me.
<signed: troublemaker>

[Kealia]

Sure looks like 1.013 to me.
<signed: troublemaker>

Open your good eye.

[Kealia]

Kegged tonight. I'm going to let it warm up for a few days and then dry hop for 3-5 days before chilling and carbing up.

No rush, so I figure I'll be drinking this one mid-May.

[Kealia]

Yum. This version is lighter than previous incarnations and I like that (the pic makes it look darker than it really is). A little less sweet so the hops come through a bit more, too.

This is NOT an IPA, so it's enough hops to show the NS, but not in your face hops. Basically, a good session pale ale. Nice little cloudiness to it (although not sure why). The one thing that didn't come through was the aroma from the hopstand like it did in my IPA/IPL. Maybe NS isn't a good hopstand candidate.

In any case, I just tossed about 1/4oz (eyeballed what I had left) into the keg to keg-hop it so I get a bit more nose in the coming week or so.
Looking forward to more of these once the aroma kicks in, but it's light and Nelson Sauvin-y so far.

[Kealia]

This beer is now really good. After keg-hopping it I was getting a lot sediment in the glass (even using a hops sack). After 5-7 days (I don't recall exactly) I pulled the bag and it's settled now. Great aroma and taste. Light enough for a warm night, but tasty enough to stand on it's own.



And since I never did a proper first pour pic, here's an 'action' shot of it helping me grill up some bison burgers for dinner



The lacing and small thick head sticks around for the whole show, too. The good news is that this is yummy. The bad news is that I'm already 1/2 way through the keg due to some tasting and a buddy that came over about a week ago.

[Ibasterd]

This looks fandamntastic Kealia!

[Kealia]

Thanks. I think it's worthy of one of your labels (too bad it's kegged ).
For as much as I like IPAs and ambers, this may be my favorite beer. The Nelson Sauvin is so unique that I love it.

Oh wait, BlackDuck's Pale Ale is also one of my favorites. Ok, this is ONE of my favorites, how's that?