Kealia's Summer Ale

[Beer-lord]

So, beer is done, grass is done and it's time for some beer. I'm limiting myself to 2 so I wanted something somewhat light. I open the fridge to Enjoy By, Stone 17th Anniversary, a few various homebrews and other craft beers and it hits me.....Ron sent me 2 of his and I only had one. SCORE!

So, here's my short review:
Pour was crystal clear! Damn, don't know if gelatin was used but you can read newspaper thru this beer.
I don't detect any aroma. The head is very nice and the carb is perfect for what I needed after a grass cutting. There is no lacing but a small head stays for a long while.
The taste is clean and crisp. Light flavor of malt, and a finish of slight sweetness. There is a very small ending bitterness and the finish is nice and mellow.
This is yet another beer that I could enjoy more than one of. Refreshing and easy on the taste buds.
Thanks for the beer mail Ron.

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[Kealia]

Damn! No aroma?? It's supposed to have some nice aroma from the Nelson Sauvin dry hop .
I really need to pull a taster on this one from the keg.

Have you had the NS hops before? I don't recall if it was you or Jeff that said you've never tried them.

Going for a taste.....be right back.

[Inkleg]

I've not had them, but I think I can smell some on the way.

[Beer-lord]

No I've not had any that I know of. Tried to get some locally but no go.
Hey, it was still and extremely enjoyable beer.

[Kealia]

Hmmm, that's a different beer than I brewed last time. I just pulled a taster and the aroma of the hops is very slight. I'm wondering if the gelatin is pulling down some of the hop oils and affecting the aroma? I need to go do some reading because I usually use only 1/4oz in a 2.5G batch but this time around I used .50oz because I wanted it to really pop with the NS aroma.

And it's sweeter and less NS forward than other batches and I now know why.....I just compared the recipe I used this last time to the previous version and I somehow swapped in munich this time for wheat. It's 1/2lb in a 2.5G batch and I'm thinking that is enough to overpower the the NS flavor, too. Wow, what a difference that made.

So, I'm glad you liked what you got - even if it wasn't what I intended to brew. I'm going to definitely dry hop this one in the keg - -gimmie the rundown there please. If I read things right you use unscented dental floss to tie off the bag which you leave a few inches off the bottom of the keg, right? Then you just run it through the seal and tie it off to the lid? If that's right, I'm heading out tomorrow to get dental floss because we use those little ones that clip into a handle and that ain't going to work!

Paul, glad it was a nice lawnmower ale. I'll be re-brewing this one soon because while the tester was OK, it was not the beer I intended it to be.

Jeff/Chris, I'm not sure how much of the Nelson Sauvin you'll pick up. It should have been very forward with a white wine/grape aroma and taste so let me know what you pick up.

[Beer-lord]

Let me know if you find out if gelatin does anything. I don't need clear beer especially if I'm going to lose hop aroma. I'm pretty sure I've read that it actually helps the hops to shine thru since it removes yeast out of suspension but a quick google found this... http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/will-ge ... ost5188911 and this.... http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/does-ge ... ost2677034 among others that are similar.

More study is needed.

[Inkleg]

That's how you do it Ron. I think I post something about it in the kegging thread, I'll go look. Found it
I weighted mine down with a shot glass. The weave on the hop sack is so fine you wonder if anything will flow through it.

[Kealia]

That's what I reading, too. Summarizing what I am finding, it appears that:
- Yeast absorb hop oils
- Gelatin drops out yeast (much more so than just cold crashing)
- When using gelatin, use much more hops

As I think this over, I've used gelatin on the following:
- Kolsch, which had very little (by style) hop aroma
- Dead Guy Ale, which was lacking sorely in flavor and aroma
- This batch of levitation which I thought was a bit muted in both flavor and aroma (and I upped the dry hop)
- This batch of Summer Ale which usually has a "wow, that smells great" aroma with 1/4oz that was upped to 1/2oz with almost no perceptible aroma to either you or me

It appears that some people use gelatin in primary, then rack and dry hop, or gelatin in secondary, then dry hop afterwards or in keg for best results.

I know that the swap out of munich for wheat affected this batch's taste, but when I look at these 4 batches that used gelatin I think the common demoninator may be the stripping away of the precious aroma. I think I may have just talked myself out of using it again. I hadn't really put all of these together in my mind yet but now that I write them down I think I either need to:
1. Just go back to not using it as I was happy with the clarity I was getting
2. Change the process so that I gelatin FIRST, then dry hop
3. Use the same process that I do now, but load up on the hops


I'm leaning towards #1 at this point.

So, you, Jeff and Chris will be getting another shipment from me once I re-brew this in a few weeks. You won't believe the difference.


Thanks for the confirmation on the floss process. I have some glass marbles that I'll use to weigh it down.
Thanks for being testers on this batch. Sorry it wasn't what it was supposed to be.

[Inkleg]

Ron, it's just nice to talk to people who understand beer. Heck I don't but one person around here that I can do that with and don't see him very often.

We live....We learn....We drink some beers.....We learn.....We brew again....It's all good.

[Kealia]

Yeah, I agree. It's nice to talk to people that "get it".

What I can say is that I LOVE the previous version of this beer and will be hopefully brewing it again this coming weekend if I can pick up the stuff I need. I'm going to pick up some more NS tomorrow for that batch + dry hopping this one in the keg to see if I can get it closer to where it should be. The munich really did affect the flavor, too. It's almost like the Hack Pale Ale the way it stands now - not bad, just a decent session beer.

[Kealia]

I picked up enough SN today to rebrew this and drop 1/2oz in the 2.5G keg where the current batch resides. If this doesn't help it out I'm changing the name of this batch to Sofa King.

Sofa King mad, Sofa King disappointed, etc.

[Inkleg]

I picked up enough SN today to rebrew this and drop 1/2oz in the 2.5G keg where the current batch resides. If this doesn't help it out I'm changing the name of this batch to Sofa King.

Never tried Savon Nelson hops before, sounds good. Let us know how the keg hopping goes. I put 2oz of Centennial in 5 gallons, so let us know how it turns out.

Sofa King mad, Sofa King disappointed, etc.

I don't care who you are, that's funny.

[swenocha]

Hmm... what do we have here?



Along with an Enjoy By, I spy a Kealia Summer Ale (and another Kealia brew) among my standard Yazoo bottles... And thus there was much rejoicing by this n00bie in Franklin on this cool Autumn eve...

I love beer mail... thx, Kealia...

[Inkleg]

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[Kealia]

Guys, I'm saying this to be honest: Do NOT judge NS hops by this beer. It is really lacking due to both the gelatin and the munich, I think. Drink it for what it is, but don't make any decisions on the hops until I re-brew and send. I'm not trying to down play things or fishing for compliments here, really. Had I tested the keg before sending I would have left those out of the packages because it comes across as a generic beer IMO. Nothing bad, but nothing like what I intended them to be and certainly not a showcase for the NS hops.

Jeff, to put in perspective the aroma on this should be strong, sort of like your Bela's IPA was. When you (try to) smell this one you'll see why I'm disappointed.

Ok, I'm done. I don't want to come across as insecure or anything else but I also want to be cognizant of the fact that I said this was a beer that I loved and wanted to share and it's just not the same beer.

Can I get a hug now?