Testing a few Homebrews

[RedBEERd]

Paul and I have tried our version of Partially Squeezed (Deschutes fresh squeezed) and I'm a little puzzled. I'm not the brew person most of you are (i'm a virgin still....no comments please!) but I can't understand why a taste test at 2 weeks carbed (in bottles) tastes the BEST vs the bottles and keg several weeks later. It seems to be less aromatic later in the process. The fresh squeezed tastes, aka citrus flavors, seem to be gone a week later and the bottles are a tad bit maltier than the keg.

Same with our version of the Hoptomology smashbomp atomic IPA,.....it seems to be less aromatic than expected considering we actually dry hopped in the fermenter AND again in the keg. The bottled version (pre second dry hop) is ok but has no aroma..which is my NUMBER ONE requirement (aroma is more than taste) and the dry hopped keg version is better but is NOT what the recipe called for. Personally if a beer has no aroma, the taste is just ho hum to me.....don't make me give sex comparisons, please!

I'll let you Nashvillians decide but I'm not really sure. we'll have this one in a few weeks...and I"m still STOKED about this trip, minus Ron!

I can say that the Partially squeezed batch is a VERY GOOD BEER and I'd do it again but it's just not what it was after 2 weeks....maybe fresh means REALLY FRESH?

[John Sand]

I don't know either, but I have had a similar experience.

[Kealia]

Here's a thought: You guys don't cold crash right? I'm wondering if that may have something to do with it. Since the hop oils bind to the yeast, I'm thinking that maybe you're losing a lot of the aromatics to the yeast settling in the bottle while it's cold in the fridge. Perhaps a re-brew of one you did where you find a way to cold crash and compare?

Just waxing philosophical here. I reserve the right to be wrong.

[Beer-lord]

I cold crashed mine. Got it down to 38 for just less than 2 days before I kegged it. But, a rebrew will be done for sure.

[RedBEERd]

I cold crashed the fermenter to the upper 50's before bottling and I also chill the bottles a few days before drinking.

As to the Smashbomb, I didn't chill that bottle very long so that may be the case. I'm really curious as to this beer...we brewed the Smashbomb as per the recipe and it had a good amount of hops and dry hops yet it's not all that aromatic but we dry hopped the keg too so that is a tad better...and that's what we'll taste in Nashville so hopefully it won't lose anything by that time.

But I'm finding all my beers seem to be fresh and aromatic at 2 weeks testing but a few weeks later, seem to lose that so I guess there's something about fresh beer. I can't seem to get the nose on my beers that Paul gets in his.

[Kealia]

Like I said:

I reserve the right to be wrong.

Sorry, not sure on this one...do you guys use the same water?

[RedBEERd]

While we live several miles apart, we do live in the same parish (county for everyone else ) so our water supply is the same, yes.

Paul has had the water tested a while back and it was surprisingly stable, tho I can't remember what it was. ANd we do use a ph stabilizer.....just in case.

I think what we need to do is just make a batch of beer every week till we get it right......and we'll need some helping consuming, i mean testing.

Know anyone who may be interested?

[Kealia]

<raises hand>

[RedBEERd]

<raises hand>

Meet me in Nashville......PLEASE?

[jimjohson]

sure be glad to help