Spoiling...

That was the story of several beers, including Goat Scrotum and a second shot at an IPA. It sucked.

I'm back in the saddle. The third try at an IPA was a monsterous beer. Not bad all in all, but 78 IBU bitter without much sweetness or hops to balance. There were only six pounds of dried malt in it and frankly it was too damn much. That's not to say that I didn't drink it all: I did. But it was less that ideal.

I've been giving a lot of thought to my next IPA, which I want to be truly good. It will be my fourth try at an IPA. My goal is to have it between 45 and 50 IBU with a serious hop flavor. To that end, I plan to use one ounce of centenial or amarillo or maybe UK Target (one of the dudes at my beer store loves UK Target) and one ounce of low alpha fuggles to bitter the beer with a sixty minute boil. To flavor, I'm going to use an ounce of fuggles and an ounce of horizon five minutes remaining in the boil. One ounce of cascade will go in at the very end, for aroma. I'll be using one pound of 20 or 40 L crystal malt and a half pound of victory--at least I think I'll be doing victory.

I have another Heffeweizen, momentarily named "Wheat Christmas", which should be fucking rocking. My last heffe, by the way, was fucking rocking--best heffe I've ever had. The new one is a pound heavier on the malt and I added two adjunct grains--flaked wheat and something else. I need to ask the beer store guy what something else was. (I chose it on his recomendation but I didn't make a mental note of what it was.) Anyway, it tastes great--I transfered to secondary today. The yeast is one of white labs platinum series: Bavarian Weizen Yeast. I love that yeast so much I bought three vials so that I can continue using it. One day I'll have to switch to Heffeweizen Ale Yeast, which I'm sure is also good.

My most stalwart brewing companion also owns a fermenter, which lives at my place. He made a great amber ale that's exactly what we were seeking: sittin' around and drinking beer beer. Tonight I've got some people coming over for to drink it.

Since I have more fermenters than dollars, I offered to let two other friends of mine fill a fermenter. They made a nice appricot IPA. I've only tasted the less than fully fermented product but I really liked it. Tonight I'll get some more of that stuff. I'm totally hoping some brewing gift certificates for christmas so I can crank out another batch of the Browncoat ale and that IPA I was talking about above. And some all grain brewing equipment. I want to do another Porter. The last one was merely very good beer, and I want outstanding beer. I was critical of it's sweetness. To reduce that next time I will be using Dry English Ale Yeast, which is more attenuative than the yeast I used last time. I will also bitter it more heavily--a heavy dose of fuggles and target, I think. To flavor: half ounce... something, maybe santiam as I have a half ounce of that already and I like the description "excellent sweet and floral flavor and aroma."