TASTING PARTY #2

I'm having another tasting party tonight on St. Patrick's Day. It should be an awesome night. Chef Cindy has lined up a delicious selection of food that should pair perfectly with my beer. Obviously, I had some trepidation with a couple of my brews, specifically, the Witbier and the Belgian Blonde. I haven't used Belgian yeast before and was not prepared for the qualities that it lent to the ales. They had a strong phenolic aroma to it that did eventually subside. I'm used to drinking my beer without worry about 6 weeks after brewing but the Wit and especially the Belgian have taken more time to get up to snuff. I have a plan with the Witbier because it had a weird lake/hotdog aroma to it: I will cut up orange slices and add those to the glasses. Of course, I'm worrying too much but that is my shtick. Here are the pairings:

Scottish Export 80?

Well, sort of, it was intention to make a Scottish Export 80 but things got away from me. The OG for Ex 80 should be between 1.040 and 1.054. Mine turned out to be 1.062 which will probably end up being a 6% ABV. I expected a 1.050 because my efficiency has always been about 73%, now it's going to be about 84%.
There might have been a couple reasons for this (as well as I can deduce): 1. My new grain mill: the crush I am using is too fine for the amount of grain I'm using. 2. Maris Otter is a very clumpy grain, especially when it is finely ground so there is a lot more stirring than normal.
Regardless of all that, this beer turned out excellent even though I do not know what type of beer it is now. It's a little dark and a little strong for a Scottish 80 and doesn't fit the flavour profile of a wee heavy, but I might be able to fit it into an Irish Red category. I don't know. I'm going to take it to the beer club on Tuesday and see what they think it is.

PRICKLY THISTLE IRISH ALE
3.00KG Maris Otter
2.00KG Golden Promise
.260KG Brown Malt
.150KG Roasted Barley

39 Grams Fuggles 60 minutes

Wyeast 1728 Scottish
OG 1.062
FG 1.016

This beer was delicious, absolutely awesome. I feel kind of sad because I gave this beer away as a birthday gift.

YELLA: The Golden Ale

I have been slacking off with my blog lately. I've made quite a few beers since my November 28th post so I'm going to try and catch up with my past recipes. Part of my problem is that I discovered Hopville.com and have posted a lot of my recent recipes there. Here is the link for my brews.
Alright, I made an American Golden in December and it turned out very well. In fact, it won a silver medal at the Cowtown Homebrew Roundup in Calgary that was held in February. The coolest part of that win was the fact that I used Homegrown Hops for the flavour addition of the brew. Here is the recipe:

YELLA

4.55KG 2-Row Pale
1.00KG Vienna

28 Grams Brewer's Gold (5.5 AA) 60 minutes
28 Grams Brewer's Gold 30 minutes
15 Grams Golding 1 minute

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

154F Mash