I know there are a lot of homebrewers out there who love their Simcoe hops so when I stumbled upon this brew at the store the other day I couldn't help but pick it up.  

The first thing that hits you is the smell.  It's terrific like any good IPA needs to be.  Grapefruity, citrusy, piney awesomeness!  I think my beer rolled around in the car a bit on the way home so I got a yeast infused, hazy brownish orange color which was pretty dark for the style. 

When thinking of an IPA I think of hoppy and crisp so this beer, while it was very good, had a bit too much body and sweet malty flavor for my preference.  That of course is just one mans opinion and should not be counted against it because it is well balanced for an IPA and drinkable for a 9% beer.  With all that malty sweetness and Simcoe flavor this could be drank and enjoyed young for all the Simcoe hop-heads out there or could probably be aged for a while as more of a barleywine type ale.  Either way, moderately priced and good with a cool bottle.  Go get one.

What's that you say? A hugely dark stout for the end of July?  That sounds delicious but not very thirst quenching for an 85* day.  Well, you would be absolutely right if this were a stout and not a lager.  

In House Brew's first attempt at a Schwarzbier (basically a northern German Black Lager) has been bottled for a bit and turned out alright.  While it is passable as an alcoholic beverage this wouldn't be a competition beer for several reasons.  First off, I went a tad overboard on the Carafa III to give it a jet black color which is not exactly to style despite being called a dark lager.  That said it does look awesome!  

Secondly there is just something slightly off about the taste.  It's final gravity finished high leaving it a little heavier than I wanted which when combined to the rich Munich sweetness is just a bit overboard.  I also think I got a hint of diacetyl and some kind of fruity esters which I can't really pin down but are definitely there.  I guess I can't complain too much; this whole beer was all an experiment to test how much work it would be to ferment a lager in a swamp cooler while adding some ice to maintain the cool temperature (answer by the way is too much, it was too much work to make it worth it in my opinion).  This resulted in some temp swings which is probably responsible for some of the undesirables and the yeast most likely dropped out early when I tried to add too much ice to compensate for a jump in temp.


So overall I'll still rate this beer in the drinkable range.  It's not horrible, just not great.  I'd be curious to try something like it again in the winter or with the Bohemian Lager Wyeast which I've read can ferment successfully with lager characteristics at warmer temperatures.  

Please leave me a comment if you are and how you found out about me.  Also, thank you for stopping by and please come back soon.  I promise to have more going on but I just randomly got this started before it was really ready.

Hop outlook for 2012 not great.  As of right now I have two plants growing.  A third year Fuggle is over in the corner of the yard strung up on a wooden trellis with some clotheslines while a first year Nugget is growing close to house and simply strung up to the window with some string that will need to be replaced next year.  

The Fuggle:
Not even sure I really like these hops but having them laying around in excess this winter seemed like a good chance for me to get more acquainted with them.  I'm sure in some combination they could be complimentary rather than just tasting like dirt on their own.  But perhaps I won't get the chance; the aphids got after these guys good and after trying soap and water and a chemical spray it looks like I may be too late.  They are wrinkling up and dying just as some lovely buds are starting to form... 

The Nuggs:
These fellas are doing much, much better than the Fuggle being in another corner of the yard.  There were some aphids early on but I hit them with the spray and they seem to be doing fine.  They have grown up to the house so I'll need to string up somewhere else for them to grow.  I was thinking about pulling them horizontally underneath the windowsill so maybe I'll try that out.  Not sure if they will produce anything this year but maybe I'll get lucky and snag a few latter on.

I have read about malt conditioning a few times in the past now but have never really felt the need to try it until now.  My next brew is going to be the second coming of my Redheaded Rye-child which uses a bunch of rye (27.3%) which is making me nervous about lautering.  I've heard that there are several advantages to conditioning your malt including: increased efficiency, a lower chance of a stuck sparge and lower tannin extraction which all sound good to me.  

After doing some research on these two websites:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/2010/01/16/malt-conditioning/
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Malt_Conditioning
I have decided to go ahead and do it.  The rule of thumb seems to be adding water equivalent to 2% of the weight of the grainbill.  My grain bill is eleven pounds which means it is 176 ounces which when multiplied by 2% equals 3.5 ounces of water so I guess I'll go with that.  Not sure but I think I'll do it fifteen minutes before crushing.  Pictures and notes to follow.