all you ever wanted to know from Ambiguously Disgruntled Brewery... and More

 
the latest report:
Friday night: our second all-grain batch, this time its Malcontent's Dunkelweizen. Essentially the same recipe as last year, with some minor variations.

Today: the latest in the Ambig-Dis Brewery's "skunkworks" dept's Insolent Hothead line: Senor' Hothead Amber Ale, has been bottled... available for consumption in 2-3 weeks.
posted by Jake Reeder at 20:56

 
It was a Big weekend here at Ambiguously Disgruntled, not only with the Stupor Blow festivities, but with our first venture into All-Grain brewing, and the “official” debut of Firestarter Winter Warmer Ale (although there had been some sneak previews in the previous week).

We’ll start with Winter Warmer. It’s strong, but we knew that. It had an original gravity (O.G.) of a rather hefty 1.072. That number, in and of itself, may not mean much to most people, but take my word for it when I say that’s a pretty high number. The final gravity was 1.023, which is in the barley wine range. This makes an alcohol % of 6.4 by vol., which is high, but not overwhelming (as compared to Snow Cap’s 7.0%, and then barley wine’s which are up above 8%). As you can probably figure, the higher F.G. means there are more “unburned carbohydrates,” as I like to put it, which means that there are a lot of sugars that weren’t metabolized by the yeast into alcohol (this is due largely to the yeast used, but there are some other variables, like a higher amount of more complex carbohydrates that aren’t as readily metabolized by the yeast). What this means is a thicker, stronger final product.

And it is. Like the Stubborn Jackass Barley Wine, Firestarter provides an extremely pleasurable drinking experience, but having too much in one sitting is not recommended! Not so much because of the alcohol percentage, but the fact that all those carbs may not rest easy in the stomach… if you get my drift. This isn’t a beer to be trifled with!

But I don’t intend to scare people away. This is a great beer with a number of interesting flavor components. It has a Porter-ish essence, probably due to the use of chocolate malt, as well as the caramel flavors from the crystal (aka caramel) malts that make up a large percentage of the malt extracts used. Some have observed “clove” and/or “banana” notes, which I attribute to the generous amounts of Chinook bittering hops, and the Cascade finishing hops. Chinooks are a high alpha-acid hop (in the simplest sense, alpha acids = bitter flavor), but this beer isn’t at all hoppy, due to the high amount and darkness of the malts used. I have to give the yeast I used, Wyeast labs #1332, NW ale, its props in all this. This is a strain that gives a malty, mildly fruity, and complex finish.
posted by Jake Reeder at 12:06