Brews update

Brew#2: I tasted the Jamaica Me Crazy Nut Brown and its sweet, nutty, has some coffee flavor, and overall pretty similar to the coffee. I need to let it age a bit I think to see how it changes in character, I can only expect it will mellow some and if so it will be a really good beer. With that in mind I bottled all of it instead of half kegging. The FG was 1.012, bringing the alc % to about 7.4% wowzers. It also had great clarity. This should be a great and very tasty beer.

Brew#3: I slapped The Dupont Special into the secondary, and measured the SG in process which measured out to 1.010 so its already low and pretty much ready. With the added honey it was brought up to 1.036 so this should have some alcohol, as well as be pretty light and tasty. I quickly tasted it and it had some of the bavarian hefe taste, but still needs some time. It was a little darker and heavier in taste than expected so we shall see how the secondary treats it.

Brew#1: Did another taste of this and its mellowed out a lot. It has some great qualities now. Its seems very similar to the style of Lagunitas IPA, with a great malt bed and lots of noble bittering hops, but not much on the floral, spicey, or citrus hops. It has plenty of Centennial on the nose and little taste, lots of Warrior on the taste, lots of crystal malt taste, a touch of alcohol in the mouth, its got a thick mouth feel to go with it, and its got a great flavor. Aging should only make it better. Just by how well this is coming out already I am very happy with how out brewing process is coming along.

Angry Ogre Battles Warrior tasting

Its been close to a week since I bottled it so I decided to crack one, and here are my notes:

Ogre vs Warrior, 1 week, large head - finger and a half after only 1 week in bottle, semi dark amber brown color with lots of particulate, nose of centennial hops (dry hopped with it), and some sweet malt its def apparent that its an imperial IPA, taste is a little creamy and some caramel with a touch of sweet/tangy, has some strange flavors (ill have to pick out what those flavors are), very bitter and some good malt base, but I should add more malts next time. I can taste a little alcohol as well, it had 6% before the bottle fermentation but seems higher now. Its a great beer. Need to save many of these as it seems to be a really good beer and would age really well.

The cara/pils added a nice head retention, the strange flavor may be the special roast or irish moss that i added at secondary instead of boil since I forgot, the special B added that light brown sugar/caramel on the nose and slightly on the taste. Finishes a little dry but very VERY hoppy! I can't wait till you guys try this.

Bottled

I bottled the Angry Ogre vs. Warrior yesterday. The FG was 1.015, and with a start of 1.062 we ended with about 6% alcohol, not bad. It also is gonna be pretty dry. I tasted it and its nice and hoppy, dry, and a little malty. I also detected some off flavors, so I'll have to see how the aging process does to it. I'll keep everyone updated for when the bottles are ready for sampling and who wants some.

Ogre Vs. Warrior IPA

I think the new name will be Ogre vs. Warrior IPA. As an update, I set the beer into the secondary fermenter and dry hopped it. I also tasted it a little bit and its already pretty dry and hoppy, not as much sugar as the original recipe since we got the low gravity and it seemed to ferment well. It should sit in the secondary for another couple weeks and then we can bottle it and give out samples.

Inaugural Brew Update

First of all, great BrewBQ, lots of good food and great times, and beer. The equipment seems to work well, so that is a good sign. As for the beer, it went pretty well. The grains that were pre-milled seem to ball up in the mash (like flour in water) and I spent some time trying to break up all the balls. In doing so the temp of the mash went down too much and I added some more hotwater. So between the three issues (balled up grains and less exposure to the water, lower mash temp of 151degF, and more water added) the starting gravity was 1.062 instead of the 1.075 expected. This will give it less alcohol and probably taste less malty and more of a basic IPA. The color looked good. I'll have to update on how the fermentation is going.

Official Inaugural Brew

Its official. This Monday, Memorial Day, May 25th will be the inaugural brew of Robot Monkey Brewery. The brewing itself will start around 2pm and will be paralleled by a BBQ. We will be brewing "Angry Warrior Ogre IPA" which is a spin from the original Angry Ogre Ale from Beersmith which was one of the first great beers we brewed with Meat Robot Brewery. Its a monster of a brew, with a whopping 93.6 IBUs, Est OG: 1.075, Est FG: 1.020, Est color: 18SRM, Est Alc = 7.3%. I will post the notes we get when we finish, including issues, measurements, possibly pictures, etc. Hope to see everyone there.

Inaugural Brew

The inaugural brew of Robot Monkey Brewery will happen on Monday, May 25th (Memorial Day). This event will be paralleled with a BBQ. See the Central Mass Homebrewers group on Facebook for more info. The type of beer is not yet decided.