Tasting The Grains of Wrath

 

It’s ready!  We’ve been drinking the homebrewed Grains of Wrath IPA all week, and it’s not bad!  Well, this is actually a matter of debate.  The first time I tasted it, I thought, “Yeah, it’s beer, but it’s bad beer and if I tasted this elsewhere I wouldn’t have another.” 

The most obvious problem was the color, it was way darker than it ought to have beer.  An IPA ought to be light amber to light copper in color.  There was nothing light about this beer, it was a dark amber to light brown color. 

The second problem was the bitterness.  It definitely had a sharp bitter kick that was somewhat harshly astringent rather than fragrant citrusy, resiny, or flowery, as it ought to have been.   

The good news is that despite both of these faults, it is still definitely drinkable.  My roommate has even gone through a couple of bottles this past week.  I was nervous that I’d never be able to pass off 5 gallons of beer (even if it were really good beer) on my friends, but I’m almost out already and it’s only been a week. 

Plus, the good news is that I think I know what I did, or at least two of the things I did, that contributed to both of the problems above.  So, this means I can fix these the next time around.

1) I squeezed the grain bag.  I steeped my specialty grains in my brewing water before I added my malt syrup.  I know that lots of sugars cling to the grains and the inside of the bag, and it’s important to get as many of those sugars into the wort as you can.  So as I pulled the waterlogged grain bain out of the wort, I squeezed the bag to return as much of that sugary water to the wort as I could.  The problem is, this releases a lot of tannins from the grain husks, giving a bitter astringent flavor to the beer.  I don’t know for sure, but I suspect this also added some darker color to the beer.

2) I boiled the wort too long.  My directions said that if my wort foamed as I boiled it that I should remove it from heat, let it calm down, stir it to let the foam dissipate, and then return it to the heat.  The directions said to repeat this cycle as necessary until the beer no longer foamed when reaching boiling, and to then start my 60 minute boil.  This meant my beer had already been boiled and reheated several times before I started my official boil.  This darkens a beer, kills some of the hop acids that give a beer the good hop flavors, and draws astringent flavors out of the hops.  I have new directions from Brewcraft that don’t even mention foam, so hopefully this won’t be an issue next time around. 

However, despite my reservations about the beer itself, I am unconditionally excited about the new labels Danthony designed!  They are gorgeous and they make the beers look so professional.  Thanks so much for all the hard work, Danthony!