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Author Topic: Dissent with Style  (Read 10105 times)

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #30 on: March 21, 2014, 01:22:37 pm »

But like I said, restrained bitterness is my impression of west coast IPA too.

WHAT??????

I see what he means. to me the best of the west coast IPAs (obviously a  personal judgement) are very very hoppy without being melt your face bitter. lots and lots of late hops with enough bittering hops to balance out any hint of malt sweetness and just leave a clean canvas for the hops to finger paint on
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Offline Jimmy K

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #31 on: March 21, 2014, 01:30:56 pm »

But like I said, restrained bitterness is my impression of west coast IPA too.

WHAT??????

I see what he means. to me the best of the west coast IPAs (obviously a  personal judgement) are very very hoppy without being melt your face bitter. lots and lots of late hops with enough bittering hops to balance out any hint of malt sweetness and just leave a clean canvas for the hops to finger paint on
And Mitch Steele did write the article on late hops with smooth bitterness.

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Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #32 on: March 21, 2014, 01:40:49 pm »
And I'm not a fan of melt your face bitterness in any beer, for that matter.  I love Mitch's book, and use a lot of his advice for making IPA. I just didn't think SA's new one is quite as advertised.
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Offline denny

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #33 on: March 21, 2014, 02:16:31 pm »
And I'm not a fan of melt your face bitterness in any beer, for that matter.  I love Mitch's book, and use a lot of his advice for making IPA. I just didn't think SA's new one is quite as advertised.

I'm the opposite.  It's what I expect from a west coast IPA and I'm disappointed when I don't get it.
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Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #34 on: March 21, 2014, 04:05:44 pm »
And I'm not a fan of melt your face bitterness in any beer, for that matter.  I love Mitch's book, and use a lot of his advice for making IPA. I just didn't think SA's new one is quite as advertised.

I'm the opposite.  It's what I expect from a west coast IPA and I'm disappointed when I don't get it.

I like a good slap o' bitterness too, Denny, but not necessarily Palate Wrecker craziness, which is what I meant by 'face melting'  :)  . I bitter an average IPA at ~ 50 IBUs up front + late IBUs (however many). I like a BU:GU of 1 to 1.2 for AIPA, which (to me) equates to the great beers I had out west. Good stuff !
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Offline brewcrew7

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #35 on: March 21, 2014, 08:23:45 pm »
I was disappointed in Sierra Nevada's new 4-way IPA variety pack. I swear I've had Pale Ale that was hoppier, more bitter. Nooner IPA had no hops whatsoever; Centennial and Chinook nowhere to be found. It was bottled on Valentine's Day and I'm in the Midwest. SN is well-regarded but this has got to be a handling/packaging issue.   But SN, like Sam Adams, is getting big to the point where I could be swayed to believe their Torpedos are just as much a gimmick as is the Miller Lite vortex bottles! Surely I'm wrong...I want to be wrong!

Offline klickitat jim

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #36 on: March 21, 2014, 11:12:36 pm »
Well the mixer upper 12 pack had a kolsch ish beer that was extremely tasty. They should sell that solo all summer. There was an Irish red that was a bit bloody nose ish. And a couple ubiquitous Boston lagers. Overall it wasn't bad, but I'd rather have a 12 pack of that kolsch

Offline fmader

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #37 on: March 26, 2014, 07:47:16 am »
Is it just me or do any of you guys think that all Sam Adams beers taste a lot like Boston Lager? I can't stand it anymore. I think Koch just adjusts hop additions and water concentrations to the BL recipe.
Frank

Offline Jimmy K

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #38 on: March 26, 2014, 07:49:33 am »
I've never thought that. Though many breweries have a 'house character' that is probably a combination of house yeast and some habitual recipe choices.
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Offline fmader

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #39 on: March 26, 2014, 07:53:19 am »
I've never thought that. Though many breweries have a 'house character' that is probably a combination of house yeast and some habitual recipe choices.

Maybe that's it. I can't even drink any SA without getting irritated. They have a lot of "different" beers that taste a lot the same to me. I just avoid it altogether now.
Frank

Offline Jimmy K

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #40 on: March 26, 2014, 08:00:43 am »
I've never thought that. Though many breweries have a 'house character' that is probably a combination of house yeast and some habitual recipe choices.

Maybe that's it. I can't even drink any SA without getting irritated. They have a lot of "different" beers that taste a lot the same to me. I just avoid it altogether now.
It's probably true at least in part. A large brewery like that has contracts on malt, hops, and a house yeast. So it's far easier to use those for new recipes than get new maltsters. Sometimes they are sketchy about new yeast varieties due to contamination concerns. For instance, Ommegang uses one yeast for every beer they make. Any differences are from spicing.
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Offline Stevie

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #41 on: March 26, 2014, 08:18:28 am »

Sometimes they are sketchy about new yeast varieties due to contamination concerns. For instance, Ommegang uses one yeast for every beer they make. Any differences are from spicing.

Cost must be a consideration as well. I've heard that it takes quite a few batches to recoup the cost of commercial pitches of yeast. An all lager brewery I used to frequent would trade for pitches of ale yeast with an all ale brewery 20 minutes away.

Offline euge

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #42 on: March 26, 2014, 09:55:20 am »

Sometimes they are sketchy about new yeast varieties due to contamination concerns. For instance, Ommegang uses one yeast for every beer they make. Any differences are from spicing.

Cost must be a consideration as well. I've heard that it takes quite a few batches to recoup the cost of commercial pitches of yeast. An all lager brewery I used to frequent would trade for pitches of ale yeast with an all ale brewery 20 minutes away.

So the term "all" is used loosely by these folks? I'm not sure I understand the why of it.
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Offline Stevie

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #43 on: March 26, 2014, 10:17:23 am »
So the term "all" is used loosely by these folks? I'm not sure I understand the why of it.

Brewery A was a traditional German lager brewery (moving away from that recently) with a restaurant attached. Must have an IPA and Stout on tap at the restaurant so they brewed those infrequently on their smaller (14bbl?) system and "borrowed" yeast. Those beers were restaurant only with some keg sales. Brewery B brews ales primarily, with the occasional lager, dunkel or maibock. Win-win.

If a proper pitch of yeast without a started costs us about $15, imagine what it costs somebody with a 30bbl system.

Offline euge

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Re: Dissent with Style
« Reply #44 on: March 26, 2014, 12:33:18 pm »
Ahhhh. Brewery A forced to bend its principles at last... You know I can't see why both of those styles couldn't be emulated by using lager yeast. Yeah here is our IPA (hopfen-weisse) and our Dry Stout (ultra dark lager). But I see the point of the whole situation.
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