Real Feedback

We received the results for the BURP.org competition that took place last weekend and, frankly, I wasn't surprised by the results.  The basic outcome was that Honey Brains is a "very good" beer - almost "excellent".  Weisenheimer just wasn't ready yet (we knew this but figured it was worth the $5 entry on the off chance it aged well in the meantime).

Very Good means: Beers in this style may have a minor flaw (technical or stylistic), or may be lacking in balance or complexity.

The fact that the three of us can make a beer that's considered Very Good (near excellent, actually) after a few months makes me quite happy.  Here are some of the professional notes for Honey Brains.  Black is the first judge, red is the second judge.

Aroma: Subdued malt - touch of chocolate, maybe some toast, but not as strong as it should be.  No hop aroma - could use more.  Clean - no phenols, diacetyl, etc.  Not as much malt sweetness with alcohol notes.

Appearance: Deep amber, clear, good head -  off white/tan holds well.  Amber, good head and head retention.

Flavor: Complete malt, touch of hop flavor, but dry in finish - more than should be.  Phenol/tannin astringent just a bit.  Could use more sweetness, but outside of that - good job.  Clean.  Some malty flavors, pleasant.  Missing the intense, complex multilayered malt flavors.  Flavors do blend well.  Smooth finish which is not overly sweet.

Mouthfeel: Med. body, med. carbonation - good.  Astringency is there, and dry for style.  Medium - some warming.

Overall: Astringent but mainly just attenuated finish is dry for style - and a higher mash temp would help - a lot.  Rest is good.  Not a big, malty barleywine but very drinkable.  Everything fits well.  

Review - Honey Brains

We use whatever bottles we have hanging around.

 A little background here: Our first beer together was a barley wine called Brains.  The tag line was "We Are Scientists".  If I remember correctly, it was named Brains because it was ready on Halloween and we were thinking Zombies!  Plus it was really high ABV so it goes right to the head.  Anyway, our first true home brew endevour was to recreate Brains with some tweaks (see Our Beers page).  Honey Brains, aka Brains 2.1, is our second attempt at the original Brains recipe.  We added quite a bit of organic honey purchased by Dan's mom in Syracuse, hence the Sweet moniker.  We thought this was going to be the beer to make the finals of the Home Brew-B-Q (alas!).  It's also entered into the upcoming BURP competition next week (fingers crossed).  I'm looking forward to getting some judging feedback from both.

Now on to the review:

Appearance: Pours a copper color with a thin, white head that reduces quickly to a skinny ring.  It seems to retain that small ring for quite a while.

Aroma: Sugar-coated dark fruits, like prunes, and faint apricots.  Definitely can smell the alcohol in there as well.

Taste: Surprisingly peppery taste mixes well with dark toffee, malt and a bit of strawberry.  Alcohol burn with more berry in the finish.

Mouthfeel: Light, prickly carbonation gets the front of the tongue.  It then finishes very dry on the sides of the mouth and that feeling lingers for quite a while.  I can feel the alcohol on the back of my throat.

Overall: I think this is a solid attempt at a barley wine.  The smoothness of the beer has dropped a little bit during aging, giving way to some more alcohol notes.  You may have noticed that I mentioned that a few times, and that's because the 9%ABV is prevalent here.  That doesn't mean it's "bad," you just have to enjoy big and boozy beers.  Were we to brew this again (which I'm sure we will) I'd push to add more bittering hops, hoping that a hoppier finish would balance out the alcohol notes.  I continue to enjoy this beer, but it's certainly not for everyone.  You need to be a malty beer lover (me!) more than a hop-head.

The "2" on the cap is for the second version of Brains.

We received a ton of positive feedback last Saturday night when I poured Brains Explosion, Honey Brains and Weisenheimer for a few friends.  Their consensus: "I'd buy a 6-pack of this beer."

I think this is an excellent beer considering we are almost complete novices.  I hope that, given time and experience, this recipe will become an excellent beer.

Upcoming Competitions

The preliminary results are in for the Sam Adams Homebrew-B-Que competition that Eric posted about a few days ago and we did not advance to the finals. We entered Brains Explosion and Honey Brains and we had high hopes for them, but given the time of year of the contest and the preference of the judges (Eric knows that some of them are "hop-heads"), we probably shouldn't have been surprised by the result. IPAs and other mostly hoppy beers moved on to the finals. We are awaiting the judges comment cards, which we should receive within a week, but we will chalk this up as a learning experience. I still think we have two pretty good barleywines which should only improve with age and hopefully they will perform better in future competitions.

Next up is the 19th annual Spirit of Free Beer competition sponsored by Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP). We have entered Honey Brains and Weizenheimer for this competition. Weizenheimer should be ready to try and Eric sampled one last night and gave generally positive feedback. It was bottled two weeks ago, so it could probably use a little more conditioning. Judging for this competition takes place on May 14th, so hopefully the extra week of conditioning will allow the flavors and carbonation to fully develop.

We are still in the planning stages for our entry in the Pilsener Urquell Master Home Brew competition in August, although we have all the equipment we need to get started now and we will be brewing soon.

Friends Like Ours

Last night we had a mass birthday celebration for all our friends born between March 15 and April 30.  I have to say, my friends love beer variety.  Expecting a crowd of 30 or so random people, we stocked the fridge, beer fridge and cooler with Coors Light and Yuengling cans.  We did not ask anybody to bring any beer.  Upon inspection this morning, I'm pretty sure we still have the same amount of Coors and Yuengling.  My friends showed up bearing gifts.  Beer gifts!  A four pack of Midas Touch, a six of The Raven, Hoegaarden, and more that I just can't think of right now.  We will not be pawns of the American beer industry!  Plus, as a special gift, one friend brought me a 750 ml of Firestone's Walker Reserve Porter and promised me a bottle of Brooklyn Black Ops next week.  Pretty awesome.

Before the party, I opened up a bottle of Honey Brains for a few friends to try.  I told them to be honest about it, but they all said they really enjoyed it.  My girlfriend made a good point about it: the extra sugars from honey seemed to dry out the finish and take away the syrupy aftertaste that barleywines can sometimes have.  Plus there's no alcohol burn, even at about 9% ABV.  I'm very curious about how this beer will fare at the home brew competition in a couple of weeks. 

On top of that, we received lots of interest in our brewing/bottling coming up next week.  So now we'll have friends and helpers!  And photos!

Now, what to do with 30 Coors Light....