December Samples
A brew day is always a great chance to rack the fermenting beers, get beers into kegs and of course to sample them. Â We have two beers headed to keg right now and one other that, well, we’ll see what happens with it.
Eggnog Stout – The first beer that I got a taste of was our Eggnog Stout. Â The beer of course isn’t finished yet as it hasn’t gone through carbonation, but the taste was a great smooth flavor that starts nice a mellow with a hint of eggnog spices, then a nice malty roasty stout. Â This beer is headed to keg right now and it’ll be a great winter ale.
Maple Porter – Second up was our porter. Â This is also headed to keg shortly but isn’t yet carbonated. Â The first sip of this wasn’t quite what I expected. Â It starts with a somewhat strong alcoholic taste then mellows into the roastyness of the porter and finally finishes with a lingering maple taste. Â I’m hoping that the carbonation and getting the beer to serving temperature will help cut the alcoholic taste and balance out the beer.
Chardonnay/Apple Cider – Well this one was an experiment from the start and I haven’t given up on it at all, but it’s certainly not what I was hoping for it to be. Â There is a bit of a sulphur taste that comes across on the nose and follows a bit on the taste. Â It’s fermented very dry but has a background flavor that I do like. Â I’m going to leave it alone for a while longer and see if the flavors mellow out a bit. Â We might need to do some back sweetening or other gimmickry to it before we are ready to serve it but I hope we will at some point.