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Woah There Nelly!

I done screwed up! Don’t use my IAA recipe without some major modifications. I used crystal malt exclusively in the grain bill for the mini-mash because I like the way it tastes. Problem; crystal malt doesn’t have any enzymes and therefore can’t convert itself into sugar. It needs to be paired with something like a 2 row or similar normal malt in order to convert.

I learned this as I racked the IAA from the primary to the secondary today and took a hydrometer reading when I did it. Not one to waste perfectly good (albeit room temperature and flat) beer, I drank the sample. It had a strange, starchy flavor. Wondering what this was, I did some reading. Turns out, I screwed the pooch. It’s not undrinkable bad or anything, but it’s a pretty strange flavor.

Of course, we’ll have to see what the secondary and bottle conditioning bring about. I’m still hopeful, if abashed.

The problem with starting a new hobby, learning as I go, and sharing my mistakes here in this public forum, is that it can be embarrassing. I’m pretty much flying by the seat of my pants at this point (which is my favorite way to learn things) and hopefully every mistake is a learning experience.

The gravity reading I took today was 1.012. That means that the yeast did its job really fully despite my screwing up, and the beer is about 5.45% ABV. Very little fermentation will take place from this point forward.

Next up; something with chamomile infused in the wort. I’m thinking a chamomile honey hefe-weitzen, but I might try to clone the Rogue chamomellow if I can get my hands on a pint at the local Rogue alehouse. I haven’t had it for a while and want to taste it with more of a mind toward cloning. It’s a lager, if I remember right (could be wrong here), and I haven’t done one of those before. Next brew day isn’t until mid March, so we’ll have to wait and see what turns up.