From Little Things: The Imperial Stout Taste-Off
I mentioned in my first post about how small differences in recipes can result in substantial variations between the final product. Here’s an example.
2008 Imperial Stout
Created November 2008, all-grain mash, adjuncts included dark muscovado sugar
3.5 gallon wort boiled down to ~2.5 gallon
Primary fermentation in plastic fermenter ~10 days
Secondary fermentation 2 x 1 gallon demijohns, 6 months
Bottled with priming sugar in 250-330 ml glass bottles, matured 18 months
2009 Imperial Stout
Created November 2009, all-grain mash, adjuncts included candi sugar crystals
3.5 gallon wort boiled down to ~2.5 gallon
Primary fermentation in plastic fermenter ~10 days
Secondary fermentation 2 x 1 gallon demijohns, 8 months
Bottled with priming sugar in 250-330 ml glass bottles, currently maturing, drinking from November 2011
The Uncapping
2008: Reserved, a discreet pft, somewhat like the sneeze of a moribund cockroach. No visible signs of excitement.
2009: Bold, a firm hiss, bringing forth an image of a strict schoolmistress at a feline finishing school. Bubbles rising and clearing quickly.
The Pour
2008: Oh you minx! This one’s a dark horse alright, whoever said you have to watch out for the quiet ones could have been describing this beer. Poured into a freshly rinsed flute glass this was a smooth pour, then foam climbed up the glass like a dragon up a crack-pipe (yes I can mix my metaphors as well as my drinks). Excitable. I filled the second half of the flute with happy bubbles, transfered the remaining to another glass so as to cause least disturbance to the sediment and topped up once the party had settled down.
2009: “Yeah, I’m a beer, stop looking at my head and get on and drink me”.
Head Count
2008: Rich dark beige that remained strong for 5 minutes. Some fizz from below, but subdued. Emo beer.
2009: Scanty head that hung around briefly like a surly youth then skulked off because the big bubbles kept hassling it.
First Taste
2008: A light treacle, freshly printed-out paper, coriander and jasmine notes, followed by liquorice sweetness spreading around the back of the tongue and roof of the mouth. Then comes the fruitiness with a slight caramel tartness. The mouthfeel and aftertaste is rich, warm and glowing, like a welcome into a busy farmhouse kitchen by a jolly cook. (Further down the glass I also got an essence of citrus soap or washing up liquid, not in an unpleasant way)
2009: Aroma from the top of the glass was malty and darkly fruity. This beer was frantically fizzy on the tongue, perhaps as it is still in its teens (not due to drink until November, remember). The first taste was of brandy, then barley wine, which I found strange as the texture and mouthfeel was much lighter, presumably due to the bubbles. Each mouthful finished with a hint of roasted barley, then a spike of blackcurrant. This beer isn’t anywhere near as sweet or rich-tasting as the 2008 and has a much drier finish. The parting impressions are that the mouthfeel is thinner than the 2008 and its aftertaste is much shorter in the mouth. It will be interesting to see how this will change as it ages.
2008 Imperial Stout
2009 Imperial Stout
So there you have it. Two beers brewed a year apart with slight variations in the recipe (sugars and adjuncts that go into my beers tend to be whatever’s hanging around in the kitchen cupboards), which lead to quite considerable differences in the finished article. Each is unique in its own surprising way, probably never to be replicated (not until I get some discipline in my record keeping anyway), but both giving me something that I value in my creations, a transient nature.
Something that I call ‘EphemerAle’.
In health and hopping mad,
EphemeralDog
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