Dr. M nr. 2 – Svart høst

Svart høst by Dr. M, Stout, 4-5% ABV, IBU unknown.

Dr. M’s first beer was an extract brew, let’s see if he’s up for a real all-grain challenge! Ever since I got to know Dr. M some 20 years ago, he’s always been a master at the kitchen, and considering his chemistry background I’m not surprised if he manages to cook up a good beer in his first attempt. The goal of this beer was to make a bit darker version of a Belgian blond, but it ended up far darker than his original plan…

The least blond Belgian blond in this part of the galaxy.

The beer pours a viscous and close to black body, with a very large, dense and creamy, light brown, fully lasting head that leaves lots of foam on the glass. Nope, this doesn’t look very blond!

The aroma is strong and pleasant, and very stout-like. I don’t get many Belgian yeast notes, it’s dominated by roasted notes, coffee, ash and faint chocolate, but with some faint fruity notes that I guess are caused by the yeast.

Dr. M. nr. 2 - Svart høst.

The taste is light sweet while the finish has a quite sharp and biting moderate bitterness. This extremely long-lasting, near-astringent, almost metallic bitterness is a bit disturbing, and severely degrades the otherwise pleasant mouthfeel. The body is medium, the texture is dry and creamy and the carbonation is soft. The flavour profile is roasted with coffee and dark fruits and berries in front, while bitter and very dark chocolate together with dark caramel lurk in the back. Again the Belgian feel is quite subdued, I’d hoped for even more fruits and yeasty goodness.

Conclusion: A nice Belgian Stout with an inviting aroma and tasty flavours, but there is something about the bitterness that I don’t find that pleasant. Still a very impressive first all-grain!

Aroma:      7
Appearance: 4
Taste:      7
Palate:     3
Overall:   13
Ratebeer Score: 3.4

Dr. M nr. 1 – AmIPA

Nr. 1 – AmIPA by Dr. M, India Pale Ale, ABV and IBU unknown.

I don’t rate a lot of extract brews, but since this is the very first brew from my good buddy Morten, and he has actually modified the recipe somewhat, I’ll give it a go after all. This beer is based on the IPA extract kit from Bryggselv, with additional cascade hops added to the secondary.

Dr. M nr. 1 - AmIPA. Label slightly inspired by Fritz Lang.

In the glass the beer has a nice dark amber colour and is close to crystal clear. The head is large, creamy, off-white and very long-lived. It never gets smaller than a good-sized layer, and is laces the glass well.

The aroma is sweet, very strong and pleasant, with heavy hoppy fruity notes. It’s tropical with peach, mango and pineapple, and with additional citrus and sweet caramel. Lovely!

Isnt this how an IPA should look like?

The taste is light sweet while the long-lasting finish has a marvellous heavy bitterness. There are quite some tropical fruity notes in the flavours as well, but bitter grapefruit is more evident, as well as resin and some rather sharp grassy hoppy notes. Maybe a bit too heavily dry hopped, this one? A nice caramel background backs up the hop attack.

The mouthfeel is splendid, with a medium body, smooth and oily texture and moderate carbonation.

Conclusion: A very successful first try! One may ask why bother brewing all-grain and making your own recipes when a simple extract brew gives a far better beer than I’ve ever managed to make?

Aroma:      8
Appearance: 4
Taste:      7
Palate:     4
Overall:   13
Ratebeer score: 3.6

ClubGonzo's Turkish Pepper Stout

Turkish Pepper Stout by ClubGonzo, Stout, 5.2% ABV, 45 IBU.

Adding candy to a beer may sound like a good idea, but then I guess you should really know what you’re doing. I’m not saying that ClubGonzo doesn’t know his brewing ABC, but I suspect there there where one or two things he didn’t fully take into account when adding lots of sugary Tyrkisk Pepper to a beer that still contained living and hungry yeast? Anyway, I open the bottle and out gushes a black and incredibly viscous liquid. Even on my white kitchen table a thin layer of beer looks close to black and completely opaque. It’s muddy with particles of all sizes, some too big to be called particles, they are rather large bits of what I assume is liquorice root, which is another additive to this crazy brew. Some of the beer ends up in my glass, and after a while the enormous, frothy, dark brown head completely disappears, without leaving any lacing on the glass.

ClubGonzos Turkish Pepper Stout, batch 6. Some of it even ended up in my glass.

The aroma is strong and stings my nose like salt of hartshorn! After the initial shock I get a thick sweetness, roasted notes, loads of liquorice, Tyrkisk Pepper candy and black pepper. This really is different!

The taste is moderate to heavy sweet with a moderate bitter and long-lasting finish. The flavours are dominated by massive amounts of Tyrkisk Pepper, and this sweet and sugary candy profile just doesn’t feel very natural. Screw the purity law and all that, but this is very close to where I draw the line! It tastes like lots of sugary liquorice has been added to an ashy, heavily roasted stout, which I guess is pretty close to the truth. Still, it sort of works. And this is what home brewing is about, right? To make ridiculous beers that never will be realised commercially?

The beer is of course as full bodied as a liquid possibly can be, and the texture is syrupy, sugary liquid candy. The final carbonation of the beer that ends up in my glass is moderate.

Conclusion: an absolutely unique beer, with a crazy aroma, flavour and mouthfeel. Keep up your insane brewing, ClubGonzo, this is so much fun! This one gets lots of extra points for the entertainment value!

Aroma:      6
Appearance: 2
Taste:      5
Palate:     3
Overall:   10
Ratebeer score: 2.6