Monday, May 31, 2010

Tasting: La Fontaine du Sang

After a frustrating bottling session (never using pellet hops for dry-hopping ever again) I am ready to sit down and drink a couple strong, tasty beers. So here is a comparison of the original bottling of La Fontaine du Sang and the most recent from a few weeks ago.

Original: Bottled September 19, 2009
Dark cherry color. Big cherry smell. Tart cherry taste. There is more though, mostly funky aromas and flavors. Mostly the same since it was bottled, just a bit less sweet than I remember. I wonder if the wine yeast I used at bottling killed off the Sacc. and Brett?

Fresh: Bottled May 14, 2010
This batch is a blend of a pull off the solera and fresh, non-soured beer. The solera was refilled with the fresh beer that did not go into the bottle. Straight solera beer could have stood on its own and would have been fantastic. But I wanted something with a sweet-sour balance for summer slurping.

The color is nearly the same for this version. The aroma has more barnyard funk and earthiness aside lemony acidity. The cherries are there, but faintly in the background. The taste is similarly skewed towards funk more than acidity. But this is actually drier than the first and makes the light sourness more enjoyable. I did not bother with wine yeast to condition this batch so it will likely be more interesting to age.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Brew Updates

April and May have been slow months for brewing and beer drinking in general. The beers I have brewed in Springs past were all I could find time for. Les Fleurs du Mal just received an ounce of Amarillo dry hops. Les Framboises du Mal is in primary fermentation and should be ready for raspberry additions when the early summer fruit season begins. Yay. A sharp jump in efficiency will result in both beers being stronger than past versions, both creeping towards 8% ABV.

I blended and bottled La Fontaine du Sang a week ago. A tasting and comparison to the previous bottling will be coming shortly.