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| It was hard to get a good picture of the color. The flash made it look like a stout and no flash was too dark at night. I ended up shining my iPhone light from the back which lit it up a bit. |
At exactly two weeks, I opened a bottle and was really having high hopes of tasting a bready, malty, and sweet Irish Red, but that wasn't really the case at all. There was a lot of subtle malty flavor, but it was all over powered by a harshness that was pretty unpleasant. Since it wasn't even that great, I decided I wouldn't write about it until it started to taste okay.
At exactly three weeks I opened one and poured it into a glass. It had a really great red color and much more of a sweet malty aroma than at the two week point, though still very subtle. I was relieved when I tasted it because the dominant harsh flavor had mellowed out a lot. Now their is a prevalent sweet maltiness with some very subtle fruit flavors. The finish is full, though I am hoping it will develop more of a breadiness. All in all though, I am really happy with where the red is right now, especially with how "ungood" (I won't say the b-- word) it tasted just a week ago. I ended up drinking a few more and it really is a half decent beer, especially with food.
It is still possible that the flavors will develop more in the coming weeks, but I would assume it is getting clsoe to the point of being stable. I really don't know though.... We will have to wait and see.
Since you clearly have an issue with getting a good picture to represent the chromatic aspect of the beer, I suggest you have me come over and help you! The red was good, much better than the Extra Stout, but what I am really looking forward to is that IPA, so save me some!
ReplyDeleteHave you thought about making a dry hopped IPA? Also are you adding three different types of hops for the IPA? (like aromatic hops, taste hops, ..)
ReplyDeleteThe IPA I made was dry hopped in secondary so it should be super-duper stinky. Read the post on the IPA being racked to secondary, it talks about it...
ReplyDeleteAnd there were three hop additions during the boil (at the 60min, 15min, and 2min points of the 60min boil) which covers the taste and aromas. Generally, the hops at the beginning of the boil are used to manipulate the taste and the hops added in the last 5 minutes (or less) of the boil show up as the aromas.
The IPA will be okay to drink this coming Monday, but if it is like the first two homebrews then it will take a few more weeks after that to really develop into something with drinkability.
Come take pictures whenever you want.