It's been a good week in Syracuse for the most part. Following Gloria Steinem's Tuesday visit, the Hold Steady with Ra Ra Riot performed on campus. I saw about half the concert, missing most of Ra Ra Riot to beer-related activities, and missing the Hold Steady's encore for an interview with Nick Gurewitch (of the Perry Bible Fellowship) that didn't take place for another hour.
Before the concert, I was bottling the graduation beer I've been calling Otto's Grand Cru. This beer turned out to be an alcoholic disappointment. It's over 9% alcohol, but just doesn't taste that good. I contacted Jonny Lieberman, a renowned homebrewer in CA, about my problem as the recipe for the beer was based off of one of his beers. It turns out I didn't pick the proper yeast strain. I used a high-gravity Belgian strain, meaning the yeast was prepared to make a lot of booze. The problem was, the yeast fermented so well it didn't leave much flavor.
Typically, Belgian beers have wonderful fruit and spice flavors that develop from Belgian yeasts. Jonny recommended using a mixture of Trappist (specific Belgian brewing monks) and Abbey style yeasts mixed with the high-gravity yeast. In hindsight I also realized I could have made a small batch of beer, used proper yeast and blended, but its too late now. Brew and learn.
I also transfered my brown ale into the secondary fermentor today so I can bottle it soon. I took another taste with much excitement based off the tasting I had a few days ago and was a little let down. The complexity of the flavor was gone, and it came off a bit grainy. I'm not sure if I'll do anything to improve the flavor, its not too bad, just a little disappointing. I guess at this point I'll just have to brew more beer and find people to drink it.
Cheers.
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