Here is another experiment I have made: Overdosing hops to produce three beers, all totally undrinkable. For mixing into other beers. Mixing beers is an old tradition, that still survives in the "half and half"s. In the history of porters, it is often mentioned that at the time Londoners drank various mixtures, from half-and-half to three threads and four threads, made with differently aged beers. I suspect also different kinds of beers.
So, I brewed three beers, reflecting the three ways to use hops. One bitter, one aroma, and one finishing. I made a good basis beer, and divided the sweet wort into three more or less equal parts of about 4 liters. I used the same hops for all of them (Northern Brewer, 8%). Used the beertools.com calculator to estimate the bitterness, without any indication if it will calculate right at these concentrations. 18-F: Finishing hops: 50g hops boiled for 2 minutes (3.5 IBU) 18-A: Aroma hops: 50g of hops boiled for 20 minutes (89 IBU) 18-B: Bittering hops: 100g of hops (reusing F and A) for 90 minutes (681 IBU) Pitched with Belgian Abbey II, from a previous batch. Fermented for 2 weeks, and bottled in plastic bottles with screw-on cap. No priming sugar. Preliminary results (at bottling day): All three are quite well undrinkable, as epxected. But adding approx 1-2 cl into an otherwise boring beer (14-A) brought it alive. I am especially pleased about the finishing hops, they bring in a good flowery taste. The bittering stuff works well too, leaving a good aftertaste that lingers long (depending on how much you use, of course). The resulting beer tastes a bit young and immature, but I expect that to get a bit better when the mixes all mature individually. For best results they oought to be mixed in at bottling time, but that would loose the flexibility of mixing just the kind of beer I want today... All in all, an interesging experiment. And if I should ever end up owning a box of Danish discount pilsners, now I know how to deal with them... As usual, comments and suggestions are very welcome! -Heikki -- Heikki Levanto LSD - Levanto Software Development <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
