Tasting Notes

Okay, so I'm back from vacation (which was awesome) and today we brewed the Oatmeal Stout. I'll have a recap of that brew session tomorrow. The big news is that we have three of our beers on tap. Thanks to Luke for getting them ready and in the serving tanks.

First up - Vagabond Irish Red. I was worried that this beer would be too dark because of the roast barley I put in it, but I think the color is good. It's definitely a multilayered beer flavorwise. There is malty, caramel, roasty, toffee in the nose. It's pretty soft on the palette, with no cloying sweetness, or aggressive bitterness. The finish is clean with no lingering after taste or off flavors. Overall I'm very happy with this beer, but in the interest of perfection, I'll probably roll back on the roast barley to make that aspect more subtle.

Sunny Golden Wheat - The color is a nice deep yellow and the head is nice and lacey, thanks to the wheat. Subtle Mt Hood and Cascade hops come through in the aroma along with a slight sulphuryness, which actually works well in this beer. The flavor has a light maltyness and a crisp wheat character that is nicely balanced by the Glacier hops. I'm really happy with how this beer came out and the only tweak I'd like to make is to deepen the color a little bit.

Calibration Ale is a beer that is what it is. That being said, I really like it. The Vienna malt I put in it, in combination with the caramel malt, gives it a really unique malt flavor for a pale ale. Even though it wound up stronger than I predicted, it's still a nicely balanced beer with great hop flavor thanks to the Amarillo's.

So those are my thoughts on the first three beers. There will, of course, be more beer to come and if you've had any of these, please leave a comment and give me your feedback.