Homebrew Review - Blind Tiger

Life is too short for mediocre beer. And if you're brewing ten gallon batches and get it badly wrong, that's a shedload of mediocre beer to get through.

I'm not sure when I last ditched a batch, but this particular beer was a disaster from start to finish. It started with the recipe. A good idea, badly executed.

The idea of a low gravity easy-drinker with a nice hop combo appealed, but the idea of pairing carahell malt with mild ale malt to create a bit more body than you might expect from a lightweight beer, was a bad one. The sickly sweet malts completely dominate this beer and the hops fail to punch their way through.

I overshot on the gravity too, so it wasn't the small beer I was hoping for and the combination of malts made for a much darker beer than the software predicted, so it wasn't as pale as anticipated either.

To add insult to injury, I also took the beer off the yeast too early. Pressure of work made me use a window of opportunity that was far too early, so there's some diacetyl to add into the mix too. Lovely.

So all in all, a pretty poor effort, both in design and execution. I'm ditching all the bottles and will make a decision on the other half of the batch (which is kegged) in the next couple of days. I'm pondering whether to chuck in a load of dry hops to the keg, to see if this makes it more a amenable brew.

Anyhow, I've brewed again since revisiting a recipe that won me a bronze at the National Homebrew Competition a few years back. I'm not sure why I've taken so long to re-brew this one, but at least I can be hopeful of some decent beer to drink in a few week's time.

Brewday - Blind Tiger 16/01/2014

Having spent much of the Christmas and New Year period drinking my HGH Pale Ale (5.5%), Porter (5.7%) and the recently brewed RIP (5.8%), I'm in the mood for something lighter and more refreshing.

I do have some of my Best Bitter left (a review of that one and the RIP to follow soon), but for now, I fancy brewing a low gravity beer, with plenty of flavour.

I've decided on American hops, with a simple grist made up from Mild Malt and Carahell. Although the starting gravity will be very low, I'm hoping the body from the sweet malts, combined with the citrus punch from the hops, will give the impression of a beer punching above its weight.

The recipe currently looks like this and I've pencilled in the brewday for a week today (providing my bad back allows).

Coincidentlaly, home brewing on Jan 16th will be quite fitting, for I believe it was on that date back in 1920 that Prohibition came into effect in the US. And with a 'Blind Pig' being a term for a low class drinking establishment that illegally sold alcohol, what better name for my first beer of 2014?

EDIT:
The answer to that question is 'Blind Tiger'. I've decided to change the name of this brew, so as not to confuse it with the beer brewed by Russian River BC in the US. Thanks Mark.

Blind Tiger

Standard/Ordinary Bitter

Type: All Grain	Date: 16 Jan 2014
Batch Size (fermenter): 45.00 l	Brewer: Mark
Boil Size: 52.43 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: Elite 45L Brew
End of Boil Volume 48.88 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 45.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency 73.1 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 7500.00 g Mild Malt (7.9 EBC) Grain 1 90.4 % 800.00 g Carahell Malt (25.0 EBC) Grain 2 9.6 % 20.00 g Simcoe [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 3 18.9 IBUs 20.00 g Cascade [7.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 4 5.6 IBUs 1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 5 - 20.00 g Willamette [6.30 %] - Boil 7.0 min Hop 6 2.1 IBUs 2.0 pkg US West Coast Yeast (Mangrove Jack's #M44) Yeast 7 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.039 SG	Measured Original Gravity:
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG	Measured Final Gravity:
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.9 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol:
Bitterness: 26.6 IBUs
Est Color: 11.3 EBC