So, after 9 months I decided to do something about my vanilla porter I’ve had lurking in the back of the closet. I have never been able to motivate myself to bottle this thing since I’ve never liked any of the taste tests I’ve taken. I tried to convince myself I liked it the first time or two, but never really did in truth. It has four vanilla beans in there and a bunch of vanilla extract, but absolutely no vanilla flavor at all. None. Plus, the traditional porter flavors are harsh and unpleasant. In short, I just don’t think I did a very good job on this one. That, or the recipe was a dud from the beginning. It has black patent malt in it, and I believe that stuff just has a tendency to overpower everything else.
Also, it is a dry dark beer. I tend to not like those much. I much prefer the sweet dark beers. Maybe that’s why I gravitate towards oatmeal stouts when looking for a dark beer.
To top things off, the beer developed some sort of weird skin on top with bubbles. It sure insn’t much of an infection if that’s what it is, and it gave no off flavors or off scents at all. Just another mark against this beer.
In the end, I needed the carboy, and I have several beers stacking up that will need bottles. I decided to just ~GASP~ dump the beer instead of allocating bottles that I’d never get around to drinking.
This is my second dumper. The first was my first shot at an amber ale. That one didn’t carbonate properly. Plus, it was my first clue that with beer, less is more. I threw every sort of malt I could find at that beer. In the end, it was a muddy mess of flavors with no real character. Just not good. And flat. Gone.
Right now, I’ve got an IPA in secondary, an oatmeal stout headed to secondary this coming weekend, and my first shot at a spiced holiday beer in its first week of primary. I have a pale ale planned for the weekend. There just isn’t room for bad beers.
Speaking of the IPA, I tasted a sample when I racked it to secondary. It was very good. It should be a very clean, sessionable IPA. The alcohol content will be towards the bottom of the range for the style due to a bit of an optimistic shot at efficiency. To get what I was really aiming for, I would have needed more base malt, but that’s fine. I’m good with a lower alcohol content. I’m sure this isn’t my final version of the Quicksilver IPA anyway. I’m still experimenting with different hopping combinations. I do know the permanent version will be a mid-range IPA on both alcohol content and IBU scales for the style.
The goal for all my “stock” beers will be to have a lineup of smooth, sessionable beers. Then I’ll push the limits and create new limits for seasonal/specialty brews.
I hope you all have a chance to sit in my brewpub and enjoy them all someday.