One of the flagship beers for the brewery will be a 7% ABV IPA. I'm looking for loads of hop expression and a firm, but not overpowering bitterness. This batch of IPA was split between White Labs Cal Ale and "Brett" Trios. Of course, there is a lot of stir around the inter-webs about the fact that it is indeed not Brett. But it still acts like Brett and throws flavors like Brett primary with big tropical fruit esters. I did this to begin the process of not only getting house recipes, but also getting a house yeast strain. The difference between these two beers is almost night and day. The Trios continued to act on the dry hops morphing them around in the keg (producing CO2 as well). I am not sure where the huge melon component in the Cal Ale version came from since there are no melony hops in the mix, but it is a huge turn off to me, even though judges really liked it and it got an Honorable Mention. The Trios through some phenols as well that detracted from the overall flavor. Good start to recipe and yeast formulation, but definitely not there yet.
Release the Panic (Trios IPA):
Aroma:
Tropics burst off the nose, pineapple and mango. Behind the big esters are citrus rinds and hints of resin. Mild alcohol peeks out behind the powerful aroma. There is a touch of phenols, some peach, with mild grassy and melon notes. No where near as much grass and melon as the Cal Ale.
Appearance:
Pours a super clear golden orange under a dense off-white head with tiny bubbles. Fades to a thick cap and leaves lots of spotty lace all the way down the glass.
Flavor:
Hop oils coat the tongue, heavy notes of citrus and pine. Spicy notes could be peppery phenols or from the hops. Pineapple esters and sweet malt notes make it almost candy like. Bitter finish, less so than the Cal Ale version.
Mouthfeel:
Body is a quite thin and watery, especially for the level of cara-pils in this recipe. Semi-dry finish. Bitter and oily. Medium carbonation.
Feed the Machine (Cal Ale IPA):
Aroma:
Huge melon and vegetal note leaps from the glass. It is odd, this is the same exact aroma, just sometimes it is a lot of vegetable and the next it is melon. Hints of sweetness, candy like, followed by mild herbal notes and citrus rinds.
Appearance:
Pours a super clear golden orange under a dense off-white head... sound familiar? The head on this beer stays around longer and thicker than the Trios version. Head is moussey. Leaves lots of lace.
Flavor:
Tastes like hop candy and cantaloupe (I hate cantaloupe), resin, and pine. Vegetative notes and medium citrus pith. Honey like malts. Medium high bitterness.
Mouthfeel:
Medium body with a fairly dry and bitter finish. Crisp. Body is much more in line with an IPA than the Trios version.
Overall Comparison of Both:
The Trios version is very enjoyable in the nose and flavor, lots of tropics and hop notes lends an enjoyable complexity. The phenols and thin body detract from the overall wonder of this beer. For the Cal Ale version the body is spot on as is the cleanness of the fermentation, but the super melon notes are too much. The odd thing is that there are no melony hops in the mix, and it only came in on the dry hops. Speaking of dry hops, part of the reason the melons don't come through on the Trios version might be due to the fact that this yeast was still active in the keg during the warm dry-hopping (it started carbonating on its own). It was exciting to do this little experiment. I need to work on the body and fermentation parameters, but definitely going with Brett (yes I know that Trios is not Brett, which is why the next batch will have actual Brett as the sole yeast). Neither of these beers will become the Flagship IPA for the brewery, but it gets me one step closer.
Aroma:
Tropics burst off the nose, pineapple and mango. Behind the big esters are citrus rinds and hints of resin. Mild alcohol peeks out behind the powerful aroma. There is a touch of phenols, some peach, with mild grassy and melon notes. No where near as much grass and melon as the Cal Ale.
Appearance:
Pours a super clear golden orange under a dense off-white head with tiny bubbles. Fades to a thick cap and leaves lots of spotty lace all the way down the glass.
Flavor:
Hop oils coat the tongue, heavy notes of citrus and pine. Spicy notes could be peppery phenols or from the hops. Pineapple esters and sweet malt notes make it almost candy like. Bitter finish, less so than the Cal Ale version.
Mouthfeel:
Body is a quite thin and watery, especially for the level of cara-pils in this recipe. Semi-dry finish. Bitter and oily. Medium carbonation.
Feed the Machine (Cal Ale IPA):
Aroma:
Huge melon and vegetal note leaps from the glass. It is odd, this is the same exact aroma, just sometimes it is a lot of vegetable and the next it is melon. Hints of sweetness, candy like, followed by mild herbal notes and citrus rinds.
Appearance:
Pours a super clear golden orange under a dense off-white head... sound familiar? The head on this beer stays around longer and thicker than the Trios version. Head is moussey. Leaves lots of lace.
Flavor:
Tastes like hop candy and cantaloupe (I hate cantaloupe), resin, and pine. Vegetative notes and medium citrus pith. Honey like malts. Medium high bitterness.
Mouthfeel:
Medium body with a fairly dry and bitter finish. Crisp. Body is much more in line with an IPA than the Trios version.
Overall Comparison of Both:
The Trios version is very enjoyable in the nose and flavor, lots of tropics and hop notes lends an enjoyable complexity. The phenols and thin body detract from the overall wonder of this beer. For the Cal Ale version the body is spot on as is the cleanness of the fermentation, but the super melon notes are too much. The odd thing is that there are no melony hops in the mix, and it only came in on the dry hops. Speaking of dry hops, part of the reason the melons don't come through on the Trios version might be due to the fact that this yeast was still active in the keg during the warm dry-hopping (it started carbonating on its own). It was exciting to do this little experiment. I need to work on the body and fermentation parameters, but definitely going with Brett (yes I know that Trios is not Brett, which is why the next batch will have actual Brett as the sole yeast). Neither of these beers will become the Flagship IPA for the brewery, but it gets me one step closer.
Justin, those look damn good! What I've noticed about Trois too is that increased phenol character, although I noticed that my beers above the 1.050 range would get markedly more phenolic than my lower gravity Trois beers. I also noticed how Trois seemed to mutate my hot side hop character. After a few batches of hoppy Trois beers, I started just using hop extract for bittering on the hot side as a single 60 min addition and just dry hopping the hell out of it cold for 7-10 days after the beer is bright. I noticed a more intent hop character this way, at least the hop character I intended the beer to have rather than what the yeast wanted to mutate it to. Whether Trois is Brett or not, it is still fascinating what it does to hops and how, like you say, it left the beer a little thin and watery which is consistent with the lack of glycerol production in Brett strains. Cheers & thanks for the blog, always a great read here!
ReplyDeleteYou could add oats for some increased body and mouthfeel.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've reworked my new IPA recipe (as well as all my others) to include roughly 10% Flaked Oats. Also have a good chunk of Vienna in there as well for some toasty malt backbone. Will be brewing the new IPA in 2 weeks with Brett C. That one should be fun.
Delete