Aged Homebrew - Summit APA Tasting

It's been a little while since I reviewed one of the "aged homebrews" I found in my cellar. This is the third of four beers that were among the very first beers I brewed and which have been sitting in my cellar for a couple of years. So far, both the Irish Red Ale and the Scottish 60/- Ale have held up pretty good to the test of time. I wasn't sure what to expect with this current beer. The mysterious "APA?" on the cap leads me to believe that it is the last surviving bottle of my first attempt at making a red American Pale Ale. Apparently, I didn't know about the "American Amber" category at that point, since I have since learned that what I was attempting to brew pretty much falls under that category. Now that I think about it, this beer can probably be considered to be the genesis of my "Little Rhody Red" recipe that I have been trying to perfect.

However, this beer, at the time that I brewed in back in the summer of 2010, was decidedly NOT good. It wasn't all bad - the aroma was actually quite nice and it looked exactly like I was hoping it would - a nice, reddish orange. Really made you want to drink it. But, the flavor completely did not live up to the promise of the first impression. In fact, I would say this beer was downright deceitful. It looked and smelled delicious, but upon tasting the beer, there was an unmistakable, in-your-face onion flavor. Yes, onion. I've since attributed this flavor to the batch of Summit hops I used. Summit is apparently a somewhat hit-or-miss hop - when its good, it has this wonderful tangerine character (which is what I was going for). But when it's bad, you get onions and garlic (NOT what I was going for). This beer scared me away from Summit, but it is probably worth another shot given that others have had great success with it. In any case, I waited a few months to see if the flavor would dissipate, but it never really did, so most of this batch went down the drain (my only dumped batch so far). I didn't remember hiding a bottle away, though I am glad I did since it gives me the opportunity to see what happens to that onion flavor over the course of a couple of years. Amazingly, time has done great things to this beer.

Appearance - Deep red-brown with a foamy tan head that shrinks away pretty quickly. Darker than it was originally, which seems to be a common characteristic of these old beers. Clarity is excellent.

Aroma - Subdued, but with some hints of roast and caramel. I can definitely still smell some citrus fruit from the Summit hops. Some oxidation is evident as well, but not really cardboardy. More sherry-like. Although different from what I remember it being, this beer smells really quite nice.

Flavor - Rich malt. Some vinous oxidation flavors, but they come across quite nicely, adding a dark fruitiness that makes this beer very interesting. Raisiny perhaps? Still a decent amount of bitterness, though malt clearly dominates. A faint tartness was evident in the first sip, but is harder to detect as I drink. Most importantly though - NO ONION FLAVOR!! Absolutely no hint of it. This beer is 100x better at 2 years old than it was fresh. Once again, these tastings have taught me to never dump my beer (at least not before giving them a couple of years to age). Amazing.

Mouthfeel - Medium body, moderate carbonation. Not as "chewy" as I would have expected given the malt profile. I was expecting something akin to the aged Irish Red. Given the foamy head and the slight tartness, I wonder if there was a bit of a bacterial infection in this bottle, which would also thin it out some. Wish I had thought to take a gravity reading before drinking it all.

Overall - I'm going to sound like a broken record about these old beers, but I'm amazed at how well they have all held up. I had no problem drinking this bottle and wish I had more of it. It's certainly not an American Pale Ale anymore, if it ever was. Not an American Amber either. Given the maltiness and sherry-like flavor, it seems much more 'British' than 'American' at this point. Of course, it might not actually be the beer I think it is - the '?' on the cap and the complete lack of onion off-flavor gives me some doubt, but I cannot think what else it might be. It is different enough from the other aged batches that I have tasted so far and I don't have anything else in my brew log that matches the general specs of this beer. So, I guess I have to conclude that it is indeed my 'Summit APA'. Go figure.

Summit "APA" - original recipe & specs
Partial mash
OG: 1.053
FG: 1.017
SRM: 11.6
IBUs: 36.4

28% Pale Malt
14% Munich Malt
4% Crystal Malt (40L)
2% Roasted Barley
52% Extra Light DME

Summit @ 60 min, 20 min, 8 min, 2 min, & dry hop
Palisades @ 20 min, 8 min, & 2 min
WLP008 East Coast Ale

Aged Homebrew - Scottish Light (60/-) Tasting

This is the second tasting from my aged homebrew "collection". This time, I have a Scottish Ale (a 60 Schilling or 60/-) named #38. This was brewed a couple of years back as a birthday gift for my dad (no, not his 38th birthday). He read the description of the style and it intrigued him, so I surprised him with a case of it (I kept a case for myself...). If I recall correctly, this was my last full 5 gallon batch. Even though I was doing partial mashes, I wanted to minimize the amount of extract I had to use, so I switched to smaller 3.5ish gallon batches on all subsequent brews.

I remember thinking that this beer turned out pretty good - certainly seemed to style - light, easy drinking, malt-forward, dark copper-colored, some fruity esters. Over two years later, it has held up very well and I think it is still a nice example of the style, though perhaps a little too light on the hops. Shortly after I discovered my forgotten stash, I learned that my dad still has some bottles of this left, so I was thinking it might be fun to enter it in a competition or two and see how it stacks up.

Appearance - Pours a dark copper, almost brown, with a thin white ring of bubbles. Clarity is excellent.

Aroma - Very mild aroma. What little aroma there is is definitely all malt - no hop aroma whatsoever. I pick up some toffee and light caramel. Maybe some oxidized quality as well.

Taste - Follows aroma. Very mild, almost entirely malt - toffee, caramel, a hint of roast. Definitely some oxidized flavors as well. A little hop spiciness. Bitterness is barely there - just a touch at the end. Finishes fairly dry. Some sweetness, but not at all like the aged Irish Red I reviewed a little while back. No signs of infection.

Mouthfeel - low carbonation, almost still. On the thin side. Definitely an easy drinker, though a little more body would make it better.

Overall - Yet another successfully aged beer. This beer is very mild, but tastes good. And at 3.4% ABV, it makes for a nice session beer. I could definitely drink several of these, though I think I would want to move onto something with more flavor. This kind of reminds me of a Bass or a Smithwicks - it has that same level of mildness and thin body. So far, I'm enjoying this stroll down beer memory lane. I can't wait to try the remaining aged brews!

#38 Scottish Ale (60/-)
Partial Mash
OG 1.040
FG 1.014
IBUs: 23
SRM: 16

17% Maris Otter
17% Crystal 40L
7.5% Crystal 120L
7.5% Honey Malt
7.5% Munich Malt
2% Chocolate Malt
42.5% Extra Light DME

East Kent Goldings hops @ 60min

WLP004 Irish Ale yeast

Aged Homebrew - Irish Red tasting

I decided to try the first of the four "aged homebrews" I found in my cellar a couple of weeks ago. This was my first attempt at an Irish Red ale and I recall it turned out OK - too dark and astringent, but with some nice fruit esters. This batch was brewed approximately two and half years ago.

Appearance - very dark opaque brown, some ruby highlights in the light. Originally, this beer turned out darker than I was aiming for, but it is even darker now than I remember it. Pours with a nice tan head that dissipates pretty quickly, leaving a thin layer of foam that persists while drinking.

Aroma - all malt, chocolate, toffee, a little roast. Definitely some oxidized vinous aroma there too.

Taste - follows the aroma - sweet malt, caramel-toffee, with chocolate and roast undertones. There is a decent amount of bitterness still in it. Not sure if it is from the hops or the roasted malt or both, but there is enough there to cut balance the malt a little. There's a lingering astringency that I remember being there when I first brewed it - in fact, as I drink more of it, the more I get that astringency - like over-steeped tea. It definitely detracts from the beer, which otherwise is quite nice even at two and half years old. I don't taste the "cardboard" that is usually associated with oxidization, but I definitely taste something there that I assume is oxidation - it tastes "old" if that makes any sense. Maybe "musty", but that sounds too unsavory a description for this flavor - it doesn't really taste bad at all. Hard to explain. Maybe most surprising to me is how clean the beer still is - no sourness, no funk. My sanitation practices must have been pretty good.

Mouthfeel - low carbonation, as was originally intended, but maybe lower still than it once was. Creamy and full. The overall full body goes nicely with the rich, dark flavors.

Overall - honestly, I'm astounded that this beer held up as good as it did. I'm a little bummed that this is the last bottle. I definitely would drink more of it, though probably not more than one in a session. I wish I had tasting notes from when it was young to compare to, but I remember it being lighter, more fruity and not nearly as creamy and chocolatey. It has moved more into a brown ale/porter category now. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed drinking this beer!

For those interested, here's the basic recipe for the original beer:

Irish-ish Red Ale
Partial Mash
OG 1.051
FG 1.016
IBUs: 27.5
SRM: 20.6

62% Maris Otter
4% Crystal 40L
4% Crystal 120L
4% Roast barley
26% Extra Light DME

Challenger hops @ 60min

WLP004 Irish Ale yeast