Smokey the Beer

Over the past few days the active fermentation of the beer has really slowed, and today it appeared as if it had stopped completely. So, I thought now would be a good time to check the ABV and give it a little taste!

First I checked the ABV using my hydrometer. The original gravity of the beer was about 1.046. Today the gravity is down to 1.018. If we plug this into our handy little formula, ABV = (OG - FG) * 131, this brings our ABV to a WHOPPING 3.67. This is not exactly what I was hoping for. Keep in mind, Bud Light has about 4.2% ABV.

To be fair, I don't really care a whole lot about the ABV. If you recall, one of my favorite beers I made was The Innkeeper which only weighed in at about 3.8%. Still, I would really like for this beer to get above that mark. So, I roused the yeast a bit to see if it can do a little bit more for me. Hopefully I can get over that 3.8% mark. If not, I'll still drink it, which brings me to my next point: How does it taste?

Well, with any tasting of fresh, flat, warm beer, you don't really know how the finished product is going to taste. You can only guess. And if I had to guess, like REALLY guess, I'm going to say this is going to be freaking smokey. When I tasted the unfermented wort, I didn't think that the smoke was as pronounced as I wanted it. Now I think it might be TOO pronounced. I tasted this thing about a half an hour ago, and my mouth still tastes like smoke. And I didn't take a huge gulp of it either, it was a tiny sip. Seriously, when I first tasted it I said out loud, "DAMN that is smokey!"

I think once it gets carbonated and ages a bit, the smoke will mellow out. If it mellows just a little bit, it will be perfect for me! That being said, I know it's not going to be everyone's favorite. Just like some people don't like IPA's and some people don't like Stouts, a lot of people aren't going to like smoked beers. They just aren't. So, if you have one of these and don't like it, don't complain! I warned you!

Anyway, the beer is sitting again, hopefully fermenting a little bit more. I'm going to give it a couple more weeks and see how it goes from there. I promise to keep you updated! Also, soon I will talk a little more about my fermentation chamber project. It's starting to come along, and I hope to have it finished before the new year! If you haven't already, make sure you subscribe to my new twitter! It's @MisdemeanorBrew. I posted some pictures of the fridge project on there already, and I'm sure I'll continue to post as I go along. If you don't have twitter, no big. You'll just have to wait a little longer! I hope you look forward to my next post as much as I do!