Starter - FAIL

I have seen no evidence of fermentation in my starter.  This was the first experience I have had with White Labs tube yeast packs and I am pretty sure I tossed most of the yeast instead of pitching it.  Unbelievably dumb move!  I pulled the yeast out of the fridge and tried to pitch it direct into the starter mix. The cake on the bottom would not come into suspension and I assumed incorrectly that whatever I could not mix in was probably dead and not usable.  Uh, no - completely the opposite.  All the good cells ended up in my garbage.  I will head to Brew Mentor today with my head hung low for a new tube.  I spent some time researching after my collosal fail and it seemed like I did everything else about right, but I think I may invest in an erlenmeyer flask to start these in.  While I will probably just go with a stock starter size for this batch, it is important to note that most serious brewers tailor their starter size to create the number of yeast cells they believe they need for the beer they are creating.  I am certainly not that exacting at this point in my brewing career. Guess I will just chalk this up to a failed trial run.  In a couple of days I will try it onece again with a target of brewing Thanksgiving weekend.

Belgian Dubbel

This weekend I plan on brewing a Belgian Dubbel.  The recipe is slightly modified from a Zymurgy article.  The original won a Gold medal, so I am hopeful a little of that magic rubs off on me.  This is a high OG beer, so I am trying to get some yeast going in a starter right now.  I have never attempted this, so hopefully all will go well or the brewing will be delayed at least a week.  I am regressing a bit, this is an all extract recipe, but this is a holiday week so I wanted to do something simple and I love Belgians.  I also plan on racking this batch to a secondary after a few days, hoping to cut down on some of the bite I ended up with in the Pale.  Pics and posting to come following brew day, stay tuned.

Another taste, no improvement

Second beer sampled and it is not much better after another week.  There is a very biting hop presence there, but no floral character.  Also, not enough malt balance.  It is drinkable, and believe me I will drink it, but I am hoping for better results with my next batch.

First taste - Pale Ale

Finally got to sample my batch of Pale Ale.  Pours nice, bottle carbonation took and a good 1/2 head developed.  Beer is quite cloudy, I am hoping that with some more time this will clear out a bit but I did not use any finings during the brew process.  I may need to add this to future batches or see how a secondary fermentor helps the clarification.  Taste was good, not great.  Good hop flavor but not a lot of malt balance there.  I suspect my grain conversion was not very good which would explain the low starting gravity as well.  I am going to let these sit for a couple more weeks and try another.  In the mean time, I am looking to brew a Belgian Dubbel.  I am sticking with an extract or extract/whole grain mix for now, but I did find instruction for a nice cooler conversion mash tun.  Hopefully I can move to all grain after another batch or so.  Less expensive and opens up more possibilities.  Downside is it will take much more time.

Draft Magazine has come out with their Top Beers  list for 2011.  Some of these may be difficult to find, but I know I am going to have some fun trying to validate their findings!  If you get a chance to try some, comment on this post and leave your impressions.  Happy Drinking my friends.