Showing posts with label Jaggery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jaggery. Show all posts

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Jaggery IPA -- Taste Test

I finally sat down and gave my Jaggery IPA, an English IPA, a real taste test today using the BJCP guidelines. What I got really didn't surprise me. I have been drinking it for a while and realized that there were some significant flaws. The biggest problem I ran into was that during fermentation my temp probe was not attached to the carboy, and the temp of the beer got up to about 80 degrees. I think I may have made it worse by kicking on the fridge and dropping it down to 68 as quickly as possible. Nonetheless, It has cleaned up quite a bit over the past month and it is at least drinkable now. Also, I used 2 pounds of Jaggery palm sugar, I am not sure how this played into the taste, but I assume it made some difference. And so, the critique;

Aroma: Mostly Alcoholic with a little bit of hop Aroma. Would expect a lot more aroma to fit style. As beer warms, the alcohol smell really takes over.

Appearance: Head retention OK, very cloudy, Mostly Orange

Flavor: Finishes pretty clean, little bit of hop aftertaste. Strong alcohol flavor on back of tongue. Some Maltiness, but the alcohol really overwhelms all else. Mostly seems to be a higher alcohol flavor. When you breathe out through your nose, you can really feel it burn on the way out.

Mouthfeel: Medium full body, Alcohol fills out the mouthfeel. A bit of hop astringency, but not much.

Overall Impression: Decent beer, way to many fusel alcohols. Needs a lot more hop flavor and aroma. Maybe next time dry hop, and use some crystal 60 to help get that malty flavor that a british IPA has.

Overall Score: 24/50