Dry Hopped Solera First Pull Results

Ahh, freshly poured. A dichotomy of aged sour and fresh dry hops!

This beer turned out really well. It's a great sign for the solera in my basement. It's almost close to being too sour, where when you take that first sip it goes "POW!" across your cheeks.

Appearance: Ended up with a sort of honey colour, with a thick sticky head that takes a few minutes to break down despite the acids. No haze despite the heavy dry-hopping.

Aroma: Dry hops upfront, orange, mango and peach are dominant, but there is a bit of resin notes from the columbus hops. I was hesitant about this hop initially, but I don't think it clashes. There's a pissy/overripe fruit aroma in terms of funk. Not much barnyard.

Tate: Puckering sour at first sip! THP right after the first swallow - lingering cheerios, but it's young in the bottle so that should disappear. Fruity hops flavor much like the aroma: orange and peach and a bit of pine/dank. Some leather, must and funk in the finish, but it's not a funk-bomb. The aftertaste is cheerios and peaches and funk.

Mouthfeel: Thin, dry, pretty typical. Good carbonation. After the swallow there's a distracting bitterness in the back of the throat and some astringency that may be from the oak in the solera.

Overall: Good! Intriguing! The aroma worries me a bit, because when I have my nose in there too long I almost wonder if I'm smelling alcohol notes or if it's solvent/ethyl acetate? Second opinions have so far disagreed so I'm probably paranoid! I'm not a fan of that bitterness in the back of the throat, so I hope that goes away in time.

Any cigar fans? I'm having my first undercrown for a belated birthday!

Brettanomyces and Oak Old Ale Results

Y'all wanna see somethin'?

German Pilsner - Is Pilsner Malt Necessary?

I know that most people will tell you that you don't start brewing beer to save money because with all the equipment and ingredients and such you won't end up saving much, but it doesn't hurt to try. Especially with Canadian beer prices, and especially when you're the typical broke-ass university student, every little bit helps. I try to buy all my hops and grain in bulk, and with my lab equipment I can keep culturing yeasts as long as possible - these things help to save $10 here and there. In buying base grain, To have to buy Marris Otter or other darker base malts, Pilsner malt for especially light malt, and 2-row for neutral american bases gives me 300% the spending that I would have if I were to just buy one type of base malt at a time.

So the question remains: Is it completely necessary to buy Pilsner malt to make a Pilsner?

This is my Solera - There are many like it, but this one is mine.

When I first started this solera, I was under the impression that I was special and unique for undertaking this project, but since then I've seen more and more soleras across the internet. Especially for sours, soleras offer an interesting project to undertake.