Thick, white head forms as the glass fills. It holds promise, this beautiful beer.
An experiment.
A new recipe, taken from the latest Brew magazine.
It is not often that I venture from my safe, plain book. One recipe book has dominated my brewing career. No more. A friend from work got me a subscription to a new magazine full of fun, exciting things to try.
It is not often that I brew something as awful as this.
A sour undertone dominates the flavor, followed by hardly the slightest hint of hops.
This is fine, if not for the overpowering aftertaste of…
Salt.
Yeah, the recipe sought to imitate a beer brewed in a region of Germany where most of the water was slightly salty. The recipe does this by adding — you guessed it — salt.
Not very much salt. Very little, in fact.
Very little, but at the same time, way too much.
After the first awful taste, the flavor tends to mellow out. I still drink it, and I still enjoy it.
Unfortunately, the overall effect is a beer that is heavy, filling, and not at all thirst-quenching. It is exactly the opposite of what I’d like to be drinking during these warm summer months.
Thus, my kegerator will be dominated by this beer for quite some time.
It is, then, time to break out the bottling equipment again.
The beer fermenting in my basement now contains plenty of hops, malts, and grains… and no salt.
I look forward to it.