The Tale of Two Beers

[Bryan R]

Alright ladies and gents I have been waiting for some time to do this comparison, I hope I can hold out on the beer "A" for longer but empty kegs are slim now a days.
Those in the know, know I am on iteration 7+ of my export Helles, Pilsner and Helles. I have circled the block and am back at home again finding out its a lot more process driven than it is actual ingredients, with that I present you with beers "A" and "B". They are brothers from the same mother, everything is nearly identical about them... Except the date they were brewed. "A" being early this year(Januaryish) and "B" 3 weeks ago. About 40 batches have come and gone since "A" was brewed. Also beer "A" was not Spunded or cold fermented, but a 16mg/l smb dose was added to the keg along with the gelatin. So yeast side, beer "A" was a textbook Marshall(really Narziss) lager fermentation, short and hot ,gelatin at kegging along with the force carb. Beer "B" was our text book brewing methods of, softer boil, cold ferm, spund and call it a day.

Left beer "A" Right beer "B"



Different light. Beer "B" left


Front to back same light. Beer "A" front.


Tastes:
Beer "A" is bland, sweet and has a lingering bitterness that isn't hops. It's not as bland and weird as pre-low o2, but it's close. No lingering malt, bleh.

Beer "B" is full of fresh dough and lingering malt. Soft floral hops, slight sulfur, clean, delicate smooth.

Beer "A" started out its kegged life(about 4 weeks)with a lot of beer "B's" flavor minus the dough. But I am guessing due to a non-closed siphon, no active yeast and a "standard" keg purge method even the smb dose couldn't save it. Right now it's a straight up dumper for me, the only reason I kept it around was to do this comparison.

Beer "B" is still pretty young(3 weeks) so it's got a little haze still, but it's not even in the same side of the globe as beer "A". Beer "A" is eerily American, and the normal feeble attempt at representing a German style. Beer "B" is smack dab in the heart of Bavaria.
These beers are all I need as proof of concept. I have no issues saying beer "A" sucks and will be dumped. Yes I brewed it, I put in the time to age it and coddle it. To me that doesn't hold any merit when it sucks. To thy own self be true

[Brandon]

[Bryan R]

I cringe looking at those pictures... That dreaded orange hue..

[Brandon]

[wobdee]

Yep, that's quite telling. 96/4? Actually I like the looks of B over A but I'm sure I wouldn't prefer the taste.

[Owenbräu]

I had a very similar observation a while back. I actually had a fermenter sample that I left out in the barn for a couple of days, and it turned this same brownish-yellow color. As it turns out, the same thing will happen if you leave a wort sample out for a few days.

[Big Monk]

That's a pretty startling difference.


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[Owenbräu]

Here is a triangle test with exact same recipe (rauchbier), only 2 are lodo samples and 1 is a non-lodo. Can you pick the odd beer out?

IMG_0241.JPG (1.92 MiB) Viewed 8733 times

[Big Monk]

[mpietropaoli]

It seems the bigger lesson from Bryan's beers (and maybe not the rauchbiers) is the precarious nature of cold-side oxidation.