It’s our annual post conference wrapup and we hit the latest in beer news, look at some new books and revisit some really old brews. And then in the lounge, Drew sits down with the iconic craft brew veteran, Alan Sprints of Hair of the Dog. We taste some beers and talk about his unqiue take on building beers. There’s even one beer that Drew thought should be a mess, but was amazingly sublime.
@Denny I decided to brew your Altbier recipe (with a couple of modifications) for our club group brew this weekend after listening. When I followed the link to get the recipe I saw that this was your first AG brew! I’ve been brewing for a while now, you’ve been at it longer–what, if any, changes would you make if you were going to develop and brew this recipe today? And what AG batch would you guesstimate you’re on now?!
The second question is the easy one…I just brewed number 532. As to the recipe, as I said on the podcast, it’s been a long (first brewed 2/27/99) time so who knows how accurate my memory is. But given that, I don’t think I’d change anything.
I’d lose the whirlpool hops (shouldn’t be a hop aroma) and add a 60 min. addition (or 30, since that’s what you’re doing). I’d also ferment at a lower temp and don’t forget several weeks of cold conditioning. I’ve always felt that really made a difference.
What do you feel you get out of the 60 (or 30 in this case) minute addition that you don’t get from FWH? I know the “smoother bitterness” thing is just anecdotal and I think either y’all or the Brulosophy crew even did an experiment that came out insignificant when comparing FWH to a traditional 60 minute addition.