More Tasting Notes

OK. First let's start with Elf King Ale I. I find it to be too light in body. I know I labeled it Elf King Ale Lite but it is too light. The first time I tried it it tasted to me like watered down beer. But the hops is awesome. Amarillo for the win. I should defiantly roll with it more in the future. It also has some fruity ester type flavor in it but not as much as before. Ellie drank a bunch of this with me during Super Bowl. It was awesome.

Janet's Brown Ale. The first week the best this beer was. That's because the dry hops shown through. After that the dry hops went away and I was left with a slightly bitter beer. The bitterness is an aftertaste that lingers on the tongue far too long. It has a nice mouth feel and malty taste. There are coffee type notes in the beer.

Elf King Ale II. Just sampled some from the fermenter after a week and I think it's going to be great. No fruity esters. No strong hop aroma or taste. Not overly bitter. Should be a very nice and balanced beer. It will have a slightly darker appearance and more robust body. I think this beer with Amarillo would KILL. Looking forward to drinking this. Also this was the first beer that used harvested yeast from Elf King Ale I. It took 24 hours before signs of fermentation but then really took off. I think the yeast was acclimating to the new environment. In the future I should make a starter to get the yeast alive and going from a harvest.

Strawberry mead. This didn't come out how I wanted. I was looking for a semi-sweet mead. I took very good care of this yeast and nourished it for a week (mead has little nutrients for yeast). And by golly it did it's job. I guess I nourished it too well. I wanted it to give up at some point. But it fermented nearly all the sugar in the mead. As a result, the mead now has no residual sweet flavor. It tastes close to wine. Ellie pegged it as a strawberry honey champagne. That's a good description. Very dry. Almost too dry. It is now at 13% ABV. You can taste the alcohol. It has that "hot" alcohol taste to it. I think the annoying parts of this mead will mellow in time (it's only a week old). Primary fermentation is complete. It now need time to age and improve.