A 3 x 1 gal split batch made with wheat malt, flour and extra dark spraymalt, 15g coriander, and orange peel, CML Kristalweizen yeast - so sort of like a wheat beer. Split after fermentation to dry hop in demijohns : no additions | 10g EKG | 10g EKG + 10g Galaxy.
- No additions is too heavy on the coriander and it almost tastes a bit mediciney. Not awful, 4/10 max.
- 10g EKG + 10g Galaxy - still mediciney, still 4/10 max but with some extra flavours.
- 10 EKG - this is actually good - it doesn't make sense to me. The coriander is buried and there's this lovely British pint flavour and then lower down, almost hidden unless you look for it, the taste of boiled sweets. It's a 7/10.
I thought the EKG on its own would mask less than the one with the Galaxy. The EKG alone is actually pub worthy - that's my benchmark. Not like staggering but you would not question it if you ordered it or guess it was homebrewed.
Now I've got another from a 3 way split batch with 3 different CML yeasts : Kolsh, Real Ale and US Pale. It's the Kolsh and it really is different and... hate to say it... more lagery. It's got a really nice finish and reminds me of that one in a hundred times that you get Kronenbourg and it's actually not bad. It's a 6/10. And pub worthy. People would smash this down. Surprisingly light considering the recipe:
OG: 1.052 FG: 1.006 ABV: 6.0%
Recipe: 708g flour, 809g pale malt, 73g crystal REAL, 411g XD Dme, 301g sugar
Hops: (5g Admiral + 6g Target) @ 60, (20g cascade, 7g citra, 6g columbus) Whirlpool at 78c
Yeast: CML #1 Real Ale, #2 US Pale, #3 Kolsh
Crystal real means it's crystal I bought rather than made myself from base malt. XD Dme is extra dark spraymalt.
I'm going about brewing in a different way - adding and subtracting ingredients to try and get a "mind taste" for them rather than actually brewing something good so I can hopefully think about beer making like you do cooking. I bet there's a German concept for "Mind Taste" like "Verstandgeschmack" but that's just googling words.
Enough drunken outpouring.