Review: Sinistral Warrior

Appearance: inch and a half white head over a copper, amber, hazy, beer.

Aroma: I feel this has faded some since earlier tastings, but light tropical fruit, solid hint of pear. hop spiciness.

Taste: 

some slight malty sweetness upfront then followed by intense hop flavor of tropical fruit most closely centered around 

ends in a piny and spice kick of bitterness that closes off the sip and then lingers on interchangeably with malty sweetness.

Mouth-feel: this had the appropriate amount of carbonation for an IPA, medium body, and some nice hop oil.

Overall:  at first I thought it wouldn't be an IPA that I would like that much but it turned out to be a pretty enjoyable brew.  while I was originally concerned with  the balance in this brew being off for my liking, I actually thought it was pretty good.  It wasn't the malt intensity was lacking or that the malt choice was wrong.  Instead, I felt the malt flavors fit, and were good, but a little bit one dimensional.  I believe this is a result of using malt extract, and that the malt flavors would be slightly more complex and robust in an all grain version.  my second thought I the beer is that the ending hops bite was sporadic in flavor and intensity. being at times to spicy and bitter depending on the sip.  some of the bottles finished cleaner than others, and those that this tendency usually ended up with more trub in the beer so I assume this was due to the amount of hop particles that stayed in the trub.  I think I already have taken some good measures in filtration/ clarifying, so we'll see how other beers turn out in the near future.

update:


As of 10/272010 this beer has held up really well.  tried my second to last bottle and the hop bitterness and general aroma and flavor but the pear/ strawberry flavors still held up, and still tastes very wholesome.

Recipe:

Recipe Specifics
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Batch Size (Gal): 5.00
Anticipated OG: 1.071

Actual OG: 1.067

Anticipated FG: 1.018

Actual FG: 1.014
Anticipated SRM: 13
Anticipated IBU:  45.3

ABV: 7.1%
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain
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90%     9lb.     30z.          Northern Brewer Gold LME

7%        0lb.     12oz.       Caramel/Crystal Malt -40L

2%         0lb.     40z.          Caramel/ Crystal Malt -80L

Hops
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1.0     Yakima Magnum     (Pellet, est. 13.0 AA) @ 60 min.

1.0     Cascade                       (Pellet, est 5.5 AA) @ 15  min.

1.0     Centennial                  (Pellet, est. 10.0 AA) @ 15 min.

2.0     Warrior                       (Pellet, est. 15.0 AA) @ 0 min.

Extras
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Yeast
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Wyeast American Ale (1056)

Water Profile
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Profile: Deer Park Bottled Water
Mash Schedule
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Boil size: 2.5 Gal.

Grains steeped for 20 min. or until it reaches 170 F

Notes
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