Badger Dark Ale - First Taste

So I've been somewhat concerned that I might have a stuck fermentation. As of now, the bubbling frequency is around 5 minutes. But after a little research on the type of yeast this recipe uses (Windsor Dry Ale Yeast) I found that it is a pretty fast fermentor. Since fermentation has pretty much all but stopped I decided to go ahead and take a SG (specific gravity) reading, which ended up being 1.016. Apparently the Windsor strain has medium-low attenuation (attenuation is basically what percentage of sugars the yeast will ferment), so this reading seems about right (remember that my OG was 1.040).

Of course, you are never supposed to return the sampled beer to the fermentor, lest you sully it with other microorganisms, so you give it a taste. I was actually pleasantly surprised with how it tasted. It's a little sweet (again, becuase the yeast have left about 30% of the sugars), but a little bitter when you move it to the back of your tongue. The alcohol content is pretty low (more on that later) and it's not very hoppy at all (more on that later as well). It was not quite as complex as I was expecting it to be and of course it's completely flat, but I think by the time it's done aging in the bottle (about a week), it should be pretty good.

The beer was also rather cloudy, which is because the Windsor yeast has medium-low flocculation. Again, I hope that will improve somewhat before and after I bottle. At this point I think I will bottle on Sunday, hopefully things will improve a little by then.

Right now the alcohol by volume is at 3.15% and I don't really expect it to increase much. Also, since I used 1 oz. of 2.4% alpha acid Tettnang hops and 0.5 oz. of 4.0% alpha acid U.K. Fuggles hops, the beer will have a bitterness of 4.4 HBU (homebrew bitterness units) which is about 18 IBU (international bitterness units). For reference, a typical American "lite" beer is about 10 IBU and an IPA is about 50 IBU.

Sorry about no pictures, I drank the beer before I thought of taking a picture of it. I'll post again on Sunday at the latest, even if I don't end up bottling. I might try brewing my next beer on Sunday as well, but I'm thinking I might want to be somehwat more selective with my yeast choice, so we'll see.