Another Loss and a Tasting Update

One more bottle went boom this week - this time it was a spruce ale. Both the licorice and spruce ales were primed "manually" (my term for adding sugar to each bottle instead of a full bucket.) While it is possible that too much corn sugar caused them to explode, it also seems likely that the warmth upstairs was the main culprit (it is now around 70 degrees instead of the usual 60-65 degrees.) As such, I moved all of the experimental beers down to the basement storage, which is much cooler.

We tasted a bottle of the Questionable Stout last night and I have mixed feelings. That is, we definitely have drinkable beer but it is far from style. Basically, a dry stout should have prominent coffee/roasted flavors with slight chocolate notes. The Questionable Stout has a stronger chocolate flavor with a much more limited roasted presence. Also, the beer is missing the creamy mouthfeel that dry stouts should offer. In short, with a little more aging this beer will be fit for consumption but not for competition.

Boom!

So I discovered that some of the licorice ales exploded today. Yes, over-carbonation creates glass grenades. Luckily, I store in closed boxes so there was limited collateral damage. But, now I only have four bottles instead of nine. I moved the remaining bottles down to the basement where it is cooler and this should halt the carbonation process. Oh, well.