FuzzyBrew

I entered my clone of Ska Brewing’s Modus Hoperandi in Nashville’s Music City Brewers‘ 15th Annual Music City Brew Off.

I wasn’t able to attend the fest as Carrie and I were up in Wisconsin (post coming soon!), but everyone from our club, Bluff City Brewers & Connissieurs, assures me that it’s a good time. Quick aside: The Cooper-Young Regional Beer Fest was the same weekend. I hope that’s not the case next year.

I think my clone is pretty good. It’s gotten a lot of compliments, but it definitely could be better. I scored a 28/50, which plants it firmly in the “Good” category. A 30 would have gotten me a “Very Good.” Two judges scored my beer indpendently — one gave me a 30 and the other a 27. The overall impression of the judge who liked it the most:

A very good IPA. A fairly dark and malty interpretation of the style but fairly well balanced. More hop flavor and aroma would really make this a great beer.

I thought it definitely could have used some more hop aroma, though I thought it was pretty hoppy.

From judge No. 2:

The nice pour led into that bittery metallic taste. More hop flavor is need to meet style.

I dunno what metallic taste he’s talking about, but the theme here is “more hop flavor.”

So the 5 gallons of beer fermenting in my garage fridge is a modified Modus — same malts (two-row pale, caramel 120°L, wheat), same hops (Cascade, Columbus and Centennial) plus a healthy dose of Chinook. The hop schedule has been switched up and spread out a good bit to have more hops going in on a continuous basis and more added toward the end for flavor and aroma.

Bout time to dry hop.

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