Choosing Yeast!

Through some random reading today I found an interesting article on choosing which yeast to use for a beer. It's called How to Choose the Best Yeast, from Brew Your Own magazine, and can be found here. It may be a little more information about yeast than some readers might care about, but it's not overly scientific, just a good explanation of the different factors that come into play when a brewery or home brewer chooses what yeast to use for a particular beer.

- Adam

Serving your beer

I suppose if you're reading this you probably already have some idea of how beer is supposed to be served. Still I wanted to get my thoughts together a little bit about the subject, so here we go. The main concerns in my estimation are type of glass, temperature, and cleanliness of glass. All these are dependent on what type of beer it is. I have a small collection of glassware for beer, although there's a bit of overlap between them. Some beers have specific glasses for them, like the Pauwel Kwak glass I have, a stirrup glass that as far as I know, nothing else is really meant to be drunk out of. For the most part, you can get away with 3 or 4 different glasses for any beer.

Generically for most Belgian styles, you want a wide mouthed glass that allows the aroma to get out. For American and many English style ales a pint glass is pretty standard. For lagers, pilsners, and kolsches a tall, narrow glass is generally preferred. A narrower glass condenses the aroma, so beers with less aroma can be smelled more easily. This isn't exactly a hard and fast rule, as there's flute glasses, snifters, tulips, etc. For a more complete and detailed list, see this article.

The second factor is temperature. Optimal ranges for drinking beer range dependent on style as before, from around 35 F to 55 F. Serving a beer too cold numbs the taste buds, making it so you can't tell what the beer really tastes like. As the beer warms up the flavors can change, which in some styles is a good things, others not so much. Stouts and many English styles are supposed to be served at the warmer end, pilsners are served colder. Also, generally the higher the alcohol content the warmer it's supposed to be served. There's exceptions like English Milds, which are lower alcohol content, but still served warmer.

Finally the cleanliness of the glass is a factor. Residue from other beers or drinks can impact the flavor. However, simply being washed isn't enough. Dish soaps also leave residues with can kill a beers head and mess the flavors up. You want your glass to be washed clean, rinsed to get rid of any residue, and then dried. As a side note, throwing the glass in the freezer to cool it down isn't a great idea either, it condenses water to the glass which then waters down your beer.

So if you follow these steps, you can figure out what temperature range and glass is "best" for your beer. You might find that you like a particular style better when you drink it how it was meant to be enjoyed. However, your taste buds have to be your guide. If you find that you don't like the recommended serving suggestions for a particular beer, just go with what works for you.

-Adam

Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Fresh Hop Ale

I picked up this beer back in August while I was at the beach with my family. It was at some nicely sized liquor store in the Rehoboth area, and since I enjoyed the Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale last time I had it, I decided the Southern Hemisphere version was worth trying. I was interested to see just how different the Southern Hemisphere version would be as well.

The aroma was quite hoppy at first, but in a way that I was not familiar with before. It had a bit of a spicy pepper smell to it. Underneath it had a toasted bready malt aroma. The smell started strong, but got weaker as the beer sat for a bit. I'm not sure about the exact science behind this right now, but it's common for the hop aroma to lessen as a beer sits out.

The appearance of the beer is a dark amber color with a rocky cream colored head. The head was about 1 finger thick, and had moderate retention. The beer was also slightly hazy. It left a decent bit of lacing as I drank the glass.

There was a bit of tangy sweetness on the tip of their tongue, followed by a dull bitterness in the back half of the mouth. This bitterness also had a bit of a pepper quality to it and left a mild hotness. I thought I detected a bit of grapefruit as well. Other than the peppery taste, the beer was similar to the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which was probably the base recipe for the beer.

The beer had a medium body, and was on the higher side of a decent level of carbonation. Just a little bit less carbonation would have felt perfect to me. There was a little bit of coating on the mouth, but not really much. It wasn't dry, but wasn't quite wet either.

Overall, it was good, but not spectacular. Since it was so similar to the normal wet hop beer and pale ale with the exception of the pepper flavor, it didn't have the wow factor I look for in a special beer. It was fairly easy to get down. I kind of wonder how long I'll keep trying special beers from Sierra Nevada though since most of them taste just like the pale ale. Of course, that doesn't extend to the Dogfish Head/Sierra Nevada collaboration beer, Life and Limb. I can't wait to try that out if I can find a bottle.

- Adam

Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA

It's kind of an interesting phenomenon how tastes can change over time. The first time I had the Dogfish 60 minute, I didn't like it at all. I thought it was too bitter, and didn't have the malt profile necessary to balance the beer. That was a few years ago when I first had a Dogfish beer. It wasn't until pretty recently that I gave this beer a fair chance again. Now I'm sitting near the end of a case and a half that were left over from the wedding, and I've become pretty fond of it.

The initial burst of aroma carries a strong hop scent, but it's got a dull bitterness to it, that seems similar to dark chocolate. It's a bit surprising since the beer isn't all that dark, and chocolate usually comes from heavily roasted malts. There is also a grassy hay smell underneath. All in all, it's not the best smelling beer in the world, but there's nothing unpleasant to it.

In the glass the beer has a smooth and deep golden color with a faint hint of ruby. The beer is extremely clear, and the bottle doesn't contain any sediment. A vigorous pour is required to get a finger thick creamy head, mostly white with a touch of caramel color to it. Still this dissipates quickly to a ring of bubbles around the edge of the glass and a dusting across the top.

Although the malt quality of the beer doesn't stand out as particularly strong, it is fairly present. It's not sweet, but butterscotch flavors come through along with a faint roasted taste. In the back of the mouth, the hops come through clearly with a smooth dull bitterness. There's a bit of grapefruit, spice, and a bit of pine. There's also a lasting warmth in the front of the mouth and a dull bitterness in the back.

In the mouth, the beer has a medium body, with a moderate and pleasant level of carbonation. The warmth in the beer seems to come more from a spice quality of the beer than from the alcohol. There's a light smooth coating in the mouth, and a decent wetness to the beer.

It really does astound me just how much my opinion of this beer is changed. Before I would have had to really force myself to get through this beer, now I find it extremely easy to drink. It's not particularly strong, but not exactly lightweight either. At 6% it still has the potential to sneak up on you, even more so if you find it as easy to drink as I do now. With beers like this it's no wonder that Dogfish has manged to become one of the top breweries in the country.

- Adam

Revisited: Sierra Nevada 2009 Bigfoot

So what happens when you let a beer sit for 6 months to a year? Well, generally speaking probably some pretty terrible things. Beers with lower alcohol content tend not to hold up well, but given the right beer with a high enough alcohol content (around 8% or more) it becomes possible. The goal is to gain complexity not found in the fresh brew, and a better blending of flavors. Well, I have a bottle of 2009 Bigfoot from back in February that I'm ready to try out and see what has happened.

The first sniff pouring the beer in the glass revealed a strong fruity scent, which dropped off fairly quickly. Underneath is a roasted malty quality similar to caramel. There's a touch of apple cider as well. Mostly it's got the caramel sweetness to it that I didn't feel came out as much originally.

The appearance is identical to the fresh version, so I'll skip over it.

At the first sip I got a fruity sweetness on the tip of my tongue for just a moment, cherry or apples, but it quickly went away. The hop bitterness took over on the back of the tongue, and was followed by a warmth and a somewhat grassy aftertaste. On the second sip I noticed that the bitterness was more mellow and rounded than I previously remember it being, but I found the flavor slightly astringent. There was a dark chocolate flavor just around the bitterness that I didn't think mixed well. I noticed that if I didn't hold the beer in my mouth, the unpleasant flavors subsided. The fruit loop flavor I had noticed in it with the previous bottle was gone.

The feel of the beer was pretty similar, although I felt the warmth came through more than before, and the carbonation was significantly reduced. Instead of the prickling sensation I had previously mentioned in this beer, there was just a mild tingle on the tongue.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this. After 8 months or so, I was hoping that it would make the beer much better, but I'm actually not enjoying it as much as I did when it was fresh. Granted I didn't exactly keep it temperature consistent, and the flavors have changed quite a bit. However I guess I'm not appreciating the changes as much. I think Dan has a bottle of the 09/09/09 that he's putting aside for us to try in 2012, so that will be an interesting experiment with a beer that's designed to be aged.

- Adam

Magic Hat Odd Notion Fall 09

Wow, so a lot has happened in the last month. I got married... moved... basically it's been busy. Now that I'm starting to get settled in, and have internet in our place, I figured it's time to start posting again. To make things even more interesting, I decided that tonight I'm going to crack a beer open that I've never tried before, and review it as I'm drinking. What's up for tonight is the 2009 Fall version of Magic Hat Odd Notion. Odd Notion is an interesting concept, like Stone's Vertical Epic, each time it's brewed it's a different style, although it seems like Magic Hat does a different one with each season rather than once a year. For Fall this year we have a Belgian Strong Dark ale, one of my favorite styles. I'm sitting here with the bottle, my Chimay glass, and a bottle opener ready to go.

The smell is sweet and fruity, reminiscent of plums and raisins. I feel like there's also a bit of alcohol in the smell, which I found a bit surprising considering that it's only 6.2% ABV. There's also a roasty, syrup, and licorice smell underneath.

The beer poured a fully black color. It's got a deep tan head that initially was a half finger thick, but dissipated quickly to a ring around the glass with a light dusting on the top of the beer. There's tiny bits of lacing on the glass.

The taste initially is a bit sweet and fruity in an interesting way. It's got a hint of banana, but with some taste of a darker fruit mixed in. It's also quite roasty on the front of the tongue, but once it hits the back of the mouth it tastes strongly of coffee and dark chocolate. It's got a lingering bitterness for minutes right on the back of the tongue. And suddenly I want some crackers and cheese. Mmm... smoked gouda and ritz crackers.

It's got a somewhat unusual feel in the mouth. It's very highly carbonated, actually overwhelmingly so. It's got a lighter body too, which is strange for such a dark beer. There's a little coating on the mouth, and a bit of warmth in the throat.

Overall, I'm not sure what to think. Stylistically it's all over the place, but I don't really care about that. It's got a good balance of flavors, nothing stands out too much except maybe the coffee flavors. However I'm not sure about the mix of flavors, and there's a little bit of a medicinal quality to it. I enjoyed it, but not as much as almost any Belgian Strong Dark I've had before. So, it's ok, not great, not terrible.

OBX Happy hour - Oak Aged Un*Earthly

It's a little early to call this happy hour, but I pulled out a bomber of Southern Tier's Oak Aged Un*Earthly Imperial IPA to have after lunch, and it definitely warranted a post. I've been looking forward to this beer more than any other that I brought along on this trip. This is the first brew I've had from Southern Tier, but it comes highly recommended and has a 98 on RateBeer.

Orange and copper in color, and appearing slightly cloudy after the pour, this beer looks rich and full of flavor. There is not much head, just a thin layer of bubbles, quickly disappearing into just a dusting. What is there leaves just a tiny bit of lacing.

The aroma reminds me of some barleywines Adam and I tried this past winter. It is rich and malty with heavy notes of caramel as well as a citrus aroma. There is less hop aroma than I have come to expect from imperial IPAs. As expected there is an oaky smell, not a heavy one, but it is there.

This beer is full of flavor. It starts malty and full of oak, moving slowly towards a piny citrus hop flavor. Still dominated by oak the hops turn to a very bitter after taste. This is a very long finish. As I type it has been over a minute since I have taken a sip and still there is oak and hop on my tongue. The caramel flavor from the malt combined with the balance of hops is what is reminding me of a barleywine. this is extremely well balanced for any kind of IPA. I was definitely expecting more hop flavor.

This is surprisingly light on the tongue, with small sharp carbonation that doesn't stick around for long. Even with the big flavors present here, this is one of the most drinkable imperial IPAs I've had, even more so than the DFH 90 minute, one of my personal favorites. The drinkability is best represented by the fact that in the amount of time it has taken me to do this post, I've nearly finished the bomber.

Overall this beer was not what I expected. Not in aroma, taste or body, but it is, nonetheless, one great beer. What else that I've brought, if anything, will be able to top this?

OBX Happy Hour - West Coast IPA

Hello from Avon, NC! I am down here on vacation this week, and brought with me a pile of beers to try while I bask in the sun on the beach. I've decided to do a few posts while I am down here, to write exactly what I am thinking as I drink these beers. I have a slection of mostly IPAs and Imperial/Double IPAs along with a few miscellaneous other beers.

Adam and I have each spoken about the obsession with hops in American craft brewing. And, while I do still tend to prefer a more balanced beer, it's safe to say that I love hops far more now than when I started drinking beer, and hoppy IPAs and the like are increasingly the beers I turn to as daily drinkers.

So lets jump right in to it. West Coast IPA from Green Flash Brewing is described as being "extravagantly hopped" It weighs in at 7.3% abv, I'm guessing due to adding extra malt to balance out the heavy multi-tiered hopping that this beer underwent. It boasts Simcoe, Columbus, Centennial and Cascade, each added with a certain purpose, each flavoring or adding aroma in a specific way.

This beer pours a hazy copper-brown. There wasn't much head, but what was there left good lacing as it disappeared. I'll tack a picture of the next one, since I've already worked my way through half of the glass while writing this.

Needless to say, the aroma is delightfully hoppy. There is a definite malt characteristic, just a bit of sweet behind a fruity citrus bitter smell. I've been working my way through a lot of popular IPAs lately. Even this is my 4th IPA since arriving in the Outer Banks last night. With that said, this is one of the most appealing.

The flavor is dominated by the citric and pine flavors of the Centennial hops. Eat a grapefruit with pine needles sprinked on it instead of sugar. That is this beer. There's a fuity component to it early on that starts to disappear is it warms up. There is just a hint of the maltiness from the smell, just enough to even things out.

I'm being called away to the hot tub, so I'm gonna wrap this up, The mouthfeel is light, and carbonation tingly and sharp, making it very refreshing, and highly drinkable, in fact, i'm gonna crack open another one as soon as I finish this one. A great overall brew, and quickly becoming on of my top IPAs.

Clipper City Red Sky At Night

When I was in high school Solomon and I always used to joke along with our friend Ben about the Clipper City brand. This was when none of us knew anything about beer, and Solomon's parents would occasionally get stuff from them to drink. Since none of us had ever heard of Clipper City before, I guess we kind of just assumed it was crap. So when I saw Clipper City beer at State Line, I really wasn't all that interested in trying it out. However, when I was reading an article about saisons online, Clipper City's Red Sky At Night came up. It perked my interest up, so I decided to buy it next time I was there.

The beer poured a deep golden color, very clear despite the yeast the bottle is conditioned with. I didn't get any head out of a normal pour. There's just a little dusting of bubbles on the top.

The smell of the beer is a mixture of slightly sweet hay and horse blanket. It's a smell that's both sweet and sour, with some hints of the alcohol as well. I think I smelled a little bit of apple juice in there too. The smell of a saison is generally one of my favorite parts, since there's a exhilarating sort of wildness to it. This is supposed to come from the wild yeast used in making the beer. This is one style that I'm very interested in trying to make at some point.

The taste at first is of grain, a bit sour. It's got somewhat of a biscuit quality to it. I thought I got a touch of white grape as well, but barely noticeable. There's a touch of bitterness on the back of the tongue, but this tastes more like it's from yeast than from hops. I noticed a slight bit of alcohol in the flavor, and possibly some apricot. It also seemed to be a little bit watery.

The beer has a good medium body and a decently strong level of carbonation. There's a nice smooth coating left over the teeth. It's a bit warming in the throat, not surprising since it's a bit on the strong side. It weights in at 7.5%.

Overall it's a good offering for my first beer from Clipper City. It's a decent flavor, but not the strongest, and although it's not the best saison I've ever had it's still very good. It's very easy to drink since it's not overwhelming, but at the same time it would be hard to drink too many because of the alcohol content. If it had a bit less alcohol in it, I could drink them all night. I could definitely stand to go back to this one a few times in the future.

- Adam

Home brewing goodness

One of the things that I really love about the home brew community is just how friendly everyone is of each other. I had a great experience last night that I just felt like sharing.

A few days ago I was browsing craigslist, and stumbled across an ad for a guy trying to get rid of some fresh Cascade hops about 30 minutes away from my house. Not only that, but his price for them was $1 per ziplock baggy. He said normally you can get about 3 oz of fresh hops in one. With how much hops are at the LHBS per ounce, this was a great deal. I contacted the guy and we set up a time for me and Dan to come down and pick the hops.

So last night we leave to pick the hops, and bring him a couple of our most recent home brews. Of course it starts raining while we're on our way over. When we get there we meet the guy, and he's pretty cool. He showed us around his back yard, and told us some guy came earlier from hours away and completely cleaned out over half his vines. Still he had plenty left though, and after chatting with him for a bit, we set to work on the vines. He showed us how to trim the vines back to make it easier to get the hops without killing the plant, and we stood out there in the rain for a about an hour picking hops and talking home brewing with this guy that's at least twice our age. We ended up with a little over 20 ounces of hops... for $6. And today we get to brew a wet-hopped IPA! Awesome.

St. Peter's Organic Ale

I have to confess that sometimes I buy beer more because of the packaging than anything else. Leipziger Gose, Rogue's XS Russian Imperial Stout, and even Anchor Porter to some extent are examples of bottles I picked up because they looked cool. St. Peter's Organic Ale is another bottle that I picked up at least partially for its appearance. It comes in an old-time medicine or gin style bottle, strangely enough made of nearly clear greenish glass. I was a little surprised by this as brown glass is generally considered superior, since it allows less light through. This is important, because beer can be spoiled by UV light, causing it to become light-struck, or "skunked" as it is commonly called. During long shipping times, imported beers especially can be affected by this if the beer is not handled properly.

The whole "organic" thing doesn't necessarily appeal to me in particular, I'm more just interested in how the beer tastes. It does give the brewery a nice niche for people who care about that sort of thing. They also produce a gluten-free beer for people whose dietary requirements would normally keep them from being able to enjoy a beer.

The Organic Ale poured a brownish-golden color, and was crystal clear in the glass. No head at all formed from a normal pour, and there was no lacing on the glass.

The aroma was a floral hoppy smell at first, with a bit of funk underneath. I'm not sure if this was indicative of being light-struck or a normal part of the beer's smell. From looking at what others have to say about the beer it does seem to be fairly common, but that still could be caused by the clear bottle. Either way, it wasn't too strong or terribly unpleasant. In addition, it had some earthen quality to the smell and an underlying sweetness from the malt.

The beer had a smooth taste that seemed strongly influenced by honey on the front of the tongue, but the bitterness of the beer overtook the sweetness nearly immediately. It wasn't that the bitterness was strong or overwhelming, just that the sweet quality didn't last very long in the mouth. I was also reminded a little bit of honeysuckle as I sipped the beer, as it had that sweetness, but also somewhat of a plant-like characteristic. There's a little bit of spice around the edge of the mouth, and no alcohol flavors. The aftertaste moved back to the honey flavor.

It had a fairly light body, with a weaker level of carbonation. What carbonation was there was tiny prickly bubbles. I did think the beer was extremely refreshing though, and had a good wetness to it. It left a bit of smooth coating on the mouth as well.

Overall I did enjoy drinking this beer, and was intrigued by how different the flavor was from anything I've had before. It was very easy to get down, nice and smooth, and incredibly refreshing. While the flavors weren't particularly strong or complex, they worked together well to provide a decent balance. If it wasn't a higher priced import I could see myself drinking this regularly, but as it is I can't really see myself returning to it again. While very good, it has an understated flavor that I just can't see myself craving like I do with other beers, and I could just as easily replace it with a highly drinkable domestic beer. Still, I would recommend trying it at least once.

- Adam

Random News Update

So there's 2 fairly major things that I found out about this week pertaining to beer. First is that this year, Samuel Adams will be releasing Utopias again. This is generally regarded as the world's most expensive commercial beer, retailing at $150 a bottle. Dan and I are already on a waiting list for this beer, so depending on how many bottles are shipped in, we may end up with one. It comes in a special 24-oz bottle shaped like a copper brew-kettle. It's served uncarbonated, and at room temperature.

The other thing I was informed of was that Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada will be making a set of collaboration beers. One is called Life & Limb, the other is Limb & Life. Limb & Life will be released first as a draft beer, and is a lower ABV version of Life & Limb. Life & Limb will be released in bottles only, and is meant to be aged. More info can be found here.

Flying Dog's Kerberos Tripel

Let me preface this review by saying that I am a bit of a fan of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. My interest in Thompson's life, like many others, was instigated by my first and several subsequent viewings of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. So when I was browsing through State Line's collection of domestic micro-brews and noticed a few bottles featuring what appeared to be some of Ralph Steadman's art and a quote from Dr. Gonzo himself, it got my attention. "Good people drink good beer." Never have truer words been spoken, I thought. So after perusing their bizarrely canvased collection i decided on a sampler of the four beers in their Canis Major Series.

Kerberos, named for and branded with a picture of the mythical three headed dog that guards the gates of hell, is a traditional, bottle conditioned, Belgian Tripel. I've had quite a few tripels over the last year and a half, and, while not my favorite style, have always found them to be rich and full of flavor.

This tripel pours a cloudy golden color with a modest half a finger off-white head. I'm sure mine was extra cloudy, as i prefer to pour some of the yeast in with most dubs, trips, and quads. The head slowly faded into just a ring of bubbles around the glass, and left no lacing as i drank.

The aroma is powerful. I could smell it from a distance as I poured the glass. It is massively fruity with overtones of citrus. It reminds me of the smell of dried apricots with a less noticeable apple scent as well.

The flavor initially is very similar to the smell. It is sweet and fruity with a mild citric taste like an apricot. The yeast then starts to hit you on the mid-pallet, again, pouring some of the yeast adds this flavor that I enjoy. There is a bit of a spicy flavor here as well, not much, but enough to get my attention.

Kerberos has a great dry mouthfeel, which I absolutely loved. Overall it started feel like I was drinking a dry white wine, especially considering that apricot is a common flavor in white wines. The carbonation was sharp on the tongue. Had this been a less flavorful beer i could see this really distracting from the taste, but as it stands, it didnt effect my opinion of the flavor.

For a beer that was by no means light in flavor or in body, Kerberos is highly drinkable. The intense flavors mask its 8.5%abv perfectly as it's dry finish begs you to keep on sipping it down. A brilliant and devilishly dangerous beer, to say the least. This is a brewery, and a beer that I will be revisiting often.

-This has been Dan saying: "No point in mentioning these bats, I thought. Poor bastard will see them soon enough."

North Coast Brewing's Old Rasputin

Facebook is well on its way to taking over the world. Even my mom has a facebook profile now, so it's really not much of a surprise that North Coast Brewing has their own facebook page where you can become a fan of the brewery or a particular beer. What was surprising to me was when I stumbled upon their page for the Old No. 38 Stout earlier this week, and found a link to my own blog up there! So having this on my mind, when I made a trip over to State Line last night to pick up some new brews I couldn't resist grabbing a 4-pack of Old Rasputin.

When a beer has an A on Beer Advocate and a 100 on Rate Beer, it's a pretty safe assumption that it's not only tasty, but also a decent representation of the style. I've had a few Russian Imperial Stouts in the past such as Rogue's XS Imperial Stout, Great Divide's Yeti, and Stone's Russian Imperial Stout. My reaction to these has varied pretty greatly from not being able to finish the Rogue XS, to enjoying the Great Divide and Stone brews even though I had to take my time with both. Not knowing quite what to expect from Old Rasputin, I was a little nervous going in.

The beer poured a deep, nearly black hue with a 1-finger light brown head. The head dissipated to a thin layering fairly quickly, but this remaining layer stuck around for a while. As I drank the beer, it left a decent bit of lacing at first, but this dropped off after I got about a quarter of the way through the glass.

My first whiff of the beer surprised me a little bit. One of the things I've come to expect based on the Russian Imperial Stouts that I've had in the past is a blast of aroma when it's first poured, and a decent bit of alcohol coming through in the smell. Old Rasputin however had a moderately strong, but not overpowering aroma, and the alcohol was definitely not forefront. What I did smell was a nice, slightly sweet combination of chocolate and coffee. Underneath this was just a touch of smokiness, and finally just a hint of alcohol. For being 9% ABV, this was definitely well masked.

Having had my nerves comforted a bit by the pleasant smell, I went ahead and took the first sip. What I immediately noticed was a mix of dark chocolate up front in the mouth, a little bit of a nutty quality in the center of the tongue, and a bitter roasted coffee flavor in the back of the mouth. There was a bit of heat left in my mouth from the alcohol, but I didn't really taste alcohol in the flavor. The aftertaste is pretty similar to dark chocolate as well. The flavors are bold, but they mix together well. Even though the bitterness was the dominant flavor of the beer, it wasn't so bitter that it became a chore to drink or needed to be sipped to get through the glass. The sweetness from the chocolate flavors and the nutty quality are also balanced in such a way that the bitterness isn't the only thing to focus on.

The beer had a fairly thick feel in the mouth, as is to be expected with a Russian Imperial Stout. There's a very substantial quality to it. It's moderately carbonated, just enough to leave a nice tingle on the center of the tongue, but not so much as to distract from the flavors. As mentioned before, there was a nice subtle warmth imparted from the alcohol as well.

As with all the other Russian Imperial Stouts I've had, Old Rasputin was definitely not a gulper. It's meant to be savored and enjoyed over a longer period of time than it would normally take to consume a beer. However, unlike the other Russian Imperials I've had, I didn't feel like it was a chore to get through at any point, and felt like I could have had another without getting sick of the flavors. It was definitely the easiest to get down of the Russian Imperials I've had. It had a nice balance, complex flavors, but still didn't completely overpower the palate. I'd definitely recommend this one to others and I can see myself going back to try it again. Another strong offering from North Coast, so I'm looking forward to seeing what else they have out there.

- Adam

Guinness 250th Anniversary Stout

It's always fun when a brewery comes out with a limited edition beer. I tend to see it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try something, and go into it with the expectation that they have put a lot of thought into the recipe. In fact, I pick these up with the expectation that they'll be better than average. Sometimes they are, and sometimes they're a disappointment.

One thing I have noticed is that you really have to keep an eye out to find these limited releases. Although sometimes I'll happen across an article or press release through Beer Advocate or some other beer related website, generally the first time I hear about a special release is when I see it on the shelf at the liquor store. Guinness 250th Anniversary Stout was a major exception to this. They may have even *gasp* advertised that it was coming.

Now Guinness tends to be my stand-by drink whenever I'm going anywhere that finer beers are not sold. Unless you're at the lowest of the low end establishments, anywhere that sells beer is likely to have Guinness in bottles, if not on tap. Although it's pretty thin bodied and not all that flavorful for a stout, it's easy to drink, and there's nothing that I dislike about the flavor. I would even say that I like Guinness. If nothing else, it's one of the easiest beers to get down, and I don't think I've ever thought, "no thanks, I don't want another Guinness, I can't take this flavor anymore." So when I saw the 250th anniversary beer, I figured I'd give it a shot.

To make things a little more interesting, I did a side-by-side comparison of the Guinness 250 with a can of the regular Guinness Draught. It's probably closer to the Extra Stout recipe, but Dan already had cans of the draught from the last time we made black and tans.

The 250 was nearly identical in appearance to the draught. The only difference I noticed was that the head on the 250 was a slightly darker color, more tan, and had a 1 finger rocky head. The draught on the other hand had a head the same size, but was merely off-white and creamy and smooth looking. It's possible that the nitrogen widget in the can affected the appearance of the head. I did also notice that there was much more lacing on the glass with the 250.

The aroma did stand out as a difference between the two. The 250 smelled sweeter, and had less of a roasted quality. It was also stronger than the aroma of the draught. The 250 smelled OK, but not great.

The taste of the two was also slightly varied. The 250 had a more bitter quality to it. The draught was creamy and had a stronger roasted flavor. The flavor of both was not terribly strong though.

The area that the differences stood out the most was in the mouthfeel. Granted, this is at least partially due to the fact that the can had the nitrogen widget. The 250 had more body, although at best this would put it in the "medium body" category. For a stout, it's still pretty thin. It also had a higher level of carbonation and felt sharper. The bubbles seemed to be larger. It was definitely less creamy than the draught. Again, this is probably due to the nitrogen widget. I'm sure on tap the 250 would feel more similar to the standard draught.

Overall, I thought the beer was alright, but it really wasn't anything special. Certainly it wasn't something to really celebrate their 250th anniversary with. Although I liked the thicker body, the carbonation was too high and I actually enjoyed the flavor of the regular draught a little more. I'm just a sucker for roast I guess. The beers were incredibly similar, and that alone was disappointing to me. If I remember correctly, the 250 was also a little more expensive, and there's nothing I've seen in it to justify the additional expense. Unless you just can't resist, I'd say to avoid this one, at least if you're paying for it. I did like it about as much as I like the regular Guinness draught, but there's certainly better beers out there for the same price or less. To be fair, I had a second that was warmer, and it tasted a bit better. The carbonation was subdued a bit, and the roasted quality came out a bit more, although not so much as in the draught still. This was at nearly room temperature, probably around 65 degrees.

- Adam

New Belgium Fat Tire

Fat Tire is a beer I've been hearing about for a while, but I hadn't gotten the opportunity to try it until right now. Yes, I'm drinking it while writing this review. People have been raving about it on Home Brew Talk and I've seen a couple clone recipes, so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Fat Tire pours a hazy golden amber color. It's got a fairly insubstantial foamy white head that's less than 1/4 finger, but leaves a dusting on the top through the glass.

The beer smells very interesting to start off. It's got a subtle malt quality, with some flowery hop scents underneath. There's a somewhat toasty quality to it too. It smells a lot like freshly milled honey malt grains.

The taste is strongly biscuity. It's bready overall, with a nice sweet toasted quality to it. There's a clean hop bitterness in the back of the mouth. I got a little bit of a flavor reminiscent of chocolate just in the back of my mouth after swallowing as well. It's got a nice subtly sour bread aftertaste.

The beer feels bizarre in the mouth too. It's thick and full bodied, but has a tingly sharp carbonation and a creaminess to it all at the same time. It leaves a bit of smooth coating on the teeth as well.

Overall it's a very different drink, but it's really good. It mixes the bitterness of tea, the taste of bread, and overall feel of beer at the same time. It's easy to get down, and really doesn't have an in-your-face flavor. Still it's not weak by any means. Too bad it's hard for us to find out here, Dan had to get this bottle from Seattle.

- Adam

I Am A Home Brewer

Some of the members over at Home Brew Talk put together a video as an homage to the "I Am A Craft Brewer" video shown at the 2009 Craft Brewer's Conference. It's a great video and really captures the DIY spirit of home brewers. Check it out.

North Coast Brewing's Old No. 38 Stout

It's been a while since I've gotten to sit down and do a review. Honestly I haven't been trying out nearly as much lately. Since we started brewing our own beers, I haven't spent a lot on commercial beer. Partially it's because when you have 5 gallons of beer sitting around, it's a little unnecessary to go out and buy more. But it's also a price factor... brewing beer can be expensive. I think I dropped about $70 on ingredients last time I was at the home brew store. When you figure you can normally get about 52 bottles out of a 5 gallon batch, that means it's about $1.35 a beer, or $8.10 for a 6-pack. That's pretty consistent with the price of a commercial beer purchase, and in some cases even more expensive. So at some point, I just gotta say... if you want to see more reviews and less about home brewing on here, send me some money so I can afford beer!

Since the latest batch to go into bottles was a stout, I've got them on my mind. Stouts are one of my favorite styles now, which I still find amusing considering how much I didn't like the first one I tried. Anyway, I tend to go for a new stout before almost any other style unless there's something particular I'm in the mood for. Recently I had the opportunity to try Old No. 38 Stout from North Coast Brewing. North Coast is located in Fort Bragg, CA.

The Old No. 38 Stout is a Dublin Dry stout, and weighs in at 5.5% ABV. It poured a very dark brown, nearly black, with a hint of dark red around the edges. There was a light brown head, about a half finger thick, that dissipated to just a dusting rather quickly. The remains left a tiny bit of lacing, but not much to speak of.

The aroma was a strong roasty, almost coffee-like scent. The smell actually disappeared kind of quickly, until you get just a bit of a smokey smell. This was unusual in my experience, as normally the only smell that would not last throughout the beer is the initial hop aroma.

The taste was good, neither sweet nor bitter. Instead it had a strong roasted taste, with a bit of a sharp bready flavor. There was a touch of burnt flavor as well, but it was a nice addition and not unwelcome. The flavor isn't terribly strong, but definitely wasn't creamy. It was definitely an interesting flavor though, despite the fact that there wasn't a lot to it, simply because most beers tend either towards being sweet, bitter, or balanced between the two, but this one didn't really have any apparent swing towards sweet or bitter. It's hard to describe, but I think of it as a lack of either sweetness or bitterness, rather than a balance of the two. I know that sounds like it could be a bad thing, but it really wasn't.

The body of the beer was towards the heavy side, but it also had a substantial amount of sharp tingling carbonation. The level of carbonation did work nicely for me though. As the style implies, the beer had a dry quality to it. As I've learned from brewing myself, this is supposedly the result of a more complete level of fermentation of the sugars in the beer than normal. In other words, there aren't a lot of sugars left in the beer that haven't been converted into alcohol.

Overall it was a very good brew, and easy to get down. The flavor wasn't overwhelmingly strong, but I also didn't find it watery or weak. It's a flavor that sits well on the tongue. I could see this one becoming a regular for me when I'm looking for a stout, provided that it's available. I'm looking forward to trying more from this brewery at some point, as the Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout is supposed to be excellent.

- Adam

Brasserie Dupont Avec les Bons Voeux

The name simply means "With the best wishes from the brewery Dupont". Originally it was given as a gift by the brewery to their best clients, but with its popularity they decided to commercially sell the beer. It's an unfiltered light beer, in the same style as the famous Saison Dupont, but brewed in restricted quantities. The brewery is still independent and family run.

This beer poured a cloudy golden brown, with some floating white sediment appearing in the glass. There was also a huge rocky off-white head that had amazing retention. Lacing was left all over the glass from the beer.

The smell was somewhat bitter, with a touch of skunk apparent in the nose at first, but really not in an unpleasant way. There was a huge wildness to the smell, grassy, earthy, with some wild flowers mixed in. Spice comes through a bit as well, but it's mostly the smell of wild Belgian yeast. There's always this amazingly natural and wild smell to saisons that I just can't get enough of.

The taste just overwhelms the mouth with the very definition of a wild beer. It's like Ommegeddon mixed with Duvel. There was banana and wild flowers present in the taste. It just had this raw quality to it that's hard to describe. It's really not all that sweet tasting, but rather a nice grassy hop bitterness coats the tongue. Normally I wouldn't like a hop dominated flavor but this beer pulls it off so well. It's just wild and untamed. It's a bit tart tasting, but just amazing.

The beer is light in body, with strong tingling carbonation. It even feels good in the mouth. There's a bit of smooth coating left on the teeth, and some warming when it went down the throat. Overall the feel is just light and a bit airy.

Wow. This was an insanely easy beer to drink. I think saisons may be at the top of my favorite styles, and this is definitely the best I've had yet. It even beat out Ommegeddon, which was one of my favorite beers. It's hard to believe that something this good is only rated #4 on Beer Advocate, but I haven't had any of the ones rated higher yet. It's also pretty hard to believe that this beer was 9.5% ABV, since it barely had any indication of the level of alcohol in it. I don't think beer gets much better than this.

- Adam

Learning experiences Part 2

For those following our adventures in home brewing, you probably know that we had an issue with the fermentation of the stout we've been brewing. The specific gravity of the beer was too high, meaning there were still a bunch of sugars in the beer that the yeast weren't fermenting. The danger with this is that if we went ahead and bottled this beer, the yeast should resume fermentation of the additional sugars in the bottle, and since there would be more sugar than normal, the bottles could explode. These are called "bottle bombs" in the home brewing world, and can be extremely dangerous. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have hundreds of glass shards flying at me when I go to get a beer out of the fridge.

Originally we had tried adding a new yeast packet and some yeast nutrient to the beer. This was the advice given to us by the owner of the home brew store, so we figured it was probably pretty sound. Well, turns out it had no effect. To be fair, we're still not sure that the issue was just that the yeast gave up, it could also have been that there wasn't enough oxygen in the beer for them to reproduce properly and get to the level where they could ferment all the sugars. I'm actually leaning towards this explanation.

Anyway, as a last ditch effort, we decided to make what's called a starter. Basically, it's a concoction you put together to get yeast going, that you then throw in the beer. We got some water boiling, added about half a cup of dry malt extract to it, boiled for a few minutes, and then got it cooled down. Basically following the same procedure as when we make beer, just with a lot less time and no hops. We then put it in a bottle and shook the crap out of it, to make sure there would be plenty of oxygen in the wort. We added a packet of yeast to that, once again using Nottingham yeast. We loosely covered it with foil to keep any nasty bacteria out, and left it overnight to start fermentation. The next day, Dan took the mixture and shook it up again to get oxygen in it once more, then dumped it in our beer.

Sure enough, not long afterwards he told me we were getting bubbles in our airlock once more. In fact it continued to increase over the next few hours, to the point where he had to take the airlock apart and put in a blow off tube instead. 48 hour later, the bubbling is still going and we've had krausen form, so we're pretty sure it's going to finish fermenting just fine. If this ever happens again, I'm sure we're going to make a starter right away instead of using it as a last resort.

Westvleteren 12

It's not the hardest in the world to come by, although getting a bottle isn't so easy.  Someone has to go to the monastery that the beer is brewed at and pick it up.  Thanks to the wonders of the internet, my fiance was able to pick up a bottle on ebay that she purchased from someone in Belgium.  It's also not the most expensive beer in the world, that title is generally given to Samuel Adams' Utopia, which originally retailed for $100 a bottle, but now goes for $400 or more.  However, it is generally considered to be THE best beer on the planet.  It's voted as #1 on both Rate Beer and Beer Advocate, which I think says quite a lot.  The fact that it's also somewhat attainable should be pretty exciting for beer lovers.  While you're likely to pay upwards of $20 a bottle, it's something that pretty much anyone can do at least once in their  life.

Like the 8, it comes in a fairly unassuming bottle, plain brown with no label.  The only markings it has are a ring in the glass neck of the bottle that simply says Trappistenbier, and a bottle cap marking it as the Trappist Westvleteren 12.  The beer is a Quadrupel, which is a strong Belgian style, usually in the 10% range.  It's also supposed to be stronger in flavor than either the Dubbel or Tripel.  I haven't had a lot of this style.  In fact I think the only other Quad I've tried was Ommegang's Three Philosophers, which as I recall I didn't enjoy all that much.

Pouring the bottle into the glass was a little whiff of Belgium.  The smell was fruity, of cherries, apple, and candied sugar.  Around the edges of the smell there's a bit of round hops that have just a bit of bite.  It's a fairly strong smell, but mainly sweet, with little bitterness present.  Underneath was just a touch of roast, but it's faint.

The beer poured a deep brown color, fairly cloudy, and with quite a bit of sediment in the bottom.  There's nearly a finger of yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle, in large white flakes.  There's almost no head, just a slight dusting of off-white head.  The ring of bubbles around the edge of the glass left a touch of lacing.

The taste was initially of chocolate and fruit, with a good candy sweetness, but still some tartness in the mouth.  Towards the back of the tongue, a smooth hop bitterness took over.  The malty chocolate flavor sat just in the middle of the tongue.  I noticed just a hint of alcohol flavor as well, not nearly enough to indicate the 10.2+% that this beer contained.  The flavor was very strong though, absolutely filling the mouth, and leaving a fruity and bitter aftertaste for quite a while.

It's a very full bodied drink, absolutely thick and syrupy.  There's quite a bit of carbonation though, much more than I'd expect from such a thick beer.  It left a filmy coating on the teeth as well.  The beer warmed the throat going down, a much better indicator of how strong it is.

It's definitely a very good drink, and well worth getting your hands on one.  I didn't like it quite as much as the 8, but it's probably more a style preference than anything else.  I'm not sure exactly how old the bottle was, at least 4 months, and probably older.  It would be interesting to see how the flavors change between a fresh bottle and one that's aged.  I can see though why it's earned the reputation it has, although it's not the single greatest beer of my life, it's one that I thoroughly enjoyed, and am very glad to have experienced.

- Adam

We've Moved!

Well after discovering that there's already a blog called the Beer Odyssey, and talking it over with Dan, we decided to change the name of the blog.  We through around a few options and this is the one that stuck.  So from now on we'll be know as the Daily Dubbel.

No, we probably won't be updating daily.  It's just a fun beer related name.

What Makes a Beer?

Last night I was having a rather unusual brew, and it got me wondering what exactly it is that makes beer beer. Is it simply the presence of alcohol, hops, barley, water, and yeast? Is it some particular flavor profile? The process used to make it? Obviously I'm ruling non-alcohol beer out completely. That stuff is just nasty.

It gets a little tricky when dealing with a drink that's labeled as a beer and brewed like a beer, but really doesn't taste like one. Of course, there's a lot of different flavor ranges with beer, from watery to bitter and burnt tasting. There's a lot of room for variation from lagers to ales and hybrids. It just seems a bit unusual when you have a drink that's completely dominated by a particular flavor that really isn't very "beery". For instance, Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock. It's a wonderful drink that's very easy to get down, but when I had it I couldn't help but think to myself that it was more like drinking an alcoholic version of Yoo-hoo than an actual beer. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Anyway, feel free to leave your comments. What do you consider "beer" to be?

If your answer is Bud, Miller, Coors, or contains a variation on the word "light", go read a different blog.

Leipziger Gose

This beer had 2 things going for it right off the bat.  One, it came in a crazy bottle unlike anything I'd ever seen before.  In fact that was at lest 75% of the reason I decided to pick it up.  Second, the name reminded me of a word they always used in one of my favorite shows, Firefly.  I think it was a curse of some sort, but oh well.

There were a few things I didn't know about the beer going into drinking it that I wish I had known.  First, Gose is the style, not the name of the beer.  The beer is made with 50-60% wheat, and has coriander and salt added, making it one of the few styles of German beer that doesn't conform to Reinheitsgebot, the German beer purity law.  Because it's a region-specific traditional beer, it's allowed an exception to the law.

The beer was originally "spontaneously fermented" meaning that it didn't have yeast added to it, and the containers it was stored in were just left open to allow airborne yeast to enter and do their job.  The long neck on the bottle was to allow room for the fermentation, and the bottle would then be sealed by the leftover yeast as it dried out in the opening.  Obviously this bottle wasn't made the same way, but they use a top fermenting yeast now and lactic acid to get the same type of result, and it was sealed with a ceramic flip-top lid.

I found all this very interesting, and had I known it when I drank the beer, it would have drastically changed my expectations.

The aroma of wheat grass was fairly strong on the nose, but there were also hints of lemony citrus.  There's also a salty brine smell, and some spice.  It was a rather unusual combination of sweet and salty smells.

The beer poured a light golden color, and very cloudy.  I'm sure the yeast it was bottled with had something to do with that.  There was a signficant sized white head at first, which dissipated at a normal rate to leave a thin head.  Despite this, it didn't leave a lot of lacing on the glass.

The taste was dominated by wheat, but was also a bit on the thin side.  The saltiness stayed around the sides of the tongue, and I noticed a bit of a metallic quality to it.  The bitterness of this beer was extremely low, even finishing, and I noted that even though I don't like bitter beers, this was a bit weak tasting for me.  However, apparently the lack of hop presence is normal for this style.  There's no trace of alcohol in the flavor at all.  I thought it was similar, if not as flavorful, to Hoegaarden.  It's a bit tart, but not overwhelming and I really didn't notice the spice coming through in the flavor.

The mouthfeel was definitely on the light side, but that should be expected for a wheat beer.  It really wouldn't seem right for a beer with this light of a flavor to have a heavy body.  It's fairly well carbonated too, with nice prickly bubbles.  There's surprisingly a bit of a refreshing quality to it, and it wasn't overly dry.

It was definitely easy to get down, and pretty smooth too.  The flavor wasn't overwhelming by any means, though I now realize it wasn't supposed to be.  However, I did enjoy it.  I could see myself drinking it again... if it wasn't for the cost and scarcity of the beer.  The very cool looking 1 pint 9.4 oz bottle cost a whopping $14.99, making it one of the most expensive beers I've tried yet.  At least the bottle seems like it could be reused, so I might have to fill it with some of my own brew at some point.

- Adam

Learning experiences

This week has been a crazy learning experience when it comes to brewing.  We decided to bottle our Cherry Wheat in the same week that we transferred our stout to the secondary.  We ran into a number of problems with both.

Apparently chopped up fruit is small enough to get into the siphoning tube.  It's also small enough to get through the bottling wand.  Anyone seeing the problem yet?  It's not terribly bad, only a few pieces made it into the bottles.  Still, we like to keep thing light hearted, so we've named it the Chewy Cherry Wheat.  The advice we've been given is to put a nylon bag over the end of the siphon in the future so stuff can't get into the bottling bucket.

And the stout... it hasn't finished fermenting properly.  Our Munton's yeast apparently comes in a smaller quantity than other dry yeast packets, and has a tendency to give out early on fermentation.  Consequently, we had a beer that stopped fermenting while it was still only at about 2.6% alcohol.  So aside from spending way too much time reading everything I could find on yeast, we got some Nottingham yeast and yeast nutrient from our local home brew store, How Do You Brew?  It looks like it did some more fermentation after adding the additional yeast and nutrient, although we won't be able to check for a while to see if it's gotten anywhere close to where we need it to be.  I guess in the future we'll know to either use 2 packets of their yeast or make a starter first to build up the cell count.

Bathroom Brown Ale

The name started out entirely as a joke.  The brewing setup that Dan and I have is basic to say the least, and we haven't gotten into the temperature controlled areas and such that some more experienced brewers use.  Consequently, when we needed a temperature stable area to ferment our beer in that was out of direct sunlight, but still close to the kitchen, Dan's bathroom seemed like the best option.  It actually turned out to be a pretty good place to ferment the beer.  Somehow the name just popped up while thinking about what to call it and it stuck.

In any case, we ended up with a pretty good beer for our first attempt.  It poured a nice reddish brown color, although with almost no head.  With a vigorous enough pour there's an almost one finger head with a light creamy caramel color.  Of course the head dissipated pretty quickly and left no lacing on the glass.  It seems like there are certain types of grains that promote head renention, so in the future we may try using that.  It's also a bit cloudy from being bottled with the yeast, but it wasn't unattractive and there weren't any large clumps.

The aroma wasn't terribly strong.  You actually have to get pretty close to it to notice the smell at all.  What there is had a floral quality, reminiscent of wildflowers or clover.  It's a pleasant and sweet smell, but there's not really a lot going on with it.

The taste was tangy and sweet, with a slight rounded bitterness in the back of the mouth.  It's not the strongest flavor ever but it's pretty smooth.  The one thing we didn't like was the hop choice.  They included Williamette hops because the normal hop for the kit was out due to the recent hop shortage.  Despite the fact that they said it was a suitable hop for the style, we really didn't think it fit as well as it could have.

The body of the beer was moderately light.  It had a tingly carbonation that wasn't strong at all, just a bit of prickling on the tongue.  I personally thought it was a good level of carbonation for the beer but Dan wanted it to be a little more carbonated.  There was just a little bit of coating on the mouth from the beer.

Overall the beer was incredibly drinkable.  We went through most of the 47 bottles we made very quickly.  It was very easy to get down, in fact one of the most drinkable beers I think we've ever had.  We got a lot of compliments for the beer even though it was from a kit, so we were pretty happy.

I'm a bit more excited to see how our next 2 batches are going to work out.  The cherry wheat is in the secondary now, and about ready to go to bottles, and we just made a fairly substantial looking stout that's in the fermenter right now.  Neither one is from a kit, so who knows what it will end up tasting like.

- Adam

New limited release from Iron Hill

One of the local breweries in the area, Iron Hill Brewery, is making a new limited release for Father's Day this year.  As part of their special Bottled Reserve line, this is a 9.5% Belgian style wheat beer.  The 750-ml bottles go on sale June 21st at all the Delaware locations for $18.50 at all their Delaware and PA locations, and is humerously named "Honey Do Wit".  Kind of a high price tag for a single large bottle, but I might have to try a bottle anyway.

Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout

I've mentioned Sam Smith's brewery before, with both the Winter Welcome and the Taddy Porter.  Both were excellent brews, and live up to the strong reputation of the Samuel Smith brewery.  Needless to say I was excited to try the Oatmeal Stout that Dan picked up a while back.  I had mixed feelings about the concept of an oatmeal stout, as I generally don't like oatmeal.  I think it ranks pretty close to the top of the list of disgusting looking breakfast foods that I don't know why anyone would eat.  Still, when it comes to beer, I'll try just about anything, if for no other reason than to say I've had it.

The initial smell of the beer was strongly of oatmeal, chocolate, and raisins.  It has a nice roasty malt base underneath that brought the whole thing together.  Overall the smell was moderately strong... not overpowering, but definitely not something you need to stick your nose in just to get a whiff of.  It actually is a very pleasant smelling beer, and the various components go together perfectly.

 

The beer poured a very dark brown, almost black in color.  It had a nice foamy tanish brown head that was roughly 2 fingers thick.  The head dissipated slowly to a millimeter thick coating, just floating about on the top like sea foam. What head remained left a nice lacing that stuck around for a while.

 

The taste had a nice roasted malt quality, but was not overly sweet.  It more left the impression of roastedness, without the normal sweetness that would be associated with a strongly malty beer.  There was also a dominant oatmeal, and very light raisin taste.   There was a creamy quality to the flavor as well.  The back of the mouth had a slightly more burnt oat taste.  In all, it's very much a mild flavor, neither sweet or bitter.  It's not the most robust flavor ever, but very balanced, smooth, and clean.  It had a nice roasted/burnt aftertaste as well.  Overall, it's a nice earthy flavor combination.

 

In the mouth, the beer had both a moderate carbonation level, and a medium body.  It was a little dry, but still somehow seemed refreshing.  It really is VERY creamy in the mouth.  The only remotely comparible experience I've had is Guinness on a tap right after it's poured.  Still that analogy doesn't seem to do it justice, as it really imparts the experience of eating breakfast.  It's a very substantial feeling.

 

Overall, the beer was just insanely drinkable.  This was one of the easiest things to get down ever.  You can just take mouthfuls of it at a time.  I don't think I could get tired of this, and I really could see myself drinking this one with breakfast if I ever felt the urge.

- Adam

The Bathroom Brown

Bad name. Good beer. Brew more.

Moylan's Old Blarney

Wow, has it really been almost a month?  Time flies when you're engaged.  I guess it's about time for a new review.  Generally I try to stay pretty positive about beers, looking for the good qualities of it rather than focusing on the negative.  However, sometimes you just find a brew that rubs you the wrong way.  Despite the fact that so far I've liked the Barleywine style, and this brew has won numerous awards, Moylan's Old Blarney Barleywine was just one of those beers.  I've noticed that there are some beer geeks out there who just love hops.  The more hop flavor you can pack into a beer, the beer they think it is.  This beer was definitely brewed for those people, and at this stage in my life, I'm not one of them.  I generally avoid IPAs, or any beer that boasts its strong hoppy flavors.  In the end, it comes down to bitterness.  Although hops are important as a preservative in beer and to kill harmful bacteria, one of it's primary functions is to impart bitterness to a brew.  They also can have a drastic impact on the aroma, giving beers the flowery, earthy, pine, or other scents that can be so attractive in a beer.  However, I think sometimes craft beer lovers especially can forget the other ingredients - malted barley, yeast, and water, that are equally important to the flavor and smell of the beer.  I could be wrong, but in my opinion all the ingredients have their own special role to play, and should be balanced against each other to form a quality brew.

And that's enough of my ranting - on to the brew.

The beer poured a hazy brownish-orange color, and sported a small off-white head that dissipated quickly to a thin layer of bubbles.  There was some lacing on the glass from this remnant, but it didn't stick around for long.

The smell was strongly, strongly hoppy, and had a medicinal quality to it that I didn't favor much.  The hops had a pine quality to them, and underneath sat the sickly-sweet smell of alcohol.  It mixes together to have a bit of a caramel smell to it, but cheap caramel.  Dan mentioned that it reminded him of the smell of cow-tails (the candy, not off the animal).

The taste was somewhat lackluster.  It had caramel and alcohol notes to it at first, but was strongly bitter.  The bitter flavor stuck in my mouth, and just wouldn't go away.  There was a metallic quality to it as well, like taking a big swig of the aftertaste I so often complain about with certain Dogfish Head brews.  There doesn't seem to be much of an effort to hide the alcohol in this brew, other than by covering it with unpleasant bitterness.  It's harsh, and hard to get down.

The body is medium, and the carbonation is mild.  Still, I had a hard time focusing on anything but the taste.  Maybe if it had been heavier I would have enjoyed it more.

I couldn't do anything but sip this beer.  Every bit of it was a struggle to get down.  I wouldn't say there was an enjoyable moment to the entire glass.  Dan couldn't finish his, and I didn't really want to.  I did, but it wasn't worth the effort.  I don't really know what else to say about it.  If you love hoppy beers, maybe you should give it a shot.  I know it's one I won't be trying again, and this beer alone is enough to make me skeptical of trying anything else Moylan's has to offer.  I really don't see how this brew managed to win as many medals as it has.

- Adam

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen

Oh my gosh, a beer review!  Yes, I am going to keep going through the beers I've tasted, even if we have gone a while without a real review.  I've been promising to do the Aecht Marzen review for quite a while now, so here we go.

Rauchbier is German for smoked beer.  Part of the brewing process is making malted barley.  To do this, the barley seeds are germinated partially.  This process converts the starches stored in the seed to sugars, which are intended to be used by the plant during the growth process.  However, we need them to make beer (alcohol comes from yeast eating sugar), and thus have to halt the growth of the plant.  This is done by drying the germinating seed out so that growth can't continue, usually by kilning.  The end result is malted barley.  However, back in the old days, they didn't have kilns readily available.  Seeds were either dried out by sunlight, or over an open flame.  Seeds dried over a flame would absorb some of the smoke, and these flavors would come out in the beer after it's brewed.

At some point in history, people decided it was better to dry out barley in ovens or kilns that don't use actual wood burning fire.  For the most part I'd agree with that, as smoke profiles can really dominate flavor.  We wouldn't be able to discover the different flavors in every beer if they all tasted like smoke!  But there are still a few breweries that use this process in their brewing, and it can have some tasty results.  Aecht's Rauchbier is one such beer, which Dan and I have affectionately dubbed "bacon beer".

The beer pours a deep brown with a tan head.  I poured it into a mug, which just seemed fitting for this German-style brew.  The head was big, foamy, and bubbling.  It actually looked like it was churning around the edge of the glass.  It had great retention, and stuck around for quite a while.  The head also left good chunks of lacing all over the glass as I drank it.

The aroma was very unique, and one of the areas where this beer really stood out.  It smells like a campfire.  There's scents of bacon, hints of roast... it's a sharp smell, similar to other smoked foods like bacon or smoked cheese.  Other aromas really don't have room to come out with this strong scent, it just dominates the nose.  It's a mouth-watering smell though, so who's going to complain?

The taste at first has a bit of coffee-like bitterness and a strong roast character at first.  There seems to be some sweetness in there somewhere, but it's dominated by the smokey flavors.  It's actually pretty mellow, neither the sweetness or the bitterness is all that strong.  There's a tangy sensation I noticed around the edges of the tongue as well.  The smoke flavor really stays in the mouth for a while afterwards.  It's a hard flavor to describe, but overall the beer is meaty.

The mouthfeel is thick, but has a high level of carbonation as well.  The beer feels like it's still in your mouth, even after you swallow.  It's really just that substantial.  It's wet, and crisp, but I don't think refreshing is the right word for it.  Drinking this is more like eating a meal.  The beer doesn't coat the mouth like some do though.

Overall I can't see putting a lot of these back at once, just because the flavors are so strong.  You almost need something else to wash it down.  Drinking it actually made me hungry.  I think it really was meant to be paired with food.  Putting it down reminded me of one of those Christmas gift baskets with the different kinds of meat and cheese in them.  I ended up grabbing some aged Irish cheddar to go with the beer and it was phenomenal.  I really loved this one, and I'd definitely go back to it again in the future.

- Adam

Bottling Day

Again I apologize for the lack of updates.  My computer is now fixed, our beer has been bottled, and I'm now engaged.  Basically it's been a busy few weeks.  Last thursday we bottled our first brew, and it's now conditioning in the bottles to build up carbonation.  We tasted a little bit and the hop profile was a lot more dominant this time, so we'll see how it turns out after carbonating and chilling.  It was still tasty.

The bottling process is fairly simple.  After sanitizing all your equipment, you just boil some water and add the proper amount of sugar, mix it all in the bottling bucket, and siphon the beer onto it.  After that's complete and all the sugar is mixed throughout the beer evenly, you use a bottling wand to get the beer into the bottle.  It's basically just a tube with a stopper at the bottom that is held down by the pressure of the beer on top of it.  When you put it in the bottle, the stopper raises, and the beer can flow out.  Then it's just a matter of filling the bottle, capping it, and putting everything away.  Three weeks or so later, the beer is ready to enjoy!  We'll be sure to let everyone know how it turns out, but we're pretty excited about it.

- Adam

Secondary Transfer

Yesterday was the second big day in the brewing cycle. We transfered the beer from the primary fermenter to what's called a secondary. The majority of the beer's fermentation is done now, but in the primary it was sitting on all sorts of nasty stuff, such as yeast and excess proteins that are created during the process. The beer tends to stay cloudy unless it is removed from all this gunk, and so although not necessary, it's generally considered good practice to move it to a secondary. This is a large (5 gallon) glass bottle, in which the beer sit for two weeks to clear up and allow the flavors to smooth out more. From this container, the beer will be transfered to a bucket for bottling, and immediately put in the bottles, where it will carbonate over a period of 3 weeks.

In order to get the beer from one container to the other without disturbing it too much or exposing it to much oxygen, we use a siphon. The beer flows smoothly and slowly through the siphon tube to the other container, without stirring it up much and causing oxidation. If the beer was overexposed to oxygen, it would cause bad flavors to develop. In addition we made sure to sanitize the bottle and everything that would come in contact with our beer, as infections can still take hold and ruin our work thus far.

We also sanitized a shot glass, and snuck a small drink of the beer to taste test. It was rough, and a little on the bitter side, but definitely drinkable, even warm and uncarbonated. We took this as a good sign... if we can see ourselves being able to drink the stuff at it's worst, it should be pretty tasty when it finishes. A lot can happen in 2 weeks, so hopefully the flavors will smooth out, the bitterness will subside some, and we'll have a killer beer.

- Adam

Brew Day

First off I would like to apologize for the lack of reviews in the past couple of weeks.  My computer's video card has died and so right now I have limited access until I can get it repaired.  However, it's been a busy time on the beer front.  Friday of this past week was Brew Day.  Dan and I split the cost of a home brewing kit, and spent this weekend making our first batch of beer.  As such I thought I would talk a little about the brewing process.

We bought an extract kit, which is pretty much the simplest way to brew beer short of the kits where you drop in a carbonation tablet or a Mr. Beer kit.  We wanted to actually experience the process, and have good tasting results, so we went with something a little closer to the full brewing experience.  The kit contained dry malt extract (DME), a can of liquid malt extract (LME), ale yeast, bittering and finishing hops, steeping grains, and priming sugar.  The generic process consisted of cleaning and sanitizing the equipment, boiling 3 gallons of water and setting it aside to cool, rehydrating the yeast, bringing another 3 gallons to 170 degrees and steeping the grains for 20 minutes, bringing the pot to a boil, adding the malt extract, bringing to a boil again, boiling the bittering hops for 60 minutes, adding the finishing hops for the last 10 minutes, cooling the liquid to 80ish degrees, straining into the fermenter, pouring in the yeast, and adding our boiled water until we hit our target gravity for the beer.  All in all, it doesn't sound all that complicated.  Without knowing how it's going to turn out, I'd say almost anyone could handle going through the process.  It gets more complicated as you start developing your own recipes, or move into making the malt from grain yourself rather than using malt extract.

The hard part for us now is the waiting.  The beer is going to spend at least a week in the primary fermenter, then we will transfer it over to the glass carboy for another 2 weeks to settle.  Finally we will mix our priming sugar with the beer in a bottling bucket, and bottle it to sit for 3 weeks while carbonation builds up in the bottles.  In total it will be 6 weeks from the day we brewed our beer until it's finally ready to drink.  We might sneak a taste along the way between now and then, but chances are it will be a little nasty at any point before the time is up.

I'll continue to update on the brewing process as we continue our journey into home brewing, as well as posting reviews of what we try.  I still have quite a list of beers to get through!

- Adam

St. Patty's Day

This year, Dan, Julia, and I decided to spend St. Patty's Day at Stewart's Pub. We've had quite a few good brews there, and they put together a special menu for the day that included Irish food, 5 different kinds of stouts, and 10 kinds of car bombs. Mix that with an Irish band and Irish dancers, and you've got a pretty good night. It was extremely busy and loud, but we did eventually manage to get a table. Despite having been there a few times within the last year, it wasn't until last night that I realized that Stewart's is where I had my first beer. The only reason I realized it was because we sat on the other side of the bar from where we usually end up, and I noticed a particular gaming table that sparked the memory for me. Putting 2 and 2 together, I'm pretty sure that their Highlander Stout is the brew I tried that struck me as so bitter and hard to get down.

By the time we got there, they were sold out of the Irish Cream Stout, leaving the Highlander Stout, Coffee Stout, Vanilla Stout, and Peppermint Stout to choose from. I started the night off with the Coffee Stout, which tasted exactly like it sounds. Julia got the Vanilla Stout, and the sip I tried of it had a much lighter body and was significantly sweeter. With my meal I decided to go back to the Highlander Stout for a second try (take a look at my first blog entry for a bit of background). I was blown away. The body was smooth and creamy, with a nice balance of malty sweetness and roasted bitterness. There was just a hint of alcohol in the flavor, but nothing significant. I'm pretty happy about it, as it really shows I've grown since then. Let that show you all that just because you think a beer is too strong at first, doesn't mean you'll never be able to appreciate it.

- Adam

Stewart's Wind Blown Blonde Kölsch

As Adam has said before, we are pretty fortunate to live so close to more than a few great brew pubs, the closest of which is Stewart's Brewing Company. This was my second trip to Stewart's. During my first visit I tried their Irish Red and their 2008 Barleywine, both of which I enjoyed. This time around I was in the mood for something light and drinkable, and the Wind Blown Blonde sounded like just the beer I was looking for.

The Wind Blown Blonde is a Kölsch, a slightly obscure style, which is usually served in a Stange or what has come to be called a Kölsch glass. A tall, narrow, straight-walled glass, it is also referred to as a "pole" or "thimble." It would seem the style takes its name from the German city of Köln (Cologne) where it was first, and for many years, exclusively brewed.

The beer had a pale golden color to it. It was completely clear, and there was no head to speak of. In fact, I hardly recall seeing more than a few bubbles in the glass.

The smell was mainly of grain. It had a very tight nose, i think, due to the narrow glass and substantial lack of carbonation. There was a definite breadiness to it, though, and a bit of oats (almost the smell of a box of Cheerios). The sweetness came out as I sniffed more, but there was no clear scent to distinguish there.

The taste was sweet, slightly fruity, and had a bit of a honey component to it. As I sipped more, I was reminded of the meade that I have at home, but only by the sweetness that first hits the tongue. The sweetness moves smoothly into a grainy, wheat flavor, which I enjoyed. There was a mild to medium hop flavor on the back of the tongue.

This is where this beer really grabbed my attention. The sweet flavor at first, moving to grainy, and finally to that light hoppiness reminded me of Leffe Blonde. Not Leffe by itsself, however, but with a cigar. Adam, and I discovered this combination a while back, and noticed how much more enjoyable Leffe was when changed by the flavor of a cigar. This has since become a recurring experiment for me, to see exactly how the flavor of a beer is changed by smoking a cigar, which will be obvious in my review of Brooklyn Brewery's Monster Barleywine (coming soon, I promise).

The light carbonation and watery feel of this beer gave it a very thin mouthfeel. It wasn't undercarbonated like I would expect from the look, though.

Overall, I enjoyed this beer. It was light and refreshing, and exactly what I was looking for. I had a second glass, which came with some head on it (about half a finger). Given that this reminded me of the altered flavor of Leffe, I am curious to see what a cigar would do to this beer. I suppose I'll just have to go fill a growler of it and find out.

-Dan