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