Another random update

Every so often I get the urge to try and cellar something. It hasn't really worked out for me too well so far since I generally like to drink whatever new beers I have in my house. It's difficult to keep them around when I'm running low on new or interesting beers to drink. Now that I'm brewing pretty regularly I haven't run out of beer in a while, so I figured it might be easier. Last night I picked up a few things I'm hoping to keep for a while. To start, I got a bottle of Brewdog's Paradox Islay Batch 009. This beer is already aged a bit, from 2008 or so I believe. I found it collecting dust in State Line. I also picked up a few bottles of 08/09 Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout from Caps & Corks, since they had 2 bottles hidden in the back. Dan and I have decided to check around whatever liquor stores we can find to see if we stumble on anything rare or interesting. So far it hasn't been too intense, these 2 beers aren't particularly old or rare. Of course, they also weren't too expensive. At some point we'll have to check some other good shops so I can build up my collection.

Brewing seems to be going well still. I'm sipping an interesting brew I came up with, an attempt at a marshmallow stout. There's no actual marshmallow in it, just lactose and vanilla with a smoky stout base. It's not quite what I was hoping since there's not a lot of sweetness to it, but it does have a nice smooth & easy to drink quality. I could see myself making this again with a few tweaks. It didn't have much head, so upping the carbonation level and adding some carafoam would be a good start. I think it could probably use some more vanilla as well. I'm not even sure how much I ended up using, it was something in the realm of 1 tsp at 10 minutes in the boil and another 2/3 tbsp at bottling. Adding it earlier on was definitely a good idea since it was extremely strong tasting after bottling until it blended in a bit, then it practically disappeared. I'm not sure if more lactose would be a good idea or not. It may also be a bit too bitter on the back end. I could probably stand to take out the chocolate malt, but if I did I think some more special roast or smoked malt would need to take it's place. Well.. we'll see.

- Adam

River Horse Hop Hazard

So I picked this up partially because of the artwork on the bottle - which is pretty awesome, and partially because it was called Hop Hazard. I actually thought it was an IPA at first, but it's not. It's actually an American Pale Ale, so I feel kind of cheated already. I pretty much don't like pale ales a lot.

The beer poured with a substantial head, about 2 fingers of thick foam. Head retention on this seemed pretty good, it lasted for a while and stuck to the side of the glass. The beer was a CLOUDY deep tan. They weren't kidding when they said it was unfiltered... our beers have turned out much clearer than this. It's almost unattractively cloudy.

The smell is balanced between hops and malt. I was expecting a lot more hoppy smell from a beer called hop hazard, but it's still pleasant. It had a mix between grassy and citrus hop aromas, with a sweet caramel smell to it. There's also a little grainy aroma that comes through.

The taste is a bit sweet and citrus at first. I got a somewhat substantial bitterness in the back of the mouth. It's a more hop-dominated flavor than I was expecting based on the smell. There's also a bit of a weird tang to it on the tongue. It's decently balanced, although I really get a lot more bitter from the hops and not a lot of the flavors you would generally associate with hops. The bitterness really sticks on the tongue and lasts for a while. It kind of reminds me of unsweetened tea. After a while the citrus starts to come through in the aftertaste as well, with a distinct orange flavor. It's almost what you would get from a beer with a slice of orange in it.

The beer has a good level of carbonation, in the medium-heavy range. It has a substantial heaviness to it for a pale ale, definitely a medium bodied beer that might be slightly on the full side. It's a bit much stylistically but I'm not holding that against it. It seems like there's little to no coating in the mouth from the beer, and just the slightest warmth from the alcohol.

I'm a bit torn on this beer. Stylistically it's all over the place. At 6.5%, it's high on alcohol for a Pale Ale. It's pretty much as dark as a pale ale can get, it's cloudy, and despite what they claim on the bottle it doesn't taste particularly balanced. On the other hand, I usually find pale ales bland, boring, and flavorless. This actually tastes decent, although not my favorite, and it's definitely not bland. I don't think I'd buy it again, but if someone offered it to me I wouldn't turn it down. I certainly wasn't looking forward to being done with the glass and moving on to something else. With me, for a pale ale, that's really saying something.

- Adam

Revisiting

So today is a day of re-visitation for me. For the first time ever we're going to make the same recipe we've already made once before. Depending on the availability of cherries, we're going to make the Chewy Cherry Wheat again, or (more likely given how early in the year it is) we're going to make Aberinkula, our Imperial Brown Ale. This is my favorite beer we've made to date, and I'm really looking forward to seeing if we can replicate what we made the first time. This is the same beer we recently sent to the National Homebrewers Competition, which should be judged this week. It involved 8 lbs of grain, 6 lbs of extract, and 5 ounces of hops.

Meanwhile while I wait for Dan to get home so we can brew, I'm going back to the Dominion Oak Barrel Stout. I had this beer at a Superbowl party in 2009, and remembered that I really enjoyed it. I hadn't had it again since, and I wanted to see if it stacked up to the memory of it. Looking back at the review I posted, it actually is even better. There's no oily sensation to it or fast-food smell. The taste is still really good. I'm surprised a little bit, since I figured in the last year my palate would have changed at least some. All in all, it's nice to be able to go back to something and just enjoy it.

- Adam