Waxing Bottles How-To

I've been in homebrewer mode a bit this weekend. I got my 1st Anniversary Barleywine transferred over to secondary, ordered a kegging setup, and worked on a little project I have going for Christmas. I decided that this year I was going to make something special for some of my beer-loving friends, and settled on a spiced Belgian Strong Dark Ale. Wanting it to look a bit more special than plain brown bottles, I opted to wax the caps. I've always thought that this looks nice on a bottle of commercial beer, and Brewmaster's Warehouse carries multiple colors of wax beads. Since it's for Christmas, I went with red. I didn't see much information about this process for brewers, so I decided to put together my own how-to.

Step one was melting the wax. Seems pretty simple and obvious,

but one of the things I learned was that you can't put wax in the microwave to melt it. Wax is oil-based and has a fairly low flash point, so it can catch fire easily before it's even finished melting in the microwave. Instead, candle makers suggest using a double-boiler. That's basically a pot inside a pot. You put water in the outer pot, and it serves as a buffer between the inner pot and the source of heat that keeps it from scorching whatever is inside. Since I didn't have a double boiler, I decided to use a glass jar in a pot of water. Glass can shatter if it changes temperature quickly, so I let it sit with the wax beads in it while the water was warming up as well. You could also use an empty can, but make sure you use something you won't mind getting dirty, because it's very hard to clean the wax out afterwards. You definitely don't want to put it directly in a good pot.

The wax took half an hour or so to melt fully. I kept the heat on low after the water started boiling, and then stirred with a bamboo skewer we had lying around. Then it was time for step two, dipping the bottles. This was a pretty simple process, and only took 20 minutes or so for two cases of bottles. Basically you just have to flip the bottle upside down, let it sit in the wax for 10-15 seconds, then let the excess wax drip back into the jar. Very easy.

And then it was time for step three... well, actually there was no step three. That's it, sit back and relax. It's a nice way to present the bottles, and in theory it has some advantages for the beer. Supposedly, it can help reduce problems with oxidation, since the wax can keep oxygen from getting into the bottles as it ages. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but it certainly can't hurt. Considering the strength of this beer, it's possible that whoever gets it could let it sit for a few years, and hopefully this will allow them to age it optimally with the least off-flavors possible.

- Adam

The Woods Monomoy Kriek

Cisco Brewers is another brewery I haven't seen or heard anything about before. I happened to see it while at the liquor store and on a bit of a whim decided to give it a shot. From their website, it appears that Cisco is a combination brewery, winery, and distillery. Their main product is a vodka, but they produce a fair number of craft beers as well. The Woods seems to be a series of wild ales, and this one is a 2 year old Flemish-red aged for 10 months on sour cherries. And what that means is a sour beer, something I've been getting more into lately.

I have had some sour beers that are pretty mild, but this is not one of them. Just from smelling it you can tell that there's a strong sour quality, which presents itself in the taste as a puckering lactic tartness. It's a deep reddish brown, cloudy, with pretty much no head. It's got a fairly high level of carbonation (maybe even overcarbonated), which combined with the dryness of it, makes this beer seem to suck the moisture out of the throat. However, this beer is not over the top sour either, but presents itself with a nice balance of acetic nature and other wild flavors. The tartness seems to come from the cherries as well.

As I haven't had very many sour beers yet, it's hard to really judge this beer against another. However, I did find it to be tasty, and enjoyably tart without being sickening. It's even a bit refreshing despite it's dryness. It does seem to wake you up a bit. Dan says it's like getting kicked in the face by a cherry ninja. I think it's like licking a sour-patch kid. While it's not the best sour beer I've had yet, it holds its own, and it certainly seems worth a try.

- Adam

The Bruery Saison Rue

I haven't had a lot from The Bruery before. I've known that they have a reputation for producing very good beers, but most of the time when I've headed to the liquor store, I've had something particular that I wanted to pick up. As it happened, everything I went to pick up this last time (Dogfish Head Poppaskull and Alaskan Smoked Porter) was not available. After a little searching around, I thought Saison Rue from The Bruery was the way to go.

First off, I have to admit that I failed epically at pouring this beer. I let it go until the head reached the top of my glass, but it just kept growing, with driblets of wasted beer cascading onto my counter. As a result, I had a thick layer of marshmallow-fluff head sitting on top of this hazy amber brew. Be warned that this beer supports a massive head that sticks around and clings to the glass, so pour with caution!

The first thing I noticed was the slight pepper spice aroma interspersed with wild fruitiness. The taste is a balance of light hay and grass, a touch of lemon, a surprising bit of sweetness, and a lingering suggestion of pepper. Underneath I also caught a hint of toast or bread in the beer.

I didn't find the beer to be as dry as some saisons, with the sweetness of it enhancing the fruity quality rather than being cloying. The body was somewhat heavier than average, with a lower level of carbonation that startled me at first. I should note of course that this was a welcome change in this beer and not at all unpleasant.

I found this saison to be a refreshing deviation from the normal within one of my favorite styles. Things that I would normally find a little off-putting, like a lack of bitterness, some sweetness, and a heavier body actually meld together in this beer, leaving me with a feeling of sublime balance on a razor's edge.

- Adam

Now on Twitter

That's right folks, The Daily Dubbel is now on twitter. Tweet us using @dailydubbel, or just follow to get the latest blog updates. I'll also be tweeting whatever I'm drinking at the time, so things will probably be making an appearance on there that don't ever get to the blog. It should be a good time.

- Adam

Iron Hill & State Line Events

So if you read the last post, you would know that yesterday there were two beer events being held locally, One was the Cask and Ye Shall Receive event at Iron Hill Brewery, and the other was a Sierra Nevada tasting at State Line Liquors.

We headed over to Iron Hill for lunch, where they had a number of hoppy beers from around the area on tap. This included IPAs from Sly Fox, Victory, Flying Fish, Troegs, Stewarts, and Yards, as well as a IIPA from Iron Hill at their Newark Location. Although we didn't get to try every beer, I thought the highlights of the trip were the Iron Hill IIPA and the Stewart's IPA. The Iron Hill beer was a creamy hop bomb, and the Stewart's offering was toasty with a strong bitter backbone.

After lunch, we killed a few hours of time, then headed over to State Line

for their Sierra Nevada event. This was a side-by-side tasting of the Northern and Southern hemisphere harvest ales, the Estate Harvest, Celebration, and all 4 30th Anniversary ales. These are the Charlie, Fred & Ken Bock, Fritz & Ken Imperial Stout, Jack & Ken Barleywine, and a Grand Cru. I did find that the 3 harvest beers and Celebration all tasted fairly similar, almost like they recycle the same recipe with slight variations. The Bock I thought was almost undrinkable, being cloyingly sweet with medicinal qualities. The stout was in my opinion the best of the series, being a strong and flavorful example of the style, and the black barleywine held plenty of interest as well. The Grand Cru was ok, but certainly didn't seem worthy of the "best of the brewery" title the Sierra Nevada rep gave it.

We finished the evening at Dan's with 2 beers I had been looking forward to. One was a bottle of Sam Adam's kriek that he picked up at the brewery while at the Belgian Beer Fest, and the other was our own bottle of oak-aged imperial brown. I was thoroughly disappointed by the Samuel Adam's beer, as it was supposed to be a cherry lambic, but didn't have any of the sour, tart, or lactic qualities normally associated with a buggy beer. Instead it tasted very similar to a spritzer, the sweet carbonated drinks I used to get as a kid. However, our oak-aged beer was incredible, with the bourbon and oak smoothing out some of the alcohol heat we had found in the original version. Considering the alcohol content, it was easy to drink and absolutely delicious.

- Adam

This week in beer

There a quite a few beer related events going on in the next week or so that I'm excited about. Today, November 13th is Iron Hill's Cask and Ye Shall Receive event, and State Line Liquor's Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary tasting. The Iron Hill Event (which I will be attending) is at all their restaurant locations, so you can see their website for information about the specific beers in cask. They are having IPAs from Yards, Flying Fish, Troegs, Sly Fox, Stewart's, Victory, and their own cask IIPA at the Newark location. Over at State Line, they have all 4 Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary beers on tap, are hosting a Sierra Nevada rep, and will have hot dogs, all for $10 a person. The Iron Hill event starts at Noon, and the State Line Tasting is from 5-7pm so I might be hitting both.

Next Saturday will be a private event hosted by one of Dan's friends, called Night of 100 Bottles. The idea is that this guy has a bunch of beers that are starting to get a little old, so he wants to get rid of them all with a bang. He's having over 15 guys or so, putting 100 beers in his fridge, then each person gets a beer, and as they run out they have to drink whatever is next in line in the fridge. No matter what it is or how good or bad it may taste, they can't get their next beer until they finish the one they've got. It's a fun game of Beer Russian-Roulette. Hopefully with no "silver bullets".

Next Sunday (the 21st) is the premiere of Brew Masters, the show on Discovery with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head. It is set to air at 10PM EST, and Dogfish has posted a giveaway for party packs for the show's first airing.

Finally on Black Friday, Capone's is hosting their annual Black Friday Draft Promo. I don't have details yet on what's going to be available, but this is a huge event every year, and people are recommended to get there hours in advance just for a chance to get a seat at the bar. Exciting stuff.

Stone Vertical Epic 10.10.10

If you've been reading for a while, you're probably familiar with the Stone Vertical Epic series. If not, the gist of it is that they come out with a new beer every year from 2003 until 2012 on the date where the year, month, and day are all the same number. These beers are designed to be aged until 12.12.12, where they can all be tasted in a "vertical" session going from year to year. This year's installment was released on 10.10.10. Well, sort of. Due to some issues either with the brewery or the distributor, it took weeks for it to make its way out to the east coast, meaning we didn't get our hands on a bottle until around the 24th, a full 2 weeks late.

This year's installment is a Belgian Strong Pale Ale, with triticale, chamomile, and a blend of Muscat, Gewurztraminer, and Sauvignon Blanc grapes. What this should translate to is a beer with some white wine qualities. Initially the nose displays similar qualities to Duvel, with a touch of grape and a surprisingly wild Brett-like character. Since I don't believe the yeast strain actually contains any Brett, this does seem a little odd, but certainly not unpleasant.

In the mouth the beer again shares qualities with Duvel, but does diverge enough to be distinguishable. For instance, I detected a bit of tartness evoking memories of past adventures in white wine drinking. Given my current proclivity towards beer, this wouldn't necessarily be a pleasant thing, but in this case it was not entirely unwelcome or unexpected. A blunt bitterness sat on the back of the tongue, quickly giving way to a sour aftertaste. Combined with the relative lightness in the mouth and high carbonation, it has a rather effervescent nature.

However, there is a distinctly derivative nature to this beer as well. While Duvel is generally considered the primary example of the Belgian Strong Pale, I felt that if the grape and chamomile characteristics of this beer were removed, it would be an exact duplicate. Fortunately this is not the end of the story for this beer, and hopefully in the years to come the flavors will meld, and the harshness that it currently displays will subside. It isn't the standout beer that I though the 09.09.09 was. Perhaps by 12.12.12 it will be.

- Adam