Best of 2009

Ok, so this is a bit overdue, and I haven't done a review in a while, so it's time to look back at the best beers I had in the last year. I'm going to go ahead and say up front that the beers we've been making have been really awesome in my opinion, and have been among my favorite things to drink, but I'm not going to include them since I'm a little biased. So here they are in roughly no particular order.

10. Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout - This beer was basically breakfast in a bottle. It's tasty, easy to drink, has a great roast quality, and makes you feel good about drinking before noon...

9. Clipper City Red Sky at Night - Another saison. While it's not even in the same league as the Avec les bons Voeux, it is MUCH cheaper, tastes great, and definitely worth trying out. It's one of the few beers that I've bought more than once in the last year.

8. Lancaster Milk Stout - I wouldn't want to overlook Lancaster brewing. Even though they might not stand out as much as some of the other beers on this list, the brewery has become one that I trust. I haven't had anything from them that I didn't like. The milk stout is definitely my favorite from them, and my go-to beer when I want something dark, delicious, and easy to drink.

7. Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale - I had a hard time choosing between putting this up or the 09.09.09 Vertical Epic. This beer won out simply because I'll never be able to get the 09 again. It's a black IPA, kind of an oxymoron, but so tasty that it makes up for it.

6. Dogfish Head/Sierra Nevada Life & Limb - This was a special collaboration between the 2 breweries that was made in very limited quantities. I was lucky enough to have had it twice once in a bottle that Dan managed to get and the other time on tap at Dogfish's restaurant. It was absolutely worth the trip to have this beer.

5. North Coast Old Rasputin - I really like dark, complex, flavorful beers. Old Rasputin fits that description perfectly. It's a great Russian Imperial Stout, a style characterized by high alcohol content and bold bitter and roasted flavors.

4. Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA - Considering that I live in the same state as Dogfish Head, it's not surprising that I've been there a few times. I've become much more of a fan of hops this year, and Dogfish's 120 Minute is one of the best examples of a IIPA.

3. Westvleteren 8 - This beer was amazing. It was complex and delicious. My only complaint about this beer is how hard it is to get.

2. Duvel - It's still my default favorite beer, and I toasted with it at my wedding. I can't imagine ever getting sick of this beer.

1. Avec les bons Veoux - I don't think there's a style that I like more than a saison, and this is the definitive example of the style in my opinion. It's absolutely spectacular. I really can't get enough of this beer.

So after putting this list together I realized I really need to start reviewing beers on here again. I was actually having a hard time remembering everything I've had this year, and I didn't write anything about a good portion of the things I've tried. It's a shame because I'm sure I missed a few beers that really deserved to be on this list.

Random home brewing updates

There's nothing like being snowed in all day to get a person thinking about beer. We're having a bit of a blizzard in Delaware, so my day was spent inside with Julia watching TV and making beer out of leftovers from previous batches. Today's brew was 5 gallons of English Mild, which I chose because it's a easy to drink, low alcohol brew that would work well with the extra Fuggles and East Kent Goldings hops I had. It also shouldn't take long to get ready since it's such a low ABV style. I probably should have done some more research before making up the recipe, as I'm thinking the chocolate malt I used wasn't the best choice. It's got a strong coffee roast smell even in low quantities (I only used 1/4 lbs in the whole batch), and I really was only going for the color. Maybe next time I'll try some debittered black. We'll see how it turns out, I'm not too worried that it won't be easily drinkable.

The smoke beer Julia got me for Christmas is coming along. It's been in the fridge fermenting for the past month and a half. It's a lager so it needed to ferment at lower temperatures, but the fridge was probably too low. It's warming up right now for a diacetyl rest for a few days before I bottle it and stick it back in the fridge for a few months. Diacetyl is a compound that is generally present in all beers, but normally in low quantities. If the content in a beer gets too high, the beer starts to develop buttery characteristics. Letting the beer sit on the yeast for a few days at warmer temperatures allows the yeast to clear up this compound and get rid of the flavors.

Dan and I got to watch Beer Wars last night, a documentary about craft breweries and their competition with the big 3 brewers in the US. It was an interesting look at the industry and the differences in goals between the average craft brewery and the big guys. At one point they mentioned that between the 3 companies, Bud, Miller, and Coors spent 1.5 billion dollars on advertising in a single year. I couldn't help but think what would have happened if they had spent that money trying to make their beer actually taste good instead of trying to maximize profits.

- Adam

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