Dark Horse Brewing Tres

Well, I'd say this was a fairly successful trip to the beer store. We ended up getting a bunch of stuff that I'll have to keep myself from drinking for a very long time, and a few things for the near future. Among the more exciting finds were a bottle of Dogfish Raison D'Extra, Beer Geek Brunch Weasel, Fantome Saison, Old Numbskull, and Le Saint-Bock Enigma. We also had Ballast Point Victory at Sea Coffee Vanilla Imperial Porter on tap, which was absolutely fantastic. If I ever find a bottle of it I'm definitely getting it.

Up for tonight though, we have Dark Horse Brewing's Tres, a blueberry stout. This beer pours a thick, black color, and looks almost like motor oil coming out of the bottle. It has a 1 finger dark tan head, somewhat fluffy in appearance, that began dissipating quickly.

Immediately on opening the bottle, I noticed a scent of blueberry. This surprised me a bit since I really expected the blueberry to be completely buried in the stout. This aroma lingered underneath for a while, but gave way to some more traditional scents of roast and coffee.

The flavor has a significant roasted flavor, completely dominating the profile. A slight dull bitterness lingers in the mouth after swallowing for quite a while. I can taste the blueberry on the very tip of my tongue, but only just slightly. It does add something, but as I expected the flavor really just isn't strong enough to come through the bold stout flavors. Other than that, there's just a bit of dark, unsweetened chocolate that I noticed.

The mouthfeel of the beer is a little bit of a weak spot for it. The carbonation levels are fairly high and sharp, and actually gives it a light bodied feeling. It was a little bit off from what I expected given the dark and thick appearance of the beer. There's just a touch of warmth in the throat, probably more from the carbonation than the alcohol level since it's only 4.5% ABV.

Overall, it did taste excellent, with bold and robust flavors as well as a little subtlety from the blueberries. The carbonation was definitely a bit too high for my tastes, and maybe was a little distracting. It absolutely was worth having, and surprised me with how well the blueberries actually worked in such a dark beer.

- Adam

Wort Chiller!

I'm pretty excited right now. I just got my new wort chiller in from ebay. After my last brew session I decided it was an absolute necessity. I did my first full-boil in my new 7.5 gallon pot, and it took forever to cool the beer down. Over 2 hours of swapping out cold water in the sink, stirring constantly, and using every bit of ice we had in the house, and I was only able to get it down to around 80 degrees. Hopefully it turns out well, I'm using a Belgian yeast strain that works well at higher temperatures so I'm not too worried about it. In any case, the wort chiller should do some wonders for cooling the beer down quickly.

I also just finished up with reading Designing Great Beers. I have mixed feelings on this book, since there is a lot of good information in it, but it's usefulness seems very limited. Half the book is on the basic ingredients, how they are used, and a lot of formulas to allow the homebrewer to get an accurate measurement of what they're doing. The only problem with this part is that most if not all of the formulas are easily done for you by any sort of brewing software. The second section of the book is an in-depth look at particular styles. The information in this section goes through the various beers that made it to the final round of the National Homebrewer's Competition in 1993 and 1994, and tells you what malts and hops were found in the different styles, and in what percentages they were used and how they were added. The main complaint I had about this section was the range of styles they failed to cover. Considering the format, I would have expected them to cover all of the BJCP styles that are part of the competition. However, they completely ignored every Belgian style, smoked beers, and other various styles. For the styles they covered, the information is great, but you could get similar information yourself by browsing the recipe database over at homebrewtalk.

I just started reading Radical Brewing as well. So far so good, this book is written in an entertaining and informative fashion, and I'm hoping it will give me some inspiration for some crazy beers. It's been a few months since I've come up with any particularly interesting new recipes. Dan did just come up with a Honeydew Kolsch, which should be pretty delicious. Now I just need to remember to write something up the next time I drink something tasty.

- Adam

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

Green Flash Double Stout

I've had beer from Green Flash before, as Dan picked up a bottle of their West Coast IPA a while ago. They're a fairly small brewery based in San Diego. I wasn't sure exactly what a double stout was at first, but when I first opened the bottle it became obvious from the smell that it was an imperial stout.

The beer poured a deep, dark, opaque black. It had a substantial head, 4 fingers thick, of a dark tan color and large, rocky foam. The head receded slowly, leaving excellent lacing on the glass.

The aroma of the beer is strong and powerful, of dark malt, syrup, and alcohol. It's hard to find the right word to describe the quality of the smell this beer has, so I'd just say "thick". It's a very characteristic smell for an imperial stout.

The initial taste was dark, burnt sugars and thick caramel, with a strong bitterness in the back of the mouth. There was a bit of a grainy taste in there as well. The profile is mostly on the bitter side, both from the strong coffee flavors and slightly grassy hops. The flavor is extremely rich, but still has a smoothness to it. The roasted flavors stay in the mouth for a long time after swallowing. It's kind of a musky, earthy flavor that blends well with the roastiness.

The beer feels thick in the mouth, with light carbonation. There's a noticeable warming sensation in the throat from the alcohol. The beer leaves a little stickiness in the mouth, but not much and it doesn't seem to build up.

It's a good example of an imperial stout. It's definitely a sipping beer, not to be drunk quickly, but the flavors are smooth and well blended. I certainly enjoyed it, although it isn't a beer I would plan on having on a regular basis. It's not my favorite style, but a nice one to have every once in a while.

- Adam

Wild Goose Oatmeal Stout

One of the things I've started to learn while brewing is the expectations of a particular style. The generally accepted list of guidelines for a style comes from the BJCP, or Beer Judges Certification Program. These are often the standards used to judge beers in competitions on both the home brewing and professional level. A copy of these guidelines can be found here.

Without going off on too much of a rant, there's a limited usefulness for a set of guidelines like this. It's helpful when trying to categorize a beer, or to form the basis for what to expect from a style, but I'm the kind of person who appreciates a beer on its own merits, so not fitting within a particular set of rules won't make me like it less.

I mention this because when I first poured this beer, I saw that it had a slightly frothy head, about a finger thick, and tan in color. This is completely within the style. However, it started to dissipate right away, and didn't last very long. I was a bit disappointed by this at first, but thought about it and it's really only because I was expecting something else. In this case, knowing what the guidelines for the style are almost made me enjoy the beer less than I would have otherwise. The beer is very dark, near black, but still allows ruby highlights to come through.

The beer has a roasted smell, but sweet rather than bitter. It's mild, with hints of oatmeal. I really didn't detect any discernible hop character, just a slightly sweet mild coffee aroma.

The roast quality comes through on the tongue as well, with very smooth and mild toasted flavors in the front of the mouth, and a touch of bitterness in the back. It's almost like a very smooth and mild cup of coffee. There's just a little bit of sweetness when the beer is first sipped. I detected a bit of graininess to the flavor as well. It strikes a good balance with the mild flavors and slight bitterness, which seems to come mostly from the grains rather than the hops. It's absolutely a malt-heavy profile, but very pleasant.

The beer has a nice medium body with slight carbonation. There's a decent bit of coating in the mouth from it, and grows a little sticky even. It feels a touch on the dry side, but still very smooth.

As a whole, this is a nice, mild, and easily sessionable beer. It has a good strong flavor profile, pleasant aroma, and goes down smoothly. My only complaint would be the stickiness that builds up in the mouth as I got through the glass. I really enjoyed the smooth roasted qualities that it had.

- Adam