Old school vs. New School IPA smackdown

Because I'm not going to a Halloween party, this beer geek is going to spend his Saturday night with a couple India Pale Ales. One is Anderson Valley Hop Ottin' which I consider to be and "old school" west coast IPA and the other Lagunitas IPA, what I consider to be "new school."

First up is the Anderson Valley, which pours beautifully with plenty of carbonation that settles to a quarter-inch thick head with lots of Brussels lace. Hop aroma is a little restrained; but a good amount of complex hop flavor is present, with a good dose of peppery, citrusy hops and resiny bitterness in the finish. Very smooth. Caramel malts do well in balancing this IPA, until it warms up and the last sip is quite bitter!

The Lagunitas IPA is much more refined; less rustic I suppose. It appears to have been more tightly filtered. It pours with even more carbonation than the Hop Ottin' which creates some lace (though not as thick), but lacks head retention. The Lagunitas smells different; it's citrus, but particularly orange. Very smooth and dry enhancing quaffability which fits the brewery's motto of "life is short, don't sip!"

I enjoyed both of these beers, but I think I liked the Hop Ottin' a little more. The Lagunitas was easy to quaff, but I enjoyed the complexity of the Anderson Vally IPA a little more.

Maybe not the best IPA, but darn good so far

I should probably mention (as I have on Twitter) that I brewed a Brewer's Best kit from LD Carlson about a week ago. I decided to brew an IPA at the last minute on a Sunday and the only homebrew shop that I know of that was open in my area didn't have all the ingredients for the recipe I had created. I really wanted to get a brew going (because I had the time, which seems harder to come by these days) so I went with a Brewer's Best India Pale Ale kit. I've brewed a few of these kits before and I've always been pleased with the quality. I liked that the recipe included Victory malt and Columbus and Cascade hops. I actually used some of the aroma hops (Cascades) earlier in the boil to extract more bitterness.

I racked to the secondary yesterday and it seems that my adjusting the hops may have been a good choice as the hop character was a little more assertive than I expected. I could totally pick up on the toasted character of the Victory malt, too. I modified the recipe further by dry hopping with a little more than two ounces of Simcoe hops, which should hopefully add a little more hop spice up front in this brew. I plan on leaving the beer in the secondary as long as it takes for the hops to settle out. The waiting will be hard.

Who says getting old is no fun?

I wasn't going to have any beer tonight, but I felt like having a night cap and succumbed to a bottle of Bell's Third Coast Old Ale that's been sitting in my basement and was bottled on September 5, 2008.

This Third Coast Ale is hard to describe. It is a very malt-forward beer, but still manages to have a surprisingly assertive hop character for its age (at least towards the finish.) The flavor of massive amounts of caramel malts mingle quite well with the woody, earthy hops and it makes me wonder if Bell's added massive amounts of Kent Goldings to this brew. There's toffee and burnt caramel flavors that get slightly astringent, before a peppery bitter finish that is supported by more malt. As this beer warms up its complexity gets a little easier to pin down; marzipan and apricot flavors emerge with just a hint of tobacco in the aftertaste.

I gave this beer average marks on Beer Advocate last November, but it seems to have aged very well in the last year. There are none of the musty or wet grainy flavors that I mentioned in my previous notes on this beer. These unpleasant qualities are definitely gone. Tasting this beer more than a year old definitely has me convinced that it will be even better in the coming years. Thankfully I have more bottles in the basement, as I will be tempted to have more of these this winter. I must resist the temptation; as I'd love to see what this stuff is like in five years or more. Of course, it also inspires to brew my own Old Ale...

Bateman's is back!

Awhile back I learned that Bateman's Ales had returned to our shores. I was quite happy about this as I have some fond memories of drinking Bateman's back in the 1990s. My interest in Bateman's came about after watching the British episode of Michael Jackson's Beer Hunter series produced by the Discovery Channel. Jackson interviewed George Bateman who was a bit emotional while relating the story about saving the brewery. Whilst getting rather choked up, he told Jackson about "old age pensioners" sending him "10-pound notes to help save the brewery." Mr. George (as he was known) was quite a character in this video and piqued my interest in the brewery. I can't remember exactly when I first tried a Bateman's ale, but when I saw them at the store I had to try them. At the time, the XXXB and the Victory Ale were available. I grew to like these beers so much that I bought a mixed case of pints of both of them for something around $15 to $18 back in 1996 (a heck of a deal, even then) for a fall weekend trip to Michigan with a good friend. (We even brought Imperial pint glass with us -- such geeks!) We drank most of the case that weekend and since then I've associated Bateman's with the fall season.

It seems fitting then that today I found Bateman's at Binny's (was Sam's, but that's another story) in Downers Grove. I picked up a bottle of XXXB and Combined Harvest. The XXXB tasted just like I remember: a fairly pronounced toffee flavor combined with a complex fruitiness leading to a dry finish spiked with a bit of mineral-like character. The hop character is a modest (by a American standards) 38 IBUs and is balanced well with the malt. The alcohol content by volume is 4.8 percent. It's not quite as red as in the picture, if fact I didn't think it was really that red at all.

The Combined Harvest is a new multi-grain product. The label calls it a "bronze pale beer brewed with pale and crystal barley malts combined with malted wheat, oats and rye and hopped with Phoenix and Target varities (hops)." The bottle mentions the "superb aroma", but I found the smell of Combined Harvest to be a bit lackluster. Perhaps this has to do with the voyage from England? However, I did enjoy the taste of this beer and I like its graininess and tart fruitiness. I suppose it should be noted that the brewery states that this beer is "vegan friendly." A new marketing angle?

I think both of these Bateman beers are fine examples of English ale. They have plenty of flavor couple with a low alcohol content that allows the drinker to enjoy of few of these pints without any effects the next day. The seem a touch expensive though at $4.79 for a pint bottle. That said, I'm hoping I see a keg or cask show up in the Chicago area soon!

Cherry stout sleeps

Not much brewing has been going on in the past couple of months as made evident by my lack of updates here. Most of the updates of what and where I've been drinking have been posted to my Twitter account. I guess it's easier to post to Twitter than an "old-fashioned" blog. The speed of life I suppose.

I did manage to brew about a month ago. I bought some concentrated cherry juice and decided to brew a cherry stout. This is something I've done off and on for a few years. I get cherry juice from a farm stand in Northern Michigan every other year or so and I usually add it to stout. Last year I made a Cherry Saison (which I still have in bottles), but this year it's back to the stout.

This stout, fermented with Wyeast 3522, is sitting in the secondary now and ready to be bottled. I intend on working some bottling into my schedule this upcoming Friday. Details on the recipe are as follows:

------------------------------

Brewing Date: Sunday September 06, 2009
Recipe: Cherry Stout

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 3.00
Anticipated OG: 1.074 Plato: 17.90
Anticipated SRM: 41.0
Anticipated IBU: 30.0
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Actual OG: 1.083 Plato: 20.00


Grain/Extract/Sugar
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.00 lbs. Muntons DME - Amber
1.00 lbs. Briess DME- Weizen
1.00 lbs. Chocolate Malt
0.75 lbs. Turbinado Sugar
0.38 lbs. Roasted Barley


Hops
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Spalter Select Pellets 6.20 AA for 60 min.
0.50 oz. Spalter Select Pellets 6.20 AA 5.7 for 30 min.
0.50 oz. Spalter Select Pellets 6.20 AA 1.9 for 5 min.


Extras
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 Oz Irish Moss at 15 Min until the end of the boil
64 Oz Cherry Juice Concentrate (no sugar added)

Yeast
-----

WYeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes

Sour saison and a little Yella Pils

Well, major health scare declared over.

I've been feeling better, but I haven't been as gung ho about writing about beer as in the past. The whole experience has had me thinking differently about beer. I'm more interested in just taking a few notes about a particular beer or just plain enjoying it than trying to imitate some kind of beer "journalist" or writer by updating my blog at least once a week. I've found that writing can sort of take the fun out of having a beer; it can sort of get in way of the experience and make it less natural. That said, here I am in front of the computer screen with an interesting beer and I feel compelled to say something about it or at least record my observations.

I traveled to Wisconsin this past weekend and the trip included and obligatory stop at a Woodman's in Madison. It was there that I found an incredible selection of beer, but since I've been drinking less I picked up a just a few things of interest: a four-pack of New Glarus Imperial Saison, a six-pack of Oskar Blues Little Yella Pils and a four-pack of Konig Pilsner half-liter cans (the Konig really was for Carol, since it's one of her favorite German lagers.)

I popped open a can of the Little Yella Pils last night upon returning home. It was quite tasty and seemed a bit more refined than some other American-made pilsners. It had just right amount of bitterness combined with a smooth malt character and firmness with just the right amount of dryness in the finish -- a very good uncomplicated beer.

Tonight is something altogether different, I'm sipping what spurred me to write. I'm having one of the New Glarus bottles and it is the opposite of the Yella Pils: it is complex and sour. The Imperial Saison is orange colored and has a sour aroma; sort of like rotting peaches with a bit of vanilla and then something not so good. Cat pee. Just a hint of it mind you, but enough to put the beer aside for a bit and sort of let it air out. This beer tastes pretty much like no other saison I've had before; there are bright sour flavors that don't typically make their way into a traditional saison -- but who says American brewers follow tradition? There are some good fruit flavors here, with apricot and apple but the sourness permeates and somehow doesn't add to the experience, but detracts from it. Perhaps it's the cidery character that sneaks up on me after a few sips that's a turn off -- I'm not sure -- maybe I'm just not in the mood for a sour beer. Unfortunately, this beer doesn't get any points for its appearance, as it is hazy and appears flat with no head. I think I'll give the remaining bottles some months or years in the cellar and see what happens. The results could be interesting, but as this point I'm less than excited about this one. Anyone beg to disagree?

Last Call?

I've enjoyed a lot of beer over the last 20 or so years. Too much, in fact, but so far I don't regret it a bit. I'm hoping I don't. That said, I think it is time for a change. In short, I think being a part of the beer culture as I've known it (likely too much of it) has taken a toll on my health. So, I think it's time to stop pretending to be keeping up with the younger, healthier people that are far better at abusing their hearts and livers with beer than I am. Yes, with each day lately it seems that I'm stepping ever closer to ceasing to be the "beer guy" in favor of someday being the old man who can slowly sip that beer with dinner and maybe one for dessert.

So it is indeed possible that the last batch of Marcobrau may have been brewed. I certainly don't see myself as drinking and brewing enough to keep a blog about it going. Maybe my anxiety is getting the best of me, but I think it's time to hang up my beer blogging mug. I'm not sure at this point what I'll do with my website that I've had up since 1998, but I'm certainly not going to worry about it. Going forward, I just don't see myself as being "beery" interesting. This isn't quite how I planned things, but life rarely goes according to plan.

At only 38 years old I'm looking forward to figuring out what's going on with my body, getting healthy and putting more time into some of my other hobbies such as music, cycling and hiking. There's a lot of summer left. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to continue to be active, in one way or another.

A stop at Short's (at last)

I had the good fortune this past week to visit Short's Brewing Co. in Bellaire, Michigan. I've been pining to visit them ever since sampling their beers (Nicie Spicie, Chocolate Wheat and Huma-Lupa-Licious IPA) at the Real Ale Festival in Chicago several years ago. I've had some Short's since then; sampling Nicie Spicie in Holland at Butch's a couple summers ago, but traveling to the source and getting direct access to the dozens of beers Short's produces was so exciting that I think I had anxiety attack.

The sheer breadth and diversity of Short's beers are amazing. Suffice to say we took home a six-pack of Bellaire Brown (possibly one of the best brown ales I've ever had) along with a limited edition bottle of Bloody Beer; a "specialty beer" fermented with Roma tomatoes and spiced with tellicherry peppercorns, celery seed, fresh horseradish and dill. I'm really looking forward to trying it; I imagine something like the marriage of a Bloody Mary and a good all-malt beer. A fellow patron at the bar described as awesome. Some of the other far-out limited edition creations we could choose from included Peaches and Creme (a strong blonde ale brewed with peaches and lactose, Ginger in the Rye (a strong rye ale aged on ginger and The Woodmaster (a strong brown ale fermented with maple syrup and toasted pecans.) Pretty interesting concoctions and based on reviews at Beer Advocate the extreme beers of Short's are gaining notoriety.

This, of course, is not to say that the regular offerings of Short's are not worthy; they are in fact quite good. I still love Nicie Spicie which the brewer describes as a "Northern Michigan spiced wheat ale" made with "a 50 percent mixture of premium two-row malted barley and malted white wheat ... loaded with fresh citrus zest, coriander, and a four pepper blend." The beer ends up in the glass with a citrus (orange) nose, a refreshing wheat middle and a peppery (but not hot) finish. I also appreciated the Pandemonium Pale Ale for having an excellent hoppiness without being as strong as an IPA (less then five percent alcohol), while the Bellaire Brown, which the brewer describes as a "gateway beer" is really an outstanding complex brown ale that any level of beer drinker should appreciate. The toasted, caramel and chocolate flavors of this brown ale blend exceptionally well with the hops and yeast.

The brewpub itself is pretty interesting, too. It's in an old brick building in Northern Michigan and is full of local art work (mostly paintings) and interesting places to sit -- such as the red seats out of a 1970s Cadillac automobile. The brewpub is separated into two sections: there is a bar area and a music room with perhaps the deepest, narrowest stage I've ever seen. The beer is served in pints and samplers (a paddle) of five beers. In our case we ordered two five-beer samplers so we had 10 different beers to sample. Six-packs and limited edition bottles are available for sale and growlers are filled, too. The food is great, as well, especially the spicy Thai Carrot Soup which my wife thought was the best soup ever. (I concur that it was pretty damn good.) Other food including sandwiches and pizza is available along with unique snacks such as Briess Malted Milk Balls -- which I really wish I would have tried and probably would have paired well with the Bellaire Brown Ale.

Short's Brewing Co. is not too far from Traverse City and in the middle of an awesome Chain-of-Lakes district. It's off the beaten path, but well worth the visit.