Marcobrau Brew Journal

Another Hoppy Brown Ale

2012-01-02T17:02:00.000-06:00

Another hop-bursted brown ale with different hops this time. Ah, wait...I didn't put anything in here about the first one now, did I? The previous brown ale was a little higher gravity (I used all DME instead of half dry and half liquid) and I used Michigan-grown Centennial hops along with Pacific Northwest Crystal. I brewed it December 4 and bottled and it 10 days later. It's fantastic stuff so far. I have the half the batch in the "cellar" at about 40 F and the rest split between the kitchen corner at 75 and the fridge. Despite a boil-over which resulted in some hops being lost, the final product is quite hoppy with an impressive hop aroma, especially considering I didn't steep or add any dry hops. I'm staring to think that hop-bursting is the way to go in order to impart the now classic in-your-face American hop flavor and aroma. I'll try and post more on this batch as it ages.

So that was the first batch. This time around I couldn't get enough of the Centennial hops I wanted, so used a half-ounce of Magnum at the start of the 60-minute boil and three ounces of Sterling and the remaining half-ounce of Magnum at 15 minutes left in the boil. I also split the addition of the malt extract, adding three pounds of dry at the start and the liquid 45 minutes into the boil. All the of extract was the same: Briess Pilsner. Before starting the boil, I filled the fermenter with six gallons of water combined with one crushed campden tablet to counteract the chlorine in my tap water. I let this mixture sit a minute, then I poured three gallons into the brew kettle and left three in the fermenter. My mini-mash included one pound of Victory and a half pound each of Carafa I and brown malt in bag for 15 minutes. The mash temp got a little high (160 F), but I'm not going to worry about it. What's done is done. I actually had to restart the boil when I added the second half of the malt extract. I immersed my wort chiller for the final two minuets of the boil to sanitize it, then let the beer cool for 30 minutes. I added Irish moss at 13-15 minutes left in the boil and I cooled the wort for 30 minutes, poured into the awaiting fermenter filled with the remaining water. I sprinkled one packet of S-05 yeast in a layer on top of the wort and let sit for 15 minutes in covered fermenter then mixed by agitating the fermenter bucket, added ferm lock and moved to space under counter in the corner of the kitchen. Here's to hoping this brown ale is as good or better than the previous one!

Belgian IPA gets tapped

2011-11-28T19:09:00.001-06:00

I tapped a very interesting IPA tonight. I ended up packaging the whole batch of my Belgian IPA into two Party Pigs and just tapped the first pig after less than a day in the fridge. The aroma, despite dry hopping in the secondary and the Pig, is a bit neutral at first with light orange-marmalade notes which give way to a fairly intense phenolic character. This marmalade-phenolic character imparts itself on the palate as well and the esters make an interesting mix with the Chinook flavoring hops. The finish is bitter at first, but then tart. There is a decent amount of body to this beer, at least up front, which is what I expected using the Wyeast 3711 strain. I'm not sure I like such a strong phenolic character in a hoppy beer. Perhaps with age in the fridge the phenols will lager out. I think if I brewed this again that I would cut back on the Caravienne (I used a full pound), since I think it may have add a bit too much sweetness. I may have to start calling this beer Bittersweet IPA, as it almost tastes like I'm sucking on a toffee hard candy, eating an orange slice and drinking an IPA all at the same time.

Belgian-American IPA gets brewed

2011-11-07T21:58:00.000-06:00

I brewed what I intended to be a Belgian-American IPA last Monday and today I racked that beer as a buttery pale ale with two ounces of Amarillo hops. I topped up the primary with a little too much water and ended up with a six-gallon batch of pale ale instead of a five-gallon batch of IPA. I racked to the secondary tonight and I'm hoping this beer's yeast cleans up after itself. After just seven days, this latest brew is a quite cloudy orange hue with an orange marmalade component to the aroma. So far it tastes rather odd, not infected, just strange. It is bitter, but the bitterness is coated in a buttery, orange marmalade sweetness accented by caramel. I'm definitely glad I've racked this one, because I think it's going to need some time to get rid of some intense amounts of diacetyl. Here is the recipe, where you'll see that I used an ample amount of Caravienne (a little over 13 percent which is perhaps a bit too much), but I have to wonder if it was enough to add such caramel character. I noticed some scorching on the bottom of the kettle after the brew session which may also be a factor in the caramel character of this beer. What I'm more concerned though is the buttery diacetyl. In the meantime, I'll have a homebrew and not worry.

The homebrew I'm having is my previous batch, Bitter Flowers, and it's drinking quite well. There is a light peppery hop aroma with perhaps just a touch of DMS, but it's not off-putting. The carbonation is quite good. A persistent quarter-inch fluffy white head sits on top of this brew, with ample lacing left behind with each sip. The mouthfeel definitely suggests saison; it is crisp without being too light, yet this beer has a very dry finish. There is an assertive, peppery hop bitterness yet the finish is rather soft before becoming impressively dry. The soft mouthfeel combined with the dry finish can be attributed to the Wyeast 3711 French Saison yeast. This character is specifically mentioned on the yeast lab's website. Overall, I'm a pretty pleased with this beer. The hint of DMS bothers me, but I haven't noticed it in all the bottles. I have to say that drinking this beer has me kind of wishing I brewed another batch instead of trying to brew a Belgian IPA with the same yeast.

Bitter Flowers Bottled

2011-10-03T22:43:00.000-05:00

Bottled the hoppier version of the Flower Pepper saison that I'm calling Bitter Flowers earlier this evening. It's quite a bit hoppier (really just bitter), especially in the finish which is quite dry. At an original gravity of 1.048 and 40 IBUs of Crystal hops it's quite a beer so far. I love the performance of the Wyeast 3711. I fermented it in the mid- to upper-70s and it reached 87 percent apparent attenuation in under seven days. There seemed to no airlock activity the last couple days so I decided to check the gravity and at 1.006 I decided I could bottle. I brewed a five and a half-gallon batch so it yielded 30 12-ounce bottles, 12 12-ounce bottles and one two-liter flip-top growler.While bottling, I sampled some of my Dash the Curry Pale Ale and I'm still not in love with it. I picked a bottle that's been in the fridge for a couple weeks and it still has a prominent banana aroma. Not only does it smell like a German wheat (as opposed to a Belgian Pale Ale), it tastes a bit like one, too. It's coming across too full-bodied and sweet with a slightly unpleasant phenolic and oddly bitter finish despite a bitterness ratio of 0.472. I've moved a six-pack to the fridge and plan to move the rest of the beer off-site to a cooler location that is in the upper '60s. I'm thinking this is a beer that might taste better in the winter or early spring. Hopefully it just needs time to lager out some of the bitter spiciness and banana esters.

Brewing "Bitter" Flowers

2011-09-26T23:00:00.002-05:00

Brewed a simplified and most likely hoppier version of the Flowers saison today. For a quick weeknight brew, I cut out the specialty malts and substituted some amber extract. I also increased the bittering hops by an ounce and dropped out the Strisselspalt in favor of all Crystal. I also erred on my "water needed" calcuations and ended up with six gallons in my seven-gallon fermenter. Hopefully, this won't be a problem. I also changed the yeast up, using Wyeast 3711 instead of 3724, since it's cooling off quite a bit in the kitchen. The ambient temperature is now 75 degrees, but I expect it to get even cooler in the next few days. I've used the 3711 strain before at this temperature and was amazed at how attenuative it was for not fermenting very warm. We'll see what happens, eh?So I cracked open the first bottle of my Dash the Curry Pale Ale, as a tribute to the prior batch, and I was pleased with it. The name comes from an English expression and a M.I.A. song, but I picked the name because I added a dash of Garam Masala. This spice blend included peppercorns, mace, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, cardamom, cloves and coriander. I also added an additional amount of coriander with the Garam Masala. All the spices were added at 10-15 minutes left in the 60-minute boil. I threw caution to the wind and pitched an almost two-year-old packed of Safbrew T-58 yeast from Fermentis. So far (after only a couple weeks) the beer taste a little bit too much like a wheat beer with a bit too much banana and clove, but there's enough other stuff going on (no doubt from the spices and Styrian Golding hops) that it's okay.

Flower Pepper Saison Tasted

2011-09-19T21:22:00.002-05:00

I finally have two batches in the bottle and I'm already burning through the first one, what I'm simply calling "Flowers." I chose the name because I used lots of late and dry additions of Crystal hops. I also used a seasoning from Trader Joe's called Flower Pepper late in the boil to add complexity and aroma. Flowers is a saison-style ale and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, especially for a beer made with about 85 percent malt extract and 15 percent grains. I used a mix of dry and liquid extract along with a pound of 40L crystal malt for color. Aside from the wonderfully flowery aroma and great flavor, what I'm most impressed about with this beer so far is how dry it turned out. I had to go back in my notes and double-check that I didn't add any sugar to increase the dryness. It's definitely one of my drier saisons and drier than the last I brewed back in June with Wyeast 3725 as opposed to the 3724 (Dupont strain.) The Wyeast 3724 truly worked its magic when fermented at around 83-85 degrees in my kitchen in late August. We had a couple 90 degree days which helped keep the temperature up and the yeast very happy. Best I can tell, the beer ended up reaching apparent attenuation of about 80 percent. What I'd like to do (what I may have to do because it's getting cooler out) is brew up another batch of this stuff, but with the Wyeast 3711 strain, one with which I've brewed a rather dry saison in the past. I'd definitely use the Flower Pepper again, too, as it seems to add a complex fruitiness. It drinks like a flowery Pils with a tart finish. A great beer for year round; maybe a new house beer.

Dash the Curry Pale Ale

2011-09-19T20:48:00.000-05:00

I brewed a Belgian Pale Ale called "Dash the Curry." The name is derived from the slang term meaning to "hurry up" which is what I had to do on brew day as I also bottled Flowers the same day. I also used some curry spices known as Garam Masala late in the boil which should add an interesting complexity. Dash the Curry is another extract brew with grains; five pounds of pilsner malt extract, one pound of wheat, a half pound of cane sugar and a quarter pound of Carafa I from Weyermann maltings in Germany. I single-hopped the brew with Styrian Goldings and added an ounce of coriander along with the curry spices in the last five minutes of the boil. I had intended to repitch the Wyeast 3724 to get more saison-like beer, but I ended up pitching a rehydrated packet of Safbrew T-58. I thought the temperature of my kitchen would be moderate enough for this strain (mid- to high-70s) but it ended getting up into the 80s, so the yeast seems to have thrown a massive amount of esters. My plan is to let the beer condition at room temperature for 7-10 days and then move as much of it into the fridge in the hopes of lagering out some of the harsher esters.

Lots of work to do...

2011-08-22T23:38:00.001-05:00

Wow. This year has been a brutal year for brewing: only 10 updates so far in 2011. I have a lot of work (brewing) to do in the next four months!

Dusting Off the Brew Kettle

2011-08-22T23:14:00.001-05:00

Dusted off the brew kettle today and brewed a saison-style ale. It will ferment with Wyeast 3724 and the recipe includes Flower Pepper from Trader Joe's. The malt bill is six pounds of Briess pilsner malt extract (three liquid, three dry) and a pound of 40L Briess Caramel malt. The hops were all Strisselspalt and Crystal, with Crystal only used at the end of the boil (steeped.) I added the Flower Pepper at 15 minutes to the end of the boil. The temperatures outside are supposed to be in the mid- to upper-80s the next couple days, so hopefully my yeast will like those temps and attenuate well. I steeped the grains in a separate pot and strained into the kettle, washing with hot (not yet boiling) wort. All went well in the brew session, except that I pushed the grommet of my new fermenter into the wort. Hopefully this won't cause any problems. I added four ounces of Strisselspalt hops at the start of the 60-minute boil, an ounce at 45 minutes into the boil and a half-ounce of Crystal at the end of the boil right before cooling with my immersion wort chiller. I also added a few extra grind of the Flower Pepper at this time. My final volume was a little greater than I expected; slightly more than 5.5 gallons. Here's hoping I have enough head space for this yeast to do it's thing.

The Homebrew Cellar is Dwindling!

2011-07-25T20:52:00.003-05:00

Been so busy with work lately (and other hobbies) that I haven't got to brew in the last few weeks. The result is that my stash of homebrew is dwindling somewhat. My IPA I brewed back in April is gone and almost all of the Liquid Sunshine hoppy wheat is gone (this is sad.) The last beer I brewed was the saison that I reference in my last post. That beer has cleaned up a bit (at least the portion that I cellared, the rest of it that I left in my hot kitchen is a little too phenolic.) Delving deeper into my collection I've found that I still have a case or so of my Dragon Slayer Belgian-style Double IPA that I bottled back in October. I sampled one of these earlier this evening and the "Belgian" character (along with the malt flavors) are more assertive than the last time I sampled this beer. Quite tasty and also quite strong. Next up was my tart cherry-infused Belgian-style stout which dates back to October 2009. This is a beer that is still in fine condition. There's no doubt that it's benefited from storage in a cool basement for most the last couple years or so. It's really a rather awesome nightcap beer. I can still smell plenty of the cardamom that I added to this beer, although it fades after a bit and more woody aromas emerge, coupled with cocoa or baker's chocolate. These aromatics give way to a delicate dark chocolate malt flavor that is followed by a wine-like complex flavors of cherry pit, leather, and an earthy spiciness I attribute to the cardamom that leads to a tart, dry finish with just a bit of chocolate and an even lesser hint of coffee. Quite awesome if I dare say so myself.

Styrian Golding Single-hopped Saison

2011-06-01T21:10:00.002-05:00

Brewed a saison ale a couple weeks back and racked it into the secondary this evening with three ounces of Styrian Goldings hop pellets. That much may be overkill, but we'll see. I fermented this batch with Wyeast 3725 which is supposedly the primary sac strain for Fantome. I'd been toying with the idea of adding some lactic and/or brett dregs from a bottle of Jolly Pumpkin but I'm holding off. I think I'll re-pitch the yeast from the secondary and try that experiment in the next batch. This is in part because I'm very pleased with the attenuation of the beer. I've calculated an apparent attenuation of 90 percent. I didn't expect such results, but I did ferment into the 80s which may have caused the more complete fermentation.

My hydrometer sample poured a very cloudy golden color and smelled surprisingly bubblegummy fruity with a bit of clove and banana. That said, these esters were not that assertive, so I believe the dry hops will not be competing too much with the aroma from the yeast. The taste so far is. A bit sweet up front, then spicy and peppery from the Styrians and Strisselspalt hops I used. There's quite a bit of a phenolic character before the finish which is lightly bitter and very dry.

I plan to let the beer sit for a couple weeks and will post details on the batch later.

Hoppy Amarillo Wheat Bottled

2011-04-06T21:33:00.002-05:00

Bottled up the hoppy wheat and it sure is tasty so far. Lots of Amarillo hop goodness with a soft wheat malt backbone. It's surely going to finish under five percent alcohol by volume so this is going to be a batch that should be quaffed and gone quickly. That is why I have another beer on deck in the secondary with dry hops. This next beer is an English IPA that was a bit of a disaster on brew day. I bought two three-pound bags of dry malt extract for this beer and started the brew session by removing the ingredients from a brown paper bag one at a time, only to finish the brew session with one three-pound bag of extract still in the bag. Whoops! I ended up making a second wort (which boiled over) that I cooled and added to the fermenter. Tasted at racking this disaster of a beer tasted quite fruity which I suspect is the effect of Nottingham yeast fermented a bit too warm. I also picked up a cheesy aroma which is more distressing. I added about an ounce of Chinook hops and hoped for the best. I have my fingers crossed that this English IPA won't end up a waste of time and money.

Details on the Hoppy Wheat here.

Hoppy Amarillo Wheat Racked

2011-03-22T22:01:00.003-05:00

Three days ago I racked a batch I brewed early last week. It's a hoppy (more hoppy than bitter if you know what I mean) wheat ale. I pitched about a pint of slurry from my two previous batches which was slow to take off (didn't make a starter, just re-pitched the slurry), so next time I'll probably make a starter with the slurry for a faster start. This batch was very cloudy when I racked from the primary after just three days of fermentation and has since cleared up a quite a bit but still shows signs of fermentation. This batch marks the first time in years that I've re-used the same liquid yeast more than once and I'm pretty pleased with the results so far.

Dragon Slayer Belgian-style Double IPA Update

2011-02-23T20:41:00.004-06:00

Almost six months ago I set out to brew a Belgian-style Double IPA. That would be a beer that had the malt bill of a quad with the hopping rate of a Double or Imperial IPA. Tonight I'm trying a bottle and it's rather interesting. First of all, the nose is very complex with caramel and fruitcake sort of hanging in a musty, boozy fog. The carbonation is high, but not completely out of control and makes for a rocky head. There is quite a bit of bitterness, rather harsh at one point somewhere in the middle, but this bitterness is cloaked in candied citrus flavors. The finish is dry and quite bitter. Perhaps the most succinct way to put it is it tastes like a Rogue Old Crustacean barleywine might taste if it was fermented with a Belgian Yeast. It will be interesting to taste this beer in six month, or year or two from now. The ingredients were very simple:

9 lbs Briess Pilsner DME

2 lbs Briess Weizen DME

3/4 lb cane sugar

2 ounces Chinook pellets at 11.5% AA for 60 mins

3 ounces Chinook pellets for 30 mins

1 ounce of Chinook pellets for 10 mins

3 ounces of Crystal whole hops for 5 mins

3 ounces of Sytrian Goldings dry hopped for 20 days

Fermented with two pouches of SafBrew T-58

Brewed September 18, 2010, racked eight days later and bottled on October 16.

Not Quite a Sticke

2011-02-21T22:32:00.003-06:00

Okay, well it's not quite a Sticke Alt but it's a little hoppier (and actually lighter, not darker) than my last batch of Alt-a-like ale brewed with Wyeast #1010. The first batch is light brown to amber and hazy with just a little bit of hop Strisselspalt hop aroma with a touch of chocolate. This first batch turned out silky smooth with caramel malt flavors balanced by a little bit of chocolate malt and a dusty, dry, bitter hop finish. No real perceived hop flavor, but a modest bitterness. I've been most impressed with the mouthfeel of this beer and I credit the three weeks of lagering at near freezing and the use of Weyermann malts. The exceptionally low alcohol of four percent also makes this beer eminently quaffable. It shall not last.

No Weyermann malts in the second batch, but the same yeast, re-pitched. I skipped the dark Carafa malts and stuck with a combination of Briess amber dry malt extract and a pound of 60L crystal. Instead of Strisselspalt and Crystal, I used Northern Brewer for bittering and Styrian Goldings (from Slovenia) for flavoring. I probably should of dry-hopped this beer for more of Sticke alt presentation, but I suppose I am impatient. As a result, I would put this beer somewhere between a traditional Dusseldorf Alt and a Sticke Alt. I think it will be a good Spring beer. All that said, I think I need to use Weyermann malts for these type of beers. The Weyermann malt seems to be of a very high quality and makes very silky smooth ales.

Strisselspalt Alt Bottled

2011-01-31T22:17:00.000-06:00

Bottled the Alt last night after three weeks of cold conditioning down to near freezing. Filled 22 22-ounce bottles and two 12-ounce stubbies. I didn't add any additional yeast, so hopefully it's still viable. I guess I'll find out in a week or so when I pop the top off one of the bottles. The flat beer out of the secondary fermenter tasted pretty good. I poured the hydrometer sample into my Frankenheim cartridge (tumbler.) The beer was light brown to amber and yeasty hazy (of course.) No real evidence of dry hopping. Aroma was neutral. Touch of chocolate in the aroma. The beer is real smooth with caramel malt flavors balanced by a little bit of chocolate malt and a dusty hop bitterness. Finish is dry. No real noticeable hop flavor, but malt is balanced by a very light anise-like flavor, no doubt from the Strisselspalt hops. God willing this beer will be quite good once it's carbonated. I saved the yeast and I'm thinking of brewing another alt or slight bigger, hoppier one, but I might keep it secret....

German Brown (Alt) Ale Bottled

2011-01-09T19:16:00.003-06:00

Racked the German brown ale (a.k.a. Altbier) this evening and it was a bit stinky. Yes, stinky...but I'm not worried because I've read that the yeast I used (Wyeast 1010) can be that way initially. It's a slightly sulphur-like smell that I'm told will go away with some lagering and it is lagering that I intend to do. I'm knocking around the idea of moving the wort (heavy five-gallon glass carboy) to another location (friend's house) where the temps are considerably cooler than they are in my kitchen. The temperature in this area seems to fluctuate a bit but stays cooler than 55 and doesn't get colder than 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Needless to say, I'm wondering if anybody out there has ever moved fermenting beer to another location to lager and how it worked it out. I'm otherwise fairly pleased with how the batch tastes so far. There is a heavy caramel; almost roast coffee with cream note in the beer which I find interesting and which I'm sure is due to the dehusked Carafa I malt.

As I'm writing this I'm sipping on a sort of spiced wheat beer I made back in July. It is spiced with orange peel, lemon peel, coriander and about three tablespoons of black pepper. I also used the Safbrew T-58 yeast which is supposed to add some spiciness, but I think that the yeast esters are blown away by the black pepper.For that matter, the lemon and orange seems to be blown away by the black pepper at this point, too. Although, upon reflection the orange peel is coming through pretty good up front. If I were to brew this recipe again I probably wouldn't change too much accept maybe add even more orange peel.

Of course, as always, I'm looking forward to the next batch. I had planned on "pigging" the Alt that I have in the secondary right now but I might just bottle it so I can have the Party Pigs ready for an all Fuggles bitter.

It's Time to Brew an Alt

2011-01-02T21:47:00.002-06:00

Brewed a light brown ale yesterday that I hope resembles an Alt. I'm using Weyermann malts for the first time along with Briess extracts, Strisselspalt (instead of Spalt) and Wyeast 1010 instead of the recommended 1007. Fermenting rather warm at the high end of the range for the yeast, at 73 degrees. Perhaps this is why the krausen blew the fermenter lid earlier this evening. I cleaned it up and put it back on the bucket with a sanitized airlock but an hour or two later the lid blew again. I've finally given up and the lid is resting on top of the bucket with krausen oozing out of the top. I'm not happy about this, but I'm not sure what else to do. I've posted the details of the recipe here.

Winter Dream Brown Ale (porter?) Tasting

2010-12-06T19:19:00.008-06:00

First time after bottling that I'm trying what I plan on calling Winter Dream Brown Ale. This beer, fermented with Wyeast 3787, is lighter in color than I anticipated. I was shooting for more of a porter, but it tastes okay. There really aren't any major flaws aside from being a bit undercarbed and there being a slight huskiness to the finish. There is a nice anise flavor complimented by some toffee and caramel flavors with a roasted coffee edge. The mouthfeel is very smooth. The estimated 7.5 percent alcohol is masked quite well. I'd like to try this recipe again adding more sugar (both in the boil and for priming.) I probably wouldn't change anything else. Letting the rest of the bottles sit for awhile to let the flavors meld a bit more.

Belgian-Style Spiced Porter Bottled

2010-11-21T22:07:00.009-06:00

Bottled up a "winter brew" which was planned as sort of a Belgian-style porter, but so far it's looking and tasting much more like a Belgian dubbel. (I used Wyeast #3787 which is purported to be the Westmalle strain.) It's gravity is on the low end for a dubbel, but all the characteristics (color and bitterness namely) are right on the mark. I did add some spices in the beer; just a little bit of juniper berries and star anise along with some cumin and sweet orange peel. The juniper and anise is detectable, but not the sweet orange. Perhaps with those spices this beer was destined to become a dubbel. My tasting notes at bottling are as follows:

"Smells of fruitcake laced with gin with a touch of anise. Some caramel malt flavor mingles with a bit of grainy huskiness followed by a coffee-ish bitterness (more like black tea I suppose.) Finishes pretty dry with a caramel note along with maybe a bit of toasted marshmallow. Really a bit shocked at how light in color this beer is so far."

I ended up filling 22 12-ounce bottles, 11 22 ounce bottles and one two-liter swingtop bottle with this brew. Again, definitely not a porter, but it is fairly tasty so far. The recipe is here, but again, it's definitely not a porter.

Meanwhile, I've started to drink the hop-bursted pale ale I put in one of my Party Pigs. It's turned out pretty tasty with a real smooth, yet assertive hop flavor and bitterness. I expected a little more hop aroma from the half-ounce of pellets I added to the Pig, but I'm impressed with the smoothness of the hop flavor. I'm not sure I'm sold on Chinook for single hop beer though. I'm thinking some Columbus might've been good as a dry hop instead of the Chinook. The recipe for this hop-bursted pale ale is here.

Owd Engwisch Harkens Back to Homebrewed Old Ale

2010-11-07T19:53:00.005-06:00

Had a good English Barley-wine called Owd Engwisch (or something like that) at Three Floyds this past weekend. It was great getting back there to sip some fresh Floyds. It also got me thinking about an attempt I made at an Old Ale that I brewed back in January 2009. It's holding up quite well, but I think it's a recipe that could use some tweaking. (It's an old ale so perhaps it just needs another couple years in the bottle - ha.)
It pours with plenty of carbonation and I'm left with about a quarter-inch of head, but no lace. The color is amber to red and nose is very fruity with banana and maybe some peach. Not sure that these esters are completely appropriate for an English Old Ale. I no doubt fermented this too warm and maybe used not quite the right yeast. It has a very smooth mouthfeel though and tastes of toffee and a sort of toasted marshmallow flavor. There's an English hop character (spicy, earthy) towards the finish despite the fact I used Cascade and Willamette hops (I guess Willamette has some Fuggles character.) The finish is a bit bitter but coated in tawny caramel malt sweetness. Not bad for an English Old Ale although I think it would have really been better had I done a partial mash with a few pounds of some Maris Otter and used some Kent Golding hops instead of Willamette and probably a different yeast than the Timothy Taylor (Wyeast 1469.) In fact, I'd like to try this again (with Maris Otter replacing some of the extract) with Wyeast 9097 PC Old Ale. Here is the very simple 95 percent extract recipe:

Olde Grey Cat 2009

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines -

19-A Strong Ale, Old Ale

Min OG: 1.060 Max OG: 1.108
Min IBU: 30 Max IBU: 80
Min color: 10 Max color: 26 Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics -

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 3.00
Anticipated OG: 1.082 Plato: 19.86
Anticipated SRM: 13.5
Anticipated IBU: 40.6
Brewhouse Efficiency:50 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts -
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 3.53 gallons
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.121

Grain/Extract/Sugar -
12.00 lbs. of Briess LME- Amber
0.50 lbs. of Briess Crystal 90L

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops -
2.00 oz. Cascade pellets@6.3% AA for 50 minutes
1.00 oz. Willamette Pellet@4.4% for five minutes

Yeast -
Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire

Party Pig Problems

2010-11-03T22:51:00.004-05:00

Ack. I can be so impatient sometimes. Up a bit too late after encountering problems with one of my Party Pigs. I heard a little "pop" (which normally is a good thing when setting up a Party Pig) but it was actually one of the screws that I may have over-tightened and stripped. Needless to say I couldn't get a good seal and pressurize the little piggy so I opted to use my auto-siphon to fill as many 22-ounce bottles as I could. I'd already added priming sugar and a half-ounce of Kent Goldings pellets, but I figured "what the heck" and attempted to bottle anyway. It went about as well as it could since I really couldn't stop the flow of the siphon (a lot of beer ended up on the floor) but I did end up with 10 bottles filled, and of course, one full Party Pig. This five-gallon batch is a pale ale that I decided to brew about eight days ago on a bit of a whim: it's just six pounds of DME, one pound of 60L crystal malt, a half ounce of Chinook hops added at 40-minutes left in a 60-minute boil and three ounces added (hop bursting) at 15 minutes left in the boil. I fermented this mixture with Fermentis SafAle US-05. I also added an ounce of dry hops in the pig(s). It will be interesting to see if the hops settle out in the half of the batch I bottled but intended to pig or if they float in the neck.

My first pour of this beer (hydrometer sample) smelled a bit cheesy, but this did fade. The beer is very young so I'm hopeful that this will subside or that the dry hops will improve the aroma. Other than that the bitterness was potent but remarkably smooth; it sort of had accumulated with each sip. I credit this to the hop bursting, but I could be wrong. Of course, I realize that packaging the beer after just eight days could be a bit too soon, but I hit my expected final gravity so I threw caution to the wind (I normally let the primary ferment go for 10 days.)

Belgian-Style Spiced Porter Racked

2010-10-31T20:51:00.004-05:00

Racked the Spiced Porter back on the 26th and it tasted pretty good, but it was a bit lighter in color than I anticipated. I took a gravity reading and calculated that the beer was only 68 percent attenuated -- a ways to go before hitting my expected final gravity of 1.012 or 1.013 or so. I've read that the yeast that I used, Wyeast #3787 was a good one for the incremental feeding of sugars, so I threw caution to the wind and added one pound of dark brown sugar dissolved in one pound of boiled water -- we'll see how the yeast responds to that -- I'm a little worried that it might take off and new krausen will start that will blow the airlock, but maybe I'm being too optimistic? I've never added sugar or more wort to the secondary before so I'm interested in how it'll work out. I'd like to get a good bit more of fermentation going.

Belgo-American Double IPA Bottled

2010-10-24T21:57:00.006-05:00

Filled 36 bottles with Belgo-American IPA that I think could be a winner but not necessarily in the "category" of Double IPA even though in ProMash I calculated the alcohol content to be about 10 percent and the bitterness in excess of 120 IBUs. It seems that all the DME I added (nine pounds worth) created quite a bit of caramelization in the kettle and perhaps sweetened up this beer, but so far I'm rather pleased with the effect. The result is a beer that comes across like an exceptionally bitter and herbal version of Gulden Draak. That may sound off-putting to someone who is fond of Gulden Draak, but I really think that with some age that this could mellow into more of a "dark triple" (as Gulden Draak is called) and an outstanding beer. It's just not quite what I thought it would be, at least at this very young stage when all the esters seem to be overwhelming the late additions of very herbal Styrian Golding and Crystal hops. That said, I don't think I'll be disappointed if this beer turns out to be a Gulden Draak clone. Here's the recipe.

Winter Porter

2010-10-17T19:48:00.003-05:00

I brewed what I'm calling Winter Porter, which will likely be my Christmas beer this year. It's a spiced beer fermented with Wyeast 3787. The principal spice (the one that I used the most) was juniper berries. I've used juniper before in a porter with some black licorice and it turned out pretty good, however I'm already worried that I used too much juniper (I used a half-ounce.) My concern is based on the perception that the juniper smelled really strong during the brew session. The other spices I used included star anise, cumin, black pepper and sweet orange peel. I went real easy on these spices and only used a quarter-ounce of each. I hoping the spices blend well with the Strisselspalt and Crystal hops that I used late in the boil. I kept the bitterness moderate; probably could have even notched it down a bit. I threw caution to the wind and did not use a starter. The full recipe is here.

Reflections on Cellaring

2010-10-06T23:33:00.003-05:00

I love to cellar beer and watch it change over time, but there are many beers that don't age very well. I'm sad to say that one of my homebrewed Saisons is fitting this category. A Saison from summer 2009 is not holding up too well, at least in the flavor department. Sure, when it's poured the head is fantastic, but the hops have pretty much all but disappeared from this brew and the esters, too. The result is something that tastes more like a strong Euro lager than a Saison or farmhouse ale. Proof I guess that maybe Saisons should be consumed within a year to 15 months and more than two years after bottling is too much. Ah, but try again Mr. Morency! I look back at my records and this particular brew is calculated to be only 31 IBUs which over time I suppose could really fade. I think more hops or some Brettanomyces or other bugs that keep contributing flavor changes over time is in order on future cellared Saisons.

Raiding the Cellar

2010-10-03T19:46:00.003-05:00

Having a beer out my cellar this evening and that beer is New Glarus ALT. This is a beer I originally reviewed on Beer Advocate in March 2009 and a few bottles have been sitting in my cellar ever since.

About 18 months later the ALT has smoothed out, is less harsh and rather tasty. The carbonation is still rather effervescent, but the nose is much less boozy (not really boozy at all) with a ton of oak. It may be a touch drier, at least up front until a caramel apple and boozy fruitcake middle and a caramel candy, boozy and warming finish that is just short of too sweet or cloying. It's quite a beer and it seems to be working well as a digestive. It's an interesting beer in that it's much more like an English Old Ale than an actual German Alt. It's sort of like a hybrid of a Doppelsticke Alt and an Old Ale which, as it turns out, is a decent marriage of flavors. I think this beer will continue to improve over at least the next five years.

And, yes, there's still a carboy with a little shy of five gallons of a homebrewed hoppy, estery creation that I suspect will turn out as something like a Belgian Strong Ale that has been hopped to American Double IPA standards. This beer will be bottled as soon as I have enough bottles together. It's a beer that will easily be more than 10 percent alcohol so I'm thinking I might bottle it in 12-ounce bottles. I just have to round 'em all up since they're at two locations.

"Monster Ale" Racked

2010-09-28T22:00:00.003-05:00

Racked the monster ale a few days ago.

The "monster ale" is my latest creation which is something like a Belgian Tripel crossed with an American Double IPA. It's a monster because the two packs of Safbrew T-58 blew started a fermentation that blew the lid off the fermenter. Also, it's already at about 10 percent alcohol. I tasted this concoction and, of course, at this point it's throwing a massive amount of esters with the hops kind of buried. The beer poured cloudy amber with big time esters of banana along with a general tropical fruity aroma. Tasted fruity up front with spicy hops and phenols towards the finish, moderate alcohol burn in the finish which is nicely bitter and fairly dry. Hopefully it gets a little drier. ProMash recipe is here.

Dry Hopping in the Primary

2010-09-02T20:16:00.002-05:00

Oh, my...how easy it is to get behind in posting to a blog.

I've brewed another batch of Saison with yeast from the Short's Nicie Spicie-inspired brew. I tried something I haven't done before and fermented and dry hopped in the primary only. The result so far is interesting; not that much additional hop aroma (left the hops in for about five days) but perhaps some additional hop flavor. I expected less hop aroma that dry hopping in the secondary, but I was surprised by the perceived increase in hop flavor compared to my hydrometer sample that I tasted a few days earlier. I dry hopped with Styrian Goldings so the nose is slightly spicy. The bittering and other flavoring hops were Strisselspalt, Chinook and Amarillo Gold. The rest of the recipe can be found here.

My original idea was something along the lines of an IPA crossed with a Saison or something like De Ranke XX Bitter. I've decided to be a follower on the Belgian IPA trend mostly due to the fact that the temperature in my kitchen (which is where I ferment my beers) stays around 80 degrees or warmer this time of year. Sure, I love spicy, earthy farmhouse ales, but I like hops, too. So why not combine the two? This still fits my brewing pattern of one malty beer followed by a hoppy one.

An Ode to Nicie Spicie

2010-08-02T21:17:00.002-05:00

Finally! Bottled my ode to Short's Nicie Spicie this evening after 30 days of fermentationin the primary. The beer pretty much appeared to have stopped fermenting at a gravity of 1.020, but then it started up again with a bubble in the airlock every 5 to 10 minutes or so for the last three weeks and went down to 1.006. This batch fermented in the kitchen which has been an average of about 80 degrees the last month and has been as warm as 84 degrees. So far I'm fairly pleased with how this beer turned out. It has a hazy amber color and smelled phenolic with a touch of smoke and a very light hint of orange. Tastes a touch watery at first then fruity with some light caramel malt flavor, notes of bubblegum and finally a hot, peppery finish. The finish is quite spicy and peppery (probably the best black pepper character yet in one of my "spicy" saisons) but I'm a little bit disappointed in the fruit flavors. I thought the amount of orange peel I added (one ounce) would add a little more orangey flavor.

I primed this batch with about three-quarters a cup of cane sugar and netted 24 22-ounce bottles (two full cases) and I'm quite happy about that! Now I have to start thinking about labels. I blogged earlier about this batch and its ingredients here.

New Glarus Enigma

2010-07-28T21:51:00.000-05:00

Settled in this evening with a 2007 bottle of New Glarus Enigma. I uncap the bottle and pour the contents into a wide-bowl St. Bernadus glass and I wonder who took a cherry pie out of the oven. That's the whiff of cherry aroma from my beer. Upon closer inspection, the aroma is less cherry pie and more cherry wine. It's rustic; with more cherry wood than cherry jam. The flavor of the Engima is reminiscent of cherry wine, too. Although it actually reminds me a bit more of the cherry drink, a sort of cooler from a roadside stand in Northern Michigan. That's because the Enigma is actually quite refreshing. Not so much restorative, as refreshing. This is not to say that isn't complex, because along with the tart cherry there is vanilla, a touch of cinnamon and maybe even a dash of nutmeg. All of these flavors are then rounded in the finish by a milky, lactic sourness. Yes, tart up front and sour in the finish. I'm quite pleased with how this beer tastes two years after I first tried it. My original notes from 2007 can be found at Beer Advocate.

Dupont Strain Tests My Patience

2010-07-20T22:22:00.002-05:00

My most recent saison ale is still slowly fermenting, but at least it's fermenting. (I'm using the Wyeast 3724 Dupont strain and it tends to get stuck and start again.) I've had this beer in plastic (bucket) for 18 days, which some would say is way too long, but I'm betting that since the yeast is still rather active (airlock is bubbling) that it'll be fine.

I was quite happy that I found some Sierra Nevada Torpedo at my local grocery store this week. As an "Extra" IPA it has a very smooth and pleasant hop profile: it's "leafy" hop profile with smooth, but assertive bitternes. I gave it a solid "A" on Beer Advocate. Another IPA I can recommend that I've had lately is New Holland Mad Hatter. Not as bitter as the Torpedo and not as good as my BA review linked above, but more sessionable at 5.8 percent versus 7.2 percent ABV. I'm a bit partial to it because it's more local than the Sierra Nevada and I like that's it has less alcohol, but I'm still a sucker for Sierra Nevada.

Another beer I've had lately is a seasonal brew from Trader Joe's called Summer Brew. It's made by Gordon Biersch for the eclectic grocery store chain and it's quite affordable at $6 a six-pack. I had this beer last summer when TJ's debuted it and I think I was more impressed with it then than I am now. It's a decent summer beer, a little too fruity but not quite dry enough for me as Kolsch-style beer.

To Rack or Not to Rack?

2010-07-08T20:51:00.002-05:00

Contemplating racking the saison, but it shall wait until another night. Despite the warm temps, the Dupont yeast that I pitched is sitting at 1.020 (56 percent attenuated) which means it has a long time to go. I figure if I'm lucky maybe I'll get to bottle sometime next month. Otherwise, the beer of course is very hazy. A hazy orange, with a surprisingly smoky nose. My hydrometer sample tastes very soft and "wheaty" with some delicate orange spice and assertive pepper with a decent blast of heat. I shall be patient and let this one take it's time.

Nicie Spice-inspired Beer Gets Brewed

2010-07-02T15:15:00.003-05:00

Brewed this morning as I had planned and it went rather well. I used four pounds of Briess dry malt extract, two pounds of Briess Munich malt and 10 ounces of sugar. I hopped this wort with three ounces of Strisselpalt hops (2.5% AA) added at 60, 30 and 5 minutes left of the 60-minute boil. I also added the following spices: one three-inch long stick of lemon grass (chopped), a quarter-ounce of dried lemon peel, an ounce of dried sweet orange peel, an ounce of crushed coriander seeds and two ounces of ground black pepper. It occurred to me later that I had some fresh limes and that some lime zest would have been nice, too. I'm fermenting this concoction with Wyeast 3724. It's supposed to hit 90 this weekend and the 3724 (supposed DuPont strain) likes it toasty. As I described earlier, this batch is inspired by Short's Nicie Spicie, which gets some decent props on Beer Advocate.

Saison Brew Session Planned

2010-07-01T22:10:00.003-05:00

Going to try a brew session tomorrow for a spiced wit/saison type of creation. I have four pounds of Briess dry wheat extract, two pounds of Munich malt and a pound of sugar (although I only intend to use about 10 ounces.) I plan to dose the beer rather heavily with orange and lemon peel along with black pepper in an attempt to emulate Short's Nicie Spicie. The Nicie Spicie is a favorite of mine and most recently enjoyed it at the Beer and Brat Fest last month at Crystal Mountain resort in Thompsonville, Michigan. I love the heat and spice of the peppercorns in this brew. I've been experimenting with adding pepper in beer for a few batches and now I feel like I can get it right, just how I want it. I'll be using French Strisselspalt hops for this beer because I feel they are one of the best hops for spiced beer. Meanwhile, I have two other saisons that are in the bottle and I need to do a side-by-side tasting of them sometime soon.

The Week in Review

2010-06-12T19:16:00.003-05:00

A week in review of sorts: I enjoyed a growler of Powerhouse Pale Ale from Rock Bottom Yorktown this evening. I don't recall the Powerhouse coming across so dry. It's quite tasty, with a toasted malt accent and piney hops. It's really a good pale ale for summer. Picked it up Friday night after a dinner of Ahi tuna salad which was quite tasty and paired with a Nitwit wheat ale.

Visited Hackney's on Dearborn (in Chicago) for the first time earlier today and enjoyed a pint of Boont Amber from Anderson Valley Brewing of Boonville, California. The Anderson Valley brews have been available in Chicago for a long time -- I'm thinking about 15 years or so -- but they've never been fresher. I've had bad experiences in the past several years with some of the Boonville beers, but in the last couple years the quality is much more consistent. I'm not sure if it has to do with logistics or distribution or what -- but I'm happy about it because they are good beers. By the way, I can highly recommend the guacamole and chips appetizer at Hackney's. The guac has a nice kick to it and the chips are toasty warm.

Picked up a six-pack of Three Floyds Gumballhead with the groceries this week. Gumballhead has much more body than I remember and almost zero perceived bitterness. I picked it up thinking it was a good summer beer, but I think I really prefer something drier like a saison-style ale, or as it turns out, the Powerhouse Pale Ale from my local Rock Bottom.

I still have two pounds of Munich malt that I need to brew with sometime soon. It's been sitting in my cupboard, already cracked, for about a month now. I might try and wedge in a brewing session one day this week after work. The beer would be a saison or farmhouse-style brew as I have some Wyeast 3724 in the fridge along with some Safbrew T-58. I have two batches of saison-style ale already in bottles and it's going fast. The first batch I'm really quite pleased with so far. It has a pleasant bitterness and just a touch of heat in the dry finish from some crushed black pepper. I used Wyeast 3711 for both batches and they fermented super dry, around 85-89 percent attenuated. (Love that yeast!) The hops are all Strisselspalt and add a touch of anise-like spice. The seocnd batch is a little bit different. I added the black pepper, but also some chamomile, which at first showed up with Juicy Fruit bubblegum flavors, but has since faded and is coming across a little bland. I will give this second batch plenty of warm conditioning and maybe it'll develop a little more complexity. The batch I intend to brew will probably have some lemon and orange peel added to it, along with a bit more of black or green peppercorns than the previous batches. I had some Nicie Spicie from Short's on a recent Michigan trip and I'm sort of seeking to emulate it.

"Petite" Saison is Tasting Good

2010-05-13T23:04:00.004-05:00

The "petite" saison I brewed in April is tasting pretty good so far; in fact I think it will turn out great, so I've brewed another version of it and it's fermenting now. The fermentation seems less robust (maybe cooler temps?) but I'm not worried. I'm letting it take it's time as I'm going to need more bottles anyway. There's been a funky smell in the kitchen the last few days, but it doesn't seem to be the fermenting beer, which is good.

In other news, I checked out the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance and Craft Brewing Guild "Beer Under Glass" event earlier this evening and I enjoyed it. Here's to hoping they can do it again, maybe with a little more food available? Also, I've seen that J.W. Platek's in McHenry County has ceased brewing. I never got to try their brews, but I'm told other good beers are now on tap. Still sad to see that area's only remaining brewery stop production.

Awesome Apparent Attenuation

2010-04-19T20:53:00.003-05:00

It seems crazy, but I racked my saison today and using Promash I calculated an apparent degree of fermentation of 94.9 percent. This seems crazy! This stuff should go down really easy this summer. My hydrometer sample smelled like a black pepper water cracker with a real light touch of citrus. It's got a bitter finish (but not too much so) and is peppery with a cracker-like pilsner maltiness. It's very light in body; almost watery, but the half-pound of torrified wheat I added seems to be adding a touch of body up front. All of this is good, but I'm just shocked that the gravity dropped at least 36 points in eight days. I still went ahead with dry hopping in the secondary, as planned, but I have to say I'm a little afraid. If this beer gets any drier I'll end up with something akin to mineral water. Fortunately, I like mineral water. Here's the recipe, which I feel inclined to brew again straight away if for no other reason than to see if I get the same results. I should note that I added a teaspoon of black pepper and maybe a tablespoon of crushed dried pineapple mint leaves five minutes before the end of the boil which is not listed in the recipe.

Ambitious Amber Almost Drained

2010-04-17T22:11:00.006-05:00

Sampled a few homebrews today. My Party Pig of Ambitious Amber is almost drained. Had a few pulls of it while watching the White Sox game on Fox today until I started falling asleep. Old man. Later in the evening I ran out to Binny's and picked up a bottle of Goose Island Sofie, which I enjoyed. I especially liked the tartness; I felt it was just about right and not over done. A really tasty saison-type beer that had me wondering if the Sofie is what the old saisons, the ones produced on the small farms in Belgium before the 1950s tasted like -- refreshing and light, but tart, if not a bit funky.
I then migrated from the Sofie to one of my homebrews, Montmorency Cherry Ale. I brewed it back in 2008. I basically added one gallon of tart cherry juice to a saison recipe (about 90 Belgian pils malt, 10 percent wheat), some Hallertau hops and Wyeast 3822 Ingelmunster Yeast. This beer is holding up pretty well. It's not quite as dry as I would it be, but the tart cherry flavor is quite nice. There's cherry in the nose and a little bit of tannin in the finish. I think I have a little more than a half case left of this beer that will be three years old in June. (It is pictured to the right.)

Pineapple Mint?

2010-04-14T22:39:00.004-05:00

A new brew is fermenting in the kitchen. It's a middle of the road (in terms of alcohol) saison brewed with black pepper and pineapple mint, along with some pilsner malt, torrefied wheat, Strisselspalt hops and Wyeast 3711 French Saison yeast. It's been percolating for about five days now and I intend to transfer to the secondary with some more Strisselspalt hop pellets. In the meantime I've been enjoying my Ambitious Amber from one of my Party Pigs, but recently I've (*gasp*) beem diluting each pint with a little bit of bottled spring water. Just a touch too thick I guess and not quite dry enough. I'd like to try this recipe again (reworked) to see if I can get it where I like it. This probably won't happen too soon though, as it's getting warmer and prime-time for saison brewing. Those saison yeasts love the temps in 80s (which is what my kitchen will be throughout summer.) I've found that the saisons I brew always taste better the year after they're brewed, too. (See my tweets from earlier today.)

An Ambitious Amber

2010-03-24T21:13:00.003-05:00

Racked another beer into a Party Pig. This time it's what I'm calling Ambitious Amber. The "ambitious" in the title comes from my idea of brewing this beer after work using a 15-minute boil. I boiled a half-ounce of Chinook hops with three ounces of Crystal for 15 minutes along with three pounds of Munton's DME as well as a simple partial mash of a half-pound each of 150L crystal malt and flaked oats. This beer was fermented with a packet of Fermentis S-05 which I had handy in the fridge. The results has latent, sustained bitterness, is orange in color with a fruity nose. The whole batch (minus massive yeast sediment) was transferred to the Pig with about a third-ounce of dry Crystal pellets. So far this beer has a soft mouthfeel, with sort of fruity flavors up front (orange) with some odd, estery flavors (can't quite describe, will hopefully lager out.) The bitterness is pretty assertive for the estimated 40 IBUs. My only other concern with this batch is that Party Pig pouch is situated inside the Pig where it might block the flow. I will relax with homebrew and not worry. As I relax, I feel the need to apologize that this blog may seem boring. I'm mostly writing to record a history of my homebrewing through the years and I figure I might as well share my experiences with the rest of the world. I used to write more about other beers, but now I'm pretty much focusing on my hombrewing experiences. Maybe this is because I'm mostly drinking homebrew these days?

I'll conclude this post with one beer recommendation. I was very impressed with a beer I split with my wife (a.k.a Marcofrau) earlier this evening. I can highly recommend Avery DuganA IPA. It's quite the impressive hop bomb. It's rather strong at I ended up posting a review over at Rate Beer.

2010-03-14T22:20:00.005-05:00

It's fresh and maybe a bit "green" but I'm really liking the batch I've got in my Party Pig right now. It's a recipe inspired two of my favorite Rogue beers Rogue Brutal Bitter and American Amber. I've been referring to this batch as a Brutal Bitter clone, but it's more of a couple different Rogue Ales. I've been trying to figure out what it is about this batch that I like so much and I think it's the flavor of the Crystal hops with the malts I used, but it might be the Rogue Pacman yeast because there is a definite Rogue character to this beer. I put crystal hops in the amber that I brewed last week, so it'll be interesting to see if this next batch tastes anything like the one I'm drinking now. I have a feeling I'll be attempting another batch of my version of Brutal Bitter. Or I might have to try this kit that I've found at Homebrewer's Outpost. Either way, here's my recipe.

2010-03-12T23:25:00.003-06:00

Ambitious Amber is fermenting away in the kitchen. About three gallons of amber ale brewed on a Thursday night. I implemented a 30-minute boil (in the interest of time) adding three ounces of Crystal hop pellets at 15 minutes left in the boil and a half-ounce of Chinook at five minutes. The malt comprised three pounds of Briess Golden DME and about two-thirds of a pound of 150L Simpsons crystal malt. I intend to put this batch in a Party Pig. I ordered fresh pouches direct from Quoin earlier this evening.

My Rogue Brutal Bitter-alike has been cooling in the fridge for the past 48 hours. I tapped it awhile ago and was mostly pleased with the results. It's not quite as bitter or hoppy as I hoped, but it's a tasty draft bitter and the pour is fantastic. I've ordered a "Pig Pen" (insulated cooler) for the Party Pig and it shall travel...maybe to you!

Brutal Bitter Clone Pigged

2010-03-06T23:38:00.003-06:00

Ended up "pigging" the Brutal Bitter-alike and thought I might yield a few extra bottles, but with all the hops (including those from the previous batch since I racked on top of slurry) I only yielded enough to fill the Party Pig. My last experience with the Pig wasn't so good. The pouch didn't activate. It took a couple tries, but this time I actually heard the pouch activate as I pressurized the Pig with the included hand pump.

I enjoyed a pint (or two) of this beer while packaging and it was quite delicious. There's an assertive bitterness, but a complex malt character that lets the yeast express itself. This is the second batch I've made with the Rogue Pacman yeast and it tasted more Rogue-like than the first.

2010-03-03T22:50:00.003-06:00

Waiting to package the Rogue Brutal Bitter-alike because I'm not sure what I want to do with it. I'm inclined to bottle it, but I don't have enough bottles. I do have a Party Pig (and a pouch) but I don't trust the pouch as I don't know how old it is and I've found that old pouches don't always activate. I wish Party Pigs weren't such a pain in the ass. Party Pig fans please console me. I'd like to use the Pig with this beer, but the last time I "pigged" a beer I ended up having to bottle it because it was way over-carbonated. Filling bottles takes time, but it's pretty simple. I'm at 16 days in the primary (glass) which is really no big deal. I think I'm going to go with bottles on this one, but I'm open to advice. Feel free to comment below.

Rogue Yellow Snow Clone Tasting

2010-02-26T23:50:00.007-06:00

Hurray! No problems so far with my Rogue Yellow Snow Clone. The carbonation is just about perfect and I can't seem to detect any off flavors yet. Needless to say, some of the bottles that may be more oxidized (see earlier posts) are first in line to be consumed. I still have about three gallons of new beer inspired by Rogue Brutal Bitter that should be ready to package in the next couple days. I'm not sure yet if I'll try the Wyeast VSS Rogue Pacman yeast on a third brew.

Been combing through links on this blog as my old site called the Marcobrau Beer Pages will be going down at end of next month. I'm working on salvaging bits and pieces of the old site that I think are most relevant or interesting and I'll likely link to those parts from this blog. The old site is quite a trip down memory lane as I have links to content from more than 10 years ago. It may sound dramatic, but it's the end of an era. The internet is a very different place today than it was 10 years ago. Nowadays, between this blog and Twitter I feel like I can get my point across of publicly chronicling my homebrewing experiences and general beer geekiness quite well.

Rogue Yellow Snow Inspired Recipe Gets Brewed

2010-02-15T20:31:00.012-06:00

Busy brewing this weekend: brewed a new IPA inspired by Rogue Brutal Bitter and bottled the Rogue Yellow Snow clone. I brewed the new batch first, then bottled the Yellow Snow while the freshly brewed batch was cooling. The bottling didn't go well. First, the transfer hose came off the spigot of the bottling bucket and beer spilled everywhere; then I had trouble getting the beer to flow through the hose once it was reconnected. I lost patience and ended up filling almost a dozen bottles by placing the bottle directly under the spigot. In theory this should be an aeration/oxidation nightmare and the finished the should taste like cardboard, but I'm not too worried because I dry-hopped the heck out of this beer with two ounces of Amarillo. I'm thinking the dry hops might cover up any oxidation. At least half the batch got bottled the right way.

The brewing part of the day went fine without any problems. I'm expected the beer to take off pretty quickly since I racked it on top of slurry and I wasn't disappointed. A healthy krausen developed in about five hours.

Marcobrau Beer Pages Archived, Still on the Net

2010-01-17T20:02:00.003-06:00

Those of you looking for my old site: you can still find it archived here (for the moment, I may be losing the space.) I'm not planning on updating it any time soon so my domain is redirecting to this site for the foreseeable future.

2010-01-17T19:36:00.003-06:00

Took a shot at a Rogue Yellow Snow IPA clone today. I'm pretty sure it's going to be fermenting much too warm (why can't it be really cold when I want it too?), so we'll see how that goes. It's fermenting at about 75 degrees which I think is too warm. I'm using the Wyeast 1764 Pacman and all the ingredients according to the label. I used Promash to help me guess the proportions of the grains, hops and malts. Details on Rogue Yellow Snow can be found here. A really important fact to note is that I didn't brew this all-grain; instead I did a mini-mash of two pounds pale malt along with specialty grains and then added six pounds of Northwestern Gold LME. Depending on how this batch turns out, I'd like to reuse the yeast for either a Shakespeare Stout clone or something like American Amber.

2010-01-10T22:18:00.002-06:00

Tried a bottle of the West Coast Porter and it was not so "West Coast", but quite bitter. I was hoping for more hop flavor, but it seems the 15 minute addition of Chinooks just added more bitterness. The carbonation is right though (which is really what I was checking) and it is VERY smooth. It should turn out to be pretty delicious and quite sessionable at just under five percent alcohol by volume. Also, I'm really liking how the Fermentis Safale US-05 worked in this beer.

I'm not sure what I'm going to brew next. I'm running out of IPA, but I might just try another hoppy porter or stout because I have plenty of Amarillo and Chinook hops and almost a pound of roasted barley along with a few ounces of black malt.

2010-01-04T19:35:00.004-06:00

Bottled up the "West Coast" Porter the other night (see my Twitter feed) and it went pretty well, except for the fact that I had to use cane sugar instead of corn sugar. How is this a potential problem? Well I used just as much cane sugar as I would dextrose, which means that my beer may be a little over-carbonated. Turns out that you don't need to use as much cane sugar as corn sugar (see the following thread on Homebrew Talk.) I figure I'll closely monitor the progress the carbonating beer and move as much of it to a colder (I'm thinking 40-60 degrees F.) environment.

After tasting this beer and looking back at the recipe I realize I really hopped the heck out of it. Not only is there bitterness, but a harsh hop spiciness that is almost acidic. Ideally, the hops will fade a bit and this will be a more drinkable brew. If not, I still have some more dark grains (one pound of roasted barley and another half pound of black patent) that I could use in another dark beer.

2009-12-27T13:38:00.005-06:00

Can't believe I haven't mentioned that I have a porter in it's eighth day of fermentation. The yeast was pitched on December 19th and it's been real quiet for a few days now. I plan on keeping it in the plastic primary for a couple more days before I decide on the next step. I'm not sure if I want to rack to the secondary with dry hops or bottle it up. Since I'm going for a west coast-style porter I feel like I should add some dry hops, but I'm going to give it a taste in a couple days and see how I like it. I added a lot of hops (five ounces) in the last 15 minutes of the boil which should add a significant hop flavor, but I'm not sure how much aroma they will add. I haven't used Chinook hops in a few years, but I know they're quite powerful.

My next batch is probably going to be something like a British Mild crossed with a Saison, mostly because I have Safbrew T-58 and some black malt. At this point in the recipe formulation, I'm using Briess Pilsner malt extract, black malt and molasses along with Strisselspalt and Goldings hops. I plan to use the Goldings and some of the Strisselspalt for bitterness with the Strissepalt as the sole aroma hop steeped at the end of the boil.

Looking through my posts, I also see that I've failed to mention that I ordered three pounds of hop pellets from Hops Direct. The pricing seemed a lot better than paying two to three dollars an ounce at the local home brew shop. I now have about one pound each of Chinook, Amarillo and Strisselspalt hops in my freezer.

2009-12-18T19:35:00.007-06:00

I was extremely pleased to find two six-packs of 2007 Goose Island Christmas Ale earlier today. This is a small-batch beer that is released once a year and is a favorite. According to the brewery it ages well up to five years. I've poured the first bottle out of the 12 and it's so far so good. Here are my tasting notes:

I give it a good pour into an old school Schlitz dimpled goblet. The head that forms is modest, but lasting, and some lace left behind with each sip. This light mahogany-colored beer is much hazier than I expected, but otherwise looks delicious. The nose is pretty neutral with some complex fruit and malt aromas. It is wonderfully smooth with a luscious caramel flavor that fades into more roasted coffee flavors before a smoothly bitter finish. Some unidentifiable spices nips at the sides of the tongue; it's almost sort of peppery, yet sweet. A very tasty ale!

I have a bottle of this year's Christmas Ale in my fridge. It's a 22-ounce bottle and I'm told that the recipe has changed (the alcohol increased and more hops have been added.) It is only available in 22-ounce bottles and thus the price of this year's version has about doubled compared to the 2008 and 2007. Despite my initial gripe, I still look forward to procuring some of this year's batch and letting some of it rest in the cellar.

2009-12-13T21:28:00.005-06:00

I tapped the Party Pig of my last three-gallon batch of extra hoppy pale ale and it was way over-carbonated, pouring all foam. My guess is that the batch wasn't done fermenting or was infected, although it tasted fine. I also noticed the Party Pig pouch didn't activate properly. It was sort of pinched in the middle and not fully inflated, leaving a lot of head space. I sort of figured I might have a problem when I couldn't get the pouch to inflate. According to instructions on the Party Pig website, the beer should rise to the top of bottle (vertically oriented) when bleeding the excess air. If the beer doesn't rise to the top, then the pouch hasn't activated. So I took a chance letting it carb with the priming sugar in the hops that the pressure might change and the pouch might activate as the yeast created more carbon dioxide during conditioning.

Since the Pig was pouring all foam, I decided to bleed off some gas (I did this by standing the Pig up vertically so there was but air to escape when I tapped it), thinking this might reduce some of the pressure so the beer didn't pour all foam. This wasn't very smart, because the result was that I went from dispensing all foam to nothing. The pouch failed to expand and I ended up opening up the Pig, deactivating the partially inflated pouch and siphoning the beer into bottles with Munton's Carb Tabs, so we'll see how that goes. I think the issues I had with the Party Pig pouch had to do with how it was oriented in the bottle, causing to not activate properly. I think that I then pumped too much air into the bottle trying to get the pouch to activate, which may have contributed to over-carbonating the beer.

2009-12-01T20:44:00.006-06:00

Sipping an English-style barleywine I brewed last year and I'm not sure how I feel I about it. It hasn't turned out quite like I expected; it almost seems more Belgian-style than English. First of all, the nose has a lot of banana-toffee esters that are mixed in with a pretty heavy caramel-toffee smell. The taste is a bit sweet with some hop spice and a lot of caramel and toffee, while the finish seems dry at first; but with a late tawny port sweetness that fades to corn sweetener. The banana in the aroma is unexpected as is the corn sweetener taste late in the finish. I wouldn't be surprised to notice banana esters in a barleywine if it had fermented and conditioned real warm, but according to my notes (from 11 months ago) the beer fermented at 72 degrees F. and was conditioned for the last nine months or so in a 60-70 degree F. basement. Reviewing my notes I also noticed that I re-pitched a yeast from an English bitter that I brewed. The yeast was Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire, substituted for the NB recommendation of either Safale US-05 or Wyeast 1056.

This was a Northern Brewer Barleywine kit with not a lot of hops which is why I used the English yeast. If I brewed this again I think I would add a touch more bittering hops and some aroma hops, too. Looking at my notes, I reduced the flavor hops addition at 15 minutes to 5 minutes and stuck with the NB recommendation of no aroma hops. If I brewed this kit again I think I would follow the direction on the flavoring hops addition and add additional hops to the kit as aroma hops (probably Goldings or Fuggle.) I think I'd still stick with an English yeast but don't if I'd be able to use the Wyeast 1469 again since it was a limited edition strain.

2009-11-23T21:21:00.007-06:00

Despite it being a busy time of year for me at work, I've managed to get three batches of beer going. One that seems to be turning out quite good is a sort of Belgian-style Spiced Cherry Stout. Seeing that I didn't account for the fermentability of the tart cherry juice I used, I've gone back and estimated the alcohol content of this brew to be at least 9 percent alcohol. I knew I had a lot more alcohol in this batch than I thought after getting buzzed pretty good after a couple small glasses. That said, the alcohol content is not getting in the way of what I think will be a terrific beer. Even at just a couple months of age, there is a wonderful infusion of chocolate, roasted coffee and tart cherry flavors in this beer. There is also a slight cola flavor and a hint something else; sort of an undefinable complexity. I'm guessing this depth of flavor has to do with not just the Belgian yeast, but the subtle addition of cardamom and black pepper (about a tablespoon each.) This beer continues to sleep and shall do so for awhile; as at it's strength it should improve over the years.

Meanwhile, I've brewed a couple hoppy ales. The first mentioned a few weeks ago, is a Brewer's Best India Pale Ale kit. I tweaked the hopping schedule though, using one ounce of the included Columbus hops at the start of the boil and two ounces of the included Cascades at 15 minutes and an ounce of the rest of Cascades at five minutes left in the boil. I then dry hopped with two ounces of Simcoes that I already had on hand. I've already cracked open a couple of bottles of this brew (brewed 36 days ago now) and it's quite tasty, but has an underwhelming hop nose. I'm guessing the less than expected hop character is due to my Simcoe hops being old -- I think they had been in the freezer for about a year.

Finally, tonight I packaged a three-gallon batch of well-hopped pale ale. This latest batch is just under the BJCP recognized gravity of an IPA (at about 13 plato) but hopped to about 70 IBUs. Wyeast 1098 (British Ale), along with a pound of 60L crystal malt (20 percent of the grain bill) seems to have given some balance to this batch. The finish is still quite bitter though. I know this bitterness will fade over time, so I've added an ounce of hop pellets to the "cask" (Party Pig) for additional hop aroma. Most of this batch fit into the Party Pig with the left over bit filling a 1 liter swingtop bottle...and my glass. I'm a little worried about this batch due to the Party Pig not activating. I seem to recall the pressure pouch activating after priming it with the pump the last couple times I've "pigged" my beer. I'm hopeful that the carbonation created by the addition of priming sugar (dry malt extract) will create enough pressure to activate the pouch and that I'll be enjoying some tasty pale ale in about a month. A Promash summery of this recipe for this batch of pale ale is available here.

2009-11-22T22:45:00.004-06:00

The cost of Goose Island Christmas Ale appears to have gone up 300 percent from last year and it doesn't appear to be a vastly different beer. I swear I remember picking up a 12-pack of Goose Christmas for $15 last year and this year it's around $7 a 22-ounce bottle. That's an increase of around 10 cents an ounce to 30 cents an ounce! I realize that some of the proceeds are going to charity. I hope most of the proceeds are, because otherwise that kind of money grab is a bit ridiculous. I like big, brown 22-ounce bottles (I use them for my homebrew) but tripling the price of a beer just because it's a smaller batch than last year and packaged in a nice purdy big bottle is not cool. This started with Three Floyds in the last few years with their "special" brews (think Dreadnaught, Moloko, Alpha Klaus, etc.) and now I just drink these beers on draft as it's usually about 10 cents an ounce cheaper than out of the bottle. I guess my grumpiness in regards to the price of some craft beers it just another reason why I brew my own beer. It's often far cheaper to buy ingredients and brew something you like then fork out $85 or more for a case of beer.

2009-10-31T19:17:00.003-05:00

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

2009-10-27T22:27:00.003-05:00

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?

2009-10-27T21:36:00.003-05:00

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!

2009-10-22T21:45:00.005-05:00

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

2009-10-14T20:59:00.002-05:00

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

2009-07-26T21:17:00.005-05:00

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?

2009-06-03T19:21:00.004-05:00

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)

2009-05-30T21:47:00.013-05:00

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.

Yeast smoothie of a saison racked

2009-04-12T20:28:00.009-05:00

Racked a saison-style ale that I brewed last Sunday. I received a Williams Brewing catalog and got curious about a new Belgian Pale liquid extract that is 90 percent pilsner malt and 10 percent wheat, which seems ideal for brewing a saison. I kept it really simple because I haven't used this extract before (it's new on the market), so I just added three additions of Spalter pellet hops and a little cracked black pepper at the end of the boil.

The liquid that filled the glass carboy that is my secondary fermenter was like a yeast smoothie, but based on my sample it's tasty one. I poured my hydrometer sample into a tulip glass. The beer smelled a bit peppery and quite earthy-yeasty with a bit of lemongrass even though I didn't add any. It tasted very crisp and cracker-like, especially towards the finish with lots of pepper followed by juicy citrus and phenols accented by a floral, spicy character. The hydrometer reading, by the way, showed about 74 percent attenuation. I'm fairly confident this yeast (Wyeast 3724) will keep working, albeit slowly, for a couple more weeks. And, if by chance I don't get the attenuation I'm looking for, I have another yeast (Safale T-58) that I can pitch. I've used the T-58 before with decent results, but I'd to stick with supposed "Dupont" strain if I can. I've posted a Promash recipe report for this recipe here.

Drinkin' (in the) Metro

2009-04-01T20:59:00.005-05:00

Finally, a new microbrewery in Chicago that is crafting a portfolio of lagers. I've waited several years for this moment. I'm old enough to remember drinking lagers from two Chicago craft brewers: Chicago Brewing Company and Pavichevich Brewing Company. These two breweries produced two of my favorite lagers back in the early to mid-1990s. Chicago Brewing produced Legacy Lager and Pavichevich made Baderbrau. Legacy Lager was good, but I remember really enjoying Baderbrau. I miss that beer.

Fast forward several years and Doug and Tracy Hurst open Metropolitan Brewing Company at Ravenswood and Winona on Chicago's north side. They're seeking to bring "a little balance to the party" that is the American craft beer movement by brewing German-style lagers. Their portfolio includes two beers so far, Flywheel Bright Lager and Dynamo Copper Lager. I sampled the Flywheel Lager at Lunar Brewing Company a few weeks ago and I had mixed feelings about it, mostly because I wanted it to be Baderbrau, my all-time favorite Chicago lager beer. But this wasn't fair -- I'm pretty sure the creators of Flywheel were thinking of Germany and not the Czech lagers that inspired Ken Pavichevich to brew Baderbrau. I think there is a difference between German and Czech lagers; it might not be as great a difference as English and American-style IPA, but I think there is a difference.

So I started thinking of German lagers when I opened my bottle of Flywheel tonight and I got it. I liked it more the second time around out of the bottle. The Metropolitan beers might be a bit pricey at $10 a six-pack for local lager beer, but they're fresh -- brewed just a few miles away -- which counts for something. The details of my tastings of both Metro beers are on Beer Advocate.

Belgian Pale Ale sleeps, saison is in the mail

2009-03-30T20:33:00.004-05:00

Well, the Belgian-style Pale Ale I brewed a few weeks ago is bottled and resting comfortably in 22-ounce bottles and one giant (1-liter) swingtop. Half the batch is in the de facto beer cellar at my friend Ryan's house and the other half is in my kitchen. It's probably about 67 degrees in the basement and 75 in the kitchen. It'll be interesting to see how these bottles compare and which ones I like more. I'm guessing the bottles kept at the warmer temperature will have more esters. Whether that's a good thing remains to be seen. I'm letting the beer sit at least another week (which will be about three weeks of conditioning) before I crack one open.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting on some ingredient from William's Brewing. I'm trying out a new Belgian extract that is 90 percent two-row Belgian Pale and 10 percent wheat. I'll be making a saison with this extract along with perhaps a little bit (5 percent or less) of sugar to enhance the dryness. So far I'm not thinking of adding any spices; just the Wyeast 3724 yeast. I've also purchased some Wyeast 3522 that I'd like to try brewing a Grisette (low alcohol saison) with that would be packaged in a Party Pig or two and maybe some bottles. I've been reading about Grisette, a version of saison, in the book Farmhouse Ales: Culture and Craftmanship in the Belgian Tradition by Phil Markowski. It's a really great book if your'e intrested in brewing saisons or even if you're a fan. Pictured is my "Saison Morency" from last year.

Coffee Stout to warm the beer lover's heart

2009-03-09T20:45:00.007-05:00

We took trip to Wisconsin recently, as we do from time to time, and on our way to our destination we stopped (of course) at the New Glarus Brewing Company. It's requisite stop if we're in that part of the state, as we enjoy quite a few of the brewery's
beers but can't buy them in our home state. (New Glarus beers aren't distributed outside of Wisconsin and many people complain about this, but I think it makes going to Wisconsin just a little more special.)

Anyhow, we picked up a mixed case or so of the New Glarus beer. Among our picks was the new version of Coffee Stout, which I'm trying for the first time this evening. I really liked the old version and have high hopes for this one -- that actually has coffee in it!

First off, as you can see in the pic, this stout is damn dark. It's a good lookin' stout with a compact off-white, persistent head. There's a whiff of burnt chocolate at first, but then it's pretty much roasted coffee -- quality roasted coffee. The first sip is much thicker than I remember compared to the old version. The taste is predominantly chocolate (more milk chocolate than dark, which is a bit surprising) followed by dry roasted grains and dry cocoa finish. It's pretty full bodied, thick and smooth throughout. The finish is pretty full, but by no means too sweet or cloying; there's the right amount of bitterness coming from hops and roasted grains. The roasted coffee flavors tend to flourish a little more as the beer warms up to room temperature and the chocolate flavors dominate much less. There was a lot more chocolate flavor here than I thought at first, with the coffee mostly in the nose. I was hoping for a little more coffee flavor, but as it warmed up I liked it more and will happily finish the rest of the six-pack served close to room temperature; just not tonight.

Bubbly Bitter and Belgian Ale

2009-02-23T20:40:00.006-06:00

The bitter I brewed a couple months ago is definitely over-carbonated. Both the bottles and the Party Pig are excessively foaming. I haven't noticed any off-flavors in the beer, so I'm thinking I must've just goofed and added too much priming sugar and/or the beer wasn't done fermenting. It's disappointed, but at least the beer is drinkable. It just requires some patience.

Yesterday I brewed up a sort of Belgian Pale Ale using mostly Northwestern Gold LME, some crystal malts (20L and 80L) along with some Spalter and Czech Saaz hops. I pitched Wyeast 3787 Trappist yeast at about 73 degrees. The kitchen is always warm, so I decided to surrender and brew a yeast that is more tolerant to warmer temperatures. I'm not sure why I even try to brew English style bitters in my kitchen; they always turn out really fruity with a ton of esters. Nothing off-putting, just lots of fruitiness. Certain Belgian yeasts, like the Wyeast 3787, seem to be able to tolerate the heat better. I've had pretty good look with dry yeasts, too, especially SafAle S-04 and S-05 which seems to ferment fairly clean up into the mid-70s. So maybe dry and Belgian yeasts are what I should use instead of trying to brew the perfect bitter in a warm kitchen?

The Wyeast 3787 seems to be starting kind of slow, but I'm not worried about it. I've got pressure in the fermenter (the cone of the airlock is pushed all the way up), I just don't have bubbling going on yet...except in my over-carbonated bitter!

Finally going for the gusto

2009-02-13T21:28:00.007-06:00

Several years ago I started a fascination with American brewing history and some of the great American brewers of the past. I started collecting glassware and other memorabilia of many of these old brands of beer such as Ballantine, Falstaff, Pabst and Schlitz. Some of these beer brands survive, but most of these names have been consolidated under one corporate entity. Pabst Blue Ribbon is probably the most popular "retro" American beer brand and the modern day Pabst Brewing Company owns several other old brands such as Blatz, National Bohemian, Olympia, Old Style, Pearl and Schlitz among others. Schlitz is probably the next bigger sellers among the old brands in the Pabst portfolio. This brand has an interesting history, at one time during the 1970s Schlitz was the second most popular beer in the country. It's reputation was built over many decades starting in the late 1800s building upon a system of tied-houses to promote and sell it's product. Some of these tied houses still exist. One of these structures (that I've been to) is now Schuba's Tavern at Belmont in Southport in Chicago. Unfortunately, the market share for Schlitz started to collapse in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the company tinkered with the recipe. Some of these changes resulted the beer actually turning to glop -- an ingredient added to increase head retention and foaming apparently caused the beer to start to solidify. Other ingredient changes were known to cause headaches in some people. A strike in the early 1980s didn't help the company either. Remarkably, this beer brand has survived since then, brewed in smaller amounts by a couple different owners until recently being reformulated back to a 1960s "original" formula.

Despite my interest in old beer brands I don't really find them that appealing to drink -- especially Schlitz -- which is why when Pabst announced a recipe change back to an old formula I was curious, thinking that maybe I'd like the new "old" Schlitz. I'm drinking a bottle tonight, of course poured in 1960s era pilsner sham, and it's not bad. That said, it's looks may be its best asset. The beer poured with plenty of carbonation forming a pretty white head that left lace on the sides of the glass as it slowly fell. Schlitz smells of grain and maybe a wisp (or I guess a "kiss" as the advertising used to say) of hops. The color of the beer is crystal clear and pale yellow. It tastes a bit grainy but gone is the corn and vegetal flavors. It's not quite as slick or smooth (or quite as sweet) as Pabst Blue Ribbon. I don't necessarily miss the sweetness, but I do miss the smoothness compared to Pabst. In fact, it may be a bit too grainy tasting for me, but I could see maybe trying it again in hot weather or when I'm feeling nostalgic and want just a little six-row barley malt and a kiss of the hops.

The story of a gassy pig

2009-02-11T19:29:00.003-06:00

Crap. I brewed another bitter last month and split the batch between several 22-ounce bottles and a party pig and it seems the pig is massively over-carbonated. Pure foam. I tapped it for the first time tonight and easily and quickly filled a liter-sized mug with 100 percent foam. I'm not sure what happened except that maybe because I batch primed that the priming sugar didn't evenly mix and the yeast in the pig beer had too much sugar to eat. The beer is also very cloudy which is unusual for a pig beer (the pressure usually seems to force the yeast out of suspension.) The beer smells fine; very neutral actually, and it tastes rather fruity with a sneaky bitterness that isn't too strong at first then sort of builds with each sip. I don't think it's infected, probably just overcarbonated (I mixed a half-cup of priming sugar to carbonate the whole batch.) I'm thinking that the next batch that I split between pigs in bottles I should probably cut back the sugar a little bit to maybe a third cup and see what happens or maybe I'll just get the parts I need so I can put a whole batch in party pigs.

Supporting the local brewery

2009-02-08T19:22:00.009-06:00

The other day I decided to support my local brewery. I picked up a mixed six-pack of two different beers from Two Brothers Brewing Company in Warrenville, Ill. They're both ales that I've had before and wanted to revisit after being less than impressed the first couple times around. I'm pleased to report that I enjoyed both beers, Prairie Path Ale and Bitter End Pale Ale quite a bit.

Both ales are great examples of a session beer, at just more than 5 percent alcohol by volume, you can enjoy three or four of these beers and not feel any effects the next day. Prairie Path Ale is the lighter of the two, both in color and in body. The golden ale (as described on the label) pours with a good initial flourish of carbonation forming a brief head that quickly falls; not the prettiest beer, but that's okay. It smells good (spicy, grassy hops and fresh toasted malt) and tastes great. It's a very crisp ale, with a good slightly toasted malt flavor accentuated by just enough spicy Saaz and Kent Goldings hops. The bitterness is just right and the finish dry enough to enhance drinkability. This not a terribly complex beer, but a very easy drinking, tasty beer. I really like the fresh, crisp malt flavor and slightly bitter (28 IBUs), dry-ish finish.

The Bitter End Pale Ale is differentiated by its copper hue and more sustained foaminess that generates lace down the sides of the glass with each sip. This ale has a light aroma of more citrusy hops than spicy. The Bitter End has more body than the Prairie Path, too. Again, this beer is very fresh, which shows in its leafy, citrus hoppiness. Some will complain that it's actually not that bitter and that the hop flavor is muted, but I don't this beer is trying to be an IPA. I would almost consider to be more an English Pale Ale; the fairly full body is keeping me from downing this one as quickly as Prairie Path Ale, but the Bitter End has only a tenth of a percent more alcohol by volume. There is clearly some use of caramel malts in Bitter End and the help round out the flavor with the hop bitterness of 32 IBUs just assertive enough to coat the tongue a little more with each sip. Beer geeks and brewers: both these brews hover around a original gravity of 12-13 Plato.

I think I'm lucky to have found these beer very fresh and in excellent condition for $8.49 a six-pack at my local Trader Joe's. Both ales have a best before date of June 10, 2009 which confirms their freshness. That said, I would definitely recommend consuming these beers as fresh as possible. Since the alcohol content in both isn't that high, I'm not sure how well they will age and I'm frankly a bit curious as to how they will taste in a few months, as it's the fresh character of both of these ales that's really got me interested.

Wipeout!

2009-01-31T21:09:00.004-06:00

Enjoyed a Port Brewing Wipeout IPA this evening.

I've been meaning to get to this beer for awhile now. I remember being captivated by it the now defunct Real Ale Fest in Chicago several years ago. Lots of fruity hops in this orange-ish ale. Bits of grapefruit, mango, bitter orange in the aroma of this beer. You can taste of these hoppy qualities, too. The bitterness is potent, and balanced with just enough pale malts and no doubt some dextrin malt to keep the hops from making this beer unbearably bitter. No caramel malt or other malt flavors are noticeable. I've read about some carbonation problems with the beer, but I thought the carb was perfect. The beer poured with plenty of carbonation and a fairly persistent head. Overall, a very delicious IPA that I would definitely revisit and recommend.

One beer racked and another brewed

2009-01-20T22:02:00.003-06:00

Phew...I'm tired. I got right to brewing after work today. My target is another simple English Bitter, hopefully improving slightly on the last, using the Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire. This was a simple recipe: one can of Munton's Light, two pounds of Munton's Dry Malt Extract, 1 ounce of Amarillo hops for 60 minutes, a half-ounce for 30 minutes and a three-quarters of an ounce mix of Fuggle and Styrians steeped at the end of the boil. All the hops were pellets. Added Irish Moss for clarity at 15 minutes to the end of the boil. I experienced a minor boil over, but the bigger problem was when my wort chiller came apart. Fortunately, I was able to make repairs to the chiller. Cleaning up all the water on the floor wasn't too much fun, but at least none of the chiller water got into the wort.

I've also forgotten to report that I brewed the Northern Brewer Barleywine back two weeks ago. I racked this batch into the secondary tonight so I could use the primary for the bitter. I didn't reuse the yeast because I figured I already used it once, it was tainted with a lot of hops. I pitched fresh Wyeast 1469 for the bitter. The barleywine tasted deliciously strong with a fair amount bit of a banana aroma -- some interesting esters for sure. I figure I'll let the barleywine sit in the secondary for at least a couple weeks before bottling.

Changes to the bitter (compared to the last batch) included substituting Munton's light DME for the sugar and changing up the hop schedule; using some American hops for bittering instead of all English.

An Old Kitty Kat

2009-01-14T18:22:00.005-06:00

It's amazing to me how homebrew gets tucked away and sort of forgotten. This is the case with a beer I brewed back in August 2006 that I initially referred to as the Kitty Kat beer. My inspiration for the batch was Jolly Pumpkin La Roja, but the recipe evolved into something a bit different, with a much more spiced (and different) flavor than the JP brew. This beer was brewed fairly strong at an estimated 7 to 8 percent alcohol. I used an odd combination of spices for the batch; cardamom, fenugreek and black pepper. The full recipe is available here as a Promash summary.

Anyhow, I remember this beer having a really strong maple-like flavor from the fenugreek. Granted, I expected a maple-like flavor from this spice, but I seemed to miss the mark and added too much. It was almost undrinkable. It mellowed about a year after bottling to the point where this flavor wasn't as strong. Now, about two and a half years later, this beer has finally become more balanced and complex.

The fenugreek is still present in the nose mixed with a bit of booziness/alcohol and a dusty cola-like aroma of cardamom. The fenugreek is still the dominant flavor up front, along with caramel, but then caramel malt flavors fade into a tamarind-like fruity-tartness, then back to sweet caramel flavor that evaporates into a dry finish with a latent hint of pancake syrup on the back of the tongue. Pretty weird, I know, but it's good in small doses and it works quite well with Indian food as fenugreek is a common spice used in that cuisine.

Anchor Our Special Ale

2009-01-06T21:11:00.000-06:00

Anchor Our Special Ale is another one of my favorite Christmas/Holiday beers, but I never know what to make out of it. I suppose that's the idea.

Anchor Our Special Ale pours rather dark, almost opaque (just some ruby highlights here and there), but what kind of dark beer is it. Is it a porter? It can certainly be considered a spiced ale. The addition of spices, many different kinds which supposedly change every year) are what makes this beer so special. So is it a spiced porter perhaps? Let's examine the possibilities...

First off, this ale has a very pleasant aroma (it always does). Spruce comes to mind, along with cocoa and there's maybe a hint leather. A very interesting combination, for sure. Aside from the aroma, my first impression of this year's batch of Our Special Ale is that it's not the brewery's best vintage. The mouthfeel is decent, but body the seems a bit light. Also, the flavors aren't as bright as I'd like them to be: black tea-like flavors mixed with raisins, followed by a tamarind-like tartness. This tart character is probably the most interesting aspect of this ale, aside from the aroma. The tamarind flavor sort of builds in intensity with each sip, as this year's batch of Our Special Ale starts to grow on me.

So is this beer a spiced porter? Maybe, but it would be dryish one. I would still stay it defies categorization. It is definitely an interesting ale, but I would suggest that newcomers try a single bottle or draft before committing to a six-pack.

Yorkshire Bitter update

2009-01-03T21:15:00.006-06:00

Last night I cracked open a "tester" bottle (half-liter swingtop) of my last batch of homebrew and I'm pretty pleased with how it carbonated in the last week or so. I'm a bit concerned with the level of bitterness; it's fantastic right now, but I'm wondering if it might fade with time. I guess this shouldn't really be a concern as this 20-pint batch will go rather quickly. The Wyeast West Yorkshire Ale yeast that I used seems to have worked out; it seems to have contributed some fruity esters while keeping the balance relatively full. I think the blend of toasted and crystal malts in this batch worked well, too, but I'm reserving final judgment until I tap the Party Pig of this beer. Here's the recipe, if anyone is interested. Naysayers will say that it can't be any good because I've used dry malt extract, but I think DME and specialty grains can make pretty tasty beer.

A Welcomed Winter Ale

2008-12-26T20:01:00.004-06:00

There are so many Christmas and special winter beers to choose from this year, but I seem to be sticking with the classics, such as Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome.

I was delighted to see this ale packaged in a brown bottle this year. (No more skunked Winter Welcome!) The next aspect of this beer that I notice is that it seems much more carbonated than I recall. It pours a remarkably clear amber-orange with lots of "streamers" and a huge amount of foam that settles slowly leaving some sticky bits of lace down the sides of the glass. The first sniff is very fruity; I'm thinking marmalade and maybe the tiniest bit of cinnamon and nutmeg. The flavors are sweet caramel malt along with marmalade, followed by a fresh cookie or biscuit character. The mouthfeel is silky smooth with the body slightly full up front with a dryish, slightly tart, delicate finish with a hint of minerals. Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome is a fine, fresh English Ale that is quite sessionable. I'm going to need to get myself more before it's gone until next year. The label of this beer changes a little bit each year, which is one of things that I anticipate about it, too.

Goose Island Christmas Ale

2008-12-24T20:16:00.008-06:00

It's Christmas and therefore time for Christmas Ale, in this case, Goose Christmas Ale. The label of this beer purports that you can cellar it for five years, so last year I stashed a six-pack for tasting the next Christmas and here we are...the wait is over!

This 2007 Goose Christmas Ale pours a dark red to brown hue with plenty of carbonation that forms thick off-white foam.The first sip is exceptionally smooth, silky smooth, with flavors of candied fruits. Lacework is left behind down the sides of my goblet as the head falls.The sweet caramel malt flavors are mixed with notes of toasted marshmallow balanced well with hops that offer up just a hint of spiciness. The body is medium and the finish is fairly short, dry and a bit tannic. The tannin seems to subside after a few sips, increasing the enjoyment of this ale. I may have one or two more of these this winter, but I'd like to see how the rest age. This bottle has certainly aged gracefully as a delicious winter warmer.

Next I crack open this year's Goose Christmas Ale. It's just as soft as the 2007 edition, but with a little harsher bitterness and less complexity. Perhaps some age will improve the character. It's not bad mind you, just not as good as the '07. There's a slight hint of papery oxidation which has me concerned about cellaring this year's batch. I guess I'll cross my fingers and hope for the best.

I also picked up a 2008 Anchor Our Special Ale today, but as I've already had a half two Christmas Ales and half a bottle of wine, my notes on this beer will have to wait. It's a favorite though, so I'm eager to pop the cap on it.

A bit bitter about not bottling Yorkshire Bitter

2008-12-22T21:41:00.004-06:00

December is a busy month for me because I work in retail. As a result, I haven't had time to post much in the last few weeks. I did get the chance to brew recently and I'm waiting for time to package up what's been fermenting in my closet. This was another small batch (3.5 gallons) that comprised two pounds of Munton's DME, three-quarters pound of organic Turbinado sugar, a half pound of Victory malt, six ounces of crystal malt and a quarter pound each of Crystal 10L and 150L. I added an ounce of East Kent Goldings pellets at 15 minutes into the 60-minute boil and a combination of Fuggle and Styrians at the end of the boil (haf ounce each.) I pitched one Activator pack of Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire after cooling with my immersion wort chiller. I also added Burton Water Salts at the start of the boil. I'm hoping for a bitter with a decent amount of complexity with good mouthfeel up front and a dry, bitter finish. It's been in the plastic fermenter 10 days (some would say way too long) and I need to get racked our packaged. I might not have time for this until Christmas, so my fingers are crossed on this one.

Mad River in Michigan

2008-12-07T19:39:00.006-06:00

Last month I went on a Michigan beer tour, stopping at a few different breweries and pubs, as well as Siciliano's Market in Grand Rapids. I picked up a few special Michigan beers, chief among them some Founders Backwoods Bastard and the Petoskey Pale Ale I've written about below.

What I also picked up at Siciliano's were some Mad River brews that I haven't seen in a long time that seem to be unavailable in the Chicago area where I live. I remembered Mad River from craft beer boom of the early-1990s. The Mad River Brewing Company opened in Blue Lake, California back in 1989. As you can see on their website, is still going strong and prides itself on achieving a 98 percent reduction in waste, which is pretty cool. I recalled the Mad River Jamaica Brand Red Ale as one of the first real hoppy West Coast beers I ever tried. This got me wondering if it would still seem hoppy to me about 17 years after first trying it. I ended up picking up two Mad River brews, the Jamaica Red and Sunset India Pale.

I opened up the Jamaica Red a couple weeks ago and dashed off a review on Beer Advocate and tonight I'm enjoying the Sunset India Pale Ale this evening. As you can see in the BA review, I was a little disappointed with the condition of the Jamaica Red, but the brewery is redeeming itself with its IPA. It's a hazy amber IPA that has an aroma full of citrus and it tastes very citrusy, too. Grapefruit is a big flavor is this beer, so those of you who like that flavor in their IPAs should like this one. The bitterness is very smooth and could be considered somewhat restrained for an IPA, but since the rest of the beer is hoppy (plenty of hoppy aroma and flavor) the lack of powerful bitter finish can be forgiven. Hints of tropical fruit flavors such as guava and mango show up a bit as the beer warms up which add to the complexity. The carbonation level of this beer has me concerned at first (it didn't pour with much foam) but overall this is a tasty IPA that I would definitely drink again.

Rockin' Red Ale

2008-12-04T21:00:00.003-06:00

Enjoying a red ale tonight that I brewed back in February. It's unbelievable how fresh it still tastes. Granted, it's spend most of those nine months or so at about 65 degrees. Thanks Ryan, for use of your cellar, er, basement!

This red ale that I'm enjoying has an almost cedar-like hop character that mixes well with the dark caramel malts that I used which add a hint of roasted coffee in the nose. The flavor is perfectly hoppy and bitter with a bit of hard candy sweetness: just delicious! I think I'm making the recipe my house beer for the cooler months. The recipe is pretty simple: light dry malt extract, 150L British crystal malt, 80L British crystal malt and Amarillo hops added at the start of the 60-minute boil, at a half hour and 15 minutes to the end of boil with an ounce steeped in the kettle with the heat off at the end. I recently brewed this recipe again and after a couple weeks in bottles it's good, but not quite as good as this old batch I'm sampling from February 2008. Perhaps the new batch just needs to mellow.

Wood, rocks and beer

2008-11-17T21:19:00.004-06:00

There's something magical about beer fermented and aged in wood. Rocks, are cool, too. I've had German stein bier before in which hot stones are used to push the unfermented beer to boiling, causing the sugars to caramelize on the rocks. These rocks are then cooled and added to teh fermenting beer. The stein bier or "stone beer" that I remember drinking was the Rauchenfelser Steinbrau.

I recently found another stone beer. The beer is Petoskey Pale Ale from Leelanau Brewing Co. The stones in this beer weren't heated up, but added to the beer during fermentation and aging in a large oak barrel. Another unique aspect of this beer is that it was fermented with Petoskey stones. These interesting rocks, composed of fossilized coral used to be found on beaches in the northeast lower peninsula of Michigan. I used to comb Lake Michigan beaches as a kid trying to find Petoskey stone. They would be hard to find if they dry, because they just look like a smooth gray stone. However, if the stone was wet or polished it would show the markings of the fossilized coral.

I never dreamed I would find a beer made with Petoskey stones. I expected an earthy tasting beer or at least of a hint of minerals. I don't know that the Petoskey stones added that much flavor, but the beer did taste rather complex. It had a beautiful rocky head, too. The Petoskey Pale Ale in my glass was a cloudy amber ale and smelled of tropical fruit with a bit of fresh yeastiness mixed with earthy and spicy hops. Some faint traces of spices such as cinnamon and allspice emerged as the beer warmed up. The finish was pleasant; slightly tart and just a touch bitter.

I found the Petoskey Pale Ale at Siciliano's in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was a great place for beer and must visit for beer lovers as myself and other members of Beer Advocate suggest. All the beers were priced individually and the Petoskey wasn't cheap: about $10 for 16-ounce bottle, but I just couldn't pass up a Petoskey stone beer.

Red Ale bottled

2008-11-17T21:12:00.002-06:00

The red ale I wrote about in my last post has been bottled. It was another three-gallon batch. I filled 14 22-ounce bottles, 1 Grolsch swingtop and a large 1-liter swingtop. The red ale tasted great. It has a decent hop aroma, sweet caramel flavors with just a hint of roasted grains a lightly hoppy middle and long hoppy, smooth bitter finish. Citric hoppy flavors and bitterness builds with each sip. The body is fairly light; the batch attenuated well. Assuming the bottle conditioning goes well, I may need to brew another batch of the stuff. Meanwhile, the blond American bitter in my Party Pig has smoothed out a bit. I suppose some lagering has occurred, even in the last week or so. It tastes much better, but it is still lacking the toasted malt flavor of the previous batch.

American Bitter disappoints, Red Ale to the rescue

2008-11-10T21:56:00.008-06:00

I've got another batch of beer going. This time it's a three-gallon batch of red ale that should almost fit into the IPA category. (It's an estimated 53 IBUs.) I copied a recipe from last year: three and a half pounds of light dry malt extract, a quarter pound each of 135-150L and 70-80L British crystal malt along with a half ounce of 7 percent alpha acid Amarillo pellet hops, another half-ounce of these same hops at 30 minutes and a full ounce at 15 minutes left in the boil. I cooled this with my immersion wort chiller and pitched one packet of Safale S-04 yeast. I brewed this up last Sunday and I'm planning on packaging the whole batch in 22-ounce bottles later this week, although I'm contemplating dry hopping.

Meanwhile, my recent batch of Americanized bitter is pouring from the pig, but it isn't as toasty tasting as the last batch. I'm not sure what happened. The beer is plenty bitter, but just doesn't have the toasted malt character that I like. Perhaps my grist was poor or maybe I just over hopped it. It's hoppy and bitter, but otherwise a bit two-dimensional: just fruity Simcoe hops and sweet malt. I'm not sure I like the Simcoe hops and will probably go back to Amarillo the next time I brew.

Special Bitters and Strong Wheat

2008-10-24T22:11:00.006-05:00

I've brewed the second batch of what I call an Americanized version of English Special Bitter. I'm a little worried about this batch because the aroma is a little unusual. There's a little bit of fennel or maybe a wisp of smoke. Phenols for sure, but very light. I used the Safale S-04 Whitbread yeast. The temperature of the room was an average of 75 degrees F. I'm hoping dry-hopping will overcome this potential defect in this ale. The Bitterness is not as pronounced as I had hoped, but this batch does seem to have more body than the last. I used American hops (Amarillo and Simcoe) and American malts (Briess), but I fermented with a Whitbread (English) yeast and add Burton Water Salts.

My first batch of this beer turned out really good. It may have been the secret ingredient, which was homegrown hops. I picked some unidentified hops growing along a friend's fence (with her permission of course) and used them as a finishing or aroma hop. (I chose them for an aroma hop because I didn't know what kind of bitterness they would add to the brew.) I believe these homegrown hops were something like Willamette. This is my guess based upon the shape of cone and the aroma that ended up in the beer. I packaged this beer in one of my Party Pigs and a two or three 22-ounce glass bottles. I've been enjoying the "Pig" version until yesterday, when the Piggy was emptied. (Thanks again Annie for the hops, hope you enjoy the beer!)

Tonight I refilled the expired Pig and one quart-sized plastic bottle with the second batch of Special Bitter. This batch was the same as the last except for the homegrown hops and some of the specialty grains. For this batch I used 74 percent Briess DME, 11 percent Victory Malt and 16 percent 20L Crystal. Each of these batches were three gallons, since that is my motif these days. In the original batch I used 10L Crystal, so this new batch has a little more color. Also, I added an eighth-cup dry Simcoe hop pellets to the Pig with this batch which I'm hoping might cover up any potential flaws (see above) as well as add a flowery hop aroma.

Meanwhile, I sampled a very small batch I brewed back in the third week of August. I had a three-pound jug of Briess LME left over from a Biere de Garde and instead adding this to the malt bill of a future recipe I decided to brew a two gallon batch wtih it. I added three ounces of Chocolate Malt I had on hand, some Spalter hops and some Fermentis S-33 yeast and brewed a dunkelweizenbock. This has actually turned out pretty good. I netted just six 22-ounce bottles from this batch and I wish I had more. Liquid caramel apple is kind of how I would describe this beer, which sounds weird, but it's actually pretty interesting. I will probably use the same recipe for next fall.

Revisiting Samuel Smith's - Part 2

2008-10-18T19:32:00.007-05:00

Last night I savored a Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout; tonight I'm having another stout from Smith's: the Oatmeal Stout. This stout looks just as good if not more appealing then the Imperial. This very dark brown stout poured with a bit of a rocky head that rose up out of the glass and slowly settled to a persistent quarter-inch of khaki foam. Some ruby highlights come through towards the bottom of the glass; it's quite the pretty pint.

The first whiff of this beer is laced with a very enticing smell of cocoa. The smooth sip that follows echoes the cocoa in the nose with some plum fruitiness then a vanilla-coffee flavor that fades to quickly to a dry chocolate finish. However, more than anything, this beer tastes cold. The beer geek in me reaches for the digital thermometer I use for brewing. The beer is barely 51 degrees Fahrenheit, which isn't really that cold. Perhaps a touch too cold for a stout, but I like my stouts closer 60 degrees than 50. I think I'm going to let this warm up a bit.

Okay, I've waited about 10 minutes and the beer has warmed up to 55-56 degrees. That's the recommended serving temperature of this beer according to the importer of this ale, Merchant Du Vin. First of all, I feel I should note that a quarter-inch of khaki foam is still sitting there on top of beer. Impressive. I'm even more impressed that the drop of just a few degrees of temperature has taken the cold "sting" out of this beer and its flavors are more easily perceived. The drinkablility is enhanced, too. At 60 degrees, this beer is getting much sweeter than when I first poured it at close to 50. This is something I've noticed in some other dark beers, especially bocks and double bocks. It's bordering on too sweet for me; I think the brewer has struck a delicate between the malt and hops with this one.

Overall, Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout is an enjoyable and sessionable stout that could be considered a bit sweet for some stout drinkers. Furthermore, it mustn't be served too cold to fully appreciate it's flavor.

Revisiting Samuel Smith's Ales

2008-10-17T19:57:00.011-05:00

I can remember having my first Imperial Stout. I'm pretty sure it was my last year in college or perhaps right after college. (Okay, so my memory is a lot foggy.) What do remember about my first Imperial Stout is that it was Samuel Smith's. I was fairly deep into the process of getting to know all the Samuel Smith's line of ales. They seemed like the ultimate Yorkshire (Tadcaster) ales at the time and to this day when I think Yorkshire and beer, I think Samuel Smith's and Tadcaster. One of the aspects of the Sam Smith's beers that really got me interested was how the brewery ferments in large, shallow slate squares. Anyhow, that first Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout was a 12-ounce clear bottle which showed just how black the stout was and I remember it having some very interesting burnt caramel and fig aromas and flavors. I remember it was a touch sweet and seemed pretty strong.

Fast forward a dozen or so years. I see a Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout 18-ounce bottle on the shelf. I'm in the mood for stout and haven't Sam Smith's in awhile, so I go for it. This beer is now in a snifter on my desk and it smells great. The aroma is a bit rum-like with a raisiny component. The carbonation is ample, forming a light khaki head that falls to a thick quarter-inch of collar of foam. The liquid underneath the foam is opaque except for some deep dark brown at the stem of the glass.

The first sip is as smooth as I remember, with dark fruit flavors of figs and currants, followed by a sweet and then burnt caramel flavor which coats the tongue with bitterness. This bittter finish, no doubt contributed by roasted grains and hops, is long with faint licorice fade that develops sip after sip. It's as good as I remember, if not better. Definitely a beer to sip and savor at near room temperature.

Next up: Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout.

Budweiser American Ale

2008-10-14T19:47:00.006-05:00

I've noticed a lot of buzz about Budweiser American Ale. As far as I know, this is the first ale with the Budweiser name. (Anheuser-Busch has brewed ales under Michelob and other brand names.) Ever since hearing about this beer I've been very curious what a Budweiser ale would taste and smell like, so when I spotted a six-pack in Michigan over the weekend I decided to give it a chance.

I think Bud American Ale can easily be classified as an amber or red ale. My bottle poured crystal clear read amber-red with a rocky white head. It's a good looking beer. The label mentions dry-hopping, but I'm disappointed: I detect no trace of hop aroma. A fruity, cereal smell is all I can discern, nothing like the familiar citrus-like scent of the advertised Cascade aroma hops.

Once I'm able to work my way past the disappointing hop aroma, I'm struck by the smooth mouthfeel. If nothing else, this ale is smooth. A slightly tawny caramel malt flavor is evident with this beer, followed by a touch of hop spice and a quick talc-like dry finish. A very light hop bitterness lingers on the tongue after several sips. Overall, Budweiser American Ale is a bit lacking in body and hop character for me to buy this beer again, but it's inoffensive enough that I wouldn't turn it down if it was offered to me. That said, a much more pronounced hop aroma could make this beer much more interesting (at least to me.) Unfortunately for Bud, I think there are other established brands with better amber ales on the shelf around the same price range. Goose Island Kilgubbin is one example (albeit seasonal) and I think another would be Mendocino Red Tail Ale. These are beers I've had before, that I remember being a touch more interesting than Budweiser, but perhaps my favorite "American Ale" is produced by Rogue. No wonder I'm disappointed with Bud.

2008-09-24T21:43:00.008-05:00

My good friends Ryan and Erika went to New England for their honeymoon. Erika's not much of a beer drinker, but she let her new hubby visit the famed Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia and got go to a beer festival, too! You can learn about their beer-y fun honeymoon here.

Freaking Out

2008-09-23T19:06:00.006-05:00

For whatever reason, you may have had to cut down on your beer drinking. Perhaps your boss/liver/sponsor/spouse told you to. Perhaps you have to take medication and you actually want it to work. If you have had to escort your drinking days politely to the door, but miss them terribly, you know how hard it is to watch people waste precious time on bad beer.

I only drink once in a while now, and when I do, I want it to be special. A few posts ago, I wrote about Coney Island Lager, from Shmaltz Brewing. Not only was this an awesome beer, but proceeds from the sale of the beer go to Coney Island USA, which is devoted to keeping lost forms of popular arts and culture alive and preserving New York’s historic Coney Island neighborhood. I knew that Shmaltz made other beers, and I wondered if I would ever see them here in the Midwest.

This weekend, I found more Coneys at my local liquor establishment. Albino Python is a white lager spiced with ginger, fennel, orange peel, and coriander. I am not normally a wit fan (as I have a low tolerance for orange peel), but this beer balanced the spices with a nice hop background. I especially tasted the ginger and fennel. Sword Swallower is a hoppy lager with eight hops and four malts and weighs in a 6.8 percent ABV. This one is just as strong as one would need it to be, with the alcohol not even making much of an impact until you've appreciated how finely this beer is crafted.

My beer drinking now happens only slightly more frequently than my sword swallowing (insert suggestive joke here), so I am freaking delighted to find more Coney Island beers.

Fuller's London Pride

2008-09-16T19:37:00.010-05:00

I'm a fan of what is called "session beer" which is typically defined as a beer which the average beer drinker can consume over a long period of time without getting drunk. When I think of session beer, I think of English Bitter.

According to British writer Roger Protz, Bitter is "an English term for a well-hopped draught ale that is typically copper-coloured with ruddy glints and a slight but distinctive bitter taste that is unspoilt by the fizziness of CO2. It is unrealistic to expect the so-called bitter that is sold in a can to have any semblance of true draught bitter character. Most bitter is 3.75-4% ABV, although Best or Special will be 4-4.75% and some go as high as 5.5%."

I like to brew an Americanized version of Bitter, but tonight I'm sipping a commercial version of true English Bitter called Fuller's London Pride. Fuller's is a distinguished English brewer of ales. Fuller's has been around since 1845. The brewery's website says that London Pride has grown to be Britain's highest selling "Premium" Ale. Fuller's London Pride is a tasty ale that pours a light amber hue with plenty of carbonation (at least out of a can), but is a bit subdued. Although Roger wouldn't approve of this canned beer, this is a decent ale with enough complexity to balance it's excellent drinkability. London Pride starts out with a honey-ish nose accented by woody hops, followed by a delicate biscuit-like maltiness, a hint fruitiness, a slight bit of tartness and finally a crisp, bittersweet finish. Although I'd like to taste more bitter hops in the finish, this is still a decent session ale, and it must be noted that the particular sample I'm enjoying is about three months past it's best before date, which could explain it's lack of luster.

I picked it up for cheap, knowing it was a bit past due. I normally wouldn't consume beer past it's due date, but in this case I succumbed to a case that was more than half off it's normal price. So given this product's condition I'm certainly not too disappointed.

Palo Santo Marron - "Holy Tree" Brown Ale

2008-09-10T20:46:00.008-05:00

I think I'm enjoying one of the geekiest beers out there tonight. This quirky, unusual brew is Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron. It's a beer aged with Palo Santo wood. According to the brewery's website, "The caramel and vanilla complexity unique to this beer comes from the exotic Paraguayan Palo Santo wood from which these tanks were crafted. Palo Santo means 'holy tree' and it's wood has been used in South American wine-making communities." I heard about this beer a few months ago (I can't remember how or where), but when I went to the Dogfish Head website to look up some more information about it, I found a cool video about the production of this beer. I became more interested in the beer after watching the video and decided I HAD to find a bottle.

So I did, and like I said, I'm enjoying it tonight.

I've been worried that the hype for this beer was too great and that I'd be disappointed, but I'm not. Palo Santo Marron is a magnificent ale. Again, it's a deep dark brown ale that looks pretty good; no voluminous head or huge amounts of lace to speak of, but a solid ring of foam is left behind once the foam dissipates. The aroma is great and what I would expect from a world class strong brown ale. There's lots of candied fruit aromas (figs, plums, along with a little tingle of rummy alcohol in the nostrils.) What's incredible about this beer is the lush mouthfeel (like liquid satin) along with the brown sugar fig-like fruitiness and burnt caramel flavors. As the beer warms up, more leathery notes come forward along with rum-laced coffee with cream character. The finish is just as interesting with a transition from candied fruitiness to a vanilla and coffee liqueur flavor. This is one extremely complex ale.

Overall, an absolutely astounding strong (12 percent alcohol) sweet, brown ale that has got to have a ton of calories. I wouldn't recommend having more than one in a sitting. Not that it's so strong, or too caloric, but that it's rather special.

A Polish Trinity

2008-09-03T20:14:00.007-05:00

One of my "go to" beers last summer was Radegast (a fine, yet inexpensive Czech lager.) Alas, I have found no Radegast this year. So while at Binny's recently, I thought I'd try some Polish beers that I haven't seen before. I picked up three 500-mL bottes and recorded the following tasting notes last night:

Lezajsk
Very clear, straw pale. Bright, white head rises quickly and falls almost as quickly and cleanly, leaving no lace behind; just a minimal collar of foam. Cereal grains in the nose, along with a subtle, vegetal spiciness. Served a touch too warm. Very light and smooth. Crisp. Late kick of bitter hops in the dry finish. Extremely drinkable stuff and at 5.5 percent it is indeed sessionable. The light body and smooth mouthfeel of Lezajsk easily qualifies it as a summertime quaffer.

Tatra
Clear and straw-colored with a quickly rising head that settles more slowly than the Lezajsk, leaving a little bit of lace behind. Neutral to grainy aroma. A little more malt character and body than Lezajsk. Probably about the same IBUs, but in a stronger beer it tastes like less bitterness. Lacing is in rings now, adding to its good looks. Since the Tatra is stronger, I would describe it as more a winter beer, or given the geography of its namesake, an alpine beer. This is definitely sweeter than Lezajsk.

Zamkowe
Okay, here we have an even stronger straw-colored beer that produces a pretty rocky, white head, that shrinks rather dramatically from all directions. The aroma is slightly talc-like. Very smooth and more than a touch sweet. We're well into dangerous pale bock territory here. The foam on top of this beer is persistent; after a few minutes there's still a quarter-inch of head. Unfortunately, this beer is pretty plain tasting, it has complexity, but it is what it is; a Strong Euro Lager. There's not much here to write home about except lots of malt, hops to balance the sweetness and alcohol. However, the sweetness is twinged with a honeyish character that makes this beer a little more satisfying.

I think the most interesting information I ran across while searching the Internet about some of these beer was this place.

The Bachelor

2008-08-26T19:56:00.005-05:00

Bachelor ESB is a beer that I can remember reading about in one of legendary beer writer Michael Jackson's book Ultimate Beer. It has been a long sought after beer for me. In this book, Jackson describes the beer as, "big-tasting" and "notably firm and assertive, with a fresh dryness of American hop flavors and clean, orangy fruitiness."

I would generally agree. In addition, I notice a spicy, woody aroma and while the bitterness is fairly assertive, it is by no means over the top and tastes more restrained than the 50 IBUs (as described by the brewery's website) would suggest. The Bachelor is a heavily lauded beer with about 20 awards under it's belt (see the Bachelor ESB page on the brewery's website for a listing of all the awards.)

After a few sips, and as the beer warms up, I notice that what I really like about this beer is that it starts out fruity (orangy as MJ would describe it), but ends with solid bitterness that creates balance and a slight lingering bitterness. This is a great ale that is worth seeking out. A big thanks goes to Fred for picking this six-pack up while touring the Pacific Northwest and Ryan for sharing.

2008-08-12T20:47:00.007-05:00

Enjoyed a Brugse Zot this evening; inspired by none other than...Rick Steeves? Details can be found at the Marcobrau Beer Pages. The beer is the current Belgian Beer of the Moment.

Also enjoying a recent batch of homebrew that was meant to be a Biere de Garde, but has ended up more of a cross between a Witbier and a Belgian Pale Ale. I've been enjoying this beer from one of my Party Pigs. It's tasting a little oxidized, but is otherwise toasty and more assertively bitter than an authentic wit or Belgian would ever be. S'okay, as it's a decent everyday sort of "house" beer. Meanwhile, I'm thinking of brewing a dunkelweizen for an autumnal ale.

Mmm...Balcony Biere

2008-08-06T21:08:00.002-05:00

Nothing beats beer on my balcony biergarten.

That is all.

Bell's is Back!

2008-08-02T20:23:00.002-05:00

Bell's beer is back in Illinois. Sure, we've getting beer from Bell's under the Kalamazoo label, but it hasn't been the same. The "faux"-beron that I've been seeing lately is a decent summer wheat, but not quite the same as Oberon, but then again Oberon isn't even my favorite summertime Bell's beer.

Well, today I found my favorite and it's Bell's Third Coast Beer. This is not to be confused with the Third Coast Old Ale. T.C.B. is a much different product. It's a straw colored lager-like beer with American hops and an interesting grassy, yeasty nose (no doubt the result of the beer being unfiltered.) This light (roughly 12 Plato) beer has a rather tasty toasty malt flavor, pleasant bready yeastiness and crisp, moderately bitter, lingering finish. For me, it's the perfect accompaniment to a late summer afternoon. Reviews on Beer Advocate are a bit mixed; I suppose in support of this beer I would advise the consumer check the bottling date to make sure it's fresh. There is a code on the back of the bottle that can be entered on the brewery's website that tells you the bottling date. Of cousre, either you like this beer or you don't.

Avril not your average saison, or is it?

2008-08-02T20:11:00.001-05:00

I've read that many, many years ago Belgian brewers produced a much lower strength Saison than what we typically see today and I've always wondered what a truly "sessionable" farmhouse ale would taste like. I've made some attempts to homebrew Saison-style beers in the 4 to 4.5 percent range, but until now I've never seen a commercial example. I've always enjoyed Saison DuPont, so when I found Avril from Brasserie DuPont, with "Biere de Table" on the label I knew it had to be a more sessionable version of the classic. Upon a closer inspection I noticed the alcohol content of 3.5 percent written on the label. This discovery made me even more curious. Could such a small beer be packed with all that great DuPont flavor?

The short answer is yes. Yes, with a disclaimer I suppose. Avril is much lighter then the classic Vielle Provision Saison DuPont and there is much less alcohol, which admittedly is a component of the beer's flavor. However, most of the other parts of what makes a great Saison are present. The enormous rocky mousse-like head, the light color, the delicate grainy and earthy flavors and of course, the lingering dry finish. Delicate peppery hops seemed in perfect balance with the small of grain used to make this beer adding just enough complexity and pleasant bitterness.

Overall, I would love to be able to brew something like this, but I imagine it would require complete control of the process. I other words, an all-grain recipe with mash temps kept fairly low to ensure a complete fermentation. I don't know that I'll tackle such a project yet this summer (especially since I recently brewed a light Belgian Pale Ale), but such a lovely light beer would be great for next year.