Review: Vanilla Bourbon Porter

I'm finally down in DC and getting ready to start my new job tomorrow! I'm all moved in, and although homebrewing is going to take a break for awhile, home drinking is not! I picked up a 5 cu ft chest freezer yesterday to hold two kegs I brought with me (pumpkin ale and vanilla bourbon porter). Although my roommate may not be thrilled to have a chest freezer in the apartment, he certainly can't complain about fresh draft beer on tap! (Right JT?)

Below are some tastings notes of my homebrewed vanilla bourbon porter. I'm very happy with the way it turned it out...

Aroma: Strong chocolate aroma with notes of vanilla. Some hints of coffee. Very clean, no hop aroma.

Appearance: Dark, dark brown and almost black. There's a small tan head with decent retention. It looks almost creamy.

Flavor: Coffee and vanilla are the dominant flavors, with some dark chocolate. Medium bitterness with a very slight hot alcohol quality. The bourbon is noticeable on the finish, but is very faint otherwise. Some oakiness is detectable. No hop flavor.

Mouthfeel: Medium to medium-full bodied with a mild carbonation. A little astringent from the roasted grain

Overall Impression: For a nearly 10% ABV beer, this porter is extremely smooth. I would like the bourbon to be a little more apparent--I have a sneaking suspicion that the alcohol and water stratified in the keg, and that the last few pints are gonna be uber-bourbon flavored. However, I just took another sip now that it's warmed up a bit, and the bourbon is now noticeable. I gotta give myself some props for making an exceptionally clean and drinkable "big" beer!

Oskar Blues Ten FIDY

I'm trying to get better with updating this blog more often. I'm gonna start it off with a much overdue tasting--Ten FIDY, a Russian Imperial Stout from Oskar Blues. Oskar Blues is one of the few craft breweries that package their beer in cans, and kudos to them for doing it! Check out my post on light struck beer, and you'll understand why cans are actually the best packaging for beer.

Aroma: An initial blast of dark chocolate and coffee. After getting past the roasty notes, there's hints of dark fruits. No noticeable hop aroma.

Appearance: Almost jet black with a beautiful dark brown head (though the head retention was not great).

Flavor: Roasty flavors dominate with a background biscuity maltiness. Some fruity esters are apparent in the flavor as in the aroma. Despite having a whopping 98 IBUs (International Bittering Units), the beer is incredibly well-balanced and is even slightly sweet on the finish.

Mouthfeel: Thick and slick on the tongue. Extremely warming (it should be at 10% ABV) with a very mild carbonation level. Some astringency is noticeable, but that can be expected with so much roasted grain being used.

Overall Impression: A full bodied, well-balanced Russian Imperial Stout. Despite the high ABV and IBUs, the beer is wonderfully smooth and drinkable. Definitely a must have for the approaching winter months--this will keep you warm on a cold day! Plus it comes in a can, and we all know that everyone likes it in the can!

Oaked Vanilla Bourbon Porter

Over the weekend, I kegged up 3 gallons of my homebrewed Oaked Vanilla Bourbon Porter. The base beer is a robust porter, rich and chocolately, clocking in at around 8.5% ABV. After primary fermentation, I slit open two whole vanilla beans (if you don't know what fresh vanilla beans look like, see the picture above) and added them to the secondary fermenter for just over a week. While the beer was being vanilla-ized, I took a 200ml flask of Jim Beam Bourbon and put it in a container with about a 1/4 oz of medium toast French oak cubes. At kegging, I blended the vanilla porter and the oaked bourbon. I think I added a bit too much bourbon, but there's no harsh flavors--the beer is still smooth and very drinkable. It's carbonating now in the keg at about 12 PSI, and I plan on tapping it when I move to DC at the end of the month.

On the DC note, if you didn't already know, I'm relocating there to start a new job at the beginning of December. I'll be living with a friend in Mt. Pleasant for a bit, while I look for my own place, which means brewing is going to have to take a break for a bit. The good news is that I've stocked up on homebrew to sustain me for awhile; I'm bringing down the 3 gallon keg of porter, a 5 gallon keg of pumpkin ale, and a case and a half of flanders red ale. I'm planning on buying a small chest freezer (5 cubic feet) when I get down there for the kegs. Once I find my own place, I'm going to use the chest freezer for fermentation temp control and lagering. My existing upright freezer, which is a lot bigger (14.1 cubic feet), will be converted into a real 3-keg kegerator (with taps on the front and all). I just got a 3 gauge secondary CO2 regulator to control the individual pressure in each keg, and I've already got it hooked up carbonating the porter and serving the pumpkin ale.

Although homebrewing will be on hiatus for a little, I'm looking forward to exploring the DC beer scene a bit more. There's some great beer bars there, including RFD, Brickskeller, and the newly opened Churchkey (which has a daily rotating tap list), all of which I'll be frequenting often.

Homebrewed Pumpkin Ale Review

I tapped a keg of my homebrewed Pumpkin Ale this week, just in time for Halloween, and in turned pretty good for my first pumpkin/spiced beer. Before I get to the review, I just wanted to share with everyone that I'm going to be moving to DC in a month to start a new job. Homebrewing is going to have to take a hiatus for a bit as I'm living with a friend down there at first. Then, once I find my own place, I'll start the brewery up again! For my final pre-hiatus brew, I'm going to be brewing a Vanilla Bourbon Porter to keep me warm during the winter in DC. I got the yeast starter going last night, and I'll be brewing tomorrow on Halloween day. It's going to be a small, 3 gallon batch of a 1.086 original gravity robust porter (about 7.5% ABV). After primary fermenation, I'm going to split a full vanilla bean and let the beer age with it in the secondary for 2 weeks. Finally, at packaging, I'm going to fortify the beer with some Jim Beam Bourbon. The beer is definitely going to pack a punch, and will be a great "sipper" on a cold evening!

On to the Pumpkin Ale review:


Aroma: A sweet malt background of caramel and toffee, laced with spices reminiscent of a holiday spice cake. No hop aroma.

Appearance: Amber with an orange tint. Hazy, probably from unconverted starches in the pumpkin. Small, slightly off-white head that lingers while drinking.

Flavor: Cinnamon and nutmeg are most noticeable, with an initial malty sweetness. Some biscuit and bread-like flavors are apparent. The beer finishes a little bitter. It definitely tastes like pumpkin pie though. No hop flavor, though the hop bitterness is discernible (the lingering bitterness may also be caused by overdoing the spices a bit).

Mouthfeel: Medium-full bodied with medium carbonation. A little astringent, though not overbearing.

Overall Impression: I think the beer came out great for my first spice ale. I initially added the spices at the last minute of the boil, and after fermentation, I found that the beer was a little bland. I added another full dose of spices in the secondary, and let the beer sit for a week before kegging. It's definitely not bland anymore, but I think I overdid it with the second dose of spices; I should've showed a bit more restraint. If, and when, I brew this again next year, I'm going to do away with the boil spices altogether and also up the character malts a bit to bring the beer into a better balance.

Boycott Monster Energy

Check this out:
Boycott Monster Energy

The makers of Monster Energy Drink, Hansen Beverages, is trying to bully Vermont's Rock Art Brewery into dropping the name of their new beer, Vermonster, because "consumer will likely be confused with the two products." Sounds like a steeping pile of bullshit to me. Help support small brewers, not to mention small business owners, and boycott Monster Energy Drink (not that I would drink the shit anyways). Tell all your friends!

Homebrew: Pumpkin Ale

Despite the rain, I had a great day yesterday in my brewery putting together a pumpkin ale for the fall months ahead. This was a really fun brew; I got to use some unique ingredients, which was a welcomed departure from Reinheitsgebot-style brewing.

The interesting thing about pumpkin ales is that you really don't get much (if any) flavor from the pumpkin itself. In fact, you don't even need to use pumpkin to make a pumpkin ale--the flavors people identify as "pumpkin" are really pumpkin pie spices. So all you have to do is use a pumpkin pie spice blend in the boil and call it a pumpkin ale. But that wouldn't be any fun...I decided to use 6 lbs of pumpkin.

Before I even started brewing, I baked the pumpkin in the oven at 300 F for an hour to caramelize some of the sugars and produce some melanoidins. I then included the pumpkin in the mash with the grains, adding a pound of rice hulls to account for the husk-less pumpkin, thus preventing a stuck sparge. After mashing, I boiled as normal, using Magnum as a bittering hop and some Willamette as well as Saaz at 15 minutes for a little flavor. Also at 15 minutes, I added a cup each of cane (table) sugar and molasses. The sugar will help dry out the beer a little and lighten the body, balancing out the unfermentable sugars/starches in the pumpkin. The molasses will also help dry out the beer, while adding a unique flavor component to the overall character. Finally, at flame-out, I added a homemade spice blend containing 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger, and 1/8 tsp each of nutmeg and allspice. I'm fermenting the beer with a neutral ale yeast--I don't want any yeast characteristics overwhelming the pumpkin spices. Fermentation was extremely vigorous this morning (you can see the thick krausen forming on top in the picture above). The beer should be ready for drinking in 3-4 weeks, and I'm looking forward to serving it to the neighborhood kids on Halloween! Who the hell wants candy corn when you get have a pint of homebrewed pumpkin ale?!?!

Malt Madness Homebrew Competition

This past weekend I headed out to Allentown Brew Works in Allentown, PA to help judge the Malt Madness homebrew competition organized by the Lehigh Valley Homebrewers. The event was a lot of fun and I got to try some real interesting beers, especially because of the categories I judged. In the morning, I judged the Belgian Specialty Ale category, a sort of catch-all for Belgian-style ales that don't fit into one of the more specific categorizations. For example, I had some Belgian barleywines, Belgian IPAs, and oak-aged Belgian ales. In the afternoon, I judged Fruit Beers, which I was admittedly not a huge fan of--I officially hate raspberry now. I had a wheat beer brewed with kumquat, which I've never even heard of before, but from what I can tell belonged to the citrus family based on the flavor. There were two really great peach beers, an American Wheat and a Wit, which ended up being in our top three. The trick with the fruit beers is that you need to strike a balance between the base beer and the fruit. Many brewers struggle with this; the fruit needs to come through in both the aroma and flavor without overshadowing the character of the base beer. For example, some of the raspberry beers were just complete fruit bombs; there was no balance--they almost just tasted like a raspberry soda.

In addition to judging at the competition, I actually entered two of my own beers for the very first time--a Marzen (Oktoberfest) and a Weizen (aka Hefeweizen). Considering this was my first competition, I was happy with the results. I knew my Marzen was a little off style, so I was not surprised that it received a 29.5 consensus score (out of 50), which put me right at the top of the "Good" category ("misses the mark on style and/or minor flaws"). I know that sounds like a bad score, but it's not bad in the scheme of things (I haven't given above a 39 yet to a beer while judging). I was a bit disappointed with the scores on my Weizen, because I thought it was one of the best beers I've brewed yet. I got a 24 consensus score, which is still in the "Good" category, but I felt it deserved better. After reading the judges' comments though, it started to make some sense--here are some of the negative remarks:
--"No clove + banana"
--"low/med carbonation (needs more)"
--"very low aromatics overall for the style"
--"no head. fades fast!"
--"low carbonation affects other areas"
I think the last comment hit the nail on the head. I bottled the beer out of the keg a week before the competition, and although the beer was well-carbonated in the keg, I think it lost it in the bottle. Carbonation is a huge component of a beer, and if it's too low or too high, it could impact all the other components. The low carbonation made the beer seem lifeless and prevented aromatics from being lifted out of the glass. Next time I'll definitely try to bottle the morning of the competition! One thing that did make me feel better is that one judge wrote, "Not quite to style, despite pleasant drinking." So basicaly, I made a great beer, but it just didn't fit the style. That's the tough thing about competitions--with the exception of the specialty categories, it's not just about if the beer is good or not, it's about if you hit the style parameters. I had a good shot, but I missed the bulls-eye.

That's all for now! I'm heading to the Great World Beer Festival in New York City this Sunday, so I'll have details about that after the weekend. Cheers!

Helles Schlenkerla Lager

Once again, it's been awhile--life's been busy, but because of some recent events in my life, I'm going to really make an effort to step it up on this blog. I'm going to forgo a post about Belgium in Cooperstown since it was almost a month ago already--suffice it to say that it was AWESOME and I don't recall much! In terms of more recent happenings, I had a family BBQ this past weekend and served 5 gallons of homebrewed Hefeweizen on tap. The beer went over incredibly well--everyone loved it. Both my father and my aunts, none of whom are big beer drinkers absolutely loved it. It was clean, light, and refreshing--perfect for the hot August weather. And at 7% ABV (okay, it was an Imperial Hefeweizen maybe), everyone was feeling especially good! This was probably my most successful brew yet, and I'm going to be entering it in a competition (Malt Madness, put on by the Lehigh Valley Homebrewers and being held at Allentown Brew Works in Allentown, PA) this coming weekend along with my Marzen. I'll also be judging at the competition (obviously not in the categories I'm entering), so I'll provide some details on that after the weekend.

To kick-off my renewed efforts to update this blog more regularly, I felt it was only appropriate to start with some tasting notes. Tonight, I drank a Helles Schlenkerla Lager from Bamburg, Germany. This smoked helles (a German lager, similar to pilsner, but a bit more malt balanced) is unique in the fact that it doesn't actually use any smoked malt. The smoky character comes from making the beer in the same kettles and using the same equipment as the Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier (Original Schlenkerla Smokebeer), the famous Rauchbier. The end result is an interesting take on classic Helles...

Aroma: Sweet, pilsner malt backbone with and upfront touch of smoke. There's a slight spicy note in the aroma, and it's hard to distinguish if this is a by-product of the smoke or hop related. Besides the spiciness, there is no hop aroma. Some sulfur is apparent in the background as well.

Appearance: Light golden, almost bright with great clarity. A small white head is formed when initially poured but dissipates quickly

Flavor: Some smokiness initially gives way to a solid pils malt profile. The beer finishes rather dry with a slightly bitter aftertaste, and the smoke lingers in the mouth for awhile. There is no hop flavor and the beer has an exceptionally clean in terms of fermentation byproducts.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light body with high carbonation. The smoke gives the sensation that the beer is coating the inside of the mouth, leaving an impression that the beer is a bit heavier than it actually is.

Overall Impression: A great "gateway" beer for those afraid of trying smoked beers. The smoke is mild and welcoming. This smoked helles goes especially well with food (I had it with German-style sausage & peppers tonight); the smoke complements the meal, while the natural crispness of the lager is refreshing and cleansing.

Sam Adams, Homebrewed Hefeweizen, and the N.J. State Fair

Sam Adams Brewery Tour


Just about two weeks ago I finally got around to visiting the Sam Adams brewery while up in Boston for the weekend visiting some friends. To begin with, the brewery is in the middle of nowhere--it's in a small industrial park in an otherwise dead residential area on the outskirts of Boston. The brewery that's open for tours is actually their pilot brewhouse--they have much larger production facilities elsewhere in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania if I remember correctly. When we first got to the brewery, they were holding a small tasting in their hop garden/picnic area for their annual Beer Lover's Choice. The Beer Lover's Choice is an annual "competition" that Sam Adams holds to choose their newest beer. Consumers get to sample two options and vote for the winner. On the menu this year was a Czech Pilsner and an English-style IPA (I'm sure most west coast beer drinkers would cringe at the fact that they called it an IPA, but it's brewed in the traditional English manner--it's not an American, west coast hop-bomb). I was partial to the Pilsner and voted for it a second time (I had voted once already at the National Homebrew Conference). After voting, we began our tour. The tour itself was your standard brewery tour--nothing extraordinary for anyone who knows the least bit about beer and brewing. We sampled some grains, smelled some hops, etc. I was a big fan of our tour guide though (I think her name was Lauren). She had just the right amount of corny, tour-guide humor, and at one point she stopped in the middle of speech, leaned into me, and whispered something about having a few pints already (it was noon...awesome). Following the tour, we got to sample a few Sam Adams brews--their standard Boston Lager, their seasonal Summer Ale, and their limited released Brick Red, which is available only in Boston. Everyone's had the Boston Lager and the Summer Ale, but it was nice to try something new with the Brick Red. It was an Irish Red Ale that was sweet and malty from what I recall--a tasty and sessionable beer. On a final note, we also got a chance to smell an empty bottle of Utopia, a nearly 30% ABV beer produced every other year. The bottle (which is shaped to resemble a copper brewing vessel) had intense maple aromas, which is about all I could pick up.


Hefeweizen Brew Day!


This past Saturday I spent the day in my brewery, brewing up a Bavarian Hefeweizen for a family BBQ we're having in August. Things went very well overall. I had one hiccup in that my yeast starter didn't take off until nearly a day after I pitched. A 24-hour lag time with a starter was cause for a little concern, so I headed to the homebrew shop on Friday to pick up an extra vial of yeast before brew day. I'm guessing the slow start had something to do with the original vial being shipped from California in the hot weather (I had ordered ingredients online--last time I do that!). After my yeast scare, the brew day went great. For the first time, I had a really great mash efficiency--I usually hit about 65%, but this time, with some process changes, I hit 77%, which is perfect. The only problem was, I calculated my malt bill for 65% efficiency, so the beer had a much higher gravity than what I was shooting for. I could've watered it down to bring it within the parameters, but I figured I'd let it be. It'll just be a 7% ABV Imperial Hefeweizen; time to get the family wastyfaced! After the boil and cooling, I used pure oxygen to oxygenate the wort for the first time in order to aid fermentation (I've been having some issues with stuck fermentations). Although I can't say for sure, the oxygen seems to have done the trick. The beer's been fermenting all week at 70F, and it started spewing out of the airlock after 24 hours because fermentation was so active. It finally calmed a bit, and I'm going to clean up a bit tonight and probably replaced the airlock with a new clean, sanitized one. More updates on the hefeweizen when I pour the first pint in August!

N.J. State Fair Homebrew Competition
After a full day of brewing on Saturday, I headed over to the Sussex County Fairgrounds on Sunday to help judge a homebrew competition as part of the New Jersey State Fair. It was a relatively small competition compared to others I've been to, but they had a respectable 106 entries. In the morning, I judged the English Pale Ale and Scottish & Irish Ale categories. There were some really great beers entered--I believe first place went to a Scottish 80/- (the "/-" means Shilling--Scottish beers were historically named by how much tax was paid on a barrel), second place to a Irish Red Ale, and third place to an Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale). In the afternoon, after lunch, I judged the Belgian & French Ale and Sour Ale categories. I don't remember the winners here, but the entries consisted of Witbiers, Saisons, a Belgian Specialty Ale, and a Fruit Lambic. It was a fun competition to judge and I walked away with a t-shirt and beer mug courtesy of Krogh's (a brewpub near the fairgrounds).

Finally, this coming weekend I'm heading up to Cooperstown, NY for Belgium Comes to Cooperstown at Brewery Ommegang. The event is a Belgian beer festival with live music, food, bonfires, and camping on the brewery grounds to top it all off. I'm really excited and will be sure to provide an updated when I return!

National Homebrewers Conference (long overdue)

Though it was over a month ago, I'm finally getting around to writing about my trip to the National Homebrewers Conference in Oakland, CA at the end of June. The short story is: It was AWESOME! It was such an incredible experience to be in the presence of so much beer and brewing information for 3 full days. Without writing a 30 page thesis, here's a summary of what I did at the conference, the people I met, and the beers I drank:

Wednesday, June 17
I flew into Oakland, checked into my hotel, and without a minute to spare headed over to Pacific Coast Brewing for a bite to eat and my NHC inaugural beer (Pacific Coast's Ultra Yellow, a "double maibock" style beer). An interesting note on Pacific Coast is that they brew all the beers extract, not all-grain. I'm not sure the exact reason for this (extract is more expensive), but I suspect it has something to do with available space for a full brewhouse. After the Ultra Yellow, I tried their Leviathan Imperial Stout for a night-cap and then it was off to bed.

Thursday, June 18
First thing in the morning, I headed over to the registration table to get my conference credentials, tasting glass, welcome kit (a bunch of freebies from different homebrew supply companies), and commemorative conference beers (an IPA and a Saison brewed specially for the conference). I started off Thursday's festivities by stewarding at the National Homebrew Competition for the Specialty Mead table. I've never really tried meads before, so it was an interesting experience. Since this was the second (and final) round of the competition, there were some top notch meads there. Among some of the more unique varieties was a raspberry-chipotle mead with a distinct spicy/smoky characteristic and a mint-lime mead that was crisp and refreshing. After the morning of stewarding, the conference officially began with the Opening Toast. Among the speakers were Jamil Zainasheff (award-winning homebrewer, beer author, and Brewing Network brewcaster), Gary Glass (director of the American Homebrewers Association), and Charlie Papazian (founder of the AHA and the "godfather" of homebrewing"). Following the toast, there were two sessions of seminars--I attended Water Kemistry with Colin Kaminski (brewmaster at Downtown Joes) and Funkification: A 100% Brettanomyces Spontaneously Fermented Mind Dump with Vinnie Cilurzo (brewmaster/owner of Russian River). I'm not gonna go into detail about the seminars here because it'll take way to long. If you're interested, shoot me an email and we can talk. I also don't remember much, because during the entire conference we were served beer from 9am till bedtime. Drunken lullabies indeed. Thursday's evening event was Pro-Brewers Night, a 3.5 hour beer festival with professional breweries from all over the country--though mostly California establishments, since we were, well, in California.

Friday, June 19
Friday morning brought two more sessions of seminars. I hit up Extreme Fermentables with Sam Calagione (brewmaster/owner of Dogfish Head) and Making Better Beer II: Advanced Homebrewing & Science with homebrew gods Ray Daniels and Randy Mosher. Early that afternoon was the Keynote Address given by Ken Grossman, the founder of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company (and a beerlebrity in his own right). Following Ken's speech I attended two more seminars: Yeast: Taking It To The Next Level with Dr. Michael Lewis from UC Davis' brewing program and a Going Pro Panel that was moderated by Justin Crossley (founder of the Brewing Network). That evening was Club Night, a 4 hour homebrew extravaganza. Instead of professional breweries having booths, different homebrew clubs setup booths and served their members' beer on tap. Some clubs had over 20 taps going at once! Club Night was a lot of fun, especially because each club had their own theme going on (check out some of my pics--link at the bottom of this post).

Saturday, June 20
After barely recovering from Club Night, I made it to two more seminars in the morning: Troubleshooting Panel moderated by James Spencer (host of Basic Brewing) and The Equipment Geek with homebrewer and self-proclaimed equipment geek, Kent Fletcher. In the afternoon, there were three tracks of seminars--I only made it to two: Maintaining Ideal Yeast Health: Nutrients Yeast Need with Dr. Tobias Fischborn from Lallemand (a yeast company) and Chocolate and Beer, a delicious event with Timothy Childs of TCHO (a chocolate company) and Roger Davis (brewmaster at Triple Rock). I skipped the third seminar session that afternoon because nothing looked that interesting and I was thirsty--I headed over to The Trappist for a beer, an awesome Belgian beer bar near the hotel in Oakland. Saturday evening was the Grand Banquet, which meant at end to the conference. The banquet was a three-course beer pairing dinner prepared by Sean Paxton, the homebrew chef. Each dish was brewed with beers from Rogue and was paired with a specific Rogue beer during the meal. The highlight for me was when the chocolate mousse (made with Rogue Chocolate Stout) came out garnished with real crystal malt (a sweet, caramel-like malted barley used in brewing).

Overall, the conference was a great success...for my mind and my liver! I learned a ton of new information about beer and brewing, and I tasted a bunch of awesome beers. I will definitely be attending again next year (in Twin Cities, Minnesota) and hopefully I can drag some friends with me (here's to you Sully/Mose!). If you haven't seen them already, here are some photos I took at the conference: NHC Pics

I'll hopefully have some additional post(s) later this week about my visit to the Sam Adams brewery last weekend, my brew-day yesterday (I brewed a hefeweizen), and the homebrew competition I judged today for the NJ State Fair. Also, this coming weekend is Belgium Comes to Cooperstown, a Belgian beer festival and camping extravaganza at Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY...more on that later! Cheers!

Beer Article (that I wrote) in The Wyckoff Journal

Sorry for the lack of posts the last few weeks, but I've been working on an article that was recently published as a front page story in The Wyckoff Journal, a local online news site. The owners of the site also run The Oakland Journal and The Franklin Lakes Journal, where my article was also published concurrently. Here's the link to my specific article, which is sort of a sweeping overview and introduction to the world of craft beer: Beer. I'm not going to use the article as a post here, because they were nice enough to link to my blog from their site, so you should go there to read it. I hope you enjoy it, and thanks to Charlie at the Journals for giving me this opportunity!

On a side note, I'm hoping to have a lengthy post by the weekend regarding my recent trip to the National Homebrewers Conference in Oakland, CA. I met some world-class homebrewers and professional brewers, tasted some great beers, and got bombarded with some incredible beerformation. Here's some pictures of the event as a prelude to my update: NHC Pics.

Blog-O-Beer Happenings: A Long Overdue Update

I know it's been awhile, so this is gonna be a long one (that's what she said). There's been a lot going on lately in my wonderful world of beer, so this post is gonna be a huge clusterfuck of unrelated updates, but that's what Napolean invented lists for.

1. SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience

About 2 weeks ago, I was down in our nation's capital (Washington, DC for you geography all-stars) for SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience. The event was AWESOME to say the very least. There was somewhere in the range of 60 different breweries there, each with 2 beers each. This wasn't your ordinary beer festival though--every single beer was paired with a small appetizer. The food ranged from meat skewers to little shots of soup to mini-lamb burgers to chipotle chocolates. The pairings were really quite well done. Basically, the SAVOR organizers put together a large and varied menu of appetizers, cheeses, and mini-desserts, and then allowed the various breweries to select two of their beers to pair with items on the menu. In addition to the main event, I also had the opportunity to attend one of the "salons" (small 20-person pairing sessions led by the brewers/chefs themselves). For the last hour of the evening, I attended Paradox or Parallel - the Curious Matter of Craft Beer & Chocolate , a chocolate and beer pairing with Hugh Sission of Clipper City Brewing as well as Kim Rigby and Brenda Nelson of Parfections. I think this was definitely the highlight of the evening--it was incredible to see how well chocolate and beer complemented each other. I think most people could see how a rich stout or porter would pair well with chocolate, but what about an IPA? You wouldn't think it works, but it was really a tasty combination. If I remember correctly, the truffle paired with the IPA had an orange filling and was sprinkled with sea salt on top. The orange in the chocolate worked really well with the citrusy hops in the IPA, and the sea salt on top helped to cut the bitterness of the beer (in fact, sometimes you'll see people sprinkle some salt in their beer if it's too bitter for them--I call these people first-class pussies). And, now for the icing on the cake: I met Charlie Papazian (president of the Brewers Association and the "godfather" of homebrewing) and Ray Daniels (author of Designing Great Beers), who actually hosted my salon! These guys are true beerlebrities (just coined another word--write that down), and as J.T. can attest, I was a bit starstruck....yes, I'm a huge beer-dork and proud of it! Oh yea, that's J.T. and I posing for a "red carpet" pic at the event (I'm the sexy guy making a funny face on the left, and J.T.'s the schmuck on the right).

2. BUZZ Off 2009 Homebrew Competition

Last Saturday, I headed down to the Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant in West Chester, PA to judge a homebrew competition hosted by BUZZ (Brewers United for Zany Zymurgy). In case you're curious, zymurgy is the scientific study of fermentation (not to mention the name of a kick-ass homebrew magazine published by the American Homebrewers Association). I judged the German Wheat & Rye beer category in the morning, where I tasted some Weizens, Dunkelweizens, and Weizenbocks--there were no rye beers (Roggenbier) entered. None of them were extraordinary in my opinion--I think our top beer in the category was under 40 points (out of 50), but apparently one of the Dunkelweizens went on to win Best of Show for the competition, which is slightly mind-boggling, but whatever. In the afternoon, I judged the Light Lager category, which was really interesting, because I basically had homebrewed versions of Bud Light and Heineken. The category includes Lite American Lager, Standard American Lager, Premium American Lager, Munich Helles, and Dortmunder Export. There were actually some pretty decent beers in this flight. One of the Dortmunder Exports was excellent--crisp and clean with a refreshing hop character. Believe it or not, light lagers are one of the hardest styles to brew, because there's no strong flavors to hide any mistakes or infections. It was a pretty fun day overall, and I came home with a nice bottle Iron Hill's FE 10 Anniversary Ale, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, which I'm probably gonna save for the Fourth.

3. Independence Pale Ale & The July 4th Jockey Box
Speaking of the Fourth, I'm gearing up for another legendary July 4th in the Adirondacks, and got things rolling last Sunday with a long brewday. I brewed a clone recipe of the Lagunitas IPA, using 5 different kinds of hops (Magnum, Summit, Willamette, Centennial, and Cascade). The beer is fermenting strong right now and I'm going to move it to the secondary fermenter on Sunday, where I'm going to dry-hop it was 3/4 of an ounce each of Centennial and Cascade (I may just up it to an ounce so I don't have any leftover--the more the better!). The Independence Pale Ale, I've dubbed it, will sure to provide a Hoppy July 4th! Damn, that was awesomely corny. On top of getting the IPA ready, I've also been getting parts together to build a 3-tap jockey box (or draft box) to use with commercial kegs during the long weekend. Each keg will sit in its own bucket filled with ice, and the beer lines will feed into a 120qt cooler equipped with three 50 foot stainless-steel beverage coils, which will then feed into the faucets. I'm pretty confident that between the buckets and coil system, the beer will be Rocky Mountain cold when it comes out!

4. Upcoming National Homebrewers Conference

Finally, in less than one week, I'll be flying to sunny Oakland, CA for the National Homebrewers Conference. I'm heading out there on Wednesday next week and staying until Sunday. The conference will surely prove to be the ultimate beer event of the year (for me at least). On the schedule for the conference, I'll be stewarding at the National Homebrew Competition Judging on Thursday morning, followed by the "opening toast" in the early afternoon. There's also a couple of seminars that afternoon, of which I'm probably going to attend one on wood aging beer and one on brewing authentic German lagers. Thursday night is Pro-Brewers night (basically a regular beer festival with commercial breweries). On Friday morning, I'll probably go to seminars on extreme fermentables (with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head) and one on advanced homebrewing science. The afternoon begins with the keynote address from Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada, followed by more seminars (I'll probably go to one on yeast and a "going pro" panel). Friday night is Club Night, which means a beer festival with all homebrewed beer (different homebrew clubs have booths setup). Saturday means more seminars, and I'll probably attend a troubleshooting panel, one about equipment, one about quality, one about beer color, and another yeast seminar. Saturday evening is the Grand Banquet (a beer pairing dinner) and the awards ceremony for the National Homebrew Competition. I'm really excited about this mini beercation (there's one more; write that down), and I'll be sure to provide a detailed updated when I return. Until butter flies, drink your beer!

Reinitzgebot's Marzenbation

I opened a bottle of my homebrewed Marzen tonight. I brewed this beer back in March (Marzen = German for March) and it's been lagering at 34-35 F for about a month after fermentation was complete. I bottled it about 1.5 weeks ago. I think that besides my Southern English Brown Ale, this is probably one of my favorites. It was easy-drinking with a great malt character. I thought it would be fun to fully judge this beer with my review, and I've included scores for each of the sections as per the BJCP scoresheets. Also, for your reference, here's a link to the BJCP style guidelines for the Marzen (aka Oktoberfest), which I judged against: BJCP Marzen/Oktoberfest Guidelines. I tried to be as unbiased as possible, though it's tough, because, well, I did brewed it. Oh, and regarding the post's title, I've decided to name my home brewery, The Reinitzgebot Brewing Company after the famous Reinheitsgebot (the German beer purity law). And as for the name of the beer, you can figure that one out. Here it goes...

Aroma: Strong malt with hints of toast. Some background notes of dark fruit, though it's very faint. No hop aroma, and pretty clean. The fruit is inappropriate for the style if it's coming from esters produced by the yeast. I have a feeling the fruitiness here though is coming from the Munich malt, as it's very subdued. (9 out of 12 points)

Appearance: Medium copper with an orange tint. The clarity isn't great. Small off-white head dissipates quickly, leaving very little lacing. (1 out of 3 points)

Flavor: Biscuity and, like the aroma, there's a toasty aspect to it. Mild hop bitterness with no hop flavor. There's an initial malty sweetness that lingers a little, finishing sort of semi-dry (and maybe not dry enough for the style). Clean overall. (14 out of 20 points)

Mouthfeel: Carbonation is low to medium. The body is a little thin. No astringency and very smooth. (3 out of 5 points)

Overall Impression: A smooth, malt-focused lager. Carbonation is a little low--it could probably use a little more time to condition in the bottle. Increased carbonation will help a great deal with head formation/retention as well as the thin body. Quite tasty and very drinkable though--the flavor and aroma are really nice. (6 out of 10 points)

Total Score: 33 out of 50 points, which falls into the "Very Good" range.

So there you have it, I brewed a 33 point beer, which is something to be proud of. Yes, it's a 66%, but any score in the 30s is very good for a competition (plus 66% is better than I did on any college exam). For those who live in DC, I'll be visiting this weekend, and I plan on bringing a six-pack with me to share.

On the DC note, I'm heading down there for the weekend to attend SAVOR on Saturday, which I'm really excited about. SAVOR is a craft beer & food pairing event held at the National Building Museum. In addition to the main event, I also have tickets to a mini "salon" of beer and chocolate pairing--how could you go wrong?!?! Full update on that after the weekend!

A Wit and a Marzen Walk Into a Bar...

...and then I drank them.

This past weekend I shared a keg of my homebrewed Belgian Wit (that's actually a photo above--thanks Seamus) with a bunch of friends down at the guido-tastic Jersey shore. Between fist-pumping and spiking our hair, we somehow found the time to drink some beer. The beer came out good, but I was a bit disappointed, because it wasn't what I was shooting for. I was trying to produce a Blue Moon clone, but with a little extra flavor from a true Belgian yeast (Blue Moon uses a clean American yeast). I think the beer was good, and judging from how quickly it was consumed, so did my friends, but it just wasn't what I was looking for. A few things I would change:

1. Increase the bitter orange peel, orange zest, and coriander. I cut back on the suggested spice amounts from the recipe I used, so that I wouldn't over do it. An overly spiced beer could be disgusting. Next time I brew this though, I'm going to increase the spices a little--they were barely apparent in the flavor and aroma, and I would've liked to see a little more citrus character.
2. The recipe called for a portion of the fermentables to be pure dextrose (corn sugar). This thins the beer out a little, and it could've used a little more body. I'll probably cut the sugar in half next time and replace it with a 50/50 split of wheat and Pilsner malt to maintain the gravity.
3. I'm going to try this beer with an American yeast next time. This way, I can get the other flavor components to where I want them. Once I get everything else in place, I can try it with the Belgian yeast again to see how it complements the beer.

I'm looking forward to brewing this one again and trying to tweak a recipe to my liking--it's definitely a warm weather beer, so I'll either take another stab at it at the end of the summer or it will have to wait for next spring. In addition to the Wit, my Marzen was bottled just about 2 weeks ago, and I'm planning on opening a bottle tonight. If I'm feeling saucy, maybe I'll try to post some tasting notes on it later this evening, so be on the lookout for a second post in one day! Until tonight, may the schwarzbier with you! (Yes, I know that was horrible)

Musings on Work & Longshot Traditional Bock

Yes, I know it's been awhile. Work has been busy to say the least, and the last thing I've wanted to do when I get home is sit in front of the computer. The beer I had tonight inspired me to get back at it though. Before we talk about the beer, let me draw you a picture of what's giving me a headache at work (I'm sorry, I need to vent):

Without going into too much detail, we're building a system for our client, represented by A1, to replace their old system, represented by A2. B is a new system that the client is building, and C is an existing system that they're going to keep. I work on the Integration team, building interfaces between A1 and B. We just got into systems testing, and this is how it works: User 1 enters information into A1, while User 2 simultaneously enters the (supposedly) same information into A2 without communicating with one another. Then, a set of existing interfaces extracts data from A2 and sends it to C. At the same time, the new interfaces I built extract data from A1 and sends it to B. An additional set of new interfaces (that I had nothing to do with) then extracts data from B and sends it to C. Someone at C then compares the extracted data from B and A2, and by some miracle of Yahweh himself, they're supposed to be identical. Obviously they're not, so it gets thrown at me as a defect against my A1 to B interfaces. Now, I'm just a beer-drinking schmuck, but I count roughly 10 different places besides my interfaces that this process could potentially fail. And 9 times out of 10, it's one of those 10 other places, but nonetheless, it's up to me to crack the case. What this means, is that by the end of the day, I'm really regretting not listening to that career test I took in college that said I should be a plumber.

OK, enough about work. In other news, I kegged my Belgian Wit early last week and am planning on taking it with me to the shore this weekend to share with some friends. This past weekend, I bottled about 40 bottles of my Marzen that's been lagering for a month--it tasted awesome; I'm really excited about this one. The Marzen should be ready in about 2 weeks. I just got ingredients to make an IPA and the recipe is based off a Lagunitas IPA clone recipe. I'm planning on brewing that for July 4th weekend, so I'll probably brew the first weekend in June. Also, I finally invested in a mill, so I'm excited to crush my own grain for this IPA. While work's been a drag, I've had some awesome weekends to look forward to starting with this one:
May 22-25: Heading to the shore for Memorial Day weekend with some friends.
May 29-31: I'll be in DC for SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience.
June 5-7: Brewing this weekend and judging a homebrew competition in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
June 12-14: Hanover, NH for my brother's graduation from Dartmouth!
June 17-21: Flying out to Oakland, CA for the National Homebrewer's Conference....really psyched!
June 26-28: Nothing planned right now, but I think my beer judging study group may have a party with our leftover beer.
July 1-5: Beautiful Garnet Lake for Seamus' annual July 4th extravaganza!



Enough about me; on to the beer! Tonight I had Alex Drobshoff's Traditional Bock from the Sam Adams Longshot pack. For those who aren't familiar with the Longshot, it's a homebrewing competition that Sam Adams hosts. The top two winners get their beer brewed and distributed by Sam Adams in the Longshot pack. In addition, a third beer is chosen among entries from Boston Beer Company employees. This year's pack had a Cranberry Wit and a Double IPA in addition to the Traditional Bock. I had the Cranberry Wit over the weekend, and it was nothing special--a decent Wit with some tartness from the cranberries, but they didn't provide much character. I was pretty blown away by the Bock though--it was an excellent beer and helped me forget about A1, A2, B, and C after a long day at work.

Aroma: Malty caramel with hints of toffee and freshly baked bread. Some dark fruit notes sneak up in the background. No hop aroma. There is a slight sensation of alcohol on the nose as well.

Appearance: Medium-brown with a slight reddish hue. Good clarity. The head is small and white in color, though it does not last long.

Flavor: Malty upfront with some residual sweetness that lingers into the finish balanced with a mild hop bitterness. There is the faintest hop flavor as you swirl the beer around in your mouth, and a warming sensation as it goes down. As in the aroma, flavors reminiscent of bread and toffee are present, as are some dark fruity esters (cherries and blackberries come to mind).

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a medium-high carbonation. The beer is relatively clean with no astringency. Some alcohol is noticeable as mentioned previously.

Overall Impression: An excellent example of a Traditional Bock. Commercially available Bocks tend to lean more towards the Doppel Bock side, and this is a well-welcomed departure from the norm. It's an incredibly drinkable beer and goes well with food or by itself. I definitely recommend picking up the Longshot pack, even if it's just for this beer. Kudos to Alex Drobshoff!

Brasserie Dieu du Ciel's Route Des Épices

I apologize for slacking on the updates; I've been real busy at work--the solution's not going to deliver itself after all. This past weekend was chock full of some great beer. On Saturday night in the city I went with some friends to d.b.a. where I had an excellent German rauchbier (I can't remember the name unfortunately), followed by Sierra Nevada's Brown Saison, and one of my go-to favorites, Fuller's London Porter. Afterwards, we headed over to The Rabbit Club, where I drank some great Belgians including Rodenbach Grand Cru on draft, a bottle of the Trappist Achel 8, and lastly a bottle of Christoffel Robertus, and incredible Vienna lager. Clearly an awesome beer night, but it left me less than stellar in the morning (as Sully can attest to). Despite the hangover, we headed over to Zum Schneider on Sunday afternoon for their annual May Fest and some fresh Maibock straight from Germany. I had the Einbecker Maibock and Sully had the Hofbrau Maibock, both in massive 1 liter glasses. We enjoyed some classic German food while listening to a live Oompah band and watching this crazy German dude dance on the benches. Here's a pic of me getting uber-excited about my Maibock:


Enough about my weekend though; let's talk about today's beer! The Route Des Épices (literally Spice Route) is a rye beer brewed with peppercorns from Brasserie Dieu du Ciel, a Canadian microbrewery in Quebec. This exotic brew went extremely well with my shepherd's pie dinner--the spiciness of the beer complemented the hearty "meat & potatoes" meal and enhanced the overall flavor of the dish.

Aroma: Sweet malt with hints of molasses and dark caramel. There's some background spicy notes from the rye and peppercorns, but the initial aroma seems almost cloyingly sweet. No hop aroma.

Appearance: Deep amber to light brown with a small off-white head. Poor head retention overall. There's some lacing, but it falls back into the glass quickly.

Flavor: Not nearly as sweet as the aroma suggests, though there is some substantial maltiness to back up the spicy flavors. I feel the spice in the back of my mouth and on the sides of my tongue, and it lingers into the finish. There's some toastiness and a light toffee-like flavor as well, adding an even further level of complexity to the beer. The spice hinders the detection of any hop flavor, though there is medium hop bitterness supporting the malt.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full bodied and slick on the tongue. My mouth is left tingling afterwards, a product of both the spiciness and the carbonation.

Overall Impression: The peppercorns add a really nice touch to what is already an excellent rye beer. I think this is definitely a "drink with food" beer--the spice is much more pronounced as I drink it after my meal than while eating. I'd definitely recommend giving this one a shot, and I'll probably pick it up again if I see it.

TAP New York Craft Beer Festival

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to check out TAP New York, a "craft beer & fine food" festival at Hunter Mountain. To begin with, Hunter Mountain and the surrounding area is absolutely stunning, especially in the early spring. I can't quite explain how awesome it was to be literally 10 feet away from touching snow while the temperature was hovering in the high 70s...all while drinking some awesome beer. For a brief moment I thought I was dead and had gone to heaven, but then I remembered that they probably wouldn't let me in, so I must still be alive.

Alright, enough sappy crap about how beautiful it was. I came to drink beer, not take in the scenery! Firstly, kudos to TAP for giving us real tasting glasses, not prissy little plastic cups. Appearance is a huge part of appreciating any food or beverage, and the real glass definitely helped on that front. Almost every NY brewery I can think of was represented, and they did not disappoint. A few of my favorites include:
-Brown's Whiskey Porter
-Brown's Rauch
-Peekskill Brewery's Vanilla Bourbon Porter
-Peekskill Brewery's Oatmeal Raisin Stout (it had a name, but I can't remember it)
-Chelsea Brewing's Gyle (I can't remember the exact name, but it was basically an American Barleywine)
-Wagner Valley's Sled Dog Trippel Bock
-Brooklyn Brewery's Coffee Stout

One beer that I was looking forward to trying, but failed to deliver in my opinion, was C.H. Evans Brewing's Kick-Ass Brown. I had heard really great things about this beer, I got to say that I wasn't impressed. Maybe it's just not my style, but I think a brown ale should be a little more malt focused. Granted it was an American Brown Ale, in which hops are supposed to be more prevalent, but the BJCP guidelines indicate that the beer should still be balanced. I found the Kick-Ass Brown to be completely out of balance. I was expecting a rich, malty beer with some ample hops to back it up; what I got was a hop bomb that literally kicked my ass (I guess that's where the name comes from).

In other news, I brewed again this weekend on Saturday, throwing together a Belgian Wit with some coriander, bitter orange peel, and fresh orange zest added in the boil (yes, I zested an orange for the first time in my life...all in the name of beer). The Wit is my attempt at a Blue Moon clone for my dad, who only drinks that and Corona Light. I realized after the fact that I used a true Belgian Wit yeast to ferment it, and I'm guessing that Blue Moon probably uses a cleaner American yeast, as I really don't sense any Belgian yeast character in the Coors product. In addition to the Wit, I still have my Marzen lagering at around 35F, where it'll sit for a few more weeks, and my Flanders Red Ale is packed away in the corner for a few months to allow those "bugs" to do their job. And now for your viewing pleasure, here's two pictures of me brewing on Saturday. The first is me stirring the mash before I covered it up to rest, and the second is me enjoying a homebrewed Belgian Pale Ale (though it looks pretty dark in the photo) while the mash is being lautered and the wort drained into the boil kettle.

Earth Day--How to Drink Beer and Save the World!

Today is Earth Day, and I thought it'd be cool to do a little piece on beer and the environment. Regardless of whether you believe in global warming/science (low blow, but it needed to be said) or not, there's no question that we all need to do our part to conserve our natural resources and ensure a sustainable future for our children and our children's children (our children's children's children are on their own though--suckers!). I personally plan on celebrating Earth Day by having a beer or two tonight and then recycling the bottles--boo yah! Or better yet, maybe I should drink some homebrew from the keg, thus not producing any waste.

So, how can you drink beer and save the world? Well, I'd start by reading Christopher Mark O'Brien's tome, Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World. I read Fermenting Revolution in college while working on a business plan for a "green" brewery for a writing course I was taking. The book is a really interesting read, and I'd definitely recommend it. O'Brien's website lists 7 reasons beer saves the world. In lieu of summarizing each of them here, you can take the extra effort to click the links and read O'Brien's explanations:
1. Brewers invented recyclable aluminum cans
2. Real Ale slows climate change
3. Fair Trade beer benefits small farmers
4. Beer builds sustainable architecture
5. Beer is patriotic
6. Beer saves water
7. Hemp beer is the answer

During my research for the "green" brewery project, I discovered all sorts of interesting information regarding beer's environmental impact and how brewers manage that impact. Brewing is an energy and resource intensive process. Heating/maintaining high temperatures as well as rapid cooling in the brewhouse all consume an inordinate amount of energy. On top of that, breweries use incredibly large amounts of water between what goes in to the beer itself and the water used for cleaning and cooling. A byproduct of fermentation is of course CO2, and though not much of a concern for smaller breweries, that CO2 needs to be released somewhere. Between yeast sludge and spent grains, there's also a lot of waste produced during brewing.

There are number of things brewers can do to combat these issues, and the feasibility of the solutions many times vary based on the brewery size (and hence the amount of available capital). Here are few environmentally friendly practices that the beer industry has adopted over the years:
1. Saving reserves of hot water to be used for cleaning and/or mashing at a later time. For example, cold water used to cool hot wort in a heat exchanger (and thus becoming hot) can be used to cleaning equipment later or even used as strike water for the mash in the next batch of beer.
2. Capturing and purifying CO2 produced during fermentation to later be used to carbonate the beer.
3. Giving spent grain to farmers to be used as cattle feed. It's a win-win relationship: farmers get free feed for their cattle and brewers get their wasted grain trucked off for free.
4. Recently in the news, Sierra Nevada has begun using spent yeast and waste beer to create high-quality ethanol, which can then be used to fuel automobiles.
5. Using solar and/or wind energy to help power a brewery's operations.

There are number of small breweries doing big things to reduce the impact making great beer has on the environment. Of particular note are Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, and Otter Creek, just to name a few. So, get outside and have a beer for Mother Earth today! And next time you have a pint of the golden elixir, remember drink beer and save the world!

I'm Back Bitches: Coopers Vintage Ale

After a one week hiatus, I'm back at it and I'll be trying to make regular updates again. This past week has been crazy between work and studying for the BJCP exam, which I finally took this past Saturday. I think I did well on the test (at least well enough to pass), so hopefully pretty soon I'll be a Recognized Beer Judge! The exam was definitely tough; I know some people might laugh and think a beer test couldn't be that hard, but it's a really comprehensive and technical exam. For the written portion (worth 70%) I filled up eight regular loose-leaf pages (one-sided though), and I judged four different beers for the practical portion (worth 30%) including a rather poor example of a Belgian Wit, a decent Mild, an excellent Doppelbock, and a (purposely) soured American Amber Ale. Although my hand was cramped after writing for three hours, I had a lot of fun taking the exam and went out to a nearby brewpub, Krogh's, for some beers afterwards with a few of the guys I've been studying with. An excellent day overall!

But now it's a new week, with new headaches at work, and some new beers to quell those headaches. Tonight's beer, though, unfortunately gave me a headache with some unappreciated fusel alcohols. Without further ado, here is my review of Coopers Vintage Ale, an English strong ale from down-under.

Aroma: Sweet malt with hints of honey and raisin. There is a slight alcoholic note on the nose. No hop aroma. The aroma finishes with some caramel and toffee.

Appearance: Dark copper with a slightly off-white head that lingers leaving a beautiful lacing on the glass. There is some haze, but that's probably cause the beer was bottle-conditioned and I accidentally just dumped all the sediment in (long day at work and I was rushing to pour my evening beer).

Flavor: Some biscuity malt, but the beer is fairly well-attenuated, finishing dry. There are some intense solvent-like alcohols, which are a bit overwhelming. Mild bitterness. These higher alcohols are really masking much of the flavor--there's not much else I'm picking up.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with medium-high carbonation, lending a slight carbonic bite. The alcohols coat my mouth and provide an intense warming sensation.

Overall Impression: This was a vintage-dated bottle dated 2008, so I probably drank it a bit too soon. Overall, those higher alcohols were the dominating flavor in this beer and were harsh at best. I'm thinking of buying a few more bottles and seeing how it ages over time, as this beer definitely needs some years to mellow out.

A Busy Week & Dancing Beer

This is stacking up to be one hell of a week. Between work and studying for the BJCP exam, which is on Saturday, I'm not going to have much time to update this site until the weekend. To help get you through the week, here is the dancing beer bottle and other beer GIFs!

Last BJCP Class & Lots of Great Beer

Yesterday evening was my last BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) class before the exam next weekend. It's been nearly 5 months since I started studying for the test. The study group I was involved with met 10 times over the last few months to discuss different topics and of course taste all the different styles of beers. While my beer knowledge has certainly increased dramatically, I'm definitely going to be cramming a bunch before the test. This weekend is going to be spent reading, making flash cards, and preparing for the grueling 3-hour exam. Despite what some may think, the BJCP exam is extremely difficult--I've studied harder for this than anything before.

Here's a list from last night's lineup (at least what I can remember) with links to the beer's page on BeerAdvocate.com:
Hoegaarden
St. Bernardus Witbier
Corsendonk Abbey Pale Ale
La Chouffe
Leute Bok
Rodenbach Grand Cru
Duchesse De Bourgogne
Liefmans Goudenband
Hanssens Oude Gueuze
Lindemans Framboise
Lindemans Kriek (we actually had 2 of these: 1 bought recently and 1 that was roughly 15 years old, which was pretty sweet)
Koningshoeven La Trappe Quadrupel
Stone Double Bastard Ale (a little random, I know)

My favorites were the Rodenbach Grand Cru (which I kind of knew going into this--I love the sours!) and the Corsdendonk Abbey Pale Ale. The main reason I enjoyed the pale ale so much is that I brewed a Belgian pale ale recently, and mine tastes very similar to this one. If it's good enough for Corsendonk, it's good enough for me!

Updates may be scarce the next week as I prepare for the BJCP exam and deal with a truckload of crap at work, but I'll be back in full swing after next Saturday. Wish me luck!

Cricket Hill American Ale

I just sat down to relax after a rather intense evening of playing of tennis (yes, I drink beer and play tennis) and figured what better way to quench my thirst than with a nice, crisp, refreshing beer. So, I opened a bottle of American Ale from the Cricket Hill Brewery, the only beer in the variety pack from them that I haven't tried yet. One interesting point to note is that this beer has the same name has Budweiser's recent attempt at craft brewing (Budweiser American Ale), which to be fair to them, wasn't bad (not great, but it wasn't the American swill I was expecting). According to the guys at Cricket Hill, they were marketing their beer as American Ale long before Budweiser, which I believe is true. Since it's such a general name though, neither company could claim a trademark on the name, so we'll have to settle with two American Ales for now, one from the big boys at AB-Inbev, and the other handcrafted with some local Jersey pride. On to the review!

Aroma: Moderate hop aroma with pleasant citrus notes, predominantly grapefruit. Some hints of caramel and toffee from the malt, and a mild biscuitiness as the volatiles dissipate. I believe they may have used a little Simcoe during a late hop addition, because I'm getting a tiny bit of that classic "cat-pee" scent (I know "cat-pee" sounds horrible, but it's a characteristic of the Simcoe hop and used in moderation, it lends a certain complexity to the overall aroma).

Appearance: Medium-light to medium copper with a small white head that falls apart rather quickly. Some lacing on the glass, but again, it falls back in after a short time. The beer is crystal clear and I can see little bubbles of CO2 climbing the walls of the glass as I hold it in front of my computer screen.

Flavor: Light malty sweetness that quickly gives way to some hop flavor, finishing on the bitter side. The beer is definitely more heavily hopped on the aroma than in the flavor, though hop bitterness is prevalent in the taste. I get a touch of graininess as well from the malt. The beer is slightly out of balance in my opinion; I think they should cut back on the IBUs (International Bittering Units) a bit and allow the malt to shine through.

Mouthfeel: Medium body with a medium-high carbonation. Nothing special going on in my mouth right now (I handed this one to you on a silver platter--who's gonna take it?).

Overall Impression: The beer has an incredibly inviting aroma that disappoints a bit when it hits your lips. I would love to see part of the hop bittering addition moved to later in the boil, without changing the amount of hops, in order to provide more ample hop flavor, while decreasing IBUs. For those who don't know about the brewing process, there's generally 3 types of hop additions you can make in your boil (hence Miller's "triple hop brewed" ad campaign--it's called the brewing process jackasses!): bittering (60 min from the end), flavor (roughly 10-30 min from the end), and aroma (roughly 0-10 min from then end). The longer hops are boiled, the better hop utilization you get (more IBUs). So, let's say for argument's sake that 1oz of hops at 60min produces 10 IBUs and no flavor/aroma because all the volatiles are boiled off. If that same 1oz was moved to 15min, maybe it would produce only 5 IBUs, but some hop flavor and maybe a little aroma would remain. So to get back to the American Ale, I think the beer would benefit from a smaller bittering addition and a larger flavor addition, which will bring the maltiness in balance with the bitterness and provide some hop flavor to partner with that wonderful aroma.

That's all for tonight; don't forget to drink your beer!

100 Hits! Celebratory Beer = Petrus Oud Bruin!

That's right, after just over 2 weeks of being live, The Blog-O-Beer had its 100th hit today. Congratulations to my good friend, Seamus, for being the 100th visitor. For those who don't know Seamus, he's a meek fellow, who manages a small alpaca farm in southern Kentucky. Seamus was not only the 100th visitor, but also my first visitor, and for that he wins my undying gratitutde....and nothing more.

But now on to much more important matters: tonight's celebratory beer, the Petrus Oud Bruin from Brouwerij Bavik in the great beer nation of Belgium. It's only appropriate that I do some real tasting notes for this one, so I saved a little beer in my glass from dinner. Enough chit-chat...on to the review!

Aroma: A wonderfully complex aroma, with a heavy initial dose of milk chocolate laced with notes of dark and dried fruits. The nose continues with hints of vanilla and some definite oak character from the barrel aging. The beer has that "sour" smell, as expected, but is not overwhelming--the balance is impeccable. No noticeable hop aroma.

Appearance: Medium-brown with decent clarity. The head pours thick and slightly off-white with great retention. There is no apparent lacing.

Flavor: Dark fruits come to mind with some chocolate as in the aroma. The beer is definitely soured, but blended well to produce an easy-drinking product. Sweet at the introduction, but finishes rather dry with no hop flavor, though there is a mild bitterness in the background--the beer is definitely malt-balanced. The oak aging rounds out the flavor with some notes of wood and helps to smooth out the sourness.

Mouthfeel: Light to medium-light body with mild carbonation that coats the mouth and leaves a tingling sensation on the finish. There is a slight astringency that leaves you puckering a bit (maybe tannins picked up from the wood?).

Overall Impression: For those not familiar with the Flanders Oud Bruin (Old Brown) style, it's a soured Belgian brown ale that is generally aged warm in stainless steel (as opposed to Flanders Red Ale, which is usually aged in oak). So, while it may not be true to style, I think the oak aging lends a wonderful character to the beer and helps to round it out a bit. It's a surprisingly drinkable beer (one of my favorite beers is the Rodenbach Grand Cru, a Flanders Red Ale, and though I love it, you can't drink to much of it in a session--I guess I was expecting something similar). I think I'll definitely be buying this one again and I highly recommend it!

Nights I Can't Remember, With Beers I'll Never Forget

This past weekend I visited my alma mater (Cornell) for my fraternity's (Pi Kappa Phi) initiation weekend. One of my good friends and fraternity brother came up with his fiance as well, and the three of us shared some awesome beers on Saturday night. Yes, we were "pre-gaming" for a fraternity formal, but as alumni, we classed it up a bit with an incredible craft beer lineup. Some of the freshman didn't even know you could get beer in "wine bottles" as one of them put it. One freshman girl tried a sip of the Harpoon Catamount Maple Wheat (from their 100 Barrel Series) and commented, "it kind of tastes like Budweiser." Needless to say, I cringed a bit and a little piece of me died inside.

So, here was the night's lineup. As this post's title alludes, I don't remember much of the night, but these beers all left a lasting impression! In order of drinking, we had:
Harpoon's Catamount Maple Wheat
Lagunitas' Hop Stoopid
Brooklyn Brewery's Brooklyn Local 1
Ithaca Beer Company's TEN

My favorite was probably the TEN, a hearty brew weighing in at 10% ABV. It's described as an "Imperial American Extra Strong and Special Double Red Ale," which is a mouthful. Basically, it was big in all dimensions: malt, hops, and alcohol. Amazingly though, the alcohol was very well-balanced, and although the beer was certainly warming, it was not overwhelming. It kind of sneaks up on you and hits you later. The TEN was definitely the highlight of drinking that evening. It goes without saying that the formal did not have a stellar beer lineup, but I got the bartender to bring out a case of Sam Adams, which improved the menu tremendously (my previous choices were Bud Light, Coors Light, or Labatt).

I hope everyone had a good weekend, and as a not-so-important person once told me, "Drink Your Beer!"

Witkap-Pater Abbey Singel & Colonel Blide's Cask Ale

Last night with dinner I had the Witkap-Pater Abbey Singel from Brouwerij Slaghmuylder, a small Belgian brewery. I didn't do full tasting notes, but the beer was decent--nothing particularly interesting about it. The carbonation was a little too high and left a sharp carbonic bite in my mouth. Other than that, this was your standard Abbey-style ale; nothing about it jumped out and made me want more. This one is definitely not a repeat.



Next up, with lunch today, I popped open one of the bottles in the variety pack from Cricket Hill that I got on Wednesday at their brewery. I pulled out their Colonel Blide's Cask Ale. If I didn't know the story behind this beer, I would've laughed at the fact that they were calling it a cask ale. For starters, it's bottled and it's not even bottle-conditioned at that. Basically, the beer began as a true cask ale a few years ago when they first made it, but it became so popular that they started bottling it and force-carbonating it for consistency. It also was originally a blend of their Hopnotic IPA and American Ale, but now they brew it as its own beer with its own recipe. It's very similar to their IPA, but with a fuller and more complex hop profile, mainly because the beer is dry-hopped after primary fermentation. All in all, a good, sessionable English IPA. As with the first beer on this post, it's nothing extraordinary, but it's well-made and tasty.

Seriously, Who Are You?

So I've been using a service called Site Meter to track visitors to my blog. It gives me all sorts of awesome information: where people are visiting from, what browsers they're using, what OS they're using, even their monitor resolution! Slightly Big Brother-esque, I know, but it's still sweet.

So, over the last few days, I've had visitors from IP addresses in locations where I'm pretty sure I don't know anyone. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it'd be cool to know who you are. So, if I don't know you (and even if I do), take a minute to sign my Guestbook and tell me who you are! I've had visitors from France, the UK, New Zealand, and now Spain. Seriously, who are you???

Cricket Hill Brewing Company

Yesterday was one of the most awesome exBEERiences I've had yet (I've now coined 3 new words: beerkend, beervent, and exbeerience. Write those down; they'll be on the SATs one day). I took the day off from work and spent the day at the Cricket Hill Brewing Company in Fairfield, NJ. The owner of Cricket Hill, Rick Reed, and the head brewer, Dave Manka, were nice enough to invite me to brew a batch of beer with them, specifically their East Coast Lager, a crisp, easy-drinking, light lager with a faint, but wonderful hop profile.

I spent most of my time with Joe (can't remember his last name), the assistant brewer, who was in charge of brewing that day. He was a really great host and teacher, walking me through the process and comparing each step to what I would do at the homebrew level. I found that it's really not that different, except that instead of brewing 5 gallons, we brewed 465 gallons. Instead of using 14 pounds of grain, we used roughly 700 pounds. Instead of using a couple ounces of hops, we used nearly 7 pounds. If you've never seen or smelled 7 pounds of hops before, it's kind of like awesomeness with more awesome on top. Joe let me work some of the valves on the brewhouse throughout the day, and I got to add the hops throughout the boil (equally awesome to 7 pounds of hops, is adding those hops to 465 gallons of boiling wort). I also got the lucky job of cleaning the 700 lbs of grain out of the mash tun at the end. Though hard work, it was definitely a lot of fun...and it smelled real nice, sort of like victory.

Of course there was plenty of drinking to be done too. Over the course of the 8.5 hours I spent there, I sampled their East Coast Lager, Hopnotic IPA, Paymaster's Porter, and the yet-to-be-released Maibock (they're bottling it today actually). I left with a 12 bottle variety back that includes the East Coast Lager, American Ale, Hopnotic IPA, and their Colonel Blide's (a cask style ESB). The one thing I found interesting about their beers is that they were all incredibly smooth. They even mentioned to me that they're not your typical craft brewery making over-the-top "extreme" beers--they're aiming for drinkable session beers for your average beer drinker. I think the East Coast Lager in particular is a really great gateway beer to introduce BMC (Bud Miller Coors) drinkers to the world of craft brewing.

It was definitely a day to remember--thanks again to Rick, Dave, and Joe over at the Cricket Hill Brewing Company! I'll definitely be back to help you bottle one Thursday night!

St. Peter's Old-Style Porter

Last night I enjoyed St. Peter's Old-Style Porter with dinner, and despite the green bottle (see 2 posts ago), I was pleasantly surprised. Though rarely made this way today, traditional porter is a blend of an older, more mature ale and a younger, lighter one. This process allowed porter brewers to save only a portion of their batches for aging and blend the other portion with older batches for immediate distribution.

St. Peter's Old-Style Porter is brewed in this traditional manner, which provides a unique character to the beer. There are hints of "age" in the beer--a very mild sourness, some oxidation, etc--but the blending mellows these aged notes with a fresher brewed beer, allowing for an incredibly complex flavor profile. There was even some skunkiness from the green bottle, but I purposely chose a bottle from the back of the shelf at the store (where it's darker) to minimize the chance of the beer being light-struck. The nice thing about a darker, more robust beer is that these skunked flavors and aromas quickly dissipate and are overwhelmed by the beer's true character. I'm definitely looking forward to trying a few more of St. Peter's beers...!now if only they would drop the green bottles!