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!