Wednesday, August 31, 2011

What's In My Glass: 8/30/11


And I’m back after a couple days of radio silence. Last night I had some killer Hill Farmstead beers on tap in New York City, as well as a bottle of Kern River Citra that had just come in the mail in a trade that same day. Reviews are either posted or queued in my backlog of review notes. I started tonight with my second can of Surly Furious from a recent trade. There’s not much to add to my thoughts from the other night, there’s a little bit of malt there to support a ton of pine and citrus hoppiness. Once again I declined to review this beer as I’m a little burnt out from beer writing. I’ve got 29 beer reviews logged so far in August, plus notes for another seven, and more than 20 posts here on this  blog. Since Furious is a year round, flagship beer for Surly, I’m confident I’ll have it again and be able to formally log a review.

The main focus of the evening was a big monster of a double IPA called Knuckle Sandwich from Bootlegger’s Brewery out of California.



It was a very cool extra to find in the box I got yesterday with some bottles of Kern River Citra (thanks to Brian from California). It’s a monster of a beer, clocking in at 10%ABV, and it’s got a lot going for it. It’s more in the East Coast IPA vein, meaning there’s a fair amount of sweetness to balance out the hops. As for the hops themselves, the bitterness here was surprisingly mild, and there was some pretty cool orange and tangerine notes to be found on the back end of each sip. All that said, I was a little let down, because I expected that a beer called Knuckle Sandwich would really hammer me with the hops, and this one was a bit more mellow and balanced.

That’s it for tonight; I may or may not be back tomorrow night before going dark on Thursday. Friday night I’ll be attending the first meeting of the Brooklyn Brewery’s Order of Osiris and will definitely have a report on that.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

What's In My Glass: Hurricane Irene Edition


So as if a hurricane isn't lame enough to begin with, tonight's post was supposed to be a recap of an epic daylong bus trip to Victory Brewing, put on by my favorite bar in NYC, the Rattle n Hum. Mother Nature had other plans though, and so I decided to open an extra beer or two tonight as a consolation prize. First up was an extra from a trade I recently received, but did not profile here on the blog, a can of Sunny Haze hefeweizen, from Mother Earth brewing out of North Carolina



Canning is becoming more and more popular among craft brewers, as technological improvements have made both made canning a more financially feasible option and led to higher quality cans that don’t leech flavors into the beer and protect it better. Some breweries, most notably Oskar Blues over in Colorado, can exclusively, while many other brewers are canning select beers in addition to their normal bottling. The beer is what it’s all about though, and this one’s pretty good. I’ve found hefeweizen is one of the few styles where we haven’t really caught up here in the US to the best of our German brewing counterparts, but anemic appearance aside, this one makes a good run at it. It’s got the same problem that I have with most domestic versions of the style in that a doughy malty flavor is a bit too prominent when compared to the banana esters and clove phenols thrown off by the yeast. It definitely comes closer to what I’m looking for than most of the others though, it’s just a touch off. The aforementioned yeast derived flavors are tilted just a bit too much towards clove for me, but that’s just a personal preference. There’s also a pleasant citrusy splash in the flavor profile (no need to pour this one over a lemon!) that’s a nice touch. The relative lack of head (the above picture is right after the pour) hinted at the beer’s other weak spot; the carbonation was definitely a bit too low for the style. Still though, a decent effort from a brewery that has a couple hundred years less practice at brewing weiss beers than those pesky Germans. I’d pick this one up again next time I’m down in North Carolina.

Next up was the last of the different Surly beers I’ve received over the last few weeks, Surly Hell.



It’s a summer seasonal beer for them, an unfiltered lager (accounting for both the crisp taste and the hazy appearance). I’m not always a fan of lagers, sometimes there’s just not enough going on in them for me, but this one hit the spot. It smelled and tasted like freshly baked white bread and crackers, with just a suggestion of floral spiciness from the hops (basically an American version of a classic noble hop). It’s got a killer combination of good flavor and being super drinkable (this one clocks in at just 4.5%, definitely near the low end of the craft beer spectrum). I can see myself trying to get my hands on a bunch of this at the beginning of the season next summer as my go-to summer beer along with Allagash White.

After that I cracked my second bottle of Odell’s Myrcenary, which was just as good as when I first had it a few nights ago. As much as I would have liked to keep going with new beers, any great IPA/imperial IPA deserves to be consumed fresh, and I have a couple bottles of this one still to go.

Next was my second weekly check in on my most recent batch of homebrew. This time I got to have a full bottle, and the good news is it’s definitely carbonating just fine. I’m not at the point of getting good head formation/retention or lacing yet, but I’ve found that that sometimes lags a bit behind. Evidence of carbonation is readily apparent from the first sip. The flavor’s still a bit off, but I’m hoping that I’m just tasting the beer while it’s still a little young.

The last beer of the night would end up being Three Floyds Moloko milk stout.



The trippy bottle art is no surprise, as the beer was named as a reference to A Clockwork Orange, which itself was referencing a drink in 1970s Europe that consisted of milk and LSD (somehow, I don’t think that does a body good). A milk stout is a regular stout that’s had lactose, the sugar found in milk, added to it. This particular kind of sugar can’t be consumed by yeast, so it all remains in the beer and provides both sweetness and an enriched body. The nose/flavor on this one is exactly what I imagine a good strong coffee that’s been dosed with sugar and cream is like. In fact it took on a little bit too much of a vanilla and sugar edge as the beer finished warming and the sweetness started overpowering the roasted malty flavors. I also decide to pair the last third or so of the bottle with some mint chocolate chip ice cream, which turned out to be a very good life choice. Seriously, some people laugh, but good ice cream combined with the right kind of beer is just about one of the best desserts I’ve ever had.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Brewventure: Homebrewing Class at the Brooklyn Brewery.

Last night I took a trip into the city for a homebrewing class hosted at the Brooklyn Brewery. I had some time to kill before the class was set to start, so a side quest was in order to the restaurant Eleven Madison Park. This place has quite the reputation as far as fine dining in NYC goes, but I wasn’t there for the food, I was there for a special beer on their bottle list (this is a beer blog after all). They recently partnered with the Brooklyn Brewery for two new beers that would be exclusive to the restaurant. Local 11 and Nine Pin Brown Ale are Brooklyn’s Local 2 and Brown Ale respectively, and each was aged in barrels previously used to make Pappy Van Winkle 20 year. As with all Brooklyn cork and caged 750s, they were then bottle conditioned with champagne yeast. Having had a barrel aged brown ale from Brooklyn before (Dark Matter, a previous release in their Brewmaster’s Reserve series), the Local 11 was tops on my priority list for this visit



It was impossible for me not to have high hopesfor this one, as I’m already a big fan of Local 2, but this beer met and even exceeded my lofty expectations (I haven’t reviewed this one on BA yet, but that’s forthcoming). There were still plenty of Belgian characteristics from the base beer, as vanilla notes from the barrel served to highlight the dark fruit flavors from the dark Belgian sugar and yeast esters. This relegated the clove and pepper phenols to the background, but they were still easily appreciated. This was all swirled with the wonderful flavor and aroma of what’s clearly a very smooth whiskey. The spirit influence is a bit more smoothly integrated in the aroma than the flavor, but I’m really splitting hairs. It was a killer beer, and worth the trip just to try it. Hopefully I’ll be posting sometime in the coming weeks about another trip to tackle the Nine Pin Brown Ale.

After that it was a mad dash (figuratively, I guess a mad sit on the L train) into Brooklyn as I arrived at the brewery just as the proceedings were beginning. First up was a presentation by Erica and Stephen from the Brooklyn Brew Shop. It gave a basic overview of every step of the brewing process (similar in content to my post from a couple weeks ago). They managed to make it a lot of fun and get a lot of laughs though, with a highlight being them highlighting the differences between ale, lager, and wild yeasts via a series of Craigslist casual encounter posts. After their piece was done, they went to the back and started pouring samples of one of their homebrews, a saison made with jalapenos. It was good (though I don’t think I could have had more than my 4 or so ounce pour), but all the heat from the jalapenos (and there was plenty) did a number on my palate that left it kind of wrecked for a little bit after. Part of me wishes they had either saved that beer for the end, or brought a different one. Next up was I Ben from Bierkraft, a beer store in Brooklyn. His talk was focused on hops, how they act in the boil, and how best to utilize them. The most interesting part for me was the end of his talk, where he touched on the topic of growing one’s own hops, which is something I may look into next spring. Appropriately enough, he was pouring a homebrewed IPA afterwards, that was pretty good. It used a relatively new strain of hop called Apollo, and the beer had a definite juicy, almost Hawaiian Punch thing going on (although that may have just been on my mind since Dan used it as an example several times in his talk). Last up was Dan, one of the brewers at the Brooklyn Brewery, whose talk was focused on yeast and fermentation. It was interesting to hear a professional’s take on things like pitching rates and the need for a yeast starter, given that most of what I’ve read comes from people who are solely homebrewers. Brooklyn was also pouring their regular draft lineup all night and I got to enjoy a couple great beers, Brooklyn Weiss and the BLAST! double IPA. Overall the event provided both great information and beers in spades, and I would have been willing to pay a bit more than the $5 cost of the ticket to attend. Hopefully with Brooklyn Brewery’s recent expansion these types of events will become more frequent.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

What's In My Glass: 8/23/11


Well, tonight ends my run of hoppy beers just in from trades, and I kicked it off with one I’ve had and enjoyed before, SurlyFurious.



As its darker than average color hints, there’s a fair bit of sweetness serving as the backbone of the beer, but only to support a ton of hops. There’s a fair bit of pine running neck and neck with the citrus in the flavor profile, which give it a bit of a unique twist, at least as far as IPAs that I’ve had are concerned. I’ll hold off on formally reviewing this one until I crack the second can I was lucky enough to receive.

The final stop on Bill’s Out of State IPA tour was Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster, an imperial IPA.



 I was looking forward to trying my first beer from Great Lakes, and ended up a bit let down. The beer did have a little bit of age on it, but it was still shy of the printed “best by” date (albeit by only about a week). It still had maybe the nicest pour of any of the beers I’ve had recently; I almost took a second picture of all the lacing it left stuck to the glass, but that was the high point. I thought I might be in trouble when the beer smelled grainy more than anything else. There was an aroma of oranges as well, but the first thing I thought of was the smell of a bag of grains that I’d get in one of my homebrew orders. It managed to be a little more hoppy in flavor, with a strong orange flavor that sets it apart somewhat from most IPAs/IIPAs, but it still lacked the overall hop punch that any good imperial IPA is going to deliver. I look forward to trying Great Lakes porter, which should be a bit more resistant to short term aging, and Oktoberfest, which is undoubtedly fresh, but this one was a miss for me.

Tomorrow I’ll be going into the city for a homebrewing class hosted at the Brooklyn Brewery, but I might not get around to posting an entry about it until Thursday.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

What's In My Glass: 8/22/11

First up tonight was a can of Surly Bitter Brewer.



It’s brewed mostly in the style of a traditional English bitter, with the notable exception of the use of American hops. I ended up not reviewing this one on Beer Advocate since the “canned on” date was illegible and a beer this small (4%ABV), especially a hoppy one, is going to be very delicate as far as freshness goes. It was still a very good drinking experience, very light and drinkable, with just enough malt to balance a lightly hoppy attack. The flavor profile was interesting, as the citrusy hops tended more towards orange, and melded neatly with the fruity esters from the yeast. It’s the kind of beer that, if it was available locally, I could see myself buying in bulk when it first came out and going through way too quickly.

Next up was my second big bottle of double IPA in two nights from Three Floyds, Dreadnaught



This is their year round imperial IPA (with Arctic Panzer Wolf being a seasonal release), and the one that garners more hype on Beer Advocate, but I found myself greatly preferring APW. This one is more of a paint by numbers version of the style, with a nice tropical fruit presence trying in vain to drown out the harsh grapefruit flavors of Centennial hops. That flavor isn’t as abrasive and dominant here as it was in the Summit beer I had over the weekend, but it’s still weighing the brew down. I’ve been impressed with Three Floyds overall so far, but I can’t see myself actively seeking this one out again.

Last up was Odell Myrcenary (the misspelling honors Myrcene, a chemical component of hop oils)



This ended up being the high point of the night. The beer was an absolute tropical fruit bomb. It was redolent of pineapple and mangoes, both in aroma and flavor, with just a little bit of peach in there as well. More common citrus notes showed up as an accent in the flavor. Myrcenary is a fairly unique beer, not as much so as last night's Arctic Panzer Wolf, but  interesting nonetheless. I'm glad I picked up a four pack of this one

Monday, August 22, 2011

What's In My Glass: 8/20/11-8/21/11


I ended up splitting up what was to be one night’s worth of beer out over the weekend, and only felt it made sense to pool the last two nights into one post. Saturday night I cracked a bottle of Summit’sSilver Annversary Ale, an IPA. I received this one as an extra in two separate trades this past week, and was eager to try my first beer from this brewery.



 I wanted to like this beer, and I acknowledge it’s technically sound. Nice appearance, solid malt to hops ratio, and both the body and the carbonation level are good. My beef is in the hop choice, namely what I’m guessing is extensive use of Centennial hops. As a bit of background, Cascade hops are the classic American hop strain that give the iconic Sierra Nevada Pale Ale its citrusy, grapefruit flavor. Centennial hops are described basically as Cascade on steroids, and the result is an unpleasant one for me. If you’ve ever done any cooking and had to zest some fruit, you’ve probably encountered the advice to not grate too much of the skin off, lest you get some of the bitter white pith underneath. Centennial hops to me taste like someone zested a grapefruit and got way too much pith mixed in. It’s more bitter than citrusy, and that bitterness combined with the natural amount present in your average IPA just overwhelms the beer for me. That’s what I found in Summit’s brew. I know it’s right in a lot of craft beer drinkers’ wheelhouse, but it’s just a bit of a miss for me.

Next up Saturday night was a test bottle of the Kitchen Sink Saison I bottled last weekend. This wasn’t a taste test as much as a check that the beer is carbonating properly. It wasn’t even a full 12oz serving, just the little bit extra that went into the last bottle. Mission success on the carbonation front and the flavor is promising, if not exactly what I was aiming for. I once again got plenty of fruitiness from the Dupont yeast strain (I used the same yeast for my first homebrew batch last year), but didn’t get quite as much spiciness from the rye and hops as I might have hoped. The beer still tasted a bit young, but I’ll be checking in once a week or so to see how it’s coming along.

Tonight was a one beer night for me, with that one beer being a bomber of Three Floyds Arctic Panzer Wolf.



This was one of two double IPAs from Three Floyds that I received last week and it was the one that I was more intrigued by. Similar to last night’s Summit brew, this one was well constructed from a technical standpoint. While the Silver Anniversary Ale’s hop choice killed it for me, this one’s (I don’t know the exact culprits, but I have a few suspicions) was absolutely inspired. Here was a beer, brewed as well as the best of them, which completely eschewed the stereotypical citrus notes of most American IPAs. Apricots and other tropical fruits shone through, as well as a distinct white wine flavor. Pine was also present in the background to keep things interesting. I’d  buy/trade for this beer again over others from brewers of similar skill just because the hop varietals used result  in a fairly unique beer within the IPA family.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Beer Trades: 8/19/11

Continuing my epic haul of beer trades this week, I had two more boxes arrive in the mail today. The first box came from Eric in Ohio, whom I sent a bottle of Brooklyn Black Ops, as well as a bottle each of Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine and Bell's Batch 9000. In return he sent me the following



The two big bottle are a couple of imperial IPA's from Three Floyds, Arctic Panzer Wolf and Dreadnaught. Three Floyds is a very highly respected brewery out of Indiana who doesn't distribute around here, so I'm excited to try a bunch of their beers over the coming weeks. The 12oz bottles all are beers from Great Lakes Brewing. Similarly to Three Floyds, they're located in the middle of the country and are known for producing great brews. Their beers tend to be a little more classic and not as extreme as other American breweries, so they fly under the beer commmunity radar a little bit more. This will be my first time trying any of their stuff, so I look forward to cracking Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Lake Erie Monster Imperial IPA, and Great Lakes Oktoberfest.

The second box was courtesy of Dan in Minnesota, who sent me all the good stuff below in exchange for a bottle each of Black Ops and New England Brewing Co's Imperial Stout Trooper.



The negotiated trade was that he would be sending me Boulevard Imperial Stout and a four pack of Odell Myrcenary, an imperial IPA. These alone would have made a killer box, Boulevard makes some absolutely killer beers, and Myrcenary has been very well reviewed on Beer Advocate. Dan threw in some killer extras as well though, especially Deschutes Black Butte XXIII. Deschutes has a regular Black Butte porter that they brew year round, and starting with their 20th Anniversary they've made an imperial version every year as an anniversary ale of sorts. This year's batch was made with orange peel, cocoa nibs nibs, and chilies. A quarter of it was then aged in whiskey barrels before being blended back into the batch. Not only is it almost assuredly a great beer, but this saves me having to set up a separate trade for one. Dan also sent a can of Surly Bitter Brewer and a bottle of Summit Silver Anniversary Ale. I sent some extras on my end as well, but I definitely ended up a little bit humbled here, hopefully he and I trade again and I can repay the favor.

As a final note, I did have a couple beers last night and neglect to get a post up. Suffice to say, both Three Floyds Lord Admiral Nelson and Surly Bender were great, and full thoughts can be found in my "official" reviews on Beer Advocate

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Today in Beer: 8/17/11

I decided to consolidate a couple topics into one post for today. First is the two boxes I received in trades today. One box was from Joe out of Minneapolis MN, and contained all the bottles below.


The agreed upon trade was that I would be sending out a bottle of Firestone Walker Abacus and two bottles of Firestone Walker Parabola for a bottle of 50/50 Eclipse Imperial Stout aged in Evan Williams bourbon barrels, a growler of Minneapolis Town Hall Masala Mama IPA, and whatever cans of Surly he wanted to throw in to balance out the dollar value for each side. I ended up getting two cans of Surly Furious, an American IPA, and one each of  Hell (German lager) and Bender (American Brown Ale). In addition, Joe was kind enough to throw in Dark Horse Plead the 5th Imperial Stout, Central Water Bourbon Barrel Barleywine, and Summit Silver Anniversary Ale. I'll be touching on the Masala Mama again shortly, and I look forward to trying the rest of these beers.

My  other trade haul, from Jason in Lincolnwood, Illinois, saw me send out a Brooklyn Black Ops and a New England Brewing Company Imperial Stout Trooper for a Small Animal Big Machine collaboration sour ale from Half Acre and de Struise and a Behemoth Barleywine from Three Floyds Brewery.


Jason also sent me a bottle of Three Floyds Moloko milk stout and their Lord Admiral Nelson extra special bitter. Three Floyds is a very well regarded brewery whose beers have largely eluded  me, so it's pretty cool to have a couple waiting in the fridge.

Despite the many good beers now on hand, I decided to spend tonight focusing on my 64oz growler of Masala Mama.



Quite simply, it's the best American IPA I've ever had. There's just enough sweetness to balance everything, a potent burst of bitterness mid palate, and a metric ton of citrusy grapefruit and tropical fruit (think mango and pineapple) notes to close things out. As I said in my  BA review, it's almost as if Town Hall had a direct line into my brain in figuring out what the best hop schedule to please my taste buds would be. This is definitely a beer you'll see me trading for more of in the future.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

What's In My Glass: 8/16/11

Having myself a little mini Founders night tonight as I finish emptying  the fridge in anticipation of all the beer trades that should be starting to arrive tomorrow (I've got five boxes en route that hopefully will all be here by Monday or so. Expect posts and pictures). First up was Devil Dancer, a self billed triple IPA clocking in at 12%ABV and 112 IBUs (International Bittering Units, a measure of how bitter a beer is).



To a certain extent, once a beer crosses the double digit ABV mark and keeps going, calling it an IPA (albeit a double or triple version) becomes a bit of a misnomer. This big of a beer requires a ton of sugar present at the start of fermentation, and with the upper limits of attenuation and alcohol tolerance for most yeast strains, too much sweetness gets left behind. The resulting beer then is more in the vein of an aggressively hopped American Barleywine, with a robust malt backbone supporting the massive hopload, rather than being a more hop-centric beer like most IPAs are wont to be. Style quibbles aside, this one (like the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA from yesterday) is jam packed with flavor coming from every angle. There’s a ton of caramel malt sweetness laying a foundation while heavy notes of bitterness and resinous pine weave around a more than slight warming sensation from the alcohol. On a more typical IPA profile the bitterness would be palate shredding, but here it only just manages to balance the maltiness of the beer. It’s a good drinking experience, but one I can only do a bottle of at a time. It’s a yearly release from Founders, and I’ll dutifully pick up a bottle or two every year, but probably not more.

Next up was Blushing Monk a beer Founder brewed a few years ago, and recently brought back to kick off their new Backstage Series of 750mL bottle releases. It's a strong Belgian ale brewed with raspberries.



If the label didn't highlight the use of raspberries in the brewing process, it would be clearly evident just by pouring the beer. Hopefully the picture illustrates just how purple and pink the foam atop the beer is, totally unlike anything else I've seen. The nose is redolent of raspberries, and it's pungent, hitting me even as I'm pouring the beer. The flavor is just as raspberry-centric as the aroma suggests, and it really does get old after a few ounces. This is a beer that would be done a great favor if it was packaged in smaller bottles. I probably could have gotten through 12 ounces without the raspberry assault wearing me down too much, but at more than 25 ounces that definitely happened.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Brewventure: Eataly and Brooklyn Ghost Bottle Night

Apologies for the lack of pictures tonight, I arrived at my first stop in New York City and discovered my camera's battery was dead. After some last minute rearranging, my first stop was the rooftop brewpub, La Birreria, at Eataly NYC. I started off with Sofia, a house brewed witbier served on cask.  Cask isn't my preferred serving style for a wit, it enriches what should be a light body and takes the edge of what should be a fairly bubbly level of carbonation. That said, the addition of peppercorns lent a subtle heat on the back end of each sip that really gave this beer a unique twist. I followed that up with a small pour of Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA. At roughly 20%ABV is was massively sweet, hoppy, and boozy all at once. A small pour like this was really ideal, as I can guess that a full serving would have been a bit much for most palates.

After a brief journey, I arrived at The Diamond in Brooklyn. While Garrett Oliver and his team of brewers would pour several beers over the course of the night, I would also enjoy several on tap. First was Brooklyn Brown Ale on cask. The cask conditioning allowed bready and toasted nut notes to really shine through, but  also resulted in a beer that was served just a bit too warm to hit its sweet spot. Next was Radius, a very new beer that only made its debut at the brewery this past Friday. It's a tasty pale Belgian brew, plenty of pale malt crackers and lemon and black pepper for only a 4.8% beer. It's the kind of beer I'd kill to have a keg of for a party sometime this summer, it has appeal both to people who do and don't drink craft beer regularly. Next was a rare Sorachi Ace draft appearance (made even more rare by the fact that it was evidently accidentally filtered). This one tasted super fresh, and the lemon notes from the Sorachi Ace Hops really shone through. There was just enough sweetness and peppery yeast phenols to keep things lively. Finally, there was Brooklyn Blast,  a double IPA. This is one that I would love to see bottled, even if just to shut up all the west coast beer advocates who insist the best IPAs come from their home turf, because this one can hang with the best of them. Pungent citrusy grapefruit notes, with a touch of pine and a little bit of caramel sweetness laying a base for everything.

In addition to all that, Brooklyn was pouring several rare, unreleased beers. The first was a blend of their Local 1 aged on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir lees. The wines from which the lees were drawn were naturally fermented, and as a result this one had a definite brettanomyces wild funky presence. Beneath that were some acidic white wine and peppery Belgian phenol notes. Finally, there was a hint of bourbon (the beer was aged in used Black Ops barrels) present. The next beer was a similar riff on the same idea, this time Local 1 was aged exclusively on Riesling lees. For whatever reason the bourbon shone through much more intensely this time around, with white wine and Belgian strong pale ale flavors filling in the blank spaces. The next two "ghost bottle" beers would prove to be a radical departure from the first two. Cuvee Elijah is Brooklyn's Cuvee Noire, a strong Belgian black saison, aged in 12 year Elijah Craig bourbon barrels. The chocolaty flavor that was barely there in the base beer was emphasized by the notes of vanilla from the barrel aging, while the bourbon and dry peppery flavors came in on the back end. Last, but certainly not least, was a 2007 late bottling of Black Ops. Brooklyn has been selling their barrel aged imperial stout since winter 2008-2009, with the first production batch being given to employees and friends of the brewery in winter 2007-2008. While Black Ops is generally aged in barrels for four months, what was poured for us tonight was beer that rested in bourbon barrels from inception in 2007 until just twelve weeks ago. Upon texting a friend about what I was drinking, he replied "For 4 year old Black Ops, I'd miss my wedding." Having tasted the finished product, I don't think I could argue his sentiment. A velvety rich milk chocolate note, bolstered by a potent vanilla presence stole the show, with super smooth bourbon and oak flavors contributing as well. All in all Garrett Oliver and his team proved to be gracious hosts, perfectly willing to talk shop about what was being poured or just beer in general, and bringing some tasty suds to boot.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

What's In My Glass: 8/13/11

After almost a week off, I was back at it tonight. First up was Belvidere Big IPA from Rock Art brewery in Vermont.



It was a bit of a letdown, both as a double IPA and as my first beer in a week. There was a pretty intense bitterness mid palate, which isn't unusual for a big IPA, but there was no payoff this time in terms of hoppy flavor. Big bitter is OK as long as it's part of an absolute hop bomb, but this one kind of peters off from the bitter bite, without much in the way of hoppy flavors.  What is there seems to come primarily from Simcoe hops, which aren't my favorite hops per se. There's just something off about the tropical fruit flavor they tend to leave. In the end, I didn't even feel like finishing the bottle, it was that mediocre of an imperial IPA

Next up was Breckenridge 471 IPA, another double IPA from this month's haul from Amanti Vino (my local bottle shop) and their Beer of the Month club.



 This one was a bit better than the last one, and a pleasant surprise. Simcoe and Centennial were among the hops used, and they are two of my least favorite hop varietals. Together though, they seemed to cancel the negative aspects of each other out, there was no harsh edge to either Centennial's grapefruit nor Simcoe's tropical notes. I was a bit wary of Breckenridge after their lackluster Vanilla Porter, but this beer was much better.

Last up was the truly unique beer of the night, the collaboration Acer Quercus between The Bruery and Lawson's Finest Liquids.



This one is a big rye beer brewed with maplewood smoked malt and maple syrup. I wasn't sure about the beer at first, it seemed more of a novelty than anything else, but as it warmed it really came together. Smoky flavors dominated both in the nose and the taste, with maple and spicy rye notes playing supporting roles. Maple was more prominent in the nose, and rye in the flavor, but all in all I just ended up wishing that smoke was a little less dominant.

Aside from the false start with the first beer tonight, I cracked a couple good ones while I boxed up a couple trades I'm sending out this week. I'll be dark tomorrow due to work, but be back Monday night with a pretty cool trip into NYC planned.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Bottling: Kitchen Sink Saison

This afternoon my cousin and I bottled my most recent batch of homebrew, a saison. I'm calling this one "Kitchen Sink" saison because of the number of grains/fermentables  that went into it.  Saisons can have very simple grain bills, Saison Dupont for example (the golden standard of saisons), is supposedly brewed using 100% pilsner malt. This beer takes a bit more of a traditional, farmhouse approach, using pilsner, wheat, and rye malt, as well as some flaked oats and a little bit of sugar to help dry the beer out. The hops are a blend of Styrian Goldings, East Kent Goldings, and Saaz, right out of Phil Markowski's excellent Farmhouse Ales. I fermented this one with the Dupont yeast, taking advantage of the recent heat wave to get the temperature up at (and over) 90 degrees, which really kicks this strain into overdrive. Due to some losses, both in the boil kettle and the fermenter, I only ended up yielding about 3 gallons of beer, 34 bottles to be exact. The whole process took just over two hours from the beginning of set up to the end of clean up, and I'll crack the first bottle about a week from now to see how bottle conditioning is coming along.

Me (wearing my snazzy pink work gloves) siphoning the beer from the fermentation bucket to the bottling bucket, where a sugar solution is waiting to mix with the beer and serve as fuel for the yeast to naturally carbonate the beer

not the best view, but I'm siphoning the beer from the bottling bucket into empty bottles. There's a bottle wand at the end of the tubing that lets me control the flow of beer into the bottles

The other half of the assembly line, my cousin capping all the freshly filled bottles. Having a second person on hand makes the bottling process run much more smoothly

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Homebrewing

Homebrewing is something that's becoming more and more of a hobby for me, and is something that will hopefully one day move beyond just a hobby. The spectrum of homebrewers ranges from people basically making soup, adding in prepackaged powders and hops, to those who grow their own hops, crush their own malted barley, brew with these ingredients on thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and sometimes tuck their beers away for a year or more before even bottling (or kegging) them. Many started back in the 80s out of necessity, there was no more reliable way to get better beer. Despite the craft beer resurgence we're now in, many continue as a first step towards a career in brewing, as a creative outlet, or just to see if they can make beer as good as the guys with millions of dollars of equipment.

As you'll no doubt hear on any brewery tour, the four basic building blocks of beer are malted barley, hops, water, and yeast. The malted barley will ultimately give the beer its color and, more importantly, provide sugars. Some of these sugars will end up food for the yeast later on, while others will remain behind to give the beer its sweetness and body. Hops are added to provide bitterness, which balances out the sweetness from the malt, and also provide certain citrusy, flowery, or herbal flavors and aromas. The chemical makeup of the water used for brewing can impact how the flavors from the malt and hops shine through in the beer, depending on the levels of certain minerals and salts. Some homebrewers go so far as to obtain water reports and treat their brewing water with salts to alter the profile of the water to better accent the particular beer in question. Finally, yeast is what actually gives us beer. At a minimum, yeast consumes sugars from the malt and produces alcohol (hooray!) and carbon dioxide. Depending on the specific yeast strain used, not to mention the temperature fermentation takes place at, esters and phenols produced by the yeast may be a minor, or major contributor to the beer's flavor profile as well. From here countless other ingredients (other sugar sources, spices, etc) can be added to further tweak the final product, but the groundwork is laid with these four ingredients

The first step in any successful homebrew is a recipe. Some homebrewers prefer to leave this to others. There are many books with tried and true homebrewing recipes, as well as recipe kits offered by most homebrew supply shops, not to mention recipes posted in online homebrewing forums. Others (myself included) prefer recipes of their own creation. Ingredients may be pulled together to brew something approximating a commercial beer, or fit within an accepted style, or they may be combined to make something truly unique (I recently came across someone working on a recipe for a stout brewed with vanilla and basil). Garrett Oliver (brewmaster at the Brooklyn Brewery) has often said that brewers are more akin to chefs than vintners or distillers, and it is in the formulation of recipes that one sees the truth in that.

Once a recipe is in hand, it's time to actually brew the thing. Brew day for me usually entails a solid 4+ hours from first setting up equipment to finishing clean up. The basic process begins with what's called the mash. The malted barley and other grains are crushed (some crush their own, others buy them pre-crushed from the homebrew supply store) and soaked in water at a specific temperature (usually between about 144 and 158 degrees) for a length of time (usually about an hour). This allows enzymes to convert the starches present in the grain into sugars. The specific temperature determines what kinds of sugars are produced (specifically, how much of the resulting sugars are able to be consumed by yeast). Next is lautering, where the sugar rich liquid (now called wort) is separated from the spent grain. The wort is then brought to a boil, and hops are added. The boil typically lasts from 60 to 90 minutes, and hops added at the beginning stages of the boil contribute a beer's bitterness, while those added later on will contribute aroma and/or flavor. After the boil the wort is chilled as quickly as possible to a safe temperature to pitch the yeast. At this point, once the wort has been moved from the boil kettle to a fermentation vessel and the yeast has been added, work is done for the day.

It is over the coming weeks and months that we actually get beer, as the yeast ferments the sugar present in the wort. Some beginner guides may have you bottling in a week or so, but the more commonly accepted practice is to wait closer to three or so weeks. In reality though, we're at the mercy of the yeast, and no matter what must wait for fermentation to finish before anything is bottled. If a beer is bottled and capped mid fermentation, the carbon dioxide produced from post bottling fermentation will likely build up until it reaches a breaking point and the bottle literally explodes. That said, brewers may wait longer than that, whether it be to let a big beer mellow out a bit, or to add more hops (called dry hopping) or spices or other additives. Eventually though it's time for bottling, and the beer is mixed with a precise amount of sugar (usually table sugar for simplicity) right before going into the bottle. This extra bit of sugar will be fermented over the next week or so and produce hopefully just the right amount of CO2 to properly carbonate the beer. Finally, usually 4-6 weeks after brew day, it's time to enjoy the fruit of one's labors.

I'll be documenting all of my homebrewing adventures here, my first "hands-on" post should be up after bottling a recently brewed saison on Saturday

Aging Beer

Probably the first thing I started doing besides just drinking beer, was hording some away in the cellar to be aged. While  fresh is better for many beers, there are plenty that, like some wines, can be aged for years. Not just any beer can be tucked away for a while and emerge a great beer though, there are certain criteria or guidelines for whether age can be a friend to a beer.

First off, with a couple exceptions, any beer that's a candidate to be cellared should have a fairly high alcohol content. This higher ABV signals that more ingredients (more malt, more hops etc) were used and the resulting beer has enough flavor to stand up to extended aging and oxidation. Some light oxidized notes (often imparting a sherry-like flavor) can add to the depth and complexity of a vintage beer, but they will often quickly overrun a typical lower ABV beer. Now, during the aging process, a few things tend to happen. Firstly, any harsh boozy notes will usually fade over time, and what may have been a very rough beer young will smooth out. Malty, sweet flavors will tend to become more pronounced and well integrated. Hoppy flavors, and eventually some bitterness will fade. Finally, flavors from additives such as coffee or spices will lose prominence. The result is that beers such as imperial stouts and porters, and barleywines, wheatwines, and old ales are all ideal candidates to be squirreled away for a while. The only big beers that don't really benefit from aging are imperial IPAs. They tend to be so one dimensionally hoppy that when the hops fade over time, there's not much left to keep the beer interesting. The aforementioned exceptions to the high alcohol guideline are wild and sour ales. Despite sometimes being down as low as around 5%ABV, these beers  have some legs to them. The unusual microbes that give these beers their trademark funky and/or sour characteristics are extremely slow working, and given extra years to do their thing, they can produce some of the most complex and flavorful beers around.

One common activity craft beer fans who cellar brews do is assemble multiple vintages of the same beer, and then drink them side by side to see the effects of aging.  This is called building a "vertical" of a given beer. Beers such as Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout and Sierra Nevada Bigfoot are frequently tucked away every winter until a vertical is assembled and opened for a tasting (I've seen verticals that had up to 10 or more years of the same beer).

The oldest beer I've ever had was a bottle of JW Lees Harvest Ale from 1988 as part of a special event at Lord Hobo in Cambridge MA during Boston Beer Week 2010. Runners up are the kegs of Bigfoot from 1994 and 1996 that Sierra Nevada brought to Extreme Beer Fest 2010 and 2011 respectively. I've never had the JW Lees beer fresh, but the Sierra Nevada vintages tasted miles apart from fresh Bigfoot. Totally different (and in my mind, even tastier) beer with the age on it. I've been working on building a solid cellar for about a year and a half now, and here's a semi-recent snapshot of what I've managed to pull together so far


I keep a spreadsheet to track everything that's in the cellar (~200 bottles right now), but a couple months of trading and drinking from it tends to get everything uncoordinated, so I pull everything out of hiding to get an updated count. Ideal cellaring conditions are a temperature of about 55 degrees and darkness. My basement doesn't get quite that cold, but the temperature is stable (which is important), and with the help of a little cardboard, I keep everything light free. I tend to not drink too much from the cellar yet, I'm still more in the process of figuring out which beers I really like and want to buy extras of, and then actually getting a few bottles of them. In future years though, I look forward to being able to pull out vintage brews to drink (and hopefully write about here) on a whim.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Beer Trading

Hello all, and sorry for the radio silence the last few days. It's been a combination of a little too much beer while on vacation and not any the last few days (and the next few) as I give myself a little post-vacation detox. I figured I'd take this week to just give a brief look at some of the stuff I do within craft beer outside of just drinking  it, and I'll start tonight with trading beer. Just like comic books and baseball cards, craft beer can be (and often is) traded. This can range from two people in different areas of the country agreeing on a dollar value that each will spend and shipping a box full of interesting local beer to each other, all the way to finely specified swaps of sets of beers that would sell on ebay for hundred and hundreds of dollars. A good number of beer trades are set up through dedicated trading communities on Beer Advocate (where I do my trading) and Rate Beer. Typically, it all begins with someone posting what's called an ISO/FT (or In Search Of/For Trade) where they specify what beers they are willing to offer up for trade, and what brews they'd be interested in a receiving in return. Other people interested in the parameters of the proposed trade will start exchanging messages until one (or more) trades are agreed upon. Shipping is usually done via UPS or FedEx because will shipping alcohol through USPS is technically illegal, it's only against the terms of service for private couriers (and rarely enforced at that). Often times traders will throw in "extras", which are exactly what they sound like, bottles beyond the agreed upon trade as a nice little bonus/surprise. Extras are usually local, easy to get beers, but it's not unheard of for traders to throw in more rare or expensive beers as extras on occasion. Personally, I tend to send out 2-4 bottles as extras, depending on how many are 12oz vs bigger bottles and what the beers are. However, if someone is doing me a solid, by say sending me a more obscure/hard to get beer than I'm mailing out in return, I'll add a little to my extras as a way of saying thanks. After that, it's down to just waiting for the package to arrive in the mail. Getting a trade box in the mail is usually a highlight of my day, or even week; I feel like a kid on Christmas morning every time. Going forward I'll be talking about various trades I make and posting pictures of my hauls. Expect a bunch of those posts in a couple weeks as tonight's blogging inspired me to go and set up about four more trades.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

What's In My Glass: 8/5/11

Apologies for not posting an entry yesterday, after the veritable beer fest that broke out Wednesday night I decided to change things up and stick with wine last night. The first beer from tonight I'd like to talk about is Unibroue's La Fin du Monde.

This is a beer that I've known for a long time has a great reputation (as does Unibroue in general), and is pretty easy to find as far as craft beer availability goes. I guess it's relatively ubiquitous nature never made it "exciting" enough to try, but I'm glad I finally got around to picking up a bottle of this one. It's one of the best examples of a tripel I've ever had. The aroma and flavor are both chock full of sweet  pale fruits (think apples and pears) and some light pepper and clove notes from the yeast. There's also a subtle warming sensation from the alcohol.  One of the hallmarks of a world class Belgian beer is an out of this world mouthfeel that combines a relatively dry bodied beer with a relatively bubbly carbonation. It's hard to brew something like that right, and it's the one place where I think La Fin du Monde misses just a little bit. I don't know whether the body comes across as just too heavy, or the carbonation doesn't have quite enough kick, but it's the only real chink in this beer's armor. I drank it on its own tonight, but in my mind this is a great food beer to go with something like chicken.

Beer number two tonight is one that I was very much looking forward to, only to be a bit let down, Breckenridge Vanilla Porter.
I'm a big fan of dark, roasty beers like porters and stouts in general, and adding vanilla usually just turns things up a notch. Aside from the vanilla being a great flavor on its own, it also usually helps highlight any chocolaty flavors to be found in the beer in question. This one though was just lackluster in every sense of the word. The vanilla was there, but tasted like it came from some cheap vanilla extract rather than the imported vanilla beans that were actually used. In addition the only other flavor really present is one of toasted nuts that would be welcome in an English brown ale, but is a bit out of place in a porter taking the place of notes of coffee and/or dark chocolate. Just about the only thing this one has going for it is an impressively rich and full body for only being 4.7%ABV. This was my first beer from Breckenridge, and I won't be in a rush to try another.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

What's In My Glass: 8/3/11

The first beer from today's drinking escapades I want to highlight is Dogfish Head Sah'tea.


It's a beer that defies classification, and is really just out there on its own.  It's brewed with rye malt and  a traditional German weizen yeast, and further utilizes juniper berries and chai tea in the brewing process. It may sound like a lot of different things going on, but every piece manages to fall in and work well for the beer. The juniper berries and banana notes from the yeast strain give the brew a fruitiness that serves as the base for what's to come. The rye malt lends a spicy note, and there's some clove phenols from the yeast, and both serve to highlight the peppery, herbal notes from the chai tea. To the casual drinker, Sah'tea is probably as far away as you can get from what you might consider a "normal taste" when it comes to beer, but Dogfish finds a way to make it work.

The other beer that cought my attention tonight was Rochefort 8.


Like the Westmalle bers I had a few nights ago, this one is brewed by monks in Belgium. While I usually like to have a beer with dinner, this is one of the more deliberate pairings I've done in a while. The Rochefort 8 is a strong, dark Belgian beer. There are big notes of fig and plum, along with an almost sugary sweetness. That's all balanced by some spicy yeast phenols, and a slight warming from the not-insignificant alcohol content.  The intense fruitiness wraps itself around each rib and almost acts like a sauce slathered on to enhance the  meat's flavor. The more peppery side of the beer serves to keep things interesting and really elevate the meal to a new level. Ultimately this is a pairing (in style, if not in specific beer) that I'll be happy to revisit in the future.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

What's In My Glass: 8/2/11

Tonight's entry is going to be cut a little bit short by the glass of apple pie moonshine that's sitting in front of me. After a couple beers earlier in the evening, I settled in with a glass of New Holland Dragon's Milk. It's a 10% imperial stout that's aged in oak barrels. Now barrel aging is hardly an uncommon occurrence in the American craft beer scene, but usually it's done in barrels that have already held another type of alcohol. Whiskey and bourbon are by far the most common, but I've seen beers aged in everything from scotch and tequila to rum and red wine. While the barrel aging did add some positive, notably a vanilla sweetness that complemented the dark chocolate flavors from the roasted malts, it also added an overbearing woody oak flavor. I could close my eyes and almost imagine a piece of bark from an oak tree floating in my glass. Dragon's Milk isn't a terrible beer, but there are many better stouts out there, both regular and barrel aged

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

What's In My Glass: 8/1/11

Beer related activities got an early start today, as I went with my uncle to Chip's,the bottle shop down here in the Outer Banks this afternoon. We went just to restock after last night’s shenanigans, only to discover they now have a tasting room with six beers on tap. It didn’t take much convincing for us each to order a flight of all six beers. We got samples of Dogfish Head Namaste (witbier brewed with lemongrass), Dogfish Head Sah’tea (brewed with chai tea and juniper berries), Ommegang BPA (Belgian Pale Ale), Terrapin Rye Pale Ale, Avery Maharaja double IPA, and Left Hand Milk Stout.  The beers were uniformly very good, with none particularly standing out. The picture below should illustrate why it took us an extra minute or two to decide on our purchases afterwards...



Later on in the afternoon it was time for beers in the hot tub, as I ended up splitting a bottle of Namaste with my aunt and uncle and having a bottle of Brooklyn Brewery’s Summer Ale to myself. A couple of really easy drinking, tasty beers to enjoy while I was unwinding.

While dinner was cooking I had a Paulaner Hefe Weisse, which was a bit average to me. This one was well within its freshness date (January 2012), but still had a bit too much caramel sweetness to it. I’ve yet to find anything that really lives up to Weihenstephan or Schneider’s renditions of the classic German style.

I switched up to wine with dinner, because as much as I love beer, it's hard to say no to a nice cabernet with a steak dinner. Afterwards though, it was all about Bell's Porter, another beer that would have gone well with that steak. It had a typical coffee flavor, as well as a roasty flavor that at times became a little too acrid. There was also a certain sweetness that reminded me of a milk stout (a stout with lactose added to sweeten up the beer and fill out its body). All in all it's a beer I would probably come back to on occasion if Bell's was available in NJ

Monday, August 1, 2011

What's In My Glass: 7/31/11

Tonight was the first night of family vacation, which means it's going to be a long entry. There's a phenomenal beer store a couple miles from the house we rent, and I made sure to hit it up before they closed tonight. I put together two mixed six packs, which between my and my uncle have been totally killed tonight. I started off with a Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse as something light to drink before dinner. It turned out to be one of the worse beers I've had in a while. This is a brewery that doesn't date their bottles at all, or provide a "best by" date, and they're happy to ship their stuff out on transatlantic trips in inferior green bottles, so maintaining product quality clearly isn't a top priority. The traditional banana and clove notes from the yeast were way faded (even more so than the Kellerweis from last night), so I'm assuming it was an old bottle, but I have no way of knowing. There was an unusually large amount of caramel sweetness, which I don't necessarily mind in my beers, but it's not something I look for in a hefeweizen. There was also a faint smell/taste of skunky beer, thanks to the green bottles. All in all Franziskaner is probably the worst hefeweizen I've ever had, and one I doubtful to ever try again.

Beer #2 on the evening was Duck Rabbit's Amber Ale. This is a brewery I always look forward to trying when I come down to North Carolina. They bill themselves as the "dark beer specialists", and eschew the norm a bit by forgoing any kind of pale ale or light colored beer, and stick with darker, traditionally maltier beers. Their amber ale is just such a beer, as many breweries use the style as an excuse to make a slightly darker beer than a pale ale, but still hop it to hell. This one stays true to its malty base, and has prominent biscuity and caramel notes. It's not one of the best beers I've had lately, but it's a solid one that I'd come back to again.

Next up was Westmalle Dubbel. A Belgian abbey ale brewed by a trappist monastery, the trappist beers tend to be high in quality so I was looking forward to this one. Belgian abbey ales are, to me, some of the most artfully crafted beers out there. They manage to have both a dry finish, and a fruity, sweet base for the aroma/flavor, and balance that all with some spicier phenolic notes thrown off by the yeast. Westmalle's Dubbel though finished just a touch too dry for me, and bordered on becoming a spicy mess. It still wasn't a terrible drinking experience, but it's still not a beer that I'd reach for over a Chimay Red, or Ommegang Abbey Ale.

Last up (at least as far as beers that I could really appreciate) was the other Westmalle brew, their tripel. While the best of the style have a similar idea of balance as a dubbel, this pale beer tends to favor fruity flavors such as apples and pears, rather than plums, figs and raisins. This one was a bit better balanced than its younger brother, it had a fairly prominent fruity base, but it still had a bit of an aggressive yeasty profile. Still though, something like this, or a beer like La Fin Du Monde would be killer to serve instead of some white wine. While the tripel wasn't my last beer of the night, it was the last one I could enjoy enough to really focus on and dissect. I'm sure be back tomorrow night with a whole new set of beers!