Beer Group December Tasting (#6): Christmas/Winter Brews

Last night was our December beer group tasting. Since it is nearing Christmas and winter is underway, it made sense to make this a Christmas/Winter brew tasting.

Here's what we tasted and some notes about each brew:
1) Spaten Munchen Dunkel (Munich Dark Lager) - OK, disclaimer we threw in a couple extra brews that were sitting around to fill out the evening. This dark colored lager has a sweet aroma, notes of oats, cereal, toast, tastes sugary, almost like an artificial sweetener with a sticky sweet aftertaste, the color is ruby/brown and it has a very light mouthfeel. This was not my favorite and I actually didn't finish my sample (a first!). 5.1% ABV, more here.
2) Bell's Winter White Ale (Witbier) - I'm pretty sure this is a brew that Kalamazoo Brewing Co. used to make before Bell's bought them up. I took a trip out to Kalamazoo in 2007 and stopped for lunch at a Kalamazoo brewpub and had their White Winter Ale. Unfortunately I don't remember what it tasted like and didn't know much about beer styles back then. Anyway, this has notes of banana, warm lemon, almost dank, but has a surprisingly light taste, spicy, clove, citrus, super drinkable and refreshing with a light mouthfeel, sweet overall, and a hazy straw color. 5% ABV, more here.
3) Spoetzl Shiner Holiday Cheer (Dunkelweizen) - smelled awesome like peach candy gummies, taste left us hanging, was flat (yes I know it was Krausened but it just didn't have much life), sugary, some honey, slight tartness that was good but not enough to balance, overall sweet with some pecan notes (not roasted), but mostly of concentrate juice, it had good legs and was smooth. 5.4% ABV, more here.
4) Anchor Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2014 (Winter Warmer) - 40th Anniversary of the Christmas Ale for Anchor, pretty much the original craft brewery in the U.S. Their Christmas ale changes every year. This one has a scent of pine, nutmeg, cinnamon, cereal, tasted of tart fruit, pumpkin/yam (maybe because of the spices that are particular to pumpkin beers), plum, vanilla, lemon, bitter aftertaste, touch too much carbonation, dark brown color and I think we drank this one too warm. I might have liked it better.5.5% ABV, more here.
5) Harpoon IPA - Another non-Christmas beer we threw in. Very floral, some pine, caramel malts, light berries like strawberry and raspberry, menthol and mint, herbal notes, white head with golden/amber color, light mouthfeel that falls off abruptly after hitting all the right notes, but the lightly bitter end just kills the experience for me with this IPA. 5.9% ABV, more here.
6) Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale: Fresh Hop IPA (American IPA) - Not super aromatic, this is a wet fresh hop IPA, spice, citrus, grapefruit maybe just because of the bitterness, herbal, sugary as most IPA's have sugar added, dark amber, thick off-white head with thin legs and a bitter linger. Enjoyed this over the Harpoon. 6.8% ABV, more here.
7) Goose Island Festivity Ale (Brown Ale) - Another brew that changes year to year, by name as well. Malty, caramel notes, alcohol is present but acceptable, cherry, not much aroma, nutty, a light brown foam and mahogany color, also has a hoppy background at 50 IBU. 7.7% ABV, more here.

The winner here is a difficult one, because none of these stood out too much to me as head over heels above the others. I will give joint honors to Bell's Winter White Ale and Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.

Hockey and Brews...What Else do You Need?

The other night I got to see the Adirondack Flames (AHL affiliate to Calgary Flames) and the Rochester Amerks at the Glens Falls Civic Center, Glens Falls, NY. Me being from Rochester, I was the minority routing for the Amerks who fell 2-1 after a well fought battle, including Makarov the Amerks goalie making 45 saves--some exceptional saves as well! During the game, Davidson Brothers, a brewing company I have come to love in Glens Falls, had a couple brews on tap. So, I tried their Winter Ale, which was delicious and a perfect rich malty winter warmer. After the game my brother-in-law Brad and his father, Rich, and I went to Davidson Brothers and I had their Ample Sampler--six 6 ounce beers. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite English style breweries. Davidson Brothers I believe worked up in Shipyard with Alan Pugsley, so they've learned a thing or two and I wouldn't be surprised if they use Shipyard's proprietary yeast as there are similar underlying flavor profiles between the two.

Here's notes on what I tasted:
1) Winter Ale - Robust, lots of chocolate and roasted coffee malt notes, some bittering hops, plus carbonated, toffee, butterscotch, reminiscent of a dry Irish stout style. 5.9% ABV.
2) Brown Ale (on cask) - Same as they have normally in bottles but this was cask conditioned, smooth, malty, on the sweet side with plenty of maltiness, beautiful foamy creamy head and light brown legs that stuck to the entire glass. 4.3% ABV. More here.
3) Irish Red Ale - Crisp, light legs, a semi-scotch like flavor, very session-able and simply flavorful. 5.0% ABV. More here.
4) IPA - More aromatic hops than bittering, floral and citrus flavors, melon, honey, sugar, session-able. 5.9% ABV. More here.
5) Dacker Authentic Adirondack Ale - Malty, sweet, aromatic hops of citrus and pine, thick mouthfeel, lingering maltiness, a scotch like ale that has been brewed in the Adirondacks for generations. 6.2% ABV. More here.
6) Double ESB -Sweet, citrus, lemon, lemonheads, smooth, some alcohol in the back of the taste, syrupy thick mouthfeel, rich, malt balanced just slightly. 7.7% ABV.
7) Scotch Ale - Don't know why but this my 2nd time having this beer I got loads of tart cherry/strawberry/melon notes, malty and smooth, alcohol is noticeable but not offensive. 8.3% ABV. More here.

Favorite on the night: Scotch Ale. Dominates in flavor and richness, even though I loved every other beer I tried. Davidson Brothers is awesome.

Beer Group November Tasting (#5)

Not a great turnout this time around, but my brother, wife and I managed to make a short evening of it nevertheless. Only a couple of beers to preview this time around:

Tasting notes:
1) Greene King The King's English IPA - I found this best at a slightly warmer than colder temperature, nutty caramel, some bitter like an ESB, grassy/hay hops if you nose carefully, apple cider notes and a slight skunk (imported from UK through CA means probably too much travel time). 6% ABV (their website says 3.1%?), more here.
2) Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan Weihenstephaner Korbinian - (Doppelbock) a wonderfully slight smokiness, lies on the malt balanced side, figs, plum, peanuts, hints of chocolate, roasty light coffee, toffee slightly burnt, dark fruit, medium light mouthfeel. 7.4% ABV. More here.
3) Troegs Hop Knife - (Harvest Ale) Mango nose, tropical fruit, a pervading resin/pine character, medium bitterness, peach/apricot, great white legs, pale gold color, reminds me of Heady Topper but a light version that doesn't just give you waves of hops. 6.2% ABV, more here.

Best beer of the night: Wiehenstephaner Korbinian, due to it's Monk's Blood like qualities, and exceptional level of smokiness (not too much or too little, perfect).

My Good Friend Matt and I Do Some Tasting

With summer weather winding down and Fall already here, it's no surprise that the beers we went for on our day of adventuring to the local homebrew shop and a new beer store in town were Oktoberfest, Pumpkin and IPAs. Actually that's somewhat of a surprise for my friend, who is a huge Hefeweizen fan.

First stop, The Owl House. Check out their restaurant website here. Love that place and their selection is always changing and awesome.
We both got 5 samplers each and a sip of another, I don't have notes on what Matt tried, but here are mine:
1) Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale - Very roasty nose, pumpkin, cinnamon, had only a taste but liked it very much. 5.9% ABV, more here.
2) Brouwerij De Babendere Bavik Premium Pils - Honey nose, crisp, spicy hops, breadiness, touch of champagne, supposedly Belgium's best Pilsner by award and one of the hold outs to the mighty Labbat company that goes around buying up Belgium breweries and closing them. 5.2% ABV, more here.
3) Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck Kasteel Inglemunster Pumpkin - Pumpkin, roasty, sweet yam, overpowering pumpkin sweetness actually, warming, pumpkin pie or cassarole, dry. 8.5% ABV, their website here.
4) Bell's Best Brown Ale - Strawberry, cranberry, malty sweetness wins over the bitter, brown amber color. 5.8% ABV, more here.
5) Dark Horse Single Hop Series: Falconer's Flight - apparently this is a single hop variety of thier Crooked Tree IPA and may be referred to as FF Dekoorc Eert (from what I have seen on BeerPulse, here), aromatic, pungent hop taste, mango, grassy, piney, tropical fruit, a lot going on for 1 hop variety. 5.9? ABV or IBU, Dark Horse's list of beers here.
6) Stone/Heretic/Beechwood (Collaboration) Unapologetic IPA - Honey, alcohol, pine, syrupy smooth, lemon, slight haze, drippy legs. 8.8% ABV, tons of details here.

Second Stop, AJ's Beer Warehouse and then my place. Here's what we tried:

1) Ninkasi Oktoberfest Festbier Lager - A little orange, citrus hops, lingering sweet bitterness, sugar, carbonation was high, lemon. 5.9% ABV, more here.
2) Rogue Farms Pumpkin Patch Ale - Pumpkin, cardamom, smooth, slightly hoppy finish, spicy, semi-dry, nitro pour?, low to no carbonation, nice legs/head retention, dark amber color. 6.1% ABV, more here.
3) Shipyard Pugsley Signature Series: Smashed Pumpkin - pumpkin, honey, semi-sweet, acidic, good head retention, clove?, balanced, hides the alcohol really well. 9% ABV, more here.
4) Elysian Space Dust IPA - Lasting mouthfeel, spicy, nice lacy legs, a good bitterness, gritty?, grainy?, grapefruit, melon, lime, tropical fruit, floral aroma is slight. 7.2% ABV, more here.
5) Shipyard Puglsey Signature Series: XXXX IPA - high alcohol present but acceptable, thick legs, citrus, grapfruit, some pine, full mouthfeel, golden dark color with good head. 9.25% ABV, more here.
6) Atlantic Brewing Co. Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale - my favorite blueberry ale, it is a beer first, with hoppiness present, blueberry is tart yet sweet, malty backbone, citrus and peel, nothing else like Maine blueberries and the aroma they impart. 5.1% ABV, more here.

Best of the day: tie between Elysian Space Dust IPA and the Dark Horse Falconer's Flight Single Hop IPA, I was surprised by both and enjoyed them immensely.

Two New Beer Books in My Collection

I have recently acquired two new beer books and am very happy with both.

The first, The Brewers Apprentice, by Greg Koch & Matt Allyn, is an excellent resource for brewing general styles and specific aspects of brewing. Each chapter incorporates an interview with a highly respected brewer who's at the top of their game regarding the aspect the chapter is about, whether it be hops, aroma hops, malt, IPA's, Belgians, etc... There are questions  about how someone came to be a brewer and what drew them to a particular style as well. If I was to try a new style, there are great tips in each chapter from water to yeast to fermentation techniques.

The second, Boutique Beer: 500 Quality Craft Beers, by Ben McFarland, is perhaps the best collection of awesome beers in one place that I've yet seen. There are books like 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die! (Adrian Tierney-Jones, ed.), The Beer Book (Tim Hampson), World Beer (Tim Hampson), 300 Beers to Try Before You Die! (Roger Protz) and 300 More Beers to Try Before You Die! (Roger Protz) that list a ton of different beers, but none talk about the beer in such a way I think. I say I think because I've only skimmed the two Tim Hampson books, both of which are great in their own way, but they do not offer as many unique beers and tend to cover the mainstream craft scene. There are also great highlights about specific breweries all over the world. I'm still reading through this and it is super enjoyable and gives wonderful brews to chase after, even if some of them probably never make it over to the States.

My next book conquest is between two different books: The Beer Book, by Tim Hampson, or Home Brew Beyond the Basics, by Mike Karnowski. The former is more of a novelty item with over 1700 beers to ogle from all over the world. The latter is probably the best manual type guide to homebrewing with tons of pictures and helpful information.

Homebrew #2: IPA - Pliny the Toddler (sort of)

It's been over a month since I last brewed my second homebrew. This time I chose a recipe from the American Homebrew Association website, one that was originally printed in the Zymurgy magazine. Here's a link to the recipe. Pliny the Toddler is a clone of sorts, a sessionable clone of Pliny the Elder by Russian River Brewing, CA. My brother loves IPA's and this seemed a logical choice, to involve him in the brewing process, split the resulting batch and brew a nice IPA.

I did deviate from the recipe a bit. If you notice, using the extract substitution (because I only have a 5 gallon brew kettle) the recipe calls for 5.6 lbs of pale liquid malt. The homebrew store only carries 3.3 lbs cans. The original recipe calls for some pale malt and some maris otter, so I bought two 3.3 lbs cans, one of pale malt and one of maris otter (contains at least 60% maris otter). When I brewed I just added it all. 5.6 lbs became 6.6 lbs. Also, to try and balance this, I added 1 oz. of each hop variety instead of .75 oz.

The result: A rounded malt balanced IPA, slightly grainy mouthfeel, with an excellent aroma and late bitterness. The hop aroma of mango, grass, floral, citrus, pine and spice dissipates somewhat quickly but it is beautiful. In retrospect, the Warrior hop addition at Warrior hops of 15.7 alpha acids (Centennial 9.0 a.a. and Columbus 15.2 a.a. should have made up for something though!) could have been more. I also omitted the gypsum, which would probably accentuate the hop even more and dry the beer out a bit. I also do not know what ABV it ended up as, because according to my hydrometer reading (which I'm thinking is not accurate) it started at an original gravity of 1.037 to 1.038 instead of 1.048 like it should--and I even added more malt! Somehow I did not manage to get an accurate reading or my efficiency was very low. Final gravity before bottling was 1.010 to 1.008 (if accurate).

If you're using the Untappd app, look for my version of Pliny the Toddler under the homebrew name of Shew Brew.

Beer Group October Tasting (#4): Oktoberfest/Pumpkin Brews...Our Biggest Group Yet!

We had our October tasting last night and it was a smashing success! There were 11 different beers and yet only nine people showed. Some of the beers we didn't get a huge sample of, but that was alright as we tried them first and they were the weaker beers in most everyone's opinion anyway.

The guidelines for this month were to bring only Pumpkin or Oktoberfest Beers. I was a tad worried that only Pumpkin beers would make any sort of worthwhile representation, but it was fairly split down the middle as you will see and both styles made fairly good showings.

Here's notes on what we tried:

1) Brauerei Beck's Oktoberfest - the lightest beer of the night, very little aroma, a light hop bitterness at the tail, a tad skunky, I didn't check the bottle to see if this was brewed in the US or exported, but I think the lightness of the bottle contributed to this, a slight apple flavor, and a touch of alcohol, amber color. 5% ABV.

2) Harpoon Octoberfest - Nice malt aroma, apple again, sicky sweet almost, semi-dry, grayish-white foamy legs, lager malt aroma comes out more as the nose acclimates to the aroma. 5.3% ABV. More here.

3) Dundee Oktoberfest - Sweet, but more like a lager (without much other flavor adding to the lager taste), little aroma, tiny prickles of hops on the tongue in the aftertaste, watery legs, thick mouthfeel, alcohol was a little too much (as I've encountered with other Dundee Ales). 5.5% ABV. More here.

4) Yuengling Oktoberfest - Roast turkey, honey, less sweet than some of the previous beers, but with a definite residual sugariness (which incidentally is not very appropriate for the style), a touch of apple, dark amber color with a decent mouthfeel. 5.4% ABV.
5) Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale - A very interesting beer, tasted like a cinnamon fireball or big red bubble gum, pumpkin spice, nutmeg, a good head, apple cider, drinkable, smooth, golden color, soft mouthfeel. 4.5% ABV. More here.
6) Harpoon UFO Pumpkin - wonderful pumpkin nose, ginger shines through with aroma and spice, cinnamon, hazy dark gold, medium full mouthfeel, creamy and semi-dry. This would be a go to session pumpkin beer for me. 5.9% ABV. More here.
7) Firestone Walker OAKtoberfest - Not much aroma, some bitterness, vanilla, smooth then bitey, thick legs, semi-dry, clear dark straw color and I think a better example of a genuine Oktoberfest style than the others. 5% ABV. More here.
8) Samuel Adams Fat Jack Double Pumpkin - Ginger, maple, yams, toffee, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cough syrup mouthfeel (and taste if you think about it), red Amber color, nice head, smokiness, full mouthfeel, a definite flavor explosion. Perhaps my favorite pumpkin ale. 8.5% ABV. More here.
9) Southern Tier Warlock - Milk, almonds, chocolate, nutmeg, cereal, stale milk and cereal, ginger?, roasty, creamy like cream cheese (goes well with carrot cake apparently), semi-light mouthfeel, semi-dry. 8.6% ABV. More here.
10) Dogfish Head Punkin Ale - Not a huge aroma, pumpkin flavor throughout, carbonation level is high, spices, gold color, hazy, dry, grapes or yeast or champagne notes, medium mouthfeel. 7% ABV. More here.
11) Southern Tier Imperial Pumking - Milk again, cereal, stale, vanilla, sweeter than the Warlock, nutmeg, cinnamon, pecans, copper color, particulate. Weird how both Southern Tier's give me that milky cereal aroma, I almost wonder if that is because the beer was off or something? Anyone have a similar experience? 8.6% ABV. More here.

Favorite of the night; actually I'll give two, one Oktoberfest and one pumpkin.
Oktoberfest - Firestone Walker OAKtoberfest! Clean and true to the style.
Pumpkin - Sam Adams Fat Jack Double Pumpkin! Complex and a huge burst of immediate flavor.

He Said and the Search for AJ's Beer Warehouse

I was looking on 21st Amendment's website, here, the other day and saw this beauty of a beer, He Said. It is a collaboration with Elysian Brewing and each 4-pack contains two different beers, a Baltic style Porter and a Belgian Tripel. Interestingly enough, they are both brewed with pumpkin as well, plus some other added ingredients. So, using their "Find Some" search feature at the top of their page I looked up where they distribute. Lo and behold, AJ's Beer Warehouse (their website here), in Henrietta has He Said! I'd never heard of AJ's before but knew where about it is located.  It is actually almost right across from Sunset Hydroponics and Homebrewing, which is another great store and where I got ingredients for an IPA I homebrewed, which I'm sure I'll write about soon because it's almost done bottle conditioning. Anyway, AJ's has a stellar selection of beers, 80% of which are kept in walk in fridge units. The remaining 20 percent they are currently building a fridge unit for as well. They also have a dedicated section to NYS breweries and a whole bunch of draft lines with NYS beers as well. I was impressed.

Here's some notes about both beers in the order I drank them:
1) He Said (Belgian Tripel) - This is brewed with Galangal and Tarragon. Galangal is Thai ginger variety. I was really surprised by these ingredients in a Belgian beer, but they worked together beautifully. The tarragon I usually think is sour, but not in this. There was a subtle sweetness about this beer. It had a fantastic pumpkin aroma, especially in the olfactory, it was creamy, marshmellowy, the malty pumpkin hit your palate later, it's color was light golden amber and presented delicate legs. I really enjoyed this. 8.2% ABV, see more specifics here.
2) He Said (Baltic Porter) - This was brewed with Vietnamese cinnamon and caraway seeds. The Vietnamese cinnamon or Saigon cinnamon supposedly has more pronounced aromatic qualities, is used in making Pho and stuck out in my mind. This actually reminded me somewhat of a Doppelbock, with its smoky pork flavor, definite cinnamon, spice, slight sweetness (less than the Belgian Tripel), thick foamy head, roasty with some chocolate?, slightly warming and deep brown color. 8.2% ABV, see more specifics here.

Another beer I'll add to this list I tried yesterday was Three Head's Brewing Bromigo: Smoke Maple Amber Ale. This had serious pork notes, almost too intense in the sense that I had a hard time focusing on anything else. There was an underlying sweetness from the maple, it was a gorgeous clear dark Amber with reddish hue, off-white head, spicy, peppery with a hop end that brought balance to the smokiness. 7% ABV. More here.

My favorite of the night: He Said (Belgian Tripel). Very well done on this one.

Beer Apps for iOS

This is just a short list of Beer Apps that I use/have on my iPod:

1) Untappd -
This one is by far my most used and most useful. Here's how it works in a nutshell: anytime you have a brew turn on Untappd and add what you 're drinking. While you're at it, rate the beer on a 5 star scale (with 1/2 stars) and leave a comment/tasting notes for your own future reference/for your friends to see. Connect with people, discover new beers and peruse app suggestions, add beers to a wishlist, follow links to brewery websites and gain some general knowledge about the beer that you are currently drinking if it is included. You can also see what breweries are nearby (if listed) as well as what and where other people near you are drinking. There are also cool badges to pursue.

* Upsides: very easy search, user friendly, fun to connect with others who use the app, most comprehensive beer list in the world from homebrews to special varieties of beers that you might only see at a brewfest. You can also go back and organize the beers you have tasted by date/name/rating/etc.. and see what different comments and ratings you have given beers you have drank (even multiple times).
* Downsides: Not all breweries are listed on the map, you're limited to searching within a 30 mile radius of your present location (no pin dropping or scrolling around), needs more sort options, NO offline access--a huge downside for me with an iPod, and suggested beers tend to be a lot of IPAs in my observation.
* Rating (out of 3 stars): 2.5

2) Tappd That -
A companion app for Untappd. Basically this is for offline access so when you're in the store and do not remember whether you like that one beer staring you in the face you can check Tappd That and see your notes. You can also add your drinks offline (I'm not sure about transferring them to Untappd once you have wifi access again though...), see your latest drinks and distinct beer list based on Untappd's database. There are links to beeradvocate, ratebeer and brewerydatabase.

* Upsides:  OFFLINE access. Untappd take note.
* Downsides: Slightly buggy, even after updating for iOS8
* Rating: 2 (only with Untappd as well)

3) Brewdex -
A simple style comparison/beer encyclopedia app. It contains beers styles sorted by country of origin and SRM (color-light to dark) and simple definitions for pretty much every style of beer on the BJCP list. IBU, ABV and SRM reference for each style are included, plus a brief history and general flavor profile. There is also a simple food pairing list based on beer styles, a reference to different types of glassware, a very general history of beer from 10,000 BCE to prohibition and an overview of the brewing process/basic ingredients.

* Upsides: Very simple user-friendly interface. Polished, gives enough information about the different styles of beer for the non craft head. Examples of each style from readily available but good beers. Offline access.
* Downsides: Not extensive enough food pairings, I typically only use this for a quick beer style definition. I probably undervalue this app.
* Rating: 2

3) BJCPStyles -
A much more thorough explanation of beer styles based on the Beer Judging Competition Program. This is pretty much the actual guide that judges could use for reference when judging beers. Styles are listed by category and give notes about aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel, overall impression, other comments, history, ingredients, statistics (IBU, OG, FG, SRM, ABV) and commercial examples.

* Upsides: If I really want to know what style a beer falls under this is the app for that. Includes ciders, perrys and other random varieties of "beer". Offline access.
* Downsides: Can be technical in its descriptions.
* Rating: 2

4) Brewery Passport -
An app for finding breweries nearby and stamping your "passport" with breweries that you have been to/toured. There are badges for acquiring certain amounts of breweries and you can sort the breweries you have accumulated by name, state and rating. You can also put breweries on a wishlist. Also includes a journal for listing your favorite [write-in] beers by style from that brewery.

* Upsides: Pretty good search capabilities, just scroll over on the map to a new location and hit refresh and it searches near the map section you have in view, search by state (available offline)
* Downsides: Can only search nearby breweries and by the map with wifi access, Ad banners that are unobtrusive (don't have to click out of them, they only take up a sliver of the screen and go away pretty quickly), not a super gorgeous "passport" book, just a generic stamp instead of a cool picture of the brewery logo or something.
* Rating: 1.5

5) Beer Boards -
Sort of a novelty, half useful app that allows users to keep track of what beers are listed on a pub's "beer board"/current draft list. It is not all inclusive and is mostly used in California, but you will find pockets here and there and breweries/pubs can be added by users. There is a map function that is very useful.

* Upsides: It is up to the user to add updated "beer boards"/draft lists which is neat. It only takes a couple people to start using it reguarly in your area to make it a worthwhile app. Picture quality is OK since it relies on someone else's picture taking skills, but can be zoomed in on and that makes most "boards" legible.
* Downsides: Limited pub/brewery listings. Requires Wifi.
* Rating: 1

6) Roc Brewing Co. -
Gotta give this Rochester, NY, brewery props for making a great app. It tells what is on tap, gives solid descriptions of their beers as well as an exhaustive list of all their beers. There is also a News/Events tab.

* Upsides: Informative and sleek design.
* Downsides: I have not yet been to Roc Brewing Co. Ironic that I have their app though. Very rare updates (every couple months on average).
* Rating: 1.5

Apps that are NO longer on my iPod:
Beer Advocate - redundant when I can only use it where I have wifi, which is pretty much where my computer is always too.
Home Brew Journal - mega in-app purchases necessary to make your own recipes or buy other people's recipes.
Stout: Beer Discovery - similar to Untappd, didn't like it as much.
Beer Wizard - Another Untappd type app without the social media aspects.
Beer Citizen - Another Untappd type app without the social media aspects, more extensive rating system based on a 100 point scale and BCJP I think.
Pintley Beer Recommendations - Not sleek or pretty Untappd-like beer rating app.
Hello Beer TV ~ The Ultimate Beer Buddy Mobile - Very little content and out of date (2013).
Founders Brewing - Solid app for Founders, but I didn't really need to know what Founders brews are on tap at pubs not near where I live.

Victoire Belgian Beer Bar

My first time checking out Victoire Belgian Beer Bar in Rochester, NY was a success last night. I think it's a little pricy, and I'm not sure the food is fantastic (I only had a flight of four 5 oz. beers for $13), but the atmosphere is great and their beer list is fairly impressive. That being said, I know it is the best Belgian beer list in the area, but not sure it's the best beer list in the area (The Owl House, The Old Toad or Chocolate and Vine would be strong contenders).

Here was my flight, four beers I was allowed to pick off the draft menu, so I naturally just picked four I'd never tried before, and I also wanted four different styles:
(1) Duchesse de Bourgogne by Brouwerij Verhaeghe (Flanders Red Ale) - I found this to have a distinct vinegary aroma and taste, almost like red, balsamic or apple cider vinegar, but not in an offensive way, it was sour but tart and sweet too from cherry notes, very dry, mohagany color with lasting head and legs. I enjoyed it for it's uniqueness, but don't think I could have multiple goes at this at one time, very acidic. 6.2 % ABV. More here.
(2) Omega Dubbel Nitro by Galaxy Brewing Co. (Dubbel) - this is a nitrogen version of the same beer Omega Dubbel by Galaxy Brewing Co. from Binghamton, NY, it had a distinct incense aroma and taste, smoky, maybe peat?, sweet mild spice with a dense mouthfeel, semi-dry with sludgy legs. Never had a beer that reminded me of incense before so that was cool. 9.7% ABV. More here (scroll down while they still have this beer on tap).
(3) Brother Thelonious by North Coast Brewing Co. (Belgian Strong Dark Ale) - fruity, juicy, cherry, dark fruit (plum), some banana, light golden caramel notes, spicy, peppery, clove, mohagany/dark amber, thinning in the mouth, dry and no head. 9.4 ABV. More here.
(4) Maredsous 10 Tripel by Abbaye de Maredsous (Tripel) - warming at the end, herbal/honey nose, floral, spicy, medium mouthfeel, lingering sweetness, some legs/head, semi-sweet, slightly acidic/vinegar?, this one grew on me as I drank it, found it more complex as I kept going, very light color for the alcohol and it covers it beautifully. 10% ABV. More here.

Beer of the night: This is a tough one to call, I enjoyed each immensely for their individuality, but I'll throw this one Maredsous 10 Tripel, it was just more complex but more subtle and grew on me really nicely.

Go check out Victoire here (but don't trust their " Now On Tap" menu it was different when I went even last night).

Beer Group September Tasting (#3)

Tuesday was our beer tasting group's third monthly tasting. Membership was a little down, four people attended (since 6 yes RSVPS decided day of to become no RSVPS...understandably conflicts arise that cannot be rescheduled, but anyone else annoyed by the RSVP system--yes should mean yes, not maybe or as long as I feel like it when the time comes), but the beer quality shone nonetheless. And, we happened to get a couple rounds of Euchre in too, always fun!

Here's the beer's we tried: (forgot a picture, sorry!)
 (1) Saku Originaal (Pale Lager): pretty sure this is my first time having a beer from Estonia, plus I finally found a lager that I really enjoyed and would go back to if I wanted a refreshing tasteful lager, floral mostly with a bready end, banana and orange, tastes a bit like cider with a crispness, refreshing, lemon shandyish, candy, lightly carbonated, the legs fade, and there is an imperceptible skunky flavor that I did not mind if it was there at all. 4.6% ABV. See more here.
(2) Allagash White (Witbier): the description says it is curacao orange rind which is supposedly a sour green (unripe) orange, sweet lemon candy interestingly enough, coriander in big hits once in a while, bitter rind, unfiltered, thin white legs, yellow color, subtle pine hop accentuating citrus/spice. 5.1% ABV. See more here.
(3) Saranac Legacy IPA: pine and resin (sappy) hops, green hops, nice legs with white foamy head, floral, slightly bitter and semi-dry, a little particulate, bubbles were not super visible to me, slight citrus and overall tang to the beer. 6.5% ABV. See more here.
(4) Browar-Amber Grand Imperial Porter (Baltic Porter): from Poland, banana bread aroma, brownish head, sweet milk chocolate with a medium roast coffee end that coupled with the chocolate creates a dark Polish chocolate flavor that is awesome (you've never had hot chocolate if you haven't had Wawel from Krakau), deep brown/mahogany on the edges and in light, thick, nice legs, has a sweetness that reminds me of an aged barrel beer but without any oak notes, very rich with a little alcohol too. 8% ABV. See more here.

Beer of the Night: gotta go to the Grand Imperial Porter, so reminiscent of Polish hot chocolate.

'til next time.

An Outing to The Old Toad

Rochester has a wonderful British pub called The Old Toad. It has cask ales, an impressive list of beers from around the world (namely the UK) and a regularly rotating draft line of about 15 different beers. Last night they had a special event with Custom Brewcrafters, who brought two different beers that they brew for Genesee Country Village & Museum: 1803 Fat Ox Ale and Intrepid Ale. In light of the event, a group of friends and I decided to take in some of Britain in Rochester and some great beer too.
The Old Toad website is here, they regularly update what they have on draft and it's a place worth checking out! They even have darts for free. Where else can you play darts for free?
Custom Brewcrafters, from Honeyoye Falls, NY, has their website here. They run an awesome operation, contract brewing for a ton of places all over western NY as well as producing their own brews.

Here's what I tried, one from the cask and the others on draft:
(1) Custom Brewcrafters Genesee Country Village & Museum 1803 Fat Ox Ale (American Brown Ale) - this is a beer produced from an American colonial recipe/notes from the 1800s. It has serious molasses notes with some alcohol too, really robust and smoky with pork/bacon flavors. I only tried a sample of this and not a whole glass. 5% ABV. More about this and the below brew here.
(2) Custom Brewcrafters Genesee Country Village & Museum Intrepid Ale (American Pale Wheat Ale) - This uses a ton of lemon and fresh ginger and has a great citrus and ginger spice. There is a definite wheat and lemon zest without much aroma. 4% ABV.
(3) Abita Coffee Dog - This I had from the cask, and apparently Abita put coffee beans in the cask and let it soak in the flavor. It has a burnt coffee aroma, smooth creamy and somewhat light in the mouth, but dark like coffee, some vanilla, black in color and sort of grainy in the mouth too like there is some coffee residue or grounds or something. I really enjoyed it, but I guess you can only drink iced coffee so long, so it isn't super drinkable but it was delicious. 5.6% ABV Not listed on their website.
(4) Ellicotville Brewing Catt County Cuvee (Strong Blonde Ale) - This is aged in American oak for 6 (their website says 3) months, which adds beautiful candied, banana and vanilla flavors. It is on the sweet side and has a honey aroma, wood, full bodied, malty with notes of coconut like creaminess and spicy finish. 8.5% ABV. More on this page.

Brew of the night: Intrepid Ale, for a summer evening and refreshing drink I'd turn to this anytime, the Coffee Dog is more of a wake up beer and Catt County Cuvee is more of a sipper.

Wegmans Craft Pack Night!

I love Wegmans Craft Packs! I used to completely overlook them. Who wants to pay $10 for a six pack of beer that probably sat on the shelves too long or is made up of reject beers that no one buys? Nowadays it seems that Wegmans has improved the craft pack to an elevated state. They have decent beers available and keep them cold too, so ready to drink. $10 doesn't sound so bad anymore either to taste 6 new beers that I've never had before.
Here's what my wife and I shared last night:

Notes:

(1) Magic Hat #9 - I've had this at the Magic Hat brewery, and I liked that a lot better. Sure it was fresher, so that should be all the difference right there. I found this a tad skunky if you thought about it. Otherwise, it was sour from the apricot juice but a nice combination. 5.1% ABV. More here.

(2) Bell's Porter - brown sugar and malts, some smokiness, clean but not too complex, a fairly balanced brown porter with nice spongy head and legs. This beer is probably what my homebrew should have tasted like, or at least close to. I have come to the conclusion that I'm not crazy about brown porters. I prefer Robust and Baltic. 5.6% ABV. More here.

(3) Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale - every pumpkin ale should have real pumpkin in it, and this one has clove, nutmeg, a solid pumpkin aroma and roastiness. This would be a solid choice for a pumpkin brew but it's not too complex and seems a tad light. 5.7% ABV. More here.

(4) Middle Ages Brewing The Duke of Winship (English style Porter) - immediate notes of alcohol and wood, spicy scotch notes and brown/English porter style with roasted hazelnut coffee notes, a slight creaminess. I found this brew interesting and enjoyable. This is the first brew I've had by Syracuse based Middle Ages Brewing Co. I think I'll have to go back for more. 6.5% ABV. More here.

(5) Chimay Rouge (Belgian Dubbel)- I used a wineglass for this because the bottle says to use a wide mouthed glass, it kept the beer colder than the pint my wife used and I preferred the spiciness of the beer from the wineglass (even though it is not a snifter, which would probably be best). My first time having a Chimay Trappist brew, this had a nice spiciness, banana and orange citrus aroma (it says apricot, so this was just my perception), a dry silky head and initial taste, not necessarily refreshing but a subtle brew that I grew to enjoy a good amount. 7% ABV. More here.

(6) Heavy Seas Peg Leg (American Imperial Stout)- A supposed molasses and roasted flavor, I had a hard time getting past the aroma/flavor of onion and pork/bacon, I did get some chocolate at the end, this brew is nearly black and I think without truly knowing enough to say definitively that it has some dimethyl sulfide peaking through in a not so good way. They also recommend pairing with Gouda or blue cheese and I agree with that as the beer tastes a little like blue cheese and is very acidic. 8% ABV. More here.

Top honors of the night for me goes to: Chimay Rouge. My wife preferred the Harvest Pumpkin Ale.

Group Beer Tasting #2...And Some Board Games

This month my group lost a member (to Alaska) and gained another. So, we had six people and six beers. After tasting we also played some games, so this is sort of a double post.

This is what we tasted and below are some notes:
1) BSG (Kit) Homebrewed Porter - I gave some notes about this in my previous post, so I'll redirect you here. More about the kit here.
2) Otter Creek Copper Ale (Altbier style) - Malty, sweet, off-white head, orangish amber hue, grapefruit bitterness that lingers, orange notes, hops are not strong but they are bitter, malt aroma and semi-light in the mouth, 5% ABV. More here.
3) Bell's Amber Ale - Nice head, beer is a little hazy, pineapple notes leading to grapefruit, refreshing, delicate but tasteful, sweet to bitter in the mouth, this was a beer that grew on me! 5.8% ABV. More here.
4) Rhinelander Brewing Company Boatswain Chocolate Stout - Found this at Trader Joe's, it's a small batch brew of roasted chocolate, coffee notes, smoky, smooth, a tiny bit of vanilla sweetness, deep brown color, sweet to roasted to chocolate bitterness flavor progression and light in the mouth. It also hides 66 IBU really well. This one had me confused that I loved it and then wasn't super impressed and back and forth. I guess that's a good complexity, 5.4% ABV. Not any information on the company's website, but I've read that it goes by other names in different places, like Chocolate Bunny Stout.
5) Sierra Nevada Flipside Red IPA - A serious grapefruit aroma, some pine, citrus, peach even, an amber brown color, nice legs, crisp, I really wondered if there is some rye in this because of a spiciness, but overall it was a brew on the sweet side that I started liking less and less as I drank more, 6.2 ABV. More here.

Really cool bottle art!

6) The Alchemist Heady Topper - My brother finally had his first taste of this. This time it struck me as pineapple, grapefruit, herbal, tropical fruit, citrus, super fresh, almost white foam, hazy light gold color, and simply delicious at 8% ABV. More here.

Favorite on the night: the best brew in class clearly goes to Head Topper, but I was so impressed with Bell's Amber Ale, I've gotta give that the gold this time around.

For games this time, we played Bang! The new attendee, Joey, ended up winning as the Renegade. Next we threw down with Small World, and I ended up taking the cake with a nice combination of Trolls with their lairs (harder to conquer), Spirit Leperchauns (so I could have 2 decline races) and their pots of gold and Mercenary Barbarians.

My First Homebrew...Fermentation to Drinking

The next steps in the process are simpler than the first half of the homebrew process. Once the airlock stopped bubbling I waited another 2-3 days. I believe the beer sat in the fermenter for about a week. I wish I had taken better notes at this point. Once I opened the fermenter, I used an auto siphon to transfer the wort into the botting bucket. The bottling bucket has a hole at the bottom for a bottling spout. I learned later that the bottle filler, which has a release pin on the bottom of a plastic tube, I used to transfer the wort instead of fill bottles. I filled bottles straight from the spout. It worked fine I think, but I could see the bottle filler working better because it would aerate the beer less. I filled about 52 bottles and capping them went fine, no bottles blew up from too much pressure. Once I'd fill a bottle I'd put a cap on, but not cap it until I filled all the bottles. Then I went back to the first bottle I filled and capped them in the order I filled them. I wait is supposed to release the oxygen from the head space of the bottle and fill it with CO2.

I learned more than a couple of other key things from this completed process:

1) I did not put my hops in at the right time. The instructions were vague at best about when to put my hops in once I started boiling. All they list is a time in minutes, in this case 45 minutes, next to the hops ingredients. I was not aware until recently that the time means "how long before the end of boil" instead of "time into boil". They need to specify a little more clearly.

2) I may have put too much water in. A homebrew book I was reading suggested putting 1.5 gallons of water in the fermenter (because I was doing a 3.5 gallon boil) before adding in the wort. I'm pretty sure I ended up with 5.5 to 6 gallons in my fermenter. Next time I will top the fermenter off to 5 gallons after pouring in the wort.

3) I am not sure the priming sugar mixed evenly. I read after the fact on a homebrew website that you should mix in the priming sugar by creating a nice whirlpool. Some of the bottles I opened streamed out the top for a good 30 seconds, while others maintained their level upon opening. The only difference I can account for is two days between opening and some were from the beginning of the bottle filling and the others were from the end/middle. I'll have to continue monitoring this to see if the difference is more about what order they were filled or how long they are bottle conditioned. By the way, I've only let them sit in the bottle for 2 weeks, so maybe they will also improve after another week or more?

4) My first homebrew came out alright but not great. It was hazy brown, light in the mouth, on the sweet side, had an aroma that was not necessarily off but hard to discern. I would smell it at first smell late in the palate and sometimes after I'd swirl the beer in the glass to aerate it.

I had my beer at the most recent group tasting event at my place and I think it went over OK, but no one was crazy about it, including me. I'm ready for my next homebrew.

Some Websites Related to Beer

I've been doing a pretty substantial amount of searching for websites related to beer lately. I've been looking for places to learn more at a quicker rate about brewing and beer in general. Some of my favorites so far include (in no particular order):

1) American Homebrewers Association (http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/)
...yeah this should have been a no brainer, but it took me a while to find this one, and I don't think I did until I was searching for beer magazine subscriptions and found their quarterly, Zymurgy. They also have a really simple visual learning to brew guide that takes you from novice to advanced brewing with all grain. Recipes abound as well. I think I already found my next homebrew on this site.

2) Craft Beer & Brewing (http://www.beerandbrewing.com/)
...a solid website with great articles and resources, also home to a magazine by the same name. They have online courses that you can take (for a price $) which I'm reluctant to do because I do not if it will be worth the $ when I can find a lot of information in other ways.

3) Mike's Brew Review (http://mikesbrewreview.com/)
...a site mostly dedicated to home brewing, which includes write-ups about first time homebrewers and their recipes, challenges and tips learned. The best article about how to use a hydrometer is available here along with other visual aids. There are also interviews with brewmasters from respected breweries and reviews of brews and pubs. Downside? It hasn't been updated since 2011...worth a look through though.

4) Bear Flavored (http://www.bear-flavored.com/)
...great articles, reviews of popular brews, recipes of homebrews and one man's quest to eat only fermented food and beverages for an entire year! Really impressed by this site.

5) The Brewing Network (http://thebrewingnetwork.com/)
...admittedly I haven't checked this out much yet, but there are radio broadcasts and different shows that cover the world of beer.

6) The Brew Site (http://www.thebrewsite.com/)
...blog style website, like most of the others, reviews and articles about breweries and other beer related stuff.

7) Inside Beer (http://www.insidebeer.com/)
...has a beer of the month archive with reviews and tasting notes and beer news. A UK site by Jeff Evans, who has had over 30 years of experience writing about beer.

8) Hop Union (http://hopunion.com/)
...this has a great resource about hops and selecting hops for specific flavors, which work well together and how to pair hops. I'll definitely be using this website when choosing hops in the future. There's also a link to alphanalyticstesting.com where you can send a beer sample from your beer to get alpha analysis and  IBU levels.

9) Mike Beer (http://www.mikebeer.net/default.htm)
...this guy has been homebrewing since 2005 and has a list of all the beers he's ever made. There's resources and articles that are really interesting to peruse about brewing with extract, grains and both.

10) Tasty Brew (http://tastybrew.com/index.html)
...another great resource with articles dedicated to specific topics. There is even a recipes and a recipe calculator for making your own homebrews.

11) Brewtoad (https://www.brewtoad.com/)
...lots of recipes, user created submissions and tips (you can add your own), with brew logs and a subscription available to the site that in my opinion does not look to be worth it.

12) Brewtarget (http://www.brewtarget.org/)
...this has a free software program for brewing your own beer and calculating recipes. I've downloaded it and checked it out a bit and it looks pretty cool.

Just for clarification, I've not included any magazines or tv shows, even though they have websites, because these kind of go with a different topic (magazines and tv shows, respectively).
Check some of these out and tell me what you think!

The Quest for Heady Topper

My wife and I went to Burlington yesterday to do one thing: buy Heady Topper! OK, maybe we went for other things too, which I'll tell you about, but my brother wanted me to buy some Heady Topper and I was not planning to disappoint.

What is Heady Topper you might ask? Made by The Alchemist (their website here), they basically do not make much else except for special releases here and there, like The Crusher, Focal Banger, Beelzebub, Holy Cow IPA, Luscious, and a few others. Heady Topper is their one consistently produced beer. It is an outstanding American Double IPA (8% ABV) that is hailed as the top of its class. If you are a hop head (meaning you love hoppy brews) you've doubtlessly heard of or already made a pilgrimage to Burlington to get Heady Topper. The big issue is that Heady Topper only sells within some 30 miles of Burlington and it is hard to get. This, I believe, is a specific decision by The Alchemist to keep Heady Topper as fresh as possible in aroma and taste. It is unpasteurized and the can instructs you to "DRINK FROM THE CAN!" so you will not lose any of the aroma just from pouring the beer into a glass. Yes, it comes in cans as well, less light pollution I suppose, and who doesn't love a pint sized can of great beer? Made with six different hops, each hop gives its own specific flavor and hops are meant to come in waves as you drink.

So, we knew that Heady Topper was hard to get. We check the website and consulted the detailed list of which stores receive Heady Topper on which days (in this case Thursday) and found that only one beer store received shipments of Heady Topper on Thursday, the rest were bars. We arrived around 1 pm and looked throughout the exceptional selection of beers on the shelves and eventually asked the worker at the counter. She gave us sort of a look, like "you newbs", because Heady Topper was coming in at 6 pm and apparently there would be a line. My brother pre-paid me for a case and we were instructed to arrive an hour early to get a case. We left and came back later.

A little break in the story here, just to keep the suspense up...between searching for Heady Topper and coming back later for Heady Topper, Brynn and I went to do some tasting. First we went to Citizen Cider in Winooski. We had a flight of ciders from their limited release cellar. I figure limited releases are harder to find so why try the regulars that will always be around? We had these five: U.P. Wild, Bourbon Barrel-Aged Cider, Chapin, Addison County Hop and Stan Wild. Honestly we were a little disappointed after loving The Dirty Mayor (a ginger and lemon cider), none of these were nearly as good.
Tasting Notes:
(1) U.P. Wild - a dry and still version of Unified Press (their flagship cider) fermented spontaneously with native yeasts, just not crazy about the yeasty flavor and the still-ness.
(2) Bourbon Barrel-Aged Cider - mostly dry, aged in oak, we liked this one, but the oak was overpowering enough to not make you want to drink a lot of this at one time. My wife's favorite.
(3) Chapin - dry, bottle-conditioned, blend of apples from Chapin Orchard in Essex, VT, this was just a different tasting cider because of the apples, couldn't tell if the original apples were sweet or sour.
(4) Addison County Hop - off-dry, bright, citrusy and balanced with Cascade hops from Addison County Hop Farm, this was my favorite because of the aroma and balance the hops brought to the cider.
(5) Stan Wild - off-dry version of Stan Up (dry, keg-conditioned with heirloom apple blends) with wild yeast, again we were not crazy about the yeast flavor.
I believe all of these ciders were 6.9% ABV. You can see about Citizen Cider on their website here.

Next, we went to Magic Hat brewery for a tasting and tour! After previewing their website, I was convinced that Magic Hat would be a fun place to visit and we both agreed after going. Their brewery is called the Artifactory and is industrial looking inside with a sweet round bar with tons of taps, tons of merch and lots of artwork throughout the place. Tours were free and unsupervised except for on the hour, so we went at 5 pm for a guided tour to learn a little more. Started in 1994, Magic Hat was truly a two man outfit that started from one man's homebrews and grew into what it is today, reaching 48 states and internationally. Vermont is also a very local and home grown kind of place, so that had a lot to do with its success. First we tasted, then we toured.
Tasting notes:
(1) Single Chair - a golden ale, very much like a pilsner, crisp and bready, light. 5 % ABV. More here.
(2) Circus Boy - a Hefeweizen, very clean even with the haze, only brewed with lemongrass unlike most hefeweizens. Liked this one. 4.5% ABV. More here.
(3) #9 Not Quite Pale Ale - the secret is out, brewed with apricot extract, which doesn't come out too much but smoothens this brew out nicely. 5.1% ABV. More here.
(4) Wilhelm Scream - a pumpkin ale brewed without pumpkin according to the attendant serving us, only spices like all-spice, cinnamon and nutmeg. I miss the pumpkin. 5.4% ABV. More here.
(5) Dream Machine IPL - an IPA mixed with a Lager, brewed with lager yeast, I felt like this had more aroma than bitterness from the hops which was nice. 5.7% ABV. More here.
(6) Over the Pils Imperial Pilsner (Humdinger Series) - this was somewhat the opposite of the IPL, more bitter less aroma. 8.1% ABV. Notes missing from their website and only available at the Artifactory.
(7) Big Hundo - a double/imperial IPA with 100 IBU of hops, hoppy and bitter, not the super aroma/flavor profile of a Heady Topper as it only uses two kinds of hops in the boil and dry hops with only Simcoe. 9% ABV. More here.
(8) Meat Whistle Imperial Stout - aged since 2011 in bourbon barrels, this one had quite the aged flavor, rich and dark. I felt like maybe they aged this a touch too long, but that's my opinion. 11% ABV. Only available at the Artifactory.

My favorite: not sure, a tie between the Circus Boy, Dream Machine IPL, Imperial Pilsner and Big Hundo.

After our tasting we toured, here's some photos of their bottling line:

This machine put the labels on in front and in back the boxer where a mechanic was working on fixing the line so it would run again.

Bottles waiting to be labeled

Pretty big outfit, but what impressed me most was they had one bottling line, and their filler was gigantic (sorry no picture of that). Their fermentation room was also off-limits because they open-cask ferment their beers to allow for better yeast re-harvesting and any dirt of other yeasts let in could ruin an entire batch.

After our tour we headed back for the Heady Topper. Upon arriving to a full parking lot we went inside to find a line of about 100-150 people wrapped around the isles. We found the end and a guy told us we were "the end" and guaranteed at least a four pack!

The "end of the line"

6pm came and we waited through the line until it was our turn and did end up receiving two 4-packs each, so just two 4-packs short of a case! Not bad. So, my brother gets a half case and we bought 2 beers from him as our handling fee. Mission successful. Oh, we also picked up a Maple Tap Imperial Porter by Harpoon and a Citizen Cider bRose, their blueberry cider.

Back home, we tried the Heady Topper and the Maple Tap Imperial Porter.

Notes: 

(1) Heady Topper - well worth the wait, so aromatic and flavorful, grapefruit, orange, pine, others I couldn't quite pick out, and super smooth and drinkable for an IPA. 8% ABV. Probably the best IPA I've had.

(2) Maple Tap Imperial Porter - Smelled and tasted like it was aged in oak, some vanilla, but relaly the sugary maple was what produced that taste I think, chocolate and coffee notes rounded out the aftertaste. A little light in the mouth. 9.1% ABV. More here.

Heady Topper takes the cake on this one. No competition. And that completes the quest for Heady Topper!

A little taste of VT and others

 I'm over in Granville, NY with my wife and her family this week. I decided to rope my brother-in-law and wife into a tasting this week. Brad, my brother-in-law, jumped on the idea and wanted to do the tasting tonight. So, we went to Poultney, VT, maybe 10 minutes across the NY border, and picked up some brews to taste.

You can see what we tried tonight, in order of left to right. I encouraged my wife and her brother to pick stuff that was from VT or could not be found many other places. Brad picked the Arrogant Bastard Ale, which was fine by me even though you can find it all over the place, because I admit I've probably had the ale or the Stone's Smoked Porter before but did not remember what I thought of either. My wife chose a cider, which is technically not a beer, but I'm glad she did because it practically stole the show. I picked up the first two on the left, Best Brown Ale and Old Hob. I had no previous knowledge of either but the first is from Portland, ME, and the other is from VT and doubtfully reaches where we are from in Rochester.

Notes about these brews:

(1) Gritty McDuff's Best Brown Ale - a deep amber color, with a sour and sweet aroma. I don't like this one as much as Guinness's Extra Stout, which is a long shot comparison because the Guinness is a stout and this is a brown ale, but they were remarkably similar nonetheless. It was more hoppy than malty in balance and had a slightly light mouth feel. More from Great Brewers website here (they do not list the Best Brown Ale on their website even though it is supposedly available year round). 4.1% ABV

(2) Foley Brothers Old Hob - This all German ingredient Altbier had a grainy or alcoholic aroma with a smoky taste, slightly sour with a unique flavor. It was cloudy brown with a creamy head and bittering aftertaste. It also had a full mouthfeel start to finish. Foley Brothers brew beer in small batches so it is hard to find any more detailed information about this beer. 5% ABV 

(3) Stone's Arrogant Bastard Ale - I was really surprised by this one, even though I should have expected it to be as good as it is. I was especially impressed with how balanced this beer was, starting malty and ending perfectly hoppy. It was a reddish deep amber, with great head, warming at 7.2% ABV with a smooth to bitter taste. Notes of sugar, chocolate, toast, caramel and toffee throughout. More here.

(4) Citizen Cider The Dirty Mayor - Good things come out of Burlington, VT and this was no exception. This is perhaps the best cider I've had to date, a limited release cider with ginger and lemon peel. The aroma was all about the ginger and the taste was like sour apples with cane sugar or candied ginger with a bite or Lemonheads. It was slightly carbonated and of straw color. 6.9% ABV See more about Citizen Ciders here.

My favorite on the night: Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale. Hard to beat, though the cider was a close 2nd.

Private Tasting

So my wife and I went to Wegmans yesterday and got a craft pack of beer to try. For $10 it is a good deal and they have a decent quality of beer available to choose from.

Left to right here's what we tried and some notes on each:

(1) Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager - I was pleasantly surprised by this, one it was a lager, and two it is a fruit beer. This had nice light hop notes, a strong strawberry aroma, slightly fermented smelling but it didn't detract from the beer. Also a Belgian wheat aroma. More here.

(2) Wild Blue Blueberry Lager (by Anheuser-Busch) - Concentrate, alcohol and slight hop aroma. Tastes very malty like a Schmirnoff, and the aftertaste is really not good, detracting from the beer significantly. I would hardly describe this as a beer. More here.

(3) Saranac Wild Hop Pils - Was really pleased with this beer. It had a definite citrus character from the Belma wild hops. It was a hoppier aroma than it tasted, balanced from start to finish with a bittering aftertaste. Clean and clear. Nicely crafted beer. More here.

(4) Dogfish Head Namaste - Smooth and sweet, spicy from the peppercorns. Less of the orange peel aroma because of the coriander and lemongrass added as well. One of the better witbiers I've had so far. More here.

(5) Delirium Tremens - Spicy, peppery, grape notes, champagne notes, malty and warming. This is a rounded beer with exceptional mouth feel and is dry and semi-bitter at the end. A complex beer (voted best beer in the world in 2008 at the World Beer Championships). More here.

(6) Uinta Brewing Co. Dubhe Imperial Black IPA - I just liked the look and sound of this one when I picked it and was rewarded with a very pleasant experience. Coffee, chocolate aftertaste that just grows really beautifully. Hope nose is pine-like and maybe some grapefruit. Malty complexity to start that quickly gives way the abundance of hops (109 IBU!). More here.

My favorite of the night: Dubhe Imperial Black IPA

Every had any of these? What do you think?

My first Homebrew...Start to Fermenter

Finally, number 3 in my 5 Year Plan to Start a Craft Brewery is under way; home brewing!

I'm labeling this Start to Fermenter because the beer is still fermenting and I have not yet bottled. So, I'll walk you through what I did start to finish and you can see my successes and failures (though that could largely depend on the end product...).
First, I set out my Porter recipe and mash extract kit. This picture is incomplete because I had already started the next step when I took the picture. I'll get to that. What you see is two bags of dry ground malt extract (added to the boil), pellet hops, one of priming sugar (used in bottling) and one of maltodextrin (to add body), nitrogen vacuum packaged yeast, and some other equipment (auto-siphon, not open yet, crown bottle caps, spout, hydrometer tube, bottling device, instructions and under the priming sugar is a fermometer which you probably cannot see well).

Next I took a pot, filled it with a gallon of warm water, about 120 degrees (hottest my faucet would go) and put C-Brite solution in to create a sterilization solution. I put my tools that I would need sterilized in this (stainless steel spoon, hydrometer, infuser bag and measuring cup for yeast). I also used a rag to wipe down everything that I would need sterilized (kettle, fermenter and strainer). 

You can see in this picture a nice bottle of Shipyard Export, my sterilizing pot (on the right) and the malt extract soaking (in the left pot, this was the next step I was referring to earlier).

First thing was to get 2.5 gallons of water up to 150 degrees F, then added the specialty grains using the infuser bag for 15 minutes to get the dark color and smoky flavor.

After the 15 minutes I removed the infuser and raised the water temp to a boil. I think it was at this point I had the pot covered because a book I read told me to, but I wasn't watching carefully enough for boil overs and, yes, I had a boil over. Minimal damage though, I hope. I was under the impression that boil overs only occurr while adding the hops, well learned that lesson. Cleaned that up and when the water was at a boil I added all the malt extract and dry malts while off of the heat with help from my wonderful wife, stirring as I added. Then 45 minutes of boiling, stirring occasionally so the syrup wouldn't stick to the bottom (it did a little in the end where the burners were).

Once the 45 minutes was up I turned off the heat and added the pelletized hops. I then covered my nice 5 gallon stainless steel Polar War pot and put it in the bath to cool the wort down to 75 degrees F. I had to keep draining and adding cold water and stirring because the water around the pot would cool and the whole tub would warm up.

I also added a couple ice packs in for good measure, the faster the wort cools the better, and slightly vented the top at first. The ice packs melted pretty quick, but I did manage to cool the wort in 45 minutes to an hour, so that is decent. This is the step where the wort needs to be completely sterile and infections are most likely to occur I'm told so hopefully I didn't do something stupid. After cooling to just 75 degrees F (I had trouble waiting for it to get lower I admit) I pitched the yeast. To prepare the dry yeast I put it in 1/3 cup of 100 degree F temperature to help it get started. After 15 minutes I stirred the yeast and then pitched it immediately into the cooled wort. Final step of fermentation was adding the wort into the fermenter. I had already filled the fermenter with 2.5 gallons of cool water to make up the rest of the 5 gallon batch.

Shutting the fermenter bucket posed one problem, when I put the airlock on the o-ring popped off into the wort and I had to go fishing with my sterilized arm for the rubber o-ring. Another misstep that hopefully won't hurt my beer with infection. The little black strip on the bucket above "Select Ingredients" is the Fermometer. It's a really cool thermometer that sticks to the bucket and tells me the temperature of the room. Just about 72 degrees, we keep our house at 71, which is fine for ales though on the upper side of fine. Bubbles started coming out the airlock rapidly after less than 12 hours it seems and it has slowed to 2-3 a minute at this point. So,  either my beer will be at it's final gravity in a day or two or the yeast isn't doing its job. I may be jumping to conclusions. I also know how to take a hydrometer reading now. I originally tried after cooling the wort, but I couldn't figure out how to use it and just gave up. That reminds me of another potential flaw, the wort we removed with a (hopefully) sterile jar was returned to the fermenter (which is a no no).

Oh well, here's to drinking beer in 3-4 weeks. Will finish this when I can take you from Fermenter to Drinking!

Beer Books

Took a trip to Barnes & Noble the other day. Not a good idea. Starting to not like going there, because I leave without the 30+ books that I wanted to leave with. I haven't even done extensive searching on the internet for other choice books, but there is bound to be some (that and magazines).

Here's a list of all the other awesome books I'd love to add to my collection over the next 5 years:
1) Brewed Awakening, by Joshua Bernstein - I think this goes into the craft beer explosion and how brewing has since evolved.
2) The Beer Trials, by Robin Goldstein - a compilation of blind taste test thoughts and ratings on some of the worlds most popular beers, there is a website here.
3) Vintage Beer, by Patrick Dawson - all about aged and aging beers, the fun high alcohol content beers!
4) Radical Brewing, by Randy Kosher - details how brewing has become more than 5 ingredients and what some of the "radical" brews are that now exist.
5) Great Beers, ed. by Tim Hampson - 700 beers from around the world, novelty.
6) Great American Craft Beer, by Andy Crouch - journalist and beer snob, his book takes you on a tasting tour of American breweries, he has a website here.
7) Home Brew Beer, Greg Hughes - picture heavy basic home brew guide with lots of recipes.
8) Starting Your Own Brewery, by Dick Cantwell - BP (Brewer's Publications) so should be a good guide.
9) The Craft Beer Cookbook, by Jacquelyn Dodd - I wanna learn more about cooking/pairing food with beer.
10) The Beer Book, ed. by Tim Hampson - has a blog, here, and
11) World Beer, ed. by Tim Hampson - this name keeps coming up a lot, an encyclopedic book of over 800 beers from around the world.
12) The World Atlas of Beer, by Tim Webb and Stephen Beaumont - goes country to country in an interesting guide of sorts.
13) The Illustrated Guide to Brewing Beer, by Matthew Shaefer - comprehensive guide to home brewing, might be one of a couple good guides that I could choose from.
14) Home Brew Beyond the Basics, by Mike Karnowski - taking home brewing to the next level, this could be a good choice, all grain brewing included.
15) Extreme Brewing, by Sam Calagione - owner of Dogfish Head, Calagione shows how brewing is going to the extremes and using unusual ingredients and high alcohol levels.
16) The Brewers Apprentice, by Greg Koch & Matt Allyn - craft brewing according to the leaders of today's art, enhances the average knowledge of brewing with master tips.
17) 300 Beers to Try Before You Die! by Roger Protz - top beers according to Protz and his tasting notes, sounds good to me!
18) How to Brew, by John Palmer - one of many, will have to compare this home brewing guide to others.
19) Beer: What to Drink Next, by Michael Larson - a cool novelty book about different styles of beer, specific ones to try and all with cool graphics to help you along, even has a periodic table of beer.
20) Sustainable Home Brewing, by Loftus - I think this talks a lot about yeast and home grown ingredients.
21) Water, by John Palmer & Colin Kaminski - a PB, more in to the science of pH and what makes good beer water.
22) The Brewmasters Bible, by Stephen Snyder - another home brewing do-it-yourself book with lots of recipes.
23) Craft Beer for the Home Brewer, by Michael Agnew - real brews from real breweries adapted for the home brewer, would be really interesting to try some of these someday.
24) The Brewmaster's Table, by Garrett Oliver - every microbrewery needs a brewpub, this book is by the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery.
25) 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die, by Adrian Tierney-Jones - cool novelty reference book that's fun to have sitting on your coffee table and pore over for hours.
26) Yeast, by Chris White & Jamil Zainasheff - gotta learn about yeast and types and keeping it sterile and vibrant.
27) Make Some Beer, by Erica Shea & Stephen Valand - their journey to several breweries around the country and subsequent recipes of inspired brews for home brewing.
28) IPA, by Mitch Steele - IPA is probably America's number one craft brew style of choice, gotta learn my stuff.
29) The Pocket Beer Companion - novelty quick reference, don't know if I really want this.
30) The Homebrewers Journal - or something like this, to keep track of successes and failures and data along the way.

See? 30 books, and that was at first just a guess until I started number listing them. Anyway, this is also just a hypothetical list and hopefully over the course of a couple more visits to Barnes & Nobles I can spend some time in each book to figure out which I'd really like and those I can let fall to the wayside. If and when I do pick up some books I will try and give a review on this blog. The only book I currently own is Tasting Beer, by Randy Mosher which is a really good broad based introduction to the history of styles, how to taste and suggested brews (to give a brief example of its contents). Also I've been reading one of the guides to home brewing by Dave Miller. I got three out of the library but have not quite gotten through one yet in just over a week.

Read any of these books? What do you think?

Board Games and Beer

What's better than board games and beer?
Maybe this is a subjective rhetorical question.
Last night was my friends last day in town before shipping off to a dry community in Alaska to teach. He and I have been enjoying a number of beers lately and went to Beers of the World about a month ago to stock up. We didn't quite get through everything we bought, but were able to try a number of great beers and play the grand-daddy of all board games: Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition. My favorite game of all time.
My wife, Brynn, joined us, the more the merrier, and we played from about 7-8 p.m. to 4-5 a.m. the next day when they all gave in to my 9-7 lead (game is normally played to 10 VP). To most people this would be a night from hell, but to me it was epic glory.

Here's all the beers we tasted along the way:

This time I managed to order them left to right in the order we tried them, so it will make this a little easier.
(1) Heavy Seas Holy Sheet,  a Belgian style ale aged in brandy barrells. I wasn't the biggest fan, but I would be interested in trying this in a snifter instead of a pint glass and seeing if I like it more. Anyway, it was a little on the sweet side and lacked complexity as a result. The oak didn't shine and the sucre on top of the brandy must made it too one note, sweet. See more info here.
(2) Fuller's London Pride, an English bitter that for its 4.7% ABV is quite tasty and would be a good session beer choice, malty in character with caramel notes. Also slightly flat because that is what a good English brew is about. See more here.
(3) Breckenridge SummerBright Ale, a competitor of Shock Top in that the flavor profile is similar, perhaps less wheat and cleaner. Despite being a step up from the fore mentioned, not my group's favorite, as it contained a somewhat burnt, rotten or heated fruit flavor, owing to the orange and lemon peels. More here.
4) Shiner White Wing, brewed at the Spoetzl brewery in Shiner, TX, this had a nice coriander addition with a tinge of citrus peel in the aroma that again we were not fond of but in this case it wasn't as bad. Overall, the witbier base was scrumptious. More here.
5) Weyerbacher White Sun Wit. We were on a belgian witbier kick and it was fun to compare similar beers. This had added complexity because it had anise, just a tad, but did not show off the coriander as well. Sharing between three glasses the pour left two of us with a haze that swirled and then clouded our beer, while the third's was perfectly clear. Must have been the pour as it is a proclaimed cloudy Belgian. It is worth noting that this beer used to be called Blanche and was changed in 2012 while the beer remains identical. More here.
(6) Mendocino Talon Extra Select Double Smoked Porter, living up to its long winded name, complex, as smoky as I've ever had, with chocolate, coffee, creamy notes, it lingers and warms. It actually reminded me of kalua or Irish cream in a way. Great info here.
(7) Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron, one of my favorites, a super complex, rich, robust brown ale aged in Palo Santo wood barrels with vanilla and caramel. An aroma like you've never smelled before, this is a heavyweight coming in at 12% ABV! More here.

No surprise here, my favorite was the Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron. I've had that beer quite a few times in the past 5 years or so since I've gotten into craft beer and it will probably always be one of my favorites for its complexity and uniqueness.