January 26, 2008
Probably one of the most expensive beers I’ve bought at $9.99 for a 22 oz. bottle, I think I can sum this beer up in one word: yum. It’s a nice Imperial IPA clocking in at 8.2% ABV, and it hit me pretty hard, either due to the alcohol content of this beer or having it be combined with the glass of Deschutes’ The Abyss Imperial Porter earlier this evening.
I think I’ve had Midnight Sun’s beers before, but this is a very tasty beer. I’m not one to wax and wane about subtle tastes in beers and undertones, but it gets my thumbs-up and I’d definitely buy it again. That’s pretty much my standard for a well-made and tasty beer. I’d drink another bottle of it if it weren’t for the open bottle of wine that’s now beckoning.
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January 11, 2008
A Taste for Brews That Go to Extremes - New York Times
Hmmm, it’s like a shopping list for the best beers. Oddly enough, I had the Double Simcoe beer just this week when I was visiting Boston.
Speaking of Boston, I only found myself in one brewpub, John Harvard’s Brewery. A little on the expensive side (but after all, it was a “Haavaad bah” in Cambridge), but the beer was solid. All three of the beers I tried actually had the same undertaste as Sam Adams, so I’m wondering if there’s something in the Boston water that imparts a particular taste to beers.
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January 3, 2008
Not much movement on the homebrew front. My lager is still…well, lagering. I racked it into the carboy on Christmas Day, and I’ll let it sit there for at least another three or four weeks before bottling it. I haven’t been taking regular hydrometer readings–in fact, I haven’t ever once taken a hydrometer reading between sealing the fermenter and bottling–so I don’t know if fermentation is stuck or not, but I need to sit down for a few minutes and make sure that carbon dioxide is still being produced and watch for a bubble or two in the airlock.
I’ve had a few interesting beers lately, though, and while I can’t give a detailed report about each one I can give a brief overview. Roots’ 2007 Epic Ale I had at the release party a couple of Fridays ago was quite delicious, though I think I liked the slightly-less potent Wee Heavy Scotch Ale a bit more.
Boulder Beer Company is rapidly becoming my favorite non-Northwest brewery with their excellent beers I keep trying. Never Summer Ale, a nice winter ale, was tasty. Mojo IPA is a perfect example of how to brew an IPA–if I could brew something that good, I could probably sell the recipe, and Mojo Risin’, while exorbitantly pricey, stands out from the Imperial/double IPA crowd. I also had a bottle of their Obovoid “Empirical Stout,” which wasn’t as rich as I like stouts to be, but was very smooth and drinkable.
After being put off from them for years, my taste for Belgian-style ales and Barleywines is returning with a vengeance, and I had and enjoyed both Dogfish Head’s Olde School Barleywine and Victory’s “12″ Belgian-style on New Year’s Eve.
Last weekend my girlfriend and I took a road trip to Hood River for a brewpubhopping evening. We hit it turn Full Sail, Double Mountain, and Big Horse, and I was pleased with all their beers. I quaffed glasses of the Doppel X, Wreck the Halls, and Top Sail Porter at Full Sail. Deschutes’ Jubelale still stands out to me as the best of the winter brews, but Wreck the Halls comes in a close second. To me, it always tastes like a winter IPA, which I have no problems with.
Double Mountain had some excellent brews, as well, though the names escape me except for the ruby-red Devil’s Kriek cherry-enhanced beer that looked and tasted like Cold Duck. Only better.
The real dark horse turned out to be Big Horse, which I’d never heard of before the trip. Their beer was good, but lacking any sort of real zing or definition, for lack of better words. I don’t know if it was an inexperienced brewmaster, not enough variety in the ingredients, or just that I’d already consumed six glasses of beer (totaling 66 oz.) by the time I got there. They were good beers, don’t get me wrong, but there was something…missing. The food, on the other hand? Delicious. All we had were the chicken quesadillas to go with our nine (count ‘em, nine!) $1 four ounce samples, but they were so good and the rest of the menu looked so delicious, it was all we could do not to break down and eat as much fried and gourmet food as we could get our hands on. I plan on going back, and they will definitely be the dinner destination next time around. I was impressed.
By the end of the evening, I was more than ready to go to sleep and hopefully not be seeing double anymore. Good thing we walked everywhere, bad that it poured all night. Except for the pouring into glasses–that was the real key.
I found myself at the Lucky Lab last night and was pleased to see they’ve rebrewed the excellent Super Duper Dog I enjoyed last year. It’s only for sale in bottles and nearly twice the price of comparable beer in a store, but I bought two bottles nonetheless. I plan on cracking one of them next week sometime and enjoying it before I break into a bottle of Stone’s 10th Anniversary Imperial IPA I still have left, as well. In other words, I plan on having an excellent evening of beer.
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December 14, 2007
I tried the first bottle of my special Christmas ale last night, and it was quite good–better than I expected it to be, really. My only major complaint was that it didn’t quite have the bitter maltiness to it that my porter did. I didn’t expect a porter taste out of it, but I would have preferred to have a bit more of the burnt taste that comes with well-cooked malt.
What was remarkable about it, though, is that despite the smell when you first sniff the glass, the beer itself tastes nothing like what it smells. The aroma of cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and all the other spices I used are definitely there, but the only hint in the taste is a slight sweetness from what I suspect is the orange zest.
In related news, I also served bottles of batch #8 at my party a couple of weekends ago, and they went over well. Despite being dry-hopped with Cascade hops, the taste has significantly mellowed out and has lost the hoppiness I associate with dry-hopped beer. Perhaps it’s because I used loose-leaf hops instead of plugs? The homebrew shop was out of all varieties of hop plugs that I was interested in using, so I had to just pour the loose-leaf on top, and not all of them were submerged, sadly.
Today is the holiday party for my company, so I packed up a bottle of my Christmas ale, slapped a label on it that I had designed for the beer, and wrapped it up with a note about the ingredients. I hope it goes over well.
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November 28, 2007
Self-Made Brewing’s Black ‘n’ Blue Ale
Makes one 5 gallon batch. Brewed on 10/22/07.
2-day yeast starter
Boil 1 pint water with 1/3 cup amber malt extract
Add Wyeast 1056 American Ale liquid yeast
Ferment one day
Boil 1 quart water and 1 cup amber malt extract, add to starter
Ferment another day
1 3.3 lbs. can Briess Sparkling Amber malt extract
1 3.3 lbs. can Briess Pilsen Light malt extract
2 lbs. Briess Sparkling Amber dry malt extract
2 oz. Amarillo hops (9.2 alpha)
2 oz. Tettnanger hops (4.8 apha)
1 oz. Cascade hops (6.9 alpha)
Bring 2 gallons water to boil
Add liquid malt extract
Add Amarillo hops
Boil 45 minutes
Add Tettnanger hops
Boil 20 minutes
Add Cascade hops
Boil 15 minutes
Add dry malt extract and remaining malt extract from yeast starter (about 2/3 lbs.)
Add yeast starter at 70F
I didn’t keep good records on this batch, but I think I fermented it for around 7 days in the primary, 7 days in the secondary.
Bottled 11/6/07
OG: 1.0765
FG: 1.020
ABV: 7.5%
This is probably my favorite batch of beer I’ve done yet. It has a delicious flavor to it that I’m hoping won’t disappear with time and just leave a maltiness.
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November 28, 2007
Self-Made Brewing’s Purple Circle Porter
Makes one 5 gallon batch. Brewed on 9/30/07.
1 3.3 lb. can Briess Porter malt extract
1 3.3 lb. can Briess Traditional Dark malt extract
2 oz. loose-leaf Sterling hops
2 oz. Galena hops
1 oz. Cascade hops
Wyeast 1056 American Ale liquid yeast
3 lbs. extra-dark dry malt extract
Bring 2 gallons water to boil
Add liquid malt extract
Add Sterling hops
Boil 30 minutes
Add Galena hops
Boil 15 minutes
Add Cascade hops
Boil 15 minutes
Add dry malt extract
Add 3 gallons cold water
Add yeast at 70F
13 day primary fermentation
Rack into carboy, 7 day secondary fermentation
OG: 1.0725
FG: 1.02405
ABV: 6.5%
Bottled 10/20/07
I waited more than a month to try this beer, and it was worth the wait. I have a feeling that it would have been a bit too overpowering at first, but it ended up being very good. The bitterness of the dark malt and the hoppiness really balance each other out. I’m definitely making this one again with a yeast starter to raise the ABV, and maybe adding some cocoa powder to make it my Purple Circle Chocolate Porter. Yeah. That’ll be really good.
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November 28, 2007
Self-Made Brewing’s Gold Star Ale
Makes one 5 gallon batch. Brewed on 9/16/07.
1 3.3 lb. can Munton’s Amber malt extract
1 3.3 lb. can Light malt extract
4 oz. Mt. Hood hops
Wyeast 1056 American Ale liquid yeast
2 lbs. light hopped dry malt extract
Bring 2 gallons water to boil
Add liquid malt extract
Add 2 oz. Mt. Hood hops
Boil 40 minutes
Add 1 oz. Mt. Hood hops
Boil 20 minutes
Add 1 oz. Mt. Hood hops
Boil 10 minutes
Add dry malt extract
Add 3 gallons cold water
Add yeast at 70F
Primary fermentation for 7 days
Rack into carboy, ferment for another 7 days
Bottled 9/30/07
OG: 1.066
FG: 1.021
ABV: 5.9%
This is probably one of my favorite brews I’ve ever done. It has a very light maltiness to it, and a nice strong hop aroma and flavor. A very decent basic amber ale.
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November 28, 2007
Self-Made Brewing’s Red Star Brown Ale
Makes one 5 gallon batch. Brewed 8/19/07.
1 3.3 lb. can Cooper’s Amber malt extract
1 3.3 lb. can Cooper’s Light malt extract
Two 1 lb. bags light-hopped dry malt extract
2 oz. Fuggles hops
1 oz. Kent Golding hops
Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale liquid yeast
Bring 2 gallons water to boil
Add cans malt extract
Add 1 oz. Fuggles
Boil for 30 minutes
Add 0.5 oz. Fuggles
Boil for 20 minutes
Add 0.5 oz. Fuggles
Boil for 10 minutes
Add 3 gallons cold water
Add yeast at 70F
8 day primary fermentation
Add 1 oz. Kent Golding hops
Rack into carboy and ferment for another 15 days
OG: 1.0725
FG: 1.021
ABV: 6.4%
This one was much better than the silver star ale, but still a little maltier than I prefer. I tried to lighten the color a bit by mixing the amber and light malt extract, but I don’t think there were enough hops to offset the maltiness.
As a side note, due to too much sugar in the bottling, after a few months this became Self-Made Brewing’s Red Star Explosive Brown Ale. It foamed like a mofo every time I opened one, and I wasted most of a couple of bottles letting it foam into the sink.
This was my favorite beer of mine until that point, though.
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November 28, 2007
Self-Made Brewing’s Silver Star Brown Ale
Makes one 5 gallon batch.
Two 3.3 lb cans Thomas Cooper’s Amber malt extract
4 oz. Cascade hop pellets
1 package Wyeast 1056 American Ale liquid yeast
Two 1 lb. packages Munton’s light-hopped dry malt extract
Bring 2 gallons water to boil
Add both cans malt extract
Add 2 oz. Cascade hops
Boil 30 minutes
A 1 oz. Cascade hops
Boil 20 minutes
Add 1 oz. Cascade hops
Boil 10 minutes
Add dry malt
Add three gallons cold water
Add yeast at 70F
8 days primary fermentation
Racked into carboy for 12 day secondary fermentation
OG: 1.0725
FG: 1.0152
ABV: 7.5%
I originally just called this one my Silver Star Ale, but after a few months in bottles the hop flavor really mellowed out and left it with a strong maltiness that was really more reminiscent of a brown ale. Cooper’s malt extract is extremely malty in general–overly so, in my opinion, but I didn’t discover this until my second batch with Cooper’s was already fermenting.
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November 28, 2007
Staying home sick from work is finally giving me an opportunity to publish my recipes thus far.
My beer names all derive from the color of stickers I put on the caps. Original, huh?
Self-Made Brewing’s Green Star Ale
Makes one 5 gallon batch.
Two 3.3 lb. cans of Munton’s Amber malt extract
3 oz. Centennial hops (9.3 alpha)
10g Safbrew T-58 dry yeast
2 lbs. light dry malt extract
Bring 2 gallons of water to boil
Add both cans malt extract
Boil 30 minutes
Add 1 oz. Centennial hops
Boil for 30 minutes
Add 1 oz. Centennial hops
Remove from heat after 5 minutes
Add 3 gallons of cold water, add yeast at 70F
Fermented in primary for 7 days
Add 1 oz. Centennial hops plugs
Bottled after another 7 days in secondary fermenter
OG: 1.061
FG: 1.0195
This beer came out quite odd, as you can tell from the directions. I forgot to add bittering hops at the beginning of the boil! Duh. I thought I could make up for it by dry-hopping the beer with the same hops I used in the boil, and while it ended up after about four weeks in the bottles being tasty, before then it was far too harsh thanks to the high alpha hops I used in the secondary fermenter. I’d remake this beer in a heartbeat if I went back and…uh…”adjusted” the steps so that I make it, well, right. As my first homebrewed homebrew that wasn’t from a predefined recipe, I thought it came out well in the end.
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