December « 2009 « Brews and Blues

31Dec/090

Sierra Nevada Kellerweis

Brewery: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Where: Chico, CA
Beer: Kellerweis
Style: Hefeweizen
IBU: 15
ABV: 4.8%

Sierra Nevada's Kellerweis Hefeweizen poured with a nice golden blonde color and a thick foamy head. The aroma of wheat and the fruity esters of the hefeweizen yeast are immediately apparent. This beer has a fantastic flavor and crispness with a higher than average level of carbonation. It finished with a really nice citrus flavor on the tongue that lingers making me want more.

I have been a fan of Sierra Nevada stuff for a while. This beer will definitely make my go-to list as a session beer during the warmer months of summer when a refreshing, crisp, all-day-long beer is a requirement.

I'm going to a home brew session tomorrow afternoon, and I'll take the rest of these along with some of my homebrewed hefeweizen for comparison.

*** Note ***

2009 has been a good year for me. Not only am I getting started in a new career, I have also had a good time reintroducing myself to the hobby of homebrewing after a very long absence from it. This Hefeweizen marks my 120th new beer tried since I started this blog, and I currently have 20 or 21 more beers sitting around here in the queue for this blog. January might turn out to be a busy month of tasting.

Another note I should have been passing along all the time, and I think I will make this my closing note on each blog entry...

Drink Responsibly.

Happy New Year to all!

Filed under: Beer Reviews, Hefeweizen No Comments

25Dec/091

Santa’s Private Reserve

Brewery: Rogue Ales
Where: Newport, Oregon
Beer: Santa's Private Reserve
Style: American Amber / Red Ale
IBU: 65
ABV: 6%

Christmas day is over and I'm totally worn out. I have had this beer on my shelf for a while saving it for this very specific and special occasion. I tossed it in the fridge this morning knowing that I was going to wind up my day by popping the cap on yet another Rogue. Santa's Private Reserve is a not your average winter holiday seasonal beer. In fact, it's not really going to fall into that category at all. Santa has had enough of the all-spice, coriander, nutmeg, clove, and whatever else might have found its way into other kettles. What Santa really wants after a long trip around the globe is a big fat malt bomb that starts the bitterness with a good helping of Chinook hops and finished with the fantastic aroma and flavor of Centennial hops. Rogue has come to the rescue and answered Santa's request with this year's Santa's Private Reserve. This beer poured with a rich amber color and foamy head followed by a big aroma of malt and Centennial hops.

On that note, I'm going to call it a day and finish this wonderful beer. If you haven't tried this one yet, you better get them while you can or you might have to wait until next year... seriously folk... this is a bad one to miss!

Filed under: American Amber, Beer Reviews, Red Ale, Seasonal 1 Comment

24Dec/092

Three Philosophers

Brewery: Brewery Ommegang
Where: Cooperstown, New York
Beer: Three Philosophers
Style: Quadrupel (Quad)
IBU: N/A
ABV: 9.8%

It's Christmas eve... it's quiet. It won't last long, because tomorrow will be one of those hectic days. I didn't see three wise men from afar this evening, but I did have a bottle of Three Philosophers stashed away for a special occasion.

Three Philosophers is a big Belgian quadrupel that kicks in at 9.8% ABV, so it's definitely one that requires some patience and attention once you start drinking it. This beer poured with a big brownish-amber color and foamy head. At nearly 10% I could smell a slight aroma of alcohol as I poured this, but the big malty blast followed that very quickly. This particular beer is a blend of 98% quadrupel ale and 2% cherry lambic, so that very small addition of the lambic adds the faintest flavor of cherry to this already fantastic beer. This big malty beer leaves a beautiful aftertaste that has a very mild tartness to it.

This bottle has an interesting quote on the label I'd like to share...

Brewery Ommegang is 3,264 miles from Brussels, but its heart is right in Belgium. It was created out of our devotion to the unique ales brewed by the country where brewing is an art and partaking is a passion.

Filed under: Beer Reviews, Quadrupel (Quad) 2 Comments

22Dec/094

Sword Swallower Steel Hop Lager

Brewery: Shmaltz Brewing Company
Where: Saratoga Springs, NY
Beer: Sword Swallower Steel Hop Lager
Style: American Pale Lager
IBU: N/A (Estimate about 45 IBU)
ABV: 6.8%

I remember my first sampling of the FREAK beers a while back. I commented that I was sucked in by the intriguing packaging. As of today, I'm really glad that I gave these beers a shot. Each of them is well worth your effort! I'm almost an official FREAK but I can't complete the journey. The Albino Python White Lager brewed with spices is nowhere to be found in my shopping realm. I'll have to keep looking. The rest of the FREAKS have been very well received in my tasting regimen.

Today's sample is the Coney Island Sword Swallower Steel Hop Lager. As you can see in the photo, this beer poured with a nice golden color and rich head. This beer also has a very malty taste combined with some fantastic hop presence right behind it. This beer is dry hopped with Cascade, Crystal, and Amarillo hops. These hop selections are some of the premier choices used in pale ales and IPAs. The citrusy floral character of these hops create a fantastic aroma when used for dry hopping.

I think it's unfair for this beer to be categorized as an American Pale Lager. I don't guess there is anything wrong with it in reality, but when you look at other beers in this classification, this one really stands alone based on what you are actually drinking...

**** NOTICE ****

Today is the one-year anniversary of this blogging effort. During this 365 day span, I have tasted 117 different beers!

Filed under: American Pale Lager, Beer Reviews 4 Comments

21Dec/090

Six Pack Brewery Debut

I fired up the "Six Pack Brewery" yesterday afternoon and brewed one gallon of a Helles Bock. The video above shows what the fermentation looked like after about 16 hours. The photo below shows the fermenter blowing off after about 20 hours.

This experimental one-gallon batch of beer was both a success and a failure. The success is that I believe I can effectively make one-gallon batches. The failure is that my volumes and gravities on this first attempt did not fall where I would have liked. I believe I had two specific problems during this brew.

#1 - I don't believe my mash produced the full volume I expected. I don't know for sure because I didn't bother to measure that volume and I should have. Beersmith calculated that I should have had 1.14 gallons into my boiler. I believe I had less, but as stated, I'm not sure. I will be sure of that number next time.

#2 - I believe that I lost a lot more than expected to boil-off evaporation during my one-hour boil cycle. I had estimated about 10% per hour, which is fairly consistent with what I get on my larger 5-gallon brewing setup. I'm not exactly sure, once again, because I didn't measure volumes at each step, and I WILL next time around.

At any rate, I expected to get approximately 1 gallon in my fermenter at 1.071 gravity. I ended up with about 2.5 quarts at 1.090 gravity. I added some top off water, and added too much, so my gravity at nearly 1 gallon turned out to be 1.054.

I'm going to make this exact same recipe again and make some adjustments in my volumes and techniques to see if I can hit everything right on target with my next attempt...

Filed under: Home Brewing No Comments

18Dec/092

Chimay Tripel

Brewery: Chimay
Where: Abbaye Notre Dame de Scourmont, Belgium
Beer: Tripel
Style: Tripel
IBU: N/A
ABV: 8%

My recent completion of Stan Hieronymus' book "Brew Like a Monk" has me even more interested in the Belgian brews that are available to me. This Chimay Ale Tripel is going to be my first dive into what are called the Trappist beers. To get a better understanding of what Trappist means, I'll take the following quote from Stan's book on page two:

"Trappist monks and Trappistine nuns belong to the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance, with about a hundred houses of monks and seventy of nuns worldwide. Trappists make their name from a reform movement that started in the seventeenth century at a French monastery, La Trappe."

So what we have here are beers brewed by monks. However, in order for a beer (or any other Trappist product) to receive the authentic Trappist product label and logo, the following conditions must be met (also from page two of "Brew Like a Monk"):

The product must be made within the walls of a Trappist abbey.
The product must be made by or under the supervision of the monastery comunity.
The largest part of the profit must be spent on social work.

This being the case, you can quickly see that a Trappist ale has a bit of uniqueness about it simply in the nostalgia of its process, not to mention that these are some of the best beers in the world. There are only six Trappist breweries in the world, and they all exist in Belgium.

Today's sampling, Chimay Tripel, is a product of Abbaye Notre-Dame de Scourmont. This beer pours with a nice golden color and rich foamy head. There is a citrus note in the nose immediately. Belgian Tripels are generally a little sweet and dry to the taste, and this one is no different. It does, however, have a nice tart aftertaste with little or no bitterness at all. At 8%, this one should be consumed in moderation, and also it seems to find a nice home at about 50° F in a nice clean glass.

Gail's Hops and Grapes happens to have beers from four of the only six Trappist breweries, so I picked up examples from each that will be coming up in the tasting queue shortly...