Monk's Cafe Sour Flemish Ale.

I have been wanting to try this one for awhile, and when I saw it at the liquor store the other day, the time was finally right. This beer is brewed in Belgium and labeled as Monk's Cafe, one of my favorite beer places in Philly.
Pours a nice clear deep red with ample streaming carbonation and a thin lightly colored head. Aromas of plums, balsamic vinegar. Hits the mouth with a burst of carbonation and a nice sweet and sour taste. The aromas carry into the beer with the addition of some light oaky vanilla and caramel flavors. Medium finish. Light mouth feel. A little weak. Tastes watered down.
My rating: Maybe worth a try, but there are much better ones out there..
Abv: 5.5%.
Website: Monk's Cafe.
Price paid: 3-4 dollars.

Josef Drathen 2008 Bereich Nierstein Auslese.

One thing that puzzled me about this wine is the price. How could someone make a Auslese (select harvest) Prädikatswein (a higher designation than QbA or Qualitätswein) for under ten dollars?
I have just come to an answer. This wine is not a Riesling. By German law, a wine must be made of at least 85% of a varietal to be labeled with that information. This one is not labeled with any varietal, so it is not a Riesling, though it may contain some.
I can't find any info on the producer or what might actually be in the bottle online, so I'll dive right into it.
Pours light gold. Aromas of honey, maybe some light stone fruit. Very thick and almost syrupy in the mouth. Sweet with flavors of honey, lime, light acidity, minerality, maybe a little funk (noble rot???). Not very complex.
A little bit of lingering flavor, but not much really.
It's not bad for the price, though it does not have the great racing acidity/residual sugars you will find in a Riesling. Could be a good dessert wine. I'll say 83 points.

St. Urbans-Hof 2008 QbA Riesling.

I paid all of 13 dollars for this bottle, but I would have paid more!
This is a great value German Riesling. Pours a green gold, with a very fruity and acidic aroma.
Great racing acidity in the mouth, balanced by a residual sweetness. Flavors of stone fruit, citrus, minerals. Not much aftertaste. This bottle is what Riesling is all about.
I'll give this one a 90. You'll find better Rieslings out there, but not for this price!

Que ce qu'elle a dit.

This will be a fun one. Another 'clone' of sorts, as well as being the first beer that I have made from bottle cloned yeast. Meaning I bought a bottle of the beer in question, drank the beer, and dumped the remaining yeast into some prepared wort for it to propagate.
It took some time- probably four days- before I really saw fermentation activity, and another two before it seemed to really get going. But it did, and it worked. The yeast had a great Belgian beer aroma when I added it to the fermentor.
This is my version of Saxo by Brasserie Caracole. I have long said this is one of my favorites. A nice mellow Belgian Strong ale. I was able to gain some information about what was in this beer both from the book Brew like a Monk and the website of the importer. Pilsner malt, munich malt, raw wheat, coriander, saaz hops, the starting gravity of 1.065. Lots of information to make an informed guess.
Thus, I present to you Que ce qu'elle a dit - That's what she said.
7 lb 7 oz Pilsner
1 lb 9 oz sugar
1 lb Munich malt
1 lb Flaked wheat
.5 oz Czech Saaz pellet @90 min
.5 oz Czech Saaz pellet @15 min
.5 oz Czech Saaz pellet @10 min
.5 oz toasted and crushed coriander seed @10 min
.5 oz Czech Saaz pellet @5 min
1 oz Czech Saaz pellet @0 min
Ferment with Caracole yeast cultured from the bottle
11/30/10- Mash for 90 min @ 148 with 3.75 gal water. Sparged with -8 gal water. Collected 8 gal or so, didn't boil enough off and ended up over volume and slightly under gravity. But that's ok. Tastes good, yeast smells good.
12/1/10- Active fermentation by this morning.

2008 Louis Latour Pouilly-Fuisse.

I got this bottle on sale at my local wine shop. I believe it was 22 on sale. Not too bad. I have kept it for a little bit and occasionally see their dwindling stocks and wonder if I should buy a few more. So I had to come to an answer.
This wine pours a great golden/green color. I get honey, citrus, some pineapple, butteryness, minerality in the nose. Honey definitely lingers on in the mouth, with citrus more predominate. Once swallowed, tastes like buttered popcorn. There is no oak.
Again, value comes into play here. This is not the best Pouilly-Fuisse I have had, and the best I have had was in the same price range as this was on sale. Last night I tasted this wine and found it pretty bland, today seems to be a little bit of a different story. Last night my rating was 81, today I'll bump that to 83. Why?
The bourgogne chardonnay I reviewed two posts down was about half the price and as enjoyable and about the same quality level. Why spend more for something that is the same in those respects?

2009 Castle Rock California Cuvee Pinot Noir.

Nice light magenta in the glass. Very aromatic.
Taste of strawberries, dark cherries. Maybe some oaky flavors in there as well. Easy drinking, though not extremely complex by any means. A little bit of a lingering finish. Good acidity. Not much earthiness.
Though this wine is not very complex, I feel it represents a good value. I paid 9 and change for the bottle. With that price in mind, I could give this a 88 rating. I think it represents a good wine at that price point.

Michel Picard 2007 Bourgogne Chardonnay Recolte..

This is a fairly nice and straightforward white Burgundy. Aromas of white flowers, freshly rained on river stone, stone fruit. A tad of oak aromas - vanilla, light toastyness. Medium bodied with a crisp but balanced acidity. Lightly honeyed yellow peaches, citrus, the oak comes through a bit more, but it is by no means similar to the heavily oaked Chardonnays you will often find from California. Nice finish and the flavor sticks around for awhile.
I think this would give you a good idea of what cote d'or chardonnay is like. From what I remember, I paid something in the teens for this. For that price, I would rate it a 86.

Ligne Maginot- First Tasting.

This is what I have decided to call my beer/wine blend. The Maginot line was a series of fortifications erected by France on their shared border with Germany after WWI. The idea was that the line would protect France from another invasion. Well, WWII rolled around and after a brief siege, Germany invaded Belgium and from there headed south into France, completely outflanking all of France's protection. This went down in history as one of France's greatest military blunders.
This beer pours a slighty hazy golden color. Ample, streaming carbonation, but no head. Brett is definitely apparent in the aroma- tropical fruit, nuts, hay, a little barnyardy.
The beer definitely tastes more 'beery' than it smells, by which I mean more like a beer brewed with a captive yeast strain. A nice nuttiness and hay continue into the flavor, with nice carbonation and mouth feel. I am not sure how much the wine really adds, but I am sure if you had some without to taste against this, you would notice the difference.
All in all, I would say I am happy with the results, and it is an experiment worth repeating.

lost for life.

With this beer I am taking aim at one of my all time favorites - Unibroue's Maudite. This is an excellent Belgian strong dark ale style beer, though it is lighter in color than most.
I very carefully looked at Unibroue's new website while formulating my recipe. In specific I paid attention to the srm, or color of the beer at 18. The clarity- cloudy which says to me there is some wheat in the grain bill. The head- fine rocky foam- unmalted wheat? The nose and flavor, which give clues to the mash temperature and possible spices added- Nose- Malt, orange, wild spices with fragrances of coriander and cloves and floral hop notes. Flavor- Robust maltiness and spiciness with a crisp hop finish. And the listed IBU of 22.
This is what I came up with...
6lb 2 oz Pilsner malt
2 lb Pale wheat malt
1 lb 9 oz table sugar
1 lb Munich Malt
1 lb flaked wheat/spelt
14 oz special b
.5 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 90 min.
.75 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 15 min.
.5 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 10 min.
.5 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 5 min.
.5 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 1 min.
14 g dried sweet orange peel
14 g coriander
.5 g clove
1 g white pepper
1 g grains of paradise all @ 10 min.
Wyeast 3864.
og- 1.063
fg- 1.007
7.61% abv, 71% attenuation
I think that this recipe should hit close, and if not, I'm sure it'll be delicious anyway!
11/10/10- Brewed a bit after I thought I would get to it. Mashed at 154 for 90 min with 3.5 gal water. Had a 90 min boil, forgot to add 1 min hops. Though it tastes good, low efficency again. I am not sure what the problem is. I did discover that my hydrometer is a little off (add .007 to each reading).
Yeast starter.Sugar, hops, and spices. I used a mix of table sugar and rock sugar.The boil.
Racking from pot to fermentor.12/22/10- Bottled with 7/8 c of corn sugar. I had cold crashed it for a week or so in the garage before. Ended up at 7.6% abv, which is a touch shy of Maudite. Does taste similar, though with too much hop aroma and flavor. Should have added more for the boil and little or none towards the end.
But the beer beneath those hops! Very close to Maudite I would say.
2/1/11- Side by side tasting with Maudite.

Peat Smoked Stout.

I like scotch and some of my favorite scotches come from Islay, which is on the west coast of the UK, north of Ireland. The thing that gives these scotches their distinctive 'peaty' flavor is malted barley that has been dried over a peat fire and allowed to be exposed to the smoke. The peaty flavor can be described variably as smoky, phenolic, medicinal, seaweed, iodine, salt. Just try a glass of Lagavulin and you'll see what those descriptors mean!
Those strong flavors mean that most people who don't drink scotch or those scotches in particular may very well not like this beer or even find it disgusting. But I am ok with that! More for me.
7.5 lb British pale
2 lb peat smoked malt
1 lb black patent
1 lb dark crystal
1.5 oz styrian goldings pellet @ 90 min
.5 oz styrian goldings pellet @ 15 min
1056
1 oz of med toast hungarian oak cubes soaked in Ardbeg 10 to secondary.
10/6/10- Mash at 156 for 90 min. Had quite a brew day. The yeast I was going to use is dead. The regulator on my burner ceased functioning. The new one I bought didn't connect to the hose correctly and when I connected it directly to the burner, it is not burning with the same intensity. Oh well.
10/22/10- Moved to secondary along with 1 oz of m toast hungarian oak cubes soaked for awhile in Argbeg 10, along with 2 fl oz of Ardbeg 10. Tastes pretty medicinal and strongly flavored.
11/23/10- Bottled with 1/2 c corn sugar. Aiming for an over all lower carbonation. This one seems pretty wacky, as my attenuation is lower than expected, though it must have fermented out completely in the almost two months it was doing so. Hopefully I don't get bottle bombs.

JK's Scrumpy Hard Cider.

This is an organic farmhouse English style cider made in Michigan. I have been seeing it on the shelf at my favorite liquor store, but have yet to get around to trying it until today. It's too bad I waited!
This cider pours into the glass a rich golden color. The aroma is unsurprisingly that of vinous, tart apples. The taste is rich and deep of apples, pleasantly carbonated with a little bit of a funky side, but not as much as you would see in my favorite French ciders. Very tasty and definitely worth a try!
And as a plus, it is also certified organic.
My rating: A must try.
Abv: 6%.
Website: JK Scrumpy.
Price paid: 6-7 dollars.

Black Wit.

I have a dark sense of humor I guess, but that is not what this is all about. This is an idea I had months ago. What would it be like to have a witbier that was brewed with mostly traditional ingredients, but instead of being white, it would be black?
Well I finally have come to the time to find out. This is my still not brewed white beer recipe with a pound of black patent subbed in for a pound of pils malt. All the traditional and some not so traditional spices are used to lightly flavor, and I am using the yeast from one of my favorite all time brewers.
Black wit.
4 lbs German pils
4 lbs German wheat
1 lb black patent
1 lb flaked spelt
1.5 oz hallertau pellet @ 90 min.
7g coriander
7g dried sweet orange peel
1g black pepper
1g white pepper
.5g cumin
.1g ground ginger
.1g grains of paradise
.1g star anise all @ 10 min.
.5 oz Czech saaz pellet @ 2 min.
Wyeast 3864 Canadian/Belgian.
og- 1.048
fg- 1.011
4.86% abv.
9/15/10- Toasted all the spices except orange on low heat until aromatic, crushed with a pot to a coarse texture. Mashed in at 144 for 40 min, decocted to 156 for 4o min, decocted to mashout.
9/29/10- Bottled with 4.5 oz corn sugar, aiming for 2.5 or so volumes of carbonation.

Two reviews.

With my 30th birthday coming and going this week, I decided to treat myself to a few nice bottles of beer to celebrate.
First I chose Drie Fonteinen's Oude Kriek. Their guezue was excellent, so this seemed like a logical choice. It poured into the glass ruby red, with a pink tinged head and aromas of fruit, tart, brett, and additional funkiness. The beer was a chameleon in drinking and tasted different and better as it warmed up while I drank the bottle. It presents with a nice tartness, fruit, and very big brett/funk/barnyardy flavor. The end is more restrained, with the cherries, vanilla, and a light oak. As it warmed, the big funky flavors subdued themselves.
Good stuff, and a world class kriek. I would recommend removing it from the fridge 30-45 minutes before drinking so you can get the best out of it. It's 6% abv, and was about eleven dollars at Harvest wine and spirits.
The second is Bam Noire by Jolly Pumpkin. I have reviewed several of their other beers, and find that to my tastes, they are all pretty good. They definitely have a terroir; all of their beers do have a distinctive house taste. I would say Unibroue is the only other brewer who I find that to be true for.
This one is a seasonal release in September, and billed as a dark farmhouse ale. It pours pretty dark with a nice light mocha head that remains with the beer until the last sip. When held to the light, it looks a mahogany color. It has a very wine like aroma, dark fruits, oak. The taste is not at all what I expected, with a nice tartness throughout, very light mouth feel for a darker beer, with just a hint of the dark malts (coffee, cocoa) after swallowing. Not a long finish, but longer than I would expect for how light it feels.
This beer is 4.3% abv, and will probably run you somewhere around ten bucks. It is worth a try, but I think the perceived value is a little low because their other beers which are 7+% abv are only a dollar or two more expensive, and it takes more raw product to make them. I know Jolly Pumpkin ages all their beers in oak casks for a bit of time, so that it where the cost comes in.

Continued Evolution- Grisette tasting.

Yum. This is one of my beers that I have been really digging as I continue to taste it over time. The main reason being that it was accidentally 'infected' with Brettanomyces at bottling time. Some of the bottles got a dose, and some didn't. The ones that did have evolved into something magical.
A great golden color with a champagne like effervescence and a thin but lasting moussey head. Complex wine like aromas of citrus, oak, hay, light brett touch. Dancing on the tongue with stronger flavors of those same aromas, with the brett a bit more apparent. Good bitterness present, but no hop flavors really. Toasty oakiness. Quick finish with little lingering taste, only a touch of bitterness. Very dry.
This has now had almost five months in the bottle and is at around six months after the day it was brewed. I like that each bottle continues to evolve and move on to something else. It's pretty great. It was a great summer beer and I look forward to enjoying the remaining bottles I have over time and into next summer.
First tasting.

Where we are.

I haven't posted much in the past month for a few reasons. My family was all out to visit, therefore I didn't have the time to brew much (only once in August) and a lack of fermentor space with 20 gallons of beer in my pantry. Reviews have been lacking as I have not been buying much commercial beer since I have a glut of my own and I have been buying more wine recently.
That being said, here is were several of my current brewing projects are...
Historical Saison:
This has been fermenting for nearly six months now. I haven't tasted it recently (probably since July at some time) and it's flavor was evolving as time went on. Now it has developed a nice pellicle. There seems to be little activity going on, with little gas production, but some of the organisms in the mix don't produce co2 as they ferment. I am now planning to let this beer until the one year mark and bottle it then.
Sour Mash no2:
This beer has been fermenting now for a little over three months. At this point I would say it is ready to be bottled, I am just waiting to accumulate enough cap-able champagne style bottles so I can bottle it at a higher pressure. Tastes somewhat Lambic like but no where near as complex. The color is a dark ruby red. Pretty sexy.
Berliner Weisse:
This is at a little over a month of fermentation time, and there is still a good bit of activity going on. It already tasted pretty tart when I racked it to the secondary, so I am interested in seeing how it develops. It should spend another five months or so in there, and be ready to bottle in the spring. I am excited to try it!

Last Tasting- Bokonon Bitter.

I've been holding onto the last bomber of this beer for awhile. I was going to open it when my parents were out to visit, but we tried some other stuff. Tonight seemed like a good time.
It seems to be pouring with a little more carbonation than I remember, but feels the same in the mouth. Great clear copper color.
The taste is pretty much as I remember it, however the hops seem to have lost some of their bright floral flavor though an overall perception of bitterness is still there. Rich carmelly somewhat lingering finish.
Pretty tasty and I am sad to see it go.. But of course I can make more and improve upon it!

An experiment in blending wine and beer.

This is probably the only week I will be able to brew in August due to family visits and fermentor space. I have been kicking this idea around for awhile, and I figured now would be a good time to get around to it. In the beer I am using a 100% Pilsner malt, light hopping, and fermenting with Brett C. which should produce tropical fruity esters.
To the secondary I will add 1 oz of medium toast Hungarian oak cubes that have been soaking in Reisling, as well as 1-2 bottles of wine. I am also thinking of Alsatian Riesling, as those seem to have some of those fruit characteristics and will have less sweetness to them. Another good bet and maybe a better option would be an unoaked Chardonnay.
11 lb German Pilsner
1.5 oz Crystal leaf @ 90 min
.5 oz Crystal leaf @ 0 min
5151 Brettanomyces Claussini
1-2 bottles of wine added to secondary
1 oz medium toast Hungarian oak cubes added to secondary
Og- 1.052
Fg- 1.001
6.8% abv
80% attentuation.
8/10/10- Made starter for washed jar of yeast.
8/11/10- Mash at 148 for 90 min. Sparged with 6 gallons of water. 90 minute boil. Hops clogged spigot several times when moving to primary fermentor.
9/1/10- I still have yet to get another secondary fermentor, so I am going ahead with this in the bucket for the time being. Today I added the oak cubes that were boiled in water for 30 min and then soaked in Riesling for a few weeks. Look at what the wine looked like after...
It tasted pretty nasty. Very oaky, tannic, and astringent. It is always a good idea to soak your oak in some sort of alcohol so those hard flavors don't end up in your beer. Something neutral can be used if you don't want the soak to add any flavor itself. I also added a bottle of white Burgundy. This is an unoaked Chardonnay that should compliment the flavors present in the beer pretty well. I bought a second bottle if I need to add more.
10/22/10- Bottled with 5 oz corn sugar and reyeasted with 2 packets of Safale 33. Looked like the yeast I used to ferment had been killed from the sulfites in the wine. Very interesting taste.

Unibroue- Ephemere Apple.

Sorry, no picture for you this time.
Unibroue has to be my favorite all time brewer. Each one of their beers are unique, and each one is also excellent. Their labels are pretty kick ass as well.
This beer is a white ale brewed with the usual spices (coriander, curacao) with the addition of apple juice. The end product is something like a blend of beer and cider, and tastes like a white ale with the usual spicing (curacao, coriander) and apply goodness.
This beer pours into the glass a golden color, with a nice white head. The head will dissapate some what while drinking, but no matter. The aroma is apply, cidery, and lightly spicy.
The first sip reveals a light bodied ale with flavors of apple, fruity yeast esters, and a light spiciness. There is a bit of tartness to it, reminscent of the green apples pictured on the label.
The finish lingers somewhat, with the flavors of the white ale being more predominate in my opinion.
This is a great refreshing beer and has a low abv when compared to alot of Unibroue's other beers. Definitely a must for a hot summer day!
My rating: A must try.
Abv: 5.5%.
Website: Unibroue.
Price paid: Around 8 for a four pack.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 12.

Bodegas el Nido- Clio 2005.

I know what you are thinking.. "a wine review?????!?!!?" Yes. I have, much to even my own surprise, been buying and drinking some wine recently. So I thought why not review it as well?
I found this bottle about 2/3 full in the hotel one evening. I always take leftovers and brought this home with me. The average retail I could find was 80-115 dollars for a bottle! I wonder why someone didn't drink this all.
The wine is a very dark violet. Only right around the edges of the glass can you see this color. The rest is inky, dark, mysterious.
The aromas are incredible. Pour a glass and you can literally smell it throughout the whole room. Dark berries and fruit, a touch of oak, spices, and fullness and roundness. The taste is out of this world. Mouth coating, unctuous, but also a nice acidity at the same time. Medium to full body with a finish that hangs around for a few minutes. A great sipping wine as this finish can make each sip taste like it is several minutes long.
I would recommend decanting as I have found the end of each glass tastes noticeably better than the start.
When this wine came out it was around 45 a bottle and the lowest rp rating it has gotten since 1997 was a 93. Those things considered, this would be a great wine to buy a few bottles of to enjoy over the years. I believe I read the 2008 will be released soon. It would be a great deal, as I can find this comparable to the Mouton Rothschild I got to sample at work, though at a sixth of the price.

Liberty.

This is in no way beer related, but one of my friends died this week and I am having a really tough time with it. Her name was Liberty Rebekah Dagenais and she was 29. When I was going through my cancer treatment I met her on a website we were both members of. She provided to be someone good to talk to since we were both younger and she had breast cancer prior to my illness.
She recovered and got better and got a tattoo to mark that. She along with Morgan, another friend of mine who had cancer, were inspiration for my own survivor tattoo.
After she got better and was getting back to real life, she had some back pain and went to see her doctor. He said it was probably nothing but they took an xray to make sure. That showed nothing so he said they should do an mri just to be completely sure. And that showed the cancer had come back and there were now tumors growing around her spine. They were able to surgically remove those, and it was back to chemo and radiation.
I hadn't talked to her in awhile since she was so busy with that, but the cancer came back with a vengence and she died with cancer in her brain, liver, and bones. It ate her spine and she was left in a wheelchair paralyzed from the waist down. Finally she was told there was really nothing more that could be done.
People consider Lance Armstrong an inspiration, but consider someone who could no longer walk and who knew they were going to die waking up in the morning and facing the day with a smile. She was still able to focus on life and spending time with her husband and friends, all while in immense pain. I can't imagine the strength she said. I don't know that I could have done that and waited for the end rather than taking matters into my own hands.
Cancer brings out the best and worst in people and it her case, it was definitely the best. She proved to be an inspiration to so many and I hope that those of you who read this and didn't know her will find her as inspiring as I do. I feel so upset that the world has lost this person. I almost feel guilty that I am still here and she isn't. I am sure I didn't receive any better care than she did; but I guess that is just how things are. Some people get better and some people don't.
In loving memory of Liberty, a cancer survivor.

Berliner Weisse.

This week I am brewing a Berliner Weisse. This is a German style that uses a mix of brewers yeast and lactobacillus to ferment, thus producing a tart product. It is low in alcohol, light in color, lightly hopped, and highly carbonated. This is something I have wanted to brew for a little, but Wyeast has just re-released their Berliner Weisse blend(3191), which also includes a strain of brettanomyces. I have read you can also brew it using a commercial lacto culture and yeast combo, adding the lacto a day before the yeast or so. My grain bill came from the mad fermentationist (I think), one of my favorite brewing blogs.
4.5 lbs German Pils
3 lbs white wheat
.25 oz Hallertau pellet @ mash hop.
.25 oz Hallertau pellet @ sparge hop.
Wyeast 3191- Berliner Weisse blend.
Calculated og- 1.038
7/21/10- Decoction mash as follows...
Mash in 122 20 min
decoct 144 15 min
decoct 149 30 min
decoct 162 20 min
decoct 172 10 min
collected 5 gals+ of wort, brought to a boil for 5 min, cooled and racked to fermenter. I had to go buy the yeast so it stood for a few hours before I added that. I offer a calculated original gravity as I added .5 gal of water after I had taken the og and found it too high, but had contaminated everything I used so couldn't take another sample.
I have to say this was probably my most pleasant brew day ever! Everything went very smoothly, exactly as planned. It was nice to not do a 90 min boil for a change. I felt like I had time to brew as I wanted but still do some other things. Next week this will go to the secondary, where it will stay until probably six months from now. Guess this one will be a drinker next summer.

First tasting- Per un Pugno di Luppolo.

Today I cracked open a bottle of my 'fistful of hops' ale, which used a mixed culture (Wyeast French Saison and Brettanomyces Lambicus) to ferment, hop bursting to impart all of the bitterness, dry hopping, and oak aging. Phew. Seems like alot going on in this one. Let's see...
Pours a nice pale golden color, with a foamy white head that dissipates. The aroma is reminiscent of cider, hay, barnyard, a touch of hot sand, and a vinous quality.
It hits your mouth with a constellation of carbonation, with abundant streaming bubbles visible in the glass. The taste is relatively hoppy, though I would say less so than even an American pale ale. Hay and light funk come into play as well. Very dry, and leaves a long finish of floral, earthy, and somewhat spicy hops and caramel oddly enough. Caramel is not a flavor I would expect to taste in a beer that is Pilsner and light wheat malt.
Overall I would say this is a good and drinkable beer. It would be nice on a hot day, though maybe not entirely what I was aiming for. But then again, I am not sure what I was really aiming for anyway.
I feel that fans of Belgian style beers would like this, but I am not sure if people who normally drink American hop bombs would or not. It is definitely less hoppy than an American IPA and the aroma might be off putting. I feel that I would prefer this beer over those though. It has a very nice hop character with out being too much, as I feel many beers of that style are.

Odell Brewing - Saboteur.

I picked up this bottle a few weeks ago and have been looking for the right time to pop it open. That time came today as I am brewing my own beer.
This beer pours a clear brown into my glass. A thick mocha colored head builds and stays with the beer as drunk, producing a nice lacing in the glass.
The aroma is very fruity and perhaps a touch floral with some dark cherry. A nice tartness is apparent as well as the aroma of Brettanomyces.
The taste is something completely different, with the tastes of darker malts. Coffee, chocolate, caramel, and to a lesser note vanilla, nut, fruit. Light sour finish with a long and lingering taste. The alcohol content is not apparent. Fuller mouth feel than most sour ales. This was released in the spring but I feel if you have purchased a bottle of this and have yet to drink it, it would be best to hold onto it until the winter.
The finish on this one really lasts and lasts. It is different from most sour or all brett beers in that it is a bit heavier. Pretty good and a different entry to the already different category of American sour ales.
My rating: Worth a try.
Abv: 10%.
Website: Odell Brewing Co.
Price paid: Around 12 at Twins Peaks Liquor.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 19.
On a brief side note, I went to Pj's today to pick up some wine and the guy behind me was buying two cans of Budweiser with Clamato juice. BLECH!!!!!

Yet to be Determined.

This time around I will be brewing yet another Belgian style ale. I contacted the brewers of de Ranke, and asked what the IBU of XX Bitter was. I got an answer, and though I am using only one of the hop varieties that they do, I will be aiming for that figure.
I guess for all intents and purposes, this will be my 'clone' of that beer. A hoppy IPA but brewed with a Belgian yeast strain to impart some of those tasty esters. I am again using a hop bursting technique, though I am using a bittering addition as well at the start of the boil. Name yet to be determined, but that sounds like a good name itself.
Yet to be Determined Belgian IPA.
11 lb 5 oz German Pils
1.75 oz Hallertau pellet @ 90 min.
1.25 oz Hallertau pellet @ 20 min.
1.5 oz Hallertau pellet @ 15 min.
.25 tsp Irish moss @ 15 min.
1.5 oz Hallertau pellet @ 10 min.
1.5 oz Hallertau pellet @ 5 min.
1.5 oz Hallertau pellet @ 0 min.
Wyeast 3538.
Estimated OG- 1.061
Actual OG- 1.055
7/6/10- This strain of yeast was one of Wyeasts VSS strains last quarter. It was dated March 31 and the packet was swollen so I decided to make a starter just to be sure it would be ok.
7/7/10- Mash at 149 for 90 min. Sparged with 8+ gallons of water. Had to do a long boil to reduce this inital volume (near ten gal) to a bit under six. My estimation on how much evaporation I was getting was off, so I ended up a bit under gravity, with a higher volume but that is ok. Tastes very hoppy and active fermentation happening by the next morning.

New Belgium- Biere de Mars.

Today I am drinking a bottle of New Belgium's Biere de Mars. Mars means March (the month) in French, and this style was typically brewed in the early winter out of the finest ingredients of the season. It would be laid down for the winter and then drunk in March.
This beer pours the orangest/amberest color I have ever seen. There is a little bit of a white head that recedes and leaves some nice lacing in the glass.
The aroma is very fruity and citrusy. Light touch of brett. The carbonation on this beer is not extremely high; I can see a bit of streaming bubbles in the glass but not all that much. The flavor is citrusy with a touch of malt and a light brett character at the end. The mouthfeel is pretty full, though the beer is pretty light, something you will often find in French or Belgian beers of this style. A somewhat lingering finish to it of hay/barn.
My rating: Worth a try.
Abv: 6.2%.
Website: New Belgium.
Price paid: 7 or so at PJ's Wine and Spirits.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 11.

The ones that got away.

In this post I will highlight some commercial beers I have had in the past few months but forgot to review. Some of my flavor memories are gone now, so I will write up what I remember.
New Belgium- Mighty Arrow.
This is a good American Pale ale. Nice bitterness and great floral hoppiness, though right on the edge of being too much for my tastes. This is a seasonal release available only in the spring. The story on the label is heartbreaking. It'll probably run around 8 dollars for a six pack, and it is worth a try if you see it.
New Belgium- Blue Paddle.
This is New Belgium's Pilsner and it is great. Very refreshing, great malt flavor with the accents of noble hops tasted and felt through out the glass. I would say if you are looking for an authentic Pilsner, this would be something to buy over imports. It'll probably be fresher and didn't journey halfway around the world to get to you. A six pack will run you around 8 and it is a must try.
Avery Brewing- Karma.
The label states this to be a Belgian farmhouse style ale. I totally disagree with that, as it doesn't taste like it at all. Not a bad beer, but also not very remarkable. Very light. You'll probably find this for 7-9 dollars in a six pack. Maybe worth a try, but not if you are looking for something Belgian style.
Boulevard Brewing- Lunar Ale.
This is an interesting take on a red/brown ale. It is not sweet like Newcastle, not hoppy like some others. It was brewed with wheat, so I can say it tastes like a tart version of a wheat beer, but with more body from the barley. I didn't like the first bottle all that much, but it grew on me and I finished the six pack wishing there were a few more. This would be a great summer beer. Expect to see it for around 8 dollars. If you are a fan of wheat beers, definitely give this a try for something a bit different.
New Belgium/Boon- Transatlantic Kriek.
This beer is a dark ruby red. It is made of Kriek brewed in Belgium by Boon and a pale ale brewed in Colorado by New Belgium. They are blended together and bottled here. The Boon lambic is definitely sweetened in some manner and this beer does not have that tart edge you would expect from a traditional lambic. Very candy like and somewhat one dimensional. I think a better thing to do would be to age la Folie with some cherries at New Belgium and release that. It was somewhere around 13 dollars for this bottle. I think it would be worth spending a dollar or two more and getting a true lambic from Cantillon, 3 Fonteinen, or spending a few dollars less and buying Liefmans Kriek.
Newcastle- Brown Ale.
After a big marketing push, you can find this beer all over the place. A coworker recently told me he felt that this beer has gotten sweeter in recent times. That could be, but I really can't say for sure. This is one of my all time favorites. Nice malt character with a crisp minerality from the water using in brewing. Light hop accentuation and a bit of sweetness. Very drinkable. Expect to pay 7 for a six pack, 13 for a 12. Worth every penny.
Coniston Brewing- Bluebird Bitter.
WOW! I was so psyched when I saw this at a local liquor store. I have had it once before and found it to be one of the best beers I have ever had at that time. I was very disappointed. The malt flavors and great floral hoppiness that I remembered were not there at all. That could have something to do with the freshness of this bottle. It had dust on it and who knows how long it had been sitting there? I found my home brewed bitter (which is a clone of this) to be much better, though not as good as the first time I had this. I think I got it for around 5 bucks. That would be a steal if you saw it somewhere that has a high turnover. I knew what I was getting into by buying a dust covered bottle, but had to anyway. It was ok, but I would recommend something like Fullers over it at most places. I imagine drinking this in the UK out of a hand pump would be a sublime experience.
De Dolle Brouwers- Dulle Teve 10.
The name of this beer means 'mad bitch' in English. HA! This is a tripel made with candy sugar added in. I got this at the same place as the Bluebird, and again found myself wondering how long it had been sitting there for. There was a large amount of floating sediment in the bottle and in my glass. Not my favorite beer. Maybe again the freshness issue came into play. I believe it was around 5 bucks for a bottle. The other De Dolle beers I have had have been fantastic. This one kind of meh.
Bear Republic- Racer 5.
I never would have tried this on my own, but a friend of a friend said my bitter reminded her of this beer. I don't really care for IPA's but this one wasn't bad at all. Of course massive hoppiness, but also had a nice malt flavor there to compliment it. Still a bomber of it was a bit much for me. I think it was around 7 dollars, and definitely worth a try.
Bavik- Petrus Oud Bruin.
I had this so long ago I don't really remember much of what it tasted like. This is a mix of Petrus aged pale and a sweeter brown beer. If it were up to me, I would rather have the aged pale any day. I am finding I don't really care for this style of beer all that much. But if I were to buy it, I would look for either this or Liefmans Goudenband. I think this was 4 and change for a bottle.
Bavik- Petrus Gouden Tripel.
I don't really remember much of the flavor profile of this beer, but I do remember liking it. I think it was between 4-5 for a bottle.
Boddington's pub ale.
This is another bitter from the UK. It is very creamy and has a nice velvety mouth feel, but is unspectacular otherwise. Little hop perception, little malt perception. For a much better bitter look for Fullers, Bluebird Bitter (as long as it is fresh), or maybe Old Speckled Hen.
Unibroue- 10.
The somewhat hilariously named Unibroue (guess it means something else there!) released this beer for their tenth anniversary. I believe they were possibly the first Belgian style brewery operating in North America, but New Belgium may have beat them to it.
Anyway, this bottle has some history. I remember when it was released in 2002, I read on Unibroue's website that it could potentially age for up to ten years or more. I bought two bottles and drank one then, and told myself I would keep the other bottle for as long as I could up to ten years. It has travelled with me from Philadelphia to St. Louis back to Philly and finally to Colorado. I decided to open it up for the fifth year anniversary of the end of my cancer treatment. It made it a little more than eight years after it had been brewed. The cork came out with a pop, and there was plenty of carbonation in this beer. It tasted like a slice of heaven. Too bad, because I will never have another one. It was probably around 10 bucks then. Now I doubt you could find it anywhere.

Brouwerij Verhaeghe- Duchesse de Bourgogne.

This is a beer I have been wanting to try. I have seen it around at a few places, but usually there is something I have wanted more.
It pours out a dark red/brown color with an off white head. The first whiff is both sweet and tart, hints of caramel ice cream, port, fig. There is nice carbonation with a fuller mouth feel probably owing to the sweeter portion of the blend. The flavor has some aged balsamic vinegar, both sweet and fruity with a bit of a tarter finish. Ripe dark fruits abound.
There are several sour beers that I would pick over this. However, it is good and worth a try.
My rating: Worth a try.
Website: Importer.
Price paid: 9.86 at Pj's wine and spirits.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 15.

Pour une poignée de houblon or Per un pugno di luppolo?

This time around I have decided to brew something that will be like my Grisette, but definitely more on the hoppy/sour/funky side. In this beer, I will be using a mixed culture to ferment (of Brett L and 3711) as well as 'hop bursting'. This is a technique that emphasizes hop flavor and aroma. Normally a bittering hop addition would occur at the start of the boil. This lends most of the overall perception of bitterness to the beer. The flavor and aroma additions come near the end of the boil.
Using hop bursting, there is no bitterness addition, and all of the IBU's come from additions near the end of the boil. Supposedly, this contributes an amazing hop aroma and taste to the beer, though you have to use large amounts of hops to achieve this effect. In this case that would be four ounces.
The name was inspired by the Clint Eastwood movie 'A Fistful of Dollars' or 'Per un Pugno di Dollari' since the director was Italian. Not sure if I should use French instead...
5 lb Belgian Pils
2 lb White wheat
7 oz Flaked wheat
5 oz Acidulated
1 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 20 min
.5 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 15 min
1/4 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min
.5 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 10 min
1 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 5 min
1 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 0 min
Ferment with 3711- French Saison and 5526- Brettanomyces Lambicus.
Dry hop with 1.5 oz Crystal leaf @ 1 week to bottling.
Estimated og- 1.043
Actual og- 1.042
Intermediate- 1.003
Final- 1.001
5.37% Abv.
97.5% apparent attenuation.
80% actual attenuation.
6/16/10- Mashed the grains at 145 for 90 mins. Got around 5.5 gallons of wort. Added 1.5 gals of water to make up for evaporation during 90 min boil. Still ended up adding another gallon plus after the boil to get over 5 gal in volume. That burner is very efficient! The Brett L came from a 2 day old starter. The 3711 was pitched directly from a jar of washed yeast. Lots of hops made their way out of the pot and into the primary.
Yeasts.
Five hop additions = 4 oz of hops! A fistful!
Boiling.
Almost done!
6/22/10- To secondary and .5 oz of the oak cubes I used in the Grisette. Tastes very fruity and estery with a little Brett character and little hoppiness. I will definitely dry hop, maybe with a significant charge. I think I will add some wine (no more than a cup or two) as well to give it some vinous quality. (did not add wine) Picked up a few samples today. Added another .5 oz of new oak cubes, boiled for awhile.
Intermediate gravity.
A few artsy sunlit secondary pictures..
7/5/10- Some pellicle forming. Added 1.5 oz Crystal leaf for a dry hop finish.
7/13/10- Bottled with 6 oz corn sugar, aiming for 3 volumes of carbonation. Tastes very interesting and complex while still remaining pretty light. Long lingering hop finish as well as a bit of caramel oddly.
7/20/10- First tasting.

De Proefbrouwerij- Reinaert Flemish Wild Ale.

I saw this at Pj's and had to have a try since it is mentioned in Wild Brews.
It pours a crystal clear golden color with a fluffy, abundant, creamy head that lasts. I can see a ton of streaming bubbles in the glass.
The nose reminds me of many Belgian strong ales, though with less hopping. Slightly musty, funky, yet also clean (kind of reminds me of Duvel in a way). Maybe a bit of tart apple.
The taste is surprisingly fruity, with an earthy side. Nice malt character, abundant tingling carbonation, with a finish that is all Brettanomyces- imagine the taste of riding a horse with a leather saddle through a field of dried hay ready to harvest. A little citrus tartness hangs around.
Nice lacing in the glass, with the abv being hidden quite well in taste.
My rating: Worth a try.
Abv: 9%.
Website: Importer. DeProef does not seem to have a website at this time.
Price paid: 9.86 at Pj's Wine and Spirits.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 15.

1600 dollars worth of wine...

This is what it looks like...


We have a frequent guest at the restaurant who is wealth and likes his wine. He always comes in and gets a tasting menu and brings a few bottles with him. Of course, they are always sick. He also seems to be pretty generous, as himself and his guests never finish the bottles and he gives the server the remaining 1/4 bottle or more. Usually the server shares it with everyone, as was the case this time.
The average retail I can find for the 1985 Mouton Rothschild is 382 dollars, a relative bargain when you look back a few years at the 1982 vintage and see it going for 1550. This was my favorite of the two. Deep garnet with flavors of dark ripe berries (cherry poss?), spices, tobacco, leather, and the unmistakeable touch of Brettanomyces! Rich silky mouth feel, and long, lingering finish.
The average retail I can find for the Coche Dury is 1220! Yikes. Well I only got a tiny sip of this one and it didn't taste very good. Maybe it had been open too long or too many people had drank out of the glass, but I didn't care for it.

What to brew?

It has been three weeks this week since I have brewed and I am planning on doing something this week. Several options include...
A Belgian style wit. I wrote the recipe for this months ago, and I am planning on using Unibroue's yeast which is one of Wyeasts' VSS strains this quarter ending with the month. I have had several commercial white beers lately and would like to do my own take on the style.
Rebrew the Grisette. When I was bottling I had one bomber that only got ten oz or so. I opened it up and the beer inside was completely different from the rest of the batch. Slightly tart (owing to the acid malt and...) as well as infected with Brettanomyces. I use infected in this beer, because I did not want or add brett as I have to others. Anyway, it was really good! I would simplify the grain bill, taking it down to just pils, wheat, and acid, and ferment with 3711 and brett l right from the start. This seems like something I would like more than the wit in the end. However, I would guess that Wyeasts' VSS strains for the next quarter will include at least one farmhouse ale strain which may be good to use as well.
Rebrew Back Door Beauty. This ended up pretty good I would say. In fact one of my coworkers last night said it was the best home brewed beer he had ever tasted! However, it didn't end up as I planned. This time I would let the sour mash go for two whole days before continuing. Now that I think about it, this will not be an option since I would have to buy the grain today to start the sour mash tomorrow, and due to weather I will be taking the bus in.
I would like to do the wit, but at this point I am thinking I will redo and change up the Grisette.

Jolly Pumpkin- La Roja.

I definitely had a hankering for some sour beer this week. I stopped by a local shop here in Longmont called PJ's that is primarily known for wine. They do have a small but relatively well stocked beer section(though nothing I couldn't find elsewhere), including this beer that I have been wanting to try for awhile. This is blend 14 from 2008.
This beer pours a dark amber to red color, with a thin beige head that settles pretty quickly. Very complex vinous odor of red wine, earthiness, tartness, brett, dark fruits, and a little oak.
In the mouth, the oak comes through alot more. Light vanilla toastiness, tannic bitterness. I don't find much in the way of hops, good tartness, though not too tart. Nice dancing on the tongue carbonation, a little bit of lacing in the glass. Definite wild, funky, and vinous taste. Very dry, and the abv doesn't come through.
Lingering finish of oak, tartness, ripe berries, hay. I could see this being a good refreshing beer to drink on a hot summers day, as well as good warming beer to drink on a cold winter night.
My rating: Worth a try.
Abv: 7.2%.
Website: jollypumpkin.com.
Price paid: 11.25 at Pj's wine and spirits.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 18.

The beer tasting event of a lifetime.

Unfortunately I didn't know about it until too late, but this past week as part of Philly beer week, a Lambic tasting event was held at UPenn. It featured Frank Boon of Boon (of course), Armand Debelder of 3 Fonteinen, and Jean Van Roy of Brasserie Cantillon. In addition to tasting some of their every day products, it was said that they would be bringing along bottles unavailable in the United States and possibly anywhere else.
I have yet to read anyones write ups on the event, but I wish I had known earlier! Sure, the flight to Philly plus the cost of the tasting would have been 4-500 bucks, but that is alot cheaper than a flight to Brussels and renting a car and visiting each brewery independently.
Ah well.

Drie Fonteinen- Oude Gueuze.

The camera is kind of not working so great again...But I'm sure you get the idea!
In one of the books I have about beer, the author discusses the 'oude' designation. It means 'old' and was one something that was sought after, as it indicated a quality beer that had been brewed and aged properly. But the term has fallen out of favor these days, as a younger generation doesn't want to drink something old. This can be seen in alot of American beers which has born on/bottling dates and advise drinking within three months for maximum freshness.
The bottling date on this beer advised to drink within the next ten years, and I am sure it could go 20 or even 30. But it'll never get a chance because I drank it.
This beer pours out a nice orange/golden color with a fluffy white head. The aroma is fruity, light oak, sourness, earthiness. The taste continues with fruit- tart citrus, green apple, vanilla, oak, very complex. Sour and acidic but less so than Cantillon. Very dry, refreshing, and extremely drinkable. A bit of lacing in the glass, with a copious amount of carbonation. Very vinous and reminiscent of white whites and champagnes.
My rating: a world class gueuze.
Abv: 6%.
Website: 3fonteinen.be.
Price paid: in the neighborhood of 15 at Twin Peaks Liquor.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 24. A whole case!