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.