Wines drunk recently.

Here are a few wines I have consumed in recent times...
1985 Trimbach Gewurztraminer Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre
Nice aromatically, litchi and exotic fruits, but dead in the bottle. Not much flavor left. NR.
1945 Château La Dominique non estate bottling.
Again, very aromatic, but most of the flavor was gone. Still had a nice acidity however. NR.
2003 Camille Giroud Aloxe-Corton 1er Cru Les Guérets
Very good, if not somewhat atypical. Darker in color and fruitier than you would normally find in a red burgundy. Evolved in the glass over time into something great. Only have one bottle left (ARG!) 91.
2006 Benziger Family Winery Cabernet Sauvignon
Not bad, not great. Definitely improved with some air time. Nice flavors throughout. 89.
2008 Cameron Hughes lot 145 Chardonnay
Nose of pear, asian pear, slight oak. Same flavors, with oak surprisingly less apparent for a cali chard. BUT... hugely alcoholic and bitter finish. Dumped half the bottle. 72.
2008 Emeritus Vineyards Pinot Noir Hallberg Ranch
I don't believe this is sold at retail? I got it from work. For the first few days it took me to drink this bottle, it showed a strange burnt rubbery aroma. Kind of off putting. But once you got past that it was good. Don't know if I would spend $75 on it in a restaurant good, but at 25 retail if you can find it, probably not a bad buy. 89.
2007 Georges Dubœuf Mâcon-Villages
Not a bad Chardonnay. This could be a decent 'house' bottle of wine. Flavors of citrus, honey, tropical fruits, a little underlying minerality. 86.
2007 Corvidae Wine Co. Shiraz Lenore
Tried out my new decanter with this wine. Very fruity in the dark red fruits vein as you might imagine. Not bad, but nothing special. 84.
2006 Château d'Argadens
Surprising clarity and also light in flavor. Tannic, dark red fruits, short finish. Not horrible, but I don't know if you'd find something much better in a Bordeaux Superior for this price. 82.
2001 Maison Leroy Bourgogne
This is from the negociant side of the Leroy name. Paid 20, but their more prestigious releases sell for up to 2000. Mold growing on cork and cork also completely soaked through. Wine inside was still fine. Light color beginning to brown a little around the edges. Soft fruits, cherry, orange peel. Some funk. Earthy/forest floor. A good basic Burgundy. 87.

Dedalus Old Stout.

Ulysses is a book that I first tried to read once about seven or eight years ago. I had read that it was widely considered the best book every written in the English language, and I decided I therefore had to read it.
My first attempt didn't go so well. I took it on our family vacation to North Cackalacka and even with making a fair amount of notes in the book (for me), I didn't make it much past page 40. If that even. It is a very intricate, complicated, and almost strenuous book to read.
Now I have gotten back on the horse. I decided that now was the time. Today I passed my previous high mark, the third chapter, where Stephen walks on the beach and nearly all of the book is his inner thoughts and memories. I am now about to start chapter four and I feel pretty confident in my ability to finish the book this time around. Two tries on Ulysses is not too bad from my understanding.
The beer is an experiment as many of my brews are these days. An attempt at perhaps a modern day historical stout. The beer is fermented on oak, solely with Brettanomyces. A portion of the beer was boiled separately, without hops, and is being fermented a bit by Lactobacillus. This will be pasteurized and added back to the main wort in the future.
It is well know that Guinness adds a portion of soured beer to their blend to give it the unique 'tang'. I have read that is around 3%. Mine will be around 10%. We'll see how it goes.
Dedalus Old Stout.
9.5 lb pale British malt
1 lb black patent
1 lb dark crystal
1.5 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 90 min
1 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 15 min
Wyeast 5112 Brettanomyces Bruxellensis
2/1/11- Mash at 156 for 90 min. At sparging, kept first two quarts separate and boiled for ten minutes before cooling in some snow outside. Once this got down to around 80 degrees, I added a handful of reserved crushed grain to introduce Lactobacillus. This all went into a 2 qt mason jar with plastic wrap on the surface of the wort to prevent it from reacting with oxygen. This has my heating pad on low wrapped around it, as Lacto likes to ferment warm.
The remainder of the beer was boiled for 90 min with noted hop additions. Once chilled, racked to primary fermentor with .5 oz washed med toast Hungarian oak cubes and .5 oz new Hungarian oak cubes. Added the brett from a starter originating on Saturday.

Mine vs. Theirs.

There are two main trains of thought in homebrewing. When they start, most people start with the first, which is to make tried and true recipes out of a book or from an online source. There are many 'clones' of commercial beers, and even several books dedicated to the subject, so you can try to make your favorites such as Guinness, Sierra Nevada, or Chimay Rouge.
Then there is the other train of thought. After making a number of book recipes one may start to wonder... 'What can I really do? Will it be difficult? What if it's not good?'.
I would say at this point after spending alot of time in the first category, I am now firmly in the latter. One of my thoughts is if I can buy a beer, why would I want to try to make it? I was scared to try to formulate my own recipes. It seemed very intimidating. But it is not very hard at all. I have made some really good and interesting beers.
Of course then again, there are some commercial beers that I really love. I decided to take aim at one of those and here are the results, tasted side by side with the beer in question.
My lost for life vs. Unibroue's Maudite.
Color- Pretty darn close. Maudite looks a tad darker, with more streaming carbonation. Head color looks identical. Both are cloudy, though Maudite is clearer than mine.
(Maudite left, mine right.)
Strength- Maudite is 8% with mine being 7.6%.
Aroma- Maudite has more of the Belgiany yeasty aroma. Orange, spices, little hop perception. The hops are much more prevalent in my beer. The same yeasty aroma is there, but less so. I used Wyeasts Canadian/Belgian strain which comes from Unibroue.
Taste- Maudite is luscious and smooth as always. Nice rich mouth feel. Dark fruits, spiciness, great lingering after taste. Hops in the finish, but as a generalized bitterness. My beer has a lighter mouth feel, not as rich and filling. Both have maybe a touch of tartness. Spicy and hoppy. I added way too much in the finishing stages of the boil. More or all of that should have been at the beginning. Both seem to be retaining the head identically with a little lacing in the glass. Mine has a lingering finish as well, though it is different tasting. Hoppier for sure.
Overall- I got pretty close I would say. I think a change to the hopping plus maybe a touch more of special b malt I could be even closer. The beer under the hops tastes very close. In fact, I was close enough that one of my beer loving coworkers was able to identify what brewery I was going after, though he said he felt it was closer to Fin du Monde in taste.
I am very pleased with this beer. I wish I had thought more about the hopping ahead of time, but oh well. It is not exactly Maudite (though close enough I could say 90%), but it is good in and of itself.
Recipe and brewing information.