Happy New Beers

As another year comes to a close I can't help but sit back and reflect on all the great beers I have had this year. I thought I'd call out a few that I haven't written about already.

Flying Fish Exit 16 Wild Rice Double IPA- I believe this was their fifth release from the exit series. It is the best from the series so far, and possibly the best beer they have ever made. It is a lemony, floral, grainy thing, kinda along the lines of Pliny the Elder or Captain Lawrence, Captains Reserve. It is lighter on the malt with citrus dominating the aroma and finish. The use of wild rice in this brew gives it a nice toasty grain flavor that is really unique and tasty.

Corsendonk Christmas Ale- This is a limited release Belgian Strong Ale. It is chock full of malt that leans towards darker fruits like cherries and plums. There is some nice belgian yeasty spiciness as well. It is really delicious. Very drinkable, but it still packs a punch at 8.5% abv. It has a distinctly chewy mouth feel that adds volumes to the experience.

Stone Sublimely Self Righteous Ale- This black IPA is a remake of their 11th anniversary ale. It is hoppy as hell. Lots of grapefruit and lemon citrus aroma and flavor with a nice malt back bone. I could probably drink this one everyday if it wasn't 8.7%.

Lefebvre Hopus- Got this bottle from Belgianshop.com. An interesting brew. A Belgian take on hoppiness. It is tame by US standards, but still pretty good. The beer is hoppy and fruity with the Belgian yeast profile playing off bitter hops.

Stone Double Bastard- This isn't new or hard to find, but I had never had one before about a month ago. A co-worker shared his bottle with me after we closed down the store the day before Thanksgiving. We drank the beer in the parking lot of staples out of paper cups while watching out for the Madison cops. Double Bastard is big as hell with a ton of hops, malt, sweetness, bitterness, fruit, pine, and some alcohol heat to boot.

In the market for some beers

disclaimer: I started this post before Christmas, but finished it on 12/27.

Today I was off from work. My big plan was to finish up my Christmas shopping, which I almost did. I hit up the beer store with the intention of getting just a couple bottles as gifts. I ended up with a full basket worth of brews. The whole time I was walking around I kept cursing because there was so much I wanted to pick up just for myself. It took some real restraint not to load up on all the seasonals. I ended up grabbing just three bottles for myself. Being at that particular store made me think about what makes up a good beer store. There are so few good stores in Jersey. The few stand out stores definitely have their flaws, but I am grateful for their existence. Below is a list of a few of my favorite stores and what they have to offer.

Oak Tree Discount Wines and Spirits: 902 Oak Tree Ave, South Plainfield, NJ.
This is the most well regarded beer store in Jersey among beer geeks. They offer a wide range of domestic and import ales and lagers as well as your usual wine and spirit selection. They have a full range of larger format bottles along with 12 ounce singles and six packs. There is a pretty well stocked refridgerated section. They offer all the macros in a bunch of different packaging (ie six pack, case, 30 rack, etc). They might have kegs, but I'm not sure. Probably what makes this place really stand out is their selection of import beers. The entire back wall of the store is dedicated to imports from around the world. They have everything you could want from Belgiam, Germany, England, and beyond. The beer manager is knowledgeable and helpful. I will say that the last few times that I went there, I was disappointed in the selection. They really didn't have much new. The seasonal display left something to be desired. The domestic shelves also looked like they hadn't been restocked in a minute. I haven't been there in a few months, so hopefully they have gotten their act back together.

Joe Canal's Discount Liquor Outlet: 489 Route 1 South, Iselin (Woodbridge), NJ.
This place has a good selection of craft brews but it is mainly a wine and liquor store. They have your usual macro selection with plenty of refridgerated options as well as room temp pallet drops towards the back of the store. They have one wall dedicated to craft beer. Decent selection of domestic bombers and some larger format imports. They offer some single twelve ouncers as well. Selection is above average, but far from ideal. There isn't much in the way of good customer service as the beer guy works between two stores, and judging from the way the department usually looks, he is spread a bit thin. One thing that sets Joe Canal's apart is that they have a growler fill station. They will fill any half gallon growler from one of their six rotating taps. They also sell empty growlers to fill.

Shoprite Liquors of Westfield: 333 South Avenue, Westfield, NJ 07090.
This is my new favorite spot. They have a good selection that seems to be restocked often. Their seasonal offerings and displays are top notch. Tight, inviting displays, with good variety and selection. They have a wide range of larger format singles and six packs. They have some stuff you wouldn't expect like Green Flash and Ballast Point. I found an '08 Sierra Bigfoot there (blog post to come). The staff is helpful and seem knowledgeable. I still haven't met the main beer guy, but he seems to have a grasp on what he is doing because each time I have been there I walked out with way more than I expected to purchase. The picture above is bottles I got from this place.

Check these places out if you are into craft brew. Support the few stores that have good offerings and if you know of any other good ones, send them my way. Cheers.

Thirty Somethin

Thirty years ago I came kicking and screaming into this cold cruel world with bright eyes and a calm demeanor. My birth was not, however, the most notable thing to happen that year. Nor was the election of Ronald Reagan, champion of the upper upper class. No, the best thing to come out of 1980, by far, was the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, champion of the cascade hop. This year they celebrated their thirtieth anniversary with a series of beers; Three colaboration brews and one brewer's reserve. Seeing as how Sierra is my favorite brewing co I was super excited to get my hands on these limited releases. Finding them proved often to be more then difficult. Places where beer dudes (and dudettes I suppose) go to get good beer would sell out of them super fast. Oak Tree in South Plainfield didn't even put them out for sale. You had to ask the beer manager to get one out of back stock for you. The same was true for Joe Canal's in Woodbridge. I found that the best place to acquire these bonus wagners was off the beaten path. Places like Madison Wine Cellar would get a case in and not know exactly what they had on hand. I got a bunch of the first and fourth release from there. I found several of the third release at a big beer mart outside of Asbury. It was like finding that the baseball card where the dude is flipping the bird.

The beers come in handsome cork and caged bottles. If you had the hook up you could get them in a nice wood storage box. There was also a Thirtieth anniversary snifter that went along with the beers. They were released every few months over the course of this year. They all were pretty big beers that should age well. I bought several of each. I drank at least one of each fresh and aged the rest. Then, leading up to the one year anniversary of beer glasses I drank each beer in succession culminating in my first taste of the brewer's reserve grand cru. What follows is my impression, from what I can recall, of each beer. I was gonna post a pic of each pour, but you can check my twitter feed if you really want to see that.

Fritz & Kens Stout:
The first release from back in March. This stout was a collaberative brew between Sierra founder Ken Grossman and (at the time) Anchor kingpin Fritz Maytag. FYI he is grandson of the appliance magnate and also he sold anchor shortly after the release of this beer. The beer is big as hell, super dark, and super delicious. Lots of roast and bitter sweetness. Nicely balanced. Really a quintessential American stout. It coats your palate quickly and basically becomes your night. Like, you can drink this while you are watching the Rangers game, but really you are watching the Rangers game while drinking the beer. Aging for nine months smoothed this beer out a bit. It was super creamy and thick like a bitter chocolate beer shake. Nice lacing and all that beer geek junk too. When I opened it after aging the bottom of the cork exploded. It was cool.

Charlie, Fred, & Ken's Bock:
This beer was released in May. It is a collaborative brew from Ken and pioneer craft brew writers Fred Eckhart and Charlie Papazian. They brewed an Imperial Helles Bock. Basically a maibock that is big as hell(es). This thing is delicious. It is malty and toasty and amber as fuck. It is out of left field really, as Sierra is not really known for their lagers. They did this one beautifully. A new take on a classic style. Initially it was my least favorite of the four, but after tasting it recently I think I would put it at number two of the four. It's tough to rate these things because they are all awesome. The most interesting thing about this one is that it has some alcohol heat that comes through at the back of your palate, almost in your throat. It really is interesting and for me it really added to the whole experience.

Jack and Ken's Black Barlywine Ale:
This is an interesting one. On this beer Ken Grossman teamed up with Jack McAuliffe. Jack started the New Albion Brewery in Sonoma Cali back in the day. It was a small operation that inspired many of the craft brew pioneers like Ken and Fritz. The beer they decided to brew for the anniversary is a black barleywine that is brewed with only American Cascade hops. It came out in July. This beer is seriously intense. I've had three so far and the first two times I had to ask for help in finishing it. It is big as hell. Very much a barleywine, but it has elements of stout and porter. Pretty much it is a barleywine with a ton of roast, some heat, lots of hop bitterness, sweet stout maltiness, but a medium syrup like body like a bw. It is a force to be reckoned with.

Brewer's Reserve Grand Cru:
This one is the culmination of the series. It is a blend of oak aged bigfoot ale, celebration ale, and fresh pale ale that is dry hopped into some sort of celestial nectar that words can not really properly convey. It has the best elements of all three beers and then some. Malt and sweet from the barley wine is complimented by the citrusy cascade hoppiness of the pale ale, which is further grounded and balanced by the piney hoppiness of celebration. Bangin. get your hands on this one if you can. Definitely my favorite of the series. It is of note that I prefer it from the bottle rather then the tap. The same goes for Sierra pale ale. I'm not sure if they bottle conditioned this like they do with the pale. Weird how Sierra is like that. Mostly I prefer tap, but Sierra does a real good job with bottle conditioning.

Hope you enjoyed my run down of this series. I still have a random assortment of these bad boy's left. Hit me up if you wanna do some drinking. They are good for one, but are best shared. Cheers.

Golden Anniversary

Not really that long ago one of my favorite beers was Golden Anniversary Beer. Golden Anni is a cheap fizzy yellow beer. It is listed on Rate Beer as a blonde ale with a rating of 1 out of 100. You could get it at the beer store in New Brunswick for $2.65 for a sixer. The price was a big part of the allure. Also the initials are GAB, which led to the obvious word play Gift of GAB. As in, you look like you could use one more, here is the gift of GAB. One of the greatest days of my life as a touring musician was when we discovered 40's of GAB at a grocery store in Rochester. My how things have changed.

To mark the one year anniversary of this blog I busted out a beer that I had been saving for over 2 years. I am referring to Stone's 12th anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. When this beer first came out, I bought six of them. Like all Stone anniversary releases, it came in a 22oz bomber. The last time I had one was at least a year and half ago. I remember it being quite good back then, so I was psyched to dig into this one. The first thing I noticed when I poured it was the lack of head and carbonation in general. It required quite a vigorous pour in order to get any kind of fizz. Color wise, it was consistent with what you would expect from an oatmeal stout. Aroma was that of sweet chocolate with some bitter roast aromas as a counter. It smelled good, but I was weary due to the lack of carbonation. I dove in despite my reservations. Like I expected, it was definitely lacking in the CO2 department. Looking past this, it was still a pretty tasty beer. Lots of chocolate and coffee flavors with a bitter backbone to counter the sweet from the massive malt bill. This beer definitely smoothed out over the last two plus years. No heat whatsoever despite the nine plus percent alcohol.

The other thing that surprised me about this beer beyond the carbonation is that it seemed to loose some body during the aging the process. When I first tried it in '08 it was full bodied, thick like a beer shake. Now, while still more full bodied then an amber or pale, it really didn't coat my palate like I thought it would. Later on I checked the cap and I could clearly see that the oxygen seal had shrivelled up. This leads me back to the subject of cellaring. I store my beer in a cabinet at room temp. My apartment generally stays between 65 and 70 degrees. These are not great conditions for storing beer. Ideally you would like to store beer at around 52 degrees with a high degree of relative humidity. These conditions are not acheivable when you live in an apartment complex. My only other option right now besides my beer cabinet would be the fridge. That isn't really a good option though for two reasons. First, I need to store food and fresh beer in there. And number two, refrigerators are designed to keep their contents dry. This causes the oxygen barrier on crowns of beer stored for long intervals to be compromised. The beer is thus exposed to oxygen which fucks beer all up. So right now it looks like I'm damned either way. The best solution would be to either buy one of those wine cellar things or design some sort of beer storage system. A project for another day. Right now I need to take it down. I have regional dudes coming into the grocery store tomorrow and I need to get some rest because I gotta be up by 4:00 am tomorrow. Thanks for reading over the last year or however long you have been paying attention to my half drunk rants on beer. Stay tuned for some more good anniversary stuff. Cheers.

Beer Glasses

Tomorrow will mark the one year anniversary of this blog. The day I started it, I was sitting alone in my apartment drinking Sierra Nevada Celebration ale. I was pretty deep in and I got the idea to do a blog about beer. Really it was just a whim, but I'm glad that I did it. I've enjoyed sharing my beer related experiences with you. Over the next year, I will be attempting to bring out more material and hopefully be more consistent with my posting.

To mark my one year mark I am unveiling the new name of the blog: Beer Glasses. Thanks to my friend Jim Cottage for the kick ass logos. Check him out his work here. Beer blog is too bland and Beer Glasses fits the style of the blog better. Be sure to follow me on Twitter. The link is in the top right corner of the blog. Right now, I have 0 followers. Let's work on that.

Over the next couple days, I will be posting a series of anniversary related posts where I dip into my private reserves and drink some of that top shelf ish. Stay tuned. Thanks for reading and cheers.

All Grain, All the Time

A couple weeks ago Adam and I did our first all grain batch. It's been two years since our first extract batch and we are only now getting into the AG. It's all good, because we are back on the horse and it should be all grain from here on out. We ended up doing the mash on the kitchen stove, which involved a complicated two pot system for heating the strike and sparge water. It was a little dicey at times, but thankfully Murphy spared us, and I think we got a pretty good technique going on. For the boil, we brought it outside to the propane burner, which is way more efficient then using two burners on the stove. Doing full wort boils is the way to go. The beer we brewed was a fairly standard American pale ale. It smelled really good when we transferred it to secondary last weekend. I'm looking forward to tasting this one. Check out pictures at the end.

A while back I posted this about open that bottle night. Now it seems that Mark Dredge has stolen my idea. Check it out. Well, maybe he came up with it independently, but either way, I was first. In any event, I am going to open up some bottles pretty soon. Maybe not this weekend as he suggests. This blog will be a year old in one week. As part of that anniversary I will be opening a few things I have been saving. I might post a video too. Stay tuned.

Also, I got a twitter account. I'm still getting used to it, but my thing is @beerglassesnj. Follow me if you want. I mostly just post pictures of what I am drinking each night.

Ingredients


Sparging


The boil

Proof of Organic Concept

A few days ago I lost one, but today I came out a winner. How might you ask? Well, I took down a Sierra Nevada Estate Ale today while watching the Giants game. Double win. I had been looking for this beer for a while. It is listed as a special release on the Sierra website, but I had never seen it around here until the other day. There was one lone bottle sitting on the shelf at Joe Canals and I snatched that bad boy up. This beer is an IPA in the same vein as their other fresh hop harvest ales, only it is certified organic and the hops and barley come from Sierra Nevada's on fields located on their property in Chico CA. It pours a dark amber with a nice white foamy head. It has a citrusy, floral aroma. Flavor is citrus, pine, and hops. There is a malt backbone to it and overall it is very well balanced. A good find to say the least. I have to say, this is the best organic beer I have ever had. For whatever reason, organic beers tend to fall short of the mark for me. Often they are well brewed but lack real character or depth. I'm not sure why that is. The few exceptions that I have had before trying this beer were Wolaver's Oatmeal Stout and a few beers that I had from Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Co over the summer. This is a somewhat interesting conundrum coming from an employee of a certified organic grocery store. Leave it to Sierra to really push organic beer in to the realm of legitimate craft brews.

On another tip, has anyone else noticed that beers within a craft brewers catalog end up tasting very similar and in some cases the same? I love Sierra Nevada. They make many of my all time favorite beers. However, a lot of there IPA's and pale ales, tend to taste similar and sometimes the same. For instance, if you put the Northern Hemisphere Harvest ale next to the Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale next to the Anniversary Ale next to this beer, I would have a hard time telling them apart. They even taste similar to the new brown ale they came out with this fall. I'm not really complaining, I'm just bringing up the point. The same can be said for Rogue and Anchor Brewing Co. Probably a bunch more craft brewers. Why is this. Could it be repetitive ingredients (yeast in particular), could it be technique or equipment, maybe the brewer him/herself. I don't know. Just throwing spaghetti here. Anyway, check out the Estate ale if you can get your hands on it. It has a waxed top which is pretty cool. The bottle looks cool. It is 6.7% and delicious. Later and cheers.

Black to the Future

I haven't done a beer spotlight in a while. Actually haven't done a post in a while. Blame the holidays for that. One day off in the last two weeks. Anyway, there is a new beer style out there that has become a bit of a fad. I'm speaking of Black IPA's. Also known as Cascadian Dark Ales or India Black Ales, these beers are dark in color but deceive a bit because their focus is more on hop flavors and aromas. According to the Brewers Association there should be some caramel malt flavor as well as a moderate amount of dark roasted flavors, however the focus should be hops. Burnt flavors should be absent. A few years ago Stone released their 11th anniversary black IPA. This thing was so bangin. It was chock full of citrus hop flavors and aromas with a nice complimentary caramel malt backbone and dry hoppy finish. Superb. They re-released this one off as Sublimely Self Righteous Ale which is now in regular release. Check that shit out.

So, when I picked up 21st Amendment's Back in Black, I was expecting something in the same vein. I was sadly let down. When I saw the smart package in the beer store, I was instantly intrigued. My expectations were high. The beer is part of the new wave of canned craft brews that has been gaining popularity in recent years. According to the packaging this beer is inspired by Paul Revere's midnight ride and is brewed with rich dark malts. It clocks in at 6.8% abv. The beer pours black with a substantially tan head that leaves a nice lacing behind. Aroma is sweet malt and some light citrus hop aromas. I expected a lot more hop in that aroma. The flavor of this beer is interesting, but not in a good way. There are some roasted flavors up front, but they are subdued. There is a moderate hop bitterness but the hops stop there. There is a lingering malty sweetness that seems really out of place in an IPA. All this is set against a really light body that kinda feels like a mind game. You'd expect this beer to be thick and heavy from the look of it, but it is quite thin. The sweetness of the malt really messes things up here. It doesn't taste focused at all, and frankly the flavors are kinda weak. All in all, this beer is just out of whack. It seems like they made the beer just to be one of the first companies to have a black IPA as a regular release. I would suggest that they retool their recipe and try to get some more IPA hopiness up in this piece. Some cascade in the hopback definitely wouldn't hurt this brew. In any event the focus of this style should be hops first and foremost with roasted and sweet malt as a counterpoint that also gives the beer a nice smooth body. Here you just get a sweet, slightly bitter beer that lacks body. There's a bunch more new Black IPA's out there. If you find a good one, let me know.

On being a hophead

Lately I have been making a concerted effort to not just drink pale ales and IPA's. I definitely dig on many beer styles and I have a desire to expand my pallet, but if I'm not paying attention I will fall back on old habits. Like today. I was off from work and kinda bored. I got in the car with the intention of driving to Target to buy a new toothbrush. Somehow I ended up at a beer store in Westfield that has a pretty good selection. I meandered around for a couple minutes checking out what they had to offer. I picked up one bottle, picked up another, looked around some more. Before I realized it I had nearly $50 worth of brew at the checkout counter, all of which were IPA's, but one. I'm not complaining because I got some good stuff (Celebration Ale, Sierra Southern Hemi, Ballast Point IPA). Sometimes, though, I have to force myself to buy other styles, even if I know I will like it. Like, I have no idea when the last time it was that I bought a stout at the beer store. I just love those hops. The way they taste, the way they smell, even the way they look (fresh). So I'm asking my readers (the six friends i have that pay attention to this thing) to suggest non-pale ales for me to try over the next month. I have an IPA in primary fermentation right now that will be ready in about a month, so I'll be back on them lupulins by then. Help me mix it up in the mean time.

What I'm drinking: Various IPA's
What I'm listening to: Celph Titled

Ein Prosit der Gemutlichkeit

The other day I headed down the shore to hang with my brother from another mother. I decided that it was time to celebrate. Celebrate what, you may ask? Well, my heritage for one thing. As you probably (don't) know I am just over 25% German and Oktoberfest is in full swing. So I headed over to Oak Tree and picked up as many Oktoberfest singles as I could find, which weren't many. Disappointing. Also, no Brooklyn Oktoberfest. What gives. I checked out this other beer store in Westfield, which had some good stuff, but really no singles. New Jersey needs to wake up and embrace beer culture. Or maybe I need to move to the west coast. Any ways, I eventually ended up with eight different Oktoberfest selections and gunned it down the parkway to Asbury. James showed me the location he is scouting for his coffee shop and roastery. Shit looks good. Congrats to him for living the dream. After that we got some burritos and then headed back to his place for some tasty beers. Basically we did a blind tasting of our selections and then saved some for Meems to taste after she got home from back to school night. Again, I am going to have to link the spreadsheet as I still don't know what the f I am doing. I need to take an html class. Here you go. We evaluated based on aroma, flavor, prozit, and overall score. We were all a bit surprised by the outcome. Personally, I thought Brooklyn would score higher. Flying dog was the big winner with Left Hand not far behind. Otter Creek was the least drinkable of all. Anyway, enjoy. Prost!

What I'm drinking: Lagunitas, Little Sumpin Wild (bangin)
What I'm listening to: New Gaslight Anthem
What I'm watching: Started watching Ken Burn's Tenth Inning tonight. That thing is well f'in done. I honestly started to tear up several times watching the Yankees rising from the ashes of the strike during my formidable years. I haven't seen the original series, but if any of my friends or my girlfriend read this blog, that is what I want for Christmas/my birthday/Rosh Hashanah.

Beers chilling out

All the beers lined up, covered, and numbered

Also, I got some new buddies

The Fridge

From time to time my fridge will get a bit backed up. I have this fear of running out of beer. This coupled with the fact that I have a bad memory has me buying beer often when I already have a bunch at home that I have been meaning to drink. I also have this habit of buying something that is not my normal thing, drinking a few and then deciding that I don't like it or that I am bored with it. Then the extra bottles hang around in the fridge taking up space until I can pass them off on some unsuspecting victim. Right now my fridge is pretty much full up of beer. Below is a list of what's in there and why.

Good stuff that will be gone within the week:
6 Sierra Nevada Pale Ales - My go to beer. Can't say enough good stuff about it. That's what I'm drinking right now.
3 Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPAs - Good but a bit tannic.
5 Magner Original Irish Ciders - They belong to the girlfriend. Pretty good, but I am not much of a cider fan
3 Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marrons - Good, but high in alcohol, so they might last longer then a week
3 Otter Creek Oktoberfest - Meh, they might make a jump to the next category.
1 Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Black Barleywine - I can not wait to drink this one. Perhaps tomorrow night after my closing shift at work.
1 Coney Island Sword Swallower Steel Hop Lager - A gift from the girlfriend. Can't wait to drink this one. A nice hoppy lager along the lines of Brooklyn Lager

Beers that have been hanging around for a while:
4 Flying Dog Raging Bitches - A Beglian style IPA. Not my thing. Beer store dude convinced me to get it
2 Long Trail Blackberry Wheats - Part of a variety pack. Again, not my thing.
1 Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout - This is from a few years back. It is good, but a bit boozy. I should really drink this
6 Founders Breakfast Stout Clones - Homebrews gone wrong
1 Anchor Steam Liberty Ale Clone - A homebrew success that I was saving for guests. It might have spent too much time in the fridge though.
1 Homebrew UFO - It is in a Grolsh bottle, so no labeling. I'm gonna drink this tomorrow. I hope it is a Boston Lager clone, but I suspect it is an under carbonated porter

That's it. If I put in the effort, I can probably drink the fridge down in under two weeks, except for the Raging Bitch and the Long Trail. No way am I drinking that. But feel free to partake if you are into it.

Glory to God in the highest

I've been wanting to do this post for a while. My original idea was to get an atheist, myself (an agnostic), and a believer together and drink Trappist beers (beers brewed by monks) while watching Ben Hur. This was too difficult to set up, mostly because I don't know any believers who are into beer. So in the end I got together with my jerk off friends and Amelia and we drank beer from six of the seven Trappist breweries. The only one we didn't have was Westvleteren for obvious reasons. Previously I had only drank three Trappist brews, so this was a much needed educational experience for myself. Every beer we drank was good, but it was almost overkill. The beers started to run together a bit. There were definite distinctions from beer to beer, but with so many really flavorful beers your palate can get desensitized. I will say that, for me, Chimay stood out among the crowd; shined in fact. Also, me and meems got real wasted on these high alcohol brews. Below is the results of our tasting. We commented on aroma, flavor, gave an overall rating and commented on how the beers effected our spirituality. Word.

I made an google docs spreadsheet to drop into this post, but i can't figure out how to do that, so here is the link. I know this is pretty bunk, so if anybody can throw me the code for embedding a spreadsheet into blogspot, I'd appreciate it.

Beercation: Part Two

Northern California (well for one day anyway)-

Monday:
I wake up fairly early, refreshed from sleeping for eight plus hours. Mike, Ida, and I head to Cafe Brazil (I believe) for breakfast. Supposedly this place has a wicked long wait on the weekends but we get in there pretty quickly. The wait staff are smokin hot Brazilian chicks. I order a fritada. It is crazy good. good coffee too. We head back to their place and hang around for a bit. We eventually pack up some wedding ish and Mike and Ida head down to the court house to turn in their papers to the magistrate and get all official. After dumping out at M and I's I am back in the Corolla sport and on my way to Santa Rosa. What is in Santa Rosa you might ask. One of the most legendary, at least on the east coast, beer makers in Cali: The Russian River Brewing Company. Their double IPA, Pliny the Elder is much sought after trade bait in the northeast. It takes me about three hours of driving and scanning of the radio waves to reach my destination. I check into a travel lodge and chill for a sec before heading over to the local Whole Foods. This locale is a step up from the SC version, but still pretty beat in my (not so) humble opinion. From WF I head to the brewery's world class brew pub. I walk in mid way through happy hour and grab a seat at the end of the bar right underneath a fairly modest flat screen. I order a blind pig IPA. This is one of three IPA's they have on tap. It is a beer I have been looking forward too for several months and it doesn't disappoint. It is hoppy as hell with tons of citrus, pith, lemon, and tang. Medium body with a nice citrussy, dry, bitter finish. f'in great. Right as I take my first sip, I look up at the flat screen and realize that Monday Night Football, Jets/Giants preseason is about to start. MNF at 5pm, how surreal. The blind pig clocks in at over 6% and I know I have some big beers coming up, so i decide to rock a Gaffers, English style bitter next, seeing as it is only a 5 percenter. It is good but pales in comparison to the Blind Pig. Tasty, bitter, with some maltiness in there. Approximates England. While drinking this and watching football I realize that a Belgian has been chilling in front of me for some time. It is about 3/4 full. Fallen soldier!!! No beer can be left behind. I man up and take it down. It is a Damnation, their year round Belgian strong ale. I have had this in a bottle before and it doesn't disappoint from the tap, despite having sat around for at least a half hour. My plan from this point is to drink as many of the Belgians as I can before I get too drunk. I dip into a Sanctificaton. It is a Belgian sour brewed with brettanomyces yeast, which basically approximates the wild yeasts that are used to ferment lambics in the Pajottenland region of Belgium. This beer is funky as hell. Big sour, yeasty flavors. Some pineapple and some lemon. Very nice fizz. A winner to say the least. At some point I ordered a pizza and it arrives while I am babying the sanctification. The Giants are kicking ass. I am already pretty drunk from several high ABV beers. I hit up a Supplication next. It is a Belgian sour brown ale aged in pinot nior barrels. So good. There is malt and sweetness in the aroma. It is sweet and sour, with spice, alcohol, and some subdued yeast flavors. Lots of fruit flavors, like cherries with a nice dry finish and sweet lacing. After this beer I am done. I stumble towards my hotel room, popping into two pizzerias looking for slices. No luck, what gives California. I settle on a subway veggie sub. I fall asleep early but content with my experience at Russian River.

Tuesday:
I get up pretty early and dick around for a bit before heading over to the diner across from my hotel. I order a breakfast that consists of two eggs, toast, and a shit ton of fruit. After scarfing this, I put fisherman's wharf into the GPS in the Corolla and I'm off. After a little over an hour I pull into the wharf in San Fransisco. I play some vintage video games for a while and then buy some gifts for my peeps back home. While walking along the water front I call over to Anchor Brewery and weasel my way onto the tour scheduled for 1pm. I hit up a Whole Foods for lunch. This one has the best produce section I have seen thus far. Still not as nice as back east, but pretty good. I devour my lunch and then walk over to the brewery. The tasting room is beautiful. A nice, big, oak looking bar. Lots of vintage memorabilia. Real classy. The tour guide is young and definitely not a beer guy, but he gives a good tour. He is well rehearsed and pretty funny. The brewery is really really nice. The brew kettle and tun are bright brass and freaking gigantic. We really only get to see the tops of them as most of the mass of the kettles are on the floor below us. Very impressive, as are the open fermentation tanks that they use to ferment the steam beer. Pretty much the whole place is really awesome and classy, from the bottling line, to the hop room, to the cool white jump suits that all the production employees wear. At the end of the tour we sample all six current beers in rotation. From my favorite to my least favorite they are Humming ale, Liberty ale, Anchor Porter, Anchor Steam, Anchor small, and Summer beer. This is definitely the best brewery tour I have ever been on. Could this be because it was free and we got to drink for free too? From Anchor I headed out to City Beer. City Beer is a sweet beer store with a nice vibe and a good selection. They have six beers on tap. You can also drink there if you pay a $1 corking fee. I pony up to the taps and order a German style beer from a brewery called Auburn Alehouse. It is bitter, malty and amber. Good but not a stand out. I peace out of CB and head across the bay to Oakland to meet up with my boy Wally. We went to high school together and he has been living out here for some time now. We cruise on over to Beer Revolution. Beer Rev is a beer bar with a bunch of taps and mad bottles too. They have the same $1 corking fee thing going on. At this point I realize two things: I am leaving tomorrow, and I have not had a Pliny yet. WTF. I grab one and go to town. Frickin brilliant. So much hops, so much citrus, so much lemony tangy goodness, but not super heavy or overbearing like so many other double IPA's. I revel in its awesomeness. After I finish the Pliny we hit up the vegan soul food place that is next door. We get some BBQ grill things, french fries, and fried okra and head back to Beer Rev. I grab an Alesmith extra pale ale to go with my meal. The food is really tasty. The beer, no so much. I have heard a lot about Alesmith back east. Their speedway stout has quite a reputation. Perhaps I should have gone with that, but I am in a pale ale mood after that Pliny. The beer has a lot of bitterness up front with not much finish. This could be due to the pairing with barbecued tofu and the like. A stout or porter might have complemented the sweet and salt of the food better. You win some and you lose just as many. The next stop on our itinerary is The Trappist. It is a beer bar that supposedly is owned by a former member of the band Gang Green . It is a real nice classy setup, with lots of wood and bricks. Lots of taps featuring mostly Belgians as the name would imply. I decide to grab a pint of Anchor Humming. It is good but I am kinda blitzed at this point. We drink our pints and then head back to Wally's. We stop at another Whole Foods and I grab a beer for the road. Back at Wally's I start to nod off while drinking my beer and watching the SF Giants game. A good end to a great trip.

Wednesday:
Wake up mad early and head to the airport. Flying home all day, back to reality and work. F this. Looking forward to my next beercation, whenever that might be.

Beercation: Part One

Last week my buddy Michael A got married in picturesque Felton, California. Back when I heard he had popped the question to his lovely girlfriend Ida, I knew I had to be there. Those dudes were pretty busy with wedding stuff and going on their honeymoon so I decided to do some beer sightseeing while I was out there. I had a damn good time. I only wish that I could have been out there for longer. Here's how it all went down.

Friday:
I roll into Santa Cruz in my rented Corolla Sport. Check into the seedy, yet overpriced, Ocean Gate Inn. Walk around SC for a bit and withdraw drinking funds from a cash machine. Immediately get a burrito from Taqueria Vallarta. I check out the local Whole Foods on Soquel. Bunk. Time to drink. First stop is the Asti, sometimes affectionately referred to as the Nasti. Also bunk. Me, the bartender, and several degenerate but endearing regulars. I get a Fat Tire Amber. It was delicious, but I had to be at a better spot. I hit up a beer bar called the Poet and the Patriot. It was owned by a Jersey transplant, but sadly he passed away several years ago. I have a Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Company pale ale. It is good but kind of standard. I switch it up to English Ales Breweries Pale Ale. Delish. A mix of English Malt and Hops with California sensibilities. They are located in Marina, Ca. Still, not quite the north west beer experience I have been in search of. I have several of these and call it a night as it is now 10pm and I have been awake since 1am local time.

Saturday:
Check out some sights and then breakfast at the Santa Cruz diner(bangin). Back to the hotel room to iron my shirt while watching the movie Dave(stupid, yet entertaining). Off to the wedding. We get driven out to a ranch in Felton in a rented (party)van. Wedding is killer. Good friends, good food, good vibe, good tunes. I reunite with some sweet dudes that I met when Mike was in college. At the reception we drink High Life. High Life is a good beer and frickin great for a macro. We head to the after party in the van and someone sparks up a J. Sweet. We drink some beer at the after party, but I am already blitzed so I can't retain information. It is a really hoppy amber from a local brewery and it is damn good. Next we hit the SC diner. I have an omelet. I get 2/3 into it and realize I am too drunk. I hoof it back to the hotel and ass out.

Sunday:
Wake up early and immediately vom. Next I take some advil and go find where I left the car. Still there. I check out some sights: the wharf, surfing museum. Next, burrito. This one has sprouts in it, which is cool, but they use refried beans which I am not a fan of when it comes to burritos. Still pretty good though, but kinda sloppy. After lunch I head over to the Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery. It is located in a weird warehouse/garage plaza that also has a bunch of wineries. Or at least places where wineries sell their shit. The bar area, or tasting room, has a nice set up. Real chill vibe, sweet oldies playing on the sound system, food and cheese can be ordered, and the barkeep is nice to look at. I order a Peoples Porter which is infused with coffee. A good choice when you are still mildly hungover. Nice malty aroma. It is quite delicious. Malty, roasty, smoky, with chocolate and coffee, but a little thin in the body. I realize two things. I should have ordered a flight, but then again, I am all by myself and that might seem kinda off. Two, their beer is all organic. I haven't had too many OG beers that I have enjoyed, but the porter is definitely good. As I drink the porter I see that they have a seasonal Olallieberry ale. WTF is an Olallieberry. I look it up on Wikipedia. A cross between a Loganberry and a Youngberry, which are crosses of raspberries, blackberries, and dewberries. An Olallieberry is crossed with a Chehalem blackberry to create the elusive Marionberry. Weird. I order one somewhat self consciously. Is this a chick beer. It is good. Mildly sweet and fruity with light carbonation. Great for a summer day. Also, it is beautiful out. I head out from SCMB to Santa Cruz Aleworks, but they are closed. Bummer. I head over to Mike and Ida's and chill there drinking Fat Tire and eating BBQ, SC style. Veggies and fake sausages. Life is good. We head into town later to the Red Room where Ida works. I order a Lagunitas IPA and me and Mark talk to some lesbians who at first don't believe we are from NJ but on closer inspection they deem us slightly Guido. Nice. We head back early and drink some high life before bed.

Stick around for Part 2: Northern California.

California

I'm heading out to the golden state in a little over a week for my friend Mike the Beaver's wedding. I'm looking forward to the wedding and hanging out with him. He lives in Santa Cruz and the wedding is in near by Felton. While I'm out there I plan on hitting up a few breweries. One day I will devote just to Santa Cruz breweries, seeing as there are several breweries and brew pubs within the city limits and also right near by. One day I plan on hitting up Russian River Brewery, makers of Pliny the Elder, and probably Anchor Steam while I am up that way. Sierra Nevada seems kinda far away, but who knows. What other breweries should I hit up? Leave suggestions in the comments if you are so inclined. Thanks.

The picture is of Cali stuff I have in the beer closet. Also, I am drinking an Avery 17th Anniversary Black Lager right now. It is quite delicious.

Christmas in July

So, I know it's been a while. Work has been rough lately leaving me worn out and unmotivated at the end of the day. I started this post last week, but then immediately got tired and all ADHD and quit. Anyways, things are starting to get better, and I plan to blog hard in the coming months.

So I have a bunch of Sierra Nevada related stuff to blog about. First off, I saved a celebration ale from January and drank it last week. I thought that it would be a nostalgic, yet refreshing, beverage to drink in the comforts of a less then efficient air conditioner on a ninety plus degree evening in the middle of a heat wave. Well, it wasn't. The flavors and aroma were a bit muted and it didn't taste very fresh. All in all it was a bit of a let down. It didn't taste like a Christmas tree. More like an old IPA. Still it wasn't unpleasant to drink and it was definitely better then the tanic clone me and Adam attempted back in the spring.

You know what isn't tanic or disappointing? The Sierra Nevada 30th anniversary series. The first beer was the bomb. It was an imperial stout brewed by Ken Grossman of Sierra and Fritz Maytag of Anchor Steam. Super delicious. The second beer was an Imperial Helles Bock. A very good lager brewed by Ken, and hombrew/craft brew pioneers Charlie Papazian and Fred Eckhart. Both dope beers. I can't wait for the next one. Its gonna be a really big American barley wine. I will do a retrospective once all four beers have been released. Hopefully in video form.

Next order of business. I would really love to get my hands on the collaboration between Sierra and Dogfishhead. Life & limb is an American strong ale clocking in at over 10%. It utilizes maple and birch syrups, as well as estate grown barley. It was released last fall and basically all horded up at this point. I am willing to trade whatever it takes to get my hands on it. I have several Stone 12th anniversaries. I have some Brooklyn black chocolate stouts from 07-08. I have several Sierra 30th anniversaries. Other then that I don't have much to trade. I don't know if anybody reads this blog beyond my close friends, but if a beer guy stumbles upon this post, and you have a spare life and limb, hit me up. That would truly be a Christmas miracle...in July.

Philly Beer Week

On Saturday June 5th I headed down to the city of brotherly love for the annual beer festivities. I checked out a couple of establishments that were hosting brewers. The first thing I checked out was Grace Tavern which was hosting Troegs Brewery. John Trogner, the brewer, was there but I didn't get a chance to talk to him. He was being monopolized by this couple and I was in a rush anyway. I did have time to drink a Sunshine Pils though. It was quite delicious.

From Grace Tavern I headed to my friend Jake's place where I met up with him, my friend Keith and their friend Karla. We hit up a pretty dope coffee shop/beer store called Ultimo. They were hosting a brewer who described himself as a "gypsy". Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project basically jumps around from brewery to brewery making their Belgian styled ales. We sampled their flagship American Saison beer which was pretty dees. Then we downed some iced coffees in preparation for the main event of the evening, the International Great Beer Expo.

This was the first beer fest I have been to. I must say, I had a great time. The expo took place at the Philly Navy Yard. There were some really tasty beers and a lot of thirsty people at this event, myself included. The setup was basically that if the brewery actually sent people, you got a nice space to display your stuff. There was a good showing by Yards, Innes and Gunns, Blue Point, Ithaca, and several others. Then there was a stretch of tables where employees of distributors were pouring various beers. Last, there was a separate tent for the major beer companies that had shown up. This area was noticeably sparse. That brought a pretentious smirk to my face. We all drank quite a bit. For me, I started with mostly pale ales and IPA's, but later branched out to some different stuff. Here is my drunken recap of the evenings beer offerings:


A brief only slightly inebriated review:
1. Ithaca Ground Break - Tasty Tasty American style saison. Spicy with definite American Hop character
2. Prism Tea Party Pale Ale - An American Pale Ale brewed with Sorachi Hops and whole tea leaves. Very interesting subtle tea and lemon flavor.
3. I can't recall which beer this was. I thought it was the Bear Republic Red Rocket, but it was served out of a can. It tasted like an American IPA with big big hops in the nose and finish.
4. Innes and Gunn Oak Aged Beer - A nice oaky English ale, which is, unfortunately, sold in a clear bottle.
5. River Horse Hopalotamus Unfiltered Double IPA - a stand out among too many IPAs

Overall a great experience. I was kinda bummed that there weren't that many people from the actual breweries. The ones that did show were gracious and eager to discuss their brews. I was happy to see that people actually do yell out in unison when someone drops there beer, which happened quite often. I look forward to the NJ beer fest at the end of this month. Until then, enjoy some pix.

Self Portrait

Keith looking cool

Jake and Karla enjoying some suds

Bud Light Lime with garbage in background

Prism Beer: Interesting Beer, bad branding

Captain's Orders

A few months back I was hanging at a brewery, drinking some beers. I was talking to this dude about beer swapping. He told me to check out this brewery right over the border in New York that puts out some sought after craft brews, good for the trading. I had had a few drinks at this point and when I went to write down the name of the brewery in my phone I typed Cap and Lawrence. I searched for the brewery online but couldn't find it. What I did find was Captain Lawrence Brewery located in Pleasantville, New York. The pictures on their site and videos I found on youtube made this place look pretty dope. They look to have a really nice set up with pretty tanks and a swanky tasting room. I have been meaning to get up to their open house for a couple months, but being a retail shmoe it is hard to get off on a Saturday. Last week, however, as I was perusing the wares of the beer store by my work, something caught my eye. Captain Lawrence Captain's Reserve, Imperial IPA. I immediately snatched one up with wide eyed anticipation.

This beer comes in a 16.9 oz bottle. Kind of a weird size. I put it into a unit conversion program and it comes out to about half a liter. It clocks in at 8%. It pours a darker full gold color with a big creamy white head. The first thing that hit me, aroma wise, was a smell very similar to liquid malt extract. I'm not sure why that is, I think the beer was still breathing when I took my first whiff. This aroma gave way almost immediately to pure hop goodness. Strong citrus and pine scents dominated. Flavor was similar. There was a lot of lemon, pine, and grapefruit with a toasty malt backbone. It leaves a lot of hops in your mouth to finish. Very tasty, a true triumph. This beer reminded me of Russian River's Pliny the Elder in that it holds back on the malt. A lot of double IPAs will bulk up a bit on malt in order to provide more fermetables as well as counter strong hop flavors and bitterness. Captain's Reserve, like Pliny, manages to accomplish this while staying lighter in body and malt flavor. It is also very lemony, like Pliny. I recommend both and would say that Captain Lawrence, Captain's Reserve might be the east coast answer to Pliny the Elder. I'd have to have a few more of each to really be confident in that statement.

So a couple days later I was in Whole Foods Middleton. I had been promised a meal of red Thai curry that night, so I looked for a beer that I thought would compliment the meal. They had Captain's Reserve on the shelf, so I picked one up. It seemed like a good match. Beeradvocate lists American IPA's as a good pairing for Thai. Unfortunately the spiciness of the Thai food washed out the strong character of the beer. I think it would pair well with a Pad Thai or a lighter curry. You win some, you lose some. Cheers and check out this beer.

Beer with curry and mango accompaniment

You don't win friends with salad

Nor will I win many with the above concoction. This is vegetarian charbonnade. Unlike many of my friends, I haven't abandoned all my moral convictions as of yet. This was my first attempt at cooking with beer. Charbonnade is a Belgian dish. It is basically a beef stew with beer involved. I first read about it on Mark Dredge's blog. Instead of using beef I used white wave seitan (wheat gluten). I dredged the seitan in flour with salt and pepper in it. I browned it and set it aside. I then chopped up a bunch of yellow onion and cooked the hell out of it. I put the seitan back in and added beer, vegetable stock, thyme, bay leaf, apple cider vinegar, and black currant jelly. I then put it in the oven for about an hour and a half. While it was cooking and congealing I whipped up some chips. The end result had the right consistency, but the flavoring was off. It was a bit on the bitter side. I think I made two mistakes. Number one, I used an Imperial Stout homebrew. I would have been better off using a dark Belgian or a brown ale. That is what the recipe called for, however I did not have one lying around. I thought it foolish to buy a nice beer just for cooking. Honestly I think that if I had used a Chimay Blue this would have been a success. I can imagine the dark sweet spicy flavor of the beer giving the dish a lot of character and depth. Perhaps next time. I think then the dish would have benefited from smaller chunks of seitan. This would have allowed for more liquid to be absorbed. That was my second mistake. Although bitter, the chunks were flavorful on the outside but a bit bland on the inside. It may seem like I did not like my meal. It was actually not bad. Definitely a good first attempt at cooking with beer. I ate the veggie charbonnade with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, a fine pairing.

Ramstein

No, not the shitty German band. That is Rammstein. I'm talking about the beer made by Greg Zaccardi and his team at the High Point Brewery in Butler, NJ. I stopped by today for their monthly open house. They have a real nice set up. Really beautiful tanks and kettles. They have a sweet tasting room with four taps. The event was free, and you got four drink tickets upon entering. If you bought a growler (which of course I did) you could fill up your cup a few more times.

High Point specializes in traditional German style wheat beers and lagers. Greg imports everything except for the water from Bavaria. They had five beers on tap. I had four of them. I can't recall which one I missed though. They had a classic wheat which was malty, and wheaty, slightly sweet and yeasty. There was a golden lager which was smooth slightly malty with hops coming through in the finish. Next I had the double platinum blonde which was truly delicious. This was spicy, yeasty, fruity, and bitter sweet. Last I indulged in their seasonal Maibock. This was the star of the show. It was toasty and smooth, malty and delicious. Hops cut through in the beginning and the end. Very traditional and very delicious. I took a growler home with me. The Maibock received a great rating on both ratebeer.com and beer advocate.com. If you are in the area, stop by and pick something up. The tour is on the second Saturday of the month from 2-4pm.

Greg doing his thing

A beautiful sight

Tasting room complete with child bartender

I treated myself to a growler

Drinking: Magic Hat Odd Notion (number 2)
Listening to: E Smith-Figure 8

I wanna do this

Special Beer Night

Who is down? Get at me. I have a couple nice bottles that I have been saving. Also, Mark Dredge has a sweet blog.

The Great Debate

It's Friday night which basically means nothing to me because I work in retail. I have to be in to work by 5:30 tomorrow morning, so I'm trying to take her easy tonight. So how do I do that? Well with an 11% American strong ale, of course. I have had a Southern Tier Oak Aged Ale sitting in the cabinet for a couple weeks now. It is the second installment in their Cuvee series. It is pretty good despite being on the sweet side. But this isn't a post about this particular beer. What I want to talk about is session beers vs. specialty beers.

When I realized that I was going to be staying in tonight, I had to make a choice. Should I drink one specialty bomber at 11% or should I go the session route and be able to drink four or five beers. It's a real dilemma for me. I like specialty beers when they are done well. They can have some real complex flavors and aromas. But I can only really have one a night. That is why I am more a fan of session beers. I can drink Sierra Nevada Pale Ale all night long. It is delicious and refreshing. The flavors and aroma are simple but really really really good. Tonight I was counting down the time until I could dig in to my Cuvee. I could have started at five, but then I would have to shut it down before eight o'clock. I really love beer. I love the way it tastes, I love the way it smells, I love having a full pint in my hand. I often find myself wishing that beer had lower alcohol content, but tasted the same. I want to be able to drink it from the moment I get home until when I fall asleep. But that can't really happen because despite the frequency with which I drink, I am still basically a light weight (literally and figuratively). Six session beers and I am in the bag. This one bomber at 11% is equivalent to four session beers, which is all I really want to drink in a night when my alarm is set for 4 o'clock tomorrow morning. So I have to make this bad boy last me the rest of the night. This is my main problem with specialty beers. I am not very patient and have a hard time pacing myself. Specialty beers take away part of the beer drinking experience for me. I like to be able to drink at my own pace and not get totally hammered right away.

Complex does not equal good. There are some great specialty beers with really complex flavors, aromas, and ingredients. There are probably just as many overdone imperial whatevers with 12 different malts and 38 different varieties of hops. Like I said earlier give me a pale ale any day of the week where I can taste/smell the two or three kinds of hops. I don't want to drink a beer with cascade and not be able to smell it. Cascade smells amazing. Why would you want to bury that.

There is also the problem of value. If I buy a 22oz bottle for eight bucks and it is no good I feel cheated. I could have got a six pack for that. It only gets more ridiculous from there. For me a Belgians are always a gamble. They can run upwards of $14. You can, however, take this with a grain of salt, because it is coming from a guy who spent $36 on a bottle of Westy 12.

The debate continues. I probably sound like I come down on the side of session beers. If I had to pick one or the other, I would go with sessions. Luckily I do not have to pick. I do really enjoy specialty beers. My favorite time to drink big beers is after I have been up all night counting inventory at work. I use them as a reward or a consolation prize depending on how my numbers come out on these nights. When I get home at three or four in the morning still wide awake from working, a big imperial stout is the perfect thing to put me down before the sun comes up. Now I'm thinking about those Sierra Nevada 30th anniversary stouts I have in the cabinet. Mmmm, they are a treat. Until next time, cheers.

Cellaring Redux

A couple months ago I posted about open that bottle night, and by extension, the practice of cellaring. Aging beer to enhance flavor and character has become increasingly popular among beer enthusiasts. Most beer is made to be drank while fresh. Certain beers such as big stouts and barley wines can really benefit from aging provided they are kept in proper conditions. Keeping them out of light is a must. It is best to store beer in an area of high humidity within a temperature range of around 50 to 65 degrees, hence the term cellaring.

About a year ago, Adam had the idea of creating a brewers reserve series of our homebrews. Basically we have been saving a bomber of every beer that we have brewed starting with a bock we bottled last April. This particular beer is not a very cellarable beer. Alcohol content is somewhere around 4.5%. It is not particularly dark either. This beer spent about 6 months in an actual cellar and then six months in my beer cabinet in my apartment. The result of aging the bock was interesting, but not surprising. The beer lost almost all of its hop character. No more aroma, no flavor, and very little bitterness. Overall the beer was slightly sweet. It tasted more like a pilsner but again without much of a trace of hops. It wasn't bad, but not particularly good either. It retained its carbonation and color for the most part. It had a nice creamy head. One thing to consider when cellaring bottle conditioned beers is the yeast. Later I went back to try and get a little more beer out of the bottle, and I accidentally poured in a bit of the yeast that was chilling at the bottom of the bottle. It really killed the rest of my glass. Year old yeast tastes a lot stronger then fresh yeast. Generally I try to avoid pouring in yeast and sediment from a homebrew, but a little bit in the glass is normal and actually kinda has become a distinct part of the homebrew experience for me. I am curious how the rest of the series will come out. Next up is an Otter Creek Copper Ale clone. I hope that the extra malt in this beer will have some positive effect upon the aging process. Until then, cheers.

Bock Lager

Still carbonated

What I'm drinking: Anchor Steam clone (home brewed)
What I'm listening to: Itunes on shuffle

F the man

So, work has been kicking my ass up and down the street lately, leaving me tired and unmotivated when back at homebase. I do plan to continue posting here when I get a spare second, or more then one day off a week. Any ways. I just got a shipment of beer from my uncle who lives in Oakland. What a dude. Of particular interest is the much sought after Sierra Nevada 30th anniversary stout. I looked all over NJ for this bad boy. The dudes at Oak Tree in South Plainfield said they probably weren't gonna get it, but then I called back on Saturday and they said they had it for like a hot minute. Whatever. I am going to savour this bad beast. It may take me an entire evening to drink it. Also really psyched about Russian River's Pliny the Elder. A lot of dudes on the east coast talk about this beer. It's fairly easy to acquire out west, but not so much here. I was talking to this homebrewer who said he was going to do a clone recipe having never had the real deal. Just because it ain't over here. Well now I got me some. I'll post reviews once I indulge, but I know these brews are going to be top shelf. Incidentally they are now chilling on the top shelf.