Just wanted to post some links to a couple of great resources for beer and brewing information.
BrewPoll is a “Digg” style news sharing site dedicated to all things beer.
BrewAdvice is a great place to get answers to all your homebrewing questions. Post a question and get advice from the community.
I love all of the infographics over at The Oatmeal, they are always entertaining and educational. This weeks is beer themed!
I found this great hop chart online. Perfect quick reference guide to flavor, aroma and bitterness profiles for a wide range of hops.
Click to enlarge
Carousing in the We The People Brewery with numerous glasses of Westmalle Dubbel, Doesjel, and Oaked Aged Yeti last night, Brandon informed me of Union Jack’s Allagash Extravaganza today. A plethora of congenial things should be said about Union Jack’s, but I’m lazy, not that clever, and truthfully don’t feel like taking the time to explain it when you should just go or check out their website www.unionjacksmanatawny.com .
A portion of Jack's bottle selection.
I arrived 20 minutes before the posted tapping time of 1:00, because I was bored and like to start my drinking as prematurely as I can on the weekends. The bar was bare when I walked in, so I grabbed the seat of my choice and prepared to do work. Jack’s was offering 10 contradistinctive Allagash beers available in 2 different flights. I chose flight #2 in the interest of frugality and due to the fact that it included a sample of Allagash Curieux.
The first beer I tasted was the Dubbel Reserve, which had a light, transparent, chestnut tint. A moderate amount of malt and caramel notes hit the nose. The well structured mouth feel reveals hints of cloves, nuts, and chocolate and finishes dry with a nice abv of 7%. I recommend picking up a bottle of this and keeping it for a year or two, due to the fact that age will impart those port and sherry characteristics that are favorable to some.
“Curious” about the Curieux, since I have a 2009 bottle in the cellar and have never tasted it, I took a decent mouthful. In my point of view this is an elegantly balanced, beast of a beer at 11% abv! The diffusion and conglomeration of aromas that burst in the nose are created by the cellaring of the beer in Jim Beam barrels for 8 weeks. Tremendous scents of vanilla, bourbon, and coconut are indicative of its mellow and rounded, wooded, warming, vanilla, bourbon, piquancy. After tasting this beer I salivate when thinking of an opportunity to open my 09’ bottle in several years.
Top left: Double Reserve; Top right: Fluxus; Middle: White; Bottom left: Curieux; Bottom right: Hugh Malone
Hugh Malone was the subsequent beer and an entirely dissimilar smell, taste, and complexion. With an amber apricot glow and an accumulation of grapefuity, florally, piney aromas; this beer tastes as good as it looks. The beer list that I yoinked from Union Jack’s says these scents and flavors are accomplished by using, “…generous portions of Simcoe hops at three points in the brewing process. To begin with, we use a technique referred to as first wort hopping, in which Simcoe is added to the sweet wort as it enters the kettle. When the wort comes to a boil in the kettle we add Warrior hops, adding another layer to the bitterness of the beer. Later in the brewing process we steep a large amount of Simcoe in the whirlpool to import a distinct hop aroma. Finally, during secondary fermentation in our conditioning tanks, we dry hop the beer…” (Allagash Brewing Co.). I’d say I could drink this beer all day, but at 8.5% abv I would more than likely drink half the day and fall asleep on my couch for the remainder of the evening.
If you’ve managed to read this far, congratulations, and for your reward I will spare you from an obviously amicable review of the Allagash White, since I’m assuming anyone reading this has already sampled it. Fluxus was the final installment to my flight and I’m glad I saved the least flavorable for last. Classified as a Belgian-style saison, I feel this beer should have had more of everything a saison should have and less novelty ingredients. I promote, condone, and encourage experimentation with beer, but sometimes you need to be able to accept the fact when a beer’s flavors don’t complement one another. Brewed with sweet potatoes and black pepper, this beer virtually had no smell until I vigorously swirled the glass and plunged my nose into it only to reveal a touch of sweet potato, no black pepper. Breathing air into my mouth when I tasted the beer unleashed the confusing, contradicting flavors of black pepper and sweet potato. If you like sweet potatoes and black pepper in your beer than this is the brew for you, but it’s just not for me. Just my opinion.
I would be thoroughly impressed if anyone read all the way through this article, but to those who did, thank you and make sure you get your ass to Union Jack’s on December 12th for their 2nd annual Back in Black Stout Fest. Prost!
For those who care, and for that matter, for those who don’t give a shit, I’m Mike Deger. I brew with Brandon and I will be trying to provide writing that is interesting, appealing, and most importantly honest. Enough with the introductions and on with the story.
On November, 11th Brandon, a couple of friends, and I went to a concert at a venue in Philadelphia called the Tin Angel. There’s a bar downstairs, complete with a fireplace so warm it will singe your ass hair, and a number of tables to order a meal. The stage is upstairs and has the dimensions of a decently sized area rug. Tables that seat four are strewn about the narrow room and there’s a small bar in the back. The Tin Angel, when crammed, can probably hold about 150 to 200 people, and that might be pushing it.
We enter Philly around 8:15, park the car, and make our way to the Tin Angel. The White Buffalo opens the door the exact moment we reach it, as if he was the resident door-man. The only thing I will say is that this man’s voice will slice through your soul and instead of attempting to describe the awesomeness that is The White Buffalo; you should check him out at www.thewhitebuffalo.com. So, Brandon and I recognize the living legend and follow him to the bar. I’m a firm adherent to the first impressions edict, and I obstinately believe that a man’s beer says a myriad of things about his character. That being said, the Buffalo made his choice in the form a Pennsylvania standard and staple, LAGER. Perusing the limited draft selection I went with a beer that’s never let me down, the 60 minute i.p.a. from Dogfish Head. After hearing my selection, the man himself was intrigued and started to inquire about my beer. I gave him a brief description of Dogfish Head, slid the beer his way and told him to smell the glorious hop aroma that emanated from the glass. I can’t specifically remember what the Buffalo said, but it was most certainly favorable.
As I previously stated the fireplace was unacceptably hot, so I decided to go smoke a cig with The White Buffalo. We discussed the variety of treasures which Philly has to offer and pointed to places like Eulogy, Triumph, and Monk’s. Of course a beer discussion was started and Brandon asked the bearded man what type of brews he fancied. Pabst Blue Ribbon was the response and all three of us concurred that for the quality, quantity, and most imperatively the money, PBR is an excellent choice.
I finished my cig, wished the Buffalo luck and headed upstairs to grab the first of many Yuengling’s. Twenty to thirty minutes later, the man stepped on stage, and filled the tiny room with crisp bravado notes that split the air for the next hour or so. After the concert, we purchased a t-shirt from the Buffalo, wished him well, and made our way to Eulogy.
Every time I step into Eulogy, I always forget about the immense and thorough selection of their bottled and draft beers (about 300 different bottles). I complemented the bartender on her Toronado t-shirt and ordered Eulogy’s Busty Blonde. This beer is brewed in Belgium specifically for Eulogy by the La Binchoise Brewery. The Busty Blonde is classified as a Belgian Pale Ale and at 7.0% abv is fairly drinkable. Served in a chalice, this beer has a light personality, with a light golden yellow body, light hop and citrus aromas, and a light mouth feel. In my opinion, this beer is a decent representation of its style and worth a tasting, but has a bit too much spice for me to use as a session beer.
Once we finished our beers, we left Eulogy and returned to the car. While walking, Brandon and I discussed the prodigious and monumental greatness of our evening. However, when we reached the car I realized that it was “just another night in Philly”, as I placed the $76 parking ticket in my console.
Last night I watched an episode of The Beer Hunter – The Burgundies of Belgium from the late, great Michael Jackson. The video gives a lot of great information about Belgium and its rich beer history. Check it out.
I decided to take a gravity reading of the saison tonight. This was the first time using the White Labs WLP550 Belgian Ale Yeast. So far I am very impressed. I was expecting this one to take awhile to attenuate, but after 5 days it is at 1.008.
The aroma is incredible, earthy and spicy. Flavors are developing very nicely, a great balance of lemons and pepper, with some nice hop bitterness and a refreshing dry finish. Alcohol is very soft and smooth. I can’t wait to bottle this one. I hope I can save some for the summer!
For my next batch of saison I am going to be culturing the yeast from a bottle of Saison Dupont. It is not very complicated, if you have experience with starters than you should have no problem. I think the only issue you may run into is yeast viability. Choose a fresh, bottle conditioned beer and hope that it has been treated with care on its way to your local bottle shop.
Some bottle conditioned beers use a bottling strain instead of the primary fermentation strain so do some research and find out if the yeast in the bottle is indeed the yeast you want to culture.
Before opening the bottle, wipe down the neck with some rubbing alcohol and/or flame the top of the bottle to kill any bacteria that could infect your culture. Decant the beer into a glass, trying not to disturb the sediment, cover with sanitized foil and allow it to come up to room temperature. Make a small amount of starter wort, keeping the specific gravity around 1.015-1.020, cool to room temp and pour in just enough wort to suspend the yeast (approx. 3-6 mL). Allow to incubate for a period of 1-3 days while watching for signs of fermentation. If you see activity or 3 days have passed add the yeast to some fresh starter wort (approx. 15 mL) and allow to incubate another 1-3 days.
Hopefully you notice some activity, if so, start to step up your culture just like you would your starter until you have enough viable yeast to pitch. Check back soon for steps on building your own magnetic stir plate.
After reading Phil Markowski’s Farmhouse Ales: Culture and Craftmanship in the Belgian Tradition, it has inspired me to try and brew a Saison. I stopped by Artisan Homebrew in Downingtown and picked up the ingredients. The brew went extremely smooth, one of the best brew sessions yet.
Malts: 10 pounds of pilsner malt, 1 pound of wheat malt
Adjuncts: 1.25 pounds Dextrose
Hops: Styrian Goldings, East Kent Goldings and Saaz
Yeast: WLP550 Belgian Ale yeast (2 liter starter)
Mashed at 150 F for 60 minutes, boiled for 90 minutes.
OG: 1.064
Currently Fermenting at 80 F.
Quite lively, this one! Upon popping the cap, there was a small geyser that quickly dissipated after tilting the bottle. Poured into a Rodenbach Grand Cru tulip. Color is deep mahogany, tan head fades slowly. Aroma has malt, fruit, spices, brown sugar and caramel. Taste is similar to the smell, dark fruits, spices, caramel, some hop bitterness and a metallic taste in the finish. For an 8.0% beer the alcohol is hidden well. Overall, not bad, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get it again.
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