Cool night= a beer with some heat

It just felt like a good night for some Stone Old Guardian barleywine. So here is my instant review.

It pours with a nice half inch creamy head on a amber/dark orange beer. (The lacing hangs on the side of the glass, refusing to give up throughout the entire serving.) Smell brings a lot of sweetness (molasses and caramel). Makes me want to get this beer to my mouth. Slight smell of grapefruit hops. This is exactly what I want an 11% beer to smell like. I cannot wait to taste it.

Once the beer is brought to my lips, the hops really kick in. Super hopped. The bitterness cuts the malt in half, almost overpowering it. The alcohol is very prevalent in the mouth, you can tell it is big. As the beer warms, it develops with more flavors coming out. A little more caramel, toffee and dark fruits.

Not as thick as I was expecting, the Old Guardian is smooth going down as the carbonation is just right. Overall, it is a very enjoyable beer. Something that I would like to sip in front of the fire this upcoming winter. I think during time, this beer could firm up and balance out so the hops don't overpower it. Can't wait to try in the future with some age on it.
After (drinking) thoughts:

I didn't put much thought into this beer before I drank it. Now after evaluating it, I realized that this is the first time I can remember having it. Many times, I have had the Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, Victory Old Horizontal, Lagunitas Olde GnarleyWine and (my new favorite) Troegs Flying Mouflan, but I am surprised I didn't have Old Guardian before. I now look for this to enter my beer box for a bit of age, and for it to be on the rotation of barleywines that I consume.

Wedding Brew Day

Our simple setup.

What does a beer geek do for the beer selection when getting ready for his wedding? I pondered that question for a long time. Then while talking to my brother (an experienced homebrewer), we decided to brew for the wedding. Then, what style do we brew? The answer came in the form of when the wedding was taking place (October) and what can we make (ale)... this turned into our own Oktoberfest style ale (we also brewed a basic Witbier to give another option for the reception).  Because of time and simplicity, we chose to go with a partial malt recipe, we didn't have and entire day to devote to the beer.

The Lighting of the Kettle

BYOW

My brother lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a couple of years.  Down the street from where he lived were a group of guys who love beer, and all brewed together.  This helped my brother out trremendously, as their knowledge helped develop his skills.  He, in turn, is helping me learn the art.  (It was great having someone who knows what is going on, and why everything works- as well as his equipment.)

The day turned out to be a nice brewday.  A bit chilly in the morning, high in the mid 70's, with little breeze.

Sometimes you have to wait

My brother and I started the day by both grabbing a variety pack from the distributer.  He showed up with Troeg's Anthology (one of the greatest mixed packs out there- in my opinion).  I decided to give the Magic Hat variety pack a whirl.  

Magic Hat's beer is good, but I always thought it was somewhat basic.  Their #9, very popular with many of my friends, is good, but I can't get into it like others.  I always thought that Blind Faith was very good, and loved buying a pint, but then they stopped making in (yes, I am happy they just brought it back). They just released Vinyl, which is a Amber Lager, something you can drink all night, but not go out of my way for.  What I do appreciate, is their Odd Notion series.  Not always my favorite beers, but sometimes they bring on a great beer- the American Sour was absolutely amazing.

In the two mix packs were:

Troeg's- HopBack, DreamWeaver, Pale Ale, and Java Head.

Magic Hat- #9, Hi.P.A., Hex, Odd Notion (Green Apple Wit)

The Hex (and Oktoberfest) and the Odd Notion made alot of sense on the day, as we were brewing both (although no green apple).  All of the Troeg's were delicious, as usual.  The Odd Notion had a strong Green Apple smell, but was very mellow when drank.  All the beer was very drinkable, and perfect for an early Autumn/late Summer day.

Some of the other guys came around for the brew, one guy (my former roommate and Max's drinking partner) brought his leftover 21st Amendment Brew Free or Die IPA- can't go wrong.

We decided to get spring water, chosing to avoid the hard water found at the house.  After firing up the kettle, we were able to use the first of my brother's toys that he brought along.  The 7lb. Barley Crusher grain mill ripped the malt apart for us.  The chocolate malt and pale malt then went into the pot.

Exact amounts

We were originally going to feature only Hellertau hops in the Oktoberfest, but instead chose to use the Hellertau in the boil and help it out with some Saaz towards the end.

The Witbier used wheat flakes as well as some pale malt flavored with coriander.  We also utilized Hellertau and Saaz hops for the witbier to match the Oktoberfest.

It just smelled so good.

We will be kegging the beer into corny kegs after the fermentation in complete. Overall, we are looking for these beers to be enjoyable by both craft drinkers and macro drinkers. The fact that remains is: it is a wedding, people will drink whatever is available.  Maybe one of these people will say, wow, this has more flavor than Bud Light.  Then the next time they are out, they order something new.  Who know?  It could happen.

Boil, Boil, Toil makes trouble.

Waiting isn't a problem when you have beer.

Detailed conversation.

Fun with Hops

Must Love Burgers (we needed to eat too)

The Session #43- Walking into a New Kid's Place

The Beer Babe brings us Session #43- Welcoming the New Kids:

With the astounding growth of the number of craft breweries this year, chances are there’s a new one in development, or has just started out in your area. My challenge to you is to seek out a new brewery and think about ways in which they could be welcomed into the existing beer community. How does their beer compare to the craft beer scene in your area? Are they doing anything in a new/exciting way? What advice, as a beer consumer, would you give to these new breweries?

Take this opportunity to say hello to the new neighbors in your area. Maybe its a nanobrewery that came to a festival for the first time that you vowed to “check out” later. Maybe it’s a new local beer on a shelf on the corner store that you hadn’t seen before. Dig deeper and tell us a story about the “new kids on the block.” I look forward to welcoming them to the neighborhood!

In my life, I have had to make some radical changes in the last 6 months.  Buying a new home, moving, commuting 75 miles each way to work and preparing for a wedding (we are doing 90% of everything for this wedding).  This has taken up much of my time.  But I have been able to notice the brewpubs that keep opening up.  (Sure, we aren’t Portland, but we have grown in Central PA too.)

The last couple of years, my home area has grown with beer, and sadly (not really sadly) I have been absent of it, due to me living in Baltimore.  We always had Selin’s Grove Brewing and Bullfrog Brewing, which are great- but we were missing out on more selection. Now comes word of a new brewpub trying to open in Bloomsburg, as well as Bavarian Barbarian, Breaker and One Guy Berwick Brewing.

I am going to forgo talking about the brewpubs, you should all try your local one out, or go to one mentioned above.  I am going to talk about walking into a brewpub that isn’t your home base- and how you should be treated.

I love to travel.  I don’t do it as much as I would like, but I love to travel.  What brewpubs have to realize is that everyone walking into it matters.  My post takes me to a friend’s bachelor party in Morgantown, WV.  As the others were still on the golf course (I got there later than them), I was able to find Morgantown Brewing, which I posted here.  There are four things that I feel a brewpub needs to establish to be successful to all clients (beer drinkers)- Morgantown Brewing as some examples.

1.  Education- the bartenders/servers at the brewpub have to understand the beer.  At Morgantown, I asked for the beer list.  The bartender wanted to help out while I was browsing the list.  I got to the bar right as it opened, looking for lunch and a beer or two.  The bartender did not know my BeerQ level (Beer IQ), and did a great job explaining some of their beers.

2. Service- the servers/bartenders might be knowledgeable, but shouldn’t talk down to someone who is walking into a brewpub for the first time (or someone who they think is walking into a brewpub for the first time).  They should ask basic questions to understand the customers BeerQ, as to not insult them nor sound like an elitist.  At Morgantown, the bartender was nice.  She was able to go back and forth with me when I asked intelligent questions, or when I asked dumb questions about the beer.  I didn’t need someone to tell me what a Scotch ale was, just someone to tell me if theirs was hop heavy (it wasn’t) or malt heavy (it was).  Also along the lines of service, you cannot have a 40 minute wait between beers.  Sure if you are trying to serve a million people in a small bar, that is one thing.  But if I go to a brewpub, there is 5 servers for 20 people (at the bar and tables), I should be able to get a beer- this was not at Morgantown.

3. Good Beer- this should be obvious.  Good beer will always bring people back.  Go ahead and make the basic IPA, pale ale, stout, brown ale, pilsner (or “lager”), blonde and even throw in an Alt.  Those are base beers that most brewpubs have, but brewpubs that stand out take it to a new level.  Brew some great Belgian dubbels or triples, throw a marzen in the mix or just drop cherries/raspberries/chocolate/etc. in the beer.  Show me you are trying.  If it fails, it fails- but it will bring me back.

4. Regular customers- when you get people coming in once/twice a week, take notice.  These people will get others to come, who will tell others to come.  They can be welcoming to newbies or a deterrent.  They are some of the first people that I notice when I sit at the bar, because they are right next to me.  Granted, it is not up to the brewpub to supply the regulars, but with Education, Service and Good Beer, regulars will form.

Hopefully my thoughts made sense to you, and you can agree with me.  If you feel there are other keys to a great brewpub, let me know.

Expectations

If I get told good things about a certain beer, I try to stay away from expectations.  Expectations can hurt your experience with any beer, and the experience is what I look forward to the most.

Sometimes when I drink a beer, I just don't know what to think about it. This Ayinger was one of those beers. I started drinking the Jahrhundert Bier with high expectations.  I was told that it was a great beer, something that I would enjoy.  I was hoping for a nice balanced beer, that would combine a nice sweet malt with a good hop backbone. What I got was just sweet, bready malt. A little too much. It was smooth and not over carbonated, but I needed the hops to crash it at the end and it never came. Maybe I was expecting too much.

The other side of the expectation story comes to Bear Republic Racer X.  This was a beer that I had been looking for ever since I knew it existed.  Racer 5 is one of my favorite beers available.  The beer is a very easy drinking West Coast IPA that feature the citrus characteristics of the hop, instead of the bitterness.  Racer X is a Imperial IPA, that is the spawn of Racer 5.  The major difference in the two beers is the factor of a bit more bitterness in the X (but it doesn't overpower the beer).  The beer was well balanced, with the malt pushing through after the initial hop citrus and bitterness.  Overall, this was a very drinkable beer, but one that you should watch out for due to the alcohol content.

Whenever a person has expectations, it is hard to hit it right on the nose.  Typically, the outcome is better or worse than expected.  In these two beers, I was able to get one that was better than expected, and another which was lower.

Have you had your expectations reached/fallen short lately?

Finally a BUFF Beer

I finally decided to open up the Stone/Dogfish Head/Victory collaboration Saison du BUFF.  I have been loving saisons for a couple of months now, but since I picked up the Saison du Buff, I have been on a IPA kick.  But today, after doing the yard work, I figure it would be a great treat.

The Saison du Buff is a collaborative effort between Greg Koch (Stone), Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head) and Bill Covaleski (Victory).  The BUFF part of the beer stands for Brewers United for Freedom of Flavor.  Seven years ago, the three brewers started this "organization" with the intentions to push the limits.  I personally think they did it to just have a bunch of fun.

First, the pour- I again allow the head to get out of control.  The color looks perfect for a saison, darker yellow- and very clear.  The nose is full of spices.  It is dominated by rosemary (one of my favorite meals is to have steak and rosemary potatoes- a smell I will never forget) and a nice minty sage.

First sip brings a good saison yeast taste to it.  Then, BAM! the spices kick in and run over you like a Mack tractor trailer truck going 70 miles per hour.  Big time rosemary.  HUGE rosemary.  The sage clears up the spices on the back of the tongue.

The beer is highly carbonated, as expected with a saison.  It is light in the mouth, and surprisingly smooth going down (the spices do not make it hard to swallow).  I think this beer is a drinkable beer, maybe have two or three, but I doubt I could handle any more than that.

Overall, this beer is very good.  A nice collaborative effort on the part of three great brewers.  This beer reminded me of the Jolly Pumpkin/Stone/Nogne O Holiday Ale collaboration that I tried last February.  A ton of spice, but everything works together well, creating a very good beer.
 

Dreaming of beer, and a Rant against ratings.

So I sit here thinking about the beers that I can't wait to drink in the future.  Checking out people's Top Whatever lists, looking for some hidden gems. So naturally, I start thinking about mid-January when I can begin drinking Nugget Nectar again.  My mind continues to wonder, so I decide to go to Beer Advocate and check up on the reviews.  The first review kind of blew my mind:

"Appearance was typical beer yellow with half inch head that lasted fairly long. Aroma was mostly citrus, especially grapefruit with piney notes. Flavor was pure hop bitterness with a touch of the grapefruit. Way too bitter! Mouthfeel was light to medium but balanced over the palate. Drinkability is low, it's just way too bitter, a real hop bomb. NOT recommended!"

It starts off with a description that I never heard of before (or saw as I have drank cases of this beer).  "Typical beer yellow"?  I have never seen a beer yellow NN- ever.  The Aroma and Flaver are spot on.  Yes, NN is mostly citrus- grapefruit and pine in the nose.  Yes, it is pure hop bitterness- have you seen the awesome label.

But then this person* goes off the deep end.  The lines- "Way too bitter!" and "NOT recommended" took me for surprise.  I must also note that this guy gave the beer a D.   D?!?!?!? How is that possible.  Then I came to my senses and thought about his remarks.  If you don't like hop bombs, or big Amber (Double IPA) ales, then no you won't like this beer.  But if you don't like those styles, why would you even pick it up? Again, did you not look at the label when you bought the bottle?

This reinforces my feelings about the overall ratings of the beers on Rate Beer and Beer Advocate.  I love the reviews, love other blogger's reviews and the such, but this guys D rating influences the overall score when he outlines exactly why it has an overall A rating.  I try my best to rate the beers to style.  I do not really like Scottish beers, I know this.  If I rate one on a rating site, I judge it based on what it should taste like, not whether or not I like the beer.

So anywho, I cannot wait to taste the sweet nectar from the gods again.  Are there any beers that you cannot wait to get again?

*this reviewer was all over the book on his other reviews as well.  Maybe it is inexperience, maybe he has a load of bad bottles.  I don't know, but I will not take his reviews for what they're worth.

The Session #42

This month's Session is brought to us by Ramblings of a Beer Runner and has to deal with:

"So I ask for this 42nd Session that you write about a special place in your life, and a beer or brewery that connects you to that place. It can be the beer from your childhood home, a place you once lived, your current hometown, a memorable vacation you once took, or a place you've always wanted to go to but never had the chance. Please take a few moments to think about the how the beer connects you to this place, and share this with us. Of course, the definition of "place" is rather open ended, and in some cases, highly debatable, so it will be interesting to see the responses on what constitutes a place."

In my beer life, I have had the fortunate ability to try some of the world's greatest beers, but there is one beer that holds a close place in my heart.  Yuengling Lager.
 
Is the the best beer that I have ever had? No way.  But it takes me back to my hometown with my friends.  I grew up 45 minutes from the brewery, and when we started drinking, that is the beer we had.  We shared many a beer on the front porch talking about religion, politics, girls and sports. Many nights, the only thing that we could agree on was that we wanted another beer.  These friends have been there for me (and I for them) through thick and thin, and still we get together and share thoughts over Yuengling.
 
Why wouldn't we drink it?  It is cheap, local, easy drinking and I think it tastes good- as I write this post, I am having a lager (that is how we order it- "give me a lager").