Got my American Devil IPA brewed up and put in the fermenter on Thursday. I was sitting around after work and a little bored so I figured I would get cooking. Added about 3/4 cup of some honey to add a little sweetness to the flavor and kick the alcohol content up a tad. The malt and hop extract smelled pretty awful. I hope the beer tastes better than that smell! It should take about 2-3 weeks for it to ferment. After that I will bottle it up in a few 12oz bottles and at least one growler, then it should be another 2 weeks for conditioning. So I should have the beer review for this in a little over a month, looking forward to it. I am planning on brewing up the English Pale Ale towards the end of the month. A friend in my car club has a bunch of brewing equipment that she hasn't used in years that she is going to give to me! The only condition is that I give her some of the beer I brew, I would call that a good swap.
On to the Review!
Dogfish Head Immort Ale:
The dogfish site says this is a beer that is brewed with peat smoked barley, juniper berries, honey and maple syrup and then aged in oak barrels. Sounded like just the type of beer I would either love or hate (So far my opinion of barrel aged beers has not been all that great). This being a Dogfish brew though lead me to be excited. On first pour the beer has a nice slightly brown head, beer is dark golden brown. Has a very nice vanilla note with a hint a maple in the smell. Taste is excellent, very smooth. Maple flavor comes out and you get a hint of smokiness which is a very nice balance to the sweetness of the maple. When I first poured this it was probably too cold because towards the end of my tasting, when the beer warmed, several new flavors came out. The oak spiciness really asserted itself as well as a very slight hop note at the end. I liked it cold but I loved this beer when it hit its prime serving temp. I plan on cellaring a few of these (it is only available once a year) and buying a few more for immediate enjoyment. This is going to be a great beer for the fall. Guess I plan on buying out any that are left at my local beer merchant! If you can take strong ales and are looking for a beginner barrel aged beer, then keep an eye out for this one. I'll give it 4 1/2 pints out of 5.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Homebrewing...
Planning on doing some homebrewing this weekend. I bought an IPA kit for my Mr. Beer. Pretty easy to brew so I figure that I will at least get that one in the fermenter. If I have the time I am going to try to brew up my big English Pale ale kit. If I get them done I'll update everyone as to how it went on Monday!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Beer Review: Abita IPA, JW Dundees Sample Pack, Great Divide Hercules Double IPA, Terrapin RoggenRauchBier
Ok, some quick beer reviews:
Abita IPA:
Not a bad IPA, good color. Smooth up front with a little hint of sweetness. Hop flavor comes on rather strong at the end. All in all a very good IPA, stands up to some of my favorites (Sweetwater IPA, Dogfish 90 minute).
JW Dundees Sample Pack:
This came with 2 of each of the following: Honey Brown, American Lager, Pale Ale, Pale Bock, IPA, and a Hefewiezen. Here are the ones I have tried.
American Lager: Not all that impressed. Pretty bland, some sweet malt but not much else there.
IPA: A good IPA, nice hop finish, not too overwhelming. Probably a good intro IPA.
Pale Bock: This one surprised my. Never heard of a Pale Bock before so I was a bit wary. Very smooth with some nice roasted malt flavors to start and some great hop flavors to finish. Almost like a very dark IPA. A neat beer and the most drinkable of the sampler pack so far.
Great Divide Hercules Double IPA:
A big IPA. I would put this on par with my standard big IPA, Dogfish Head 90 Minute. Not as sweet as the Dogfish, hides it's alcohol content better (9.1% abv). Smell is not quite as floral as the 90, color a bit redder and darker, hops are nicely balanced in the end. Finish bitterness not near as in your face as the 90. A great "big" IPA. I'll buy it again.
Terrapin RoggenRauchBier (Side Project #2):
The only RauchBier (Literally Smoke Beer in German) I can compare this too is Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen. The Marzen was very up front with the smoke smell and flavor. My bartendress described it as "Smells like Bacon", and it did. Very smokey, some hints of hickory and maple and right in your face about it. The Terrapin is a bit different. On first smell the smokeyness is hard to pick out. If you didn't know what a Rauchbier was I think it would be very hard to put a description to the smell. Pours very dark brown, maybe a hint darker than Newcastle. Good smooth flavor, more like a brown ale as well with very little to no smoke flavor in the beer. Good clean finish. A nice beer but for a Rauchbier I was expecting much more smoke flavor so this is a bit of a let down for me.
Abita IPA:
Not a bad IPA, good color. Smooth up front with a little hint of sweetness. Hop flavor comes on rather strong at the end. All in all a very good IPA, stands up to some of my favorites (Sweetwater IPA, Dogfish 90 minute).
JW Dundees Sample Pack:
This came with 2 of each of the following: Honey Brown, American Lager, Pale Ale, Pale Bock, IPA, and a Hefewiezen. Here are the ones I have tried.
American Lager: Not all that impressed. Pretty bland, some sweet malt but not much else there.
IPA: A good IPA, nice hop finish, not too overwhelming. Probably a good intro IPA.
Pale Bock: This one surprised my. Never heard of a Pale Bock before so I was a bit wary. Very smooth with some nice roasted malt flavors to start and some great hop flavors to finish. Almost like a very dark IPA. A neat beer and the most drinkable of the sampler pack so far.
Great Divide Hercules Double IPA:
A big IPA. I would put this on par with my standard big IPA, Dogfish Head 90 Minute. Not as sweet as the Dogfish, hides it's alcohol content better (9.1% abv). Smell is not quite as floral as the 90, color a bit redder and darker, hops are nicely balanced in the end. Finish bitterness not near as in your face as the 90. A great "big" IPA. I'll buy it again.
Terrapin RoggenRauchBier (Side Project #2):
The only RauchBier (Literally Smoke Beer in German) I can compare this too is Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen. The Marzen was very up front with the smoke smell and flavor. My bartendress described it as "Smells like Bacon", and it did. Very smokey, some hints of hickory and maple and right in your face about it. The Terrapin is a bit different. On first smell the smokeyness is hard to pick out. If you didn't know what a Rauchbier was I think it would be very hard to put a description to the smell. Pours very dark brown, maybe a hint darker than Newcastle. Good smooth flavor, more like a brown ale as well with very little to no smoke flavor in the beer. Good clean finish. A nice beer but for a Rauchbier I was expecting much more smoke flavor so this is a bit of a let down for me.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Cheap Beer
I know this blog is titled Beer Snob and I guess I am a bit of a beer snob but there is a time and place to drink cheap beer. Though I do trend towards good beer I do buy my fare share of low end beer. I have a soft spot for the stuff since it was all I drank until I saw the light of better beer (and got a job and was thus able to afford good beer). So, I give you my times to drink cheap beer:
If you are in college then there really is no other beer than what we referred to as "Finest, cheapest". In a bar? Gimmie what ever the cheapest stuff coming out of the tap is that night. Usually this ends up being Coors/Bud/Miller Lite although we had some interesting selections around GT when I was in college. Best bet was Limerick Junctions Wednesday Night Special. Back in my day it was a beer new to the US, the special was $4.50 pitchers of Amstel Light! You could get food, drink for a few hours and leave with a tab of around $15 a person. All in all a great deal. For house parties the beers of choice ranged from Lighthouse, to Bud products and on to Natural Light. None taste all that good but for alcohol consumption they do their jobs. We did have fans of two odd beers back in school. Landmark and Schafer. Ugh, both the bottom of the barrel beer wise, but hey you could get a case of Landmark for $8!
When do I drink cheap beer now that I am out of school and have money to afford good beer? I'll keep a few in the fridge for when I am doing yardwork. My fav for quenching a thirst after mowing the lawn or playing tennis is Rolling Rock Light. Pretty good taste, very smooth and works best when served very cold on a hot day. For parties I'll stock usually stock up on Miller Light Bottles, a good standard (If I'm going high class for the party then Amstel Light is the choice). For the pool I upscale things a bit. No bottles so I have gotten in the habit of drinking Heineken Light. No cheap but not really high end either.
There are very few beers that I have avoided. You won't find me turning down a beer just because it is cheap. Iron City, PBR (a guilty pleasure actually, best enjoyed out of a 16 or 22oz can), Lighthouse ect. are all acceptable beers. In fact, the only beer that I can remember flat out refusing to finish was a Milwaukee's Best Light that a fraternity buddy of mine gave me. It was all he had in his fridge and it was terrible. I think I took two sips and decided to stay sober that night, yuck.
Those are my thoughts on cheap beer. Drink up if it is what you like but go out on a limb every now and then and try something new. But make sure you keep a few stashed in the fridge for the right time.
Favorite Cheap Beers:
Yuengling
Miller Light
Rolling Rock Light
Pabst Blue Ribbon
If you are in college then there really is no other beer than what we referred to as "Finest, cheapest". In a bar? Gimmie what ever the cheapest stuff coming out of the tap is that night. Usually this ends up being Coors/Bud/Miller Lite although we had some interesting selections around GT when I was in college. Best bet was Limerick Junctions Wednesday Night Special. Back in my day it was a beer new to the US, the special was $4.50 pitchers of Amstel Light! You could get food, drink for a few hours and leave with a tab of around $15 a person. All in all a great deal. For house parties the beers of choice ranged from Lighthouse, to Bud products and on to Natural Light. None taste all that good but for alcohol consumption they do their jobs. We did have fans of two odd beers back in school. Landmark and Schafer. Ugh, both the bottom of the barrel beer wise, but hey you could get a case of Landmark for $8!
When do I drink cheap beer now that I am out of school and have money to afford good beer? I'll keep a few in the fridge for when I am doing yardwork. My fav for quenching a thirst after mowing the lawn or playing tennis is Rolling Rock Light. Pretty good taste, very smooth and works best when served very cold on a hot day. For parties I'll stock usually stock up on Miller Light Bottles, a good standard (If I'm going high class for the party then Amstel Light is the choice). For the pool I upscale things a bit. No bottles so I have gotten in the habit of drinking Heineken Light. No cheap but not really high end either.
There are very few beers that I have avoided. You won't find me turning down a beer just because it is cheap. Iron City, PBR (a guilty pleasure actually, best enjoyed out of a 16 or 22oz can), Lighthouse ect. are all acceptable beers. In fact, the only beer that I can remember flat out refusing to finish was a Milwaukee's Best Light that a fraternity buddy of mine gave me. It was all he had in his fridge and it was terrible. I think I took two sips and decided to stay sober that night, yuck.
Those are my thoughts on cheap beer. Drink up if it is what you like but go out on a limb every now and then and try something new. But make sure you keep a few stashed in the fridge for the right time.
Favorite Cheap Beers:
Yuengling
Miller Light
Rolling Rock Light
Pabst Blue Ribbon
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
New Blog!
Hey everyone! Starting up a new blog about one of my favorite hobbies, drinking beer! Why a start a beer blog? Well I have always been a bit of a beer snob. I was the guy in the fraternity in college always trying new and different beers (back then it was radical to buy anything other than Natural Light, Bud Light or Miller Lite). Over the years this has transformed into a true appreciation of the many different types of beer that are out there. This really hit home when the State of Georgia changed the law capping the amount of alcohol in beer from 6% to 14% in 2004. A good friend of mine and I celebrated the occasion at Brick Store Pub in Decatur. The experience of trying some really amazing Belgian and other beers for the first time was incredible. Opened my eyes to what other neat styles of beer there are out there waiting for me to try them.
So, my idea behind this blog is to keep my readers up to date on what crazy beers are out there. I'll keep track of what is in my beer fridge, what I am cellaring for later consumption and what I have on tap in my basement bar (I'll post some pictures later this week, the jest of it is that I built out my basement to look and feel like some of the hole in the wall bars in Savannah, GA. Wood flooring, walls look like distressed red brick, neon signs, pool table, big TV, and a bar with two taps). I am also slowly getting into home brewing so I will keep everyone up to date on what styles I'm making and how they turned out. All in all I am looking forward to sharing my beer experiences with everyone!
So, my idea behind this blog is to keep my readers up to date on what crazy beers are out there. I'll keep track of what is in my beer fridge, what I am cellaring for later consumption and what I have on tap in my basement bar (I'll post some pictures later this week, the jest of it is that I built out my basement to look and feel like some of the hole in the wall bars in Savannah, GA. Wood flooring, walls look like distressed red brick, neon signs, pool table, big TV, and a bar with two taps). I am also slowly getting into home brewing so I will keep everyone up to date on what styles I'm making and how they turned out. All in all I am looking forward to sharing my beer experiences with everyone!
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