Off to the land of Bourbon....

Heading up to Lexington, KY for a low key bachelor party this weekend. Basically it is just myself and a few buddies from college going. Why Lexington? Well it is pretty central for everyone that is going and one of our friends lives in Lexington so the lodging is free, always a plus. We will be hitting the bourbon trail tomorrow. Plan on visiting at least Buffalo Trace, Woodford Reserve, Makers Mark and Heaven Hill. Should be a good day. I am sure Friday night will involve some beer in one way or another. I'm looking forward to it because I'm hoping to find Bells on tap. Saturday will involve some recovery in the morning followed by the Kentucky v. LSU basketball game in the afternoon and then more beer and liquor that night. Just hope we can all make it to Sunday in one piece. Anyways that is about it for now...

Happy Drinking!

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine Review

Just a quick hit on this review. Gave this beer a shoot a few nights ago after a grueling tennis match. A buddy left me one as a "victory" beer. It has been documented that I am not a big fan of Sierra Nevada. Not sure what it is but their beers and I just don't get along for some reason. This one was ok. Didn't really stack up to my standards as far as a barleywine. It had a decent hop note in the middle and was a tad sweet but nothing really stood out. I want a barleywine to stand up and announce what it is. This one really tasted much closer to just a strong dark ale. I'll happily drink it if handed to me for free but I don't really think I will go out of my way to buy or order this one anytime soon (unless I need it for my Taco Mac passport card). Anyway, maybe it is a good introduction to barleywines if you have never had one and want to wade in to the pool instead of jumping right in with a big one (Rouge Old Crustacean come on down!). I'll give this one a 2.5 pints out of 5.

Happy Drinking!

Miller Lite has hops is in it?

Don't know if anyone has seen one of the newer Miller Lite ads on tv yet, I couldn't find it posted anywhere on the net. The ad celebrates the fact that Miller ads hops not once, not twice, but three tims during the brewing process of Miller Lite, and that ads to the great pilsner taste of Miller Lite. Huh? There are hops in Miller Lite? Could have fooled me. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind Miller Lite (see my Cheap Beer Manifesto here) but trying to sell Miller Lite on the amount of hops in it is like trying to sell O'Doul's because it has some alcohol in it. The regular lite beer drinker don't know what hops smell or taste like. They figure, hey its got hops, it has to be better than brand X. Ok, but don't go trying to sell your beer off the success of the craft movements use of liberal amounts of hops. Rant over....

Happy Drinking!

More Guinness Please.....

A nice gallery of pictures from the Perfect Pour Competition from the local fish wrapper.

Introduced my mom of all people to Guinness this past weekend. We hit up Ted's Montana Grill on Saturday (mmmmm, bison burger....). I ordered up a Guinness and order her up a Sweetwater 420. She asked if Guinness was any good, I responded by not believing she had never had a Guinness. I knew she would like it since she drinks her coffee black. Let her have a sip and she was sold, asked if I wanted to trade beers. I kindly refused but told her to make my dad buy 6 pack of Guinness so they could properly celebrate St. Patrick's day in Savannah.

That is all for now. Happy Drinking!

Weekend Brewing

Ended up doing a little brewing Sunday morning. What a nice way to start the morning, hovering over a boiling pot with the wondrous smell of hops wafting throughout the house. The brew in question is Hopnog. A nice uber-hopped homebrew kit. I think the IBUs should come in around 75+ and the ABV is supposed to be right at 7%, very nice. Took a quick taste when cooling the wort and the concentrated bitterness puckered my lips....yum! Anyway, it is resting quite nicely in the fermentor, the yeast eating away at the sugars and producing lovely alcohol. Really looking forward to this one. My first big hoppy IPA and the first new tap on the new kegerator set up. Should be a nice way to spend the first weekend of March Madness, watching basketball and trying to finish a keg of homebrew!

Interview with Fergal Murray : Head Brewmaster at Guinness and judge at the Guinness Perfect Pour Contest

As I teased yesterday I had the honor of getting about 10 minutes to talk to Fergal Murray. The man, the myth, the legendary head brewmaster at Guinness. Got to speak with him before the Guinness Perfect Pour contest held at Taco Mac here in Atlanta. The field started with 40+ bartenders and slowly whittled its way down to one.

I guess I can start with a little background for Fergal. He got his first job at Guinness in the early '80s working as a research chemist. He decided he wanted to be a bit more involved in the brewing process so he enrolled at the Institute of Brewing in London and received his Master Brewing degree. Since 1995 he has been the head brewmaster for Guinness.

On to the interview.....

First thing I asked Fergal was "Why Guinness?" He summed it up pretty well in one word, "Passion". He talked of the passion for the "nectar" as he kept calling it. He made a great point that is there another beer in the world where you would have a pouring contest for? He was very passionate for Guinness the brand and Guinness the Beer.

We then went on to talk about "What is the perfect pint?". Apparently there are a few tricks to pouring a good pint. Fergal made sure to point out that not just anyone can pour a good pint. A few rules and pointers: the spout never touches the glass or beer, glass in left hand while working the tap with the right, glass should start at 45 degrees to the tap, pull tap towards you on first fill, first fill should be 3/4 to 4/5 full, let it settle a bit but you really don't have to let it settle all the way out (you get a better head if you don't let it settle all the way), place glass directly under tap for second pour, push tap forward for second pour, fill just over rim leaving a nice "dome" on top. Sounds easy right? Well any spillage your out, place the logo facing the wrong way and your get points off, have bad luck with a few big bubbles in the head and you out.... Anyway you get the point, it is a little tricky to truly pour a perfect pint. That is until you watch Fergal pour perfect pint after perfect pint. Heck you think this was part of his job or something.....

I asked if he had any words of advice for someone who wanted to get started in brewing. Fergal had some great points on this. He said it was great to see new takes on beer and that it is nice that someone can go from homebrewing into brewing for a brewpub pretty easily but he noted that small scale brewers can learn a lot from large breweries. There is something to the consistency that large scale brewers (Guinness, Bud, Amstel ect.). The fact that you can go all over the world, order a Guinness draft and you know what to expect. He mentioned that the processes that they use are the same since Guinness was first brewed. His advice was if you really want to get into brewing to try starting in a large commercial brewery for a bit. Pick up how things are done on the large scale and use that to really learn how to make a truly consistent product, something that can be extremely difficult for a brewpub or homebrewer. That and attending a brewing school can't hurt.

I asked what other beers he likes besides Guinness. He likes Smithwicks but usually tries to have something different. He likes to try the local beers and see what new types of things are going on. He said good things about Sweetwater here in Atlanta. He liked that the craft brew scene pushes the limits of what beer can do and invents new beer and comes up with new takes on old styles. I think Fergal is a beer lover who happens to have the perfect job. He did mention that Guinness is coming out with an exclusive beer for the American market. It is being brewed to celebrate their 250th anniversary. He said it should start showing up here in the states in April!

We talked a bit about how he got interested in Guinness. Again it went back to the passion people have towards the beer. When he was working as a chemist for Guinness he saw just how much people loved the beer and how much he had grown to love and decided he wanted to get involved in brewing it. From there things lead to him getting the most envious job in the world.

Fergal and I talked about a few other things but I think I hit the high notes. He is an amazing guy that just flat out loves Guinness. What an amazing job he has, you would think it is all fun and games (judging pouring contests, showing up at St. Pats day parades, just getting to work at St. James Gate and in the Gravity Bar in Dublin) but there has to be a lot of stress that comes with being responsible for making sure that Guinness stays great. Hey, that is stress I think I could deal with, maybe over a pint or three Guinness....

A last shout out to the winner of the Pour-off. Karen from Meehans Public House won. She had been to the finals the last three years but come up just short each time. She finally broke through with a great pout on the second pour in the finals (first pour was a tie thus a pour-off ensued) and with a little help from her competitor who just overfilled his glass and had some spillage.

Anyway it was an amazing night, I plan on going again next year. Trying to come up with someway that I can sneak into the competition. You think they would let a little know blogger compete? Who knows, if I get it maybe I can win, after all I did learn how to pour from Fergal!

Happy Drinking!!

Valentines Wine Tasting and some other big news.

My wife Kelly and I attended a neighborhood wine tasting on Valentines Day. Had a great time and tried some excellent wines. How can a beer snob like wine you ask? Well I do, it just isn't my first choice of beverage. The few wine tastings that I have been to really helped me pick out wines that I like and have allowed me to be confident in ordering a good glass when out to dinner. I rarely go buy a bottle of wine for home consumption though I do have a soft spot for a good bottle of port. Anyway, we got all dressed up, I in my tuxedo and my wife in the only black dress that will fit her at the moment (note to new readers, she is pregnant with twins that are due in April). The tasting started out with 2 types of sparkling wine (Kel had a few small sips then switched to water), then moved on to a Chardonnay, then a Merlot, then a Port and finished an amazing Silver Oak Cabernet. All in all they where all great wines. I did speak with our wine guy at length (he works at the beverage store around the corner and has done tasting for us 2 or 3 times) about possibly doing a beer tasting this fall. He seemed game and we had a nice time talking about all the new beers that are now available here in Georgia.

Now for the big news. I am going to have a very interesting interview to post here in the next two days. I will be interviewing Guinness Brewmaster Fergal Murray! Make sure to stop back by in the next day or two for the interview and my thoughts on getting to meet the legend!

The Beer Snob gets reaquainted with an old Friend...

Few goings on as of late. I began the rearranging of my kegerator set-up. Decided I was sick and tired of foamy beer and constantly having to rebalance the CO2 pressure in my system. So, I am moving the fridge to get it right next to where the taps are mounted in the wall. Sure, I loose some storage space in the basement but it is a small price to pay for good beer. I just need to drill a few new holes and get the air circulation system set back up and I will be good to go. In the process of this move I discovered a possible culprit behind my foamy homebrew. The CO2 inlet valve on the corny (actually it is a firestone keg but very similar) keg is leaky. When I unhooked the air line to move the keg out of the fridge you could hear the pressure leaking out of the keg. Not a big problem, I'll just buy a few spare parts when I order my second corny keg from the intertubes. I want to get all this done in the next few weeks so I can have it up and running for March Madness. I may pick up another commercial 1/6 keg for the tourney as well. Figure I will be done with the Pale Ale by then so I need to brew up my next batch of homebrew. Figure I may tackle it in the next week or two.

So, who is this old friend that I became reacquainted with recently? Well that friend is Pabst Blue Ribbon. Yep, the original cheap and newly hip beer. Had a can last night at trivia and was left quite satisfied. PBR really is one of my all time favs. Yeah it's cheap but I really do like the way it tastes. I'll take a PBR anytime. I do refuse to buy it in bottles, preferring to stick with the 16oz tall boy packaging. Figure I'll have to go pick up a 12 pack or so this weekend. I wonder if they sell it in 1/6 kegs?

A few upcoming beer notes. Going to watch the Duke v. UNC basketball game tonight at Taco Mac. Hope to grab a pint of the ultra-rare Sierra Nevada Hopsecret 393. Only 8 kegs made it anywhere outside of California and they are all here in GA. Only one is being tapped tonight so I hope there is a little left when I get there.

Happy Drinking!