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!

Bells Hopslam Review!!!

I had talked about Bells beer in my previous post. Well I find myself on the road again this week and just popped in to another Total Wine store to pick up a sixer of Bells Two Hearted Ale (my new favorite beer). Anyway, they have it in the chilled section, figure I'll have one while doing a bit of work and haul the rest home to Atlanta. As I am getting ready to checkout I turn around to find a few light green colored cases of beer. What did I find? Nothing other than 4 cases of Bells Hopslam. Why is this a big deal? Well, Hopslam is a very limited release beer from Bells that everyone over on the Beer message boards has been raving over (yeah, there are boards that talk only about beer, heck your reading a blog about beer so don't act that surprised). Anyway, most of it has been bought up and I didn't find any when I was down in Florida so I had given up hope of getting to try this magic elixir. Haha! Not so, here it is right in front of me. Do I buy just a 6 pack? Nope, picked up a whole case (So, of you want some hopslam, there is about 3 cases left at the Total Wine near UNC Charlotte). Leave the case in the back of my car save one beer. Take it up to the hotel to chill in the fridge overnight.

Fast forward 24 or so hours and I find myself sitting here sipping on said Hopslam. It is a quite amazing beer. So here is my Bells Hopslam review.

I do have to take exception to the description it gives itself, "A Biting, bitter, tongue bruiser of an ale. With a name like Hopslam, what did you expect?". My reasoning? I don't think it is that bitter. 90 min, Victory Hop Wallop (which is back out now, guess that is even more beer for me to buy, along with Sweetwater Happy Ending), Stone Ruination and a few others pack a much larger bitter hop bite. Maybe I am just used to the hop bite and it really takes a huge IBU to kick my palette. Anyway, it is still an amazing beer. Very floral aroma, thus you know it is packed with hops. The bitterness is more up front. Hops hit leadoff here, no malt to speak of. The interesting bit of this beer is the finish. You would expect the hop bitterness to follow all the way through to the end but you get a quite pleasant citrus note at the end. It is just sooooo smooth it, really it is. What Bells has done is brew a very sneaky big beer. Kind of like in golf where some guys are "sneaky" long, this beer is sneaky big. It is 10% abv, it sure doesn't taste like that. Hopslam really is the kind of beer you could drink three or four in a row in 40 mins after mowing the lawn on a hot day and not think any thing of it. That is until you try to stand up and fall flat on your ass. Overall this is just a Wow beer. Please Bells, I beg you to start selling beer in Georiga!!! I think this one is an add to the hall of fame, maybe. I'll have to mull that over the rest of the case I have! I'll give it 4.5 pints out of 5. (Ukrainian judge deducted .5 a pint for the slightly misleading description)

Happy Drinking!

Out of State Beer Adventures....

I was in the Ft. Lauderdale area Wednesday night and Thursday for work reasons. While I was there I figured I would try to scope out a few good beer stores and grab a few bottles of stuff I can't get here in Georgia. With the help of the directory on Beer Advocate I located 2 promising stores withing a 5 minute drive of my hotel. Keg and Case World and Total Wine. Stopped at Keg and Case World first. They had a great selection of Belgians and the guy manning the counter was very helpful. The main goal of this trip was to track down any and all Bells beers that I could find. He did tell me they have had trouble getting Bells in since the distributor changed, bummer. I did track down some Dogfish Old School Barleywine, looks very promising, and a sixer of Highland Kashmir IPA (yes I can get that here but I did want to have a few beers later and didn't really feel like hitting a 15% barleywine on a business trip). Next stop was Total wine. This place was huge and 90% wine but had a nice selection of import and craft brews. You could build your own six pack from their very nice single bottle selection. Again, tons of Belgians and American craft brews all well organized. Ended up picking up a 6er of Bells Two Heart (My new fav IPA) and a 4 pack of Sam Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner. Love the Bells, I'll have a bit more of a write up about it next week. Had never heard of the Sam Adams but I am glad I picked it up, it is rather amazing. Extremely hoppy (woohoo!) but very smooth at the same time, again a full review is coming.

I took my well bought loot back to the hotel and had 2 or 3 while watching the UNC/Clemson bball game. The next morning I packed all the beer in my suitcase using my time tested method of wrapping in newspaper and padding with clothes. I have done this several times and never had a bottle break (knock on wood) during transit. So I got to thinking, what does it say about someone who FLYS beer back from far away places he has visited? I don't know really. I think of it as expanding my brew knowledge, trying new things that I can't get at home. Sure it may be extreme to lug beer back from New York or Maine or Virginia or South Florida or Illinois or even somewhere as close as North Carolina. But the fact that I can travel to all these places and see beer brands and styles that I have never heard before says great things about the American and world wide craft brew market. More and more places and people are opening up to the huge variety of beer out there. The more the merrier I say. Let them drink a West Coast IPA, let them try a Funky Wild Yeast Belgian, try a nice dark Coffee Stout. Who knows, they may just like it.

Happy Drinking!

The Beer Snob meets a dry county and finds an oasis...

Took a nice weekend trip to the Western North Carolina Mountains this weekend. This is an annual trip that we have been making with the in-laws for as long as I have known them and it introduces some interesting challeges for the beer drinker. We stay in Sapphire Valley which is located just east of Cashiers, NC. Beautiful country that has one problem, it is a dry county. No beer, no wine, and no liquor. In the past the only was to get beer was to buy it from one of the members only bars (which we are a member of) and pay way too much or drive almost an hour to some other county that does sell beer. Well this trip added a new option. On our drive up I noticed signs for the Sapphire Mountain Brewing Company. I thought this was odd with the whole dry county thing. Turns out the Restaurant is located just up the hill from where we were staying, it is at the Sapphire Mountain golf course. We decided to give it a shoot Saturday afternoon, see what they had on draft and watch a little basketball. It is a great looking place, plenty of seating (there was a nice deck over looking part of the golf course and has an amazing mountain vista but it was a bit cool to sit outside), the bar is beautiful. They had 10 micros on tap, no macro brews here (WooHooo! Yes you could get a Miller Lite in a bottle or to go but it really wasn't advertised). A good selection: Dogfish 90, Bells Two Hearted Ale, Rouge Dead Guy, A house Amber, A house Pilsner, Thomas Creek Deep Water Dopplebock, Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning, Magic Hat #9 and 2 others that I can't think of. The house beers where brewed by Thomas Creek in Greenville, SC and where both very good. The amber ale was especially great. I also tried the Bells Two Hearted Ale (Now #2 on my list of breweries who I wish would sell beer in GA) and the Thomas Creek Dopplebock. They also had a great selection of crafts in bottles. Heck they had North Coast Old Stock on sale for $4 (it was left over from a beer dinner they had hosted) a bottle! Had a great time talking to a few of the regulars and to the bar tenders. There where probably close to 15-20 folks in the bar, which I guess is pretty good for the off-season. I hope the place does well and is around next time I am in the area. Food looked great although we didn't order anything. They also offered to-go beer and wine. The prices where very fair, a bit more than here in Atlanta but I would expect that. Picked out a 6er of the Bells Two Hearted to take home. Glad to see more and more places popping up and supporting the American Craft Beer industry. Anyway, if you are in the Cashiers/Highlands, NC area and want to visit a great beer bar with some great food give Sapphire Mountain Brewing Company a try, you will not be disappointed that you stopped.

Happy Drinking!