You're Afraid of What?

Cenosilicaphobia--fear of an empty glass. Now this is a true beer drinkers worst fear.

Our Tastes-- Samuel Adams Ginger Honey Ale

Part of the Brewer Patriot Collection, specifically "batch" #1. It's made with ginger, lemon and wildflower honey, which I can appreciate the complexity of, BUT I am just glad that it is cold and there are only 4 more left for me to drink, then the rest of my life. Tastes just like a menthol Halls cough drop (but liquid). The aroma is just like the taste, no shocker there! This had to be the Miller Lite of the colonial days, but then again they used to ferment cacti in order to make grogg, blecchhh:( It has a bright golden color and little head, looks a lot like you know what. It has great foam legs but man, I am doing my best right now to choke it down, hope they didn't make a lot of this. 5.5%abv which is a redeeming quality. Thomas Jefferson's wife apparently helped him brew 15C of this stuff every 2 weeks for personal consumption (she's a keeper). Food pairings are sweet and spicy stuff like Chinese spareribs. 0 and 2 Jim.

Brew Batch #18 Merry's Berry

Well I'm finally back to brewing and this batch so far has ironically mirrored my encounter with its namesake. The yeast pack was slow to warm up and I was hoping to brew last night but of course once it decided to get puffy for me, it did over night, so I am brewing this afternoon. On top of that, I played hell trying to find 4lbs of blueberries (screw the ones that are organically grown, I can wash the ddT off of the ones I have). One thing is for sure though, the new stove I have in my apt. is awesome. It goes from room temp to boil in no time, I better make sure that I really clean this bad boy before I move. I'll admit it's been a while since I last brewed, I seem to have the butterflies and tend to hover over the stove and have rechecked all of my equipment over and over again. Then to teach the yeast pack a little lesson, I threw in an extra POUND of sugar right before the first hop addition while it was boiling. Ever added a POUND of sugar to a boiling kettle? Well a little sugar got me a lot of head;)...damn thing instantly started to foam up on me so I had to remove it from the heat before I brought it back to a boil to add the hops. Overall, all went well. OG 1.050+0.002 @76F. This batch was supposed to be 1.046, maybe I got a little carried away, hopefully the yeast can handle it, if not this will be a very sweet batch that leaves you coming back for more. On a personal note, crushing 2.4 lbs of blueberries by hand was exhilarating. Akin to smashing 2 gallon bags full of nipples!!
(All puns intended during this brew session)

Our Tastes-- Harpoon UFO

Harpoon UFO is an American wheat. I haven't tried too many of the Harpoon beers but I just recently bought a sampler so I can see what else is out there. I have read about this brewery and the 100 barrel series that they make in Ale Street News and wanted to give some of their brews a try. This one is particularly nice. It has a great citrus aroma and although it poured with a heavy head has no foam legs. The color is the usual golden cloudy of most wheats. Not too shabby, I actually think I like it better than Sam Adams' Hefeweizen. I should try some of these wheats with a lemon or orange slice but most of that is for visual appeal. It's been brewed since 1998with abv 4.8%.

Our Tastes-- Samuel Adams Summer Ale

Tonight I am savoring an old favorite..Samuel Adams Summer Ale. One of the first things you'll notice about this beer is the friggin' cloudiness!! Then I got to thinking what makes this any different from a Hefeweizen. Summer Ale is very fresh and has some sort of "zing" in the aftertaste. It's an American wheat, that uses malted wheat much like the Hefe Sam makes. It also contains lemon "zest" and "grains of paradise" aka Malaguita Pepper from Africa. Apparently these aren't considered true peppers in the Americanized sense of the term, but in certain regions of the world some people chew Grains of Paradise in order to "warm" up. In other words there seems to be some sort of possible aphrodisiac effect. (Hope my aphro doesn't start growing, I need a haircut already). I'll have to admit this is a staple in the garage fridge during the summer for me because I can kill 6 in no time on a hot summer day.
Some characteristics: 160cal/12oz, Tettnang tettnanger Noble hops and 5.3%abv. Available April-August

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Yep, it was the smack pack for #16 to be brewed Saturday. It's going to be a special one...

Our Tastes-- BBC Dark Star Porter

Ah yes, the final taster from the BBC group...Dark Star Porter. From what I can remember Merry said this beer was named after Dark Star, a race horse. If this is true then this may be a tribute beer to Dark Star the horse that won the 79th KY Derby in 1953. Dark Star was the only horse to ever beat Native Dancer and entered the Preakness where he amazingly lost to Native Dancer. It was discovered later that Dark Star had a terrible ligament injury but still managed to finish. Dark Star is of course a porter style beer. I'll have to admit even though it is currently humid and 90F here right now this is an amazingly refreshing beer. One can really get an appreciation of the roasted malt and hop blend with both the aroma and taste in this special style of beer. I personally would rank it right up there with Sierra Nevada Porter. It has a nice deep brown color and head. A few other recognizable porters are SweetWater 420 Exodus Porter (currently being discontinued for the Belgian's they are starting to produce), Sierra Nevada and one of the most medal winningest Alaskan Brewing Company's Smoked Porter. I'll hold the last one I have for a taste-off between a few different bigger names.