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.

Our Tastes-- BBC Nut Brown Ale

Continuing with the 3 types that Melonhead picked me up in Louisville, KY; tonight I am trying the Nut Brown Ale. It has a great dark brown color, I can't place the aroma but it is identical to something I have had before. Little to no head or foam legs, but a superb balance of hop and malt. I wish I could give some abv but again none are listed on the website. A few examples of other notable nut browns are Samuel Adams new Nut Brown Ale, Goose Island makes Hex Nut Brown Ale, Abita, but Samuel Smith makes the absolute cadillac in nut brown ales. I think I'll put this bad boy up against a taste-off between my #3 NBA and some Sam's here pretty soon.

Our Tastes-- BBC American Pale Ale

Now it's no suprise to many that I am flying completely solo in my brewing endeavors. Alas, sweet Melonhead thought we were on different paths and broke from the chapter of "us" sometime ago. However, one of her many redeeming qualities as a "keeper" was knowing when in a different state find me some local brew. So last fall or so when she was visiting her sister and bro-in-law (Brian- co-founder of the Montgomery "Superchapter") in Louisville, KY. she insisted on finding some good local brew. Now Brian and I have butted heads, but in an earnest attempt to fulfill at least Melonhead's desires for me, he took her to a place that sold all 3 of the mainline brews produced by Bluegrass Brewing Company. So before they go out of date, I tried the American Pale Ale. I am having this beer cold in a room temp glass pint and I'll admit, I have fallen back in lust with the American Pale Ale types of beer. It has a hop aroma like the usual APA and wonderful hoppy bite, probably made with Centennial or Cascade. The head was thin and left very little in the way of foam legs. Overall, probably one of the best I've had, but that's always the case when the brewery is 281mi. away. I don't have any abv or other characteristics because they donn't list them on the site, but comparable brews are SweetWater 420 Pale Ale, Anchor Liberty Ale, Olde Towne (my local micro) and of course Sierra Nevada. Maybe I'll try a taste-off later on with the remaining few that I have.

Bug's Tastes-- Samuel Adams Brewer Patriot

I tried the Sam Adams Brewer Patriot and with the exception of the 1790 Root Beer, they were all very much worth me overpaying on eBay. The Washington Porter was first, and it is very dark and stout. This would be a good one to drink while drawing up plans to form your own country. James Madison Dark Wheat was extremely smooth and had no aftertaste. I should point out now that drinking all four of these brews in a relatively short amount of time (roughly 2 hours) might cause one to later feel like the entire Continental Congress has taken up residency in one's head.

Be responsible... Share homebrew with your canine.

Thought a little different perspective would be nice, since I am still waiting for my case to ship from The Windy-City (frankie)

Update..

Heard from Junk of the Port City chapter and these guys are off the hook, to be expected. Red (denoted here in pink) and the Master Brewer have touched 10 batches already this season!! Impressive. (Wacky shite like roasted pecan maple mild ale, I LOVE IT!!) Their recipes are off the hook and sound awesome. (Easy guys, Jimmy only allowed us homebrewers 100C/person/household/year, get some goldfish and claim them as relatives in case of ABC/ATF invasion. One of these days Port City and Rocket City will get together for a tandem brew, assuming I have any damn ingredients. Whenever I hear from Junk it fires me up, I appreciate it

Our Tastes-- RedHook Late Harvest Autumn Ale

RedHook has been around since 1982 and has 2 breweries, one on each coast (pretty smart if you ask me), one in Portsmouth, NH and the other in Woodinville, WA. This isn't the first time I have had a RedHook brew, but I wanted to start blogging the beers that I am trying since I brought all of my brew kits to the Rocket City last week and forgot all the damn ingredients in Montgomery!! This is also an old label, but the only one I could find on the internet! I truly bought this at my favortie BP 5pts gas station because the new label and six pack has a damn hoot owl on the front of it. It's like he was gazing at me saying, "Take me to a good beer-loving home, I am a seasonal beer that can be coated in metal, travel with you as you ride Pegasus to kill Medusa and help destroy the Cracken before he devours Andromeda". Anyway, I'll try to get some pics posted of some of these labels. But on to the beer. There's no official designation from RedHook on this one, but I'm thinking Marzen (available from 1st of Aug-Oct). It's definitely not a pumpkin ale. It has the usual marzen aroma and color, like I said I bought it because of the damn hoot owl!! Made with Crystal malt, German Smoked Munich, Caramel and Roasted malts as well. It's only been brewed since fall 2005 and is an East Coast brew only! Sweet, finally something in Bama the rest of the US can't get!
Some characteristics: Chestnut in color, 32 IBUs, 190cal/12oz bottle (which means more to me now that I am doing NSS (nutrional services) and 5.7%abv.
* 2315hrs-- I drank all 6, so it's safe;) and lined the bottles up against my balcony to keep away pigeons and eat field mice;(

Our Tastes-- Olde Towne Bock

Holy schinikee!! This is the 5th different brew I have tried from my local microbrewery and this is the best bock I have ever had. Olde Towne apparently also makes a porter and pumpkin ale as well and early reports of phasing the Extra Pale Ale out seem to have been a red herring. It has an awesome change in the label color to dark red for the banner and bowler hat. I was expecting it to be a bit more dark in color but it is actually a soft golden brown. It has to be a Helles or Mai because it is way too light to be a Dunkel or Double bock. Check this out: bock for a brief overview of all of the different kinds of bock out there. There is only a slight sweet cinnamon aroma that I can tell and next to no head at all, but remember higher gravity beers typically don't have a lot of head.