Our Tastes-- Reaper Ale Redemption Red Ale

KOKO! (Keep On Keepin' On). Redemption Red Ale is one of the last Reaper beers we have to try and it makes the grade as well. Pouring a reddish medium brown with slight particulate. The nose is a bready malt with little hop aroma. Columbus boil, Amarillo finish with an Amarillo dry-hop. 6.6%abv with 20.35 fatty-making CHOs per 12er. Well worth the bills it was bought with.

Our Tastes-- Reaper Ale Deathly Pale Ale

As we grind it out trying to deplete current stores of great brew we try Deathly Pale Ale tonight. Pouring a nice creamy off white head and cloudy dark wildflower honey. Sweet, floral aroma from it's malt and high alpha acid hops. Made with Chinook for the boil and finished with Cascade then dry-hopped with both. 6.2%abv and 16.25gms CHO per 12oz serving. Good mouthfeel and bitter aftertaste makes a keeper.

Brew Batch #37 Québécois Quadruple Wheat Wine

I picked up this recipe several months ago with the yeast culture showing a January date! To my surprise it cultured and activated in less than 24hrs, I mean it was churning. I read an article that wheat wines are taking over barleywines in popularity, possible because wheat is a bit cheaper than barley right now and there aren't many hops added? Nonetheless OG 1.078+0.001 @68F. Hopefully it has a long way to drop.

The Bees' Knees Mead©

Ah yes, I bet you had forgotten about this sleeping beastie. Bottled everything up today. I got 28&1/2 short brown 12oz with plain golden crowned of the cyser and 10 “Anchor" and 13 "Grolsch" style bottles of the vanilla cyser. FG ended up at 1.006+0.001 @69F. This yields about 16.9%abv for both. One thing I noticed is that on the rack prior to bottling, the vanilla seemed to be slightly lighter in color. Did the vanilla beans have anything to do with it? Either way I have already gotten everything ready for my next mead batch and have started pricing jumbo blackberries and Michigan cherries for the next batches.

Brew Batch #35 Zeus IPA

I am dying to ultimately see how this one turned out. I kegged it tonight and the FG ended up being 1.002+0.001 @67F. This makes it about 8.3ish%. I have to borrow a bottling gun in order to pull some off for bottles but the snip I had seemed very promising . Without carbonation behind there seems to be a lot of flavor profile missing. Perhaps that's the secret beyond hops and their head retention/flavor character. It's on 17pSI at ambient 54F right now since it's going down to 48F, I'll leave it on the back porch the into the kegerator tomorrow am to hold it at 40F and back off the gas.

Brew Batch #33 XX Ale

I bottled the XX Ale today and still have the yeast in the "yeast bank" that I've started. I understand that you lose about 50% viability every 2-3 weeks, so I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to reculture and pitch it or not. I have 30&1/2 22oz bombers with gold crowns on them. FG 1.004+0.0 @64F to give about 8.4%abv. I tasted it in my usual and customary way and it smells and tastes just like the cellared beer Junk and I had at Bosco's. There is a substantial yeast quality to it and what I presume may be all of the unfermented sugar (maltodextrin?). We'll see how it ages.

Our Tastes-- Ménage à Frog

Made by Issaquah Brewery (aka Rogue), Ménage à Frog was my 1st Belgian Style Tripel Ale encounter. I first had this in Charlotte, NC at The Flying Saucer, shortly after being heimliched so I wasn't sure if I was high on the brew or just being heimliched, again. The really wow factor for me was the wax covered crowned cork 750ml bottle. I mean just getting into this thing was an Indiana Jones hunt. I stopped to smell the cork, not knowing it was ever served this way at FS and it smelled like fine chenin blanc wine, I thought I needed cantaloupe or passion fruit with just the cork aroma alone! On a side note I put this in the fridge for my buddy Jim, who is slowly becoming a BMC convert/homebrewer, but is having his ticker looked at tonight, so he would want me to have this without him I'm sure. He has however picked the Belgian "line" of beers as his current favorite, due most in part to The Satin Hammer Jamie made, I'll discuss later this weekend (I hope). It pours a pure liquid gold color with marshmellow creamy head that dissipates to near skimming flatness in my tulip glass. The bubbles caress the glass in champagne-like fashion. This beer is why I tried my hand at BTs. It has a nose of slight fresh cut white oak (won't cut it for you find your own damn tree) married with white grapes. Mouthfeel is full with a definite tart but not bitter to it. I bought these bottles over 2 years ago before I even got serious into dating my wife and for them to have this kind of earthy spice and longevity is awesome and why I bought her a bottle while I was at it...damn, may have just drank her bottle? Aftertaste is nice as well, definite pear/green apple fell to it. Made with Pilsner malt, Saaz hops and Abbey yeast, it's my tarty fruity favorite. 9%abv. I'll admit after a full "lupper" earlier, I find it hard to feel my fingertips after 2 of these, man did my liver just retro back to high school?