Mar 22, 2014
Brew Batch #57 Cherry Wood Porter
What started as the possibility of pumpkin porter quickly became cherry wood when the gourds went out of season. I'll make sure to revisit that recipe when the jacks come back into season, but for now a nice sweet porter with OG 1.066+0.002 @78F sits waiting for the lag phase to pass. Hopefully it will start dropping quickly then I've got to decide how many ounces of wood to put it on. Another collaboration in the filling of the keezer that's soon to grace Beat-12 Brewing.
Brew Batch #56 cIPA
Needed an IPA for spring, so I"m banging out an IPA with all Centennial with the help of The Enabler and Andrew Mc. Part of NB's IPA series and a beer that had great sweet spine on the swill taste. OG 1.060+0.00@ 60F, with a phenomenal grapefruit nose. Can't wait to dry-hop this one in a couple of weeks.
Our Tastes-- Leinenkugel Canoe Paddler
Canoe Paddler by Leinenkugel pours an extremely clear beautiful straw. A "Kölsch-style" beer made with rye that lends a slight pepperiness to the finish of what I consider a great pick by Merry. Aroma is mildly citrus and a 5%abv makes this one my new spring/summer favorite. Compared to JJ's it comes at 2nd over Rogue. I am more pleased with my own brew's local use of Auburn wildflower honey. But this one did win gold at GABF 2013.
Our Tastes-- Rogue Honey Kölsch
Pours a frothy white head with little change in the overall clarity after a swirled protein bed. The cloudy golden straw haze is appreciable. Bland nose of slight citrus pith and honey. One dimensional flavor profile as Andy Mc put it as compared to JJ's. A nice sweet aftertaste and a beer I would definitely have again or use as a conversion brew. People love to think they're having a great micro and add in the honey bees and all of a sudden they're drinking for the planet! Made with 10 great ingredients and 5.9%abv.
Mar 19, 2014
Running + Beer?
I don't normally repost things sent to me unless I feel they have a definitive contribution to the beer education of the world, but this article on beer recovery was sent to me by an unnamed MD and was presented on NPR, so there's some merit here for sure. Oddly enough, there's some great information on protein synthesis and recovery post workout. It' a balancing act and this concoction is better related to O'Doul's or Sharp's with more protein. For the record, I like them both.
Mar 9, 2014
Brew Batch #55 Honey Kölsch (aka Jake's Juice too)
With the help of Andy Mc, I bottled Jake's Juice too for my builder. He's a great guy that's always here for me in a pinch and liked his personalized recipe the first go around. The stats were almost dead on from last time. FG 1.000+ 0.001 @ 70F to yield 5.12%abv. Same slightly darker color than expected possibly from the honey addition. Profile should improve profoundly with CO2 and two weeks bottle/keg time. Oh, I didn't mention I kegged 2.5C this time? Must have slipped my mind. Call it that tax deductible marketing QC share. Now to price granite counter tops.
Feb 22, 2014
TnDC Field Trip #22 NashVegas Brewery Crawl
So what was to be a brew day at BlackStone Brewpub turned into a magnificent Brew Crawl. Junk graciously put us up at his pad for a couple of bags of homemade pretzels and a pancake recipe. So without further adieu we started with Yazoo Brewing Company (early).
Dos Perros pours a medium brown bland "Mexican" lager tasting beer. The nose is of nothing yet that's how many Mexican beers hit me, having said that, there's also nothing better some days after hours of southern yardwork. A personal fav of The Enabler, it's gotta be the maize. Hefeweizen has a flat head, nose of light clove and bananas. Cloudy thin mouthfeel with a yeasty finish that's sure to take on any citrus wedge well if you're looking to convert a BMC drinker. Gerst Amber ale is a clear bright beer with bitter twang on the sides of the palate. It's bready, that's all I've got, not sure I would seek this brew out in a 6-pack. Sly Rye Porter. I've had it and the bottles aren't as good as draft. Trying draft again with flashbacks of Junk and I being the only souls in his dorm during the Texas/USC national championship. It's a nice dark brown with subtle hints of light smoke. I had forgotten about the good rye pepperiness with sweet porter spine. Pale Ale is more bitter than I'd expect or remember. There's a good white head to it, color is as expected, but again not the best beer. Hop Project #73 IPA. Holy cow, I remember having the first 10 or so, jeeze take your pick with regards to hop profiles and adjectives to describe the nose and flavor profile. This one's very piney. My bonus beer is the Ten Year White IPA. I liked this brew enough to pick up a bomber or 2 because the uses of Mosaic and Citra hops was a great combo for me. I noticed the grassy dull forward to be the mosaic.
Jackalope Leghorn Rye IPA. Fairly well balanced IPA. Not as much rye pick up on the palate initially and is more of an after thought though they used 3 different types. Light brown orange in color. Haven't had it before and would certainly knock down a few tumblers of it. Light head retention. 6%abv 65 ibus.
TN Brew Works. Opening Act Session pours a good white head. But the overall taste is a bland almost skunky golden ale. Made with Glacier hops you can pick up slight mint. Southern Wit pours darker than Opening Act with relatively the same light froth. Good light balanced orange citrus Belgian wit at 5.14%. Cutaway IPA pours up brown with red highlights with a good hop nose (used Warrior, Summit, Apollo, Calypso & TBW hop #3?). Balanced but nothing to write home about.
Basil Ryeman is a TN farmhouse ale. Bland bacterial medium mouthfeel after swishing. Sweet up front with tart as an after thought. Country Roots was black as southern soil. Nose is great of sweet potatoes balanced with toffee coffee. Light body for such a dark beer. Taste though seems over roasted coffee and bitter. It seems they use a good bit of rye in quite a few of their brews at TNBW, which is fine but I was not overly impressed with the beers at this brewery. The tasting area was huge and nice but beers need to catch up to the atmosphere.
The Black Abbey Brewing Company was the final stop in our crawl.
The Rose is a Belgian style blonde ale. Clear wheat fresh made with 6%wheat malt and no head. 5.8% 22 ibus. The Special was their Belgian style mild. Garnet hues paired with a malty backbone. Burps of banana after pouring up a light clear brown. It's ok. Or mild at best. 5.9% 23 ibus. The Champion oddly enough is an American Stock ale. Uh yeah. It's beer. Other than that I'm not pulling anything. 5.5% 40 ibus. Chapter House Belgian style red ale. Red and clear. Nose of heavier cloves but not impressive. 5.1% 25ibus. Potus 44 is a robust coffee infused brown porter that's a great conundrum. Read the description and initially it was labeled a brown ale. So I'm not sure if this is a dedication or degradation. Either way both my eyes drew up upon first sip. I don't pull the differentiation of the coffees. They're there but that's it. 5.54% 25 ibus. Wicket Gate next up is a London stout. Heavy bitter black beer I downed to get rid of. Fortress is they're American black ale at 5.9% 29ibus, but I don't pull very much citrus hop that it's supposed to belie. Fortress through a pineapple was much better.
Special thanks to Junk, Red and Andy Mc for making homemade pretzels, my liver wouldn't have made it without them. Don't stack glasses...ever. Overall, 3 out of 4 pints.
Dos Perros pours a medium brown bland "Mexican" lager tasting beer. The nose is of nothing yet that's how many Mexican beers hit me, having said that, there's also nothing better some days after hours of southern yardwork. A personal fav of The Enabler, it's gotta be the maize. Hefeweizen has a flat head, nose of light clove and bananas. Cloudy thin mouthfeel with a yeasty finish that's sure to take on any citrus wedge well if you're looking to convert a BMC drinker. Gerst Amber ale is a clear bright beer with bitter twang on the sides of the palate. It's bready, that's all I've got, not sure I would seek this brew out in a 6-pack. Sly Rye Porter. I've had it and the bottles aren't as good as draft. Trying draft again with flashbacks of Junk and I being the only souls in his dorm during the Texas/USC national championship. It's a nice dark brown with subtle hints of light smoke. I had forgotten about the good rye pepperiness with sweet porter spine. Pale Ale is more bitter than I'd expect or remember. There's a good white head to it, color is as expected, but again not the best beer. Hop Project #73 IPA. Holy cow, I remember having the first 10 or so, jeeze take your pick with regards to hop profiles and adjectives to describe the nose and flavor profile. This one's very piney. My bonus beer is the Ten Year White IPA. I liked this brew enough to pick up a bomber or 2 because the uses of Mosaic and Citra hops was a great combo for me. I noticed the grassy dull forward to be the mosaic.
Jackalope Leghorn Rye IPA. Fairly well balanced IPA. Not as much rye pick up on the palate initially and is more of an after thought though they used 3 different types. Light brown orange in color. Haven't had it before and would certainly knock down a few tumblers of it. Light head retention. 6%abv 65 ibus.
TN Brew Works. Opening Act Session pours a good white head. But the overall taste is a bland almost skunky golden ale. Made with Glacier hops you can pick up slight mint. Southern Wit pours darker than Opening Act with relatively the same light froth. Good light balanced orange citrus Belgian wit at 5.14%. Cutaway IPA pours up brown with red highlights with a good hop nose (used Warrior, Summit, Apollo, Calypso & TBW hop #3?). Balanced but nothing to write home about.
Basil Ryeman is a TN farmhouse ale. Bland bacterial medium mouthfeel after swishing. Sweet up front with tart as an after thought. Country Roots was black as southern soil. Nose is great of sweet potatoes balanced with toffee coffee. Light body for such a dark beer. Taste though seems over roasted coffee and bitter. It seems they use a good bit of rye in quite a few of their brews at TNBW, which is fine but I was not overly impressed with the beers at this brewery. The tasting area was huge and nice but beers need to catch up to the atmosphere.
The Black Abbey Brewing Company was the final stop in our crawl.
The Rose is a Belgian style blonde ale. Clear wheat fresh made with 6%wheat malt and no head. 5.8% 22 ibus. The Special was their Belgian style mild. Garnet hues paired with a malty backbone. Burps of banana after pouring up a light clear brown. It's ok. Or mild at best. 5.9% 23 ibus. The Champion oddly enough is an American Stock ale. Uh yeah. It's beer. Other than that I'm not pulling anything. 5.5% 40 ibus. Chapter House Belgian style red ale. Red and clear. Nose of heavier cloves but not impressive. 5.1% 25ibus. Potus 44 is a robust coffee infused brown porter that's a great conundrum. Read the description and initially it was labeled a brown ale. So I'm not sure if this is a dedication or degradation. Either way both my eyes drew up upon first sip. I don't pull the differentiation of the coffees. They're there but that's it. 5.54% 25 ibus. Wicket Gate next up is a London stout. Heavy bitter black beer I downed to get rid of. Fortress is they're American black ale at 5.9% 29ibus, but I don't pull very much citrus hop that it's supposed to belie. Fortress through a pineapple was much better.
Special thanks to Junk, Red and Andy Mc for making homemade pretzels, my liver wouldn't have made it without them. Don't stack glasses...ever. Overall, 3 out of 4 pints.
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