Our Tastes-- Voodoo Doughnut Pretzel Raspberry Chocolate Ale

Another contribution by Junk and a taster I finally got to try. This line of beers also includes a banana doughnut something or other, I think? VDPRCA pours a dark brown with chestnut highlights and is made with 10 ingredients, "2-Row, Munich, C120, Chocolate, Black - Kiln Coffee & Rogue Farms Dare™ and Risk™ Malts; Rogue Farms Rebel Hops™; Pretzels, Raspberry Extract, Chocolate, Pacman Yeast & Free Range Coastal Water". The aroma is dead on for absolute German chocolate covered pretzels!! Now let's be honest the taste is a gimmick and I often wonder what "flavor" we will taint good beer with next along with a snazzy label just to push conventional thought. Having said that and being a capitalist and proponent of the free market, I'd buy it again, try it with doughnuts and the shirt though pink is a must have for me. 5.4% abv for this candy coated "doughnut" brown ale. Will be trying the bacon one when I get it with my bacon-lovers t-shirt on.

Brew Batch #65 La Gran Calabaza...Pastel

Into the keg today at FG 1.010+ 0.001 @74F. The color is spot on and the nose hints away at pumpkin pie but it's much more subdued that I thought. This recipe has continued to haunt me, but I've decided not to give up. I'll just continue to take good notes and alter it where necessary. I'll be dropping it cold and blowing off the keg, so in the mean time while it's pressurizing, I hope the nose and flavor pump up a bit. On the FG taste it seemed more like an amber that someone jut put spices in, not 8lbs of pumpkin. 6.83% and we'll see where it goes, even have a great tap handle for the keezer!

National Beer Day

I had no idea that this was such a big deal that we celebrated New Beer's Eve (April 6th), to coincide with it. So on this day in 1933 FDR signed the Cullen-Harrison Act which allowed people to buy, sell and drink beer again as long as it was <4 .05="" 1.5million="" a="" abv.="" amstel="" barrels="" be="" beer="" day="" drank="" drinking="" enough="" href="http://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics/by-state/" in="" is="" light="" more="" must="" oddly="" of="" one="" popular="" population="" s="" so="" than="" that="" the="" why="">Colorado
produced in all of 2013. To put it all in perspective, every man, woman and child (and yes the census included Native American's as of 1930) consumed 47 ounces of beer on that one day. You read it here first.

Our Tastes-- Southern Tier Warlock

I finally got a chance to sample Southern Tier Warlock and it did not disappoint. The dichotomy to ST's Imperial Ale, Pumking, this imperial stout has already been perfected considering it's only been brewed since 2013. Pouring a clear medium brown with slight garnet hues, the white thin head gave way to pumpkin pie and hazel nut (good pick up by The Taskmaster). The taste is a bit overly spicy in the nutmeg realm with much bitter coffee in conjunction with allspice. I haven't tried a lot of ST brews, but after checking out their website, I may have to brush up a bit more on them. I noticed at least 4 pumpkin based beers, so apparently they're not skittish of the gourd! I'll definitely be picking this full bodied "Black Series" beer up again next year. 8.6% abv

Happy St. Pat's 2015

It's a rarity that I have to work on St. Pat's but this year was just how it fell. Managed to get in a pint of lovely and found a couple of articles that explain a good bit behind the "why" of certain points to the holiday. I think the last one is a little extreme but has some good points. But if they post it at the international airport in Dublin, it's gotta be right.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2014/03/please-dont-call-it-st-pattys-day/
http://paddynotpatty.com/
http://gawker.com/5990788/its-st-paddys-day-not-st-pattys-day

Brew Batch #39 The Bees' Knees Mead© 2010

I know many of you have asked about this one since 09' has long since gone the way of endangered (almost the dodo). Into the bottles finally this afternoon with the help of Merry! A case of the long necks with silver crowns and a couple of bombers for corking on the vanilla bean blueberry batch and believe it or not, I bottled the plain cyser on 12/2/14. Both came in at around 14% but there is a definite difference in the blueberry batch. It seems to have a great golden blue hue to it. A long time in the making. Already had some takers on it since it's really ready right now going into the bottle. 15lbs of honey never tasted so good.

Brew Batch #66 (or #1) Jake's Juice AG

Though it be Friday the 13th, today was my lucky day. Today was my first GAG (going all grain)! We brewed 10 gallons and split them between 2 different yeasts to see if there was a certain profile we liked most with the brew. Threw together some pilsner, white wheat and honey malt to create the mash, then used the usual hops and added some Sumiton, AL honey to it at flash out. It's usually made with honey procured from Auburn only, but I told Jake a long time ago that would be the biggest variable because I couldn't always guarantee the same honey. Using the Brew Magic for the first time was exhilarating and nearly as gut wrenching as the "maiden voyage" a couple for weeks ago. I got a better handle on the flow of the system and even had to deal with a little stuck sparge. But when we tested the OG and profile, it was spot on. From a data standpoint all of the research I did on the kölsch beer type was well worth it. OG 1.050+ 0.002@ 82F with Wyeast 1010 going into 1 carboy and 2565 going into the other. See you all in 4 to 6 weeks at the tasting room;)