I owe you all an update, GBBF, BrewDog

Well. I owe you all an update. I've been to the GBBF, which was awesome and totally changed my mind about CAMRA. Roger Protz's beer seminar was awesome, and we tried beers from all around the world. It totally went against the jack-booted CAMRA persona I was expecting. His new book, A Life on the Hop is also pretty good. This is a good man who loves beer, and I'm impressed and thankful to have met him.

(I didn't make this, sorry. But it is what I saw after the Baltic Porter to finish)

We started with a Brakspear Triple, followed by a Budvar. Then some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Orval, Salvator and finally a weird Polish Baltic Porter. The festival was awesome and there were some great beers. I stuck to the Milds mainly, as I can't get them at home and was on a bit of a mission, in part from the brew club I belong to. The championship beer was excellent, the Rudgate Ruby Mild. Full reviews forthcoming next week, but I have to say I was impressed by the festival and wrong about CAMRA.

(Pork and Pulchritude)

We also did a BrewDog tasting, which was great. The Atlantic IPA wasn't as amazing as I'd hoped, but it was definitely unique and punishingly hoppy. Some of the other beers were astounding, especially the honey infused ale. Full details on that are also forthcoming.

However, I'm off to San Francisco in the morning and can't wait to try some more new beers. Suggestions encouraged in the comments section. I showed up at my in-law's at 2am last night, and my mother-in-law asked if I brought any beer. I hadn't but a quick trip to the store landed us on Duvel richer, which is good, if a tad young and alcoholic.

News Bits: Charity brew, Brew Dog Tokyo, Drunken Wizards

Here is some news, instead of writing about all the beer I've been drinking. I haven't tweeted for a few days, but rest assured my liver isn't getting any sort of break.

(We do not, under any circumstances, support Adult Kickball)

First, from Taking the Beard Out of Beer, the lovely Melissa Cole lets us know that a British Brewer has terminal prostate cancer and is using his remaining time to make beer to raise money for the nurses helping him back to health. I'm not sure I'll see this 7% Dark Mild before I leave, but I'll certainly bug my (temporarily) local landlords to get some in.

In related strong beer news, the UK is atwitter with BrewDog's latest concoction: 18.2% Imperial^3 Stout Tokyo*. Radio 4 talked about it on the evening news, and a variety of newspapers (RIP) and blogs want to talk about it too. BrewDog are, without a doubt, the future of British brewing. Interesting beers, revisions and perversions of the classics. They even make some traditional beers with lots more flavor. They've even got a video up about this and most other of their beers. I'm saddened but not surprised to be missing them at GBBF, being as they have the audacity to push the boundaries of UK beer beyond 8,000 varieties of Bitter.

(The above video is for regular Tokyo, the link in the text is for Tokyo*)

The controversy around the beer is that it is so high alcohol that it will cause more drunkenness. It is also 10 quid ($16) for a bottle, which contains six UK alcohol units. Ten pounds will also buy you 700ml of Smirnoff at most UK Sainsbury's and during the summer a bottle of Pimm's. Now, the 330ml of BrewDog is smaller than the 700ml bottles, but for less than the cost of the bottle you can get what we call a 'mickey' in the states, though it is understandably tantamount to calling sprinkles jimmies: terms that could be offensive if they weren't so antiquated and absurd. Mind, I thought the same thing about the last descendants of the teetotalers.



Where were we... oh right, bigots that aren't me. So your 10 pounds will buy you a 330ml bottle of Tokyo, at 18%ABV, a 375ml Mickey of Smirnoff at 40%ABV, or an entire 700ml bottle of Pimm's at 25%. That's 6 units for BrewDog, 15 units of Smirnoff or just under 20 units of Pimm's. Right. So clearly the beer is too strong, except, wait, for the same cost and bottle size you can get way drunker, for cheaper. Now, which will taste better? Expensive beer, NJ's favorite vodka (and finest cultural export), or some Pimm's? Now, I love the Pimm's, but the beer will be better. So for 10 pounds I'll get a great beer experience and still be able to walk home, unlike the young man below. The nanny state argument leaves something to be desired, and I agree that BrewDog won't be killing anyone, and certainly not any faster or cheaper than the spirit companies.



Our last news for the day, The Mad Fermentationist, a hero of mine in the homemade delicacies category, welcomes a new blogger. We can hardly contain our excitement!

Ferm Friday- Cloning

Back in the day, bJames and I played guitar together. He was, and is, by far the better musician, but we differed in more than this respect. I could never play covers, and have to say I often didn't see the point. Sure, now, with age I get the idea that you want to test yourself against the masters, but that's always been the case. Bach wrote some masses, so did Mozart, Hayden and I'm surprised that McCartney hasn't tried his hand at one. But this is putting your own stamp within a familiar framework.

So, I don't really clone. But I will work within very set boundaries. I try to brew to style (usually). I've used clone-brew recipes, but just to find good recipes, which I usually play with and rarely, if ever, compare to the commercial beer. Of course, I live in a state that has decent liquor laws, unlike my colleagues. So I can get almost all the beers I like.

Except cask ale, which I've mentioned in the past both positively and negatively. I love the UK beer, and I've spent this July in the UK twittering about what I've been drinking. So I try to emulate the British style of beer, which is hard without a cask breather, pump and other sundries I can't invest in right now.

This blog, however, was started as a clone, but like all good clones, has grown into something distinct, like US Brown from N. English Brown, we are something different, stronger, more pungent smelling, more aggressively bitter.

Ealing Beer Festival

Last week I went to the Ealing Beer Festival. It was pretty rad. Sure, I have some opinions on CAMRA, but they put on one hell of a festival. We went around 2pm, and it was mercifully slow, thanks in part to on-again, off-again rain showers. The festival had two tents arranged alphabetically. About 1/3rd of the beers were on the first day, so the selection was pretty good.

(It wasn't all dudes, I swear)

I decided to stick to milds and browns, mainly, as I can't find them as reliably in pubs as the bog-standard of bitters. We deposited for the half-pint glasses, and stuck to drinking nips (1/3rd of a UK pint, or roughly 6.6 ounces), for about 90p ($1.45). I started out with a mild as did my colleague. I had Marston Moor Brewing (Now part of Rudgate) Matchlock Mild. The beer presented dark brown, clear and with nearly no carbonation or head. The aroma was fairly strong, dominated by apple esters and some black patent roast notes. On the first taste there is a burst of flavor, especially Goldings hops and some carmel which adds sweetness and some solid chocolate roast. The flavor is still estery. It is medium bodied and sweet in the middle. The finish is pretty dry, with a hard punch of bittering, with added drying from the healthy amount of roast.

(This isn't Black Cat Mild in a Bottle, BJCP fans, this is the real stuff)

My drinking companion had Bazen's Black Pig Mild. This smelled of chocolate roast and had a tobacco note. It was very dark brown, almost opaque, with ruby/garnet highlights. Medium body, medium sweet finish, it was without an ester profile. The flavor was dominated by chocolate roast and had good hopping as well.

(Gravity Fed Casks with Glycol Cooled Jackets)

For our second round, my colleague moved onto Hanby Brewing's Cherry Bomb. It did what the label said, cherry nose and flavor. I had Spectrum Brewing's Trip Hazard. Aptly named for the strength, it was a very strong bitter. The nose was fruitful, with peach and pear notes and low levels of earthy hops. The flavor was sweet almost to the point of cloying, with a medium-full body but a cleansing finish that is medium sweet due to some residual sweetness remaining. This is a clear, copper brew.

(Trip Hazard on left, Cherry Bomb on Right, Lawsuits Forthcoming)

We went for round three with a pair of milds, shown above. I forget what he had, but I had Dark Star Brewing's Over The Moon (foreground). This wasn't as great as I had hoped, though it had a nice level of carbonation, good head stand and was black with ruby highlights again. The aroma was a good mix of apple esters, roast and chocolate with low levels of Fuggles. The flavor was bitter throughout with a very strong dry roast note. There was medium hop flavor and finished somewhat astringent, paired with a medium-light body. So, a bit over-hopped and over dry in my opinion, more like a black bitter than a mild.

(A pair of milds, delicately paired with Pork Scratchings)

And we retired to lunch at this point. The British aren't known for their cooking, historically being chided by the French for having Europe's best ingredients and worst cooks. But they do one thing right- stuff four days worth of inedible left overs into a pie, bake the jesus out of it and produce a hearty, pocketable meal. The wild boar and apple pie was fantastic. So was the steak and ale. What goes with beer? Piles of meat wrapped in butter and flour!

(Not Pictured: Dudes wearing "Sex, Drugs and Pies" shirts)

Back to beers. I followed up the lunch with what was labeled as a 'Victorian Porter,' Acorn Brewing's Old Moor Porter. I'd like to think this meant they made brown malt, didn't use roast and mixed three generations of porter into the barrel, but really think it means they added brewers licorice and gave it a vaguely racist name. A good beer though, and the most useful website of any English brewery I've been to. The boquet is almost coconut with roast, some hops, licorice and coffee. Black roast dominates the flavor, with some caramel notes, raisin like flavors (Crystal II anyone) and some plum esters. The flavor profile is sweet at start, has medium bitterness which adds to a medium-dry finish, with a clean aftertaste.

(At least they don't hang an actual head... anymore)

We had some more beers too (6 rounds, so tried 12 beers and consumed only 2 UK pints each). The twitter has the full notes. The Beartown Brewing's Polar Eclipse was a great example of an oatmeal stout, but I'll end by talking about the Grainstore Brewing Rutland Beast. A good brown ale, listed as 'strong' (5.3% ABV...), which I think is the beer pictured below. It had a malty nose with some coffee notes, no esters and some low earthy hops. The flavor was pretty sweet, with malt and some nice dark fruit esters and some medium low flavor hops (Not fuggles, but not sure what they were). This is a full bodied beer, approaching chewiness. I thought of it as a scaled down barley wine, more than a brown ale. It had a medium finish, which left you knowing you just had some beer, without being thirsty.

(This might be the Rutland Beast, it is certainly no Jersey Devil)

So, after only four hours, trying twelve beers and having pork both fried and in pie form, we took our leave. Had I been closer to Ealing, I'd have liked to go back 4 days later and try these again to see how they aged, as well as some other beers that looked good but weren't on yet. And leaving Ealing, I knew I was safe, because these guys were on patrol!

(Where the badger is the most deadly predator, the Meerkat could should be king)

Spring Training Results

B. James and I found some time this past week and took to the grueling task of having to sample and critique the booze obtained from Spring Training. It was a hard job, but we were up to the task.

Pusser's British Navy Rum is the real deal. When I think of rum of old, and how it must have tasted, this is the stuff I envision. I truly believe that this rum stays true to it's 350 year old recipe. Pusser's grabs you by the collar, throws you against the wall and says "I'm rum, god damn it!" This rum is very bold and flavorful. The blending of various different rums has given it quite a distinct taste, and I like it. It's potent, but not harsh, at a very respectable 84 proof. If I was a sailor and needed something to keep me going through those long hard months at sea, I could see how this stuff would do the trick.

Moving off the subject of sea men, for some reason my face hurts. Why? Because I've just been smacked across it by a hard ruthless cock. Fighting Cock Kentucky Straight Bourbon pulls no punches. It tasks like Wild Turkey, but is even a little more peppery. At 103 proof, the Cock burns going down your throat, from the first sip to the last sip. It takes a strong man to take the Cock more that a few times in one night, lest you begin to gag.

Ron Diaz Gran Reserve Spiced Rum is very close to what I expected. It's Captain Morgan light, with a much more palatable texture to suit the college crowd. On the very first sip, the only word that came to mind was "silky." This rum caresses your tongue. It has a pleasant aroma and a sweet taste (perhaps too sweet) with vanilla notes. The smoothness of Ron Diaz gives it a week start, but it has a warm finish. This rum pushes it's worth at $14 a bottle, but I think I'll stick with my Captain Morgan. It's the same price, and the Ron Diaz is just too sweet for my taste. Not to come off as high and mighty with my refined pallet, but this rum has one purpose only, and that is to get the college girls shit faced. * editor's note from B James: should "shit faced" be "naked"? *

Wiser's Very Old 18 Year Blended Canadian Whisky (they need to pick a shorter name) was exactly as I had hoped. It is a real nice, smooth, mellow, aged whisky. It goes down smooth, but still is alcohol through and through. There seems to be a ruminess to it, if that's a word. It has a very light rum flavor or we'll say rum essence (not to be confused with sweetness). It is possible that they may age the stuff in old rum casks. There really isn't much more that needs to be said about Wiser's 18 except that it's damn fine whisky.

If I had to pick one bottle out of the four that I am truly glad I bought, it would have to be the Pusser's. Wiser's would come in a close second, but it just didn't have quite the affect on me as the rum. I sipped it and thought "hmm, that is a damn fine whiskey." But the Pusser's was "wow! I wasn't ready for that, but I like it." It's unique bold taste stands out from any other rum I've ever tried, and the history behind the rum just add to its mystique.

Perfection is an affront to god

Weavers and Builders in the Islamic world always put in a purposeful slight imperfection into their product, because perfection would be an affront to god. I'm not sure that in our brewing, or our drinking, that we should subscribe directly to this protocol, putting in a purposeful flaw, but it provides a relatively compelling introduction to this post.

My erstwhile companion in starting this blog, bJames, has suggested that perfection should be our goal. Our brewing should become metered and consistent, but I wonder how far. Were all beer to come out the same I would not drink out, I would just bring my beers in. I live in a state with relatively easy liquor laws, and going out for the $5 draft could be avoided with a $3 single bottle, closer to my house. Where I could also be assured no unrine but my own is on the toilet seat (thankfully the cat has gotten over his most recent bouts with a nasty UTI). So the draft is different- it sits in the keg, pumps through lines and into my glass. There is more carbonation, it dances a little, the beer has traveled, not alone, but with friends, been through some new and interesting narrow channels and has come to tell me what it has learned. Still, it is pasteruized and pressurized to the point that almost any idiot can get it to me in a reasonably consistent condition (except for the knuckleheads at the campus bar-- with the gall to charge a membership fee no less-- for beers that are priced and sourced as premium but pushed through lines that would make the Hilton's plubming look hygenic).

But, perhaps I digress-- beer is alive. As our friends out in California remind us, beer is teeming with living organisms. Any batch of drinkable beer is the result of a miracle of the right bugs eating the right sugars to make the right alcohols-- and flavors too. The British, as I may have mentioned before, love their cask ales. These beers are alive when the hit the floor and are kept by cellarmen and cellarwomyn who keep them the best they can. The elements affect the beers, they leave the brewery in under two weeks from inception. The drive, the cellar, the tempature, season, pollen, lines, other beers, spiders, they all conspire to make the beer different every time. These beers are alive, and I am alive. Sure, I've gone home with migranes from poorly kept beer, sold past its date by landlords who can't sell 6.5 gallons of the same beer in a week. This when they only have a few taps. But I've also had exquisite beers this way, that will never be the same again, only fleeting memories to be replaced by new ones as I try them again. It is the same with brewing- while ending up with radically different brews isn't desirable-- things change and we need to embrace that. 

My beer is alive, sitting in bottles in my closet as the whims of my landlord drive the heat in my house around 10 degrees, with the Chicago weather doing the same for another ten. Beers get better, they get worse, the age. I'll keg soon, but there will still be yeast alive chaing the profile of the beer. We can know a lot about our beers- we can take them to near perfection. But actual perfection-- beer brewed in nine locations in the US tasting exactly the same every day regardless of the season. Miller High Life being innoculated against skunking? These are technical marvels fitting of the first nation to put a man on the moon, sure. But they are also an affront to us as living beings, to nature, to our world, and, of course, to god.

Fermentation Friday: 2009 Plans

2008 was a good brew year. I started brewing on my own, making all-grain bitters, porters, Schwartzbier and a scotch ale that wasn't in the end. Two of them even took medals home, which was a nice surprise. I've had some hurdles that I want to overcome in both technique and composition of beers. In terms of technique, I have to get the time it takes to brew down. The process takes me 7 hours, from firing up to putting the carboy in the closet. Add to that the hour each way it takes to get to the brew store and it becomes a day and a half commitment. 

My next hope is to figure out how to get stuff in bulk. I'd like to brew more spontaneously, and being able to have hops on hand as well as grain would be great. Hops have been a big issue this year, my LHBS is usually out of what I want, and unless the brew heads are behind the counter I don't get great recommendations about swapping out my hops. My main goal is to learn all about hops. I might try to grow some upstate over the summer and I'd like to know off-hand which hops I can trade out and why. To this end, I've been cracking open all my hops when I get them home and taking big whiffs to get a good feeling for what is what.

Stylistically, want to make more American beers. All of this brewing started because of how much I loved drinking English cask ales while living abroad. Now that I'm back home, I want to make some American beers and reconnect with our bigger is better attitude. Still, I hope to expand to some sort of cask set-up, hopefully picking up a beer engine (or 2) while abroad this summer and a cask breather. I also want to drink a bit less beer and a bit more liquor. This will let me feel less like I'm grinding out a new beer every couple of days and give my palette a break from the endless hop explosions that I favor.

Finally, I like this blog. We started it at the end of 2008, but really it is a new-year's resolution to give a little back to the internet who helps us learn so much. The blog will soon have links to our favorite blogs. Coming in 2009 will be details of out different beer-making setups, some more reviews of beers, recipies, and a thorough discussion of getting donked and those who write about it. Sneak peek: "You're not a mixologist-- you're an asshat" & "The Pounder Shoot-out".  The internet, she is good to us and we thank her.

NB: All three of us should be posting on this topic, so check back as Friday approaches.

Bear Republic Night at Rattle 'N' Hum

First off, thanks to the dudes at Rattle 'N' Hum, who put on a great brew night. I think my bartender was Denny- I did not introduce myself, which was a faux paus. The bar was impressive in size and selection, if filled with the type of people who work in midtown. I liked the chalkboards that listed the beers, it really hammered home the idea that taps often change and the impermanace of craft brewing. While even the NYTimes has recently written about craft brewing, it is nice to see a bar drive the point home in the epicenter of tourism and bland corporate dronedom. The ability to drink halves (or flights) instead of getting entirely blitzed drinking full pints was a nice surprise.

Enough of my attitude, on to the beers, all from Bear Republic tonight.

I started with a Grandma's Harvest Ale, or Wet Hop. The aroma is odd, musty and somewhat mild on the hops. Please keep in mind I am extremely congested, so my nose might be off. There is some citrus in the aroma. The appearance is nice, with a hazy yellow/orange hue, low carbonation and little to no head. This is reminiscent of British beers after they have settled. The flavor starts out with some male, the middle of the flavor is extremely bitter and it finishes dry and with definite hints of grapefruit. The mouth feel is smooth with low to medium body and a nice dance of carbonation that does not impede the flavor. Overall a very good beer, even if the aroma is off putting(musty, or perhaps reminiscent of farts).

Next up was the Racer 5 on cask. I blogged previously about how not all beers work better in a cask. This is one case where the brewers made a great effort to match the beer with the medium. I only tried this thanks to the bartender (we tasted together) and was astounded by the results. The beer is a double IPA and presents as a golden beer capped with a dense, creamy white head. The head hangs out for a long time- one could say too long, but one would be sorely mistaken! The beer might have been too cold, but I did not mind, it being American and all. The aroma is citrus followed by malt. The appearance is very, very clear and golden, like a Pilsner or an American Lager. The flavor starts bitter, reminiscent of lemon zest. The middle is sweet malt and it finishes bitter but not dry with sweet flavors to follow. The mouth feel is dense with good head and a medium body, denser than the color suggests. My overall impression is that this beer is well crafted to excel in the cask beyond what it does in the bottle, and I feel privileged to have gotten a taste from cask. 

I finished the night with a Hop Rod Rye on draft. This was different from the bottled version in being more bitter and far more carbonated. The aroma starts with the malt and some low levels of hops. The appearance is a lovely auburn, where red turns to brown. There was no head but a great deal of good carbonation. I'm always happy with little head on my beers, as it leaves more to drink. The flavor starts with a malt with rye spiciness floating through. Next is a bitterness with some rye left over. It finishes bitter with a sweet aftertaste. The bitterness is not citrusy as in the other Bear Republic offerings tonight, but is bordering on astringent. The mouthfeel is medium with a lot of carbonation which cuts the overall body down a bit. Overall it is a good beer that I'm glad to have had on tap but enjoy more in the bottle at a warmer temperature.  

I also had some other samples, courtesy of the bartender. I did not enjoy the Bear Republic Barleywine. It was surely a well crafted beer, but it carried a sour flavor similar to that of a Belgian ale. I am not a huge fan of the Belgian beers, and was put off. Still, a lot of hops on the nose and finish, with some sweetness crammed in between. 

I also tasted a Jack London ESB on my way out. I love Extra Special Bitters, and I love Jack London. The first real book I read was White Fang (with my father) and anything Jack London strikes a chord. I found the beer refreshingly fruity and not very bitter, especially after the walloping I inflicted on myself from the prior tasting choices. I only had about two ounces, but an interesting English yeast seemed to allow fruit notes through as well as some mild hopping, East Kent Goldings I imagine. A full report is not available, as I wanted to make it home in one piece.

I am supposed to go out this evening, and gather I'll be drinking PBR or Brooklyn Pennant Ale to try and calm my taste buds from the orgiastic experience they have just had. Sometimes after a day of rough trade some vanilla is necessary to the old tongue. If I change my mind, it will be posted.

Cask Ale

I am a huge fan of cask ales. For the uninitated, cask ales undergo a secondary fermentation in the serving vessel (once a proper cask) and upon delivery to the site of dispensing are allowed to settle for a day, opened to the air and consumed within 5 days. Over the five days the beer oxidizes and rots, allowing for wierd complex flavors to develop. It is very much in the vein of some of humanity's finest foods and treats. As a wise man once said, "toeing the line between discoloration and dysentery is where real flavor lies." While he was talking about sourdough it is clear this occurs in beer as well.

So why do I bring this up? For a few reasons. The first is that I became acustomed to these beers while at what I'll call Stuffy University One in the UK. I was bemused at first by the hand pulled pints, but began to really enjoy them, once I got over the beer being stronger and larger than what I was used to drinking in the US. A longing for this kind of beer is why I started brewing, and something I hope to approach some day. There are a number of bars near me serving cask ales, but I'm left unfulfilled, which is what I'm going to go on about below.

A cask ale is not just any ale pulled by hand. Sure, its a great gimmick and a nice way, when done improperly, to sell me 2" of head on a beer. But cask ale is meant to be low carbonation with the addition of some air and life into the beer on the journey. True, in the North of England they use a sparkler and sometimes a swans neck, but never both. It makes a foamy mess. If I wanted a foamy mess I'd order a Schlitz (and the fridge is always well stocked). I want a beer with a little carbonation, that was designed for that and to age (or rot) well in the air. Too often I have what are fine beers on tap rendered lifelike by the gimick of the hand pull. For shame.

I wanted to get that off my chest. The best cask ale isn't even hand pulled, it is tossed out of a keg at around 55F. The next project here is to get some sort of cask system working in the apartment. We'll need to cheat and use some CO2 and possibly a cask breather. It will bring back many memories until I'm drooling into my sofa whilst the cat boxes my drunken ears.