Written by Louis McGill for the Knoxville News Sentinel and knoxnews.com
Standing on his back porch on a crisp Saturday morning, Dennis Collins stirs a giant, boiling pot. The scene is reminiscent of an old monster movie, complete with a mad scientist. The steam flowing out has a sweet scent similar to baking bread.
While other Knoxvillians are watching football, Collins, an engineer and member of the Tennessee Valley Homebrewers club, is taking part in an activity older than the pyramids: brewing beer.
For some, brewing beer at home can prove economical. Collins claims to be able to brew two cases of craft-quality beer for under 20 dollars. However, as in any hobby, getting to that point requires some investment.
The pot he stirs is filled with wort, a sugary liquid extracted from malted barley and other grains, which serves as the basic building block of beer. It was extracted from the grains earlier that morning through an elaborate setup that he built involving a modified cooler and a pair of converted kegs.
“Homebrewers are very inventive,” Collins said. “They invent wonderful things.”
While the hobby languished in obscurity for decades after Prohibition it has been legal in the United States since 1978.
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The clarity was OK, though a tad hazy. Might be chill haze. Head decent. Color: light pale yellow… almost Bud like. No legs.
Not impressive. A tad lighter than normal Tripel (or “Triple” as they insist on calling it) that needs tad more body and white candi for sense/taste. Overall this goes to balance. The Abbey-White Labs 530-like yeast sense is so dominant it’s hard to taste much else. The problem here is that abbey yeast has become a bit of a cliche’ and this has that taste out the wazoo, and except the slight hint of white candi sugar-like driven alcohol: nada. Needs more complexity, even for style which can be a bit simplistic sometimes. It’s like they decided to brew to the cliche’, but not the sub style.
The second annual Houston Beer Week, taking place this week, is celebrating craft beers from around the world at more than 30 Houston bars, restaurants and secret, undisclosed venues.
I was expecting that grassy delightfulness that is a fresh hop ale. What I got was barely IPA, not “fresh hop” in any sense. More like your typical weak IPA with a thin mouthfeel, some malt in the aroma: yes, and taste? …some caramelization; though not all that much. Did they bottle the wrong product into this 22oz?
The label reads… triple hopped? They’re, right? Light body, though some caramel sense. Hops, what there were, were tad… spicy? Even if you were to buy this as an IPA you might be disappointed, wishing you’d bought Anchor’s Liberty instead.
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