Author: Professor Good Ales

Mythical poster at The LTS Good for What Ales You Beer Journal. Loves good beer. Hates same old, same old. Muses that Bud and Miller might as well be brewed in urinals. Drinks lagers too, if they are complex and interesting.
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The Artful Science of Aging & Cellaring Craft Beer Gets An Infographic – And You Get A Lesson In Aging Stouts

cellar aging craft beer

Let’s talk about stouts.

The wonderful world of craft beer provides a multitude of choices. For every palate, there is a beer to match. I find especially intriguing the freshness dichotomy – IPAs are meant to drink right from the vat, or at least as fresh as possible. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those high gravity, high ABV stouts who like to sit in dark, cellared environments for a few years before they are considered ready for consumption. Since I’m a stout guy, I’m hoping to help you separate the malt from the barrels with the ins and outs of aging and cellaring.

First things first.

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5 Common Homebrew Off-Flavors and How to Fix Them

off-flavor-featured-imageHaving the ability to critique your beer and identify homebrew off-flavors is an invaluable skill when pursuing the highest quality beer.

Let’s take a look at the basics of off-flavors and some of the more common ones that plague homebrews.

A Few things about Off-Flavors

Off-flavors are perceived flaws in flavor, aroma and/or sensation (otherwise known as mouth feel) of beer that are typically caused by some aspect of the brewing, fermentation or packaging process. These are not to be confused with “faults” when analyzing a beer based on specific style parameters.

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Beer Profile: El Sully by 21st Amendment Brewing

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Profiled by Maria Devan

Pours yellow , hazy and with a creamy head of white foam. Very pale straw color. Slight haze does not detract. Soft color.

Nose is malty with a little toasty biscuit from the Vienna malt. The pils malt is breaddy and golden. The corn is earthy on the nose and pretty light. Mild with n a very light hop presence. Hops are earthy too and are cool to the background. Their perfume combines with the light corn scent and is not fruity but rather bright. Taste is malty and creamier than I expected but still tingles with carbonation. Light flavors all combine well with the Vienna malt to lend a dimension that the average aal does not have. It accents the hop in a way and brings the maltiness form the pils to the forefront even though corn was used. The corn is a little sweet but it’s refreshing because it’s not too much. Hops don’t really show too much on the nose just a dandelion type spice. I really like that. That has to be the magnum hop. On the palate the hops are soft and present but no real flavor. Their bitterness is a compliment. Excellent! carbonation is not biting. it has a small bite. Again perfect to expand flavors. Those softer bubbles rather than fizz will show you malt that is really there.

This is the light flavors of the all with a lot more body. The Vienna malt really brings the beer together so that the flavors are deep and mellow but fun. There is a little residual sweetness in the finish, no dms, no diacetyl, no fruity esters from yeast, no fruity or strong flavors from hops. Mild sulfur develops ont he nose and enhances the finish. Crisp, light hearted and a touch sweet with complimentary bitterness.

Really outstanding and I enjoyed drinking the entire sixer of this beer. I think this brewer stood up to the AAL and said ” we could make this style good.”

4.0

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Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

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_____________________________________Beer HERE

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mdMaria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY. That’s right Ithaca. Practically mid state. Lots of hills. Never been there? You should go… and buy Maria a beer while you’re there.An interesting beer. With a good fresh date. Do it. You’ll feel good about yourself afterwards.

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Long Island microbrewery center is a big dream

The proposed location for a microbrewery incubator in

White paint peels off the brick exterior. The roof looks like corrugated tin, the part of it that still remains. The other part looks up to the sky, wide open to the elements. Most of the windows no longer have glass. Only some are boarded up.

The ramshackle building on South Strong Avenue is part of the future in Copiague. Babylon Town planners envision a $12 million microbrewery incubator — as many as 10 beer brewers, learning from each other, perfecting their products, offering them in a tasting room, then moving out and into their own facilities nearby, forming a kind of brewery row.

 

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Beer Profile: Ithaca Beer Company Happy Pils

Profiled by Maria Devan

The beer is 5% abv and uses for malt pilsner and pale malts. For hops the website says German “tettnag” – is that spelled wrong? Tettenang? Tettenanger? The hops are tettenang. The other hop they are using is listed as German mittlefruh. In my experience that is Hallertau mittlefruh or Hallertauer hops. See how the region then the hop variety is in the name, which denotes that these hops are specific to a region and that is because of the German language.

I am very excited about Ithaca brewing this beer. Cheers and Happy Two Beer Sunday!

The pour is yellow and a slight haze. A White head that falls fast and bubbles that rise are all over the glass. Thank you Kerry for this lovey new glass!

Nose is bready malt and lightly cool herbal hop. Spice and floral. These hops have a quality like earth and stemmy grass. There’s no fruity esters form yeast, no diacetyl, no dms on the nose. No fruit scent from hosp either. Nothing, no citrus. This is the noble hop at it’s very best. Soft sweet earth and a wonderful complexity all it’s own owing to terroir.

The taste is breaddy but softly with the addition of pale malt. The hop herbal is just forward. It’s actually the use of the pale malt that is showing me the juicy quality of these noble hops that are found in so many pale ale styles and with very different hops! Crisp clean and with only a the faintest trace of dms to usher in the crisp finish. Strong bitterness finishes the beer but it does not strip the flavors or the finish. It lingers bitter and clear.

Exemplary.

4.5

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Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

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__________________________________________Beer HERE

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mdMaria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is a great beer writer. That’s Maria in the middle. The other two are not, but they are lucky to have her as a friend.

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Beer Profile: Peche Mortel

(97 and 100 at BA, 100 and 99 @ RB!-PGA)

Profiled by Maria Devan

Today I have my friend Roger Addante to thank for sending me this beer Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel’s Peche Mortel. I don’t know how old the beer is but the notches are like the photo shows. Thank you Roger.

This was a beautiful way to start my day today. New Beer Sunday is coming.

Peche Mortel

Pours viscuous with a creamy head of light chocolate foam . Color is black, opaque. Bubbles leave a film and ring. They refresh on each tip to show you a sheet of khaki colored lace.
Nose is bold roast and coffee. Chocolate is born on the nose of the beer and it courts a dark fruit background that has been elevated to an airy perfume. Caramel.

Taste is chewy roast with a bitter edge and sumptuous dark coffee. Bakers chocolate glides over the palate lightly like silk as the lively espresso explodes with flavor. A small warming in the finish as the bitterness swells just a bit to show you the richness of the malt and a moment of sweetness that finishes the espresso coffee so authentically. It lingers with a touch of the alcohol to remind you this was strong. Lingering roastiness and a bittersweet drying of the palate.

I love this beer. Complex, textured and rich. Bold, even a touch aggressive. Peche Mortel is French for Mortal Sin.

4.5

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Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

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__________________________________________Beer HERE

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mdMaria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is a great beer writer. That’s Maria in the middle. The other two are not, but they are lucky to have her as a friend.

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How to Build a Hopback

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Homebrewers love hops—it’s no secret. You will always remember the first time you smelled those powerful pellets drop into the kettle. The little bitter cones give beer life, personality and uncanny edginess. Without them, beer would often times be unbalanced, overly sweet and uninteresting.

Hops are so important, some people devote their entire lives to the plant—hop fascination transformed into obsession.

The “hop heads” out there, like Tom Lewis from Cheshire, England, are always looking for ways to push the hoppy envelope in their homebrews. A hopback is the perfect way to infuse fresh-hop character in beer just before it hits your glass. Check out Tom’s easy-to-build hopback project below!

Inspiration

At one of our local homebrew meetings, a few homebrewers and I were discussing ways we cram as many hops as possible into our IPAs (the beer style that dominated that particular meeting). One of our local brewers from the Cheshire Brew House was explaining future upgrades to our systems and how he wanted to build a custom hopback because his Blichmann HopRocketâ„¢ was too small.

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InBev’s Latest Tactics…

After years of playing the cold-hearted, uncaring, starch-shirted executive, A-B InBev now is like The Grinch. You could say that going into the business of love, ABI somehow found its heart. Looking to hook up with someone young and sexy, ABI is spreading its love in acquiring craft breweries. There are some areas leading the thoughts about where it may go, but more on that later.

It all started with a shy dance in 2011, when after recognizing its sagging bottom line in beer sales, ABI purchased Goose Island. For years ABI’s business plan was so routine and mundane, the most fun it ever had was rolling out commercials with horses and dogs, as well as the occasional new, tasteless beer.

But then the beer market changed. Bud sales dropped faster than Ronda Rousey and craft beer started eating up that precious shelf space. Business meetings inside ABI bunkers suddenly got very serious and purchasing successful craft breweries became the newest strategy. The idea of course, was to move the Budweiser brands along with their new products and eventually get a stranglehold on distribution.

Ironic isn’t it, that ABI can no longer compete in the very same field in which it is a leader, and instead of being someone that would build it, brew it and sell it, ABI will buy it. While considering more acquisitions, ABI is basically pleading no contest in acknowledging this, only to say, “Move along, nothing to see here.”

As if it found the fountain of youth, ABI’s confidence has skyrocketed over the last two years. After Goose Island, here are its American craft beer conquests:

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