Category: Beer

On the border of where craft beer meets crap beer, there’s a beer even some Konaheads might resent. While not THE worst beer, certainly qualifies as one of, especially when it comes to watering down the essence of craft: FLAVOR. It’s the Ultra-fying of craft.

Ye Old Scribe has been absent for quite a while, but not quite as “absent” as Big Wave is of flavor. There’s a hint of hops. Hey guys, gals, did you toss in one pellet into a fermenter? Did some ant drag it across the wort during boil? OK, Scribe would add it’s so bad the ant must have fell into the boil. But it’s not bad in that sense. It’s bad in the sense Scribe wished it had at least that much flavor.

Was there a malt ban when this was brewed? Even white bread has a lot more flavor.

Is it ‘Kona,’ or ‘CON-ah’? Some ale-like attempt to mimic Miller Clear with the lightest sprinkle of a hop, not ‘hops’?

Thank God for the carbonation. Scribe keeps opening cans and waiting for it to fill his model of the Hindenburg. And waiting. And waiting. And…

Old Forge BIG Beer and Odd Ale Competition, Old Forge, NY

 It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood! Oh, sorry. I was singing. And the picture above, taken a few days before the competition, shows peak came a tad late this year. So visiting judges got to drive through Adirondack fall splendor, as did BOS (Best of Show) judges, those attending Old Forge BrewFest. Oh, and I didn’t get eaten.
 That’s right: in 2014 I was wondering if a bear was going to eat me at about 1am. It was pitch black and I was the only one on Moss Lake the night before Old Forge BIG Beer and Odd Ale… then called Old Forge Old Ale Competition. The second year, due to a judge shortage and drop off locations, I ended up driving over a thousand miles, sleeping on different couches and in my Honda Element, to do all I needed to do. We judge in a rain storm on a leaky porch… while our sponsor: Saranac/Matt Brewing, stared down at us. I was delighted to be entertained by Tim Belczak’s munchkins near Buffalo, not too shabby I must admit, but picked up no entries even though the business told me they had three. Drove to Erie to judge and, again, picked up no entries.
 This year, NOW what? Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: OFBB 2016”

Profiled by Maria Devan

Nose is mild roast nothing burnt.

Medium mouthfeel, mild spice from hop.

A lightly bubbly finish to show you a ribbon of chocolate and hop bitter at the end. No astringency. Only a hint of caramel. It’s like satin trim, the bitter chocolate finish in the schwarzbier. In this one it’s very mild but it smells like bakers chocolate. It finishes the beer smooth, like silk and lets you glimpse the hops herbal as it leaves drying.

The example of the style.

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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.”

____________________________________Beer HERE

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Maria 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.

Profiled by Maria Devan

Pours black and rich looking with a cocoa colored head that falls slowly.

Nose is roasty malt and the light impression of caramel. Creamy cocoa and a light char. so smooth you can hardly believe it. Hints of dark fruit that are never fully realized are sweetly satisfying.

No real hop presence on the nose but a light herbal and a firm but small bitterness to finish it. Small bitterness? You have to try it and you will see. It’s actually quite exquisite. Earthy hop takes roasty malt to the finish with a little char and dry. Starts to warm after a few sips and you could drink this all day. Food friendly because it’s not loaded with sweetness or with fruity flavors on top of cocoa.

4.2

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.”

_____________________________________Beer HERE

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Maria 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.

The Topic: Screamen Eagle/Matt’s Draft House, Inlet, NY

Written by Ken Carman

 If you have come here from Adirondack Weekly, welcome! This edition of Brew Biz offers a slightly different sense of the local color, expanded classic Ken humor and a lot more Screamen.

  Northeast of the biggest village in the Central Adirondacks: Old Forge, NY, there’s the tiny hamlet of Eagle Bay. On your left you’ll see a building being remodeled for the great Bay Cafe, which for now is on the other side of the road. Where Bay is about to move was where Jon, Matt, Doug and Sharon Miller had their Central Adirondack video/pizza shop the first time. Hence the “Eagle” in Screamen Eagle.
 Over the hill and through the wooded hills… no, not “to grandma’s house,” although Sharon Miller is a “grandma” …to Screamen Eagle we go. Please, dear readers, stop imagining me with a picnic basket, wearing a dress, and dancing my way to grandma’s house. It’s EMBARRASSING!
 Now we’re in downtown Inlet. There’s only one main intersection there: Route 28 and The South Shore Road. On the northeast corner you’ll see the oddly shaped, yet quite Adirondack-like, Screamen Eagle and Matt’s Draft House. The establishment seems a permanent part of the landscape, like it has been there

forever. Indeed, the old postcard to your right has a building about where Screamen is now.
 I can easily imagine my great grandfather; Andrew Carman, stopping there to do what he did so often: buy supplies for Adirondack French Louie, so Louie didn’t have to leave his trap lines. I can see, in my mind, someone knocking on a side door down near the marina and saying a pass phrase, “Prohibition gave my cat hives,” and the door opens to liquid pleasure, rot gut… or the guys, the ones with the axes, ever eager to bust open kegs.


Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Profiled by Maria Devan

Pours clear and golden with a fast falling and fizzing head of white foam. Nose is more intense than the last one I had with orange. This one isn’t orange peel though it’s orange pulp. The hops are chinook, cascade and centennial. Spice and a pleasant doughy malt. Very citrusy with light zesting from the peel. Honestly it smells like fresh orange juice and that is marvelous! it tastes like tang in the aftertaste. Do you remember tang? “The astronauts drink it.” It’s very bready actually and quite crisp. Bubbly and light flavored with this fresh orange. The spice and pepper take the end but the hops don’t overtake the mouthfeel. Herbal accents come forward as it warms and I think this beer is another good one to demonstrate the American hops in this style. It’s got a good malt stance which a pilsner has to have, the same fizzier bubble that seems to be more successful in presenting the stronger fruit flavor more lightly to the palate, and this one has a crisp well defined bitterness. Dry, German style bitterness . The hops do come very close to the middle of this beer but stop just shy of too much. That is where they can make the pilsner heavy and out of balance. The flavors should not be too strong. The malt should be dominant and on the American hopped beers it never is. The hoppy middle mouthfeel is where too much bitterness is wrong and washes away the malty finish. The bubbles can do that too. I am starting to like this style. It is a variation on the pilsner that is also not exactly an IPA. Hmmmmmm

Morning you guyz!

IPA well known flavors and hops on a pilsner style beer. The wood or piney element of the one hop is actually well hidden and makes up only a light touch as far as flavor. It does not taste at all like pine which is why it does not resemble the IPA in that respect. That is important. So can we guess that the aspects we were trying to tame are in the mouthfeel because of the nature of the amount of hops used? Are less hops used in the pilsner overall as compared to the IPA? IS it the bittering hop that is showing that woody aspect completely under control. Then that also is German style pilsner and well done with the hop they used.

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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.”

__________________________________Beer HERE

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Maria 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.