Category: Beer

Profiled by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

I finally did it. I found a Straight to Ale I’m not fond of.

Gorillanaut is a deep golden yellow. Clarity is good: no head in small glass, except what clings to the side of the glass… white pillow. In a glass with a bigger mouth, nice white head… still pillow. A hint of shimmer to the gold as light passes through the glass.

Strong hop nose with a fruity orange, lemon, grapefruit sense. Some caramelized malt in the background the lingers beneath the hop like a ghost.

All good for far, right?

Mouthfeel: harsh hop as if additions boiled too long, some astringency. Tis not pleasant. This has a nice full body but the hopping just distracts from all that should be good.

Taste: harsh and more harsh. This is as if all the hops were added at the start of an incredibly long boil. Astringent is the best description as it attempts to rip the roof of your mouth off. Malt is there but simply defeated by the overwhelming harsh hop sense.

I love highly hopped beer, well above 100 IBU. But there’s a a way to do this right, and a lot of ways to do it wrong. This is wrong.

Did I get a bad bottle? It happens.

You know, recently I judged in Starksville, Mississippi, and I will be writing about this soon… criticism was leveled that I didn’t wax eloquent on the interplay of ingredients when the specialty add pretty much blew everything else out of the taste bud ball park. But that was nothing in comparison. This is almost undrinkable. I think if the malt had been a bit more upfront, and complex, maybe this would have rated at least a 3. Also do more sophisticated, timed, hop additions and with the more complex, upfront, malt this might have been incredible.

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 “prefecto.”

A 2 is the best I can do.

Profiled by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

Image courtesy ratebeer.com

Right from the start, opening the bottle, I get a nice: not too strong, whiff of smoke… like of like a smoker in a bottle. Pilsner malt in the background with some roast. The maltiness could be stronger: smoke seems to overcome. No diacetyl or DMS. No defects noted in aroma, not even the normal phenol sense one often gets with smoke.

Good clarity with nice brown highlights. No head in small glass. In glass with wider top: still small, small head: about a 1/10th of an inch. Off white.

Mouthfeel close to full, light carbonation that lightly tingles the tongue… very light. Sweet, but not cloying, as if sugars from prune sense hung in there long after fermentation. It is well attenuated, however.

Taste: a bit prune-ish with esters… not unexpected. Smoke lighter in the taste than in the aroma. Nice hop bitter that does not overwhelm other, more prune-like, taste. Alcohol firm in taste, but not harsh, or solvent. This is very rich with the prune esters and smoke. It would make a great desert beer. Malt dominates. Some raisin sense too, good carmelization of malt that adds to prune and raisin-like sense. Some Munich malt sense, but not as some Doppels seem: as if they relied too much on Munich malt.

I have to give this a 4. Could be a 4.5. Another Straight to Ale winner.

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 “prefecto.”

Written by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

The Topic: The Hop Experience: an Update, and Of Big Brews

  This is one of the ways we learn as homebrewers. We do, learn from the experience, then venture out to do, and brew, again.
  As you may have already read, a few weeks ago we did The Hop Experience in Clarksville, Tennessee. Hop pellets of different types were placed in bottles, “single hopped,” then resealed. Much later they were reopened and we assessed the differences in each hop.
 Miller was chosen for the last Experience and we all agreed that the corn sense, plus grassy-sense from bits and pieces of hop, made it less than satisfactory. Over carbonation got in the way too. That’s the short list.
 I knew, as a member of Music City Brewers, I would be getting some wort from Boscos on Big Brew Day, so I siphoned off two gallons and brought it to James Visger who boiled it for 30 minutes. Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Profiles by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

This is simply impressive: and very much what they claim. Maybe just a tad dark for the style, but otherwise… wow! Pinpoint bubble head that holds, with some pillow. A deep brown, I’d say “light raisin-like.” Clarity good.

22oz. A collaboration with Blue Pants Brewing, Madison, Alabama and Yellowhammer Brewing, Madison, Alabama.

Neither ratebeer or beeradvocate have enough reviews to solidify at this time, but looks like BA might come in high, RB low.

Southernliving.com says…

Straight to Ale founders and brewmasters Dan Perry and Rick Tarvin went from making beer at home to doing it for a living in 2009 after winning a few home-brewing competitions. “We’ve always loved figuring out a recipe, then changing and perfecting it,” Dan says. “So after we won some awards, we got a little obsessed.”

Click

HERE

…to see what al.com says about Yellowhammer.

HERE

…for Blue Pants.

Did your pants turn blue?

We now return you to your regular beer profile here at Professor Goodales…

Great full mouthfeel with nice sweet malt taste… yet actual body is medium. It’s the abv combined with carmelization. Carmelized malt up front in the nose with a hint of sweet. This barleywine has more of a malt focus, as an English Barleywine should be. Brown, with deep garnet highlights. Good clarity. Alcoholic punch lingers in mouthfeel.

Taste: toasty malt sweet with beautiful Brown malt that also has been carmelized. This is so good I could live off of it. There’s a great malt complexity here that offers so much for anyone who tries it: must have one hell of a grain bill. And for those who are hops adverse: not really all that hoppy: again, as expected since American barleywines are more hop focused.

I gave it 4. If I could: 4.7. Buy one. Or two. Or three.

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 “prefecto.”

Written by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

 I woke up at 12 midnight, Nashville time. I knew we had a long drive ahead and I had old-man-itis: no sleep syndrome. So by the time I gently prodded the angry bear; um, “wife,” awake without getting bit… too much, we were off to Starkville, Mississippi. The shortest route looked like down I-65 to Huntsville and over. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: War of the Wort, Starkville, Mississippi”

Written by Brandon Jones for embracethefunk.com

 

Profiled by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

Firm pillow head: lots of. Great clarity, brown: mid 20s SRM… tad dark for a Quad. Great highlights.

Nose: white Belgian candy sugar sense up front. Sweet in back ground with some pale malt in background.

Sweet mouthfeel: full with a Trappist yeast sense… slight sweet tart funk. Firm caremilized malt behind that fills the mouth just a tad. carbonation slight: low in body. For the style I believe this is off. Should be well carbonated in the body. Nice alcoholic warmth.

Guessing about 8.5 abv or 9.

This is meant to be similar in strength to a dubbel, but in character more like a strong dark among Belgian beers.

Taste: this is classic Belgian yeast: Trappist-like with a tart tang. Malt is both sweet and malty. Nice and complex character that would do well by a fire with your faithful dog by your side. Little bitter, as expected. Medium dry: in that sense more like an Abbey version. There’s a sense of currants, or plums. Perhaps a bit more like prunes.

Overall, with a few off style skews that are slight: very good. A 4…

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 “prefecto.”

Written by Brandon Jones for embracethefunk.com

I finally finished typing up my latest brewer interview and it’s one I think you will find really interesting and eye opening. A few months ago I spoke with Troy Casey a brewer at AC Golden with their Hidden Barrel Project: A project that is turning out  Sour and Wild Beers in the heart of the Coors Brewery. Since this is the lengthiest interview I’ve done to date, I decided to split it up into 2 parts. I’ll post the second part next week. So meet Troy, a wealth of knowledge and fantastic brewer….

ETF: Okay. Let’s just start out with one of the questions I ask everybody… what was your sour beer epiphany moment, that one beer that made you realize, “Hey, these sour and wild beers are pretty darn good and there’s something else out there besides lagers and IPAs”?
Continue reading “Troy Casey of AC Golden Q&A Part 1”

Highland Brewing
12 Old Charlotte Hwy
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 299-3370< 5.3abv 25ibu

Nose: chocolate, dark… a little sweet. Hint of oatmeal.

Appearance: light tan small rock head, deep dark red garnet highlights. Deep black with a head that holds and holds. This has a lot of head.

Mouthfeel: dark chocolate with a bit of oatmeal-like fullness. Low side of medium body. Hop bitter background and just right. Nice roasty with roasted barley, as expected and a hint of regular dark malt: maybe some chocolate. Low carbonation, but fine. Hint of lactose.

Taste: deep, dark chocolate background with a little sweet. The choclolate, dark, like sense is so slight yet so important: especially when mixed with light touch of roasted barley, pale malt and maybe some darker malts like chocolate in the background. The dark chocolate sense hangs in longer than rest of the taste.

88% on Beer Advocate. 94: Rate Beer.

I recommend this one. A very pleasant quaff. It’s not the best I’ve had, but very respectable entry at 4.

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 “prefecto.”

Profiled by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

Pillow head: lots of. SRM low 30s, no visual through except some slight shimmering garnet highlights.

Nose: slight sour, as can be expected in some stouts, though less so in oatmeal. Slight coffee, hint of roasted barley.

Full mouthfeel as expected with oatmeal, with some almost espresso cling to the roof of the mouth. A hint of slick.

Taste: there’s a lot of coffee in this, dominant. As of late I’ve had a lot of coffee beers where the brewer went nuts with adding coffee. This isn’t one of those, just a bit too much. The roasted barley expected in a stout kind of gets lost with the espresso sense, but nice malt background and hint of oatmeal, but that gets lost for the most part… except in the mouthfeel. Some sour sense. Carbonation light in the body.

Overall a very good coffee stout, but could use just a little more malt and roasted barley sense. And just a slight back off on the coffee. I’d sell this as a slightly soured (not common in oatmeal stouts: more so in dry) coffee Porter. The stout part seems to be missing, as in roasted barley.

I do recommend it. If I could give it a 3.5 or more I would, but I can’t quite give it a 4…

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 “prefecto.”