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Beer Profile: Paulaner Salvator

Profiled by Maria Devan for PGA

pgaprofilesalavator
Pours a hazy pastel orange with subtle honey hues in it. A fat head of tan foam that is slow to fall.

Nose is malty. Brown crusty bread. Rich dry malt that is expansive on the nose.

As the beer warms a hint of chocolate comes forward. Light caramel sweetness underneath There is a dark fruit presence. Some prune, raisin and a faint whiff of alcohol. Taste is malty and rich. bread-y malt, dry and crisp. The middle of the drink is fruity. The edges have some grassy hops in them and the finish has a touch of medicinal alcohol. The alcohol dries out the palate and the malt lingers with a light bit of that caramel sweetness. A bit of bitterness comes from grass and from alcohol to finish this one dry. Lighter mouthfeel than some dopplebocks but medium and full enough. Slight warming from alcohol.

4.

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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

meMaria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.

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4 Hotels Making Rooftop Honey Beers

 

Urban beekeeping went from hipster chic to mainstream when the first big hotel chain hired an apiarist. Now, hotels that are housing thousands of bees on their rooftops are adopting yet another hipster trend and brewing their own honey-infused beers.

Here, four hotels where you can get rooftop honey beer.

The Fairmont San Francisco
Made in partnership with the local Almanac Beer Company brewery, the Fairmont Hotel Honey Saison is a Belgian-style ale brewed with spicy noble hops and, of course, honey from the hotel’s four rooftop beehives. The hives are surrounded by rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, cilantro and lavender, which add a subtle herbaceous, floral flavor to the honey.

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

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Beer Smells Good to Attract Flies

Fly eating from a yeast colony. Image: Cell Reports, Christiaens et al.

The familiar smell of beer is due in part to aroma compounds produced by common brewer’s yeast. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports, have discovered why the yeast, formally known as S. cerevisiae, make that smell: the scent attracts fruit flies, which repay the yeast by dispersing their cells in the environment.

Yeast lacking a single aroma gene fail to produce their characteristic odor, and they don’t attract fruit flies either.

“Two seemingly unrelated species, yeasts and flies, have developed an intricate symbiosis based on smell,” said Kevin Verstrepen of KU Leuven and VIB in Belgium. “The flies can feed on the yeasts, and the yeasts benefit from the movement of the flies.”

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

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A Beer Judge’s Diary: The Old Forge Old Ale Competition, Part 2

By Ken Carman
By Ken Carman
 Well, I wasn’t eaten.
  Are you surprised?
 Disappointed?
 Hungry?
 Well, I’m NOT on the menu, or at least I wasn’t that night.
  Being the only person on a lake: miles away from any house, I still wonder. By morning it was obvious that someone, or “something,” had an issue with the on site outhouse door with heavy springs that probably kept them out, or kept slapping them on the posterior. Who, or what dragged a rock and then put it between an outhouse and its door? At thirty minutes past midnight? At a campsite half way around a lake that’s not even the main part of said campsite?
 Was it someone desperate to bring me a late entry but decided to dump it?
 Someone who passed by several outhouses past midnight to do a different kind of dump far off the beaten path?
 Who “beats” these paths, and do they complain? Call 911? Should I have called 911?
 No cell phone service.
 Or, was that what’s considered the “caviar,” or “sirloin tips” of late night snacks for bears?”
 OK, when I lived here they fed at the dumps, so… maybe?
 Gross.
 Anywhosie…
 I arrived at The Back Door early and my judges were right on time. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: The Old Forge Old Ale Competition, Part 2”

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Beer Profile: Kulshan Brewing Co. Bastard Kat India Pale Ale

Thanks Terry Urbanik for the chance to try this wonderful beer.

pgaprofilePours perfect yellow amber with a fat creamy head of foam that lasts and leaves a bit of lace before receding to a thin ring. Looks perfectly clear at first glance but then reveals some very tiny particles floating in suspension. By the time I am done with the glass they are gone. The beer has some small bubbles floating upwards.

The nose is lovely bright lemon that becomes sweeter and more bountiful as the beer warms. That is met by a bright bit of orange.

Lovely combination on a soft and subtle sugar cookie malt. Light as your grandmother would make. There is a serenity in this malt that is both delicate and crisp. It verges on so many things but stays true to it’s simplicity always . Light spice as the beer comes toward the finish which is delightfully light and dry. West coast style mouthfeel all alaska bthe way and the only real weight in the mouthfeel is from the alcohol which is not on the palate. Brilliant! Then just as you think it’s almost done a small stickiness comes over the palate and a bit of pine. Nothing too forceful now, just some light lip smacking delight. There is a lovely bitter to end this beer that really does linger a bit and showcase all that delicate flavor but it also brings out the tartness of the lemon.

I love this and think it’s extremely well crafted. It has every measure of an IPA but not in copious amounts. It does not run roughshod over your palate it is subtle and perfectly balanced. The malt in this is superb and I wish I could describe it’s grace better. The lightness and the crispness of it. Reminds me of a lemon drop candy by the end.

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

meMaria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.

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A Beer Judge’s Diary: The Old Forge Old Ale Competition, Part 1

Courtesy http://weeklyadk.com
Courtesy http://weeklyadk.com
As with any adventure in life, there’s always a background story…
By Ken Carman
By Ken Carman
 I started liking: really “liking,” beer in late 1972 when my first college friend, Dave, brought me to a bar with dark beer. It was probably mostly food coloring, but I think it was an ale. Or was it Dave sharing his love for Genny Bock? A lager, but more malt, and a hint more malt complexity. For the time? A lot. Remember this was a time when Bud-like beer really was king, and almost every brewer on the east coast was generally doing what now would be considered almost a clone of Bud, Miller, Schaefer… With recipe changes even Ballantine was fading into yet another, “So what?”
 When I got married in my hometown at Big Moose Chapel my father-in-law had them bring in Heinekin Dark. For the Central Adirondacks: especially Big Moose, this was real exotic. By the time I went home again I found out the Big Moose bars had started stocking Heineken Dark. Even compared with the rest of the Adirondacks, the Central Adirondacks always seemed to have been a tad slow to bring in what we now call “craft beer.” And homebrew? Well, even these days I’ve had to go to Watertown or Syracuse for supplies.
 So I decided to start a competition.
 Location was problematic. I thought at first we’d do it in Beaver River: bring them down the reservoir in style on the Norridgewock Riverboat, stay at my cabin and the local hotel or motel. We’re a tiny community with no roads going to it on the eastern end of the Stillwater Reservoir. What an adventure! Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: The Old Forge Old Ale Competition, Part 1”

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Green Pints at Asher Brewing Company

Asher - Pints

Written by Franz Hofer for Tempest in a Tankard

Every night is Green Drinks Night at Asher’s all-organic brewery and taproom in Boulder, Colorado.

Surprised?

Probably not, though you should be.

In a town with as progressive a reputation as Boulder has, you’d be forgiven for expecting to find a handful of all-organic breweries.

 

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

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Beer Profile: Troegs Hop Knife

Profiled by Maria Devan for PGA

Troegs OK you guys! You have all heard me rave about Troegs. Heard me say how their beers are seamless, intricate and as delicate as a hand tatted piece of lace. Well this is a monster of a beer! This beer here seems to me to show Troegs as the skillful brewers they are.

They have created a west coast style mouthfeel that you cannot imagine. This is a 6.2 % beer that drinks like a session IPA. EXCEPT for the flavor of it which has the bit of alcohol in it. I think it’s tongue in cheek and is brilliant. Grapefruit with it’s inherent sweetness light even amidst all it’s pith and peel.

The biscuit malt dry, flaky and sweet without honey. There is a mysterious tropical fruit in this that at first seems pgaprofileto be the honey I am looking for, but then is really a light tropical fruit I cannot name. Light spice to finish this one with the perfect bitter. I remember talking about how a bitter in an IPA should come from underneath the beer and not ride roughshod over the entire flavor profile. That is what this one does. Now that’s BOLD brewing that speaks to what is possible and to what people seem to be clamoring for.

OH! I am in love. I only bought one and I have to admit I like it better than perpetual IPA which is more sugary than this one. This one is the tantalizing grapefruit and not 5 other things, light as an angel food cake.

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

meMaria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.

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Beer Profile: Uinta Sea Legs Baltic Porter

Profiled by Maria Deva for PGA

pgaprofilesealegs Pours the color of burnt caramel with a frothy head of khaki foam that’s creamy and lays itself on top of the beer. When the glass is not too full you can see cola colored hues and honey golds. Lace is shimmering like sea foam in the bright moonlight.

Nose is lush caramel and a fainter molasses. Coffee, chocolate and roasty malt. A sultry whiff of sweet bourbon and a bit of vanilla. The malt is earthy and fragrant. Some elusive dark fruits seem to flash and fade like twinkling stars but the one that lasts is a alight plum.

Taste is dry roasty malt with it’s sweet underpinnings. washes over the palate with a surprising milky sweetness. Strong bitter coffee, dry bittersweet chocolate, subtle vanilla and tempting bourbon. There is a wood so light on this that it seems to be afloat, weightless on the beer. A slight warmth from alcohol as this one finishes crisp, dry, thinnish to the palate but with a medium mouthfeel and with some hop bitter to linger alongside all that smooth caramel.

4.

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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

meMaria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.

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Brew Biz: Werts and All

beaver.river_.mapsmall1

Written by Ken Carman for PGA

The Topic: Beaver River Bootlegger’s Yeast

 I could be admitting to a high crime for my community here. The punishment: my property could be confiscated. In our deeds here at Beaver River there’s a phrase that states anyone caught brewing or distilling can have their property taken away. I asked Scott Thompson: a member of a five generation Beaver River family, and fellow wise… guy, about that and we agreed it was probably put in the deeds by his grandfather, or great grandfather during Prohibition.
  And I asked, “Because he wanted everyone to stay above the law, right?”
  He chuckled, “No, he probably didn’t want the competition.”
  Then he added, “I don’t care if you brew back here.
  But let’s just add to my story that all this kind of, sort of, happened somewhere else, OK?
Green-apples  We have green apples growing here in Beaver River. Not sure what type they are: they’re not really “green,” or “crab,” since they turn somewhat red in spots when completely ripe. The tree across the tracks has apples that turn totally red. I suspect they are of a different variety.
  The apples closest to my Anywhere But Beaver River Brewery are a grand mix between a nice shade of sour and slightly sweet. I’ve been attempting various versions of… “making cider…” out of them over the years. This year I bought a small fruit press, tired of the very inefficient potato masher mashing method.

Tracks through Beaver River, NY: courtesy cs.trains.com
Tracks through Beaver River, NY: courtesy cs.trains.com
Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”