A Place to Gather and Talk
In case you hadn’t realized it, there’s a whole lot of brewing going on in Southern California. Don’t believe it? Read the New Yorker. The magazine has put together a slick interactive map that illustrates the dramatic growth of the craft beer industry.
Based on new data from the Brewers Assn., the map highlights which states have the most craft breweries, which produce the most craft beer and where the biggest and newest breweries are located.
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My husband, the mad scientist…
Diving head-first into the world of craft brewing..
The long awaited brewing return has finally come, and husband came back with a bang. He chose to make his triumphant return with a grand experiment. You may recall, in So…A Change in PlansÂ
this new creation is a combination of a Black Belgian Ale and a Tripel. It could very well be his greatest brew yet.
I will spare you the pain and torment of the cleaning, scrubbing, and scouring that goes into the preparation. No time for that, let’s skip straight to the good parts.
You know, western (of Mother Russia) beer always drives me crazy: fits no style, inappropriate balance, dark beers that are light and vica versa. This one is from Lithuania. The liqueur store “proudly” told me, “Must be good, it’s sold by Budweiser.” When I said “InBev” they looked at me blankly. My guess: distributed by whomever brings them Bud.
Just a hint darker than Bud. Head fades fast: sharp pinpoint and marginal in depth. Great clarity. As warms head seems to increase. Pinpoint head about 1/2 since before Sheriff shows up and the brewers/distillers start to hide their product.
Mouthfeel a bit slick, Pilsner malt dominant with just a hint of caramel malt. A little harsh on the palate and the roof of the mouth in a Belgian white candy sugar-way. Carbonation light, but despite this a bit insistent on the palate.
Nose is Belgian Tripel-ish with a hint of white sugar boost and pilsner malt in the background. No hops sense in any category, except a very mild bitter in the background.
This is 9.5%, supposedly: you’d never know. How they got there, if they did, I’m curious. None of the harsher ice bock-like alcohols.
I would have to say this most closely resembles a Belgian Tripel, though somewhat missing more complex sense. But I have to give them credit: they did a great job. Not my style: or even my fav off style if I’m wrong about “Tripel,” but this is like an American take on a Belgian Tripel: brewed in Belgium. Not a bad attempt at all.
I don’t see anything on the web stating InBev. Brewed by..RinkuÅ¡kiai Alaus Darykloje .
69 on Beer Advocate, which declares it a “Euro Strong Lager.” And that style comes from…??? 14 on Rate Beer. YACK! BA is closer, in my opinion. It’s just a matter of what style you THINK it might be, I suppose. I’ve judged many Tripels, and this is very much like one.
I gave it a 3. Not quite worth a 4, but close to due to possible stylistic accuracy. It’s tough when a brewer doesn’t declare on the bottle.
6.5abv
Caldera Brewing
Ashland, Oregon
Nose: Cascade/grapefruit-like sense as open and sniff top of bottle.Pale malt way in the background. Not much else.
Appearance: a little hazy but I think that’s cold chill. Light gold in color: In the teens SRM-wise. White head is little rocks with a touch of pillow that lingers. About an inch and slowly fades but never quite goes away.
Hops on taste far less than nose. Great aroma but doesn’t translate into taste. Mouthfeel is caramelized malt: slight, that gets stronger as warms. Bitter is firm but more “slight” than it should be. There’s a fruity bitter:as bit orange-ish, that hangs mid-tongue. Carbonation full and firm.
Flavor: light pale malt with a soft, almost orange, bitter. That’s all. Could use more. I’m guessing they did a lot of early hoping on a basic pale. Not much else. Really not all that impressive: could use more hops in the taste, more complexity in that hopping.
Here is what their web site says…
Hop Hash: 6.5% ABV Hop Hash is a twist on the American-Style Strong Pale Ale/IPA using only pure lupulin for bitterness, flavor and aroma. This ale gets its name from pure hop lupulin extracted and scraped from the Hopunion pelletizing line.
Nice idea, I suppose, but misses a lot in the execution. You would think with a name like Hop Hash the hops would stand out more. There needs to be something to make me choose this from all the the other hop focused beers out the in what has become a very popular style.
Rate Beer: 85. 83 on Beer Advocate: both at the time this profile was written. Noticed the reviews were mixed from fairly high to far lower than mine.
Frankly I can’t rate it high, or real low, so three seems just right…
I am hoping to make this an occasional feature in the Diary. Millie and I have been judging since the 90s, and since I travel a lot for work and judge occasionally on the road, and we like to do a few out of town competitions together… we get to see more competitions than some judges, I suppose.
Sometimes it’s something that seems insignificant, like a top to a sample cup. These were those plastic cups most competitions use. I think this was at Knickerbocker in Albany: run by Saratoga Thoroughbrews. While it may seem small, there’s something very satisfying about being able to shake a glass as much as you want without getting your hand wet, or spilling it on yourself. Plus it can hold aroma in quite well while you inspect appearance. As judges well know aroma can be a fleeting thing, yet head can be too. To judge a beer it can be a chicken or egg situation, as in “which best to look at first, which will I lose faster if I don’t get to it first?” The top helps to resolve that. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: Things to Consider When Planning a Competition”
As of March, the United States was home to two thousand three hundred and sixty craft breweries, the relatively small, artisanship-oriented producers best known for India pale ales, porters, and other decidedly non-Budweiser-esque beers. These beverages have become so popular that craft beer now represents thirty per cent of Costco’s beer sales, and this past August the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked whether Obama would be releasing the recipe for his honey ale. He responded, joking, “I’m not aware of any plans at this time to… divulge the secret recipes.†(The formula became public several days later.)
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Appearance: nice brown: probably in the mid=20s, srm-wise, with head fading fast… not unexpected. Pillow head with some clarity but a slight haze: probably chill since I had to put in freezer.
Mouthfeel: nice carmelized sense with a full body sense due to that, a little sweet and clings to the roof of the mouth. The mouthfeel is pretty much spot on, though maybe a hint more of abv might help.
Taste: here is where it falls. Everything is right except someone added too much hops for the style. As it warms it bounces between the hops and a more appropriate Scottish ale sense. Back and forth. Could also use a higher abv sense for the style: as I mentioned. The hops seem Centennial-ish. Malt sweet, as expected, but when the hops popthey distract from that all important Scottish Ale characteristic.
A close try at a 4. maybe a 3.8? But I can only give it a 3. That may seem unfair, but the Professor has explained to me that 1-5 rating is meant to make the reviewer come firmly down as possible when rating a beer. We can mention increments of, say .5, but it needs to be 1-5. Now, if they cut back on the hops, raised the avb a hint, and they might get close a 5.
What started as a trickle has become a torrent.
In 2002, the number of small breweries canning beer stood at one. Now, according to the Web site www.craftcans.com, that number has swelled to 290.
Lost Rhino Brewing in Ashburn rushed out 12-ounce cans of two of its beers — Rhino Chasers Pils and Face Plant IPA — in time for Memorial Day cookouts. Heavy Seas Beer in Baltimore plans this week to ship two canned brands: Loose Cannon, its American-style IPA, and Davy Jones Lager, an amber lager in the Anchor Steam mold. Devil’s Backbone Brewing in Lexington was prepping for a second canning run of its Striped Bass Pale Ale this month. And DC Brau has doubled the number of canned offerings, with Penn Quarter Porter, On the Wings of Armageddon (a super-hoppy imperial IPA) and summer seasonal El Hefe Speaks (a Bavarian-style wheat beer) joining its three pale ales.
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Courtesy http://beervanaomaha.blogspot.com
6. The Flavor Finder
This guy could be also be named “The Bullshitter.†His ability to identify flavors – many of which were not intentionally added to the brew – borders on paranormal. He’ll sniff at the settling head of an IPA and make verbal note of the subtle wafts of “raspberry, turmeric, and waffle batter.†He’ll take a sip and, swirling his tongue around his mouth, ask if you noticed the way the hops created “a dirty, rusty flavor†but “in a good way†then point out how the finish is like “molten cashews, cooked over a fire of pine needles and Brazilian rosewood.†The dude will claim to taste things humans can’t physically taste, like passion and eccentricity. If he is really tasting all of this stuff, there might be something really, really wrong with his tongue. Or maybe he’s about to have a stroke. No one knows.
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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.
A 2 is the best I can do.
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