Ymm, Beer!

[devildeac]

CB&B's Cherry Dunkel-Just as the name says, dark and cherrilicious (I made that up :oops: :roll: :lol: ). Dark brown, clean and not cloudy. A bit nutty and milk chocolatey and more like a brown ale than a porter. Malts dominate here with minimal bitterness. Smooth and almost silky. The cherry taste is very subtle, almost imperceptible, which I enjoyed, instead of being overpowered by fruit. Tasted at about 60 days since brewing, I think. IBU at 30-40 perhaps and ABV probably 5%. I'll have the last one of the two I traded for in another 30 days. BBQ fowl or pig or cow would make a nice match. Almost had it with a piece of a giant CCC for dessert last PM but enjoyed it by its lonesome.

This has been a hit and miss bottle brew. Unfortunately mostly miss. I don't know why, but the majority of what I've opened I just haven't liked, something is off in it. Happily, I found a lost case of the honey pale which I am now enjoying, as I brew my mega mystery beer on the porch. 15.5 pounds of grain and 14 gallons of spring water will be consolidated down to 5 gallons of brew, and a high gravity yeast. To do it I'm doing two full brewings with 120 minute boils. I'll give the ingredients list much later tonight when I'm done. I figure all told this will be at least a 10 hour experience.

Adding fresh and/or whole hops to that 120 minute boiling cycle, as in 120 Minute IPA?

[CameronBornAndBred]

Adding fresh and/or whole hops to that 120 minute boiling cycle, as in 120 Minute IPA?

Not fresh, but hop plugs. Dried whole hops.

[devildeac]

Adding fresh and/or whole hops to that 120 minute boiling cycle, as in 120 Minute IPA?

Not fresh, but hop plugs. Dried whole hops.

I learned that fresh hops are very difficult to obtain during my Full Sail tour in March, so I was kidding about those. ;)

[devildeac]

Red Sky at Night-Clipper City Brewing Company-the 5th one of their High Seas series I have sampled. And liked. A lot. This is a Belgian farmhouse ale, or saison. Belgian yeast, candi sucre (also known as candy sugar :roll: )) and wheat malt lends notes of honey, saffron and apples to this medium golden, clean, crisp ale. I like the Hennepin (Ommegang) a bit better but this is quite pleasant and the ABV of 7.5% puts it somewhere between a session brew and a night cap. If folks in the northeast have the opportunity to buy a High Seas sampler (I think bluebear mentioned this), buy it as you'd get a nice assortment of their brews without buying a bunch of 6ers.

[CameronBornAndBred]

11 hours later, I'm still brewing. 45 minutes left to go on the second boil. This brew is stout dark, by the way.

[CameronBornAndBred]

11 hours later, I'm still brewing. 45 minutes left to go on the second boil. This brew is stout dark, by the way.

1:00 am, just finished. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[CameronBornAndBred]

I was very tempted to call it the memorial day brew due to the fact that it wasn't in the fermenter until it was officially memorial day, but I picked another name instead. Below is the recipe for my "Eveything But The Kitchen Sink". I used every grain I had left. The OG was lower than I hoped, at 1.050, but we'll see what happens with the high gravity yeast. To get a truly high gravity brew, I would have also had to pitch in some dry malt extract. It's very dark, and from the ingredients I'd say you can call it a "oatmeal wheat stout". I'm thinking now that my AC is working well, it won't be the last brew of the season like I was expecting.

5lbs Pale Ale
3.5lbs Light Wheat
2lbs Belgian Special
2lbs Belgian Aromatic
1.5 lbs Chocolate
1lb Flaked Oats
1/2lb Black Patent

2 hour boil

2oz golding hops (10 minute)
1oz target hops (1/2 hour)
1oz fuggles hops (1 hour)
1oz hersbrucker hops(at end)

[devildeac]

11 hours later, I'm still brewing. 45 minutes left to go on the second boil. This brew is stout dark, by the way.

Imperial stout dark?

[devildeac]

OK, I'm calling rmd and bluebear out here. I bought a 6er of cans of Oskar Chub Blues Scottish Ale today at Total Wine, last one in the house, and they were out of the pale ale. This had better be good guys. I'm counting on some old reviews I remember one or both of you wrote. ;)

I've definitely had old chub(I have 4 cans in my cupboard) but can't remember if I ever review it. I like it...not as good as alesmith wee heavy or founders dirty bastard but a good scotch ale. I think a little milder than others. What do you think? Speaking f oskar blues, I've partaken in several gordons this week..great stuff. Tonight it is La fin du monde..a review to come tomorrow

Old Chub-Oskar Blues Brewery-darn good stuff-thanks bluebear and rmd or I'd have never tried this. Getting over my fear of beer in a can was rapidly overcome with the 1st whiff and taste. Not many folks make Scotch Ales but this has all the characteristics needed such as dark brown, highly malty with the sweetness of a good chocolate caramel candy. A bit of smoke and not much hop presence, so I'd guess the IBU at 30-40. ABV is 8% and it was slightly boozey. This makes a nice dessert beer, with or without some snicker doodle or oatmeal/chocolate chip/butterscotch cookies. I haven't had the SA Scotch Ale for a couple years and remember liking that a lot. The Traquair House Ale is the class of this category but at $5 for a 330 ml bottle (and that was about 5 years ago!), I don't buy many of those.

[bluebeer]

OK, I'm calling rmd and bluebear out here. I bought a 6er of cans of Oskar Chub Blues Scottish Ale today at Total Wine, last one in the house, and they were out of the pale ale. This had better be good guys. I'm counting on some old reviews I remember one or both of you wrote. ;)

I've definitely had old chub(I have 4 cans in my cupboard) but can't remember if I ever review it. I like it...not as good as alesmith wee heavy or founders dirty bastard but a good scotch ale. I think a little milder than others. What do you think? Speaking f oskar blues, I've partaken in several gordons this week..great stuff. Tonight it is La fin du monde..a review to come tomorrow

Old Chub-Oskar Blues Brewery-darn good stuff-thanks bluebear and rmd or I'd have never tried this. Getting over my fear of beer in a can was rapidly overcome with the 1st whiff and taste. Not many folks make Scotch Ales but this has all the characteristics needed such as dark brown, highly malty with the sweetness of a good chocolate caramel candy. A bit of smoke and not much hop presence, so I'd guess the IBU at 30-40. ABV is 8% and it was slightly boozey. This makes a nice dessert beer, with or without some snicker doodle or oatmeal/chocolate chip/butterscotch cookies. I haven't had the SA Scotch Ale for a couple years and remember liking that a lot. The Traquair House Ale is the class of this category but at $5 for a 330 ml bottle (and that was about 5 years ago!), I don't buy many of those.

Glad you liked it..I too had great canned beer fear, but Gordon and Old Chub took car of that. Next will have to be Ten Fidy which is apparently the best of the bunch...

A few weekend reviews..La Fin du Monde..Tripel from Unibroue and a fantastic one at that. This rivals St. Bernardus as my favorite tripel. Pours a hazy yellow. Lots of sweet malts but in a surprisingly subtle way...like sweet banana bread. Very little hop but a fair amount of fruit funkiness. Excellent beer

Harpoon Imperial IPA---It could have been the 90 minute IPA that I had the previous night but I was disappointed in this beer despite a lot of positive feedback I've seen on it. It's similar to 90 minute in that it's not simply an all out bitter hopfest. There was a fair amount of malt as balance but a bit too much in my opinion. Taste ended up being too sweet and too boozy for me. I have 3 more so I'll likely give it another try this week. Not a bad beer by any stretch but it would be lower down on my list of double IPAs..

Lastly, I was up in North Conway, NH and visited a small local brewery, Moat Mountain. Fun little place to visit with decent beer. I ended up getting a 7 sampler, though in retrospect I wished I had gone with the Octoberfest which my wife tried. The sampler was a little on the light side with 2 wheat beers, 2 pilsners, a pale ale, a brown ale, and a lager. One of the wheats, their Hefeweizen, was my favorite of the lot. Hope to get back there in the fall and taste some of their darker offerings..

[rockymtn devil]

Old Chub-Oskar Blues Brewery-darn good stuff-thanks bluebear and rmd or I'd have never tried this. Getting over my fear of beer in a can was rapidly overcome with the 1st whiff and taste. Not many folks make Scotch Ales but this has all the characteristics needed such as dark brown, highly malty with the sweetness of a good chocolate caramel candy. A bit of smoke and not much hop presence, so I'd guess the IBU at 30-40. ABV is 8% and it was slightly boozey. This makes a nice dessert beer, with or without some snicker doodle or oatmeal/chocolate chip/butterscotch cookies. I haven't had the SA Scotch Ale for a couple years and remember liking that a lot. The Traquair House Ale is the class of this category but at $5 for a 330 ml bottle (and that was about 5 years ago!), I don't buy many of those.

Great beer. Surprisingly, I enjoy it during a football game when it's really cold outside. Also--as I've advocated many times in the past--their Dale's Pale Ale is excellent. In fact, I'm drinking one right now while my country ribs finish on the grill . And, Mama's Lil Yella Pils is the most flavorful pilsner I've ever had.

For my birthday this weekend I was able to eat at several restaurants with fantastic beer menus. First, for lunch on Saturday I ate at The Kitchen in Boulder. This is the best restaurant (as opposed to beer bar) beer menu I've ever seen and it is obvious that they have a "beer sommelier" (http://www.thekitchencafe.com//artman/u ... t_BEER.pdf). I had a pork sandwich (more like brisket from a Jewish deli than BBQ) with a bottle of Avery Brabant. Fantastic. That evening I watched the Nuggets-Lakers game in the bar at Elway's Steakhouse and, along with my bone-in ribeye (done Pittsburgh Rare, of course) I had Russian River Blind Pig--also fantastic. Great birthday.

[devildeac]

I was limited in my purchases this weekend as I have too many "in the cellar" and not enough trading/drinking partners :roll: :oops: . Total Wine was also out of the other Oskar's product so I bought a 6er of Red Sky at Night by the Clipper City folks which I reviewed last PM. The next purchases will be a couple of the Founder's brews, again, as suggested by youze guys.

[bluebeer]

Found a new store today and picked by 2 by Avery--Samaels and Brabant, neither of which I've tried..which shall I have tonight?

[rockymtn devil]

Found a new store today and picked by 2 by Avery--Samaels and Brabant, neither of which I've tried..which shall I have tonight?

Depends. What do you have to do in the morning? The Brabant is a very limited release (<700 cases produced once), so if you enjoy it, it will be worth picking up other bottles to cellar.

[bluebeer]

Found a new store today and picked by 2 by Avery--Samaels and Brabant, neither of which I've tried..which shall I have tonight?

Depends. What do you have to do in the morning? The Brabant is a very limited release (<700 cases produced once), so if you enjoy it, it will be worth picking up other bottles to cellar.

I didn't realize how rare..I was leaning towards Samaels but as you suggest, it may be better to try the Brabant and then grab a few for safe keeping..

[rockymtn devil]

Found a new store today and picked by 2 by Avery--Samaels and Brabant, neither of which I've tried..which shall I have tonight?

Depends. What do you have to do in the morning? The Brabant is a very limited release (<700 cases produced once), so if you enjoy it, it will be worth picking up other bottles to cellar.

I didn't realize how rare..I was leaning towards Samaels but as you suggest, it may be better to try the Brabant and then grab a few for safe keeping..

It's really good. I've had several bottles (including one this past weekend) and have four stashed away. If you enjoy funky barnyard-brett beers (or wines) you'll really enjoy, I think.

Samaels is also a fantastic beer and one that I eagerly anticipate the release of.

[ohioguy2]

First, the reason for the purchases. My wife and I have rented a house near Bar Harbor, Maine for a week this summer. I wanted to explore Maine products. Second, the initial choices. Two blueberry brews(it is Maine, after all). The first was brewed in Bar Harbor, the second was brewed by Seas Dog. Truth be told, I could drink either to be sociable, but really did not like either very much. The Bar Harbor was rather bland, the Sea Dog was better but even though the blueberry was more prominent, it just did not make me want to leave for Maine early. I will be searching for other choices to imbibe in --suggestions are always welcome. Back to my porters--ed. fitz being my favorite.

[devildeac]

First, the reason for the purchases. My wife and I have rented a house near Bar Harbor, Maine for a week this summer. I wanted to explore Maine products. Second, the initial choices. Two blueberry brews(it is Maine, after all). The first was brewed in Bar Harbor, the second was brewed by Seas Dog. Truth be told, I could drink either to be sociable, but really did not like either very much. The Bar Harbor was rather bland, the Sea Dog was better but even though the blueberry was more prominent, it just did not make me want to leave for Maine early. I will be searching for other choices to imbibe in --suggestions are always welcome. Back to my porters--ed. fitz being my favorite.

1. anything Allagash, especially their Belgian style stuff, some of which is expensive.
2. Long Trail Brewery-Vermont-especially the Double Bag
3. Rock Art Brewery-Vermont-Extreme Bock

That should keep you busy for the 1st day... :oops: ;)

[bluebeer]

First, the reason for the purchases. My wife and I have rented a house near Bar Harbor, Maine for a week this summer. I wanted to explore Maine products. Second, the initial choices. Two blueberry brews(it is Maine, after all). The first was brewed in Bar Harbor, the second was brewed by Seas Dog. Truth be told, I could drink either to be sociable, but really did not like either very much. The Bar Harbor was rather bland, the Sea Dog was better but even though the blueberry was more prominent, it just did not make me want to leave for Maine early. I will be searching for other choices to imbibe in --suggestions are always welcome. Back to my porters--ed. fitz being my favorite.

1. anything Allagash, especially their Belgian style stuff, some of which is expensive.
2. Long Trail Brewery-Vermont-especially the Double Bag
3. Rock Art Brewery-Vermont-Extreme Bock

That should keep you busy for the 1st day... :oops: ;)

Big fan of allagash but as devildeac mentions, they are expensive..especially some of their 750ml specialty beers. Very good stuff though

[ohioguy2]

First, the reason for the purchases. My wife and I have rented a house near Bar Harbor, Maine for a week this summer. I wanted to explore Maine products. Second, the initial choices. Two blueberry brews(it is Maine, after all). The first was brewed in Bar Harbor, the second was brewed by Seas Dog. Truth be told, I could drink either to be sociable, but really did not like either very much. The Bar Harbor was rather bland, the Sea Dog was better but even though the blueberry was more prominent, it just did not make me want to leave for Maine early. I will be searching for other choices to imbibe in --suggestions are always welcome. Back to my porters--ed. fitz being my favorite.

1. anything Allagash, especially their Belgian style stuff, some of which is expensive.
2. Long Trail Brewery-Vermont-especially the Double Bag
3. Rock Art Brewery-Vermont-Extreme Bock

That should keep you busy for the 1st day... :oops: ;)

Big fan of allagash but as devildeac mentions, they are expensive..especially some of their 750ml specialty beers. Very good stuff

though

The Allagash will be a priority. Our son(Boston) and our son in law(Fort Collins) are each beer drinkers who stay away from the BMC types--should be a fun time.