Out of season review!

Wooo! That's the sound I make when I pull out my treasured pack of Zweigles dogs from the freezer, fire up whatever grill we happen to be using and get set to enjoy my so-called weekend. Seeing as I work in the glorious world of retail, I don't really get a weekend, but this will have to do. Moving past self-pity alley, I reach into my fridge and snare my quarry, a can of Oskar Blues Tenfiddy imperial stout.

A CAN?!?!!!!!1! You gasp, *facepalming* like seasoned internet pro. "Stouts don't come in cans! They come in casks, barrels, coffins, bottles, viking long ships and, occasionally, growlers! Putting a stout in a can, Guinness notwithstanding, is heresy! Well, for you folks not familar with the Oskar Blues story, I will direct you here. For the rest, you know a canned stout can (ha!) still be quite excellent and this beer is no exception.

Tenfiddy doesn't so much pour as ooze from the can like some Lovecraftian horror from beyond. It brollops , glags and brfls its way into your wholly unprepared glass. It is the space between the stars, the growling maw of blackness ready to consume all light so unlucky to cross its path. It also leaves a very slight, brownish head that's not very horrific at all. In fact, it's perfectly adequate as far as stouts go.

How can something so unspeakably dark and brooding taste? Well, in truth, not as fantastically evil as its appearance would suggest. There are the usual notes of coffee and chocolate combined with the slightly caramel nose found in many stouts. Simply put, it's a stock imperial stout, an a young one at that. The alcohol is rather present and even goes so far to to throw off the balance of the rest of the flavors. This nerfs the more subtle flavors even after the beer has been brought up to appropriate stout serving temperature. A dark-roasted coffee taste emerges as the predominant flavor in this beer, which makes it a fun beer to sip, but little else.

When the clowns have all taken off their face paint and driven home in their late-model clown cars, this brew will stand as a fine reminder of a perfectly mediocre stout. If you're into that alcohol bite, go ahead and give it a try. For the more patient drinkers, perhaps you can buy a six of this and age it to different times in the hopes of finally finding the magic formula to make this a more enjoyable experience that I have had. It shows some promise, but as of now, it underdelivers.

Recultured Yeast and the Conical Fermenter

Sounds like the title of an AWESOME adventure story, doesn't it?

Anyway, in the next week or so I'm planning on finally starting a new batch of homebrew. Before each batch, I tend to open my beer books and lurk around beer forums to get motivated to try something new and different.

This time, the magic phrase was "recultured yeast."

Theoretically, from what I've read, I can take one of my favorite bottle-conditioned beers, drink 10 out of the 12 ounces, sanitize the top of the bottle, pour the remaining 2 oz. into a starter wort and, bam, I can bring yeast back from the dead, and use the ZOMBIE YEAST (Yes, I am going to copyright that term) to ferment my own homebrew just as effectively as using a brand new Wyeast Propagator/Activator.

Advantages: Save a bunch of money and get my hands on some yeast that may otherwise be unavailable at the local homebrew shops.

However,I remain skeptical about the effectiveness of this process. Have any of you homebrewers heard anything about this?

Also, someday I am going to get one of these, it looks totally sweet:
http://www.minibrew.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=6

Eh, okay.

Today, I stuffed my face. I took the new girl in town to the Dinosaur BBQ, where I proceeded to eat myself into a state of fullness which I have never before achieved. Maybe it was the bacon cheeseburger. Or the mac salad. Or the fries.

Or maybe, just maybe, it was the fact that my pint of beer seemed larger than a pint because it was, in fact, four 4oz glasses of varying varieties. Dinosaur Ape Hanger (brewed by Syracuse’s Middle Ages), Lagunitas IPA, Custom Brewcrafter’s seasonal (dark and creamy, whatever it was), and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale were all served to me on a wooden paddle. And they were all delicious.

Whatever the reason, as I’ve already mentioned I was feeling as stuffed as Ron Jeremy’s under…wait, that’s gross. Strike that.

What am I getting at? What I’m getting at is this: after said meal, and a round of Wii sports consisting of tennis, bowling, and rabbit smashing, I was thirsty once more. But being so jam-packed with other delicious edibles, I felt that ingesting another indulgent item would be foolish. I needed something that was better than Keystone, but not quite as heavy as anything with the words “imperial”, “porter”, or “Stone Brewing” in them.

There was one obvious choice: I needed something better than crap, but less than stellar. I needed something that was….O.K. I needed an O.K. beer. And thank god for the Polish, because Okocim just so happens to brew O.K. Beer. Without further suspense: this is a beer that truly lives up to its name.

O.K. Beer pours an incredibly clear amber – there’s not a trace of cloudiness to be seen. The same could be said, however, for the head. Perhaps I just don’t know how to pour beer, or perhaps that’s what you get for a $1.99 bomber. Regardless, sitting in front of me was a clear amber European Pale Lager that was just begging to be put out of its misery. Always happy to do this for a comrade, I started off with a few cautious sips; although not before taking a good whiff first. There’s nothing to report on the aroma though, so I’ll move right along.

As I’ve already stated, this is a certifiably O.K. beer. There’s hardly any presence of hops, malts, or…well, taste. Maybe it’s the allergy-ridden sinuses, but there really isn’t much to this brew. Which isn’t the worst thing in the world, as it means that at least it doesn’t possess a taste that drives the consumer to immediately chase it with the closest edible looking object in order to alleviate the palette-offending intruders.

All in all, I’d say that this is the type of beer that you’d want to start someone off with if they’ve never had a beer before. Will it expose them to the tasty world of IPAs, stouts, and other delectable treats that can be found at your local grocer? Absolutely not. But will it be so overpowering that they’ll be turned off; forever afraid to re-enter the land of hops and glory? Nope. This inexpensive, inoffensive brew is the training wheels on the bicycle of beers – but personally, I’m looking forward to getting back on the road bike and going for a hearty cruise.

Father's Day! Beer!

OK, so every Father's Day, for those of you outside of my family circle, my Dad makes ribs. These ribs are cooked in the oldest, nastiest beer on hand (that's the secret ingredient; write that down, because it's important). This year's beer just happened to be my first real homebrew, a 22 oz. bottle of brown ale/IPA (Brownstörm) that's been sitting in the fridge, oh, let's say for about more than a year.

Anyway, this year I wanted to pair the special Father's Day ribs dinner with some special beer. But what beer could possibly be appropriate for the maximum appreciation of such a great man and his delicious, delicious spareribs? Well, I tried my hardest to find the right one!

Upon some research through BeerAdvocate.com, I found that stronger flavored beers such as an IPA are favored in pairings with grilled meat. But, crap man, it's hot outside and I don't want no bad ass brain-wreckin beer, I want a nice smooth drinking summer beer. You know, an easy-drinking wheat beer like Southern Tier's Hop Sun.

But wait, what if I could find a combination of the two?! Not only would it be the perfect mixture of summer drinkability and griller-meat-pairing-strong flavor, but such a synthesis just may be worthy of the glory that is exuded by my Father.

Then I found it, a special edition limited reserve beer created in a collaboration between established microbrewer Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery, USA and Hans Peter-Drexler of historic Schneider Brewery in Deutschland. Their desire was to mix "American ingenuity with German tradition" to create a truly delicious brew.

The coolest thing, though, is that they both decided to brew their collaborative recipe with their own local hops at their own respective headquarters. So, Brookyln released their own version and Schneider did the same. It was called Hopfen-Weisse with the names of either brewery on each bottle.

(Sorry it's a bit fuzzy, darned phone cameras.)

I bought both bottles to compare and contrast the brewing of the two countries with the same beer with ole' Daddy-o.

My Dad said, "Hmmm..."

I said, "Aaaaaah..."

But which one was better than the other? Brooklyn, with its American hops, or Schneider, with their German ones?

We both agreed, German tradition provided a much more smooth drinking beer, though it boasted an 8.2% abv while the much more harsh-tasting American version boasted a 7.8% abv.

Tradition supplants ingenuity. It's true, though I didn't want it to be true.

(That's the American one, but doesn't it look REALLY GOOD?!)

So, both my super mega awesome Father and I recommend to you, dear reader, the German version of the Hopfen-Weisse over the American while you are grilling/eating delicious grilled delectables (honestly it was a perfectly WONDERFUL pairing), because GODDAMN is it delicious, smooth, strong, and drinkable!!!

Sam Patch!

Two quick points of local interest:

-High Falls tours are being offered to the public on Fridays. D&C article here.
-Dundee brews are being repackaged and sold with the intent of raising money for bees - those things that make one of the main ingredients in Honey Brown, but are kind of, you know, disappearing. They've put up a site with all the info - www.dundeeforthebees.com - although it seems to be unresponsive at the time of writing this.

That's it for now. Toodles, poodles!

FIGHT!

So I'm sitting at my computer, right? And I run the internets, and I find out that patriot and brewmeister Sam Adams has sent me a written communique regarding a difficult decision he's faced with.

What will it be? he asks me. Blackberry Witbier, or Coffee Stout?

"I don't know," I reply. "They both sound so delicious. The Witbier would certainly be of greater utility on a night such as this, with temperatures in the mid thousands and humidity at a level higher than pouring rain itself. But it's foolish to think only of the now, and the coffee stout should be considered as a substantial source of warmth in the inevitable cold of Winter 2009."

I had a point...long term planning is important. But then I remembered what Al Gore told me when we played horseshoes last week: due to global warming, winter might be assassinated. So maybe, just maybe, the winter months will still be warm and a thick, delicious stout would fail to be as refreshing as a sweet and fruity, but presumably lighter, Witbier.

Luckily, this decision is not in my hands alone. Verily, the burden of choosing is being offered to all, and thine voices can be heard at www.samueladams.com - but not just yet, apparently. "Soon," Mr. Adams tells me.

In the meantime, please research the contenders by reading the descriptions set forth below, and choose wisely when the time comes.

Samuel Adams ® Blackberry Witbier
The aroma has distinct Blackberry notes with a subtle spice character. We brewed a traditional witbier with orange peel and coriander, and then added a hint of blackberry. The flavor is very complex with malt and cereal notes, intense spice and citrus flavors and a smooth, sweet/tart finish.

Samuel Adams® Coffee Stout
This stout is "dry beaned" with coffee beans from Rwanda*. Known as the "land of a thousand hills", Rwanda produces some of the world's finest coffee due to its volcanic soil, high altitude and plentiful rain. We start with a full-bodied stout brewed with a special blend of roasted barley and dark crystal malt, and then age if for two weeks on whole coffee beans- ¾ of a pound per barrel. The result is a rich roasty flavor with a smooth finish.

* For this stout we are proud to be using Rwandan coffee from The Thousand Hills Coffee Company. Thousand Hills' proceeds help subsidize and support the building of schools in Rwanda. We are thrilled to support Thousand Hills and are excited that they made a special roast of coffee just for this beer.