GB&U

A quick update on how the brews have been coming along.

The Good
Four Shepherds Stout - This beer is amazing. We bottled a 12 pack so we can enter it in competitions this summer. People who love stouts love it. People who don't like stouts love it. Epic Win. Too bad it wasn't ready for the Longshot contest.

Watermelon Blonde - This beer not only tasted great, with a big whiff of watermelon on the nose and a nice melon aftertaste after the clean finish, but it looked great too. A nice deep red with a bright white head. Nice. I would have pictures of it, but we drank it too fast.

Designated Hitter Pilsner - With another batch heading towards kegs soon, we cracked a bottle that we saved from the last batch to revisit our first lager. Clean, flavorful, and a crisp dry finish. A very good beer.

The Munich Helles - I'm drinking the first glass right now and it is good. Not perfect yet however. We will continue to work on this beer until it can bring a tear to a Bavarian's eye.


The Bad
Cream Ale (AKA Ice Cream Ale, AKA Flava No Flav) - I screwed this brew day up six ways to Sunday. With no flavor to speak of and a low alcohol content, I can't give it away. I'm praying Shawn can, or we're going to have to have a Beer Pong party.

That Bottle of Batch #3 I found in the Fridge - Holy god was that beer bad. What was I doing...?


The Ugly
Strawberry Blonde - Not a bad beer, but very cloudy and a bit too much strawberry tangy-ness. Not an attractive color either, as it came out kind of pinkish orange.

Pear Ale - We didn't add enough fruit to this, so its really just a very boring blonde. Don't worry, we'll drink it.

Das Boot

Have I mentioned that we like Spaten? We're brewing our first Munich Helles this weekend, so we thought it would be a good idea to sample the style one more time...

Fine German Lagers and the People Who Love Them

Who are these people?

Us, that's who.

As homebrewers, we've been studiously avoiding them the way a novice baker might avoid fine French pastries. They just seem unattainable and one feels that any attempt to create them will end only in tears and frustration.

Our confidence bolstered by recent homebrewing successes, we've begun to dive in - tears be damned.

Our first mission was to find our favorite. Early contenders included Spaten Premium, Paulaner Pils, and Hacker-Pschorr Munchner Hell.

The Spaten is amazing and, for a while, was our front-runner. Our local has it on tap, and it is delicious. It leaves a taste in your mouth that demands you drink 3 more, kiss the bartender full on the mouth, and then pick a friendly fist fight with that group of bikers playing pool. Brilliant.

Then we tried the Weihenstaphaner Original and the game was over. Even poured from of a bottle, this beer is sublime. If there could be only one light lager in the world, this should be it. Brewed by the oldest brewery in existence (their records go back to 1040) this Munich Helles, as far as we are concerned, is the best light lager on the planet.

Now we start the quest to make our version of it.

Prepare for tears.

Two Brewmasters

Two brewmasters, one German and the other American, walk in to a bar (I'm assuming) and decide to brew the same beer. Each would use essentially the same recipe but use hops from their respective home countries. Also, and this is the cool part, they would each brew the beer in the others brewery.

The result, or rather half of it, is pictured to the left - Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse which was brewed at Brooklyn Brewery in New York by Hans-Peter Drexler.

The other half, which I am working on aquiring, is Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen-Weisse and was brewed at Schneider in Germany by Garrett Oliver.

I found out about these beers after Headbrewer described tasting one of the versions on his blog. Since he is in Ireland, he can only find the version brewed at Schneider. As of yet, I can only find the version brewed at Brooklyn. If neither of us make any headway, perhaps we should think about setting up a trade. I wonder how much it costs to ship a bottle of beer to Ireland?

You can read more about each beer here and here.

Flannery's In Mercersburg

Last weekend, we went to visit some friends in Mercersburg, PA and ended up at one of their locals: Flannery's.

We have a couple of bars by us that have a good tap selection, but this place takes the cake. A Quad? American Double Imperial IPA? Even better they swap out beers all the time, so there is always something new to try.

Between us we tried everything of interest (no samples, full pours only please). The Franziskaner Dunkle was really good as was the Chub and the Seven Gates.

The most interesting was the Rodenbach Grand Cru. I have heard of this sour style but have never tried one. It was pretty amazing - like drinking cranberry/sprite/mead/cider/beer.

The quad was, of course, totally over the top. I don't even like doubles, so I am the wrong guy to review that beer.

Thanks for a great night T&P - lets go back when they swap out some beers!

What Does Dry Hopping Taste Like?

Our first lager (Batch #21 Pilsener) is in the keg! We lagered for about 4 weeks total. 2 weeks at 50F and 2 weeks at 30F. Both kegs went right in to the fridge to keep them cooooold while they carbonate. The beer is a very light straw color and completely translucent - a first for this brewery.

We split this 10 gallon batch and only dry hopped half of it so we could taste the difference. I sampled both as they racked to the kegs and the un-dry hopped tasted like flat Bud - pretty boring but drinkable. The dry hopped half (or D.H. or Designated Hitter) has much more flavor but is not over hopped at all - at least at this point.

We'll see how they taste once they are carbed up - about 7 days.

Craft Brew's Mad Genius

I have gained a new respect for Dogfish Head after reading this New Yorker article. Ty sent it to me a while ago, but I finally got around to finishing it (long article is loooong). It is a fascinating look at a man who has refused the conventional notions of what beer should be.

I've tried a lot of DFH beers and have yet to find one that I would drink again if given a choice. Clearly I'm not ready for 'extreme' beers. But after reading this article, I can see why DFH is a hero to many beer lovers and most home brewers.

Kansas City

Went out to Kansas City to visit my good friend Aric and his gal Mindy. We had a blast! We did so many things, but I'll just highlight those that relate to BEER.

First, straight from the airport, we stopped at McCoy's Public House. A popular brew pub, they have a great outdoor deck, good food, and their beer is delicious. The Hog Pound Brown is clean and wonderful. As a bonus, they were actually brewing while we were there. The (bad cellphone) picture is the mash tun, door open and spent grains in view. It smelled awesome.

Next was visiting Boulevard Brewing. They are a local staple and seem to have complete penetration in the KC bars. Every single pub we visited that weekend (and there were many) had at least the Pale Ale on tap, and most had the wheat as well. Often, the Boulevard was the only alternative to A. Busch or Miller/Coors. The Pale Ale is a favorite of Aric's, so between the stock in his fridge and its ubiquity out on the town, we drank a ton of it. Whoever is doing the local marketing/selling for this company is really kicking ass. You can't go a block in KC without seeing Boulevard's name.

We took the tour and it is quite clear that the brewery expects to grow in the coming years. They just opened a second brewhouse - all completely new and very shiny. They are also installing a brand new bottling line which can handle several times the volume of their current line, nicknamed The Crusher due to its propensity to smash bottles instead of capping them.

The tour ends in the tap room of course. I tasted many of their beers and, like Flying Dog, all were good even if some were not to my exact tastes. If you're in the Midwest, look for Boulevard beer and give it a try. Their Saison grew on me big time, the wheat is clean and light, and the Pale Ale is great.

Saturday afternoon, we went to Grinders. I honestly cant put in to words how much I loved this place. If I lived in KC, I would make sure I lived within walking distance.

The mushroom pizza we had was indescribably good. We also got a big-ass basket of tater-tots covered in Cheese Whiz. CHEESE WHIZ!

And the beer. Oh the beer. Check out the beer list on their site and you can see that these people are serious. Any time I see a beer list organized by style I know I'm in for a treat. About 80 to choose from with 20 on tap. Add to that the fact that Grinders' back yard is now a concert venue and we watched The Mighty Mighty Bosstone's people setting up and sound checking for that nights show while lounging in the sun with good friends and the local dog (pictured above) curled up at our feet and the best pizza I've ever had and a very friendly waitress and F-18s flying overhead (big airshow in town - ROCK) and a beer list fit for a king... I could go on for hours. Just perfect.

Sunday Aric whipped up some homebrew! It was cool watching another person's routine. Aric has brewed hundreds of batches but, of course, he was out of beer when I visited. UNACCEPTABLE! Actually he had a batch all ready, but his tap line popped off the tap and the whole five gallon keg ended up on his basement floor about a week before I arrived. Horror of horrors!

I can't wait to go back to KC and take the whole family. It's a great town.

Beer Fest!

Yesterday, Jess and I attended the 4th Annual Hagerstown Suns Beer Tasting Festival at the baseball stadium. With your admission price, you get 10 5 oz. samples, so together we got to try 20 different beers. Awesome!

We tried all kinds of stuff that I have not had an opportunity to taste before without committing to a whole pint of it. Barley Wines, Dopple Bocks, etc. All fun to try, even if they are not our style.

Jess found several beers that she really loved, including Ommegang Witte, Ommegang Hennepin Farmhouse Saison, and her absolute favorite (and mine, perhaps influenced by the 90 degree heat): Penn Brewing's Weizen. She loved it so much, that she constructed an ad-hoc Best of Show Award and presented it to the guys from Penn Brewery. They loved it, promised it would end up on thier soon-to-be-released redesigned website, and gave her a free bottle of Weizen. Nice! That is Dale from Penn and Jess in the picture. Jess is holding the "award." So funny. ALL the beers we tried from Penn were great - if you see some in your beer story, buy it.

We also tried beers from local Clipper City. They only brought their BIG beers, so I wasn't really in to them, but the guy from the brewery was cool and we chatted about beer a bit. We hope to get up there for a tour at some point.

We enjoyed the beers from Erie Brewing including their Sunshine Wit and the somewhat famous Railbender Ale.

The cellphone pictures make it look overcast, but it was a very hot evening. The beer went down nice!

Greatest Website Ever

Genius! Beermapping.com is using the google maps API to build a visual database of every brewery, brewpub, homebrew store, beer bar, and beer store in existence. Here is the DC/Baltimore area map. Finally, someone is doing something meaningful with the internet.
http://beermapping.com/

Cheese and Beer - Not Always a Good Thing

Jess and I went to a local brewpub in Frederick called Barley and Hops for the first time the other day. We were really excited about unleashing another local source of micro-brews on to our newly expanded taste buds.

We were very disappointed. We tried almost every beer they offered and we didn't really like any of them. I found most of them to be syrupy and unpleasant or, in the case of their light lager, tasteless. All the beer was served very warm as well.

This contrasts greatly with our trip to Flying Dog's brewery where, although some were not our cup of tea exactly, all tasted like beer and were totally drinkable.

The topper of the whole experience was the Belgian Wit. Before I even got it to my face, I could smell a strong cheese (Parmesan to be exact) odor emanating from the beer. I took a sip anyway and it tasted like cheese as well. Not just a tinge or twang, but like someone had dumped a bunch of Parmesan in the beer. It was so strong that I entertained the thought that it might be intentional, but I felt more likely that there was some kind of problem (mold maybe?) either with the lines or the batch.

We asked the bartender "Is this beer supposed to have a cheese flavor?" to which she responded, "I don't know. Whatever it tastes like is what it is supposed to taste like." Very unhelpful. We asked if should would taste it or even smell it to see if anything seemed off, but she, the bartender at a brewpub, refused and wrinkled her face up as if to say, "I would NEVER drink the beer here!"

I can't say that I blame her, actually.

Brewery Tour

We took the tour at Flying Dog Saturday. It was really fun. Of course, we forgot our camera, so all I have are these poopy cell phone shots.

Mash Tun and Brew Kettels

Fermenters (about 50 of them!)

We learned that Flying Dog bought Wild Goose and Blueridge beer. Blueridge was discontinued, but they still brew Wild Goose here. We got to sample a ton of beer, including an unnamed test batch which was cool. I also tried their Double Pale Ale which has an IBU of about 90 - whoa.

Some Flying Dogs

I grabbed a sampler 12-pack of Flying Dog brew to help hold me over while my kegs are dry. I bought it because I had heard of it before but never tried it. Got it home and it was pretty damn good, although both Jess and I detected a slight off-flavor that makes me think the 12-pack had been around a long time, or perhaps stored in a hot-ass warehouse for a while.

The 12-pack included bottles of Pale Ale, Hefe-Weizen, Amber Lager, Golden Ale, and their IPA. All were good (minus the slight off taste common to all) and Jess liked the Hefe (shocker).

I looked them up on the inner-toobs and realized why I had heard the name - they brew right in Frederick, MD! We're going on a tasting/tour of the brewery with some friends this weekend. Then we'll know for sure if those bottles were off!

The Corner Pub

Last Friday, Jess and I ended up at a bar in town called The Corner Pub. They have about 15-20 beers on tap and many many more bottled. Follow the link for a list of their beers on tap.

Jess tried and LOVED Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat on tap. I tried one as well and it was very good, although very orange-y. Like, crazy oranges!

I'm starting to think Jess really likes fruity wheat beers, as she loves Pete's Strawberry Blond as well.

I also had a Hacker-Pschorr Hefe-Weizen (good) and a Spaten lager (very goddamn good). I haven't had these beers in years - since I lived in Frederick and frequented The Alpenhoff which, sadly, is no longer there.