A Visit to the Tallgrass

The siren song of the sampler pack got me again.  I am lazy and did not bottle my latest batch of homebrew—an Australian sparkling ale—until this weekend, so I have found myself lacking in the liquid refreshment department.  A trip downtown to Benz Beverage Depot is always dangerous because the plethora of bottles and cans is overload for my brain.  In a good way, of course.

On an endcap was an eight can sampler from the Tallgrass Brewing Company out of Manhattan, Kansas.  At the time I was relatively unfamiliar with Tallgrass having only sampled a small glass of their Velvet Rooster at a beer tasting event over five years ago.  The sampler pack contained two 16-ounce cans of Buffalo Sweat, Oasis ESB, 8-Bit, and IPA.

8-Bit already won a place in my heart with its label art:

I know that for a lot of people the term “8-bit” has little or no meaning.  For someone who grew up with a Nintendo controller the term brings back fond memories of marathon sessions of Contra—yes, I remember the sequence of inputs to get 30 lives—and RC Pro-Am.  I wonder if anyone will mythologize the later video game systems like individuals of my age bracket get misty when thinking about the original Nintendo Entertainment System?

The beer utilizes something called a hop rocket in its production.  The hop rocket is an in-line hop infuser that really puts hop aromas at the fore of a beer.  8-Bit uses the Galaxy strain in the hop rocket which gives it a distinct aroma over beers that use more common Cascade, Centennial, or Willamette varieties.  Normally, I am not a fan of dry hopped beers but 8-Bit was surprising.  Anyone up for a game of Super Mario Brothers?

Oasis is a big beer:

At 7.2% ABV and 93 IBU, this about as big a beer as you get without starting to enter into the “extreme” category.  By the way, who would have though a decade ago that a beer approaching 100 IBU would not be considered outrageous or extreme?  Bueller?  Bueller?

Even though Oasis is big, it manages to be a beer you can drink without feeling like you’re fighting each drink down in some exercise akin to self-flagellation.  I attribute this to a heavy malt profile that compensates for the beer’s bigness in other areas.  Too many “extreme” beers are thin on the malt and the attempt comes across as a carnival ride.  You know, cheap thrill that leaves you wondering why you spent $5 to risk your life on something held together by a cotter pin placed by a Joe Dirt extra.

The originally named IPA gets a little lost:

Why?  After the experience of the first two beers there is something that just seems so standard about IPA.  Sure, it’s hopped pretty well (60 IBU), but after a can of Oasis that seems like a cool down following a marathon.  It’s decently heavy at 6.3% ABV, but again after a can of Oasis you are coming down a little bit.

In the end, IPA is a well-crafted India Pale Ale.  The problem is that this style has flooded the craft beer market and, increasingly, it is hard to tell one brewer’s well-crafted IPA from another well-crafted IPA.  It’s an embarrassment of riches for beer drinkers, to be sure, but it has to be killing the marketing directors of these companies as they look for ways to stand out.

When something is referred to as sweat, buffalo or otherwise, the first drink is always a leap of faith:

At only 20 IBU, Buffalo Sweat is a very mild beer for a style that almost demands a little more bittering.  The result is that the primary flavor you get is not of alcohol or hops, but of the roasted barley.  It is almost like a smoked beer.  As a matter of fact, I would have sworn this beer used smoked malt if I had not read the description that was devoid of any mention of smoked malt.  Interesting.

On the same endcap was a four-pack of Halycon unfiltered wheat.  With the weather getting warmer it seems like such a perfect time for wheat beers to make a comeback into the refrigerator.  I picked up the cans as well:

Amazingly, at just 20 IBU this beer felt and tasted a little more “beer like” than Buffalo Sweat which also came in at 20 IBU.  Unlike some other wheat beers, hops are brought forward via the aromas rather than bitterness.  It works to make the beer seem bigger than it is without overpowering the delicate wheat base.

Thank you Tallgrass for spreading the good word about cans in you “Canifesto.”  If there is a downside to cans for craft beer, I cannot find it.  Small-scale canning equipment has been improved and brought down in price to such a level that it is within reach of almost any craft brewer packaging beer for retail distribution.  I realize that 22 ounce bottles and six-packs of longnecks are the calling cards of the American craft beer vanguard, but cans are the future.  Of all the craft beers that I have had in cans not a single one has had the distinctive “skunk” aroma or flavors associated with UV penetration.  Plus, the cans are just a more environmentally sensible choice.  Can all that you can!

March Beer Thoughts

When I returned from Kauai, two, two batches of beer were waiting to be poured out of bottles.

Rye Ale and Stout

Rye is a trend in the drinks world.  You cannot take a spin in a liquor store without hitting a bottle of rye whiskey and rye is taking hold in the beer world as well.  In the past, I have tried my hand at rye beer recipes.  I found the resulting beers to be more of a rye novelty—not a lot of rye character—than a rye beer—lots of rye character.  For a late winter/early spring beer I decided to amp up the rye quotient to produce a more rye forward beer:

What’s the story?  I started off with the Northern Brewer American Rye Ale recipe using Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast. This is a recipe that I have made before with good results.

However, I added 1 pound of Weyermann Chocolate Rye Malt as a steeping grain to increase the rye flavor to something more noticeable.  Otherwise, the recipe is as called for from Northern Brewer.  The result is an aggressively rye flavored beer.  As it stands now the taste is teetering between aggressive novelty and something that can be worked with to produce a really standout beer.

Northern Brewer also has a Rye Stout recipe that has been getting some pretty rave reviews.  So, I brewed a batch with some modifications:

Primarily, I reduced the boil time of the hops to reduce the bittering from a predicted ~55 IBU to something more like ~40 IBU.  I prefer my stouts to be less bitter and the 40 IBU mark seems about perfect to me.

Unlike past beers, I waited an additional week to uncork the first bottles giving them at least three weeks of bottle conditioning.

The result?  This may be the best beer that I have brewed in over a year of doing this.  The flavors are balanced very well, not too bitter and not too much alcohol.  The rye flavors are peppery enough to shine through the heavy malt flavor of the stout.

As a known fan of Surly’s Coffee Bender, I cannot help but think that this beer could really be sent to the moon by the addition of coffee in some way.  I think I have found my next recipe.

Australian Sparkling Ale

Sometimes, when you get a catalog from Northern Brewer or another homebrew shop there are recipe kits that just grab your imagination for some reason.  The Australian Sparkling Ale did that for me.

The beer is described as a descendant of a descendant of a Burton ale.  A little research—okay, I used Google—led me to several descriptions of a Burton as an antiquated British ale style.  That did not really help me and I have not had the time or inclination to spend any more effort to figure out what a Burton ale really is.  Why?  Because my batch of Australian Sparkling Ale is in the carboy, fully krausened, and about a week away from bottles.

As I was pouring in the specified Pride of Ringwood hops I could not help think that I was making a Lord of the Rings inspired beer.  Something about the word Ringwood that makes me think of wizards or druids or mysticism.  Come to think of it, there is something mystical about putting all these ingredients into a container and ending up with beer.  Heck, it’s downright magical.  Maybe I am a wizard.

Cooking with Beer on a Rainy Weekend

When it rains for most of the weekend like it did here in eastern Iowa this past Saturday and Sunday, I just want to curl up on the couch with a hot cup of coffee and read a book.  It helps set the mood if something is slowly simmering in the slow cooker for eight hours.  It gets even better when that something is simmering in high quality beer.  Oh, how will I ever get all of these things accomplished?

My dad sent me a recipe a while back for a slow cooker stew that combined two of my favorite things: bacon and beer.  Sure, there were other ingredients but who really cares once you get to bacon and beer?

Considering that he was coming over for a movie night with my daughter it seemed the opportune time to break out his suggestion.  The recipe called for approximately 14 ounces of stout—conveniently about the same size as a can of Guinness commonly available in cans in the U.S.

Unfortunately, I did not have any of the rye stout I have recently brewed available.  Heck, it is not even in bottles yet so I will not be enjoying any of that particular batch until I return from vacation in March.  So, it was off to the liquor store to see what kinds of stouts were available.  I did not want to go the Guinness route—it was less an indictment of Guinness and more a desire to just be different.  Rogue’s Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout would be different:

I am a huge fan of this beer when it is on tap.  If you are every in Iowa City, head to the Sanctuary near the University of Iowa and have them pour you a glass.  The atmosphere of the place is perfect to enjoy a pint of this well-done brew.  With the recipe only calling for 14 ounces, I got to enjoy the other 8.  Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

BTW, I am also a huge fan of Rogue’s bottle art.  It’s simple and distinctive in one fell swoop which is more than I can say for so many craft beers.

The verdict on the stew?  Kind of weak, honestly.  It was like one of those moments on Top Chef where the contestant is just baffled that the dish they slaved over lacks any punch when it comes to flavor.  I cannot put my finger on it, but this stew really lacked flavor.  The bacon got lost and the stout was nowhere to be found either.  Interesting.  Oh well, there will be more rainy days for the slow cooker.

Post Super Bowl Beer Thoughts

For the first time in a few years I actually watched the Super Bowl in its entirety.  With no skin in the game—either team could have won and I would have cared not the slightest bit more either way—the game needs to be entertaining.  Well, we got that in droves on Sunday evening.  It helped that I was pint deep in beer, both of the homebrew variety and commercially produced.

Northwest Ale

Styles of beer are getting to be so muddied.  Is it an amber ale or an IPA or an oak-aged monkey ale?  I don’t know.  One style of beer that is associated with the craft beer renaissance in the United States is amber ale.  I associate this style mostly with New Belgium’s Fat Tire Amber Ale, but there are countless varieties.

Homebrewers often cut their teeth on a variation of an amber ale.  Commonly, Wyeast 1056 “American Ale” or 1272 “American Ale II” are used to ferment the beer.  However, those yeasts are known for producing a platform for hops to be showcased in the place of a heavier malt profile.  I wanted to see what would happen if I let the hops take a backseat:

So, I started with an American Ale recipe, but instead of the traditional yeasts I chose Wyeast 1332 “Northwest Ale.”  The description, per Northern Brewer, is that the yeast “Produces a malty and mildly fruity ale with good depth and complexity.”  The malty part is what I was going for.  What is the verdict?

Pretty good.  I would be interested to see how two beers brewed the same time using the same recipe, but using different yeasts, would turn out because it is so hard to compare a beer that I brewed in January with one that I brewed in August or February of the prior year.  I lack the palate memory.  The beer is definitely malty.  I would not say that it has a fruity profile in any significant way, which is good because I was afraid of some banana flavors leaking in.  Everyone knows how I hate bananas.

Rye Ale and Rye Stout

I am on a little bit of a rye kick this month.  I have just put a batch of rye ale into bottles and I have a batch of rye stout that is fully krausened right now in a carboy downstairs.

Rye makes an interesting addition to a beer because it is supposed to add a peppery or spicy note to the beer that you just cannot get with malted barley.  I am sure that there are purists who will quote Germanic rules of brewing that say rye cannot be part of a true beer recipe, but I say hokum in my best Sheldon Cooper voice.

Does Fracking Threaten America’s Small Brewers?

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing if you want to get all technical, to unleash natural gas in shale formations is booming all over the United States.  It’s part of the U.S. rise to prominence as an energy producer after spending the better part of the past few decades hearing about our dependence on everyone but ourselves for energy.  However, there is a dark side and that dark side is primarily about the impact of the process on the water supply.

It’s one thing to affect my drinking water, but affect my beer and those are fighting words.

Back to the Madhouse

A while back I wrote about Madhouse Brewing’s Pastime Pale Ale and Honey Pilsner.  Now, Madhouse Brewing is back with Hopburst IPA and Coffee Stout.

Hopburst is described as “balanced with huge additions of our unique hop blend.”  The hops are Warrior, Cascade, Centennial, Amarillo, Citra, and Simcoe. That may set a record for different strains of hops in one beer.  Well:

There is no doubt that this a very hop forward beer.  The description says that the hops are added late in the boil, so there is not the smack you in the teeth hop aroma that you get from dry hopped beers–for better or for worse, you be the judge.

The bitterness (55 IBU) and alcohol (7.2% ABV) are balanced by the malt base, so the beer does not come off as a one note hop explosion or burst, if you will.  Nonetheless, this is a beer you pick up if you are looking for a very particular American style of beer.

If I have one criticism of American craft beer right now it is that brewers are forgetting the other components of beer in favor of being the most extreme in terms of hops.  Rarely do you see a brewer talk about the yeast strains or the base malts or adjuncts.  It is hops, hops, hops…

Nonetheless, I found Hopburst to be an enjoyable beer.  Madhouse’s Coffee Stout on the other hand:

Moderate in alcohol (6.0% ABV) and right at the traditional level of bitterness for a stout (40 IBU) I found this beer to be very unappealing.  The coffee flavor came across as “burnt gas station swill” rather than “coffee house excellent.”  Thus, the beer comes across much more bitter than its IBU would lead you to believe.

On top of the bitterness, the body of the beer was thin.  Ugh.  If you want to taste a beer that does a coffee addition right, get yourself up to Minneapolis for a Surly Coffee Bender.

 

 

Election Night Beer Thoughts

I am sitting in my living room watching the election night coverage on MSNBC and thinking about beer.  It’s actually not much of a stretch because I have been thinking a lot about the President of the United States and beer.

Beer You Can Believe In

President Barack Obama is not actually brewing beer, but his surrogates in the White House kitchen did ferment two different beers—a so-called White House Honey Ale and a White House Honey Porter.  The recipes are available online, following a spirited online petition drive, at the White House’s official site.  Check them out.

Reviews of the beers have trickled in.  The New York Times enlisted the assistance of the good folks over at Brooklyn Brewery to sample the Honey Ale.   As I have read a few reports of these brews I come across as less excited about the prospect of brewing my own.  Why?  The ingredients seem a little heavy on the sweet with not enough hop bittering to even things out.  Brewed with honey from the White House’s resident bees—thank you First Lady—there is a lot of fermentable sugar for both the yeast strain to digest.  The hops used are also not high in quantity and mild in nature, reflecting the British origins as opposed to more bitter American hops that are in vogue right now.

Northern Brewer, my supplier of homebrew supplies, even has kits available for those wanting to try their hand at executive privilege.  Maybe the forthcoming Honey Blonde that is rumored will satisfy my craving for less sweetness and a little more hop forwardness.  We can hope for change!

Scottish 60 Shilling

My most recent beer—a Scottish 60 Shilling ale recipe kit—is out of the bottle:

Mild.  Very mild.  According to iBrewMaster this batch should have come in at about 20 IBU and 2.8% ABV.  I have no reason to disagree with those numbers because this beer is really mild.  Almost too mild.  The maltiness of the beer is not offset enough by hop bitterness.  In essence, the beer is not balanced well enough.

Dry Irish Stout and the Innkeeper

The next beer, which I have to bottle this weekend, is a Dry Irish Stout recipe kit.  I reduced the amount of time the hops were to be boiled to bring the bitterness down.  My hope is that it highlights the malt profile a little more.  I tend to like my stouts to be light and finish very clean, with little or no aftertaste on the palate.

The funny thing about this beer is that it went crazy when I came home from vacation.  Why?  Our house’s furnace was set at 56 degrees for 10 days and went up to 64 the day we came home.  The rise in temperature reanimated the yeast and it started bubbling away again.  I love how alive and unpredictable this entire process can be sometimes.  I really do feel like a mad scientist.

This weekend I am going to make a return to the Innkeeper recipe kit.  I had favorable impressions about this beer the first time around, so I am interested to see if I still like the profile or if my tastes are being redefined in a certain direction.

Pre-Disney Beer Thoughts

I am less than two weeks away from spending a week in Orlando at Walt Disney World.  The sacrifices I make for my daughter…

Scottish 60 Shilling and Dry Irish Stout

I have two batches of beer in carboys right now: a Scottish 60 Shilling and a Dry Irish Stout.  Nothing to really say about either of these two right now except for the fact that the Dry Irish Stout went crazy the first couple of days of fermentation.  How crazy?  The krausen blew the bubbler airlock off the rubber bung.  Wow!  Everything appears normal.

Apparently, there is some urban myth going on with regard to porter and stout as styles of beer.  This is one of the things that I dig about beer.  There is little if any consensus about the history of beer that it makes for fun bar discussions.

Petitie Saison d’Ete

Damn.  This beer really turned out well:

I could easily call this a smooth drinking beer, but that would be selling it short.  The description from the good folks at Northern Brewer said that it would have pungent hop aroma, but I get none of that.  Maybe that is a side effect of hitting the Surly Coffee Bender a little heavily lately.  It might also have something to do with the slightly understated hop profile of Saaz and Styrian Goldings hops.

Unlike some of the stronger beers I have been drinking lately, this saison has a relatively mild level of alcohol and the bitterness is really restrained.  As I develop my homebrewing skills and hone my palate, I have come to a few conclusions about my personal preferences:

• Restrained alcohol (< ~6% ABV) is better than the stronger beers (> ~8% ABV)
• Hops are a good thing, but the impact needs to be used with a judicious hand
• Color is irrelevant

Those are my beer truths.  I am sure things are going to evolve as I continue to push myself as a homebrewer.