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I finally tapped the keg of Belgian Dubbel that I brewed in mid-March. After pouring a couple of glasses of it into my Ommegang Abbey Ale goblet, I have to say that it's decent.
The beer is a very deep burgundy color, with a thick off-white head that leaves a nice lacing behind. The aroma has a bit of sweetness in it, with some dark currant and prune-ish aromas. The body is a little bit thicker than I'd like, ending at 1.018 gravity. There's a light malty sweetness, and a mild bitterness from the hops on the back of the tongue. The flavor has a mix of dark fruit flavors with a mild floral flavor from the yeast.
All in all this one's decent, but highlights the issues I've always had making dark Belgian ales. My yeast management is lousy, I already know this. I need better temperature control and to make larger starters so I can get better attenuation from the yeast, and I should probably start mashing at lower temperatures. The attenuation is the key to why these beers aren't coming out right (though the last one also had too much aromatic malt in it). If this beer had more of its sugars consumed it would be vastly improved. Ideally, I'd like to get the final gravity down to around 1.010-1.012.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Homebrew Recipe: Mild Ale
Alright, with the brown porter keg kicked, I need a new session beer to put on tap. I'm thinking a mild ale would be nice. The recipe I have tentatively put together is below. If anyone has suggestions let me know.
Mild Ale
-4 lbs Mild Ale Malt
-2 lbs Maris Otter
-.25 lbs Chocolate Malt
-.25 lbs Crystal 60L
-.5 oz Kent Golding hops (4%AA 60 minutes)
-.25 oz Kent Golding hops (4%AA 30 minutes)
-.25 oz Kent Golding hops (4%AA 5 minutes)
-Wyeast #1968 London ESB yeast
Mash at 150F for 45 minutes.
The next beer after that is most likely going to be a wit style as the summer quickly approaches.
Mild Ale
-4 lbs Mild Ale Malt
-2 lbs Maris Otter
-.25 lbs Chocolate Malt
-.25 lbs Crystal 60L
-.5 oz Kent Golding hops (4%AA 60 minutes)
-.25 oz Kent Golding hops (4%AA 30 minutes)
-.25 oz Kent Golding hops (4%AA 5 minutes)
-Wyeast #1968 London ESB yeast
Mash at 150F for 45 minutes.
The next beer after that is most likely going to be a wit style as the summer quickly approaches.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Memorial Day
This Memorial Day weekend I had Bill in town for a visit, and much beer was consumed! :p
Friday night was a quiet one that saw us drink some homebrew and play Settlers of Catan: The Card Game. This was an interesting take on the board game version. It had the same overall feel with the construction of roads, settlements and cities, and the resource management was handled really well. It was somewhat slow to develop early on, but once we had build up enough to where we could use action cards, the game really took off. Very fun game, and a good relaxing night.
The first order of business on Saturday morning was gorging ourselves on great food and shitty coffee. Highland Park Diner it was! The great thing about that place is that you don't need to worry about food for many hours afterward... though your arteries probably aren't happy. :p
An on-the-fly decision was made to head down to Honeoye Falls, southeast of where we were, to visit and tour the Custom Brewcrafters brewery. That was a very good decision. This is a brewery whose business model is to brew custom batches of beer for local restaurants and bars. They had about 19 beers on tap in the tasting room, which was huge! Of note, their Rye Ale was delicious. It was light bodied, with a rye character that blended nicely with the hops. That one is an easy drinker that I could just pound all day. Yum!
In the middle of our tasting (they allow 6 samples of beer) we were able to get onto a tour of the brewery with three other people. The guide was an older guy that was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. He gave a great tour with a really good explanation of the brewing process and the specifics of what goes on in their brewery. That was the best tour I've been on so far of any brewery, hands down (though the Cooperstown Brewery is a close second).
Following that, we stopped in Honeoye Falls at a small bar & grill called The Brewery for a pint. It was a small bar with a small deck out back to overlook the falls. There was a pretty good beer selection for such a townie-feeling bar. I remember there being only 4 beers that I wouldn't drink, one being Genny Light (blech!). This was an interesting experience, but we were ready to drink some serious beers....
On to the Old Toad! The Toad is one of my favorite Rochester bars because the beer selection is amazing! They have three casks (which is exceedingly rare in the States), a constantly rotating tap selection, and they refuse to put crap beer on tap. They do serve Blue Light and Amstel Light, but those are in bottles in the cooler behind the bar. I had a Fuller's London Porter on cask that was wonderfully smooth, followed by a Brooklyn Intensified Coffee Stout. Bill had a cask version of Flying Bison's Rusty Chain which we both found wonderfully drinkable and balanced. A great session beer if I've ever had one! He also had a Dogfish Head Midas Touch for the first time in a great while and was reminded of why it's amazing.
NOTE: All of these session beers and beers with more modest flavors that we were thoroughly enjoying led to some interesting conversation on the craft beer movement, extreme beers, and the lost art of the session beer. I'll post on that later.
At this point we decided it was time to hunt down some food action. We headed down to Hennrietta to hit up the bar I frequent about twice a week to drink and watch baseball with some regulars: J.B. Quimby's. This is where I watch most Thursday and Friday Mets games while talking baseball with Jeff, the main bartender, and Dave, one of the regulars. We had a couple beers, ate some good pub food, and saw innings 2 through 8 of the Mets-Red Sox game. That game had all the action occur in the 1st and 9th innings, and we missed all of it. It was an odd evening. :p
When we got to my apartment, we decided to wander into the village of Fairport and hit the Towpath Cafe, right on the Erie Canal, for some coffee and much-needed relaxation. It was a nice night for a walk and that coffee really hit the spot. The rest of the night was spent playing Rock Band, and watching Robot Chicken and The Fifth Element.
All in all, a pretty damn good weekend.
Friday night was a quiet one that saw us drink some homebrew and play Settlers of Catan: The Card Game. This was an interesting take on the board game version. It had the same overall feel with the construction of roads, settlements and cities, and the resource management was handled really well. It was somewhat slow to develop early on, but once we had build up enough to where we could use action cards, the game really took off. Very fun game, and a good relaxing night.
The first order of business on Saturday morning was gorging ourselves on great food and shitty coffee. Highland Park Diner it was! The great thing about that place is that you don't need to worry about food for many hours afterward... though your arteries probably aren't happy. :p
An on-the-fly decision was made to head down to Honeoye Falls, southeast of where we were, to visit and tour the Custom Brewcrafters brewery. That was a very good decision. This is a brewery whose business model is to brew custom batches of beer for local restaurants and bars. They had about 19 beers on tap in the tasting room, which was huge! Of note, their Rye Ale was delicious. It was light bodied, with a rye character that blended nicely with the hops. That one is an easy drinker that I could just pound all day. Yum!
In the middle of our tasting (they allow 6 samples of beer) we were able to get onto a tour of the brewery with three other people. The guide was an older guy that was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. He gave a great tour with a really good explanation of the brewing process and the specifics of what goes on in their brewery. That was the best tour I've been on so far of any brewery, hands down (though the Cooperstown Brewery is a close second).
Following that, we stopped in Honeoye Falls at a small bar & grill called The Brewery for a pint. It was a small bar with a small deck out back to overlook the falls. There was a pretty good beer selection for such a townie-feeling bar. I remember there being only 4 beers that I wouldn't drink, one being Genny Light (blech!). This was an interesting experience, but we were ready to drink some serious beers....
On to the Old Toad! The Toad is one of my favorite Rochester bars because the beer selection is amazing! They have three casks (which is exceedingly rare in the States), a constantly rotating tap selection, and they refuse to put crap beer on tap. They do serve Blue Light and Amstel Light, but those are in bottles in the cooler behind the bar. I had a Fuller's London Porter on cask that was wonderfully smooth, followed by a Brooklyn Intensified Coffee Stout. Bill had a cask version of Flying Bison's Rusty Chain which we both found wonderfully drinkable and balanced. A great session beer if I've ever had one! He also had a Dogfish Head Midas Touch for the first time in a great while and was reminded of why it's amazing.
NOTE: All of these session beers and beers with more modest flavors that we were thoroughly enjoying led to some interesting conversation on the craft beer movement, extreme beers, and the lost art of the session beer. I'll post on that later.
At this point we decided it was time to hunt down some food action. We headed down to Hennrietta to hit up the bar I frequent about twice a week to drink and watch baseball with some regulars: J.B. Quimby's. This is where I watch most Thursday and Friday Mets games while talking baseball with Jeff, the main bartender, and Dave, one of the regulars. We had a couple beers, ate some good pub food, and saw innings 2 through 8 of the Mets-Red Sox game. That game had all the action occur in the 1st and 9th innings, and we missed all of it. It was an odd evening. :p
When we got to my apartment, we decided to wander into the village of Fairport and hit the Towpath Cafe, right on the Erie Canal, for some coffee and much-needed relaxation. It was a nice night for a walk and that coffee really hit the spot. The rest of the night was spent playing Rock Band, and watching Robot Chicken and The Fifth Element.
All in all, a pretty damn good weekend.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Mets' Season Defined
It's been a while since I posted anything about the Mets. The team currently sits in the midst of a 4-game losing streak after being swept out of LA by a red-hot Dodgers team. They are getting ready to play the Red Sox in Boston tonight. The Mets stand at 3-4 on the current 10-game road trip to San Fran, LA, and Boston.
The beginning of the trip saw the team take 3 games against the Giants with a lot of come from behind fights. The offense was still clicking at that point, so it kept everyone from noticing how our defense was still subpar, as it has been all season. Fans were very quick to compare this road trip to a similar trip to the west coast back in 2006, where we went 9-1 against some tough competition and that set the tone for the rest of the season. It was early June and we took 2 of 3 in LA, swept 4 games in Arizona, then came back east and swept 3 games in Philadelphia. That went on to be a dominant year for us, but we all remember how that ended.
This year is different, and that's why it was very premature to start declaring this current trip as 'season defining'. Sometimes I'm amazed at just how delusional Mets fans allow themselves to be. We have seen, during the past three years, just how hot and cold our offense has been. One week we'll score 40 runs and thrash our opposition, then the next week we'll be lucky to squeak out 15 runs. Our hitters have a history of getting hot or cold seemingly at the flip of a switch. Our starting rotation has been steadily improving, even with Oliver Perez on the DL with a broken brain, and the bullpen has weathered Sean "look at me, I'm Aaron Heilman!" Green. So, other than the offense's drastic inconsistency, our major problem hasn't been the pitching... it has been the defense. Only being behind the Nationals for the most errors in the NL is absolutely unacceptable! You don't win games where you hand the opposition 3 or 4 extra outs. Johan Santana has allowed 8 earned runs and 6 unearned runs!! That's absurd. The two losses he has on his record were both 1-0 games where he allowed 1 unearned run because of our slop-tastic defense.
The hitting and defense in the current road trip have been absolutely dreadful. The defense has been even worse than normal due to the fact that we're playing so many players out of position due to injuries. Why Jerry Manuel refused to play Murphy at first base (he's an infielder by trade not a left fielder), played Jeremy Reed at first base (an outfielder by trade) and Ramon Martinez at shortstop (he's just terrible all around) is beyond me. I know we can't help all the injuries that happen, but it wouldn't kill us to have some intelligent roster management.
So, if you were calling this road trip 'season defining' last weekend, you were right but for the wrong reasons... Sloppy defense and streaky offense have definitely defined our season so far, and it doesn't look like things will be getting any better as our players keep dropping like flies.
Another tough year as a Mets fan.... Let's hope we don't get squashed like bugs in Boston.
The beginning of the trip saw the team take 3 games against the Giants with a lot of come from behind fights. The offense was still clicking at that point, so it kept everyone from noticing how our defense was still subpar, as it has been all season. Fans were very quick to compare this road trip to a similar trip to the west coast back in 2006, where we went 9-1 against some tough competition and that set the tone for the rest of the season. It was early June and we took 2 of 3 in LA, swept 4 games in Arizona, then came back east and swept 3 games in Philadelphia. That went on to be a dominant year for us, but we all remember how that ended.
This year is different, and that's why it was very premature to start declaring this current trip as 'season defining'. Sometimes I'm amazed at just how delusional Mets fans allow themselves to be. We have seen, during the past three years, just how hot and cold our offense has been. One week we'll score 40 runs and thrash our opposition, then the next week we'll be lucky to squeak out 15 runs. Our hitters have a history of getting hot or cold seemingly at the flip of a switch. Our starting rotation has been steadily improving, even with Oliver Perez on the DL with a broken brain, and the bullpen has weathered Sean "look at me, I'm Aaron Heilman!" Green. So, other than the offense's drastic inconsistency, our major problem hasn't been the pitching... it has been the defense. Only being behind the Nationals for the most errors in the NL is absolutely unacceptable! You don't win games where you hand the opposition 3 or 4 extra outs. Johan Santana has allowed 8 earned runs and 6 unearned runs!! That's absurd. The two losses he has on his record were both 1-0 games where he allowed 1 unearned run because of our slop-tastic defense.
The hitting and defense in the current road trip have been absolutely dreadful. The defense has been even worse than normal due to the fact that we're playing so many players out of position due to injuries. Why Jerry Manuel refused to play Murphy at first base (he's an infielder by trade not a left fielder), played Jeremy Reed at first base (an outfielder by trade) and Ramon Martinez at shortstop (he's just terrible all around) is beyond me. I know we can't help all the injuries that happen, but it wouldn't kill us to have some intelligent roster management.
So, if you were calling this road trip 'season defining' last weekend, you were right but for the wrong reasons... Sloppy defense and streaky offense have definitely defined our season so far, and it doesn't look like things will be getting any better as our players keep dropping like flies.
Another tough year as a Mets fan.... Let's hope we don't get squashed like bugs in Boston.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Homebrew Updates
I've had the Mocha Porter (brewed on: 02/08/09) kegged and on tap for a while now, and it's absolutely delicious. I really don't think that tasting it from a growler after I've hauled it across NY to Albany really does it justice (*cough* Bill and Dave get your asses out here *cough*). It's nice and smooth right now. I'd love to buy a beer gun sometime so I could fill some bottles and send it to a competition or two to get some (professional) feedback.
The Belgian-style Dubbel I brewed on 03/14/09 has been kegged and carbonating for over a week. Something about my Belgian Dubbels seems to always be off, so my expectations for this batch aren't the normal expectations I have for a batch: I just want it to not be weird. Probably just need to start doing better yeast management, but we'll see how this one came out before making a judgment.
And in one bit of sad news... I kicked the keg of Brown Porter last week. That was a delicious session beer. I need to make something to replace it soon. Thinking a mild ale, but I need to do some more research on it first.
The Belgian-style Dubbel I brewed on 03/14/09 has been kegged and carbonating for over a week. Something about my Belgian Dubbels seems to always be off, so my expectations for this batch aren't the normal expectations I have for a batch: I just want it to not be weird. Probably just need to start doing better yeast management, but we'll see how this one came out before making a judgment.
And in one bit of sad news... I kicked the keg of Brown Porter last week. That was a delicious session beer. I need to make something to replace it soon. Thinking a mild ale, but I need to do some more research on it first.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Weyerbacher Fireside Ale
I've been a fan of Weyerbacher for a long time, so when I saw a new beer by them at Beers of the World yesterday, I had to grab a couple. Last night I was playing some Rock Band with Beercommdood and Vandaronas (Bill and Dave) and popped one of these bottles open.
The beer is pretty dark with a decent, fizzy white head. The rest of the experience was very disappointing, unfortunately. The aroma reminded me, sigh... of Bud. Basically, it has that cheap, malt smell with some spicy hops. The best word to describe the aroma is thin.
The flavor here can only really be described as gross. The body is thin and lightly malty, with a touch of smokiness. The smoke and a touch of hops are all on the front of the tongue, then the back of the mouth is filled with kind of a cheap corn type flavor. I'm almost positive that corn-ish flavor was caused by a mix of the smoke and the beer I had previously, so I'm going to try it again today with a clean palate and sober head.
This is my first disappointing Weyerbacher experience. Here's hoping that it was a fluke and the next bottle does it justice.
UPDATE:
Yes, it's a gross as I thought. I just poured my second bottle of it, and after two sips I'm done. It smells thin and vaguely of Bud. The aftertaste is really nasty, some kind of smoky-corn flavor. This is undrinkable to me.
The beer is pretty dark with a decent, fizzy white head. The rest of the experience was very disappointing, unfortunately. The aroma reminded me, sigh... of Bud. Basically, it has that cheap, malt smell with some spicy hops. The best word to describe the aroma is thin.
The flavor here can only really be described as gross. The body is thin and lightly malty, with a touch of smokiness. The smoke and a touch of hops are all on the front of the tongue, then the back of the mouth is filled with kind of a cheap corn type flavor. I'm almost positive that corn-ish flavor was caused by a mix of the smoke and the beer I had previously, so I'm going to try it again today with a clean palate and sober head.
This is my first disappointing Weyerbacher experience. Here's hoping that it was a fluke and the next bottle does it justice.
UPDATE:
Yes, it's a gross as I thought. I just poured my second bottle of it, and after two sips I'm done. It smells thin and vaguely of Bud. The aftertaste is really nasty, some kind of smoky-corn flavor. This is undrinkable to me.
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