Brawler

Just a quick love note to say that I'm having a great beer right now. We were in Lambertville today and the lovely R picked out a mixed six for me, one of which is Yards Brawler. It's 4.2%, has great chocolate and caramel flavors, a little bit of fruity English ale yeast character, and finishes with just the right amount of bitterness. A little dry, not too sweet. Great stuff.

The brewery calls it an English style "s*ssion ale". I'd call this a Mild, if ever there were a bottled one from an American craft brewery.

And on a great night of boxing on HBO and Showtime, the label fits right in. (I've got Abraham in a late round TKO over Dirrell tonight, by the way... but I can see a Dirrell decision too. Can't wait.)

Wonderful Word of Wines in Lambertville is a great, great store... for beer too! Plenty of bomber selections, mix-a-six, etc... Awesome.

"Dark Beers" from Upstate NY

It's been a while since I posted. Took a trip up to Portland and Burlington with R this past week, so I was a bit out of commission. More on that, including the Vermont Brewer's Fest, later. In the meantime just to get something up here I figured I'd post on the beers I've been making my way through tonight. After our last trip up to the Binghamton and Ithaca areas I brought back a bunch of beers. The last of the bunch have to go to make room for the beers that came back from Portland and Burlington. I saved the darkest for last...

Oh, and I haven't done one of these posts in a while. I'm not too into the whole business of people doing full blown BJCP style score sheets for all of the commercial beers they try online. So this is just how I do. Sorry if there's a lack of flowery langauge around these descriptions.

Lake Placid Ubu Ale: I'd describe this as an American-style Brown Ale. Has some citrusy American hop character in the nose. Some fuity esterage. Has some chocolate to it, which becomes much more dominant in its flavor. Doesn't go down as strong as the 7% ABV that it's listed as, but it's a bit too fizzy for my taste - carbonation seemed to make this beer rather filling.

Ithaca Nut Brown Ale: Borderline black. Big nose of chocolate and roast. Definitely stradles the line between what you'd think of as Brown and a Porter. Sweet malt up front in the flavor with chocolate and roast in the finish. Very little hoppage going on. Bitterness is spot on and well balanced with the malt flavors.

Middle Ages "The Duke": Chocolate and roast up front with some vinous notes. This is definitely a porter. Very roasty in flavor and super-dry. I'm imagining a grain bill with a lot of black malt and/or roasted barley. There's a little earthiness in this beer that could be from hops or possibly age - no fault of the brewery if it's age. Bitterness is restrained which is a good thing considering the high roast factor.

Cooperstown Benchwarmer Porter: Quick aside - this is one of my favorite beer labels in the world. Anyway... a ringwood beer, and surprisingly little diacetyl in the nose. A lot of roast going on, and a lot of esters too. Shocked at how much fruit is going on in the nose of this beer - and not necessarily in a bad way. Strawberries, grapes. Flavor is much more about roast, coffee, and some dark fruit, like red grapes. Diacetyl starts showing up in flavor, but is pretty mild. Finish is highly bitter. Was not expecting this much complexity out of this beer.

Cooperstown Strike Out Stout: Was a bit concerned about this one when it poured relatively flat-looking. Perhaps the 5% flaked oats explain that. The beer has a very restrained coffee, roast, chocolate aroma which is quite refreshing in light of the last couple of roast-bombs. Some malt sweetness up front with a smooth malty and roasty finish. Not surprised that there's oats in this one. Looks totally unappetizing and flat in the glass, but may have been the tastiest of all. By the way, very little diacetyl in this one, considering that this is another of Cooperstown's ringwood offerings.

It's Uinta, you intiot!

Special thanks to Mikey of the Utah Beer Blog for pointing out my mistake on the name of Uinta Brewing. You'd think I would have caught that. It's not like I posted a big graphic with the brewery's logo up there or anything...

Went over to the Blind Tiger last night and sampled two of the Uinta beers. I'm not really loving the whole beer review thing these days - there are a zillion beer reviews out there, I don't think that mine are any more or less interesting or qualified, so why bother? But anyhow, here are my notes:


Uinta Solstice Kolsch: Brilliantly clear golden straw color with a thin white head. Definite wheat in the nose. Sweet, grainy in flavor and aroma. Some mild noble hop flavor. Low bitterness. Dry finish with a wheaty aftertaste. Easy drinking and flavorful, great late summer beer.


Uinta Gelande Amber Lager: Clear amber with a thin, quickly fading white head. Chocolatey. Super clean. Think a nut brown ale brewed with a lager yeast. A touch of hops in the finish. Interesting beer, again, very drinkable. Only flaw might be a very slight paprery oxidized note in the aftertaste.


I wish I could have hung around to try more. The two that I had were great, clean, easy drinking beers. Right up my alley.

Best pizza in New Jersey

I'm far from an aficionado, but for my money, Grimaldi's in Hoboken is the best pizza in Jersey. Went there with R on Friday night. They use fresh mozz, as you can see in the picture. The sauce is sweet, tangy, and not overly spiced. And the crust - well, the crust is the best there is. Crunchy and doughy at the same time, and with just the right amount of charring from the coal oven.

And you can't beat it with a Climax IPA (aka Grimaldi's IPA). This might be the best pizza and beer pairing ever. Climax IPA is a perfectly balanced IPA with a great Centennial hop aroma and flavor. It's rich and malty with just the right amount of hop bitterness. Think an Irish red ale with a big citrusy Pacific Northwest hop presence. Great stuff.

Gearing up for the mystery trip with a homebrewed barleywine

So I'm taking R away for the weekend - and she has no idea where. Wednesday was her 30th birthday. It's overnight (one night only) and in driving distance of Jersey City. I apologized in advance for lodging that may not be the most glamorous, but did explain that at the very least it's connected to a brewpub. Other than that, I've offered no clues. Any guesses?

In the meantime, we continue to whittle away the Maine stash...

Shipyard Brewer's Choice Royal IPA - Brilliant amber beer with a thick off white head. Nose is balanced with citrusy, floral hops and toasty, sweet malt aromas. Diacetyl is in the house. The flavor is much more hop balanced with a strongly bitter finish. Full bodied, fairly high carbonation. It's a good beer, but there's a hop pungency there that would probably keep me from ordering another. According to this article, the hops are East Kent Goldings, Challenger, and Target. I don't usually associate EKG with this kind of pungency.

And in other happy news... my six month old homebrewed barleywine is finally carbonated. I brewed this beer about six months ago. It was a three gallon batch that came in over 10% ABV. I aged it on oak cubes for a few weeks before bottling, and when I finally popped one open - probably around May - it was almost completely flat. When we came back from the wedding and it was still flat, I decided that it was time to pop them all open and add some healthy yeast. So I rehydrated a packet of dry yeast and dropped some in each bottle and (R) recapped. Well, it seems to have paid off.

And if I subject the pros to it, I must do the same to myself...

Tom E's Oak Cube Aged Barleywine (or maybe since I'm so fond of naming my beers after streets in Jersey City, how about "Bowers Booze") - Clear mahogany with garnet highlights. Thin tan head. Nice looking beer, though probably a lot darker than "the brewer" intended. Rich, caramel malt aromas with some citrusy hop notes. There's also a pleasant smoky aroma in there reminiscent of bacon, though "the brewer" swears that he did not use any smoked malt. Alcohol hits right up front on the tongue and lasts through the finish. Sweet, caramel malt flavors dominate mid-palate. Moderate bitterness. Very full, oily mouthfeel. Carbonation medium to low. An enjoyable, strong beer, though a bit underattenuated.

Trap Rock and another try at the mozz

Took a trip out to Trap Rock with R on Saturday. Inspired by the Beer Stained Letter blog? Perhaps.

The beers were excellent - I had a sampler, myself. I particularly enjoyed the seasonal William Tell ale. A very well balanced British style ale. And you really have to love a brewpub that has three lagers on tap. How great is that.

The food, however... was awesome. I had "fall off the bone" ribs and a pulled pork sandwich that was truly top notch. As good as anything I've ever had in real BBQ country. Tried some of R's lobster spring rolls and they were quite tasty with three different dipping sauces.

There were some dudes at the bar when they got there who quickly excused themselves to retire to the upstairs dining room. Turns out that was the only place to watch the Yankees game. Turns out all of the restaurants owned by the same group have no TV at the bar - this according to our very friendly barkeep. We had a very nice discussion with our new friend about the merits of that tactic. It seems a bit stodgy at first to sit at such a quiet bar, but then you realize that you're not surrounded by a bunch of jabroni's just getting loaded watching the game and it's kind of nice.

Got home and took another stab at making mozz. The first few times we tried the pot-on-the-stove method of cooking the curd, as we were really trying to go the more traditional route. This time around there were some problems with cooking the curd, so we tried the microwave method on a desperate whim to save the batch. Well, let's just say that there's a reason that the microwave method is recommended. Mozz came out very good this time. It could definitely be better - a bit rubbery and dry. But we'll get there.

Next stop - cheddar.

Also... dipped into the Portland stash, again!

Carrabassett Pale Ale: Definite diacetyl up front with some toasty malt and earthy English hops. Definitely presents itself as an English style ale. Light on the palate with flavors that are just like the aroma. Dry, significant bitterness, and moderate carbonation. An easy drinking beer. The diacetyl is not the end of the world, but sometimes you want a little warning before you buy that kind of a beer. Just sayin'.

Chamberlain Ale: Bright copper with a thin white head. English hops - mild, earthy, fruity - with a bit of diacetyl. A bit of sweet malt in the aroma. Caramel malt and some earthy hops in the flavor. Hops come on stronger. Finish is malt balanced - not as bitter as I expected. All in all, the kind of beer you'd expect from The Shipyard.

Oktoberfest day

Sunday is brew day. I get to pitch that wonderful yeast that I've been culturing up into a full 5.5 gallons of wort. Here's the lowdown on the Oktoberfest:

10lbs Wyermann Vienna malt
.5 lbs Weyermann Melanoidin malt

Mash in at 122˚F for 20 minutes, 1qt:1lb liquor to grist ratio. Add in enough boiling water to rest at 152˚ for one hour. Sparge and collect 7.25 gallons. Boil down to 5.75 gallons, OG 1.054. Hops:

.75oz Polish Marynka pellets for duration of boil
.5oz Hallertau with 20 minutes remaining in boil

Add whilrfloc tab at 15 minutes remaining, 1/2tsp rehydrated yeast nutrient with 10 minutes remaining. Cool down to 50˚, O2 for two minutes, pitch lager yeast slurry.

As we brew, I dipped into the Maine stash again. Tried:

Andrew's English Pale Ale: Copper with a huge, rocky off white head. Soapy, perfumey, almost "Belgian" aroma. Pretty significant hop aroma, citrusy, earthy. Not much malt aroma. Flavor was hop balanced again, carbonation high. Medium-high bitterness. Interesting beer. I'd like to try it directly from the source and have the opportunity to ask the brewer what's going on here. The estery, yeasty aromas up front are confusing, but overall it's a pretty drinkable beer. Also love that the label slipped right off, making it easy for me to put the bottle into my homebrew stash.

Havlicek stole the beer!

Oh, you were looking for the other Havlicek?

Riding on NJ Transit to Montclair this afternoon and took myself the opportunity to enjoy an adult beverage. I mean, it's a sin to pass up a beer on the train, right?

Havlicek Pilsner: On the train, so I was unable to pour it into a glass to fully appreciate the bouquet, inspect the color and clarity, and scrutinize the head retention. Sue me. Great soft, floral hop aroma. Definitely Saaz, as advertised on the bottle. Some sweet malt aroma. Flavor reflects aroma. When American micros brew their interpretations of Czech pilsners, they would do well to reference this beer when they calculate their IBU's. The bitterness in this beer is just right. Balances the sweetness perfectly without being over the top. Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. I enjoyed this beer thoroughly.


Also, R and I stopped by the Cricket Hill tour this evening. I apologize to the blogosphere for not updating my calendar (seen left) to accurately reflect my whereabouts. We stuffed ourselves silly at the diner before going over, so we weren't really feeling so beersy. Either way, we sampled the Jersey Breakfast Summer Ale, East Coast Lager, American Ale, and Colonel Blides. Always a pleasure to stop by and see Mr. Reed and sample his latest brews.

Joe Sixpack's take on the new Bud Ale

Don Russell (Philly's own Joe Sixpack) offers his take on Bud's new offering, "American Ale".

I love skepticism. So I really loved Don's scathing deconstruction of the promotional material that he received with his sample. Long story short, there's a letter from the company describing American Ale and Don basically rips him a new asshole.

As for the beer? Sounds like there isn't much there. However, I'll be the judge of that when I find it on tap somewhere. I'm not so cynical that I won't give it a shot with an open mind. Look for it on your shelves and in your gin mills on or after September 15th.

Stone Coast Knuckleball Bock

Polished off the last of the Maine cheese this evening while watching the Giants preseason contest versus the Lions of Detroit. Also sampled this beer:

Stone Coast Knuckleball Bock: Third beer from the right on the page above. Clear, deep amber, with a thin tan head. Bready munich malt aromas with some fruity esters and alcohol. Full bodied with pretty high carbonation. Malty, but not sweet. Just the right touch of hop bitterness. Great beer, wouldn't be stunned if I found out that it's brewed with an ale yeast.

My lager yeast starter is still going. I'll crash it tomorrow or Saturday in time to decant the starter beer and have plenty of lager yeast raring to go for the Oktoberfest brew on Sunday. Two weeks in the primary plus three to four in the secondary - should be ready for the middle of September.

In other yeasty news, I think I'm going to get a bottle of Castelain, steal the yeast from the bottle and culture it up to brew a biere de garde. Thoughts?

More Maine brews

Dipping into the Portland stash again tonight...

Bar Harbor Thunder Hole Ale: Brilliant mahogany color. Fizzy off white head that disappears quickly. Chocolate and roast aromas. A touch of dark fruit aroma - raisins, plums. In the flavor, more roast than chocolate. Some of the fruitiness up front, but hop bitterness and carbonation dominate the mouthfeel. Somewhat surprising for a beer that starts out like a chocolatey English style brown ale.

Stone Coast Brewing Jamaican Style Stout: Pours black with a thin tan head. Strong alcohol aroma. Sweet smelling, like milk chocolate and toffee. Some fruity esters become more apparent in the flavor. Starts sweet and finishes with roast, hop bitterness, and alcohol warming. Very full bodied with fairly high carbonation. Definitely hits the mark with sweetness, alcohol, and body, but personally I prefer these kinds of Caribbean stouts to have a bit more roast up front.

I have to say, it confounds me that these breweries don't keep any information on their seasonals (or what I assume to be seasonals) on their sites. I'd rather link to their sites than Beer Advocate reviews, but whatev. Their loss, missing out on valuable linkage from the ever popular Destination Beer blog.

Busy weekend in the brewery

So much cool shiz happened this weekend, I don't even know where to begin. Racked the Pale Ale to a keg. Harvested the yeast from said beer. Brewed the dubbel and spent a few hours dealing with the aftermath of the most violent fermentation I've ever seen. Finally visited the famous Andy's Corner Bar in Bogota. I'm finally able to wind down from all of the excitement and provide some details on brew day...

Here's the lowdown on the dubbel:

13lbs Dingeman's Pilsner Malt
1lb Dingeman's Special B
1lb Brown Soft Belgian Candi Sugar (added to boil)

1oz Polish Marynka hops 6.5%AA bittering hops
1/4oz Hallertau whole leaf hops 4.5% AA boiled 15min

Whirlfloc tab and candi sugar at 15 minutes remaining in the boil, 1/2tsp rehydrated yeast nutrient at 10 min.

Mash at 148˚F for one hour. 1qt:1lb liquor to grist ratio. Add enough boiling water to mash out at 168˚. Collected 7.25 gallons wort at 1.055 SG. Boiled down to 6 gallons at OG 1.077. Cooled to 78˚, gave it 2min O2, and pitched Wyeast Abbey Ale Yeast II slurry.

I meant to get it down to 70˚ out of the wort chiller, but didn't quite get there. I pitched the yeast anyway and figured that it would get down to 70˚ overnight in the fermentation fridge before the yeast kicked in. Well, I was wrong. The next morning the glass that I had the blowoff tube in had completely spilled over and I spent some time cleaning up the considerable mess which, lucky for me, was isolated to the interior of the fridge. The carboy was still reading 78˚. I was able to figure a way to contain the blowoff and get the temp down to 70˚ within a few hours. A day later we're still rocking at 67˚ and holding. Let's hope it doesn't taste disgusting.

Andy's did not disappoint. Large selection of bottled beer, including some not too common here in Jersey (I had a Founders Pale Ale and Centennial IPA). Tap selection had a very local theme - mostly NJ, NY, and PA beers. Great crowd and great bartenders. And one very pleasant surprise is that the customers at Andy's probably have the highest beer IQ of any NJ bar I've ever been to. Plenty of people at the bar enjoying and talking about good beer.

Pizza and Beer

Tonight is pizza night. Homemade dough, homemade sauce, homemade cheese. Doesn't get any better than that.

While we wait for the dough to rise, we try some more Maine brews from the recent road trip:

Casco Bay Brown Ale: Chocolatey and nutty in aroma and flavor. No hop aroma or flavor. Just the right amount of bitterness in the finish. A tiny, tiny bit of diacetyl - not at all unpleasant. A real easy drinker. I'll look to pick up some more of this when the weather is a bit more "brown ale".

Brown Hound Brown Ale (Freeport Brewing Company): A bit hoppier, this one, though still a malt balanced beer with chocolate flavors. Hop character is a neutral - not typical American hops. If I had to guess, I'd go with Northern Brewer. A bit too much carbonation and finishes a bit too dry for my taste in a brown ale. Still a beer worth drinking.

I drank both of these from my new favorite glass. This past weekend I picked up an Aventinus glass at the always impressive Nurnberger Bierhaus on Staten Island. Really sweet wheat beers like Aventinus are not exactly my cup of tea (or beer, as it were), but this glass is right up my alley. The bowl at the top really holds aromas in nicely. And plus it just looks cool as hell.

Also, forgot to mention that last night I tried an import that we brought back from Maine. Eisenbahn Escura from Brazil. Unfortunately I don't think I can give this one a proper review as it was fairly oxidized. The underlying beer seemed to have too much of the roasted character of a porter or stout, not what I'm looking for in a dark lager. I tasted it alongside my Munich Dunkel... I won.

Yeast Starter

Tonight is amateur biologist night. I've got 1.8 liters of 10.2 brix starter wort (with 1/2 tsp. yeast nutrient) a-boilin' on the stove. I'll cool it down, pitch a Wyeast smack pack (Belgian Abbey Yeast II) into it, and set it on the homemade stir plate for a couple days to build up enough yeast for my Dubbel homebrew. I'm not a big Belgian beer guy, but figure I need to do this to expand my horizons. Not sure whether I should keg it or try to bottle condition it. Any opinions, leave them below.

Tonight 'R' and I shared some of the Maine cheese that we picked up on our latest trip to Portland. One was a cheddar made with veggie rennet that was very bitter and made more enjoyable by a melba toast and some garlic and onion jam. The other was a very nice pecorino romano type, quite tasty all on its own. See, we don't know exactly who made these cheeses and what they call them as we bought them a few weeks ago and they weren't labeled in their packages. So, remove them from the fridge after forgetting about them for a little while and, voila - what exactly are we eating?

Sampled these with some Maine beers:

Black Bear Pail Ale: Nice citrusy American hop aroma. Very fruity, estery flavor, significant bitterness. Interesting blend of American hops and what would seem to be a fruity English yeast strain.

Sebago Runabout Red: Malty all around, the kind of rich caramel aroma you look for in an American Red. Definitely not very hoppy. Dry finish. Not distinctive, very drinkable.

Also, I finished the night with the very frustrating homebrewed barleywine. Long story short, I brewed a barleywine several months ago. It's not carbonating fully, despite additional healthy yeast added to the bottles. It's pretty good, but just not quite there. Starting to doubt that it ever will get there...