Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

I was going to hold this post off until tomorrow, but I couldn't keep misleading everyone like this. Red Hots were NOT my secret ingredient. It wasn't a complete fabrication; it was a very clever idea from my mother-in-law. However, I thought it was a little too risky for a project like this. And, I don't know how appetizing it would be. It could be alright. I might just try dropping a few red hots into a beer sometime and see how it goes.

Sorry guys, just a little early April Fool's joke.

Okay, so what did I really do? My short list consisted of Vanilla, Lactose, Coffee, Molasses and Bourbon. I didn't know how much vanilla to use, how to use it or when to add it so I crossed that off. Lactose was already being used by another blogger and I didn't want to be the guy who made the second best milk stout. Coffee can be tricky, but it made it to the final two. And I didn't know if adding bourbon soaked oak chips would be considered adding two ingredients or not. So, I went with molasses. I have wanted to use molasses in a beer for a long time. I love the smell and flavor of molasses and I think it would compliment a stout nicely.

I found a recipe using molasses (a Marzen beer, actually) in Sam Calagione's book Extreme Brewing. I could not find any high-grade light molasses so I went with Grandma's Original Molasses. I used one pound as called for in the book and added it at the ten minute mark. The cooled wort smelled of fantastic molasses, now we'll just have to wait and see what is left after fermentation.

I carelessly forgot to take a gravity reading just before the addition so I don't know how much this added. The OG officially weighed in at 1.064. Apparently molasses is 90% fermentables and the aroma and flavor are supposed to remain. I sure hope so.

Cheers, and again, sorry! DA

Beer Blogger Brewoff - Brew Day

I have recently started using Twitter more often and shall we say more completely. I had registered a while back just to play around but never really used it on a day to day basis. I've only recently started doing this as well as adding a bunch of users to my "following" list. As a beer guy it's a great tool for staying connected with all the local beer happenings as well as the individuals involved. Some of the people that I follow are other beer bloggers from the twin cities area. It was in doing just this that I discovered a brew-off just in the nick of time. Fellow blogger Aaron from The Captain's Chair had retweeted a tweet from SimplyBeer in Jersey about a brew off. This tweet piqued my interest so I checked out the SimplyBeer website. Sure enough, there was a brew-off between bloggers where each of them would brew the same stout. The kicker is that each would be brewed with a minor change or one secret ingredient. When finished all of them would be shared with the rest of the brewers. I thought it was a great idea. There was a brewing, bottling and shipping schedule and it looked like I could meet all the dates. So, I sent an email to Peter over at SimplyBeer and asked if I could get in on the action. I was welcomed enthusiastically. The cap was set at nine brewers to try and keep the shipping costs from getting out of control.

The important dates for this brew-off are December 13th - brew day, January 10th - bottling, February 1st - shipping and finally February 12th - TASTING! Details of the day can be found here.

My brewday began somewhat surrealistically. I slept much more than usual on Friday night (I wasn't feeling so hot) so when I woke up at 5am on Sunday I just tossed and turned. I gave in at 5:45 and jumped out of bed. I was already heating my strike water by 6:10 without even a hint of fatigue. Here's where disaster strikes (pun most definitely intended). There are many websites out there with strike water calculators. These help you determine what temperature a given volume of water needs to be when mixed with grain at another tempurature. If done correctly you will hit your target mash temp. Well, the strike water temp seemed abnormally warm but my grain was left in the garage overnight so that temp (50 F) was lower than normal. There were a lot of other internal alarms going off at this time - enzyme denaturing, tannin extraction, etc. But I just dismissed those and decided to not argue with the computer. What happened is I completely overshot my target - 170 F!!! In my panic I added a lot of ice which dropped my mash to 135 F. More hot water followed by more ice and I finally gave up. My mash was too cold and too thin. Chalk it up to a learning experience and move on. I discovered later in the day that I had selected the pounds/quarts option when I was entering my water volume in gallons (I did the gallon to quart conversion in my head). Perhaps I was sleepwalking after all.

Now, I will be the first to recognize that we are spoiled here in the Cities because we have not one, not two, but three LHBS* in the metro area. For many other brewers out there this would have ended their day. The bad news for me is that on Sunday the earliest store opens at 11am. And all this happened before 8am! Fortunately I had two beers that needed to be racked into secondary. I also decided to make lemonade out of lemons and use the wort collected from the disaster brew. I collected all those yummy flavors and colors and added six pounds of wheat LME and pitched it on top of the Scotch Ale yeast cake I had just racked off of. I also used all six ounces of Glacier hops I had sitting around. Yikes, thats a lot of hops! It was nice to have all this random stuff at my disposal to try and salvage what I could. I came up with an OG of 1.078, higher than I expected. But how much of it is fermentable? We'll find out. To my surprise, I had vigorous fermentation after only three and a half hours! Keep your fingers crossed.

At 11:30 I finally made it to the LHBS, got my new grain and I was off. The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful. To my delight I mashed in at precisely 152 F. Vorlauf lasted about 20minutes and sparging around 45 minutes. The boil was more of the same, just following the recipe. I could only get leaf hops in the one ounce Willamette variety but used pellet hops for Tettnang. I wasn't sure if we were to use German or US Tettnang so I defaulted to the traditional German variety. With ten minutes left in the brew I added my secret ingredient... Irish Moss! Just kidding. I did a lot of thinking about what I would add. I wanted it to be very unique and I finally decided that since the tasting would be conducted around Valentines Day that I would add cinnamon red hots. I added 1/4 pound with ten minutes remaining in the boil. The wort was very sweet and roasty with just a little bit of cinnamon heat. I think it will be good.

I finally pitched my yeast at 6:20pm and my 12 hour brewday was complete. I am really excited about this project. It is great getting to know the guys and fun to experiment. I have to admit, I unintentionally deviated from the recipe because I did indeed add Irish moss. It was more out of habit than anything. One could argue that with an opaque stout like this it isn't even necessary and you'd be right. Hope I don't lose any points : )

Cheers!

DA

*Local Home Brew Store/Shop/Supply

A Brewer's Journey... Priceless

Round trip from Eden Prairie to Hudson, Wisconsin... 78 miles
Local craft beers from Minnesota and Wisconsin... $72.98
Packaging, shipping and lots of bubble wrap to send beers to Vermont... $60.04
Sharing local craft beer with fellow brewers from around the country... Priceless


Some of you know, some of you may not, that I have been studying with the American Brewer's Guild as part of their distance learning program. This program is just another step in my personal journey towards professional brewing. I have been following a fellow blogger's page A Brewer's Journey since its inception and it has really been a source of inspiration and motivation for me. It is in honor of his story and the many other dreamers out there that I am naming this post, a post about my own story, after his blog. Cheers, Spencer, and good luck in your new endeavor.


I suppose my story begins way back in the summer of 2000. My father has family in England, aunts and uncles and many cousins, so we have made a number of trips. The previous trips I was neither legal nor even interested in beer so on this visit the English beer culture was completely new for me. I graduated from college in 1998 and really didn't even know that beer could have different colors or flavors but my wise English uncles changed all that. My brother and I spent a lot of time throwing darts (did you know there are metal tip darts?) and drinking great English beer.


The next five years was a real growing period for me as I sought out beers most similar to the great brown ales, porters and bitters from across the pond. My palate was still very unrefined but I gravitated toward beers like Sam Adams Boston Lager (what the hell is a lager?), Summit EPA, Newcastle, Beamish, and one of my favorites from our trip, Caffrey's Irish Ale. As my palate began to refine I was able to identify different nuances in each beer. I found myself searching out even more styles and brands. I started to discover Hefeweizen, IPAs, Belgians, Imperial Stouts and more. It was then that I decided to take my love of beer to the next level.


In 2005 after many subtle and even some unintentional hints, my wife surprised me with a homebrew kit for my 30th birthday. After developing quite the passion and thirst for fine beers, I would now be making them myself. Or at least trying. They say if you can boil water you can make beer, and they are absolutely right. I was amazed at how easy it was to make beer. Was it good beer? That can be debated, and I often find, as most brewers do, that I am my own worst critic. But it was still beer. Well, that hobby exploded into an obsession. At times my wife would wonder..."What kind of monster have I created?". To her dismay, there were many trips to the local homebrew shop for kits, ingredients and worse... more equipment! Brewing at home can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it and I seemed to think I needed all the best gadgets and gizmos. I don't, but I love them just the same.


I'm a person who gets bored quickly. I have had many hobbies but I always seem to lose interest and move on to something else. The brewing fire, however, seemed to burn with a perpetual flame. It even intensified with each beer brewed and I knew I was on to something. They say if you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life. That resonated well with me so I decided I needed to learn more. I checked online for brewing education courses and let me tell you, it's pretty thin. From what I could find my choices were University of California at Davis, Siebel Institute in Chicago, Heriot-Watt University in Scotland and the American Brewers Guild (ABG) in Vermont.


Not being one to take a lot of risks, I decided the distance learning program at the ABG was just for me. I wouldn't have to quite my day job and I wouldn't have to move. I reluctantly applied for the program early in 2008. I say reluctantly because I did not have the math and science prerequisites they asked for. To my surprise and delight I was accepted. The program must be a popular one because there is a waiting list. They do two programs per year, one begins in January and the other in June. This was April of 2008 and I was accepted into the June 2009 program! I was excited, but it was hard to get too excited because it was so far away. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it gave me time to do other things before hand.


Not only did I have time to refine my skills as a homebrewer, but it gave me an opportunity to take the introductory chemistry class the Guild recommended. I was going back to school! That summer I enrolled in a chemistry class at Normandale Community College and completed it during the fall semester. This would later prove immensely helpful during the water chemistry portion and the engineering lectures of the Guild's program. And it was kinda fun to be a student again.


In January of 2009 I was fortunate enough to get into the BJCP class offered by the Minnesota Homebrewers Association. This class (which also has a waiting list) is a 14 week program that educates you on all aspects of beer tasting, appreciation and evaluation. The class included many lectures, presentations, quizzes, mock exams and, yes, tasting a lot of beer! It wasn't all fun and games. The Beer Judge Certification Program is the foremost authority on beer tasting and evaluation and the exam for which this class was to prepare us was brutal. Three hours of essay and tasting was not nearly enough time for the amount of material on this test. I took the exam in April and, while it took quite some time to get the results, I did pass. I am now officially recognized as a beer judge. Woo hoo!


That finally brings us to June 2009 and the ABG program. After over a year of waiting, it was time to begin. The chemistry class and the BJCP class both prepared me quite well for the ABG program. The program is a 23 week course in which I "attend" lectures on DVD, read text books, study online and communicate with classmates through Internet message boards and chat rooms. Although the program is basically an online school, the format for which we learned worked out well. I really felt like I was learning right along with everyone and if I needed help or had a question it was just a click away. And here were are, just finishing up week 22.


What's next? Well, the last week of the course takes place in Vermont. Ah ha, the ripoff MasterCard commercial I began with is starting to make sense. I will be heading out this weekend (Nov 13) to meet up with the rest of my class for our 'hands on' residential week. This is something I have really been looking forward to. We get to put many of the things we have learned to use. The week will take place in Middlebury, Vermont at Otter Creek Brewery.

From what I hear Middlebury is a pretty little New England town with lots of beauty and old world charm. We will be spending time at the brewery in the brewhouse, cellar and lab during the days and the evenings will be spent doing sensory evaluation training back at the hotel. At the end of the week there will be a review session followed by the final exam. The exam is the only part of the week that is making me uneasy, but even that is mild. I've faired pretty well on the exams so far so I really shouldn't be worring at all. I am sure there will be ample time for extra-curricular activities so I've sent a bunch of great local beers to my hotel and I've asked other classmates to do the same. It sounds like there will be a nice variety from around the country.

Well, I hope I haven't put you to sleep but if I've driven you to drink then I guess I'll consider that a wash. Hopefull this journey will continue positively in 2010 and I'll be able to share more with you in the coming months. I'll be spending the next ten days enjoying the best beer NYC and Vermont have to offer. And I'll raise a glass to you, my readers, cheers!

BEER THIS... DA

And The Winner Is...

As many of you noticed from my most recent post, there was a homebrew competition down on Eat Street Tuesday night and I was in the running. I have been homebrewing for about four years now and I have yet to submit a beer in a competition. Why, you may ask? Well, when you submit your beers to a competition the organizers are usually looking for two 12oz bottles of your beer. The very first time I brewed I was stuck with the task that so many of us homebrewers are… washing, sanitizing, filling and capping fifty bottles of beer. I hated it so much that I went out and bought a kegging system while my next batch was fermenting. I have been kegging ever since. There were a few times when I would bottle half a batch and keg the rest but even that seemed too tedious. Long story short this was the first time I have been involved in any kind of brew-off.

It was a great time and I was pitted up against some great brewers. In addition to my IBA, we had a Dunkelweizen, a Biere de Garde, a Dusseldorf Alt and a Blonde Ale with Honey and Violet. If you’ve never been to the Black Forest Inn they offer flights of beer on their menu. If memory serves, you can get a dark beer sampler, a German beer sampler or a create-your-own sampler. This worked out well because we were able to use their nifty little carrying trays and 3oz sample glasses. All five brewers were on hand to talk about the beers, the club and homebrewing in general. Oh, and we were also waiters. It was our job to run samplers around to each of the tables in the restaurant and bar.



I gotta tell ya, it was a lot of fun and the time absolutely flew by. It helped that much of my family and many of my friends were there. Before we knew it, it was 9pm and time to count the ballots. I was very happy with the way my beer turned out but as a certified beer judge I didn’t think it was the best. Thankfully the restaurant agreed. Deep down inside everyone wants to win, but I didn’t want to win because I brought the most friends. The winner was the Dusseldorf Alt, brewed by long time brewer Mike Behrendt. I thought it was great that Mike won. He has been doing this for a long time and is a great brewer, not to mention his beer was a German style beer. Mike won with 35% of the votes and to my delight I came in second with 26% of the votes. I have to thank all my thirsty friends for that.



I really hope I can be a part of this next year in some capacity, whether as a brewer or a volunteer, as it was a lot of fun to be a part of. It was great to take brewing to the competitive stage and was nice to get some positive feedback as well. One highlight of the night for me was the gentleman from New Orleans who came up to us and wanted to “meet the guy who made the Brown Ale”. He thought it was fantastic and just wanted to let me know. Awww…

Thanks to all my great friends. I always say I have the greatest friends in the world and Tuesday they again showed me why. Thanks also to the Black Forest Inn. The food and service were fantastic and they really took care of our every need.

Prosit!

Oktoberfest!

Homebrew at the Black Forest Inn


Yep, I'm doing it. I'm pimping out my blog to advertise an event. The Black Forest Inn on Eat Street in Minneapolis is just one of a myriad of German bars and restaurants that host an annual Oktoberfest celebration. Some reserve one day for their celebration, others do it every weekend for a number of weekends and others yet host a nightly celebration for a block of nights. Black Forest Inn does the latter. For ten days they host a different themed party each night. One night is Fake German Accent Night (you vill haf fun) and another is David Hasselhoff Night (he's kind of a big deal in Germany). But tomorrow night, Tuesday September 29th, is Home Brew Night. There will be five homebrewers (including yours truly) on hand each pouring a different home made concoction.

I would encourage you all to stop on by and check it out. If you are a fellow blogger, stop by and introduce yourself, I love meeting you guys. If you are a homebrewer, let's talk beer. If you're thinking about homebrewing, there will be a number of us on hand and we'd love to answer your questions. Have youselves some bratwurst and kraut and vote for your favorite homebrew (free samples). Details of the event can be found below. Oh and did I mention prizes? Yes, there will drawings for goodies from local home brew shops and other places.

What will I be bringing?

About the beer: "Muddhop" This beer is my take on an India Brown Ale. This all malt beer was brewed with nine pounds of malt extract. I also used various specialty grains that would put it somewhere between a Brown Ale and Porter. I then aggressively hopped it in the spirit of an India Pale Ale. Big bodied and a sweet roasty malt finish, this muddy concoction was dryhopped with Cascade for a divine aroma. She comes in at around 7% ABV.

(from Black Forest Inn website)

Tuesday September 29
Home Brew Night
Five accomplished home brewers pit their best beers against each other. And you are going to decide whose brew rules Oktoberfest! Free to all dining customers, the sampler comes with descriptions and a ballot.

6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Homebrew samples available
6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Live music!
Skeets Langley on accordion
9:00 p.m.

Votes counted and Prize for Best Home Brew awarded
Win home brew and other type prizes!
The Minnesota Home Brewers Association will be on hand to answer all your basement beer making questions.

Ya, I would argue the words 'accomplished' and 'best' above, but whatever, we'll see. Prosit!

The Perfect Trifecta

The one gripe that I have about living in Eden Prairie is the lack of good beer bars. Now you could make the argument that Old Chicago is a great beer bar and it ain’t bad, but it’s no Muddy Pig. It’s no Buster’s on 28th. It’s no Stub and Herbs. Each of which are 22 miles, 14 miles and 17 miles from my house, respectively. Old Chicago is not a bad place, in fact that’s where I enjoyed many a beers while in my transitionary stage between macros and craft beers. There was always something new and exciting on tap and rarely did I have to drink the same beer twice. But, now that I’ve graduated to full flavored craft beers I rarely find anything there on tap that I want to drink. It’s not just the tap list. I don’t like the sports bar atmosphere unless I am at happy hour with friends. Let’s face it, it’s a chain restaurant and it's obvious. Sometimes when I’m in there, I have to ask myself, “Am I in Eden Prairie or is this Plymouth or Minnetonka or Sioux Falls or Denver?” I like a little more individuality. And I like to support my local guys too. Local bar owners and local brewers. I love Summit and Schell's but where’s the Surly, Liftbridge, Flat Earth, Brau Brothers? I can't bad talk them completely. There are times when I am thankful they are here, like the recent meet and greet with Lagunitas front man Tony Magee. But come on... Micro of the month - Summer Shandy??? Seriously!

Now I think I’ve finally found a cure for my beer bar blues. When I want to go and just sit peacefully pontificating over a good beer or three, I've found that the Gold Nugget is just the place. Just over five miles away this recently (re)opened bar in Minnetonka is both close and comfortable. This little burger joint has quite the past, unfortunately I know little about it. What I do know is that for most of the last 30 years the Gold Nugget was a small greasy spoon type dive bar that was famous for its burgers and onion rings. This is how it used to look. New developments in the area at Excelsior Blvd and County Rd 4 resulted in the demise of the old shack that housed it. In its place went apartments, condos and a stripmall. How sad. As someone who is still mourning the closing of Sherlock's Home nearly seven years later I can certainly empathize with the regulars who lost their favorite burger and beer joint. I think it's really cool that they incorporated the original stained-glass windows into the new restaurant.


I'll be honest, I never made it to the original bar but I have quickly grown fond of the new one. Coincidently I found the website for the old place. It's an old antiquated website and is actually quite entertaining. As for the new place, it's got that nice polished fresh feel. The dark wood, sharp lines and soft arches compliment each other nicely and are very inviting. Photos can be found on their website. In addition to a comfortable ambiance and atmosphere, the tap beer selection is pretty darned good. Local guys like Schell, Summit, Surly, Brau, Mantorville and Lake Superior. Craft breweries like Lagunitas, Founders, Bells, New Belgium and Boulevard. And they offer flights, they will pour four 4oz samples of any of their draft beers. In fact I had one on my first visit. This time however, I knew exactly what I wanted. It was a 3-pint flight of killer IPAs. It was Friday afternoon, I had some nagging homebrew follow up waiting for me at home but I convinced myself I could stop for a few. I deserved it, I earned it. I spent the previous two days working both jobs and I was due. Besides, the better half would be working until 10:30 and I had to warm up for the Autumn Brew Review.


I started with the Centennial IPA from Founders. Not the first time I'd had this one, but never a bad choice. Huge grapefruity hop aromas, sharp bitterness rounded out nicely with a heavy malt presence. I always enjoy this one, one of the best IPAs out there. I followed that up with a Lagunitas IPA. Less malt in this guy but perhaps a bit more bitter. Again, nice hop aroma but this time different fruit. More pineapple and lemon in the nose. This one also had a nice big body. I backed those up with perhaps the grandaddy of them all, Surly Furious. But before that I needed to eat. On their menu there are a few "originals" that remain from the former place. I chose the happy hour burger and onion rings both of which were originals and both were delicious. My one knock, albeit small, was that this combination was served in a basket. Nothing wrong with that but it just didn't fit the ambiance of the restaurant. Kinda like getting chinet at Manny's. I'm sure this was how it was always done in the old place so all is forgiven. Now that I had a nice base of beef and grease I could wash it all down with that Surly. Officially a double IPA, but what a great beer. Easily the most bitter of the three and again a great aroma. It's no secret the guys at Surly like hops and this one kneels to the hop gods. One of the best smelling beers ever brewed. The flavor is fantastic as well. All that bitter yumminess anchored by a substantial malt profile.


Hard to pick a favorite, so I didn't. These are all great hop bombs in their own right. I just considered myself lucky. While not really a beer bar per se, the Gold Nugget in Glen Lake is a warm, friendly, welcoming place with great service and an exceptional tap list. But alas it was time to go home... thankfully I didn't have far to go.

Viking Brewing Company

As an aspiring brewer I have been trying many angles to make myself more marketable as a prospective employee. I am currently enrolled in the American Brewers Guild but I'd like to put what I am learning into practice. I wanna get my hands dirty. Many of you know that I eventually want to open my own brewpub... but not before I know what I am doing. The best way to do this is to spend some time in both a restaurant and in a brewery. Right now I am working at Punch Pizza. As a smaller restaurant it is very easy for me to see all the different aspects of the operation. I work closely with the manager and it has really been educational. Now if I could just find a part time job or volunteer opportunity in a brewery. I have sent many letters to local and not so local breweries and brewpubs in hopes that I could at the very least join them for a day of brewing. We are learning so much in the ABG program, it would be fun to see some of the equipment and procedures in action. So far of all the letters and emails I’ve written I’ve only heard back from one. Perhaps I should try follow up calls to the others. The one that I did hear back from was Viking Brewery in Dallas, Wisconsin.

Viking started turning out beers in 1995 in a time when craft brew was just hitting the radar. Located in the old Dallas creamery building this small family owned and operated brewery has been creating beers for nearly 15 years. And they’ve been doing it all on standard dairy equipment. The mash/lauter tun? Milk tank. The kettle? Milk tank. The fermenters? You guessed it, milk tanks. The beer, mostly lagers, is then aged in refrigerated milk storage tanks. It was a great experience and I got to see a whole brew process from mash in to yeast pitching. I also got to see and participate in keg cleaning, filling and beer transferring. Oh, and there was a tour while I was there so I got to partake in that as well. As a thank you for some of the help I was able to provide, I was graciously offered one bottle of everything in the beer cooler. This included eight 12oz bottles of their current seasonals and year round beers and a bomber of Berserk their Barleywine. The barleywine is young so I will age it a few years before diving into it. The others however I will taste over the next few days or weeks and share my thoughts. Before my visit I had only tried one of their beers so most of these will be new for me. In addition to some personal reviews I will try to include some pictures and stories from my day in the brewhouse.

I thought I would start with their flagship beer the CopperHead Marzen style lager. This one, I hate to say was a little bit off. For a Fest style beer I was expecting big malty flavors and aromas. Instead I got papery, floral, honey, perfumey aromas and a very dry light easy drinking flavor. I really didn’t get a whole lot of malt or hop aromas or flavors. It was certainly drinkable but I would like to give it another chance. I have read many reviews much better than mine and I’d like to experience what those guys were getting. Perhaps I just got a bottle with a little oxidation.

The next beer I tried was Whole Stein and this was a totally different story. Of the ones I've had so far this one is my favorite. The label calls it a Coffee Oatmeal Milk Porter and it is delicious. It reminds me a lot of a good sweet stout, something with lactose (unfermetnable milk sugar). This I am sure has some lactose because of the flavor and well, the name kinda gives it away, too. In my imperial pint glass this opaque monster sat up straight with a great tannish brown head, fluffy and light. Speaking of light, there would be none getting through this beast. Just check out the picture held up directly in front of the sun... nothing! Getting great aromas, like candy sweetness accompanied by espresso, dark chocolate and the like. Flavor mimmicks the aroma but much more dark coffee flavors than in the aroma. I don't believe this is brewed with coffee or has any added later, the dark roasted malts contribute to this perception. Body is big and creamy, low but appropriate carbonation and no acrid bite from the roasted malts. Despite descriptive words like monster and beast, this beer drinks criminally smooth. Must be the oatmeal. I will be looking for this one again. They no longer distribute to Minnesota but I'm sure I'll be back to Hudson before long.

Many thanks to Randy Lee for letting me come and be part of his life for a day.

Cheers!

Hell Hath No Fury...

...like a beer geek scorned. Please excuse the pun, it’s the best I can do at the moment. There has been a lot of chatter recently around the beer community about the latest seasonal release by Surly. I’m not sure if it’s really even considered a seasonal but this is the second annual release of 'Hell' their version of a Helles lager - although I have also heard it categorized as a Zwickel or Kellerbier. One thing I learned this year is that "helles" is actually a German word meaning 'light'. I'm still not sure if that means not heavy or not dark. Either way it fits as this beer is both light on the palate and light in color. Traditionally (as in Light American Lager) that would also suggest light on flavor and light on enjoyment but this is anything but. Well, at least that's how I perceived it. This, however, is the root of a lot of debate. There was a lot of hype over this beer's release (first time in cans this year) and the limited availability has created quite a bit of hysteria. The Four Firkins, one of the finest craft beer stores in the city, received 10 cases. I think that equates to sixty 4-paks. There was a limit of two 4-paks per customer and they still sold out in about an hour. Why all the discussion? Well you can read about all the yays and nays here and here (in the comments section).

Personally, I am absolutely tickled to see the beer community getting excited about a non-extreme beer. At the same time I love seeing one of the most respected extreme brewers shift gears and tackle a style that's been relatively untouched by the craft brew scene. Between you and me, I think Todd (head brewer) just wanted to make a beer he could call Hell, but that's just me. On to the review:

Surly Hell

In a tall Pilsner glass this beer comes out dark golden even amber and despite its unfilteredness it is very clear. A small poufy one finger white head quickly reduces to a ring. I stick my nose deep into the less-then-full glass and take a big whiff. Woah, the hops that I am told are not there hit me in the face. The can says there are American hops in here but I am getting some spicy floral noble finishing hops in the aroma. The sweet citrusy American hops are there as well. Also present is a refreshing bready grainy aroma. The flavor is more of the same. I am getting corn, spicy hops and a serious bitterness that along with the vibrant carbonation scrubs the back of my tongue and down my throat. Mouthfeel is medium bodied and easily drinkable. No astringency or creaminess to speak of but certainly the aforementioned carbonation. Very refreshing and a lot bigger, in my opinion, than the style would suggest. This is a great beer. A nice clean lager with sharp edges. There are a lot of varying opinions out there about this beer but that is what I love about the beer community and my online beer geek friends. My opinion? More please!

Cheers, DA

Beer This!

Tony Magee and Lagunitas

Well here it is Friday already and I am finally getting around to posting about Monday. Monday was one of those impromptu evenings that just kinda happens and turns out to be a heck of a good time. I was at home all ready to watch some lectures on DVD when I checked the dreaded Y! mail. There it was, an email from the MHbA my homebrew club. Tony Magee, founder and owner of Lagunitas Brewing Company was going to be at the Eden Prairie Old Chicago at 5pm. They will also be pouring a firkin of their Russian Imperial Stout. I live in Eden Prairie and within walking distance of Old Chicago. So, I had a decision to make; do I stay home and study and miss yet another meet and greet with someone in the beer industry or do I head over for a chance at a snapshot and some words from the wise? Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Well, beer pressure got the best of me and I headed over.

Me and Tony Magee

While ordering a glass of the Imperial Stout, Matt, a friend of mine from the BJCP class spotted me. Since I was flying solo I gladly took him up on his offer to sit with him and his wife. It sounded like they were on their last beer and would be heading home for supper, but before long Alvey from the Four Firkins arrived. Matt and Alvey are both avid bikers and ride together occasionally. Soon we were all hanging out together, drinking beer, laughing and having a great time. Matt and Courtney who were about ready to leave at 6pm ended up hanging out all night. We even got free pizza! What I thought was going to be just another mundane evening turned out to be a load of fun. Tony was a really cool guy to just be around and listen to him talk. Check out this interview I found online, this pretty much sums up his personality. Oh and the Russian Impy? Pretty fantastic. Sweet, roasty and a viscosity that resembles motor oil, just the way we like it! Cheers.

Bearded Brewing Beer Review #2

Another day has dawned and that day is hump day, the middle day of the week. That makes today the perfect day to review the middle of the three beers I got from Eric over at the Bearded Brewing Blog... El Muerto Ale. What started as a Dead Guy clone has morphed into something I can only classify as an Amber and that may be inaccurate as well. I love the naming convention of calling a Dead Guy clone 'El Muerto', very clever.

This beer started as the Gringo did, with a big rush of carbonation. A big poofy tan head sits atop this cloudy dark amber to brown colored brew. This beer isn't clear but it is fairly translucent. It was much prettier than I could get with my camera and flash. Some sediment in this one too, but again appears to be mainly yeast. In the nose I initially got a phenolic peppery or clovelike aroma. Not what I think Eric intended, but I think time may have gotten the best of this one. I am getting a little bit of papery aroma which would suggest oxidation, also evidence of aging. Fortunately those aspects weren't dominant enough that I couldn't get down to the meat of the beer. I got a slight but faded hop aroma and toffee and caramel sweetness. The flavor was very intriguing. This one again started sweet but finished dry, kind of a dusty dry. There is plenty of nutty toasty malt presence which I found very welcoming. Nice bitterness dances across the tongue and down the back of my throat. The bitterness lingers ever so slightly into a medium to medium-high mouthfeel. Lots of cleansing carbonation but the body almost comes across as chewy, but in an enjoyable way.

I liked this beer, but I have a feeling in its prime I would have loved it. I especially enjoyed the malt profile which was one that you rarely find by either commercial or homebrewers these days. I would love to see this rise from the dead sometime down the road and give it another shot. I imagine the hops could be more of a highlight and the malt aromas would shine through.

Bearded. Brewing. Blogging.

When I started blogging I knew little about it. I got into great beer and homebrewing long before I got into blogging but it is because of homebrewing that I discovered it. My homebrewing website, Luther Public House is based on the life and works of Martin Luther. My interest in Luther goes back a long ways but that’s a story for another day. It is because of this interest that I took notice to a BeerAdvocate user whose avatar is a picture of Luther. A glance at his profile led me to his website, Singing Boys Brewing. Jim, the guy behind Singing Boys is a homebrewer in the suburbs of Chicago. Low and behold his website led me back to Minneapolis and the brewing blog of The Bearded Brewer. It seems Eric from Bearded got Jim from Singing involved in brewing organically and that’s how the connection was made. This series of events got the ball rolling and before long I was blogging. Many of you are familiar with the Bearded Brewing blog as it seems we all follow each other’s blogs to a certain extent. And it's a fun little community to be a part of.

A while back Eric and I connected by email and between his two young children and my two jobs we found it very hard to find a date that worked. Finally, after months of trying, he and I were able to meet face to face and talk beer while enjoying great beer. We met up at Buster’s on 28th and in addition to great conversation we also exchanged a few bottles of homebrew. He blogged a while back about his Gringo Imperial Mexican Lager made with agave nectar. This beer was later reviewed by yet another blogger I follow, Stu, from Friday Night Beer. I decided after reading about it that I needed to try this beer.

And last weekend at Buster's I finally got my hands on some!

Last night, after a couple hours of lecture on yeast health, propagation and yeast washing, I decided I was thirsty. Not a surprise. This is usually a daily occurrence while studying beer and brewing, I find myself craving a well crafted beer. After just one whiff followed by a sufficient swig, I knew I was holding a well crafted beer. I opened the bottle carefully and got the gush of carbonation I was warned about. After it settled down I poured it into my Vegas* glass and had a look. It was a murky straw color with a huge sudsy head. I determined the murkiness was due to some chunky yeast matter. These were probably creating many tiny nucleation points which encouraged all the vigorous foaming. I have to admit that I was hoping for the crystal clear version as seen HERE on Eric’s review but appearance has very little to do with the overall enjoyment of a beer. What makes a beer are great flavor and a great aroma and this beer had both. Escaping ever so delicately through the massive dense head was a divine citrusy and floral hop aroma complimented nicely by a clover-like honey sweetness, probably the agave. In addition I also got a mild graininess and just a hint of alcoholic heat. The flavor was just as enjoyable.

I got more of that floral hoppy yumminess and just a slight amount of malt probably from the specialty malts. I also got what I could only explain as pineapple, but I liked it. The hop bitterness was low but the hop flavor and aroma were emphasized and fantastic. The other thing that amazed me about this beer was how clean it was, a very straightforward flavor profile that was so easy to drink. It started out sweet but finished dry which made it so refreshing. The mouthfeel was pleasant as well. Low to medium-low body and very effervescent. No astringency and due to the intense carbonation, no real creaminess to speak of. To be honest it really reminded me of

Rogue’s Imperial Pilsner which I absolutely loved! Very nice beer Eric, I will be attempting this at home if I may have your blessing.

Please stay tuned as I review the “El Muerto” manana… I mean tomorrow.

*My Vegas glass is one of a pair that my wife and I acquired from Ellis Island Casino and Brewery. We went in one afternoon for a couple of their great hefeweizens and we were served in these nice glasses. We didn't want to stay so we took them to go and the glasses ended up back in Minnesota some how.

The Perfect Hefe?

First of all, Mom, you’re not going to like this one. My mother usually reads my blogs but she doesn’t like the ones that talk about all the intricacies of a well crafted beer. She’d rather read a good story. June was for you Mom, July is for the beer geeks.

I cannot get enough of this Schell Hefeweizen. I do not recall if I have ever had this before but it’s very impressive. I have to admit, I often overlook beers from Schell. They put out a consistent product in each of their offerings but I am guilty of American consumerism; always looking for something big and bold. I am going to try and change that. This past weekend I had a Summit ESB and I thought it was amazing. That’s another beer I wouldn’t usually seek out but it’s all that dad had in the fridge. I will certainly be seeking it out now. But this blog is about Schell. As I said, I usually don’t go to the store looking for Schell beers. I’ve enjoyed their 150th Anniversary beers and I usually get antsy for their Snowstorm which changes each winter but that’s about it. I do like Firebrick in a pinch, in fact I used to drink Firebrick a lot when I was converting from macros to craft. But, as I started to discover all the new flavors and styles I started to lose interest. I started to drink mostly ales and stopped giving lagers a chance. How small of me. At any rate, a post on BeerAdvocate this month brought this beer to the forefront of my mind. Being a fan of this style I decided I needed to try it. I visited Sean at the Four Firkins one day and got the last six pack. What did I think? Well…

This beer pours a beautiful cloudy golden-yellow color. A nice big frothy head that dissipates quickly to a small bed that covers and retains nicely throughout. Most brewers get the appearance right but this just keeps getting better. The aroma is amazing. The yeast gives off the characteristic banana esters and clove phenolics that any good hefe will but this one’s perfect. Not too much of either and just a tad more clove than banana. To me that makes a hefe. More banana than clove and I feel like it’s off a bit. Either way the two should be balanced. The aroma is so delicate and perfumey it’s just absolutely inviting. The flavor you ask? There is a wonderful grainy breadyness to it and no hop presence as expected. In line with the aroma there are plenty yeasty flavors present. How can this get any better? Well, we haven’t talked about mouthfeel and this is where the perfect hefe comes full circle. The body is light and carbonation pleasantly effervescent. The one thing that I notice that really sets this apart is the aftertaste. There is none, it finishes dry and crisp with none of that residual astringency that I am so used to getting from a Hefeweizen. You know that lingering tartness on the sides of your mouth? This really improves the drinkability. As a certified beer judge, I have never scored anything above a 45 (50 being perfect) but I would be tempted to throw a big old Five Oh on this scoresheet. This is one beautifully crafted beer and they should erect monuments in its honor.

Congrats goes out to the August Schell Brewing Co in the 2009 US Open Beer Championship
#4 Brewery overall
Silver in the Stout category (Schell Stout)
Gold in Kolsch (Zommerfest)
Gold in German Hefeweizen (Schell Hefe)
Gold in German Pilsener (Schell Pilsner)
Bronze in Bock (Maifest)
Gold in American Cream Ale (Deer Brand Original)

Prost!

P.S. How do you like the BREWTUS pilsner glass? I do not frequent Applebee’s much anymore but this glass is special. Nearly 13 years old, this is the glass I had my first “legal” beer in on my 21st birthday. Hey, Sioux Falls didn’t have much to choose from and I was still sadly in my macro heyday.

Colorado Beer Trip Master List

Well, it took over a month to post about all the fun and exciting things we did in Colorado and everywhere inbetween over Memorial Day weekend. Here it is almost Fourth of July weekend, yikes! It was a lot of fun to write as I recalled our experiences, I imagine it will be a lot of fun to go back and read this a few months or years from now. Let’s just hope Google doesn’t go bankrupt. I thought I would post a list of all the great (and no so great) beers we sampled along our way. It’s quite impressive. This is in chronological order and includes the location of said tasting. Please don’t ask me to rank them from my favorite to least favorite. That would probably take another month. We learned some interesting information on our trip, namely:

1. 1000 miles in a Honda Civic is not as bad as it sounds
2. Not all Rock Bottom Breweries are created equal
3. Yeast can “breathe” in beer, humans cannot
4. Vine Street does not open until 4pm
5. The Colorado Rockies really suck
6. Hotels that deliver beer to your room for free are cool

Now, without further ado, the list!

5/21/09
Court Ave Brewing Company – Mike Gauthier brewer
1. Two Rivers Light
2. Belgian White
3. Iowa Oaks Amber
4. Kaplan Hat Hefeweizen
5. Topping Pale Ale
6. Honest Lawyer IPA
7. Pointer Brown
8. BlackHawk Stout
9. Barrel Aged (whiskey) 21st Amendment Ale (Rye)
El Bait Shop
10. Rogue Imperial Pilsner
11. Flying Dog Woody Creek Wit
12. Raccoon River IPA
Upstream Brewing Company
13. O’Gold Light
14. Honey Raspberry Ale
15. Gold Coast Brown Ale
16. American Wheat
17. Capital Premium Pale Ale
18. Firehouse Red Lager
19. Double IPA
20. Dundee Scotch Ale
21. Blue Mystic Saison
22. Oatmeal Cookie Beer
23. Blackstone Stout
24. Blackstone Stout Cask
Crescent Moon Ale House
25. Lucky Bucket Lager
26. Ska Nefarious Ten Pin Imperial Porter

5/22/09
Odell Brewery
27. Sadie Hawkins Lager
28. Easy Street Wheat
29. Levity Amber
30. Rocky Mountain Great Red Ale
31. 5 Barrel Pale Ale
32. 90 Shilling Scotch Ale
33. Cascadian Dark Ale
34. Cherry Stout
35. Cutthroat Porter
36. Odell IPA
37. Buffalo Bourbon Stout
Fort Collins Brewing Company
38. Major Tom’s Pomegranate Wheat
39. Birdie Lager
40. Dortmunder Export
41. Retro Red
42. Rocky Mountain IPA
43. (Billy the) Kidd Schwarzbier
44. Barrel Licked Bock
45. Z-Lager Rauchbier
46. Double Chocolate Stout
47. Chocolate Stout
CooperSmith’s Brewery
48. Poudre Pale Ale
49. Albert Damm Bitter
50. Punjabi Pale Ale
51. Not Brown Ale
52. Horsetooth Stout
53. Sitzmans Steam

5/23/09
Catalyst Coffee
54. BearRepublic Racer - X
New Belgium Brewing Co
55. Trippel
56. Mighty Arrow
57. Mothership Wit
58. Sunshine Wheat
59. Blue Paddel
60. Adam’s Ale
61. Abbey Ale
Oskar Blues Brewing
62. Dales Pale Ale
63. Mother’s Little Yella Pils
64. Old Chub
65. Ten Fidy
66. Gordon.
67. Barrel Aged Ten Fidy
Great Divide Brewery
68. Begica
69. Yeti Imperial Stout
70. Titan IPA
71. Hercules DIPA
72. Wile Raspberry Ale
73. Hades Belgian Style Ale
74. St Bridget’s Porter
75. Saison
76. Claymore Scotch Ale
Bull & Bush Brewpub
77. Allgood Ale (Amber)
78. Man Beer IPA

5/24/09
Coors Brewing Company
79. Coors Original (Banquet Beer)
80. Blue Moon – Honey Moon
81. Killians Irish Red
Rock Bottom Brewery – Original Location
82. Bottoms Up Kolsch
83. Buffalo Gold Ale
84. 16th St Wheat
85. Falcon Pale Ale
86. Red Rocks Red
87. Molly’s Titanic Brown

5/25/09
Falling Rock Tap House
88. Pliny the Elder – Russian River Brewing Co
89. Damnation – Russian River Brewing Co
90. Crazy Ivan – Bear Republic Brewing Co
91. Sweet Sixteen Saison – Avery Brewing Co
92. Black Butte Porter – Deschutes
93. Biere de Mars – New Belgium
94. ‘Oaked’ Butthead Bock – Tommy Knocker
95. Modus Hoperandi IPA – Ska Brewing Co
96. Blind Pig IPA – Russian River Brewing Co
Sandlot Brewing – Coors Field
97. Pale Ale
98. Red Ale
Wynkoop Brewing
99. Two Guns Pilsner
100. Wixa Weisse
101. Mile HI. P.A.
102. B3K Schwarzbier
103. Mackenzie’s Milk Stout
104. St Charles ESB
105. Railyard Amber Ale
106. SilverBack Porter

Day 5 Colorado Beer Trip (continued)

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Monday, May 25th, 2009 After a number of hours at the Falling Rock, the rain ceased and the tarp was removed at Coors Field. We bid farewell to our new friends and headed out to the ball game. By the time we got there it was already the bottom of the third inning. I guess we were having too much fun at the Rock. We didn’t miss much as the game was still scoreless. In the top of the 4th however, the Dodgers ran laps around the bases, scoring seven runs. Over the next three innings the Rockies got within one run before giving up an eight spot in the top of the seventh. The Dodgers scored once more in the ninth but we were already at the bar by then. Final score 16-6. Not much of a game but we did get to see the majority of the scoring. We watched the fourth and fifth innings from the lower deck first base side and spent the sixth and seventh in the right field upper deck seats. Not sure what seats our tickets were for but our two-for-twenty dollar tickets seemed to get us to all areas of the stadium. We were kind of just there to see the stadium anyway.

While at the game we made a stop at the Sandlot Brewery. This is basically a bar in the stadium however the beer is also brewed right there. The brewery, owned and brewed by Coors under the Blue Moon brand, is visible behind glass opposite the bar. We had the Red and the Pale Ale. The Red actually reminded me more of an English Pale Ale and the Pale Ale reminded me of an American Amber (although that style as a descriptor has always been a little ambiguous). The Pale Ale (Amber) was malty but not sweet and not hoppy at all except to balance the malt. The Red (English Pale Ale) was much hoppier but more so in the English term. No citrus here, just earthy and grassy hops. The Red was my favorite, and although the beers were much better at the Falling Rock, the beers here were much better than at the stadium vendors. Definitely worth visiting, after all it is a brewery inside a ballpark. What’s cooler than that? Now that I think about it, perhaps I just had the two beers mixed up… hmmmm. After the Falling Rock that is certainly possible.

After the game (er, the 7th inning) we headed just a few blocks down the street to Wynkoop Brewing, Colorado’s first brewpub. Opened in 1988 this beautiful brewpub is situated in an old mercantile building and retains a lot of its old world charm. We bellied up to the bar and were greeted by a friendly barkeep. One who in fact lived in the Twin Cities for a brief period of time. Dragged there by, you guessed it, a girl, and all he could remember was the brutal cold winter. Likely story. I started with the sampler here and slowly worked my way through it. All of the beers I tried were unique and nicely crafted to represent the respective style. Pretty consistent and above average across the board. My favorites were the black beers. These were the SilverBack Porter, McKenzie’s Milk Stout and the B3K Schwarzbier. I didn’t take notes, unfortunately, but I think I remember the B3K to be a great roasty dark lager, yum. I just love the dark beers with roasted malt but Schwarzbiers being lagers have a nice clean finish to them with little fruity esters that are common among ales. The B3K was so named in honor of it being their three thousandth batch. The milk stout was creamy sweet and the porter was dark, roasty and smokey all over. I just love me a smoked porter. I also remember the Mile HI. P. A. being a very good American representation of the style. Inviting citrus hops on the nose and tongue which gave way to a maltyness that started sweet but finished nice and dry. The overall experience here was great. Our bartender was very friendly, funny and entertaining. It seemed like it was truly his pleasure to serve us instead of feeling like a burden. I would recommend their service, their vibe and their beers to all.

Day 5 Colorado Beer Trip

Monday, May 25th, 2009 Our last day in Colorado… Had a great breakfast at Dixons. Totally made up for the breakfast the previous day. I had the huevos rancheros and Carolyn had an amazing avocado benedict. After breakfast we made it our mission to get to The Falling Rock Tap House right at 11am when they opened. There was a Rockies game (two blocks away) at 1pm and we thought it might get busy early. This has been rated by a number of publications as one of the best beer bars in the country. Being only a few blocks from our hotel we knew this would certainly be one of our stops. We were greeted with: “It’ll just be a couple minutes folks, we’re still setting up” No worries. We sat at the bar at the far end. We were greeted by a friendly talkative gentleman who was in his element while talking beer. Shortly after we sat down it started to rain heavily. Perhaps there would be no game. We didn’t have tickets yet but we were planning on going. We visited with this gentleman for a while. We had talked about all the places we'd been on our trip and he seemed to have a story about each of those places. He even shared some personal stories of his own. Like the time he went out and spent some time with the people at Russian River. While there he stayed at the home of owners/brewer Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo. How cool would that be?! Or how about the time he spent an afternoon bottling cage-tops at New Belgium with Kim Jordan. This guy had a story for everything and it was very entertaining to listen to him.

We later found out this was Chris Black, the founder and owner of The Falling Rock. A great article about him can be found HERE. We tried some fantastic beers here. The elusive and much sought after Pliny the Elder from Russian River was on tap so I started with that. A rich, sweet, caramaly, malty, hoppy creation that was fantastic. Carolyn started with another Russian River creation, Damnation. I of course had to try this Belgian Golden Ale and thought it was delish. Bear Republic had a blend of their Hop Rod Rye with their Racer 5 and fermented with a Westmalle strain of yeast. It was called Crazy Ivan and resembled a Belgian Pale Ale more than anything. Pretty good actually, as if I expected it not to be. It was also here that I had for the first time the New Belgium Biere de Mars. I really had a hard time defining this beer but I really really liked it. A nice dry nutty start yet fruity finish to it. I heard they had this on tap at Three Squares a few weeks ago, would have loved to get up there and tried it. Anyone reading this know if it’s available anywhere else in the Twin Cities? I enjoyed the heck out of the Tommyknocker Oaked Butt Head Bock. Never gave much attention to this brewery, perhaps I should start. But the real treat for me at this visit was the Deschutes Black Butte Porter. Wow was this amazing. I just love chocolatey black porters and this had just a touch of sweetness, I was in porter heaven. In addition to a great conversation with Mr Black, Carolyn and I made another new friend. Jose had just moved from Chicago. Literally he had just dropped his rental car off at the agency and his first stop was Falling Rock. He had visited Denver in November and fell in love with the town and so he decided to call it home. I can’t remember for how many years but Jose was the resident beer geek and bar manager at Sheffield’s in Chicago. As the rain came down and the game was delayed we just sat and talked beer. We talked about the Minnesota scene, the Chicago scene and the Denver scene and everything in between. We had a dang good time. That reminds me, I still owe him a shipment of beer. I hope to build a trading relationship with Jose as well as a friendship. Salud my friend!

Day 4 Colorado Beer Trip

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Sunday, May 24th, 2009 Here it is June 22nd and I’m still writing about May! I will try to finish this trip up so I can write about more current events. We arose famished, however The Oxford has no complimentary breakfast and downtown Denver is a ghost town. I guess this is normal for a Sunday morning. We find a coffee shop across the street with a good looking breakfast menu. Of course on Sunday there is a different more limited menu. We had to settle for a couple of rock hard dry breakfast paninis and an average cup o joe. We began the touristy day with not a beer bar, nor a brewery, nor a beer pouring coffee shop but Red Rocks Amphitheatre. This place is like a shrine to live music. Most people have heard of this concert venue in the foothills. We both enjoyed the architecture, history and landscape very much. We even took a 1.4 mile hike. It’s true what they say… the altitude really makes a difference. Probably didn’t help that the previous three days really dehydrated us. After Red Rocks we made it to Golden, Colorado.

Yep, you guessed it, the home of brewing behemoth Coors Brewing Company (Now MillerCoors). Carolyn and I toured Miller in Milwaukee in 2006 and while the beers leave something to be desired, I am always impressed with the sheer size of the facilities and the process. As a homebrewer I am familiar with the brewing process. It’s quite fascinating comparing and contrasting the similarities between producing 2.5 gallon batches and 20 million beer barrels. Many of you have been on brewery tours before and know that a lot of places still utilize the copper kettles. At Coors there are more than fifty of them, all in one large room and it’s almost hard to fathom. It’s easy to visualize Summit and Leinie’s where there are just two. I almost wondered if there were mirrors or some other creative illusion trickery. I was quite impressed. I also enjoyed watching the packaging room in progress. It’s amazing how many 30 packs of Coors Light can be packaged in sixty seconds. About half way through our self guided tour we were offered a fresh beer sample of either Coors Banquet Beer or Coors Light. The gimmick here is that the beer is supposed to be a day or two old. “Fresher than you’ll find anywhere else” they claim. Like the Silver Bullet tastes any different after a month or two. Whatever. I wasn’t going to just walk by so I grabbed a Banquet Beer and continued on the tour. I gotta tell you, nothing makes Coors Banquet Beer sound so good as when it’s being advertised by Sam Elliot. “Coors… The Banquet Beer” Can you hear it? At the end of the tour we were offered three more samples. We could chose from any of the Coors line of products, Coors, Blue Moon, Killian’s, etc. These were by far the biggest sampling glasses of any brewery tour I’ve ever taken; probably 8 or 10oz each. I regrettably went for the Blue Moon Honey Moon first. I’d never had it before and I foolishly expected a wheat beer. It turned out to be a bland tasteless mess. I choked it down and went back for a Killian’s Red. Again, major disappointment. I always remembered this beer to be more flavorful. It seemed more like a light lager with a little color. Not cool. The lines for the samples were quite long so we opted for the gift shop instead of our last sample. I think this was the first time I’ve ever done that on a tour. Turn down free beer? Blasphemy. Now I must say, even though I didn’t necessarily enjoy their products, I still think they are doing a good job. It really is hard to make a beer with that little color and that little flavor and do it consistently over long periods of time. For the style of beer they produce, they do a very good job. This guy just doesn’t find them quite to be all that inviting.

After the Coors tour we returned to Denver. I had heard good things about a brewpub in Boulder, the Mountain Sun. They have a second brewpub in Boulder called the Southern Sun and recently (about a year ago) opened another brewpub in Denver called the Vine Street Pub. I don’t think they make their own beer on premise yet but you can get their famous Boulder options on tap here. We showed up at 3:15 only to find out that the place doesn’t open until 4pm. You have go to be kidding me! What kind of pub isn’t open on the weekend for lunch? It was raining and we were getting wet so we returned to the car to assess the situation. I don’t think it makes good business sense to open at 4pm seven days a week. I did hear later in the trip that it’s not uncommon for people to start hanging out a half hour to an hour before opening. Wouldn’t you want to let these people in and take their money? Oh well, I am biased and bitter. We decided we didn’t want to sit in the car and wait for 45 minutes so we returned to the hotel. I needed to get the bad taste out of my mouth (literally from Coors and metaphorically from Vine Street). I finished the last of the Odell Red while we started discussing dinner plans. Being a fan of our local Rock Bottom I suggested we go to the one in Denver. I usually avoid chains while on holiday but since this was the original Rock Bottom Brewery we decided to make an exception. The atmosphere is a lot like ours in Minneapolis. I’ve been to Rock Bottoms in Des Moines and Chicago and they seem to have their own unique touches but the Denver one is a lot like ours. Long bar, dark wood, vessels behind glass above the bar. What I liked about this one is that the brew house was visible in a small room on the other side of the bar. In fact, our booth was situated against the windows looking into the brew kettles. I returned to form and ordered the sampler which consisted of six beers. I hate to say it but I felt like all these beers tasted pretty much the same. I’m not sure if my mouth was experiencing palate fatigue or if they use some kind of house yeast in all the beers or what. I was truly unimpressed. I felt they were all similar versions of each other, only the color varied. Now of course there were more differences than just color but nothing really stood out or excited me all that much. Upon completion of the sampler, I followed it up with a pint of the Falcon Pale Ale. I should have been more aggressive at asking about any special or seasonal brews but I was too preoccupied with the Twins game that just happened to be on National TV. We certainly had our share of good food here, however. The chips and guac were great as were the potstickers and I finished the evening off with the half rack of ribs. Mouthwatering, fall off the bone good! We were both so full we could barely move. On the way out we talked briefly to the host about the novelty of being “the first”. It could just be folklore, but we were told where the name came from. The building that houses this restaurant used to be called the Prudential Building and the symbol for Prudential is, of course, the Rock of Gibraltar. Situated in the bottom of the building, the name became Rock Bottom. Personally, I like to think of drinking beer as the place I go to when I’ve hit Rock Bottom but whatever. Not a great day for beer, but as they say… a bad day of beer drinking is better than a good day working. No truer words were spoken.

Day 3 Colorado Beer Trip (continued)

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 Ring, ring, ring… No one ever answered the phone at Great Divide Brewing Company in the weeks leading up to our trip so I had no way of knowing if the tap room would be open on Memorial Day. Had I known ahead of time that they were indeed open we would have gone to Boulder from Longmont to hit Avery, Mountain Sun and/or Boulder Beer. But alas, we shall save that for another trip. After three days of driving we finally arrive at our final destination, the Mile High City. Before even stopping at the hotel we find our way to Great Divide. This unassuming two story brick building in the heart of downtown appeared closed from the outside but was bustling with people once we got in. We cornered up to the bar and were given a list of available taps. We picked a few we wanted to try and the bar man returned with some attractive mini-snifters. We sipped for a while on the Belgica, Yeti, Hercules, Titan, Wild Raspberry, Saison, St Bridget’s and Hades. We were three days too early to taste the Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti which was too bad, but best not dwell on what we didn’t drink. I liked the Belgica and Hades, but Carolyn really found them yummy. She’s a big fan of Belgian beers. Very well done in my opinion. This was my first taste of the Yeti and I thoroughly enjoyed its roasty yumminess. The Wild Raspberry Ale was very good. Very nice aroma of natural raspberries, like you were smelling a handful of them. Not sweet like raspberry puree but tart like fresh picked raspberries. The beauty of this one was the flavor as it was not overly raspberry. I like fruit beers but only if the majority of the fruit is recognized in the aroma. I don’t like a sweet fruity taste. Berry Weisse would be an extreme example, but even Sam Adams Cherry Wheat is too much for me. Their IPA (Titan) and DIPA (Herc) were amazing but I was most impressed with this Wild Raspberry. Another beer I enjoyed was the St Bridget’s Porter. Lot’s of chocolatey smoothness, mmmmm. I even learned something new from this beer; St Bridget was a Patron Saint of Ireland and is said (among her many other acts of benevolence) to have turned bathwater into beer to nourish lepers and visiting clerics. We must remember in those days the water was not always potable, but beer was always safe. I’ll raise my glass to this legendary lady of the Emerald Isle, Sláinte! Luckily we arrived just in time for the 4pm tour. It was a good tour given by one of the brewers so it was very informational. It wasn’t one of those tours where you're taken into a big room, given the grain-to-growler spiel and you're done. You actually get guided from room to room with an entertaining narrative of the brewing process. We finished the tour, finished our beers and off we went.

We checked into our hotel and took a load off. It was good to finally slow down and relax and it was nice to know we wouldn’t be packing up again in the morning and driving somewhere else. This would be our home for the next three nights. We stayed at The Oxford Hotel and we really enjoyed the place. Everyone was super friendly and very helpful. When we checked in they asked us why we were travelling and we enthusiastically shared that we were on a beer tour of Colorado. About an hour later there is a knock on the door. It’s room service… except we didn’t order room service. Turns out the front desk sent up three bottles of Odell Red Ale. What a classy move! And we got a great rate on the room, too. We would definitely recommend this place if your plans ever bring you to Denver.

So anyway, this isn’t HOTEL THIS, it’s BEER THIS, so let’s get back to the beer. My buddy Joe, with whom I was neighbors during my post college days in Sioux Falls, was going to pick us for dinner. He is originally from Denver and moved back to the area about eight years ago. I told him Care and I were thinking of heading to the Bull and Bush for dinner and he was really excited we picked that place. Just southeast of downtown sits this little English brewpub which happens to be very near to where Joe grew up. Regrettably, I only had two beers here, the Allgood Ale and the Man Beer IPA. I didn’t want to fill up on a bunch of samples and I didn’t really want to think anymore so I just enjoyed a couple of pints and a great conversation with an old friend. The Man Beer was quite good. This American style IPA was certainly American in the hop aroma and flavor however, I thought he malt base was more English. Appropriate I suppose since we were sitting in an English Pub. I’m not criticizing, just thinking out loud, I could care less about stylistic accuracy. I certainly did enjoy it. I could have had another but thought I should try something else. I went with the Amber Allgood Ale and I wish I would have gone with a Brown or Stout. What was I thinking? This was an English Pub. The Allgood wasn’t bad, just not very exciting. Ambers aren’t really ever exciting, but it seemed like the flavors were muted a bit. At any rate the visit was still enjoyable. The food was excellent and the mood was electric as the Nuggets-Lakers playoff game had just begun. By the end of the meal the day’s activities had caught up with us. We were tired. We headed back to our hotel as happy as a clam and moving at about the same speed.