Some good beer tonight

Duclaw Devil's Milk is a nice barleywine. BA calls it an American barleywine but it drinks more like English. Nice and flavorful. Of course, it was after 2 Singels and 5/6 of a flight. I liked it.

Rating = 4 glasses, at least

Alpine Super IPA is a nice double IPA.

Rating = 4 glasses, at least

Allagash Interlude is an interesting wine-barrel aged Saison with some 
Brett. Rating is tough - the taste was different.

Rating = 4 glasses. I need another taste.

Vanderghinste Oud Bruin is a sweet version of Flanders Oud Bruin. I 
liked it

Rating = 5 glasses.

Hardywood Singel is a Belgian Blond Ale, even if BA calls it a Pale Ale. 
Nice, easy drinking, and flavorful. Given its distinctive taste,

Rating = 5 glasses.

Smuttynose Finest Kind clone

Homebrew 3 is a clone of Smuttynose Finest Kind IPA, my favorite IPA and one of my favorite beers. Put in the fermenter this morning and a CO2 bubbles emerge from the air lock every 3 seconds 11 hours later. I am excited.

Stone Lucky Bastard

Lucky Bastard is a blend of Arrogant Bastard, Oak-Aged Arrogant Bastard, and Double Bastard. It is a hit! Lucky > Double > Arrogant. Smoother than the other too and still packed w/ flavor.

Rating = 6 glasses.

Stone Double Bastard

Double Bastard is a big Strong Ale. Lots of malt and lots of hops. Barleywine-ish but with a rougher edge.

Rating = 5 glasses. Down from 6 glasses.

Some reviews of Budweiser's ad at the BIg Game.

Bud made heads turn with an ad that differentiated itself from craft beers.

Click here to see what The Atlantic said.

Click here to read an even more harsh review from Paste Magazine. The comments indicate that the ad is a copy of an earlier ad for Carthartt.

Funny picture

Click here to see a tap line for Bud.

Homebrew 2 - Duvel clone

My second batch of homebrew is in bottles. I used a clone of the recipe for Duvel, a classic Belgian strong pale ale and one of my favorite beers.

The yeast was active; krausen  clogged the air vent and then the pressure blew off the lid to the fermenter. CO2 bubbled for 2 weeks. Then I racked to secondary fermenter and left the beer in the crawl space @ 50 degrees for two weeks. A week back in the fermetorium and CO2 again appeared at a slow rate.

Emily helped both to make the wort and to bottle the beer.

My tastes during the bottling tell me that the beer has promise. I plan to give it 3 weeks to condition in the bottle and then see what has happened.

It is darker than I wanted and expected.