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.

What's in the cellar?

Click here to see the inventory in my cellar

Blue Mountain Long Winter's Nap

Blue Mountain describes Long Winter's Nap as a blonde tripelbock. It is big, malty, and tasty.

5 glasses

Foothills Hoppyum IPA

Hoppyum is a nice IPA with a good bite. I tasted drafts the last two Fridays.

5 glasses.

Home brew: Shakespeare Stout

I brewed my first beer. I had assisted ML several times. My main job was to drink beer. After she started using all-grain recipes I decided I wanted to take the lead. My daughters bought some good equipment for me and I finally pulled the trigger. I wanted a stout for the cold weather ahead and followed a recipe for a clone of Rogue Shakespeare Stout that I found online.

I am pleased. The beer looks beautiful. It is really dark and a nice head forms when poured. It has flavor, lots of smoke, some charcoal, and a blast of hops. I fear that it is not balanced, the hops are too much for the malt. Perhaps it will mellow some as it sits. I may want to tweak the recipe if I follow it again.

3 glasses, maybe 4

Update: 22 Jan. Getting better. Rating = 4 glasses. I would brew again in a heartbeat.

Recent good beers

Drie Fonteinen Intense Red Oude Kriek
Drie Fonteninen has blended great lambics and are now brewing their own. I think that this was a one-off to celebrate their entry into brewing. It is a fantastic Kriek. It is darker and fruitier than most Krieks and packs a powerful sour punch.

6 glasses, at least. I want another bottle before going to 7.

Russian River Consecration

Another fabulous wild ale from Russian River. This one is aged in Cabernet Sauvingnon barrels and contains currents. The wine flavor was a little too strong imho. Otherwise, 7 glasses

6 glasses

Hardywood The Great Return
My favorite double IPA. Nice hops and not too sweet.

6 glasses

Williamsburg Alewerks Lover's Greed

This is a nice Wild Ale. Its flavor falls between Gueze and Flanders Red Ale, a nice blend of tart and sweet. I'll buy again.

5 glasses. 

Bear Republic Cafe 15 Racer

A really nice IPA. Easy drinking with some grapefruit and bit. 5 glasses.

Sierra Nevada Harvest Single Hop IPA Brewed with Equinox Hops

Nice but not great.  3 glasses.

Rodenbach Caractère Rouge

Rodenbach Caractère Rouge is a special one-off version of its famous Flanders Red Ale, made with fresh cherries, raspberries and cranberries.. It is good, interesting, and expensive. I like Grand Cru better.

4 glasses given the price.

Rodenbach 2011 Vintage

Rodenbach 2011 Vintage is a one-off Flanders Red Ale. It is fantastic. 7 glasses. Tart with flashes of sweet. Better than Grand Cru. Better than Caractère Rouge, a more expensive beer. Shared with Alex. We both liked it a ton.

gluten free

Click here to learn how to make gluten-free beer.

Bruery White Oak

I had the Bruery White Oak tonight at Mekong and was quite impressed. I was ready to give it a 6-glass rating until I read my first review. It is a wheat wine with lots of oak (and maybe a little bourbon) flavor. It is too easy to drink. I thought the result was really good tonight.

Rating = 5 glasses.

Cantillon Saint Lamvinus

Wow!. St. Lamvinus is a fruit lambic. It is wonderfully tart with a musty slight sweetness from grapes. It resembles Kriek, but uses grapes instead of cherries. Here is the description of the beer from Cantillon:

"The grapes, of the merlot and cabernet-franc varieties, are soaked in Bordeaux barrels containing two to three years old lambic. The beer is not blended before the bottling. The foam is caused by the addition of a liquor which starts the fermentation.

It was rated on BeerAdvocate.com as one of the 100 best beers in the world on 29 December 2005, 01 March 2007, and 09 October 2013. 

Rating = 7 glasses.