Brew #11 - Pollenized Belgian Pale

So Brew #11 is done fermenting, the Pollenized Belgian Pale. I actually ended up dry hopping it with fresh hops in the secondary, using 1oz of Cascade. It has an awesome hop profile and overall taste, this beer is friggen delicious. It finished at 1.006 so nice and low, dry, but doesn't taste too dry. It also brought the beer up to 6% abv, so pretty much session-able. Not the clarity I wanted, but I think the dry hop and mash profile overall didn't let that really happen, plus Belgian yeast doesn't help. This might be the best beer I've done yet, it is really tasty. Missed my South Shore Brew Club brew off date with this one, but should be able to make it into the Wizard's brew off. I'll have to see how it fares.

Brew #11 - Pollenized Belgian Pale

So last Saturday was the first brew of the new year. A few minor issues to start, like broken hose, lost razor, gunked up tubes, etc. However, nothing major so we were able to brew. The brew itself went pretty well with thanks to Evan. The taste of the grains were completely unsweet, but I still missed my target OG, which should have been 1.052 but was actually 1.042. I did mash a little high, but lowered it halfway through. I'm still leaning towards the grain crush, and I'll be getting a crusher soon so that should solve that issue, or at least eliminate that as a possibility for low yield. I added a little over 1 lb of sugar to the primary, so that should help take care of it and bring it up to 1.051 or so. It's fermenting well for now. More info on the brew to follow, and another one coming up in the next couple weeks hopefully.

Central New England Meetup #2

The meetup went well again, but again the abv of the beers took it's toll quickly and we were limited in the number of samples. Next time we will have lower abv beers.

Photos of the event, thanks to Evan Worona for taking the time to take the quality pictures amid drinking all these awesome beers.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jlindros/CentralNEBAMeetup2#


Here's a summary of the tasting.

BBC Holidale started us off. Boozy with lots of malts, fruits, some chewy malts a slight bitter hop flavor. A little rye adds some more spicy fruit character.

Smuttynose Barleywine was next. This was a hop monster. Hops all over the aroma and palate. Some sweetness and chewy malts. Very bitter, with some pine, citrus, and chewy hops. Some tangerine and orange peel flavors decorate it as well.

Next up was Mikkeller Big Worse. This was also pretty malty and was very sweet, with absolutely no carbonation. More caramel and brown sugar flavors, molasses, and a slight boozy taste and heat, but drinks much easier than 12%. Despite the sweetness it wasn't too syrupy and dried off well on the finish.

White Birch Barrel Aged Barleywine was next, and was very different. It started with a nice head. It was semi sweet, with a nice malt profile, but what made it different was the creamy malt flavor and body. A little oak and vanilla and some bourbon flavors all came out, and it had quite a bit of smoke, which also set this one out. Great beer though.

Then we got into the verticals, starting with the Three Floyds Behemoth. We compared '07, '08, and '09. A lot of parallels to Big Foot, you either like it fresh, or aged. Almost everyone liked it better fresh. The '09 fresh one had a lot of hop character, and pretty bitter, as well as a really nice clarity, some sweet malts, brighter tastes, and some heat and boozy taste. The '08 had much less hop character, more pronounced malty flavors, was pretty hazy, a little lighter on the heat and booze, some chewy malt flavors, and little caramel and brown sugar. The '07 was actually not very tasty. It had no hop characters to speak of, with mostly just a mash of malts and sweet caramels, very hazy and ugly looking, and a distinct dirt flavor, like you get from a pocket of dirt in a potato. Fresh this beer is delicious, but doesn't age as well as I expected.

Next so called vertical was the Great Divide Old Ruffian. Since there is no dating effect on the bottles, there was no way to really tell. But they were both acquired in different years and already aged on the shelves. It had a slight purplish color to it with the dark brown. The supposed younger one had some nice creamy malts, thick chewy malts, brown sugar, molasses, some sweetness, and a slight spicy chewy hop character. The older one seemed to have less of a hop profile, was a little more subtle on the heat, and dulled a little on the malts as well.

We started winding down a bit with more snacks, water, and breaks. But next on the list was Pennichuck Pompier '08. It was also pretty sweet with lots of malts and fruit. Some brown sugar and chewy malts, as well as some roasted and toasty malt flavors. A little spicy hop presence was also there.

Next was a horizontal of Shipyard Pugsley Series Barleywine, with the regular and "aged" versions. It had some sweetness and fruit flavors, raisin, black cherry, tangy, malty, some caramel, a little juicy, and a touch of smoke. The aged one add a lot more maltiness, more subtle flavors, less hop and fruit and blended the flavors a lot more.

Last but not least was the Nøgne Ø Andhrímnir Barley Wine. The malt also shined through in this one, but it wasn't as sweet. A slight spicy hop character with some aged subtle flavors. It had a slight heat but hid the booze well. It also had good carbonation and finished with some smoke, molasses, and a little bitterness.

Thanks again to everyone who came and brought beer or food. We had a lot more beer in line but couldn't get to it as the alcohol got on top of us fast. Next meetup will be in another month or two, and we already decided the theme would be lower abv Belgians, such as goldens, pales, lower abv dubbels or triples, etc.

Season 2, Brew #11

Welp, it's finally here. Spring is in the air, bees and birds are sleeping with whomever they can... know what, that gives me a good idea for the new beer name.

Speaking of which, this Saturday March 20, right before the BA Meetup, will be Brew #11, first of the year. I'll start setting up, sanitizing, cleaning, etc, around 10AM, and hope to start the brewing around 11. The style, Belgian Pale, with some nice hop additions hopefully. I got a bunch of free Celeia hops, a low 2.8% alpha with lots of lemony citrus and floral aromatics. It should work perfectly in a Belgian Pale. I was gonna call it Belgian Pale for lack of creativity at the moment, but now I think I'll call it "Pollenized Belgian Pale".

Central New England Beer Meetup #2

So the date is set for the Central New England BA meetup and tasting event #2. Saturday, March 20th at 4PM. Theme is Barleywines. For more info see the BA event here:

http://beeradvocate.com/events/info/32287

I was also thinking of brewing before it, but I probably won't now as I have the Brew Club Scotch Night the night before and brewing the next day and finishing before 4PM probably won't happen. First brew will be soon though.

Kate the Great Day

A little less than a week away now, is Kate the Great Day 2010. It's a crazy day, setup to get one of, if not THE, most sought after beer in the country. We're planning to get in line in Portsmouth around 5-5:30. Tickets for the beers will be handed out around 7ish, so once we get those we can go off to get some breakfast and warm up a bit. From there we go back to the brewery and get out bottles, and perhaps stay for a beer on draft (depending on the line and wait).

Once we're done with Kate, we plan to head off over to White Birch and help Bill do some brewing and sampling (quality control is VERY important). Anyone interested in coming up with us is welcome.

Here's a cool little video to tide us over while we wait the last 7 days!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Skik1vyPA

Central New England Beer Meetup #1

So the first Central New England BA Meetup went well. There were 10 people with quite a few beers. The early folks got to sample the Goatmeal Stout, the bourbon oaked oatmeal stout. Anyways, here is the list of beers we did with a few quick notes. Pictures are here if you want to follow along with the beer lineup.


http://picasaweb.google.com/jlindros/Central_NE_BA_Meetup_02_06_10#

First up was Frau Brothers Rainwater VSOB. It had quite a bit of chocolate and roast, lots of coffee, fruit, pretty dry and a little boozy. Also had some malty flavors, a little bourbon and oak flavors, and was pretty thick and chewy. Although the body was a little lacking and the fruit was a little to heavy for the style.

Next up we did a side by side comparison of Berkshire Imperial Stout to the Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout. The regulat imp stout had some traditional stout flavors with some roast, black patent malt, some bitter chocolate, some light noble grassy hop flavors and bitterness, with a lighter mouth feel. The Bourbon Barrel one had taken away all the hop characteristics as well as the chocolate. The oak added a heavy tangy fruit flavor and obvious bourbon. It was sweeter and smoother actually, but added a little bit higher boozy flavor and rich creamy quality. The two were completely different beers.

We had a quick break for pizza, for which we added a nice palate cleanser of Central City Red Racer IPA, until moving onto dessert, which was Woodstock Maple Porter. This one had quite a bit of maple flavor, some fruit, it was pretty bright tasting, some creme brulee flavors and roasted qualities. A little smoke and hints of coffee finished it off. It had a lighter body too.

Next we broke into the prize beers, starting with 2008 Deschutes Abyss. This one had a dark thick creamy head, darker and thicker than used motor oil with thick long legs. It was loaded with roast and bakers chocolate, coffee, tobacco, toast, and had a slight boozy quality, but hid the abv well. A slight sweetness came through, but it was extremely smooth and very enjoyable. It finished with a slightly sweet bakers chocolate with a chewy character and some bitterness. It was at this point we added a couple pastries to have side by side with the beers, Abyss was first which went well with the chocolate espresso pastry (correct me if I'm wrong on the type).

Next up was the 2009 Three Floyds Dark Lord. This was was even heavier than the Abyss, but had no head at all. It was darker than hell itself, with lots of raisin and sweet molasses, brown sugar, lots of roast, a little chocolate, very sweet, some bourbon, boozy, and a little creamy. Very complex, and reminded me a lot of Black Tuesday, just a little less booze, sweetness and bourbon. It leaves a thick layer on the mouth long after the swallow, with more raisin, molasses, and some bitter chocolate. A slice of cake was added to a food pairing with this one, which was also delicious.

From here we let our palates dry up for a few minutes, added some water, and moved onto East End Brewing Smokestack Porter. This one was a very dark brown color with enough smoke to make a Texas smoked rib cooker blush. It had tons of smoke, in both aroma and taste, leather, chewy roast, and even a smoked meat flavor. Memories were brought back of smoked gouda, smoked cured meats, lox, and the leather I used to chew on as a kid (just kidding). It had a creamy porter like finish.

We then moved onto Brewdog Riptide. This also had no head, with a dark brown color. Some notes of sweet malts, molasses, maple, roast, a little smoke and fruit. Hints of dark chocolate break through. It was very smooth though with a little smoke, fruit, and oak on the finish.

Next up was Avery Black Tot, which I didn't really write any notes down. The palate was getting a little overwhelmed at this point. The only comments I have are that it had a nice sweet malt flavor, some boozy tastes with oak, obvious rum, and even a little bourbon like flavors. I'll have to review that one myself from my collection later.

After a nice long 30 minute or so rest with lots of water and snacks we attempted to finish up. Last on the night before we finally threw in the towel, was a Dogfish Head World Wide Stout vertical between the 2008 and 2005 versions. The '08 version had lots of malts, like crazy ridiculous malts, dark fruits, pretty hot and boozy, lots of roast, caramel malts, some rum and oak flavors, it was heavier than the bottle itself I think. It was very hot and thick and hard to drink. The '05 version was quite nicer. It actually had a fizzy surprisingly. It was creamy, surprisingly smooth, lots of raisin and fruit, easier on the maltiness and heaviness, and much easier on the heat and boozy tastes. It also added a little juiciness and toasty flavors. The moral of this story is aging on these types of beers really does go a long way! Age your World Wide Stout a few years!

I also forgot to mention, in the middle we threw in a Harpoon Leviathan Baltic Porter since we were talking about it mid discussion and decided to just try it and I had it sitting in the cellar. Then after most people had left, we cracked a Founders Breakfast Stout since Chris had never tried it before, so why the hell not.

It was a great time, thanks to everyone who came and brought something interested to add to the show. There were still quite a few beers we never even touched. Next meetup will probably be in a month or two, with the theme of either Belgian Tripels, Barleywines, or perhaps something spring related. We can discuss that further when the time comes closer.