466. Ommegang Tripel Perfection

It looks like that whole hiding beer in the basement is paying dividends again. This is our latest from Brewery Ommegang. We’ve been sitting on it for a while, although it would appear that we didn’t sit on it quite enough. Alas, alas, with that 20/15 hindsight. Previous exercises in libation consumption include Zuur, Three Philosophers, Hennepin, Bière de Mars, and Witte. Ah, the tasty, tasty solace...

Tripel Perfection, a limited release from Ommegang, pours a hazy golden orange with a spritzy white head that doesn’t have much volume but does have good staying power along with plentiful small white bubbles. The nose consists of juicy fruit esters, spices, and a delicate floral perfume-y character. Elli adds “it also smells like bananas that someone needs to throw away.” Flavors start with light malt and Belgian candy sweetness before moving into a fruity middle that features hints of banana, apple, and apricot. There is also some stickiness in the middle and finish, although as the beer warms, the overly sweet components drop off. The finish is sweet but dry, and there is a slight metallic tinge at the back of the tongue. There is also a touch of alcohol in the finish, both in flavor and in warmth; it . The mouthfeel is sweet, doughy, and sticky—it tastes not quite finished; while the flavors are good, it is still a bit uneven in regards to the malt stickiness and the alcohol warmth. We probably should have waited longer before drinking this—the bottle says best by 2013—but we figured we should give it a run. And, after all, any beer from Ommegang is pretty much worth drinking.

From the bottle: “The tripel is among the most popular of Belgian ales. Brewed with simple ingredients and fierce attention to detail, there is little room for error—but lots of opportunity. Perfection isn’t easily achieved—but once achieved it is always memorable.”

Bottled: 3/15/2010

ABV: 8.9%

Where can I find me some of that Gnomegang?

(3/28/2011)

465. Kevin & Andrew Lolli English Brown

Kevin told me that his brother, Andrew, helped him make this beer over the holidays. Since I know Andrew as well, I asked Kevin for a bottle so that I could include Andrew in on the reviewing fun. After all, nothing says fun like mockery. Kevin not only agreed, he passed along the photos you see below. Because nothing says “real American” like bleached spiked hair. You go Andrew. Oh, and when I asked Kevin if this was a Southern or a Northern English Brown, he responded with a “Yes,” followed by a “I think it is a Northern.” Gotta love that certainty. This is el numero tres from my favorite Columbus family, following up the Pumpkin Stout and the Imperial IPA.

Two men enter, one man leave!

K & A’s English Brown has a grainy and nutty brown malt nose; there’s a slight touch of sweetness, but not much more. Color-wise, it’s dark amber brown, although you can still see through it, and it has the classic Lolli head—tan colored, rich and creamy, leaving abundant lacing on the glass. Flavors start creamy and nutty with light caramel malt sweetness; the middle dries out and has a touch of graininess with gentle biscuit and bread flavors. The biscuit lingers into the finish, as does just a touch of bitterness. The carbonation is slightly sharp—I might dial it back a notch—but the beer has good balance in the body and is certainly dry in the finish. Despite the slight sharpness of the carbonation, the body of the beer is smooth, gentle, and rounded. I would like a bit more residual malt character to enhance the mouthfeel, but an easy-drinkin’ beer—flavors are simple, clean, and good. Nice job, Kevin and Andrew. So when’s the next time you’ll be sporting that blue mohawk again, Andrew? Or are the corporate law offices just to square for that?

Seriously, how do you get that sick sick head retention? You’re three for three now. And does it all go in old Sierra Nevada bottles?

(3/26/2011)

464. G. Schneider & Sohn Aventinus

Aventinus is from Private Weissbierbrauerei G. Schneider & Sohn in Kelheim, Germany. Now there’s a name, hmmm? Private and a Weissbierbrauerei? Hot damn! Described on the bottle as “Germany’s Original Wheat-Doppelbock,” otherwise known as a weizenbock, Aventinus has a rich and bready malt nose with banana esters and clove phenols—there is no vanilla in the nose, but I can taste it in the finish. The creaminess along with the raisin and dark fruit aromas make me wish that I could find some form of banana bread that smelled anything remotely like this. That would strengthen my breakfast experience. And no, there is no need for some sort of liquid bread joke here. Flavors start rich and bready with a soft gentle wheat character on the palate. The banana, clove, and dark fruit flavors are all there too, balanced with the slight candy-like sweetness found in the middle. The finish is rather clean; most flavors drop away, allowing the dark fruit and gentle creaminess to linger lightly on the palate along with a hint of vanilla and clove. Strengths are the creamy soft, rich wheat malt character; it is gentle and rounded on the palate with a slight bite from the carbonation, which helps clean and close the beer, leaving just a touch of the sweet vanilla and clove lingering. This beer is also undoubtedly German; if it were a state, it would be North Dakota: solid and stolid, no-nonsense, eminently Midwestern, practical, and very good for what it is. Certainly not Minnesota—that’s too fancy-pants. And Wisconsin? Save your cheese-heads and saunas for the Green Bay Packers. More like nothing experimental or risky or out of character. That’s it precisely.

From the bottle: “Aventinus, the world’s classic top-fermenting wheat-dopplebock, has received accolades for the perfect balance of fruity spiciness (banana, clove, vanilla) and notes of chocolate (crystal & dark malts). Unfiltered, unpasteurized, bottle-conditioned. Enjoy Aventinus, the massive twin of Schneider Weisse.”

ABV: 8.2%

(3/22/2011)

Standard/Ordinary Bitter Brewday

In an effort to build our knowledge about the effects of process on brewing, several of us in my local homebrew club, DRAFT, decided to brew the same beer using the same recipe, and compare the results. Since Jeffrey and I came up with the idea, we decided to start small, and pulled the recipe for a Standard/Ordinary Bitter from Jamil Zainasheff’s and John Palmer’s Brewing Classic Styles. Jeff (not to be confused with Jeffrey) decided to call his version an OSB. I, on the other hand, stuck with the acronym as currently configured in the book, and am dubbing my version of the beer Kevin Lolli SOB. I know, I know. Cold. Funny, but cold.

86. Standard/Ordinary Bitter
Mash:
8 lbs. Muntons 2-row Pale
½ lb. Breiss Crystal 120°
¼ lb. Breiss Special Roast

Mashed @ 150° F w/ 3 gallons of RO water for 60 minutes (@ 165° F)
Sparged @ 168° F with 2 ½ gallons RO water for 15 minutes (@ 180° F)

Added to brew kettle, brought to a boil (60 minute) and added:
w/60 to go: 1.2 oz. Sonnet Goldings Leaf 4.1% AA

w/30 to go: ½ oz. Sonnet Goldings Leaf 4.1% AA

w/15 to go: 1 tsp. Irish Moss

w/1 to go: ½ oz. Sonnet Goldings Leaf 4.1% AA

Chilled, racked to carboy, and pitched Wyeast 1968 London ESB

Brewed: 3/20/2011 @ 70° F
Secondary: ———
Bottled: 3/30/2011 @ 62° F; 1.3 gallons into min-keg w/ .4 oz. table sugar; bottled the rest w/ 1.6 oz. table sugar

OG: 1.040
FG: 1.015

Tasting Notes: 4/25/2011: Since this is an easy drinkin’ light beer, I want to take notes on it while it is still fresh and yummy. Plus, it is almost all gone. Kevin Lolli SOB pours a clear rusty copper—the clarity is impressive, but from what I’ve read, that’s pretty normal with Wyeast 1968. The head is a creamy off-white that offers solid staying power and lacing—it’s no Kevin Lolli lacing, but it will do. The nose is toast and biscuit with light fruitiness and minimal hop aroma, while flavors open with bready caramel and biscuit coupled with light fruitiness in the front before giving way to a drier middle with only a slight touch of bitterness—it is there, but this is most certainly a more malt forward version. The finish is dry and crackery with light lingering bitterness and biscuit. When I remake this, I will up the bittering hop charge to create a better balance between the malt and hops; although it is currently pleasant and very drinkable, it could use a bit more bitterness to better suit the style. The mouthfeel and light carbonation help round the overall beer—the mouthfeel because there is still some substance in the body and the carbonation because it is light and unobtrusive. I’m looking forward to cracking the mini-keg of this and seeing how that goes. Oh, and my version won the inaugural Rockit Cup, hence the sweet ribbon. Glitter & Glory, baby.

Elderberry Mead Brewday

I found the elderberries last fall at my local farmer’s market; since then, I’ve been intending to use them in my first attempt at mead. Well, it looks like Captain Lazy finally got off his ass and decided to do something with them. I threw in the mulberrries because they’d been cluttering up the freezer as well. Don’t worry, I’m sure Tim will chastize me for mixing my fruit.

Elderberry Mead
7 lbs. Robert Irvin & Sons raw honey
2 lbs. frozen elderberries
12 oz. frozen mulberries
2 ¼ gallons RO water

Combined and heated to 140° F; removed from heat and chilled overnight. Racked into bucket, and pitched Red Star Côte des Blancs yeast.

Brewed: 3/19/2011
Secondary: 4/17/2011
Bottled: 9/17/2011

Tasting Notes (2/12/2013): So I think I’ve given this enough time to age in the bottle; while I’ve tried a few bottles of this along the way, mostly it has just sat in the basement. Elderberry Mead pours the color of a thinner, lighter grape juice; it is clear and bright in the glass, with no head or discernible carbonation—I got like one bubble in the glass from the pouring. There are garnet highlights from the light through the glass, and small but perceptible legs on the glass from the mead itself. The nose is more elderberry than honey—while some residual honey sweetness is present, the main aromatic is a tannic skin bouquet from the fruit akin to red wine, albeit without some of the reciprocal red wine undertones. Fruit aromas consist of berry and grape with a soft honey under glow. Flavors start with a dry honey sweetness that is tempered by the dry tannic bite of the elderberry fruit skin—this is certainly a dry mead in terms of flavor and mouthfeel—creating a bright but puckering mouthfeel. In the middle features a depth of fruit flavor, with berry, grape, and plum the most forward. The finish is grape skin dry on the palate with a touch of alcohol warmth—it has begun evening out nicely in the last year and a half, allowing the other flavors to come more to the forefront. Still, this is a drier mead, and the addition of the elderberry further dries this on the mouth—the predominant feature is the skin character of the fruit, even more than the flavor. While I find this an interesting to the mead, it could use more depth and substance as a whole.  I’d like to make another version and increase the ratio of honey per gallon (to 9 or 10 lbs. of honey) to see if more residual sweetness creates a better overall mouthfeel and flavor profile. But isn’t that what being a home brewer—or in this case a mead maker—is all about? And honestly, as my first attempt at a mead, it is certainly better in comparison than my first couple of batches of beer.

Belgian Quad Brewday

Holy mother of grain bills! Actually, this one was was pretty much the same as the last two Dubbels—the grain bill just got amped up and the water got dropped down. After all, double up on the Dubbel, and what do you get? A Quad. And yes, even I think that is a lame ass joke.

Serving due diligence...

85. Belgian Quad (brewed with Jeff Fortney)
Mash:
18 lbs. Castle Pils
6 lbs. Weyerman Dark Munich
2 lbs. Dingemans Special B
2 lbs. Dingemans Cara 45 (Caramunich)
1 lb. Dingemans Biscuit
1 lb. Dingemans Aromatic
1 lb. Dingemans Cara 8 (Carapils)
2 oz. Dingemans Belgian Chocolate

Mashed w/ 10 gallons of RO water (plus chemical additions)
@130° F for 15 minutes (from 133-128° F)
@146° F for 30 minutes (from 154-146° F; extra 10 minutes)
@156° F for 35 minutes (from 158-154° F)
@166° F for 10 minutes

Batch sparged w/5 gallons of RO water (plus chemical additions) @168° F for 15 minutes

Added to brew kettle, brought to a boil (90 minute), and added:
w/60 to go: 3 oz. Styrian Golding pellet 5.25% AA

w/15 to go: 2 Whirlfloc tablets

w/10 to go: ½ oz. Styrian Golding pellet 5.25% AA

w/5 to go: 1.5 lb. Belgian Dark Candi Syrup & 2.5 lb. Belgian Dark 2 Candi Syrup

@ removal from heat: ½ oz. Styrian Golding pellet 5.25% AA

Chilled to 60° F and split into two 4 ½ gallons batches; I used White Labs WLP550 yeast slurry from 82. Belgian Dubbel II, while Jeff pitched on the Wyeast 3787 pancake; initial fermentation took its sweet time getting started, so I pitched a fresh vial of WLP550 Friday evening to help it along. A little extra yeast won’t hurt in a beer this size; by Saturday morning there was a decent head of krausen on the beer.

Brewed: 3/17/2011
Secondary: 3/28/2011 @ 1.024
Bottled: 5/12/2011 w/ 3 oz. table sugar (3 gallons) @ 70° F; racked one gallon onto ¾ oz. Hungarian oak cubes (house toast); bottled on 7/15/2011 w/ ¾ oz table sugar

OG: 1.094
FG: 1.020

Tasting Notes (11/25/2011): Another beer I’ve been meaning to try; I was rather surprised that it had been in the bottle for six month already. Fleeting time, you rapscallion. The beer pours a rich, dark brown with plenty of orange in it—it certainly looks Belgian, if nothing else. The head is tan and rather ephemeral—it hangs out and slowly reduces, and while it never offers much it way of covering, the fleeting arabesques are a pleasant component of the beer. It also rouses rather easily, especially as it warms; when it was first opened, it appeared to be almost flat. The nose features toast and bread crust malt aromatics plus dark fruit and Belgian candy, with fig, plum, and date making themselves most prevalent. As it warms, it bleeds a delicious rum raisin. Flavors start sweet but restrained; there is Belgian candy, fig, and caramel in the front, followed by raisin and toast in the aftertaste. The middle features grape, fig, and plum flavors that lead into the warming finish of raisin and fig. The fruit flavors slowly rise over the course of the beer, finishing stronger and more emphatically than at the start. There is still a touch too much alcohol warmth in the finish, but the creamy dark fruit and candy covers some of it. The body is chewy, smooth, and rounded—it is good now, but I think it is on the cusp of something greater. I’d like to imagine that this beer is gonna go places, and that I’m going to be there to see it happen. Here’s hoping that this beer blows up and that I don’t become a helicopter parent. I’ll let you know how it tastes in another six months.

463. Samuel Smith’s Organically Produced Lager Beer

From the Old Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire comes our first Samuel Smith’s beer. Or at least the first one recorded for posterity. That is, unless there is some secret intelligence branch of the government dedicated to surveying my drinking habits. We’ll just say it is the first one recorded by us for posterity, while noting that there will be more, and leave it at that. Go on, check the files.

Pouring a crystal-clear straw, Samuel Smith’s Organically Produced Lager has a thin white head that is well maintained by the prolific carbonation streaming through the beer—lots o’ bright tiny bubbles. The nose is crisp and dry, with a light grainy malt sweetness mixed with low levels of hop bitterness. Overall, the nose is clean and fresh, although as it warms, a slight corn aroma emerges. The body has more malt character than the nose, with sweet grainy maltiness that tastes like Pilsner malt. I’d say I can taste the cleanness and wholesome goodness of the organic malt, but then you might see though my charade of words. The middle dries out, giving way to assertive but restrained hop bitterness. The carbonation bite in the final third wipes the palate clean—it is a bit sharp and bracing with a touch of a carbonic bite, but leaves the palate open to enjoy the dry, clean finish that balances well with the lingering hop bitterness. While this beer is quite comparable to Bell’s Lager in the larger malt body and hop presence, Samuel Smith’s has less sweetness and a wider range of flavor with the same malt substance. As well, the higher carbonation and drier finish allows Samuel Smith’s to better showcase the gentle lingering bitterness at the end. Both, however, make use of the possessive in their respective name. Forced to choose, I’d give the nod to Samuel Smith’s, but this is certainly a win-win choice if ever there was one.

From the bottle: “A full-bodied lager with lots of malty character, a touch hoppier than many lagers yet perfectly balanced. Brewed using lightly kilned organic lager malt from barley grown in the UK, organic hops, yeast and water.”

ABV: 5.0%

(3/13/2011)