Briglin Road Red – Keuka Brewing Co. Beer Review

So it has taken me a little bit to get back to this review because I have been crazy busy with work then coming home and taking advantage of this gorgeous weather to do some outdoor projects. So by the time I get back inside the sun has long been set and I am too exhausted to do anything other than pop a top.

But luckily for me I finished up for the night a bit early tonight to spend some QT with my two ladies. But now one of them has just been read a bed time story, given some water and put to bed and the other is relaxing in the air conditioned heaven that is our bedroom. So I am free to blog away about this beer, but first I want to show you some new swag:

Pretty standard pub glasses, but I am loving the 1 liter swingtop to buy beer in. They also had your run of the mill growlers but I was only in the mood for a liter, plus it was a sweet bottle. So on with the review.

Appearance: It was a light brown to red in color with great clarity, you can see through it in this picture. It poured a decent off white head.

Aroma: It smelled quite pleasant with very slight notes of malt, but it was more the citrus smells from the cascade hops that made the aroma so good.

Taste: At first sip it wasn’t what I expected. It was a little more malty than I would have thought, but that quickly gives way to a slight bitterness. The bitterness is short lived and the beer goes on to give a smooth finish that is very soft on the palate.

Overall: This is a decent beer, nice for hot afternoon after you just get off the mower and you sit on the deck to admire your work, you could easily make your way through a 1 liter of the Briglin Road Red. It is pleasant and smooth, but has nothing to make it stand out from the pack of other red ales. I’m not saying that it isn’t good, because it is a good beer, I’m just saying it isn’t unique and would be easily lost in the pack of other red ales on the market.

However, with that being said it was still a good beer and if you are like me and prefer to buy locally it is definitely worth stopping by the brewery or finding one of the tiny stores in Hammondsport, NY that sell it. If you are interested in checking out what else they have, here is a link to their website: Keuka Brewing Co.

Brew Big, Drink Big!!!

A beer trip for 3 …. Hoppy Beerthday to us!!

So my best friend’s birthday is two days before mine and we both share a love of beer, so this year we decided that we would check out a newer nano/microbrewery Keuka Brewing Co. So Jeremy, my wife Lauren and I loaded up in the car and headed towards Hammondsport, NY.

We finally found our way out into the sticks and the first sight we see when we pull in the parking lot is:

OK, what the hell is going on, there is a port-a-potty in the middle of the parking lot. Not a good sign, I realize that they are a small place but seriously a port-a-potty. So now we had no idea of what to expect walking into this place, but things started to look up.

 

Then we walked into the tasting room and things really started to look better. The tasting room was really nice and was decorated interestingly.

After taking a quick look around the tasting room, I amazed at how busy the place was. It was really packed, a steady line of people were at the bar, so things looked really promising. Then we noticed the board of beer:

Let the tasting begin:

1. White Cap Wheat: It was very light, slightly watery and very typical of a wheat beer.

2. KBC Pale Ale: A very good pale ale with a slight hoppy kick, one of my favorites of the day.

3. Briglin Road Red: Will review this beer later, I bought a 1 liter of this beer alone.

4. Full Sail Stout: A good stout, but very light in mouthfeel. A lot of coffee notes, and some very slight chocolate notes.

5. Hoppy Laker IPA: This is a very hoppy IPA, you get hit with a lot of hops as soon as you taste it, but then they dissipate quickly and it leaves none of the bitterness. So it wasn’t a real good representation of an IPA.

So of the five beers I tried, I really liked 2 of them. I liked the KBC Pale Ale and the Briglin Road Red. I ended up buying a a 1 liter bottle of the Red which I will review at a later date.

Overall, it was a nice little spot to taste some beer and hell any day tasting beer is a good day. So if you ever find yourself down near Hammondsport, NY stop in and have a pint or growler.

Coop’s Irish Stout – Homebrew Review

So I have been pretty busy as of late with too many things to list, but I have had this beer review in my back pocket for about a week. It definitely seems that the homebrew itch has struck my friend pretty hard, he has brewed two batches and is itching to start a third. So in the spirit of homebrewing we traded a few bottles to each other to get some honest opinions. He traded me some of his Irish Stout for some of my German Alt (beer review to follow soon, I hope). So here is the review of his second brew:

Appearance: Very, very dark almost black in color. When held to the light you can barely see through it and it has some red highlights. It pours a generous head with nice off-white to very light tan bubbles. Very true to style.
Aroma: Some slight chocolate notes, and a lot of dark malt with a hint of some black patent malt. Some slight coffee aromas, as well. Very little hop aroma, which is true to the style.
Taste: Very smooth on the palate. Some of the same aroma notes come through in the mouth. Like the coffee, chocolate, and darker malts come through giving it great balance. It is heavy enough but not overpowering.
Overall: This was a great representation of the Stout style. I am a big fan of dark beer and this was a great beer. Coop gave me 4 bottles and they didn’t last long. I was really impressed with this beer and he did a fantastic job. Overall it was a fantastic beer. Great job, man.
Stay tuned for the German Alt review and a trip to Keuka Brewing, but until then keep em’ tipping!

Dreams and Wishlists….. we all have ‘em, right?

So lately I’ve been daydreaming hard about opening a nano-brewery. I think about it often and have thought about it for the last 3 years off an on. I would love to be able to produce a few good beers and be able to sell them and have people enjoy them. That is one of the  greatest things to see, is when you pour someone a cold beer, they put that glass to their lips, take a big swig and you see their eyes light up and their body relax as they enjoy that delicious goodness we call beer. Then once the first sip of enjoyment is over and you tell them that you brewed that beer and see the look of amazement on their faces, its priceless. That is what I want. I want people to go into a store buy a six pack of my beer, read my little blurb on the bottle, see my signature, and think to themselves “Damn, that Naps makes one hell of a beer.”

So on my way to that final dream, I have done a lot of dreaming and wishing. At times I have let that dream slide to the back of my mind, because the normal everyday stresses add up and just push it to the back, then on other days I go to the other end of the spectrum and think of nothing else but developing my brewery. I mean everything from the brewery name, to beer styles/names/labels to brewing systems. So today was one of those days where I was just thinking of nothing else and I started with brewery names.

A while back I really liked the name Stubborn Bull Brewing Co. I thought it just fit me and my life. My family is full of Tauruses, Me, my wife, my daughter, my brother, my father, my best friend, you get the idea. There are a lot of bulls in my life and my world is definitely dominated by the bull. They are all grounded people, but once they get an idea in their head they are stubborn as hell, myself included, I am probably the most stubborn. So with that in mind I had an idea of what I thought a logo should look like and I fiddled around with a logo company and this is what they came up with.

 

Now I don’t think it’s perfect, but I thought it was a pretty good start. I really liked the bull and the head position, like he is pulling away from anyone/anything that maybe calling/chasing him. He’s standing defiantly on the top of the hill refusing to be pulled down to the pasture. But I was also thinking that it could be set a little further away, so it looked like a lone bull standing on a hill with his head held in defiance. So we’ll see if I tweak it or start from scratch, who knows by the time I actually get around to being ready to start up. But what do you think??

So as I was thinking back on this logo, it naturally led me down the path of equipment needs and actual brewing knowledge. My practical side kicked in and I was all about the cost and logistics of starting my own brewery. I definitely want to start small, something along the lines of 1.5 – 2 barrel system. A quick google search led me to this 2 Barrel Brewing System . It is a great system, with a relatively modest price tag of approximately $20,000, which in the big picture is small potatoes. However in my picture that is a huge chunk of change that is a risky venture, but I try to tell myself that other people have done it and are doing it all the time. So I figure if I had a nice size pole barn, the 2 barrel system, some start up money for materials, utility bills and other incidentals that I’m leaving out here for the sake of not scaring the shit out of myself more, I would roughly need $45,000-50,000 to start up properly. But in the business world that is a very cheap start up cost. So there is hope for my dream of coming true, but before I take the risk I have some serious work to do.

I have been a serious homebrewer for the last 5 years, but I have no idea of how to ramp up my 5 gallon production to a 2 barrel system (roughly 60 gallons). I need to take a few more tours of the smaller brewpubs and talk to their brewers and see what helpful hints they can pass along. Then read a few books that have the practical knowledge I need. Then who knows, maybe I’ll be ready to throw my hat in the ring of nanobrewing and craft beer. But until then I’ll just keep tipping them back and wishing and dreaming, I suggest you do the same, well at least the tipping them back part. Prost!!