Brewery Ommegang: Hennepin

Well, the summer is starting to wind down and we are now in September. But my thoughts are still on the hot, hazy dog days of summer and the perfect refreshment for those days, a Saison Ale.

With that in mind I ran down to Wegmans and went straight to the Belgian section, because there are a ton of truly fantastic saisons from Belgium. Well, I couldn’t make a decision between some of them so I fell back to an old comfortable standby Hennepin. Now technically it's not Belgian but it is brewed true to Belgian style. It’s actually brewed by Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY and they have an affiliation with Duval, so technically it really is Belgian by like the “six degrees of Kevin Bacon” or something like that. But anyway, on with the review:

Appearance: It poured a very light straw color and was quite hazy. It poured a rocky white head, I mean just look at it. It’s glorious. It was also very effervescent with millions of tiny bubbles streaming up the glass as it sat there.

Aroma: I got some very slight hoppy notes, that were balanced with some spicy notes. The spicy notes were peppery almost like black pepper, and then I also smelled a very slight hint of pine.

Taste: The first sip there was a slightly sweet but not overly sweet and cloying. It was light and refreshing. It was very crisp and clean across the palate. It was perfectly balanced so that there were really no stand out flavors that overpowered the beer.

Overall: This is a great beer. It is my old standby for hot summer days. Its always cold and refreshing and quenches your thirst perfectly. If you have it in your area it is definitely worth buying a bottle or two. Enjoy!

Keep ‘em tippin’!!

National IPA Day: Southern Tier Unearthly

Two days ago was National IPA day, so given the opportunity/excuse to drink a beer I’m going to. So while I was grocery shopping with A Bird which was it’s own form of treat slash torture I grabbed a bottle of IPA to celebrate National IPA Day.

***The picture is blurry just like I was after drinking this monster

The beer poured a dark amber and produced a generous “pillowy” head. It was very slightly cloudy. The aroma was not what I had expected. I was looking for an almost overpowering smell of hops, but  what I got was something more delicate. The hops were definitely there but nicely blended with flowery, herbal and almost “perfumey” (I’m not sure that’s a word but you get the point) notes. The whole aroma was very enticing.

Then I took my first sip and was pleasantly surprised again. I was expecting a heavy bitterness and bite up front that smacks you in the face practically yelling “I’M AN IPA, DAMN IT!”, but instead I got a really smooth almost creamy mouthfeel that let the ale notes come before the bite of hops and bitterness came in the finish. Then  like any good IPA, the more I drank of it the stronger the hops and bitterness became.

Overall this was a great IPA and I’m not an IPA guy. Plus it is an Imperial so it was 9.5% alcohol and it was very deceptive. When you were drinking it, the beer was so well balanced that you didn’t notice the alcohol  until it was too late. I would definitely recommend you pick up this beer and enjoy.

Keep ‘em tippin’!

Goose Island: Sofie: Belgian Style Ale Review

It’s been awhile since I had a decent beer to review, or went to the store for a beer for that matter. So I made a trip to Wegmans this past week and saw the Goose Island section of the beer display and the 750 ml bottle of Sofie just jumped out at me.

The bottle has a very nice, clean label that gives it a very sophisticated look. The label more closely resembled a wine label than other beer labels. So I picked up the bottle and saw that it was a Belgian Style Ale and I was sold.

So here we go:

Appearance: The beer poured nicely after some time was given to let the head settle. I’m not a professional beer  pourer but I can pour a decent beer, so pouring this beer was a definite challenge. Right out of the gate it was really foaming even with a gentle pour. The head was pillowy and very cleanly white.  The color of the beer was a light straw color that was filled with streams of tiny effervescent bubbles.

Aroma: The aroma was light. I only was able to smell the citrusy notes of the hops and what can only be described as wet hops.It was the smell of the hops after they have been removed from a carboy or barrel.

Taste: The taste is very true to style, but lighter on the palate than a traditional Belgian. It was slightly fruity, I got notes of orange and L Bird said it was peach, but hey everyone’s palate is different. It was just very clean and crisp, there were no real strong or standout flavors.

Overall: This was a great beer. It was easy to drink and you could easily enjoy more than one. I am a fan of Goose Island and this is just another great beer in their lineup.

So the next time you are looking for a nice summer beer, grab a bottle of Goose Island’s Sofie, you won’t regret it.

Keep ‘em tippin’!

North Coast Brewing: Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout

In business they always say “Know your customers”. Well, in the blogging world it can be tough to know your customers/readers because they can be miles upon miles away from you. Sure you can read through the comments and get a good feel, but this blog is still relatively small and I don’t get a ton of comments. So the best I get is tracking my hits and stats. These stats tell me where the person is viewing from, what posts they viewed, and what traffic source (i.e. google, blogspot, etc.) they found me by. That’s useful information.

Based on that information, something struck me as kind of cool. It would appear that I have an anonymous follower from somewhere in Russia. I’m not sure this is a single follower or a bunch of people, a man, a woman, I have no idea. I am leaning towards it being one person. This is my opinion because my stats tell me that I get traffic from yandex.ru. and the search words they are using are napsgetsbeer.blogspot. So I did a quick google search and found out that yandex is a Russian search engine. So someone over there is specifically searching for my blog. How awesome is that? I know, totally awesome.

Anyway, now that I have bored you with a long back story I decided it would be cool if I did a “shout out” beer review to this person. I wanted to go to Beers of the World to get an beer that was actually brewed in Russia, but well, that just didn’t pan out. So I did the next best thing I went to Wegmans and found North Coast Brewing and picked up their Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. This one is for you, comrade!

Appearance: It pours very black with a generous light brown pillowy head. It is almost completely opaque, you can’t really see a light shone through it. As I drank it, it did produce some nice lacing down the sides of the glass.

Aroma: It has little to no hops present in the aroma. However, dark coffee notes come through instantly. I also smelled some roasted malt with some slight burnt notes. There was also some sort of funky, earthy note in the finish of the aroma. It wasn’t unpleasant, it was just different.

Taste: There are some strong coffee, espresso flavors. The mouthfeel is slightly creamy, but it is not too much. There are also some roasted malty notes. It is dry in the middle,its not too sweet. It is surprisingly smooth for being such an high alcohol beer.

Overall: I thought this was a good representative of a Russian Imperial Stout. This beer could also be pretty dangerous because it is so smooth, you don’t realize how much alcohol it has in it. If you like stouts or just dark beer this beer is well worth picking up.

Enjoy! Keep ‘em tippin’!

Orval Trappist Ale Review

As promised here is the review of the Orval Trappist Ale.

First of all, I’ll apologize for the major foul of not pouring this Belgian into the traditional goblet. Unfortunately that is one piece of glassware I do not own and I am working on rectifying that. But anyway onward and upward.

Appearance: The beer was a cloudy amber, almost rust color. It poured a generous, rocky head.

Aroma: The initial aroma was very yeasty, with some spicy notes and a hint of sourness that is typical in a lambic.

Taste: The taste was very good. It was very crisp and dry on the palate. It had a creamy mouthfeel with some sweeter malt notes and some additional sweet notes from the candied sugar the monks use to brew the beer.

Overall: This beer is a very good example of a Belgian Ale. It has a lot of complexity that makes it very interesting drink. It seems like at every sip you can find some new nuances that are fantastic. If you are looking for a nice Belgian to try, this is definitely worth picking up. It is true to style and it is also still brewed by monks. So go out and grab a bottle.

Keep ‘em tippin’

Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout

So last week L Bird was running out to Wegmans to do some shopping. On her way out she made the mistake of asking me “Do you want anything?” to which I replied “Yeah, of course I do! Grab me a beer to review”. After some discussion back and forth she agreed and was on her way.

Now in the back of my head this whole thing of her picking out a beer was a crapshoot. She doesn’t spend the time looking at the selections, or who made what, etc, she just kind of grabs something blindly and brings it back. Well, I’m happy to say that her selection was a great one.

So let’s go on with the review:

Appearance: It is very black and you can’t see through it even when you hold it up to the light. It pours nicely producing a light tan rocky head.

Aroma: I initially get a lot of coffee notes, but its not the typical coffee aroma. Its more like a burnt, or dark roast coffee almost to an expresso type of aroma. But that finally gives way to some slight flowery notes from the hops.

Taste: I was pleasantly surprised with the initial taste.It was sweet tasting with some bready like qualities. I was expecting to taste some bitterness and chocolate right up front, but was happy with the sweeter notes. The sweetness then gives way to more coffee flavors and then ends with a bitterness reminiscent of dark chocolate. The mouthfeel of the whole beer was awesome, the oatmeal provides the stout with a creamy, silky mouthfeel.

Overall: This is a great example of an Oatmeal Stout from a great brewery. I would recommend this beer to anyone who appreciates dark beer. It is definitely worth the money and worth picking up a bottle or two. So run out and grab a couple and enjoy.

Keep ‘em Tippin’

Ol’ Naps Maibock

I know I haven’t posted in a while, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been brewing. Yep, Ol’ Naps has been brewing up something special. I have been quietly brewing up a nice Maibock. Traditionally Bocks are spring beers that are brewed in the dead of winter and lagered for a few months to to be cracked open for a spring festival. It is a German style and the name Bock actually means goat, so that’s why when March rolls around you’ll see a ton of Bocks being offered and 99% have a goat on the label.

I love these beers. I love that they are brewed to be a celebration of the coming of spring. I have had traditional Bocks, Dopplebocks (double bocks)  and triple bocks, but I have never had a Maibock. It is the same as a traditional bock, but much lighter in color but with the same big, full flavors.

This Maibock has been fermenting for two weeks and was ready for transferring to a glass carboy to be cellared for two months to be ready for the end of March. I took a short video of what the beer looks like and how I transfer below. I apologize ahead of time for the poor video quality.

So take a look and let me know if you have any comments or questions. I am always more than happy to talk beer with anyone.

Prost & Keep  ‘em tippin’

Lagunitas: Little Sumpin’ Wild Ale Review

I was walking through Wegmans a couple of days ago and of course I was cruising the craft beer section. I have been wanting to find something to review that was a little different. Lucky for me I stumbled upon Lagunitas’ Little Sumpin’ Wild Ale. I instantly loved the label artwork, anytime I run across a good vintage pin up I’m sold. So I quickly scooped up a bottle and rushed home to try it.

So here we go:

Very nice label, at least I think so.

It poured a beautiful golden color with red highlights. The head was a thick bed of tiny bubbles that stayed throughout the beer. As I let it sit, it still had some effervescence bubbling from the bottom.

From the name and the description on the bottle, I was expecting something really different. There was a whole little story on the bottle about them using the “Westmalle Yeast Strain”, so I was expecting to smell some interesting esters from the yeast. Instead,I smelled a whole lot of hops. Ok I thought,it is just really hopped up. So then I took a taste, and I tasted a typical IPA. I was very disappointed, I thought I had found something new, something exciting and all I got was a disguised IPA.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a very good IPA. It had a ton of of hop aroma and enough bitterness to carry it. So if IPAs are your thing,it is definitely worth picking up and drinking. I just feel like I was duped. Well, they obviously pay their marketing department well, because they sucked me right in with a beautiful label and a great story. If they had labeled it as an IPA,I would have passed right over it. I don’t mind IPAs but they are definitely not my beer.

So there you have it,it is a good beer, but definitely unexpected. So until my next trip to Wegmans, keep ‘em tippin’!

Sierra Nevada: 30th Anniversary Grand Cru

I had to stop into Wegman’s on my lunch yesterday to pick up apple juice and spaghetti sauce. So as I was wandering the aisles I came across a special find. Sierra Nevada’s 30th Anniversary Grand Cru. Normally I’m not a huge fan of Sierra Nevada, I know I know tons of people love it, but it just isn’t to my taste most of the time. However this bottle caught my eye, as it was a big beer at 9.2% alcohol, and it was a melding of three of their beers: oak aged Big Foot, Celebration Ale, and “fresh” Pale Ale. So I figured what the hell and threw the bottle in the basket. So here we go:

It poured a nice deep amber color that reminded me of amber jewelry and it had a full thick head. The head lasted through the whole beer lacing down the sides of the glass.

The initial aroma was all hops and that makes sense because on the label they said it was “generously dry hopped”. The the hops continued into the first sip. The first taste was very IPA’ish (Yes, that’s my new word). There was a lot of bitterness and hoppiness that was mixed with a softer wood notes. I did pick up the slight oak character but I didn’t taste any of the other flavors typically associated with beer aged in bourbon barrels. The beer was slightly “hot” from the alcohol in it, but all of the other flavors were in enough of a balance that the alcohol didn’t overpower the taste.

Overall, it was a very good beer and a great entry for Sierra Nevada. Like I said before, I’m not a SN fan, but this was one damn good beer. It is definitely a sipping beer because of all of the heavier flavors and the alcohol, more than one of these and you might be down for the count, but its definitely worth picking up a bottle if you have a chance.

Keep ‘em tippin’!!

Naked Dove Brewing Company

A new microbrewery opened up near me in Canandaigua, its actually funny because the building its in was vacant for a few years and every time I drove by I would say to L Bird “You know that would be a perfect place for a brewery.” Well it appears that I was not alone in that thought. So last  Saturday, L Bird, Dinker and his Old Lady went to the Naked Dove to check it out.
We went in and did a tasting and took the tour. I had the camera with me but I was too wrapped up in the beer and the tour that I forgot to take any pictures. I know I’m a dork, right? But anyway, I just hit some of the highlights of the tour. There are 3 guys who own it, Dave, Don, and Ken and the name Naked Dove is an anagram of their three names. They currently have a 15 barrel brewhouse and a mixture of 15 and 30 barrel fermenters. They are putting their beers into half kegs with plans to sell to the bars. They have big plans to expand up to 60 barrel fermenters and had a 16 stem filler sitting in the back waiting to be put together so they can start to bottle their beer. The tour is definitely worth taking, there was much much more, but I didn’t want to bother you with all of the details that I find absolutely intriguing but you might not find them so interesting.
So back to the tasting, it was $3 for a flight of 3 beers but you got a souvenir glass and a $2 discount on any merchandise. I knew I was going to get a pint glass and a growler so it really was $1 for the flight. I was very impressed with their tasting glasses, they were huge.
 
I know it looks tiny in my giant hand (inside joke), but it really is a big tasting glass. The flight was an Amber Ale, an IPA, and a Porter. All three beers were good beers. The Amber Ale was sweet at the first sip, Dinker noted the honey flavor first and as soon as he said  it, it was all I could taste. It was a all around good beer, the honey/sweetness was a nice compliment to the malt. The IPA was not a traditional IPA that I’m used to. It was packed with hop aroma, but the normal hop bitterness doesn’t smack you in the face like most IPAs I have had. The bitterness was there and got stronger the more you tasted it, but it wasn’t right up front. I thought this was a different but a good take on an IPA. Then the Porter was last, and Porter is my favorite style so I was very pleasantly surprised by theirs. It was very good, full of malty notes and coffee flavors.
Overall the beers are very good, they are nothing that is big, bold and new, but they are definitely high quality samples that will do well in the market. The experience was great, getting to do the tasting with the brewmaster and getting a tour made Naked Dove Brewing Company an instant favorite of mine. I’m sure I’ll be stopping by many, many more times.
Here’s another picture to show how big the tasting glasses are and some of my new swag.

So if you are in the Canandaigua area, you should definitely stop by and check them out. If you not going to stop by, you should at least check out their facebook page here. But until then support your local brewers and drink local! Enjoy!!!

Lagunitas: Lucky 13 Beer Review

I was walking through the beer section at Wegmans and as I was looking over the bottles one just jumped out at me. Lagunitas Lucky 13 “A Mondo Large Red Ale”. The number 13 is my lucky number, I know most people tend to associate the number 13 with bad luck, nevermind Friday The 13th. With that being said I was born on Friday the 13th, and I have made my own luck, so 13 is my lucky number. But anyway I am starting to ramble so on with the review.

 

The initial appearance was like a light caramel/toffee with very slight hints of red. There was little to no head, but the head that was there stuck through to the end and provided some beautiful lacing down the glass.

The aroma was very citrusy, like walking through an orange grove. I’m guessing that they probably hopped heavy with cascades. The first sip is very hoppy, which I was not expecting in a red ale. It has a nice creamy mouthfeel with a thicker body. The alcohol kicks in and I found a slight hot note from the 8.5% alcohol. The citrus stays through the palate and actually turns to a little more lemon/lime flavor.

Overall, this is  a good beer. It has nice fruit notes that give it a sweet character but not so much that it makes it overpowering and cloying. I would definitely buy this beer again.

Custom Brewcrafters: Double Dark Cream Porter

So last weekend my buddy Dinker and his old lady stopped by for a bit and he had in hand a 6 pack of Custom Brewcrafters Double Dark Cream Porter. I am a big fan of dark beer and especially porters. So we had a couple and he left the remnants of the 6 pack for me. I stashed a bottle away and I am just getting to the review now.

Well it lived up to its name as double dark, it poured very dark almost pitch black with no clarity. There was very little head and it lost its retention almost as soon as it was poured. The head that was there was dark tan to a light brown made up of loose/larger bubbles.

The aroma was almost non existent, there were faint traces of coffee and roasted notes, but none of it was overpowering. The flavor followed suit as all of the flavors were very subdued. There were notes of mocha, chocolate and traces of coffee with none of the bitterness. The body was very thin and the carbonation was light and true to style.

Overall, this beer was a very good beer. It was easy to drink and tasted great. It was nothing to write home about and could be easily lost in this style category with the numerous other porter labels. It wasn’t a standout by any means, but I could easily see this as a old standby that I would stock in my fridge when I just wanted a dark easy drinking beer.

It is definitely  worth a shot, I bet you’ll find it a nice easy going beer.

Ithaca Beer – 12 Anniversary Ale: Monastery-style Quadruple Ale – Beer Review

So it has been said that great minds think a like, and that was true for Saturday night. My buddy Dinker was stopping by so I ran out to buy a decent beer for a possible dual review, well he had the same idea and brought over a beautiful bottle of 12 Anniversary Ale from Ithaca Beer. Well his Quadruple ale trumped by beer by Goose Island, so we reviewed the Quad.

12 Anniversary Ale is another beer in Ithaca’s Excelsior line. I reviewed the White Gold in an earlier review, so I had high hopes for this beer as well. So I poured the bottle and away we go:

 

PROST!!

Aroma: Naps – A lot of yeasty aromas, not much hop aroma     Dinker – Not as he would have expected, more yeasty  aromas

Visual:  Naps – very heady, very turbid but could be because of the pour. Dark brown in color.

Dinker – Chestnut brown, a bit cloudy but expected because of the bottle fermentation.

Taste: Naps – definitiely got some dark chocolate notes, it was very apparent in the middle of the palate, then finished with the same bitterness from dark chocolate. Has slight CO2 bite, but still very smooth. Definitely has some alcohol content which is expected because it is a Quadruple, I could feel the back of neck getting warm as I was finishing my glass.

Dinker – Very smooth moutfeel, and very drinkable. The alcohol is not as strong as expected for a Quad. Wouldn’t label it as a traditional Quad, there is something different about it that makes it unique from other Quads.

Overall: Naps -  This was my first Quad. I have had Dubbels and Trippels that have been very good, but this was very very good. So far I have really liked everything in Ithaca’s Excelsior line.

Dinker – This beer is definitely worth the $8 I paid for it. It is different than other Quads, but I just can’t put my finger on it. It is very drinkable and I could have easily drank the whole bottle, where other Quads tend to be very heavy and after  1 pint you’re finished. I definitely like both this and the White Gold in the Excelsior line.

So if you have an extra $8 and you see this bottle it is definitely worth trying. Also in my personal opinion after  trying two beers from Ithaca’s Excelsior line up, I would buy and try any beer that is in that line. So until then grab a pint, tip the bottom up and enjoy.

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!!!

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!

Ithaca Beer Surprises

On one of my frequent trips to Wegman’s I was perusing a beer section when something out of the ordinary caught my eye. There in the middle of all the six packs and single bottles was what looked to be a few wine bottles. I know that there is new legislation to get wine sold in grocery stores, but as far as I knew that bill hasn’t passed, so I went in for a closer look. Upon closer inspection, I came upon Ithaca Beer Company’s Excelsior White Gold:

Now this beer was attractively packaged and really caught my eye and got me interested. Then I read the label and was even more intrigued.

 

I liked that Ithaca Beer was being creative and using a range of different ingredients to produce small batches of quality beer. I also really liked that each bottle was labeled with the batch number, and they were allowed to bottled condition. When you bottled condition beer, you allow the beer to come to take on a life of its own. The yeast continue to produce flavors and the flavors that are already there change and evolve over time. It also means that every bottle is different, even though they were bottled from the same batch. That makes each beer its own little treasure, to be prized and hoarded.

I know, I know all of this and I haven’t even tasted the beer yet. Well here we go: I popped the top and I immediately knew I was in for some enjoyment. The beer started foaming over, like it was champagne. I quickly grabbed a glass and gently starting pouring it over and the results were:

  FOAMY!!!!

It finally settled down and I was able to pour the rest and this is what I got.

  It was a nice amber color, almost exactly the color of the amber jewelry you see at the summer arts festivals, and the clarity was very hazy. As the bottle said these beers are unfiltered and bottle conditioned, so I was expecting this haze.

AROMA: Very yeasty, you could smell the yeast themselves. If you have ever taken a brewery/winery tour and they take you back to the fermentation cellar, that’s exactly the smell. After the initial blast of yeast, there are some softer, fruitier notes that smell like slightly sour/tangy citrus. Probably oranges as Belgian Styles go well when paired with orange.

TASTE: Tons of CO2, which impart some bitterness but not enough to be objectionable. There is a soft mouth feel with some “slickness” that coats your tongue. It is very true to style for a Belgian White, notes of light wheat and orange and as I got closer to the bottom of the glass I actually had a few bits of orange in the beer, well at least I hope they were orange bits, but that’s what they tasted like to me. There were some other earthy notes, like fresh leaves, like fall but they were very very slight.

OVERALL: This was a very good beer. It is also a sipping beer at 8% alcohol, you can really enjoy each sip and taste all the flavors that are there. If you like Belgian White beers this is definitely worth buying and I would buy a couple of bottles. Drink one and cellar the others and try them at a later date. I think I might go out and buy a few and do that myself. I have always liked Ithaca Beer, but to me they were always like a good craft brewery on the edge of really breaking through into a great craft brewery. With this Excelsior line they have really broken through and put themselves on level with Stone Brewing and Dogfish Head in my opinion. Hands down just a great beer.

Coop’s Red Ale – Homebrew Review

I have a friend who is taking a real interest in homebrewing and recently just brewed up his first batch. So in our conversations, I had a few small gaskets that could make his life easier and  his wife happier (Leaky gaskets = sticky beer fermentation on the floor = angry wife) I learned this the hard way myself, when one of my first brews blew up all over the counter on down onto the floor, but anyway. So I stopped by to drop off the gaskets and was lucky enough to snag two bottles of his first brew. So after getting some permission, I figured I would give him some proper feedback and post this review. So here we go:

Here she is in all of her glory. From the picture alone you can tell that it poured with a generous head and it finally dissipated down to this. On with the review.

APPEARANCE: Nice full slightly off white head. Color is a nice copper, with slight red highlights when held up to the light. The clarity is pretty hazy almost like a wheat beer.

AROMA: Some fruity esters, I smell some orchard notes, maybe apple and some pear.

TASTE: It has good mouthfeel. It is very soft and light on the palate, but there is some sweetness that coats your tongue. Once the initial sweetness clears it gives way to some slight caramel and biscuit flavors from the malt and some bitterness from all of the CO2 that keeps bubbling through it.

OVERALL: This is a good beer, much better than my first attempt. It is very drinkable and light enough where I’m going to break into the second bottle after I’m done writing this. It does have some room to be improved to take it from a good intro beer to a great everyday drinking beer. These are just my opinions and suggestions, so take them for what they are worth. I think that the beer wasn’t completely done fermenting and that’s where a lot of the sweetness is coming from. That also accounts for a lot of the CO2 that it is still producing and the haziness. This would be my only suggestion, that instead of bottling it so soon, I would transfer it to a secondary fermenter for 4 – 6 days to make sure that the fermentation is completely finished, then bottle it. This extra time fermenting would give the yeast a little more time to eat up some of the sugar and make it a little less sweet and a better rounded beer. This extra time would also help with the clarity of the beer as more of the sediment would drop out and the beer would be clearer at the time of bottling. But even these things are very minor things and easy to fix, but even if they weren’t fixed this beer is still a damn good beer and I would drink it over a bunch of others that are commercially produced.

If I had to give this beer a grade I would easily give it B-. That is not bad at all for a first attempt. So you can only go up from here. Keep brewing. Awesome!

A couple of Russkies…. and some chicks

So a few things have been going on this week. First my 1 day old baby chicks showed up. Now I know, I know you think I’m crazy and what the hell do chickens have to do with beer. Well first lets take a look at a these little fuzzballs and then I’ll explain.

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So some of Lauren’s hippie tree-hugging stink must be starting to rub off on me, here is how chickens tie to my beer. I am really digging this all natural, home grown, home brewed vibe, so I bought 10 hops rhizomes and I’m going to plant them soon. So I want to use my own hops in my beer, I know where they come from and what if any pesticides will be applied. So in that same vein, chickens are not only an excellent source of delicious drug free eggs, they also produce a ton of home grown fertilizer a.k.a chicken shit. So I will compost this into a healthy fertilizer and use it to fertilize my bines. (hops are grown on bines, where grapes on grown on vines). Also another benefit from my chickens is pest control. When I grew hops before they were ripped to shreds by Japanese beetles. So these five voracious, vicious little beaks will take care of that problem for me and I should get a better cone harvest. So their you have it, chickens make good beer. Now on to the Russians…….
Also this week, I have had the opportunity to try a couple of Russian beers. My Pop is an electrician and works for a contracting company. One of the guys he works with is straight off the boat Russian, Lenny (Insert incredibly hard to pronounce Russian name here). So Lenny is a big fan of beer, and my Pop is always bragging about my beer, so he took a few into Lenny to try, and Lenny being the upstanding guy he is made it an even trade and gave my Pop four Russian beers from Beers of the World. The first is:
   Now apparently Russian beers are all graded on a number scale. That’s what Lenny said, but somewhere in the translation, I lost what the numbers actually stood for. So here is Baltika 3 and it just says its a “Classic Beer” and it is 4.8% alc. Now the price tag and the #3 should have been a warning. When the price is $0.97 per bottle you know you are in for it, but what the hell it was free beer, right? It poured very clear and had a sparkling white head.

And then everything went bad. There was a slightly skunky aroma, but still I decided to taste it. The body was very light, but then the taste hit me. It tasted like Heineken and Busch Light had twins, then the twins inbred and had a baby that reproduced with a Keystone and that glorious love child is Baltika 3. The taste just wasn’t that pleasant. The more I drank, the more my mouth began to taste like it was sucking on a skunk’s ass. But that little voice in my head kept repeating “There’s no such thing as bad beer, there is only better beer.” and with that I powered it down and called it a night. Time to check the score: Russia 1 – Naps 0.
So I gathered up my courage the next night and decided to take on Russia for Round 2.
  Baltika #9 Extra Lager. It was 8% alc by volume, so that was a little more promising. I pulled out a nice clean glass and let it pour.
So it was a nice pale, crystal clear lager, with a nice full head comprised of tiny tiny bubbles. I poked my nose down into that head and assessed the aroma, and what I found was little to none. Well even that was a promising sign after smelling the skunky smell from Baltika #3. So I decide it can’t be that bad, and take a big sip and the instant picture in my head is a warm green glass beer bottle ala Heineken, Rolling Rock, Becks, etc. So its a little skunky. But not that bad, its still very drinkable and it settles into its own quite quickly. The skunkiness dissipates and the beer becomes much better the more of it goes down. So the score is now even  Russia 1 – Naps 1.
Overall, the Russian beers are nothing I would pay for and drink, but of the two the #9 was much better and I could drink it again if it was offered, but I would not be running to get another #3. But in the end, both of them were free, so they were both good because they were free.
If you are brave enough to take on Mother Russia, give these two a try and let me know what you think. Prost!!

Take me back to the Motherland

It has been a hell of a week this week. Its just been busy and it seems like one thing happens on the heels of the next, so I am just now getting to this review. I had to go to Wegman’s to pick up the essentials for the ladies in my life. That would be apple juice, slo-melt popsicle mighty minis, and a quart of chocolate almond ice cream. So as long as I was there and I was already back in the frozen section which is directly adjacent to the beer section, I figured I would pick up myself a little something. So I was feeling nostalgic about my heritage, so I decided I would make my selection out of the German section. So here it is:

Reissdorf Kolsch, straight from Germany. Its so legit it even states the “Reinheitsgebot von 1516”. For those of you who don’t know what that is, here’s the history. The German’s were so hardcore about their beer and brewing that they enacted the above law which means German Purity Law and it was legalized in 1516. It states that beer can only be made from 4 ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, and Yeast. It was put into effect because of a few reasons, competition over ingredients and also they didn’t want brewer’s using other ingredients that could potentially be harmful or lethal to the beer drinking public, hence giving beer a bad name.

But anyway onto the review:

The Kolsch was very light in color and crystal clear. It produced a generous head that was bright white. I also noticed immediately the effervescence of this beer, it just kept bubbling the whole time it was sitting there.

Aroma: The first thing I smelled was that skunky Heineken smell. You know what I am talking about that mixture of cabbage and cat piss. Not really a good start.

Flavor: First hit is the bitterness from all of the CO2. It is very light, but no noticeable hop or malt notes. Just a lot of “burn” from all of the CO2.

Overall, it was a refreshing beer to drink. It was light in everything, color, mouthfeel, flavor, the works. It was a beer that would have appeal for drinking it in mass quantity. It isn’t full of flavor like a stout or porter where you drink one bottle and that’s enough. I would buy this beer again for a hot sunny day on the back deck, but other than that it wouldn’t be my first choice.

So pick it up and give it a shot and let me know what you think.

Bock Tasting, Take Two.

Well, unfortunately a week of sitting in warmer conditions did nothing to bring the yeast back to carbonating my Bock. I was holding out hope that the little cold snap that the bottles went through wasn’t enough to kill all of the yeast, but it looks that way. Oh well, it still tastes pretty true to style and that’s pretty cool to me, it just is flat. It will still get drank either way.

Well, on with the review. This is the initial pour. I was pouring it roughly right into the center of the glass to try and generate as much head as possible, but this is the result I got.

Now you can see that there is a little head that forms, but in comparison if you poured another properly carbonated beer into a glass like this it would foam out the top before you got to the top.

The head quickly dissipates, but the aroma is still there. I can smell some a hint of roasted malt and the faint aroma of hops that seem slightly spicy. The color is beautiful, it is a nice light brown with almost perfect clarity. It has slight copper/red highlights when held to the light.

The taste is smooth, but sweet. The sweetness throws you off at first. It leaves almost a slick feeling coating on the tongue, its not bad just different. It has notes of sweet fruits, maybe plum, I’m not real sure, I only caught it for a second, because it is quickly overtaken by sweet notes of maple/maple syrup.

Overall, I would not buy this beer if I had tasted it before and I didn’t brew it. It has a few flaws as far no carbonation and the overly sweet flavor. However, I would brew it again and try to correct these flaws. So we shall see, if and when I brew it again. But in the meantime, this beer will still be drank by me and my friends. It is still a good beer and will be put to good use. So I’ll finish this one and probably another, so until next time. Prost!!