Pretty Things Jack D’or Saison Review

Its been quite awhile since I have done a proper beer review. I have been cutting back my drinking for a bit and on the occasions when I’ve had a social drink or two it has always been from a big producer. So I decided it was time to do a review, which brings me to Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project.

As I was looking for a beer, I have to say I was drawn in by the artwork and name on the label. I thought that “Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project” sounded pretty cool and home grown. Once I grabbed the bottle and read a little bit I was won over. The owners introduce themselves, tell us they draw their own labels, and brew their own beer in their tiny and creative brewery. Awesome, I love supporting small start ups. So on with the review:

Appearance: It pours a pale straw color and is slightly hazy. The head quickly dissipated, but the beer was very effervescent.

Aroma: The initial aroma was citrusy with some spicier notes. There were also some wheat and yeast aromas that were reminiscent of a hefeweizen .

Taste: It has a clean and crisp taste that gives way to a very slight bitterness. It was light, easy drinking and refreshing.

Overall: This is a nice beer, it’s drinkability is great. This is supposed to be a Saison which is traditionally a farmhouse ale style that is pretty open to interpretation. Their interpretation is nice, but it is nothing that stands out amongst the crowd. That is not saying that it is not a good beer, because it really is fantastic, but it isn’t going to stand out in a tasting of 10 Saisons. But even with that caveat it is definitely worth picking up a bottle or two. Plus hey you are supporting a small Mom & Pop brewery which is awesome in itself.

Keep ‘em ‘tippin!!

Lake Placid Pub & Brewery

This weekend L Bird, Dinker, Cheesepaws Mom, and I went to Lake Placid for Oktoberfest, you can see the whole deal here. But one of the awesome things we got to do was have dinner at the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery.

We got there just in time for the dinner rush, so we had a fifteen minute wait for a table. Perfect, we had time to go to the bar and order a drink. The bar was packed, but lucky for us LPP&B has two bars, one upstairs and one downstairs. LPP&B is built in an old church so we walk out the entryway past some beautiful stained glass and downstairs to the second bar. Unfortunately for us, this bar was packed as well. We eventually made our way to the bar and got our beers.

I forgot what everyone else had, but I started with the Moose Island Ale. This is definitely a session beer. It was only 4.4% alc/vol and it was very light. It was crisp and clean, it didn’t have much aroma, but the taste was very refreshing. I could easily have drank a lot of this beer.

They called us to our table pretty quickly which was cool. We finished our beers and ordered another round while we waited for our food. This time I got the Barkeater Amber. This beer was fantastic, it was nicely balanced with good malty flavors and a slight amount of hops.

Our dinners came and they were also very delicious. I had “Josh’s Fire Fish”, which was basically a fish fry that was dipped in hot wing sauce. It was very good, I would highly recommend it.

Overall, it was a very good dinner and some very good beers with good friends. If you are ever in the Lake Placid area, The Lake Placid Pub & Brewery should definitely be on itinerary. So stop by, have a few cold ones, enjoy and as always keep ‘em tippin’!!

A Winter Warmer, well sort of….

It’s turning colder and has been chilly and raining all week, so that got me thinking about winter and brewing up some winter warmer beers. I was thinking of something nice, dark, malty and plenty of kick, but then I decided to take a different approach. Some of you may remember the infamous Hot Chili Pepper beer. Well what better way to keep warm in the winter than sweating to every wonderful sip of Hot Chili Pepper Ale and munching cheese with the Bears game on TV.

So I’m going to start brewing up a 6 gallon batch of fiery goodness,  but this time I think I am going to experiment a little and split the batch up into three 2 gallon fermenters. Then I can experiment with levels of heat. I’ll ferment one with mild jalapenos, a medium heat fermenter with mostly jalapenos and one or two habaneros, and the last fermenter will be an inferno with generous habaneros and a few jalapenos to round out the flavor.
I’ll try to post some good pictures or videos of the brewing process and hopefully some video of people trying them. Until then keep ‘em tippin’ !!!

Auction Beer Swag

So occasionally my buddy Capt. Insano and I hit the local auction. Now the whole auction is the greatest show in itself. It is set in an old barn, they have old church pews and old rows of movie theater seats bolted to the floor, the whole place is a greasy looking yellow from all of the smoke and grease and they have one of the most miserable auctioneers I’ve seen. But the whole scene is hysterical. She sits up on the raised platform and yells at her workers to bring things faster, then she comes up with odd words for certain items, like a few weeks ago everything was either a “compote” or a “commode”, last night everything was either a “spittoon” or a “chamber pot”. She yells at people to “put their damn cards up” and then usually the evening ends when she has had enough and closes the night. So the whole thing is always very entertaining.

We have gone a few times and normally come away with some useless junk, but it was fun. Well last night  was a great night for beer memorabilia. So I scored a pretty sweet find.

Yep, a vintage Genesee Beer tray. They also had a Genesee pool table light and a Schaefers hanging bar clock/lighted sign that was definitely vintage. I gave both of those things a shot but they quickly flew out of my price range. But overall I think it was a successful night at the auction.

Keep ‘em tippin’ !

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’!

Double Red Ale: Possible Giveaway??

I was looking around for something different to brew a few weeks ago and after looking through my beer magazines, an idea hit me. I decided I would brew a Double (Imperial) Red Ale. Well, there was one problem, I had a good Red Ale recipe, but nothing for a Double Red, so I improvised. I took my Red Ale recipe and doubled a few of the grains, but I probably should have not doubled the small amount of Simpson’s Dark Crystal Malt. Because of that little error my “RED” Ale is more of a nut brown than red. We’ll see what it looks like at bottling. (I've been sitting on this post, the beer definitely has red highlights.)

That brings me to my next point, I am going to be putting it in the bottles sometime this week. I bottle into 22 oz brown bottles, because if you are going to drink one homebrew, you probably are going to drink another so why not just cut to the chase and drink one 22 oz’er, right? So my 5 1/2 gallons will typically give me 27-29 bottles depending on how much beer I actually get after transferring it to the bottling vessel.

Now I know right now you are probably wondering what the title of this post is all about. It says “giveaway” and he is yammering on and on about his brewing goof ups. Well, lets get to it. I started a new workout program and it has taken a drastic cut to my drinking. Now I’m am going to keep a 6 pack of them for myself to be drank on special occasions, and I have obligations to some of my cohorts to give them a test bottle, but the rest I am going to give away. Now due to international alcohol shipping laws, I will not be able to give away any bottles to anyone outside the US. Sorry to all my international readers, don’t be mad at me, be mad at the various government bodies that enforce these rules.

So here is what I am thinking, I will have 5 bottles to give away. So the first 5 people to leave a comment will receive 1 – 22 oz bottles of Ol’ Naps Used to be Red Ale. The only thing I ask is that after you taste it, you come back to this post and leave me honest feedback. If you hate and fed it to the dog, great! Tell me that. If you loved it or have suggestions, tell me those too.

Now I’m hoping that most of these go locally because of shipping issues, but if you do live out of state, I’ll try to get crafty to get it to you. Just drop me your email and we can work out the details.

Good luck and happy tasting! Keep ‘em tippin’ !