Day 53, English style beers this week: Pale Ale, Dry Stout and Foreign Extra Stout.

We went on vacation this week to the Oregon coast. It was a good time to get away for a night, but it didn't come without a price. The thing is that I don't really tan well, so I'm usually either really pale or if for some reason I am retarded and go out into the sun without sunblock I am lobster red and in pain. This was the later case and it is now two days later and I can now finally walk without too much pain. Wish me a speedy recovery.

Anyways, the drinking went like this: Some time on Sunday it must have been I had the Pale Ale, on Monday morning I got two cavities filled in, took a nap, and headed for the beach that afternoon. That night in Manzanita, OR where we stayed at a very nice little inn, we went to the San Dune Pub for some late night grub and I had a Guinness on tap. After coming back home I had a bottle of what we will call Foreign Extra Stout. Now on the the critique.

Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Pale Ale from Tadcaster, England was an interesting beer, what was most interesting is the contrast between this one and the Sierra Nevada Pale I had some time before. First thing to note is that the beer is not really pale at all, it was more of an amber in color, and not much of a head retention. Not much hops in the aroma, but had some nice malt complexity. The taste was pleasant, again much more malty than hoppy with decent carbonation. This went very well with some aged sharp white cheddar. This beer came in one of the darkest brown 550ml bottles I've ever seen, and had a ABV of  5%.

On a 0-3 scale: 2 (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: Yes

Would I recommend to a friend: Yes, but not as an example of what is typically known as a Pale Ale here in the west
What would I do different: maybe a little more hops, but who knows the trip from England could have spoiled it.

So of course I had to have a Guinness on a nitro tap. Nitro tap just means that the keg of beer is pressurized with nitrogen gas instead of carbon dioxide, and because nitrogen is a smaller bubble the beer comes out very very foamy and has a very smooth mouth-feel without the prickly bite of the CO2. Typicality nitro taps would have stouts or cream ales but also other beers are interesting to try on nitrogen. This beer was as you can see in the picture and as is typical of the nitro, had a creamy head with the bubbles flowing up for a very long time. The color of it should actually be almost black, but the foam makes it look brown. The foam is so fluffy and different from normal beer bubbles. The taste of this beer was actually only ok, a little bland. I wish it had some kind of kick to it, but it makes for a very easy drinking beer which with a 4.2% ABV, there is some room to do so.

On a 0-3 scale: 2 (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: I'm sure I will have another one it's a classic

Would I recommend to a friend: Yes, have to try it at least once
What would I do different: I wish it had a little more taste to it

Deschutes Obsidian Stout is a beer that I am happy to present if only to spotlight my favorite brewery, it it is much more than that. This beer is just a beauty to look at. Dark as can be with an amazing tan foamy head that lasts for a long time. The aroma is malty and complex. This beer had a pretty good hop presence in the taste and a good malt balance with a good coffee taste. Well balanced and a pleasure to drink. Now I am not the biggest fan of stouts, so I don't love it as much as other beers I've had, but if I was to judge it within the style, it would be top notch. The beer is a 6.4% ABV and based on the many awards it has won in the foreign export category I am placing it there even though http://beeradvocate.com/ is calling it an American Stout. The food paring was my wife's delicious sea food boil, no doubt inspired by the trip to the beach.

On a 0-3 scale: 2, it would be a 3 if I was comparing it to beers within the style (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: Yes probably will

Would I recommend to a friend: Yes, especially if looking for a good dark beer
What would I do different: It was perfect

Day 47: German Pilsner 23, American Amber Ale 44, Dubbel 43

So this is about half way through the challenge, which I may still need to extend, but we are at 25 beers down and 40 more to go. There will be some other ones like the Scottish from last week that I will have to combine into one to save time and money and the hassle of searching for some of the more obscure beers. On another note I almost quit the blog today because I am really annoyed with how long these posts take and that by the time I get around to writing a post I have like two or three beers to write about and the viscous circle continues. I was about to write a blog saying that it's over, but decided that I will continue and only because this is a good way to put my taste notes down on "paper" and help me remember how things tasted, smelled and looked. This will be especially important when brewing soon because I hear good note taking is an important part of brewing in order to later recreate or adjust recipes and/or techniques.

Bitburger Premium Beer, which is a German Pilsner in style. I bought this beer at Top Foods and had it with dinner the other night. It came in a 500mL brown bottle. I was excited about this beer because of how much I liked the Czech Pilsner from Lagunitas that I had for the first ever post, and i was just a little bit disappointed. It wasn't a bad beer, but it wasn't perfect. It was golden and bubbly with a decent head, the taste was crisp and balanced, but nothing special, and the smell is where it failed me. I think it was a little smelly like the Kolsch I had last week. So it was ok with dinner, but would not be able to hold it's own without the cover of food.

On a 0-3 scale: 1. (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: Probably not, I would give other Pils a chance, but why go back to this one?

Would I recommend to a friend: no
What would I do different: nothing, have a different beer.

Lazy Boy Dumb Luck Amber Ale, from Everett, WA was a decent enough sounding, and I have seen a lot of people wearing the Lazy Boy Brewing shirts so wanted to give one of their beers a try. Dan came over for this one yesterday and so this was a welcome change to the usual drinking by myself that I do. This beer was of course amber in color, decent head with bigger bubbles that didn't really last. The aroma was very hoppy, but not like an overpowering IPA, just enough to know that this is a fresh beer. It was a little light in mouth-feel, not too watery, yet still very drinkable. It was a very balanced beer, but had some kind of sourness to it, I'm not sure what it could have been, it wasn't necessarily bad, just not something that I have ever had in this English ale style beer.

On a 0-3 scale: 2. (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: maybe, if on tap somewhere, but it wasn't that special

Would I recommend to a friend: sure, try it friend
What would I do different: Maybe have it be a little bit more biscuity and have a little more body, but it was decent.

Ovila Abbey Dubbel, is a beer that is a collaboration between Sierra Nevada and The Abbey of New Clairvaux. This Abbey is apparently a monastery in California and there is an old building that a portion of the proceeds of this beer go toward restoring. More about that here. This beer was pretty tasty, but I think that I like the lighter Belgian beers more. This reminded me of the Belgian Dark Ale that I had some weeks ago, except this one was a little easier drinking. The beer was dark on color with a cream head a pretty one to look at. Don't remember a lot of fruit aroma, more malty on this one and not much hops either. The taste was well balance, but didn't have a whole lot of a Belgian character that the yeast is suppose to impart. Decent beer over all, but for the price ($8.99), I think I could find something better.

On a 0-3 scale: 2. (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: maybe, but like I said I would try a different Belgian for the money

Would I recommend to a friend: I would not not recommend it
What would I do different: More Belgian yeast flavor and aroma

Day 42, Three beers. Sottish Ale 19,32,46, Kölsch 55, Oktoberfest 57

So another lazy week where I drink the beer, but just don't want to write about it until they start piling up. I hope to stop doing this and just write them as I drink them from now on.

I have another picture of all my bottles washed and ready for clean storage. I hope they are clean, I plan on giving them another wash before bottling anything but I would just hate to get anything growing in my beer. This is about half of them, enough for about 5 gallons of beer.

The first beer is Blehaven Scottish Ale out of Dunbar, Scotland. The Scottish Ale category is broken down into three different ones traditionally based on the taxation of these beers based on the amount of grain used and subsequently the alcohol content of the beer. They are 60 shilling, 70 shilling and 80 shilling or light, heavy and export. I didn't like this beer. Not sure what it was because it had potential in the malt aspect, but it just tasted flat and spoiled, even though i am not sure what spoiled beer is suppose to taste like. The problems I envision may come from the fact that it comes in a clear bottle, which will damage the hops oils, and/or the fact that it had a long road from Scotland to get here and may not be very fresh.

On a 0-3 scale: 0. This is the first time that I din't finish this beer. (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: I would like to try it on tap.

Would I recommend to a friend: no
What would I do different: Drink it at The George & Dragon Pub. 

The second beer was a Kölsch. This is a strange style that is difficult to understand but from what it looks like it's a German equivalent of an IPA, a hoppy ale, that's lagered at the end of fermentation. This beer was a Gaffel from Koln, western Germany. This beer was light in color, very clear and had a nice head. The smell of it was not pleasant, it came in a brown bottle, but had the smell of those american light lagers that are just gross. I finished the beer, but it wasn't very good.

On a 0-3 scale: 1. (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: Maybe, this is such a unique style, that I may want to give it another chance.

Would I recommend to a friend: no
What would I do different: Nothing, have a different beer.

And beer number three is our winner. This is an Oktoberfest from Spaten. This was my first Oktoberfest, and on second thought, maybe I should have waited another few months and had a fresh one at one of the festivals here, oh well. I was very pleasantly surprised by this beer. It was a translucent brown color with good malty complexity and nice carbonation. I liked this beer a lot, and even though it didn't score very high with http://beeradvocate.com/ I really liked it.

On a 0-3 scale: 3. (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: I want to try other Oktoberfests, but I would buy this again

Would I recommend to a friend: yes
What would I do different: It was good, maybe have it at the festival?

During the writing of this blog I had a home-brewed Black IPA that I received from Jim from Everett who was so kind to give me one of these when he came to pick up some brewing equipment that he bought from me the other Day. Can't wait to brew my own!

Day 37, Two beers: American Pale Ale 17 and Belgian White 4

So I have not been posting anything for a while now, and the reason is I have been tired of this. Not necessarily drinking beer, although it's just not the same when I have to do it, but mostly it's been this chore of writing about it. So here is a two-a-day post. By the way, happy birthday to me today! I am twenty-six and a few days ago found our that the little one brewing inside my wife's belly is a girl. I am excited to be a little girls daddy soon.

Before we go on talking about the beers, I want to take a short time and share some news in regards to my home brew stuff. I got a keg for $25 on craigslist and as i write this it is at Larry's Brewing Supply getting all fixed up into a nice boil kettle. By the way $25 is an amazing score, people are selling them for like $75. Today I scrubbed and cleaned 4 glass carboys and put two of them on craigslist, I recently decided to go with the plastic since I don't want to get cut up with shards of glass if one of these things brakes on me. Also today I am finally soaking some 85 self-capping (Grolsch-style) bottles that I bought for $40, that's less than 50 cents a bottle! They sell for like $2 each. I am very happy with how things are coming along, at this point my biggest purchases left are a chiller and a stove.

 

Ok now on to the beer.

The first one is the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Probably one of the widest distributed Pale Ales and it sure deserves it's popularity. This beer is tasty. I have already tried a Sierra Nevada beer for this blog, and in fact have had this particular beer before, but I still wanted to use it here. This is a very hoppy smelling beer and has a good hoppy bite. To be honest this is a strange Pale Ale, it is more amber in color and has the hops to pass for an IPA, but what ever you call it it is a good beer. I have realized this recently, and perhaps it's because of this tasting thing that I am doing, that style only goes so far in making a beer, but it is ok to miss the style as long as the beer turns out great.

On a 0-3 scale: 3! (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: Yes often (:

Would I recommend to a friend: Yes, I can't think of anyone who wouldn't love it
What would I do different: Nothing, it's perfect, but I have yet to try it on tap

Beer two:

Issaquah Brewery White Frog Ale. This is a Belgian Wheat beer style and I got it for a deal at the Rogue Garage sale at the Issaquah Brew House which is owned by Rogue. Here are the ingredients listed on the bottle, tell me that doesn't sound delicious: Sterling Hops, Pilsen Malt, Wheat, Flaked Oats, Flaked Rye, Coriander, Sweet Orange Peal, Chamomile, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger, Mountain Water and Belgian Witbier Yeast. Sounds like some delicious cake (:

This has a good head probably because of the wheat, and is yellow in color and cloudy. All those spices accumulate in to this amazing indescribable aroma. Just wanted to keep smelling it. This had a light drinkability, a good summer ale. Well balanced but there was just a little bit of a chemical aftertaste, I wonder how old this beer is as I did buy it at a garage sale (:

I have 8 more of those big bottles left of this stuff so if anyone want's to drop by for a tasting let me know. The cat wanted some, but she is only six months, so she couldn't have any.

On a 0-3 scale: 2 (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: I think it is officially retired

Would I recommend to a friend: Yes, come try mine
What would I do different: I would like to try it fresh to see if that chemical taste is still there

Day twenty-five: 4 beers from last weekend

Because this will be a review of four different beers, I will make this very short. I had three of these with my friend Dan last Friday, and the last one was one that I had at camp over the weekend. See my wife's post regarding the camp experience, it was our first one of our married life and it was a lot of fun.

Doppelbock 26: Dan brought this Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock over from 99 Bottles in Federal Way. This was a 12oz bottle and is a 6.7% ABV. There is not a bottle-date on it so I'm not sure about the freshness. This was a very dark, malty, roasty lager with not much carbonation or hop flavor.

On a 0-3 scale: 1 (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: No

Would I recommend to a friend: Not really
What would I do different: The environment was perfect, the beer was not.

Dan's pouring on the left, mine on the right

Scotch Ale 65: This was Bridgeport Highlands Ambush Scotch Ale was a beer that I've had for a while. Not sure if it was okay to age it and if I even had it in the right temperature range the whole time. It was basically in my pantry for almost six months. It was also oak aged at some point before bottling. This was a limited release, brewed once, and we weren't impressed, and to be honest it has been very rare that I have been impressed with a beer from this brewery. It was another dark beer with a 6.8% ABV. Low on bitterness and just didn't have a whole lot of goodness to it.

On a 0-3 scale: 1 (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: No, not that I can

Would I recommend to a friend: No
What would I do different: Next time I want a scotch ale, I will get the Pike Place Kilt Lifter, one of my favorites.

Imperial IPA 30: There is not an imperial IPA style on my list, although it is a very popular style in the American craft brewing seen. I am putting this in the IPA category. The Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA is a beer with a continuous 90 minute hop addition, this is a 9% ABV beer. This was a delicious beer, as should be expected from Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware. Excellent hop aroma and flavor and perfectly balanced with the malt flavor.

On a 0-3 scale: 3! (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: Yes for sure

Would I recommend to a friend: yes as long as they can handle the hops
What would I do different: I have still to try their 120 minute IPA, also I wish these beers were less expensive.

Belgian Dark Ale 29: Trois Pistoles from Unibroue brewery from Quebec, Canada. The funny this is I thought that this was a real Belgian, and not until just now had realized that is was a Canadian beer. This was a good Belgian style beer, although I do prefer the lighter Belgians.

On a 0-3 scale: 2 (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: Maybe, it's a little pricey, maybe will go with a different Belgian beer

Would I recommend to a friend: yes
What would I do different: Have somebody to share this with, I had to drink this by myself, a huge pint and 9oz bottle of 9% ABV. It made me very jolly even though I did try to stretch the length of this drinking experience.

Day twenty-four: Is beer evil?

On Friday my friend Dan came over for a long overdue beer date. I like drinking beer with Dan, it's always a good balance of beer and conversation. 

Alcohol was never meant for drunkenness and stupidity, but for a fuller life experience. The complexity, richness and diversity of this drink, coupled with the way it makes a person happy is a rich life experience and should be enjoyed with friends. Not many of my friends drink beer and some who do, do it for all the wrong reasons. American beer-culture has been reduced to the ridiculousness that we see on TV. The big breweries, makers of Budweiser, Coors, Miller and other crap like that have been selling everyone this idea that beer is synonymous with getting wasted and laid or wasting your life on everything sports. And their beer is just as depressing and empty of taste as the kind of life style that this beer promotes.

I wanted to include this little rant here because I have a lot of friends, who because of modern church views on alcohol, may be confused by my beer fascination. Although this blog may look like a counterproductive thing to do in sharing Christ, I think it is exactly the opposite. God created beer, or at least was not at all surprised that sugar plus water plus yeast makes alcohol. So as Christians we have a choice to make, we either vilify it and and make it the devils drink, or redeem it. The intention of this blog was never to evangelize-by-beer, or to redeem beer from the evil clutches of American consumerism and drunken stupidity, it was simply to enjoy some delicious beer. At the same time I think the way that I enjoy beer and present it is a way Jesus would be happy to see it done so.

Another thing that would make Christians more comfortable with beer is if we can understand that God is okay with fun. We too often are much too serious when it comes to "God things" and so our life starts to have this bipolar-ism where we are serious with God and laugh and joke without him and that's a problem. Beer is fun and that's okay with God, sin is not.

So to finish this post in a way that maybe I should finish every post, I would like to say thank you Jesus for beer.

(I will be writing another blog-post about all the beers enjoyed over this weekend.)

Day Nineteen: Saison, style number 9

Another Belgian today, the Saison farmhouse ale, a special beer for a special day. Today is my beautiful wife's birthday, she's awesome. If you are interested in wifey things like knitting, sewing, and/or cooking, you can check out her blog here. We went out to dinner to Phoenecia on Alki and had some delicious food, along with this yummy brew.

Saison means season in French and was historically a seasonal beer, brewed in the winter to be a light and refreshing thirst-quencher for the farm worker during the hot summer months. Originally at about 3-4 % alcohol today they average around 5-7, with the Vieille Provision Saison Dupont being at 6.5 % ABV. Brewed by Brasserie Dupont in the town of Tourpes in Wallonia, a French speaking area of Belgium and imported by Vanberg & DeWulf in NY.

This one came in a 12.7oz green bottle with the classic Dupont cork. Poured light yellow and hazy with a tall frothy head. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of this one until half way through. I really wish I would have, to show off this beautiful beer. It smelled of pears, just a very distinct pear smell, and not much of a hop aroma. Taste was crisp and fresh, with a nice hop bitter as the carbonation dissolved on the tongue. Mouth feel is light and tingly, a beautiful beer, wanted more of it.

On a 0-3 scale: 3, our first one! (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: Yes, can't wait

Would I recommend to a friend: Yes and drink it with a friend
What would I do different: Get the big bottle and share it with a friend farmhouse style; on a hot day.