The Winter Beer Report

[TheNewChupe]

incidentally, my pumpkin beer is developing nicely. VERY real pumpkin flavor. a little light on the spices (clove, cinnamon) perhaps, but very hearty real pumpkin flavor- much more than Buffalo Bill's.

Tried the Onion Pub's Pumpkin beer (in Chicago) and it was more pumpkin-y than Buffalo Bill's, living up to my memory of it being really damn good. Although it wasn't fully carbonated yet since it's not released until this weekend.

 

[avi]

beer purchased in the past week:

1 case of Stiletz Spruce Beer. Fucking awesome.

1 case 1/2 Rogue Smoke and 1/2 Chocolate stout

1 case Rogue Hazelnut. sooooo good (and on sale)



oregon has no sales tax and lots of beer. we still have some belgians to try that we bought in seattle.

 

[TheNewChupe]

so your wife really likes beer? see, when i say "we" i mean me, and then i talk her into trying a drink. usually she winces. but sometimes she gets one she likes. which reminds me:

why is it many women only like Wheat beers?

 

[avi]

my woman likes beer just fine, tho not as much as me



holy shit the new belgium frambozen is GOOOOOOD

 

[Lyle]

Oh man, I should go to Andronico's and buy some overpriced beer.

 

[lizard]

on friday I bought some Skullsplitter Ale from the orkney isles, and some Augustiner Maximator, from Munich.

yow. viking ale and monk dunkle. not for the weak of spirit.

 

[chupe666]

holy shit the new belgium frambozen is GOOOOOOD

DOOD! you got some? awesome. i found some last week and picked it up.

also found:

"In a never-ending quest to create new beers and defy category, New Belgium Brewing and Brouwerij Boon of Belgium are pleased to announce the release of Transatlantique Kriek - a spontaneously fermented lambic ale made with Polish cherries and blended with an original New Belgium brew. The kriek beer began life in the oaken vessels at Frank Boon's brewery in the Lembeek region of Belgium. After more than two years aging, Boon's offering shipped across the Atlantic and found its way to the palate of New Belgium's Brewmaster, Peter Bouckaert. After much sampling and internal consultation, Peter and his brew staff created a full-bodied golden ale to round out the light-bodied kriek.

"The resulting beer weighs in at 6.3% alcohol by volume. The cherry nose gives way to a pleasingly sour flash across the palate that rolls gently into a slightly sweet finish. Crisp, effervescent carbonation keeps the mouth feel bright and delightfully tingly. Transatlantique Kriek will be available in four-packs throughout New Belgium's area of distribution this fall."



haven't tried one yet (4 12oz bottles = $8.99 which is not horrible considering kriek lambics are usually only sold in big wine bottles and are about the same price, for less product), but it should be awesome. met a local guy who is a total new belgium freak and gave me some posters he got from his trip to the brewery.

 

[avi]

ooh I want that!

and yeah - the frambozen is everywhere here now and man is it tasty! seriously one of my new winter beer faves.

I've been drinking lots of Saison style belgians recently. not wintery at all, but mighty good.

I don't think any of the new winters I've tried this year are better than anything from last time. what was good then is still good now. winners so far: alaskan (winter and smoked), frambozen, affligem noel, siletz spruce, anderson valley

still waiting for the marin brewing to appear

my own spruce homebrew is coming along. still not enough carbonation yet, but it tastes a-ok. got another bitter ready for bottling in 2 wks and just brewed another belgian yesterday. hopefully they'll actually work.

 

[TheNewChupe]

man, i still want to try some alaskan stuff, but there's no way they'll get it here.

i was thinking about doing a cranberry ale, sort of a tart flavored ale like the frambozen. not sure i could do it. i should probably try some more basic stuff first. know of any good recipe places? some of the places i've read say a lot of recipes suck and will turn out like crap.

 

[avi]

I have yet to find decent recipes online, sorry to say. I've heard there's some okay ones, but I'd probably try posting to a homebrew forum for best results. or check to see what BYO magazine has online. someone bought me a subscription as a wedding gift

I got a great book called "Designing Great Beers" which has a ton of really well-written info on putting together your own recipes. "The Homebrewers Bible" is another book that has a lot of good advice in that direction. I'm not *quite* there yet, but I'm starting to experiment a bit with my own concoctions. My plan is to try a hazelnut beer by making a brown ale and then adding the extract before bottling. could be good, who knows? cranberry sounds like it could be good though. maybe just find a similar fruit beer recipe and do a substitution? you might have to measure sugar levels, so be aware.

 

[Steve]

edited: reason: I'm stupid.

 

[TheNewChupe]

tried the New Belgium Transatlantique Kriek
it's actually somewhat disappointing. it basically tastes like a somewhat less sweet kriek. still, the kriek/cherry sweetness is the main focus. i was hoping it'd be a little more beer-flavored like the Frambozen, but not. still, for a kriek, it was good- and 4 12oz bottles @ $8.99 is more liquid than a 750ml bottle of plain kriek from Belgium that goes for the same price.

also, brewed a pale ale this weekend. I was hoping for a 4 C's type ale kind of like 3 FLoyd's Alpha King (Cascade, Chinook, Columbus, Centennial hops), but the stupid local shop i went to only had Cascade and Chinook. they said i should substitute more cascade for the centennial and knew nothing about the columbus. poseurs. also, they were more expensive ($7 for liquid yeast). so i will not go back.

but, for avi, i will list ingredients:
1 lb Carapils 20L grain
3 lbs Amber Dry malt extract
3 lbs Gold liquid malt extract (leftover from last batch)
60 min: 1 oz Fuggles 1 oz Cascade
40 min: 1 oz Chinook
20 min 1 oz Cascade
8 min 1 oz Cascade
(will dry hop 1 oz Cascade in secondary)
added some oak chips from a leftover kit too

avi- i know you talk about Sierra Nevada's overuse of the Cascade hop, so i'm sure you won't dig this. but, it's still only my 3rd batch and first pale ale. although with the malt extracts i used, i'm expecting it to have more malt flavor and not so light color and have more hop bite. hopefully. if i didn't screw it up.

 

[avi]

ooh the oak will be a neat touch. and yeah, I'm not into hops as much, but that's sounds good for the style f'sure. the dry hopping should really get that bite you're looking for I think.
for color, everything I've read recommends DME to get lighter results/more control, but to use liquid if you're more concerned with flavor. depends on what you're brewing for I guess (as these things matter in competition).

I've got a british style pale I just bottled that I'm looking forward to tasting. lots of fuggles and kent goldings. hmmmm

 

[Veils_of_Cerpintaxt]

I have a batch of the local specialty brewing under my bathroom sink. A sweet potatoe based brew, the last batch I made turned out really well.

 

[avi]

post recipes!

 

[Veils_of_Cerpintaxt]

Basically it's not too different from a regular potato brew

9 lb. Gambrinus 2-row malt
1/2 lb. British Munich Malt
8 1/2 lb. mashed sweet potatos
2 lb. Vienna Malt
3 lb. Rice Hulls
1.5 oz. Nugget Hops 1 hr.
1 oz. E. Kent Goldings Hops 1/2 hr.
1 oz. Wild Hops 15 min.
2 oz. Ultra Hops 5 min.
.4 oz. Ultra Hops 1 min.
.5 oz. E. Kent Goldings 1 min.
Ale Yeast

The key difference between the two, is that you mash the entire sweet potato, you don't peel it. I've found it gives it a much more robust flavor for some reason. You know, just try and get them as clean as possible.

 

[avi]

huh, I've never had much experience with potato brew, but that sounds really interesting. maybe I'll try it out.

 

[TheNewChupe]

i tried the 2002 Delerium Noel and WOW. GOOD. really sort of like a Belgian Abbey ale with a little spice/clove taste to it, and slightly heavier. they now have the 2003 one (i bought this late november, as they put out their overstock from last yr), which i'd like to try.

also got the 3 Philosophers Cherry ale from Ommegang; a brown ale with cherry lambic. will see how that is. hopefully it's better than the new belgium (it just tasted like a lambic- really good, but not as different as i hoped). it was cheap too, for a Belgian type ale in a large bottle- $6.50, and some of their others are like $4.50-$5.

 

[avi]

can't find delerium noel here. the belgian holiday brew selection around here is no good.

 

[mindspell]

Never tried the Delirium Noel but if it is as good as the Delirium Tremens then it must be pretty cool.