Founders Mango Magnifico

Unfortunately, I have slipped back into seldom updating.  In my defense, I am trying to be a real human being.  I have a lot of things to post, so hopefully in the next week I can get everything back in order.  In the meantime, I meant to post a review of a Founders beer I have been wanting to try for a while.

Founders Mango Magnifico

Appearance- Golden orange with a puffy white head that sticks around longer after arouse it again with some circling of the glass.  Some noticeable sticky lacing hangs around the edges of the glass.

Smell- Initially a strong malt presence.  The habanero character sneaks up and by the middle of the beer  my nostrils begin to sting very slightly.  Slight vegetable character, possibly from the habanero.  Very slight mango, if any.

Taste- Burst of a strong malt backbone to begin the beer.  In the middle, the beer develops into a distinct mango character, but only moderate in intensity.  Some other sweet citrus character rounds out the middle including lemon with a touch of the vegetal character.  A noticeable rising heat in the back of the mouth to finish.

Mouthfeel- Medium-bodied with moderate-light carbonation.  A noticeable heat was left on the back of the tongue and throat.

Overall- The taste was above and beyond better than the smell.  I made tilapia tacos to go along with the beer.  Round out the day honoring Lou Reed as it was the day after he died.  Well known fact: You will never be as cool as Lou Reed.

A Night With Lagunitas

A couple of weeks ago, Lagunitas founder, Tony Magee stopped by my law school to talk about starting a business, and of course to talk beer.  Apparently he went to the Illinois Institute of Technology for a year at their design program and I believe his wife went to my law school (I believe that is what he said?).  Anyways, he has significant ties to the Chicago area and he both agreed to talk at the school as well as play some blues at our 125th anniversary street festival.

The night started with samples of Maximus, Lagunitas IPA, Pils, and the relatively new DayTime.  After the samples (and me sneaking a beer since it was only 2 ozs at a time with a relatively long wait for a sample), we entered the auditorium to have a "fireside chat."

It was generally informal with Mr. Magee giving a lot of history of the brewery.  Some highlights included receiving a brewing kit and starting a brewery by the end of that year, rigging Kinko's timing/fee system in order to print labels as a reduced cost, and the uhhhhhhh substance abuse story behind "Censored."  Notably, Mr. Magee also talked about the Chicago brewery/brew pub that has pushed back its opening
date multiple times (he claims it will be coming at the end of the year, mostly because he faces significant taxes/fines if it does not), and interestingly enough, his plans to purchase land in Greece to open another brewery that will supply Europe with his beer.

Come question time, there was a lot of focus on the news of the Chicago brewery, comparisons/difficulties dealing with BMC products and advertising, as well as what the future looks like for Lagunitas.  Luckily, I got in a quick question about whether Mr. Magee saw the rise of sour beers as a parallel with the rise of the West Coast IPA or more of a fad, and whether Lagunitas had any plan for a more significant souring/barrel program outside of Little Sumpin Wild and some smaller scale sours that are only on tap at the brewery.  He seemed to appreciate a good sour, but thought of the style as more of a blip on the craft beer radar (he was not disrespectful though) and seemed to think that the style in general was better left to his peers rather than jumping in on the popularity at this point.  I got to speak to him very briefly after the talk, but only to say thanks as him and other from the brewery had been hanging around for quite some time.

All that being said, it was great the I was able to both attend such an event, and get to talk to one of the bigger heads of craft brewery.  Mr. Magee seemed to be more business driven than others in the industry (and I do not mean this in any negative sense) and motivated to make Lagunitas a leading name similar to Sam Adams, or possibly surpassing.  He did mention that he is at the point where he feels that he wants to muscle out some of the "quasi craft" beers from the market that are made by BMC without their name attached, but it seemed any such plans are still a little of the ways off.  However, he was great to listen to and hopefully this will not be a one time event at the school.

New Glarus Strawberry Rhubarb

As well as having a problem with the amount of beer from the Bruery, it seems I also have a decent amount of New Glarus.  How are those for problems to have, buddy?  Unfortunately, I am not skilled enough to make some awesome pie to go along with this.  But really, what do you expect from me?

New Glarus Strawberry Rhubarb


Appearance- A very hazy amber/dark orange color with a tint of red.  A tan creamy head sticks around after the pour.

Smell- Predictably, a lot of strawberry and rhubarb.  Very rich smell with what seems to be a slight cherry.  Underneath the fruit is a candy sweetness with a crockery/cereal character.

Taste- Reminiscent of strawberry rhubarb pie in the beginning.  A sweet fruit character with moderate strawberry character (slightly surprising seeing how hard it is to get a real strawberry taste in a beer).  Tart character picks up in the middle and is complimented by a sugary sweetness.  A slight cereal taste in the finish.

Mouthfeel- Medium-thin body with a spritzy carbonation on the tongue.  Leaves a lingering sweetness.

Overall- Another great fruit beer from New Glarus.  At times I expected to get a strawberry seed since it tasted so fresh.  Would have loved to have this one with a slice of pie.  Someone make that happen.

Back to Hop Leaf

Recently, I decided to start my own little Brett experiment to try and understand more thoroughly how different strands of Brett affect the taste of beer.  I still have to use the vial of Brett Lambicus that I have sitting in the fridge, and luckily I saw that Hop Leaf had Goose Island's Matilda with Brett Lambicus.  I decided to stop by to see how my beer my taste (because apparently that is important) and found there were around 10 other beers I wanted to try.  Unfortunately my friends had to run to the airport so I only tried around 3.  Apparently it is unhealthy to drink 10 beers in one sitting alone.  Or 10 beers in general.

Matilda Lambicus

The appearance is generally what you would expect from the normal Matilda with less head retention.  The difference comes in the smell in taste.  The smell has the phenolic character you are used to from Matilda, but quickly a musty cellar character with a prominent earthy character.  The Brett taste was more evident in the taste with a slight band aid flavor complimented by the musty cellar character.  There was also a slight lemon that fell beneath the earthy notes and some leather.  Very similar to Orval, wish they had this more available.

Founders Oatmeal Stout (Nitro)

The menu told me this was fairly rare for the Chicago market.  The menu would not lie to me.  Here, the roasty character was the most prominent.  Although there was some slight chocolate and coffee, it fell behind the roasted barely.  The most notable thing about the beer was with the full stout flavor, it was only at 4.5% alcohol.  Nice to see that Founders is embracing the notion that you do not need higher alcohol content to have a full flavored beer.  That being said, I do not expect anyone to listen.

De Proef Brouwerij & Cigar City Tropical Tripel

This was probably the most interesting beer of the day.  Most individuals are under the belief that Brett only makes beers funky (and some are under the belief that it is a main souring agent).  However, this beer shows that is not always true.  Here, the Brett brought out some wonderful tropical fruit character that was way more complex than I have seen in beers that have actually added fruit.  There was a distinct smell and taste of mangos and pineapple with dashes of peaches (these were the fruits added).  A pheno
lic clove was there as well that mixed with an almost bubble gum flavor at the end of the beer. Alcohol started to peak at the end of the beer.  No earthy character here.  Hoping my brett trois beer has a similar character.

Three great beers, and it was hard to stop here seeing as they also had The Bruery's Oude Tart, Jolly Pumpkin, and multiple berliner weisses.  Oh well, I guess I will just have to go back...

Honey Amber Brewday

I decided to take a quick break from brewing some funky beers in my brett experiment to make a beer for the fall.  Not wanting to go the pumpkin route (and especially not this early in the year), I needed something else.  After passing a local honey stand at the Logan Square farmer's market, I decided to put together a simple beer with the honey.  I put together an amber recipe and then went to get the honey.  The place is called Chicago Honey Co-op and happens to be fairly close to me in the city.  Luckily, they also brewed beer and were interested in what I was doing.  Hopefully this turns out alright so when I drop off a couple bottles I do not disappoint them too much.

Honey Amber


Batch Size: 5 gallons
Original gravity: 1.065
Boil Time: 60 minutes
Mash: 60 minutes

9.25 lbs Marris Otter
1.0 lb Munich
0.75 lb Crystal 40 L
0.50 lb Crystal 120 L
0.75 lb Honey Malt
1.5 lbs Local honey

0.5 oz Centennial @ 60 min
1.0 oz Mt. Hood @ 30 min
1.0 oz Williamette @ 10 min

0.5 tsp Irish Moss
0.75 tsp Yeast Nutrient

Yeast: American Ale

Water Profile: Chicago

Mashed in with 4 gallons of water at 152 degrees F for 60 minutes.  Uneventful mash, which was nice considering that I was having some trouble with my last couple.  Collection 6.52 gallons of wort after a batch sparge and boiled for 60 minutes with the included hop additions.  Collected around 5 gallons and pitched my yeast starter.

Brewed: 8/24/13

8/30/13 Added around a pound and a half of the honey to primary fermentation as it was settling down.  Honey was particularly floral, will see if this will help.  Hoping that the addition to the primary fermentor will allow more of the honey character to come through.

Bottled:

Tasting:

Begyle Don't Bring Me Down, Zeus

Since I just recently mentioned how I need to spend more time on Chicago beers, I figured I should actually follow through for once.  My friend from college has been telling me for a while to check out Begyle Brewing because he knows one of the guys who helped start it up.  And seeing as the nice guy I am, I painstakingly went out of my way to sit down and drink a beer.

Begyle Don't Bring Me Down, Zeus

Appearance- Dark Golden orange, almost a tint of amber in color with a hazy body.  An off white to light brown head that sticks around in a very thin head, almost turning patchy.  Moderate lacing left behind.

Smell- Very resiney hop smell with some sappy pine and a bit of grass.  Behind the hops is a decent amount of caramel malt.  Slight amount of alcohol is noticeable towards the end, but it is not hot.  Some slight fruit esters (maybe grapefruit?) lingering way back.

Taste- Tons of the resiney/piney flavors, feels as if it is almost stripping the tongue.  Expected a twinge of citrus to hit somewhere in the middle, but the resin was there to stay (not saying that is a bad thing).  Hop flavor seems almost earthy and spicy on the tongue.  Although there is a decent amount of caramel malty character, it never seems to compete with the hops. Bitterness picks up in the middle in moderate amounts as it quickly turns up to high bitterness into the finish.  Bitterness lingers and almost seems to tickle the tongue, if that can even be a description.  Alcohol seems a little hot in the end of the beer.

Mouthfeel- Thick mouthfeel with a prickly carbonation that seems to be enhanced with the spicy hop flavor .  Could possibly use a little more a little more carbonation.  Warming alcohol, a little too hot for my taste.

Overall- Although not my favorite DIPA, a very enjoyable one nonetheless.  A nice switch up from the citrus-centric DIPAs that you normally see, nice to see a new brewery not just jumping on that ship.  If you like that piney and resin type flavor, this is a good one to pick up.  Also, maybe don't piss of Zeus. Just my opinion though.

Also, you can say whatever you want, but my sad excuse for a mind has already locked on the pronunciation "bagel", no matter how wrong it may be.

The (Mediocre) Brett Experiment

Now that I have spent some time getting back into the groove of brewing, it is time for some exbeeriments.  And what better fun than learning the ins and outs of brettanomyces?  As someone that loves all things sour and funk, this is a natural progression, and really something necessary if I want to make acceptable funky beers.  Luckily, someone came up with The Great Brett Experiment and helped me out with obtaining some strains of brett along the way.  The gist of the fun?  Generally, split up batches of beer, pitch different strains of brett, play the waiting game, and then have both side by side to see how each strain adds different characteristics to the resulting beer.  I started with Brettanomyces clausseni and East Coast Yeast 08 in a rye saison, and still have some brettanomyces lambicus waiting too be pitched.  However, anyone who has other strains should feel free to send them my way!  Because we are all in this together, right?

Rye Saison

Batch size: 5.00 gallons

Original Gravity: 1.053

Final Gravity: 

Boil time: 90 minutes

Mash time: 90 minutes

9.0 lbs Pilsener

3.0 lbs Rye malt

0.75 lb Table sugar

1.5 oz Fuggle hops @60 min

1.0 oz Fuggle hops @10 min

0.75 tsp yeast nutrient

1.0 tsp irish moss

ECY 08 and Brettanomyces clausseni

Water profile: Chicago

Mashed in with 4 gallons at 149 degrees F.  This time I actually overshot the mash temperature and had to gradually bring down the temperature with a variety of arduous methods.  Nevertheless, I got there.  Let the mash sit for 90 minutes in order to ensure full conversion.  Did not get great efficency with 1.053, hopefully I can make up for this in the future.  Batch sparged with 4 gallons and collected around 7.25 gallons of wort.  After boiling and chilling to around 74 degrees F, split into two 3 gallon better bottles.  One received the ECY 08 and the other received the Brettanomyces clausseni.  Put these ones away and they will sit for a while before I have the opportunity to bottle.

Brewed: 8/10/13

Bottled: 

Tasting:

The Bruery Sour in the Rye

A recent look at my bedroom made me realize that I have begun to hoard bottles from The Bruery.  Someone may think I have a problem if they saw it.  Fortunately for me, having an excess of beer from the Bruery could never be considered a problem.  As a result, I decided to reach into my "stash" and grab one of the bottles.  In comes Sour in the Rye.  Sour beer and The Bruery, one of the best matches. Seriously.  The best.

The Bruery Sour in the Rye


Appearance- Golden orange in color with an egg shell white head.  Head becomes patchy with a thin ring around the edge.

Smell- Familiar tart sour smell from the beginning.  Sour apple smell is prominent with some oak as well.  Some light fruit, lemony aroma as well.  Do not really get any of the rye.

Taste- Mouth puckering sour from the beginning of the beer.  THe faimilar apple taste from the smell returns, but is not overwhelming.  Sourness peaks in the middle and continues to the finish.  Some tart cherries and citrus sour is also balanced by the oak flavor.

Mouthfeel- Medium, maybe medium-light in body.  Prickly carbonation and a dry finish.  Mouth feels covered in an almost sour residue as well.  I mean that in a good way if I didn't make that clear.

Overall- Very impressive sour.  Sour is a fairly constant presence from the beginning to the end.  Thinking it would be great to use the dregs of this beer in a sour.  Will put that on the to do list.  Have another one of these bottles and will plan to let it sit for a couple of years at the moment.

Had this beer with some homemade vegetable soup I made with a hearty slice of bread.  Hoping to start making more food this year as I am brewing more.  Also hoping that The Bruery will start sending me one of every beer they make.  Or at least just pay me to drink their beer.  Is that too much to ask?

Double IPA Brewday

I noticed that I have been stockpiling saison and needed a little change (until the following week when I brewed another saison).  I haven't brewed a double IPA for a couple years now and figured I would revisit it before fall hit.  The basic recipe is based off Pliny the Elder (who would have guessed!?) from Russian River, with some of my own small changes to it.  I also attempted another fly sparge with this one and am still getting the hang of it.  As a result, I think my efficiency was a little low, so this may be somewhere in between an IPA and a double IPA.  Or maybe just an IPA.  Leave me alone.

Besides that, it was just a wonderful weekend of brewing beer and seeing The Cure.  Pretty much your ideal weekend.

Batch size: 5 gallons
Original gravity: 1.063
Final gravity:
Boil time: 60 minutes
Mash time: 90 minutes

14.0 lbs Two row
0.5 lb White wheat
0.5 lb Crystal (40 L)
0.5 lb Cara Pils
1.0 lb White belgian candy rocks

2.0 oz Columbus @ 90 min
1.0 oz Warrior @ 90 min
1.0 oz Columbus @ 60 min
1.0 oz Simcoe @ 45 min
1.0 oz Simcoe @ 30 min
1.0 oz Simcoe @ 0 min
2.0 oz Centennial @ 0 min
3.0 oz Columbus @ dry
1.5 oz Centennial @ dry
1.5 oz Simcoe @ dry

1.0 tsp Irish dry moss
0.5 tsp Yeast nutrient
5.0 g Gypsum

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Water Profile: Chicago

Mashed in with 4.5 gallons of water at 150 degrees F.  In the mash I added 2 grams of gypsum.  Fly sparged with 5 gallons of water and collected 7.5 gallons of wort.  I actually added the 60 minuted addition hops by mistake and had to adjust with my remaining hops.  Oh well.

Brewed: 8/3/13

Secondary: 8/22/13 Racked the beer into secondary over the dry hops, half being leaf and the other half being pellet.  Hoping using less pellet hops will decrease some of the unnecessary grassy flavors.

Bottling:

Tasting:

Belgian IPA Tasting

This is one that I have been looking forward to trying.  After receiving some tips from Haymarket on how they brew their Angry Birds and Rubber Monkey Belgian IPAs, I decided to brew my own.  And to say the least I am fairly happy with the results (there is a joke somewhere in there playing on the name of Angry Birds, but I will spare you....this time).

Appearance- Hazy golden orange in color with a thin white head.  Although it does stick around, it could be a little better. Maybe a little more time in the bottle will help. Lacing noticeable in medium amounts.

Smell- The chinook and cascade hops are very noticeable with a cirtusy hop aroma to begin.  The hop aromas meld into the middle of the beer as a phenolic and clove aroma pick up.  Some slightly doughy and a hint of resin noticeable in the back end.

Taste- Much more of a balance with the citrus hops and the belgian yeast flavor.  Citrus flavors are a little lighter  and mixed in with a phenolic clove.  Middle of the beer seems more medicinal than the smell, but not off putting.  A slight peppery spice in the middle and moving towards the end.  The beer finishes with a medium amount of bitterness.  The Beglian yeast notes become more noticeable as the beer warms up.  

Mouthfeel- Medium-light body, lighter than I would like.  Medium carbonation and the very dry finish that I expected after mashing at the low temperatures.

Overall Notes- Very excited about where this beer ended up considering my last attempt at a Belgian IPA.  However, there is still a good amount of work needed to be done.  Notably, I would like to increase the body and the size of the beer overall.  I'm hoping that along with that will come more yeast character.  

Saison/Cucumber Saison Brew Day

Well with this latest brew day and what I have planned for the next week, I am going to have too much saison on my hand.  What I am trying to say is, does anyone want some saison?  I find bribery is the best way to cultivate friendship.  I was interested in doing this beer after hearing about Cigar City's Cucumber Saison.  I am not even really a big fan of cucumber, but I have found it to be refreshing in light amounts when placed in drinks (I ordered some cucumber soda/pop from Glaco's Soda Pop Stop in LA a couple of years ago and was surprisingly impressed).   As a result, I thought throwing some cucumber from the local farmer's market could be refreshing in a saison (like a cucumber in water).  Decided to base this off the base beer the mad fermentationist he did for his hoppy saison as I was looking for something a little lighter than the saison I previously brewed.

Batch size: 5 gallons
Original gravity: 1.052
Final gravity:
Boil time: 90 minutes
Mash time: 90 minutes

9.25 lbs Belgian pilsener
1.25 lbs White wheat

1.75 oz Saaz @ 60 minutes
0.75 oz Saaz @ 0 minutes

1.0 tsp. Irish moss

Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison

Water Profile: Chicago

Mashed in with 4 gallons of water and came out at around 149 degrees F.  Allowed the mash to sit for 90 minutes in order to ensure full conversion.  Flyed sparged with around 4 gallons of water at 170 degrees.  Collected a little over 7 gallons of wort.

Brewed: 7/27/13

Chilled to around 74 degrees F and pitched a yeast start I made the night before.  Around a week later the yeast is still working.  Was hoping that it would have knocked down the gravity a little faster.

Secondary: 8/21/13 Racked onto around 2.75 lbs of frozen and sliced cucumbers.  Looking back, it may have been easier/a better idea to cube the cucumber.

Bottling:

Russian River Consecration

As I mentioned before, I have a lot of catching up to do with the beers I have been drinking  before I put up what I have been brewing.  Luckily, I have a friend who is from outside of Portland and is kind enough to pick me up beers when she goes home.  And by kind enough, I mean that she eventually tires of me shoving a fistful of cash in her hand and crying until she eventually agrees to look for the beer I transcribed on a voluminous list.  Friends, right!?!?

Russian River Consecration

Appearance- A burgundy brown color with a very small off white head.  Head almost disappears completely leaving just a ring around the edge of the glass.  Murky clarity.

Smell- A smack of vinegar acidity right away with slight barnyard funk and a little hay.  Fruits appear fairly quickly with apple and cherry most prominently featured.  Some dark plums and raisins also make their way through as well.

Taste- Quick hints of cherry and plums before a sharp acidic sourness quickly builds and bursts through, peaking in the middle and lasting through the finish.  A light apple taste turns towards the end. Sour taste is full, balanced, and not overwhelming.  Probably one of the cleanest and most complex sour beers I have experienced.

Mouthfeel- Medium bodied and low carbonation.  Very dry finish and the taste seems to leave a layer covering the mouth.

Overall and Notes- Once again, one of the most complex sour beers I have had.  A mouth puckering sour with overshadowing the complexities of the fruit.  Luckily I have another bottle of this and I think I may try to harvest the dregs and brew my own sour beer with it, but we will see.  Also, I unfortunately lost the pictures to this one, so use those beautiful imaginations of yours!

On a side note, soon I was hoping to document one of the local farmers markets I go to in order to pick up some fruits and vegetables that I will be using in coming beers.  I also saw blueberries last time I was there.  I like blueberry jam.  I would like to make blueberry jam.  Does this sound right to anyone?  Does anyone care?

Pipeworks Brewing Co. Poivre Rose

Before I jumped in with another brewing posts, I need to get some long (and new in this case) held reviews of beers I have been drinking.  I noticed lately that I have not been giving local breweries outside a select few the attention they deserve since I moved.  What better way to appease my recent saison brewing obsession than with a locally brewed saison?

Pipeworks Brewing Co. Poivre Rose

Appearance- Pours a hazy golden color with a thick layer of foam that eventually settles into a thin layer of white carbonation.  Head of the beer is persistent and a notable sticky lacing coats the glass.

Smell- A lot of citrus up front with lemons and faint hints of phenols including a light clove.  There is a certain floral quality to the smell that melds with the citrus towards the middle of the beer that I am going to attribute to the pink peppercorns.  Towards the end there seems to be a slight amount of peppery spice, but part of me wonders if I am imagining it since I know they used peppercorns in the beer.

Taste- Starts off with the lemony citrus and a surprising malt sweetness.  However, the floral character is more noticeable in the beer and takes the lead towards the middle.  The floral taste is refreshing, not quite tea like, and not overdone.  Towards the end of the beer, the spicy peppercorn character kicks in.  I believe the added peppercorn leaves a little strange taste in the finish, but nothing off putting.

Mouthfeel- Beer is a little sweeter to what I am used to in a saison, but drys out in the finish.  Nice full carbonation as well.

Overall and Notes- Really liked my first saison from Pipeworks and will now certainly try the other one I saw at the store.  I would have liked to see it be a little dryer and personally would like to see how not including the black peppercorns would affect the beer.

Also, can we address the fact that I wrote there where hints of "a light clove"?  Well, I am an ass, but I guess we already knew that.

Belgian IPA Brewday

For anyone that has known me in the Chicago region, I will not shut up when it comes to Haymarket's two Belgian IPAs, Angry Birds and Rubber Monkey.  I am currently lobbying for the normal serving sizes to be changed to "place mouth under tap and pull."  Hell, I will even take a rubber house leading directly from the tap to my mouth, or at the very least, a bucket.  Joking aside, it is one of the few Belgian IPAs that I really think balances the hoppy character you expect from a great IPA and the fruity, phenolic notes needed from a good Belgian beer.

As a result, I e-mailed Haymarket after a failed attempt at my own Belgian IPA looking for some pointers.  Lucky for me, Head Brewer Pete Crowley shot me back an e-mail to get me going in the right direction.  He stated the key was to use the Duvel/moortgat yeast strain and low mash temperatures.  His last piece of advice was "dryhop the crap out of it."  What kind of guy would I be to say no to that?

Batch Size: 5 Gallons
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.020
Boil Time: 90 minutes
Mash Time: 90 minutes

8 1/2 lbs Pilsener
2 1/2 lbs White Wheat
1 lb Briess Caramel 80 L

0.5 oz Cascade @ 30 minutes
0.5 oz Chinook @ 30 minutes
0.5 oz Cascade @ 20 minutes
0.5 oz Chinook @ 20 minutes
2.0 oz Cascade @ 0 minutes
1.0 oz Cascade @ 0 minutes
2.0 oz Cascade @ dry hop
1.0 oz Cascade @ dry hop

0.75 tsp yeast nutrient @ 15 minutes
1.0 tsp irish moss @ 15 minutes

Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale

Water profile: Chicago

Mashed in with 4 gallons of water at 148 degrees F.  Wanted to keep it low per the instructions of Mr. Crowley.  Let the mash sit for 90 minutes in order to ensure full conversion.  Batch sparged with 4 gallons at 170 degrees F.  Came up about a gallon lower than I wanted, so I quickly heated up another gallon and put it through the grain bed.  Collected a total of around 6.5 gallons.

Brewed: 7/6/13

Chilled to 70 degrees F and pitched yeast starter made a couple nights before.

7/15/13 Moved to secondary and dry hopped with a total of 3 oz of leaf hops.

Bottled: 7/24/13

Tasting: A good base for a Belgian IPA to build off.  Will be rebrewing this one soon.

Saison/Lavender and Hibiscus Saison Brew Day

Getting back to brewing and what better way than a saison in the summer?  I decided to put together a basic saison recipe, but thought it would be a waste of a good opportunity to not do anything else.  After looking at Revolution's Rosa, I decided that hibiscus/flowers in general would be something I would like to experiment.  Next, I stopped by The Mad Fermentationist's website and saw he had instructions on how to make a tea out of flower petals and how to add them to your beer.  At his recommendation, I purchased the flower petals here.  I initially wanted to add jasmine and hibiscus as I enjoy the taste of jasmine in tea, but unfortunately they were all out of the jasmine.  As a result, I decided to opt for lavender instead as other sellers did not seem as reliable.  So here we go.

Saison/Lavender and Hibiscus Saison

Batch size: 5.0 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.060
Final Gravity: 1.003
Boil Time: 90 minutes
Mash Time: 90 minutes

11 lbs Pilsener
0.75 lb White Wheat
0.75 lb Munich

1.8 oz Hallertau @ 60 minutes
0.75 oz Hallertau @ 0 minutes

0.75 tsp yeast nutrient @ 15 minutes
1.0 tsp irish moss @ 15 minutes

Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison

Water Profile: Chicago

Mashed in with 3 gallons of water.  Came up short on my mash temperature, so I boiled some water until I reached 147 degrees F.  Let the mash sit for 90 minutes in order to ensure full conversion.  Batch sparged with 4 at 168 degrees F and collected a total of around 6.5 gallons.

Brewed: 6/29/13

Chilled to 72 degrees F and pitched starter I made two nights before.

Moved to secondary: 7/15/13

Bottled: 4/24/13

During the bottling process, I made a tea out of lavender and hibiscus to add to part of the beer.  I used around 0.75 oz of lavender and 2.2 oz of hibiscus.  To that I added 4 cups of water and mixed together in my french press.  The initial tea was.... incredibly strong and tart.  Initially I was a little worried I had gone overboard, but I decided to add the tea as planned and hope for the best once it was diluted a bit.  After adding 2.5 cups to around 2.75 gallons of saison, the resulting concoction eased my mind a little.  As I suspected I believe the jasmine would have complimented the beer more than the lavender and even at 0.75 oz, I think the lavender could have been scaled back.  Nevertheless, looking forward to trying this one.

Tasting:

New York City

I spent the last week visiting New York City and my brother and used some of the time to visit some beer places in the city.  Luckily, it was not too hard finding beer in the city, but it was a little difficult finding time to take myself away from the rest of what the city offered (and convince others to join me) in order to see some of the places I wanted to get to.  In the end, I ended up visiting d.b.a. and Spuyten Duyvil.

d.b.a was a dark bar that had around 10-15 taps and a sprawling bottle list.  They added a nice touch with the tap list by listing the date each beer was tapped in case you are worried you are getting fresh beer, although with a place like this located in New York City, I doubt there is much concern.  Although d.b.a had some rarer beers and saisons I wanted to try, the prices were as large as I would have expected.  One of these days I am going to get a real job, dammit.  In the mean time, maybe just enjoy the picture I took of the board?  I went fairly simple with a fairly basic belgian (and for the life of me I cannot remember its name) followed by a Rodenbach Red.  Nothing out of the ordinary.

Next, at the suggestion of my brother's friend, we headed to Spuyten Duyvil for another couple of drinks.  The inside of the bar is fairly small and reminiscent of a basic pub, but the bar had a great garden in the back.  Even as I sat uncomfortably sweating in the heat, I could not help but enjoy the scenery, and more importantly the beer.  We enjoyed more than a couple Mission IPAs and I also grabbed a Green Jack Rippa and another IPA on cask (something it seems they always have)  What really caught my eye were the two boards which were dedicated to "Flemish" beers and other sours.  Notably, they served Cantillon Gueze among many others.  Once again, my wallet disagreed with my heart unfortunately.

So what did we really learn on this trip?  I am absolutely horrible at taking notes and/or even remembering the names of the new beers I have.  In my defense, I was in New York City.  Back off.

In good news, I have two beers fermenting at the moment and will update on those in the near future.  However, I cannot guarantee quality notes on those either.... or anything for that matter...

Tasting Return

Well, that break was longer than I thought.  I told myself that I had to get through the past couple of months before I could return to all things.  Responsible, eh?  Admittedly, starting about a month ago I was just lazy.

That being said, I thought it would be appropriate to have a tasting for the return as well as for a friend of mine's departure from Chicago.  Since we were both fans of sour and funk, we decided to center it around that.  Luckily, one of my friends picked me up a couple of Russian River Consecrations (as well as some other goodies) while she was in Portland.  I added in a couple bottles of Jolly Pumpkin and the Bruery's Sour in the Rye to round things out.

All seemed well, until we got to the actual tasting.  Luckily we started with the Consecration, which ended up being one of the most rounded sour beers I have had to date.  Needless to say, I will be asking my friend for more when she is back out West and will be posting it's own review soon.  Unfortunately, somehow my friend and I both lost the photos of it though.

Next my friend had brought over the currently legally challenged West Sixth Brewing IPA.  Although good, his next treat was really different.  We broke out a bottle of Rasputin Hopped Whiskey.  For those to lazy to click on the link, the description on the website is

"To make our experimental Rasputin whiskey, we first brew a traditional Imperial stout beer.  When we distill, we pass the new whiskey vapors through hops, adding spicy floral notes to the big malt and chocolate flavors of the stout.  Aging in charred oak barrels adds vanilla and caramel.  The end result is a rich, very complex hopped whiskey."

Honestly, there wasn't a huge
difference, but something wasn't the same as normal whiskey.  We both agreed that there was a sort of resiny aftertaste to the whiskey.  Although it was interesting/tasty, it isn't the type of whiskey that I would prefer every day.

Needless to say, we didn't feel like wasting some of the other sours after sipping on the whiskey, so we decided to put them back in the fridge.  Good news is that I have some goodies to post on in the future, and some brewing ventures as well.

So will you get off my back already?

Orval Trappist Ale

Well, I still have some posts to update from when I was home.  And since I realize that everyone loves hearing from me, I'll throw the last one up here.  Before that, what happened to Mr. Why Do You Never Post?  But seriously, if you have left the internet then I am essentially talking to no one.  The internet can be so lonely.

Orval Trappist Ale

Appearance- A golden orange with a billowing egg shell white head.  The head is pillowy and resilient and a half finger sticks around.  It is slightly hazy and leaves behind a sticky lacing.

Smell- Tart fruits with a reasonable amount of lemon.  Some medicinal and phenolic smells with little underlying malt sweetness.  Some earthy, musty character as well.

Taste- The lemon and citrus flavors are not as pronounced in the taste although they are noticeable lingering in the background.  Medicinal and other phenolic flavors are apparent throughout the beer.  The earthy, musty, slightly barnyard-esque characteristics starts in the middle of the beer and carries through the finish.  Slightly tart, but certainly not mouth puckering and it is not off putting.  Slight hop bitterness in the finish.

Mouthfeel- Medium or possibly medium-light body.  Carbonation is slightly prickly on the tongue at first, but it has become more smooth as the beer has settled.  The finish is dry.

Overall and Notes- A great belgian beer as the earthy character makes this both different from others in the same style and it provides it with a little more character.  As a person who edges towards the funky/sour end of the beer chain, this is my type of beer.  That being said, it is not likely to offend others who do not prefer funk all that much.  So go get the beer or else.

Great Divide Wolfgang Doppelbock Lager

Well, unfortunately I am lacking on the update, but at this point that should be no surprise.  So the scenery in the pictures may be... a tad bit late?  Oh well, get used to it.  The good news (possibly bad for some?) is that I mustered up the ability to write a measly couple paragraphs again.  Life is hard, isn't it?

Wolfgang Doppelbock Lager

Appearance- An amber color with ruby highlights.  Tan head as a thin layer of creamy carbonation sticks around.  Slight lacing and the color is clear.

Smell- Classic bready component that is normally found in a doppelbock.  Caramel very noitceable as it lingers in the malt sweetness.  There seems to be a slight weird; I want to say piney, but that is not exactly it.

Taste- A very rich malt taste that is abundant in bready character with slight amounts of nut.  Seems to be a hint of roasted malt in the finish of the beer and that is where the nutty flavor seems to become most apparent.  A caramel sweetness compliments the malt character as well from the middle of the beer into the finish.

Mouthfeel- Medium bodied with smooth carbonation.  Sweet flavor as expected.

Overall and Notes- A great doppelbock, and I have to admit that I was not expecting it to be this enjoyable, especially after the one strange component in the smell.  Glad to see a great doppelbock released by an American brewery.