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: