Happy Friday! There are two more beers left in the six pack after this one, but I’ll try and stick with one review a day.

Wolaver’s india pale ale comes with a white label with some black lettering and a small image of farmers reaping grain over “Certified Organic”. It pours into the glass a rich golden with a slight white head and faint hop aroma. The first thing I thought when I smelled it was “pils”, not as aggressive as I’d think an IPA is.

The fist sip is light and almost empty. The second sip, though, really brings forth the hop bitterness with a little malty sweetness hidden beneath. The nose is still faintly off, not quite what I expect from the style, but it does have a pleasant bitterness and a light balance. This IPA might be reserved for folks just trying to get into hopped craziness. Would it be insulting to call it a “starter IPA”?

I’ll give this one a barely lifted mug up. With so many other great toe curling IPA’s on the market, this one is only so-so. If you are into the statement of buying organic more than drinking IPA, go for it. For what it is worth, this beer is amazingly clear!

Cheers!

Huzzah, now I can find out how incredibly off the mark I am with all my beer reviews! PRWeb introduced the release of the Beer Tasting and Hop Appreciation Kit. It seems to be an ingenious and long waited for product for the “Techie” as well as the “Gotta Have It” and “Show” and this kid is petitioning for a sample to review.

From the release:

If someone wanted to discover the different hop flavors of beer there really were no options available to them other than brewing up a batch for themselves and experimenting with different recipes, which is what most of them did.

And this is exactly what I do! Through doing this I can freely admit that Cascade hops are not my favorite for IPA’s unless there is also a couple other varieties added. I have never proffessed to be a “pro” taster, though and hope everyone who reads this realizes that. I know what I like!

Cheers!

The Denver Post writes today:

In 2006, the state of Colorado officially became the largest beer producing state in the country, according to newly released data from the Beer Institute. The Colorado brewing industry produced over 23.3 million barrels or 724.5 million gallons of beer. This makes the state tops in production, edging out second place California and other large states such as Texas and New York.

Some of my favorite beers come right out of this fine state, and if I never get to Europe for an international beer tour, I hope to make it to Colorado and Oregon at least once in my lifetime!

“Colorado is tremendously important to the beer industry and produces a number of high quality brews enjoyed by adults around the country,” said Jeff Becker, president of the Beer Institute. “With a strong beer culture and a rich brewing history, it’s no surprise the state has become number one.”

In honor of this and in complete agreement, I’m going to go out and find myself a sixer of Hazed and Infused!

Cheers!

Today I’m reviewing Mendocino Brewing Co.’s White Hawk IPA out of Saratoga Springs, NY. The label has a cool looking bust of a hawk on the front with its beak open, framed with ribbon art with the name on it and a green background.  Any IPA is a good IPA in my book, now its time to continue testing that theory.

I always sniff the bottle after I open it hoping for some great hop aroma, but this one has only a faint hop presense so far. It pours out very light golden with a full pale head. Not much aroma from the glass, either, but whoohooo, it has a nice bitterness to it. The first sip screams down my tongue to jump up and down in the back of my mouth, nice hopitude. Sitting after the sip and my mouth is still tingling from the hops.

I’m impressed with the bitterness as well as the lack of clinging sweetness. It has a nice crisp finish, with the lingering in the back of the mouth bitterness. Very nice.  A longer pull from the glass lets some of the maltiness come out. Well balanced for my tastes!

The head laces nice on the glass too, its always cool to see that.

Overall, I’d present 1.5 frosty mugs up. Since there are a lot of great IPA’s with huge aroma to accompany the bitterness, I can’t quite lift the second mug all the way up, but I will certainly not mind picking up a 6′er if I see it locally.

Enjoy,

Cheers!

I have two hobbies that I really enjoy. These two hobbies are completely incompatible. In fact, the minute I start one hobby completely rules out doing the other. I know the first hobby is obvious. I like to brew my own beer, and I like to drink said beer. I’ve even be known to have a commercially made beer. Sometimes, I even review it and put it up on a blog for all to read.

My other hobby is shooting. I bet its all clear now why they are incompatible. I have a Minnesota Permit to Carry and like to visit the range as often as I can. There is nothing quite so cathartic as poking holes in paper at 5 or 7 yards, or beyond. Then I get to clean my pistol and go home. One the pistol is stowed I can sample my other hobby.

For safety sake, and for the lives of my family I never mix the two.

I was planning on placing another review today from the five remaining beers in my fridge but luckily remembered in time that I have a range visit planned for this evening! Now, I know logically that the liver processes the alcohol from one beer in about an hour, but it comes down to the principal of it.

Perhaps I’ll review when we get back tonight!

Cheers!

Another cryptic offering from Buffalo Bill’s Brewery, Pumpkin ale has a neat black label with a stylized pumpkin in a bed of leaves, with orange and green lettering. Just like their Orange Blossom Cream Ale, the Pumpkin ale was brewed under contract by Pyramid Brewing Co. out of Portland Oregon. I say cryptic, because I’m still not sure what that means. Did Buffalo Bill’s give the recipe to Pyramid to brew in larger batches? That seems most likely but I remain in the dark and am not ambitious enough to pursue an answer.

On to the beer. Opening the bottle and taking a whiff gives a pleasant pie spice aroma with nutmeg ringing through over the rest. Pouring into the glass shows a light golden beer with a full white head, still giving off some spice aroma. The first sip comes through with the spice that is expected, little hop presence and surprisingly subtle malt and sweetness.

I was leery of drinking this one since the Orange one was so over the top sweet, but this one might even be considered dry. I like a “fruit” beer that doesn’t weigh me down with malty sweetness. There is the same aftertaste that I get after a bite of pumpkin pie. It is actually impressive! Even with my aversion to flavored beers (then why do I keep reviewing them?) I give this one two frosty mugs up. Here is a flavored beer that I can have more than one and not be sweeted out.

If you see this one, give it a try, it is one of the better fall seasonals that I’ve tried.

Cheers!

I wonder if this accident in Conneticut involved one of those semis that was stolen from Moosehead?

Two tractor-trailers crashed in the Northbound lanes near Exit 13 this morning, forcing police to shut down the road.

One of the trucks was carrying beer and the beer spilled all over the road.

From the story, there was no word of injuries, though beer lovers worldwide felt an unexplained cringe and twinge with that much beer washing the streets.

Brew’s Clues!

Ok, to play brews clues we gotta find a…?
Bottle!
Right, ’cause thats the first…?
Brew!
Yeah! and then we put it our AleMug
‘Cause they’re brews clues brews clues

We gotta find another bottle, thats the second Brew!

We put it in our AleMug ’cause they’re brews clues brews clues

We gotta find the last bottle, thats our THIRD brew, we put it our AleMug ’cause they’re
Brews clues brews clues, brews clues BREWS CLUES!

You know what to do!
Sit down in our drinking chair and drink, drink, dri-i-i-ink
‘Cause when we use our Mugs and take a sip at a time,
We can brew any THING that we wanna Brew,

Yeah!

If you have no idea what this is about, be thankful! Too much Nick Jr. for this dad. At least today’s episode actually got me thinking about something other than mean things happening to children’s shows.

Cheers!

Reading in the Canadian Press about a beer heist. Funny, who can fence 100,000 cans of Moosehead beer? Someone is going to be very happy for a very long time, or a lot of people for a very short time.

Two tractor-trailers carrying 70,000 cans and 44,000 bottles of Moosehead Lager were stolen early Wednesday morning at a transport company’s facility in Mississauga, Ont.

I’ve always wondered about the morality of someone who would steal. How do you justify to yourself removing property that isn’t yours?!? Crazy. HOW DO YOU STEAL A WHOLE SEMI TRAILER FULL?

Wow.

Sad.

Cheers!

The crisp mornings last week started me itching to brew up some lagers. I have a chest freezer that I use as a kegerator to serve my beer, and of course it has the temperature control on it so I can ramp it up to lagering temps, but it is more fun to put the carboys in the crawl space during the winter. Most retail outlets categorize their lager kits as “intermediate” because of the need to control the temperature in cooler ranges. I think that is pure silliness during a Minnesota winter!

Our basement before we moved was a perfect place to lager beers. Here’s how I kept it very cool even in close proximity to the furnace. I made sure the cement floor was swept clear and free from little debris that might hit a weak spot on the bottom of the carboy and gently, oh so gently place the carboy directly on the floor. Then I took the carboy box and taped up the flaps, so that when I put it over the carboy it would leave room for the airlock. This made for a decently cool fermentation chamber mostly insulated by the cardboard from the warmer room temperature.

Of course, I’ll emphasize again how delicate and careful I was placing that full carboy on the concrete floor. I’ve read several horror stories from other online users who tried setting down a carboy only to have it crack and shatter. I don’t even want to try imagining what five gallons of beer on my floor would look like. If you decide to try this, do so carefully!

Cheers!