The Beer connoisseur thread
01-12-2014
, 08:43 PM
01-19-2014
, 04:41 PM
01-19-2014
, 04:41 PM
01-19-2014
, 06:07 PM
All,
Alright, tasted a few of these bottles.
First up, the Logsdon Cerasus:
So, I really loved their Seizon Bretta, and was pretty excited to taste this one. Nice price at $12 for a 750. Unfortunately, the Cerasus didn't really live up to the Seizon Bretta. The flavor was just sort of dull/flat. Some decent cherry flavor, but not really intense. Pretty mild sourness/tartness. No earthiness/funk. I mean, it's certainly not bad at all, but it's way lighter in flavor than I expected and nothing really special about it. It's smooth and refreshing, though, maybe a nice summer beer and a good introduction to sours for people.
Next up, Petrus Aged Pale:
Another reasonably priced beer, at $5 for what I think was a 330ml. Very pleasantly surprised by this one. So, right off the bat, ton of sour citrus flavor. Good bit of oakiness to this, and a little bit of earth. Overall, light and refreshing, easy to drink, but with a lot of strong sour flavor. Lot more carbonation and overall lightness compared to the other sours I've been drinking. Really like this one and will def get again.
Those were last week. I decided that a day of NFL playoff football would be a good reason to try out the Cascade Kriek, so busted that open today:
$30 for 750 here, phew. But damn, this lives up to the hype. First thing that hits me here is the intense earthy, funky flavor here. I've never had an American beer with this flavor profile. I was expecting this to be more of the very fruity, very sour type flavor like the Russian River sours I love. But this one just hits you with the funk hard. But it's balanced with a perfect level of sourness and a nice, subtle level of fruitiness with way less sweetness than I was expecting. This is a really great beer w/ a ton going on. Complexity-wise it blows away the Russian River beers imo (which I LOVE, btw). This one most reminds me of some Cantillons I've had. $30 is def pretty steep compared to far simpler but still delicious stuff like Duchess for $12, but it's definitely something I'll get again. Now I have a new challenge, which of these to get! http://shop.cascadebrewingbarrelhouse.com/main.sc
I also had a few other sours at Mikkeler Bar in the last couple of weeks, with one of them being a super standout - Freigeist Quince Gose. So, so great.
Thanks to everyone for their sour recs/feedback/etc - I am addicted to this stuff now!
Alright, tasted a few of these bottles.
First up, the Logsdon Cerasus:
So, I really loved their Seizon Bretta, and was pretty excited to taste this one. Nice price at $12 for a 750. Unfortunately, the Cerasus didn't really live up to the Seizon Bretta. The flavor was just sort of dull/flat. Some decent cherry flavor, but not really intense. Pretty mild sourness/tartness. No earthiness/funk. I mean, it's certainly not bad at all, but it's way lighter in flavor than I expected and nothing really special about it. It's smooth and refreshing, though, maybe a nice summer beer and a good introduction to sours for people.
Next up, Petrus Aged Pale:
Another reasonably priced beer, at $5 for what I think was a 330ml. Very pleasantly surprised by this one. So, right off the bat, ton of sour citrus flavor. Good bit of oakiness to this, and a little bit of earth. Overall, light and refreshing, easy to drink, but with a lot of strong sour flavor. Lot more carbonation and overall lightness compared to the other sours I've been drinking. Really like this one and will def get again.
Those were last week. I decided that a day of NFL playoff football would be a good reason to try out the Cascade Kriek, so busted that open today:
$30 for 750 here, phew. But damn, this lives up to the hype. First thing that hits me here is the intense earthy, funky flavor here. I've never had an American beer with this flavor profile. I was expecting this to be more of the very fruity, very sour type flavor like the Russian River sours I love. But this one just hits you with the funk hard. But it's balanced with a perfect level of sourness and a nice, subtle level of fruitiness with way less sweetness than I was expecting. This is a really great beer w/ a ton going on. Complexity-wise it blows away the Russian River beers imo (which I LOVE, btw). This one most reminds me of some Cantillons I've had. $30 is def pretty steep compared to far simpler but still delicious stuff like Duchess for $12, but it's definitely something I'll get again. Now I have a new challenge, which of these to get! http://shop.cascadebrewingbarrelhouse.com/main.sc
I also had a few other sours at Mikkeler Bar in the last couple of weeks, with one of them being a super standout - Freigeist Quince Gose. So, so great.
Thanks to everyone for their sour recs/feedback/etc - I am addicted to this stuff now!
Last edited by El Diablo; 01-19-2014 at 06:13 PM.
01-20-2014
, 02:16 AM
01-20-2014
, 03:09 PM
So a few months ago, I got a Randall Jr. from Dogfish Head. I was excited by the idea of adding flavors to beer, but never got around to actually doing. A couple of weeks ago, I finally took the plunge.
I decided to add some toasted coconut to Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, with the goal of creating a poor man's Proprietor's Stout. Raw materials:
Some toasted coconut. I have no idea what I'm doing, so I stuck some coconut (unsweetened) in my toaster oven and toasted it. Probably too much.
Then I put it in the Randall Jr., added the stout, and put it in the fridge.
I was going to drink it that evening, but something came up and I didn't get around to it. I took it out of the fridge the next night.
Poured it into my glass, and was disappointed - virtually no carbonation:
I mean, I don't want much carbonation in a big stout like this, but it was basically flat.
Next disappointment - it actually didn't taste very good. Coconut dominated the taste, and not in an entirely pleasant way. It was still decent, because the base beer is so good, but I very much considered it a failed experiment.
Final disappointment - the coconut flakes weren't good at all.
I imaged chomping on these in ecstasy, maybe adding them to ice cream. But they turned out to be pretty bad, and I ended up throwing them away.
In short, a very poor showing. Possible errors:
- too much coconut
- coconut toasted too much
- left in fridge/steeped for too long
- Perhaps Randall Jr. doesn't hold as good a seal as expected.
I decided to add some toasted coconut to Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, with the goal of creating a poor man's Proprietor's Stout. Raw materials:
Some toasted coconut. I have no idea what I'm doing, so I stuck some coconut (unsweetened) in my toaster oven and toasted it. Probably too much.
Then I put it in the Randall Jr., added the stout, and put it in the fridge.
I was going to drink it that evening, but something came up and I didn't get around to it. I took it out of the fridge the next night.
Poured it into my glass, and was disappointed - virtually no carbonation:
I mean, I don't want much carbonation in a big stout like this, but it was basically flat.
Next disappointment - it actually didn't taste very good. Coconut dominated the taste, and not in an entirely pleasant way. It was still decent, because the base beer is so good, but I very much considered it a failed experiment.
Final disappointment - the coconut flakes weren't good at all.
I imaged chomping on these in ecstasy, maybe adding them to ice cream. But they turned out to be pretty bad, and I ended up throwing them away.
In short, a very poor showing. Possible errors:
- too much coconut
- coconut toasted too much
- left in fridge/steeped for too long
- Perhaps Randall Jr. doesn't hold as good a seal as expected.
01-21-2014
, 01:41 AM
spider: Bummer that didn't turn out better, but sounds like an awesome project to try. Looking forward to further attempts.
All: Sigh, stopped by the beer store today for a couple of drinks, and of course take a peek at the retail side and...
A full new stock of Cascade Kriek, Apricot, Vine, and Strawberry. All $28.99.
Of course, I had to pick up a couple, but I'm gonna try and make this it for now. That's really more than I like spending on beer.
Gonna drink one soon and save one for a while. Any opinions on which one to drink now and which one to save?
All: Sigh, stopped by the beer store today for a couple of drinks, and of course take a peek at the retail side and...
A full new stock of Cascade Kriek, Apricot, Vine, and Strawberry. All $28.99.
Of course, I had to pick up a couple, but I'm gonna try and make this it for now. That's really more than I like spending on beer.
Gonna drink one soon and save one for a while. Any opinions on which one to drink now and which one to save?
01-21-2014
, 01:04 PM
In fact I did go for a second attempt two nights ago. I meant to post the sequel, but work got in the way. Stupid work.
Anyway, I wanted to try the coconut/Bourbon Count Stout combination again, because I'm convinced it should be awesome. In the first attempt, I had several issues:
- Coconut was toasted for too long
- Coconut was in the stout too long (overnight)
- Randall Jr. didn't hold the carbonation (possibly related to the overnight steeping)
Like any good scientist, I decided to try to fix all of those things at once.
- I toasted the coconut on the lowest setting in my toaster oven. Just a hint of brown.
- Instead of using the Randall Jr., I dumped the toasted coconut directly into the beer bottle, and just capped it with a twist-on champagne stopper. I have several of these stoppers and they're awesome - I can open a bomber of a high ABV beer, only drink half of it, and it stays very well carbonated for several days. So I was confident that this would improve the carbonation situation.
I let it steep in the fridge for only an hour or two, then poured into a glass through a fine strainer.
Outcome: Success!
It was awesome. Had a nice coconut taste, carbonation was still present, and was just excellent. For the last pours (I was using a really small aperitif glass), I didn't even bother straining the coconut out - just kind of drank and munched at the same time. Pretty great. Overall, I would definitely repeat this experiment.
Final thoughts:
- Bourbon County is an awesome beer, so I'm not sure how much the coconut actually improved it versus just making it a little different. I've got some other bourbon barrel aged beer that I don't like as much (Thirsty Dog BA Siberian Night) that I'd like to try this with.
- The in-the-bottle/strainer combination is fine and definitely helps with carbonation retention, but doesn't leave a lot of room for additions. Adding some coconut flakes wasn't a problem, but if I wanted to add more items or larger items, it obviously wouldn't work. I'll give the Randall another try, but definitely won't leave it to steep for longer than a few hours.
- I'd like to do an actual taste test, where I infuse half a beer, then compare that half to the base beer at the same time.
Anyway, I wanted to try the coconut/Bourbon Count Stout combination again, because I'm convinced it should be awesome. In the first attempt, I had several issues:
- Coconut was toasted for too long
- Coconut was in the stout too long (overnight)
- Randall Jr. didn't hold the carbonation (possibly related to the overnight steeping)
Like any good scientist, I decided to try to fix all of those things at once.
- I toasted the coconut on the lowest setting in my toaster oven. Just a hint of brown.
- Instead of using the Randall Jr., I dumped the toasted coconut directly into the beer bottle, and just capped it with a twist-on champagne stopper. I have several of these stoppers and they're awesome - I can open a bomber of a high ABV beer, only drink half of it, and it stays very well carbonated for several days. So I was confident that this would improve the carbonation situation.
I let it steep in the fridge for only an hour or two, then poured into a glass through a fine strainer.
Outcome: Success!
It was awesome. Had a nice coconut taste, carbonation was still present, and was just excellent. For the last pours (I was using a really small aperitif glass), I didn't even bother straining the coconut out - just kind of drank and munched at the same time. Pretty great. Overall, I would definitely repeat this experiment.
Final thoughts:
- Bourbon County is an awesome beer, so I'm not sure how much the coconut actually improved it versus just making it a little different. I've got some other bourbon barrel aged beer that I don't like as much (Thirsty Dog BA Siberian Night) that I'd like to try this with.
- The in-the-bottle/strainer combination is fine and definitely helps with carbonation retention, but doesn't leave a lot of room for additions. Adding some coconut flakes wasn't a problem, but if I wanted to add more items or larger items, it obviously wouldn't work. I'll give the Randall another try, but definitely won't leave it to steep for longer than a few hours.
- I'd like to do an actual taste test, where I infuse half a beer, then compare that half to the base beer at the same time.
01-21-2014
, 08:01 PM
01-21-2014
, 11:01 PM
01-22-2014
, 12:10 AM
01-22-2014
, 06:12 AM
Brag: Entire city got just 3 cases of Hopslam. I got a 7.75g keg 
Beat: It will probably be on tap > 10 days.
Beat: It will probably be on tap > 10 days.
01-22-2014
, 04:40 PM
01-22-2014
, 05:53 PM
