seems awesome that you put the emphasis of all caps on IVE instead of EVER

If you're ever on the south side of town, check out Knightly Spirits. They keep over 1,000 beers in stock and rotate new ones in pretty regularly

I didn't even see the writing on these caps since they were printed. I did get around to trying the bitter, and found it much more what I was expecting. It had hints of the same off flavor as my original #4 did, but not nearly as strong; for now, I'm chalking that up to oxidation. Kind of foot-y, cheesy. Behind that though, nice sweet, grainy malt backbone and gentle hop bitterness.

So the other night I drank a six pack of Yuengling, a 6 pack of some German beer called Fanzishaner Weissbier(it was awesome), and 2 22oz. imported beers that were each over 10% alcohol.

Im never doing that again. Worst hangover in history.

my guess is that you had franziskaner. It's great stuff


right now, having a half-acre ginger twin:

poured from bottle into a pint glass. Pours a orange/amber color with a small head

Rich and aromatic with aromas of malts, toffee, blood oranges, and some hops

medium/full bodied with a real nice smooth feel and good flavors of blood oranges, malts, and some toffee

More hoppy on the aromas than the feel. One of my favorites from half-acre and always a welcome time when they release it


4/5

had a few beers off of Wraths' blog over the past few days

i enjoyed, in order
cain's finest bitter beer
the lagunitas i got, you said you liked em all
stone ipa reunion
old chub, scotch flavor

Glad you enjoyed them, thanks for reading! I've been meaning to throw in some updates, it's just been crazy lately. Finals this coming week, and then after that lots of beer updates to come!

Two brief reviews:

2012 Sierra Nevada Hoptimum
First off this beer is gorgeous. A perfect amber clearness, you can see almost straight through this. The aroma is lacking, almost non existent which is surprising because this is such a big DIPA. The taste is overwhelmingly hoppy. Liquid hop juice, but really pleasant. A little grassy and very piney. I had last years and wasn't impressed. I don't know if they changed it (I doubt it) but I really like this.

4.5-4.6

2011 Stone RIS
I saw that the 2012 version was out so I grabbed one of those at the store but actually decided to pull a 2011 out of my cellar to taste. Pours a jet black and a small brown head which leaves quickly. Aroma is huge roast and coffee. Taste is wonderful. Big chocolate and roast notes with little alcohol which is awesome considering it's 10+. People say its really creamy but I don't see it, I would like the carbonation to be a little less "bubbly". Not sure how else to describe it and this may very well be my own preference.

4.4-4.5

got a case of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale for free. Pretty pumped for this.

Ok a few very brief reviews.

Heady Topper poured into a tulip...A very small shipment of this beer was sent to Philly and NYC recently, I was lucky enough to snag a 4 pack (limit one 4 pack per customer)

Pours cloudy orange with a bunch of hop particles making it look like pulp in orange juice. A 1 finger white head that leaves good lacing.

Smells amazing, citrusy hop bomb, tons of mango, grapefruit and a bit of pine aromas.

Taste is even more citrus, not a huge amount of bitting bitterness just a massive citrus taste from beginning to end.

This beer is up there with PtE for me, it really is that good. My only complaint is the hop matter that is floating around, normally that doesnt bother me but it was getting stuck in my teeth a bit at the end of the glass and became a distraction. If not for that I think it would beat PtE.

100% Brett C ESB

This was the same wort as the ESB we all brewed.

Bronze in color with good clarity, better than with the Burton yeast. Very thin head that dissapates leaving only a little bit of lacing.

Smells like Pineapples, a bit reminiscent of Orval minus the Belgian esters. A bit of a roasty malt character hidden in there.

Thinner body than the Burton version, taste is fairly clean with some pineapple. It goes down very quickly.

This was an interesting experiment, I made a 500ml starter with a vial of White Labs Brett C and let it ferment for 8 weeks and it finished at 1.012. I would like to try a different Brett strain to see if I can get more funk, this was good but Brett C seems to give off the aroma and not much funk in the flavor. Itll be fun to see how this one ages.




EDIT: Photos ripped from my instagram, follow me @ecoff there is a pretty big craftbeer and homebrew community on there.

Very jealous you had were drinking HT Coff. I agree with you, right up there with PtE.

Question about your brett experiment. Did you keep it separate from your other homebrew stuff? How worried are you about contamination across your equipment? Bugs really interest me but I just don't know if I want to risk my stuff. I soured a berliner weisse with lacto off the grain a few weeks ago, but did that in a separate bucket and then boiled it to kill it.

Any feedback on a RIS I plan on brewing soon?

12 lb pale malt
2 lb DME
1 lb Roasted Barley
1 lb Chocolate Malt
1 lb Flaked oats

1 oz Magnum (60 min)
1 oz Warrior (60 min)

WLP001
Mash at 155*
OG - 1.095
ABV ~9.6%

Consider golden naked oats as opposed to flaked. They are supposedly much better at building body and creaminess.

Heady Topper truly is a rival to PtE. I think the hop matter that was a negative for you is one of the reasons the cans advise you to drink straight from the can. I prefer it from a glass, even with the hop chunks, but it was awesome from the can as well.

Since that beer was 100% Brett I wasnt as worried as my other beers that have Brett Lacto Pedio etc. But I do keep all of my funky beers in a completely separate room from my clean beers. We have a spare bathroom that is never used and the funky beers hang in that shower, its also nice and warm in there year round ~72-76f.

From the reading I have done Brett is fairly easy to kill with just some oxyclean and Starsan but I still have dedicated plastics for funky beers, siphon, tubing, bottling bucket, wine thief hydrometer and testing jar.

If anyone is interested in a Homebrew trade I would be happy to trade the Brett beer, it was a really interesting experiment. Using Brett as a primary is a whole lot different than using it to finish a beer, it attenuates just like sacch and works much faster then in secondary ~6-8 weeks.

Did you listen to the Crooked Stave session? Incredibly interesting, they're a brewery that does 100% Brett beers.

Yea that was a great episode, I listened to it a few times over actually. Ive been trying to get my hands on some of their beer Id love to try a commercial example of a 100% Brett beer. Chad posts on HBT from time to time to, some of his posts go way over my head though. Here is a link to his Brett dissertation.

http://www.brettanomycesproject.com/

Edit: So if anyone can get Crooked Stave beers, specifically the Wild Wild Brett series, let me know and I will either buy them from you or trade.

Haha yeah I was reading that on the way in to school this morning. The last 4 or 5 sessions have jusy been phenemonal. Wish I was into funk as it seems like it's such a cool and unknown area of beer.

Is it that you dont like them or just have not gotten into them? There are so many styles of wild beers, its hard to unequivocally say you dont like them.

I can sip saisons and farmhouse ales and be alright. I don't care for berliner weisse or sours though. I'll try them if a friend is drinking one but I'd never order one right now. I'm definitely open minded enough not to pass on one.

I'm really digging the funk lately, but finding it hard to get them (not to mention how expensive sours seem to be).

Coff, I'm going to be trying my berliner weisse that I soured with lacto from grains this weekend. If it's any good I'll trade with you for your Brett beer (and any others if you want).

Do you like Orval? I always think thats the best gateway beer to funk. Preferably a 1 year old bottle for added funkyness.

I will gladly trade my Brett beer for your Berliner, let me know when it is ready.

I don't like it, but I don't hate it either. It's drinkable and interesting but not "good" to my personal taste.

The last funky beer I've had was Dos Costas Oeste - Grapefruit Wood and I found it somewhat enjoyable.

I've tried CC's Guava Grove and Vuja De and couldn't stomach them though.

BEER!!!

Who has been brewing? What has everyone been drinking?

I'll post some reviews but since 2+2 has been away I have gotten my hands on the following.

Founders KBS
RR Sanctification
3F Zombie Dust
and more Heady Topper....and Ive been drinking it from the can.