What are you drinking now?

Saison Six and Ginger Peach Hefeweizen...at the same time!

Piraat Ale. A tripple I beleive. Mmmmmm, Belgian-ey.

Me drink to may already tonight....Gold Miner, The Freeminer Brewery

Leffe Blonde...they just started carrying it around here.

Good idea Baron. I have a Leffe in the frig, but not for long.

Dortmuder AB! This is good stuff, tastes a bit skunky like all the other green bottle beers which may be why I like it.

Rhoobarbrau. Good stuff, my man.

Firestone Double Barrel Ale

Brewery is about 1/2 hour from me and I have never been, maybe one day though!

Celebration Ale now. I had a taste for something hoppy.

Might have a few more before switching over to something else. I'm in the mood for a good solid night of drinking and posting stupid thoughts.

The second to last of one of my stouts (at room temperature). I have come to find that it has finally matured. It was worth waiting 4 months for. Wish I would have lest the whole batch until now, but alas, that is life!

What also sucks is I promised one to a friend - and there is only one left. Damn.

Sprecker Special Amber. Last of the Secret Santa brews. Once again, thanks Sauce! :rockin:

Just about ready to crack the first Anchor Steam 2006 Christmas ale. Had another SNCA with a fantastic tuna steak dinner. Yummm yummm.

Nada, but I'm taking some Blueberry Wheat to a party this evening. Long drive, but I told a business associate I'd be there.

We went out for dinner, where I had a bloody mary. Now, we're comparing the original Pete's Wicked, and my clone (Brewmistress's Wicked). Next, one of the few remaining Dead Guy clones. I wanted to drink the Oatmeal Stout from Wolf tonight, but I forgot about it until just now. I'll save that one for tomorrow- I think it's going to be a really special one.

Lorena

I drank IPA's during two basketball games and 1.5 football games. Now I'm having Chocolate Mayan Truffle tea.

:fro:

I'm finally cracking into my Secret Santa brews, I've got some of Brewsmith's Dopplebock. Very malty, very smooth. High beer (1085 OG), but no discernable alcohol flavor. No hop flavor or aroma to speak of, just an almost overwhelming malty goodness. Sweet and caramelly, a little toffee in there, almost but not quite cloying. Definately not a session beer, but an excellent, excellent brew.

Avery Hog Heaven Barley Wine. It was supposed to be taken care of on New years, but we got caught up drinking homebrew.

- magno

the_bird said:

I'm finally cracking into my Secret Santa brews, I've got some of Brewsmith's Dopplebock. Very malty, very smooth. High beer (1085 OG), but no discernable alcohol flavor. No hop flavor or aroma to speak of, just an almost overwhelming malty goodness. Sweet and caramelly, a little toffee in there, almost but not quite cloying. Definately not a session beer, but an excellent, excellent brew.

Click to expand...

I used White Labs 810 CA Common Yeast in that one. It got dumped right on top of the yeast cake from my previous brew, a CA Common. It was a 3 gallon brew due to mash space. I used 5 lbs of Munich, 5 lbs 2-row, 0.25 lb Chocolate Malt and 0.25 lb. Crystal 90. For hops I put 0.5 oz of Hallertauer Hesrbruck at 60 and 0.25 oz at 30 as well as 0.25 oz of Tettnanger at 30 and 15.

If I did it again, I'd probably ditch the chocolate and crystal, and bump up the bittering hops a little. Now that my fermentation fridge is up and running I would also do a real lager.

And I'm drinking my smoked porter. Gotta finish it off so I can put a stout in that keg.

Brewsmith said:

I used White Labs 810 CA Common Yeast in that one. It got dumped right on top of the yeast cake from my previous brew, a CA Common. It was a 3 gallon brew due to mash space. I used 5 lbs of Munich, 5 lbs 2-row, 0.25 lb Chocolate Malt and 0.25 lb. Crystal 90. For hops I put 0.5 oz of Hallertauer Hesrbruck at 60 and 0.25 oz at 30 as well as 0.25 oz of Tettnanger at 30 and 15.

If I did it again, I'd probably ditch the chocolate and crystal, and bump up the bittering hops a little. Now that my fermentation fridge is up and running I would also do a real lager.

Click to expand...

You could definately taste the sweetness of the crystal, and I'm thinking the combination of the chocolate and the high-L crystal was giving that toffee-like character. I don't think it was bad at all, I was very impressed with how smooth and almost velvety it was. If you do ditch the crystal next time, you might think about doing Munich for the entire malt bill - remain a lot of malty character, but maybe in a slightly less-sweet manner.

I wouldn't have guessed that you had any flavor hops in there; all I picked up was a little bit of bitterness. Not sure of the style guidelines, not sure if you could (or would want) to get by with a little bit more at the 15 minute addition.

Out of curiosity, what was the final gravity on that?

The color just came out a little dark for me. I would add some caramunich or something similar. I'm not quite sure what the final gravity is. I know I measured it, but I didn't seem to write it down. I'll drink one tonight and measure it! As far as style guidelines, I don't think there's supposed to be much hop flavor or aroma to it, and the 15 min addition was fairly small, at least for such a big beer. In promash I'm getting a total of 20 IBUs, but the style guidelines are between 16 and 31. I'd shoot to at least 25 next time.

lorenae said:

I wanted to drink the Oatmeal Stout from Wolf tonight, but I forgot about it until just now. I'll save that one for tomorrow- I think it's going to be a really special one.

Lorena

Click to expand...

Yikes, too much buildup, it can only be disappointing now, just dump it

Running short on homebrew. Tall boy kokanee.

the_bird said:

Out of curiosity, what was the final gravity on that?

Click to expand...

Well I tried to take a reading, but the carbonation is screwing with the hydrometer. It's wanting to say it's over 1.030, but I know that's completely wrong. I pitched on a yeast cake, so I'd go with at least 75% aparent attenuation, which puts it at around 1.021.

Jack Daniels on the rocks.

St. Peters Cream Stout

Cream City Pale Ale from Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee. It's from the beer exchange I did with Lorenae. It's nice, crisp with an almost "Piney/Sprucey" bitterness to it. Does anyone know what hops they are using?

Brewtopia said:

Cream City Pale Ale from Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee. It's from the beer exchange I did with Lorenae. It's nice, crisp with an almost "Piney/Sprucey" bitterness to it. Does anyone know what hops they are using?

Click to expand...

Cream City Pale Ale
This top fermenting amber-colored ale is brewed using generous amounts of malt and kettle hops. The trademark of this ale is its beautiful hop bouquet and taste that comes from a liberal dry hopping of the highest grade Cascade hops during the secondary fermentation. The malt firmness of this ale comes from the perfect mixture of two-row malted barley, carapils, and caramel specialty malts. The ale has an original gravity of 1060 and is fermented at 65 degrees farenheight which imparts the classic ale fruitiness to the brew.

Sampling someone else's homebrew tonight - Todd_K's Hop Whompus....


Absolutely incredible. Great aroma, great hop flavor. Good mouthfeel, not too thin, but not overwhelmingly malty. Great, classic American citrusy/piney flavor. This is right up there with Walker's IPA in terms of the best homebrews I've tasted. Overcarbed, but you knew that - it held its head very well. I'm still learning my hops, but seems like there's a good amount of Cascades in there. A little bit of harshness in the back of the throat, a little bit of lingering bitterness on the back of the tongue, nothing undesireable in an IPA.

Well done, my man! I'll have to win some more beer off you!

EDIT: Just re-read the post about this beer, no Cascade, but looks like about eight pounds of other hops in there...

Nice, nice job!

Thanks Wolf. I wonder if this beer is infected? It has a slight sourness to it that I don't remember ever getting from Cascades. I tend to like infected beers though. Give me a Brett beer any day! By the way, I just switched. Right now I'm drinking one of the Two Hearted Ales you sent me. This beer is great. Nice citrusy hop profile.

I'm drinking Wolf's oatmeal stout. Excellent! Very deep flavored and rich. I love the maltiness and huge creamy head. Must have a pretty high ABV, as it it me pretty hard after my earlier brews.

Great brew, Wolf. Very nice. I'm glad I waited to tonight to enjoy it.

Lorena

Hey bird, you haven't tried my IPA yet have you? I'm a little curious on your thoughts on that one, or any of the others you haven't drank yet for that matter.

Brewsmith said:

Hey bird, you haven't tried my IPA yet have you? I'm a little curious on your thoughts on that one, or any of the others you haven't drank yet for that matter.

Click to expand...

I'll crack that one tomorrow; I'm anxious to try it as well. I have five beers left from you and from Todd_k; I think the fairest approach is to alternate (and I usually don't drink more than one of something THAT big - and those are big beers you sent me - during the week).

Mmmm...mapfelwine. It needs a little more apple cyser (which I have available) to balance out the maple, but it is YUMMMMM!!!

the_bird said:

I'll crack that one tomorrow; I'm anxious to try it as well. I have five beers left from you and from Todd_k; I think the fairest approach is to alternate (and I usually don't drink more than one of something THAT big - and those are big beers you sent me - during the week).

Click to expand...

Sounds fair.

My drinking list for the moment while I bottled by blonde:
A pint of Weihenstephan Doppelbock quickly followed by
Almost 12 oz of the blonde being bottled. It was bottle 49 and didn't quite fill all the way and so I decided to sample and measure
Now - My Desert Brown

lorenae said:

I'm drinking Wolf's oatmeal stout. Excellent! Very deep flavored and rich. I love the maltiness and huge creamy head. Must have a pretty high ABV, as it it me pretty hard after my earlier brews.

Great brew, Wolf. Very nice. I'm glad I waited to tonight to enjoy it.

Lorena

Click to expand...

Great, glad you liked it! It's surely my best brew to date (all of about 10 batches).

Brewtopia said:

I wonder if this beer is infected? It has a slight sourness to it that I don't remember ever getting from Cascades. I tend to like infected beers though. Give me a Brett beer any day! By the way, I just switched. Right now I'm drinking one of the Two Hearted Ales you sent me. This beer is great. Nice citrusy hop profile.

Click to expand...

Glad you enjoyed the Two Hearted. Bell's makes one of my favorites (Porter). I'm curious about the Cream City now, I may pick up a sixer tonight, gonna be grocery shopping anyway. Sounds hoppier than my normal choices but I like that now and again.

I was pleased to find some Snake Dog IPA earlier toady. Cracked one and it tastes......like a wit?

It's kind of phenolic, and tastes just like it was fermented with Hoegaarden yeast. Has to be a slight infection, because I sure don't recall that. It actually give the beer kind of a neat character, as it's still pretty hoppy. The phenols a strong in the aroma, too. I wanted a good IPA, dammit!

This is for the german dudes out here but I just popped open a Schwaben Brau Weihnachtsbier Spezialitat. There's more words to this bottle but figure that's enough for tonight. Some friends of mine just got back from Germany and all I got was this . Not bad, kind of light lager something or other.

Oh yea, I'm washing it down with my own Weizenbock.

A sample from my Old Helicon Barleywine 2006. It looks like bourbon whiskey. Aroma is of hops, a little citrusy, taste is at first sweet and coats the toungue, but is immediately followed by hop flavor, again fairly citrusy from all the cascade and amarillo hops. It's already mellowed out a little in the 2 weeks it was dry hopping, but at 11.9% abv, it needs more time. This stuff is going to be dangerous!

Ok, Brewsmith, your IPA's turn.

Again, overcarbed, but it's holding the head nicely. Pours nice and clear, with an orangey-amber color. Very nice looking beer.

Got a strong grapefruity aroma on the initial pour. Definately on the citrusy side. The body feels "right" (although negatively impacted by the carbonation); not too thick, not chewy, but not watery either. Pretty dry finish.

Good bitterness, just enough of that harshness that you get at the back of the throat. Doesn't really feel like 74 IBUs (that, or my tolerance has gotten pretty high). It's bitter, but its not overwhelming at all; you could have a couple pints of this. There's a nice undercurrent of smooth malt on the top of my tongue, it's very well-balanced. The finish is pretty dry, keeps me wanting more.

The flavor is really, really good. Not quite as much of the full, head-on hop flavor that you get in so many Stone IPAs (or Todd's Hop Whompus), but very flavorful. I keep coming back to the citrusy flavors, seems to be more of an American IPA than a British one.

The key to the whole beer, I think, is bitter but very well balanced. Absolutely no flaws (again, outside of carbonation) that I can perceive. I'm going to let it sit and go flat for a bit, but this, again, is an extremely good brew.

Great job, AGAIN!