revision.

Ironically, the Analytical chemist screwed up his reading. Initial gravity was at 1.021, not at 1.121. 1.121 would be a ridiculous starting gravity...1.021 is kinda sad.

Dreadnaught

Life's been interesting lately. What with me blowing up a $200K instrument and all.

I do feel the need to reiterate the awesomeness that was the Teddy Mack stout...awesome beer.

Last night, after some irish and fun at the club, I stopped off at chumleys. I had noticed on Tuesday that they had a few kegs of Three Floyds (local IN brewery) Dreadnaught DIPA.

I've had this beer before, when it was a featured bomber at Chumley's. It was like $16 for a bomber, but it was spectacular. Shortly after that, this beer made BeerAdvocate's top beer list of all time. So when I realized Chumleys had it on tap, I had to try it.

It was still spectacular. Almost as good as Hopslam, but it misses on the balance a little bit. Good hoppy aroma, no real malts to start, and a smooth, well aged hoppy finish that makes you KNOW that you are drinking something north of 8%ABV. DE-licious.

Also laid down a home brew yesterday. I took my brother's x-mas present, which was a basic Mr. Beer irish stout refill, combined it with some corn sugar as an adjunct, and some actual chocolate malt. Thus begins my foray in hybrid extract and grain brewing.

Ended up using 2.5c of corn sugar, and steeped ~3-4 oz of malt for 20 min in steaming water. Final gravity ended up at 1.121, which was a little depressing, since that only corresponds to a 6% "potential" abv, which would end up at ~4% when finished. However, the adjunct doesn't affect the gravity as much as other fermentables, so it may end up a little better. Regardless, I'm tempted to lay down a backup premium St. Pat's stout refill that I bought, and keg the better of the two.

Teddy Mack Stout

So far it is a great beer year. Still enjoying the Tuesday midwest specials at Chumleys with Hopslam.

Today Peoples came out with yet again another new beer...Teddy Mack stout. Turns out that Teddy Mack owned the original Peoples Brew Co back in Oshkosh WI, in the 1970's. This is an imperial russian stout, which I am normally not a fan of. This, however was spectacular.

Very malty, all the way through. Sweet, smoky, complex, all of the malt flavors you want in a stout. There is just enough hops to finish it off properly and make for a nice, balanced, big, heart warming beer. Perfect for cold snowy days.

Peoples rocks.

Hopslam...on tap

Chumleys is dumb (or awesome) enough to include 12 oz. hopslam as a 3.75 midwest special on Tuesday. AMAZING. That's the best deal south of Crunchy's mug night with hopslam. I had 3 during the MSU vs Illinois game, then another afterwards...for $15!!! This is amazing. The most hilarious thing was the fact that the frat boy next to me at the bar was paying $3.75 a bottle for bud light!!!! I couldn't bring myself to inform him of the fact I was paying the same amount for the same volume of a beer which was world class.

I then also heard his neighbor refer to two hearted as "two farted" ale. I almost punched him. That is an inexcusable attack on a noble, brilliant, well balanced beer, just because you're fucking used to shit like natty light. Taste the beer. If you don't like beer? Go back to natty light and get the fuck out of a place like Chumleys. 50 taps, 101 bottles, and not a natty light amongst them. This is my domain, get the fuck out frat boy.

IPA day

Went to chumleys to work on my passport a bit (embarrassingly, I forgot today was Wed, not Tue and was expecting 3.25 midwest beers). Decided that since today was so great (work wise) I'd go ahead and hit up two of the alltime best IPAs (neither of which were stamped).

First up...Dogfish Head 90 min IPA. I've had 60, but never the 90. They claim that the 90 is actually mellower...and you know what, they're right! The 90 was extremely well balanced with an interestingly sweet malt start, with a sharp hoppy finish. Didn't feel the 9% ABV, which is always a nice (but dangerous) thing. Nice head, beautiful lacing. All in all, an excellent, if overpriced, beer. Even at Chumley's this is $0.50 more per pint than a Two Hearted.

Next beer, and I'm embarrassed to admit this was not my first passport stamp...Two Hearted. Anybody who knows me knows about my love for this beer....and it was spectacular. Good beer to flirt with the bartender over, lol.

-J

It's Hopslam day!

Hopslam day 2011. This is my unofficial Beer new year, since it is still my favorite brew and gives a hint as to what all beers must strive for this year.

2010 was an amazing beer year, with so many Peoples brews and a lot of other variety. Hell, even MIDLAND had a brewery open...it wasn't the one that was supposed to, but it's pretty cool nonetheless. Oberon was a little off, winter white was way off, but other beers from other companies made up for it. I'll try to update this a little more often, and include some more of my homebrew escapades.

As far as homebrewing, I'm starting to expand my technique a little bit. Still sticking with the 2 gallon Mr. Beer batches, but I'm throwing a few tricks at it. This time I brewed the Mr. Beer fall seasonal, a double american brown at 6.5%. A special recipe calls for a special trick. My trick this time was to copy People's water strategy (straight tap water through a charcoal filter), and try a 2.5 gallon kegging setup known as a Party Pig. This transformed the beer. It only had to sit in the keg/pig for a week before it was drinkable, and it gets better day by day. There is still a slight witch, but I think I left it in the fermenter for a couple days too long and it leached something from the plastic. It's still the best I've made, and after one or two, you don't notice the witch.

Now, the main attraction, Hopslam 2011.

Village Bottle Shoppe #1 had a few 6-packs left (btw, they still have 10,000, so I may need to stock up) on this, the first day of distribution. Same price as last year, $19.25 for a six pack.

Poured it into a nice clean mug. Same beautiful color as always, deep amber with hints of a harsh winter sunshine.

The smell is even smoother than last year...little less thick. It's more of a light pine forest breeze than the traditional whipping with a white pine switch. The smoothness follows through in the always delightful flavor. As is always a surprise with DIPAs, there is MALT FLAVOR!!! Oh my...some breweries act like that's a sin. But then, the smooth transfer into the complex bitterness that leaves the tongue confused as to where all this flavor came from. It then dies into a much lighter than usual stickiness that is the curse of all DIPAs.

2011 is going to be Spectacular.