Another Smokestack

I'm taking a beer/water break from working on Twitchy (surprises abound with that silly car). Yesterday I bought another of Boulevards Smokestack series named: The Sixth Glass Quadrupel Ale. It sits at 10.5 % at only 22 IBU. Malts malts malts. This beer is also adjuncted with brown sugar, dark sugar and corn sugar (dextrose). The result is a surprisingly light body beer that'll knock ya down pretty quick. It comes in a 750, so it's basically the same as a cheap bottle of wine (similarly priced at 9.50). This beer is delicious. You don't get the adjuncty (new word) off flavors of an american rice lager, but you do get some of the richness from the brown sugar. The finish is ever so slightly sticky, so maybe a touch more hops would clean it up, but part of this beer's charm is the lack of hop flavor.

I've been thinking of my most adventurous beer yet, and it's far enough along the process I'm ok with describing my plan. There is a beer I've run across (can't remember what it was though) that bragged about using hops that start with "C." A lot of the very good American hops out of the northwest have C names (centennial, citra, cascade, etc.). That beer had 4-5 hops, but there are around 10 different C-hops out there, so I've been wanting to do a IPA or DIPA with all 10 of them. I mentioned the idea to Sean and he brought up the idea of doing a collaboration 10 gal all grain batch on his system. At this points, it looks like it's definitely going to happen, and pretty soon after the fresh harvest gets processed and available. I'm not going to go into the hop/grain bill because it's still in the air, but it's looking like a heavy single IPA with somewhere around 7% ABV and a touch over 100 IBU. It will definitely be dryhopped on citra, which will make for a smoother finish than the stats indicate (invariably raising the PDI).

The name is something I love as well. We're going to call this brew "The Seaward." It combines alliteration, humor and history. It sounds like "The C-Word," which would both allude to the C-hops, but also be a double entendre which would be a bit obscene (this will be my "Ice-bitch" brew). The label will have an old square rigged ship with the name being prominent. This would allude to the history of IPAs being overly hopped in order to survive the shipping journey to India from Britain. It's perfect.

-J

McLuckey Ale consumed

As far as I can tell, McLuckey ale was a resounding success. I have one bottle remaining (and I doubt she's going to be a harsh critic ;)) and one bottle which has been delivered but consumption status is unknown (and she might be a harsh critic).

I have just rebrewed it (Sunday evening). I focused on the "steep" temperature (similar to the mash, except it's an extract so it was only 1 lb of specialty grain), and really getting as much of the water out of that grain bag as possible afterwards. Whereas the first McLuckey ale varied between 170 and 150 on the steep temp, I kept this one at 153-159 with an average around 156. Also, I got a little more aggressive on flavor and ABV, since this one is just for me. When I order these kits I get a small bag of corn sugar for priming the bottles. Well, I bought a 5 lb bag of corn sugar long ago, so these small bags have been piling up. So yeah, definitely threw 1 lb of corn sugar in there.

I also got a little more aggressive with the hops. Boiled the first 1/4 oz of Citra 10-15 mins, and the last for 5 mins.

Original gravity definitely shows the efforts paid off. 1.044 corrected. If I get the same final gravity I'll have a 5.4% beer going into bottles. I will also be closer to 45 IBU than the 30 from the previous McLuckey ale batch.

My People's friend and I got to chatting last week about homebrews (this was after the McLuckey BBQ...which was epic). We decided that the best part of homebrewing is a third beer stat. Besides ABV and IBU, homebrews should have an additional statistic...PDI...this stands for Poor Decisions Inspired. This would be a statistic that would increase with the number of batches of the brew, and would have to be normalized to batch size, but only batch size. It would be an interesting stat, since a nice light beer could have a small IBU, mediocre ABV but a high PDI because it would appeal to a wider audience than, say, a big-ass double IPA. The other key to raising your PDI is sharing...which is the biggest point behind homebrewing. As much as I enjoy my beer...I enjoy others enjoying my beer even more.

As far as other beers I've consumed, I've been mainly just working on my passport lately. Lots of beers that are true to their styles, but nothing insane yet.

I'm linking this post to facebook. Please leave anon comments on McLuckey ale, and also tabulate any PDIs that may have happened.

-J

Boulevard Brewing Smokestack Series

I mentioned that I purchased a bottle of Boulevard's Saison-Brett for yesterday's party. Well, it didn't make it to Saturday, I caved on Friday night (it was one of those days). This was bottle number 12059 of the series (yeah, they numbered the bottles). After a few calculations, I'm guessing they made a run of 100 barrels , which would give approximately 18,000 bottles.

The big deal here is that this is a traditional Saison which has brettanomyces purposely added. Brett is a strain of yeast which is traditionally unwanted in the beer, but is historically interesting because it is quite abundant naturally in France and Belgium. Saison is a very old style of beer originating with farmers in Belgium (thus it's other name: farmhouse ale). For these farmers, this beer was their only beer, and thus the only way to wash away the misery of a long day in the fields. The style tends to be fermented hot, and bottle conditioned, both of which make it a very full flavored, yeasty, filling type of beer that ages spectacularly. The style is fortunately making a very solid return in the hobby.

For this beer, they obviously started with an excellent Saison, which is responsible for 95% of the flavor profile. At the very end of the profile, where most beers are supposed to finish with a dry crispness, the Brett character sneaks in. The flavor is very hard to describe, the best way is an earthy tartness. Tart really isn't fair, but there's not really a word for the flavor. What tart is to sour, is what this flavor is to tart (if that makes ANY sense). Awesome beer, well worth the fair chunk of change it cost me.

Well, Zach and I went down to Whole Foods yesterday to search for cheese for the wine and cheese party. As much as I scoff at the organic foods movement, I do have to thank it for Whole Foods. Find me another place where you can reliably find such a good meat, wine, cheese and most importantly, craft beer selection. Prices are appropriate as well.

Enough about that. While wandering around the beer, I saw a second of Boulevard's Smokestack series. This wasn't as limited of a release as the Saison-Brett, but I knew I had to have it...it is Long Strange Tripel (sic). It's a trippel!! I love trippels!! I had to have it, and I am having it as I type.

My first opinion on this beer is that the bottle is too big. Part of the experience of all belgian cask conditioned beers is the art of a belgian pour. Pour it as gently as possible until the last 1/2 inch remains. Swirl the bottle to get the yeast up off the bottom and dump into the center of the beer, generating a perfect head and allowing the yeast to distribute through the beer. Yes, you want a belgian to be cloudy, and that cloudiness is dead yeasties. Selling the beer in a 750 ml bottle is just cruel. I'd rather a two pack of 12 oz bottles and give up the extra 1.4 oz. I'm already using an inappropriate glass, don't make me taste an inappropriately balanced beer.

OK, done ranting (mainly because I'm too the point where I finally got to pour the bottom). This is a good, solid trippel. Like any good trippel the flavor is heavy on the malts. Heavy, heavy on the malts. A sip of this beer strikes you at first with an abundance of mellow sweetness with a velvety smooth mouthfeel. The finish is dominated by the warm wash of the 9% abv.

Overall, so far I am impressed with the Boulevard Smoke Stack series.

-James

Hop Killa Killer

Sooooo....today was National IPA day, and Thursday. That could only mean one thing, IPA pints at Peoples, hell yeah.

Work was especially shitty today (we're hoping what happened is that we froze a chunk of nitrogen and it got stuck in our pulsed valve which caused the valve to get stuck open). The best point was when I was browsing facebook in the afternoon and saw a post from Peoples saying "Happy IPA Day!!! We have a KILLA surprise for you today in the Taproom!!! Come by for a snifter to celebrate National IPA Day... Available in 12oz snifter for $3.50 today..."

This could only mean one thing, a keg of the last batch of da Killa had survived for just this occasion. I ran away from work as soon as I could (5:30) and settled in for a few rounds. I kind of made it my goal to make this beer my second kill in as many weeks. Unfortunately, even with a sixth barrel I need help, and I do have to work so I set myself a reasonable limit and simply paid attention to how much was being poured. I really didn't do a good job of that, because I thought the keg was going to survive the brutal onslaught. Around 15 mins before closing time (8) I ordered my last snifter. About halfway into the pour the keg declared no mas and blew. I had killed Hop Killa.

For the second week in a row I had ruined other people's days. I'm fully expecting to be turned away the next time they have a special brew on tap (although, in my defense I only had one of the barrel aged Notorious BIPs last friday).

By the way...couple month old Hop Killa is fantastic. Nice and mellow.

-J

Dancing with the Devil.

Yeah, it's Tuesday...so sue me. VBS on 52 had a facebook post about a Saison-Brett which they were limiting to one bomber per customer. Uhhh....combine that with the fact that I needed a Gewurtztraminer for Joe's wine and cheese party on Sat and you get a VBS trip on Tuesday.

The Saison-Brett is waiting for a bit. It is in the fridge, because I don't have the discipline to let a $14 beer sit around without trying it. Maybe that'll be my first conquest of the party (it's better than the Franzia others plan on drinking...seriously).

Of course, I scoured the beer selection for others (I don't go to VBS on 52 very often because the beer selection would bankrupt me...they had a $45 beer from Belgium). They had a couple dreadnaughts left, but I actually picked a 12oz of Devil Dancer from Founders. It's their triple IPA, and I had a very very small sample on my Founders trip, since that was my last beer and I wasn't feeling like a 12% beer was going to be a good decision. Skipping it was a good decision on my part...I'm thinking this bottle is a little old, and the flavors are definitely mellower.

I am blogging this as I go now. I'm going to purposely let this warm up...to see how flavors develop over time...and to not get too sleepy. I poured it about 5 mins ago, fridge temp, awesome head and color. At this temp, the hop flavor is a bit abusive.

*note* bottle details on this are 112 IBU (!!!!!) and 12%. That's all the detail on the bottle...although the picture on the label probably would be illegal for a minor to possess. I have had higher IBU beers, but that was the Humo lupa licious, at around 120. That beer, however, is a single IPA and doesn't even pretend to balance the hops. That was a beer you drink after you've been on BL or PBR for too long and forgot what hops were.

OK...beer is warming up now (big beers don't need to be ice cold). The malt flavors are starting to develop a little, and the aroma is intensifying...both of these act to balance the experience. There's a little warming going on person wise too...this beer is awesome. This is what I'd consider cellar temp.

*note* scary fact...they had 4-packs of this...like I said VBS 52 is bad news for my wallet.

Almost up to room temp now. Bad bad BAD idea. Pine sap flavor came from no where...oye. Fortunately I only let a small amount of the beer come to this temp...since the cellar temp was so good. Balance is gone. Flavor is now that of Pine sap and alcohol. No mellowing anywhere...bad bad idea.

So there you go. Flavor transformation of a triple IPA from fridge temp to Brit temp.

-James