Joe brought me a beer from the northwest that he happened to find at Payless (Kroger in every other state). The Widmer Bros' brewing Spiced IPA. After pouring it into a glass I opened up their website to do some research.
First thing I noticed are a couple beers I thought were my idea :(. They have a raspberry Russian imperial stout, and a citra based light summer ale (similar in idea to McLuckey ale).
This beer is a pretty standard IPA brewed with some unusual spices. The list includes assam black tea, ginger, cinnamon, clove, star anise, black pepper, and cardamom. The hope profile does feature some Galaxy hops, leading to outstanding drinkability.
The odor is very confusing. I'm really not a fan of the smell. The tea, ginger and cinnamon kind of dominate, but don't mix well with the hoppy undertones. The start of the flavor is equally confused, but not bad, I kinda like the flavor. The finish of the beer is pretty damned good.
Overall, I enjoy this beer a lot, would I buy a case? Probs not, but it'd be nice to have a 6pack on hand for those times I'm feeling like I want something that isn't just out of the box, but laughs at the box the other beers rode in on. I would love a little more maltiness to better balance that first wallop of flavor.
-James
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Skill # 1 million: Yeast washing.
The Rye IPA is essentially gone. It was a great beer out of the pig...really couldn't believe how well it turned out. The bottles were a little hit or miss. The Redwine infection which I seem to always have really took a hit out of the hop profile. Considering the fact that the witch was only in the bottles I'm thinking that the problem was with the yeast, cleaning or sanitizing.
I brewed an Irish dry stout a couple weeks back. Missed again on my gravity which is really starting to piss me off. I'm going to take next month to upgrade my system and try a simple American Pale.
The low gravity gave me an opportunity to learn a skill I've been wanting to try....washing the yeast. This is a procedure where you harvest the yeast slurry from a batch of beer, wash out the used hops/residual grains (known as 'trub') and propagate the yeast to use in a future batch. Since the stout used only 1 oz of hops, and was low gravity, it was a perfect beer to harvest from. One rule of reusing yeast is to always pitch "up." This means, always pitch the yeast into a beer with a higher gravity than the beer they were harvested from. General rule of thumb is to only use around 3 generations of yeast, else you run the risk of rampant mutations and weird flavors.
I racked the stout into secondary, which left behind a beautiful slurry of Wyeast Irish Dry Ale yeast. I put in a little water, shook it up and poured into a sanitized, clear growler. I let it settle overnight and poured off the supernatent (liquid on top). Put in a little water and shook it real good again and let it settle. This time the supernatent was pretty light in color, so I went ahead and put in ~1/8 cup of sanitized water, shook it up and poured this into an erlenmeyer with ~1/4 cup of sugar/water/yeast nutrient. That was this morning. At this moment the erlenmeyer is fizzing along really well, with 1 bubble per 5 sec out of the airlock. Once growth levels off I'll freeze the slurry, wait a few days and see if the frozen yeast can be reincarnated. The only down side is that this means my next beer will have to be a british/irish style to fit the yeast profile.
-James
I brewed an Irish dry stout a couple weeks back. Missed again on my gravity which is really starting to piss me off. I'm going to take next month to upgrade my system and try a simple American Pale.
The low gravity gave me an opportunity to learn a skill I've been wanting to try....washing the yeast. This is a procedure where you harvest the yeast slurry from a batch of beer, wash out the used hops/residual grains (known as 'trub') and propagate the yeast to use in a future batch. Since the stout used only 1 oz of hops, and was low gravity, it was a perfect beer to harvest from. One rule of reusing yeast is to always pitch "up." This means, always pitch the yeast into a beer with a higher gravity than the beer they were harvested from. General rule of thumb is to only use around 3 generations of yeast, else you run the risk of rampant mutations and weird flavors.
I racked the stout into secondary, which left behind a beautiful slurry of Wyeast Irish Dry Ale yeast. I put in a little water, shook it up and poured into a sanitized, clear growler. I let it settle overnight and poured off the supernatent (liquid on top). Put in a little water and shook it real good again and let it settle. This time the supernatent was pretty light in color, so I went ahead and put in ~1/8 cup of sanitized water, shook it up and poured this into an erlenmeyer with ~1/4 cup of sugar/water/yeast nutrient. That was this morning. At this moment the erlenmeyer is fizzing along really well, with 1 bubble per 5 sec out of the airlock. Once growth levels off I'll freeze the slurry, wait a few days and see if the frozen yeast can be reincarnated. The only down side is that this means my next beer will have to be a british/irish style to fit the yeast profile.
-James
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Oberon 2012
Monday was Oberon day, and I haven't posted until now...I'm a bad Michigander.
Grabbed a couple pints from Chumley's to celebrate the delicious brew that is Oberon...and like always it tasted like sunshine and happy.
This year's brew is exceptionally clean tasting, and maybe a little less orange colored than I remember. Odor and main flavor points are all the same as they should be. Light, crisp, citrusy with a touch of sweetness.
My Rye-IPA is finally pigged and bottled. I'm having a brew party next Saturday, so that's when the pig will be unleashed. I took a couple samples to make sure it carbed and I'm really excited. The rye flavors are still definitely there, and the bitterness of the summit hops really works well with the earthiness. The palisades come in at the end and taper the flavor off to a pleasant dryness.
-James
Monday, February 27, 2012
Indiana dry hopped Amber final
The correct version of my American Amber experiment is done dryhopping and carbing. I'm reasonable happy with this beer. It's not quite as aggressive as I'd hoped, but it is pretty true to the style.
The carb is perfect, nice lacing. Color is on the dark side for the style, which was what I aimed for. It was dry hopped on the last 1/2 oz of the organic Indiana Cascade hops I got, for 3 weeks.
Now for the drinking. The smell is pleasant. Lots of graininess with a hint of those cascades. The flavor is what I aimed at, as well. There is a pronounced malty sweetness, a hint of some nutty overtones (I wanted more of that), and a reasonably clean, dry finish.
Like I said, not my favorite style of beer, but my challenge was to develop a partial mash recipe on my own that was true to a BJCP recognized style. Amber is an interesting style. It is both a very broad standard, and very easy to miss. It is a style that is simply defined by the color, and what it lacks (pronounced hoppiness).
-James
The carb is perfect, nice lacing. Color is on the dark side for the style, which was what I aimed for. It was dry hopped on the last 1/2 oz of the organic Indiana Cascade hops I got, for 3 weeks.
Now for the drinking. The smell is pleasant. Lots of graininess with a hint of those cascades. The flavor is what I aimed at, as well. There is a pronounced malty sweetness, a hint of some nutty overtones (I wanted more of that), and a reasonably clean, dry finish.
Like I said, not my favorite style of beer, but my challenge was to develop a partial mash recipe on my own that was true to a BJCP recognized style. Amber is an interesting style. It is both a very broad standard, and very easy to miss. It is a style that is simply defined by the color, and what it lacks (pronounced hoppiness).
-James
Friday, February 10, 2012
I went to LBC :-/
So, as far as Lafayette beers, I've exclusively posted about People's beer for over a year now. There's a reason for that. As far as LBC goes, the eighty five is their most unique, and tastiest, option. 85 IBU, ~6.5% and it's straw colored (!?). It is a very good beer.
So, the grad student government had a "social" at LBC on Thursday. I met up with Joe at Peoples for a hop killa and headed over afterwards. My plan was to have an 85, socialize, grab some free food and leave. Well, turns out grad students are all the same, so no socializing happened. I had my 85, and was thinking of leaving when I saw a fellow McLuck and her husband grab one of the (free) pool tables. I grabbed Zach and we played pool. Several games in I decided to grab a small beer.
LBC has a MiChinook American Pale on right now, and I was intrigued. The beertender claimed it was closer to an IPA than an APA and had very little body. More interestingly, it is made of all MI grown Chinook hops (thus the name). I ordered a pint (4.75 for an imperial pint) and went back to pool. The first sip told me I was going to be disappointed. First off, the beertender is obviously a malthead...this is nowhere NEAR an IPA. It's actually less hoppy than Sierra Nevada Pale (which I consider as my APA standard). As far as body goes, I can guess the grain bill because I made the EXACT same beer with the Cascade pale. I've commented before that my Cascade pale needs some colored/roasted malts next time to bring more to the palate. After I got over the lack of body and flavor I noticed something else...chinook doesn't really bring a ton to the table without some backup. This beer tastes EXACTLY like my Cascade pale, except it doesn't have the floral awesomeness of cascades. I guess that's where my disappointment came from. I have brewed a better beer than this. Same ABV, same lacking of body, but I feel the Cascade hops brought more to the plate than the Chinooks.
This is officially the first beer that I can say that I HAVE done better. Not that I could, or will, or should, but have. I take a little bit of pride in this, but my main reaction is that I wanted my $4.75 (plus tip) back. I made mine for ~$1.00 a bottle. It really makes me want to redo the cascade with some roasted malts...although I no longer have access to the IN grown dry-hops that I used.
My skill is advancing, and it's making me want to try to brew more and more aggressive beers. But every now and then you need a mediocre commercial beer to bring you back to what it is all about, and that is making the best beer for the style you aim at. I have never claimed that my Cascade pale was perfect, or great. It was very good for a homebrew, but I had always considered it miles away from what a commercial micro should be.
The only way to attain greatness is to shun mediocrity. I will not settle.
-James0
So, the grad student government had a "social" at LBC on Thursday. I met up with Joe at Peoples for a hop killa and headed over afterwards. My plan was to have an 85, socialize, grab some free food and leave. Well, turns out grad students are all the same, so no socializing happened. I had my 85, and was thinking of leaving when I saw a fellow McLuck and her husband grab one of the (free) pool tables. I grabbed Zach and we played pool. Several games in I decided to grab a small beer.
LBC has a MiChinook American Pale on right now, and I was intrigued. The beertender claimed it was closer to an IPA than an APA and had very little body. More interestingly, it is made of all MI grown Chinook hops (thus the name). I ordered a pint (4.75 for an imperial pint) and went back to pool. The first sip told me I was going to be disappointed. First off, the beertender is obviously a malthead...this is nowhere NEAR an IPA. It's actually less hoppy than Sierra Nevada Pale (which I consider as my APA standard). As far as body goes, I can guess the grain bill because I made the EXACT same beer with the Cascade pale. I've commented before that my Cascade pale needs some colored/roasted malts next time to bring more to the palate. After I got over the lack of body and flavor I noticed something else...chinook doesn't really bring a ton to the table without some backup. This beer tastes EXACTLY like my Cascade pale, except it doesn't have the floral awesomeness of cascades. I guess that's where my disappointment came from. I have brewed a better beer than this. Same ABV, same lacking of body, but I feel the Cascade hops brought more to the plate than the Chinooks.
This is officially the first beer that I can say that I HAVE done better. Not that I could, or will, or should, but have. I take a little bit of pride in this, but my main reaction is that I wanted my $4.75 (plus tip) back. I made mine for ~$1.00 a bottle. It really makes me want to redo the cascade with some roasted malts...although I no longer have access to the IN grown dry-hops that I used.
My skill is advancing, and it's making me want to try to brew more and more aggressive beers. But every now and then you need a mediocre commercial beer to bring you back to what it is all about, and that is making the best beer for the style you aim at. I have never claimed that my Cascade pale was perfect, or great. It was very good for a homebrew, but I had always considered it miles away from what a commercial micro should be.
The only way to attain greatness is to shun mediocrity. I will not settle.
-James0
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
DIPA tasting
The Black Sparrow is an interesting bar in the Lafayette area. I enjoy it on the weekdays, where it is a very chill place to grab some interesting beers (No Crap on tap is their motto) and have a cigar if the time is right. They always have a beer or two or five that I've never had, but they don't do any favors on the price. They do actually tend to be about $0.25 less than Chumley's normal price, for beers they share (blue moon's are more common...and not the beer), but their best deal for any tap is $1 off on Wednesday (? I think?). That is, until they had the opportunity to have 6 DIPAs.
This week they are having a special DIPA (or IIPA if you like) event. 6 of their 8 taps will be DIPAs for the entire week (or until Thursday when they run out). To top it off, they are offering flights of 5 oz glasses of each of the beers, so you can actually taste them all and not end up dead.
The lineup tonight was the new Hopkilla, 3-Floyds Arctic Panzer Wolf, Hopslam, Founder's Double Trouble, Schmaltz Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A., and Brooklyn Blast!. I've already covered this batch of Arctic Panzer and Hopslam pretty well in here, so I'll focus on the rest.
Hopkilla, 8.5% ABV 104 IBU. This is the newest batch and it is definitely smoother than other batches. This could be the freshness coming through, and time will only tell. I've reviewed the previous two batches pretty extensively.
Founder's Double Trouble, 9.4%, 86IBU. This beer reminds me of Hopslam with less honey and more malts. Founders plays the hop bill close to the chest, but there is something very very citrusy in here. No dominating pine notes, almost all of the aroma and lighter flavors are citrus, with a healthy bitter wallop at the end to remind you that you're alive. This is a great DIPA, up there with the Hopslam and Space Cowboys of the category. I feel it missed just a touch on the balance, and will have to land 3rd on my list.
Schmaltz Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A, 10%, 96 IBU. So, this is a weird choice. Schmaltz is better known for their "He'Brew" series of beers. They are a kosher brewery, which is not the easiest thing in the world. There is a long ol' story about this beer on their website, it seems to be dedicated to Lenny Bruce. The name is a play on words, which always strikes dear to my heart. Not only is the R.I.P a not so subtle homage to Lenny, it is a hint as to what makes this beer truly unique. This. My friends. Is a Rye Double India Pale Ale. Schmaltz actually posts their entire recipe online (leaving out just the tiny but technical details). The malt is ~20% Rye malt and it was a 100 barrel batch (7300 lbs of grain!). Hops include Warrior, Cascade, Simcoe (definitely), Crystal, Chinook, and Centennial (also prevalent). This is perhaps the most interesting of DIPAs I've ever had, since the earthy, nutty tones of the Rye malt force their way through the abundant hops as a....sweetness. This is the maltiest, sweetest DIPA I've ever had...and it was fantastic.
Now. Brooklyn Blast!. The "!" is part of the name...I really wish I could leave it off. I did not like this beer. And now that I'm reading the description I understand why...these people make no sense. "Here in Brooklyn, we are halfway between the hop country of Yakima Valley, Washington and the hop country of Kent England." Armed with this 'knowledge' of geography, they drew the conclusion that it would be a good idea to make a Double AMERICAN IPA using half American and half English hops. English hops tend to be lower AA, and much heavier on the 'earthy' character compared to the citrus notes of the big American hops. This is not a good combination. And it showed through in the beer. At first it just seemed green and a little piney. Then when you were dying for the DIPA bitterness to knock back the initial badness it....well...it didn't show up. Nothing. Nada. Zip. It just kind of ended. It also seemed that this keg may have been slightly skunked, or at least I hope that flavor wasn't intentional.
So there we go. More DIPAs in a single sitting than any mortal deserves to enjoy.
-James
This week they are having a special DIPA (or IIPA if you like) event. 6 of their 8 taps will be DIPAs for the entire week (or until Thursday when they run out). To top it off, they are offering flights of 5 oz glasses of each of the beers, so you can actually taste them all and not end up dead.
The lineup tonight was the new Hopkilla, 3-Floyds Arctic Panzer Wolf, Hopslam, Founder's Double Trouble, Schmaltz Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A., and Brooklyn Blast!. I've already covered this batch of Arctic Panzer and Hopslam pretty well in here, so I'll focus on the rest.
Hopkilla, 8.5% ABV 104 IBU. This is the newest batch and it is definitely smoother than other batches. This could be the freshness coming through, and time will only tell. I've reviewed the previous two batches pretty extensively.
Founder's Double Trouble, 9.4%, 86IBU. This beer reminds me of Hopslam with less honey and more malts. Founders plays the hop bill close to the chest, but there is something very very citrusy in here. No dominating pine notes, almost all of the aroma and lighter flavors are citrus, with a healthy bitter wallop at the end to remind you that you're alive. This is a great DIPA, up there with the Hopslam and Space Cowboys of the category. I feel it missed just a touch on the balance, and will have to land 3rd on my list.
Schmaltz Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A, 10%, 96 IBU. So, this is a weird choice. Schmaltz is better known for their "He'Brew" series of beers. They are a kosher brewery, which is not the easiest thing in the world. There is a long ol' story about this beer on their website, it seems to be dedicated to Lenny Bruce. The name is a play on words, which always strikes dear to my heart. Not only is the R.I.P a not so subtle homage to Lenny, it is a hint as to what makes this beer truly unique. This. My friends. Is a Rye Double India Pale Ale. Schmaltz actually posts their entire recipe online (leaving out just the tiny but technical details). The malt is ~20% Rye malt and it was a 100 barrel batch (7300 lbs of grain!). Hops include Warrior, Cascade, Simcoe (definitely), Crystal, Chinook, and Centennial (also prevalent). This is perhaps the most interesting of DIPAs I've ever had, since the earthy, nutty tones of the Rye malt force their way through the abundant hops as a....sweetness. This is the maltiest, sweetest DIPA I've ever had...and it was fantastic.
Now. Brooklyn Blast!. The "!" is part of the name...I really wish I could leave it off. I did not like this beer. And now that I'm reading the description I understand why...these people make no sense. "Here in Brooklyn, we are halfway between the hop country of Yakima Valley, Washington and the hop country of Kent England." Armed with this 'knowledge' of geography, they drew the conclusion that it would be a good idea to make a Double AMERICAN IPA using half American and half English hops. English hops tend to be lower AA, and much heavier on the 'earthy' character compared to the citrus notes of the big American hops. This is not a good combination. And it showed through in the beer. At first it just seemed green and a little piney. Then when you were dying for the DIPA bitterness to knock back the initial badness it....well...it didn't show up. Nothing. Nada. Zip. It just kind of ended. It also seemed that this keg may have been slightly skunked, or at least I hope that flavor wasn't intentional.
So there we go. More DIPAs in a single sitting than any mortal deserves to enjoy.
-James
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Rye-IPA brew day
Last night I hosted a brew day in my teensy lil' house. Right around a dozen people showed up, and I feel it went decently well.
As for the beer. I was brewing a Rye-IPA partial mash kit from Northern brewer. The only modification I made was to throw the full oz of Palisades in at 15 mins instead of 0.5 oz and dry hopping on the rest. I'll buy a nice whole leaf to dry hop on. Target gravity was 1.065, I managed to hit 1.057, so I missed a little but not a huge amount. I lost a lot of sugar to my colander setup, the top grains were definitely depleted, but if you dug down you could still taste a little sweetness. I'm working on a way to improve this, and the 1.5 lbs of rye in this kit probably backed it up a little bit. Rye malt is significantly smaller than barley and has plagued homebrewers and brewers in general for centuries. The unique flavor is very worth it though, which is why we voluntarily shoot ourselves in the foot over and over again with this awful yet tasty malt.
Thanks to all who showed, 'twas a great night.
-James
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Double dry-hopped Hop Killa
Peoples has rebrewed the Killa. And I'm already up to my old ways. They took their 4 gallon firkin and dryhopped a bit of Killa on "C-word" hop pellets. As far as some of can tell, it's the same combination of the Seaward, so I thought this would be a preview as to a "scalable" version of Seaward. Well, it was tapped at 4 pm, I have group meeting at 6 pm, and had not a lot of progress today. I took off at 5 to get a snifter and return by 6. Good thing I did, I got the last 4 pourable ounces from the firkin. (I am the assassin afterall) The beer was heavy on sediment, but the flavor profile stayed true. The dry hop did fantastic things to this great DIPA. I've always thought that Hop Killa was a little rough compared to a Space Cowboy or Hopslam, but the extra dryhop was excellent, and there are definitely citras in the "C-word" pellets. I look forward to the regular Killa when it comes out.
I did go back after group meeting...a couple of the regulars who missed out were definitely informed that I killed it. What can I say...it's what I do. I also ran into a first year who happens to be my academic nephew (his PI is one of Scott's former students) and a sales rep from Waters (which sells Mass Spectrometers). That was fun, not sure if others thought so though.
As far as homebrewing goes, my proper Amber is sitting on an oz of Indiana Cascade hops in the secondary. My next beer will be a Rye-IPA, in which I hope to use a fair chunk of Indiana grown Nugget hops, if they're still any good. I'm also planning on having people over for that brewday....which means I should get back to cleaning up the ol' bachelor pad, eh? I also need to find my missing airlock...or else things will get interesting.
-J
I did go back after group meeting...a couple of the regulars who missed out were definitely informed that I killed it. What can I say...it's what I do. I also ran into a first year who happens to be my academic nephew (his PI is one of Scott's former students) and a sales rep from Waters (which sells Mass Spectrometers). That was fun, not sure if others thought so though.
As far as homebrewing goes, my proper Amber is sitting on an oz of Indiana Cascade hops in the secondary. My next beer will be a Rye-IPA, in which I hope to use a fair chunk of Indiana grown Nugget hops, if they're still any good. I'm also planning on having people over for that brewday....which means I should get back to cleaning up the ol' bachelor pad, eh? I also need to find my missing airlock...or else things will get interesting.
-J
Saturday, January 14, 2012
New Belgium Trippel
First a quick note: The VBS on 52 sold out of 25 cases of Hopslam in 3 days. That's 100 six-packs at $18 a pop. Craft beers are officially a big deal, and as a community, craft drinkers are growing. Awesome.
Last night the victim of choice was the New Belgium Trippel. It comes in 6 packs...that is an amazingly dangerous things for this Trippel lover. That being said, this is not what I would call a world class Trippel. It is good, and at only 7.8% abv it is the closest thing to a sessionable Trippel there is. The flavor is crisp and clean, this would be a great beer to introduce a novice to craft beers and belgian styles. The sweetness of great Trippels is simply not there in this beer, which is probably the biggest thing that I was disappointed with. That being said, for the price and quantity this is a great deal to get your Trippel fix.
-James
Last night the victim of choice was the New Belgium Trippel. It comes in 6 packs...that is an amazingly dangerous things for this Trippel lover. That being said, this is not what I would call a world class Trippel. It is good, and at only 7.8% abv it is the closest thing to a sessionable Trippel there is. The flavor is crisp and clean, this would be a great beer to introduce a novice to craft beers and belgian styles. The sweetness of great Trippels is simply not there in this beer, which is probably the biggest thing that I was disappointed with. That being said, for the price and quantity this is a great deal to get your Trippel fix.
-James
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Hopslam 2012!
So. Today may have been the best day of my graduate career. I have been bouncing off the walls since about 3 pm, and down right giddy since 5:15. For the first time, I saw ions doing the entire experiment that I have spent 3 years attempting. This project has been plagued with bad luck and misfortune from the very beginning, and the ICIS@Purdue crew is now poised to collect the benefits of never giving up, of relishing the smallest of victories and persevering the worst of setbacks. Of the $300K I was trusted with to build this thing, there is $8K left, and I think we may have finally done it.
I went to People's tonight in a celebratory mood, had a few beers and came home. I then became aware (through Sean) that VBS on 52 had hopslam, and the other VBS's would have it tomorrow. I drove through the driving snow storm to acquire said gem...got to campus just as the basketball game finished. Diverted through the side (unplowed) roads of West Lafayette because I didn't have enough gas to sit in the traffic. 45 minutes after I left, I came upon the VBS and bought hopslam. It's been in my trunk as I had a celebratory cigar (and Manhattan) with my right hand man in this ICIS project. Finally I sit back at home with a cold Hopslam in an Oberon Summer 2011 glass.
This is perhaps the most special glass of liquid I will ever consume...with the significance of this day.
This bottle is part of batch 10846 and was packaged on 1/06/2012. That is (now) only one week ago! This is the freshest of the fresh, besides those bottles which have been consumed by fellow Lafayette Beer Geeks. This is the freshest Hopslam I have ever consumed. And it is good. The smell is cleaner than I remember, not abusive, not sappy, not anything overwhelming. The flavor is the same as I originally fell in love with all those years ago in my dorm room at MSU. So freakin' smooth. I'm sorry Sean and Chris and Abel, but Hopslam this fresh just took back the #1 spot in my book away from Space Cowboy. This beer is an epic brew, and I think this staggered release (as unintentional as it was) may have been the best thing to ever happen to this beer.
As always, I consider the first bottle of hopslam to be the beginning of a "new beer year." Besides Sierra Nevada's Celebration (which is unapologetically not balanced at all), this is one of the first serious beers using the new harvest of hops. Since a vast majority of American hops come from the same region (Yakima and Willamette valleys in WA) and are harvested once a year, and considering that the nature of hops are dependent on their growing conditions, and finally taking into consideration that the hop harvest is in the fall, these early beers do indeed lend an indication to the nature of hoppy beers to come for the whole year. That sentence (I just wrote) is awful, but the short story is that between Celebration and Hopslam, midwesterners can get an idea of what the year will have to offer for big, hoppy beers. And this year promises to be great. (Yes I know that Sierra Nevada is not a midwestern brewery...but nationwide Celebration is one of the first beers available from the fresh hop harvest)
I cannot believe how awesome today has been. Getting the full experiment (minus lasers) to work, enjoying the support of everyone I work with in both of my research groups (a lot of grad students can barely enjoy the company of the people in their own group, nonetheless two groups), enjoying a quality cigar and cocktail with the only group member to be there with me the entire time, convincing the new student who will replace me that she didn't make a poor life decision to join this project (since all she's seen so far is 6 months of fail), and to top it off with a bottle or two (or three) of the best beer known to man. Today is an epic day that has been enjoyed with epic friends and topped off with an epic beer.
-James
I went to People's tonight in a celebratory mood, had a few beers and came home. I then became aware (through Sean) that VBS on 52 had hopslam, and the other VBS's would have it tomorrow. I drove through the driving snow storm to acquire said gem...got to campus just as the basketball game finished. Diverted through the side (unplowed) roads of West Lafayette because I didn't have enough gas to sit in the traffic. 45 minutes after I left, I came upon the VBS and bought hopslam. It's been in my trunk as I had a celebratory cigar (and Manhattan) with my right hand man in this ICIS project. Finally I sit back at home with a cold Hopslam in an Oberon Summer 2011 glass.
This is perhaps the most special glass of liquid I will ever consume...with the significance of this day.
This bottle is part of batch 10846 and was packaged on 1/06/2012. That is (now) only one week ago! This is the freshest of the fresh, besides those bottles which have been consumed by fellow Lafayette Beer Geeks. This is the freshest Hopslam I have ever consumed. And it is good. The smell is cleaner than I remember, not abusive, not sappy, not anything overwhelming. The flavor is the same as I originally fell in love with all those years ago in my dorm room at MSU. So freakin' smooth. I'm sorry Sean and Chris and Abel, but Hopslam this fresh just took back the #1 spot in my book away from Space Cowboy. This beer is an epic brew, and I think this staggered release (as unintentional as it was) may have been the best thing to ever happen to this beer.
As always, I consider the first bottle of hopslam to be the beginning of a "new beer year." Besides Sierra Nevada's Celebration (which is unapologetically not balanced at all), this is one of the first serious beers using the new harvest of hops. Since a vast majority of American hops come from the same region (Yakima and Willamette valleys in WA) and are harvested once a year, and considering that the nature of hops are dependent on their growing conditions, and finally taking into consideration that the hop harvest is in the fall, these early beers do indeed lend an indication to the nature of hoppy beers to come for the whole year. That sentence (I just wrote) is awful, but the short story is that between Celebration and Hopslam, midwesterners can get an idea of what the year will have to offer for big, hoppy beers. And this year promises to be great. (Yes I know that Sierra Nevada is not a midwestern brewery...but nationwide Celebration is one of the first beers available from the fresh hop harvest)
I cannot believe how awesome today has been. Getting the full experiment (minus lasers) to work, enjoying the support of everyone I work with in both of my research groups (a lot of grad students can barely enjoy the company of the people in their own group, nonetheless two groups), enjoying a quality cigar and cocktail with the only group member to be there with me the entire time, convincing the new student who will replace me that she didn't make a poor life decision to join this project (since all she's seen so far is 6 months of fail), and to top it off with a bottle or two (or three) of the best beer known to man. Today is an epic day that has been enjoyed with epic friends and topped off with an epic beer.
-James
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