Bearded Fury

Bearded Fury Pale Ale: This is my "house" beer, or the beer that I make and am confident will be good. This beer was the first original recipe I ever made. I had been brewing kits for about 2 years and decided to try my hand at making my own recipe. Pale ales aren't necessarily my favorite kind of beer, but because there are a wide range of pale ales I thought it'd be a good, safe place to start. I first made it last summer (summer 06) and have made it several times since then. It was also one of the first labels I made. The first recipe I made was extract and then I have since converted it to be organic and a partial mash recipe. This beer is not your traditional American Pale Ale because I use fuggle hops for the aroma hops (more commonly used in English beers). A lot of people who don't like hoppy beers like this beer and I think its because the fuggle hops are smooth and very floral.

Well I bottled this beer last week, and I am usually impatient when it comes to waiting for my beers to mature. But one week in the bottle and the Bearded Fury is carbonated and ready to go! It pours a medium honey color with a white head. The first thing that hits you is the floral notes of the fuggle hops. Its smooth and sweet with a hint of caramel flavor, mild fruitiness and that "pale ale" sweetness. Its not as bitter as say, Summit Pale Ale or Sierra Nevada PA. My friend Nate has said it is the best beer he's ever had, Bearded Brewing or commercial, which is a really great compliment. This is a beer that I'm super proud of and love to drink. It came at the right time because this summer I decided to get experimental and went out on a limb brewing some beers. They turned out decent, but nothing outstanding. I was starting to over-analyze and become too critical of my beers, but this one brought my confidence back because it's damn good!

Here's the recipe:
2 lbs organic 2-row
1 lb organic crystal 60
* mash for 1 hour at 150 degrees
add .70 oz of Organic Admiral hops
1 oz of organic cascade hops at 15 min
6.0 lbs of organic liquid light extract at 15 minutes
1 oz of Fuggle hops at 2 minutes
1 oz of Fuggle hops dry hopped in the secondary.
I use American Ale 1056 yeast.


More later.
The Bearded Brewer

New Glarus

A brewery that I fell in love with this summer is New Glarus Brewing Company from New Glarus, Wisconsin. I have been unable to find New Glarus in any of the liquor stores in the twin cities, but whenever I go to Wisconsin, I make a point to pick some up.

New Glarus is a husband and wife duo who makes some ambitious and award winning beers in Southeastern Wisconsin. They brew a wide variety of beers, including a lot of interesting Belgian style beers. I've tried a handful of their beers, but check out their website for a bigger list:
http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/


I've tried their Yokel, a straight unfiltered lager. Its good, but I'm not a huge lager fan. The three beers of theirs that I love are the Fat Squirrel Brown Ale, the Stone Soup Abbey Ale and the Dancing Man Wheat.

Stone Soup: This beer is a great summer beer. This is a light abbey ale that is slightly fruity, but just delicious. It's a light golden color and is crisp and sweet. As their website puts it: "Both elegant and drinkable this ale is cleanly aromatic with spicy notes of clove and ginger." I can drink a lot of these beers, and at 5.3% abv, that's not a good thing. As my friend Josh says about a good Belgian, it's like candy. This is a summer seasonal.

Fat Squirrel: This is a brown ale that has a lot toasty flavors to it. Its got some chocolate and hazelnut tones to it. It comes in at 5.8% abv and bears a strong resemblance to Fat Tire. I was very excited about the arrival of Fat Tire to the Twin Cities this summer and love New Belgium's beers. But I have to admit that while I love Fat Tire, I think Fat Squirrel is almost better. Its a close call, but either way, Fat Squirrel is really good.

Dancing Man Wheat: My parents recently went on tour of the New Glarus Brewery and came back raving about this beer. My dad is also a homebrewer and brews the best hefeweizen I've ever had. Well, this beer is a close second. He couldn't stop talking about the cloviness of this hefe. It's a classic bavarian wheat beer, that weighs in at a whopping 7.2% abv, and is smooth and crisp. It pours a hazy, light gold color and has a strong clove and cinnamon presence. Its a shame this beer is only a seasonal, and again, not available in the cities. For all my friends who don't like hefeweizens, this would change their minds.

Wisconsin Belgian Red: I bought a bottle of this beer this summer because I needed to try it. This beer is an award winning beer that is very unique. I read about it in a book by the "father of homebrewing" Charlie Papiazan. I was really intrigued to try this beer since it is unique and well known. It's brewed with 1lb of Door County cherries and it definitely doesn't skimp on the cherry flavor. It's highly carbonated and pours almost like a champagne. I wasn't crazy about it at first but it grew on me. I liked it and would consider drinking it on occasion, but its so heavily cherry flavored and sweet that it almost tastes like a cherry soda.

There are a number of different styles they brew. Based on the few I've tried, I'm guessing their others are good. Hopefully they will expand their distribution to include the Twin Cities.

Next blog is going to be about my Bearded Fury Pale Ale and my adventure brewing the Burning Beard Belgian Ale...
Cheers!
The Bearded Brewer

Minnesota/Wisconsin beer

Fitger's Brewhouse
This summer I went to Duluth for the first time and stopped by the Fitger's Brewhouse pub. This brewpub is in one of the oldest breweries in Minnesota. The original brewery, Lake Superior Brewery was started in 1854 and survived though prohibition by making candy and soda. It returned to brewing beer after prohibition and was producing 100,000 barrels a year by 1940. It closed in 1971 and became a hotel in 1984. In 1995, the brewery complex was bought and turned into what it is now, a mixture of shops and the brewpub. I was really impressed by the old building and the variety of beers on tap. My family and I had a sampler flight that consisted of 7 beers I believe. It's been awhile since we went, so I can't remember all of the details. The sampler had an IPA, a British Bitter, a pale ale, a lager, an apricot wheat beer and a stout. Of the beers we tried, the apricot wheat stood out as the best. As someone who enjoys the regionalism and uniqueness of beers, I really loved the regionalized names of all their beers. There is a definite Lake Superior theme with names like Lighthouse Golden, Big Boat Stout, etc. I ended up buying a growler of their Saison. It was very good, a unique blend of hoppiness and complex flavors. It poured a light orange with a rocky white head. It was very good.
The most impressive thing about the brewpub for me was the 30 styles of beers they make throughout the year. There was a wide variety of the standard seasonal beers, but then there was also a variety of other styles like a Belgian Abbey Ale, a dopplebock, double IPA, etc. It was very impressive. If I lived in Duluth this place would be dangerous. They have live music and great food as well. So if you're in Duluth I recommend that you check out Fitgers.
www.brewhouse.net

Rush River
I was excited to see six packs of Rush River in my local liquor store the other day. Rush River is a brewery that was only available on tap in select bars around the cities for the last couple of years. But last winter they moved to a new brewery location in River Falls, Wisconsin and apparently bought a bottling system. Their website says that their bottles will be available for a limited time. My liquor store said it was selling really well, so if that's true throughout the Twin Cities, maybe the sixers will be a permanent addition to the local beer landscape. The two beers they have available in six packs are The Unforgiven Amber Ale and the Bubblejack IPA. Both beers are really good, but I'm a big fan of the Unforgiven. It pours a beautiful amber body and has a slight fruitiness and smooth hop character. The description from their website:
The Unforgiven Amber Ale: Our flagship beer is 5.8% ABV. Deep amber in color, and slightly cloudy, this beer is remarkably smooth. We "dry-hop" this ale in the conditioning tank meaning fresh hops are added after fermentation to steep and add a subtle fruity nose. The yeast for this beer was custom created and cultured for us by a lab in Oregon, insuring a one-of-a-kind experience found in no other micro.

I really like their IPA as well, its up there with Bell's Two Hearted as a beer I'll drink to get my hop fix. Here's their description:

BubbleJack IPA: One of our favorite styles, this ale is a hop explosion. Light in color, heavily hopped in the kettle as well as conditioned with several unique hop varieties. This creates a beautiful floral/citrusy nose which is balanced well by a smooth and full finish. 6.0% ABV.


The next blog entry will be about my love affair with another Wisconsin brewery, New Glarus. Unfortunately it's not a beer that I've been able to find in the Twin Cities, but when I'm at my parents cabin in Hayward, Wisconsin I pick some up. Its an award winning husband and wife team that produces some outstanding beers, including some excellent Belgian beers. More on them later.
The Bearded Brewer