Here's a short rundown of what's going on:
Flying Dog is kind to bloggers- When I was writing my review of Flying Dog's Gonzo, I contacted the brewery because they have an option of being able to download their imagery (very cool) but you need a password. I contacted them, and heard back from them, who gave me the password and asked me if I would be interested in trying some more Flying Dog products. Free beer? Hell yeah! So this week I got a box from Flying Dog containing three beers. Their Kerberos Triple, Old Scratch Amber Lager, and Double Pale Ale. I've been enjoying them this week and will post my thoughts in the coming days. As a note to the legions of craft breweries that read my blog...very smart of Flying Dog. I've passed by their beers a lot and never bought any. I didn't think I would like the Amber Lager, and never thought about picking it up, but really enjoyed the sample I got and will definitely buy a sixer in the future.
Hopshot and Thrifty Hop Shopping- A couple months back I submitted an application to a promotion from Northern Brewer. They had a new hop product that they wanted to send people and have them brew with it and then give feedback. I was one of the lucky ones chosen to get this "Hopshot." In the mail I received a package of a mysterious looking syringe containing 5ml of a golden nectar that I'm assuming is like hop juice or something. The rules were to use it as a bittering agent since this hop concoction was equivalent to 50IBUS. So I decided to just throw it all into an IPA. I was going to design a fairly basic recipe since I wanted to know what this hopshot was like, and also didn't want to spend a lot of time and energy on designing a beer that could suck. I needed to go to Midwest Supplies to pick up a kit for my dad, while there I came across their Hopscare IPA kit. The kit contained 6lbs of Gold LME, 1 lb of Munich DME, 1lb specialty malts and the following hops: 1 oz Yakima, 1 oz Amarillo, 2 oz Cascade. I did the math and realized that it would be cheaper for me to buy the kit ($33) and could score some hops cheaply. Cascade is unavailable at Midwest and the last time I was at Northern Brewer I think they were $3.99 an ounce, plus Amarillo is $4.99. Add in the cost of the extract and it was cheaper to buy the kit, and use half the hops. I plan on using the Amarillo and maybe one of the Cascades in the batch. Then I'm able to use the other Cascade and Yakima in another beer in the future. Score! More to come on the Hopshot IPA in the future.
Nokomis Summer Ale 3- This is the third summer that I've made a light ale for the summer months. The first year was a honey kolsch, last year was an organic blonde with orange peels, and this year is light ale with rye. A 3 gallon partial mash recipe, it has organic pilsner, wheat, crystal 20 and rye malt in it. I transfered it this week to the secondary and am lagering it for a short period. More to come on this beer as well.Salud!
Bearded Brewer
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