How it all began

Adam over at Beerbits2 blog had the great idea of having a homebrew blogging day dedicated to reflections of early or fist experiences with homebrewing. With all of the reflections and scrutinizing over my current beers, it's great to think about how far I've come and how much I've learned.
Probably 7 years ago I bought my dad a homebrew kit from Northern Brewer and a Kolsch kit which was described to me as a good option for new homebrewers. My dad's first several batches were very good, and in my limited beer knowledge, I knew I wanted to brew beer once I moved into a space that made it possible. A couple years later I started brewing with a Kolsch kit.
I don't remember how good or bad my first beers were, I just remember being so anal about everything and stressed out about the details that my wife asked me if I even enjoy brewing. After a few batches, and realizing that a few mistakes here and there didn't ruin my beer, I started to relax.
For me the best thing about brewing has been learning about beer. When I started out brewing, craft beer wasn't something I knew much about. I knew I didn't like the terrible crappy beer I drank in college, but I had yet to delve into this new world of craft beer. I drank Leinenkugals most of the time, and a Summit Pale Ale if I was feeling especially adventurous. It was homebrewing that really introduced me to styles and breweries. I would pour over the catalogs from Northern Brewer and read about all the kits, then go out and pick up some beer of a certain style so I could decide if I wanted to brew it.
Bearded Brewing started when I started getting BYO magazine and seeing all of the cool homebrew labels. As my friends started to like my beer, and I brewed enough different beers, I wanted to mark the bottles for them to be able to differentiate between what the bottles were. I designed the Bearded Brewing logo and a new component of brewing started for me. I love the whole process; from researching about a style, to crafting the recipe, coming up with the name and concept, designing the label, making and finally drinking the beer.
Homebrewing for me is about having a creative outlet, being able to create something that others will enjoy and I will love. Stumbling onto the blogosphere and finding this whole world of nerds (I mean it affectionately) like myself has been awesome.
Since I started blogging, reading other blogs, and interviewing brewers, I've learned so much more. My move to organic and sustainable brewing has been largely based on what I've learned from the interviews I've done and the articles I've read on other blogs.
I could go on, so I digress. Thanks Adam for the idea to blog about this. Its great to reflect on how it all began, it gives me a good perspective on where I'm at, and where I want to continue to grow as a brewer.
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer

Beer Review- West and Southwest Beers

My parents recently returned to the Midwest from their winter in Arizona and my dad brought back some beers for me that I don't have access to here in Minnesota. He brought back Santa Fe Brewing Company's Wheat, Stone Arrogant Bastard, Alaskan Brewing Company's Winter Ale, Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, and Ballast Point Brewing Company's Callico Amber Ale. I had asked him to bring me some Stone, but was really excited about the collection he brought. I've reviewed Alaska's Winter Ale before, an excellent beer with a hint of spruce (and made me realize how bad my Frozen Beard spruce extract experiment really was!). So I'm going to review the other three beers he brought, which were all very good.

The first beer I sampled was Santa Fe Wheat, which was a big hit amongst my family. This was an outstanding beer, I imagine it would be great in the heat of New Mexico. It pours a cloudy light golden yellow with a thin white head. A nice aroma of clove and apple cider. There is kind of a cidery after taste, but its really a nice flavor that I wasn't expecting and it makes it unique from other wheats I've had. Crisp and light, with some nice soft sweetness, this beer was an excellent Bavarian wheat.
This is a beer that I could drink a lot of, especially on a hot day. I think wheats can be hit or miss, but this one is the former, a great drinking wheat with plenty of flavor and enough uniqueness to stand out.

My dad and I cracked open the bottle of Ballast Point's Calico Amber, a San Diego beer, that boasts several awards at the GABF. Amber ales are one of my favorite styles, as they can be a perfect balance of hoppiness, maltiness and biscuit flavors and we both thought that this didn't dissapoint. It pours a cloudy amber orange with a thin white head. Floral hop aroma with hints of citrus, biscuit and bread. There is a wonderful balance of biscuit, malty sweetness and some lingering hop bitterness. Nothing outstanding about this beer, just a really well balanced nice drinking amber ale.

Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye- This is a beer I'd had on a trip to Chicago and I'm happy to see that they distrubute in Wisconsin, so it might be a beer I can find on occasion. This beer was really good! It pours a dark brown with some ruby red hues and a big, two and 1/2 finger off white head. There is a wonderful hoppy aroma, piney, citrusy, and peppery. The rye gives it a nice spiciness, and the hops are bitter, but not overwhelming. It has some nice sweetness and just a wonderful combination of flavors. This beer could be a new favorite, I'm wishing I would have had more bottles of it to drink! A unique beer that is great mix of hops and malt. There is 8% alcohol, but it isn't noticeable amongst the great amount of flavor that is going on. A nice creamy mouthfeel makes this beer very drinkable and it gets better as it warms up. Great beer, and I didn't remember it being this good the last time I had it.

I have yet to drink the Arrogant Bastards he brought me, but was excited by these suprises. More to come.

Salud!

The Bearded Brewer

Beer Review- Surly Bitter Brewer, Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter

These two beers suprised me for totally different reasons. Surly is a brewery that in the few releases I've had of theirs, tries to push the limit. Furious is an extremely hoppy/bitter beer. In fact the 99 IBUs makes it one of the most (if not the most) bitter beer in America. I think Bender is a really unique beer, combining elements of a brown ale, porter and stout with a lot of hoppiness. Their other seasonal releases tend to be unique or extreme as well. Needless to say, I was quite surprised when I heard they had released a British Bitter. It just seemed a little to be a little too "ordinary" of a beer for Surly to release.

Without much to compare it to, but in reading the description of the British bitter, I'd have to say Surly nails it on the head. This beer pours a pale orange color with a lacy white head. It has a fairly floral aroma of hops, and some biscuity aromas as well. It is bitter and dry but very easy to drink. At 4% alcohol this is the definition of a session beer. It has just enough bite and hoppy flavor to make it interesting, but nothing stands out a lot, and it is crisp and light. There is a lingering bitterness from the hops and the dryness is balanced with a slight malty sweetness. Not a beer I would buy often, but a beer that surprises me in its simplicity from a brewery that often goes over the top. In some ways I'm more impressed with this effort because I think what is lost in American brewing sometimes is the craft of making something simple and not overloading it with hops, alcohol content, or a dominating flavor. In the era of big beers, its impressive to see a brewery known for extreme to come out with a well crafted session ale.

On the other end of the spectrum is Flying Dog's Gonzo Imperial Porter. I have only had a couple of offerings from Flying Dog before and have never been overly impressed. The artwork of Ralph Steadman on their labels is always really eye catching, and I am impressed with the large variety of beers and styles they brew. They have a line of beers called Canis Major, which are bigger beers that include a barley wine, a double IPA, a triple, and the imperial porter. After drinking the Gonzo, I am going to have to revisit the Flying Dog Line. This beer is pretty impressive. It pours jet black with a finger of mocha head. Right away are peppery hop aromas as well as hints of coco, coffee, and roastiness. A creamy mouthfeel, not quite as creamy as a stout, but more body than your average porter. Similar to Old Rasputin, in the aroma, it has strong flavors of roasted malt with some chocolate. A really good beer, there is a lot of dark, roasty flavors going on here. A lot of bitterness, but some sweetness in the finish. Its a sipper, but gets better as it warms up, so that's a good thing. A very good beer and one I would definitely buy again.

Two very different beers, but both very good. I am planning on heading to Wisconsin this weekend, so hopefully I can find some new offerings from New Glarus or possibly Dogfish Head. Have a great long weekend.

Salud!

The Bearded Brewer

Beer Review- Muckney Brewing Homebrew

In a first for me, I'll be reviewing some homebrew that is not my own. In addition to the variety of Pennsylvania beers I got from Dave at Muckney Brewing, I also got four bottles of their homebrew. I was very curious and excited to try their beers since I read their blog and think their brews sound really interesting. The four beers I got were: Dark and Mysterious Cinnamon Porter, Rising Sun Ginger-Sesame Red Ale, Batch 11 Dark IPA, and Heavy Hefe Wheat Ale. I was really impressed by their beers, here's the rundown:

Rising Sun Ginger-Sesame Red Ale: To be honest I didn't know what to think about this beer when I read the name. I've had ginger in beer before that was totally overpowering, and sesame(?), not something I would think to put in a beer. Very intriguing...This was the first bottle of Muckney homebrew I opened and I was blown away! What a totally unique beer that was also very easy to drink and and really accessible for such a unique combination. The beer pours a cloudy brownish red with a creamy white head. At first there is an aroma of sesame with some sweetness of ginger. Totally surprised by the taste! Its slightly sweet and malty with a roasty sesame presence that is there in the finish, but not overwhelming at all. The more you drink, the more the ginger reveals itself in a sweet underlying flavor, nicely balanced with the sesame and the malty body. This beer would be great with asian food (surprise), and is just a great drinking beer. I was really impressed on how well they were able to balance the flavors in this beer. When I think of "extreme" or creative beers, I think its very easy to go over the top, and this beer is just a perfectly balanced beer. It is unique and original, yet easy to drink and something I could easily drink as a session beer. Outstanding!


Dark and Mysterious Cinnamon Porter- This was the beer I was most interested in drinking because I've been curious about adding some spices to a porter. I had even posted a question on their blog about this beer long before I had any communication with Dave. He had warned me that they added 12 sticks of cinnamon instead of the intended 3 sticks. The beer pours a dark chocolate brown with a two finger off-white head. Holy cinnamon! Right away you are hit with the smell of cinnamon, in fact its really present. To be honest, I found the cinnamon too overpowering. It dominates the flavor and its hard to get to the porter. There is some roasty-chocolatey flavors of the porter, but the aroma and much of the flavor is really dominated by cinammon. Based on how well the rest of their beers are so well balanced, I think it would be really good with less cinnamon.

Batch 11 Dark IPA- Dave told me this beer was based off of a Stone Brewing Company beer, but unfortunately I don't have access to Stone beers, so I have no frame of reference. This was another very impressive beer from Muckney. It pours a dark brown with some redish hues and a thick two finger off white head. There is a really nice piney hop aroma in the nose. Its highly carbonated, almost fizzy and that gives it a really crisp finish. There is a great hop bitterness balanced well against a sweet, malty body. The hops are really the focal point of this beer, as there is a wonderful hoppy flavor, clean hop finish, but a nice bitterness one would expect with an IPA. Just a great drinking beer, if you've ever wondered what a IPA would be like if it looked like a porter, this would be it. Another beer I could drink on a regular basis.


Heavy Hefe Wheat Ale- From the sound of it, this is a big hefeweizen, not sure on the specifics like alcohol content, but I'm assuming it is higher than an average hefe. Heavy Hefe pours a cloudy golden orangish color with a thin, lacy white head. There is a strong clove, banana aroma that you'd excpect from a hefeweizen. It is a sweet, candy like taste right away with hints of clove, banana and a little yeasty tartness. There is a creamy mouthfeel, almost "milkshake" like. It lacks some crispness, but that might be attributed to the "heavy" portion, maybe a lot of body from the higher abv. There is a great sweetness with just a slight tartness, and right at the finish there is a little spiciness as it goes down. A great beer, I found myself wanting another one of these right away. I would put this up there with some of the best hefeweizen's I've ever had. Yet another excellent beer!

It was great trying some homebrew, especially ones that were so creative and unique. I was really impressed with the beers and think they have a great perspective on brewing. Each one of these beers was unlike something I've had before. The Dark IPA was the closest to a commerical brew, but unique itself. I'm excited to do some exchanges in the future because I'd love to try some more of their well crafted, unique beers.

I plan on reviewing Surly Bitter Brewer this week, and maybe my thoughts on a couple other beers I've been drinking.
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer

Beer Reviews- Stoudts, Otto's, Dogfish Immort Ale

I've drank all but two of the beers sent to me by Dave at Muckney. I'll be reviewing their excellent homebrews soon. I wanted to share my thoughts on a few of the other beers Dave sent out to me first. I've already reviewed the three from Troegs he sent me, all excellent beers and a brewery I wish I had access to. While I wasn't as blown away by the following three, I thought they were all very good beers. The first two are Pennsylvanian beers, and Dogfish is of course a Delaware brewery.

Stoudt Brewing Company's Smooth Hoperator, is a hoppy bock that sounded intriguing. This beer pours a beautiful copper color with a thin chalky white head. Great grassy, citrus hop aroma that hits you right away. There's a smooth caramel, malty flavor you would expect from a bock. The smooth flavor is balanced with some spicy hop flavor, but finishes with the clean bock/lager aftertaste you expect. A good beer that offers a unique take on a bock.


Next up was Otto's Jolly Roger Russian Imperial Stout. I've been trying to be more open minded about this style and really enjoyed the Old Rasputin from North Coast. This beer got some good reviews, so I was excited to try it. It pours a deep dark chocolate, basically black with a a thin mocha-tan head. There are strong aromas of chocolate and molasses at first. There is a nice creamy body with a lot of sweetness and a slight amount of hop bitterness. The high alcohol content is definitely noticeable, as there is a slight burn in the aftertaste. There is some roastiness, but the beer is mostly dominated by the creamy, sweet chocolate flavor with only a lingering hoppiness. Overall I liked this beer. I think I prefer Old Rasputin in the style, but they were quite different and the more this beer warmed up, the more flavors came through.


Finally was a beer I was very excited about after my recent experience drinking Dogfish Head in Chicago. Dave sent me Dogfish Head's May special release, Immort Ale. This completely unique beer is difficult to describe. Here is their description:
Vast in character, luscious & complex. Brewed with peat-smoked barley, this strong ale is brewed with organic juniper berries, vanilla & maple syrup. It's aged on oak and fermented with a blend of English & Belgian yeasts.
Here were my thoughts: Wow! What a unique beer. It pours a cloudy dirty brown reminiscent of iced tea with a finger of foamy white head. There is a strong aroma of fruit and oak, along with maple syrup and vanilla. Its fairly carbonated, so at first there's a real crisp taste, but that is quickly followed by a syrupy body. A complex mix of maple syrup, plum, raisin, and vanilla with a strong oak/smokey flavor at the end. A really unique beer with such a wide range of flavors. The 11% alcohol is hidden really well. Not a beer I could drink often, but a truly unique experience.
Coming soon will be my thoughts on Muckney's excellent homebrew, as well as the remaining two beers he sent, and a surprising new Surly release I picked up, Bitter Brewer.
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer

The Beer Bike Rides Again

Now that the weather is finally nice again in Minnesota, its time to break out the beer bike. Apparently its National Bike week, so its an appropriate time for the post. When I moved into my house 3 years ago I was excited there was a small liquor store with a great beer selection in my neighborhood. It's about 15 or so blocks from my house and I set out to find a cheap bike to use as a grocery/beer running bike. I found this bike for $10 and paid more for the seat and the baskets than the bike. For the full dorky effect, the beer bike even sports a New Belgium bell on it! Last summer I tried to make it a habit to ride my bike to pick up beer (in an essence working off the beer I'm drinking!) and this summer I'm determined to do it more. Since I'm trying to become more socially responsible in my homebrewing, I figure a good goal for the summer is to commit to riding the beer bike every time I plan on picking up some beer. If only I lived closer to a homebrew shop!

In other Bearded Brewing news, I'm planning on bottling my El Muerto this weekend. In a first for me, I double dry hopped it. I added a 1/2 ounce of organic saphir hops right when I transfered it to the secondary, then a week later I added another 1/2 ounce of hops, this time Organic pacific gem, just to experiment. I tasted it this week and its shaping up nicely.
I'll also be posting my impressions on the Muckney homebrews this week, I have one left to try out.
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer

Final Thoughts: Irie Stout

This is officially the biggest beer ever brewed at Bearded Brewing. This beer was originally inspired by Lion Stout, a Sri Lankan Stout I came across when I was on a big stout kick. I set out to make a foreign extra stout (what Lion is) but then ended trying another beer while I was at Northern Brewer buying the ingredients for Irie. Whenever I go in to the store, I usually talk about what I'm brewing with a guy who works there. I was discussing this and he invited me in the back to try a beer they had on tap that they were contemplating having as a kit. It was a Caribbean stout. It was very similar to what I had in mind, but I had wanted mine to have a bit more roastiness. So while I was at the store, I adjusted what I was thinking to kind of a mix between what I had in my head and the great beer I had just tried. The end result has been really good. I was shooting for around 8% abv, but the two packs of yeast really ate up the 1.5 pounds of sugar I had put in, and I ended up with a beer that was around 9.5%!

Here are my thoughts:
The Irie pours a dark chocolate almost black with a thin light tan head, it quickly becomes a thin lacing. Right away there is an aroma of dark chocolate with a little bit of roastiness. A slight citrus aroma coming from the dried orange peels that were added, but it doesn't stand out too much. It is very smooth with no alcohol presence. Sweet with quite a bit of chocolate flavors, a little molasses and just a touch of roasty aftertaste.
This beer is very good, and one I would love to brew again. Next time I would like to up the amount of black malt to give it a bit more roasty flavor and maybe add some more fruit either in the form of more orange peels, maybe try my standby marmalade or even something like mango. I wouldn't want to deviate too much since I think it turned out nice, but I think it could be tweaked to be a bit roastier and play off the balance I was trying to accomplish.
Here is the recipe, it's extract:
Steeping grains- .75 org Crystal 120
.25 org Chocolate
.25 black patent malt
9.33 lbs of org. liquid malt extract
1.50 lbs of org. brown sugar
2.5 Tablespoons of dried orange peels @ 5 min
1 oz Org. Admiral hops @ 60
Two packets of dry Safale US-56 yeast

Overall, a great first attempt at a stout in my opinion; sweet, drinkable, and strong enough to make you feel Irie indeed! I am anxious to hear Dave at Muckney Brewing's thoughts and also Rick at [BW] Beer Blog's.
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer

UNO- Orange Honey Wheat

This summer for my daughter's first birthday party, we are planning on having quite a few guests. I decided to brew a beer for the occasion, and plan on brewing a different one every year to mark the occasion. I had been playing around with different ideas for UNO, trying to think of something that would be accessible to a variety of people. The party will be in July, so I wanted something lighter and decided on a wheat beer, but wanted to do something with it so it was a bit more interesting. I decided on adding orange blossom honey to the recipe. At the last minute I decided to throw a teaspoon of orange marmalade in as well. I am brewing it now so I can make any tweaks before brewing it for the party.

Here's the breakdown:
1/2 pound of org. white wheat steeped for 25 minutes
6lbs of Wheat extract for 60
1 oz. Liberty hops @ 60
1 teaspoon orange marmalade at 5 min
1 lb California Orange Blossom honey @ flame-out.
Depending on the orange presence after I transfer it, I might add another pound of the orange blossom honey in the secondary or possibly orange peels. I don't want it too overpowering and I want some honey sweetness. We'll see how it goes. A nice easy brew on a Saturday morning.
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer

Beer Review- Troegs Brewing Company

One of the great things about trying beer from another region is finding a brewery that you love. However, the flipside is discovering a beer you wish you could get on a regular basis. So is the case with the three beers from Troeg Brewing Company I got sent to me. Hopback Amber, Nugget Nectar and Mad Elf were sent to me by Dave at Muckney Brewing Blog, and each beer was fantastic!
Troeg's Brewing Company is a brewery out of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and owned by two brothers. I was blown away by each beer, here's the breakdown:


Nugget Nectar Imperial Amber
Holy hops! This beer is very similar to Bell's Hopslam. Right after popping the cap, there's a strong citrusy-grassy hop aroma. I have said in the past that I'm not much of a hop head, but that might be changing. Despite the 93ish IBUs it lists, I really didn't find the beer to be bitter. It pours a beautiful copper-orangish color with very little head, just a thin white lace on top. There is a slight sweetness, but its mostly hops! Very citrusy, with a grapefruit flavor typical of West Coast hops. A very good beer.


Mad Elf Belgian Strong Ale
I was really excited about this beer. Brewed with honey and cherries, this beer sounded really intriguing. It's 11% alcohol, but that is masked very well. For starters, this beer pours a nice cloudy light brown with ruby redish hues coming through. There is a two finger lacy white head. Right away you get a bready, yeasty aroma with a hint of sour fruit. At first there is a musty, yeasty taste that is quickly followed by a nice cherry tartness. This beer has a wonderful balance of tartness and sweetness. As it warms up, the beer becomes more flavorful, but the cherries are never overwhelming. It reminds me a lot of Three Philosophers from Ommegang. Mad Elf has a nice carbonation that makes it quite refreshing and crisp. While this beer was fantastic, its almost a good thing I can't normally get my hands on it, because I could drink several of these in a sitting!


Hopback Amber Ale
This was actually the first of the Troegs beers I had and led me to drink the other two instead of try some of the other beers Dave sent me. This beer is outstanding. This is their flagship beer, and would be a regular beer of mine if I could buy it. I wrote "perfectly balanced" in my notes. The beer pours a beautiful amber color with a white head. There is a soft floral hop aroma. There is a perfect balance of caramel and biscuit flavors and is slightly sweet. The hops create a bit of bitterness, but not too much and there is also a slight spiciness as well. I think Amber ales can be hit or miss, but I love Fat Tire and a local beer, Rush River Unforgiven Amber Ale. I think that Hopback falls perfectly in between. Not as biscuity as Fat Tire, and not as hoppy as Rush River, just a perfect balance of hops and a sweet, flavorful body.

I sadly have no more Troegs left to drink. I had to lump these together because each one was excellent. I also love it when a brewery has quality beers from a wide range of styles, and Troegs seems to. Mad Elf is nothing like Nugget Nectar, and I like seeing that. Some breweries make a few really good beers, but tend to get mediocore outside of the their comfort zone. Breweries like Bells, New Glarus, and a few of my other favorites seem to be able to make a wide variety well. Based off what I've had, I'll add Troegs to that list and will make sure to try some other varieties the next time I get out to Pittsburgh.
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer

Big Box of Beer

Awhile back I got an email from Dave at Muckney Brewing Blog, asking if I'd be interested in doing a beer trade because he was interested in trying some Surly. I was excited about the prospect of getting my hands on some beers I don't have access to, so I quickly agreed. After several exchanges figuring out what beers we were interested in, we ended up with a pretty nice size load. I sent him out Surly Bender, Surly Furious, Rush River Unforgiven Amber Ale, Summit Maybock, Summit Extra Pale Ale, and two of my homebrews. I sent him out a bottle of Irie Stout, and Mayabock. I'm curious on his feedback on the Mayabock becuase I'm not entirely feeling it right now.
As for his big ass box, I was excited to come home to a great collection of Pennsylvania beers, Muckney homebrews and Dogfish. In his bundle of joy, there was the following: Troegs Hop Back, Troegs Mad Elf, Troegs Nugget Nectar, Stouts Smooth Hoperator (one of the best beer names ever), Otto's Jolly Roger Imperial Stout, Victory Horizontal Barley Wine, Erie Brewing Co's Ol' Red Ceast and Desist, and Dogfish Head's Immort Ale. As for the Muckney Brews, I got their Rising Sun Ginger-Sesame Red Ale, Dark and Mysterious Cinnamon Porter, Dark IPA, and Heavy Hefe Wheat Ale. I'm very excited to try their home brews. I will be busy drinking and posting my thoughts on these in the next week or so. A special thanks to our good friend Dave at Muckney for sending out the box of beer, and I look forward to drinking these great beers, and trading again in the future!
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

The Gringo- Imperial Mexican Cerveza

I've held off from reviewing this beer because I was curious to see how it would age. As I've written before, patience is not one of my qualities as a brewer. It would serve me well to be more patient, and this is a beer that proves that.
This beer came out of the idea of brewing an imperial beer, and seeing that imperial beers seem to be a big American trend, I thought it would be fitting to "Americanize" a Mexican lager. So in the spirit of Taco Bell and other such American bastardization of something Mexican... I took the concept of a Mexcian lager and upped the alcohol content and added a lot of hops. It took awhile for this beer to really mature, and this weekend I drank the last couple bottles I had, and I was really pleased with the turn out. It was an experimental 3 gallon batch, so I'd give this beer a B for effort and definitely have a foundation for a future beer that could be good with some tweaks.
For starters, I'll give my thoughts on the beer:
It pours a clear golden-light orange color with a foamy two finger white head. What hits you at first, and pretty much throughout the whole beer is the citrusy hops. This is what I was going for as I thought it would be cool to get that citrusy flavor we associate with Mexican beer, but from the hops (and no...not like Miller Chill). So I chose to use 2lbs of Centenial hops. These are characterized by their citrusy aroma, and The Gringo has a strong grapefruit flavor and smell to it. The citrus continues throughout the beer, as the hoppiness of the beer really centers on the Centenial hops. There is a puckering bitterness in the finish, but the lagering gave it kind of a smooth finish as well.
Overall, I was pleased with the experiment and actually plan on brewing it again because I think it would be a good summer beer. It is really hoppy, which is nice, but also kind of refreshing. I think that it loses most, if not all of the lager characteristics. I plan on using White Labs Mexican Lager yeast next time, as opposed to the Cali Lager 2112 yeast that I used. I'm hoping that might give it a bit more lager feel to it. I also plan on using some Agave or honey at the end of the boil or in the secondary to give it a nice balance at the end. I'm not saying this beer is on par with Bell's Hopslam at all...but there are some similarties, and I really liked how Hopslam had some honey at the end to really balance out the bitterness of the hops. Agave would make sense given the theme. If anyone has any experience using Agave, I'd love some thoughts because I've only had Breckenridges Agave Wheat, which was good, but have never used it before in a beer.
The point of my 3 gallon batches is to try something different and this beer falls under that category. I'm sending a bottle to [BW] Beer Blog, and am excited for Rick's thoughts on it. I also know now how long to let it mature, which is about 3-4 months. When I brew it again, I'll post the recipe, because I want to make some tweaks to it. This week I'll try to get to my review of the Irie Stout, but I also know I'm getting a big ol' box of beer from Pennsylvania, so I'll have plenty of treats to review in there as well.
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer

Beer Review- El Jefe

My friend Jeff has been my closest friend for over 20 years. While Jeff hasn't delved into homebrewing, he's been an integral part of the Bearded Brewing operation. He was the webmaster behind the first beardedbrewing.com website, has helped put in the tile in the brewery (a.k.a, my basement), built stuff for the brewery and is a very honest provider of feedback. So bottom line, its about time I made a beer named after him. I've had several ideas for El Jefe, but this summer I kind of settled on a lighter, crisp Belgian, in the vain of New Glarus' Stone Soup or even Mothership Wit by New Belgium. Something with some flavor, but light and crisp. Since my Inky's White and Bangy Tangy are more in the vain of wit, I wanted to go with more of a Belgian Pale Ale. El Jefe is 5.3% abv, so a nice session beer.
After about 2 months in the bottle, El Jefe is tasting fantastic. The actual brewing of this beer was a debacle because I was trying to juggle too many things, ended up missing the time I was going to put in the last of the extract, and boiled it for longer than I had intended. As always, I tried it too early, and was discouraged, enough to write a whiny post about it. Two weekends ago, Jeff and I cracked open a mini keg of it, and it was really good! I had also given a bottle to our buddy Josh who called to tell me that he thought it was better than the Bangy Tangy (the beer named by him).
Here's the breakdown:
It pours a cloudy light yellow with a thin white head. It has a fruity nose that is a little yeasty.
It is very crisp with a slight tartness, but has some lingering sweetness. Josh thought it was very close to Duvel or Delirium Tremens, which is a nice compliment. I think its a little lighter and less fruity than either of those, which is what I was going for. I think this would be a very good summer beer, and I think it will definitely be added to the rotation. I gave Jeff a couple six packs, but I still have another 1.5 gallon mini-keg of it left. I think I'll save it until the weather finally warms up!
Heres the recipe:
2 lbs org 2-row
.50 lbs org white wheat
.50 lbs org. Munich
.50 lbs crystal 4o
* above mashed at 150 degrees
4 lbs org. light dme
.35 oz Northern Brewer @ 60
.5 oz Sterling @ 45
.5 oz Sterling @15
1 tsp paradise seeds @ 5 min
Wyeast 1762 Abbey Ale II yeast

Next up, will be my thoughts on my Mayabock. We tried that as well, and it was good. Jeff's quote was "good, not awesome." I was determined to wait until May to crack this one open (after the 5 I've already tried), so hopefully time has improved it. Also, I'm excited because Dave from Muckney Brewing and I exchanged some beer, both commercial and homebrew. I'm excited to try some East coast beers I'm not able to get here as well as Muckney's interesting sounding beers. I'm getting some Troeg's, Dogfish, Stoudt's, and Otto's Jolly Roger Impy Stout as well as Muckney's Cinnamon Porter, Weizenbock, Dark IPA, and a ginger sesame ale. I'll of course review all those as well. More to come...
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer