Beer Uniter Not Divider

Through beer exchanges and numerous emails, I've developed a friendship with fellow beer brewer/blogger Dave @ Muckney Brewing in Western Pennsylvania. During an email exchange this summer about organic brewing, we came to realize that while we could have spirited, respectful discussions, we were not very close on the political scale. As the election season heated up, Dave and I have been emailing each other to get a sense of how the "other side" is viewing the current election. After a few back and forths, it was clear that he wasn't going to become a liberal anytime soon, nor me a conservative. Deciding that instead of trying to convince the other of our position, I proposed that in the spirit of "reaching across the aisle" that we should brew a collaborative beer. That being the same recipe, mine being organic, and his being non organic (I might have mentioned something about him using the blood of an endangered animals as well).
Dave loved the idea, and we set about trying to come up with a style and recipe. Bi-Partisan Porter was born, and Justin (Dave's brew partner) came up with the idea of using coffee, something I had wanted to do sometime anyway. It gave us another ingredient we could compare, since I could use fair trade coffee and he could use coffee "picked by slave children" as he put it.
I'm pretty excited about the idea. As regular readers of this blog should know, I don't try to push any agenda. I believe in organic brewing and organic/sustainable farming in general. This blog is dedicated to my growth in that realm, and hopefully getting some others interested. I'm not looking at this as a way to "convert a conservative." I'm simply looking at it as a great "point/counterpoint" and a way to brew the same recipe in both an organic and non-organic way.
Plus a collaboration project just seems like a fun thing to do. So stay tuned to my site and Muckney's for the updates.
Another quick note- I'll be reviewing some brews Ted at Tedbrews sent me...the two I've had have been outstanding. That might even be an understatement. His tripel was dead on...and I'm a big fan of tripels. So I'll be reviewing those soon as well.
One final note...regardless of who for, don't forget to vote. Well...some of you might want to say home....just kidding. kind of.
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer

Surly Videos

Nice little video about Surly in anticipation of D-Day...the release of Surly's extremely popular Imperial Stout- Darkness. A beer I will try to get my hands on this year (I'll have to have it only on tap...they only release 700 bottles at the brewery for the event called D-Day.)
Heres the video:http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1870915446/bctid1875308155
Another video from Fox 9

Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Hoppy Porter and the Half Bearded Prince

Last spring Dave @ Muckney Brewing sent me a beer he called Dark IPA. It was excellent, a dark, roasty, hoppy, ale. This time of year I crave dark beers and IPAs, so I figured, why not mix them both. Dave gave me the basics of his recipe, and I decided to go for a bit more of the porter angle than the IPA. I'm excited to see how this turns out. In addition to a basic porter recipe, I'm using Organic Pacific Gem hops as the bittering hops, as well as 2 ounces of Cascade hops, and dry hopping with some high alpha Organic Admiral Whole Leaf Hops. I'll keep the status updated...
A couple other quick notes... I'm excited to have exchanged some brews with Ted at Tedbrews.com.
I have followed Ted's blog for some time, always impressed with what he's got brewing. Needless to say I'm excited to try some of his beers.
More to come...
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Irie Review 2.0

I changed up the recipe a bit for this beer in order to enter it into an organic homebrew competition. I wrote about the changes, including the recipe here. I have no idea how the beer will fare in the actual competition. I think it might be a bit too light in color for a stout, and the flavor and abv don't really fit into any category.
With that being said, I think this is probably the best beer I've made. My friends have given me good feedback and my wife, not a dark beer fan at all, really likes it. The ultimate goal of this beer was to balance the roasty-chocolate flavors of a stout with some citrus sweetness. Here are my thoughts:
It pours a dark chocolate color, with some reddish hues, and a finger of light khaki head. There are aromas of chocolate, caramel and citrus. Slightly roasty and very chocolatey with a nice orange/fruity finish. Overall, this beer is sweet and has a smooth mouthfeel and drinkability. No alcohol presence, and a nice flavor balance between the chocolate-stout and the fruity finish. This beer will clearly become part of my rotation, and regardless of the turn out, I'm glad I entered into the competition because it forced me to reconfigure the recipe to be 100% organic. Also, the addition of mango preserve enhances the fruitiness and while not entirely noticeable, I think that combined with the orange maramalde, it gives the stout that much more of a tropical fruit presence.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

West Coast Review Part 2

As I mentioned before, Rick @ BW Beer Blog and I exchanged some beer recently. Previously, I reviewed some great offerings he sent me from Laurelwood Brewing Company. The other four beers he sent me were very interesting.
I'll start with Tricerahops Double IPA from Ninkasi Brewing in Eugene Oregon. I'm not
normally a double IPA kind of guy, but I was up for something new. From the looks of it, theses guys love their hops, and Tricerahops is no exception! It pours a dark honey gold with a thick, three finger off white head. An abundance of citrusy, piney aromas hit you at first. Fizzy carbonation masks some of the citrus sweetness and lingering hop bite. Your really can't taste the 8.8% alcohol, wonderfully balanced with some maltiness and sweetness. A lot of citrusy sweetness, coming from the large amount of hops I imagine. I was suprised that I liked this as much as I did. Not something I could drink often, but quite good.

Snoqualmie Wildcat IPA from Snoqualmie Falls Brewing Company. I was surprised to learn on their website that this beer is a whopping 75 IBUs of bitterness. That doesn't come out in this beer. I think the reason is that there is an abundance of sweetness and citrus. This beer pours a cloudy pale orange with a finger of off-white head. Strong citrus, lemony hop aromas. Very interesting mouth feel, almost a chewy/creamy mouth feel and the head never dissipates. Very hoppy, but not bitter until the very end. I would compare it to Bell's Hopslam in taste. A thick citrus hop flavor dominates the beer. Definitely not as crisp as some other IPAs I've had, much more on the creamy side. If you like citrusy West Coast hops, this is about the extreme of the spectrum!


Dick's Cream Stout from Dick's Brewing Company was a bit of a change from the hoppy beers that Rick sent me. Glad he sent this along though, as it was an outstanding example of a cream stout. This beer pours jet black with a half finger of tan head. Aroma of roastiness and slight bitter chocolate aroma as well. Wonderful, creamy milk chocolate mouth feel with some nice roastiness and a slight bitterness in the finish. Great flavors of chocolate, coffee and some roastiness throughout the beer. Smooth and flavorful, this is a perfect balance between sweet, roasty and slight bitterness. A great stout.

I'm not sure if this final beer is in fact made by Rogue or what the deal is, but it's called Eugene City Brewery's Track Town Honey Orange Wheat.
Regardless, I was excited to try this since I made a similar beer this summer that turned out great. This beer pours a cloudy light orange color with a thin white head. A very nice honey aroma right away with a very subtle citrus prsence. Very pleasant and easy drinking, this beer has a nice sweetness and subtle orange flavor. The mouth feel is great, crisp and refreshing. I think mine was sweeter with more orange flavor, but not as much of honey present. Nevertheless, this is a great beer. A nicely balanced, interesting, easy drinking summer wheat.

Overall, it was great getting some Oregon and Washington beers. Nothing like beers from the Pacific Northwest to remind you why some of the best craft breweries are from there. So a special thanks to Rick.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer