Hopbama Shirt from Zazzle.com

Hopbama Shirt from Zazzle.com

Shirt Idea

I've had this idea for awhile, but didn't know how to make it. I found a website called obamaconme.com that is perfect for creating "obama" images. The shirts should be available soon @ zazzle.com/beardedbrewer.

The Funky Monk and other thoughts

Last week I had a box of beer sent to me by Dave @ Muckney Brewing. I will eventually get to the reviews of his Saison and Barley Wine he sent. In addition to the homebrews, Dave sent me a number of commercial beers. Among the beers was a Stone beer I'd never had, Cali-Belgique IPA, which they describe as their Stone IPA brewed with a Belgian yeast. I was really impressed with this beer, it was fruity and hoppy, slightly bitter but also funky. A really nice blend of styles. I had been trying to decide what I wanted to brew next and this beer was so tasty I decided to brew my own interpretation.
I started with a fairly basic IPA recipe, kept the IBUs down some, opting for 1 oz of Columbus as the bittering agent. I also added some Amarillo and finished the boil with Citra as a late hop addition. I've never used Citra before, but the description of flavors of mango, pineapple and passion fruit sounded like a perfect compliment to the Belgian yeast. I went with White Labs Abbey Ale 530 yeast to give it some nice fruity,funky notes. I'm excited to see how this beer turns out. More to come on that.

On another note, I've been lucky to have a couple sessions of drinking great beer with some great people lately. Last Friday, Aaron @ Captain's Blog and Derek from Beer This came over to share some homebrew. Aaron brought along an amazing Wild Rice Brown Ale he brewed. The wild rice finished the beer off nicely, but the caramel, nutty and brown sugar flavors that dominated the beer were incredible! In addition, he brought his Hefeweizen, which was clovey with some nice banana aromas followed by great hefe-refreshment. In addition to his homebrews, he shared a bottle of the coveted Dark Lord from Three Floyds. Man oh Man! I'm not a RIS fan usually, but this beer blew me away! A really nice evening of beer geekery and excellent brews.

This past Saturday, my oldest friend El Jefe came over and brewed the Funky Monk with me. He also brought a New Glarus Unplugged Cherry Stout. I turned El Jefe onto New Glarus a couple years ago and believe I have created a monster. He turned me onto Millstream, so I guess we're even for creating a thirst for out of state beers that we can't readily get our hands on. Regardless, El Jefe recently went on a run to Wisconsin to pick up some New Glarus and saved a bottle of Cherry Stout for us. Cherry Stout was great, so unique and not what I was expecting. The "stout" of the beer is hard to pick up as the cherries dominate, similar to their award winning Belgian Red. Aaron @ Captain's blog said it perfectly, its almost Cherry Coke like. His review was spot on. I'm really hoping that there is an off chance that I can find a four pack still left on the shelves when I get to Wisconsin later this month. Its not a traditional stout, but it's something unique. As Jefe put it, still waiting to try a New Glarus beer that I didn't like.
Coming soon, I'd like to get to the review of my 2010 Gringo as well as some commerical beers I've gotten a hold of recently.

Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Uno Agave Wheat Ale

Two years ago for my daughter's first birthday I decided to brew a beer for her party. With a lot of friends and family attending, I wanted to make something accessible to everyone, yet interesting enough at the same time. I decided on using Orange Blossom Honey in a wheat ale. It turned out really well, and for my son's birthday party, I decided to brew another wheat beer. I'm not a big fan of the traditional American wheat ales, but at the same time they are a great beer to make as a crowd pleaser. I decided to add Agave nectar to my son's version, and also decided to use the Belgian Wheat yeast 3942 to make it a little more interesting. Once the fermentation was complete, I added .5 lb of Agave nectar to the primary before kegging. At about two weeks since kegging it's tasting nice, right now the agave gives it a nice sweetness and the Belgian yeast gives it just enough spice and funkiness to make it interesting but doesn't detract from the simplicity of the beer. In about 3 weeks when the party is, it should be a nice beer.
The recipe was simple:
6 lbs Wheat LME ( 3@ 60, 3@ 20)
1 lb Flaked Wheat steeped
1 oz Spalt Select Hops (5% aau) @ 60
8 oz Agave Nectar @ 5, 8 oz Agave Nectar at kegging
Belgian Wheat 3942

I plan on getting to the review of my Gringo 2010, plus I'm brewing up a Belgian IPA this week inspired by Stone's Cali-Belgiue IPA.
More to come,
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Surly Review- Abrassive Ale

The following statement would be blashphemous to some, but it took awhile for me to really get into to Surly beers. Now, before you start questioning my beer geek credentials...just know that my reasons were solid. Much of my early craft beer drinking/blogging/brewing was centered around non hoppy beers. Hoppy beers have been an acquired taste for me, and so while I enjoyed the Bender, I didn't love it at first, and really didn't like Furious. But as my taste buds changed, I grew to love hoppy beers and was finally ready for Furious again, and it blew me away. Floral, citrusy, malty, complex. Really lived up to the hype. Abbrasive ale is no different. This is a beer that quite frankly I wouldn't have appreciated two years ago. I would have cursed myself for dropping $16 on a 4 pack of cans. Times have changed and I've grown into a fan of IPAs, especially big ones, and Abrassive Ale might be the best DIPA I've ever had. I try to avoid using too much hyperbole, but in this case, it applies. I'm not saying it's the best DIPA ever made, I'm saying that for my tastes, its the best I've had. I know some people who feel that Furious is better, or that this beer isn't chewy-hoppy-malty enough. I however, think it's really, really damn good.

Abrasive Ale pours honey gold with a finger of white head. Heavy citrus aromas, lemon, and grapefruit along with some nice hints of malt and even biscuit. Sweet and citrusy right away, with some maltiness and even some floral notes as well. This is similar to the Furious, a unique hop complexity that Surly does so well, a balance of floral and citrusy hops. There is plenty of bitterness throughout, especially in the finish. The body is lighter than some DIPAs, not chewy hoppy, bright but still with plenty of body. Finishes sweet and citrusy with plenty of lingering bitterness popping throughout your mouth. One more thing that I liked about Abrassive ale, was despite the abv, it's not boozy. The effect is there when you finish it off, but there isn't a boozy aroma in the nose. Overall, outstanding.
A+

More to come.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer