BBC American Pale Ale

Brewery: Bluegrass Brewing Company
Style: Pale Ale
ABV: 5.79%
Country: USA, Kentucky

Orange brown with plenty of off-white foam that left plenty of sticky lace that ran up and down the glass. Sweet, sticky hops dominated the aroma. Tons of citrus and plenty of pine. The first sip showed less hop flavors than what I expected, this probably had ample dry-hopping going on. Malts were pretty thin, not much sweetness or heft. Body was mostly watery as well. finish was dry and bitter. Bitterness lingered awhile but there wasn't much else to be found here. Aroma and bitterness was more potent than I would have expected and the taste wasn't anywhere to be found. I wont be having this again. D

Dogfish Head Shelter Pale Ale

Brewery: Dogfish Head Brewing Company
Style: Pale Ale
ABV: 5.0%
Country: USA, Delaware

Bright golden caramel color, clear and bubbly. Thin head dissipated quickly. Not much aroma, but what was there was malty and sweet. First sip revealed a rush of sweetness which was pretty good, unfortunately it was all downhill from there. A traffic jam of bad flavors followed the initial taste. The first bad taste was a buttery/soapy flavor. Second was a wheat flavor which typically isn't bad, but it was unexpected and caught me off guard. Finally, there was a burnt industrial solvent flavor that lingered a while with a slick and sticky sweet flavor that was awful. Not much bitterness and any hop flavors went unnoticed behind the unappealing flavors. I was really shocked that there was a Dogfish Head ale that I not only didn't care for, but actively disliked. My first thought was that I had gotten a bad bottle, but reading other reviews online gave me the impression that the flavors I didn't care for were not an abnormality. I don't usually pour out many beers and I never expected to pour out a Dogfish Head but that's what I did. :( F

Homebrew Tasting Day

So there haven't been any posts the last couple of days because I've been skiing in Vermont and the last of my scheduled posts ran out. Bo is in cider land and Roy is a bum, so posts have been lacking. I had a couple of good beers in Vermont including a local ale and a black IPA. I didn't take any notes to do posts on them because I was tired from skiing all day and just wanted to relax with some beer and not be that guy at the bar writing notes down with each sip.

I got home after a long day of driving and what do you know? I was in the mood to relax with a nice beer. I had bottled my home brew over two weeks ago meaning that the sugar added at bottling had been fermented to provide carbonation and a bit more alcohol. I figured now would be a good time as any to try my very first batch so here we go.

Poured a hazy coppery brown that had a massive sticky head. Head was off-white and stuck around a long time. This is an unfiltered beer since I lack the equipment to do the sort of filtering that professionals do. If I do brew this again, I can use a glass carboy for a secondary fermentation to improve the clarity. The aroma had the distinct grapefruit aroma from the cascade hops. Some of the yeast was present in the aroma as well. The first sip carried with it the familiar hop flavor though it was a little more subdued than I thought it would be. Some sweet malts were present as well. Some roasted malts started into the transition the finish. Finish carries with it plenty of bitterness and was plenty dry. Overall it was quite good especially for a first attempt. I think if I were to try this recipe again, I'd increase some the malt base to increase the flavor. I'd probably do a dry hop phase as well to increase the overall hop flavor and aroma. Luckily I liked drinking this one since I have over a case of it in my basement. B-

Bass Pale Ale

Brewery: Bass Brewers Limited
Style: English Pale Ale
ABV: 5.00%
Country: England

Another English beer for the list and one that is quite recognizable to most people. According to the bottle, Bass was awarded the first trademark in England to prevent imitators from using the red triangle. Bright, amber caramel color with a good sized off-white head that lingered. Herbal and grassy aroma with a bit of hopiness to it. Plenty of the grassy flavor upfront with a bit of peppery. Finishes with a light bitterness and plenty of toasted bread malts. Very dry and crisp finish. This highlights the difference between English pale ales and American pale ales. English versions are typically more subtle and understated while American versions are more bitter and hopier. At first I wasn't a fan of this, but I have to say it grew on me more and more as I sipped on it. The finish is what grew on me, quite pleasing. B-

Starr Hill Pale Ale

Brewery: Starr Hill Brewery
Style: Pale Ale
ABV: 5.5%
Country: USA, Virginia

Another beer from my Christmas gift pack. This is also a beer brewed Crozet Virginia which is about twenty minutes away from Charlottesville. I've had a few beers from them before with mixed results. I thought their IPA was good but their lager was not that great.

This one poured a bright, coppery amber. thin white head dissipates quickly. The aroma was the typical grapefruit hop aroma that is common in this style. The taste had some sweet base malts with biscuit flavors and some fruity hopiness mixed in. dry bitter finish that lingers a bit. Tilts a bit more toward the bitter end of the spectrum. Pretty simple overall, not too exciting. B-

Mountaineer Pale Ale

Brewery: Mountaineer Brewing Company
Style: Pale Ale
ABV: 5.59%
Country: USA, West Virginia

Saw the label in Total Wine that said this was from West Virgina. I have plenty of family there and hadn't had a WV beer so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Poured a hazy yellow orange with a thin white head that dissipated quickly. I smelled a citrus grapefruit aroma with a bit of harsh astringent notes. Not the nicest thing in the world.

Plenty of sweet malts. Citrus hop characters up front mixes with the sweetness. Finish is only slightly bitter with some sour notes showing up as well. Kind of dull for my liking. I would have liked to have had some more bitterness, hopiness, and less sweetness. The mouth-feel was pleasant and had a nice crispiness but there wasn't much else going for this. C-

First attempt at home brewing

So it has finally come to this. No more taking the easy way out by sipping on brews where all the hard work was already done. It was time to step up to the big leagues and brew my own beer. I had received the Ale Pail brew kit for Christmas and was biding my time while the last components I need to start a batch showed up. On Friday, my 20 Qt stock pot showed up from Amazon and I knew it would be a good night to start.

For my first batch I went with a pale ale recipe from the How To Brew book with a few modifications to make it my own. For my malts, I'm using are a couple of cans of Munton's Light Malt Extract, Briess Caramel Malt, and Fawcett Pale Chocolate malt. My hops will be Northern Brewer hops for bittering, Cascade hops for bittering and finishing, and Glacier hops for finishing. Yeast is a liquid strain of American Ale yeast.

The first step of this process was to heat up some water to steep my specialty malts in. So I added one gallon of water to my 5 gallon pot, placed it on my old electric range and waited. And waited. And waited a bit more. It took the better part of an hour and the thermometer was only registering 140, I'd need to get this up to at least 150 (preferably up to 160) in order get the mash to start releasing the sugars which will be turned into sweet, nourishing alcohol by the yeast later on.

My problem here was that my range is flat and my pot was so large that it didn't sit flush with the element so there is a layer of air that made this grossly inefficient. Luckily, I remembered that my propane grill outside has a side element that would be perfect for this. So-what that it was the middle of a winter night and it was well below freezing with snow on the way? I had beer to brew damn-it! So I fired up the grill and transferred my pot. In no time flat I hit my temperature and I was ready to steep. Thank you clean, efficient, beautiful propane. Hank Hill would be proud.

I steeped for thirty minutes and had a nice looking wort going. I'm hoping that the caramel and chocolate malt will impart some nice sweetness and roasted notes to the final product. Next step was to add the main malts and start the hop boil.

This was the first time I had seen a liquid malt extract before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The best way to put it is that it makes molasses look watery by comparison. Took awhile to scoop this mess out and into the pot. Once I got it out, I brought my water level up to three gallons and cranked up the heat. Even using propane, I figured it'd take a while to bring this to a boil. About twenty minutes in I started to worry. The grill had been running on one tank all summer long and had gotten plenty of use. Lifting the tank, it didn't quite feel empty, but it was no where near full. If I ran out of gas halfway through, I'd be toast. The electric range would never heat this enough and everything I'd done to this point would be a waste. My paranoia got the best of me so I did what any sane and rational person would do in this situation. Jumped in the car in shorts and moccasins and sped off the Home Depot which was closing in 10 minutes. I left instructions with my brother-in-law AJ to start the hops if the pot started boiling before I returned.

Luckily we live close to the Depot and had green lights all the way (read: I sped like a maniac through a string of yellow lights while screaming "I NEED PROPANE!!!"). I made it with five minutes to spare, got my tank and headed home. I made it home with no problem and found the kettle boiling nicely with the first hops already added and a timer counting down to the next addition.

Hops were added at the 60, 30, and 15 minute marks. Bittering hops are added early, flavoring hops are added half way through, and finishing hops are added at the end. The reason for this is that hops contain alpha acid humulone resins and volatile oils that impart the characteristic flavor and aroma. As the hops boil, the alpha acids isomerize and impart their bitter flavor. On the other hand, the boiling breaks down the oils which takes away their aroma and flavor. For that reason you add your aroma and flavoring hops later in the boil to keep these aromas present and hopefully create a yummy beer.

Once the boil finished, I added another can of the Muntons and turned off the gas. I waited about ten minutes while the remaining heat pasteurized the malt. I now had what is called a wort, essentially young, not yet fermented beer. Next I needed to cool the wort quickly and induce the "cold break." The cold break is when the rapid change in temperature causes residual proteins to coagulate and settle to the bottom of the kettle. While not critical, this makes the beer clearer later on prevents chill haze from occurring.

AJ and I had a tub filled with ice and water and we plunged the pot right in. It took maybe twenty minutes for the temperature to drop from 220 to 80 degrees. We saw the cold break, which looks sort of gross, and pulled the pot out. I poured the contents into my fermenting tub and added water to bring the total volume to five gallons. I pitched the yeast and sealed the lid. Last thing left was to add the airlock. This allows for any CO2 to bubble out while the wort ferments while keeping air and bacteria out. CO2 is later created by adding more sugar and allowing fermentation to occur in the bottle.

While pushing the air lock into the lid gasket, I got a little too excited and managed to push the gasket straight through and into the wort! AJ and I exchanged glances like a pair of deer stuck in head lights. There was a ton of foam in the tub so hopefully the gasket would be resting peacefully on top. No such luck, we could see a spot in the foam where it had fallen straight through. We sanitized a spoon and went hunting for the missing gasket. Still no luck. We sealed the tub back up and place the air lock in the now gasket-less hole. Luckily it seemed air tight enough. Pushing the lid down caused the water to rise in the air lock meaning air wasn't escaping around the sides. The gasket itself was sterilized so it shouldn't hurt the beer.

Currently I'm playing the waiting game. The yeast should start fermentation in the next couple of hours and in about two weeks this should be ready to bottle. Hopefully this will become a delicious batch of beer. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Coopers Sparkling Ale

Brewery: Coopers Brewery Limited
Style: English Pale Ale
ABV: 5.8%
Country: Australia

Hailing from the land down under, this was the first non-Fosters beer from the Aussies that caught my eye. Nothing against Fosters, but from what I've heard, their flagship lager isn't anything special. This poured a a orange-tan color that was quite bright. Not much head and not much lace. Plenty of particles and sediment were present; since this is a bottle conditioned beer, this is to be expected.

Aroma was sweet with some honey and a hint of lemon present. Taste wasn't as sweet as I expected initially. My first impression was the high amount of carbonation present, tonic-like and prickly. Sweetness followed the carbonation which was quickly followed by a bitter finish. The finish left the largest impression on me, crisp and bitter. Overall, this beer went down easy, but I would have preferred a bit more maltiness up front. I'd be willing to have this one again. B-

Doggy Style Classic Pale Ale

Brewer: Flying Dog
Style: Pale Ale
ABV: 5.5%
Country: USA, Maryland

In case you hadn't figured it out at this point, I've been working my way through the Flying Dog variety pack. If you like what you've seen from it, you can find it at your local grocery store in the beer section. My local Giant carried it, should be easy to find.

This particular dog poured a bright copper color that was very clear. The aroma contained plenty of citrus hops. The primary taste was of sweet hops and malts that give way quickly to bitterness. Not too much not to little. Balance is well done between the competing flavors. The finish was nice and crisp with plenty of dryness, very refreshing. This has to be the best of the Flying Dog ales and would also be a good transitional beer for those making the transition from the world of watery, American, lite beers to real beers with actual flavor. B+