Review: White Tip Lager

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White Tip Lager

A friend of mine brought me back 4 beers from the Cayman Islands. This was one of them, White Tip Lager, which is billed as being brewed as a European Premium Lager, which in the BJCP world would still fall under the Premium American Lager category right along with Becks, Stella Artois, Corona, and Heineken. I am confident in the freshness of this beer seeing as the guy who brought it directly from the Caymans just returned 2 days ago.

One thing I don’t enjoy about reviewing light lagers is that you tend to get emails about how much they suck and on. But as a beer judge (especially if you are a beer lover who thinks that way) you need to put that beer snobbery away and judge the beer based upon what it is according to the guidelines, not your personal preference or thoughts on Light Lagers. Like it or not these beers are a part of the craft beer world, although they get little respect. So put those ideas aside, read over the guidelines and accept the beer for what it is, not what you wish it was. So, with that said, let’s review this beer as it would fall if it were in Homebrew Competition.

Aroma: Very low floral aroma, it comes through a lot more if you agitate the beer. There is a slightly sweet clover honey aroma as well. I get the faint aroma of fresh milled grains as well. Other than that, there is not a whole lot going on. Most of the aroma needs to be coaxed out the beer. If you pick it up after sitting a bit, there really is not much to find other than the slight honey aroma. For what it is, it is not bad. If you compare this to the likes of Becks, Stella, or Heineken you will be lacking that classic “skunky” aroma, which is a flaw from being lightstruck. I recall a time when someone would call that the “good stuff” because of that smell. I’m glad that for the most part many people have moved beyond that mindset and recognize that aroma for what it is, a downfall of shipping beer in green bottles across 2 continents.(9 points)

Appearance: This beer is very beautiful. It has a nice gold hue and pours a decent 3/4″ head. The beer is crystal clear. My favorite part comes about half way through the pint, there is a thin 1/8″ layer of foam still present. (3 points)

Flavor: The beer has a nice sweet honey-like flavor that I am digging. The hop flavor is slightly spicy and fairly low. The bitterness lays around the low to medium range and really flows well with the up front sweet flavor of the beer. The beer finishes a only slightly dry. It could be a bit dryer and have a bit more pop to it. It’s not as crisp and refreshing as I would hope. Still the overall flavor is very nice. This is what I find a bit discouraging about beer review sites like Beer Advocate and Rate beer. A majority of the people are rating the beers based on their taste. And many of those people have a taste for the big IPA’s, Barleywines, Belgain Dubbels, and so forth. Granted a beer like this pales in comparison to those extremely flavorful beers, but for what this beer is…..and what the brewery was shooting for, is pretty well done.(13 points)

Mouthfeel: White Tip falls in the medium range for mouthfeel for me. So it could be a touch thinner. That’s strictly by style, on a personal level I like it where it is, but by style it should be dryer so we will have to ding it for that. Carbonation is adequate but I would like to see it a bit higher. More carbonation would give it that pop and help give it a more dry quality as well.(2 points)

Overall: Overall, for an American Premium Lager (which I am comparing more to the other Imported versions we all know) this beer is head and shoulders above it’s competition. While it could thin out a bit, and have a bit more pop, I love the fact that it is not what we are used to for this particular style. I am sure there are plenty of craft brewed versions just as good or better, and it’s possible your local brewpub brews up a version of this style, but I think if you are in Caymans and this is on the beer menu, you will not be disappointed as long as you take it for what it is, a light lager.  (7 points)

Score: 34 points which is a “very good” beer. If I were to assign a letter grade to the beer this would be about a C+. With that, let the email commence about how much the beer sucks because it’s not hoppy enough or big enough.

Home Roasting your Own Grains Part 2 (Specialty Roasts)/Making Special B

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Over Time I have received several requests for possible instructions or ideas for home roasting some of the more special grains like special B, Caramunich, Carafa III, and so on. In all honesty I can’t see a way to make some of these malts at home. For example dehusked grains such as carafa III would be very difficult seeing as how the husks have been removed. So unless you can dehusk the product or get it dehusked, such a pearl barley you may have issues. I personally have not tried any beers with roasting pearled barley, but I suspect the outcome would not be exactly the same. When I can get my hands on some good quality pearl barley I may give it go. However, other forms of special malts can be made if you do a bit of research, guesswork, and trial and error processes with small batches. For example, in this part 2 section I will talk about making Special B, A special malt  I made that is sort of a crystal Munich malt, and other miscellaneous types of toasting and roasting. If you want to see part 1 of Home Roasting your Malts section, you can view it directly below this post, or just click here to go to part 1. Part 1 has more detail on basic processes and how to get started. This section is more about the experimentation and development of your own personal malt profiles to make your beers truly unique.

To research and develop your malts, you are going to want access to datasheets. I use a lot of Briess products so I refer to the data sheets on their website often to get color and basic flavor profiles. You can find these here, if you only want to see an example of a data sheet, click here for a data sheet on standard 2 row. Mostly what I get from these sheets is the color, the type of roast, and general flavor profile. I can’t really control much else.

The major draw for me in making my own specialty and roasted malts is that it adds another depth of homemade flare to my homebrew. The downfall is that unlike commercial malts, you don’t usually end up with the consistency of the commercial product. If you can overcome that hurdle, home roasting your malts can become addicting. But let’s be honest. As homebrewers we tend to be quite anal about consistency. From mash temps to alpha acids to fermentation temperatures. Any minor change in a process or recipe can give you an entirely different beer. You can produce consistent malts at home, but you also need to be OK with minor differences from time to time. Also, because I use an oven and a nut roaster, doesn’t mean that is the only method of roasting. You can try coffee roasters, a grill, or whatever else you think may produce the result you are looking for. With all that out of the way, let’s look at my first run at making Special B.

First I had to look at what Special B is like. Special B is an An extremely dark caramel malt with a sharp, almost toffee like flavor. It should have a heavy caramel taste and is often credited with the raisin-like flavors of some Belgian ales. It is also 147 degrees Lovibond. Since special B is a Belgian Malt, I chose to use Belgian Pale Ale Malt as my base. Since it is essentially a very dark caramel malt, I decided to take that Belgian pale ale malt and simply use my caramel malt process to make the grain. Originally I was going to roast at 400 degrees in the oven to get the dark color, but as you will see in the pictures later, after drying, the grain darkened enough that I reduced the roast time and temp from 400 degrees for 40 minutes in my plan, to 300 degrees for 30 minutes. As you can see, you should plan prior to making a specific malt. you can also just wing it and experiment with creating your own malts. During my Special B project, I also wanted to make a very very dark caramelized Munich malt. You will see pictures of that during this post as well. That is why I wanted to mention it. Making this grain was just for fun and not based on anything in particular.

I started out Special B by taking a pound of Belgian Pale Ale Malt and soaking it for 4 hours. Once the grain is all soft, it is time to start “mashing” it in the husk. I bring my stove up to 180 degrees and place a thermometer in the grain. It is important to make sure the grain is kept in a thick pile to prevent it from drying out. You can even keep a little water in the bottom of the pan and stir often during the mash to make sure the grain always stays wet. After about 2 hours (which is how long I mashed this batch) then you are going to want to transfer the grain to a flat cookie sheet or shallow jelly roll pan for drying.

I mash the grain in a cake pan lined with tin foil. This ensures that if there was any oils on the pan do not get on the grains

Drying the grain on a large cookie sheet. For drying, make sure you keep the grains spread as thin as possible.

When drying, you do not want to roast the grain yet. If you have a food dehydrator, you may be able to use that but I wonder if it would take too long. I dry in the oven at 250 degrees and stir the grain often. It usually takes about 3 hours (sometimes more) to dry the grain. Once the grain is dry, you can then start the roasting process. If you have a specific malt in mind, you may or may not have to adjust the roast based on how far along the grain came during drying. This happened to me on the Special B Project and I adjusted my process to what looked to me like it needed 300 degrees for 30 minutes instead of 400 at 40, which a general roast of already dry grains will get you into that 145 degree lovibond range. This case, the grain already darkened a bit during the drying process.

Below is a picture of when i should have stopped roasting my Special B. I pulled the grain out 20 minutes into the roast for another stir and it looked to be right on. I took a picture of it, in case my extra 10 minutes made a drastic change int he grain. While it did not make a drastic change, it did bring the grain in a shade darker than it should be.

Special B, 20 minutes into the 300 degree roast

After the full 30 minutes was up, you can see that my first run at Special B brought in the grain a bit darker than it should have been. However, the taste is very close. As a matter of fact when I placed a small bit of each grain in each side of my mouth, the difference was very slight. My version has a little more of a roasted flavor, but both seemed equally as sweet and had very similar flavor profiles. Below is a side by side of commercial Special B and my home made version, I placed some Special B in the bowl on the left half and my home made version on the right half of the bowl. I had a few more darkened grains than what you see in the commercial version as you can see. I really wish I would have stopped at 20 minutes.

Side by Side of commercial Special B and my version

So all in all, here was the grains I made that day. The commercial Special B is on the left, then my version in the middle, and a dark roasted caramel Munich malt on the far right.

Home Roasted grains.

So Below is my recommended process for making homemade Special B.

Soak 1 Pound of Belgian Pale Ale malt  for 4 hours in filtered water. Place the malt in a cake pan (or pour the grain into a pile) the place in a 180-200 degree oven for 2 hours. Monitor the grain, and if the grain temp gets above 160 degrees turn off the oven for a while. Keep the grain in that 150 degree range for 2 hours, stirring often (about every 15 minutes). Once the mash is done, spread the grain into the thin layer and dry in the oven at 250 degrees, again stirring often. Once the grain is dry, based on the finished color, ramp up the oven to 300 degrees and roast for 20 minutes (or when the grain looks done). Let it rest for 2 weeks before using in a beer.

Dark Caramelized Munich Malt

Soak 1 Pound of German Munich Malt for 4 hours in filtered water. Place the malt in a cake pan (or pour the grain into a pile) the place in a 180-200 degree oven for 2 hours. Monitor the grain, and if the grain temp gets above 160 degrees turn off the oven for a while. Keep the grain in that 150 degree range for 2 hours, stirring often (about every 15 minutes). Once the mash is done, spread the grain into the thin layer and dry in the oven at 250 degrees, again stirring often. Once the grain is dry, ramp up the oven to 325 degrees and roast for 25 minutes (or when the grain looks done, but not burned). Let it rest for 2 weeks before using in a beer.

Have fun, and Experiment!

I also mentioned that you can experiment with other things while roasting. You can add another depth of flavor to a stout or porter by roasting some oatmeal. It will give you the benefit of the creamy feel of the oats, and a touch of toasty flavor as well. You really want to try something good, use a pound of the roasted oats in a brown ale. Very tasty. Below is a picture of roasted oats.

Oats before roasting

(EDIT): I would like to address a few questions I got by email. The questions are very valid and I just want to answer them for anyone else wondering the same thing.

Can I just mash the whole kernel in mash temperature water? I suppose you could. The only reason I choose an oven is, because you usually mash for longer than a normal 60 minute mash, I choose to use the oven. If I had a mash that I could control temperatures without adding more water, I probably would. If you want to try that it is fine. My methods are only a suggestion, I in no way ever claim to have the only method. So in other words there is no scientific reason I use the oven instead of my mash tun other than for temperature control.

I tried your directions for roasted malt and ended up with grain much darker than your guide states. Where did I go wrong? You probably didn’t. Just like everyone’s brewing system acts differently and you have to tweak your process to match your equipment, same hold true for roasting grain. Your oven may be hotter or cooler than mine, even if you set it at 300 degrees. You need to just use my suggestions as a guideline. Pay attention to the grain and pull it when it appears ready. Do not be a stickler for exact temperature and times that work for me. Just use it as a starting point.

Is it important to use filtered water when making caramel malt? Can I just use tap water? You could, but municipal water tends to have either chlorine or chloromine in it. These will get into your grain and could cause some off flavors in the final product. For piece of mind, I’d stick with filtered or bottled water. If you must use tap water, I would let it sit overnight before using it. This will help if your water utility uses chlorine, but will do nothing for the chloromine.

ORIGINAL HOME ROASTING YOUR MALTS PART 1 Post

Roasting your own grains is an awesome way to add another personal touch to your homebrew. I love roasting my own malts and even make my own crystal malt from time to time. It is so easy, and all you need is an oven and some time. Roasting your malts doesn’t take more than an hour at the most, except for crystal malt. Be aware that early on, I had found from my experience that roasting your own malt seems to reduce the amount of sugars you get, but since then I have found this to not be the case. Still, home roasting adds some awesome malt flavor to your beer. I have made several beers using only home roasted malts for the specialty grains and even made a beer using all home roasted malt as the base malt, a single malt ale with amber malt. I have also won several awards with some of the beers that have home roasted malts in them. One of them is my highest scoring beer with a 43 out of 50. So great beer with home roasted malts is quite possible. Granted, you don’t have the consistency of professional malts, but you have added more home-made factor to your beer. For more on this topic or how to do your own crystal/caramel malts I suggest buying Randy Mosher’s Book Radical Brewing, which is where I based my roasting methods off of. I have added some pictures of home roasted malts in comparison to straight 2 row malted barley. See below for the pictures as proof you can make some beautiful home roasted malts.

Why it Works
The roasted grains you get from your homebrew shop, mostly start out exactly like the two or six you pale malt you are buying. The difference is how they are treating the grain afterwards. They have specific process that they follow each time and have exact temperatures and testing equipment to ensure a consistent and stable product. But in the end all they are doing with the malted grain is playing with the browning reaction called Malliard Reactions. Mainly this is an altering of the flavor and aroma of the grain by browning the starches and proteins inside the grain to a specific degree. The changes in color, again the browning of the starches and proteins change the chemical properties of the grain my changing the melanoidins in the malt. It is reported that this melanoidin change also helps preserve the beer by slowing the oxidation process of the beer.

Before We Begin
There have been some questions on whether it is necessary to let your grains rest for 2 weeks prior to using them. I highly suggest doing so, but if you find you can’t wait, just make sure you are using the lighter roasts. The rest time allows for unwanted aromas that are produced during the browning of the starches in the grain to dissipate. From what I can find, this is mostly for the darker roasts, possibly deep amber and above. I have found that as a general rule, the professional maltsters allow their roasted/toasted grains to rest for 4-6 weeks. I personally have used some grains after a week without any noticeable off flavors or aromas, but then again none of those were the richer roasts.

The Process

  • For Pale Gold Malt (est. 10 L), which has a nutty but not toasty flavor, roast your base malt for 20 minutes at 250 Degrees F.
  • For Gold Malt (est. 20 L) that is malty, caramelly and rich but not toasty roast your base malt for 25 minutes at 300 degrees F.
  • For Amber Malt (est. 35 L) that is Nutty, Malty, and lightly toasty roast your base malt for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.
  • For Deep Amber Malt (est. 65 L) that is nutty, toffee-like; with some crisp toastiness roast your base malt for 40 minutes at 375 degrees F. (This one has quickly become my favorite roast of all. I do this one often. It seems to be a well balanced specialty grain.)
  • For Copper Malt (est. 100 L)that has a strong toasted flavor with some nutlike notes roast your base malt for 30 minutes at 400 degrees F.
  • For Deep Copper Malt (est 125 L) that has a roasted, but not toasted flavor; roast your base malt for 40 minutes at 400 degrees F.
  • For Brown Malt (est. 175 L) that has a strong roasted flavor, roast your base malt for 50 minutes at 400 degrees F.
  • For Chocolate Malt (est 200+ L depending on time and heat): You need more heat and control than what you can get in the oven. For Chocolate malt use a clean stainless steel or cast iron fry pan on low heat, slowly bringing medium-high heat. You need to stir or shake the pan constantly and not let any kernels sit still or you will end up with scorching instead of dry roasting. I now use a nut roaster, so you can use that if you wish. I bet one could also use a clean wok if you have a gas stove. I have electric though. Here you are going to go more by color than time, but I find it takes about 25 minutes to 30 minutes to get the dark color I want. Remember, you are making chocolate malt, not burnt black malt. There is a difference. The key is keep the grain moving, be patient, and pull it when you think it’s done. Go too far and you will have an acrid and burnt grain that is not too pleasant. You can also make a very interesting sweeter chocolate malt by trying to soak it for a bit in water prior to roasting.
  • For Crystal/Caramel Malt soak 1-2 lbs of pale 2 row in just enough water to cover plus about an inch (make sure you use distilled, filtered tap, or spring water). Let soak for a few hours, but no less than 2 hours and no more than 24, I soak for 3 hours. Then Put grains into a pan and keep grains about 2″ deep then place into a preheated 180 degree oven (make sure you have a probe thermometer in the oven and not to let the temps inside the stewing grain to go above 160. If they do reduce your ovens temperature) for 1 1/2 hours. Then spread out grain into 2 separate pans and make sure the grains are no more than 1″ deep. Then increase temperature in over to 250 and let bake for 2 hours or until dry. Then if desired remove from oven for light crystal, or use the roasting guide above to create your own darker versions of crystal malt. Personally I like the 350 degrees for 45 minutes for a sweet roasty crystal malt. Experiment with 1lb batches and see what you like. I find that 1.5lbs is perfect, 2lbs seems to take way to long to dry. To minimize any foul flavors, use distilled or filtered water.
  • You can also do what I call Sudo-Caramel malts. To do these you just wet the grain a bit to change the flavor and aroma profile and add a bit of sweetness to the grain. You will not get as much sweetness as if you do a full caramel malt process above, but you will make a great grain for both all grain and steeping grain for extract. Generally what you are going to do is soak the grain for under an hour, I find a half hour works well to impart a bit of wetness to the grain. You can use the same temperatures above to produce similar grains but add a touch of sweetness.

In the end, everything is all up to you. Use these above processes as a guideline, but not as law. Have fun, try different temps and times. Play around with wet or dry roasts as well as caramel malt processes and develop your own specialty malts. There my friends, is a truly unique beer that will be difficult to reproduce. Just don’t fear roasting, your really can’t screw it up if you pay attention to temps and times.

The Photos. (you will notice I line my pans with tin foil to avoid getting any oil or grease from previous uses of the pans. You could use dedicated jelly roll pans if you want. But you do not want any oil or fat getting onto your grains)

This is our control picture. This is straight from the sack, 2-row Brewers malt. This is what it looks like before roasting.

This is Deep Amber Malt as described above halfway through the roasting process. I like to stir it halfway through to get a more even toast.

This is finished Deep Amber Malt as described above. This is probably my favorite roast to make.

This is Amber Malt as described above. Slightly lighter than the deep amber.

Here is a side by side of some pale golden malt as I have described above and some unroasted pale 2 row. It is hard to tell the differnece until you do a side by side, then it is obvious.

Golden Malt as I have described in the process at the top of the page.

Crystal Malt in Process.

I like to soak this way for three hours. Then I just pull up the collendar, and pour out the water, then let the malt drip dry for a while. It helps reduce the exess water. Generally, I do a pound to pound and half max.

This grain is not roasted, but it is wet grain. I place it in a small mound then cook it as I have described above. Essentially, you are mashing in the husk.

This is the finished crystal malt. The drying time is the longest part, but once dry and you start the roast, it's all up to you how to make your crystal/caramel malt. The one in the picture was roasted at 325 degrees for 30 minutes after drying.

Sprecher Brewery Tour

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Sprecher Brewery, Milwaukee Wisconsin

As part of my winnings from this summer’s grilling with beer competition, I received a coupon for a case of Sprecher beer and 2 tickets for a brewery tour. So Brian Lesperance and I headed down to Milwaukee this past Monday for a day to geek out on beer. We stopped at Northern Brewer in Milwaukee, then headed over to the Ale House for lunch. The Ale House was great! I enjoyed their Weekend at Louie’s beer which is their Louies Demise brewed with blueberry rooibos and Hibiscus tea. The blueberry tea came though the most for me. I also had one of their cask ales, a vanilla bean stout. Both were outstanding. Brian had the Ale Houses Monkey Paw which is a big 7% beer which we found funny that they had listed in their session beer section. He also asked for Black and Tan of their Solomon Juneau Extra Pale Ale and Sheepshead stout. After the Ale House we headed to Downer’s Wine and Spirits based off a beer advocate review of beer stores in the area, Downer’s got an A+ rating and we could see why. The store is small, but packed with one hell of a selection. But the purpose of this post is to talk about the brewery tour at Sprecher, so with that let’s get started.

Sprecher has tours Monday through Friday at 4pm, and also has tours on the weekend at 1pm, 2pm, and 3pm. The  cost of the tour is $5. You do have to call ahead for reservations. They also have a gift shop that you can hit at the front end or back end of tour. They have all of their beers and soda, as well as shirts and glasses you can purchase. They also have some interesting beer food, like beer flavored chips, BBQ sauce, and candy. I should also note that children are allowed on these tours because they offer soda. So if you are the type who would like to bring your children on a brewery tour, and sample some beers while your kids drink soda, you can do that. Personally, I don’t care for that idea because I know some people that even after 5 sample sized glasses of beer, probably shouldn’t be driving even more so with kids in the car. But that’s just my opinion. You don’t have to drink the beer I guess, but that sort of is the highlight of any tour, sampling the beer after.

Sprecher Brewery Tour

So now at the start of the tour, everything seemed to start as any other tour in general. We started out in the brewing room with a very brief explanation of the brewing process. Now normally, I expect things to go into a bit more depth, than saying we mix different grains with filtered municipal water and heat it up. It makes a syrupy liquid that get’s pumped over there, then cooled and moved to our fermentors, where we mix that with different yeast and the yeast makes CO2 and of course alcohol. The beer will sit for 2 -21 weeks depending on the beer. Then he pointed to where the spent grains go. Honestly, that was the gist of the tour. No mention of hops at all, no talk about lagers or ales or where they get their grains from. No showing  us the equipment or explaining how it works. You can see where the tour guide stood and he just pointed over in the direction of the equipment. Brian and I were very disappointed. All in all it was less than 5 minutes on the entire brewing process and introduction. We then breezed through by the fermentation tanks without stopping or the tour guide even telling the people what they were, what was inside, or how they lager.

Bottling Line

This is where we spent the most time on our tour. The bottling line. Brian and I had a  theory that the guy who gave us our tour worked on the bottling line. We spent a disproportionate amount of time on bottling, labels, dates, and a very odd amount of time discussing neck labels.  We spent more time here listening about the bottling process than we did about the brewing process. Here we heard every detail. I took a picture behind us, of all the ingredients which which we didn’t talk about where they may be used or what beers/soda the go in.

What are these for? Where do they come from? What are they used in? Are they in something going right now?

From the bottling line we went into the tasting room, which was quite nice. You got a tasting glass and 5 samples of any beer you wanted, and unlimited soda samples. Between Brian and I we sampled the Dopplebock, IPA2, Abbey Triple, Pub Brown (which is what I used in Skirt Steak Fajitas), a contract brewed IPA, and Oktoberfest. The part that also bothered us was that Brian asked our guide a few questions and we got an answer of I’ll have to go ask someone and I will get back to you. But as we sat and sampled our beer, we never saw him go ask anyone. It was clear to us that the tour is not so much a tour for the beer fanatic, but more for general public who has a mild interest in beer. Unlike the New Glarus Hard Hat Tour which was a tour that any beer lover would love to take, this brewery tour (at least the one we were on) was just a glorified sample session. We didn’t learn anything about the brewery or it’s processes, which was disappointing to us. A discussion on Facebook came up shortly after and some I did hear from another beer loving friend who lives in Milwaukee that his tours there went down the same way so we were not alone. In the end, I’d say it’s worth the $5 price for the sampling, but the tour itself is nothing to write home about.

Tasting Room

Review of Taras Boulba

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Taras Boulba Belgian Pale Ale from De La Senne

Today I have what I am thinking off the top of my head is the first Belgian Pale Ale I have reviewed to date. Taras Boulba is a Belgian Specialty Ale and call it Session Belgian Blonde, some sites are calling this beer a Belgian Pale Ale, and historically this could be true. The reason it may be getting called a Belgian Pale Ale is because of history. While today, the Belgian Pale Ale has become a malty and earthy copperish colored ale, in the past it was more influenced from a combination of the German Pilsner and British Pale ale hybrid. But while it is helpful to know that, the purpose of this blog is to review beers as you would if these were homebrews in a BJCP competition. This beer, in my opinion is more of a session Belgian Blonde than a Belgian Pale Ale. So before getting started, maybe take a moment to review the Belgian Specialty category as well as the Belgian Blonde Ale category.

Aroma: In the aroma I get honey and lemon peel, as well as a bit of cracker. There is an aroma of fresh cracked pepper and some noticeable Noble Hop aroma. Overall the aroma is is very straight forward and quite appealing for me, but may be a bit assertive for a session Belgian Blonde. (8 points)

Appearance: The beer is a bight gold with just a bit of haze, and the beer should be fairly clear. A large rocky head was formed right after the pour as I drank it, there was always a layer of foam covering the beer. (2 points)

Flavor: Lots of bitterness in the flavor. The beer starts off with a bit of honey and some sweet orange. But that is quickly cut off by a wallop of spicy noble hop flavor and a stiff bitterness on the back end. My guess would be Saaz hops was used for this beer. The flavor is very reminiscent of a a good Bohemian Pils. The front end and the middle of the beer is very nice, and the bitterness makes this beer fairly refreshing. If you are looking for that traditional Belgian yeast flavor found in many Belgian ales, you can find it. It is there, but it is not as pronounced as it is in other beers. Perhaps it’s covered by the hops a bit. For a Belgian Blonde, the hops may be a bit overdone though. (14 points)

Mouthfeel: Medium body beer with a high level of carbonation. The hops provides a prickley sensation to the tongue. No hot alcohol or astringency. (4 points)

Overall: I prefer this beer to a traditional Belgian Blonde for a few reasons. Beers do not have to be big to be very good. This sessionable blong beer is a very good hybrid blend of what could be a Belgian Blonde and Bohemian Pilsner. You can easily drink more than one, and best of all you would want to. The bitterness is not overdone, yet is enough to satisfy the hophead……unless you are strictly an American Hops variety hophead. But this beer is very well done in my opinion. (8 points)

Score: In the end, I ended up giving this beer a 36 which would be about a B- or C+ in my opinion. This scoring was an example of how even though I personally loved the beer, i had to stick to what the guidelines state, and my interpretation of what a “session Belgian Blonde” should be. I know that I am the one who picked it as that style, but I just didn’t scoring this as a Belgian Pale Ale would have done this beer any justice at all. Another avenue could have been a Belgian Pilsner. That would have been an interesting scoring opportunity as well.

Scoring New Glarus Chocolate Abbey

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New Glarus Chocolate Abbey

Today I went to the store to get some 400 pound monkey from Left Hand Brewing and saw New Glarus’ new thumbprint beer hit our shelves, so of course I had to pick it up. This is billed as a Belgian Dubbel with Chocolate, so technically this would fall under category 21a, Vegetable/Spice/Herb beer. It could also fall under category 23 as well. I will be judging it as category 21a since they did list the base style as a Belgian Dubbel.

Aroma: If there one thing New Glarus does well…..very well actually, it’s aroma’s in beer. Dan Carey really has a knack for adding that little extra. I didn’t even have to bring this beer to my nose, I could smell the chocolate off the pour while the glass was sitting on counter. It was the smell of rich couverture chocolate. But things don’t end there. Digging a bit deeper there is some fig and spiced raisins as well. As the beer releases some of the pent up chocolate energy, the fig and spiced raisins play so nicely with the chocolate, it borders on obscene. The spice notes (I get a touch of nutmeg) are probably derived from the yeast. (10 points)

Appearance: The beer is a deep amber with some great clarity. The tan foamy head is fairly thick and reduces to a thin layer as you drink the beer down. (3 points)

Flavor: The flavor is bit more subdued than the aroma, but the same elements seem to come to the table. There is a graham cracker-like undertone to the malt base that I did not get in the aroma. The chocolate flavor is not as pronounced as the aroma, but plays just as well with the dark fruity fig and spice. They used an interesting variety of hops I have not had, but I really don’t get anI have no real way of knowing, but I am guessing this beer at about 7% alcohol based on the fact I get a bit of alcohol in the flavor, but not a lot. If this beer is bigger than that, it hides if very well. (16 points)

Mouthfeel: For a dubbel, it feels a bit thin on the palette. The carbonation is nice and spikey. I don’t get any astringency. (3 points)

Overall: Overall, this is an outstanding beer. This beer would pair great with wild game or lamb, but would also do justice to a grilled steak. Pair it with some chocolate or fruit (cherry, fig, dates) desserts as well and you can’t go wrong. Rich and bold with not much in the way of being overly sweet. There is some sweetness in the front end, but it finishes dry and fairly spicy. The bitterness from the hops balances things quite well, I just wish I knew how much spice was coming from the yeast and how much (if any) from the hops. I may have to look up Segal Ranch hops. Not sure what they bring to the table. This is probably my favorite Thumbprint beer for the winter months. This beer just screams winter warmer to me. (8 points)

Score: 40 points out of 50, which is an A in my book.

Another Great Lakes Brewfest is in the Books

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Great Lakes Brewfest

This was another great year for the Great Lakes Brewfest, one of my favorite beer festivals of the year. The new venue was not what I was expecting at all, which was a plus. I was a bit apprehensive about it being at the zoo, because I was thinking we would be among the animals and who knows what could have happened when you get 4,000 people drinking some great craft beer among a bunch of caged animals. But the area was not around the cages and was a very nice open area.

I was unable to make the Friday event, but from the postings on their facebook page, that event had a great turnout and some very positive feedback. I cannot comment on this portion of the event because we did not travel down Friday and stay the extra night. You can probably place that blame on the economy.

The staging area beautiful. There was some entertainment as the monkey cage was right there. They seemed a bit confused about what all those people were doing there. I also like the castle-like entrance. All that though was small potatoes compared to the electric feel of the anticipation of the doors opening.

Waiting for the gates to open to the GLBF

One the gates opened it was a mad dash to your fist tent. If you are an experienced fest participant, it is smart of have a game plan for your first few beers. We had a game plan and that was to bypass the first few tents because like every year, those seem to be the first hit, so we made a dash for some of the back tents. This brings me to my first noticeable difference in the fest at the zoo compared to the Festival grounds. At the festival grounds, a bulk of your breweries were located in a central location. It got a bit crowded and at times hard to get into the beers you wanted. While the tent situation scattered the breweries all around the grounds, which lead to more  moving about from station to station, it did open up the area and it was not as congested as it is at the Festival grounds. Each setup had it’s advantages and disadvantages I guess. I didn’t mind either way. I do have to say I had a hard time finding (and in the end never got to) the stone brewery tent which was not where it said it was on the map. I was a bit disappointed in that. But it’s not like I didn’t have other choices.

Here is a shot of the festival grounds at the zoo.

There were many great craft brewers represented at the fest, as well as a few mead and cider producers as well. A few local breweries to note were Ale Asylum, New Glarus, Aeppletreow Winery, Hinterland Brewery, Furthermore, and Titletown brewing. On the National level you had heavy hitters like Stone, Left Hand, Avery, New Belgium, Rogue, Moylens, Dogfish Head, Ommegang, and Flying dog…..just to name a few. In the end there were hundreds of beers represented, some special firken tappings, or special offerings that were tapped at specific times. You had over 90 different brewers to choose from. If you couldn’t find something you like, you were not looking. That’s for sure. A few of my personal favorites from the day were Ale Asylum’s Hopalicious, Ommegang’s Aphrodite, and Left Hand Brewing’s 400 Pound Monkey. But really when you think about it, how many great beers do you have after you’re already well on your way? LOL.

Kilties

I’m going to be honest. I was so engrossed in the beer tasting, that I didn’t even notice the band playing. From time to time I recall hearing some background music but I didn’t get to pay much attention. The area was so big, perhaps the sound just was not carrying. I did get to stop and see the Kilties perform which is a treat every year. The Kilties help sponsor the event every year.

The Food is top notch for a beer festival. Although I didn’t get to sample much, I do go right for the pig roast sandwich. It has become my favorite meal at the fest. However, inside the food tent I did see that there were crepes, roasted corn, popcorn, brats and burgers, chili fries, and beer candy. There may have been more, but that was what I saw.

If you are concerned with driving, the GLBF takes good care of you. This was the first year I took advantage of the shuttles to and from the hotel, and I have to say it was a lot of fun both on the way there, and a lot more fun on the way back. There are other services available as well, from cabs to a designated driver program. There should be no excuse for drinking and driving from the festival.

So in the end, again year after year the Great Lakes Brewfest provides an outstanding assortment of craft beers, great food, and good good solid entertainment. I can’t stress enough that if you life in Wisconsin (or even if you don’t) this event is the one to hit. I’ve been going for years, and plan to keep going for many many more. This year, I did do something a little different. I asked a couple of other Fest goers about what they thought of the fest and below are their thoughts.

Brian Lesperance

My first set of feedback is from Fest Goer, Brian Lesperance. I asked Brian the following questions.

Is this your first year at the fest? No.

Did you like the new venue, or did you prefer the Festival Park grounds? I Like the new venue it’s more open and not as maze like.

Was it easy to locate all the beers/brewery’s you wanted to try? Pretty much. But I could not find tent 19 with Stone and Lagunitas.

What did you think of the choices of brewery’s? I am always looking for new brewery’s and beers to sample and regionally undistributed beers are great to sample.

Did you attend the Friday night event? No. We come down on Friday night but we sample the local cuisine and tour the Racine area.

What was your favorite beer of the night? Four Wolves English Ale from Stonefly, Left Hand’s 400 Pound Monkey, I also enjoyed  Alaskan Amber by Alaskan Brewing Co.

Did you like the Entertainment? I Didn’t care for this years band. The Kilties performance is always top notch.

Were you happy with food choices? Hell yeah! Pulled pork is awesome, as well as the usual fair of burgers and brats. The chili cheese fries were yummy.

What do you like most about the Fest? The beer of course. But the  other fest goers at the GLBF are the most friendly group I’ve been around. for the most part No fights, No raging drunks and everyone is friendly and courteous!

What do you like the least of the fest? Staggered Sampling.

Will you attend next year? Yes!

I also received feedback from a first time Great Lakes Brewfest Attendee, David Taylor.

David Taylor

Was this your first year at the fest? Yes.
Did you like the new venue, or did you prefer the Festival Park grounds? I have no way to compare but I think I would prefer a more circular shape so that the path from any one brewery to any other is more 2-dimensional. But that’s just being picky.

Was it easy to locate all the beers/brewery’s you wanted to try? Yes, for the most part, although I did miss a couple that I would have loved to have seen.

What did you think of the choices of brewery’s? Excellent!

Did you attend the Friday night event? No

What was your favorite beer of the night? Does it have to be beer? I loved Aeppeltreow’s Cyser Rose the best. For beer it would be one of two of Bear Republic’s — Racer 5 IPA or the Stout.

How would you describe the atmosphere of the festival? Big and beautiful, and pretty laid back. There were a lot of lines but you didn’t hear people complaining much about them either.

Did you like the Entertainment? I didn’t pay attention.

Were you happy with food choices? Yes, it all looked very good.

What do you like most about the Fest? The selection and the outdoorsy-ness.

What do you like the least of the fest? The sheer size and the lines. Need more port-a-potties!

Will you attend next year? Honestly, probably not. It’s a great fest, but a little too huge for my personal taste. I like being able to get from point A to B in zero minutes with no lines.

I would like to thank Brian and David for their feedback on the fest. It’s always good to give the readers a different opinion other than just my own. I hope to see you next year, I already have my room reserved.

Shipwrecked Captain’s Copper Ale

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Shipwrecked Copper Ale

Today I am going to review a beer from a Door County Wisconsin brewpub called Shipwrecked. Today I have their Captian’s Copper Ale, thanks to my son who picked this out. Generally a copper ale will fit into either the Pale Ale category or the brown ale category, so it’s a toss up depending on the beer itself. Also as a general rule, copper ales tend to be more along the Brittish lineage, such as a English Pale ale or English Browns, but not exclusivly. For fun, I thought I’d run this one against the English Mild category, mostly because if this was my beer this is where I would enter it. Overall I found this beer malty with very little hop aroma. The flavor was quite nice with some hop bitterness in the middle but finished well. So, with that generalization out of the way, lets take a more in depth look at this beer.

Aroma: Toasty and toffee-like malt aroma. Some low caramel notes. Overall the aroma is a bit sweet. I get a very low woodsy hop aroma. I don’t really get any fruitiness. All in all a nice smelling beer. (7 Points)

Appearance: The beer has good clarity. It is a nice rich copper color and has a nice sudsy head. The head disappeared quite quickly. (2 points)

Flavor: First thing I notice is a toffee-like flavor with a little bit of sweetness. That is immediately interrupted by a moderate hop bitterness. There is some herbal hop flavor in the mix as well. I also find that there is a bit of caramel and toasted barley swirling around that I quite like. The only thing that is off-putting is the herbal hop flavor. The bitterness is nice but the flavor just does not seem to mingle well with the other flavors. It’s a good thing this flavor is on the low side, any more and I probably wouldn’t like this beer. All in all it is malty, a bit sweet, but finishes semi-sweet. The lingering malt flavor is very enjoyable. The hop bitterness disappears fairly fast. (12 points)

Mouthfeel: Mouthfeel is medium-light and there is no alcohol sensation or astringency. Carbonation is good for the style, falling right in the lower range. (3 points)

Overall: Overall it is a very good beer. It is lacking  just a touch in aroma, and the flavor is very nice except for the herbal flavor. That flavor would go well in a few other beers, but it just does not seem to fit this one. Would I recommend this beer? Sure. Is it my favorite. No, but it is not a disappointment, that’s for sure. A different hop choice may benefit or perhaps just a bit more malt to cover it up. Still, it’s a nice fall time beer to be sure. (6 points)

Score: I give this beer a 29 out of 50 points. While this beer is good, it is not great or outstanding. I liked it and I would order it again. There was just the herbal flavor I didn’t agree with and thought it was just an average middle of the road beer. Still, it’s not bad.

Great Lakes Brewfest Fast Approaching!

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If there is one event in Wisconsin that I hit every year, it’s the Great Lakes Brew Fest (GLBF). This year is no exception. With over 250 different craft beers being offered from 100 different brewery’s, it is a craft beer lovers wet dream. I started going to the GLBF back in 2006 and have been back every year since. Attendance is limited to 4,000 people for the main fest on Saturday and limited to 2,500 on Friday. The fest has been selling out in past years so you should get your ticket soon. It’s a great time, I have never seen anyone at the fest not having fun. In past years the event was held at Festival Park in Racine, but several events this year lead to the Great lakes Brew Fest needing to change it’s location. This year it will held at The Racine Zoological Gardens, at 200 Gold Street in Racine. It will be interesting to see how this affects the festivals turnout, but I saw pictures on the GLBF website and it looks to be a beautiful location.

The Festival is a two-day event with Friday September 16th being a showcase to Wisconsin’s Craft Beer scene. The “On Wisconsin Brews” portion of the Festival will showcase over 100 of Wisconsin’s finest craft beer offerings from about 35 different brewery’s from around the state. If you would like to see a line-up of the beers being offered, I will provide a link here. This particular event runs from 6:30pm until 10:30pm. Aside from the beer there will food and live music as well. Last year I had a pulled pork sandwich which was awesome, I hope that same vendor is there this year.

Saturday is the “Full Monty” which runs from 3pm till 7pm for general admission and from 2pm-7pm for Vip ticket holders. This Saturday event is the one I make sure I hit not matter what. The most exciting part of the whole thing is the choices you have. You have all of these brewery’s to choose from (select Wisconsin or Nationwide to see the full list). From my experience, each of these stands will offer anywhere from 3 to 5 different beers to choose from and many of them them will have special tappings of their specials or seasonal beers. Generally there is a few different musical performers staged at a few different locations of the festival so Entertainment is never an issue. Sometime about mid-fest you also are treated to a performance by the Kilties Drum and Bugle Corps as well. There is a large food tent,(Again, pulled pork my friends. Pulled Pork!) with several vendors offering a wide variety of food.I should also note that there will be a prize for the best animal costume too. So if you love to dress up, this is your chance.

So, are you ready to buy a ticket yet?  Ticket prices are $40 for each day of the fest, or $71 if you buy tickets to both days at the same time. VIP tickets for Saturday only will run you $85 each, or $116 if you bundle with a  general admission Friday ticket too. designated driver tickets are $15 each for general admission and $25 for VIP designated driver tickets.  You can purchase tickets Here.

Since drinking and driving is not the responsible way to attend a fest, I have to add that if you don’t have a designated driver ticket, you should seriously think of purchasing a shuttle ticket if you are staying at one of the hotels. For either $4 or $8 round trip, it is really worth it. You can purchase those Here.

So hopefully you can make September 16th and/or the 17th. If you can’t make this year, make a plan for next year because this fest is one you don’t want to miss!

Sprecher’s Grilling with Beer Contest 2011

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The recipe poster in front of my grilling station

A week ago I posted that I was selected as one of eight finalists in the Sprecher Grilling with beer contest. The event was a great time, and I give a lot of thanks to Sprecher Brewing, Keg-a-Que, and the Beef council for sponsoring such a cool event. Anything that spreads awareness as beer as an ingredient in great cooking is A+ in my book. I am also happy to say I took a 2nd place spot in this competition with my Pub Style Skirt Steak Fajitas. I am sad to say at this time I don’t remember who took the 1st and 3rd place spots, but I promise to update this post with that information once Sprecher updates their site with the other winners. I did get a chance to sample some of the other contestants food around me and I have to say their recipes were very tasty, I can see why they were selected for the contest.

The day started at noon when I arrived to let the people at Sprecher know that I was indeed there to compete. However, since my turn-in time was 2:10 and my dish only takes approximately 45 minutes to prepare and cook, I didn’t have to start cooking until just before 1:30. At about 1:25 I start slicing my peppers and onions and turned on the grill. Once hot, it was just a matter of cooking the skirt steak to about 7 minutes a side. Normally on my charcoal grill I do about 5 minutes each side, but this grill seemed to feel a bit less intense than when I use charcoal. This worked well. I ended up pulling my steak off just shy of 1:50 and got started on the peppers and onions. Shortly after, the steak was done resting about 2pm and I sliced the steak. By the time I was done slicing the vegetables were done, and I had time to quickly grill a tortilla. I was nervous about my serving because I didn’t have time to make another or make it look pretty, so I bet I didn’t get the best score for presentation. But the meat was spot on for what I was going for and the vegetables were of good flavor and texture. Below are some pics from the event.

Here I am receiving my instructions for turn in times and so forth.

Here is the grilled skirt steak as it rests.

Here is the beer braised onions and peppers.

Here is the sliced skirt steak.

Finished product, I also quickly warmed the tortilla on the grill as well.

This is just a shot of the judges eating my entry. I'm probably the only one who likes this pic. :)

Called up on stage for 2nd place!!

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All three of us winners up on stage. 1st place was a rueben burger, then my skirt steak fajitas, and at third place was Farmer's Fantastic Ribeyes grilled by Shana Johnson (no relation).

For second place I received a grill, various beef shwag, a gift certificate for beef, a grilling with beer cookbook, a case of Sprecher beer, and 2 tour passes.

Sprecher Grilling With Beer Contest

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This is just a quick post. I have been selected to compete in the Sprecher Grilling with Beer Competition. I will be bringing you a full account of what happened probably sometime next week. I’m pretty excited, this is the second year I have been selected. However last year I had to back out because of an obligation at work. This year, I am able to make it down. I will be grilling a pub style skirt steak with beer braised onions and peppers.

Firken Follow Up

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Well if you missed it, you probably want to reserve this time of year next year for the next Firken Craft Beer Festival.  The festival may have only been in it’s second year but it is already proving to be a beer event to hit in Wisconsin with a crowd of over 1100 Craft Beer Lovers in attendance. The weather was warm and sunny which didn’t hurt. After all, that’s perfect beer drinking weather….not that there ever is bad beer drinking weather right?  The event took place at Cathedral Square Park in Downtown Milwaukee, on July 23 from 3-8 p.m.

When the gates opened at 3pm,  VIP ticket holders had first crack at their favorite beers. The advantage of VIP is you do not have to contend with lines and you have a lot of open beer options.  The general admissions line wrapped around the block, as they waited for their turn into the fest.  It was not long after opening The Squeezettes made their rounds through the fest, playing everyone’s favorite polka tunes while brandishing their very own tasting glasses.  The Reverend Raven and the Chain Smoking Alter Boys set up on stage and began a set that rumor has it, even the Klements Racing Sausages couldn’t help but dance to.

The Squeezetss playing Wisconsin's favorite Polka Music

Reverend Raven and the Chain Smoking Alter Boys Rockin the fest

In the Firkin Tent,  Fest goers tried one of the eight brews up for the Beer Buffalo Lodge Big Firkin Award (an amazing piece of art which was designed and created by Art Milwaukee).  Attendees were able to vote on their favorite nominated brew. The winner was Big Bay Brewing Company with their Wavehopper Kolsch, a clear fest favorite!

Firken Tent

Fest goers also enjoyed many options for food, including George’s Big Dogs, Miller Bakery Pretzillas (which boasted the longest food vendor line!) and Flannery’s.  The Brewriana Tent was jam packed with displays of antique beer cans, caps, photos and signs.

In the end, it appears that the 2nd Annual Firkin was a huge success.  When you have the best Milwaukee has to offer on the craft beer scene, great music, and sunny blue skies;  you are bound to have a Firkin good time.

Prost!

Brix to Specific Gravity Chart Available.

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If you have a refractometer and have either a conversion program nearby when brewing or have the Specific Gravity range right in the refractometer, I have created an easy one page chart that I use for my brewhouse. I thought I would share with you and I hope you find it useful. Here is the link to the PDF file. You can save the document by selecting the “file” tab on the left side of the page. Select “download Original”.

Milwaukee Firkin Craft Beer Festival Approaching

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With beer festival season in full swing this summer there are a few Wisconsin festivals worth making your way to this summer. The first is the Milwaukee Firkin Craft Beer Festival on July 23rd, a date which is fast approaching. The Milwaukee Firkin is a celebration of Milwaukee brewing traditions of the Past, Present, and future. So what can you expect if you plan to attend this event? That is what this article is going to cover.

The Beer!

The beer is the most important part of any beer festival, but that should go without saying. Milwaukee Firkin Craft Beer Festival will have over 90 beers from the Milwaukee area for you to sample. The brewery lineup is quite good with some craft beer lover classics like Lakefront Brewery, Milwaukee Ale House, Milwaukee Brewing Co, and Sprecher. But the lineup does not stop at those classics. Also making a showing at Firkin will be Horney Goat, St. Francis Brewery, Stonefly Brewing Company, Water Street Brewery, Rock Bottom Brewery, Buffalo Water Brewing Company, Leinenkugels, III Dachshunds Beer and Cider, Chameleon Brewing Company, Miller Valley Brewery, and Big Bay Brewing. So you can see there is quite a great representation of Milwaukee brewing tradition here as well as newer breweries that starting to make a solid mark in the craft beer world. Many of these breweries are favorites of mine. For example Milwaukee Brewing Company has their Sai Son Farmhouse Ale which I will be reviewing shortly on here. I think it is fantastic. I have also heard a rumor that there may be a special commemorative beers being served at the festival as well.

Something else that unique and exciting that the Firkin Festival is offering that you may not find at many other craft beer festival is that they are serving 10 authentic cask ales served from Firkins. People who have been to Oktoberfest may be familiar with Firkins. They are about the size of a quarter barrel and hold roughly 40 liters of cask conditioned beer. If you want to see exactly what a Firkin is, check out this link on Youtube. A huge part of the fun is tapping the Firkin. But this festival offers more than just beer.

The Music

There are two musical acts in the line-up for the fest. First is the Milwaukee blues band Reverend Raven and the Chain Smokin’ Altar Boys (Click the link for a taste of their music). There is not much better drinking music than some good old classic blues if you ask me. Reverend Raven is a well seasoned, and fairly well known blues band. I have seen them perform here locally before and they were quite good. One of the songs featured on their website is a funny blues tune called Jiggle My Junk which is a satirical look at Airport security, the scanners in particular, and wondering what Uncle Sam wants with those photos.

What Wisconsin festival would be complete without a Polka Band? Well, if you ask most Wisconsinites, the answer would be none. The Squeezettes bring polka to life like I have never seen before. I listened to some of the their music and with rock styled vocals and what they are calling Power Polka, they sort of remind me of a combination of the low rock styling of The Twinemen meets Irish folk music. Personally I am not a fan of Polka music, but this band I could really listen too. Let’s just say it’s not your Grandpa’s Polka.

Wait, there’s More?

So what else is going down at the Firkin Craft Beer Festival? There is more than just beer an music going down at the Festival. There will be a talk given by renowned Milwaukee beer historian Len Jurgensen. You will also be able to view various displays of Breweriana as well as beer exhibits put on by Discovery World and the Pabst Museum. You will also be able to find a beer kiosk on the grounds as well.

The Low Down

So the bottom line is where is this fest located, how much are tickets, and what do I have to bring?  The Milwaukee Firkin Festival is located at Cathedral Square Park in Downtown Milwaukee on July 23rd from 3pm to 7pm (Unless you purchase a VIP ticket in which case the doors open at 2pm)

You have two options, you can with a regular admission ticket for $40 and get unlimited sampling of the 90+ beers on tap plus a Milwaukee Firkin Craft Beer Festival Pint Glass. You can also roll like  VIP and get the unlimited sampling and pint glass, but you will also get in an hour before the general admission (no risk of missing out on your favorite beers) , a T-shirt, a chance to mingle with the brewmasters, and some crackers and cheese sampling in the VIP tent. All that for $25 more ($65). You can purchase tickets directly here.

To answer the question about what to bring, you only need to bring your love of great craft beer, a thirst for some good music, and bring an appetite. There will be local food available at the fest as well. One other thing to consider bringing is a designated driver. The Milwaukee  Firkin Craft Beer Festival does off designated driver tickets for only $15. Always remember, have fun but be safe. Drinking and driving does not just endanger yourself, but everyone who shares the road with you.

This craft beer festival should prove to be a Firkin good time, and with Milwaukee’s rich brewing tradition, provide some solid craft beer choices. Prost!

Review of New Glarus Two Women Classic Country Lager

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New Glarus Country Lager

I’m not sure what BJCP category a Classic Country Lager would fall into, but I don’t think it is a German Pilsner that many of the beer rating sites have this beer listed as. I feel if you can’t find a category, list is as a specialty lager. For me, I think this beer is much closer to fitting in category 4a, Dark American Lager than German Pils. I think whomever classified this went strictly off the fact that it used German hops and floor malted Bohemian malt. But no part of this beer in the flavor or aroma categories fit a German Pils. Since a big part of my blog is work beers in the way of the BJCP style guidelines, I try to fit the beer into a category that I would enter it in if it were my beer going into a competition. For me, I will judge this beer as I would if I were enter it in category 4a. Once you try this beer you will see it is more  “A somewhat sweeter version of standard/premium lager with a little more body and flavor.” And represents “a  broad range of international lagers that are darker than pale, and not assertive bitter and/or roasted.” Rather than the German Pils which many of these site wrongly put the beer into.  So let’s get reviewing Two Women from New Glarus.

Aroma:Some clean malt with slight hint of sweetness. Some soft bready aroma with a touch of toffee. Hops aroma is low with a slightly floral and herbal character. This beer is not very complex, as it shouldn’t be. But really that’s about all I find going on. (8 points)

Appearance: Dark amber, with a good clarity. Nice white head that persists. Good lacing on the glass. (3 points)

Flavor:Some sweet bready malt with a touch of toffee. The hops are also on the low side, with a bit of subtle spicy flavor. The beer is fairly clean, and finished just slightly sweet. I do get a bit of metallic twang, possibly from the water. While the malt and hops are present, it comes off a bit thin in flavor for me. I taste a bit too much of the water perhaps and not enough of the ingredients. Still, a good lager, it is an easy drinking beer. (13 points)

Mouthfeel:lighter in body than I was thinking when I looked at it and smelled it. Carbonation is medium. (3 points)

Overall:it is a very good easy drinking beer for this summer. It’s well balanced and put together very well, it could just use a touch more of everything. Not much, just a touch. A German Pils it is not, but as a  Dark American Lager this thing is very good. I rather like the malt profile. While I personally would like a touch more bitterness to finish this beer out, the hops does it’s job. I wouldn’t say it is my favorite beer, but I like it. (7 points)

Score: I give this beer a 34 out of 50 points. I give the beer a good solid C to C+. While it is very good, it is not great. There is a metallic twang to the beer I had and it seemed a bit thin to me.  Back to the German Pils thing. Once you have this beer, tell me, do you think this beer is much closer to Sam Adams Boston Lager or a  Victory Prima Pils?

Review of New Glarus IIPA (Imperial India Pale Ale)

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New Glarus IIPA

I have to give a special thanks to Dave Lichterman from our homebrew club for stopping me while returning a movie to hand me this to try. New Glarus has long been my favorite local brewery by far. They have made some decisions I can respect, but not necessarily agree with in regards to some of their beers, but it’s their business not mine. Still, I really miss Hop Hearty IPA and thought it was different from all the other “West Coast” American Pale Ale and American IPA styles out there. I was a bit disheartened to find that they were rolling with the pack and changing to a west coast inspired beer instead of Hop Hearty IPA. All that aside, I have the Thumbprint Series IIPA, which is an Imperial IPA. According to the BJCP, you should expect this beer to be “ An intensely hoppy, very strong pale ale without the big maltiness and/or deeper malt flavors of an American barleywine. Strongly hopped, but clean, lacking harshness, and a tribute to historical IPAs. Drinkability is an important characteristic; this should not be a heavy, sipping beer. It should also not have much residual sweetness or a heavy character grain profile. Bigger than either an English or American IPA in both alcohol strength and overall hop level (bittering and finish). Less malty, lower body, less rich and a greater overall hop intensity than an American Barleywine. Typically not as high in gravity/alcohol as a barleywine, since high alcohol and malt tend to limit drinkability. A showcase for hops “. So with all that out of the way, let’s dive into this. I’m a hop head and a New Glarus fan so I am excited to try this one.

Aroma: Wow, this is the single most beautiful IPA aroma I have inhaled in a  long time. The distinct aroma of juicy ripe red grapefruit is the dominant aroma. There is some hints of pine and grass as well, but the forefront is solidly grapefruit. The malt is more than happy to take a back seat supporting role, but is present when you peel back the curtain of hops. Crusty bready malt aroma is what I get, along with a touch of toffee. I wouldn’t have minded a touch more of the malt though. Alcohol become evident only after the beer warms, but early on it blend in very well with the hop character.  Very very well done aroma here. (10 points)

Appearance: A rich golden beer with a well formed 3/4″ head. The head is long lasting and retains a very thin layer throughout the pint. Very nice lacing. The beer is slightly hazy, but it’s expected with highly hopped beers.(3 points)

Flavor: Balance balance balance. If New Glarus is the king of anything, it would be well balanced beers. This why I think they are so successful. They do flavors and aromas right on. Never out of balance or off-putting. This beer follows that to a T. Up front you get some hop tang, In the middle you get some of that juicy grapefruit, in the end you get a mixture of smooth bitterness and finishes with a bit if resinous piney hop flavor. Never once at any point is any part of the hop profile harsh. Something I personally love. The malt is a bit more subdued, there is a bit on honey-like sweetness dead center in the middle, which I found a bit surprising. The finish is bready and a bit toasty. Long into finish a bit of sweetness crops up, but is quickly washed away by the piney hops. If you look for it, there is some alcohol in there that sort of gives you a spicy impression. Sometimes in these big IPA’s, the alcohol can get lost in the bitterness and citrusy hop flavors. Usually if you can taste it as boozy, the beer is out of wack. This beer hides the 9% ABV very well. I have to say this beer reminds me of warm summer nights. Well done. (16 points)

Mouthfeel: Medium body with a fairly high level of carbonation. May be a touch high for carbonation. There is a small amount of astringency from the hops, but nothing to detract from the beer itself. (3 points)

Overall: Try as I might because I don’t want to seem too bias on the New Glarus offerings, I have a hard time really picking them apart. They are all that good and stand up to the hype. Dan Carey is an outstanding brewer who consistently puts out stellar beer in both his special offerings and his regular line-up. I really firmly believe his key to success is balance. Even with beers that supposed to be hop forward, like this one. You need to have the right balance of malt to make a great tasting beer. In malty beers, you need just the right touch of hop flare to offset the malt. Dan has a magic hand when it comes to that knack. This beer may not be as big as some IIPA’s may be, but what it lacks in monstrosity, it makes up for in just being a damn delicious beer. A touch sweet at some points for some maybe, but me…I like it. (8 points)

In the end this beer earns a rare 40 from me. This is a very good style, often overdone and out of balance. This beer is simply good. A solid A- for me, simply because of a few minor things stylistically. Such as it may be a touch sweet and the slight astringency.

Review of Big Flats 1901 American Lager (Sometimes called the Wallgreens Beer)

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Big Flats 1901 Lager Beer

It’s been a while since I have done a review, but something caught my attention and I wanted to do a review of it. We all knew that with our tanking economy, and booming craft beer market, someone was going to try to fill the niche of cheap none Bud/Miller/Coors lagers. This one, that says it’s brewed by Brewmaster’s Choice in Rochester, NY is the first I have seen attempt to fill that void. You can find this at Wallgreens, for $2.99 a six pack. Yep, that’s right $.49 a can retail. The can states that this is a “Premium Brew” and does not say light, but I will review this as a Standard American Lager simply because they usually like to toss in “Premium” and not really mean the category “Premium American Lager” (again if you need a scoresheet to do this yourself, here is a link since it has been a while).What you are looking at with this style is a refreshing and thirst quenching beer, usually not much in the way of hops or specialty grains. Usually this type of beer will use straight two-row barley and some sort of adjunct like corn or rice. So let’s see what $2.99 has bought us today.

Aroma: Not much going on here. The dominant aroma is by far a sweet corn-like aroma. There is some slight….no very slight husky grain aroma. One thing that does surprise me is that there appears to be a very slight spicy hop aroma. Now granted, all these aromas are very much on low side. At first I was going to say I did not get any fruitiness, but a swirl of my glass and fresh sniff does give way to some green apple-like acetaldehyde. I wouldn’t knock it too much because I had to work it out of the beer for it rear it’s head, but it is there very briefly. All the aromas a bit on the low end of the scale for this beer style but it’s not bad. (8 points)

Color: (See below) Crystal clear and a very pale yellow. It pours a nice head that does not take long to leave the scene. But it’s there. It looks very good for this style (3 points)

Flavor: Here the beer falters a bit. There is a very low sweet grainy malt flavor. The balance between the malt and hops is OK, but it is more a light lager than a standard, and surely not a premium. There is a very slight spicy hop flavor that rears it’s head more in the finish than anything. Although crisp, it doesn’t really finish all that dry. There is a lingering sweetness that is off for the style. There is some noticeable green apple flavor in the middle. All in all it is not a bad beer at all for this style, especially for $2.99. But the flavors a bit too subdued even for such a light style. (13 points)

Mouthfeel: The mouthfeel is very water-like. It should be light bodied, but this is just too light for a standard lager. The carbonation is not effervescent or fizzy at all. It’s not flat by any means but it also is not highly carbonated as it should be. (1 point)

Overall: Overall this is not a bad beer for this style. This beer does fall a bit short for the standard style. But for the price, it is not a bad beer. The only things it has going against it, is the flavor and aroma are too light, and the carbonation leaves the beer feeling a bit flat for the style,  but it is a drinkable beer and a solid alternative to Budweiser or Miller. It does have some malt, and it does have very low levels of hop character. In the end, for this style I would give it a slightly above average score. (6 points)

Total Score is a 30 of 50. Which would equal about a C, which is average. For $2.99 you can’t go wrong there.

It is a Nice looking Lager

How to build a Chest Freezer Kegerator, on the cheap

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Most homebrewers, who are not doing so already, always want to move to kegging. I have been kegging for a few years now, but over the last year went back to bottling because I wanted to build a new kegerator, my old stand up fridge with a single tap in the front was not cutting it. I wanted to have the ability to not only expand, but also keep my a place to store my bottles. So I set out to find a cheap, or free, used chest freezer that is newer than my old unit to convert.  It took a few months of searching and asking around, but months later, I got lucky. A friend of mine purchased a house and it had a chest freezer in the basement. A nice 10.5 cubic foot model. Even better yet, my friend didn’t want it, and he was giving it to me for free! So now I have a project to do, here is the way I converted this free chest freezer for around $60 (not including the taps and hoses I already have).

Step 1 is plan way ahead and be patient. In other words, the key to building a Kegerator on a tight budget is to not get all your parts in one purchase. Once you know you are going to build one, start watching for sales and scouring craigslist, ebay, ask around at your homebrew club for someone with extra equipment they may want to sell, and sign up to hear about special deals from online homebrew supply stores. Morebeer’s deal of the day is a good one to check daily. For the chest freezer, if your patient you will find a heck of  deal in your area if you give it time. I know that Menards in our area sells used but working units that they remove from people’s homes. So it may be worth checking places like that as well. Chances are one will turn up in your family or among your friends soon enough. Sometimes if you offer to move it out of the house or offer up a case or two of homebrew some people will part with an older chest freezer. Worst case, you may have buy one, but do not spend over $100 for a used model. Heck, I wouldn’t spend over $45 which was my cap limit until I found one for free. The most expensive unit on my kegerator is the temperature controller, you can find these used on ebay or buy them without the plug wired and wire it yourself. A digital one will run you a bit more, but the analog one I got ran me $45+shipping.

Parts List

  • Used Chest Freezer
  • 1 Tube of Caulk
  • 1 small box of Roofing nails
  • 2 – 1x4x8 premium boards
  • about 8 small L brackets
  • small Sheet Metal and 1 1/4″ wood screws.
  • 6 plastic cable clips
  • Super Glue (For attaching the cable clips)
  • Then you will need a faucet, some tubing, a keg, a CO2 tank, Regulator, gas and beer disconnects, ect. (Prices vary based on used equipment prices or new, and where you purchase these. But count on at least $150 minimum for this portion of the investment)

The Process

First things first. You should block the hinges because they are spring loaded. Then, once you have them blocked to they don’t snap you in the fingers, unscrew the lid from the hinges.

If you don't block the hinges, you run a risk of some broken fingers.

Once you remove the lid. You want to use a pry bar to gently remove the gasket, while keeping the snap in buttons in tact as much as possible. If you break a few, don’t worry we have a remedy for that. You will also be removing the plastic cover if your lid has one.

Then, like in the picture below. You want to cut your wood with a miter saw and screw the wood pieces together getting them as square as possible. Then line it up with the lid. It is important to measure twice and cut once in this instance. Plan out where the collar is going to go in relation to not only the lid but also the main part of the freezer.

Cut to Fit.

Once you have it figured out, cut, and put together, you want to attach the collar to the lid (If you are wondering why I attached the collar to the lid, it’s because the extra height of the collar on the freezer would make it difficult to reach the bottom. If you prefer to attach the collar to the bottom of the freezer, that is your choice. It will be easier to put together, but harder to reach the bottom on large freezers). To do this I used small L brackets. When possible I drilled directly into the lid to fasten the collar, where it was not, I placed the L bracket below the sheet metal and attached the part to the wood. I also used caulk around the edge to help create a seal and to act as an adhesive.  See below 2 pictures.

Here it is attached directly to the lid with sheet metal bolts.

Here is the shot of how I used the L bracket to hook under the sheet metal of the lid to hold the lid in place.

Now that the collar is firmly attached to the lid. It’s time to put on the gasket and plastic cover. To do this I placed the plastic cover on the collar. This plastic cover on my model had the holes for putting back in the plastic buttons. So I used that as a template then drilled small holes to fit the button prongs in the place of the holes. That way I could snap the buttons into the holes, and use a bit of caulk adhesive to help reinforce the hold. I also used caulk between the plastic and the collar as well as the gasket and plastic. It worked out pretty well. See below for pictures.

Lining it up

Attaching the gasket.

Snap the plastic buttons into the holes you drilled.

Remember when I told you if you break a few, I have a fix for you? I had a small box of left over roofing nails and used those to nail the gasket into place where the buttons were missing. Just remember how many you broke and don't drill holes for those spots.

Now we are in the home stretch. Figure out where you are going to put your taps. In my case, I was not going to use the whole freezer for taps, but just 2 for now and up to 4 later. The rest of the space if for bottle storage. So I cut a space in the plastic for access to 2 taps.

Space for taps. However this picture was taken after I already had one beer in and tapped, but you get the idea.

I used some plastic cable clamps to hold my hoses. Having the collar on top and the taps to lift when you open your lid would leave hoses in the way. So I used the clamps to manage the hoses. EDIT: Although I forgot to mention it here, don’t forget to install your temperature controller. I attached mine to outside on the collar, on the rear corner. I then took the probe and placed it in a bottle of water. You can see it in the second picture below in the corner on the compressor hump. That ensures that your beer will be at the temperature you are setting the controller at and reduce the cycles of the freezer, or so I have been lead to believe.

Hoses kept out of the way as they are now attached to the lid as it opens.

Inside the Kegerator, I know it's a mess. But it's a beautiful mess.

All that’s left is to add any accessories you have purchased and/or clean and paint the kegerator. I chose to repaint it since the one I got was a bit dingy on the outside. Here is the completed kegerator from the outside.

The finished product.I probably shouldn't have gone with all white, but oh well. The black on the edge is caulk board paint we had left over from another project. That will work well for writing what is on tap there.

Cleaning your Faucets

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We all know to clean and sanitize our tap lines, we know to clean and sanitize our kegs, and we even know to run beer line cleaner and sanitizer through our faucets. But how many of us clean our faucets? I mean really take them apart and clean them? I’m sure many do and some don’t, some probably don’t know you can take these faucets apart. I like to take mine apart from time to time and really inspect the gaskets and clean off any grim that may have built up that the beer line cleaner and sanitizer may not hit that well. I will quickly show you how to take apart a basic faucet for cleaning.

Your basic run of the mill faucet.

First you want to remove the top portion of the faucet, right below where the tap handle is attached to.

Remove this part of the faucet. You may need a pliers, but you can usually do this with just your fingers.

Next, simply pull out the stem that the tap handle attached to.

Pull out the stem that the tap handle attached to

Now last, pull out the assembly inside the faucet from the back.

Pull out internal assembly

There you have it. That is all you need to do in order to take apart your faucet to inspect the gaskets and O-rings as well as clean off the internal components. If you paid attention to what it looked like when you took it apart, you will notice that the only part you really have to pay attention to when putting it back together is the slot in the internal part that hooks into the stem that the tap handle attached to . All you have to do it line up the slot with the flat part on the stem and screw on the top part. Your good. It’s that simple.

To clean them, I like to give them a quick soak in beer line cleaner then just wipe them off with a clean rag. Then rinse and pat dry. To clean inside the faucet I use a large q-tip and scrub out the inside. Then prior to reattaching it to the kegerator, I sanitize it. Then run sanitizer through the lines before tapping my beer. Overkill? Maybe or maybe not. But it’s better than infecting your beer once it’s tapped by having dirty kegging equipment.

New Posts to the Recipe Section

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I uploaded two new recipes to the Recipe Section. One is for the Oud Bruin I brewed from Northern Brewer and the other is for my Black Rye IPA. Both can be found here, or in the Recipes and homebrewery tab above. If you have never checked out the recipes section, I have recipes for IPA’s (both traditional and Hopbursted, I have a smoked IPA recipe that is quite good, my Chocolate Stout I’ve been brewing for years that uses Cacao nibs, a California common that has done well in competition but is not traditional because it does not contain Northern Brewer hops, an American Barleywine, and my German Porter recipe.

I also have the recipes in three formats. I have a classic brewsheet, which will be useful to anyone. It contains the ingredients, brewing schedule, and other info all on one sheet. I have BeerXML which you can import into any of the big brewing software brands (Beersmith, BeerTools Pro, and Beersmith), and I have it included in bsm or Beersmith format to directly import into beersmith.

If you are interested in finding out more about brewing software or which one may be right for you, you can check out my review of the big three here. (part 1 and Part 2)