Monthly Archives: May 2010

Interview with Kirby Nelson from Capital Brewery

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Capital Brewery

Last week Friday I had the pleasure of interviewing Kirby Nelson, the Brewmaster for Capital Brewery in Middleton, Wisconsin. Kirby has been brewing since the late 70′s and continues to this day making some very fine beers. Lagers mostly, but some ales as well. In today’s age of souped up imperial styles, Kirby likes to approach beer from the standpoint where he wants you to be able to down a six pack of his beers. So he shoots for a easy drinking beer for most of his offerings. Don’t confuse an easily quaffable beer with a boring beer, some of Kirby’s beers are my go to summer favorites. Wild Rice, Rustic Ale, and the now retired 1900 are some of my favorite summer slammers. Their new beer Supper Club, I have not had the chance to try yet, but I will be soon. Kirby says that beer is flying off the shelves and I am anxious to try it. Their Autumnal Fire is one hell of a Marzen and Dopplebock Hybrid as well. With that, I will let the interview speak for itself. Since I have since become lazy with transcribing the audio, it is much easier to just download and listen, it is roughly only a half hour long. Again, I am not a podcaster and know I have some lacking audio interview skills. But Kirby is an energetic and to the point kind of guy. I’m sure you will enjoy the audio better than reading it anyway. So Enjoy!

Interview with Kirby Nelson, Brewmaster for Capital Brewery MP3 Download (Click the link and a download page will appear)

As a Correction Note, a few weeks ago I posted a segment on finding Capital beers in a can. I found out in the interview that they have had their beer in cans since about 1997. I don’t know why I have not seen it here where I live, because I am not far from Madison. Maybe the 12 packs escaped my radar or no liquor stores I went to carried the cans. But either way, this was not a new development for Capital, but rather a new discovery for me. The information in that post still is valid though, regarding the benefit of craft beer in cans.

Below are some pics I took on my phone during a tour we got during the NHC Regionals which were hosted at Capital Brewery. Picture quality is not the best.

The brewing area at Capital

Some of the tanks, if you look on the other end of where that Dinosaur mascot is, there are many more conicals stored there. But I didn't take a picture of those.

Here we are getting a special tanks sampling of the Weizen Dopplebock. I am not sure if this sampling was Kirby approved, but I enjoyed it. I didn't want to mention this in the interview.

I posted this picture so you can see during the interview why I asked if he plays Frank Zappa in the brewery. Each of the tanks is named after a Frank Zappa song. Peaches en Regalia is an instrumental piece off Zappa's Hot Rats album.

Review of New Glarus Unplugged: Enigma

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New Glarus Enigma

I hope you like the new look. I think the new skin is a bit more appealing to the eye and seems to be a bit cleaner to me. I also want to tell you that at the time I write this, I have an interview scheduled with Kirby Nelson from Capital Brewery in Middleton, Wisconsin for 5pm this Friday. As long as his schedule does not change, you can look forward to that interview soon.

Today though, I have a special treat. New Glarus Enigma. This beer has brewed before, it won some medals at the GABF in 2003 and World Beer Cup in ‘04, but the first I had it was in 2006, which was before I was blogging. It was also my first Unplugged beer, although I had all of the New Glarus offerings up till then, or so I thought. This will be the first review I have of this version of this beer in the Unplugged series. Enigma is a Fruit Beer which has a base style similar to the Flander’s Brown, which is a sour ale. 

Aroma: First thing you may notice is a musty and outdoorsy aroma. This is more than likely from the wild fermentation, which often gives you odd and interesting aromas and flavors. In this case, to me it is musty and outdoorsy and smells slightly like a damp forest and wet leaves. Others may notice the sour and over-ripe cherry aroma. Both are fairly equal in strength in this beer. Diving a bit deeper into the aroma you can catch some soft caramel and toasty barley notes A bit more subtle is a mild oakiness and soft vanilla tones which add to the rustic character of the beer. In all honesty this beer is a wonder and a treasure just in aroma alone. As it warms there is a bit more a slight vinegar aroma which can be inappropriate, but it is slight.  (9 points)

Appearance: A mid-amber hue with some excellent clarity and soft red highlights. It Pours a frothy khaki colored head which diminishes fairly quickly, but leaves a lasting layer throughout half of my pint. (3 points)

Flavor: The flavor is where this beer really shines. If you are not a fan of sour beers, you probably will not enjoy this beer very much, but it is not so sour as to turn most people off. Right up front you get an initial sour punch for just a second, then the cherries come through quite nicely. In the middle the malt and vanilla oaky tones take over for a short time before the woodsy funk and more sourness linger finish off the beer. There is some sweetness to the beer that helps to tame the sourness and funk. The malt in the beer comes across slightly biscuit-like and a bit of caramel and sweet toffee. Although the beer finishes a bit on the sweet side, it is sour enough to leave you refreshed and ready for another drink. If you are familiar with New Glarus’s other fruit beers, you will notice that although the fruit in this beer is quite evident, it is not as strong and dominant as the other beers. If you are seeking hops, you are looking to the wrong style. (18 points)

Mouthfeel: It is a medium bodied beer with a fair amount of carbonation. There is a slight dry presence to it, which comes off a bit astringent to me, but I suspect it may be from the oak. (4 points)

Overall: New Glarus does not disappoint with this fruited sour brown ale. It was brought back for a reason, not only because sour beers are becoming more and more appreciated, but because this is an easy drinking beer. As the beer warms, considerably more oak shines through in the flavor and the malt develops a bit more. At the cooler temps I was getting more a lot more cherry. In the end, the sourness is not overdone, the fruit is not over the top, the malt comes through nicely, and you get some oak. The beer savvy will recognize the difficulty in balancing such a complex beer. The not so savvy will love the easy drinkablilty and thirst quenching tartness “for such a dark beer”.  (9 points)

All in all I gave this beer a 42 out of 50 points (Per the BJCP scoresheet), which would be a solid A in my book. New Glarus never seems to disappoint, even though some of the beers may not be my favorite (only because of personal taste), you can’t argue with the top notch quality and willingness to go out on a limb and try somehthing new.

Comparing your beer to your judges feedback and pre-sampling before sending off to Competition

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Judging

When you get your feedback and score back from a competition, it is a good idea to try the beer again while reading the scoresheet. However, there is a lot of people who say they have no clue what the judges are talking about. True, there are times when judges just don’t get it right, I myself know I am not a perfect judge either. But, if you want to truly get an accurate read of what beer the judge tasted, you need to take some steps in understanding how your beer is presented in competition. The beer you pour directly from your tap or from a bottle directly from your fridge, may not be the same beer the judge is tasting. Granted, it is the same batch, but there are variables that change the flavor and aroma of the beer itself. Here, I am going to talk about what you can do to taste your beer in a similar manner as it was scored. This technique will also help you gear up for competition as well. Tasting the beer in this fashion before you send it off, may help you decide if you entered the beer in the correct category, or at least prepare you for what beer the judges may be getting. Because your beer straight from the fridge is not the same beer by the time it hits the judging table. Hopefully, if it was treated well it will be close.

The first thing you have to consider is the environment you are in. I don’t expect anyone to leave their house just to judge a beer, or go back to the place it was judged. But consider your surroundings. Are people smoking? Was something with a strong odor recently cooked or eaten? In a competition, most of the time at least, the environment is kept fairly neutral. Sometimes you get stuck in a bar somewhere that they allow smoking. But for the most part it is neutral. So if you are currently in an area that has some strong odors, you may be missing out on some subtle aromas.

The second, thing is beer temperature. Most of the time, your beer is not served at chilling temperatures that your fridge may be set at. Even if the beer does come out cold, many judges ask for cold beers to be pulled early to give them time warm a bit. If you recall from earlier posts, beers give up more flavor and aroma as it warms. So perhaps pulling your beer from the fridge a half hour before pouring would give you a more accurate depiction of what temperature the judge sampled your beer at. There is also a chance, that your beer was last in flight and may even have been sitting for longer. So when sampling, just keep that in mind.

The third thing is glass size and pour size. I can promise you that it would be extremely rare for a full glass size to be poured at any competition. Like it or not, this also may change a bit of perception between your full pint and the 2 oz sample that is poured at the table. In a two bottle competition, one bottle is opened and poured for two or more judges, and then recapped. Any remaining beer may be used for a mini-Best of Show if there is a dispute between the final placement of a beer, or a tie. The second bottle is not opened until the beer either does not move on to a full Best of Show round (where it is consumed by stewards and other judges) or it moves on to the Best of Show and is opened and evaluated again between however many judges are judging the BOS. In order to replicate the sample size, get yourself a small 4 ounce sample glass like the one below. Or,what I like to use is a mini-snifter glass too. It concentrates the aromas giving me a better evaluation.

Tasting Glass. Fill only half full at the maximum at first. (As a side note. this is my German Porter I am sending off to the Longshot. This was my pre-competition evaluation for this beer)

Same Beer but in a Mini-snifter

One last thing I want to mention, is variables that may change your beer that you have no control over. For example, you have to ship your beer. So depending on when and where the competition is, you have remember that transit time may affect the beer. If the beer gets hot and jostled around in a truck for five days, that will change some things. Also, if it is freezing cold and the beer hits near freezing…or even does freeze. That changes things as well. Another factor is how long the beer is stored before the competition, and if it was stored well. I have heard of some competitions where the beer is stored at someone’s house and then the day before competition it is chilled at the site. Well, if that person stored it in a warm room or in a room exposed to sunlight…..that can change some things that the beer in your fridge was not exposed to.

With these tips, I hope you can get a better feel for maybe why when you get a scoresheet back, it doesn’t seem like the same beer you thought you sent off.

Capital Brewery Takes it in the Can

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There are many craft brewery’s, 45 as of summer of 2009, I am not sure how many at the moment I write this, but I know of at least one more now who are starting to put beer into cans. I came across some tonight and was quite excited. Capital Brewery has started putting some of their beer into cans. There are a few advantages, and some minor disadvantages to this which I would like to give my thoughts on. First lets take look at my find for today…..

Capital Beer in cans

Here they are. Capital Brewery’s Wisconsin Amber and Island Wheat….in cans! There may be other beers from Capital in cans, but these were the only two I found. I also could not find anything on the Internet about this, so I may be the first one writing about it. That would be neat. Anyway, I will start this article with the only drawback I can think of, which is image. In all honesty, the beer in a can image is the only drawback I can think of. There is still a stigma of beer being a cheap beverage and if it is in a can cannot possibly be high end. In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Beer in cans is probably just a bit better than beer in bottles for many reasons.

The first reason that many craft brewery’s find canning the beer as an advantage is it is a very reliable package. What I mean, is that light an oxygen can be very damaging to beer. Even crown cap bottles, even wax dipped or foil sealed, will allows some oxygen in over time. A can is air tight and unless there is oxygen inside the can, the odds of post packaging oxidation are fairly low. The second factor is light. Most beer lovers know that clear bottles are horrible for beer, green bottles are not much better. They let in damaging light that will skunk the beer, literally changing the hop compounds to the same chemical that a skunk produces, hence the smell and the name “skunky beer”. (A quick side note: A skunky beer is not warm or old. Some beer drinkers call a warm or old beer skunky. No, those are just American lagers that do not taste good warm, which is why they insist on you drinking them cold as ice. The cold deadens the taste-buds and also the colder the beer, the more locked up all the volatile aromas are. Basically, without getting all techie, the colder the less you taste and smell.) Even dark amber bottles will become lightstruck. The darker bottles offer good protection, but not 100% protection. Cans offer 100% protection from light. So with this better packaging, you get a high quality and fairly consistent beer. It is for these same reasons that many people swear by drinking tap beer. It comes from keg which is really just a giant can.

There are a few other advantages to having beer in a can. One of which is that you can take it anywhere. Many beaches or events do not allow glass bottles on the premises. However, you can take cans. So you can enjoy your craft beer at the beach, in a can. Cans also get cold faster (however I guess they do lose their chill faster too if you are holding the can in your hand), so if you pick some up and toss it in a cooler, it should be chilled enough to drink fairly quick. Remember, this is not Coors light which has to be “ice cold”. Just a good chill will do most craft beers nicely. One final quick advantage is the durability of the can. There is no risk of your friend or child knocking over your beer bottle and breaking it on the concrete and cutting themselves. Cans will not shatter and leave a mess if they are dropped.

Now there are some myths of beer in a can. The first we covered. “No good beer would come in a can”. I can list many brewery’s who now can their beer. These are not bad brewery’s or bad beer by any means. Oskar Blues, 21st Amendment, Surley Brewing Co., and Keweenaw Brewing Company come to mind right away. Another myth is that “beer in a can tastes like metal”. This is a myth because all the cans today come with a plastic liner. At no time (unless you have a bad can with a scratch in the liner) does the beer come in contact with the metal of the can. IF someone does get this metallic taste, it is probably from the outer part of the can while drinking. Pour it into a glass and the problem is solved. I still drink canned beer from a glass anyway. Even though cans are a good packaging for beer, it is not a good delivery system to your face. Most of your sense of taste come from smell. How much aroma do you get drinking from a bottle or can? Pretty much none. So you should try to make it a good practice to drink beer from a glass or cup, whenever possible. If I had to drink beer from the can, I would, but I wouldn’t make a habit of it.

I am not 100% sure of this, but one other downfall I thought of while writing this, may be that it is harder or more expensive to put a canning line into a brewery. I know a bottling line is fairly simple, especially a crown cap operation, just by looking at how a can is put together, it appears to be a bit more of an intensive project. But I can’t say for sure, and it is too late in the evening to do some real digging. So I will leave it as “I think it would be harder.” and not state it as fact.

So, in the end I applaud Capital for this move and look forward to seeing more beers in a can from not only Capital, but other craft brewers around the nation. Craft beer, take it in the can!

Tasting Jaba’s Busted Nut Brown

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OK, today I am just going to do a quick post on the Northern English Brown I brewed with some friends a few weeks back. This post will be short and sweet, but will be the defining moment on if I know if this beer will be competition worthy. Although I have done fairly well in competitions before, I was thinking I am going to start entering more competitions now that I feel I have fairly consistent results and can get most beers about where I want them.

So let’s take a look at this puppy, even though it probably could use a few more days conditioning since I bottled it only 10 days ago.

Jaba's Busted Nut Brown

OK, this beer did have some issues, which is why it is a “busted” nut brown. But the minor brewing issue aside (my grains did not come crushed, and since I had someone coming to watch me brew, I had no choice but to improvise my crush. Not an ideal situation), the rest of the brew day went well. Once I opened the fermentor to bottle it, it smelled a lot like New Glarus Fat Squirrel. It also tasted quite good at bottling, but it is hard to get an exact feel without carbonation.

Aroma: Very nutty, with sweet almonds. There is some solid crusty bread and a hint of toffee. Nothing as far as hops at all in the aroma. A bit more hops would probably help, but in this case I wouldn’t add any more. (8 points)

Checking clarity

Color: A nice clear dark amber with reddish highlights. It poured a decent head that dissipated quickly, but does leave a thin layer until the end. (3 points)

Flavor: The beer has some nuttiness to it, that is for sure. The beer starts off a bit sweet, but does not finish sweet. I also wouldn’t say it finishes dry, but it just sort of drifts off. I do like the toffee flavor that is in the finish as it trails off. There is also some light biscuit and a touch of toast. The hop flavor and bitterness are spot on I have to admit. There really is no hops in the flavor and zero bitterness. Personally, that is a new one for me, but according to the guidelines that is OK. The only thing I feel this beer is lacking is overall malt depth. Although all the components are there, it feels a bit too small for me. Also, there is a bit more of a fruity flavor than I would like, but it is still on the lower side. (14 points)

Mouthfeel: To me it feels a bit too thin. It may be in the medium-light range, but it does feel to be solidly in the light range for me. At this time the carbonation is also low, but it is also a bit early. (3 points)

Overall: Overall I am very happy with how this beer turned out. Not having an ideal crush probably made the difference. With a better crush, I am sure the malt profile may be a bit more full. Still, all the right flavor and aroma components are there for exactly what I am looking for. With a bit more malt depth and a bit more body, I really think I have a solid winner here. Still, this beer may take some 1st place awards in competition, so I will be sending it off. But I do want to re-brew this fairly soon and hit it right on. I am not going to change the recipe, but want to re-brew it with a proper crush before making adjustments. (7 points)

Overall I gave it a 35 out of 50. With a bit more body and malt depth, this beer probably would be up in the 38+ range for me. Still, I am proud of this beer as it is right now.

If you want to brew this beer, you can find it in my recipes section on this blog.