Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Hoppin Frog's D.O.R.I.S The Destroyer

My Friday nights generally are the same, most of them are spent unwinding after a long week in a cubical in an Adirondack chair with a cigar, and a exceptional beer.  This past Friday was no different I was able to experience Hoppin Frog's D.O.R.I.S The Destroyer.  You may be curious to know what does D.O.R.I.S mean?  Well it is...Double Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout.


This Stout did not pour from the bottle, it seemed to roll out of it.  The beer flowed into my snifter ink black and syrupy thick, with a thin 1/4" dark milk chocolate brown head.  The aroma has wonderful notes of dark malts, chocolate, raisins, slight piny hop aroma also.  The first taste is nothing short of profound! The Stout fills your mouth and almost sends your taste buds into over load as the syrupy liquid coats your tongue.  The dark malts, and chocolate are the most noticeable but hints of plums, raisins, grapes and brown sugar sweetness are left in your mouth after the sip.  The mouth feel is thick and creamy, almost no carbonation.  I was also very surprised to detect ZERO alcohol flavor. I was amazed after reading the bottle to discover DORIS IS A DESTROYER at 10.5% ABV!

The magnificent beer paired magically with my Oliva Master Blend No. 3 Robusto complimenting each other, as both fought for dominance on my palate!


Please do your self a favor and pick one of these up!  It is available locally in Tallahassee at the Fermintation Market!

I rate this beer A+ as one of the best Stouts I have ever had the honor of tasting!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Left Hand Brewing Co. - Chainsaw Ale Double Sawoth

On a warm March afternoon the NCAA Championship is in full swing and Kentucky barely pulled out of the 2nd round against Princeton.  Close call time for a beer. Out comes a bomber with one of the coolest labels i've ever saw, Left Hand Brewing Co. Chainsaw Ale Double Sawtooth. 


The Double Sawtooth pours dark Amber in color smoothly into my snifter.  Producing a slightly off white color head, with lacing that remained for the entire glass.  The aroma of the Double Chainsaw is slightly malty sweet with notes of pine and citrus.

I should have washed my glass better, bubbles are not supposed to sit on your glass like that.
The flavor is light on your tongue, smooth and flavorful.  I first notice large amounts of citrus hop bitterness that lasts well after my first sip on the edges of my tongue.  This ASA (American Strong Ale) also has a wonderful malt profile that stands up nicely to the powerful hop flavors present.  I did notice some heat from the alcohol present in the ale.  Which is understandable, this ale tips the scales at 9.4% ABV.  One bomber of this and your feeling fine.

I will defenatly be picking this up again!  I must thank my wife for this since she picked it out!  A wonderful beer I will give it an A-.

This beer can be purchased locally in Tallahassee at The Fermintation Market.

Please feel free to comment!

ExcessiveHoppYness

Thursday, March 10, 2011

10 gallons to 10 bbls

I found this today, from "Grim Brother's Brewhouse" located in Loveland CO.  I found this to be inspiring and motivational:
My last home brew batch was about 8 months ago; I had decided to brew as much beer as I could in one weekend so it would last while we were opening the brewery.  One of the batches brewed that weekend was a 10 Gallon batch of what has now become “Snow Drop”.  As I look back at the differences between that 10 Gallon system and our current 10 BBL system I am amused at the results. Most of the things that would keep me up at night, and I thought would be a huge adjustment turned out to be minimal to nothing at all. On the other hand, some of the menial tasks we do now, turned out to require much more thought than I had anticipated.
Probably the biggest change on our commercial system is getting the malt into the grist case. As a home brewer, this was as simple as loading up a bucket with the malt, milling it and pouring it into the mash tun.  Now, we have to hoist all 800 pounds of malt up to a grist case using a glorified bucket and pulley.  This does give us the desired results, but the effort and time that goes into this makes me look forward to the day we get an auger.
A typical brew day at the brewery takes about as long as a brew day on my home brew system.  From start to clean up, we are running about 6 hours. Our mash, sparge, and boil all take just as long now as they did then.  When I counter flow now, it is a jet of wort emptying 310 gallons in 30 minutes, compared to 10 gallons in 30 minutes on my home system.  And most importantly our fermentations take just as long, the yeast will make the beer, just let it do its thing.
As I think about the old home brewer’s mantra, “Relax, Don’t Worry, Have a Home Brew”. I have to remind myself, to have patience. This is my dream, and while I may hit stumbling stones along the way, I need to be flexible and adapt. Most importantly, at the end of a brew day, I just need to relax, don’t worry, and have a Snow Drop.

Some day I will get there.  Until I do I must RDWHAHB!  We will get there, and in the mean time, I am kegging 5 gal of Maya's Maple Ale Friday.  Will be available in a few days!  Be sure to come have a pint!



Cheers!

Monday, March 7, 2011

Abita Andygator

On a cool, lazy Sunday afternoon I sat on the porch watching the grass grow and drank an excellent beer!  This different beer came from Abita Brewing Co. in Louisiana.  This is a style of beer I have had not experienced before, a Helles Dobblebock.  Bock beer is traditionally used to described strong German style lager beers, Dobblebock (think even stronger), then add Helles and you have a strong (8%ABV) German Style Lager that is light in color!

The beer pours the color of golden honey, with a white one inch head.  The aroma is yeasty sour, with hints of fruit.  The nose of this beer reminded me of a Belgian ale.  The flavor is light, the malts are not immediately noticeable.  Bready yeast flavors fill your mouth, with a slight sweetness and fruit flavors in the end.  This is a big beer better enjoyed slowly, dont get in a hurry to finish the bomber or the Andygator will bite you!

Cheers!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Jacksonville Beer Tour

Well, we recently went to Jacksonville for some training for work until I can brew full time!  In the down time inadaze and I gulped down some most excellent beer from local micro-brewerys.  First stop was Seven Bridges Brew Pub.


This is a local brewery in Jacksonville, the biggest that we attended.  Seven Bridges has 3 locations (2 in FL, 1 in GA).  The wait staff was wonderful, they started us of with 'sampler' which contained their 5 major beers and the one seasonal brew. 



The Southern Flier Light Lager (far right) and Southside Pils Lager (second from right) where not to my liking...they tried to hard to cater to the Bud Light crowd.  However, The Toll Tender IPA, and Rye IPA (third from right, and the one that isn't in line) were fantastic with the Rye IPA winning by a hop!  Both had wonderful malt sweetness that was not over powering and hop flavor to die for!  The Rye IPA has a citrusy hop aroma, and is silky smooth in your mouth with a drop kick of hoppy goodness!   Both were magnificent and classic examples of the style!  Toll Tender B- Rye IPA B+.  Moving on, (4th from the right) Sweet Magnolia Brown, this brown had a sweet caramel malty aroma.  The flavor was nutty and sweet, with a med/full mouth feel, with light hop bitterness and slight pecans in the aftertaste (this was the inadaze0 favorite).  Lastly we have the Iron Horse Stout, black as coal, tan head, smelled of coffee, chocolate, and molasses.  Chocolate and raisins swirl in your mouth, with slight hop bitterness on the back end.  A classic example of a very drinkable stout!  Seven Bridges knows what they are doing, they have won several medals at contests such as The Great American Beer Festival!  


Moving on to Bold CITY!!!

Unfortunately we did not get to tour Bold City, but thanks to the Aloft in Tapistry Park and the WXYZ Lounge we were able to enjoy several pints of Duke's Cold Nose Brown and Killer Whale Cream Ale




Duke's Brown is a smooth aromatic brown ale, caramel, sweet maltyness and nuts are present.  This ale is a light bodied and smooth.  Easy to sit at the bar and throw back pint after pint!  Wonderful Brown by any one's standards!  Killer Whale is a lighter, less hoppy ale that would be better suited for some one new to the craft beer world.  Very smooth, not much aroma, but did have some nice malt and hop flavors. 

Now onto my favorite place of the trip!  Intuition Ale Works!  Down in one of the not so savory parts of Jacksonville, King street.  Please do not let that deter you from checking this place out if ever in Jacksonville.  Just look for:



Upon entering the tap room, the room is nice rough cut lumber is used for the walls.  I instantly felt right at home, I've been waiting to get here since November when I found out about IAW.  I had my eyes dead set on the I-10 IPA.
The aroma of has a slight pungent hop aroma, but not over powering.  The flavor is all hops!  Piney, citrus wonderful hops, smooth and wonderful.  The IPA also has a  slightly sweet malt backbone that battles the hops on every sip! A-...

The King Street Stout, was hands down the best stout that has ever passed my lips.  Smooth, malty, sweet, chocolaty.  WOW...8% ABV it packs a punch, but you wont know it until it's got you!  I loved this place because it's nice to go into a bar and the bartender knows what Special B, Citra, 2Row, and Columbus are.  They take pride in their product and it show!  Service, A++ and the beer was impressive! I10 IPA A, and the KSS A+!!!

We had so much fun in Jacksonville.  I almost can't wait to have to go to training again!

Cheers!