Not all beer is good beer

Saying that all craft beer is good just isn't a realistic statement.  I always have a hard time when someone asks me what my favorite style is.  I always tell them, I don't have a favorite beer style, it just depends on what kind of mood I'm in, and how good the beer is.  Just because I like IPA's, certainly doesn't mean I like all IPA's, in fact, I've had quite a few I didn't enjoy at all.

Of course, the same goes for when people tell me they don't like dark beer.  I always tell them they just haven't tried the right one yet.

This week, I had a few beers that I've been wanting to try from a local brewery that I really enjoy.  Peace Tree Brewing out of Knoxville, IA makes some wonderful IPA's, and their Belgian Blonde recently one Gold at the GABF.  Simply put, they know how to make good beer.  One that I've heard a lot about is there Templeton Red.  It's a red ale aged in barrels from Templeton Rye Whiskey (one of my favorites, also made in Iowa.)  I've never been a fan of Peace Tree's Red, but this sounded interesting to me.  I was a bit disappointed.  The Red Ale, was sit the same old Red that I don't care for, and there was way too much Whiskey/oak flavor for me.  It was just too overpowering.

A few days later, I tried their Royale 41 Imperial IPA.  This was much better.  It was still overly bitter, in my opinion, but still a pretty decent Imperial IPA.  I still highly recommend that you seek out this brewery and give them a try, because they do a fantastic job.  http://www.peacetreebrewing.com/

 Deschutes Brewery is one of my favorites in the country.  http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/  Their Chainbreaker White IPA continues to show me why.  It's delicious, easy to drink, and perfect on a muggy Iowa summer day.  This is a fairly new style to me, a Belgian Wit that is hopped like an IPA, but it is quickly becoming one of my go to styles.  Alaskan Brewery http://alaskanbeer.com/ and Single Speed Brewing http://www.singlespeedbrewing.com/ also make excellent examples of this style.

From left to Right: Me, my son Joseph, my
Brother In-Law Chad, and hist wife Annie

What do I do when there's not great craft beer available?  I drink Coors Light, of course.  Whether is fishing, hanging out at the local dive bar, or at a family wedding (right) this is my American Lager of choice.

Back in the saddle

Zip Line Brewing out of Nebraska has been showing up a lot on the the shelves in Iowa lately.  I finally tried one of their brews.  The Oatmeal Porter was a good start for me.  Nice balance of roasted malts, and the smoothness from the oatmeal helped make this a very tasty beer.  I will certainly be trying more of their beers in the future.

I first came across this beer almost a year ago, while I was in Kansas City.  Avery Brewing has made a great summer beer with their White Wheat.  A bit fruity and spicey, light, refreshing, and easy drinking helps me give this beer high marks.  For those of you that are just starting to explore the world of beer, this one is a great leap into it, and for the experienced Craft beer drinker, you'll be pleased with this well crafted, delicious, Belgian style wheat.

You may have to make a road trip to Decorah, IA to get a hold of one of the most popular beers made in the state.  Toppling Goliath's beer is in such demand, it usually sells out in stores within a few hours of delivery.  Once you try their beer, you will understand why.  They sell their beers in 22oz bomber bottles that are perfect for sharing, but once you try this refreshing Citra hop bomb, you'll want it all for yourself.  They have a way of loading their Pale Ale's and IPA's with great hop flavor and aroma without making them overly bitter.  Something a lot of breweries out there today struggle with.

Next time you're in NE Iowa, head to their tap room in Decorah to try one of their fantastic brews.  http://www.tgbrews.com

On a recent trip to North Carolina, I came across this gem from Oskar Blues Brewery.  An old college buddy of mine has been posting pics online of him with his cans of Old Chub, so I thought I should do the same.  This 8% ABV Scottish Strong Ale is thick, rich, and sweet.  Despite it's unusual name, it's a very solid beer, and I recommend you grab an Old Chub when you get the chance!


This winter I developed a serious back problem, that was/is excruciatingly painful, and causes sharp pains to shoot down my legs.  I became completely dependant on my cane in my house, and wheelchair bound out of it.  After having and MRI, and discovering I very claustrophobic, they diagnosed me with Spinal Stenosis.  Basically a build up around my spinal column in my lower back caused from arthritis, that is squeezing my nerves in my lower back.  It will require surgery to fix it, but we agreed, to try other treatment first to delay surgery.  After months of physical therapy, pain meds, steroids (unfortunately I didn't develop any super powers,) I had a steroid injection in my lower back (again, no super powers.)

The injection has helped immensely, I'm about 70% better than what I was.  So I still have to be careful, not lift things, keep my cane around, and sometimes use my wheelchair, but my life is livable again.  So, after nearly 8 months away from homebrewing, I'm back in the saddle again.  I'm starting with extract brewing for a bit, to make things easier on me, but I hope to be doing some all-grain before the year is over.

My first brew back is my California Common, or American Amber Ale.  I used half ounce of Galaxy pellet hops at the beginning, and the end of the boil, along with two pounds of Nugget hops fresh from my freezer (from last years crop that my wife grew.)  I'm saving nearly 3/4 pound of hops for dry hopping, that is an unknown mixture of Nugget, Cascade, and Willamette hops.  This is one of my favorite recipes that I'm come up with over the years, but this is the first time I've tried this hop combination.  I'm hoping for good things from this brew.  Below in a video of the airlock bubbling away as the yeast does it's magic turning the wort into beer.

Since I've been lacking on my blog this year, I'm going to attempt to blog once a week in August to try and make up for it.  Maybe it will help me pass the time until I can finally drink the first homebrew I've made in 2014.  Prost!

I haven't brewed any beer in quite a while now, but of course I've still been drinking it.  Matt's Burning Rosids from Stone is a high alcohol Saison.  This is definitely a beer worth trying, there was a bit more complexity to it as it warmed up.  As far as Saisons go, it was middle of the road for me.

Not shown is my Hoodang Fresh Hop IPA.  If you read my last entry, you know I used 4 pounds of home grown nugget hops to brew this.  It was a lot of fun to make, and has turned out to be quite tasty.  The first 2 months or so there was a lot of "green" flavor to it, almost vegetable like from all the fresh hops, now that flavor has dissipated, and it has turned into a really good IPA.  It will be a perfect spring/summer beer for me to enjoy.

One of my favorite non local breweries has to be Deschutes. http://www.deschutesbrewery.com//  If you haven't tried their beers yet, you need to.  One of their latest beer I've tried is their Fresh Squeezed IPA.  This is truly a thing of beauty if you like hops.  I can't tell you how glad I am that they're available in Iowa now.

A few months ago, I went to Beers to You in Waterloo with my 2 brother in-laws and father in-law.  The night was a bit of a blur, but there definitely were a few stand out beers of the night.  Keeping with IPA's was Annabelle's IPA from Galena Brewing.  http://www.galenabrewery.com/  So far this is the only beer I've had from them, but it was fantastic.  I thought it was similar to Schlafly's Tasmanian IPA.  I will absolutely be trying more of their brews in the future.

Another big hit from that night was Jobu from Capital Brewing.  http://www.capital-brewery.com/Default.aspx  This 8% abv brown ale aged in rum barrels was my favorite beer of the night, and I can't wait to get my hands on some more.

A local favorite for me was SingleSpeed Brewery.  http://www.singlespeedbrewing.com/  I'm never dissappointed having one of their brews, and they brought 2 fantastic beers to the event.  Brewed X 2 and IPA Blanco.  I couldn't tell you which one was better, because they were both fantastic.

We are lucky to have a booming craft beer industry here in Iowa with greats like SingleSpeed, Toppling Golliath, Court Avenue, Millstream, and now gold medal winning (from GABF) Peace Tree Brewing.  http://www.peacetreebrewing.com/landing.php?return=/&x=-1  Next time you're in Iowa take a look around, and I bet you can find a great, locally brewed beer near you.

Hoodang Fresh Hop IPA

It's been a while since I have written on here.  In my time away from the blog, I have continued to try new brews, and have brewed 2 more original beers myself.  I had an IPA (that went very fast,) and a Vanilla Porter.  I also harvested 7 pounds of hops, and stuck them directly into the freezer after picking.  What do you do with 7 pounds of fresh hops in the freezer?  You make an IPA!  For this beer, I decided to go all-grain.  It's been nearly 2 years since I did an all-grain beer, so I thought this was the perfect time.

Since I do all my brewing inside, I use a 2 pot method for my boil, and with just one cooler for my mash tun, I do a batch sparge.  All-grain brew day took me 5 hours from start to finish (including cleaning.)

Using fresh hops, I new I would need more than my typical 4 ounces of pellet hops, so I brewed with just over 3 pounds of fresh hops (all Nugget,) and reserved about 3/4 of a pound for dry hopping.

To the right, you'll see my set up with the batch sparge in action.  Below, You may notice a hop bag with 1/3 pound of Nugget hops in the mash tun.  Just another way to try and get the most out of the hops.

Not shown, I made a gallon of "hop tea" while the other two kettles were busy brewing.  I heated up a gallon of water and submerged another hop bag with another 1/3 pound of nugget hops in it, and let it steep for an hour.  I added the hop tea directly to the fermenting bucket.

This picture shows both brew kettles in action.  The first running wort is in the pot on the right, with the remaining wort on the left.  When I do two pots, I don't hop the first wort pot. I do this partly for less clean up, but I also think it stretches the hops a bit further by using it in the weaker wort.  This is after my first hop addition of a full pound of nugget hops.

I added another half pound of hops after thirty minutes, and the final pound fifty minutes into the boil.  After the sixty minute boil, I quickly cooled both pots down with the wort chiller before transferring it to the fermenting bucket with the hop tea.

This shows the two and a half pounds of hops left in the pot after I transferred the wort.  The pot holds about four gallons of liquid, and I got about one and a half gallons of highly hopped wort.  I'll let it ferment for a week before adding the last of the four pounds of hops for this beer to the fermenter to dry hop.  I'll post results in a few weeks.

Below is a picture of me (left) and my brother in-law (right,) Chad.  He started home brewing a few years before me, and had a huge influence on me and my love of great beer.

Life has gotten in the way of blogging.  You can still keep up with my beer experience with the free Untappd app, where you can friend me to see what I'm drinking as well as follow my latest home brewing.  Follow the Crinkletalk Home Brewery to see my latest creations.

You can also follow me on Twitter for inappropriate humor and beer expeditions, @crinkletalk.

I will come back to blogging later this fall when life slows down again.  Until than, Prost!

 New Glarus makes some of my favorite beers. I found Serendipity to be a good beer, but fell a little short of my expectations.  It was very smooth, and had a ton of fruit flavor, but it was a bit sweet for me. I prefer their cherry beers, but I still wouldn't turn this beer down in the future.

 My Alliteration American Amber Ale is ready to drink! The wild hops give it an interesting finish, but overall, I'm very happy with this beer.  It's a great transitional beer for the spring.

 Sprechter Hard Root Beer is an interesting one. The base totally tastes like root beer, but a lot of whiskey and whiskey barrel flavors greet your palate.  This one confuses me. I like root beer, and I like whiskey, just not sure that I like them together.

 Third Shift Amber Lager was better than I expected. It was good, but very one dimensional. If you love biscuit malts, this is the beer for you.

 Angry Planet Pale Ale by Planet Earth Brewing was disappointing. I bought this during my last trip to Minnesota. I like to buy local brews when I travel, but this one wasn't anything special.  I'm just glad it was cheap!

Another solid beer by the good folks at Deschutes Brewery.  This Mirror Pond Pale Ale was the perfect brew to enjoy a nice spring day in Iowa.  Rumor has it, they'll be distributing in Iowa soon. I can't wait to try more of their beers.

Next up for me is an IPA that I will be brewing later today.

Brew day, a little late

So, I'm a little behind on my blog. 3 weeks ago, I brewed what I call my Alliteration American Amber  Ale, basically it's my recipe for a California Common.  I changed up my hops for this brew since I had some home grown and wild hops supplied by my brother in-law Chad.  I also used 1 oz. Of pellet Galena hops for bittering.

 I mostly partial mash, but lately my 2 gallon cooler was leaking. This picture shows the valve I added to it. Along with some new seals, I no longer have any leaks, and I can get the job done  in a third of the time.

 Here is the wort mid boil with the fresh hops rolling atop the boil.  Fresh hops are fun to use, but make it tricky to transfer, as they tend to clog up the siphon.  I re-used the lager yeast from my doppelbock, and should be kegging this beer in a week or two.

 I'm so glad Stone Brewery is now available in Iowa.  This Double Bastard was awesome.  Thick, hoppy, and delicious, I have yet to have a bad beer from Stone.

 One of my favorite Iowan breweries, is Peace Tree Brewery.  I don't usually drink beers this light, but it has a lot of flavor, and you can really taste the sweetness from the corn used in making this beer.  If you haven't had a Peace Tree beer yet, you need to make it a priority.
www.peacetreebrewing.com

 Another beer I don't normally drink is the light lagers from the major breweries, but when I do, it's usually a Coors Light. I saw this Batch 19 lager from Coors and thought I'd give it a shot. Overall, not bad. Had the same general flavor as a Coors light, just with more. More aroma, mouth feel, and a little bolder flavor. Should be a good beer to have while fishing on a hot summer day.

Great Divide's Expresso Oak Aged Yeti, is an imperial stout aged with expresso in oak aged barrels (you never would have known with that name.)

 This is a bold, thick, yet surprisingly easy drinking beer that I will definitely be buying again.  Such a bold beer needed a flavorful meal to pair with, so I made roasted venison loin and jalapeño poppers.  Good food and good beer make for a great night.

If you like beer and smart-assed comments, follow me on Twitter. @crinkletalk