Good beer = good people?

I recently received a Hop Henge beer from Deshutes Brewery.  http://www.deschutesbrewery.com
Unfortunately when I popped the top, the was no carbonation left in the bottle.  I soldiered on, and poured the beer anyway.  It had an amazing fruity/hoppy aroma.  Even though it was flat, I drank the entire beer.  It was very good, and that can only mean it would be amazing if fresh and carbonated.  I decided to email the brewery to let them know of the problem.  Within a few days, they emailed me back offering an apology, and a refund.  I decline the refund, but was very impressed they offered to do that.  They emailed back, insisting on sending the refund, and are also throwing in a bottle opener for my trouble.  Than went above and beyond my expectations, and I will be buying one of their beers at the first opportunity I get.

The Kentucky Bourbon Ale has great bourbon flavour, but is a pretty weak beer

Still drinking after al this time

 So with 3 mostly full kegs, I haven't been brewing lately, of course that doesn't mean I stop sampling, or research as I like to call it.  A few weeks ago, we took a family trip to Des Moines, and stayed at a waterpark hotel.  It had several water slides, and a pirate ship for the kids to play in.

 I had a "Floppin Crappie" from Northwood Brewing Company to play with.  It was a traditional American style Lager.  It had more malt flavour and hops than one of the big 3 American Lagers, in fact, in reminded me of a Schlitz.  Not something I'd drink all the time, but a good beer to have by the water, poolside or dockside.  This beer turned out to be better than I expected.

 My wife and I recently took a day trip to McGregor, IA.  We had lunch at Old Man River brew pub.  http://www.oldmanriverbrewery.com/  Fist the bad, the service was terrible, there was no beer list, so I couldn't learn about any other their beers, and their food was a bit over priced for what they gave.  The good, the beer was pretty good.  I got an IPA, and it was very solid, not mind blowing, but a beer I'd have no problems drinking again.  The food was even better than the beer.  I would like to give this place another chance, just to see if was an off day for the staff, and of course to try more of their beer.

Have you had any beers from New Glarus Brewing yet?  If you haven't, you need to.  http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/  They make good solid year round beers (their IPA is one of my favorites, right up there with Dogfiish Head's 60 minute IPA,) but they specialize in Belgian style beers.  Anything cherry related is fantastic, and they do their "Thumbprint" series year round as well.  These are specialty beers their brewmaster wants to make, and lucky for us, decides to sell to the public.  This beer is from their Thumbprint series, and is their Double IPA (9.7 ABV.)  This beer hits you with a ton of citrusy hop aroma, and tastes just as good.  It's not thick and syrupy like many high alcohol brews, in fact it drinks more like an IPA near 6% ABV.  This is a great beer.

If you've had a great beer lately that you think I should try, let me know, and I'll feature on this blog.

Templeton Rye Ale

It's finally ready, fully carbonated and aged to perfection.  You get a nice aroma of citrusy hops, mixed with oak and Templeton Rye whiskey.  This is one of the most balanced beers I've ever made.  A great mix of grain, hops, wood, and whiskey flavor.  Other than the color not being quite as red as I had invisioned, this beer turned out awesome.

I have liked most of the beers I've made over the years, but I'm also realistic enough to know I only have a handful of recipes that are good enough to be sold.  This is definately one of them.







Last weekend I went to Des Moines with my 2 brother in-laws and my father in-law.  We hit up several bars that night, and enjoyed quite a few great beers.  This shows out stop at the Hessen Haus, and out liters of German beer.  Prost!

Larry enjoying a liter of beer.

Traverse City

 Recently, we took a family trip to Traverse City, MI.  Other than an 11 hour car ride, it was a great trip.  We saw beautiful beaches, and very cold Lake Michigan, stayed at a great waterpark hotel, had some good food, and discovered some great beers.

To the right, you can kind of make out my wife and son climbing the Sleeping Bear Dunes (110 ft tall.)  If you like nature, food, beer, or wine, you need to visit this place, I wish we had an extra week to explore more.

After the dunes, we headed back to town for lunch and North Peak Brewing.  The food was great, the beer was a bit of a mix.  Half of my 8 beer sampler was pretty plain, but the other half was pretty damn good.  I especially liked the Blueberry Rye (front left in picture below,) and the barrel aged IPA (front right below.)

 If you're in Traverse City, and you want to buy some beer or wine to take home, you have to go the the Beverage Company.  http://www.thebeveragecompany.com/   The beer selection was amazing, and the service was even better.  They spent 1/2 hour with me pointing out must have Michigan beers.  I picked out a 6 pack sampler, and 2 large bottles that they recommended.  I can't wait to try the Neapolitan Milk Stout from Saugatuck Brewing and the Triple Goddess Kombucha Ginger Beer from Unity Vibration.

My other favorite stop was the Grand Traverse Distillery.  You can actually buy un-aged whiskey and a small barrel to take home.  So that's exactly what I did.  Since I'm such a fan of rye whiskey like Templeton Rye or Russell's Reserve, I figured I would buy their rye whiskey.  After a quick sample, I decided not to go that direction.  Don't get me wrong, it was a good tasting rye whiskey, but after drinking Templeton Rye and Russell's Reserve, it just couldn't measure up.  Their Bourbon, on the other hand, was fantastic. Great flavour, aroma, and extremely smooth.
This place is worth checking out.  http://www.grandtraversedistillery.com/
Right now, I'm curing my barrel.  Basically, I filled it with distilled water, and let it sit for 1 week.  This will allow the barrel to absorb some of the water and expand the wood.  After that, I'll put in the Bourbon, and let it sit for 2-3 months.  The best part about this, after I'm done using the barrel for the bourbon, I can start adding my homebrew to it, and make small barrel aged batches whenever I want.

Kegging time!

 Sunday, I kegged my Rye Amber Ale.  It was aged for 2 weeks on some oak from Templeton Rye Whiskey.  While adding the beer to the keg, I also added a half cup of Templeton Rye Whiskey to the keg as well.  This brew will end up around 6.5% ABV.  It will need 2-4 weeks in the keg before it's time to drink. I'll post my first try of it soon.

Rye Amber Ale

 So I've been slacking a bit on getting this in the blog.  Last Saturday, I turned the ingredients seen on the left into beer.  It;s going to be very similar to my usual Amber Ale that I make, except, I added a pound of rye to the grain bill.  The rye will add some spicey undertones to the beer.  It's also well hoped, and I used Wyeast Northwest Ale yeast to finish it off.

This brew was a partial mash, over 4 pounds of grain, mixed with 3 pounds of light dry malt extract (DME,) I also had a pound of corn sugar laying around from when I used to bottle, so I added that to the boil as well.  That will add an extra percent of alcohol to the finished product as well as allow the yeast to fully attenuate, meaning it should have a crisp, dry finish.

After 3 days the fermentation was starting to slow down.  I figured this would be the ideal time to add some more flavor to the party.  A few years back, I wrote to the good people at Templeton Rye Whiskey, in Templeton, IA.  I told them I was a homebrewer, and wanted to do a wood aged beer using their oak.  The quickly shipped out a board from one of their used whiskey barrels, and I try to use it sparingly for one brew a year.  I always use two 6 inch long pieces at once.  Before adding it to the fermenter, I bake them in the over for a half an hour.  This kills any microscopic critters that can add some interesting flavors to the beer.  I'll let this sit for at least two weeks before kegging.  I guess that means I need to finish the last of my Weizenbock to make room for this.  So once again, thank you to the people at Templeton Rye for making such an awesome product, but for being generous enough to share your barrels.  If you haven't checked them out yet, you really need to.  http://www.templetonrye.com/

Mad Town

 This weekend we went to Madison, WI to visit family.  It was also the annual neighborhood art walk that my sister participates in (see makes and sells pottery.)  Every year her husband does beer samples during the event.  The past 2 years he's sampled my homebrew there.  This year I brought just over 8 liters of beer for sampling, a Weizenbock, Cherry Stout, and Ginger Saison.

Little did I know, it was Madison Craft Beer Week.  What perfect timing!  Dale (my brother in-law) had a connection with a local brewery, and got us a short private tour.  The House of Brews http://houseofbrewsmadison.com is a small Co-op style brewery.  Paige, the owner and brewer, is working very hard, and producing high quality brews.  I highly recommend the Bungalow Rye ESB.

We also checked out a cask ale festival, and had 2 very interesting beers there, went to a few local markets/liquor stores, and also hit a local distillery, Old Sugar Distillery.  http://www.madisondistillery.com  Their rum and ouzo were very tasty.  Spending time with family, and enjoying great local brews is my idea of a great weekend.

Above and to the right is the haul of Wisconsin beer that made the trip back to Iowa.  

Above and to the left is a Maibock from Capital Brewery.

Below is an IPA from Ale Asylum.