Beer is good

 First draw from the keg of Caramel Coffee Doppelbock.  This beer turned out perfect.  Thick, rich, sweet, yet balanced.  Caramel and chocolate flavor through in this easy drinking 7.25% ABV brew.

If you'd like to try some, come out to Beers to You in Waterloo on Sunday March 3rd.  You will need a VIP ticket to get into the home brew section, and have the chance to vote for your favorite beer.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beers-to-You-Gourmet-Too/174830469206871?fref=ts

Schlafly Brewery out of St. Louis has been producing solid beer for many years.  I recently picked up one of their specialty releases, Single Malt Scottish Style Ale, aged in scotch barrels.  Weighing in at 10.2% ABV, this beer is very easy to drink.  If you like scotch, this is a must have.  It's a perfect combination of beer and scotch.  The smell of a high quality scotch, and oak is the first thing you notice, then you get the perfect balance of scotch flavor mixed with the subtlety and smoothness of a great beer.  The beer itself is a simple, straight forward, yet perfectly brewed light beer, that really takes on the complexity of the scotch and oak barrel that it was aged in.

My hat off the the genius at Schlafly that came up with this amazing brew.

http://schlafly.com/

Caramel Coffee Doppelbock

 Sunday, it was finally time to keg the doppelbock.  This is a recipe I created and brewed last year, and was a favorite of mine,  and friends and family alike, so I decided to brew it again.  To add a little something extra to this 7.25% doppelbock, I added some fresh roasted Starbuck's Caramel Coffee to top off the keg.

 This brew won't be ready to drink in time for the Super Bowl, but will be ready for samples at the next Beers to You, on March 3rd.  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beers-to-You-Gourmet-Too/174830469206871

 Went to Single Speed Brewing in Cedar Falls on Saturday with my brother in-law Jared, and his wife Johanna.  She dropped us off at the bar for awhile before joining us for a beer cocktail.  I had to put this picture on here, because, I found out this was her first ever drink at a bar!

I tried a Snowshoe ale and an Imperial Red.  Both beers were extremely tasty.  You could really taste the chocolate overtones in the Snowshoe ale.  The Imperial Red was excellent and very smooth for a 7.5% brew.

This is a picture of my beer cocktail.  A mixture of an Imperial Stout from Peace Tree Brewing, some bourbon from Cedar Ridge Distillery, and some cherry flavoring.  The bourbon really came through after the drink warmed and opened up.  I would absolutely have another one of these.

Iowa is quickly becoming a great place to enjoy craft brewed beers and liquors.  Here's a few links from my sampling this past weekend.

http://www.singlespeedbrewing.com/

http://www.peacetreebrewing.com

http://crwine.com/eat-drink/cedar-ridge-distilled-spirits/

Quick reviews

 Laguntis Maxius IPA is a great IPA.  It has a ton of citrus flavor and aroma, and is extremely hoppy.  It is still a well balanced beer with a lot of sweetness from the malts. This beer is good with food or on it's own.  I highly recommend this if you are an IPA fan.

Recently, I've had a craving for scotch.  Not wanting to spend the big bucks on Glenfiddich, I decided to try Dewar's 12 year old, double barrel aged scotch.  Upon opening the bottle I noticed it smelled more like a bourbon than a scotch.  Mixing it with water, I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth it was.  Again, it did have similarities to a bourbon, but still had some of the classic peat, almost smokey flavors of a good scotch.  I also tried a little "neat."  It was still very smooth, and picked up a ton of flavor from the barrels it was aged in.  The was great vanilla flavor with some interesting caramel flavor.  Why this is still not in the same level as a Glenfiddich, it is still a very tasty, respectable scotch, and a nice way to bring in the new year.

Doppelbock

 After many months of not brewing, I finally made another batch today.  This one is a doppelbock, and it should be just over 7% ABV.  I did a partial mash today, with 4.5 pounds of ground malts, and 6 pound of malt extract.  I added 1 ounce of Fuggle pellet hops and 2 ounces of fresh (frozen) Nugget hops.  It's fermenting with a simple dry lager yeast.  I plan to let it ferment for 3-4 weeks before kegging it.  I also plan to add a few cups of fresh brewed coffee at kegging time, I just haven't decided what kind yet.

I have tried several interesting beers since I last wrote, and hope to have a few reviews posted soon, so keep checking back.

This is Dale (to the right,) he's by brother in-law.  This is what happens to him after I give him too many home brews!  I think he sat in the corner and played his ukulele (or ooh-ka-lay-lee as he pronounced it,) for well over an hour.  We all get through the holidays different, but they are always better with a great beer in hand.

Bacon beer??

 Rogue Maple Bacon beer, sounds like a good idea, right?  I'm still not sold on it.  At first the beer starts smooth, sweet, and full of maple flavour.  Than, it's followed by smoke, smoke, and bacon grease.  Of course, the first 3 ingredients are smoked malts.  A little over kill if you ask me.  I don't know if I would want to drink a whole 22oz. bottle, but it's worth trying and sharing.  I also wouldn't mind having it with some bacon and eggs, it might be decent.

 I'd like to give a big thanks to the good people at DeSchutes Brewery.  Last month a received a Hop Henge beer for my birthday, unfortunately, it was totally flat.  As I said earlier, the aroma was amazing, and it was still the best flat beer I ever had.  When I let the brewery know about the flat beer, they immediately offered me a refund.  I declined.  They promptly refused and said they'd send it and a bottle opener for good measure.

A few weeks later, a bad day, was made better by what I received in the mail.  A hat, bottle opener, sticker, and a hand written card from Gina at DeShutes Brewery.  As far as I'm concerned, they didn't owe me anything, so obviously this went above and beyond my expectations.  I can't wait to try more of their brews.  Thank you Gina, you made my day!

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.