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.

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 I received 3rd place for Tasters Choice at this years Beers to You and Gourmet Too in Waterloo, IA.  There were about 30 home brews in the competition, and many were excellent, so I'm very happy with third place.  Thanks to everyone that voted for me, and my Caramel Coffee Doppelbock.   I'll be back next year, shooting to at least match this years 3rd place finish.

 This Amber Ale proves how stiff the competition really was.  It didn't place in the top 3, but it's a fantastic example of the style. Perfectly balanced, good malt/biscuit flavor, with the perfect amount of hop bitterness to keep the malts in check.

This is a super easy drinking beer that would be perfect drink to have while grilling on a spring afternoon.  If spring ever gets here, that is.

Sweet Child of Vine by Fulton Brewery in MN, is an above average IPA. Another well balanced brew.  I personally would have liked a touch more flavor and aroma from the hops, but it was a great beer to have with the BBQ chicken nachos I had for supper last night.  I'd be interested in trying some of their other brews.
www.fultonbeer.com

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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!