Amazing

I'm sorry that I missed the meet, greet & tasting with Mikkel of Mikkeller. So, in honor of his visit to The Perfect Pour, I poured a bottle of 1000 IBU: a wild child of an Imperial IPA, that has so much bitterness it becomes sweet. I would have loved to ask how he got the malt to counter the hop extract, and criminal use of Simcoe hops, but that's what email and plane tickets are for.

8/10.

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The Zen master of brewing

I recently decided to go back through The Brewing Network's Sunday Session archive and start from the very beginning- and I laughed my ass off until I met Brian Hunt, the owner and brewer of Moonlight Brewing Company. He just turned my world on its axis, 180 degrees.

Brian engaged the original crew, and the original listeners, on a touch of controversy regarding brewing and brewing to style, or should I say not brewing to style.

I will echo Jon Plise's comment that homebrewers should brew to style in order to understand flavor and how different ingredients/steps/temperatures affect what you're trying to accomplish. (Not that I am any kind of expert, far from it; but, I have read thousands of pages of brewing publications and listened to hundreds of hours of fairly high quality podcasts about brewing.)

Brian is a complete and total advocate of brewing what tastes good to you, and not pigeon-holing yourself into a style. That kind of philosophy completely goes against the grain of what it means to be an American homebrewer; an opinion that I share with the Brewcasters.

How he reached this 10th level of beer-godliness is beyond the scope of my post. What is within, though, is a feeling that once you get your system and process dialed in, you should go ahead and branch out. If you're into North American competition, go ahead and brew to style; but use that knowledge and mish-mash of flavors to inspire your own special brew.

It's worth your while to listen to the episode, from late 2005. While you're at it, listen to the show from the following week, they interview Dan Gordon, of Gordon Biersch, who is the polar opposite of Brian Hunt. An excellent contrast,as Gordon adheres to the Reinheitsgebot.

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Location:My car

What is strange?

Odd. How very, very odd. This is one of the most insane beers I have had in a long, long time. I'm talking about Brouwerij Stubbe's Ichtegem’s grand cru.

As you can tell from the beautiful pour, it has stunning ruby highlights around the edges, and darkens-but remains clear-through the center, eventually growing to a rich brown. My nose was then assaulted by a vinegary tone followed with some malt.

On taste, she plays the part of insane girlfriend well. Dry. Crazy. No hops. Funky (like she needs a shower). Tangy (like she needs a shower). This is clearly one wild brew; and goes well with macaroni and cheese, with a light balsamic dressing with it (don't knock it till you try it).

For my first Flemish red, she earns 8/10.

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The best library is the one you can drink

So, I have a whole mess of beer that I have drunk and need to write about. All of this was really over the course of the past week, but I have just had so many other things to attend to, that I haven't been able to write. Well, who has the time now? And who has your attention? That's what I thought!

I will have to note, that I won't provide a tasting score for these. I remember them all, but without the beer in front of me it wouldn't be fair to rate them. However, I will provide my observations.


Quickly, what goes better with macaroni & cheese than a fine smoked porter from Stone Brewing? Answer: a whole lot of nothing! I encourage all to find this beer, as it is really quite smooth and the smoke doesn't make an appearance until the finish, where it is crisp and dry. I really prefer that in a dark style.


Ah, well, perfection can't last, and I have to say I found a Stone beer that simply isn't for me. That would be Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale. It was a very nice pour, as evident by my Boston Beer Company glass filled with a very rich brown brew and dense tan head. My only qualm with this beer is it had too much. It was overly roasty, overly alcoholic and overly hopped. Which, for me, a crazy-ass IPA lover, is nuts. Stone got this bad boy to ferment out dry, I mean dry! For something like this, it just didn't work. Now, it could be that the beer had to enjoy a 2,700 mile trip across the country to find it's way into my fridge, but for a brewer of such high demand I would imagine the bottle I bought was a fresh representative of what they intended.

So, of course I had to cleanse my palatte. How better to do that, than opening up a lambic! Specifically, a faro!

I found a bottle of Lindemans Faro from The Perfect Pour, and was very giddy. (My purpose for that trip was to find some goofy, off the wall Belgians; while Lindemans may not be, necessarily that wild, it was the first time I found a faro.)

I'll tell you, there is nothing better to drink while you are washing the dishes. The beer is very sweet--a nice dessert beer--and crystal clear with an amazing funk and nil hops. This would make for a terrific gateway beer into funny Belgians.


I have been waiting for years to get a hold of something fresh from Fort Collins, Colorado. Yes, that's right, New Belgium is finally being shipped to the <sarcasm>The People's Republic of Maryland</sarcasm>.

If I were to brew an Oktoberfest, this would be my model. Hoptober is a homebrewing hop-lover's paradise ale, especially if you're limited in the ability to make lager beer. NB has you covered with this golden ale. I was shocked how tasty it was and I will most definitely attempt to clone this bad boy.

The following is the description right from NB's website, and I encourage you to a. visit their website, b. visit your local liquor store and buy this beer.

Five hops and four malts make Hoptober Golden Ale a veritable cornucopia of the earth. Pale and wheat malt are mashed with rye and oats to create a medium-bodied ale with a creamy mouthfeel.

Centennial, Cascade, Sterling, Willamette, and Glacier hops form a bonfire of citrus notes, fruity cheers and a bold finale.

...doesn't that make you thirsty?


Thank your Beer Ranger! Toasty and biscuity with a fresh floral nose, spicy and citrusy hop flavor, this is yet another beer to seek out. It is a good example of an American IPA (probably not the best representative of the style) that is a smooth talker and a very smooth drinker. It would be extraordinarily easy to drink 6 too many of these. Don't ask me how I know.


And, we close out the night with Westmalle Dubbel a dark, sticky ale that my pal, Sean Paxton, has a wonderful, wonderful marshmallow recipe for. I made it; they are wonderful! But back to the beer, I think I may have either drunk it too fast and experienced some cold shock on my tongue, or the bottle had taken a turn for the worse. The beer was good, but for Westmalle, I have most certainly had better. None the less, I was thirsty, and boy did it hit the spot. I only long to have had a nice piece of milk chocolate to go with it. Or chocolate cake with a nice light dusting of powdered sugar. Or a double dark chocolate, double chocolate stout pudding. Just let me say, that this is another fine dessert beer.

And that wraps up my essay for this evening. Thanks for popping in and reading. I hope I haven't bored you to death.

Let me ask a question of the masses: should I pursue becoming a BJCP judge? It may help me to better educate myself on the flavors and profiles of beer, and offer you some more accurate descriptions of what's going on inside of that bottle. Just a thought.

- Listening to Vanilla Ice