Spectre’s Sayings

A summary of my brews thus far:

• Cherry Melomel – Gone!
• Brown Ale – 1 bottle left
• English Bitter – ruined and discarded
• Spiced Christmas Ale – serving
• Lemon/Orange Melomel – serving
• Scottish 60 – in Secondary
• Cherry Melomel – in Primary
• Pomegranate Melomel – in Primary
• Pale Ale – in Primary
• Brown Ale – on deck

Beers I’d like to brew include:

• a Patersbier
• a Belgian Dubbel
• a Brown Porter
• a Dunkelweisse

And possibly others.

Last night I had a Shiner Hefeweizen. It was a thoroughly unremarkable beer.

When I drink a hefe, I want to experience some serious yeast esters. Some aromas and flavors of bananas and cloves, perhaps, like in German Hefes. I didn’t notice anything like that.

It didn’t really seem too much like an American Wheat, either.

It was just… there. No stand out flavors or aromas. It was sort of in the background and didn’t draw any attention to itself.

It’s definitely not a bad beer, in fact, it was very well-crafted. And, I’ll bet, a good introduction to wheat beers for someone who is accustomed to American mega-brews.

But, for me, it was basically no big deal.

A review of Weihenstephaner Korbinian, a beer I think is really good, can be found here.

The other night, I had a Tecate Light.

A friend of mine had brought several of them over for me to have – trying to repay me for giving her some Schlafly Raspberry Hefeweizen. I think I got the short end of the deal. I mean, it’s a light beer. A “light” version of an American Pilsner. So, it’s a watered down version of something that either has no taste or tastes like old socks. OK, yeah, it’s from Mexico. It tasted a heck of a lot better than Bud Light or Miller Lite. But still, I wouldn’t be spending any of my own money on this swill.

Kiss me, I’m Irish.
I am the wild rover.
My eyes, they are smiling,
and I’m seldom sober.
I like my whiskey,
and I like to dance.
So if you’re feeling as lucky as me,
take a chance.

And kiss me, I’m Irish…

Craft beer companies enjoy steady sales despite bad economy – BostonHerald.com.

Reason Magazine has a cool article on the homebrewing revolution. Go read it.

You Are Guinness

You know beer well, and you’ll only drink the best beers in the world. Watered down beers disgust you, as do the people who drink them. When you drink, you tend to become a bit of a know it all – especially about subjects you don’t know well. But your friends tolerate your drunken ways, because you introduce them to the best beers around.

Well, I worked eleven and a half hours of overtime between Monday and Friday this week. Because of computer network problems, they cancelled OT for this morning. I had planned to blow off a little steam last night, but only have two drinks so that I could go into work OT this morning, but after they cancelled it, I changed my mind and just decided to play it by ear.

I went to Bar None after work. I had invited a bunch of people to go out, but it was short notice, and only 1 guy ever showed up. I was on my second beer when he did. My first beer was a Newcastle on draft – which is always nice. My second beer was Left Hand Brewing’s Black Jack Porter (6.2% ABV).

It poured a dark, dark brown with a decent tan-colored head. On first sniff, I could detect a floral aroma, followed on second sniff by a strong caramel scent. The beer seemed kind of thick on the tongue, but rather pleasantly so. A strong flavor of roasted malts dominated, although there were hints of espresso. Pretty good beer, but not my favorite porter. But I’d drink it again. Bill, my drinking companion, had one as his first beer of the evening.

Bill wanted to go to Brewhaus, but I told him I’d have to eat something before I did any serious drinking. So, we went to Sammy’s Sports Bar where we had supper. I had another Newcastle with my meal.

Then we went to the Brewhaus, where Bill had Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout – a hefty beer weighing in at 13% ABV. I, on the other hand, having been told that they were out of Westmalle Dubbel ordered a Grouden Carolus Tripel. This was another first for me.

A very fizzy beer, it poured a hazy golden color. It had a pleasant aroma – almost, but not quite fruity in character. The head took a long time to die down, and the lacing was just amazing. The flavor was pretty good – as I’ve come to expect from a tripel, but there was a hint of vinegar to it, and there was also a little something which I couldn’t identify, but added a small but noticeable unpleasantness to the overall flavor. It was still good, just not quite as good as it could have been.

Bill had to go pick up his son, so we called it a night, and I went home about 8:20 p.m.

Disclaimer: Oberon Ale is Bell Brewery’s summer ale, and I’m drinking it in the middle of winter, so it’s obviously not as fresh as it could be. So take the following review with a heaping mound of salt.

A light honey-colored American wheat beer with a small (for a wheat) head. It had an grassy, lemony aroma and a slightly sweet initial taste. It’s a smooth-drinking beer with a mouthfeel that is a bit thick, but not viscous. There is a spicy note at the finish, and a slightly bitter aftertaste.

This is a high-quality beer. If it was widely available in my state, I’d probably be drinking a whole lot of it in the summertime. Pretty good stuff.

The last beer I had in 2008 happened, quite by accident, to be a Sam Adams Octoberfest. I hadn’t intended it to be the last one. I just simply didn’t get around to having another beer before I went to bed last night. Oh well, it was still good.

Friday

A guy that works in a nearby division of the agency that I work in was playing in a band on Friday night. So several of us at work decided to go see him. This event took place at Bar None in downtown Springfield. I had never been there before, so I was interested in seeing what the bar was like, and what kinds of beer they had available. So, I arrived early. Oh my! Such a nice selection! I started off by having a Hofbrau original – which they had on tap. It must have been a slow, rough boat ride over for that keg, because it wasn’t all that fresh. I then switched to bottles of Flying Dog’s Gonzo Imperial Porter. Weighing in at 7.8% ABV, this was a pretty yummy beer, with only the slightest hint of alchohol hotness. I had another 3 (4?) for the rest of the evening.

Saturday

I woke up on Saturday with an amazing headache, for some unknown reason. So, for that reason, and because I had a lot of work to do at home, I decided not to go in to work overtime. I stayed home and cleaned the house, and started preparing food for the party I was having. Eight of the 14 people I invited came – the eight that I fully expected to. We sampled various Christmas Ales and Winter Warmers. Oh, my! Yummy!

My personal favorite was Delirium Noel, followed by Schlafly’s Christmas Ale. But there were a lot (a LOT!) of good beers. Everyone said they had a good time.

Pouring a deep reddish-brown color with the remarkable head one expects from a wheat beer, Anheuser Busch’s Dunkel Weisse is very well done. With strong caramel notes in the aroma, it strikes a perfectly-balanced sweet/bitter flavor profile. Not a particularly complex beer, it’s still a very fine example of the style. And it’s not priced badly either.

The Michelob Dunkel Weisse first became commercially available in September. Let’s all agree to give it enough marketshare to keep it available, shall we?

Shared a bottle of this lovely beer with a friend last night. Thiis honey-colored champaign of beers is really good. Fruity aroma, small head, 8% ABV. But it’s dry, folks. A very dry-tasting beer.

Really yummy, though – but I wouldn’t expect less from a Trappist ale.