May 2011 Archives

I was recently contacted by a sales representative from Build A Sign.com. Build a sign makes custom Yard Signs, Signs, and Custom Banners. I am trading them a nice banner for a summer BBQ, in trade for putting up a link to their site. When my banner comes in I will give them a nice little link over on the right hand side of the site. Their prices are very reasonable and it's very straight forward to build your sign. Check them out for your next event:

This is really a great brew. I am not a big Sam Adams fan, I don't dislike them, and in fact Jim Koch seems to be a very cool guy. But most of their brews are pretty average or below. Yeah they make crazy stuff like Utopias, but where is their great IPA, etc. Anyhow I poured this Double Bock and it was just beautiful, deep dark, and rich, like maple syrup. It's a very nice malty ale. I just brewed up a batch of Vanilla Cream Ale, patterned after my Strawberry Cream Ale, and this was the perfect - after brewing complement. It has that same great malt smell that you get when you brew. For my Vanilla Cream Ale, I am going to make my own vanilla extract and pitch in the secondary. If it is half as good as the Strawberry Cream Ale I will be pleased.

One thing I have learned from kegging, is that it takes ale a lot longer to mature in the keg than if you had bottle conditioned it. You can force carbonate from the get go, but it's going to taste immature if you don't give it time. My summer ale was questionable at best, to start with. However after a couple months in the keg, it was really very decent. It was clear, with a nice spicy aroma, and full bodied. It had a cinnamon nutmeg, allspice type flavor. I will say this however, I did two different batches, one with a cultured yeast from a Brooklyn Hopfen Weisse, and another with White Labs WLP300. The cultured yeast batch was way better. I am not too impressed with the White Labs yeast. It gave it too much of a yeasty character that took forever to fade, and never really did go completely away.

Here is a brew that has been around for a while from what I can tell. I was reading a beer book printed in 2010 and it cited Racer 5 on it's list. Not everybody makes those 'beers of the world' type books, you generally have to be fairly well known. But in the case of Michigan, Racer 5 is new from what I can tell; I don't think it has been on shelves too long. It has a great cascade hop bouquet, a medium body, and is a highly carbonated coppery gold IPA. I would say it's on par with Bell's Two Hearted, for all you folks who like to hate on two hearted, go jump off a brewpot. Try this one if you haven't already, it's a really good brew.

This is American Craft Beer Week. Craft beer, is the only American beer, so if you love Beer, love America, and love the Freedom to brew, drop in to your local pub and thank your brewer for a job well done. Budweiser's website has a legacy page that has a "Truly American Tale" and that's just what it is, a tale. Budweiser (AB-InBev) is about as American as pork fried rice, so don't let the big guys fool you.

This is also a great time to become an AHA member. There is a great article about the AHA on Northern Brewers website showing the great work that they do defending American's right to homebrew.

While recently in the Chicago area I could not resist the urge to check out the local Whole Foods, having never actually seen one before. While wandering about the store I found the Stone collaborative brew, Highway 78.This deep mahogany brew poured with minimal head, and had a great caramelized malt flavor. It had that definitive Scotch Ale twang going on, definitely worthy of being called a Scotch Ale. Highly recommended if you happen to come across it.   

Veta Tucker and others are offended by Flying Dog Brewery's Raging Bitch Beer and would like to keep it out of the state. Evidently the description hits too close to home for some. Hey if you want to be offended all the time that's your business. But what seriously offends me is that my tax money goes to retarded goon's (To be read Michigan State Attorneys & Liquor Control Commissioners) to doof around all the time. There is very limited need for their services to begin with. But keeping good beer out of Michigan over the naming is just plain government wastefulness. This is of course not the first time this has happened, and unfortunately will not be the last. Read More @ Mlive.com

The other thing here is that it seems we are being a little inconsistent when allow Old Hat to have a Dirty Red MILF, and Thirsty Dog to have an Old Leg Humper. Perhaps we are just being sexist since we allow male dogs on our labels but not female dogs.

This light golden ale has a crisp refreshing citrus aroma, and flavor reminiscent of grapefruit. The mild hop bitterness fits perfectly into the flavor profile and complements it nicely. Clear for a wheat ale, I think this is a wheat ale that even non-wheat drinkers may enjoy. I am very impressed and I look forward to sampling more North Peak brews.