I'm going to a tapping party for the Odell Myrcenary Double IPA tonight.

Here's the brewery description:

http://odellbrewing.com/beers/myrcenary

Figured I'd post this in this thread...my wife gave me a kegerator tap with a chalkboard for my birthday a few weeks back:

Damn. That's awesome.

That's awesome.

Write something else on it, and it'll be really awesome.

Yea, she wrote that as part of the gift since thats the keg I currently have. The smear is from when she gave it to me when I came home after a few drinks and was seeing if it was paint or not. I'll have to figure out something better to write on it soon.

Recents


Smuttynose - Wheat Wine Ale

Roughly half wheat beer, half barleywine. I donno, I was in the mood for something else from them. It's been awhile, and even though their stuff is in something of a narrow range of taste, I do enjoy it. This was a nice alternative to their barleywine, which I recall kicking my ass from here to sunday. Barleywine in general is so big, sweet, dense, and boozey that it's an acquired taste. This took the edge off, brought it down a little in density, and gave it a nice dry component to the flavor. And that color... that was my favorite part. Looked like a glass full of honey. Carbonation was low, which has a way of making things taste sweeter to me. Still, I enjoyed it even if I don't really see buying more. B


La Chouffe - Golden

Tha SHOOF! Shoof, shoof-ah-doof, shoof-ah-doof, shoof-a-doof-AAA-doof-ah-doof (you make me wanna Shoof)
This was great in that "It's a belgian blonde so I expect it to be great" kinda way. It's spicey and sweet and wierdly refreshing. Something with 8% shouldn't go down like a lawn mowing beer, but this thing was almost Keg Stand-able. Tastes like the real thing because it is. No surprises, predictable excellence. A


Maine Beer Co. - Zoe

Second type of theirs I've now tried this week. I dug this one too. Neither was revolutionary, but then they both manage to Not Taste Like Everything Else, which is something I'm starting to put a premium on. This one changed over the course of the glass as it got warmer, too. It started out sweeter, and then got spicey and almost dry by the time I finished it. It tastes like a lot of care went into it, that they used more than one kind of everything to round out the flavor well. It's a well-hopped dark amber with a lot to like. B+

I've never been very impressed with LaChouffe.

McChouffe and N'ice Chouffe, on the other hand...

I was conflicted. On the one hand, it tastes like most other real belgian blondes, and I've had a bunch. Onthe other hand, those taste really fucking good, and I didn't wanna penalize them for being merely "adequate" in an excellent category. And I still like Caracole's Saxo better, I think. But shit, they're all so good.

The local distributor didn't come through with the Odell Myrcenary Double IPA, so the brew pup went into their stockpile of Shelton Brothers products to tap the Biere Darbyste Belgian Ale made with Fig Juice.

https://www.ratebeer.com/ratings/beer/b ... ste/12171/

It was pretty tasty, but not something the I'd normally consume on a cold winter night in Nebraska, the fig taste wasn't nearly as strong as it is in a traditional Belgian Strong Ale like Cuvee Van De Keizer.


http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/dieu-du-ci ... tel/11461/

They also have Peche Mortel Imperial Stout on tap once again, which seems to be more appropriate for sub zero temps.

So I went to this neighborhood wine crawl on Saturday where all of the businesses in the neighborhood served wine. You paid up front and they give you a wine glass to take around to the stores. Even the autocare place had guys in tuxedos serving wine and cheese. Really cool and fun way to promote businesses.

Anyway, we're at about our umpteenth spot and I'm just about "wined" out. It was a restaurant/art gallery with a cool bar. I wander over to check out their beer list and lo and behold they have Bell's Hopslam on tap. I've never been able to find it around here much less on tap.

I immediately ordered one and she was only able to fill up about half of a pint glass before the keg ran out. It was all they had and she said they wouldn't get it back in until next season. She ended up giving me the half pint for free.

I suppose my interest was mainly driven by it's scarcity but it was quite good. I didn't realize the ABV was so high with them. Still, it's hidden pretty well and the hops aren't immediate despite it's name. When I tried it I got this citrusy explosion and THEN come the hops. But, man, they stick with you. My palate was ruined for about a half hour. Pretty unique beer. I can see what the hype is about but I doubt I could drink more than one of these in a sitting. Glad I got to try it though.

Also had a Brooklyn Brewing Brown Ale.

Meh. It was okay but I don't normally associate pronounced hops in a brown ale which is what I came away with.

Not something I'd probably buy to savor but to pair with the Churrasco I was eating, it served it's purpose.

Ha ha, that's awesome. Free Bell's Hopslam in ATL.

So the "citrus" you're talking about is also hops. Both flavors are in hops (citrus vs bitter), but that pine / citrus / sweetish / "GREEN" flavor can easily boil off if the hops go in when there's still some cooking left to do. The longer they cook, the more that boils away, and the more you're left with just the bitter flavor, which was there too anyway. And different kinds of hops have more of one or the other flavor. The bitterness is measured as units of alpha acid, if memory serves. So when you want something really bitter, you put in something like Cascade (I think it was) that has like 10.something alphas, instead of Fuggles or Kent or Golding hops or whatever that have like 4 or 5. And you put them in early, so the greeny stuff boils away.

Anywho.

I'm finally going to go out and get some proper glassware for drinking them Trappist Ales. Just picked up a large bottle of Tripel Karmeliet and want to have them glasses before pouring it.

Recents

Nebraska Brewing Co - Melange a Trois

My first beer from these guys, and it was a very good way to start out. There is not a gottdamn thing wrong with this beer. The smell is straight up chardonnay, but the flavor impact is mild and pleasant. The underlying beer is just called a belgian blonde style, but it's a sharper, dryer style than something like Saison Dupont. The wood helps mellow it out. All in all I was very very happy with this... Good on ya, Nebraska! Now send more. B+


Rochefort - 8

Alright, this wasn't as good as 10. Let's get that out of the way first. Not just "it was lighter, and more booze is always good." Nothing like that. This was raisins, bananas, caramel, alcohol, yeast, and a HINT of malt / hops. It was almost like a desert beer. It's good, it's not offensive or "wrong" in some big way, and a lot of people who don't think they like "good beer" would probably be all over this. But knowing what the 10 tastes like, I can't get too excited about this. Too sweet, too syrupy, too mellow. B-


Innis & Gunn - Rum Aged

Ok. Their regular oak-aged, you may recall, had me busting out the velvet robe, throwing on some Barry White, and looking for something to fuh. Anything. Then I found this variant last night and grabbed a 4. It wasn't quite as good. Like the one above, it wound up being too flat and sweet to get excited about. It's also smooth, and sneaky (don't taste like 7.4% or whatever it is), but if you're thinking along these lines, go for the other one. The rum smell / flavor is distracting. B-

So you're saying they throw in some at the very end and strain before it has a chance to boil away?

I mean, that shit was almost menthol-like.

Yeah, the oils in hops are what boil off. So if it gets cooked for 20 or 30 minutes, that big floral pine cone flavor goes away and it's just bitter - well, as bitter as that variety of hops is, and of course depending on how much you threw in.

Very few beers are truly unfiltered at ALL. Most get all the malt and hops filtered out, and then when they're bottled the yeast is filtered out too. Belgians and other "bottle conditioned" beers leave the yeast in - it settles to the bottom of the bottle in SNOOZE mode, but you can absolutely snag it, save it, and use it to make more beer. In theory, you could open one of those beers, dump in a packet of table sugar, wait about 30 seconds, and it should start going apeshit foaming crazy. Did I tell you about the time in athens, home brewing in Aberdeen apartments on Barnett Shoals Rd (I think that was it?), and I thought I had a "stuck" batch...? There's an air lock on the bucket that lets the gas out (carbon dioxide the yeast poops out while it's in there gettin' it on with the sugary malt water). I never saw any bubbles, like I usually would, and it got to be like 10 days. So I asked someone what to do, they said "dump a fresh packet of yeast in, and a cup of table sugar." I did. Well, the yeast from the first go round had in fact done their job, really quickly I guess before I could even see it. Ever since, they were on the bottom, chillin out. Then Dumby McDumbenstein dumps a fucking cup of rocket fuel in there... suddenly I see it start to foam and bubble, like QUICKLY. "Oh fuck!" and I shut the lid tight on the bucket. Still, the foam comes shooting up out of the 4 tiny-ass holes in the plastic airlock, spraying sticky flat beer allll the fuck over the closet, mostly on the roof of it, then dripping and running down everywhere. The whole goddam closet was covered in it. Ah-Whoops.

Oh and for this, you use

- Lots of hops
- Multiple varieties of hops
- Hops added throughout the whole boil, some early, some late, but
- MOSTLY a lot of late hops, and of a variety with a big big GREEN flavor.

They're funny little plants - grow on a vine, look like little green pinecones, but they're soft.

My buddy Sam Riggins is the assistant brewmaster at Nebraska Brewing Co. He commutes from Lincoln to work there and they provide free beer to a local art venue on First Friday. I never miss one of their tapping parties.

I wouldn't miss them either. Jesus. That was good stuff.

Nebraska Brewing Company is having a tapping party for their Farrell's Irish Red Ale tonight at my favorite brew pub, so I am heading their after work for a pint before I come back home and drink some 2011 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot. I've got tomorrow off, so I'm not too worried about overdoing it a little bit.

Samuel Smith - The Famous Taddy Porter

Don't have much experience with Porter's but this came pretty highly recommended.

I'd already been to the gym, had dinner, and settled in to savor this. The Walkmen's "Lisbon" provided accompaniment.

Whoa. This thing is super rich and heavy. Lots of chocolate and coffee flavors. Clearly something is getting roasted in this thing.

Despite how heavy it is, it's a pretty smooth drinker. Took me about a 1/3 of the glass to really settle in with it but by the time I got to the end I was wishing the bottle was juuuuuuust a little bit bigger so I could've had about another half pint's worth.

Not an everyday beer for sure but the thing that kept coming to mind was breakfast. This, along with some bacon and eggs would be gotdamn delicious.

You are one twisted motherfucker.

Stu,
You should try the Lucky Bucket Beers now that they are available in the Nashville market.

http://nashvillebeergeek.blogspot.com/2 ... t-ipa.html
The brewery is actually located in La Vista, NE, not here in Lincoln, but they are a highly respected Brewery and the only commercial distillery in the Cornhusker state.

Back on that epic London work trip, when Colin took me around all day, we hit up a Sammy Smith's house, a bar that only serves their stuff. Wood paneling as far as the eye could see, nooks and benches and little cubbyholes to sit in, stained glass all over, and pull draught kegs of all their stuff, fresh from the brewery. It was really good, 1/2 because of the beer and 1/2 because of the atmosphere. And maybe another 1/2 because it was like 11am.

Been meaning to update this. Went to the lake last weekend.

Had me some of these:



Pretty heady, and a bit more fruit/caramel elements than I would usually drink, but it was nice on a cool night by the lake.

And a coupla these:



It is official. Bell's can do no wrong, and should be put on some Historic Registry of Awesomeness.

Now, this beer ain't no joke. It says right on the bottle that it is best enjoyed sipped out of a snifter, and it's 10% I think. It is listed as a Barleywine on Beer Advocate. I could only get through 2, but that was probably because I had split a 6er of the Grand Cru, and a 6er of Two Hearted (natch) before even getting to this.

But shit, the chocaltey, malty feel, and very little head was really enjoyable. Again, on a cool night burning leaves and grilling Boudin and venison burgers up at the lake.

I really wish we could get larger bottles, because I could see a Saturday night of drinking 2 bombers and going to bed satisfied. I do have that Abt 12 to bust into. It's only 10:20, and I am considering it....