Heaven, thy name is cask beer

Had a remarkable trip up to MN in mid June. Stayed with Mike and Amy Determan in Woodbury, a suburb near St Paul.

True to form, Mike had an excellent beer night lined up for us. First, we started with some Blue Moon, an old friend indeed, then moved to the nectar called Summit Red Ale. The first one in the bottle was one of many to come.

Supper was scheduled at the Muddy Pig, a bar/restaurant for the person who finds pleasure in the finer beers and spirits.

First was the Summit Red Ale again on tap. Then, we tried it on cask. Good Lord, strike me down if it wasn't one of the finest beers to ever pass my lips. If ever I could figure out how to have cask beer at home I would enjoy every minute of it.

Kelly had a 9% IPA, and we also sampled a saison for good measure.

Onto the Happy Gnome where we found good cheer in a banana creme broulee and a Avery Reverend...a nod to the Belgian Quad we all enjoy, this is one ass-kicking beer. Definitely one for a cool night in front of a fire, or for sipping on a cool summer night. Not a beer to wash down food with!

Thanks, St Paul.

Three new beers

Tried the Mighty Arrow pale ale this weekend...and into this week.  Neat beer.  

The aroma is spectacular.  The label says there are Cascade and Amarillo hops in the beer.  I'm thinking that a bunch of Amarillo was added at the last to create that aroma.  

The aroma was sticky, but not as intense as a IPA.  Definitely more floral. 

The bitterness was sharp, but not as deep as an IPA.  Nice golden body, enough malt to fill my palate. 

9/10 

Also rediscovered an old friend: Millstream Brewery Schild Brau amber lager from Amana, Iowa. Very smooth lager with healthy body.  A dangerous session beer.  Drink it quick or it gets skunky when lukewarm...that may conflict with a drinking session as its 5% abv.  

7/10 with caveats.  A 'right beer at right time' rating would boost the number. 

Brau Brothers, out of St. Lucan, MN, has an interesting brown ale. Ringneck brown ale, I believe it's called.  

Don't expect a Nukie clone or typical brown ale with a slightly light body and hopping.  Oh no.  This beer has a toe in porter country.  Their malt mix leaves a sweet residue on the palate, to be quickly balanced by a dose of hops. The sweetness is reminiscent of a porter with its dark, almost molasses-like body.  

It was interesting, but caught me off guard.  Not really a warmer weather beer, but a pleasant surprise after the first drink. 

7/10. 

Boulevard Smokestack Series Double Wide IPA.  

Awesome. 9.5/10. 

We're Dry in Burlington

Haven't had a post in awhile, but mostly because there hasn't been much brewing going on! 

Finished my Up Your Kilt Scottish Ale a week ago, and there is one breakfast stout left for my bro in law, Dave, who staked a claim to one a couple months ago. 

On deck is a Patersbier kit from Northern Brewer, complete with liquid yeast. 

In the hole is an Irish Stout, kind of a Guinness clone. 

Once those are done, I'm thinking of either a refreshing wheat beer or a summer ale. 

Problem is with the brewing schedule, as in there is none.  House projects are mounting, and the triplets are not needing any less care!  One of these days. 

Also on the docket is a keg.  Bottling is for the birds, especially when shared bottles of home brew never make it home.  My 22oz bottles aren't cheap, and I'll need them to store my upcoming high grav brews. 

My beer of choice lately has been Guinness, the old friend.  Guinness is such an easy beer to drink, and it's not fussy.   Drink it fast or slow, it always makes its mark.  

New whiskey in the cabinet:  Evan Williams reserve; what an excellent, well-rounded whiskey!

 

Up Your Kilt Looking Good

Bottled the Up Your Kilt on Friday, to preliminarily good results.

Can't remember the gravity, but it was in the OK range, so no issues with fermentation.

On to the real show, the hops. The premature result was a rich, spicy finish...the body was definitely Scottish Ale, but the finish was different. Can't wait to drink this one.

UPDATE: After a couple weeks of sipping on the Kilt, it turned out the way I had hoped. The hop profile is great, and the intense hop injections near the end of the boil gave it a nice aroma. The only thing I'd change is for a little less carbonation. Hopefully I'll be able to control that better in the future with a keg system.

Would I make the Sunshine Up Your Kilt again? Yes, but with a couple changes. The beer needs a bit more body. I think a pound of adjunct would do, but would have to calculate it out. The only reason I say it needed more body is that the carbonation makes the mouth feel a little thin. So perhaps less priming sugar would do it, too. I would probably add a few more hops to the end, too. It's not as good of a session beer as the breakfast stout, but it's a good after work beer or one to make cooking supper seem a bit shorter.

Final Grade: B+

Early Riser Breakfast Stout

Tried the Breakfast Stout from Northern Brewer today while brewing the Sunshine Up Your Kilt Scottish 60-.  

It is very creamy, no doubt from the oat adjunct and the excellent liquid yeast.  Could use a bit more bitterness, but is eminently drinkable.  I think age will definitely make this better.  Nice silky head texture and slight carbonation, like a great stout should be. 

Brewed Jan 3, bottled Jan 10, it has some aging left.  I would rate this one highly on my list of best 'everyday' beers. 

Sunshine Up Your Kilt Scottish Ale

Got the standard Scottish 60- (shilling) Ale kit going today from Northern Brewer.  It was about 10 degrees outside this morning, so the brewing happened in the garage instead of on the patio. It was actually quite nice in the garage with the burner and kettle nestled in between my legs!  My leg did get too close for a bit, resulting in some scorched denim.  Ended up about 30 degrees in the garage. 

I tried something I'm calling 'shock hopping' although it's a bit of a misnomer, today.  The recipe called for 1/2 oz of Northern Brewer Hops, 8.8% alpha for 60 minutes.  This would impart about 20 IBUs in the beer. 

I really like hops, so I decided to experiment with a hop addition.  So I used some Summit 16.8% alpha hops - 1/8 oz @ 45-55 min in the boil, then removed the first Summit hop and Northern Brewer bittering hop.  Then put another 1/8 oz in @ 55-60 min.  

Using the Hop Utilization formula to convert amount of hops into IBUs, I turned the beer from about 20 IBUs  into around 23 IBUs.  About a 15% increase in overall bitterness measured by IBUs.  It will be interesting to see how much the increase show up in the bouquet vs. overall bitterness. The starting gravity is only 1.031, so the Summit hops should really show up in the final product. 

Also strained the wort going into the fermenter with some grain bags, which captured a ton of sediment.  Don't know why we didn't try this before.  Without draining sediment I lost about 3/4 gal of beer with the breakfast stout.