Month: September 2010

Mystery Homebrew

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It was a bit too late to head out to my favorite establishment for a beer so I took my chances on an unlabeled flip-top bottle of, what I assumed to be my home-brew.   Could have been anything, really.  I typically label stuff I make that I bottle, or more often I keg most of my batches and then sometimes bottle a few from there if I want to take some bottles to a party or to a friends house or what ever.

Anyway, this one popped really loud so I knew it had some serious carbonation in it.  Sure enough, when I poured it, very gently, a pale pink clear beer came out with a huge white fluffy head. It was the Raspberry Wheat I made, gosh, I think about a year ago for a wedding in western Washington I attended.   Crystal clear and the carbonation is so high that even as I drink it down, the top is continuously covered by a white skin and a 1/4″ thick head around the edge.  Big raspberry aroma and a very light wheat cereal note as I used the American Hefeweizen yeast as I recall. which does not impart much of that classic German Hef flavor.  The fruit flavor is a bit tart and lacking that fake “Jolly rancher” or soapy flavor that a lot of commercial Ras-Wheats have.

This has encouraged me to check on the few others that I have in there that are a bit of a mystery.  Im pretty sure that at least a few of them are a 15+% Imperial Stout that I made back to 2007.   Here’s to happy mystery beer hunting..

Hit and Mission

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After a whirlwind weekend in the San Diego area, the only beer i managed to bring back with me is this this IPA from Mission Brewery.

I also recently realized that with my Netflix account I can stream some movies right to my computer.  I saw THX 1138 on the instant streaming list and figured I would try this beer from a brewery I had never heard of while checking out this movie I had never heard of made by a guy that everyone had.

So here goes….

A murky light redish brown with a full thick off white head.   Classic citrusy hop aroma and lost of sweet carmel malt notes as well.  There is a little bit of “holiday” spice.  Cinnamon or nutmeg or allspice or something there as well .   Plenty of malt flavor and a hefty bitter slap in the face.  It has a rather dusty and woody character that seems to me like it is not fresh.  Lingering bitter tannin like bite and disappointingly little of the crisp hoppiness from the Centennial and cascade varieties that are claimed to be used.

According to their website, Mission has only been around since 2007, and though their site shows teh 4 beers they feature, other online sources show that there are in fact 18 or so that they have made since then.  Looks like a case of someone setting up their web page for them and not maintaining it.  The Vons supermarket in SD where I got this IPA had a couple of their others but if given a choice, I typically go for the IPA as opposed to an Amber or Hef, which were both there as well.

Another IPA that was mediocre altogether and all I could think of was how the slow only mildly interesting movie that was depressing and dystopian, somewhat paralleled the beer I was drinking.  But with less calories.

Lost and found

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The wife and I were in the San Diego area top attend a friends wedding last weekend and anyone who knows me would fully expect us to make a few side trips as Southern California is one of the Craftbeer hotspots in the country.  We flew to LA and drove the remaining 100 miles or so, and strangely enough, our route took us right past Lost Abbey and Stone.

I had never been to either and had only seen pictures of Stones (relatively) new place in Escondido, where we planned to have lunch.   Lost Abbey, is it is just a “tasting room” would be first.

Lost Abbey is an offshoot of Port Brewing which has a few sites in SoCal.  It is kind of Port’s more experimental wing where most of what they produce are Belgian styles and barrel aged beers.

Essentially it was there brewery and aging “warehouse” as workers were pressure washing the floors around us and steel racks of oak barrels were everywhere. tucked in one of the front corners just inside a overhead garage door was the “tasting room”.  A “L” shaped bar that sat about 15 or so with barrels to sit on with a sack of grain on each to make them the appropriate height.

As you can see, there are quite a few to choose from.  A couple were out but for 1$ you can get a 4oz sample of any that are on tap and they had bottles of several others.  Includeing the exquisite “Angels Share”.  I am ashamedto say, I did not pick one up as I was on a pretty tight budget and that little beauty is 15$ for a 375ml…thats a touch over 12oz !

So, while my wife waited in the car in the parking lot reading her book, I managed to take care of 4 samplers n the 20 minutes or so I felt I was alloted   When asked I said, give me something that you are pretty proud of right now.  The “High Tide” fresh hop IPA fit this bill apparently and it was very nice.

A hazy orange and big pine slightly grassy hop aroma and flavor.  The others I tried were the “Hop 15” an IPA that has 15 additions of hops during the boil.  That works out to about every 4-5 minutes, somebody is dumping a few pounds of hops into it.   Red Barn is a Saison and it was light, and I thought had some Hefeweizen flavors in it, and “Devotion”, a Belgian that was clear golden with a perfect dense white head.  It was pretty light and the Belgian yeast flavors were subtle and soft.

I would have liked to pick up a T-Shirt or hat but for 3$ the logo sample glass was good enough and I headed out.  It would be nice to stop by again sometime when I have a little more time.

Falcon Tavern

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The Boise chapter of BeerandBlog.com allegedly meets here at the Falcon Tavern on Bannock at in Boise, but never having attended one of their weekly meetings I am not sure if they are even here and if they are, what any of them look like.   I asked my sever about it the best I could, having not ever met any of them and apparently the meets are not very frequent in the summer.   I suppose I could stand up on the bar and inquire as to the presence of any Boise Beer Bloggers in as loud a voice as possible. However, if that were successful, it may defeat the purpose as I would possibly be asked to leave for making such a disturbance.
Thinking the better of that, I will just sit here and take care of this IPA from Snake River Brewing, that is actually not bad.
On that note, I was pleasantly surprised to find a local beer that I did not recognize. SRB is only a couple years old, out of McCall, ID and it is nice to see it here in Boise on tap. Light bodied and lots of fresh hop aroma and flavor and the IPAs claimed 7% ABV is hidden well.   Its got a little of that grassy, brown-paper-bag note but its faint and in my experience fairly common.  Its easy drinking which makes it a tad dangerous and as this glass is nearly… I think I’ll have another.