November Meeting Results

We had quite a crowd at this month's meeting.  Nine people.  We sampled APA and IPAs from Virginia.  The contestants were Center of the Universe’s Ray Ray’s Pale Ale (can), Devil’s Backbone’s Bravo Four Point Session IPA (can), and Parkway’s Get Bent Mountain IPA (bottle).  The winner was Center of the Universe’s Ray Ray’s Pale Ale.  The votes were very polar.  Ray Ray's and Bravo Four Point received mostly 1s and 3s, with Ray Ray's getting more 1s than 3s.  This allowed Get Bent Mountain to slide into second place.  However, keep in mind that many of the voters don't care for hoppy beers and the one with the lowest IBUs won.  The IBUs are as follows:  Ray Ray's 42, Bravo Four Point 45, and Get Bent Mountain 67.

Ommegang Hop House

Very unique.  It was listed as a Belgian Pale Ale on the chalkboard at the growler store so I figured my wife Laura would like it.  She did  not.  When I tasted it I figured out why – must have been dry hopped.  I looked it up and sure enough, “more hops than we have ever put in a beer” and dry-hopped with Cascade.  BUT, it does NOT taste like an IPA.  Much more smooth, with very little bitterness (probably due to the Belgian yeast), and not the dry aftertaste you get from an IPA.  I noticed when I poured the first glass that it had a really cool carbonation – it bubbled from the bottom of the glass like a slow champagne and had a similar, although more dense, white head.  Must-try if you can find it. 6.2% ABV and 21 IBUs. MAB rating 4/5.

Uno's Reprise - 2/2

Man was this flight sweet - a duo of double IPAs. I'd hit these all night (knowing I only had to walk next door to get to my hotel). The beers listed below are left to right in the photo.

Prost.

1. Clown Shoes Unidragon Imperial Stout - smooth, classic stout, little 'burnt' aftertaste, slightly smokey. ABV-12.5 JRC3 rating = 3.5/5

2. Victory Dirty Wolf Double IPA. Classic, smooth DIPA; small bitter bite at the end. ABV-8.7 JRC3 rating = 4/5

3. Sierra Nevada Alt. Nice color; basic alt - smooth, caramel, malty. ABV-6.6 JRC3 rating = 2.5/5

4. Heavy Seas Big Dippa Double IPA. Smooooooth; sweet; slight yeasty hop flavor; nice amber color; slight alcohol overtone; awesome. ABV-10.5 JRC3 rating = 4/5

Uno's Reprise - 1/2

Who would guess that I'd find myself back in Deptfort, NJ for work staying right next to the Uno's I posted about a while back. Accidental or purposeful? Either way it was great to be back in the neighborhood treating myself to a couple of flights superior craft beers. Yes, superior craft beers at Uno's. Below is the first of two messages highlighting my flights (left to right on the photo).

Prost.

1. Stone Go To IPA - a classice hopyy, yet smooth IPA with grapefuirt overtones and a bit malty. ABV-4.5 JRC3 rating = 4/5

2. Troeg's Hopback Amber - smooth, malty, sweet twinge on the the finish. ABV - 6.0 JRC3 = 3.5/5

3. Weyerbacher Big Ern's IPA - smooth, 'flat' (not bitter), little taste, limited to no hop characater. Stay away. ABV - 5.9% JRC3 rating = 2/5

4. Brewer's Art Resurrection Dubbel - 'Belgian' character, smooth, sweet, little carbonation. ABV - 7.0 JRC3 rating = 4/5. This was the full pint I went to after the second flight. Delicious.

August Results

Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat won, Schlafly Summmer Lager got second and Kona Big Wave Golden Ale got the bronze.  The Big Wave was the hoppiest of the the bunch but still wasn't very hoppy.  Not many hop heads in the club, I guess.

4th of July Weekend Breweries Visit

Went to four breweries over the weekend; Starr Hill, Blue Mountain, Champion, and Three Notch’d.  We stopped by Starr Hill's tasting room Friday and I had an IPA, I think it was King of Hop.  It was probably the best thing I’d had from Starr Hill.  We went to Blue Mountain for dinner and I had a Baltic Porter.  It’s pretty solid.  Chocolaty.  Most had Hopwork Orange.  It was good, too.  The next day we went to Champion and Three Notch’d in Charlottesville.  At Champion, I had a Kolsch.  It was fine.  Champion really likes IPAs.  Of the 6 taps they had at the tasting room, 5 were IPAs.  Others got IPAs and they were all good.  Not a loser in the bunch but nothing fantastic either.  At Three Notch’d we all got flights of tasters.  They had ~9 taps and we each chose 6 beers.  All the beers were good and the 40 Mile IPA was probably the best, possibly the best of the weekend.  I also had a Bourbon Barrel Stout from Bluegrass Brewing.  It was good.

Honest Abe - a DrS Beer Club Mentor...

Nice quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.”

Who knew UNO (2/2)...

And for only $5, who can stop at only 1 flight... Left to right (with a bit more beer induced detail) Port Wipe Out (IPA): malty, smooth, a session if you can consider a 7 percent IPA (3) Maine Zoe Ale (Red Ale): nice strong red, little bitter, easy to drink (4) 7.2 ABV Founders Dirty Bastard (scotch ale, wee heavy): smooooooth, nice head, good mouthfeel, you'd mistake it for a nitro (never go wrong with a Founders) (2) 8.5 ABV Lagunitas Sucks: as good as it gets; smooth, smooth mouth feel, not bitter but you know your drinking an IPA (1) 7.85 ABV

Who knew UNO (1/2)...

UNO's, yes UNO's pizzeria, is where I found an awesome beer menu with flights of 4/4-ounce pours for only $5. The only thing that got me to this Deptford, NJ location was a site visit at Philadelphia airport and the fact it was next to my hotel. Left to right, parenthetical numbers mark my rating: Wyerbacher big Erns IPA: smooth, slight malty sweetness; smooth hop overtone (3) Wyerbacher Double Simcoe: smooth, easy drinking, limited hop aroma (4). (Wyerbachers were almost the same beer) Great Lakes Chill Wave: slight grapefruit aroma, smooth grapefruit flavor, not bitter (1) DuClaw Serum: smooth, no bitter aftertaste, slight Malty sweetness (2)

May Meeting Results

Jorge picked up this months beers.  The theme was wheat.  The winner was Widmer Bros Hefe.  Bells Oberon came and 2nd and Hoegaarden 3rd.  The Hoegaarden was described as too clovey though cloves are not noted on the bottle.  Some thought the Hoegaarden would be better on a colder day.

2014 DrS Kickoff

March came in like a lion and so did the inaugural 2014 DrS Beer Club. Though attendance was down, spirits were high as we tasted 4 Belgian style beers: Ommegang Abbey Al (Winner), New Belgium brewery’s Trippel, Westmalle Trappist Tripel, and Devil’s Backbone’s Azrael Belgian style. These robust ales provided a fitting tie-in to what we hope was the last snow of the spring of 2014. Ommegang was the runaway winner with a true dark abbey ale color (deep brown), taste (yeasty), and finish (slight hop overtones), with New Belgium’s Trippel coming in a close second. Prost.

New Brews

In case you were wondering when the next great Space Bar will open, check this out - a list of active brewery permit applications by state.  Virginia had a net year-over-year increase of 21 new permitted breweries while Georgia only had 9.  California had 128.  On the East Coast, it looks like a road trip is in order for New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida.

Beer Drone

When this does get approved, I fully expect deliveries of home brew from both C. Woodley and J. Carter to somehow make the 1000 mile trek to my house on a weekly basis, at a minimum.

Habanero Pale Ale Brewing

We started brewing around 1pm on Saturday.  We've been discussing a chili beer for a while and finally settled on a recipe a few weeks ago.  It's a pretty simple recipe but the habanero complicated things since we've never used them before.  Ended up using one pepper that we took the seeds and pulp out of.  Cascade and Citra hops were used.  We'll dry hop with them as well.  After pitching we took a gravity reading and found that we were 0.01 below our planned OG.  To get the OG up to a more acceptable level, we added 1 lbs of DME to 0.25 gallons of water then added it to the bucket.  Hope that didn't screw things up too much.  The wort had the flavor we wanted; fruity up front with a spicy finish.  Hopefully, it will stay that way after fermentation.  If the spicyness isn't where we want it, we'll add a little Habanero to the secondary.