Louisville March Madness - Against the Grain

Timed perfectly with the NCAA Championship game, a trip to Louisville brought on a visit to a local brew pub - Against the Grain - to watch the Cardinals take out the Maize and Blue.  This brew pub/smokehouse maintains at least 6 beers on tap (session, hop, whim, malt, dark, smoke) each with a less than politically correct name (and one always a 'smoke'), and provides a selection that is reportedly always non-traditional (as it was this nightFor this visit my favorite was the Preparation H smoke along with the Golden Sower.  Checkout the sampler board (L-R, session to smoke) and the chalkboard.
Prost.

Tiny Brew

We had some left over ingredients (grain and hops) so we made a little beer with them.  There weren't a lot of grain left so we cut the batch size to 2 gallons and the beer will only be about 2% abv.  We were racking a stout to a secondary fermenter so we used the stout's yeast cake for this new beer.  The new beer is very dark due to the Carafa III grains.  Below is a picture of me crushing the Carafa III with a rolling pin.  It's not an efficient way to crush grains but we didn't have much to crush.  Hopefully, the beer will be drinkable.  We'll see.

Crime Doesn't Pay - Particularly When it Involves Beer

This article just shows that beer really has made it.  Prost.

Boulder police: Former Avery Brewing employee stole $15,000 worth of beer

By Mitchell Byars, Camera Staff Writerdailycamera.com

Posted:   02/15/2013 02:36:42 PM MST

February 15, 2013 11:57 PM GMTUpdated:   02/15/2013 04:57:26 PM MST

Some of the bottles of beer that Boulder police say they recovered at the home of Adam James Dickinson. (Boulder Police Department)

Boulder police have arrested a former Avery Brewing Company employee suspected of stealing more than $15,000 in rare beers.
Adam James Dickinson, 26, was arrested at his workplace in Fort Collins on Thursday on suspicion of theft after a manager at Avery, located at 5757 Arapahoe Road, suspected Dickinson had stolen bottles of rare beer while he was an employee at the brewery from March to October 2012, when he was fired.
Managers at Avery first reported the theft in mid-October.
Police recovered more than 570 bottles of beer at Dickinson's Fort Collins home, with some of the bottles estimated to be worth anywhere from $200 to $300 a bottle.
Among the bottles recovered were several cases of Isabelle Proximus

Adam Dickinson (Larimer County Sheriff's Office)

and several bottles of Duck Duck Gooze, Rogue Old Crustacean and one bottle of 2001 Rogue Old Crustacean Barley Wine.
Police said Dickinson also sold some of the stolen beer on eBay and gave other bottles away as gifts, including bottles of Black Tot Barrel-Aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout and Sui Generis Barrel-Aged Sour Ale valued at $300 a bottle.
Dickinson is being held on $5,000 at the Larimer County Detention Center.

March 2013 – McLean Results

March brought in the snowquester and the cold so the McLean faction of the DrS Beer Club carried the theme forward with a tasting of cold fermented and cold conditioned lagers and their pilsner brethren.  It was a battle that pitted Virginia (Starr Hill ‘Festie’ lager) v. Maryland (Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning Uber Pils ) v. Pennsylvania (Stoudts German Style Pilser).  The gathering brought in a southern judge from the home of The Masters, but the (damn Yankee) Old Line State entry was the clear winner, with Heavy Seas taking the prize.  The Heavy Seas provided a traditional light yet full pilsner taste, the second place Festie added some spice with a nice amber color, and the Stoudts plodded into third (at least according to this judge).

February 2013 McLean Results

We decided to be a little bold this month and picked barleywines as our style. The breweries are all in the mid-Atlantic region; DuClaw (Maryland), Flying Dog (Maryland), and Weyerbacher (Pennsylvania). We took our time with these. The results were: DuClaw Devil's Milk Flying Dog Horn Dog Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot

Credit to CWood for the write-up.

Mini-Keg Tapping

We tapped our first mini-keg over the weekend.  The keg is 5 liters.  Setup was easy.  Just push the tap into the keg and screw in a CO2 cartridge into the tap.  We finished about four of the liters that night.  The following evening, I poured a 4 oz glass to see how the beer was doing.  It was still drinkable but had become a bit stale.  Could have been user error.  Maybe adjusting the CO2 better would keep the beer fresh longer.

The beer we tried was Hombres, our Belgian IPA.  We used a generous amount of rye in this one.  The Belgian yeast is the most pronounced flavor but the Nelson Sauvin hops come through nicely.  The hops give the beer a pleasant aroma.  Overall, I like it a lot.

Twinsburg’s January 2103 Picks (kicking off the new year)
The newer member of Geology Row provided Porters to sample and snacks to supplement.  So much excitement surrounded this meeting that an ecologist decided a road trip from Memphis to good ole Northeast Ohio was necessary.  It was a neck and neck competition between two Michigan breweries.  In the end, the brewery with the best imitation of flavor from across the big pond to our right won. Results below, with description provided.

1st – Arcadia Ales - London-Style Porter
This 18th Century-style Smoked Porter has subtle accent of peat-like Bamberg smoked malt, which is apparent in both the aroma and flavor. It is brewed with seven varieties of premium European malted barley, resulting in note of bittersweet chocolate and coffee that are counter-balanced by a long-sustaining finish of Goldings hops

2nd - Founders Brewing Company - Porter
Pours silky black with a creamy tan head. The nose is sweet with strong chocolate and caramel malt presence. No absence of hops gives Founders’ robust porter the full flavor you deserve and expect. Cozy like velvet. It’s a lover, not a fighter.

3rd - Horny Goat Brewing Company - Brownie Porter

Brewed with 8 different types of malt, this thick, sweet, and nutty brew has slight notes of vanilla and hazelnut to complement the cinnamon and chocolate flavors, just like a delicious warm brownie.