Allagash White ABV: 5.0%

I had not planned on picking this beer for my review, but a weeknight stop at the local pub piqued my interest in this finely crafted brew. The origins of this beer are as cloudy as the bottle fermented yeast its served in, coming out of the Portland area in the mid-90's. I like to believe the recipe came from a century old Trappist Monk, toiling laboriously in a Dr. Frankenstein-like laboratory in deepest Belgium. Lightening strikes and what awakens is a smooth, meaty, flavorful beast. The head is billowy and stacked high from bottle or tap, and the aftertaste elbows one with a slight whiff of lemongrass. Unlike many Belgium Whites, or "Wits," Allagash does not try to knock you over with a powerful array of spices. Again, subtle hints of flavor are more than enough to let you know you are drinking something that was not composed fat-handedly. Many complaints about this beer are that it is "too drinkable," which is like saying your girlfriend is "too hot..." Exactly. I enjoy this beer, when I can get it, year round. It doesn't have to be 100 degrees to enjoy a white, especially this one.
70 Hops

Gritty's Christmas Ale 6.2% ABV

It's a Christmas miracle. A holiday beer that isn't heavy and over-flavored and actually tastes like BEER!

Winter Warmer is fine, but sometimes it's like drinking a spice rack. And Sam Winter, I dunno. Everyone drinks it because it's something different and because it's there. But it's too sweet for my taste.

Gritty's has it nailed. Christmas Ale has absolutely nothing to do with "Christmas flavors". You get a bottle with a picture of Santa Claus getting loaded. Like you're about to.

Propaganda purports this beer to be a darker ESB with a rich, full-bodied, malty taste with a slightly roasted undertone. But I don't know what that really means and it isn't important. It's damn good and you need to buy it now, before some politically correct elitist left-wing liberal takes it away from us. -cp

A Beer For Geriatric Hooliganry - 10.2% ABV, 90 IBU

Old Ruffian, beer two of my Thanksgiving Barleywine Review Series. Quite contrary to the Criminally Bad Elf, this beer has greater body, heavy caramel character and is even sweeter than the Elf. Large amounts of hops are necessary to balance out the sweetness, thus the 90 IBU rating. Despite the mouth raping bitterness that 90 IBUs would indicate, the balance is effective and makes for a good compromise with the malty sweetness. Great Divide brewery calls this a "hop forward" beer, but hop aroma and flavor really doesn't come across, which is appropriate for the style.

70 Hops

A Felonious Faerie - 10.5% ABV

Criminally Bad Elf, imported from Ridgeway Brewery in Oxfordshire, UK. Sweet for a barleywine and malty in character and mouthfeel. No hop aroma of note; typical for the style. On the lower end of the spectrum in terms of alcohol content, making it very drinkable.

I enjoyed drinking this festive overseas offering, but then I love me some barleywine. I definitely recommend serving it in specialized glassware. Pictured is a Riedel crystal snifter, but if all you can afford is a used mayonnaise jar, prost!


80 Hops.

Barley & Hop Shortage

There has never been a better time to learn how to brew your own. The hop harvest this year wasn't great and I'm hearing rumblings that barley won't fare much better. Might have something to do with the lack of honeybees, global climate change or aliens making too many goddamn crop circles. Whatever the cause, beer is going to cost 10-15 cents more over the next year. Granted, that's not a huge amount, but it adds up. Beer prices have already gone up quite a bit just in the last 7 years, and now we can expect up to an additional $1.80(USD) per 12 pack.

Mathmatology time:
If the average 12 pack at Shaw's runs about 11 bucks, with no sales tax in beautiful NH, that will mean next year's 12 packs will be close to 13 bucks. Beer is awesome, so I'm willing to part with the extra pocket change to make up the difference. Now what if you were to take up your kettle and wooden spoon and DIY? The average pale malt based extract brew kit costs about 23 bucks and 2 to 3 hours of your time. This yields 5 gallons of delicious beer. If you do it all grain, it can be done for as little as 8 bucks per 5 gallons + 8 hours of time. Depending on how much you value your time and enjoy brewing, your point of diminishing returns will vary.

Let's break it down some more, assuming current, pre-apocalypse grain and hop prices.

5 gallons of beer @ 23.00 = 640 ounces = about 53 bottles @ $0.43/bottle
12 bottles of beer @ 11.00 = $0.92/bottle

Some would argue that you could save money by buying your beer in kegs, but that's hardly practical. Most people buying higher end craft brews prefer variety over slavish dedication to one particular beer.

Still others may cry folly, brewing your own is a false economy because inevitably you will decide either it's too much work after brewing one beer or you will go buck wild and build your own nano brewery in your garage.

So what it really comes down to is an excuse for me to proselytize the virtues of brewing your own under the shadow of looming price increases.

Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale 4.5% ABV

Anyone will tell you I've long been a proponent of the Pumpkin. That happy little headless bastard has been a staple of my fall drinking season for years now, and in 2007 we were all treated to a late-August debut on tap, which seems incredibly early. But it's hardly worth lodging a complaint over. And to whom would one complain. It's all complicated.

While my favorite, I feel my favoritism permits me license to cite the following criticisms of this beer. One - it's the weakest 4.5% brew I've ever had. You can go the distance on PUMPKINHEAD and be quite sick of it before you get sick on it. I don't like that. I want to get loaded and throw up.

Two - I am wholly disturbed by the growing trend of barmaids offering PUMPKINHEAD in sugar-and-spice-rimmed glasses. I don't know who started this tragedy but it severely hurts my feelings and makes me want to cut people.

These qualms aside, the positives of PUMPKINHEAD are too pronounced to ignore. It's tasty and you can drink it like water. And that means you can drink a lot. And when you drink a lot, you are cool. And when you drink a lot and are cool, you are an alcoholic. -cp

Meddybemps?

Atlantic Brewing Co. Bar Harbor Blueberry 5.4% ABV

Its rare to find a beer that is equally at home in the galley of a cod boat steaming out to George's Bank, or in the hands of a wealthy socialite looking to wash down his gluttonous endangered species dinner. Alas, our friends at the Atlantic Brewing Co. have concocted such an ale. This beer is well balanced, crisp and snappy like a Braeburn off the tree, with a smooth aftertaste leaving you thirsty for more. Most brewers, when tasked with creating a flavored beer, spend to much time focusing on the fruit to appease the ill trained pallets of the masses. Not so with the Bar Harbor Blue, as it treats the berry as an afterthought, which is just about how much "flavor" I want in a niche brew. You will not go wrong purchasing this beer in season, which is usually late summer, early fall - and at an average 8 dollars a six pack it is definitely in the premium beer range. Feel free to drink it with any expensive steak, or in the front seat of your F-150 driving through the town of Meddybemps Maine. 9 out of 10 Hops.

Bitter Brown - 4% ABV

Mmmmmunich. OK, I know these fine young lasses are drinking Maerzen, but come on, they deserve their own blog.

In anticipation of the arrival of my new beer engine, I kegged my latest brew. It's a recipe I modified slightly from The Homebrewer's Companion. Here's the recipe listing from ProMash:

Partial Mash
Grain/Extract/Sugar










% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
82.0 6.00 lbs. Alexander LME - Amber America 1.037 14
13.7 1.00 lbs. Crystal 20L America 1.035 20
4.3 0.31 lbs. Chocolate Malt America 1.029 350

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.00 oz. Willamette Whole 5.00 44.5 60 min.
1.00 oz. Goldings - E.K. Whole 4.75 3.5 5 min.
0.75 oz. Goldings - E.K. Whole 4.75 2.6 1 min.


Yeast
-----

Danstar Nottingham

I'm very pleased with how this beer turned out. It's a lot more bitter than it should have been, due to the differences between the hop bill that a 20 year old recipe called for and what hops are actually producing today. I have enough ingredients to do this one again, this time I'll back off on the Willamettes a bit. Pretty soon my electric all grain brewery will be finished so I'll be back on the grain wagon. That is, if i don't electrocute myself first.

Reunited and it feels so......ugh

JW Dundee's Original Honey Brown
4.5% ABV 10 IBU

The last time JW Dundee's Honey Brown passed by my lips it was going the wrong way and was likely accompanied by UNH dining hall chow. That was 11 years ago. To us, reaching for a bottle of this was reaching for the top shelf of affordable micro brews. It was our secret handshake into the arcane world of the beer snob. Ok, maybe it was just me that thought that, what the hell did I know, as long as it filled the beirut cups I was happy.

Drinking this coppery lager tonight takes me back to my early college days. Honestly though, it reminds me most of that dull nausea that portends imminent hurl. Of course, that's a fair sampling of how I went through my freshman year feeling.

I really don't know what else to say about this beer. It's not horrible, but I think I'll let another 11 years pass before I try it again. I could probably use some boozy memories of my youthful indiscretions by then anyway.

A Wee Heavy

Smuttynose Scotch Ale, from the Smuttynose Big Beer Series, 7.8% ABV

A big beer indeed, in spite of the Scottish nickname for this style: "Wee Heavy." Scotch Ale, not to be confused with Scottish Ales, are characterized by sweetness, pronounced maltiness and very little hop bitterness and aroma. Since Scotland isn't as well suited for the growing of hops as their southern neighbor, hops were never a major feature of this style, or many other Scottish beers. Scottish beer was often bittered using various herbs and spices. Now that hops are widely and relatively cheaply available, we don't have to drink our Scotch ale through a mess of twigs and leaves. I've had some very sweet Scotch ales in the past; overbearing and cloying sweetness, but this beer is pretty well balanced. In the glass it features a deep amber color with little head and the aroma of caramel. Long boiling time leads to a caramelization of the wort which greatly deepens the color, drives up the starting gravity and delivers that caramel character. Eat a salty snack with this to cut the sweetness. This beer is a bruiser at nearly 8% ABV. I'm halfway through my first glass and my cheeks are already red. I have one more beer to review tonight and I'm not sure I'm going to make it. And yet I press on because I suffer for my art.

Gritty's Halloween Ale 6% ABV

It's a little late to talk about this beer, but it's arguably one of the best seasonal brews of New England. Billed as an extra special bitter, this gem is nice and malty according to style and features a nice British hop finish that doesn't confuse itself with an IPA. I prefer this one on draught, but it's great out of the bottle too. Pour it into a nice imperial pint glass and let it warm up a bit before you put it to your lips. This one definitely belongs in the cooler at hunting camp. Cheers.

Real Ale

My precious, soon it will be mine. This is an Angram beer engine. According to CAMRA, this is the only way to serve real ale, besides pouring it straight from the cask. Rather than the beer being forced out of the keg with CO2, the beer engine is a standard pump which pulls it from the cask. The links above explain why not using CO2 is necessary for serving real ale.

Real ale served out of a cask is by far my favorite. This may be colored slightly by my visit to England in 2002, but I don't think my memory of it has been enhanced by nostalgia for the trip. I've had decent real ale here in the states, but it isn't always cared for properly. It takes quite a bit of skill and experience to store and serve it and outside of England, it's probably difficult to find the appropriate training. Especially so, given its limited appeal in the States. Case in point, I got a pint of Old Thumper cask ale at the Strange Brew tavern last night and it had turned into malt vinegar. The cask had not been drunk fast enough and so acetobacter had time to take hold. That can't be good for promoting the joys of real ale.

Real ale is a bit warmer and less carbonated than what we're used to, but that is what makes it so flavorful. Your tongue isn't assaulted by fizziness and ice cold temperatures. All that's left is the beer. When it's served from the beer engine or any other draught system in England, law states that the glass must be filled to the very top. To do this requires several pulls of the handle, and to do it in a reasonable amount of time, much of the resulting foam is forced out by continuing to fill the glass to overflowing. The result is creamy foam cascading down the side of the glass, making the sides delightfully sticky. It takes a bit longer, and at the end of the day a lot of beer is wasted, but it's worth it.

So anyway, I finally pulled the trigger and ordered one of these bad boys with which to serve my homebrew. Since my trip to England, I've been trying to recreate some of the beers I've had there with varying success. Admittedly this device won't necessarily help me with that, but at least I can have a decent real ale anytime I want.

Smuttynose IPA ~5.5? ABV 65 IBU

This is a great beer. I remember a number of years ago when they were first working on it at the Portsmouth Brewery brew pub. It was so hoppy you could smell it before the waitress put the beer on the table. This is a pretty strong beer, I think it's at least 5.5, but I couldn't verify this on their website. In addition to being strong, it's also very drinkable, which is a deadly combination. I've been shot down by many a brewery waitress thanks to the sloppy mess into which this concoction transforms me. As a result it has cost me a quid or two in compensatory tips for their exceptional handling of my drunkenly amorous advances. The brewpub in downtown Portsmouth usually has it on cask, which is a real treat. I recommend this beer, just watch the intake.

Introduction

Beer is fantastic. It's delicious, comforting, pain-relieving and easily made at home. I plan to use this blog to discuss beers I'm brewing, beers I drink and where I drink them. Beer is best enjoyed in moderation, but I've been known to occasionally yield to the temptations of over indulgence. As such, I'm sure some of my postings will walk the line between coherence and drunken rambling.