Deschutes, O'Dell, and Twisted Pine

Wow, two posts in one night. Either something is wrong, or I'm playing catch-up again... My money is on the later. Anyways, the next round of beers were a very hoppy bunch.



Chainbreaker

I'll start off with Deschutes' Chainbreaker IPA. This one was a very interesting beer. It's a white IPA that is almost as white as a Wit. It is a very moist beer that is light on the tongue. I also found it surprisingly semi-sweet. What was shocking was the mixture of sweet and the strong piney hopps. A great brew.



O'Dell  IPA

Unfortunately, I did not take notes on this one and it's been a while since I drank it. It was, of course, hoppy and pretty good but I don't remember any of the finer points. :(

Twisted Pine

The last of the batch is Twisted Pine's Hoppy Boy. This beer poured medium gold with a big head, yet had a very light scent to it. Without much of a bouquet to it, I was worried it would be weak, but the first sip proved me wrong. This beer has an insanely powerful hopps flavor that is quite bitter and lingers for a good long time. It's not a bad bitter, but a good hopps bitter. In fact, the hopps in this one is almost too strong and overpowering.

Mert's Milk

Before I get started, I must say this post is over a beer that you will not find in stores anywhere. It's a 100% pure, Ozark made Homebrew brewed by a rookie brew-master. He calls his beer "Mert's Milk", and it is very good.

Silver Batch

His story began when he stumbled upon an unused homebrew kit relatively inexpensive. It came with a Pale Ale kit of unknown age or origin, but he was going to brew it anyways as it was a good place to start. While cooking everything up, he accidentally overcooked the malt extract which created a much darker Pale Ale than intended and gave it a more caramelized flavor. This first batch, which I'll call his "Silver Batch" because of the silver bottle caps, had a great malt flavor that was heavy yet smooth.

Orange Batch

His second batch was supposed to be a Maple Beer, but the maple flavor was so mild, it was hard to distinguish it. This second batch, the "Orange Batch", was slightly hoppier than the first and more of a lighter gold color. This brew was bottle conditioned with a little extra yeast. By the time I finished my last bottle, you could tell the yeast were still working away as it kept getting a little more stout. As for the maple, it was there. Once the beer began to warm up a little, the hint of maple came out. This second brew also produced a massive head and I had a hard time keeping it from overflowing.

His third and fourth batches are going to be a special holiday blend in time for Christmas followed by a California Pale Ale that he will be triple hopping around New Years. I can't wait.

My hat is off to Mert's Milk. I've loved the first two batches and look forward to future ones (and I'm not just saying that because I know you'll read this...) I only hope some day I'll be able to brew my own beers right along with you.

Before I sign off, I'd like to give a quick Mead update. I took a taste of my plain mead a while ago. It was only about a month or so since I started it, so it was still quite a bit cloudy. After the first swig, well, let's just hope another month of fermenting does the trick...

Winter Grind

Winter Grind is back and still awesome!

That is all.

Mead!

I did it at last!

No more talk, I have finally created my first batch of Mead, and it was so simple! I went with a "economical" recipe (aka cheap) that was literally honey, yeast and bottled water.

I started by visiting The Home Brewery in Ozark, Missouri for my main ingredients. They consisted of a 5 pound container of pure wildflower honey, a package of Lalvin EC-1118 Wine Yeast, and a small package of Yeast Nutrient. Total cost, with tax, $22.51. Next, I visited a local Dollar Tree and picked up two 1 gallon jugs of spring water. Total cost, with tax, $2.15.

And that was all my shopping. Nothing else. Total cost for my first batch of Mead was $24.66. Now, onto the production using things I already had around the house.

All of my supplies. (The Mother's cup is the yeast reactivating in water.)

One of the big things everything I read about said was sanitation. Everything that touched the Must (honey water) had to be sanitized, and I took this very seriously. I grabbed the largest stock pot I had out of the cabinet and filled it with warm water until there was approximately a gallon in the bottom. I next added 1 teaspoon of plain bleach to the water and mixed it in. Next, every utensil shown here, including the balloons, took a bath in the bleach water. After a very thorough rinse I was off running.

Happy yeast bubbling
away.

First thing I did was put the yeast into a cup of water to get it reactivating. That sat for about 20 minutes or so until it was nice and bubbly. While the yeast was doing it's thing, I put the container of honey into warm water to make it a little easier to pour.

With those two things set up, I next poured the water into the big stock pot and added the 2 teaspoons of nutrient. To that went the 5 pounds of honey and  my cup of now ready yeast. I stirred vigorously to mix everything up well and aerate the water some.

Finally, it came time to pour it into the bottles. This was a little nerve wrecking, but I went slow and steady and it went okay. Last thing I wanted to do was spill my first batch of Mead!

Mixing the honey into the water meant it wasn't going to fit back into the original gallon jugs. Luckily I had an empty bottle from my girls' juice that hadn't been recycled yet. It was maybe 1/2 gallon in size and turned out to be perfect. Plus it gave me another opportunity to try flavoring it.

So now I have 3 beautiful bottles of Mead ready to ferment. I left one of the gallon bottles 100% plain. To the other gallon bottle, I added 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. I would have added a raw vanilla bean, but remember, I'm doing this cheaply. To the last small bottle, I added about 1/8 teaspoon of ground nutmeg as I read that made a good flavoring.

To top it all off, I put a balloon on top of each container and poked a hole in each balloon. This will allow the CO2 to escape without letting anything back in. A very cheap airlock!

Voila! Now we just have to wait...

And with that, the Mead is essentially done. Now all I have to do is wait for it to ferment. I'm planning on siphoning off a few bottles worth around Christmas to try it out and I'll let the rest sit much longer. I can't wait!

Now for the numbers. Like I said before, total cost of the supplies, for about 2-1/2 gallons of Mead, was $24.66. We'll call it $25 for easier math. I was looking around a bit online and from what I saw, the average price for a 750ml bottle of Mead was about $15. 2.5 gallons = 9463 milliliters. 9463 milliliters / 750 milliliters = 12.6. So, what I just made would equal about 12 750ml bottles of store bought Mead. At $15 each, that is $180.00. I just made $180.00 worth of Mead for only $25.00. Now that is what I call economical!

Octoberfests and Mr. Pumpkin

I always enjoy the holiday season. The heat of the summer has passed, the leaves start changing colors, and the awesome seasonal beers start to show up on the shelves. I have now tried 3 different Octoberfests and while each one has its similarities, they are slightly different depending on who made them. I also got a chance to visit a friend from last year, Mr. Pumpkin.

A Small Celebration

A few weeks back, we sold some furniture on Craigslist and to celebrate, I bought myself a few bottles of Lagunitas. It had been a while since I had these two particular beers and I was looking forward to having them again. I started with Hop Stoopid and loved the sweet hopiness of this beer. Wilco Tango Foxtrot was next and it was still rich and malty. Delicious.

I've noticed my tastes have been slightly changing here recently and some beers that once tasted good don't wet my whistle like they once did. These two brews are an exception at least and I thoroughly enjoyed them again.

DPA and Billy's Chillies, Plus Some Crafts

Great Divide Brewery: DPA

This bottle came as a gift from my brother. He liked it and thought I would too since I'm liking the IPA style more and more. Unfortunately, I was tired when I drank it, so my notes weren't the best and it's been long enough ago that it's not sticking with me. That's what I get for not typing this up right away.

Anyways, Great Divide's DPA had a nice mellow amount of hops with a good malty taste. It was smooth for an IPA based style which was a nice pleasant surprise. I also liked the fact that it had a little bit of a woody taste to it. A taste of the Rockies I guess... ;)

Overall, I enjoyed drinking it, but I don't think it's something I would necessarily go back for intentionally. Great Divide has some other brews that I like more.

The final bottle was one of two that I had completely forgotten about. I thought my fridge was empty, but turned out I had one bottle of Billy's Chillies and one bottle of Mother's Winter Grind tucked into the back corner behind the English muffins. Sneaky little bottles hiding like that.

Billy's Chillies

Billy's Chillies was a bottle that I was interested in yet scared me at the same time. I had a bad experience with a pepper beer before, so I was already a little leery. I was told it was a much different experience than the last pepper beer. So, I popped the top and poured me a glass. I immediately noticed the strong pepper smell, but it wasn't overly offensive. I also quickly realized that it had a large than average head which sneaked up on me, or should I say, sneaked up and over on me. A few paper towels later and I was ready for my first sip.

I didn't really care for the peppers they used. It had a little bit of an odd taste to me. At the same time, the beer was smooth despite the bite from the peppers. In fact, the heat was a good level without being over the top.

Unfortunately, I couldn't finish this bottle. As it warmed, the flavor lost its appeal and started to not settle well. But, I gave it a chance at least. Looks like I need to stay away from pepper beers.

I don't know if I'm just crazy, or if I spent too much time playing Fallout 3, but I've been saving every bottle cap for months now and my collection is getting quite large. I have a velvet bag from a bottle of Crown Royale that's getting full. What do I do with these caps? Magnets!

Bottle Cap Magnets

These are easy to make and inexpensive too. I just take a little bit of cardboard out of the recycling, cut some circles out of it and use hot glue to glue the cardboard to the back. I then stick a magnet to the cardboard and voila, magnet. I would have more in the photo above, but I ran out of magnets. This was a great, and very easy, craft project to do with my girls. I let them pick out the caps they wanted first. Then I hot glued the cardboard to the back. Finally, I let them stick the magnets to the cardboard once the glue had cooled and they got to stick them up on the fridge.

These also make good gifts for your fellow beer drinkers. Their wives will love it...

On another note, I picked up a 6-pack of Samuel Adam's Octoberfest last night. First bottle, which was unchilled, was pretty good. I'll write something up after I've had a chilled one.

Woodchuck Hard Cider

Last night, we were out at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and I was in the mood for a beer to help wash down my wings. I asked our server for the beer selections and nothing special really jumped out at me. Mainly the major breweries with all their "Ultras" and "Lights" and variants of the same yellow water... They did have a "craft" section, but very few selections under it. But I wanted one anyways and I saw "Woodchuck" at the bottom of the list. I had no idea what it was, where it was from, or what kind of beer it was but I thought I'd give it a try anyways. Boy was I in for a surprise.

Dragon's Milk, Tital IPA, Wheach, Meer's Gold and a Little Sumpin' Sumpin

The latest batch of bottles had some interesting brews that were definitely different. I had my first Peach beer and one that reminds me of a good red wine. Overall, a good round of beers.

Fuel Cafe, Red Chair, Zon and Hop Stoopid

Here's another round of four beers that were all quite different yet good in their own ways. Wit, hops and coffee made up this round of beer goodness. And this time, I took notes!

Mother's Imperial Three Blind Mice & Trouble Maker

The Imperial next to the original.

Still working on clearing out my backlog of beers and one such beer was Mother's Imperial Three Blind Mice. Their regular Three Blind Mice is one of my favorites and I was excited to hear they were coming out with an Imperial of it. Needless to say, once I finally had a chance to try one, it was worth the wait.

Father's Day Beer Sampling

Father's day was a few weekends, but we celebrated it the week prior with a small family get-together and BBQ. While the kids were running around in the living room, the "men folk" sneaked into the dining room with 6 different beers for a round of beer shots. Most of them were pleasant, some were different and a couple were just bad.

Playing Catch-up

Wow, I really managed to get behind in my blogging. In my last post, I mentioned a beer that was extremely hoppy, but never got to it. Well, it's time for a very quick catch-up so here we go.

The beer in question is Sierra Nevada's Hoptimum. The hops is extremely high (hence the comment about it blowing my brains out). However, it was also thoroughly enjoyable. It tasted like fresh cut grass and pine needles, which is a good thing. On top of that, it went down nicely with a very pleasing aftertaste considering how much hops was in it. I have another bottle in the fridge now, but I'm saving it for later along with my last Winter Grind. If you like Hops, this is most definitely the beer for you to try.

Other beers that I've been drinking recently came from a Boulevard Sampler and a Schlafly Sampler. Both boxes have been great and I have not yet found one I didn't like from these two. I guess I don't have much to say about each individual beer since it's been a while other than it's good stuff.

On my birthday a few weeks ago, I picked up a "special" bottle for myself. It was Lagunita's Wilco Tango Foxtrot. It was a darker brown ale with a nice chocolate tone. I wouldn't call it amazing, but it was still a good brown ale. A good beer for a quick grab from the market and one I might consider grabbing again.

Well, that's a VERY quick recap of what I've been drinking here recently. Last weekend we had our Father's Day celebration with a custom 6-pack sample party. They went from very good to very bad, but I'll get to those later. I also have another selection in the fridge at home awaiting me so stick around. Hopefully it won't be as long next time...

2 Big Boys - Great Divide and Deschutes

While moving back into the house, my brother-in-law and I stopped by Macadoodles while picking up lunch and grabbed a few smokestack bottles to split. We only got the chance to open one of them that day and I had the other sometime later, but both of these beers were excellent and hit the spot.

Custom 6-Pack Part 2 - Free State, Tsingtao and Tommyknocker

And now, the rest of the story. In my last post, I cut it short due to being in the middle of a move. So, without further ado, here are the rest of the bottles, plus a few extra.

The Theory of Intelligence

Custom 6-Pack - Warsteiner, Mothers, O'Fallon, Southern Tier

The first 4 bottles.

We've been in the process of moving back to our rebuilt house just shy of the 1 year anniversary of the May 22, 2011 Tornado, so things have been a little hectic to say the least. This is a "part 1 of 2" post for the first few bottles I had from my most recent custom 6-pack. As of right now, it's been almost two weeks since I've drank these, so my memory of them isn't the best. In fact, if I hadn't taken a photo of the bottles, I wouldn't even remember what they were... But lets try do get these taken care of and I'll go over the rest of them, including my second dumped bottle, soon.

Boulevard Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale

Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale

At the end of my last blog, I said I was going to pick up a 4-Pack of Tank 7 to try a highly recommended brew and hope for a good comeback after the last disappointing 6-Pack. Well, I did not get a 4-Pack as I originally stated. Instead, I found a single 750mL Smokestack Bottle and picked it up for a taste that was simply wonderful.

Custom 6-Pack - Widmer Brothers, New Belgium, Magic Hat and more

Another week, another 6-pack. Well, more like a 5-pack considering the 6th bottle was O'Fallon's Black Hemp which I talked about last time. I enjoyed it enough to pick up another bottle in place of something new. So that left me with 5 new beers to sample; 4 Domestic and 1 International.

The 5-Pack Lineup

Custom 6-Pack - Hoegaarden, O'Fallon and more

I finally visited our local Macadoodles for the first time to check out their beer selection and I must say I was impressed. They had a very big selection of Craft Beers from around the world (as well as a huge selection of wines). But what was even better to me was the fact that they had a "build your own" 6 pack. So, I spent some time looking over what they had and selected 6 beers I hadn't tried before.

The Lineup of beers.

Mother's Brewing Company

Every journey has it's beginnings. For me, that was with the Mother's Brewing Company in Springfield, Missouri.

My Brother-In-Law had invited me to take a tour of a new brewery that had just opened up in Downtown Springfield and it sounded like fun. I enjoyed a good beer every now and again. What I didn't realize was just how eye opening of an experience it was going to be. Before visiting the brewery, I had never experienced the fullness of what a beer could actually be.

That was almost a year ago now. Hard to believe. Mother's hold a special place in my heart, and my fridge, since they are the brewery who pulled me in. It's hard to put a finger on which of their selections is my favorite as they are all so unique and different.