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.