Oakar Blues on Men Of A Certain Age

As I am doing a bit of web surfing, I remembered hearing about a TV show called - Men of a Certain Age, so I decided to check it out. The TV show is OK, but the beer they drink on the show is great. The actors were drinking Oskar Blue’s Dale’s Pale Ale. Although I was not so interested in the show, I would consider watching it because of the beer selection.

Long Trail Ale for $12.99

I wanted to do a quick blog about our local Market Basket. I love my Market Basket in Seabrook NH. They have such a wonderful beer selection. And their prices are fantastic. I got a 12 pack of Long Trail Ale for $12.99! That is like $1.08 per beer. This is a great beer to have as a staple in the house.

Hands-down my favorite Long Trail beer is the BlackBerry Wheat. I think that it is under valuated in the beer community. It may not be an end-all-be-all beer, but if you crack one of those open on a hot summer day – there is nothing better. So the next summer night you are heading to the store to get some Corona – pick up a Blackberry Wheat, you won’t be disappointed.

Beer Advocate's Most-Wanted Beers - SBGs Take

Well the #1 most wanted is of course Portsmouth Brewery's Kate the Great. Every beer geek that does not live in the area always asks about Kate The Great. It’s not that I don’t like Kate The Great or that I don’t like the beer, but to be honest, I think it is just a good beer. However, I am really happy about Kate The Great's status because I am planning on going to Kate the Great day, and buying my allotted 2 beers, holding on to them for a few months and sell them at a profit. So if you are looking for some Kate in September time frame, let me know. LOL ;)

There were a few I was surprised about.
1. Coming in second was the Russian River Dark Lord not surprising, but the fact that it beat Westvleteren 12 is a shocker.
2. Another one that shocked me was Older Viscosity. Not that it was on the list, but that people wanted it so bad. I see it all the time. I tend to frequent places that specialize in beer so I understand why I thought it readily available to everyone.
3. The third one that surprised me was the Great Lakes Barrel-Aged Blackout Stout. I love Great Lakes, if it was readily available here I would drink it more often. So, I was not surprised to see the brewery, but I was surprised that it was not their Christmas Ale. Although their Christmas beer is readily available during the holiday season, once they are out, they are out and almost impossible to find. This beer is so good that it prompted a new holiday song. Check it out – 25,000 hits on the video – it is so funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kwF-TvMi_Q
4. Again Brewery on the list – this time Bell’s – not surprising - but HopSlam Ale Vs. Two Hearted – that I question.

I am not surprised that Pliny the Younger beat Pliny the Elder. Most beer geeks have probably tried Elder not Younger. I myself have not sampled the Younger – yet.

I do see a couple of themes; people really like Russian River, and I need to search out more beers.

All-in-all I don’t disagree with the Most-Wanted Beers of 2010 list.

Latest Beer Advocate Magazine – Beer in Review – My take on - All-Time Top Beers On Planet Earth

As there are 6 main categories for this year’s review, so I will make this a series of blogs so as not to bore you.

So let’s start with the #1 - All-Time Top Beers On Planet Earth. First let me lament of the fact that 10 out of the 25 beers listed were Imperial Stouts. I understand that those are complex beers, but there are other styles that are not even on the list. IE Lambics, Flemish Sours, Pilsners, etc – that if you have ever done any brewing yourself you know are in their own right complex. I could, and probably will soon make my own list. So I am a bit disappointed in the lack of variety.

Topping the BA charts is Westvleteren 12 – that is not a shock, but a bit of a disappointment. I think it is a great beer, but the top beer on the planet – I am not sure I would agree. I do agree with many of their other choices including – Pliny the Elder, Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, Rochefort 10, St. Bernadus Abt 12 (which I think is comparable to the Westvleteren 12, but 1/5 the price), and my #1 off this list Dieu Du Ciel’s Peche Mortel. Oh what a great beer that is. Even though I was sick the last time I went to Montreal, I had to go to Dieu Du Ciel and get a Peche!

I do think that others on the list are quite good, but I would not put as All-Time Top Beer On Planet Earth.

I will admit that I have some of the beers listed, yet. Such as Dreadnaught IPA, Bell’s HopSlam Ale (although I have had many other Bell’s like their Two Hearted – that should have been on this list), Masala Mama IPA, and Darness by Surley Brewing Company. So I can’t comment on those.

All in all, it is not a horrible list, but one that should be scrutinized a bit more before dissing some very wonderful styles.

Be on the lookout for my top beers!

Beer Advocate’s Lentil Soup

So last night we (and by we I mean the MR – as I am the worst chef in the world) made the Lentil Soup from the Beer Advocate magazine. I have to say that it was really good. I expected it to be mediocre, but I was pleasantly surprised. We are vegetarians, so we did not add the pork, but it was still great. The only thing that was disappointing was that we only made a ½ portion.

This is a fabulous recipe and I totally recommend that you try it at home.

Up next for us on the menu is page 27’s White Bean Soup with Wit Gremolata.

Ebenezer's Vs. Lion's Pride, Funky Buddha Vs. The Office

I realize that it has been a while, and I need to catch up.

Here is my recap of the last few weeks.

Went to Maine in December, but did not go to Ebenezer’s. However I did go to the Lion’s Pride (Brunswick, ME) – IT SUCKED. I had such high expectations and it totally flopped. All the warmth, energy, and passion that makes you dive way the heck out of the way to Lovell Maine (that is where Eb’s is located) is gone. Food there is just mediocre. Staff there is a bit lack luster. If they do know about beer, they were not sharing their knowledge with the customers. Even the bartender there did not want to chat. I can not tell you how many times I have been to Ebenezer’s and had Chris (the owner) convince me to buy an expensive bottle of beer – and to be honest – I was happy to do it. They were always great. It is also a real pity that the awesome brewing equipment displayed in the back of the brew house is not being used. It is not even hooked up, it is a glorified closet. I can’t believe that this got an A+ review on Beer Advocate. Yes, they do have a beautiful tap system, and a couple of fridges full of nice bottled beer – that does not make it a good bar. However I do have confidence in Chris and Jennifer that they can make the Lion’s Pride a success. They just need to bring out the spirit of the place.

On a brighter note, I was on a trip to Boca Raton Florida and found an awesome little bar called the Funky Buddha Lounge. The atmosphere was super comfortable, people were friendly and knowledgeable, and the beer menu was Awesome. Their description of Bud Light was great - "St. Louis Water, with a hint of beer flavor. If you still want it after reading the rest of the menu it will cost you $30" I had a Lost Coast tangerine wheat beer. It was awesome. It is my 2nd favorite fruit beer - after the Ithaca Apricot Ale. This to me deserves an A+ rating on Beer Advocate.

Also on our trip to Florida we went to a new restaurant called The Office in Delray Beach. You would not believe what we found. They claimed to have “Chimay Grand Reserve” (so Chimay Blue) on tap. That is impossible. NOBODY in the US has it on tap. The description was also for the Blue. It could have only been the Red or White. So I asked the bartender if it was Red or White and here is what she said “well the tap handle is Red, so probably Red”. It was White.

I was in Baltimore the other day, but did not have anything besides a Yuengling – a great beer.

We also had a few more brew sessions and made some more great beer.

So those are some of the highlights of the last few weeks.

Twas the night before Thanksgiving drinks

So last night I went to my best friend’s house for her annual “Twas the night before Thanksgiving” party. It twas a blast and had some great beers.
There were the standard Harpoon Brewery and Magic Hat beers. Then we had a few specialty beers like the new Corsendonk Christmas Ale – which to me got an A+. It is such a wonderful full body taste of a Belgium dark with just a hint of spices. Traditional Christmas beers are heavily spiced and over roasted malty. This was so not the case.
There was also plenty of Affligem Noel beer. To me it tasted a bit like a fruit cake – in the good way. Again not too spicy.
The host Doug created (at least it was new to me) a warm apple pie beer. It was a combo of a hard apple cider (I can’t recall what variety) and a Harpoon Dark.
All in all it was a great event with great beers

A typical homebrew day at the O.C. - 9 simple steps

The first rule of home brewing is………. Relax, don’t worry, and have a home brew. Done

So next, what are we going to brew? As it is my day, and we have not done this style in a while I decided to go for a traditional Czech Pilsner. Yummy.

Our brew days go a little something like this.

1. Get the water ready for the Mash.
a. Clean the kettle (in our case our customized keg)
b. Hook up the propane tank
c. Put in 2- 2.5 gallons of H2O. We do this so we can be on the same level as the spout on our kettle.
d. Light propane tank
e. Put in 6.5 gallons of water in the kettle as well as a thermometer and heat to 150 degrees. FYI - The water used changes depending on the beer.

2. Get the grains ready for the Mash – Because we are brewing a Czech Pilsner we are going to need a combo of Pilsner malt and Cara Pils malt.
a. Measure 1.5 lbs of Cara Pils malt
b. Measure 19 lbs of Pilsner malt
c. Crush all the grains
d. Clean mash container & manifold
e. Jam in manifold to our mash container (cooler) No need to jam if yours is constructed with great care and detail. As ours is more on the creative side, we need to jam.
f. Get water to the right temp, here we need about 170 degrees


3. Mashing
a. Add the water to the mash container and grab your grains and pour about 1/6 in and gently mix the two together. Be sure there are no clumps.
b. Repeat until all grains are mixed well with as much you need to get a proper ratio of 1 1/3 quarts per pound of grain. (thanks Steve for the details – I just knew it as “mix well”)
c. The grain/water mixture is your “mash”. Bring your mash temp to approximately 150 degrees.
d. Let sit for 1 hour, but stir it every 20 minutes or so.
e. Break and have another home brew or blog ;)

4. Sparging Water
a. Add 9 more gallons of water to the boiling kettle and heat this up 180
b. Pull a few quarts of the wart from the bottom of the tap (this is why we use a manifold) and pour it back on the top of the grains.
c. Get out a piece of tin foil, and poke a bunch of holes in it. Put this tin foil over the grains. We do this to disperse the sparge water over the grains.
d. At the same time “sparge” (aka – pour) the boiling water on top of the grains while simultaneously pouring the wort (the liquid portion of the mash) into the next boiling kettle. The sparge water should be flowing at the same rate as the wort leaving the tank.
e. Smell the mixture – it smells so yummy.
f. Take a few cups of wort and put it to the side to help the yeast get started.
a. Boil this wort in a pot and then cool it down to about 50 degrees.
b. Add this to your yeast mix. It is used as an appetizer for the yeast to get them hungry for dinner (beer).
g. Feel free to test the gravity of your wort to see what kind of “efficiency” you have. Basically how much sugars and other good stuff you were able to abstract from the grains.
h. Once the sparge is complete, put the kettle back on the burner. We move our burner to ground level because
i. It is heavy
ii. We don’t need to rely on gravity as much
i. Let this boil for about 1 hour adding hops when needed (see below)
j. Break and have another home brew or blog ;)

5. Adding hops – for this Pilsner we will have 4 rounds hops
a. After about 30 minutes of boiling, add 4oz of Saaz hops. Do not stir, just let it do its thing.
b. Smell the mixture now. So yummy again.
c. After another 20 minutes add another 4oz of Saaz hops.
d. About 10 more minutes after that add 2oz of Saaz hops.
e. And at the end of the boil add 2 more ounces of Saaz hops.

6. Cooling
a. Right after you take it off the burner add a dash of Irish moss to the mixture to help make the beer clear.
b. Put in a cooling coil and run cold water through the coils to cool down your wort. We want to get it to the 60-50 degree range.
c. You can stir your beer while cooling, but above 100 you want to stir slowly so you don’t add too much oxygen to the beer. Under 100, feel free to stir as hard as you like.

7. Fermentation
a. Transfer the cooled wort into your carboy (glass fermentation vessel) or other vessel.
b. Pitch (add) your yeast – ½ per container – unless you have a really large container, than add it all.
c. Put it in the fridge to ferment until it is done fermenting - Approximately 3 weeks or so.

8. Lagering
a. Once the fermentation process is complete you want to transfer the beer into your kegs or bottles to “lager” the beer – approximately another month or so.

9. Drinking – Enjoy your fresh home made beer.

Is there a shortage on seasonal brews?

So the night before last I went to a bar in Newburport MA and ordered a Harpoon Winter, and they were out. I know for certain (a little birdie in the industry told me) that Oktoberfest beers were hard to come by. Does this mean that there is a shortage of seasonal brews?

If I had to guess the production of seasonal brews has remained constant or has had moderate growth over the last few years, but the consumption has increased. I think that beer is starting to gain some notoriety (not the red-headed step child it once was – not sure it is PC to say that any more but hay this is my blog) and kick some wine butt.

I truly believe people are trying to expand their beer palates but don’t know how to start so they go with the obvious choice a seasonal brew. To be honest it is not a bad choice.
Although I am not a fan of many winter brews – it is a personal choice – I don’t like nutmeg in beer - I hate to see beer choices limited and people forced back to ordering their same-old same-old just because they don’t know what to do.

So I plead to the breweries out there, please make enough seasonal brews to get us through this winter.

NERAX cask festival is coming to The Tap

I guess it has been a while since I wrote. The NERAX cask festival is coming, the NERAX cask festival is coming! It is one of the few times per year you can get multiple real cask conditioned beers. Most of the time (if you are lucky enough to find someone service cask) you get 1 option. To have 20-30 options is just awesome.
Setup for the festival started last weekend. With the kegs settling in, http://www.tapbrewpub.com/">The Tap is ready to start this show on Thursday. I will be there on the weekend, so be looking for me. I will be the one with the big smile on her face.
Come, drink, and enjoy some of the best beer in the world.