Return of the Mojo

Two oddly serendipitous events occurred yesterday. Event 1: I got a golf catalog in the mail that had closeout Nike Mojo golf balls (which you may recall I like but thought had been discontinued) for sale at the low, low price of $15 for 2 dozen. An order will be placed soon, providing someone here promises to play a few rounds with me sometime this year.

Later in the afternoon Event 2 occurred when I went to the local beer-ery and noticed that Boulder Beer Mojo Risin' had made a return after not having seen it for awhile. I honestly couldn't remember if I liked it that much, but it felt like fate so I thought I should pick one up and see how this year's vintage is. I'm drinking it right now, and it's pretty good. I like it much better than last night's Moylan's and find it to be a little smoother around the edges, although almost to the point of a little bit of watery-ness. The hop and malt flavors are both there, but seem to be somehow just slightly off. Almost like a mix that hasn't been stirred up quite enough and still tastes separate instead of unified. I think i'll give this about a B+

Meh-lan's

There was a new brand at the store today: Moylan's. I knew I'd seen some of you blog about this, but couldn't remember if it was positive or negative, so I picked up an Imperial IPA, thinking I couldn't go far wrong there, even if it was bad. That part of the logic was correct... even though this wasn't my favorite beer, it was still a double IPA, so it was still great. I think it was a little too west coast, a little too hoppy and bitter for my taste. Also, the label is literally littered with self-congradulatory awards and beer fest medals. Come on Moylan's... you're trying too hard. I don't care if you were the Alpha King award winner in '01 and '02 - what have you done for me lately? Overall grade: B-

Brewing update

I made a stout on Sunday. The O.G. is 1.1! That was even before adding the yeast starter. It's a small batch and the yeast starter was pretty big, so I am hoping for 10 - 12 % ABV. I think it will work out to about $1.50 per bottle. I love all grain brewing. To boot it smells like chocolate brownies. I think I will add a tiny amount of coffee - about 5 or ten beans - to the secondary.

Barry, I think you should invest in a 'Barley Crusher'. You can use a 3/8'' drill to power it, or a hand crank, but the drill works great. I found this out after having cranked a bunch by hand.

Also I racked Saturday's Pale Ale to the secondary today and I think my experiment with the sparge water temperature has payed off - no icky cider smell is present at all. We will see how it tastes.

My second try with the golden promise that I drove back to State College from a few weeks ago is still in the secondary and it looks fantastic. A nice orange or burnt sienna if you will. Hopefully I have three winners in the pipeline. I'm actually low on bottles at the moment.

On a previous brew (the Nugget/Golden Promise that tastes like apple juice after brushing your teeth) I tried to carbonate with 'sugar drops'. Doesn't seem to have worked. (At any rate the beer tastes pretty badly.)

Finally I talked to the brewer at Otto's. He said he'd sell me hops (he has centennial and cascade and nugget) for 7 dollars PER POUND! Online, hops run about $2.50/oz. And grain sacks for $35 per 50 pounds. I was telling him how much I like golden promise and he might order some for their next IPA. Maybe I can get them to make a Surly Furious.

Here's the recipe from the stout:

Malt bill:
2 lbs 2-row pale
1/2 pound Belgian biscuit
1/2 lb chocolate
3/2 lbs crystal 40L
1/2 lb crystal 80L
1/4 lb black

Strike:

2 gallons at 165F
Dough in 151F 1 hour

Sparge 5/4 gallons at 170F

Hops:

1 oz northern 1 hour
1/4 oz norther 30 minutes
1/2 oz cluster 15 minutes
1/2 oz cluster 2 minutes

Yeast American Ale 1056 (starter 1 cup pilsen malt, 1 pint water)

O.G. 1.1

Yield in primary
2 gallons

Canned Beer

Always curious about beers in cans, I ran across this the other day and picked one up: Southern Star Pine Belt Pale Ale. Being from Texas, I had some fears that it would be an Alamo-ish lame lager-y beer. It is not. When I popped the top, I was immediately greeted by an almost overwhelming hop smell that made me much more optimistic. Unfortunately, the flavor didn't quite measure up to the smell. It's an oddly soft and watery taste, with a flavor that is just slightly off...something I associate with mediocre homebrews (Don't worry - I'm not implying anyone here would make a beer with this flavor). Another strange quality is that it has an initial taste and an aftertaste, but it somehow manages to completely disappear in between ... there is absolutely no "middle taste" if I can coin that phrase. Overall, its not a bad beer, its just not great. It will not be challenging Furious or Ten-Fidy for the canned beer crown, but I wouldn't turn it down if offered one in the future. Overall: B--

Mt. Carmel Brewery

Maybe I can get a job with these guys.

Their IPA is news to me. I think we tried the Copper and Blonde ales a couple of Spring Breaks ago. This was the very same Spring Break as when I first met Raspy.

I am brewing a Pale Ale.

Recipe:

Malt bill:

3 lbs 2-row pale malt
1 lb 40L crystal malt

Mash schedule:

6 quarts water at strike temp of 165 F
mash temp 151 F for one hour

sparge water 170 F, sparge temp 152 F

Initial boil 2 gallons

Hop additions:

1 oz cascade (1 hour)
1/2 oz willamette (15 minutes)
1/2 oz willamette (flame out)

Yeast(Nottingham ale) hydrated in 1 pint water prior to pitching

Dark Lord Day

Everyone should probably register for this, whether you want to go or not.

http://www.darklordday.com/about/

Time for Monks

I've been in the mood for some big, dark, chewy, buttery Belgians lately after the one I had at the tasting with Barry a few weeks ago, so I picked up a few today. Tonight is the first of the batch: t'Smisje Bourgondier. The verdict so far is that it's pretty good, but a little more on the sour funky spectrum than I was hoping for. It's by no means a sour, but isn't quite as sugary as I had in mind. Still, highly drinkable and a good beer. B+

Mmmmmm...imperial-ness

Had this one last night. Founder's Imperial Stout. This is pretty tasty. I don't know if it was super-memorable compared to some others but it's really solid. I got a bunch of these when I got the Two Brother's Northwoods, and they are pretty comparable. I think the brothers is a little harsher/ hoppier and this one is a little more mellow, but still lets you know you're having something with some substance. I like it. A-

French + beer = not good

St. Landelin la Divine. I picked this up because it was super cheap and came in a cool fliptop bottle. Given those criteria, you can imagine that this was not very good. Although, to be fair, it was good for the style, it just happened to be a style that is gross. This is a french beer that is some kind of Saison/farmhouse ale. My least favorite type of beer I think, but one of Katie's favorites, so luckily I had someone to pawn most of it off on. C-

Blueberries

Buffalo Bill's Blueberry Oatmeal Stout. Yet another entry in the "blueberry stout" category. I don't know why blueberries seem to be the most common fruit in all of these...mellowness? Anyway, didn't taste (or even smell) a whole lot of blueberry here. And it didn't seem much like an "oatmeal stout" to me either...the taste was like a porter with some hoppiness and edge to it instead of smooth oatmealocity. All in all, things were a bit off with this beer. B-

1.5 Troubles at best

Founder's Double Trouble. Had this one a few days ago. Kind of a let down. I was expecting big things, but it didn't do that much for me. Has a slight battery-acid tinge to it that reminds me of Heavy Handed or Maharajah. Perhaps this is a particular hop type that I just am not crazy about? I think I'd give this a B, but I do like the trippy label.

Kubb ?!@$?!

Have any of you 'sconies heard of this game? It seems to be all the rage in the Eau Claire/ Menomonie/ Chippewa Valley area. Something between bocce, cricket, and cornhole it seems. (Or 'yarts', Duane's favorite outdoor game)

http://www.wisconsinkubb.com/

Let me sleep on it...

Newest release in the Tyranena Brewers Gone Wild series. This one is a cherry Imperial porter. It is damn tasty. It need to warm up quite a bit before drinking, but it has a nice tartness up front and typical Tyranena porter goodness on the back. A nice brew. Plus, it has reference to Meatloaf, which I'm sure will please Barry.

Multi-billion dollar idea

So, the bathroom at work has a new pine air freshener in it that smells exactly like hops. Which got me thinking...why can't you buy hop flavored air fresheners? I bet if we invented them we could sell them on beer advocate, etc and possibly to bars and brewpubs, then retire and play golf and drink all day. Who's with me?

More homebrewing Sposborth style

On a spur of the moment, I drove down to Reston yesterday to brew an all grain IPA with my friend Matt. As the picture indicates, I drove the primary back with me to State College.

I learned that a bottling bucket can used as a mash tun. This is exciting, because it enables me to brew larger all grain batches. My recent all grain brews have had a cider-y flavor possibly due to excessive heat during the sparge. So we lowered the sparge water to 160 F for this batch. Looking forward to the results.

Hops:
Amarillo 2 oz (1 oz 60 minutes, 1 oz incrementally added over 30 minutes)
Centennial 2 oz (1 oz added incrementally over final 30 minutes, 1 oz at flameout)
Cascade 1 oz dry-hop

Malt bill:
10 lbs Pilsen 2-row
2 lbs Crystal (40L)
1 lbs Golden Promise

Mash schedule:
Strike - 3 gallons at 171 F
Single step mash 158 F at 0 minutes, 156.5 at 30 minutes, 156 at 60 minutes
Sparged out with 160 F water to produce 6+ gallons wort

Boil time:
1 hour

Volume after chilling:
4.5 gallons

O.G. 1.065

Update: Bottled the contents of the 3 gallon carboy on March 7th. F.G. 1.01, Estimated Alcohol content 7% ABV. (The one gallon carboy has not been bottled as of March 7th.)

Notes: no apple cider flavor. used tap water for this batch.