Dogfish Head Aprihop and my Belgian Red Home Brew make for a Funday Sunday

The day has come! Hoorayyy! Belgian Red, my first real experimental beer, is ready to drink. This was me when I woke up. David was Paul Pierce, the guy just running around after sinking a game winning shot:

So here is the Belgian Red Recipe. I have to say, it pours beautifully. Many home brews don't have great carbonation, but look at how much head it pours with! Awesomeness.

David says that you could have told him that this was the Belgian IPA we brewed and he would believe it. The IBU's are only at 50, opposed to the 80+ we have in our Belgian, but it's still quite hoppy. David also said, and I have to quote him because I'm proud, that the beer's "good quality exhibits my experience." Happy to report I'm getting better and not worse with age. Score.

Tell you what, it's different than I expected but I'm still very happy with it and it tastes delicious. The color pours beautifully but the flavor doesn't scream red ale, rather, the beer exhibits some light caramel flavors and the sweetness of a Belgian strong ale. There is considerably less caramel flavor than a Belgian Dubbel but there's definitely considerably more caramel than a Belgian Golden. I was hoping for a more "red" flavor profile, but this was the first recipe and I'll add more caramel notes next time. Otherwise, I'm VERY excited to share this with people in the coming weeks. It's tasty.

After sampling, we went onto "sample" more beer with Christine who is up from Newport and with Sara. It's time for a little Sunday Funday.

We checked out a bier garden on the Venice boardwalk. It's been a while since I've strolled the chaos that is Venice beach and I forgot how entertaining it is - that and how many dogs there are int he world. David brought Kamari (under the table in the picture above) and we settled in for a pitcher of Erdinger Dunkel, German puffed pasta and mozzarella sticks ordered by yours truly (not very German of me).

Sunday Funday continued with Sangria at Primitivo Wine Bistro. Guess what else is on Abbott Kenney? The Other Room. The beer of the day is now 3 out of 4 days from this bar. Starting to run out of options...Psych! Their menu is Laaarge.

Even though I know nothing about apricots (I have no idea what they smell or look like), I welcome any beer that can incorporate unusual elements in to make a balanced brew. Sam Caligione is the king of this, so I'm very excited to taste this.

I'm trusting Christine and Sara to help me out with the aroma. They say the Aprihop smells like a bag of dried apricots and weed. HA, silly girls - that's Dogfish Heads signature HOPS. But to be fair, hops are a distant cousin of the green cheeva that is so prevalent in this area. I blame it on the hippies. The fruit in this beer is very well balanced with the hops. I'm not a fan of fruit beers but I love this because the fruit and hops are so subtle. It's simply a well made beer. THE ROCK rating.

David announced that his next beer will be an Imperial Red, like Drake's Denoggenizer. I'm going to use my tax refund money like Ninkasi (the Sumerian goddess of fermentation) would want me too and invest in equipment to brew my first partial-mash beer. Time to step up home brewing a notch and get serious about this!