David and Walker are drinking a different beer each day* for an entire year, 365 beers in all, starting August 5th, 2010. We're writing about our daily regime to share the experiences and delicious discoveries with our friends and mild acquaintances to inspire YOU to bring previously unknown beers to your lips. (*limit one new beer per day consumed before midnight, no catch up days allowed)
Ever since I was introduced to this beer during my October Chicago trip, I've loved it. Sarah knows how to treat visitors and she greats me with a bottle as I arrive at 7am.
It's the perfect drinking beer, sweet and floral and crisp. THE perfect summertime brew and now I have the privileged to taste it during Chicago's best time of the year. It's not the greatest wheat ale, but it's my favorite one to drink. I could literally drink a sixer of this one morning never leaving my couch and consider what I'd just accomplished a great success. THE ROCK rating.
Geese! I dunno how close Goose Island is from here, but this geese are running rampant
We head out to meet Andrea and then relocate to Lincoln Park and play Bocce Ball while tossing down a couple of 312's. It's Friday afternoon and we're simply, 'drinking out of cups, being a bitch.' It's a favorite line from a very bizarre and hilarious video of a guy who's trapped in a closet on drugs (mushrooms?) talking to himself. They animated his ramblings and I've never become tired listening to his cracked out mind.
"Look at Mr. Balloon Hands....Who's chair is that? Not my chair, not my problem.....Why didn't I get invited to the Seahorse Seahell. What is this? Get real. I'm in love with sea horses. I'm in love with them, they're so beautiful and cute, I'm in love with seahorses."
Oh the hilarity:
Afterward, we head to a friend's rooftop to BBQ and soak in the sights.
And Sarah leads everyone in several rounds of shotgunning beers, which I haven't done in forever and obviously lead to a great night. Cheers Chicago!
Aaron B is throwing a festivus for the rest of us to say goodbye to Sarah P's, sister, Rachel, who has spent the last week here. To honor her send off, I pulled an 'expedition' ale out of the fridge. I'm incredibly excited to try this, as Drake's is one of my favorite breweries. I'm hoping this red ale, like Rachel, will be the younger sister of the hoppier and stronger Denoggonizer, which is one of my favorite 'pleasure beers.' David and I have to always ask the other when buying beers, if it's a day beer - for the blog - or a pleasure beer, which is something we've already drunk and won't count for that day. At 315+ beers, we rarely drink pleasure beers because we're already swimming in ale.
Between Aaron and David, I'm surrounded by excellent cooks and I'm eagerly looking forward to dinner. What awaits us is shrimp seviche in sliced cucumbers, scallop salad and flank stank with a balsamic vinaigrette reduction. Everything is delicious, and I had thirds of the flank steak. Yes please thank you much fat kids rule.
The Expedition Red Ale clocks in at 60 IBU's and 7% alcohol, compared to the Denoggonizer's 90 IBU and 9.75% but the Red holds it's own. It's not as intense as the Denog, but this is a good thing. The caramel flavor is medium rich and the sweetness doesn't last long, quickly replaced by a roasted flavor that isn't too bitter. The problem with red ales is they tend to be overtly sweet because in order to create that caramel flavoring, you have to use a high percentage of caramel malt. Drake's fixed this by adding a small amount of roasted malt to their grain bill. Some people just do what they do well, and Drake's has another winner. I plan on adding this to my small list of 'pleasure' beers. THE ROCK rating.
David finishes off the main meal with broiled sea bass. For dessert, Jessica grilled peaches and chopped walnuts while David delivered homemade whipped cream, whipped with awkward enthusiasm by David himself...That boy certainly loves a brisk churning.
It's the day before my berfday and I got lots going on. I'm gonna kill a lobster using a butcher's knife (I can't believe this is the humane way) and then I'm going to make my first partial-mash home brew. I've been eying this day for a while because brewing partial mash is a completely new process compared to extract brewing and it requires some science and solid execution. Good thing I'm going sharpen my execution skills with these pound and a half crustaceans first!
Sara names her lobbie William, David's is Garth and mine is Newton. We read on a website after we bought and named them, that whatever you do don't name them! Because then you get attached. Well, I suppose I've had friends for shorter time periods but I've never put a knife through their brain. Time to knock that off my bucket list.
David likes to get really close to his subjects before execution. It makes doing business personal.
Newton is gonna be delicious
Because I knew this would hilarious, I took video of each of us wielding the killing stroke. David is the pioneer, Sara is hilarious, and mine is 'efficient' (I suppose). I'm very proud of these videos, not just because I went hand-held Paul Greengrass style, but really because David and Sara are energetic participants in them. It was weird to end a lobster like this, but it is much more humane than throwing them in a boiling pot and letting them die a slow, agonizing death.
*Please know the videos are slightly graphic - we are killing animals. If you have a problem watching Shark Week or 'When Hungry, Hungry Hippos Attack' on the Nat Geo channel, this is not for you. Otherwise, I think you'll be entertained. I was a little squeamish at first, but it turned out to be (too much) fun and is one of those experiences I can cross off my life list.
Do note, that when they are moving afterwords, they're dead but their nerves are still going. It's creepy and crazy. The same thing happens when you kill a snake. The videos are short, between 1 minute and 1:30. Below is what happens when brain meets knife.
David
Sara
Walker
This was quickly becoming an incredibly fun day. After slicing and dicing them, David and Sara stuffed the lobsters with crab whilst I prepared my brewing equipment.
The champagne below (I will post a video tomorrow with more detail) was a gift from my dad for my 21st birthday. It's a pretty nice bottle so at the time I planned to have it on a 'Special Occasion.' And I could never decide when that occasion was, so it's been on my desk, under my bed and in my wine cooler for the past 7 years. It's not like champagne ages, would it still bubble?
To my delight, the bubbly and food was amazing. The champers was surprisingly complex. Champagne with crab stuffed lobsters, wow, a pretty high-class meal. Thanks to Sara and David, who made my last day as a 27 year-old an awesome day.
So instead of celebrating the birthday weekend by paintballing today, I decided to grill seafood and make my first partial mash beer. Homebrewing with extract is how I made my previous 4 beers, but by learning partial mash, I gain an understanding of All-Grain brewing (the third and final tier of homebrewing) and hopefully create more complex beers. It's more complex though and I had to outfit two 5 gallon coolers with special equipment.
I won't describe the process in depth here because it's detailed online, but it simply involves 'cooking' the grains (I have 5.5 lbs) in 152 degrees for an hour (mashing the grains), and then sparging the grains (washing them with 180 degree water) again, to create the wort. The hard part is getting the right water temperature and then maintaining it and figuring out how much water to use. Overall, it took me 4.5 hours to mash the grains and cook the wort. Usually it takes me 2, 2.5 hours.
I'll post the recipe below, but first let me review the beer of the day. I'm making a Belgian Blonde so I picked one of the few Belgian Blondes I saw in Beverage Warehouse today and it was fantastic. It has a strong yeast smell and great color. The pop when I uncorked it was stronger than my champagne pop, and it has great carbonation and sexy Belgian lace. There is a smooth and balanced pilsner malt base and has a subtle spicy flavor that adds a delicious twist. Moinette blonde is a flat out fantastic for the style. BAD BOYS rating.
Here's the two-tier system in action
Untitled Belgian Blonde
Here is a link to the recipe that is reprinted below: Summer Belgian Blonde. I built this recipe from scratch.
Malt Extract: Pale 3 lbs
Dry Pilsner Extract 1lb
Sugar: Light Belgian Candy Sugar 1 lb
Grain Bill: Belgian Pilsner 3 lb 4oz
Vieanna Malt 1 lb
Caramel Crystal Malt 10L 12 oz
Cara-Puls 8 oz
Hop Schedule: Hallertau (3.0%) 1.5 oz at 60 mins
Hallertau (3.0%) 1oz at 30 mins
Cascade (4.0%) 1oz at 15 mins
Yeast: Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes (made a yeast starter Friday night at 3:30am after partying, HA).
IBU is 22.5 (style is typically between 15 and 30)
Potential Alcohol 6.7%
SRM (color) is 5
The gravity was a little lower than I expected coming out of the Mash-Tun, so I added a cup of dry pilsner extract to the boil. The OG reading at the boil's end malfunctioned and said my beer is 10%+ which is not possible. Overall, I hit the temperatures I wanted but had trouble maintaining the 150 degree plus temp while Mashing. The process kept me busy but wasn't as stressful as I thought. It was fun though, I'm already looking forward to creating another recipe!
Today is my joint berfday party with Aaron and Tiffany! Turning 28 today, the year which legends are made, friendships created and my liver fatally destroyed. Still recovering from Aaron's All-Denim Party, Aaron, David and I head to Costco for liquor to make Fader-aids, which are Gatorade and vodka. Our guests will love us and they're vital to the distinguished game of Sloshball.
This is my 4th homebrew and by all accounts, probably my best. This is coming from David as well as other friends. It's easily the most drinkable and perfect as a summer hammock beer, which was intentional. The irony of the situation, is that this was also the cheapest to make. I added very little adjunct malt to the recipe and it cost me a little over $30. My belgian homebrews cost over $50 in comparison. What made the difference was my decision to use Kolsch yeast, which provides a less tart flavor profile than an American Wheat yeast and clean, lager like finish, and also my dedication to keeping the temperature constant in my room, which was no small feat. I spent many nights freezing my butt off to keep the temperature in the room well below 70.
The beer itself is clean and crisp, with a tinge of sweetness from the caramel malts. It's something I could make and enjoy for the rest of my life and tweak the recipe very little. I plan on making this for every summer as long as possible. Here is the original link that explains the name (Heisenberg's Honey Wheat). This is a TRANSFORMERS rating because it's not a complex or astounding beer, but I think this brew is worthy of greater attention (perhaps a homebrew competition in the future?)
Birthday kids!
Sloshball is the game of kickball but played with cups filled with alcohol. It's a hilarious game. People trying to catch the ball with one arm, others trying to kick the ball (my every at-bat ended with alcohol on my face and up my nose - apparently I kick by throwing my arms up in the air), and people having to finish their cup as they round third, which also ends with a large amount of booze on their face.
It was an amazing birthday filled with body paint, booze and great friends! I thought it would be hard to beat last year's joint birthday party with my friend Natalie, also held on the beach, but this topped it! Wildly successful. Just amazing. Thank you to all my friends who came out!
Just because it's Good Friday, doesn't mean we have a good beer planned. I bought this beer weeks ago just to piss off David and now it's zero hour. When we first started this year, one of the first beers I brought home was a Banana Bread Beer. I bought it because from time to time I want to taste beers that are different, that I would normally never try and are out of our comfort zone.
People always ask David, what's your favorite beer? That's always a hard question to answer, there are so many...Okay they say, what's the worst beer you've ever had? Easy answer. BANANA BREAD BEER. And David wasn't wrong, it was truly horrendous. Here's my write up: Wells Banana Bread
David hates fruity beers. David hates novelty beers as much as he hates fruity lambics and saisons. Come to think of it, David hates a lot of things but most of all horses. I don't know how he does it, but David has found glue made from horses. I think it came from Colonial Williamsburg. He doesn't even own a dog but he buys the dog food with horse meat in it, just to keep up their bottom line. It's the least he could do.
See what horses can do to a line of thought? They're such a tangent. Another point illustrating horses are evil. Anywho, the irony of me buying a beer to piss off David, is that I have to drink it as well. Before recommending me for idiot of the year award, do know that I don't mind the fruity beers as much as David, but in my nearsighted decision to purchase the fruit brew, I had forgotten how truly awful novelty beers are. They taste like...Horse Glue.
I can smell the intense Starburst-like flavor from far away. It's nearly overpowering. However, this smells much better than it tastes, because it tastes like @$$- like an off batch of natty light. Similar to the Banana Bread Beer, the fruit is all in the aroma and not in the flavor profile.
The funny thing about novelty/fruit beers that the general buying public don't realize, is that the beers aren't actually "brewed" with fruits (typically, although exceptions like Dogfish Head Aprihop might use apricots in the boil). When you see a 'blueberry' beer, you're actually getting a beer that was made with ingredients similar to any other type of ale, but right before the beer was bottled they added blueberry syrup. Thus, there is little fruit flavor to the beer as the beer has already stopped fermenting. It simply smells like blueberries. Once you see behind the curtain, fruit beers become less of an ale and more of a novelty.
This style of beer always smell decent but taste horrible. Even though the Strawberry Banana was better than the Banana Bread, it still receives a PEARL HARBOR rating.
As we finish off this brew, I'm already looking forward along to my trip down to San Pedro with Sara P, Mark Snyder and Joanna for the long anticipated Railroad Revival Tour - Old Crow Medicine Show, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and the truly transcendent Mumford and Sons. The three bands are touring via railroad for a handful of dates from Oakland to Austin and plan to collaborate on material along the way. CAN'T WAIT!
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!
David picked this monster 1qt 1pint 3 fl oz plastic jug of Russian Lager for $6. This reminds me of the 1.5 liter 6 Euro bottle of Grappa my roommates bought our first weekend in Florence. It tasted like pure gasoline. Never, ever, NEVER have cheap Italian Wine Stem Liquor. One my roommates puked. Everyone spluttered, coughed drive heaved and needed a chaser. I don't even use a chaser with absinthe, but I required a quart of Turpentine to get those shots down. True story.
Will this be the same? I'm with Sara P and David at a hot tub/bbq a street down in the marina and we're gonna booze it up.
Size comparison to a Sierra Nevada
So I saw a travel channel show today on steaks and they showed an interesting video of the Kobe cows, whose meat is deliciously world famous because they are massaged and fed beer in order to be de-stressed. An unstressed cow apparently makes great beef. So the image that popped up when I drank this beer was the image of the cows being fed beer. They didn't have great table manners and excess beer and slobber was everywhere. This Russian Lager tastes like mix of Japanese beer and cattle slobber. Yum. Natty Light is Veuve Clicquot compared to this. This was one of those beers I had a terrible time finishing. But it's all in a days work on this blog. PEARL HARBOR rating.
The rain has stopped and the sun broke through the clouds, so I'm cooking up a big BBQ today. Three stacks of ribs, lines of cider-simmered bratwurst with onions and salmon with red-curry coconut sauce. Having a bunch of people over, mostly old friends but a few new ones as well, Heather, Jamie, Brent, Nick G, Beth, Sara, Josh, Lisa, Jake, Matt and Ri.
David's usually the cook but he's out of town, so I'm going to Emeril this shit up and I'm charging hard. I need a big beer to propel me through the day and Drake's comes through once again.
Deliciousness!
I love Drake's and at 9.75%, this beer is big and bad. This is more malt than IPA, but it's a bold malt and an accented bitterness. The beer may be dank but it's finely tuned. Love this and would love to create a home brew inspired by this. THE ROCK rating.
If the Discovery Channel was on hand filming the day, they would have mistook my friends for Jackals because all three racks of ribs were gone within the first half hour. Only a pile of cleanly picked bones were left as evidence of their existence. The Bratwurst and Salmon were met with love by everyone as well, and later we played Jenga while I finished off an Arrogant Bastard. Beautiful Day indeed and except for the war zone that is my kitchen, I'm one happy camper.
To Josh, Heather and Lisa for helping out with the curry sauce and manning the grill whilst I played host and/or boozed, thank you so much for your help!
Consecration is what's known as an American Wild Ale, which are a family of beers that are introduced to "wild" yeast or bacteria, This introduction may occur from oak barrels that have been previously inoculated, pitched into the beer, or gained from various "sour mash" techniques. This isn't a normal beer family, it's more like The Addams Family.
As part of LA Beer Week, this fellow debuted on tap tonight at the Library Alehouse. I'd never heard of it but it received glowing reviews so I dragged David here with high hopes, only to re-confirm how much I dislike sour beers. It's actually well rounded but malty and so sour. Not enjoyable. PEARL HARBOR rating.
*However, Sara P loves this beer and will drink it up like a milkshake, so to each their own. If the wasn't here I'd be really skeptical of the beer advocate A rating.
To my surprise, I am continuing the unprecedented run of German brewed beers named for obscure German figures with the Weihenstephaner Korbinian. Korbinian Brodman (1868-1918) was a German neurologist who became famous for his definition of the cerebral cortex into 52 distinct regions from their cytoarchitectonic (histological) characteristics.
Remember the PSA: "The More You Know...Knowledge Is Power!" Not always true. This is proof. By reading the above you either A). Forgot it immediately, or B). Actually learned a completely useless fact therein allowing an important thought to evaporate into the ether. I find it interesting that German born Frederick J. Miller, Adolphus Busch and Adolph Herman Joseph Coors forwent naming culturally significant biers that are only cool if you're a librarian or teacher in order to name mass-produced and universally accepted beer after themselves. It's very...'American.'
Now here's a picture proving that someone shouldn't quit their day job to become a professional blackberry photographer.
Michael J. Fox took this blurry pic
We drank the Korbinian at Sara P's house, where she made a traditional Jewish New Year meal that delightfully acquiesced my hunger. The bier has a sour malt smell and the taste is an avalanche of malts followed by nut and coffee. Accordingly, I'm generally not a big fan of really dark biers, but if you like dark bier you might enjoy. For me, it's an ARMAGEDDON rating.
Happy Jewish New Year! Drinking another Wiehenstephaner at Sarah P's for aRosh Hashana party. Bagels, honey and apples, lox, veggie plate, the works (I guess? It's my first time).
The Weihensteph is pretty dark for what I would consider a good doppelbock. It's not very heavy in either the sweet spicy or malty caramel chocolate direction, pretty balanced and easy going. I prefer the Aventus.
This beer is Woody Allen because he's Jewish and only some of his movies are good (Aventus). Some of them are kinda dark and kinda suck.
This is Duvel's American little brother. It's clean, balanced and delicious. A little less crispness, less alcohol and a little less sweetness. Some of the complex spice notes are missing as well, but if you like Duvel you'll like this, and if you like light, crisp, Belgians, makes moves. Pick up a Hennepin.
Joining Walker and I were some distinguished and excited beer friends. Their thoughts:
Sarah: "Oooo I like this! I think that it's crisp, sour, citrus, but like a day old citrus, not fresh citrus, (takes big sip) definitely something you should eat with. It needs to go with a white fish. But my favorite part of the beer is how the bottle looks."
Baseman: "Kinda reminds me of Duvel! (Continues playing PS3...)"
Blake: "Mmmm, pleasantly... ok hold on I need another sip, it's pleasantly citrusy, I guess that's kinda redundant. Pleasantly citrus; I would say serve with a slice of orange (!) and you have a perfect Sunday afternoon.
Jay: "I'm just gonna say nutty, but it's not nutty, it's not nutty at all."
Hey Ommegang, thanks for the great evening. Also, we all agreed that this beer could be well represented by Cate Blanchett.
The last beer from Ommegang we drank last Friday, Three Philosophers, and was no good. However, the New York brewery rebounded with a beer chosen celebrate our first official group tasting with Blake L, Jay S, Sara P and Aaron B.
Hennepin is a 'Farmhouse Saison' and has a beautiful golden body with a sweet and floral and slightly spicy taste. It's crisp and delicious. I could say more, but in researching this beer, I found a comment on the Ommegang website that makes a very powerful statement which I'd like to share with you. Thank you everyone at the tasting, that night was a blast! BAD BOYS rating.
(posted 12/11/2007) "How sad that we learn some very important things at the late stages of our lives. I have spent a lifetime, well at least from about 16 to 85 looking for the perfect beer. Eureka, today I found it. I have no stock in the company, no vested interest, no axe to grind, but today I had a bottle of Hennepin Beer from the Ommegang Brewery. It has an alcohol content of 7.7% and a superb body and taste. Since I love you all, I am passing on my discovery." Robert (85 years old)
