Blog Archives:
Friday's Beer Break
Friday, July 29, 2011
Charlie, Fred and Ken's Bock - Imperial Helles Bock.
This is a collaboration between two homebrewing gods Charlie Papazian & Fred Eckhart with Sierra Nevada's owner, Ken Grossman.
It's dry with a sweet malt aroma, moderate hop bitterness and a warming alcohol finish with a little paint thinner touch.
Next Saturday is our 5th anniversary, and we'll be releasing the Rigamarole Rye - brewer Chris Young's barrel aged, hoppy lovelyness. Be here at 9am or be square. This will be a brewery only release, and any leftovers will probably be shipped out to Alberta.
Labels: 5th Anniversary, FBB
Friday's Beer Break
Friday, July 22, 2011
Not the type of beer that Bella drinks when busy being angsty and choosing between vampires or werewolves, the Twilight was a lighter, hoppy pale ale with a peachy hop flavour from the Amarillo hop.
A lightly grassy and biscuity malt backbone made this a very drinkable beer. Good job Deschutes' brewers!
It had a snappy, pineapple and orange peel hop flavour with a lingering metallic bitterness. Stong alcohol is well hidden and leaves a long, herbal aftertaste with a little sweet toasted malt.
Both very tasty - Zach says the Maharaja was better on tap - it'd be tough for me to argue that one since most beer is better when it's on tap anyways.
Anyhoo, back to the salt mines!
Labels: FBB
Friday's Beer Break
Friday, July 15, 2011
We've decided that we really must be forced to drink more beer from time to time. What better than to have a Friday Beer Break to make the day go a little smoother.
Being the typical procrastinator that I am, I've got a couple beers to share with you all, starting with last week's Beer Break, where the idea was hatched, but I ran out of time to share it with you.
Stone Smoked Porter
This beer was a little chocolaty, with light hints at smoke. Not what I would call a knock it out of the park type brew, but the bottle was probably older so I'll just have to keep it in mind to seek out another in the near future.
I picked up this traditional Lambic from Regina last time I was there. A Gueuze should be more heavily carbonated than this was, and it certainly shouldn't taste like skunk as this one did.
Being the typical procrastinator that I am, I've got a couple beers to share with you all, starting with last week's Beer Break, where the idea was hatched, but I ran out of time to share it with you.
Stone Smoked Porter
This beer was a little chocolaty, with light hints at smoke. Not what I would call a knock it out of the park type brew, but the bottle was probably older so I'll just have to keep it in mind to seek out another in the near future.Stone Brewery is situated in San Diego and most well known for their Ruination or their Arrogant Bastard (ahh, a brewery after my own heart on that one)...
Deschutes Brewing - The Abyss
We like Deschutes beers here at the brewery since there seems to be no end to the fun these guys have with new versions or different takes on traditional beers.
The Abyss is a partially barrel aged Imperial Stout. I'm sure you can go to other sites where they'll give you the full rundown on all the spec's for the beer, but this is the Beer Break, not the Bru U - we mostly drink beer, tell dirty jokes and let the beer speak for itself.
It's a dry, malty, burnt roast and alcohol burn sensation. Kevin tells me that he had to bring this in because I'm so tight fisted with my bottle (thanks Ted!) that he had to open his.
Cantillon Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio
I picked up this traditional Lambic from Regina last time I was there. A Gueuze should be more heavily carbonated than this was, and it certainly shouldn't taste like skunk as this one did.Underlying, there was the lovely cherry pie flavour and sour twang I expected with a subtley sweet malted grain background.
Unfortunately this bottle cost me $30 for 750ml. and it's too bad, since we know damn well what this brewery is capable of. This is what happens when you have people who don't care about storage issues selling truly premium beers. Keeping these beers cool and dark, in clean cellars, with more reasonable prices would help with stock rotation. The surprising bonus is you wouldn't have the unsuspecting public buying the beer and thinking this is what it should taste like.
Chris was just at this brewery a few weeks ago and enjoyed the hell out of touring and sampling their wares while he kicked back in Belgium. Someday, Younger, someday...
Labels: FBB