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Category: beer

Founders’ Backwoods Bastard

Published November 30, 2008

Founder's Backwoods Bastard poured into a glass. It tastes strongly of oak and bourbon.

Tonight I’m sipping a snifter of Founders‘ Backwoods Bastard while trying to figure out a Time Machine problem I’m having. Thankfully, the need to let the beer warm up to a bit below room temperature for drinking tied in well with time spent working on the backup.

This beer is interesting, and tastes quite a bit like their Curmudgeon, but with lots of oak. It’s nifty and worth drinking, if you like potent, strongly flavored beers.

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Southern Tier’s Krampus

Published November 27, 2008

Souther Tier's Crampus poured into a glass. This is a nicely hoppy, slightly roasted tasting 9% lager.

Here, have a photo of the beer I just started sipping, Southern Tier Brewing Company‘s Krampus, which is one of their Seasonal Imperial beers. It’s a very nicely hoppy 9% beer with a very slightly roasted taste to it. I also think it smells a bit like grapefruit.

Here’s some text from the back of the bottle and the relevant Wikipedia article:

St. Nicholas, aka Santa Claus, is a magical figure, the bringer of gifts and an icon of holiday spirit. Forgotten by most is his evil side kick and enforcer of ‘the list’.

European tradition says while St. Nick is busy delivering presents to good little boys and girls, Krampus hands out punishments to the bad. A fanged, goat-horned bully, the Christmas Devil uses sticks and chains to beat the naughty children.

Dark malts and aromatic hops create the diabolical spirit of this brew. It is finished with lager yeast and aged cold for no less than 30 days. This Imperial Helles Lager will warm even the darkest hearts.

This season, replace the cookies with a bottle of Krampus. If he happens to pay a visit, toast to him with this devilish brew. Merry Kramp-mas to all, and to all a good pint!

Alc. 9.0% by Vol.
20° Plato
2-row Pale Malt
Debittered Black Malt
Munich Malt
Caramel Malt
Kettle Hops: Chinook
Dry Hops: Willamette

Store In A Cool Place
Serve In A Snifter [Whoops!]
Best at 48°F (8.9°C)

Now I think it’s time to go watch King Corn via the Netflix / Xbox 360 streaming stuffs.

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2007-2008 Hard Cider Bottled

Published October 21, 2008

Tops of some of the bottles making up just over two cases of 10% hard cider.

After letting it age in the carboy for almost a year I bottled my latest batch of hard cider tonight. Having sat for so long it had almost completely cleared, resulting in some interestingly stratified sediment in the bottom. After racking it into the bottling bucket I added 160g of dextrose and a packet of Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast which made the cider cloudy again, but it should settle in the bottles after carbonation.

I was able to get exactly two cases (48 bottles) filled, plus one plastic bottle as a carbonation test container. Three of the glass bottles from the case used the dregs so it might have a bit more yeast in the bottom, but it should taste fine. These were specially marked so they may be avoided.

This cider started out with an original gravity of 1.082 (on 10-Nov-2008 at 5:00 PM), was at 1.020 when racked to the smaller carboy for aging (24-Nov-2007 at 3:34 PM), and today read 1.005. Based on the formula in this Wikipedia article those numbers puts the cider at 10.4% ABV. Not bad for some local cider, dark brown sugar, and local honey.

Now I just have to wait a few weeks or so for it to carbonate before trying it. After that it might take a few more months to finish settling out and completely clear again, but it should be good to drink as soon as its fizzy. Tonight I drank the leftovers from establishing density and that tasted like a tart, lightly sweet heavy apple wine, so I have good hopes for it once it’s fizzy.

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Clear Hard Cider

Published October 19, 2008

Hard cider, made from five gallons of local unpasturized cider and a pound of local honey.

This is what results when you ferment five gallons of unpasteurized cider from Rochester Cider Mill with a pound of Honeyflow Farm‘s honey, rack it, then let it sit for a year in a cool basement. It’s really, really, really clear.

As mentioned previously, this is the cider that I hope to bottle on Tuesday. I really, really hope it’s good. I’ll be quite disappointed if it isn’t.

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Founders’ Centennial IPA

Published October 19, 2008

Founders' Centennial IPA poured into a glass. This is nicely hoppy.

Tonight’s beer is Founders’ Centennial IPA, a nicely hoppy 7.2% IPA. I like this, although I think that I may have liked the Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest a bit more.

Speaking of alcohol, today I was hoping to bottle some cider which I’d put to age almost a year ago. It’s become completely clear simply from settling in the carboy and hopefully will be good. Because it’s clear, when bottling it I’m going to have to add some yeast so that it’ll carbonate properly. Because Cap’n’Cork was closed when we got there I wasn’t able to get the yeast and thus the bottling has been put off until Tuesday. (They are also closed on Mondays, and I need some nice flavorless champange yeast for this task.)

Hopefully sometime around the end of next month I’ll have two cases of nicely aged hard cider available. I’m sure Danielle will love this.

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Budweiser American Ale

Published October 7, 2008

Budweiser American Ale poured into a glass. This is actually quite good for a macrobrew beer. Just as good as Sam Adams beers.

I have a confession to make.

This beer?

I like it.

It seems that the venerable old (and now non-American) Anheuser-Bush has decided to take on mid-size decent brewers like Sam Adams (Boston Beer Company) by actually brewing a decent, widely available beer.

While it’s not the best beer I’ve ever had and would probably find itself near the bottom of a beers-I-like scale, it’s just as good as any of the relatively easy to find in bars smaller beers like SNPA, Sam Adams’ Boston Ale, or the Goose Island beers.

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