To Be a Beer Writer
Thursday, November 01, 2007 - 03:41 PM
Dare to dream…
If only I had the developed pallet and the writing skills to be a professional beer writer. Oh, well, at least I can still enjoy it!
Anyways, Carrie forwarded this to me, and I thought I’d share:
I’d also like to talk a little bit about that site (http://www.videojug.com). This is really well done. The video quality is way beyond what you would find on YouTube. And I really like how, with this particular video by way of example, they’ve divided the video into chapters. That’s really cool. Browse around the site for a while and you’ll see that, for the most part, the quality of these videos are all really good; not too mention that they (mostly) seem extremely informative.
UPDATE - Some of them are pretty funny, too. Like This One. (My favorite part: “A man’s friends are important to him, as well as his ability to spend time with them; where he will do male activities like: growling, fighting, and measuring things.")
(As a side note, I really want to visit the Fuller’s brewery after seeing the selection behind Jeff Evans in that video!)
Randy’s Restaurant and Funhunter’s Brewery
Thursday, October 04, 2007 - 03:38 PM
It suddenly occurred to me that I never wrote about one particular part of Carrie’s and my trip to Wisconsin last month, and that was our dinner at Randy’s Restaurant and Funhunter’s Brewery (possibly the longest name of any brewpub I’ve been to).
It might seem odd to find a quality brewery/restaurant in rural Wisconsin, but Whitewater holds a campus of The University of Wisconsin, so it’s a bit of a “college town”. But, I digress.
I’ll start with the food, which was very good. We started with the “famous” Colby Curds (fried Colby cheese curds - think of a fried cheese stick, but in a ball) - which were as tasty and addicting as they were most likely detrimental to our health (sometimes you just have to indulge). We also had some beer-battered onion rings, which were good, but nothing special. We waited a while before ordering our entrées, since we wanted to just hang out and enjoy a few of their beers before dinner. When we did eat, I had the Pulled Pork sandwich, which was excellent - the BBQ sauce was very tasty! (I don’t even remember what Carrie had; I think it was one of the burgers. I do remember that she enjoyed it very much.)
Anyways, the reason we’re here, on to the beer. We both tried a few different selections (and, of course, sampled what each other had ordered). All of the beers were good, but nothing really stood out. I don’t even really remember, at this point, what I ordered (I really should start taking notes when I go to places like this). There was one exception to that, however, and that was the Oatmeal Stout. If you’re a stout lover, and you find yourself anywhere near Whitewater, WI, make sure you find your way to Randy’s. That was one of the best Oatmeal Stouts I’ve ever had.
We do plan on staying at Pine Ridge again in the future, and I’ll definitely find my way back to Randy’s for that Oatmeal Stout when we do.
Obligatory Weekly Update
Saturday, September 22, 2007 - 08:31 PM
Well, it seems that I’ve been getting a little lazy in the update department lately.
So, let’s catch up, shall we?
First, I’d like to note that I’ve been uploading photos from Carrie’s and my trip to Wisconsin to Flickr. Some good shots, and there’s more to come.
Second, last weekend I brewed my Vanilla Porter. This time around I used more vanilla. Hopefully I didn’t over do it! I just racked it to the secondary tonight, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Third, I tried the Mystery Ale last night. It turned out pretty good, but it needs a little more time to age.
So, that’s about it for now. I’ll try to be a little more diligent in the future.
Mystery Ale
Sunday, August 12, 2007 - 05:08 PM
So, last night I brewed what I’m calling “Mystery Ale”. The reason I’m calling it that is because I’m not sure where in the BJCP style guidelines it lands.
I threw this together based on some leftover ingredients that I had from the Wheat Ale. I had the Caramel and Cara Pils malts, so I just went to the home brew store and picked up some base malt and hops. Also, I used a packet of Nottingham yeast I had in the fridge. (I was going to use some yeast that I had harvested from a batch a while back, but I guess I kept it too long. Since the starter I made didn’t show any signs of fermenting, I just pitched* dumped it and used the dry yeast.)
Anyways, here’s the recipe:
Mystery Ale
6 lbs. Briess Golden Light DME (1/2 late edition)
.5 lb. Caramel 20L
.5 lb. Cara Pils
2 oz. Willamette 4.5% @ 60 min.
1 oz. US Kent Goldings 4.2% @ 30 min.
1 tsp. Irish Moss @ 15 min.
1 pkt. Nottingham dry yeast
( *Note on the edit: I realized, when re-reading this, that “pitched”, when referring to yeast, means that it was “pitched” into the wort. I wanted to clarify that I didn’t actually use the yeast starter, but dumped it down the sink!)
Wheat Ale, Scotch Ale, etal.
Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 10:51 AM
I haven’t posted in a while, so it’s time to play catch up. There’s quite a bit of news in the home brew front.
First, I brewed a Wheat Ale last Saturday. This was from a recipe in the July-August edition of BYO (Brew Your Own) magazine. It’s the Michigan Summer Wheat Ale recipe, although I used less coriander than the recipe specified, which was unintentional (I just read it wrong).
Anyways, I transferred to the secondary last night, and it really looked nice. Normally when transferring, I’m paying attention to the odors of the beer to try to judge how it’s coming along, but this time it was the appearance that I noticed. It was just, really, a nice looking beer. It’s certainly the lightest beer that I’ve produced so far. (For those of you unfamiliar, brewing using extracts tends to create beers that are darker than you would normally expect for the given style. It has to do with the way they produce the extract.)
Also, on Friday I bottled the Scotch Ale. I was a little worried about this one when I transferred it to the secondary a couple of weeks ago. First, it spent two weeks in the primary because it took so long to ferment. It was apparently a “stuck” ferment, which kicked back up after the first week, and took a few more days after that to finish. Aside from that, it was another warm ferment (around 75~74º F), and when I transferred it, it smelled a little fruity. Not a good thing for a scotch ale. I contemplated pitching it then, but I decided to wait.
I’m glad I did. On Friday, when I transferred it to the bottling bucket, that fruity smell was gone, and you could really smell the smoky peat malt. I took a sample of it while we were bottling. Wow. This one tastes good already, and I can tell by the time it carbonates and ages a little, it’s going to be fantastic.
I’m really glad of this, since the previous two batches have had issues.
The Spiced Ale it a little too strong with the cloves, and it fermented a little too warm so it has too fruity of a quality to it. A little bit of that fruitiness would be good in this style, but it’s currently too much (especially when combined with the cloves). I’m hoping that if I let it age the flavors will balance out (and it’s starting to, I had one last night and it tastes better than the one I had a week ago).
With the Stout it seems I over sparged the specialty grains. Not too much, but there’s definitely a slight astringent bitterness to it (not the “good” kind of bitterness from the hops that you expect in a beer). Again, I’m hoping more time in the bottles will help alleviate this malady.