Nov 27, 2010

Far away Friday

I have decided that I would start talking about places I visit when they involve good beer. I happen to be in Sevierville, TN, for the Thanksgiving holiday. For those that don't know, Sevierville is essentially Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Regardless, there is a local brewery that I have decided to visit tonight.

The local brewery is the Smoky Mountain Brewery which is found in Pigeon Forge, TN,  as well as Gatlinburg and Knoxville.I took a trip over to the brewery/ restaurant to enjoy some brews. Upon sitting down, I thought it best to try the sampler of all there beers ($8/ 10 4oz samples). The beers included an American Light, a Pale Ale, an IPA, a Harvest Ale, Porter, Brown Ale, and wheat beer. In all, this brewery is pretty good.  I enjoyed most of the beers (the light ale taste like one would expect a light would and, therefore, didn't thrill me; the wheat beer was, unfortunately, skunked) but my favorite of the night was the Pale Ale. The pale had a nice bit of hops to it, but was very enjoyable to drink.

I recommend this place if you are ever in the area. It's not going to be wow the most extreme beer geek, but it's a nice place to sit down and enjoy some beers. They even have live music on Friday nights.

Nov 24, 2010

Winter Cincy Beerfest

From Facebook:

CINCY WINTER BEERFEST - 4TH ANNUAL
Host: Cincy Beer Festivals!

Time and Place Time: Fri Feb 11, 11 at 6:30 pm until Sat Feb 12, 11 at 11:00 pm

Venue: Duke Energy Convention Center

Description Cincinnati's Original Beerfest!tm The One that started it all. We're back and bigger & better than ever. Proceeds again benefit the Big Joe Duskin Music Education Foundation and its mission to get area schoolchildren excited about playing musical instruments. After selling out every year, we've have made the Big Jump (some would say huge) across the street from the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati OVER TO The Duke Energy Convention Center. And we've arranged with the Center to do a Beerfest exactly how we do them! Great bands, really great craft beers, and volunteers running the event. TICKETS WILL GO ON SALE DECEMBER 1....SO GET YOURS AS THE PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT!

See the event info here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=147963451917627

I'll post more info as I get it!

Nov 22, 2010

Brewmasters

Did you catch the premiere of Discovery Channel's new show, Brewmaster? Well, I did and I have to say, I thoguht it was great!

In case you haven't heard, Brewmasters is a new show featuring the guys over at Dogfish Head and shares their story. SamCalagione (founder and President of Dogfish Head brewery) is the real star of the show, but he brings his "off centered" employees into the show as well to make for great television.

The first episode of Brewmasters talks about Sam and his decision to work on the Bithces Brew in honor of the rerelease of the Miles Davis Album of the same name. Sam does a great job talking about why he is passionate about this project and what great things he expects from this beer. He challenges his staff with this beer, but they answer the call. I don't want to ruin the show, in case you haven't seen it yet, but suffice it to say, this show is going to be awesome.

Great work Sam, Dogfish Head, and Discovery for making an awesome show! I can't wait to see the rest of the season!

Nov 20, 2010

Homebrew - Smoked Porter Tasting

Well, it's finally ready! That's right, the Smoked Porter that I talked about a few weeks ago is finally ready for a tasting, so that's exactly what I did!

When I made this beer, I was looking for something with just a bit of smokiness to help take the chill out of those cold winter days,. I had debated on a stout, but finally settled on this beer; I am glad I did.

The beer poured pitch black with a thick, brown head. Even before I smelled or tasted the beer I knew this was going to warm me up. The smell was of a bit of chocolate with just a hint of the smokiness I was looking for. I am not sure how to describe this, but I also seemed to be able to smell the creaminess of this beer before I tasted it. That said, there was a nice creaminess to the taste. It definitely had chocolate and a nice smoked flavor to it.I greatly enjoyed this beer!

Pictures to follow.

 I feel that my friends and I's homebrew skills continue to evolve. We are making very tasty brews and continue to work on perfecting our skills. Next time out, we are going to start changing parts of the recipe so that we can truly have our own beer. Bourbon Brown Ale or Chocolate Chipolte Stout anyone?

Nov 18, 2010

Brewery Tour

A few weeks ago I made mention that I had gone down to North Carolina and participated in the World BeerFest in Durham. I also mentioned that I met some really cool brewers. I talked to this guys about their beer and about what inspired them. I was also able to get some picks of one of the breweries while I was there. I don't have may; you will have to forgive me for that as I did not get to the brewery until after the World BeerFest (meaning I already had had several beers at the event, as well as the attached pub before the tour).

While down in North Carolina, I got a chance to see the behind the scenes at FullSteam Brewery. This is an interesting place - big open warehouse feel for the bar, with the brewery visible to all the patrons. There was live music when we were there amd several beers on tap. After having drank most of the day already, I only tried the Sweet Potato Lager. Tasty brew, with a hint of sweet potato, as the name would suggest.

The guys at FullSteam were great. They had a very nice brewery. They even had a 5 gallon batch test area homebrew kit, where they tried new beer ideas.

As for the brewery, here are some photos:

Nov 15, 2010

Improvements

Hey all, I am trying to make some improvements and will be updating soon. Didn't want you to think I'd gone anywhere.

Nov 11, 2010

Beer Review - Breckenridge Christmas Ale

IIt's time for another beer review. This time I will be reviewing the Breckenridge Christmas Ale. As I've said a couple of times before, I love this time of year because of these types of beer.

This beer pours a dark brown in color with a decent white head. I notice a bit of a dark fruit and chocolate smell on this one with maybe a hint of Cinnamon in the background. The cinnamon flavor comes out a bit more in the taste of the beer, but surprisingly, I don't get a tremendous amount of flavor. I also get notes of the chocolate and dark fruits again. The more I drink, the more obvious the flavor becomes, but this beer just seems to be more watery than it should be.

This is a good beer and I would drink it again, but I am certainly not going out of my way to find it. What do you think?

Nov 10, 2010

New features

I have added a calendar to the website. I will begin adding events to the calendar, but it's going to take some time to implement all of this since, as of now, I am the only one adding things. If you notice that I missing events, please let me know so I can add them.

Hudepohl Amber Lager Turkey Trot

They say that the day before Thanksgiving is one of the busiest bar nights of the year and the folks over at Hudepohl have decided to have a little fun with this in 2010. On Thanksgiving Eve, the guys over at Hudepohl are inviting everyone out for a night of Turkey Trotting in Over the Rhine. As they say, "It's not a crawl. It's a pilgrimage." See the attached link for me information.


Time
Wednesday, November 24 at 8:00pm - November 25 at 1:00am

Locationrnold’s Bar & Grill, Neon’s Unplugged, JP’s Drinkery, MOTR Pub, and Milton’s The Prospect Hill Tavern

Created By

More InfoArnold’s Bar & Grill, Neon’s Unplugged, JP’s Drinkery, MOTR Pub, and Milton’s The Prospect Hill Tavern present the 2010 Thanksgiving Eve Turkey Trot.


Free shuttle between bars from 8 p.m. – 1 a.m. NO COVER - BAR SPECIAL $2 Hudepohl Amber Lager bottles at each bar – turkey trotters will each receive punch card that can be stamped at each bar for a reward of a free 2010 Thanksgiving Eve Turkey Trot T-Shirt, which can be redemmed at Arnold’s Bar & Grill.


Special appearances by HAL the Super Turkey


Hudepohl Amber Lager Turkey Trot

Nov 9, 2010

Beer Review - Great Divide Hibernation Ale

It's time for me to drink more beer. Today I have decided to try the Hibernation Ale by Great Divide. This beer is an English style Old Ale.

The pour of this beer is dark brown with a medium sized, tan head. I smell caramel and chocolate on this one. I also smell a touch of coffee in the background. Taste is very much the same, caramel, chocolate, a touch of coffee. As I continue to drink, I notice some dark fruits in there as well, raisin and the like.

This is an enjoyable beer. It's great drink this since it's cold outside. What do you think?

Nov 8, 2010

Tooting my own horn

I have decided to toot my own horn today. I won't normally do this, but I decided to this time.

Now, with that out of the way, here's why: I just got some notes back from someone regarding two homebrews that I either made or helped beersupporterJT make. As a homebrewer, I make beer that I want to drink and my friends will want to drink. However, it's always nice to get feedback from someone who sells beer for a living.

Here's the scoop: I brought a couple of bottles of my homebrew down to the World BeerFest earlier this year. I shared these bottles with a distributor to get their opinion. (Ok, I'll admit, my brother works for this distributor, so the view may be skewed, but I feel he was very honest in his assessment.) I asked them to review my beer and let me know what they think. Below is the assessment of a cream ale and a pale ale:

CREAM ALE
    Creamy nose
    Light carbonation
    Little head
    Top of mouth, no tongue
    True to style
    Little bit of citrus feel
    Overall B+

Pale Ale
    Good carbonation
    Great head
    Carbonation in nose
    Excellent mouth feel and body
    Bitter but not to hoppy
    Good color
    Overall A-


So, there you have it. I was happy that I made beer that not only I liked and my friends liked, but that folks who drink a lot of different beers also liked.


Now, back to your regular blogs. 

Nov 7, 2010

Christkindl Tapping Pictures

Today I had the opportunity to go to the tapping of the Christian Moerlein Christkindl Ale. The event was held at Christy's in Clifton; this building was originally given to Christian Moerlein's daughter as a wedding gift. What a great place to hold a tapping for a Christian Moerlein beer!

Christkindl Keg

 The event was a very cool event, literally. It was held outside in the biergarten and it was only about 40 degrees in the sun. However, there was plenty of beer to be drank, which helped all forget about the cool temperature. Mike Morgan, author of "Over-the-Rhine: When Beer was King" was the events emcee and did a great job getting everyone ready for the event. Greg Hardmann spoke a little bit about the history of Christy's and share a bit about the beer too. The tapping was done by a member of the St Francis Seraph, with $1 of all beers sold going to their ministry. In all, it was a very fun event. 




Greg Hardmann with the mallet of tapping
Keg has been tapped! Let there be beer!

Nov 5, 2010

Christkindl tapping - 11/6

Tomorrow, Christian Moerlein will be tapping the Christkindl Winter Ale at Christy's in Clifton:

Christian Moerlein November 5 at 1:27pm Reply • Report
Hello beer lovers!

Tomorrow at 1 p.m sharp the tapping of the seasonal Moerlein Christkindl Winter Warmer Ale will take place at Christy's Bier Garten by Brother Tim Sucher of St. Francs Seraph Ministry - $1 from every beer purchase will benefit the Christmas fund.

Christy's will have special food available for purchase - this event will go from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Hope to see everyone out and about!

CM

ABOUT THE KEG TAPPING
More Info Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. is pleased to announce in conjunction with Christy’s and Lenhardt's the Moerlein Christkindl Winter Warmer Ale keg tapping on Saturday November 6th, 1 - 4PM at Christy’s Biergarten in Clifton.

The honored tradition of the tapping of the keg will be held by Brother Tim Sucher of St. Francis Seraph Ministry commencing at 1PM, "We are honored to celebrate the new release of Moerlein Christkindl in the spirit of the holiday season," said Brother Tim Sucher of St. Francis Seraph Ministry. $1 from every pint sold that day will go towards St. Francis Seraph Ministry's Christmas Fund.

The actual building of Christy’s was built as a wedding present for Christian Moerlein’s daughter in 1890.

Christy’s Biergarten will have a special happy hour with $3 pints of the new Moerlein Christkindl and a specially priced happy hour food menu, serving Bratts, Metts, Potato Pancake, German Potato Salad – Rueben and Sauerkraut Balls.

Nov 4, 2010

Author/ Brewers Dinner - a review

Tonight was the Brewer's/ Author's dinner for Christian Moerlein. This event was 2 of 6 total Brewer Dinner's that will be held to celebrate Christian Moerlein, Over the Rhine, and Mike Morgan's new Book, "Over the Rhine: When beer Was King".

This event was a very well done event. Upon arriving, I took my seat at a table and began to talk to my friends about beer. We received a pleasant treat as we found out that Little King's Cream Ale was a pre-event taster, and boy was it delicioud. Once 7:00pm rolled around, the event began. Greg Hardman, CEO of Christian Moerlein began to talk about the history of how he acquired the Little King's Brand, a very interesting story. The staff at the Pub of Crestview began to bring out the appetized: Jerk Shrimp and Northern Liberties IPA. Boy, was this appetizer delicious. The shrimp was good and the IPA matched up nicely.

The second course was a salad with mandarin oranges paired with Christian Moerlein Lager House. The salad was sweet, but tasty. I am not much for mandarin oranges, but it paired well with the Helles. I enjoyed this dish.

The 3rd dish was a Mediterranean Slider with red peppers. I'll be honest, I enjoyed the think fries more than I enjoyed the sandwich. (I have no idea what the fries were made of, but they were delicious) The burger was made with goat cheese and red peppers and was only alright. This dish was paired with the Hudepohl Amber Lager. It was a good pairing.

The 4th Dish was fish and chips. I must confess, I may have ruined my palate on this one as I tend to only eat fish n chips with malt vinegar; tonight was no exception. The beer pairing was Moerlein's OTR which I have always enjoyed. Despite the vinegar, the beer paired nicely with the meal.

The final dish of the evening was a Jamaican cheesecake; bananas, banana liquor, and oreo crust made this delicious. The pairing was the Barbarosa. I'll be honest, I didn't think the pairing was all to good, but the cheesecake was delicious by itself as was the beer.

All in all, I had a great time. Both Greg Hardmann and Mike Morgan shared some great stories about Moerlein and the history of Cincinnati. There was still 4 of these dinner's left and I would recommend everyone go to one of them. Greg did take some time to visit each table and thank everyone who showed up and make sure they had a great time. I was very impressed by this event. Thanks to Christian Moerlein and Greg Hardman for a job well done. I look forward to future events!

I will follow up with pictures later.

Nov 3, 2010

Beer Review - Heavy Sea's Winter Storm

I decided to keep going with the winter ale tastings today. Today, I decided to try the Heavy Sea's Winter Storm. The bottle says it is a Category 5 ale, so let's try this out.

The beer pours amber in color with a small, slightly brown head. Smell is a bit of caramel, with a little bit of spice on the background. I believe there may also be some orange peel smell here as well. Taste is also of caramel, with a decent malty taste. It's got a nice hoppy background as well.

This one's enjoyable, but I don't think I'd be able to drink more than one in a night...

Have you tried this beer? What do you think?

Nov 2, 2010

Beer Review - Southern Tier Old Man Winter Ale

Where did the year go? I mean, Winter Ale's are already coming out?!? Last I noticed, it was still 90 degrees and sunny past 8pm, but now it's 30 over night and the sun sets at 6pm.... Before long, Christmas will be here and Old Man winter will be upon us.

With that said, I decided it was time to start drinking some seasonal beers! To start the Winter Season off right I have decided to try the Souther Tier's Old Man Winter. I tend to be a fan of Souther Tier, so I am hoping my assumption of this being enjoyable will hold true.

The beer pours dark brown in color with a slight tan head. Smell is pretty mild, but I do notice some caramel and a bit of hops. The taste, however, is very tasty. I taste a bit of a coffee flavor, with a bit of hops to top it off. Caramel is there as well. The more I drink, the more the caramel and hop flavor comes out.

This one is decent. I wouldn't mind drinking this one again.

What do you think?

Beer Review - O'Fallon 5 Day IPA

Tonight I have decided to try O'Fallon's 5 Day IPA. The beer pours an amber hazy color with a sizable white head. Smell is of a nice floral aroma, with a touch of citrus. Smell is nice, but mild.Taste does not seem to match the smell of this beer. I taste just a touch of the hop aroma that I smelled. There's a touch of what seems to be lemon in the background and maybe a bit of bread flavor. 

My honest opinion, this beer is only alright, definitely not something I would drink to often.

Have you tried this beer? What do you think?

Beer School - final thought

I mentioned several weeks ago that I had picked up a new book, "Beer School" written by the founders of Brooklyn Brewery, Tom Potter and Steve Hindy. I finally finished the book (hey, I am a slow reader) so I wanted to share my thoughts with you.

If you have ever considered going in to business for yourself, this is a must read. Even if you do not like beer, these 2 guys break down all the pressures, decisions, and all other obstacles they had while trying to get their brewery started. They were brutally honest in this book, I assume in effort to help other would be entrepreneurs understand the   They share what they hated and what they loved about being in a partnership.

If you start reading this book thinking it is going to be about beer, you will be disappointed. Sure, the book is about the starting of a brewery, but it's much more than that. This book provides great insight to the world of starting your own business.

I know what you are thinking, "Why is a beer blog talking about a book?" Well, it's my blog and it was a book that was suggested to me. I am glad I read this book. If you are interested in the history of Brooklyn Brewery, want to start your own business, or just like reading, I recommend this book.

Nov 1, 2010

Homebrew - Smoked Porter

In a previous post, I mentioned I loved to homebrew. I am still a "rookie" when it comes to brewing and I am only able to brew on occasion. That being said, my buddy and I like to try and brew as often as we can, which usually equates to about once a month. When we brew, we use kits, for now, but we hope to move up to all-grain brewing in the near future.

The most recent brewing excursion came a couple of weeks ago when we decided it was time to start thinking about a nice beer to help warm the blood in the cold winter months. After travelling to our local homebrew shop, we decided that a nice smoked porter would do the trick. So, we grabbed some supplies, headed home, and began to brew.

The brewing process itself is a little tedious for my liking. Don't get me wrong, I know the importance of the process and I have surely tasted it's results, but there is a lot of work to be done just so you can sit and wait and wait and wait for a finished product. In the case of the smoked porter, we had to be even more diligent in watching the pot as it boiled since it was very likely to boil over (which it almost did several times, even in oversized brewing pot). However, the smell was delicious as we waited for the hour to be over so we can put the beer into a fermenter. This was going to be an awesome beer.

Once brewing was complete, we quickly dropped the temperature of the wort and pitched the yeast and moved the smoked porter into a primary fermenter. There the beer sat not even a full 24 hours before it fermented so much that it had seeped through the air lock and onto the fermentation bucket. Thankfully, none of it seemed to have ruined and we were able to save the beer.

After a few weeks, we moved the beer into secondary to let it mellow out a bit more. After a few more weeks, we were finally ready to bottle. We prepared the bottles and the beer and boy did it smell great! Just knowing that in a few weeks I will be able to try another home made beer made me smile.

I will keep you posted on the results of my smoked porter. In the meantime, if you have any advice for someone trying to do an all grain batch, please share. I love the process of brewing and would love to be able to fully create a truly unique beer for myself and for my friends.