good (not extraordinary) beers

I haven’t done a lot of crazy tastings in the past week or so. I’ve had the Red Hook IPA (no direct link) in my fridge lately and I really like it as a middle-of-the-road, drinking beer. Definitely a good everyday beer. 6.5% ABV. I’ve still got the North Coast Cru D’Or around and I still have no idea what I’m going to do with it. My latest bright idea is to blend it with some root beer or something else — we’ll see about that. We were at the Durham Tyler’s the other night and I had Rogue’s John’s Private Locker Stock, which was the Brutal Bitter. Here’s the description of that from the Rogue site:

JLS Release #23: Black Brutal 2007 ~ John Maier has brewed a dark verison of Brutal Bitter for a second time, with some degree of variation from the first Black Brutal recipe (aka, SkullSplitter). Black Brutal 2007 is mahogany in color with a smooth roasted malt flavor and agressive bitterness. Unfiltered ~ Unfined ~ Uncompromised… Prost!

Black Brutal ‘07 is brewed with Great Western 2-row and Munich; Weyermann Carafoam Special, Carawheat, and Melanoidin malts, along with Summit, Simcoe and Amarillo hops in the boil, and more Amarillo in the hopback; plus free range coastal waters, and top fermenting Pacman yeast. Black Brutal ‘07 measures in at 15.1 Plato OG, 4.2 Plato FG, and approx 60 IBUs.

I can’t add too much more than that — it was good, although I guess it wasn’t extraordinary. I liked it. That’s about it. I also had the Bell’s Two Hearted IPA again — enjoyed it the second time and I’m just wishing I could find it in a six pack somewhere. One other beer I saw at the store and was intrigued by was the Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat. At $6.59, I couldn’t really resist it. It’s a nice, light wheat, although there’s definitely a strong orangey, coriander flavor to it. When I think of wheat beers, I think of summer beers that you drink on the porch. This one fits that category well, but I think the extra little bit of sweetness would prevent me from drinking more than one or two. I can’t say I’m disappointed with this beer, because I really didn’t know what to expect, but I do wish it was one I could drink in earnest on summer evenings. 4.9% ABV.

hop notes

A quick post to consolidate some hop knowledge. My sister is thinking of planting a hop garden and was wondering about varieties. I did some looking around, and here’s what I came up with:

I think Cascade would be good, as well as Willamette or Sterling. Those are all aromatic. Good bittering hops would be Nugget or Chinook. I was just looking online and it appears all of the above should be fairly hearty and high-yielding. Check Wikipedia too for hops — tons of good information.

And this exchange b/t my sister and brother:

Well, I went ahead and ordered some from this place:
http://northernbrewer.com/rhizomes.html
They require a minimum order of 2. I went a bit nuts and ordered 4 different ones. They won’t mail them out til growing time, but once they come I’d be more than happy to share. (I don’t really need four hop vines — apparently they grow like weeds anyway, and I wouldn’t have room for them.) I got one each of Cascade, Cenntennial, Fuggle and Mt. Hood. (descriptions are here: http://northernbrewer.com/hops.html) I can keep 1 or 2 and give the others to you, so let me know which ones you want.
On 3/15/07, Mike wrote:

Cascade is the best, I have heard. I am hoping to plant some myself. Let me know what you decide.

It got the wife and me thinking that we may want to brew an IPA next and order some extra hops to bring the flavor up.

more bell’s and a double dose of dubbel

Had some real technical difficulties with this post — accidentally navigated away from WordPress while in the middle of a long post. WTF is up with the auto-save feature?? I see it working all the time, but when I actually need it, it’s nowhere to be found. Snap.

I’m not sure there was much of a theme with my beers this past week. Here’s what I tried:

Bell’s Two Hearted Ale — This is Bell’s IPA and it’s very good. I had it at Flying Saucer in Raleigh. I’d like to try it again because I didn’t really devote enough attention to tasting it. We were talking to people we didn’t know while I was drinking it, so I was concentrating much more on my small talk skillz. I’m hoping it shows up in stores — at the moment, all I’ve seen in stores is the Amber Ale, Kalamazoo Stout, and the Porter (?) I think. 7% ABV.
North Coast Silver Jubilee — This is a farmhouse ale brewed by North Coast to celebrate Whole Foods’ 25th anniversary. I had it back in 2005 when it first showed up and I guess I tasted the aged version this weekend since they only brewed it once. It was still delicious — a fizzy, full head with a floral taste and hints of fruit. I don’t remember the nuances of the first tasting well enough to say whether it benefited from aging or not, but I really enjoyed it and it didn’t seem any worse for the wear from sitting under florescent lights in Whole Foods for over a year. The bottle is a dark brown or black, so that probably helped it in terms of skunking. 7.3% ABV
North Coast Cru D’or — Organic Belgian-style Dubbel. I have to say I was hugely disappointed by this beer. I usually really like everything from North Coast (see above), but this one is a dog. It’s got a thin mouthfeel, very little head, and a boozy, plum/prune taste to it. Very unpleasant. I really don’t know what I’m going to do with the remaining two I have in my fridge. 8% ABV
Avery Collaboration Not Litigation Ale — Belgian-style Strong Ale. This was as good as the Cru D’Or was bad. It’s a blend of two Belgian-style ales named “Salvation” from Russian River and Avery. I was really surprised to see it in NC since it’s two western breweries and those beers are extremely scarce here. I think it helps that it is officially distributed by Avery (which is pretty widely available here) and not Russian River (which is completely non-existent). I don’t really have notes on it, but I liked it and plan on drinking more of it tonight. Bought from Whole Foods in a 22 oz. ABV is 8.99%.