Brewz Newz

"How're the brewz?", I hear you asking. A long-due update then.

Kohaku (formerly known as Torakun before my poor Japanese was corrected by the lovely Kazuyo-sama*) was received quite positively by the lads and laddettes at Honbu Dojo.

*I'm quite sure the combined use of the adjective lovely and the honorific suffix -sama is frowned on in Japan. But then again, we're not in Japan now, are we? 

Seeing as how the whole lot was quickly taken care of, and no day-after casualties were reported, I'm counting this as an Ippon (or at least a Waza-ari, what with me being my own worst judge).

She's a soft nancy compared to me.

Lessons learned from Kohaku: too much Münchner malt without something to complement it will create a gap-like sensation midways the tasting experience. Ginger (and possibly other spices) can adequately fill this gap, but not everyone likes ginger, least of all in their beer.
On the ginger: while I'm inclined to up the dose even more, the Kiai's most-heard critique was "too much ginger". I'm guessing what I'm after can only be achieved by using ginger extract (the stuff used in ginger ale and commercial root beers): that fiery bit of punch at the back of the throat that was still missing in this version. While I'm all for ginger, I'm not sure how to tweak this without taking it to extremes.

Meanwhile, a new brew is in the making: I analyzed the crap out of Kohaku, and decided to gaze no longer on the orient for inspiration, but rather homeward a bit instead. I wanted to create a larger, heavier version of the little tiger, something in the tradition of Belgian Dubbels, only not a Dubbel per se.

Adding pale ale to the malt base should do the trick.

...or so I thought...

For some reason I couldn't see at Brewday, my OG fell way short of the mark, barely hitting 1050, which is what Kohaku reached using 30% less malt, even though I was sure my mash temperatures were better controlled this time around.
It took me a couple of days and a chapter in Brewing Better Beer to sink in: in all the hullaballoo and enthusiasm of yay-I'm-brewin'-again, I'd forgotten two minor but important things:

• stir during mashing
• do the iodine test 

It would have been impossible to forget one but not the other, but missing both the enzyme-enabling stir, and the "did my enzymes work do their job" test, I was playing by ear instead of by numbers.

Mashing aside, everything worked out fine, and we're now one week into cold lagering/clearing. I haven't added any dry-hops (yet) and maybe I'll even choose not to add any at all: so far, NewBrew is quite yummy:. That gap thing which irked me in Kohaku is gone now, thanks to the addition of pale ale, and cutting down a bit on the Münich has made the beer a bit easier, less toasty-grainy while still having a bit of chew to it. Also looks like my minor hop-tweaking improved the basic drinkability, making cold-hopping perhaps unnecessary. As it is now, in it's very green and young, pubescent beery state, it's already quite smooth and easy. Not nearly as smooth as I want it to be, but we're getting somewhere. This Kohaku sibling may turn out to be something to watch...

Until then,

Greetz

Jo

Geeks bearing gifts

There's a beershop in Gent called "Hopduvel", which is quite famous for being one of the only stores in Belgium sort-of-committed to importing brews from abroad. We Belgians are a bit of chauvinistic bunch, and still believe (in spite of evidence to the contrary) that Belgian beer is the only beer worth drinking, and that hence there is no point in establishing any import routes of note. Ironically enough, some of our best brews are exported without ever becoming available to the natives, while some of our most unspectacular beers are subjected to an absurd status of "classic benchmark for beery goodness".

But I digress: I got a call from fellow Beer Geek Frank while he was at the Hopduvel, saying he had a surprise for me. So when he came over last night, I had some glasses set up and my anticipation roaring.

Yay beer!

Turns out Frank got hold of a couple of nice USA brews, from two breweries I've been hearing a lot about. Since reading beer ain't half as much fun as actually drinking it, we quickly applied ourself and set to the task ahead. For science, of course.

Here's Frank wearing his "for science" face.

Brew#1 is Southern Tier's Gemini, a blend of two of their hop-bomb beers, being the Hoppe and the Unearthly. Impressively detailed label, stating not only the full ingredients list such as which malts and hops were used, but also (and this is a first for me), by which method the hops were applied. A staggering number American hops were used in this brew, which makes sense as it's really two brews in one beer. Text-book golden orange pour, cloudy verging on opaque, with a subdued creamy white head. Massively hoppy on the nose, with nectarines, grapes and a hint of grapefruit swirling over a solid malty base, with just a hint of light fudgey caramel. Flavours were a bit lacking in direction, with the sweetness of the malt being just on the wrong side of cloying, but still not entirely unbalanced. Compared to other brews of similar ilk (recall the Hopwired, but also think back on Brew Dog's Hard Core Ipa), I think this beer suffers a bit from Mozartitis: too many notes. One or two hops less, and a slightly less present sweetness of the malt, and this would have been a superb beer. As it is now, it's spectacular, but lacking direction and focus.

Here's Frank wearing is "moar science, I sez"  face.

Brew#2 is Hoppin'Frog's Hop Heathen, an IBA. BIPA. ABA? Aw hell, an Imperial Black Ale, according to the label, whatever that's supposed to mean.

This is what means though: two beers in one again.

Like the blended Geminia, the Hop Heathen really is two beers in one, as it's both IPA and a roasted black ale.
Unlike the blended Gemini, the Hop heathen is two beers in one because it actually has two faces. The nose is undeniably IPA based, with (again) massive hoppiness as one would expect from such beers. This one's more resiny and not as fruity as the Gemini, but still: buckets of hops on the nose. One neat little twist which got my interest piqued: roast. The black specialty malts used to achieve the near-perfectly black hue also deliver a notable (yet not omnipresent) roasty fragrance, hinting delicately but presently of coffee. Together, the hops and the roast make for an intriguing nose.
In the mouthn the beer takes on more of porter-aroma, focusing less on the hops and more on the delicate mocca-flavours of the malt. Hops are still present, but it's impressive how the beer's focus is flipped upside down in the mouth when compared to the nose: from hoppy-with-roast to roasty-with-hops. This is my first black IPA (because that's what is, after all), and I think I'm getting an idea of what the style implies, and where it's coming from.

Compared to the Gemini, I was impressed by the Hop Heathen's crafty display of focus, and the mischievous way in which it plays with its flavour accents. I'm not saying the Gemini wasn't good, but the Heathen was impressive.

My thanks and appreciation to Frank for scoring these beers, and for sharing them with yours truly.
We also sampled my current batch of developing homebrew. Half of which got run over by the cat, and the other half I didn't have the heart to force Frank to finish. My pleas that "it will smoothen up as it matures" fell on deaf ears, and the Heathen was beckoning.



Beer: Gemini
Brewery: Southern Tier
Style: Double IPA, 50/50 blend of two IPAs (Hoppe + Unearthly)
ABV: 10.5%
EBU: 78
EBC: -
Served: 660ml bottle



Beer: Hop Heathen
Brewery: Hoppin' Frog
Style: Imperial Black Ale / Black IPA
ABV: 10.5%
EBU: 70
EBC: -
Served: 660ml bottle





Greetz

Jo

Petrol (occasional homebrewery Tetten)

A first on HoppySlosh: homebrew from another brewery!

Drum roll!

This brew comes courtesy of Dennoman Esq., with whom I recently executed a splendidly fulfilling trade. The man generously included two brews by local beer-afficionados, the hitherto unknown homebrewers collectively known as Tetten.

Go ahead. Google that while the boss is watching.

Petrol is (what else, coming from Dennoman?) a stout, albeit one of unspecified parentage: the label is sublimely minimalistic in its sheer absence. Pours a voluptuous black, with the translucency of a fresh barrel of crude Kuweiti oil. Excellent choice of name, and by the looks of it, a fitting match.

True to style, Petrol gives good head.

A light tan head, copious for a stout, and nicely clingy and persistent. It does however keep the nose under cover; a nose which is already surprisingly (disappointingly?) timid and understated. Mind, coming from Denno, and with a name like Petrol, I guess I was expecting something comparable to what mudwrestling on Deep Water Horizon would be like if it were a beer.
Petrol smells quite nice, but subtly so. There's hardly any burn or even roast to be detected, and instead it displays a gentle, delicate nutty fragrance, with hints of toffee and fudge. A suspicion of cacao, but never enough to even contemplate the word chocolate. Something between a stout (Porter? who knows where the dividing line is anyway?) and a light quad. Think of big bold Belgian stouts like Pannepot (which even Struise Brewer Urbain considers something between "strong dark" and stout) and benchmark Black Albert, only toned down to more human dimensions. In fact, don't compare it to either of these, or you might end up feeling (unduly) disappointed. Don't compare at all, and take Petrol at face value if anything.

Impressive mouthfeel, especially for a homebrew: just enough carbonation to titillate the tastebuds, but still smooth and solid, almost velvety, the way all black stout-ish beer would be if I got my say. Flavour and taste are also minimalistic (considering what a stout can do) but impressively true to style: there's a bit of Guinnessy coffee lurking in the depths, and a nice, malty toffee quality to the undercurrent, lingering just long enough to be easy on the palate without being easy enough to disappear unnoticed down your gullet.
ABV, I suspect, would be just outside the school book range for a classic stout (which is remarkably light with about 4-5%). I'd estimate Petrol hits about 6-7%, if not slightly lower.
A wee nudge of acidity at the back of the soft palate ticks the final checkbox for style: this is a fine stout, and the fact that it's homebrew (kitchen-sink if my sources can be trusted) makes my spirits rise concerning my own (overly ambitious) plans to brew stouts one day.

I wouldn't mind having a couple of bottles of Petrol lying about. It's very drinkable, with enough low-volume things happening to keep me interested  and enough direction and focus to be impressive. All it needs is a spiffy label, and a brew team willing to step this up, and it'd be a fine, everyday beer I'd happily purchase.

Dennoman, my gratitude to you for sharing this dark little nugget, and compliments to the Tetten crew. See if you can crack their vault and get me the recipe,if you'd be so kind ;)


Beer: Petrol
Brewery: Homebrewery Tetten
Style: Export Stout
ABV: est. 7%
EBU: -
EBC: -
Served: 330ml bottle


Greetz

Jo

PS: fear not, Constant Reader! I have news about both Kohaku and HoppySlosh beer-in-waiting, but it'll have to wait until you're ready for it.

Hopwired (8 Wired Brewing Co.)

"There is no finer gift than books"
--some great man whose name eludes me

You know where this is going, don't you?

"But beer will do just fine thank you."

--me

Sharing beers with buddies is always fun and rewarding, and when my colleague-buddy Bert generously donated a spiffy bottle of New Zealand brew, I was grinning like a madman.
Now I'm actually tasting it, it feels like the corners of my mouth have met at the back of my head.

What a truly sensational, spectacular brew this is!

From the lusciously thick golden pour, to the delicate carbonation, this screams IPA to the unaware, and whispers sweet promises to the initiated.
A nose full of fruits and rainforesty thingies, pineapple juice, sweet and fragrant white grapes, lemongrass even, a hint of that soapy quality that makes cask UK ales such a delight, perfectly calibrated passion fruit, and a hint of sweet orange and tangerines. Really, this beer smells unlike anything I've ever had.

Wait, maybe a bit like this, if it were a beer.

The grape-and-passion-fruit thing really grabs you by the nose and pulls you in. What a wonderfully fragrant beer!

Aromas are sublimely understated when compared to the nose. Make no mistake: this is no boozefest brew, and demands the drinker's full attention, but it's evident how easily this beer could turn tiresome in the mouth. But it doesn't: the onset is gentle, like the slow incline just before the rollercoaster's first plunge. A bit of bitterness right up front, which is unsual, and swiftly supported by that solid sweet malt undercurrent which makes IPA such a great style. And just when the mouth starts to wonder, the aromas kick in. Passion fruit again, and grapes, sure, in a vibrant fireworks of delightfull fruity hoppiness. Think Cascade hops, only slightly more restrained on the grapefruit angle and heading full whack for tropical fruits. A nice bitter, lingering aftertaste takes you home again, literally gagging for the next sip.

While this sounds like a massive flavour bomb, I should reiterate how remarkably balanced and drinkable this beer is, considering the stunning amount of flavour and impressions it packs. It is never, at any single point, tiresome, or "too much" of anything.

New Zealand (and by extension the entire Pacific) is to the brewing world what the USA was fifteen years ago: a place where boundaries are being pushed. Not just out of cock-sure "what you do yourself you do best" chauvinism, but, if this beer is any measure, out of genuine love for the product, its ingredients, and the country from which they hail. Hopwired, as the label proudly boasts, is brewed with Kiwi-grown produce only, and from my understanding is a perfect example of what New Zealand hops are all about. Where the USA-born C-hops introduced us to citrus in all its myriads variations, NZ-hops (like the Motueka and Southern Cross used here) throw the shutters and let the tropics in. Oh and those delicious grapes...Nelson Sauvin, I see you!

A blog featuring New Zealand needs a picture of a kiwi.

Comparisons, just for the sake of it.
Few Belgian beers I know have such a phenomenal range of hop-aromas on display. I'll settle for Troubadour Magma again, which I think is Belgium's best known IPA-style beer at the moment. Magma's aromas are (if I'm correct) mostly Simcoe, which is comparable to Cascade, and slightly more monocline than Hopwired's Nelson-and-Motueka profile, but if you like the Magma, than I'm betting bucks that you'll love the Hopwired.
Brewdog's Hardcore IPA also comes to mind, simply because it doesn't hold a candle to the Hopwired's stately balance. I really like the Hardcore, don't get me wrong, but Brewdog sometimes need to learn to tuck their balls away instead of having them on full display all the time.

Eternal gratitude to Bert for not only scoring me some NZ-beer just when I'm trying to get my hands on something not-Belgian, but specifically for scoring me this. If you ever see a bottle of this brew lying around, don't hesitate.

Beer: Hopwired
Brewery: 8 Wired (really, look at those brews!)
Style: IPA
ABV: 7.3%
EBU: 70
EBC: 14
Served: 500ml bottle



Greetz

Jo

Beer Geek Night pt.II: Allez hop!

Being a scientist is hard hard work, with long nightly hours of sampling, testing, annotating and...nah I'm not fooling anyone, am I?

After our sticky-sweet encounters with French beers, the Beer Geeks ventured into more hoppy territories.

Some beers were harmed during this Beer Geek Night.

From left to right: Taras Boulba, a trio of single hop beers, and a duo of (still label-less) homebrewed beers by yours truly.

Taras Boulba is a typical product of Brasseries de la Senne: bitter, pungent and a bit of character. Not all Geeks were smitten with this one, and it brought home the point that bitterness in beer is a bit of an acquired taste. While I personally like the bitterhoppy presence of the Taras Boulba (a lot in fact), I have to admit that I'm becoming a bit of a hop-head, and hence not always as sensitive to large doses of bitter. I think I was the only one who really liked the Taras Boulba, and perhaps, given its in)your-face bitterness, we should have started with something else instead.

Good Flemish fun and family values on the label

Turns out the beer is brexed using only Saaz hops, which is pretty impressive, given how bitter it is. Not much aroma, and focusing mostly on alpha-acidic bitterness, and with 4.5%ABV, a more than worthy substitute for boring old lager/pils.

Next up were a trio of single hop beers, conceived by Mikkeler and brewed by de Proefbrouwerij for Delhaize supermarkets. A fine incentive from the latter, and perfectly fitting for our "boys and science" approach to tasting beer. The idea behind this annually recurring (but alas also annually identical) series is to brew three different beers, following the exact same recipe, with hop variety being the only variable. This way, it's possible to compare not only the flavour of the hops, but also the bittering qualities, contribution to mouthfeel, color, head retention etc.

First of the series was the East Kent Goldings, a nice gentle hop, imparting little bitterness and (alas) also not very much aroma. A nice and gentle nose though, well-balanced and slightly earthy. Definitely more of an aroma-hop, requiring quite a bit of skill to pull of in a single hop beer. This being a technical brew, it was a bit underwhelming: a bit of a hoppy start, but quickly petering out into a blandish malty base. East Kent Goldings can achieve pretty impressive beers, but this brew didn't really illustrate that. I think it would really shine when applied as a dry-hop.

Next up was the ubiquitous Cascade, the workhorse USA hop which kicked off the craft brewery revolution. Immediately on the nose, you get that full whack grapefruit/pineapple/citrus scent which so dominates many american IPAs. Remarkably, the hops also emphasise the intrinsic sweetness of the malt base, bringing with it a sort of caramel/spun-sugar smell which wonderfully complements the bitterness: Cascade is decidedly more bitter than East Kent Goldings, and tastes very much like it smells: citrusy, grapefruity, slightly pineappley. A wonderful hop, all-purpose due to its relative bittering potential and aromatic qualities. The single hop reminded me of the Muskteers' Troubadour Magma, as well as the Brewdog's Hardcore IPA.

The last of the trio was the well-praised Nelson Sauvin, a New Zealand hop which reportedly imparts a grape flavour to the beer. I did pick up grapes in the nose, but not as dominantly as I'd expected. Perhaps our senses were getting numb, but this one came across like a toned-down version of the Cascade we'd just had. Slowly and shyly, it released only few its secrets, and I can imagine this would not be an easy hop to brew with. Funnily enough, this one was the most bitter of the three single hops, but to me, it was very smooth and balanced, more so than the Cascade. Definitely a hop I want to taste in a "true" brew.

Lastly, I brought out two of my little tigers: the Kohaku Regular/classic/still-to-be-decided-what-I'm-gonna-call-this as well as the ginger-infused Kiai version.
Fitting, only because of the use of the not-too-common Pacific Jade hops in it. Everyone seemed to like it, but I couldn't tell if this was due to the lateness of the hour, or the Geeks just being their polite selves. For me, the hops didn't stand out as much as they did when sampled on a clean palate, but then again, Kohaku is supposed to be thirst-quencher, rather than a potent slug of hop-juice. But it made me contemplate future versions and incarnations of the tiger, which might turn out to be entirely more ballsy.

This second installment of  Beer Geek Night was good fun, and we had some nice hoppy encounters. Overall, I guess I expected more from the trio, of which only the Cascade really stood out for me.

Not sure what we're going to do next time, but I'm pretty sure it'll involve beer :)

Until then,

Greetz

Jo

Bourbon County Brand Stout 2011 (Goose Island)

Being a beer geek not only entails drinking beer and using fancy wishy-washy words to describe how yummy it is (or not, depending on the beer), but also finding new brews to sample. Sometimes, however, the brews find you.

After many a frustrating delay, yours truly and the elusive Dennoman finally met face to face, and swapped a couple of beers. A word to the wise: if a fellow beer geek announces he "went for quality rather than quantity", expect some pretty spectacular slosh to end up in your cellar.

Dennoman is (among many other things) an avid stout lover.

That little translingual pun never gets old.

One beer he's been raving about, and which he generously donated to me, is the Bourbon County Brand Stout, Goose Island's flagship stout. You can read about beer as much as you like, and get stoked up when the praise piles up, but it's just not the same thing as actually tasting it. Never more so than with this one.

Ready or not, here it comes.

Awful lighting and that sacrilegious glass again.

It pours like pitch: black and oily and viscous. That tan head you see in the pic? It didn't last a minute: it got eaten by the lurking darkness beneath.

Like theLaBrea tar pits, only wthout the trees. Not sure about the mammoths.

Weird carbonation, with a lazy swirl of beige bubbles trying to breach the surface in magma-like eddies.

You can literally smell this beer from across the room: Big Fat Chords of Bourbon.

Booze, but in a good way.

Angel's share in a glass: that ethereal breeze of whisk(e)y and wood you find in the stillage of a distillery.

And when you bring the nose closer and really start smelling the beer...oh my... Otherworldly layers of yumminess, with booze and vanilla and a hint of petroleum-like solvents (which doesn't sound nearly as yummy as it really is). Delicately interspersed, you'll find blackberries and other dark forest fruits. Not that I know that many other dark forest fruits but you get the idea. An understated whiff of coffee, some humus (not hummus, I'm talking last-year's-fallen-leaves-turning-into-topsoil), a bit of smoke and some faraway peat.

Not-far-enough-away Peat.

Really, if a beer smells this good, then it's allowed to do some pretty bizarre things in your mouth and still be a winner.

And sure enough, the Bourbon County does many weird things, but none of them detrimental to that phenomenal first impression.

Without exaggeration, I sat back for a good five minutes after my first sip. Even words could not rise up from underneath the decadent, otherworldly smooth flavour and mouthfeel of this beautiful monster. Rather than be poured, it insinuates itself out of the glass into your mouth, where it explodes, languidly and lazily and looooooong-lastingly, in a myriad of flavours, each toppling and leaping up off from the other, like an organoleptic chain reaction.Thick and viscous, creamily boozy like pralines (good ones, not those horrible cheap-ass granny bonbons), Bourbon and soft soft wood. Fenoles and sweet strong Irish coffee, only with Bourbon and stout.

A perversely long aftertaste, endlessly lingering like (du-uh) good whisk(e)y. Bourbon, sorry. Note to Self: study up on Bourbon because if it tastes half as good as this beer, then it's a worthwhile acquaintance if ever there was one.

One might wonder if this is still a beer. It's got so much more going on than just beer (for the record: there is no such thing as "just beer"), and it even pushes those vaporous boundaries of the Imperial Stout-genre clean off the map.

Oh. Turns out there is such a thing as "just beer" after all...

The oak-ageing and the Heaven Hill Bourbon (Goose Island must be using pretty damp barrels to achieve the staggering 14.5% ABV) combined transform the original product (which probably doesn't qualify as "just beer" either) into an entirely different thing. As different from each other as porto and wine, and very much like rillettes not being, strictly speaking, paté anymore.

But it would be a crime of stellar proportions not to call the Bourbon County beer. A beer which transcends the boundaries of its definition, even those of its oak-aged subgenre, and boldly but stylishly places a 16-ton markerstone deep into what used to be the no-man's-land beyond the beer border. I know, I wax prosaic, but Saint Arnoldus bless my beard, this is truly an entirely different ballgame.

Dennoman, my perpetual gratitude goes out to you. If ever you're away on a holiday, I gladly volunteer to guard your cellar.

Rest assured: your babies will be looked after :)

Beer: Brand Stout (2011)
Brewery: Goose Island
Style: Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
ABV: 15%
IBU: 60
EBC: -
Served: 500ml bottle

Until then,

Greetz

jo