Kerozeen (Homebrewery Tetten)

Ah now here's a bottle which knows how to present itself.
White cap. Check.
Cork (actual, real, natural cork, not that silly putty crap they call cork these days). Check alright!
Spiffy label, listing origins, ingredients, specifics. Erm. No check. Just a dark 500ml bottle containing (if I'm to believe Dennoman) another brew from the Tetten guys.

That's right. Jugs.

This brew is called Kerozeen, and I'm guessing it's based on the Petrol I tasted sometime earlier this year. Dennoman warned me: this one's got "a splash" of Amaretto in it, and while that's not my favourite booze, I'm willing to try anything as long as it's swimming in stout.

So detach the cap, pull the cork (with a resounding POP I might add) and HOLY SAINT ARNOLDUS PRESERVE US we have a gusher on our hands!

Thar she blows.

I swear, as soon as that bottle went pop and started evacuating its contents all over my kitchen sink, I started to pour gently into my designated stout glass (*) and stopped pouring just past the half way mark, but she just wouldn't stop. Like someone had dropped an Alka Seltzer in there.

 

*) Note to Self: I need to find a decent stout glass, rather than this blasphemy.

 

A bit of cleaning got most of the sticky mess moved to more distant memory, and some ten minutes later, most of the head has subsided and I can finally take a sniff without half a foot of foam blocking most of the fragrance.

 

And fragrant it is. You get oodles of deep dark roast, a hint of coffee/chocolate with dark red fruits, interlaced with a boozy presence of what I'm guessing it almonds, but I'd be hard pressed to correctly identify them without Dennoman spilling the secret.

 

Weird and slightly unpleasant mouthfeel: it's a bit thinner than I expected, and definitely thinner than the Petrol. The excessive refermentation gives the beer a tingling, introvert buzz on the mouth, which I don't really identify with this kind of beer. Carbonation is otherwise ok, but the beer is saturated with carbon dioxide, which, together with the booze, detracts from the robustness it might otherwise have displayed.

Booze, then. Oh yes, there is booze here, and from what Dennoman told me, I'm guessing most of the boozy presence is due to a liberal addition of a non-beery beverage.

 

A bit more than this went in.

And I'm talking about the bottom part.

 

Fortunately for me, the almonds in the booze haven't invaded the brew, and instead are subtly (if such a term applies for this beer) present as a fine, sweet-yet-dry flavour, which nicely complements the roasty malt backbone of the beer. The booze is quite up-front, petering out into a nice and solid, chocolatey-roasty, albeit slightly thin malt vibe.

 

The aftertaste, not surprisingly, is on the sweet side of things, yet ironically countered by enough bitterness to make this a non-sweet beer.

 

While this is far from a perfect brew, I'm liking this one a lot. It's a bit dodgy, and hardly the epitome of equilibrium, but it's ballsy, without going so far as to slap them smack on the table.

If weren't such a hazardous pour, I'd gladly be serving this to any visiting stout afficionados, and I'm sure they wouldn't object.

 

Beer: Kerozeen

Brewery: Homebrewery Tetten 
Style: Stout. Too thin to be an Imperial, so I'm calling this a pimped Export Stout

ABV: I'd say somewhere around 9%

EBU: -
SRM: Deep deep dark dark but just on the paler side of black
Served: 500ml bottle

Tetten crew, good job but there's work to do. Get the refermentation under control, and balance the body with the booze. Other than that, I'll have a couple of these if you have any to spare.

 

As well as the recipe. (hey it never hurts to try does it?)

 

Greetz

 

Jo

 

Burn baby!

Remember Brew#4?

Oh. That's right, I never made much notion of it because of other pressing issues (sampling beers and stocking up on quality brews, to name but two).

Well, here goes then.

Brew#4 is a leap into the unknown. Two weeks prior to B-day, I had just sampled a bottle of this baby:

"For people with guts"
Kinda hard to drink beer if you have none.

"The Daughter of the Ear Of Corn" is a small but rising (sort of) Belgian brewery, located in the region of Baarle-Hertog.

Yes, that's a piece of Belgium, smack in the middle of the Netherlands.  

Bravoure, then, is a smoke beer, but so delicately smoked that I'd hesitate to call it one, lest it gave people the wrong idea. I was so impressed by it, that I got me some smoked malt and distilled a recipe. I'd found a clone recipe for Antwerp's pride:

Het Bolleke

I tweaked the recipe to accomodate the smoked malt and achieve a higher ABV and substituted the hops, ending up with something which, during wort extraction, was tasting quite spot on.

I'd also infused some vanilla beans in Caol Ila whisky, to pimp a small batch of this brew which I'd set aside.

Turns out it all went nicely, and several weeks later, the brew is happily undergoing bottle conditioning in the hot room. I'm quite curious as to how drinkable this in going to turn out, but I've high hopes for it.

Seeing as how drinkable the wort was.

 

Now for a name...
 

Naming a brew is always a spurious affair. In this case, I couldn't quite find a name for this one, and all the obvious references to smoke turned out to be trite or misleading. A chat with the affable Marloes gave rise to musings on days long gone, when the East India Companies sailed for the orient, bringing spices and the occasional burning shipwreck. Add a bit of geekiness to all that and you end up with a brew which becomes somewhat unpronouncable, like zn+1=(|Re(zn)|+i|Im(zn)|)2+c, z0=0

Best enjoyed with a slice of Mandelbrot

I'll give it a week before I check carbonation, and another two weeks to mature, but I'm guessing it'll need at least a month or two to mellow out.

Quite stoked about this one, so watch this space for updates.

Also, witness the latest improvement to my homebrew equipment:

A fully automated grain mill!

 

Until then,

Greetz

Jo

Tall Poppy (8 Wired Brewery)

Please don't binge this beer. We have worked too hard for it to be wasted.
--Tall Poppy's label

Tough but sensible advice. 

One can see how easily bingeable this beer could be. One does not, however, yield to temptation, and hence, one sniffs and sips and slurps and goodness gracious we have another kickass brew from New Zealand on our hands with this one.

All it needs is some fireworks in the background.

Beautiful and tempting red colour, topped with a lusciously dense, off-white head. Carbonation is just spot on.

A massively hoppy nose, fruity and tart, as if the beer needed to remind us that not only is this a spin on the ubiquitous IPA theme, but also that it hails from Kiwi Central, home of some of the world's most pungent and aromatic hops. Grapes and pineaple, with a hint of raspberry maybe. A slightly boozy, malty undercurrent, warm and sensual, perfectly pairing off with the fruity hops. Once the massively dense pillowy head subsides, the nose opens up even more, yielding faraway hints of dried flowers and a slightly oily, resin-like vibe.

Sensual, but bold

In the mouth, something unusual happens. Instead of the smooth, toffee-like sweetness common in regular IPAs, this red ale becomes crisp, slightly dry, and almost sharp. The mouth expects some sweetness when the nose promises all those fruits and flowers, and while the malts do deliver, the focus is on bitterness, rather than sweetness. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy bitterness in a quality ale, but it's something that might put certain people off. The rich and fruity hop aromas we encountered in the nose are slightly subdued on the palate, and instead of hop flavour, they impart tons of shades of bitterness in the taste.

It's beers like this one that make me want to do more research on hops. I can hardly make out the Columbus, which I thought I had pinned down as "easily identifyable". Amarillo, yes, but not in that obvious 2011 kinda way. Simcoe and Warrior, I'm looking at the two of you.

While it looks silly, smacking open-mouthed after a sip reveals a lingering but pleasantly refreshing bitterness all the way at the back of the soft palate, reminiscent of grape seeds and skins.

Heed this boy to your own disadvantage.

It takes a while before the beer really strikes a chord, but when it does, it transcends the IPA genre so subtly and effortlessly that the epiteth India Red Ale starts to make sense. This really is a (minutely, but distinctly) different genre altogether.

The mouthfeel is thinner than that of your average IPA, with a mild, and again pleasant, hint of acridity. The dry and crisp mouthfeel, together with the prominent hop bitterness make the label's warning come to mind again. This beer begs to be drunk. The label begs the drinker not to be one.

Halfway through, with some relaxation in the glass going on, the nose really starts to bloom. Hints of burnt caramel lie hidden amidst all those hops. The intensity of the hop fragrances is simply dazzling, leaping up from the glass, straight onto the tongue in an elongated, sharp and intensely pleasant bitterness, which lingers on and on and on. Just like the Hop Wired, the Tall Poppy has an absurdly long, ridiculously entertaining aftertaste. You can literally enjoy a single sip for several minutes after swallowing it, and never become bored.
However much the beer focuses on hop bitterness, it never becomes harsh or even remotely unpleasant. Testament to Søren Eriksen's brewing skills, the hops have imbued this beer with only goodness, and none of the nasty stuff which they'd have left behind in the hands of a lesser craftsman.

But.

While I can't honestly think of anything negative to say about this beautiful beer, a word of caution is in order. I've come to realise that I like intensely bitter beers.
At 60 IBU, this one isn't even in the same ball park as some recent extreme ales, which easily (and often swaggeringly) pass the 100, if not the 200 mark.

Or well past the 2000 mark, such as this hops-soup.

I reiterate: the Tall Poppy is not a hop beast.

But nevertheless, this is an bitter beer, focusing clearly on the myriad varieties of bitterness the tongue can detect. A word of caution then: if you're not a fan of bitter beer, you might want to take care with this one. It's not extreme (I've a feeling 8 Wired doesn't really brew extreme beers, unless you mean extremely drinkable ones), but this beer has its headlights firmly trained on the bitterness. If however you've an open mind and want to learn a thing or two about how many shades of bitter there are, then this is a beer you absolutely have to try.

This was my second brew from 8 Wired, and by a long stretch, they are my favourite overseas (transglobal, in their case) brewery. I love the style and the finesse, the packaging and most of all, the beer.  Søren, if you're reading this, congratulations on another truly excellent brew.

Beer: Tall Poppy
Brewery: 8 Wired
Style: India Red Ale (really, give it this much credit at least)
ABV: 7%
EBU: 60
SRM: 16 (EBC: ~40)
Served: 500ml bottle

Greetz

Jo

Utrecht Strong Ale (Rooie Dop)

I have already professed my admiration for up-and-coming Dutch breweries such as De Molen elsewhere on these pages.
Nutshelling somewhat indiscriminately, I daresay that, beer-wise, there's a lot more happening outside the Belgian borders than most of my fellow-countrymen are willing to admit. Likewise with the Utrecht-based craft brewery Rooie Dop, named for their habit of sealing their beers with a red cap.

Thanks guys, for steering clear of the obvious orange.

Looking at their site, and the dazzling range of test brews on display there, you get an idea of how passionate these guys are about brewing.
Lacking an appropriately sized installation of their own, they brew their beer at De Molen's brewery in Bodegraven, who also sell it at the beershop located there. This month's visit to said brewery finally saw me stocked with some Rooie Dop brews, which I'd been meaning to try for quite some time now.

Their signature brew, the Chica Americana, is one I'll need to give a second chance, as my bottle was a dud. No carbonation whatsoever, and a slight vegetable funk told me this beer had failed its bottle conditioning. It happens, even with the best of brewers, so I'll refrain from saying anything about this beer until I get to sample a bottle that's drinkable. No wait, I'll say this: it's hop-beast if ever there was one. Even the failed bottle conditioning couldn't perturb the massive hop-presence of this one, and I'm really looking forward to having a proper bottle of this one.

Nil desperandum: I had the Utrecht Strong Ale waiting for me at a nice cool cellar temperature.

Spiffy consistent labels these guys have

Not sure what an Utrecht Strong Ale is supposed to be, but the eye and the nose readily make things clear:

USA = IPA

But wait! While this is clearly an India Pale Ale, there's more to it than just that. And it certainly isn't just another IPA.

Magnificently creamy head, dense and pillowy. Really, you could put a spoon to this head and eat it like custard.
Phenomenally grapefruity in the nose, with lingering hints of pine and grapes. Buried underneath the fruity/resiny hops are hints of caramel and fudge, which make the backbone of a good double IPA and are typical of  the style.

The flavour and taste is where this beer makes a difference, and it's quite unlike anything I've tasted before.
Initially very delicate, like a subdued  (D)IPA, but making a u-turn towards bitter instead of sweet. Unique aftertaste, slightly burnsy-boozy, bordering on fussels, deeply hop-bitter without becoming puckering.

And then the lessons learned from the X-teme Hops series pay off.

Thank you, Proefbrouwerij and Mikeller!

It's Columbus! Thank you, X-treme Hops series: it's Columbus!
**calms down for a second**

On a more serious note: Columbus has a bit of a distinct profile, and this comes through splendidly in this beer. If you've ever tasted a Columbus single hops beer (as I had the day before I tried the USA) then you can't really mistake it for anything else. Like Sorachi Ace, it tends to unbalance beers unless skillfully applied. In this particular case, it doesn't so much unbalance the beer as annex it: the beer is centered around the bitter presence of Columbus, almost to the exclusion of anything else.
Almost: there's enough of that malty IPA backbone present to counter the Columbus' bitterness, and the flavours and the nose have some pretty interesting things to add in the form of Cascade and Galena.

In all, Utrecht Strong Ale is a misleading beer, an IPA with a mild (or rather, bitter) twist and a nod to Dutch pig-headedness. Not for everyone, I suppose, but hop heads like yours truly will certainly get a kick out of it.

Beer: Utrect Strong Ale
Brewery: Rooie Dop 
Style: Double IPA
ABV: 9.1%
EBU: -
EBC: -
Served: 330ml bottle

Rooie Dop's Double Oatmeal Stout is waiting to be sampled later on.

Until then,

Greetz

Jo

HoppySlosh abroad: De Molen

The Constant Reader may hove noticed: I'm a bit of a fanboy where the Dutch De Molen brewery is concerned.

A bit of context: we Belgians still live in the somewhat deluded alternative reality where we are the only country in the world that knows anything whatsoever about beer. We scoff at German beers, disdain UK ales and disregard anything (not just beer, anything) coming from the US of A. But, barring perhaps the entire African continent, no place gets as much flak from us where beer is concerned as the Netherlands.

As far as Belgium's concerned, Holland has no beer (unless it's imported from Belgium).

Personally, I blame this stuff.

I'm not saying I agree with the above. I'm just saying it is as much cultural heritage for us as it is to not be able to think of Germany without hearing the sound of marching jackboots, or of China without dialing for extra spring rolls and shrimp crackers.

Kroepoek is the word in proper Belgianese but I digress.

Now, flashback to about half a year ago.

"Denongslivraawentoren", Antwerp.

Within a cork's throw of the cathedral pictured above, in a beer pub run by (of all people) a Dutch crew, I ordered "something Dutch". I'd heard good things about our Northern Neighbours' brewing skills, but being sceptical (and as yet unlettered in exotic beer), I kept thinking of those horrid green bottles.

"Have you tried anything by De Molen?", asked the (Dutch) waiter.

What ensued was my first exposure to Bodengraven's flagship: Hel & Verdoemenis, a beer I still hold in enormously high regard.

An Antwerp-raised Belgian, humbled by a Dutch beer, in the shadow of Antwerp's iconic skyline feature. In a Dutch beer pub. Yes, my perspectives were drastically altered that day, and the world map has never since looked quite the same.

Yesterday saw Yours Truly, accompanied by fellow Beer Geeks Bert and Anton, en route to distant Bodegraven, to visit the brewery and perhaps (*) score a few(**) beers (***).

*) well..."perhaps" might be a bit of a lie. We'd been informed about the well-stocked beer shop situated on the brewery's premises.
**) well...."a few" might be a bit of a lie. "Quite a few fews" is still a bit of a lie, but less so than "a few"
***) well..."beers" might be shooting a bit short of the mark. The guys at De Molen love big fat gutsy brews which many people (some of them, I'm ashamed to admit, Belgians) hesitate to call beer.

Colin, our friendly host, gave us the quick tour (schedules were incompatible with the big tour, pity but hey, more time to sample what was on tap), lardered with annecdotes involving explosions, yeast-ballistics and the logistic etymology of their Heen&Weer beer. All in all, an illustrative visit to the brewery's origins, and a bit of perspective for yours truly. It appears to be perfectly possible to brew kick-ass beers with pretty rudimentary starting materials. Not quite as rudimentary as my own, by nevertheless: humble beginnings for what I consider to be a major brewer in these parts.

Before, during and after, we sampled a few beers. Tough choices were made, with ten beers on tap and a beer list which was neatly summed up as "whatever we have in the shop".
Here's the line-up:

Lief&Leed is a sour beer in the style of Belgium's renowned Red-Brown South-West-Flanders Ales (yeah, I know. I didn't invent the term). Not everyone's taste, but if you can manage this level of complexity, while keeping your beer as profoundly drinkable as this one, then whatever anyone thinks of sour beers, you know your trade. Lief&Leef was fruitier than, say Rodenbach and its tangents, tangy and sour, with those delicate woody notes that make this style such a treat when done right. Best apéritif ever. Period.

Larie&Apekool BA is an Imperial Russian Stout, aged on some barrel or other (we got no specifics, and frankly, we forgot to ask). This is the kind of brew which cemented De Molen's name and fame: a big, fat, oily stout, pitch black and bitter-sweet. Somewhere on these pages you'll find a review of Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand Stout. I think my exact words were: "While Larie&Apekool isn't even in the same league as the BCBS, given the latter's unavailability in Belgium, drinking the former hardly qualifies as punishment". Seriously delectable brew, this one.

Citra Single Hop is (du-UH-huh) a beer exclusively brewed with last year's Teacher's Pet, the Citra hops. Bit predictable, and a bit of a pity that we're sort of losing the wow-effect with such a brilliant hops. This particular beer was a bit on the watery side, although this was less prominent when we were served seconds during the tour. An OK single hops.

Rye IPA is a (du-UH-huh again) a rye-based IPA, and decidedly decently brewed again. The rye gave a bit of unconventional tartness to the beer, complementing the fruity hops flavours remarkbly well. We were given seconds again during the tour, and I heard no complaints. In a landscape becoming saturated by sweet-based, über-hoppy IPAs, this one is a bit of odd duck, while still remaining true to style. Definitely one to give a go if you get the chance, what with it being quite accessible, without being easy.

Sexist Google thinks this a perfect illustration of "easy beer"

Tsarina Esra is De Molen's best-known porter. After the onslaught of the Larie&Apekool, and quite a bit of hops from the others, most of its finer qualities were a bit lost on me. It's a good, solid porter, never shooting out too much either way in terms of booze or roast. Bit of chocolate and coffee, as befits the style, and nicely drinkable. Definitely one I'll be trying again on a cleaner palate.

Speaking of palate: burgers and open grilled cheese sandwhiches made sure the beer has something to do in terms of digestion. Wouldn't want those brews to go hungry now, would we?

Last one I tried was the Klap van de Molen, perhaps my least favourite so far. Again, the palate may have been saturated, but this one struck me as less balanced in terms of booze-over-flavour. Slightly burning the back the throat, mildly agressive and almost fenolic, this is not everyone's everyday brew.

Oh and that beer shop....

Think "wide-angle lens in small shop" plus "shitloads of beer bottles everywhere".
Also, don't step backward or you'll trip over all the beer.

We spent a good half hour making agonising choices no beer geek should be asked to make, but we finally made it out again, laden with beer and our consciences gnawing half-guiltily whilst cooking up plausible excuses to explain to the kids why there would only be stale dry bread for dinner that night.

Some proper tasting is in order, so expect some more news in the next couple of days. Weeks. Months, if I can resist temptation for that long.

Thanks, De Molen crew, for a pleasant visit and for such a staggering array of amazing brews.

A movie quote is in order here:

Ai'll bee baahk

Until then!

Greetz

Jo