Homebrewing Guest Blogger

Okay, good news! I've tried homebrewing three or four times and it worked out okay, but I have a friend who is much better at it! Over the course of the next few weeks a more accomplished homebrewer and close friend of mine is going to be writing a series of posts on the topic of homebrewing. Ian was regularly published in the Iowa State Daily, keeps a blog here, and of course, is an avid beer drinker. In fact, we might even be lucky enough for him to write on a few other beer topics sometime down the road as well.

So with no further adieu, Ian!

Ever since my first sip of Hoegaarden in the summer of 2008, I've had a love affair with craft beer. The taste, the texture, and the sense of place that comes from a quality brew is as much a spiritual experience as it is a physical one. Which would explain why monks are so daffy for the stuff...

But even more interesting than drinking the beer is making the beer. At a place like Anheuser-Busch or Miller-Coors, they use the same ol' process, over and over again, with little creativity outside of the advertising department and then hock it on unsuspecting college kids (read: me) while quietly raking in mountains of money. Craft brewing on the other hand takes creativity, consistency, and a certain instinct. Craft beer can be frozen or aged, chocolate or raspberry, light or dark, and everything in between and this continuum of beers comes from a continuum of methods, each more radical (read: ridiculous) than the last.

But truth be told, basic beer making isn't that difficult. You (read: you) can make a high quality brew for even cheaper than you can find it on a store shelf. The fact is that with a little know-how, some persistence, and some diligent note-taking, anyone can make good beer.

There's only four steps: mashing, lautering, boiling, and fermentation, the equipment that you need really doesn't cost that much, and the sense of accomplishment you get from tasting that first delicious (while rough around the edges) batch of your beer is indescribable. Like woodworking or dog-grooming, it's a hands-on, good-for-the-soul activity that brings far more real pride than I can possibly describe (so maybe it's not quite like dog-grooming).

So, if you find yourself inspired, curious, or even disbelieving, feel free to follow AHU for the next few weeks as I outline the equipment, steps, and resources required for brewing your first batch of beer. I'll make some more explicit recommendations for equipment brands and books but feel free to explore for yourself.

After all, it's that exploration, that inconsistency, and that utter accomplishment when it all comes together that makes craft brewing what it is: perfect.

Zoo Brew

I typically wait until the last possible minute to pay my bills, I never fill up my gas tank until the light comes one, and yes, I typically turned in my homework late in college. With all of that being true it should be no surprise that I waited until the last of the weekly “Zoo Brew” events at the Blank Park Zoo to check it out.

Sometimes procrastination just bites you in the ass. I was expecting zoo BREW, but instead the final zoo brew was wine night. Four local wineries were present for the event and all were more than happy to give out a few free samples and explain a little bit for people like me who know barely anything about wine. So even if I completely missed the boat on getting to a zoo brew that featured samples of beers like Blue Moon, Fat Tire, Leinenkugels, or a few local beers, I still had fun. It also didn’t hurt that they had a cash bar for beer lovers like myself. Nothing better to wash down a nice dry red than a tall boy of Miller Lite! *cough*

Even if I was disappointed to have missed out on a night with beer samples it was still a great night. I can’t think of very many promotional events than getting 500 20-somethings together for some booze at the zoo! The best part is that I’ve only even gone to the zoo in the middle of the day. Most exotic animals are from extremely hot areas, it doesn’t take a seventh-grade science student to know that animals tend to sleep when it’s hot. Since zoo brew was still up and running around dusk all of the animals, including the big cats, were finally getting up and moving. I even saw one of the red pandas yawn!

I also hadn’t been to the zoo for quite a few years, it was great to have a chance to walk around without any little kids running all over the place, screaming, and feeding the goats when I want to! There is one serious downside of mixing booze and the zoo though. I saw one guy jump over a fence by the giraffe enclosure to go after the free koozie he got on the way in the door. I guess it’s a good thing that the camel rides weren’t open!

Zoo Brew was an excellent event and I’m sure that the zoo made a decent amount of money from it throughout the summer. So kudos to the Blank Park Zoo for putting it on and thanks for giving me something to do in Des Moines on a weeknight!

No…really! DES MOINES….ON A WEEKNIGHT!

Free Beer For Life?

I know I just put up a post about Brew Dog, but give me a break, they do some pretty interesting stuff!

While perusing the internet for interesting beer things I found a myriad of articles (including this one) about Brew Dog. The articles went on and on for pages and pages either in support of, or decrying the irresponsibility of, their promotion to offer free beer for life to anyone willing to get a brew dog tattoo at the opening of their new bar in Aberdeen, Scotland. Some of the articles even said that Brew Dog was even going to be bringing in a tattoo artists to do the work at the bar itself!

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It seemed like everyone in any kind of position of power in Scotland was livid that the Brew Dog guys would even consider encouraging tattoos or drinking. Up next I’m sure they might…*gasp*…….listen to rock music or cut foot loose!

So here is the problem with this whole deal, it isn’t actually happening (guess now I regret the brew dog tattoo I prematurely got). Well, at least not as stated by all of these websites and blogs.

According to the blog on the official Brew Dog website facts were overstated and distorted. They haven’t even worked out the details of the promotion yet. Moreover, they specifically clarify that it wouldn’t be something like “as much beer as you can drink while still sitting up.” Instead, it would be something closer to getting one or two free beers a week. Personally, that still sounds pretty good!

Even after the sensationalisation of this story wore off, it is still a very cool promotion. Between that, their extremely high alcohol beers, and their general attitude, I think I’m becoming a serious fan of Brew Dog. That’s embarrassing to say about a brewery whose beers I’ve never even tried, but I guess I just need to order a bottle of Sink The Bismarck from their website or something.

Or YOU could buy me a bottle!

High Class PBR?

I drink PBR, and I’m not the only one. Everyone loves a good craft brew, but there is something intrinsically alluring about drinking an ice cold, working man’s brew after a hard day’s work. That’s exactly what Pabst brews and how it has been marketed for the past 175 or so years. Over the last five or ten years Hipsters have started gravitating toward ordering a PBR when they’re out. I guess they think it’s ironic or something. Pabst is holding tightly to its authentic image and outside of a few concert sponsorships they seem to almost completely ignoring the twenty-something crowd that is picking up on Pabst. In my mind that is the best possible way they could market their product to that crowd. They want to drink

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something that would seem out of character for them to be sucking down. So Pabst lives and breathes by its image as a beer that a construction worker, coal miner, or a factory worker would drink after work.

Until now that is. Pabst, like all major breweries, has operations that span the globe. The Chinese arm of Pabst is just now releasing a high-gravity ale called Blue Ribbon 1844. The beer runs for the equivalent of $44 per bottle and is sadly only available in China.

They have some very cool advertising materials for Blue Ribbon 1844. The only problem is that it is all in Chinese. I had a little bit of it translated and got a little bit from the relatively weak online translator. I did see that they compared 1844 to Scotch whisky, French brandy, and Bordeaux wine because those three, along with 1844, are all aged in wooden casks. It is also suggested that you drink your 1844 from a champagne flute.

As usual with the beers I’ve been blogging about recently, I’ll probably never have a chance to try this beer. I’m really hoping that it does extremely well in China. Then maybe if it goes great Pabst will decide that they should bring a premium beer to the US. I just want to know how a brewery with a flagship beer appreciated more for its price than its flavor would approach the brewing of what is supposed to be a quality beer.

End of the World!

Yeah, I know it has been a while since I last updated. Sorry.

I’ve read a few things about this recently but Jarrod Greene down at TCU shared a link about it with me so I figured it was time I wrote about it.

In 2007 a couple of guys in Scotland got together and set up Brew Dog. They named their brewery for one of the founders’ dad’s dog, Bracken. They describe him on their website as their “guard dog, head taster, accountant, and general buddy.” I

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bet their financial books are pretty interesting with an accountant like that!

Okay, so now the reason I’m talking about Brew Dog. They brew high-proof beer. Really high proof beer. In July of 2009 Brew Dog started their line of obscenely high-proof beer with Tokyo, a 18% ABV beer.

Then they set their sights slightly higher with Tactical Nuclear Penguin, a 32% ABV beer. Why 32% you might be asking? Because the previous strongest beer in the world was a German one called Schorschbraer that had an ABV of 31%. I’m a little hazy on the details of how they could get a beer to be that high-proof but it looks like the way they do it is to age it and freeze it down to somewhere about -4 degrees Fahrenheit. Throughout the freezing process the beer is decanted occasionally to concentrate the beer, hence raising the ABV. The extremely low temperatures it is stored at for three weeks are the reason for the “penguin” name.

In response to Tactical Nuclear Penguin the German brewery Schorschbrau, released a 40% ABV beer called Schorschbock. Naturally, Brew Dog upped their game and topped it by countering with a witty knockout punch (in more than one way), Sink The Bismarck, a quadruple IPA with a staggering 41% ABV. The name, an obvious homage to the famous German battleship sunk in WWII, is both witty and telling of the fact that Brew Dog will NOT be topped!

At least they won’t be topped by anyone but themselves that is! They have just brewed an EXTREMELY limited release of “The End of the World,” a 55% ABV Blonde Belgian Ale. Only 12 bottles were produced and only 11 of those are for sale. Seven will be a smaller size and four will be larger.

As if the extreme alcohol content were not enough to make this a unique beer, the packaging takes the cake. Each bottle is encased in a taxidermed piece of roadkill. The smaller bottles are encased in the skin of a stoat and the larger bottles are wrapped in squirrel.

Both the stoats and squirrels are now sold out but while available they cost about $775 and $1,080 respectively. So you missed your chance to get the End of the World beer, but you can still get yourself a bottle of Tactical Nuclear Penguin or Sink the Bismarck here.

Also, here is a list of the highest alcohol percentage beers. Just for in case you were curious where some others rank!

Red Rambler Ale

Okay, tonight’s beer is the Red Rambler Ale from Peace Tree Brewing. It gets its unique name from the fact that Peace Tree Brewing’s facility is located at an old Nash dealership in Knoxville,

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Iowa. It comes in a bottle similar to Red Stripe but all three of Peace Tree’s bottled beers have extremely unique and nifty-looking labels.

The beer is pretty good. You can really taste a caramel malt in the initial sip, but then it is followed pretty quickly by the hops which nicely balance it out. It seems to have slightly above average carbonation, but that might just be because I’ve been on a stout kick for the last week so most anything seems to be heavily carbonated.

There is one significant downside to the Red Rambler that really makes it harder for me to like. Although I enjoy it, I want to enjoy it more. I had the chance to try Peace Tree’s Blonde Fatale at Brewfest and was blown away. It isn’t currently available in stores so I’m probably not going to be able to get another taste of it until I schedule a visit to their brewery sometime. Red Rambler was good, but I spent a lot of time drinking it wishing I had a Blonde Fatale. It’s premature to say so after a single tasting at a brewfest, but Blonde Fatale has serious potential to join the exclusive ranks of my favorite Iowa-brewed beers.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to ramble on and on about another beer during a review of Red Rambler, but it happens sometimes. Since the best way to wrap up a beer review is to talk about the finish, here it is. Red Rambler finishes with a mildly bitter creamy flavor in the back of the mouth, very pleasant.

I liked Red Rambler a lot, but at $9.50/6-pack I’m not sure I would buy it again. I’m willing to pay a premium for either premium beer, or above average local brews, but not very often. Until it comes down in price slightly I think I’ll have to be satisfied with one six-pack of each of their bottled beers. I already got to the Hop Wrangler, I guess Rye Porter is up next!

SUCCESS: Beer Ice Cream

I didn’t think I could actually do it. I got close twice, but never thought it would work out anywhere near as well as it did.

I’ve done it.

I’ve made an incredible batch of beer ice cream!

The final product was made using Stonecutter Stout from the Des Moines brewpub Raccoon River Brewing, the same beer from my second attempt at beer ice cream when the flavor was there but texture was awful. That was much better than attempt number one when the texture worked, but it tasted like mildewed shoe leather!

The Stonecutter stout gave a strong coffee flavor to the ice cream so I added in a handful of chocolate covered espresso beans. They’re a little bigger than normal ice cream mix-ins but the flavor really works well with the ice cream.

I had to follow the recipe VERY carefully for things to work out well so if you're trying this out make sure you're pretty precise with measurements, and times etc.

Enjoy!

Here is my final recipe:

Makes 2 quart

1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Cups whole milk
2 Cups heavy cream
1 & 1/3 Cup stout beer
3 Tablespoons molasses
8 egg yolks
2/3 Cup sugar
1/2 Teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a medium saucepan combine 1 teaspoon vanilla, milk, and cream. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat, cover the pan, and let stand for 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, whisk together the stout and molasses. Bring to a boil and remove from heat.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the yolks, sugar, and remaining vanilla extract. Whisk in a few tablespoons of the hot cream mixture, then slowly whisk in another 1/4 cup of the cream. Add the remaining cream in a steady stream, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

4. Stir the beer mixture into the cream mixture. Cook the custard over medium heat, stirring often with a wooden spoon, for 7 to 10 minutes or until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon.

5. Strain the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Process the custard in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. (35 min was perfect for me)

This recipe is my own slight adaptation of this recipe from the Boston Globe’s website

Brewfest 2010

I spent yesterday afternoon at Principal Park in Des Moines taking part in the Cityview Brewfest. It was a dreadfully hot afternoon but as drinkers entered the front gates they were greeted by giant tubs full of complementary bottles of water. A few other stations

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with free water were also posted around the Park’s concourse along with drinking fountains.

If not for the abundance of free water and the fact that the entire event took place in the shade, things could have gotten awful pretty quickly. Luckily though, that wasn’t the case, and it was an amazing event!

All told there was somewhere in the range of 375 beers available for sampling and I did my best to get my money’s worth. It was my first beerfest of any kind and I learned a lot of lessons on what to do, and what not to do at an event like that.

Upon my arrival at the four hour event I decided to get as many samples as I could. I was nearly jogging to get from table to table to try as many one ounce samples as I could. At the first few tables I sampled three or four of the six to seven available. The upside of that was that I got a better range as to the actual quality of those breweries instead of just one or two samples.

The downside of sampling multiple beers at each table was that I got drunk much quicker than I should have if I wanted to actually evaluate the beers I was trying out. That little misstep meant that we had to take an extended break in order to get ready for round two.

While at a table sucking down some water we were joined by three other jolly beer drinkers taking a break. There was almost no interaction between the two groups until they got up to leave and as a parting gift gave us a stack of tokens for free entry to a local strip club.

We paced ourselves much better once we were back at it by not drinking for quantity anymore. Instead we focused our efforts more closely on finding quality beers; I was particularly on the lookout for beers I had never tried.

The whole brewfest was fun, but as with anything, there were some clear high-points. The Sam Adams tent was deservedly one of the best spots at the fest. They had all of their usual suspects there for sampling but they also had three beers from their imperial series and one special treat. Sam Adams is currently taking votes between a Belgian Style IPA and American Rye Ale. I got to cast my vote (American Rye) and in exchange for my troubles I got a nifty keychain.

Another of the best spots to hit was the Boulevard Brewery table. Like Sam Adams they had their usual suspects, but they also featured all four of their Smokestack Series beers. I had never tried out any of the Smokestack Series so I went through their line four times so as to try them all.

My third big highlight was all of the local breweries present. No matter where I am, I’m always a big fan of local brew. In Champaign I enjoyed going over to the Blind Pig Brewery on Fridays. In Fort Worth, not much beats the Saturday afternoons at Rahr Brewing. At brewfest we had the brewpubs Rock Bottom Brewing, Granite City Brewery, Court Avenue Brewing, and Raccoon River Brewing. The Iowa breweries present included the standards of Olde Main, and Millstream. Also there were a few breweries I’m less familiar with such as Hub City Brewing Company, Madhouse Brewing, and a few others. I want to give a special mention here to Peace Tree Brewing down in Knoxville, IA. I got an email from Megan at Peace Tree Brewing before the brewfest reminding me to be sure to stop by their table. I wasn’t familiar with Peace Tree before she emailed me so I got a six of their Red Rambler, it was pretty good. At brewfest I had them pour me a sample of their Blonde Fatale, it amazed me. It isn’t currently available in stores but be sure you’re watching closely for it, I can’t wait until I can buy it at my local grocery store!

I had a lot beer Saturday, but my two favorites were the Long Strange Tripel and the Sam Adams Imperial White. I’ve always liked both breweries, but these two beers were FAR beyond anything I’ve come to expect from either.

Overall, brewfest was an incredible event; I can barely believe that Des Moines is lucky enough to host something like it. Cityview and the other sponsors really deserve some cheering on for bringing it to town. Here’s hoping that it keeps growing and getting even better in the future!

Spending Spent Grains

I’ve been doing some research for my impending beer road trip and one of the things I have been looking at is sustainability, carbon footprints, and the such. Pretty much the only waste product of brewing is the spent grains, and even those are usually disposed of responsibly. Most breweries ship their spent grains off to farms for animals to eat or to use as a fertilizer. I found a few articles about a relatively new idea that seems to be gaining some ground that I find extremely cool.

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Running a brewery takes a lot of energy. The wort has to be heated, then cooled. The final product needs to be chilled. Many pieces of heavy machinery such as bottlers, labelers, etc also suck a lot of power. Oh, and I suppose they might want to do a few other things like keep the lights on as well.

A few breweries, such as Magic Hat Brewing in Vermont, are setting up facilities to utilize those spent grains and other waste products on the premises. The idea is to burn all of the waste as fuel for the brewery itself.

Once the grains are used they are taken to a fermenter loaded with bacteria. The bacteria eats through all of the waste and produces methane gas. The methane is then burned to turn a turbine which in turn supplies some of the power for the brewery. An article in Live Science said that there is potential for a brewery to supply up to 60% of their own energy by burning their waste. Granted, it’s not like the spent grain was really being wasted by going to a farm but it saves a lot of diesel by not having a truck come pick it up and drive it back out there.

There are a few other ways to use spent grains but one of my easy favorites is what Court Avenue Brewing here in Des Moines does, make pretzels with them. They bring a few pretzels out with three dips, beer cheese, stone ground mustard, and caramel. The pretzels are delicious, the dips work well with them, it is just….ideal! They’re a bit pricey for a cheapo like me ($6.99), but they’re absolutely worth it.

Many bakeries are making breads and a few other things from the grains. I also found a few reports of people using them to grow mushrooms.

Here are a few recipes you homebrewers can try out with your spent grains. Let me know how they are!

(Source 1, Source 2)

My White Whale

I can deal with failure. I’m actually pretty good at it. What I have trouble with is dealing with “near success.” I tried making ice cream again last night after my first attempt didn’t go well (to say the least). The first time I made something that looked like ice cream, but tasted like frozen sewer water. This time, it went the exact opposite.

When I was cooking together all of the ingredients I made sure to be as careful as humanly possible, I was bound and determined to avoid another failure. I measured everything carefully, I watched the temperatures, and I kept exactly to the suggested times.

After I let the mixture cool down in the fridge (for exactly two hours) I took it out and put it in the ice cream machine to let it mix and freeze. The suggested time to leave it in was between 20 and 40 minutes. I wanted to be careful so I checked it at twenty minutes, it was still soup. I checked again after thirty minutes of spinning in ice, completely liquid. After forty minutes, it hadn’t set even a little bit. Everything from this point on was outside of the time recommendation. After fifty minutes, nothing. Sixty, the same. An hour ten? Nope. After a full hour beyond the recommended time the ice cream was still completely liquid, not even a little frozen.

I was livid that I had managed to fail even worse than the first time I tried making beer ice cream. I was getting ready to just dump my sugary soup down the drain when I decided to try a little. The taste was incredible. It had the same dark, deep coffee and bitter chocolate taste of the Raccoon River Brewing Stonecutter Stout, but it was balanced perfectly with the custard and vanilla. I poured my liquid ice cream into a Tupperware and stuck it in the freezer for the night. Although yes, it did freeze, this is not ice cream. It has no air whipped into it and it is much harder than your standard ice cream, especially homemade ice cream. The only way I can get any is to slowly scrape it out and eat it dime-sized bite by dime-sized bite. I didn’t make too much so it probably works out better that I can barely get any because with a taste like that I might power through it all in one night.

If I failed again, I would have given up. I got SOOO close though. The flavor was there. The first time, the texture was there. Now I just need to figure out how to split the distance. I know I’m close to figuring out a way to make this work, I WILL be making it work.

Today I came home from work to grab a bite to eat for lunch and saw an interview with one of the organizers of Cityview Brewfest this Saturday at Principal Park in Des Moines. If you don’t already have tickets, get them now! If you buy in advance they’re only $23 instead of $28. Yeah, I’m excited. I’ll see you out there!

Thick Like Syrup, Tasty Like Beer

Let me start by saying that I DID follow through on making the next batch of beer ice cream. In fact, it is spinning around in the ice cream machine thingy. Instead of the Vanilla Cream Ale from Raccoon River Brewing I went with their Stonecutter Stout, a beer dedicated to the stone masons who built many of the historic buildings in Des Moines. The stout fit in MUCH better with the recipe I found. I’ll have more on that later on when I can actually try the ice cream.

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In lieu of the ice cream review and recipe tonight I’ll be talking about the Raccoon River Brewing Stonecutter Stout. The recipe I used only called for 2/3 of a cup of stout, but naturally I thought it was a better idea to get a 64 ounce growler so as to get a “better sample.”

Stonecutter is about as thick as maple syrup and is darker than the back of a cave. It has very little carbonation and almost no head. I know that many people don’t want any carbonation in their stouts, but I still like a little bit there. What head there was was a dark brown color and disappeared quickly. If it weren’t for the delicious coffee/chocolate flavor I might not have finished the growler. It’s amazing how sometimes a flavor can really rescue what I assume won’t be a great beer.

The end result is an easy-drinking, extremely thick brew. I think it would be a bit better with a nice hearty beef stew or a bowl of chili or something. I feel like it would be a better at some point midway through the winter while I’m watching a movie or reading a good book. That is generally true with porters, they belong in cold weather with a hearty meal.

I’ll let you know about how the ice cream with stonecutter stout turns out when I try it tomorrow.

Breakfast Beer Anyone?

Today in my daily Googleing (verb?) I stumbled upon an article from the Phoenix New Times with a list of ten beers they suggest for breakfast. Most people have eaten their brunch with a mimosa, screwdriver, or bloody mary, but when I think breakfast beer I think of a still drunk frat boy waking up on the couch and grabbing one more to “keep the party going” at noon when he finally opens his eyes.

I’ll readily (albeit not necessarily proudly) admit that I’ve had a few breakfast

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beers myself but it was always the day of a big college football game that kicked off at noon. If you don’t tailgate early you don’t get to at all. I think we all know that just isn’t acceptable! After reading this article I really wish that I would have put some thought into what I was imbibing in instead of cringing and downing a Bud Light at 7:30 in the morning so we could get started (don’t judge, sometimes that’s just what college is).

The list of suggested beers in the Phoenix New Times article is dominated obscure beers, mostly stouts, that I haven’t had the chance to try. I’ve had the Kona Pipeline Porter (#6 on the list) and wasn’t a fan. It had a bit too strong of a coffee flavor for me. Now I’m rethinking my judgment as something I might have made prematurely, I just need to try it with some eggs and bacon!

The only other two beers on the list that I’ve tried are numbers seven and eight, Dogfish’s Black and Blue (blueberry beer) and Left Hand Brewery’s Juju Ginger Ale. As a disclaimer, I have somewhere between very little and no appreciation for fruit beer or ginger beer. I don’t mind beer with a flavor of fruit or ginger, but just about every single beer with blueberries, strawberries, cherries, etc goes overboard with the fruit flavor and the end result is terrible. So no, I didn’t really like the Black and Blue and I thought the Juju Ginger was just okay.

The surprising thing is that for the first time in my life as I was reading the descriptions on the New Times’ website I thought, “Sure, I didn’t like that beer, but it sounds great with some French toast as I roll out of bed!”

I work weekday mornings and go to church on Sundays so if I want to try out a few of these breakfast suggestions I guess I need to get to it on a Saturday.

The only real problem I have with the list is that the final item, number ten, calls bacon beer a fantasy. Despite the fact that I don’t think it would taste particularly good, I would love the chance to try some bacon brew and I know it is currently being produced by Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver. I don’t know how to get any, but I want some!

Homemade Beer Ice Cream

I tried making beer ice cream tonight and was met with absolute, complete, and utter failure. I found a few different recipes online, picked one out that called for amber ale (I used Boulevard’s amber), and went for it.

It was pretty much a disaster from

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the start. I’m usually a pretty good cook but with this everything that could go wrong, did. First the beer boiled over when it was supposed to be simmering. Then my whole milk/heavy cream mixture almost foamed over. When I mixed those two together with my eggs/sugar the milk and cream curdled.

The recipe called for the whole mixture to be strained before freezing so I thought (stupidly) that it might still be salvageable. I strained out the chunks, which accounted for about half of the volume of my mixture, and put it in the fridge to cool before I put it in the ice cream machine.

I grew up using an old-style hand crank ice cream maker. This was my first time to ever use an electric one, and as you can assume, it didn’t go well. At first it was taking WAY too long for the ice cream to set, then I let it run for a while, and that of course turned out to be too long, it was over-mixed.

Even after all of that, I was still determined to give it a try. I pulled off the lid, stuck in my spoon, and threw that first bit down the sink. It smelled absolutely awful. I thought I was sure to have gotten a bad spoonful so I reloaded to try again and my nose met with the same result. A bad smell was a perfect indicator of the impending taste. It was less like I had made some kind of beer ice cream, and more like I mixed some beer into an already bad ice cream recipe.

Everyone around the house had a spoonful or two to humor me but we all quickly agreed that the sink should be responsible for the remainder of the beer ice cream. I was planning on including the recipe in this entry but I don’t want anyone to get confused and try making it.

I’m not sure if it was a bad recipe or just my complete ineptitude when it came to the simple preparation, but this couldn’t have gone worse. I’m determined to not be beaten though; I already have plans to try again. I talked it over with my sister and this week we’re going to buy a growler of the absolutely delectable vanilla cream ale from a local brewpub, Raccoon River Brewery, and try out a new recipe. I feel like a vanilla cream ale would be much better suited for ice cream than amber ale was. When I find a recipe that works I’ll post it here for you to take a look at.

I’ll keep you posted on how this goes, I’m determined now!

Abita SOS - A Charitable Pilsner

Obviously, replacing the Gulf of Mexico with one big oil slick wasn’t a good plan. We’ve all heard hundreds of painfully depressing stories about people and animals whose lives have been ruined by this horrific spill.

Every now and then the sad stories are broken up with a great one about people working to make things better. Abita beer, in conjunction with the Louisiana Seafood Marketing Board, has established “SOS – A Charitable Fund” to assist with the rescue and restoration of the environment, industry and individuals fighting to survive this disastrous oil spill.

Abita is doing its part by devoting a big amount of its website, including the front page, to SOS – A Charitable Fund. While checking out the website you can buy various SOS gear including shirts, hats, and car magnets.

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The coolest thing Abita is doing is brewing SOS – A Charitable Pilsner. It is a pilsner with 7% ABV that only comes in a 22 oz bottle. The cost will be somewhere around $5 per bottle with 75 cents from each sale going to the charitable fund. The plan was for it to be sold in all 41 states where Abita is distributed, but it will not be available in Mississippi which doesn’t allow beer to be that potent. Drinkers in Alabama will also not be able to purchase SOS Pils due to the fact that state law prohibits beer in a 22 oz container.

SOS Pilsner is set to hit stores in mid-July, so it should be very soon. I’ll be watching the shelves closely for the first shipment of SOS Pilsner available in my area and I strongly suggest you all do the same!


Also, I found a recipe for ice cream made with beer. I’m going to see if I can whip up a batch tonight to have after I grill out tonight. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Robots Are Neat

I’ve seen a lot of cool videos of robots doing things in the past. In fact, I’ve even seen a few other robots that get beer from a fridge, and then deliver it to you. This one beats it all though!

The people at Willow Garage have developed a program Beer Me Robot for the PR2 (Personal Robot 2) as a part of the hackathon competition. For the hackathon a team starts Monday morning and has a workable program for a robot by Friday afternoon. Click the link, watch the video and prepare to be amazed by this incredible robot!

I tried to check out what all this robot can do but a lot of the things I could find were WAY over my

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head. I was mostly just concerned with the “Beer Me” program put together by Willow Garage. You open the program on your computer, enter what kind of beer you want, and then it will go get it and deliver it to you.

If that wasn’t cool enough by itself it will also send you a message if your beer of choice isn’t in the fridge, and it knows how to use a bottle opener once it brings you your beer.

Most people think of the future and it involves flying cars, disease cures, and Marty McFly. When I think of the future, it is a robot that brings me a beer! Now if only I could get a Tinchilla and teach a robot how to use THAT too…

Third Coast Beer

I’m trying to post more often than I have but the move and now work are really getting in the way of my beer drinking!

Today I’ll be talking to you about Third Coast Beer from Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Third Coast Beer is an American Blonde Ale not to be confused with Third Coast Old Ale, also from Bell’s. I can’t imagine why they

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would have wanted to name two of their beers extremely similar things, but they did.

I’m not exactly sure where Third Coast Beer is available because the Bell’s website obviously hasn’t updated that list recently. According to them it isn’t available in Iowa, where I bought this six pack. If you’re curious about its availability in your area you’re probably just going to have to hit the store and check it out.

I cracked open my first ever Third Coast Beer, took a big whiff, and was pretty disappointed. I haven’t homebrewed much but when I’ve tried a few of those batches have gone pretty horribly wrong. Third Coast Beer smelled exactly like one of those batches I managed to ruin somehow. It has pretty hoppy smell, but also a bit of a citrus scent to it. I know that actually sounds nice, but it wasn’t nearly as good as it sounds.

Then I poured it into a pint glass, just to be further disappointed. There was a bit more sediment floating around than I usually like. I’m not saying that I want my beer to all have Bud Light clarity with absolutely nothing floating; this was just a little much for me.

By the time I actually got around to trying the beer I was, needless to say, already a little sour on it. As usual, I was wrong. I’m not saying I was blown away by the flavor or anything, but it was pretty darn good! From now I should probably forget about putting any stock in how a beer looks or smells, the flavor is the only truly important thing to me.

At first taste the hops are absolutely in control, but they’re also balanced out pretty well by some wheat and some malt. The whole taste comes together pretty well and the end result is crisp and surprisingly refreshing. Even after you swallow the flavor hangs out on the tongue a bit longer most beers with a bitter, hoppy aftertaste.

I didn’t think this was going to fit in with the last two beers I reviewed but with an ABV (alcohol by volume) of just 4.8% and that refreshing taste I just mentioned it is another ideal summer beer!

Overall, this is better than the average grocery store beer, but wouldn’t be near the top of my list in a specialty store with a wider selection. I’ll probably buy it again but only after a decent amount of time passes and I get curious again.

Oh, and if it was driving you as crazy as it was driving me, the map on the label is of Losco County, Michigan on Lake Huron.

I’ve got a sampler six-pack from Schell Brewery in New Ulm, MN in the fridge downstairs so watch for that review sometime this weekend.

Moved In

Let me apologize for the lack of blog yesterday. I’ve been in the process of relocating from Champaign, Illinois to Des Moines, Iowa. As of last night I’m officially here and ready to get going on research for the beer trip.

It looks like quite a few of you actually checked out the page so I guess it was a pretty bad day to miss one. Life goes on though, now there is quite a bit to catch up on.

First, I have a bit of disappointing news. I got an email from Amanda at Cyber Candy, the makers of the Tinchilla. You should remember the Tinchilla from my blog entry just a couple of days ago. Apparently they just got word that the manufacturer they use for the Tinchilla has gone out of business. I’m still hoping that they can find someone else to make it but I don’t think that’s highly likely. She did tell me about a similar product called the Blitz Chiller (which I also mentioned in my Tinchilla blog). The one new thing I found out about the Blitz Chiller was that it is available from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I’ll be checking that out sometime in the next couple of days and if it is priced reasonably I’ll be picking one up. I’ll let you know how it goes.

One great thing about Des Moines is that it is a small enough town to have that small-town feel a lot of the time, but still big enough to have some pretty awesome events. Those of you in the Des Moines area should be getting pretty excited about two beer-related events that I’ve discovered recently.

The first event is the Cityview Brewfest coming up Saturday, July 17th lasting from 3-7pm at Principal Park. The event is going to feature live music from the band Mooseknuckle (whom I’m not familiar with), and somewhere in the range of 375 beers to sample. Once you pay the $28 entry fee (or $23 in advance) you’re ready to go for unlimited samples. Apparently there is also a free after-concert from the Dave Matthews tribute band Trippin Billies at People’s on Court Avenue.

I missed last year’s Brewfest in Des Moines by a matter of days and I’m still mad about it. This year I’ll be there early and I won’t be leaving until they push me out the door. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m excited!

The second Des Moines event that I’m excited about right now is Zoo Brew. Every Wednesday night Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines is hosting anyone who wants to come drink beer and look at some animals. Each week a different band band plays and a different theme is featured. Tonight is “bike night” and they’re going to be giving out samples of Fat Tire, Leinie’s Summer Shandy, Michelob Golden Wheat & Coastal Wheat. Next week is "Alma Mater Night," but I'm not sure exactly what that means. Regardless of the theme they're going to have some pretty good beers, Blue Moon, Landshard, Third Stone Brown & Bud Select 55.

Beer, live music, and a whole bunch of wild animals sounds more like the tagline for a terrible movie than a night out in Des Moines but I can tell you for sure that I’ll be there every free Wednesday night I have while here.

That’s all for now, be sure to get out and see what beer events are going on around your town. Feel free to post them here in the comments if you find any particularly good ones!

Fourth of July Beers

I’m usually a pretty big fan of various imported beers but in honor of Independence Day I thought it would be appropriate to put up a link to a story posted last year on WashingtonCityPaper.com. The article gives a few American alternatives to popular imports. I’m not too familiar with most of their suggestions outside of Sierra Nevada’s Summerfest, which I agree is a great alternative to Heineken or Stella Artois. That one isn’t just a good replacement because of patriotism but in my mind it is just a better beer.

If you have a suggestion for a good American beer to replace an import for the fourth of July then please let me know and I’ll share it with everyone.

Okay, one more link from last year. This one comes to us from the website Brian’s Belly. This site usually has posts all about beer, guy movies, and food. Last year there was a post titled Two Six-Packs of Truly American Beers for the Fourth of July. The post is about as self-explanatory as possible, he just lists out twelve different American beers he thinks would be appropriate for drinking for the Fourth.

Deep Fried Twinkies

Yesterday we had another beautiful night here in Illinois. I sat down with another ideal summertime beer, Zōn, which is apparently Flemish for “sun,” from Boulevard Brewing Company. Zōn is a Belgian-style Witbeer only made available from Boulevard during the summer months. Zōn has a nice flavor that is almost, but not quite, overpowered by the citrus and coriander. It is just enough to distinguish itself from most other Belgian ales without losing the characteristics of the style.

The low alcohol by volume of 4.4% is perfect for what I look for in a summer beer. It means that I can easily sit down and have a couple without worrying about ending up on my ass.

Now here is the carnival-goer in me coming to the surface. Last night I broke out my deep fryer and fried up some zucchini with homemade ranch to dip it in made by my wonderful friend Jessie. We also battered some goat cheese balls, rolled them in crushed pecans, and fried those. Then to wrap it all up I made a carney classic, fried twinkies. I’m only bringing up all of this fried food from last night to mention that the twinkies were perfectly complimented by the Zōn I was drinking. That really speaks pretty loudly as to what kind of blogger I am, my beer pairings are about what goes well with a deep-fried twinkies.

I always enjoy beers from Boulevard Brewing but my favorite things to do is always to get their variety pack with two bottles of five of their year round beers and two bottles of whichever seasonal they’re producing. If you get one of the variety packs now it will include Zōn as the summer seasonal. Especially if you’re not already familiar with Boulevard’s beers I would strongly suggest that you skip on the six of Zōn and instead go for the variety 12-pack. That’s a good rule of thumb for most breweries you aren’t familiar with, but I think it holds particularly true with boulevard.

If you do go with a six of Zōn then to give you the best idea possible of what you’re going to get I would say that as far as Belgian white/wheat ales go it is better than a Blue Moon, but not as good as Hoegaarden. It is absolutely something I would, and will, but again!

Beer Savers

I own a slap-chop.

That alone should tell you how I feel about silly gadgets which are almost worthless, I’m a big fan. Usually they’re great but I think I’ve found something that goes too far. A little silicon cap for your beer bottle called a Beer Saver. They’re advertised on the Beer Saver website as a tool to keep your beer fresh and safe. If you can’t drink your beer before it loses its freshness then you really probably shouldn’t be drinking beer.

When I read about this product I was reminded of a time in college when I had spent the entire hot afternoon working outside in the Texas heat. I came home and went to the fridge to grab my very last beer. I grabbed the nicely chilled bottle and flopped down on the couch to enjoy some TV and relaxation. When I cracked the beer open there was no pleasant release of carbon dioxide; instead it was just a light fizzle. Upon further inspection I realized that my beer, my last beer, was only half full. My “friend” that was over the night before, a notorious lightweight, drank half of a beer, recapped it, and put it back in my fridge. I suppose if I had a set of beer savers for him to use I would have immediately known to just go punch Joel instead of getting my hopes up.

One of the other self-proclaimed attributes of the beer saver caps is that the use of one “Helps keep your beer safely identified when in clubs, bars and restaurants.” Like with many products, there is a big difference between in-home use and using one in public. If you’re using a beer saver at home it probably wouldn’t be a big deal, but if I was hanging out in a bar and someone pulled a bright yellow silicon cap from their pocket to cap their beer my immediate response would be to turn away and immediately end the conversation.

The one redeeming value of the beer saver is the fact that they’ve slashed the price from $19.99 to $6.99. That seems like a reasonable price, but the original price sets them at over three dollars per cap, that’s asinine.

If you’re interested then go ahead and get a six-pack of beer savers. When it turns out that I’m wrong feel free to let me know just how great they are or how much you love to use them.

Tinchilla Instant Beer Cooler

I found this product on the website of North London based, family-owned and operated business Cyber Candy. This is in the same theme as my last post because like every other summer I’m spending a lot of time this July worrying about how to keep my beer cold while I’m outside. I tried out the cooler tip I posted yesterday and it worked great. This looks like a great solution if you only need to chill your brews one can at a time.

Tinchilla can cooler

The website says it will cool off your beer to nearly 35 degrees in a mere sixty seconds by quickly spinning the can against ice. I found a customer review that allayed my deepest fear about the product, that it would shake the can to a point where it exploded in my face when I opened it. I don’t know how it is possible but apparently this customer didn’t have any issue with that. I also figure that if it were a problem it would have shown up somewhere in the consumer reviews that I checked out.

The one big downside is that the Tinchilla is currently out of stock. The Cyber Candy website said it is pretty common to for them to run out of things but that they usually have their products available again after eight weeks. I’ll be watching their website pretty closely for when these dandy little things are on the shelves again and I’ll let you know when it happens.

In lieu of the Tinchilla being available for purchase I found an alternate product, the Cooper Cooler. It is the same basic idea as the Tinchilla but larger so it works for beer bottles and wine bottles as well. I found prices for the Cooper Cooler varying from as much $90 to as cheap as $49 on Amazon. Yes, it does more, but the Tinchilla is priced a little more reasonably at £9.99, roughly $15.00 in US Dollars. Also, like the Tinchilla it doesn't shake the beer while it spins it. Their website has a video that shows a deomstation where a can is pulled directly from the Cooper Cooler and opened with absolutly no overflow.

I also found an alternative to the Cooper Cooler made by the same people called the Blitz Chiller that is made specifically for cans and bottles, not for wine. The price is also a little bit easier to stomach - $39.99 on Amazon.

I’m pretty excited to get my hands on a Tinchilla as soon as possible but would be more than willing to take a more expensive Cooper Cooler or Blitz Chiller. That is, of course, if you’re interested in getting a gift for your favorite beer blogger.

Beer Storage Tip

On a hot afternoon of tailgating everyone hates sticking their hand into a cooler to grab another beer and realizing that not only is there no ice left but there are four inches of water peeling the labels off your brews. Lucky for us the good folks over at the online magazine valetmag.com put together a snazzy infographic with a few tips about how best to pack your cooler with beer and keep it chilly.

Beer Cooler Tips

I’ve never tried putting salt in my cooler, but if it works for making ice cream then I guess it would work to keep my beer chilly too!

Schlafly Hefeweizen

First, a disclaimer: I’m really not a beer reviewer. I’ve tasted a lot of beers in my time but I’ve never tried my hand at a reviewing one outside of pointing to a six pack in the grocery store and saying “that’s tasty!” As a part of preparing for my big road trip and writing my book I’m attempting to purify my palate and familiarize myself (if I don’t already know) with the offerings from at least the breweries that I’ll be visiting and maybe a few others as well. Hopefully it will make me sound a little more intelligent when it comes time to sample beers along with the brewmasters responsible for their creation.

Here pretty soon I’m going to be moving from Champaign, IL to Des Moines, Iowa. There are a lot of great things about Des Moines; one of those is that it has a pretty unique set of micobrews available as compared to what I get in Champaign. I figured that since I’ll only be in Central Illinois a few more days I should spend that time enjoying the beers that I can’t get in Central Iowa.

Tonight I sat down for the evening with a couple bottles of hefeweizen from Schlafly in Saint Louis. The hefeweizen is one of Schlafly’s most popular and largest production beers, along with their American Wheat Ale. The upside of being one of their most popular beers is that the flavor is a bit more consistent than something you might find with the small batch micobrews. The downside is that it doesn’t have as much of the unique flavor and character I love so much about small breweries. It feels a lot more like a beer that would be produced by one of the big box breweries.

The Schlafly Hefeweizen tastes to me a little bit more like a wheat beer than it does a hefeweizen. That’s okay though, I’m more concerned with the fact that it has a solid taste and nice finish. It’s one of those beers that I’m more than happy to sit down with on a nice summer night and drink three or four of on the balcony with some good conversation. There aren’t too many better endorsements I can give a beer than that!

I’m not going to be giving beers I review a rating or number. I don’t think it is fair to rate an IPA and a pale lager on the same scale, they’re just too different. Instead I’ll just be giving brief review of what I think of the beer and if I would buy it again. When it comes to the Schlafly Hefeweizen my final word on it is to say that it is a slightly above average beer that was quite enjoyable and I would buy again in a heartbeat next time I’m in an area they distribute to. As with so many things in life, a good beer is significantly more special when you only occasionally have the chance to get it.

I Love Beer

Like so many people around the world, I have a great love and appreciation of beer. It doesn’t get much better than sitting down on a relaxing summer night and sipping on a Sunset Wheat from Leinenkugels. It can pretty much only be matched by coming in from mowing the lawn on a hot afternoon and gulping down the coldest beer I can possibly find or lazing around the stands at a baseball game with a frosty mug of whatever I can afford at the ballpark.

Sometimes I’m a beer snob. I read magazines like All About Beer, Draft Magazine and Beer Advocate and I do look at beer ratings when I’m trying to find a great new beer I’ve never had before. It’s great to have good taste, but by no means do I intend to say that I don’t still enjoy a nice cold Bud, Miller or PBR on a night out at the bar.

I’ve also always been interested in the study of history. Looking at the past is always interesting, but the thought of studying the history is absolutely titillating to me!

Along with beer and history I’ve always enjoyed writing. Two years ago I wrote a travelogue about my two month trip through Europe. Part of that trip was spent in Ireland, England, and Germany, homes to some of the best beer-drinkers in the world.

I was making my commute to work one afternoon a few months back when I got to thinking about ways I could combine as many of my hobbies as possible. After some pretty serious thought I came up with the idea to go on an epic road trip through America stopping at every brewery, beer bar, and brewpub I could find. While on the road I also planned to set up interviews with as many brewers, owners, or beer fans as I come by. Then at the conclusion of my trip I will sit down and write a book about the whole experience. A big part of the book, tentatively titled “All Hopped Up,” is going to be history of beer, the breweries I visit, and the impact of beer on the cities I’m in.

This blog is going to be my companion to the final product. As I go through the process of researching and preparing before I leave, while I’m on the actual trip, and as I write the book, I’ll be posing updates here about my progress. I’ll also be putting up links to any interesting beer news that I find or on occasion I might even post a review of whatever beer I happen to be drinking when I sit down at the computer.

Check back frequently and let me know what you think!

-Brian