I decided to try Hooker’s Old Marley Barleywine tonight since we skipped the gym. The beer pours a dark copper/brown color with absolutely no head and no visible carbonation. Smells of alcohol and oaky/vanilla scents with a little bit of the normal fruitiness found in barleywines. Taste is more of that oak/vanilla with a hint of smoke. Unfortunately, this was nothing like a barleywine in my opinion. It lacked the strong fruity flavor and hops. Fortunately, it was a very smooth ale, though a slow drinker. It was more like a good strong ale with it’s fine sherry/cognac characteristics. I’d say it was drinkable, though I don’t know if I’d call it a barleywine. I liked it and would definitely drink more, but not when I’m expecting a barleywine.
The label says the beer was aged in oak bourbon casks for a month. It tastes like it spent 6 months in the oak casks. While I like a good oak aged beer, I think this whole thing is getting out of hand. This would probably have been an excellent barleywine had it skipped the oak barrels. If you like scotch, cognac, whiskey, or sherry, this would be a good beer for you. The 10% ABV was noticeable with a nice warming quality and a nice buzz after drinking 2/3 of the bottle.
I absolutely love the bottle. It’s a dark blue flip top 500 ml bottle. Very beautiful bottle, but the beer could have been better, considering it cost over $7. Most of my issues with this are probably due to the aging of it. Hops flavors tend to disappear after extended aging and this one is probably 1-2 years old as it said “Bottled in 2006″ (I don’t know when they release this one). I’m going to try to find a fresh bottle and try that one. I’m hoping it’s better.
The bottling is now complete. I have 16 regular 12 oz. bottles, 1 22 oz. bomber, and 2 20 oz. soda bottles. I tasted the flat, warm beer before I bottled. Unfortunately, I have a strange feeling it got infected. It had a slight sour apple taste to it. Perhaps that’s just the way it tastes before being ready and maybe I’m too worried. After the bottling was done, the Mr. Beer keg smelled like a gueuze, nice and funky with the thick layer of yeast on the bottom. I imagine that’s normal. Regardless of whether or not it got infected, I’ve got some hope for this beer. The last 2 bottles got a lot of sediment coming from the bottom of the keg. I wonder if those will come out differently.
The instructions say to carbonate at least 7 days, but to allow them to sit for 2-3 weeks for optimal flavor. The bottles are in the same place I stored the keg while fermenting (on top of my fridge). It should be about 70 degrees up there all the time. I’m thinking I’ll leave th em up there for 2 weeks or so and then put a couple in the fridge to try (I may even try one after a week) and the rest in my “cellar” (aka the pantry) which is about 60 degrees because it gets no heat and it’s in the corner of the house. I’ll let them age there as I decide when to drink and who to give them to (I already have one person who wants to try it and I’ll probably give some to my boss).
Last night I opened the bottle of Smuttynose’s Scotch Style Ale, from their Big Beer Series. I really enjoyed this one (and unfortunately, I don’t think I can get it anymore). It pours a nice dark amber/ruby brown with a nice 2 finger head. Smells of caramel, oak/vanilla, and a very slight hint of alcohol. The flavor was a nice oaky vanilla with a hint of caramel. What I wasn’t expecting was an awesome smokey flavor to it. It also had a nice alcohol warming quality to it (though it’s only 7.8% ABV). This is one fine Scotch Ale. Hopefully it’s something they’ll release again. I want more!
So today’s the day… alright, not that day, but I am bottling the beer today. I just went through the painful (yes, painful, apparently I have arthritis, my thumb is swollen) process of scraping the labels off a bunch of bottles. It was made easier by soaking them in hot soapy water (thanks George!). I have quite the mix of bottles… some regular ones, some bottles with Sam Adams on them, some stubby Sierra Nevada bottles, and one 22 oz. bomber. I am, unfortunately, also going to have to use 2 plastic ones (luckily, I saved some 20 oz. soda bottles). The glass ones are in the dishwasher right now on high heat rinse, high heat wash (without detergent), and heated dry. They should be good and sanitized by the time they come out. I just have to use the Mr. Beer sanitizer on the 2 plastic bottles.
That’s where I stand now… I’ll write more when I get them bottled and capped (thanks to my boss Ed who gave me a capper and a bunch of caps).
Last night, Nikki’s had their weekly tasting. This week was Cisco Brewing from Nantucket. They had the whole lineup. I had been wanting to try one of their beers for a while now and finally got my chance. The beer I wanted to try only came in 750 ml bottles, and they were more expensive, which is why I never tried it before. Anyway, here’s the lineup:
The Sankaty was good for a light beer. It had an apple scent, but a grapefruit taste. It was a bit too carbonated though (and that’s kind of the theme for the night). The Whale’s Tale was a decent pale ale. It wasn’t really anything special though. The Bailey’s was a good blonde ale with a nice light hoppy flavor. I was disappointed with the Indie Pale Ale. It wasn’t as hoppy as I would have hoped. The Celebration Libation is their winter beer. It smelled strongly of spices, but the flavors were milder. It was probably my favorite of the night. The porter was an excellent porter. I’ll probably be buying a bottle of this at some point. The stout was a little too watery and carbonated, but had a really nice flavor.
Last week, when making my weekly beer run and tasting, I picked up a bottle of Ridgeway’s Seriously Bad Elf on sale for $1.99 (great reduction from the original $6.49). I had it last night. The beer is good. It’s not like most stronger beers in that it’s got a lighter body (I’d call it medium body), but that doesn’t make it bad. The beer pours a clear amber color, looks like a regular pale ale. Smells of some malt sweetness, some hops, and some fruitiness as well. Taste is similar. It has more of a hops flavor while coolers mixed in with some malty sweetness (I’m thinking caramel malts). The fruit flavors don’t come through until it warms up a bit. The 9% ABV is not at all detectable in the taste. It’s a very easy drinking English ale.
Because of the higher alcohol content, the cheap sale price, and my new interest in aging beers, I’m inquiring with the BA Cellaring group as to how well the beer would age. If the consensus is good, I’m going to pick up another bottle to age for a year.
Ridgeway releases a bunch of beers in the winter. They’re all some sort of Bad Elf and increase in alcohol content as they increase in “badness”. There’s Bad Elf (6%), Very Bad Elf (7.5%), Seriously Bad Elf (9%), Criminally Bad Elf (10.5%), and Insanely Bad Elf (11.2%). Next year, I’m going to try to get my hands on one of each of these and drink them in consecutive days and compare the differences (the Seriously Bad Elf is the only one that Nikki’s still has, though I suppose I should check out Yankee Spirits at some point).
… or at least I was last night after finishing a bottle of it. Weyerbacher’s Blithering Idiot is their English-style Barleywine. I wanted something to drink after dinner and I didn’t want to be overly into it. I had tasted this at one of Nikki’s beer tastings and knew it wasn’t a super complex barleywine, so it was perfect for what I wanted. The beer pours a nice amber color with a decent head. It smells of malty sweetness with some alcohol in there. The taste was nice and sweet with a little burn from the alcohol and some nice fruity qualities. It’s 11% ABV, so it’s a bit strong, but it’s definitely worth it. It’s not the best barleywine, but it’s not the worst. It was perfect for what I was looking for last night… a stronger beer with some flavor that would be good for after dinner. Weyerbacher tends to make beers that are more accessible to the masses than most other craft breweries making bigger beers. This definitely fits in with that accessibility.
So after consulting with my boss about the conditions of the room where I put my Mr. Beer keg/fermenter, I realized that it was too cold. It didn’t look like anything was happening for a day or 2. The room was my pantry, which is perfect as far as no light is concerned, but apparently at about 60°F, it was too cold. He said it should be closer to 70°F. So I moved it to the top of my refrigerator. As we keep the apartment about 67, it should work better (especially since heat rises). So all last week, I opened the curtains and blinds to let the sun in to heat the apartment when we were at work (programmable thermostat automatically turns the heat off, but the sun does a great job).
After a day on the fridge, I noticed a bunch of bubbles had formed at the top of the beer. Those bubbles remained and I checked when we got back from our ski trip this weekend and they’re gone. I imagine that means it’s done fermenting. Unfortunately, I now need to make sure I have enough bottles and I need to get some caps and a capper (my boss said he has an extra capper that will be included with the stuff he gives me, hopefully I’ll get that this week). So the beer will remain in the fermenter for another couple days while I await the capper. Then it’s time to bottle. I’ve heard cleaning the bottles is the biggest pain in the ass. I don’t look forward to that, but I do look forward to drinking this beer.
Since I am all about free plugs for friends (or people who do me favors), Boxed Lunch Comics updated their site with a new Wordpress theme (just happens to be the same theme I’m using, K2). Check out the new site. They claim they’re going to post more about stuff in general and do more drawings and comics.
I decided to give a free plug for a friend and former student employee and his band, The Ringer Soundtrack. They’re playing the Living Room in Providence on Tuesday, January 22. Show starts at 7.
What: The Ringer Soundtrack w/ The Coming Weak, Talk of the Town, and A Kidnap in Color
Where: The Living Room, 23 Rathbone St., Providence, RI
When: 7:00 pm
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