4 Men And A Beer

Will Grow Hops For Money

2010-03-05T09:09:00.000-08:00

OSU is set to receive funding for hops research. According to the article, the program will study hop essential oil composition and how individual oil components impart the characteristic flavor and aroma to beer.

Yeah!!

Grandsun of Spot

2010-01-20T22:45:00.000-08:00

This little IPA from Full Sail is called the "Grandsun of Spot". "Spot", the original recipe, came out a few years back and they have been tweaking it ever since.

The pour is definitely on the coppery side, while the light sticky head lingers for a long time. Very pretty actually.

The smell comes off with a big punch of floral. The hops are abundant and cover up most of the sweetness from the malt.

The taste is sweet and crisp...though I didn't really get any honey, like the label claimed. Much more malt and a distinct bitterness from the alcohol after it initially hits the tongue.

As far as texture goes, I would use the word coarse here. Not like gravel per se, but more in the acid family. The alcohol in this one is rough for only being 6%. There is also a long, almost roasted peanut, after taste.

Short story shorter, I give this a five. I enjoyed the smell more that I did the taste on this one. I'm not saying it's terrible, but your money is probably spent better else where.

Holzar Bier

2009-12-12T22:15:00.000-08:00

Please bear with me, as I actually wrote this review on paper a few weeks ago and am just now getting it on here. The Hirschbrau beers, across the board, are really drinkable and high in quality.

The Bock style was originally created by monks during lent for fasting purposes. They're particularly hearty, as they were meant to provide a higher energy than the common Pilsners of the day.

This particular one is Bavarian and very dark upon first glance. It is well carbonated, however the head dissipates quickly. The aroma was malty, but not overly sweet. More on the barley side with a hint of chocolate.

The first sips had a smoothness of toffee, with a hint of Xmas (juniper maybe?). Definitely a fresh bottle with plenty of hops and bitterness on the tongue. The beer was very crisp and clean with more of an English ale character.

If I had to compare it with something, I would point to a Bridgeport IPA with less hops and more sweetness. Please enjoy one today. :)

Mike

Beerfiet

2009-09-15T19:27:00.001-07:00

Perfect timing for my trip to Belgium and Amsterdam...the Beer/Bar Bike (fiet). A beautiful Portland invention.

Great story on BikePortland:

http://bikeportland.org/2009/09/15/introducing-the-hopworksfiets-beer-pizza-music-and-true-portland-spirit-all-on-one-bike/

Brew Like a Monk

2009-08-29T17:13:00.001-07:00

This blog popped up on Reader today...looks like a great resource for those that try to brew like the Belgians: http://www.brewlikeamonk.com/

Consecration by Russian River Brewing Company

2009-08-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

I bought a bottle of Russian River's Consecration the last, first and only time I've been to John's Market Place. I love Pliny the Elder, and was really excited to try Consecration. So excited that I didn't read the label...it's a dark ale aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels. I'm all for barrel aged beers, but the only barrel aged ones I've had have been imperials aged in whisky or bourbon barrels. This was, well, very tannic and tasted very much like Cab Sav. It very inside baseball to me--something the brewers' had spent much time deliberating before finding an occasion to execute. It's the most insular type of creation--made for those who are the most effete. To be honest, I generally try to be in that group, but this way outside of the strike zone...and it is ridiculously expensive at $24 per bottle. So, I've learned to stick with the more moderately priced expensive beer, and to read the label before you buy. Next on my review list--an Allagash Belgian.

Harvested Hops

2009-08-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

Carley decreed that tonight was time to harvest the hops. We expect to get 4 oz of dried Willamette hops and .4 oz Centenial. The Centenial will have to be transplanted to the ground (instead of a wine barrel) next year.

Twitter flavored beer

2009-08-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

Blogaboutbeer has a cool post about the homebrewers in the Twitter HQ. Pretty cool team building activity.

http://www.blogaboutbeer.com/2009/08/19/homebrew-in-random-places-the-twitter-offices/

Petrus Aged Pale

2009-08-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

Petrus is by far and a way the most exciting beer I have had in a while. It starts out usual enough with a hazy brown/orange color and thin head of sticky lace. As I brought the glass to my nose though, it offered a sour crispness I was not expecting. Almost like fermented peaches.

The beer proved to be delicious tasting as well. With lemon tartness and a stringent lambic aftertaste, I was made an instant fan. It made my mouth pucker at first a little bit and then the sweetness took over on the back of the tongue. Overall though, it holds up with a slight hint of alcohol at the end.

I give it a B+. A must try for the sour fans out there.

Brewing Delerium Tremens II

2009-08-08T15:52:00.000-07:00

The beer was moved into the second fermenter without photographic proof, so you are just going to have to believe me on this one. It went another week in the glass carboy with a fresh round of yeast added to it. The object is to get as much of the sugar used up and eaten so your beer is not overly sweet at the end...depending on your tastes and the type of beer your brewing.

The next part is measuring the specific gravity of your beer. This is totally unnecessary, except that it's nice to know the abv of your home brew. Specifically if you are trying to clone a certain beer and you want to know if you did it right or not. Basically, you take a reading of your initial batch, a reading now(before bottling) and a reading with your first pour of the finished product. The instrument floating in the middle of the tube is called a hydrometer. It will measure the density of the liquid and after a lot of equations and shit you have your abv.

One of the trickiest parts, I have found, is the moving of beer from final fermenation to the bottling bucket. There is a lot of sludge on the bottom, called "trub" and we try to leave as much of it as possible in the original carboy. Usually in vain. As you siphon the beer over, you mix it with a combination of corn sugar solution. This gives the yeast little more to chew on while the beer lagers for another month and half.

Once you have the good stuff in your bottling bucket, it's pretty straightforward. Open the spigot and pour. Sharon is pictured on the right here doing a masterful job.

With this knowledge in your arsenal, hopefully you feel a little more snooty and privileged the next time you drink your favorite micro-brew.

If you don't live in Portland, sorry, but you will not be able to sample the finished product.

Pliny Flys: Session Sails

2009-08-02T15:19:00.000-07:00

Who knew there was good beer in a can?

2009-07-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

The snap of can opening beats opening a glass bottle. It's definite. The sound is the prelude to refreshment, whether it's a coke or a beer. More and more that can opening can be a beer an interesting beer, better than a national macrobrew (same beer, different tap, right?).

I've been looking for an excuse to get a sixer of craft-brewed cans--a hike, short bike ride, movie at a theater that doesn't serve beer--but nothing has come up. Too hot lately for little adventures, and maybe trying a new beer shouldn't need an occasion. Or, maybe the occasion was working on (another) Sunday afternoon. Good as any other reason.

I had read about the Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale, and had my hand on the cans before I noticed Caldera's Ashland Amber. Figured to keep it in the state since it's Oregon Craft Brewers month and I didn't/chose not to go to the Oregon Brewer's Fest (1. Forgot to ask for Friday afternoon off, which is when I usually go; 2. It's too hot; 3. I'm lame). What a great surprise--the beer is great. I can't remember drinking it before, but it's a nice amber with a crisp, fresh taste. This will be a good ski lift beer, but also good for kicking back and watching So You Think You Can Dance (die Evan die!). I think there is a negative stereotype for canned beers, but wonder if enough good beers go to cans if we'll use fewer bottles? I wonder if cans are cheaper?

Brave new world. Great beer from a can. Get yourself some goodness.

This Week in Malt Liquor (TWIML): Steel Reserve Triple Export

2009-07-21T22:47:00.000-07:00

4 men decided to kick-off this semi-frequent feature with a brief history of malt liquor. First marketed to middle-class white in the 50's, malt liquor is by definition any type of malted beverage with an alcohol content by volume greater than 5%. Technically this puts many micros in the malt liquor category. Them ain't our focus. We're focused on the get-fugged-up-quick-and-cheap varietals (props, N.Mailer), generally those that use sugar or syrup during the fermentation process to increase the alcohol content.

The 24 oz. can of Steel Reserve 211 claims it is "Slow-brewed in limited batches...we believe this to be one of the very best beers in the world." From this hyperbolically-adorned vessel we poured small samples.

First reaction--Gabe: "This is the most piss-colored beer I've ever drank." Luckily it only underwhelms. Not nearly as bad as we thought it would be. There is a syrupy quality, very much, as Mike described, "like a pinot gris." Actually, he couldn't believe that it was malt liquor. I thought it might be good as a base for a spritzer. When adulterated with diet Sierra Mist it was indistinguishable from a cheap bottle of Trader Joe's most middling white. I think the true killer app for this brew is a brass monkey. This would make a powerful good mimosa-style orange beverage.

Bryan's reaction was perhaps the most nuanced. The 8.1% ABV put him in the mood for water skiing. "Kind of refreshing, somehow, and would get you drunk fast, so perfect for boating. It's like drinking while dehydrated in the sun, without the sun."

Next in the proverbial chute: Camo or any label that features an animal. Cat, Bull, Bear--any of these will do.

Beer and Ice Cream

2009-07-16T19:46:00.000-07:00

This sounds delish.

http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com/2009/07/oatmeal-stout-and-heath-bar-ice-cream.html

via bOINGbOING.net, of course.

Brewing Delerium Tremens

2009-07-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

So I have started the process of brewing a batch of beer. I thought for anyone interested out there, it would be nice to see it broken down into three fairly easy steps. The brewing, the fermenting, and bottling. This installment will just be the brewing though.

I am attempting to clone the recipe of Delerium Tremens, so all bets are off. It may end up being a porter for all I know. I definitely used the same ingredients though. You can see most of the culprits in the first photo. Bags of malt, candy syrup, barley, hops, water and last but not least, yeast.

Step one is boiling the grains and then using the water they have been steeping in as your base. You add a lot more water and all the malt. The amounts will vary according to each recipe obviously, but I don't think anyone reading this really cares about the minutiae. The photo on the right shows this process at full tilt.

Bringing 4 gallons of water to boil, with a ton of sugar in it is, a tough train to stop. The key is to keep stirring. Once you have things settled down into a nice rolling boil, you add the first round of hops. These are known as your bittering hops. After about 45 minutes you add your flavor hops and then with after about 58 minutes you add your aroma hops. Total boil time should probably be around an hour.

The bittering hops are your largest bunch. They boil for the longest period of time, because you want the acids in the hop to break down. This is how you get the bitter flavor of beer. Lots of hops early. The flavor hops are added closer to the end. They add a hop taste to your beer, without adding more bitterness. I bet you can't guess why the aroma hops are added at the very end.

Once your boiling is finished you cool the "wort" down to 80 degress. We at the Daems household have a wort chiller. An absolutely fantastic invention that allows you to run cold water inside copper tubing through the just boiled wort. Making the cool down time much more enjoyable. Once the wort has reached the ideal temperature, you can pour it into your fermentation bucket. Throw in the yeast, swish stuff around a little, and slap a lid on it. Let the games begin. That is the phase I am at currently.

In the photo on the left, the tube coming out of the top is for the yeast poop. The yeast will eat the sugar pushing co2 out. The other end of the tube is put in a pot of water to keep oxygen from getting back into the bucket. Oxygen and any bacteria are now our enemy.

Hopefully that didn't bore you all tears. I really had no idea how easy it all was until I actually started doing it myself. Stay tuned for a brief description of how fermentation is going and the secondary stage in the carboy.

Til then (mid-August), the always in-depth and provocative,
Mike

Deschutes Brewery Inversion IPA

2009-07-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

I like IPA's. A lot. For whatever reason, it took Deschutes a while to come up with a recipe that could hold its own against all the other northwest IPA's. For years, my favorite IPA was BridgePort's. It now seems bland and watered down. Over the past couple years it seems as though there was a race to make the biggest, baddest IPA in the land. The most hops, the highest IBU count, the highest ABV, etc.. I mean, everyone and their brother was making an imperial IPA. I think Inversion strikes a nice balance between the base model IPA (BridgePort) and the myriad of extreme versions. Inversion has an immediate hop flavor that makes you take notice, halfway through the pint, you can't taste much else. Not that that's a bad thing. The flavor has a nice citrus and resin note you want in a full figured IPA, it keeps the 6.8% ABV in check nicely. I think Deschutes has done this one right, to me, it's exactly what a NW IPA should be.

I give it a solid A.

-Gabe

Sessions Black -- First Taste

2009-07-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

Bought a half rack of Sessions Black while I was at Belmont Station reserving my keg (of C-Note Imperial IPA) for Saturday. Really nice--the kind of beer that you could drink all summer. Lots of porter taste but without the heaviness or bite. Nice new edition from Full Sail.

Schwidel Alt - Vertigo Brewing

2009-07-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

Being the relative beer virgin of the group, my posts aren't going to be nearly as in-depth (i.e. elitist) or provocative (i.e. snobbish) but hopefully I can provide some insight for the more amaturists beer-drinkers that may happen upon our blog.

So last night after work I met some coworkers for the Hillsboro Tuesday Summer Street Fair. It was pretty much what you would expect. What I didn't expect was finding a fairly decent beer at the Venetian Movie Theater and Restaurant where we decided to have dinner.

As always, on the semi-rare occasion I want a beer, I asked what the seasonal beer on tap was and it turned out to be the Schwindel Alt from Vertigo Brewing. I understand that this brewery is fairly new and based here in Hillsboro where I work. Here's the website:

So this was a German alt style beer whatever that means. I call it a brown ale. It was kinda like Alaskan Amber to me which I like. I guess that would make it an Amber Ale though, so I really don't know. Stacey said it was "sunset bronze" colored. I am going to go with that.

So I'm already bored of writing this and I haven't even got to how the beer is. I'll make it short. It was good. It had a creamy head (that's what she said) and a good balance. It wasn't super exciting or complicated in its taste, but that's how I like my beer. Easy to drink with no aftertaste. It was just slightly sweet (bit o' honey?) but otherwise pretty standard for a darkish ale. I will be interested to try the other offerings from Vertigo Brewing. Not a big fan of the symptom, but becoming a big fan of the brewery.

Final Grade = B+

--Bryan

84 09 Double Alt 25th Anniversary

2009-06-30T20:22:00.000-07:00

So I was pretty excited for this beer, because anything with 25th anniversary in the name is bound to be fine tuned and well thought out.

When I poured it into my pint glass, it came out with a thin lacy head and fairly clear body. A nice deep amber color. The first few sniffs revealed very alcoholic overtones with a slight hint of the malts.

The initial taste came off not much different, with all 9.8% of the alcohol coming to the forefront. The warmness really wrapping itself around the back of my tongue. As it moved over my mouth and down the hatch, distinct chocolate flavors came out. Very smooth and very sweet with the overall mouthfeel being a surprising light and foamy texture.

The finish is the most bitter part of this beer. Refreshing, but revealing a certain lack of depth in the flavors. I think this beer is best drank at just below room temperature. The warmer the beer got, the more the chocolate and smokey coffee aromas came out. Not ideal for American drinkers, but worth giving a try with this brew.

I give it a B-, as I was definitely expecting more. Too one dimensional. The search continues.

Mike

Sessions Black - New Brew from Full Sail Brewing

2009-06-26T17:27:00.000-07:00

Just read about the new Sessions Black schwarzbier-style dark lager. The Sessions brand has been a quality high-value micro from Full Sail Brewing. I'm looking forward to trying it soon. I bought the Kostritzer schwarzbier from Belmont Station for my birthday party and was pleasantly surprised by it--I had never had a dark beer that wasn't very full bodied.

Oregonian article... http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/06/full_sail_brewing_woos_new_aud.html

The more beer I drink the more beer I like...

2009-06-25T22:41:00.000-07:00

Time for a new project--we choose beer.

Bryan, Gabe, Mike and I will share our experiences drinking our way through our own Portland, OR, beer capital of the new world.

Porter, kolsch, IPA, stout, lager--we'll have another.

--dave