“From small beginnings come great things.”
--- Proverb

With 2009 already here, I was thinking about what I can "accomplish" in this new BeerYear. I think in the Chinese calendar this year will be the Year of the Ox. Which means, I assume, that big and dumb and strong animals will succeed this year. Furley should be very happy to hear that. However, around here (to me anyway) this will be the Year of the New Beer. Or new beer style, maybe. One thing I am "committing" myself to this year is to try as many new beers and new styles as I can.

Many people on the site already do this by their very habits in the hobby. Many of us already seek out strange new beers and new beer styles. They boldly go where no BeerGeek has gone before. Or at least we try. But this year, I am personally dedicating myself to try at least one new beer or beer style per month. I already have my first one picked out. It's the Goose Island Sahti from their Anniversary Series. This is a style I have never tried, but I look forward to trying it at least once. I will also make a point to try these new beers and styles among friends who have the same ambition. My stated reason will be to try new beers and share the wealth. I just won't tell anyone that the real reason is that just in case I don't like this new beer or new beer style, I have others who will finish the bottle as I sneak a drink of my Founders Breakfast Stout.

So other style that I am likely to put on my 2009 new beer list in this Year of the New Beer:

* Baltic Porters (haven't tried enough of these)

* Various dry-hopped versions, such as the Dry-hopped Oatmeal Stout from Rock Bottom

* Dry-hopped Ordinary Bitter, which is #2 currently on our homebrew list

* Schwartzbier (haven't tried enough of these either)

There will be others, but for now I am simply going to look for either new examples of styles I already drink or entirely new styles I have never tried. Feel free to post any other suggestions that you might be interested in trying in 2009.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Igor, would you mind telling me whose brain I did put in?
Igor: And you won't be angry?
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: I will NOT be angry.
Igor: Abby someone.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Abby someone. Abby who?
Igor: Abby Normal.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Abby Normal?
Igor: I'm almost sure that was the name.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a seven and a half foot long, fifty-four inch wide GORILLA?
[shakes and grabs him]
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE TELLING ME?

--- From "Young Frankenstein"

The second batch of Simcoe Select has been brewed, was in the primary fermentation for a week and is now being dry-hopped in the secondary for two weeks. As I mentioned before, we used locally grown hops for the dry-hopping. Pretty sure they were Willamette hops. We also added some to the boil this time.

As many of you are familiar with, this story has a prequel of sorts. Our first try at this recipe was supposed to provide a nice Simcoe hop IPA. The resulting beer ended up as a nice Amber ale though. The faults the last time were numerous. Let's see --- the boil was too high initially, the fermentation temp was too high and we think we should have held out a portion of the malt extract until later in the boil instead of adding all of it at the beginning. Those mistakes were corrected this time. And I think the idea to split up the malt extract into two additions at different times in the boil was a good one that kept the color much lighter and in the ballpark where it is supposed to be for this brew.

In the boil, the hops really stood out. And the fresh hops that were added REALLY added a nice citrus and spice hop aroma. It was almost magical. Or rather, it was how it was supposed to be the first time. Whichever. When we transferred it to the secondary earlier this week, it had an incredible citrusy and hoppy aroma. Oddly, we didn't actually test the batch when we transferred it. I suppose we should have at least taken a taste to see how it was developing. But the smell of this batch seemed to indicate it was right on target. As for the dry-hop addition, we simply added the dried hop cones to the carboy in the secondary fermentation. Maybe that will cause some issues with cleanup after we bottle, but we'll jump off that bridge when we get there.

So officially, this one will be a Simcoe IPA dry-hopped with Willamette hops. I guess that's a strange combination, but it has seemed to work so far. The name was decided to be Mulligan's Simcoe IPA. We'll bottle a week from this coming Monday.

For our follow-up batch, this coming Monday we will be brewing our first batch with a flavor addition. This one was forced upon us by Shane (MirrorPondNBlondes on the forum). He has been aching to brew a coffee porter, so that's up next. The gang is busy getting information on how to add the coffee to the secondary. For now, I think we have settled on the same method that Founders uses and we will add the whole beans (or maybe grounds) to the carboy in the secondary. We considered adding cold-pressed coffee before we transferred from the primary. But Founders seems to have some decent success with this method. At least if this thing turns out ANYWHERE NEAR the Breakfast Stout then I will consider it a huge success. Although, we aren't using chocolate or oatmeal in our brew.

I am personally looking forward to the Simcoe bottling, as it will be our first time actually testing the batch. I am a big fan of the Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA, so this one is much anticipated.

"Nice beaver."

"Thanks, I just had it stuffed."

----- From "The Naked Gun"

No clue how that quote fits into this blogpost, but I figured I should use it sometime. So now is the time. Get over it. We bottled the third batch of the homebrew this past Monday. This one is the Honey Nut Brown Ale known as the Sticky Squirrel Brown Ale. It looked pretty good and smelled just fine. It's currently sitting in the storage room in a variety of bottles ranging from 12oz to 750ml in size. So we'll see how this one starts out in a few weeks when we test it.

We also decided what to brew next. Next up (probably a week or more after Turkey weekend) will be the second coming of the Simcoe Select IPA recipe from Midwest Supplies. You will recall that this was the "bubble gum" IPA I talked about in the last blogpost. More on this one later. For now, we are going to re-try that recipe. Possibly with some dry-hopping with locally grown hops. At the very least, we'll monitor the boil and the fermenting temps far better than last time. The upcoming second batch of Simcoe Select had two front-runners for the beer name. First, and the loser, was Sloppy Seconds Simcoe IPA. The winner was Mulligan's Simcoe IPA. The batch AFTER the "do over" for the Simcoe Select is probably going to be a Coffee Porter. MirrorPond (Shane to the rest of us) is jonesing for a coffee porter of some sort. So he's harped on it long enough to make the rest of us cave in to his wish.

Now, back to the aforementioned "Bubble Gum" IPA. That's officialy known as the L'il Lisa Simp-coe IPA, for the record. We all know now that the beer was fermented at too high of a temp. And that created far too many phenols and gave it the "interesting" bubble gum smell at bottling time. So we tested it again on Monday, just to check the progress. Good news! The bubble gum smell is gone and there is virtually no remnamt of it in the taste. OK, so that's ALL the good news I have on that one.

The rest of the story is that when we tried the bottle, it was quite odd. First, it was reddish in color. A nice reddish, mind you. But not an IPA reddish color. The smell was also very muted (again, as all the other batches have been) but you get a whole lot of the malts in there. Virtually no hop smell at all. And the taste..... Well, let's just say that our Simcoe IPA makes one hell of an Amber Ale. Don't get me wrong. This one isn't bad on its own merits. But if you think about the mark we were trying to hit, then this one went off target somewhere. Which is obviously why we are going to re-try the same recipe.

I reviewed the Simcoe IPA here: http://thebeerspot.com/rate.php?beer=15746. In case anyone wants to check the review. Shane also reviewed the Irish Stout here: http://thebeerspot.com/rate.php?beer=15682. It's a short and not-so-sweet review though.

So while our initial tries at homebrewing have not EXACTLY yielded the expected results, we are all quite pleased that the beers are at least drinkable. Plus, let's face facts. We're making beer, eating pizza, watching football, talking beer and....well, making beer. Let's just say, it doesn't suck.

"Grab a brew. Don't cost nothin'."

--- Bluto Blutarsky in Animal House

We bottled the second batch last night and it went well. Recall that this one is the Simcoe Select recipe from Midwest Supplies. The fermentation was uneventful, with plenty of bubble activity and presumably plenty of yeast activity. The color on this one was darker than expected. And to be honest, the beer smelled a little like bubble gum when we opened it for bottling. Not sure if that's normal or not.

Given that first impression last night, we struggled to name this one. We wanted to stay with the "nucular/nuclear" theme. But after struggling with that mandate, we decided to go ahead and work with that first impression of bubble gum. So we started with a "valley girl" theme. We tried to work in a Simpsons reference, somehow getting Lisa Simpson in there. But that seemed like we were trying too hard. So for now, we just stuck with Valley Girl Simcoe IPA. That is subject to change though, so check back early and often to see if that name sticks.

This one will be sitting in bottles for 3-4 weeks before we test it again. The initial test last night gave us mixed reviews. It was semi-sweet and you could barely pick out the hops. Maybe we just have to get the priming sugars to be converted by the yeast and we'll see the beer change. Someone with more experience than us can call in with that information. However, unless this batch changes remarkably in the bottle, it seems that we somehow brewed a batch of bubble tea instead of a Simcoe IPA. We followed the recipe, so not sure what happened. Although we did have that slight error in the boil initially when the temp was too high for a minute or two. No clue if that can account for this potential outcome.

***UPDATE: Mike talked to someone about the bubble gum smell. Apparently, we let the secondary ferment at too high temp. I think around 70. He mentioned that we should have kept it at 60 or below given the style. So that's problem number one. We also had the previously mentioned minor issue with the boil. We may still yet get an IPA after it sits in the bottles for a while and the yeast settle down. But we are pretty much looking at not getting a true version of the Simcoe IPA stlye. Next up is a Nut Brown ale. After that, we may try the Simcoe recipe again and try to get it right. We'll see how the first Simcoe batch turns out after a few weeks and decide then.

------------------------------------------------------------

For the record, and in case anyone didn't notice, here is my initial review for the Irish stout. I gave it a 60 on the rating.

This was a toss-in recipe from Midwest Supplies when we bought the brewing equipment. So we figured we should do this one for our first homebrew, in case we screwed it up. This is a stock Irish Stout recipe and not something we creatively thought up ourselves. It is also an extract brew, out of necessity given our novice experience level.

After all that, I will admit that the brewing process (using extract for our small 5gall batch) is fairly idiot-proof nowadays. Trust me, that statement is coming from a true idiot, so I know. I had to open this one earlier than I had planned, as the neck of the bottle cracked a little, allowing a slow fizz to come out. Looking at the other bottles, I suspect it was due to a bad bottle rather than to any fermenting issues from over-carbonation. Plus, the top of the neck of the bottle cracked in half when I used the bottle opener on it.

Color was exactly as expected, black ink with minimal foam. Smell was somewhat muted, but still had the basic roasted and malt smells of a stout. Taste was about as expected too. Nothing special, but certainly not a failure for our first batch. You do easily pick out the roasted and malt tastes. But like the smell, it was somewhat muted overall. A little watery maybe. Given that fact, the feel was thin.

Someone who tested it when it was bottled put it best - "Guinness-like". And it was very much like an ordinary, macro-type Irish stout. It had a nice but muted roasted and malt smell and taste. It was a little thin on the mouthfeel. And it was solid but not spectacular. Overall, I'd call it a successful first batch of homebrew. Curious to see if the details of the beer change with more time in the bottle. This one was opened about three weeks after bottling.

Now, what starts with a letter "C"?
Cookie starts with C.
Lets think of other things that starts with "C".
Uh...uh...who cares about the other things.

"C" is for cookie
thats good enough for me
"C" is for cookie
thats good enough for me
"C" is for cookie
thats good enough for me
Oh.........cookie, cookie, cookie starts with "C".

--- Cookie Monster

I've mentioned the Goose Island DunkelWeizenBock twice in consecutive blogposts, so I figured it was time to give that bottle and the various Dunkel styles their own post. For the purpose of this blogpost, I am going to be a bit loose with the candidates for this list. I will not only include the usual suspects, like the Dunkel Weizen and other German styles like Bock, Maibock, Weizenbock and Doppelbock. I've also found lately that there are some good US candidates in these styles also. For example, the Flying Dog Wild Dog Weizenbock has a special twist on the style.

These styles are a nice compromise for the late Fall in that they are lighter than Porters and Stouts. But they still have plenty of flavor and fit nicely into the chill of the season. So, like this weekend in Chicago, if you get a slight bump in the temps for a few days, these styles are great due to their full flavors and lighter feel.

Here are a few of the ones I've tried recently that are widely available:

* Aventinus
* Ayinger Ur-Weisse
* Weihenstephaner Vitus
* Sam Adams Winter Lager (not a great bottle in itself, but still one example)
* Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock

Some others that should be widely available:

* Andescher Doppelbock Dunkel
* Left Hand Smoked Goosinator
* Thomas Hooker Liberator Doppelbock
* Samiclaus Bier
* Sam Adams Double Bock (or the Chocolate Bock they are set to release soon)
* Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock
* Kulmbacher Reichelbrau Eisbock
* Spaten Optimator

Some of the regional examples for the Midwest:

* Dark Horse Perkulator (doppelbock with coffee)
* Capital Brewery Autumnal Fire (word is this year's batch falls short of last year)
* New Glarus Copper Kettle Weiss (special release, might not be available now)
* New Glarus Uff-da Bock

Unfortunately, I am not as well versed on the East coast and West coast regional examples of these styles. There are only a few for the West on the site like the Sudwerk Doppel Bock. Flying Dog also makes a couple examples that are worth a try if you haven't already. Those should be widely available. Tucher and Erdinger also make a couple examples that shoud be widely available.

Notice obviously that most of these are from Germany. These lagers are popular there. While not necessarily popular in the craft beer crowd over here, they can offer a different style to explore in the Fall. I look for a dark copper or red-brown color, along with a slighty sweet smell from the wheat. For the taste, you should get that trademark sweetness come through very quickly and then a very very slight hops note, almost like an afterthought. But the defining characteristic of these styles is the malts. If you like malt-bombs (you know who you are) then these styles are probably already on your list.

Finally, there are several examples of these styles that are barrel aged or have some other twist. Like many other US examples of other styles, the most popular barrel aging seems to be in bourbon barrels. The New Glarus Unplugged Bourbon Barrel Bock is a good example in the Midwest. From TT's review, I noticed that the Flying Dog Wild Dog Weizenbock has a tart and sour twist on the style that lends a little "funk".

So if you are looking for a decent "compromise" beer until you dive head-first into the Porters, Stouts and Winter Warmers for the Winter season, then you might want to grab a few examples of these different Bock styles. They have just enough full body and flavor to grab you, but enough light sweetness from the wheat and malts to give you something extra.

Additional information can be found at the German Beer Institute:

http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/Dunkelweizen.html