Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Fresh Hope Ale

Way back in 1980, before we Americans could enjoy the plethora of microbrews we have available to us now, Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi started what we know as the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. This brewery truly enjoys their hops and they use nothing but whole cone hops. In fact, Sierra Nevada uses more whole cone hops than any other brewer in the world.

Their latest venture with the hop includes a trio of beers... the Harvest Ales. The three beers showcase hops from around the world. The Southern Hemisphere Fresh Hop Ale, as the name implies, uses hops from the southern hemisphere... all from New Zealand. The three hops this beer showcases are Pacific Hallertau, New Zealand Motueka, and New Zealand Southern Cross hops. This is the only brewery I know of that uses fresh hops from New Zealand, and I am not familiar with the last two styles of hops used.

The beer pour a lovely deep copper color, with a moderate, off-white head and nice lacing. The aroma is a wonderful bouquet of fresh, floral hops with a slight bit of caramel malt. The flavor is very fleetingly sweet followed by a grape fruity and slightly piney bitterness with fairly light body and a nice crisp, bitter, lingering finish.

I'm not so sure the hops add too much uniqueness to this IPA, but it is certainly a wonderful beer to drink and very well balanced... and at $5.99 for a 24 oz, it's not too bad of a buy either.

Brewing/Bottling Day

Alight, so this event took place over a week ago, but we've been busy, busy, busy with business. Anyway, last Saturday we bottled our Hopalong Hefner Hefe and got to brewing our Paleolithic Imperial Double Pale Ale.
All went well with bottling and it should be just about ready to drink. It's been conditioning in the bottle for about 8 or 9 days now and we may crack open a few to see how it's developing. We expect to have exhausted the supply by the weekend.Once done with bottling we transitioned right to our Paleolithic. Laid out in the picture below is the majority of the ingredients used. The recipe included loads of malt and about 5 oz of high alpha acid Columbus, Galena, and Spalt hops.



We're expecting this beer to hit anywhere from around 9-11% alcohol and the IBUs should be well over 100. Over the last week, I've smelled nothing but hops coming out of my closet as this monster fermented. Fermentation is finally slowing down and bottling will most likely occur this weekend. We expect to be drinking this mammothly brutally beast come fall time.

We also visited Ale Fest here in Columbus this past Saturday and we'll be posting our thoughts later in the week. Also, some more beers we will be brewing shortly are: Pompous British IPA, a Stormy Night Porter (not going to give all the details on this one, though), a very special Belgian strong ale, and of course, a barleywine.

Coming Soon: PALEOLITHIC IMPERIAL DOUBLE PALE ALE

Yes, that's right. We've decided to put the pedal to the metal and make a big brew. The Brewski Brothers' own baby: PALEOLITHIC IMPERIAL DOUBLE PALE ALE. Sure, we know that's more than a mouthful to say, but we also know that it's more than a mouthful with each sip. Insane amount of malts...Insane amount of hops (3 different varieties)...Insane amount of alcohol...This is a full on put-the-kids-to-bed-early and yell "Whoa Nellie!" American style imperial double pale ale. This is not your wimpy diet beer. We don't care how many grams of carbohydrates it has. Once you taste it, you won't care either. Balls out! Balls on parade. Balls in a bottle.

You get the idea.

Coming Soon: HOPALONG HEFNER HEFE

You have been officially put on notice. The Brewski Brothers' first homebrew release "Hopalong Hefner Hefe," made with organic blood orange juice and organic Navel oranges is soon going to be born. Our baby is on the way.

He'Brew Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A.

Yadda Yadda Yadda
A phrase that means "and so forth" or "on and on;" it usually refers to something that is a minor detail or boring and repetitive. First mentioned in a routine by comedian Lenny Bruce.

Welcome to Lenny's World and have a drink in his honor. According to He'Brew's description, Lenny's R.I.P.A. was made "Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the death of Lenny Bruce: A Rye based double IPA. Brewed with an obscene amount of malts and hops. Shocking flavors - Far beyond contemporary community standards."

It pours a dark copper/amber color with a bone-colored head. The rye malt comes through in the nose and I could have sworn I was in a Jewish bakery with fresh baked rye bread aromas eminating from the oven. The malt gives it a slightly burnt caramel taste and the hops are clean with robust grapefruit and earthy pine. At 10% alcohol by volume, this is not a waifish beer for the faint of heart. The alcohol almost has a peppercorn tweak on the lengthy finish.

This beer is consistently good and a relatively good deal at $4.99 per 22 ounce bottle. Much like the comedian Lenny Bruce, this beer was gone too soon. Delicious and way too easy to drink. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

As legendary journalist Dick Schapp eulogized Lenny Bruce in Playboy Magazine, with the unforgettable sendoff: "One last four-letter word for Lenny: Dead. At forty. That's obscene."

Home Brew! Hopalong Hefe

Well, we've decided drinking delicious beer isn't enough. After doing our research, the Brewski Bros have decided to live the American Dream and venture into the art of home brewing. It had been an idea contemplated for a while, and we decided it's time we get into making our own delicious beer. Well what to brew first? There are plenty of delicious styles to be brewing, but an interesting beer from Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head caught our attention... a blood orange hefeweizen. Wheat beers are very refreshing on a sunny afternoon, and the blood orange adds a nice little touch to it. With that said, we got to brewing!



As the wort boiled (a wort is the liquid that contains the sugars the yeast will be munching on to produce alcohol... in other words, unfermented beer), we had ourselves a grand ol' time getting all the rinds off the oranges and orange peels. Unfortunately, we were too busy mending the cuts to our hands from trying to flay the rinds from the orange peels with steak knives to take pictures... but when the job was done, the tea of orange and orange peel was ready to go.
As you may be able to tell by the above photo, those are not blood oranges. Due to blood oranges being just out of season, we were not able to acquire any within the Columbus region. The oranges above are some Valencia oranges... we added a few orange wedges and some peels to the carboy. However, some organic blood orange juice did the job very nicely in place of actual blood oranges.
And here's an uber exciting picture of the wort getting its ice bath.
Finally, we pitched the yeast and chucked it on in to the carboy and sat back to wonder at our marvelous wort. In roughly a week this beauty will be ready to bottle.
Currently, the wort is sitting in my closet fermenting. Bottling may be coming up this weekend since the fermentation is substantially slowing down. Soon we will be enjoying our hopalong hefe.

Also, we have some events coming up on the horizon:

1.) This coming weekend, our next brew session will be coming up in which we will start brewing our paleolithic imperial pale ale.

2.) June 28th is another field trip for the Brewski Bros in which we will be going to Ale Fest! Woohoo! Look for some beer reviews and pics of the adventure.

3.) Finally, a trip to Barley's Smokehouse and Brew Pub will be coming up as well. We have high hopes for this place, and expect it to blow Mulholland away.

Stone Ruination IPA

Wecome to yet another installment of the wonderful Imperial IPA.

This beer is self-described as "A liquied poem to the glory of the hop!" and this description is dead on. Unlike other DIPAs, Stone doesn't get caught up in simply the IBUs... Oh yes, this beer is certainly bitter(Stone says 100+ IBUs, not revealing how many there really are), but Stone really goes all out to give the scents and flavors the hop can impart as well. What's even better is the beer is nicely balanced by the malts, making it a full body beer, but the attention is 100% to the hops.

This clear orange beer forms a moderate white head that gives off a wonderful bouquet of floral and grassy aromas. The flavor is dominated by grassy, grapefruity hops. The finish stays bitter with a slight alcohol presence.

When all is said and done, Ruination makes a great wingman beer. It's offered year round, so it's always there to rescue you from boring beer selections (i.e. spring/summer's onslaught of wheat beers) and it will certainly never let you down. Nothing new or interesting to try? Get Ruination.

ROADTRIP: Mulholland Brewing Company

It's the Summer of Love. Love=Beer. With that being said, the Brewski Brothers decided to kick the tires and hit the road. We ventured out to Reynoldsburg and a relatively new brewpub called Mulholland Brewing Company. Humpday (Wednesday) happy hour provides you with $2.00 pints of various selections from Mulholland. With a mere fistful of dollar bills, the collective We figured We could overserved ourselves on the cheap.

Here are the beers we tried:

ROUND ONE

Rob vs. Saison DuMonde
I enjoyed it. It really tasted like about 75% Belgian-style tripel and 25% French farmhouse ale. It was slightly sweet and almost had a tinge of ginger spice.
Charlie vs. Imperial Red
A lesser intense version of Stone's Arrogant Bastard. Decent.

ROUND TWO:

Charlie vs. Perfect Storm Vanilla Framboise
Somewhat pleasant at first. Alcohol burn; odd for a relatively low alcohol beer. Too much vanilla on the nose and palate. Nauseating after a while. Get me a bucket.
Rob vs. Highlander Scottish Ale
It was pale in color, bland in taste and really disappointing. It had about as much character as a "Murder She Wrote" marathon. It was thin and unlike a true Scottish Ale. I equate this to Mulholland's version of Killian's Red. Yuck. I only drank about half of it before giving up.

ROUND THREE:

Rob vs. Raider Belgian Brown
This looked as pasty as the Highlander Ale. It was drinkable, but not spectacular. In fact, it was pedestrian. Mild hoppiness. Dry. Not malty enough for my liking.

THE FINAL VERDICT:
A disappointment overall. The service was slow, and at times non-existent. The beers I had looked forward to trying were not on tap. The beers that were sampled were b-b-b-boring. I really wanted to like this place.

LAST THOUGHT:
As We walked out, I turned around to get one last look at Mulholland. I saw their faux stove smokestacks jutting skyward, looking almost like a hand giving me the ol' middle finger. Right back at ya, Mulholland.

SLOGANIZE ME:
"If you have nothing better to do. Mulholland Brewing Company."

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Beer of the year!

Well... not officially, but that's my opinion. This is a truly outstanding beer. It's an American Strong Ale from Dogfish Head and they describe it as a big brown ale, and indeed it is. This beer is aged in a very dense wood from Paraguay called palo santo, which means "holy tree". The wood has a lot of resin which allows it to lend a lot of flavor in the beer. What Dogfish Head has created is a roasty, malty delight that allows the resin of the wood to counter balance the malty sweetness and thus, has a minimal hop profile.

The beer pours a very deep brown with a small, frothy tan head. The aroma gives off very toasty malts with vanilla, caramel, and wood. The wood adds a very nice caramel and vanilla complexity to the taste. The beer is fairly sweet with hints of maple syrup, vanilla, caramel, and a resiny touch from the wood. The finish is slightly dry with lots of warming due to the 12% alcohol this beer brings to the table.

This is yet another eccentric brew from the minds at Dogfish Head, but it is incredibly delicious. This beer may not be seen again for a while, so if you are able to come across it, do not hesitate to give this beer a try. You will not be disappointed. A+

Avery Hog Heaven

Hello, all... and welcome once again to the wonderful world of barleywines.

Confused by the name? Well, a barelywine is not a wine at all. The name came about because the beers have a high alcohol content that resembles that of wine. The beer is made from grain,though, not fruit... so it is indeed a beer. The confusion in the name has led to a law in America that requires breweries to put "barleywine-style ales" on the bottle. Barleywines originated in England where they are typically a brewers strongest ale and tend to have a malty sweetness to them with very little hop presence.

Now, what we have here is a barleywine from Avery Brewing Co. This is a wonderful American version of the barleywine, which typically have a lot more hoppy bitterness to them to help counterbalance the natural sweetness given by the malt. This brew is no exception. The beer pours a nice dark amber color with minimal head formation. Flowery hops fill the aroma. There is a slight sweetness at first in the flavor that is quickly followed by the hops that make this a nice, bitter barleywine. The finish stays bitter making this an incredibly well balanced barleywine with a nice bitterness to it.

Avery can tend to be a hit-or-miss brewery. I've had some questionable beers from them, but Hog Heaven is a definite winner. This is one of the best barleywines I've had. One may even be able to argue this as a double IPA as this is one of the hoppiest barleywines out there.

Unibroue La Fin Du Monde

"It's the end of the world and I feel fine." -REM

La Fin Du Monde, which is French for "The End of the World," is a Abbey-style tripel from Quebec. The beer is named as such because when European explorers were crossing the Atlantic, they began to think that they were going to reach the end of the world. Then, they "discovered" the "new world." History lesson complete.

It is an "ale on lees," which means it is bottled with yeast sediment. It pours a yellow-orange color with a yeasty, crisp foam head. The palate is full of apricot, tart orange, peach and clove. Chock full of tropical fruit! The clove character borders on peppery, which is quite evident with even the slightest smell. The yeast sediment also provides a fresh baked bread aroma. La Fin Du Monde has substantial carbonation, but I didn't find it overwhelming like Duvel or many other Belgian-style tripels. It is sweet, but not cloying. At 9% alcohol, it is potent, but not overly alcohol-y on the finish. But the alcohol and yeast give this tripel a dry finish.

This brew is essential in your beer arsenel. When in doubt, this should be your go-to-beer. La Fin Du Monde is consistently enjoyable and relatively easy-to-find. If the end of the world comes, drink one of these and you'll feel fine.

P.S. I used to think La Fin Du Monde was French for "will make you fart like silly tomorrow." It is not, but it doesn't make that any less true. The perfect beer with which to Dutch Oven your significant other. Cheers!

Moylan's Hopsickle Imperial Ale

Hop Heads unite!

This is the beer you crave. What a liquid ode to the glorious wonder that is the hop. There are plenty of wonderful double IPAs out there, but when it comes to going off the IBU (international bittering units) charts, this beer goes even beyond that. If I'm not mistaken, I believe the brewers at Moylan's even filter this bad boy with a siphon lined with hops!

The beer poured a very lovely burnt orange/amber color with a moderate sized head and lots of lacing. The aroma gives off nothing but floral hops with just a little bit of alcohol. The first sip is quite a punch in the mouth. I'm overwhelmed with piney hops and slight notes of citrus. This is a big beer with a syrupy kind of feel in the mouth. About 30 seconds after my third sip, I actually shuttered a little bit because there is such a long, bitter finish to this beer.

For any drinkers out there looking to get introduced to the world of IPAs, this is certainly not the beer for you. This beer will take you more off-guard than Mike Cooper was by Carl Monday. But for those hop fiends out there looking for that one beer that has a first sip reaction of,"shit", this is the beer for you. This bodaciously bitter beer may even make your existence in this world seem a little more sweet.