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+