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.