I haven't seen a thread on beer this year, but am prepared to drink if this is superfluous.
I did some brewing when I was a broke grad student at Tech, and got back into it a few years ago. I find it a very relaxing hobby, especially in quarantine. Two things I am doing different are brewing from grain (instead of extracts) and kegging (instead of bottling).
In addition to beer, I have also been making wine/mead, ciders, seltzers, and root beer. Some current projects that will probably make it to future Lot 18 tailgates are Hokie Blood (my spin on Viking Blod Mead), Stick It In Cider™, and a (Bryan) Randall the (not) enamel animal.
What are you brewing? I just kegged my first Mosaic hopped beer, and was amazed at the flavor going into the keg. I am also doing various experiments with pressure fermenting. Been thinking about trying cryo hops.
Cheers!
Comments
This was probably better suited for the beer discourse thread \s
Agree, but I searched on beer threads and the last I found was 2019.
Joe (or other moderators), please remove.
Not sure if I am misreading you misreading me, but to be clear, I was just making a joke related to the recruit thread(s). You're all good here.
Gotcha. I haven't been tkping that much lately, and the joke sailed right by me. No problem!
That's some quality TKPing right there.
Are you talking about the apple flavored Busch thread? /s
The Drizly app has saved my life. My Miller Lite intake is at an all time high, and that's saying something.
Talk to me about Drizly.
Phase 1: live in a populated area
Phase 2: download the app
Phase 3: order two 30 packs of Miller lite on app which are delivered to you
Phase 4: accept the gifts of beer, wash your hands
Phase 5: profit for 5-7 days
Phase 5: ?????????
Phase 6: profit
Ftfy
Also phase 1 is "live in a populated area that isn't new jersey"
I hear using UVA fan tears can help with sweetness of flavor.
I predict a boom in new brewing companies in 2020...erm, more so
I predict the opposite. Many will visit their local favorite haunts, and those that are cranking out solid batches will continue to do so. But there are too many now, and I'd bet this shutdown forces contraction of breweries.
To go along with that, they've gotten used to selling a lot more crowlers and to-go beers than maybe weren't legal or feasible previously. Now they have gotten used to it, and understand it can work, I bet the law is looked at to see if this can be expanded...basically giving the ones that were at the top of the heap at the turn of the year a leg up when we come out of this.
Rambling, but will you see a PACKED house on a Tuesday night in the future? Will adjusted occupancy rates be looked at and enforced? Will you feel safe completely packed into some place with 6 tasters openly sitting on your table around a bunch of strangers? Just thoughts......
I can certainly see the logic in this, but I meant (and I probably should have been clearer initially) that more people who never really had the urge to brew their own beer will see it as opportunity to break up the monotony of the quarantine and thus will hone that craft to an appreciable level to the point where they might think of selling their product to the masses. Not necessarily up to the level of a brewpub but at least get to a distribution platform. Of course, I could be wrong as I am frequently.
That, I whole-heartedly agree with. Smaller groups of brew-at-homers getting together on the weekend, pooling resources, buying better ingredients, and not hanging in 150 people spaces are most definitely the future. Cheers.
I had to pull back my brewing since quarantine. I normally brew (2) 5 gallon batches a month. And I give out growlers/bottles all the time. Unfortunately, that is not really an option anymore. So I had to take a 3 week break and the last beer I brewed is meant for aging anyway (Belgian Quad).
I just made them, but I plan on rebrewing my Belgian Single and Hoppy Pilsner (Mosaic & Hallertau) since both are great spring/summer beers. After that I'll probably make a Munich Dunkel and my American IPA hopped with Mosaic and El Dorado hops.
All of that plus the beer that I've stocked up on *should* get me through quarantine without breaking into the long term aging beer I have.
You seem a mosaic fan, I am a new one. This beer I just kegged is all mosaic. The taste when it went into the keg was unlike anything I've had before. It was huge... that was before the 2oz of dry hopping.
I can't wait to try it.
I've recently gone to pressure transferring, and it is having a nice affect on the hop factor.
Can you share some mosaic recipes?
Sorry, I don't know how I completely missed your comment here! I'm a big proponent of closed pressure transfers for hoppy beer, too!
The below are 5 gal recipes:
My hoppy pils recipe:
1.050 OG, 1.010 TG, 35-40 IBUs
100% Weyerman Pils (I do a double decoction to liven up brew day), really soft water, 90 min boil, a big lager starter and quick lager fermentation. Hop schedule is:
First Wort Hop, 8 IBU Hallertau Mittelfrueh
15 min, 10 IBU Mosaic
15 min, 5 IBU Hallertau Mittelfrueh
20 min Whirlpool/Steep, 0.5 oz Cryo Mosaic
20 min Whirlpool/Steep, 0.75 oz Hallertau Mittelfrueh
Dry hop: 0.5 oz Mosaic, 0.5 oz Cryo Mosaic
Hop profile is a nice balance of citrus & blueberry from Mosaic with an underlying floral note from the Hallertau. The resin from the Mosaic isn't overwhelming - likely because the Mosaic additions are all late in the boil or cold side.
American IPA (west coast)
1.062 OG, 1.008 TG
80% by weight 2-row, 10% light Munich, 5% Cara-pils (may be unnecessary), 5% turbinado sugar
1 pack US-05
Hops:
60 min, 10 mL Hop extract
15 min, 1 oz each Mosaic & El Dorado
30 min Steep, 1.25 oz Cryo Mosaic, 1.5 oz El Dorado
Dry hop 1: 1.25 oz Cryo Mosaic, 1.5 oz El Dorado
Dry hop 2: 0.5 oz Cryo Mosaic, 1 oz El Dorado
Hop profile: Big citrus and tropical fruit notes with a bit of juice from the El Dorado. Some piney resin due to the hop extract and large quantity of hops.
Mosaic - the bullion of hops. Try adding a small amount in your others brews and see that it pulls your other hop flavors together in a nice round way.
I'm working on emptying a couple of corny kegs before brewing up a new batch - a Mexican chocolate stout and an American amber. Next brew will be a Zombie Dust clone or maybe an experiment with Norwegian Kviek
Kveik is a lot of fun. If you want the yeast to express those huge orange flavors, hit it with a bunch of heat. I've fermented a DIPA with kveik at 95°F before and it just chugged along. No off flavors, finished well, and had great ester expression.
A heads up though, the yeast starts making the beer a tad funky after a month or two. That DIPA changed on me after a while.
Edited for typos.
I built a 3-tap keezer around Christmas and just kicked the first two legs last week (yeah probably a little slow). Kegging is so much more convenient than bottling - one vessel, bulk cleaning, fresh beer from a keg.
Luckily there's a Wee Heavy that's destined for a keg on Sunday to keep me going and I'll be ordering supplies (for pickup along with some to-go growlers) to make my Kinda Special Bitter again.
My brewing has really taken a nosedive with the two year old and pregnant wife, I am down to about 5 or 6 10-gallon batches a year. I still have a keg of smoked porter and one of British strong bitter in the keezer, but nothing in fermenters behind that. MLHBS is still selling with call in the order and pick it up curbside, but I have too many projects and too little time any more. All grain and kegs is the way to go, next is all electric with timers and pumps so I can have the water start heating before I wake up. Might be a couple years down the road, but seems like the smart path.
Last beer I brewed was a Coffee Oreo Imperial Milk Stout back in February, slowly working on the bottles now during quarantine.
I ended my 2 year brewing drought during quarantine with a blood orange belgian wit. Kegged yesterday, excited to taste in a couple of days. My local brew pub is also the local homebrew shop so I'm trying to support anyway I can.
Stick It In Cider is just brilliant.
Johnboy and Billy used to have a skit for Hard Dickens Cider.
I know this has all been about homebrewing so far but wanted to add that the The Veil and Aslin have both started shipping to VA and DC as another option for beer without having to leave your house.
For the NC peeps, Casita Cerveceria has been my favorite brewery for the last two years. Former brewmaster at Duck Rabbit but they make IPAs as well as darker ales and stouts.
He only distributes by van across the state and the cans go quick.
We started delivering to pickup points in West Lake at SML, Roanoke and Rocky Mount.
I think we'll see some breweries fail due to lack of cash flow. This is already a difficult cash flow business and with bars closed, the beer going out has slowed.
Trying to buy supplies to can or bottle has suddenly become the bottleneck since almost no draft is going out.
We are doing more crowler sales than ever but we are lucky we just got in a 1/2 pallet of crowler cans just before the lockdowns.
Let's bring this bad boy back to life.
Had a buddy hit VT for almost a week. Sent him some funds, and viola, the beer fairy stopped by last night to drop some goodies off for me.
Just picked up a 4 pack of Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA at the Costco near me. I've never had it before. How do any you guys that have had it before drink it? Do you save them to drink a few years down the road? I might head back and grab another 4 tomorrow for future drinking.
I have one a friend gifted me 3 years ago. Still holding onto it to drink with him in the next couple years. I've had it fresh on tap and a few years old. Fresh it's more aggressive, hoppier with a less developed malt character and hotter alcohol note. I got candied grapefruit with some light caramel notes. As it ages the grapefruit fades and the sugar/malt notes get more complex. Breadier, more caramel, and a bit of dried fruit.
i've had it fresh draft and bottle and quite a few aged from 1 to 11 yrs. MY GOD 11 YRS WAS AMAZING.
my advice. label and try 1 now. 1 in 2 yrs. 1 in 5 and another in 8+ or longer.
also at 18+% might want to share it.
Wow. I didn't think about letting it age that long. Do you just keep it away from the light and just cooler than 80degF?
FYI for all the NOVA people on here, I found it at the Sterling Costco off Rte 7. They had a lot of it there.
i keep mine at about 72% in the darkest closet i have. preferably i would have a cellaring fridge at 58 or so, but i don't.
Drank a fresh one last night. I actually liked it quite a bit. I didn't taste too much alcohol and I didn't taste as much hoppiness as I expected. I could definitely taste some of the sweetness that people mention as it ages. Overall it didn't feel like an IPA, but I really enjoyed it. Can't wait to try it in a couple years or start vertically tasting it each year.
Imo it's not an IPA. There's just so much malt so that it's an 18% beer. It's really a massive American Barleywine.
It's a damn good beer, but IPA is definitely misleading.
Is that batch labeled at 18%?
In the past couple years they have moved away from always brewing it at 18-21%.
It's probably still listed on the label the ABV.
If that one is under 15%, don't age it for more than 2-3 years. It won't change in a good way after that without refrigeration probably.
I'll have to double check, but I got it a few years ago so I'm pretty sure it's in that 18-21% range.
2020 I believe is listed as 15%-18% abv. Nothing is on the label so I'm just searching on the internet about it. Dogfish Head states that its 15%-20% but I'm thinking that's just the general abv of it over the years.
.5 miles from the house, probably could even manage it on my walker at this point. Only wish I had seen this yesterday so we could have snuck in today.
They still have about 75 4-packs left at that Costco as of this morning.
I've chugged it before. Wasn't that fun for sure.
Agree in drinking one now and saving the rest. Actually, I would go back and buy another sixer or two, and create a real vertical, adding to it for the next few years.
I've been slowly depleting my "cellar". Heady Topper by the way ages very well and will soon be finding out if Pliny the Elder does too.
I have a few beers in there from 2007, and so far only have had to throw a couple away.
I think I will go grab another 4 pack today and cellar it in my basement. It was cheaper and typical retail too for $30 (Costco is amazing). My Costco always has a nice selection of local beers that's constantly rotating.
We get it
regularlyat a store nearby, and IPAs aren't really a thing in Missouri, so I thought about stashing a few as well.The problem is, they're always in their beer fridge. I wish they'd leave a few out before I bought some to save for future use.
Are you sure you aren't thinking of 60 minute IPA? 120 minute is only released 1 or 2 times a year.
I mistyped; it's the first place I've lived that it's been easy to find (in stock).
There won't be much difference if it's cold in their chiller or warm on the shelf. It was delivered to the retailer cold.
I had always assumed that ales get shipped warm and lagers get shipped cold.
That's good to know.
craft ales, especially modern IPA's with all the late-addition hops and dry hopping, need to be kept cold or those hop flavors and aromas degrade noticeably.
All of them are packaged cold, about 32-30F. If they were not that cold, the CO2 would not stay in solution.
Our target at the tank is 31F. By the time it get's into the bottle it's probably about 34F. We want it to foam some when it fills the bottle.
Filling a bottle is cleaning it out, then injecting CO2 in it, then injecting CO2 again to get the atmospheric air out as O2 is the enemy of beer, it is what stales it.
Then fill the bottle making sure to have foam so the foam pushes out all the gas and filling with liquid up to the proper fill point. This effectively pushes out air 3 times, each time eliminating approximately 90% of the atmospheric air.
Bottom line, they all get into bottles, cans and kegs cold.
Cycling a beer from ambient to cold and back again is the worst thing you can do to it. One cycle (either way) is equivalent to about 3weeks of aging.
If it's cold keep it cold. Cold storage is always better than ambient. Ambient is better than cycling it back and forth.
The degree to which it moves in temp counts as well.
If I have beer that I can't keep cold, especially in winter, I will put it in a cooler with jugs of cool water out in my garage in a spot that will not change temp much. I don't have a basement, that would be better.
Got a Two-Hearted Clone and a Belgian Dark Pale Ale in the kegerator. Got a Heady Topper clone fermenting, and ingredients for my IPA recipe that went to the finals in the national homebrew competition a couple years ago.
Also got a 6 gal batch of cab fermenting right now
I got a homebrewing kit for Christmas this past year and have made a couple different kinds of beer. One red ale and one cream ale. I've got a kit for an IPA that I'll probably make sometime in the near future. Pretty easy and rewarding as well to drink the finished product.
Homebrewing kits are a great way to start. If you start to feel a little braver, I'd try out using dry malt extract and liquid yeast. Liquid malt extract and dry yeast typically have a flavor to them and are usually what is included in most kits.
I think the malt extract is dry but it does also come with dry yeast. The brewing kit and supplies are all from a company called Northern Brewer and they have a ton of different kits and equipment for homebrewing. After I finish the IPA I might venture out to more exciting things. Thanks for the tip!
Northern Brewer is pretty good if I remember correctly. DME over LME is the easiest way to greatly improve your beer, so you're on a good track.
I eventually moved into partial mash (brew in a bag method) with really good results. It is a good step if you get more into it and don't have a ton of space (like me). I would do the partial mash in the oven (set to lowest setting and then turn it off before putting my already-at-temperature pot in there for an hour).
All this talk makes me want to start brewing again.
Interesting! Yeah I'll definitely need to do more research if I want to start brewing on my own without a kit. I've enjoyed the Northern Brewer kits. Easy to follow and not at all complicated. Thanks for the tips!
you should grow your own hops too, Brad
It's fun for a season or two, then just becomes a pain in the ass
I'm actually not a huge beer drinker. Mostly like wheat beers followed by amber ales. Would like to hear what others like in terms of wheat beers so I can give them a try. Don't like heavy hops at all, so want to avoid anything too "hoppy".
If you like hefeweizen/weissbier then I'd strongly recommend Weihenstephaner's weissbier as well as Vitus, their pale weizenbock. It's basically a strong weissbier. Almost any german made weissbier is going to be pretty solid. Ayinger, Paulaner, Echter Julius are a few breweries that make good weisse.
There are some American versions but they are pretty hit or miss for getting a good balance of wheat malt, banana, and clove flavors.
Vitus is amazing but I've only ever seen it at beer garden type places like Sauf Haus in DC and Frankford Hall in Philly. Where are you that they have it on shelves?
I definitely find it most frequently in beer gardens and beer bars. I'm pretty sure I've seen it in a bottle before, but I honestly don't remember where that was. My brew shop focuses on American craft for the most part. But I have definitely before. A quick Google search pulls up Total Wine. Looks like it's in stock at a bunch of VA locations.
Found it at wegmans in Fairfax in the bigger 16.9 oz bottles
Thank you both. Have Total Wine and Wegman's here is Southern NJ. Will have to check and see if I can find it at one of these places.
I don't like hoppy beers either. I love that microbrew is all the rage in the US right now, but don't like that the most popular styles seem to be to bomb the beer with hops.
I like Ambers as well because I like that they're a little more balanced between hops and malts. Have you tried malty styles of beers before? Examples include stouts, red ales, scottish ales, brown ales. There are also German styles like dunkels and Marzens which are pretty malty. To be clear, none of these are wheat beers, they're just beers with a more sweet or balanced taste rather than a hoppy one.
Thank you. Never liked stouts, but have tried and liked some red ales. Going way back when the microbrew kick started, I had actually liked Red Hook and Pete's Wicked Ale, although Pete's Wicked Summer Brew was probably my favorite from back then. Shame it stopped being made.
If you can get you hands on Three Notch'd brewings HYDRAULION IRISH RED, I highly recommend it. It is one of my favorites. Brewery is in Charlottesville and they have three other collab pubs in VA so distribution is probably limited to VA.
Leg for Hydraulion! I tried it in RVA last year and was not expecting that from an Irish beer. Nice mix of sweet and sour!
I'm in the triangle area of NC, so I think I get a very different selection from most posters on here. Good to know though, good red ales are hard to find around here, or maybe just in general. The amber ale is technically an American variant of the original Irish red ale, so I guess that's why.
Highland's Gaelic Ale (more amber than Irish I think) is an old favorite of mine that should be available in that area. I believe I have had a good Irish red from Foothills brewing as well
Allagash White is my favorite Belgian wit
Wifey is not a beer snob, but only drinks wheat beer these days. I like em during the summer with an orange slice (the fruit not the drink). She started w blue moon, graduated to hoegarden, Allagash, weihenstephaner. Each one gets more expensive and harder to find. Port city optimal wit is pretty delish
I was able to snag 2 of these (max allotment) on the first day, along with a few bottles each of the collab with The Bruery. Then I realized they did a collab with the Veil, so got some of those bottles, and 2 more of the 120 minute aged in Utopias barrels. Only 408 made. (Not my pic, but couldn't find any on the DFH site.)
I did drink one bottle last Saturday night for my birthday celebration. O. M. G. Complex, boozy, and fantastic.
Picked up a case of this - I forgot how delicious it was
That is pretty good. If you like it here's one that is very good and blew me away
Thanks for this. I picked up a sixer from the grocery store last night and I agree, its pretty dang good.
Just picked it up. It was very good. I also didn't realize it was 11% abv until I had a few pretty quickly.
Name checks out!
Good stuff. They also have a dopplebock, Treogenator.
At some costco's, you can get this in a 1.5L or a 3L, i forget which one.
I feel like I've been betrayed or completely clueless for years. No one told me that Aldi has decent to good beers for like $6-7 a 6 pack.
Brecken Brock, Nomad IPA, Wild Range, Independence Harbor. They're all good and cost like domestic light beer prices per sixer.
What sort of seasonal beers are people's favorites? May have to make a trip to the store sometime soon to find some good stuff.
I really like the Celebrations IPA from Sierra Nevada.
Hardywood Christmas Morning and Kentucky Christmas Morning, if you are in the Richmond area. They might distribute those around the state though.
I have seen a lot of the Hardywood barrel aged beers up in nova at various grocery stores and Costco.
Distribution in NOVA has gotten a lot better. I was at Norm's Beer & Wine (Vienna) last night and they were loaded - Gingerbread Stout, Gingerbread Porter, Christmas Morning, & Christmas Pancakes. Did NOT see any bourbon barrel GBS or Kentucky Christmas morning :-(
Check out The Brew Shop in Courthouse, Arlington. I think they posted about Kentucky Christmas Morning recently.
Also check out Great Falls Safeway. They were loaded with Hardywood at the entrance yesterday.
Found some at Trader Joe's in VB.
What's everyone got on tap for the whoopin' tonight?
My märzen and, thank goodness, a very drinkable DIPA (clone of Rocket Frog's Angry Angry Alice). It's tasty and at 8.9% it'll get me drunk. Also have bottles of my Belgian triple and Quad on hand.
I have some hardywood cream ale that I'm looking forward to
I have my triple IPA and my doppelbock.
I think I'll need it.
brett IPA that's been bottle conditioning for ~12mo
I had a Great Return earlier to loosen up. Not sure beer is going to do tonight, so I'm starting the game with a Turkey Mule.
Leinenkugel's Snowdrift Vanilla Porter. Just 2 left
For those that like their seasonal releases at Christmas:
And now that I have my stock, south main Kroger, in Blacksburg, has Hardywood Kentucky Christmas Morning.
Odd though, we haven't gotten in any regular Christmas Morning.
I snagged the last growler fill of Christmas Pancakes at Vintage Cellar.
Take that Kentucky Christmas morning and bask in it. It's glorious.
Incendiary Brewing in Winston-Salem is killing it with their big seasonal releases. BBA Our Darkest Days, BBA Dragons with Matches, Shade of Lies, BBA End In Sight. If you are into big and heavy beers, they are what you want. Though the KBS Mackinac is also 🔥🔥🔥.
The Founders KBS Mackinac Fudge and Maple is awesome. I have a hard time believing the 11% as that sucker drinks like 5%.
This all sounds insanely dangerous and good