Beer Diary...

My buddy Chris Mc. generously brought over a Rogue Ale's Shakespeare Stout for sampling. The sad part of the story is that Chris had to leave for Washington before we had a chance to share. The happy part of the story is that I didn't have to share. A bitter sweet story kind of like the beer. Stout gone Rogue This is a serious American stout with a claimed 77 ibu's to balance the thick malty flavors packed into the 22 oz. bottle. Words that come to mind while drinking this stout are thick and full with flavors of molasses, coffee, tobacco and oak, dry fruits like prune and raisin that linger leaving a sweetness on the palate that is lightly cloying with a bitter sweetness of toffee. It's an imperial like beer in that the flavors are large and bold. The alcohol content is not stated on the label but the original gravity is 15 plato (1.060), and seems to have finished with some residual sugar or in other words it's not dry at all. So I would make the assumption that ...

Some brave California souls ventured out into the intimidating Aptos fog today to attend the 2nd annual Oktoberfest at the Rio Cafe . On hand to serve beer were a couple of the local Santa Cruz favorites, Uncommon Brewers and Ale Works . Uncommon Brewers pleases with pints. The Ale Works pouring the love. Uncommon Brewers was serving up their Siamese Twin, Golden State Ale and Baltic Porter to an appreciative crowd while the Ale Works had on tap their classic examples of an American hefeweizen, pale ale, stout and a great IPA. A few yards down the street were the new kids on the block, Corralitos Brewing Company who was serving no less than 10 different beer on tap including a hefeweizen, Belgian golden, stout, helles, oktoberfest, IPA, IIPA, kolsch, smoked porter and a red ale. I was particularly impressed with the IIPA with its ample hop flavor and bitterness supported by a big malty backbone. A couple of the brewers, Luke Taylor (no relation) and Michael Smith were on hand to expl...

Moving is making me sad. Packing up all my stuff again to put into storage means I have to repeat the experience of nostalgia that always comes as I go through some of my more personal items. We'll be heading off to Mexico again for the winter and I can't shake the regret of leaving behind my lovely things not to mention my precious brewing equipment. It gets packed and stored with everything else into the diminishing care and accumulating dust of the 10x12 storage unit. As I get ready to put my electric guitar in a box I can't help but sling it over my shoulder and start playing off key lead parts to the Coldplay song that pitches out of my stereo. I only stop when I discover it's out of tune and I'm too depressed to fix it. I place it gently in the box and tape the opening closed, all the while getting that 'Christmas is coming to California' sensation as the warm rain falls gently outside the window. Now Norah Jones is singing 'Come away with me'...

In my preparation for returning to San Miguel De Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico I am gathering some special brewing equipment and materials to take with me. These are items that are difficult or expensive to get down there. One item that is particularly difficult to get are hops. You can buy them from a couple of homebrew stores like Homebrewing Mexico and Fermentando but their prices are ridiculously high. So, today I spent some time packaging hop pellets for the trip. I have a FoodSaver V2040 food packaging system that is perfect for my task. I buy my hop pellets by the pound from Hops Direct so first I needed to break those down into manageable 4oz. increments, (Hops Direct ships in a foil package that would probably be picked up on the airport scanner as my suitcase is going through so I don't want to use the original packaging). In any case, 4oz. should fit in a legal sized envelope for mailing and lay flat in my baggage without attracting too much attention. Weighing out the...

This last Sunday, I ended another great series of homebrewing classes for the Brew School conducted at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California. We had a potluck and homebrew pairing to celebrate. We enjoyed the Hefeweizen, American pale ale and the Dry stout that we brewed during the early classes in this intensive course on homebrewing. And the consensus was that the quality of the beers were in the 6 or 7 range on a scale of 1-10. The judges may have been biased. Additionally, the students brought in food that they thought would go well with the beers and most of the dishes were home made and delicious. One student brought in an exceptional plate of brownies that were made with Guinness stout. Class of Fall 2009 Most of the students are trying out the lessons learned at school in their own homes and several already have beer in the fermenters or bottles. I look forward to sampling some of these new beers. In the mean time, I will take the lessons that I learned in teaching this class ...

I was in the neighborhood of the Shoppers Corner market and took a look at their selection of beers just for the hell of it when I came across a bottle of Vertical Epic Ale . Stone Brewing Company the makers of 'Arrogant Bastard' in Escondido, California is responsible for this beer. I haven't seen this in any of the other local grocery stores so I picked up a bottle to sample. First I'll tell you my experience with this beer but you can hear all about it directly from the brewer Lee Chase at Stone by clicking on the video at their site . This is a Belgian style Wit beer with plenty of yeast induced phenols along with peppery spiciness, coriander, juicy fruit gum, sweet orange, light caramel,a hint of alcohol and a lingering bitterness. Moderately carbonated, the head on this beer is small and dissipates rapidly. I fairly enjoyed this beer although from the website I discovered that it is best after aging for several years. In fact the whole premise behind this beer ...

For all those familiar with my now famous 'beer and popcorn diet', that I developed for reducing increased weight due to the consumption of vast quantities of home brewed beer, you will be pleased to know that I have developed a new and improved diet that is vastly more effective on a number of levels and satisfactorily replaces the 'beer and popcorn diet' . Introducing the new 'Beer and Meat Diet' . I have found this new diet to be superior in that it provides the important vitamin, mineral and energy that the popcorn lacked. If you are still on the 'beer and popcorn diet', I apologize for this inconvenient and unexpected announcement, but I think you will find that the 'beer and meat diet' is more effective for reducing the unwanted pounds associated with homebrew consumption. Like the 'beer and popcorn diet' plan, do not consume any calories from carbohydrates other than those provided in your beer consumption. That's right, just...