Anthony Rants

How easily putting off a blog update turns from days to weeks to months is always astounding to me. The nice thing about waiting so long to write is that there is always so much to share after a hiatus... that is of course if you still have people reading your blog to share with :)

First things first, the really big news: Anna left for Chicago yesterday to take the BAR today and tomorrow. She has been studying really hard for the past few months and I am sure she is going to do fantastic. I can't tell you how much of a relief it will be when she is finally done studying.

I have lots of little footnotes to share about what has been going on with me but it probably won't all fit into one post, so for this post, I'll share news about beer brewing. I organized this year's competition for the BUZZ club and it was pretty successful. It was the biggest competition we've had to date (239 entries) and it all went very smoothly. I also managed to do very well in the competition itself. I entered 11 different beers and scored 7 ribbons. For the year, that brings my entries to wins ratio to 58% (19 entries, 11 ribbons) and puts me in first place running for the Midwest Homebrewer of the Year competition. There are 6 more competitions to enter though, so it is really still anyone's game. Two friends from the club and I attended this year's National Homebrewers Conference. This year it was held in Cincinnatti and it was an absolute blast. During the day there were interesting lectures about various nerdy beer topics and during the evening, social events bringing brewers from all across the country together. It was the first time I had gone to any sort of beer related conference, and I wasn't sure what to expect, but it far exceeded all of my expectations. Next year's conference is in California, and I am already in negotiations with Anna to attend it :) October is going to mark my two year anniversary brewing... I'm sure that I will have to brew something special for that.

Oh, and in the BUZZ competition this year, Comrade Alofskie's Imperial Stout finally got its well deserved recognition with a first place ribbon in its category.

Last Saturday was a day of firsts for me. It was the first time I have attended a beer competition in person, the first time I have judged beer at a competition, (Drunk Monk in Aurora, IL), and the first time I have ever been there in person to accept my ribbons :-) The competition was great. It is really a unique experience to get to meet so many people that are as excited and passionate about beer as I am. I judged two categories of beers, in the morning I judged American Amber & American Brown Ales and in the afternoon I judged Old Ale, English Barleywine, and American Barleywine. Since I haven't taken the Beer Judging Certification Program's (BJCP) exam yet, I judged as a 'novice' essentially someone who knows something about beer, but isn't certified to judge it. In both instances, I also judged with some folks who have passed the certification process, so my opinions were tempered / weighted with theirs. And to think I probably wouldn't have attended at all had it not been for the fact that A) I forgot to send my entries to DMC, and if you attend in person, you can walk entries in at the last minute and B) a good friend of mine, Joshi, strongly encouraged me to go for the experience (plus I am the organizer behind our local club's competition this year). I walked in five entries and won ribbons with three of my beers (1st place for an Ordinary Bitter, 2nd place for a Cream Ale, and 3rd place for a Northern English Brown). The results were very respectable considering that DMC is one of the biggest contests in the midwest with some of the best (toughest) judging around as well. Another great part of the competition was the raffle. I spent $15 for raffle tickets and brought home $50 or $60 worth of cool beer stuff (a hat, t-shirts, bar towels, a pint glass, 2 really nice German liter mugs, 3 beer faucet tap handles, and hops. It was a great experience and I only hope I can put on a competition here that is as fun for all involved (It will be quite a challenge because Sam Adam's Longshot regional judging takes place on that same weekend).

This next weekend, Anna and I are going on a much needed vacation for her Spring Break. We are going to spend the first part of the week visiting my family in Colorado, and the latter part of the week at Mount Elbert lodge. We are really looking forward to it. My one beer-related mission for the trip is to bring back some La Folie (oh so good!).

Not much else is going on. Last night I brewed up a 5 gallon batch of Vanilla Porter for Anna's graduation party, it was the only beer she requested for the event. I will likely have 3 or 4 others on tap that day as well (probably a lighter beer [Cream Ale], some sort of fruit beer [Raspberry Cream Ale?], some sort of a hoppy beer [American Amber?] and another malty beer [Scottish or English ale?]). So if you are looking for something to do mid-May, the party is at our house! Come celebrate Anna's graduation from Law School and her entrance into the 'real' world with us!

The weather finally seems to be improving around here. We had a stretch where it was raining or snowing every other day. I am really looking forward to spring, something about that first couple of months of getting out into the yard and cleaning everything up is relaxing (of course that last couple months of cleaning up leaves isn't so fun). This year will also be my first year attempting to grow hops, so we'll see how that goes.

Hey, I am still alive! I have heard through various sources that many of my readers wondered what could possibly be keeping me so busy? Well, it has been a combination of things. Firstly, work has been really busy for the last few months. As the proverbial Dutch boy, I have my fingers in many a project. Secondly, working on my beer brewery has taken up much of the rest of my time. Then of course there were the incidentals, a couple of weeks ago I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed after one of them got really inflamed... and then there were lots of leaves to pick up, firewood to split, a house to unpack, etc. and so forth. But, things have finally calmed down and last weekend, I brewed my first batch of beer on my new setup. I did ten gallons of a cream ale that should be ready in a few weeks. Everything functioned as expected for the most part, I have some tweaks to make here and there, but I was really pleased with how my setup worked out.

Christmas kind of came and went this year, sandwiched between all of the various things that are going on... but one thing is for sure, I made out like a bandit! A couple of weeks before Christmas, as a present to myself for being so brave for the dentist, I bought a 50" high definition plasma tv (it is pretty awesome), and then for Christmas, Anna got me an Xbox 360 and that is really awesome. Nothing like listening and watching 15 year olds kick my ass on Halo 3 in high definition 50" glory. We celebrated Christmas at our house in Champaign this year, Anna's mom, sister, and her sister's boyfriend were here. I think we all had a really good time. Christmas with my parents has yet to be scheduled as it is awaiting Dad's return from the desert, but I am looking forward to that as well.

The majority of our house is finally unpacked, Thanksgiving saw to that. We also moved up from hand-me-down furniture to our own furnishings which really makes it feel like a new place (not too mention how much more comfortable all the seating is!).

Well, not much else is new, but I suppose with all of these changes, some sort of pictures would be in order... I'll have to give an IOU for those... and I suppose I could make some sort of fruitless promise to keep my blog more up to date... maybe I'll save that for a New Year's resolution :)

For the past week, Anna and I were out in Colorado visiting my family. My dad had a brief respite from his deployment in the Middle East and it was really nice to visit with him. We did quite a bit of mountain biking (I'll have to post more about our bikes later), some hiking, some beer tasting, some brewery touring, and lots of visiting. We stayed in a really nice vacation home that my mom rented for the week. It had plenty of beds and bedrooms for us all to sleep in, a spectacular view, and a hot tub to soothe those sore muscles :) I'll be sure and put up some pictures of the view. I had originally planned on cooking three times while we were out there, but my mom had a lot of meals planned and faced with quickly rising expenditures (mountain biking and driving an SUV to Colorado ain't cheap!), we cut our meal plans to just one meal. Anna and I cooked a variation of Rouladen which I think went down pretty well with the crowd (my parents, my sisters, and my grandparents). I love to cook around the house, but cooking for that many people is a little stressful (I've never made twenty rolls of Rouladen before!). We brought a nice Riesling blend and what I consider one of the beers that defines doppelbock: Ayinger Celebrator. I thought even if my dad didn't enjoy the beer he would enjoy the little goat as a good luck charm. Turns out he enjoyed both the beer and the goat :) We tasted lots and lots of beers while we were there; A few were beers that I have never had: Dogfish Head 120, Stone 07.07.07 Vertical Epic, various New Belgium fare, and lots of others I'll have to expound upon in yet another post.

When we returned from Colorado, I had a nice surprise waiting for me (ok I admit, I looked at the results online and it wasn't so much of a surprise :p), two second place ribbons and a first place plaque from the Dayton Beerfest. I nearly swept the Belgian Ale category taking first with my Belgian Pale Ale and second place with my Saison. I won with relatively low scores though, so it may have just been a weak category ;) But hey, a win is a win. The other ribbon was a second place with my American Wheat. Winning these awards was a nice feeling of accomplishment and continues my streak of at least placing in every competition I've entered, but it also reminded me of my current lack of brewing. I hope in the next few weeks to really start closing in on finishing my new brewery, but first I have to close in on unpacking! Anna and I are both in agreement to really make a concerted effort to get everything unpacked in the next few days... we'll see how that goes.

Matt has informed me that if I actually updated my site more than once a month, I would probably have more readers. To that end, I am going to begin an initiative to keep my site up to date (if you are keeping track, this is the 3rd or 4th such initiative). The worst part is, I have lots and lots to post about! This first post will be about something near and dear to my heart (not as near or dear as Anna & Parker though); this post will be about recent beer happenings.

At the beginning of June I entered my second homebrew competition. Feeling a tad more confident, and convinced (at least at the time) that I could handle any negative feedback, I entered four categories and one special entry category. The beers I entered were: BBC 60 Shilling Scottish (BBC stands for Benjamin Brewing Company, this beer was previously a 2nd place winner), BBC Dubbel Down Ale (a Belgian Dubbel), Pink Triang Ale (a beer with a pink hue, it was a Raspberry Cream Ale), and Comrade Alofskie's Russian Imperial Stout (a very, very strong Russian Imperial Stout, it is absolutely pitch black with a dark brown head and weighs in at 12% alcohol by volume). In the end though, Pink Triang Ale was the winner of my entries, grabbing me my first 1st place ribbon (I'll take a picture of it later). My other entries were all panned for various reasons, the Dubbel wasn't complex enough (possibly due to my use of table sugar instead of a complex Belgian sugar syrup, or maybe my yeast selection), the 60 Shilling was too old I think, at the time I bottled it, my bottling methods weren't very sophisticated and to some degree its longevitiy suffered because of it, and Comrade Alofskie's just wasn't 'roasty and toasty' enough apparently. Comrade Alofskie's was also entered into a second special category, a category judged for strength and drinkability (the so-called High Gravity Brew-Off). In that category, Alofskie's was received a little more warmly, garnering comments such as 'Do not share this with those that are unworthy', but alas, even with a relatively high score in that category, it did not place. Winners of the other categories are also all put into a last round selection for Best of Show, and while Pink Triang Ale didn't win BOS, it did get an honorable mention for it, which was cool. My next contests are in September, so I have plenty of time to brew up some entries. I'll probably end up entering alot of things I am brewing for upcoming family social events (more on that in a different entry).

Some recent beer tasting notes (if I can remember, I'll make a separate page in the near future to hold all of my notes in one place):

Project Opus 10, Two Brothers Brewery - To celebrate our house closing (more on that in a different entry), Anna and I bought got a bottle of this unique beer (instead of Champagne). The beer was a dark amber, copper color with a fleeting, rocky white head. The aroma was of wood, earth, and some cherry. The taste started kind of malty, had a touch of tart, and ended with a sort of coffee, leather finish. Overall I think we both liked the beer, but it is relatively expensive for the small bottle and in this case, I'm not sure the cost is justified.

Bare Tree Weiss Wine, Two Brothers Brewery - I'm not sure what vintage the bottles of this I got were, but I did enjoy this beer. A bit of time has passed since I drank it, but I do remember nice complex fruit and wood aromas from the glass. When the beer was cold (around 40F), the flavors were more muted and the hop bitterness was very subdued, when it warmed up (around 50F), many of the flavors were magnified considerably (along with the hop bitterness, so much in fact that Anna finds it much more enjoyable when it is colder, she's not a big bitter fan). I have kept aside two bottles of this for further tasting down the road :)

Three Philosophers Quadrupel, Ommegang Brewery - After listening to the head brewer, Randy Thiel, during an interview on a beer brewing podcast, I was really intrigued by the idea of this beer. A malty, high alcohol beer that is blended with a small amount of tart cherry lambic. I located this beer and decided to try it a few weekends ago; I was not disappointed by what I found. The beer is a dark, rust colored brown with an abundant tan head. The aroma is of malt and fruits. The taste is malty but also has a complex element of figs, prunes, and raisins. This last weekend, I convinced Anna to get another bottle of this for tasting and I think she really enjoyed it as well. In Champaign-Urbana, you'll find that Sunsinger Wine and Deli has the lowest price on this ($6.49 for a 750ml, if I remember correctly, and worth every penny).

Duveneck's Dortmunder Style Lager, BarrelHouse Beers - The first Dortmunder lager I had was actually one of last year's Longshot winners. I enjoyed that beer so much, I decided to give this beer of the same style a try. This particular beer was a malty, decently bodied lager I tried recently with just a touch of hops to it. Overall I thought this beer was a good example of the style.

RedLegg Ale, BarrelHouse Beers - This beer, by the same brewer as the fore-mentioned Dortmunder, is an American Amber Ale. I didn't really know what to make of this beer. It was so malty and butterscotch flavored that I'm not really sure I enjoyed it. The aroma was dominated by malt and the taste was almost entirely malt and some butter to the end. I may try this beer again to get a better feel for what it is all about.

Well, that's all for now, look for another update after work...

Each couple of weeks I try and expand my horizons by trying a beer I haven't had yet. This helps broaden my tastes and sometimes gives me something shoot for if I find an example of a style I have brewed (or am brewing). Here are some recent beers I've had and thoughts regarding them. For anyone in the Urbana / Champaign area, you can assume these beers are available at Friar Tuck's (where I get most of my beer).

Mighty Brown, Small Batch 471 Series, Breckenridge Brewery - I can't find anything about this beer on their website, but as far as I can tell it was a very limited run American Brown Ale from this brewery in Colorado. Friar Tuck's currently features 22 oz. bottles of this beer for a very reasonable $2.99. So far, this has been one of more memorable American Brown ales I have had. The beer is a deep mahogany with a tan head. The first taste is of toasty malt and nuts. It finishes relatively dry with warmth (it is 7.5% ABV after all). If you can find it, I'd recommend it. I haven't had the chance to try any of the other 471 series beers (yet).

Avery New World Porter, Avery Brewing - I had this beer on Friday at Radio Maria. This was a good example of a porter in my opinion. The beer was a very deep brown, bordering on black with a light brown head. Roasty, toasty, caramel dominates the first taste. It finishes with a little bit of a bitter sweet taste. Apparently this beer is currently out of season, but it was still pretty tasty.

Anchor Steam Summer Beer, Anchor Brewing - I had this beer as part of a mixed six pack from Friar Tuck's. This beer seemed to have great potential but I think my particular bottle was skunked. Skunking happens from a reaction of the alpha acids in hops and sunlight. The aroma was dominated by that unfortunately skunky fragrance. The beer was a warm golden color with a bright white head. At first the taste was of that corrupted hop goodness, that gave way to a malty, wheaty sort of spicy. The beer finished dry but still had a faint trace of that skunk aroma. I think that this beer had a lot of potential but it was ruined by the skunky characteristics, this (combined with the next beer) actually makes me think twice about mixed six packs at Friar Tucks. I'll have to try it again from the cooler.

Monarch White Beer, Two Brothers Brewery - This beer was also part of the same mixed six pack from Friar Tuck's. It was supposed to be a beer in the tradition of a Belgian Wit. This beer also had a strange skunky aroma. I think I'll have to reserve judgement until I have a straight six of this as well.

Lunar Ale, Boulevard Brewing - Boulevard is known in Missouri for their unfiltered wheat. This beer was quite a pleasant surprise. The beer is a rich amber with a thick white head. The aroma is very distinct, it smells of a Belgian beer, sweet, yeasty, and malty. The taste starts with a malty and a touch of tart. It finishes dry and clean. I really, really liked this beer, lots of flavor but low alcoho (4.5% ABV), so you can enjoy a few of them. I totally recommend this if you can get a hold of it.

So I guess the real note to take away from this is buyer beware of the Friar Tuck's mixed six packs. I've had them before with no real disappointments, but this last one was really sub-par.

So just what sort of things can you trade home-brewed beer for? Well so far I've traded it for other homebrew and about a pound in hops! This month I decided to give my first ever 'beer pass' a try. Essentially, names and addresses are drawn and paired. Each person is responsible for sending between 4 and 6 beers to their assigned person (think Secret Santa... but with beer!) The nice thing about participating in the Northern Brewer Forum beer pass is that since NB is a midwest based company, there is a good chance I won't have to ship my beer very far (St. Louis in this case). I ended up sending out two bottles of Alofskie's Russian Imperial Stout, one bottle of BBC English IPA, and one bottle of BBC Dubbel Down Ale. I haven't heard anything back with regards to any of the beers (although in a separate trade, I did hear back about BBC Dubbel Down... more on that later :) ). The person who sent me beer was in Michigan. He sent two bottles of an amber, two bottles of an alt, and two bottles of an IPA. If you're a homebrewer, I'd seriously encourage you to give the beer pass experience a try, it is a great opportunity to experience new beers and receive some feed back about your own beers. Ironically, this has some interesting parallels with what Matt was talking about with photo print exchanges.

My second experience bartering with beer comes from a recent trade of beer for hops. I saw a post on the green board about a guy who was willing to trade one pound of vacuum sealed Hallertauer hops for a 20oz. bottle of beer. Typically, one batch of beer uses anywhere between two ounces and six ounces of hops (depending on the recipe), so you can get quite a few batches out of one pound. So we exchanged information, I sent off a bottle of BBC Dubbel Down (my Belgian Dubbel), incidentally it was the furthest I've sent my beer so far (California), and in exchange I received the hops as promised. I haven't had a chance to use any of the hops yet, but I did receive a nice message regarding my beer:

I brought your Dubbel to the SCHF last weekend and it was great!! We opened it for lunch and had it with some Brats, it was a perfect combo.
I hate to say it but with around 300 beers on tap your dubbel was one of the best we tasted...

The SCHF is the Southern California Homebrewer's Festival, so that was a really nice complement. I can't wait to see how this beer does in the BUZZ competition :)

New photo over at anthonysnaps (on the right...), in the spirit of trying to remember some of my other hobbies ;) Hopefully I snap a picture or two this weekend at some of our planned activities (summaries of those later!)

Well, my ribbon finally got here. Thought I'd share it with everyone :)

Another post will be forthcoming (after all, I still owe you a photo series covering a 'typical' brew-day!)