Pater-Raccoon Lodge and Adventures in Home Zymurgy

My how the time flies. It's been almost two months since my last post. I'm trying really hard to do this more often...I just, you know, suck at it. Anyway...

A couple of weeks ago, I visited the Raccoon Lodge again. I enjoy this place quite a bit. I first discovered it one lovely (or not) day with a good friend. We drove around looking for a place to lament the marriage of a good friend to someone kind of awful. We succeeded admirably, found good beer, good food, and a pretty epic Bloody Mary. The onion rings are delish, and the beer is usually pretty good. The usual line up is good, and the ever-rotating cast of seasonals, small batches, and experiments is usually pretty good. I drank a couple of different IPAs that evening, but have chosen to tell you all about this other thing I drank. They call it "Pater" after some guy they know/knew. The menu said more about it, but I didn't write it down. It was described as an aged red ale, but tasted much more like a lambic. Here are the specs...

Name: Pater
ABV: 8.12% (how exact!)
IBU: 7
Style: Aged red. I guess.
Serving Vessel: Snifter. I think. Not quite sure of the name of this particular piece of glassware.

So apparently this bad boy was aged 12-18 months in oak and cherry barrels. The cherry was pretty prevalent, the oak less so. There were also a ton of other flavors going on, such as cinnamon, currant, and peppercorn. It was super tart. Like, super. I like this in small doses, and this was about all I could handle. It had a very acidic, balsamic vinegar sort of flavor to it. Pater is pretty complex. I like him, but I'm not sure I'd go for it again. I do appreciate the patience and craftsmanship that goes into things like this. It poured a dark ruby with a slight pink head. If there had been any more in the glass, I may not have finished it...the tartness was on the verge of overpowering. I did like the dryness of the finish though, it was almost like drinking a really dry champagne. On the whole though, I do think everyone should try a sour beer once in their life...it is a really interesting experience to say the least. The usually available Lindeman's varieties are good, but if you are lucky enough to find a craft sour, do go for it, even if it's only once.

A brief note about the latest homebrew:
Last Sunday a friend and I brewed a 5 gallon batch of a dry Irish/oatmeal stout hybrid. It is fermenting away happily, and has lots of stuff settling out (dead yeast cells, coffee grounds, hop residue, chocolate, etc.), which is good. We will rack at least twice before kegging next month, just in time for St. Patty's. Here is a photo to hold you over...haha. I'll report back in a few days (hopefully) once I have had a chance to give it a preliminary, uncarbonated taste.

That said, happy trails to all, and I hope to be better at this in the future. Really, I do.

J

Back by popular demand! Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat! Yeah!

This one's for you M-Doggggg....

So apparently last time I posted was on May 10. Whoops, how time flies. I never did forget about this, it just sort of had to be on the back burner for a bit...school, life, new nephew, etc. I know, I know...excuses. But don't you think for a second that just because I haven't been blogging that I haven't been drinking...trust me....I have. Additionally, I think I may have just given up on the idea of creating, or at least posting, some sort of "master list." The fact of the matter is....I am not very good at keeping track of things, and anything I post would be horribly inaccurate. I did, however, receive a little wine journal for Christmas. (Santa knows me too well...and might be a bit of an enabler. I guess that is another story). I have been drinking a bit more wine than usual lately, and perhaps if I find this little book useful for keeping track of wine, I could fine one for beer. I'm sure they're out there. (Feel free to mail me one if you are so inclined). And perhaps that would lead to better and more frequent blog entries....only time will tell I suppose. On to the beer!

Like many people, I find myself drinking even more over the holidays. Don't worry family, it isn't your fault...at least not in a bad way. It's just that my hometown is not the most populous or hoppin' of places (full of lovely fun people though...) and the drinks are cheap. So that makes it easy. I just got back from an entire 7 days in this little hometown, and my liver is probably pretty stoked about that. (A phone call from a dear friend in Alaska prompted my return to the blogosphere...thank her for tonight's ramblings...). My hometown has exactly 2 bars. One is good, and one is the Elk's Club. The first night I was home, I hit up the good hometown bar with my buddy Bradley. On the whole, good hometown bar is fairly predictable in its offerings: slew of macro lagers, Guinness in a bottle, Corona, Heineken, Mike's Hard Everything, hefe, and some Drop Top on tap. But. There are always one or two rows in the cooler case by the fryer that appear to sometimes be experimental. I'm not sure if that's really the case, but it sort of just seems to rotate with random micros from all over. Sometimes they stay awhile, sometimes they don't. I saw this last week that this row was full of Lost Coast's Tangerine Wheat. Yay for me! I was excited to see this...I've only had it once (over the summer in Shasta), but liked it well enough to have again. Additionally...the bartender informed me that no one else was drinking it, so I made it my personal mission to have that row empty by the time I left town. This turned out to be not much of a problem.


Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat
Style: Fruit Wheat Ale
ABV: 5.0%
IBU: 19
Serving vessel: Bottle and/or clear plastic Coors Light cups (no red solos here, because Toby Keith is a douche)

So usually, I don't love fruity beers. If they have enough flavor to suit my fancy, they're usually too sweet. I tend to prefer bitter, hoppy brews, or really roasty, dark, boozy ones. I like this one quite a bit though. It pours a hazy (definitely unfiltered) orange, with a nice, white head. Smells fairly citrusy and tastes it as well. The difference between many fruit beers (for me anyway) and this one is that this one finishes a little bitter...far more bitter than the 19 IBU suggests. I don't know this for a fact, but I would imagine that it has to do more with the tangerine rind being used in the brewing process, rather than hop bitterness. The wheat/weizen "base" of the beer is evident, but the tangerine is definitely present. This one has a good balance for my taste...a little sweet, a good amount of bitter, and lots of flavor. I'll keep this one in the rotation for sure, especially in the summer.

So that's it for tonight...I'm off to continue enjoying my Mirror Pond Pale Ale out of my new Kodiak Island Brewing Co. pint glasses I received from dear aforementioned Alaska friend. Thanks, I love them!

New Beer: Caldera Pale Ale

So I want to tell you all about my epic discovery. The other day I was looking for a quick bite to eat between classes and decided to forgo my usual places in search of something new...or out of the ordinary for me at least. I don't usually find myself on the southern edge of PSU's campus but somehow ended up there. After surveying the scene, I decided on Hot Lips Pizza. Now, I had been to Hot Lips before, but something was really luring me in. Probably beer. $2 micro cans ALL DAY EVERY DAY!!!! Love it. The pizza itself at Hot Lips is really pretty good, and can't be beat for 2.50-3.50 or so a slice, but this new little nugget of wisdom will keep me coming back. A slice and a micro for 5 bucks? Count me in. And, in addition to good looking people and a great selection of canned micros, there are many local and semi-local bottles to choose from, as well as about 6 great taps. Good stuff. You can get beer to go too! Food too, probably, but I didn't really check. Haha.

Heck yes!

Anyway. Why cans? Ask Caldera.

Without further ado...the beer.

Caldera Pale Ale
Style: Pale Ale
ABV: 5.6%
IBU:55
Serving vessel: Can baby!

I liked this one. A lot. In the last few months I have been making a slow, not necessarily purposeful but still excellent, transition from having my default beer be stouts and porters to being pales and IPAs. And this one made me happy, I'll definitely have it again. Nice, bitter hops up front are balanced quickly by the malt. Slight floral and slight citrus accompany the bitterness. Well but not overly carbonated. A great discovery for the summer...assuming we actually get one this year.

That is it for today I suppose...Will be back after Sunday with a new entry...with a featured guest or two! (That's you Valerie).

Cheers y'all!

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, I most definitely endorse Red Hook's new bottle design.

Maibocks, Cellaring, Imperial Porters, OH MY!

Oh goodness, lots to cover today. Where to begin....

     Well...It's May! Let's start with the Maibock. This style is a strong, golden-ish Bavarian lager. Intended to bridge the weather/beer gap between harsh winters and hot summers in Germany/Bavaria, around May. This style is a good balance of fairly light body and relatively high, warm alcohol. It's one of many variations on the generally darker, stronger Bock, or Bockbier. More often than not, I find bocks to be too malty and/or sweet to really enjoy. The maibock is a good compromise for me.  Other bock variations include the dopplebock (double bock), eisbock, and weizenbock. Synonymous to the maibock, or pretty dang close to it, is the Helles (hell-es) bock.
     While it isn't my favorite ever, a readily available example of this style is Rogue's Dead Guy. Something that continues to be a mystery for me (yes, I have spent considerable time pondering this) is whether Dead Guy is an ale or a lager. Rogue's website says that Dead Guy is a German Maibock which is a style of lager but the name is Dead Guy Ale. So....ale or lager? Is the name just a name, because people think of ale and think of beer, and think of lager and think...."that's like, beer, right?" I don't know. I am thinking that I should ask next time I am at Rogue. I'm leaning towards lager, but I actually really want to know. Haha. But I digress...sort of. I have one big, red bottle of 2009 Double Dead Guy in my "cellar." (More about cellaring in a minute...). As previously mentioned, it isn't a beer I am super stoked about, but a good friend swears by Double Dead Guy, so I've been keeping it around. Maybe we'll bust it out next time she visits....until then I think it will sit in my "cellar" with a few other special bottles I'm hanging onto for a special occasion.
     So yeah, I said "cellar"....like wine. I feel like lots of folks don't realize that you really can, and might want to sometimes, cellar your beer. The thought of several year old beer isn't super appetizing for some, but if you do it right, and exercise extraordinary patience, it can really pay off. Like wine, certain styles of beer and really mature and develop over the years. I once tasted a 4 year old Abyss, and let me tell ya...the current year's Abyss is beyond delicious, but does not rival the complexity that really develops after several years of cellaring. Flavors come out that you might not expect from a beer, but man, it's good. Real good. So how do you do it? Well...that depends. Start with the right beer styles. I use "right" here very loosely, but you don't want to try to cellar, say, a Bud Light. That would be gross. Try big beers, high in alcohol and/or hops, that can really withstand the test of time. Imperial porters and stouts, barleywines, old ales, lambics, or strong Belgians. I don't have an actual cellar, so I use a box in a cool, dark, temperature stable closet. Have an actual basement? Bully for you, use it. It will be cool and dark, which is good. Everyone has had skunky beer...one thing that contributes very significantly to skunkiness is light. Light is your beer's enemy...keep it away. How to store? That is a matter of opinion. One reason why you may want to store your wine horizontally is to keep the cork moist so that when the time comes, you can easily remove it. Many beers come with corks, Lindeman's lambics come to mind, and you may feel like this is a good strategy. Some say, however, that storing your beer sideways as opposed to upright isn't the best option, as a bottle cap is metal and not cork, and might cause off-flavors in your beer. Some say it doesn't make a difference. I keep mine upright, mostly because that is what space allows. If you are interested in starting to cellar, I would recommend doing the research and see the arguments, and decide for yourself. :)
    
    On to a new beer, and then a couple of announcements....

Full Sail's Imperial Porter
Style: Robust Porter
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 60
Serving vessel: 22oz bottle and pint glass

Holy crap. This is seriously magical. Pours as black as night...I held it up to my sunny window and nothing came through. Has a thin tan head, and laced the glass just a touch. It is reminiscent of Deschute's Black Butte Porter but with a bit more of the roasted malt bitterness and a bit more of the alcohol kick that comes with an imperial. Drinks super smooth, with a medium body; nice and roasty, hints of chocolate and coffee. Mmmm. This one is world class, seriously. Don't miss it. I got this bottle for $4 at the brewery in Hood River, and I've seen it in the store for about $5. Delish.

I couple of other things, then I'll let you go...
1) I will try to remember to update the events box over there on the right. But...for a full list of events around the great state of Oregon, check out www.brewpublic.com
2) I'll get the list up soon, really.
3) I didn't make it to the festival in Silverton this weekend, but a friend did. Hoping to get you a report soon.
4) Speaking of Dead Guy, there is a tasting at Rogue's Eugene location tomorrow...I think. It's soon, so if you care about Dead Guy, you should check it out.
5) And last but not least, Ninkasi is releasing their Double Dry Hopped Tricerahops Double IPA VERY soon. Get some. For real. It's awesome...had it at Portland's Spring Beer and Wine a few weeks ago, and I think it was my favorite one. MMmmm.

That's it. :) Cheers folks.

New Beer: Trumer Pils

I mean to get to this a little sooner, but alas, life and circumstances. Anyway....

Several things before I actually talk about the new beer....

I am approximately a third of the way through my list...hopefully I'll get some free time tomorrow or over the weekend to finish that up and get it on here.

So right now, I am feeling confident that I can accomplish this goal. It will however, take a considerable amount of time I think. Haha. I've got something like 700 to go, and even counting tasters and such at festivals and breweries, that will take some time and some money. Neither of which I have a ton of. In a perfect world, I'd be getting reviews of new stuff up here all the time, but I doubt it is going to happen that way. I came to that realization on my way home from class yesterday. I do, however, want to actually succeed in keeping this blog up, and to do that I'll need other things to talk about. So I made a list of other fun and interesting beer related things to post about in the meantime. This will include reviews of past favorites, top 5 or 10 lists, recipes, links to other cool sites and blogs, and nerdier things like chemistry and alpha acids and such. I guess today's disclaimer will be that I am not a brew chemist, and definitely not an expert. Anything I say is said with good faith, but might not be entirely correct. It is probably close though....I'll never be intentionally misleading. :)

On to Trumer Pils!

How appropriate that my first post is a lager. I freely admit that my general aversion to lagers is probably my biggest shortcoming as a beer drinker. Generally speaking, I don't really like them that much, and I would say that something like 98% of my list is comprised of ales. I plan to work on this, very seriously I may add, throughout this endeavor. What better place to start than the beginning?

New Beer #1!!!

Name: Trumer Pils
Style: German Pilsener
ABV: 4.8%
IBU: 26
Serving vessel: Pint glass

Yep, it is a pilsener alright. Haha. But really, I do feel like if a person is going to purposely drink lagers all day, it should be something like this.  Crisp, slightly sweet and slightly bitter, it goes down easy. It maintained no head excepting an extraordinarily thin layer on the top, very little lacing on the glass.
I do regret that I don't have much else to say about it....my taste for lagers is in need of serious refinement. I am hoping it will get better. Trumer Pils does get an endorsement from me though, I would definitely drink it again. To give anyone who may need it a reference point, other European pilseners include Stella Artois (Belgian) and Heineken (Dutch). I think this one is better than those two, though I do like them as well.

Due to my lovely co-workers (co-volunteers, really...) having little objection to having our meetings in bars, I actually got to add three beers to the list Tuesday evening. In addition to Trumer Pils, I added Green Flash's Imperial IPA, and Double Mountian's IRA (India Red). I guess right now I'll mention that time allowing, I'll review ever new thing I try. However, when I try a few new things in one night, I may not get to it....thought I would talk a bit about the pilsener because I needed to. Haha. Here is a very brief impression of the IIPA and IRA...

IRA- As you may have guessed, this is a marriage of an IPA and a red. It tasted like it too....with all the hop of an IPA and the slight maltiness and color of the red. You could taste every bit of the 65 IBU but wasn't nearly as harsh as one might expect. A good choice, definitely. It will probably not ever end up being any sort of session beer for me, but I did like it and would drink it again.

IIPA- I didn't love this. It was OK. I like me some bitter beer, but the 101 IBU paired with the 9.4% ABV made this relatively tough to drink. I realize that when one orders an imperial anything, this is the risk you take. I'm glad I did, it was good enough, but I am also glad it came in a small glass. I've had imperial IPAs before, and like them generally...this one was tough for me. I can't say for sure that I'd order it again. Worth a shot if you like big beers though.

Think that is it today....In the meantime, Cheers y'all!

Greetings!

Hello all!

Welcome to hellabeers! So here's the plan: I want to try 1,001 different beers. I'm something like a third of the way there, and want to chronicle my journey to the end. This is my invitation to you to join me in that endeavor. With this blog I intend to tell you about the new stuff that I try, new breweries I visit, my adventures at various festivals, my successes and failures at home brewing, as well as letting you know about any other brew news or events or really just anything else I think is cool and interesting. I am currently attempting to list the beers that I know I have tried. This is quite a challenge. I am somewhere around 330 I think...once I've complied this list, I'll put it up for all to see. I'm sure I've forgotten stuff, but that just means I get to drink extra. :) That said, I would love recommendations! I, like anyone else, have my preferences, but this project isn't about trying all the world's dry Irish stouts. They are delicious, naturally, but I want the list to represent beers from all over the spectrum and all over the world. Got a favorite? Tell me. Think something sucks? Tell me about that too. I'll be telling you if I think something sucks, so it's only fair I think. Haha.

So anyway, historically have completely sucked at maintaining the blogs I have started. I am thinking that if I start one for the purpose of something other than complaining about the job market, or figuring out what to do with my life, it might stick. I feel like beer is more fun than both of those things. It might also help that this is the first one of several I've started that I plan to actually share with other humans. Which brings me to a couple of disclaimers....First, I am not a professional beer drinker, as in, I am not a judge or professional reviewer. I have a feeling that my reviews won't be terribly technical, at least not to begin with. I am sure this will get better with time. As will my formatting, design, etc. As you can see, this is fairly basic...perhaps someday I will add some flair. Haha.

Now that I've got all that stuff out of the way, Cheers! Let's accomplish some beer drinking goals!