Archive for October, 2009
SevenPack search via Firefox
You can now search SevenPack via the Firefox search box. Just click the little drop down arrow next to the Firefox search box, select ‘Add “Sevenpack”‘, and voilà you can search the site from the search box. Hope this makes SevenPack a little more useful to people.
For others who want to add this feature to their site the steps are pretty straightforward. The Mozilla Developer Center has an article about creating OpenSearch plugins for Firefox and are the directions I followed.
The feature should also work in IE7+ but I have not tested it.
Vermonster wins.
Beer… from a plastic bag, and sold by the pound.
Half Time
Great Divide Hoss
This beer won a bronze in the rye beer category at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival (GABF), and when I was compiling the post of reviewed winners, I was surprised to learn this beer had not been reviewed. I could have sworn Ben had drunk this. Knowing that the beer was still on tap at a local bar, I decided to check it out. Also, the beer is based on the Marzen style, so it kind of / sort of fits in with the Oktoberfest 2009 reviews.
Poured into a pint glass the beer provided a thick, off-white head and an amber hued body. Attacking my nose were unmistakable scents of rye. Joining the aroma melee were cereal grains and dark fruit. Unsurprisingly rye was a very predominant taste. Big, hearty, rye. Surprisingly the beer went less cereal grain and more bready when it ran through my mouth. Clean through the mouth the beer ended with a large rye bread taste that went a bit spicey and smokey, like the crust of the bread got slightly burnt.
Certainly a beer that sticks out in the taste department, and one I found quite drinkable. Not sure how it stands up to other rye beers because I am not a big rye beer drinker (I do not remember the last rye beer I had). The bronze at GABF is a pretty good sign of the beer’s quality though. If you could not ascertain from the review, if you do not like rye, you are best to let this beer lie. (Wow that was a pretty awful ending.)
Würzburger Festbier
After a slight deviation to the mild style, back to Oktoberfest 2009 reviews. This time it is the Würzburger Festbier. This beer was not had with the two Oktoberfest/Marzen beers previously reviewed.
A frothy white head topped the rich golden elixir. Aromas of bread and malt pleasantly waifed towards my nose. In the mouth the beer ran light and clean, with the aforementioned bread and malt taste. Some sparse hop spice in the finish of the beer made for a slightly coarse ending. I wish the hop had been better integrated making the beer clean all the way through the mouth, at least that is how I felt during the session.
Nothing overly crazy with this beer. I think it hits all the Oktoberfest/Marzen key points. Very much reminded me of the Stoudt’s Fest beer.
Three Floyds Pride and Joy
It is not often a Three Floyds beer crosses my path but when it does I take full advantage of it.
The Pride and Joy poured a slightly hazy orange-amber in my pint glass. The beer’s white head provided good striation as the beer receded from my glass, though it was thin. An enjoyable citrus hop note mixed with a light malty sweetness hit my nose. In the mouth the beer was exceptional. Lemon-citrus notes mixed well with a light malt profile and as the beer warmed the beer took on a bit more of a fruit profile in its taste. The finish was a crisp bitterness that was slightly earthy. This whole mix of tastes provided an aftertaste that stayed around for just long enough.
Overall very sessionable and though not complex, interesting enough to keep the drinker involved. A beer I wish I crossed paths with more often. Quiet frankly I would not mind seeing breweries take on the “mild” style of beer more often. I recently learned of a mild style variant called “Victorian Mild” that tops the abv at 13%. The mild style definitely provides enough room for brewer experimentation.
In Rememberance…
Weihenstephaner Festbier
Next up for Oktoberfest 2009 reviews, Weihenstephaner Festbier. In the glass stein mug the beer was a clear golden, topped with a tight “cappachino foam” looking, white head. Columns of fast and slow moving bubbles were interspersed through the beer’s body. The nose was a strong noble hop spice, mixed with some light pale malt. The mouthfeel was light and possessed some carbonation play on the tongue. The beer played spicey all along the tongue with a crisp and lightly bitter finish. As the beer warmed a light bread character broke through the hop spice.
Having the Stoudt’s and Weihenstephaner in the same session was interesting. It really gave a good sense on how different the style can be, when having two beers of the same style right after each other. I would go with the Weihenstephaner for one or two beers, to really get a good hit of noble hops, but for a full day Oktoberfest event I would stick with the Stoudts, due to its very mellow flavor characteristics.
Stoudt’s Fest
With Oktoberfest over, let’s get some Oktoberfest reviews posted. Though not in Germany, I was fortunate enough to have a few Oktoberfest beers here in Boston over the festival’s 16 days. The highlight of the beers I had during that time was a gravity poured Schneider Wiesen Edel-Weisse from a faux-wooden barrel (‘faux’ because the barrel’s wooden exterior actually contained a metal keg) into a ceramic mug. Though it was not a traditional Oktoberfest beer, it definitely was a fun little beer experience. Enough rambling, lets start the beer reviews.
I’ll start American with Stoudt’s Fest. The beer, poured into a glass mug, had a large off-white head . The head, which sat atop a clear copper body, was kept alive by steady streams of tiny bubbles found throughout the beer’s body. After a few minutes the head receded to a thin, yet full, covering. The nose seemed pretty straight forward with bread, grains and fading hints of noble hop spice. Much expected, due to the predominant bread and grain aromas, the taste of cereal grains and white bread crust engulfed my mouth. Nothing strong or overpowering in either. The finish had a light bitterness, which gave the beer a slight harshness. Overtime hints of lemon joined this bitterness.
A good beer with nothing major to complain about or to make it stick out for that matter. At 4.5 abv, a good sessionable beer choice.
Two Kegs, One Bike, Lets Roll.
Monster vs Vermonster
In a move to stop massive confusion among consumers (because we are such a dumb lot), Hansen Beverage Company, creator, manufacturer and distributor of the Monster Energy line of drinks (don’t try finding that info on “Hansen’s Official Web Site” located at http://www.hansens.com/, you will only find information about their “Natural” products. You have to go to Monster Energy Drink’s privacy policy page to figure out that Hansen Beverage Company makes Monster Energy Drink: http://www.monsterenergy.com/web/guest/privacy), has filed a “Potential Opposition to U.S. Trademark Application. Serial No. 77/765,863″ which is a trademark application for “The Vermonster”, a beer created, and manufactured by Rock Art Brewery, LLC (I do not believe they qualify as distributor because of the alcohol laws in the United States).
Now if you do actually confuse Monster with Vermonster, you probably have had too many Vermonsters, and instead of reaching for another Vermonster (or Monster Energy drink in your confused state) you should reach for a tall glass of water and go to bed.
Is this just the start of Hansen Beverage Company and Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP’s (Hansen Beverage Company’s legal council) crusade to stop mass confusion of drinks with monster in the name? As Alan McLeod points out in his post: “The Bee-to-the-Ay lists 34 monstrous craft beers on the market already.” Are those breweries next? When searching for “Monster soda” on google (I was trying to verify Hansen Beverage Company actually made Monster, because, as stated before, they do not list it on their “official web site”, so I was confused, ironically enough, with who actually made it), I actually came across Flathead Lake Monster Soda. Not sure if they are still around, but they better watch out!
You can join the Facebook page “Vermonters and Craft Beer Drinkers Against Monster” and follow Rock Art on Twitter @RockArtBrewery .
[ First read about on: A Good Beer Blog , further reading done at: Burlington Free Press (with cease and desist letter! Ya!) and A Blog About Beer ]
A way to keep warm.
I raise my glass.
Ask and you shall receive.
In my recent Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA review, I stated, “I would be interested in actually seeing the hop torpedo, but I can not seem to find a picture of it.” Well I went right to the source and emailed Sierra Nevada about it. I heard back from one Bill Manley, Communications Coordinator at Sierra Nevada, who, along with attaching a few photos of the hop torpedo, wrote:
We ferment our beer in large cylindroconical fermenters (400 BBL tanks in the ceiling).
There is a hose attached from the bottom of those large tanks to a port on the bottom of the torpedo. The fermenting beer is then pushed through about 80 lbs of whole cone hops in the actual torpedo device and forced out the top of the torpedo and then back into the fermeting tank. The beer cycles through the hop filter for about 5 days at cold temperatures picking up all of the resinous hoppiness from the whole cones inside.
That is how that thick hop oil gets into the beer, with a minimal amount of residual bitterness.
The torpedo essentially works like a giant coffee maker, except instead of coffee grounds they are hops, and instead of hot water, it is cold beer.
Top of Hop Torpedo
A single Hop Torpedo
A bunch of Hop Torpedos
Thanks for the info Bill, much appreciated!
