March 25th, 2009
Jason, Jeremy and I brewed our first batch of beer on Saturday. We brewed the London Porter kit from The Home Brewery. We made a few small mistakes, but nothing terrible. All in all we are pretty happy with how it went.
Last night I started de-labeling some bottles I had collected. My new favorite brewer is Schlafly. 10 minutes in hot water and the labels just slide off. O’Fallon, not so much. I don’t really want to mess with labels that don’t soak off in hot water. Of course, this is just with respect to label removal. They still brew great beer.
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March 18th, 2009
Wow! We had a great time visiting with Jeremy Cowan, founder of Shmaltz Brewing. Sycamore had many Shmaltz beers on tap for the dinner, as well as a wide selection of Shmaltz bottles. If you get a chance, head to Sycamore to try the Oak-aged RIPA. The aging mellows it nicely. It was definitely my favorite beer of the evening.
The next Sycamore beer dinner is scheduled for April 14th and will feature De Molen, a brewery in the Netherlands.
Posted in Events, Gatherings | 1 Comment »
February 5th, 2009
Thanks to Kitty Lasinski for this STLtoday.com article on the opening of Internation Tap House, a new “mega beer bar” in the western outskirts of St. Louis featuring 500 beers, 40 of those on tap.
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February 5th, 2009
Flash on Tap combines a Flash conference with a beer festival.
Where: The Castle, Boston, MA
When: May 23-30, 2009
Early bird pricing ends April 28, 2009
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February 4th, 2009
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January 6th, 2009
Here is an interesting article about a PhD student at the University of Saskatchewan researching how to better protect beer from bacterial contaminiation. Here is my favorite quote:
Back in 2006, my three brothers made homemade beer. But the beer turned out so disgusting and contaminated that I decided to bring some to the lab. I grew the contaminating bacteria from the beer, and sequenced some of their DNA. I found three types of bacteria that have never been found in beer before, and identified a specific beer-spoilage or antimicrobial resistance gene in each type.
Pretty interesting.
Tags: Beer News
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January 4th, 2009
This winter I’ve tried quite a few seasonal beers; more than I did last year. Thanks to Anderson Valley being added to the list of beers distributed in Missouri I’m able to give their Winter Solstice Seasonal Ale a try.
The beer pours with a thick, tan head that settles quickly. The nose has hints of spice and sweetness from the malts. This beer has a nice mouthfeel, not too heavy, but not too thin either. It is a little sweet and is nicely carbonated. The beer tastes similar to what I think of as an english style. Not my favorite, but it is good.
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December 12th, 2008
I was going to have a bottle of Wet Hop Harvest Ale last Friday at Sycamore, but Sanford didn’t have any cold. Which actually was okay since he still had Anchor’s Our Special Ale 2007, which is still one of my favorite winter warmers ever, on tap.
Anyway, back to the Wet Hop Harvest Ale. They had some in stock at Patricia’s (thanks Sarah). I’ve been sitting on this bottle for about a week, waiting for a good opportunity to drink it since I had heard good things and really wanted to savor it.
The beer pours with a thick, white head and has lots of retention. When the head finally settles there is lots of sticky lacing on the glass. The nose it hoppy, the taste is hoppy. The mouth-feel is full and smooth. There is noticable bite and carbonation. The finish is pleasantly bitter. I really enjoyed drinking this beer and will definitely be picking it up again before it is gone.
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December 5th, 2008
Jamie from Given2Fly had a brewing session for a few of us that are interesting in brewing. I have never brewed before, so the whole process was new to me. Some of those in attendence have brewed, but I think Jamie is the only one of us doing whole grain brewing. We all had a good time. I could see this becoming a hobby (once the house work is finished, Myra). As far as the beers we brewed, the Imperial Rye IPA is now bottled, and the Imperial Stout is still fermenting. I can’t wait to try them!
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November 11th, 2008
I’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Christmas season beers, especially the Anchor Christmas. Since I have yet to see it in stores here in Columbia, I decided to pop open a Summit Brewing Winter Ale from last year that I had been storing.
This beer pours a very dark brown/carmel color with a thick tan head. The beer has a sweet nose, and tastes a bit like a porter. It is tart, and there is a definite burnt characteristic to it. On first taste I wasn’t sure what to think, but the more I drink of it, the better I like it.
I’m not sure that this beer was intented to be aged, but it aged pretty well in my opinion.
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