Crystal Ship from East End Brewing

As we mentioned in a previous post, Brendan from East End Brewing gave us a half-growler from Lavery Brewing Company. The reason he had this growler in the first place is because their breweries got together for Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week and made sweet, sweet beer babies in the form of some tasty collaboration brews. Late in the week there was an event where they were serving these collaborations and the brewers were all hanging out talking to people. Unfortunately because we were going to so many awesome events that week, we were late arriving to this one and the guys from Lavery had already headed back toward Erie. They did however leave this lovely growler in the hands of Brendan and he thought we might be able to get some good use out of it. Last week we finally started doing just that by having it filled with the experimental brew from East End, Crystal Ship.

The Crystal Ship brew is actually more of a brewing accident than a brewing experiment. Their plan had been to make a batch of one of their flagship beers, BigHop, but they mixed up some malts and wound up with far too much crystal malt. You can read more about this interesting brew day over on their blog. The short version is that the regular ale yeast doesn't ferment much of the sugar from crystal malt leaving a lot of malty, sugary flavor in the final beer. Luckily they noticed the mix-up early and were able to steer it toward something drinkable. They are also using half of the batch to kick start their sour beer projects. We can't wait to get our hands on some sour beers from them, but for now we're glad to have gotten some of this one of a kind beer.

Color:

Dark brown with some red and caramel, not black, SRM ~20

ABV:

4.9%

Smell:

Sweet malts, roasted and toasted, no coffee smell, slight raisin-ish smell

Taste:

This beer was super malty and sweet. The extra crystal malts made it carmalely and sweet. It had a nice roasted profile and a great smoothness. The sweetness wasn't sticky or sugary in any way. This beer had a lingering roasted aftertaste. The aftertaste had a mild coffee hint that lingered longer than the roasted flavor. It had a lower carbonation level and was heavier in mouthfeel.

Rating:

This was a super sweet beer. I can't wait until they turn this into a sour like they are planning. It's a good beer but a little too sweet to drink on a daily basis. It was interesting and we're glad we got a half growler. If you love malty beers you need to try this soon, since it is a one off that they will never make again.

Floating Crystal Ship?
The last half of the last glass of Crystal Ship was starting to get a little flat and tasting a bit too much like malt syrup to be truly enjoyable. David had the idea that this might be a perfect base for a beer float. A couple scoops of vanilla ice cream later and this idea was a reality. He said it worked out great, the malt and roasted flavors paired well with the sweet creamy vanilla to make a nice cold, refreshing dessert drink.

Bee Too by Penn Brewing Co

This beer was started after Penn Brewery removed a back wall (well technically it fell down, but they were planning on removing it anyway) and found that the colony of bees there was huge. They had the Colony moved (properly) but were left with all the delicious honey. So what's a brewer to do? Make a unique one off beer of course! We were lucky enough to get to Happy Hour on the tapping night (even if it made Dave slightly late to play Volleyball).

They had $5 Sausages during Happy Hour, including pheasant sausage. Of course Dave had to try the pheasant (because how often do you encounter pheasant sausage?) while I got a really tasty Kielbasa. We knew we had to go back for a non rushed dinner sometime soon, if just to get tasty honey beer. So we did just that the following week. We had more delicious sausage, and we were even able to go home with a growler of honey goodness.

Color:

Honey gold with a slight caramel red color, SRM~5-7

ABV:

6%

Smell:

Earthy hops with a honey sweetness but not sugary at all

Taste:

It tastes just as it smells. It's earthy and hoppy but not bitter. It tastes sweet but not sugary and just like honey but not like mead. There is very little malty sweetness. It had a nice medium mouthfeel and a medium carbonation. It was heavily lacing with a nice creamy white lace with a low head size. It wasn't effervescent and was in the Kolsch style. The aftertaste started hoppy, more of a bitter hop than a earth hop, and moved toward the sweeter honey flavors after. It lingered nicely and since it was a nice light beer the lingering didn't bother me.

Rating:

This is great and since it's a one off we just had to take some home with us. I wish I could have this all summer. It's nice and earthy but still sweet. Just what I expect out of Penn Brewery.

Strawberye from East End Brewing

After spending a lot of time saying "we really need to make a trip to East End Breing Company" since we met the head brewer, Brendan, during Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week, We finally made it to East End Brewing Company. Since it's impossible to walk out without a full growler (or at least it should be), we took home a half gallon of their StrawberRye Ale. We also finally made use of the Lavery half-growler that Brendan gave us. More on that in this post.

Color:

Strawberry blondish, light gold with a heavy amounts of light red. SRM ~10

ABV:

3.5-4.5% (Session ale)

Smell:

Earthy hops with light strawberry and a slight dryness and ryeness

Taste:

This beer was sweet with a really nice strawberry flavor, not that disgusting fake strawberry flavor but a nice fresh flavor. It was also dry in a way and the rye really shined. It wasn't heavily malty or sweet from malts. The hops were gentle and slightly earthy. The light aftertaste was very strawberry and rye. It was almost dry in a way. In general it had a mild carbonation, more likely because it was in a growler. It also had a light medium mouthfeel.

Rating:

This was great it was strawberry flavored without being overly sweet or overly tart. This beer was nicely earthy with a good strawberry flavor. The sweetness of the strawberries really mellowed out during the brewing process to leave a good strawberry flavor but not too much of the sugary taste.

Centennial IPA by Founders Brewing

This is available year round from Founders Brewing, located ing Michigan. It is available in bottles and now in cans.

Color:

Pure copper red with hints of gold SRM~10-12

ABV:

7.2%

Smell:

Hoppy, earthy, and floral

Taste:

This beer is hoppy and bitter and piney and sort of grassy. There is a toasted, almost roasted flavor, with a slight citrus hint. The malts weren't very sweet but leaned more on the roasted end, almost like coffee but without the coffee flavor. The aftertaste is bitter and earthy. It lingers strongly for a while after tasting. It is not crisp. This beer lingered on the medium to heavy end of carbonation and had a medium-heavy mouthfeel.

Rating:

This was a good IPA but I usually leave the IPAs to my sister who loves them. I liked it, I just am not a fan of bitter, piney IPAs. If you tend to like piney IPAs you will enjoy this beer.

Dirty Bastard Scottish Style by Founders Brewing

Founders Brewing from Grand Rapids, Michigan has a strong showing in the WBC and the GABF, winning multiple medals for their beers. 6 medals total in 2010 alone, with this showing I am excited to see what else they produce. I've had some of Founders beers before but I've never gotten to try their take on the Wee Heavy, both my favorite and least favorite styles. When done right I love it, when done wrong I despise it. Founders has hit this right on the nail for me.

Color:

Opaque, dark brown with a little coppery red, SRM ~20

ABV:

8.5%

Smell:

Scotch, roast but not coffee, oak and malts, almost sweet in a way

Taste:

The first main point is it tastes like scotch and oak. But the oak is very mellow in flavor, not heavy and barrel forward but just mellow. It had a nice smooth maltyness that reminded me a little of caramel. It is supposedly a 50 IBU beer but there was very little hoppiness in this beer, pretty much none. It was just very smooth and mellow. It had a oak barrel aftertaste but it wasn't too heavy. In general this had light carbonation but wasn't heavy or thick. It had a nice medium mouthfeel and was sort of carmel-ly in a way (according to Dave).

Rating:

This was a great wee heavy. In winter this may be one of my go to beers. The mellowness of the oak and the smooth malting just brought out the scotch flavor better. It doesn't push any of the flavors in your face. If you like that type of in-your-face-ness this isn't going to be the beer for you, at least not if you let it sit for 6-7 months. This will be on my list to try fresh since it probably has mellowed since first bottled.

Cane and Ebel by Two Brothers Brewing

Based just outside of Chicago in Warrenville, Two Brother Brewing is becoming a new favorite of mine. I've enjoyed everything I've had from them and on top of it they have made me open myself up to rye beer (something I'm usually not a fan of).

Color:

Coppery brown with lots of red,
SRM ~15

ABV:

7%

Smell:

Slightly roasty, not dark roasty but a nice roasty like an earthiness, it also had a nice sweet rye and malt smell but not too sugary. It had a very slight bitterness and hoppy notes

Taste:

This beer is hoppy, very hoppy and toasty. It also has a very nice sweet malty taste and is lightly floral. The rye adds an interesting component making it slightly dry but with a hint of sweetness, not a sugar sweetness or a malty sweetness but a nice dry type of sweetness. The aftertaste starts sweet and morphs into a nice bitter happiness. It is not overpowered by the hops and the rye adds a slight crispness towards the end of the aftertaste. The aftertaste lingers very lightly and isn't heavy at all. There is a medium mouthfeel and a slightly higher carbonation which adds a nice lightness to the beer.

Rating:

This made me rethink my position on rye beers. So many rye beers are just super dry and overpowering with rye that this made me want to give them another shot. That's just what good beer should do. I will be on the look out for more from Two Brothers Brewing, and so should you.

The Science of Beer Night at Carnegie Science Center

Yasha the yeast in his natural habitat.

So Friday June 13th, the Carnegie Science Center hosted a Science of Beer night. It was part of their 21+ Night series, where they set up cash bars and have talks. (These seem really fun and we will in general be going to more of them.) For this Science of Beer night, they featured a talk about the Culture of Hops and beer tastings. Each brewery brought 2 beers, and you were give 10 tickets for tastings. (more on that later)

They had a talk about Hop Growing by Keystone Hopfarms and Hop Farm Brewery. It was very informative on the basics of the history of Hops in the USA. It was awesome to find out that Pennsylvania and New York used to be the mecca of hop growing here, pre-prohibition that is. (whoever thought prohibition was a good idea was an idiot.) The guy giving the talk was a little scatter brained and I ended up feeling a little bad for people who don't have a strong chemistry background because he started talking about alpha and beta acids. It was a good talk, but it wasn't what I was expecting by the title: history of hop culture and how hops are used in brewing.

So onto the tasting set up. Since there were only 5 breweries each line was packed. They either needed more tables pouring the same beers or less beers but larger sample sizes. The sample size was 1 ounce. Multiple tables ran out of beer by 9 pm. We didn't get to try beer from Rivertowne Brewery. We ended up using 6 of our 10 tickets each on the only beer left at the end of the night, a pilsner from North Country Brewing Company. We saw extra wrist bands just sitting around with only 1-2 tickets used. People just left because the lines were insanely long and overall it was super crowded.

On the up side, they were raffling off Bread and Beer yeast stuffed plashes from GiantMicrobes. I have been wanting one of these for a while and since everyone had left before they called the names for the raffle, we were able to score a microbe. We have named him Yasha and he is super cute. (Also Dave beat a robot at air hockey)

Once again, like everything in Pittsburgh pertaining to beer, it was super packed and claustrophobic. The idea was good but the execution was horrible. I'd love to see them do this idea again but maybe change things around. It really did end up being one giant line and so you couldn't really check out the exhibits. The tickets were $17, more than their normal 21+ night prices, and it probably wasn't worth it. I would have preferred them having craft beers at the cash bar and then having multiple different talks on the science of beer.