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.

The Bitter End by 2 Brothers Brewing

2 Brothers Brewing is based in Chicago and though founded in 1996, it is very new to me. I can't believe I have never had anything by them, but hopefully Dave and I can get to Chicago sometime to check them out at their Brewery.

Color:

Caramel with some copper hints. SRM 10

ABV:

5.2%

Smell:

Hoppy, not too floral, not too bitter, slight ester smell

Taste:

Nice and hoppy. Not floral or bitter but good flavoring hops. Very mild on the malt front, not sweet in anyway. This was crisp beer with little aftertaste, possibly a slight hop after taste. The mouthfeel was decent, about a light medium feel and slightly more carbonated than normal, but it wasn't effervescent. A good, solid English Pale ale.

Rating:

I am super excited to see what else is out there by these guys. I mean, this was a solid English Pale. I am always on the look out for beers that match the BJCP guidelines and I would say this may become my go to beer for English Pale Ale comparison. If you enjoy hoppy beer that isn't bitter you will love this.

Old Heathen Imperial Stout by Weyerbacher

Old Heathen is an Imperial Stout by Weyerbacher. It is available year round.

Color:

Very dark brown with heavy caramel and copper brown hints, SRM ~27-30

ABV:

8.0%

Smell:

Chocolate, a slight roastyness, malty and a slight whiskey smell, the whiskey smell isn't strong

Taste:

This had a nice malty taste. It was slightly roasted with a hint of chocolate. It was not bitter at all and had almost no hops. It had an espresso and whiskey aftertaste that lingers. It had no head so I was expecting it to be heavy in flavor and feeling but it was not a heavy at all; it had was on the low end of medium mouthfeel. It was good and not crazy. The flavor blend together nicely.

Rating:

Overall this was a decent beer. The chocolate and whiskey were very downplayed which is nice for an Imperial Stout. I am so used to overpowering flavors that this was a nice change. If you like light hints of chocolate and whiskey this should be on your list to try.

Rivertowne Brewing Company VIP tour

A few weeks ago, Rivertowne Brewing Company of Pittsburgh PA had a deal on LivingSocial for their brewery tour. They offered a regular tour and a VIP option that included dinner and live music for $20 more. Dave and I decided to try the VIP tour because it sounded like fun. This tour was for 2 people and cost $50. It included, for each person, a tee shirt, 6 tastings, 1 full sized beer for during the tour, the tour itself, and buffet dinner with live music.

So I guess we will start from the top. The tee shirts are super nice and soft. They had a bunch of different styles and colors. Tee shirts from breweries can be very expensive so this was definitely worth it just for the tee shirt.

The tasting was rushed, very rushed. I usually like to do tastings similar to Dogfish Heads style which is at your own pace. You get the main 6 beers from their line and no seasonals for the tastings. It was very rushed, there was no real time to savor the beer. You get about 2-3 ounces for each sample. Their beer is very good. In particular I enjoyed the Grateful White and the Hala Kahiki. Dave liked Maxwell's Scottish Ale.

The tour was amazing. We were led by the head brewer. The tour was pretty basic on how beer was made, which I expect from a large tour group. The interesting thing about this tour is that you get to see a canning line. Canning isn't very common for breweries because many people think of canned beer as crap, such as Bud and Miller, and canning is actually very expensive to implement. The technology used in canning has also come a long way in recent years and makes canning actually better for the beer than bottling. That's the main reason the people at Rivertowne convinced their accountants it was worth the extra money to can their beer.

The dinner was okay. There was pretzels, sausage and penne in tomato sauce as well as salad. If you were on the tour, the price of beer was $3 for a glass. This was good cause you don't get to try any of the special seasonals during the tasting. So we grabbed the seasonal beers during dinner. They had a helles, a session IPA, and a stout, I believe. The lower price on beer was an added bonus for the dinner.

The music was so loud that even though we were sitting outside we had to yell at the other people at the table we were sitting at to talk. The inside is pretty small so for the volume that it was, the people had to be deaf. Dave says it was a little quieter than the sound system he helped set up for an outdoor ZZ Top concert, before they doubled the number of sub-woofers for the show, so about 120 Decibels aka louder than a Jet taking off. For the size of the place and the fact it's indoors, it was completely inappropriate. I would have preferred no music to the loud raucous being played.

We're glad we did it once, but we won't be doing it again. It's okay and the tour is interesting but with the fact that the tasting was rushed and the food was meh, I'd suggest saving the $20 and getting a general admission tour.

Rating: 2.5 pints
I did it once, I won't do it again. (Dave: I'd consider doing the general tour again, but not the VIP tour.) The music was too loud, the food was meh, the tasting was rushed. If you're interested in Rivertowne, do the regular tour instead of the VIP tour.

Merry Monks by Weyerbacher

Merry Monks is an interesting Triple from Weyerbacher. It's available year-round.

Color:

Light straw, with some super pale hint, slightly hazy, SRM ~5

ABV:

9.3%

Smell:

Ester, citrus, and banana

Taste:

This taste is bananas...
B-A-N-A-N-A-S! Literally, it tasted like bananas. There wasn't much of a malt taste and there was a strange bitter flavor after the banana died away. The aftertaste was slightly floral, and you guessed it, more [expletive deleted] banana. It was heavily carbonated and had a nice white head with okay retention. It was supposed to also have pear tastes but this bottle pretty much only tasted like bananas. It was such a strong banana flavor that I couldn't finish even a couple of ounces.

Rating:

To be fair we had another bottle of this a few days earlier and thought it was okay, nothing great, not any serious complaints. The bottle we drank to review it gets a 1 pint rating from me and a 2 pint rating from Dave so we averaged it. I couldn't finish it; Dave could but he wouldn't buy it again. It may have been just this bottle that was off, but given that it wasn't memorable the first time and I couldn't finish it this time... I am sure someone out there likes this beer but this bottle was just gross to me and I don't see a reason to drink it again.