Farmhouse Ale

Rating: 2

Smuttynose Brewing Co.

Portsmouth, NH

Style: Saison

ABV: 7.4%
22 oz bottle

Classic saison fruitiness and sourness. This has to be very close to the White Labs saison yeast I've used in most of my saisons. Light body, moderate hoppiness, somewhat sweet finish. Great saison interpretation except a) it's a little sweeter than I would prefer, I like the dry finishing saison for their drinkability, and b) the alchohol content makes it less of a session beer.

As a side note, the brewers' notes on their website are great from a homebrewer perspective, with details of malt, hops, and yeast. I definitely have to try some of the other "Big Barrel" series.

Beer Dinner 07/27/07

Given that it was in the 80's and way humid we went for the lighter food. Crazy cucumber gazpacho and pasta el vegetables. We led off the drinking with some Saison v6 - can't be beaten for a summer beer.

Reissdorf Kolsch
Rating: 2
Brauerei Heinrich Reissdorf
Germany
style: kolsch
notes: nice light beer, without other Kolschs for comparison we're having a hard time rating this beer

The Czar
Rating: 3
Avery Brewing Company
Colorado
style: imperial stout
notes: bang-up imperial stout...went well with our super-duper chocolate bundt cake.

Troublette
Rating: 3
Brasserie Caracole
Belgium
style: wit
notes: I swear there is a lemon meringue pie in that bottle, anyone who tells me otherwise is on crack.

Hopf Helle Weisse
Rating: 1
Weissbierbrauerei Hopf
Germany
style: hefeweizen
notes: not our favorite hefeweizen...I think we've had too many edel-weize's recently. And the comparison to Troublette is difficult.

Blanche de Namur

Rating: 2

Brasserie du Bocq
Purnode, Belgian
Style: Wit
ABV: 4.5%

750 ml corked bottle

This has to be one of the lightest beers I've ever poured, hazy straw color. Has the traditional wit coriander, lemon, orange smells. Light dry slightly acidic taste with a ton of tiny bubbles in my mouth. Very drinkable wit beer.

Hennepin

Rating: 2

Brewery Ommegang

Cooperstown, New York

Style: Saison

ABV: 7.7%

750 ml corked bottle

Ommegang's Hennepin, one of their flagship beers, pours with a huge, intense head, that dissipates very slowly, forming strange and - if you've had enough to drink - compelling shapes in the glass. The color is a surprisingly light gold, even yellow. There's an immediate spicy quality to the aroma - coriander is perhaps in here, but it's not that specific. There's also an underlying fruitiness. The flavour is a very balanced mix between the spicy notes, a floral quality, and a malty sweetness on the tongue; an extremely palatable, enjoyable beer to drink. There's also a zesty quality, like that from a lemon peel.

The beer is a perfect pairing with a rustic French cheese such as Comte Le Fort, with a mellow, earthy flavour.

Heavy Seas - Red Sky at Night

Rating: 3

Clipper City Brewing Company

Baltimore, Maryland

Style: Saison

ABV: 7.5%

12 fl oz bottle

This was an extremely pleasant surprise (though we've had other Clipper City beers recently, and enjoyed them): a saison available as a six-pack, on a seasonal (summer) basis.

The beer pours a light golden/straw colour with a small head. It has a yeasty (even bready), fruity smell, with sweet apples especially notable. The same qualities emerge in the taste, with a slight tart/sour quality on the tongue, along with the usual saison earthiness. Red Sky at Night pairs very well with good quality cheese.

Gareth's IPA v2 a

All grain IPA
20 gallons
7/1/07

This is my attempt to reproduce Gareth's IPA v 2 in an all grain recipe. I used additional hops during the final minute of boil and only had the dry yeast listed available.

Toasted malt, 1 lb, 1o min at 350*
Pale ale malt, 2 row, 20 lbs
Crystal malt, 2 lbs

Chinock hops 6 oz 75 min
Cascade hops 4 0z 5 min
Kent Golding hops 2 1/2 oz 1 min
Safale dry ale yeast S-04

Water heated to 170*
Mashed at 151-148* for 90 min
Sparge water 170*(water through sparge arm 150, mash at 136*)
Pitched 89*

OG 1048 7/1/07
Transfer to secondary fermenter 1010 7/4/07
Racked to keg 7/19/07 1010

Ebenezers Round 3

What we drank:

Unibroue Maudite
Brasserie Caracole Nostradamus - crowd favorite
St Bernadus Abt 12
Fantome La Gourmande - everything they brew is different
De Ranke XX Bitter
't Smisje BBBourgondier - reminiscent of the famous summer barleywine
Samichlaus - worth another try, I think MAF liked this more than the rest

It was a tough night...I had to get these beers blogged before they left my consciousness. Another great Ebeneezer's experience, except what's up with that intermittent sewerage smell, they seriously need to do something about that.