It's been a long, long time . . . .

. . . . and I've been a bad, bad blogger. I've been back in the beer world for a while, but haven't really been compelled to write much, mainly because I haven't been brewing. Well, I'm hoping to remedy both issues.

So what's to come? Reviews some MB beers, some beers from the Bearded Brewer, and a review of the 3rd annual Pints for Pets.

Stay tuned.

Cheers,

Dave

Pullin' One Out of the Cellar

A long time ago, in a kitchen not too far from where I'm sitting now. . .

Justin wanted to make an IIPA, and so was born the Show your Hoppeeness Double IPA. Brewed back in September of '07, this hop bomb boasted 13 oz. of hops in the five gallon batch. Well, Justin still had a few bombers of this layin' around, and dropped on off at the ol' homestead. I had a chance to crack it the other night, and wow, this thing's still tasty. It's very similar to an aged Stone Double Bastard Ale. There still tons of bitter, but the hop flavor and nose has diminished to almost nothing, allowing the malt profile to shine through. The alcohol heat has settled down, and there's no extract "twang" present. This guy was tasty, and I'm hoping that Justin comes across a few more of them and is willing to share. Oh, and we need to make it again.

Here are the tasting notes:

Pours a hazy orange with a huge, foamy white head, three fingers thick, dissipating to a finger of lacing foam. Sugary, resiny nose with toffee and caramel. Mild vaporous alcohol and a touch of residual hops, but not much present.
Taste is mouth coating, sugary, resiny caramel with mild floral and citrus notes and a huge bitter. Mild chocolate notes also present.

Cheers,

Dave

Homebrew Review: Ode to the Halper Bitter

So we've had some issues with the Ode to the Halper Bitter (MB0026), but alas it's bottled and carbed up, so now's the time for a review of this Ordinary Bitter. The ABV ended up just under 4%, and it's cleared well after having bulk-aged in secondary for about a month. So let's get down to to it:

Pours a clear orange with honey hues and a foamy, 3/4 finger white head. Nose is sweet caramel with mild floral hop notes, also a touch of apple. Moderate watery mouth feel with good carbonation. Nice lacing. Taste begins with a huge caramel flavor accented with fruity notes of bright apple and mild cherry, which quickly bleeds to a solid hop bitter and mild floral and piny hop flavor.

This thing is too damn drinkable. Now, we've had some issues with Pale Ale's in the past (Leaky Faucet anyone?), but this one's on point. Well, it's at least a jumping off point. There's a bit too much caramel malt causing it to be slightly on the sweet side, but other than that, it's rather well balanced. I've been partaking in a lot of these, and it's slated to be made again soon. Could we be onto a "House Beer" with this one? Potentially, but it still needs a bit of work. I'm thinking a little less caramel malt to start. We'll see how it goes.

Cheers,

Dave

Homebrew Review: St. Defibaugh Single

I've been meaning to get to this for the past month, and finally pulled Jon's Belgian Pale Ale out of the fridge to enjoy. According to Jon's Blog, St. Defibaugh Single is a . . .

Dry hopped abbey pale ale with 8 types of malt, Turbinado sugar, and TONS of Juniper berries.
O.G. 1.058
F.G. 1.005

Here's the quick and dirty:

Pours a brilliant gold with a huge, fizzy white head. Great carb and thoroughly effervescent. The head diminishes to about a fin finger foamy mass. Nose is peculiar - lots of sweet candy and bubblegum, some bready notes with some spicy notes and pine. Taste is sweet caramel and sugary candy notes along with some bread and biscuit throughout. There's very little bitter, but just enough to balance out the malt profile. This is where the nifty part comes in. The end is like a bitter gin martini, accenting the alcohol and lasting well into, and actually peaking, in the after.

So yeah, this is one of the craziest Pale Ales I've ever had, that's still a Pale Ale. Tons of malt character and a decent amount of bitter, which would make it a tasty Belgian Pale outright, but the addition of the Juniper took it to another level. It still has a very authentic Belgian Pale feel, but the Juniper gives it its own identity. You knocked it out of the park, my man. I mean, it's terrible. Please forward all of the remaining bottles to my address so I can "dispose" of them "correctly".

I'm guessing the real question should be, when will we see this on tap at EB+B? Seriously, dude, this could be a staple at any bar. If I were to have any criticisms, and this is coming about 6 months after bottling, would be to kick up the dry hopping a bit, and use something with some piny notes to accentuate the Junipers. Honestly, though, those could have been there before, and I was too dumb to crack this thing open fresh.

The Halper's Bottled, and a Hop Hater's Review of the Ides of March

In case you haven't been following along in the side bar, the Ode to Halper Bitter (MB0026)is now in bottles, and slowly carbing up in the basement. Preliminary results say that it's a bit too sweet in the caramel department, although it is rather balanced. As of now, it's the best version of a Pale Ale that we've been able to produce here at Muckney. More to come.

So, as the title clearly states, the Halper himself, Jon of Confessions of a Hop Hater and Earth Bread + Brewery weighed in recently on the Ides of March Russian Imperial Stout (MB0017). Check it out.

Cheers,

Dave

Homebrew Review: Batch XXI

It's that time again. I figured I'd review something I hadn't yet. This time I'm going with the Stone Soup Ale XXI: The Mustachio'd Dark IPA. The name hearkens back to when our friend Jonathan at Monday Night Brewery was having some health issues, so, when The Boss (read: wife) wouldn't allow me to grow an actual "mustache", I immediately showed Muckney Brewing's support through our beer. The above links tell more of the story, so on to the beer.

Pours black with ruby hues throughout and boasting a creamy, one finger think khaki head with great lacing. Nose is floral and citrust hops, grapefruit and rose, with caramel undertones. Mild oxidation and extract notes. Taste is full of caramel and mild roast, with a mild to moderate bitter, followed by some resiny and citrus hop character. Mild oxidation and extract notes.

Overall, I'm a fan. It's not quite what I was looking for, but it's still tasty. Definitely something to build upon. It is rather thirst-quenching and quaffable, so it can't be that bad. The next Stone Soup Ale should be coming towards the end of March or early April, right after we brew the '09 Ides of March RIS.

Cheers,

Dave

Some love from Minnehaha. . .

Recently, EBB and and MB exchanged what we've been brewing over the past few months. EBB was nice enough to have worked his way through most of the brews, while Justin and I, the slackers that we are, have only tried one of EBB's brews. We're hopefully going to remedy that this evening.

Linkage.

Cheers,

Dave

Another Saison du Muqunee Review

Nate chimed in also about MB's first all-grain batch. Check it out here.

Thanks for the kind words, Nate.

Cheers,

Dave

Thanks for the shout out . . .

. . . to Jon at Confessions of a Hop Hater for the Saison du Muqunee review.

Jon, now in Philly, is helping Tom (of Heavyweight fame) brew at his new Brewpub, Earth Bread + Brewery. When in Philly, check it out.

Cheers, Jon! Good luck, and thanks for the kind words. We miss ya back here in the beer desert that is Indiana, PA.

Cheers,

Dave

Dark and Mysterious Update - a Beer Review

Oh, lord, there's still some of this abomination around? Ok, I guess that was harsh. A few weeks ago Justin dropped off a sixer of the remaining cache of the Dark and Mysterious Cinnamon Porter (MB0012-T2). Personally, I had chalked this one up to experimentation a long time ago, thinking that it was completely gone until it showed up at my door, and with this, I knew I had to give it one more shot. Time for another homebrew review.

A bit over carbonated. Pours black with shades of red and a HUGE non-dissipating, khaki head. The beer took 5 minutes to pour it. The head retention is insane. It's sticking together an inch above the top of the snifter. Nose is still a mixture of Close Up Toothpaste and Big Red chewing gum. The cinnamon taste has subsided and mildly degraded. It was too much, and still is at this point. There's some mild malt character, along with some hop flavor and a decent bitterness (mild to moderate), but it's still all cinnamon, basically bordering on undrinkable. it is much better than before with great lacing. This may still improve, but I don't think it's going to get passed the overwhelming cinnamon flavor. Maybe in a few months. Watery mouth feel.

Yup, once again a reminder of what can happen when one doesn't follow the recipe.

Cheers,

Dave

Saison du Muqunee - a Tasting

So, I've been absolutely terrible about posting reviews of the beers we make, other than "yummy" and "tasty" and "solid". So to start what I hope will be a new trend, I give you a review of Saison du Muqunee (MB0022-AG1), the first venture into all-grain brewing.

Pours golden blond with rimming and filmy white head, dissipated from about two fingers. Nose is funky, yeasty aroma with wheaty notes and mild, grassy and citrus undertones. Taste is bready with lots of yeasty and funky bite, along with slight, lemony citrus notes. There is a good dose of bitter throughout the middle and well into the end and after, where it intertwines with citrus and grassy flavors. Pretty decent. The Wyeast VSS Farmhouse Ale Yeast has caused the beer to become more funk-defied, even over the past few weeks, which bodes well for the upcoming months.

In other homebrewing news, Justin and I will be bottling the Rising Sun Ginger-Sesame Red Ale (MB0023) and the Rising Sun Oiwai Ginger-Peach Red Saison withing the next week.

Oh, and stay tuned for special announcement concerning a collab-brew with another one of your favorite beer bloggers.

Cheers,

Dave

The Bearded Brewer Will Like Us Again!!

After MONTHS of saying that we'd review El Bearded Brewer's offerings that he had sent us, Justin and I finally stepped up to the plate and threw down on some Minneapolis/St. Paul homebrew to celebrate Independence Day. BB had sent us, along with some commercial offerings a bottle of his Mayabock and of his Irie Stout.

We started with his Mayabock, an organic Maibock named after his golden retriever. Through e-mail, BB had stressed his disappointment with this run of the Mayabock. These were all lies!! Overall this was a nice beer. A bit of an extract "twang" to it and bit dry for style, but it had a great caramel taste with fruity notes and a solid bitterness. Official review:

Pours a golden amber with fizzy white head. Lots of sweet malt in the nose, caramel and biscuit with mild fruitiness and a touch of extract twang. Lost of caramel in the flavor with a touch of said twang, dry and mildly hopped for flavor and bitterness.

Now, I do understand his points if he's referring to the beer stylistically, but this guy had some great drinkability to it, even if it was a touch dry for the style. Like the BB, I, too, love me a Maibock, and I definitely wouldn't kick this one out of my fridge.

After the Mayabock, we moved onto the Irie Stout, a monster of a "Foreign Export Stout", weighing in at 9.3% with some orange peel and brown sugar. I guess I would have to categorize this as an Imperial Foreign Export Stout. Whatever one wants to say it is, delicious should be in there somewhere. It's not a conventional stout. There are some crazy aromas and flavors present throughout, presumably due to the the orange peel and brown sugar. I can see why BB was happy with the turn out. This was a great tasting beer, more fruity than roasty, with a plethora of flavors that danced on the tongue.

Pours black with mild red hues, 1/2 finger khaki head. Nose is briney olives with roast and smoke. At first I got some notes of bubblegum and apple. Taste is bright fruit, apple and raisin, slight cherry, some brown sugar, molasses, plum, and mildly roasted coffee. It is nicely hopped without any astringent bitter in the finish. No alcohol taste at all, which scares me. A fantastic offering. The mouth feel is perfect. A touch too little head, but I'll overlook it this time.

I must say, kudos on this brew. I really enjoy seeing experimentation with classic styles.

These two offerings definitely whetted the palate for more Bearded Brewing brews, which I was forcefully told by BB that we would receive no more of until we drank these. El Bearded Brewer, you have my address. Please include more Irie in the next one.

I'm sure Justin will chime in with his thoughts soon.

Cheers,

Dave