Beer Search Party – Page 909 – Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer

December 20, 2010September 12, 2018

XMAS Beer- Face Plant

Today’s holiday ale comes from Bayern Brewing, a purveyor of Bavarian style beers in Montana.

Here is their doppleweizen with the great skiing name of Face Plant.

“Face Plant Doppelweizen. This top-fermented, unfltered Wheat Bock beer is the counterpart to Bayern’s famous Doppelbock Lager. Bayern’s only decoction-brewed beer, the recipe uses five types of malt (Wheat, Pilsener, Carmel, Munich and Chocolate), and has an o.g. of > 17 % Plato, producing a stout 7.5 % Alc. by Vol. As with all Bayern wheat beers, Face Plant surprises with its complex flavor. German Hallertauer Perle hops give this hearty Bock beer a perfectly balanced sweetness.”

December 19, 2010September 12, 2018

Hop Candy

If you are still looking for something to stick into the stocking of your beek geek friends this Christmas (oh and if you are near Belmont Station in Portland), grab some hard candy.

Oh, it’s made with hops. Bitter and sweet and tasting of Fuggles or Cascade hops.

I googled and bing’d the heck out of the interwebs but could find no company that manufactures them or any photos. All I know is that they exist, like the Yeti.

December 19, 2010September 12, 2018

XMAS BEER – Sled Wreck

When I go to Portland for Christmas this year. Amongst my many beer goals is to have my first taste of any of the award winning beers from Barley Brown’s. They won gold in the CDA category at this years Great American Beer Festival and they have an Old Ale for the holidays with the wonderful name of Sled Wreck.

I am very jealous that the beer scene in Eastern Oregon, though far apart from each other, is much more happening than Los Angeles is right now.

December 18, 2010September 12, 2018

Homebrew DVD

A while back I was contacted about reviewing the Beginning Homebrew DVD. I jumped at the chance because…

A) I have tried to brew and failed (twice)
B) I find the process fascinating

I preface my review with the fact that I am not the guy to review this for detailed, step by step accuracy. I am reviewing the production and the way the material is presented from the standpoint of someone who has tried and would like to try again.

Overall the presentation was very good, for two reasons. First, it was paced extremely well. A tutorial with this many steps could easily bog down in the picky details to the point where people would lose track of what was going on. Each step was clear and led to the next one.

Second, the host had an approachable quality and was easy to listen to for the duration of the lesson. A little bit more comedic touches might have helped keep the proceedings more lively but he did a commendable job talking and doing at the same time which is not easy. Try making an omelette while describing it without saying “ummm” every other word.

Here are my constructive criticisms. At the beginning, I would have like to learned more about the host and his beer history. Maybe even a bit on what he was brewing now. A quick primer on tools and equipment and ingredients needed at the start would have been good too. Lastly, a bit more history of the beer that was being shown would have been fun and invested the viewer in the process some more.

Pop up information on the screen could have been utilized more without distracting the viewer. Information about the types of hops and yeasts could be conveyed to add a second layer of help to the home brewer.

The DVD comes with an instructional disc as well to help the beginner with the journey and adventure that is home brewing.

UPDATE: If you want to win a DVD go to the A Beer in the Hand website and try your luck!

December 18, 2010September 12, 2018

XMAS BEER – Parrots and Palm Trees

Karl Strauss has taken a page from The Bruery playbook and has embarked on a beach bum version of the 12 Days of Christmas.

Here is their initial offering according to their press release:
“Parrot in a Palm Tree is a big festive beer. Baltic Porters are known for their rich, dark fruit flavors. Loaded with espresso, dark chocolate, and fruit flavors, this northern European style is similar to a less roasty version of a Russian Imperial Stout. To bring out the raisin and plum flavors in the beer, a portion was aged in tawny port wine barrels from neighbors down the street at San Pasqual Winery. “In the last few years we’ve seen a trend toward barrel aging and we thought rather than putting this beer into bourbon barrels, it would pair better with a sweet, fruity tawny port. We called our friends at San Pasqual Winery and the rest is history,” says Paul Segura, Brewmaster for Karl Strauss. After several months in the barrels, the aged beer was blended with a fresh batch creating a subtle oak and port-like finish.

Weighing in at 8.5%, this beer is a great after dinner sipper, pairing equally well with chocolate and fruit desserts. Karl Strauss Executive Chef, Gunther Emathinger, created a special beer-shake to celebrate the release–blending the Baltic Porter and vanilla bean ice-cream for a festive holiday treat. If you have the willpower and patience, this beer will get better with age and can be enjoyed for several years to come.

Parrot in a Palm Tree is the first release in the company’s “Twelve Days of Christmas San Diego Style” series, naming each installment with a wink to life along the coast. The first in a series of twelve, Parrot in a Palm Tree plays off of the 12 Days Of Christmas, with a distinctively San Diego twist. “Living in San Diego we don’t have partridges, but we do have squawking parrots. We thought this would be a fun nod to the locals,” says Paul. Look for the second installment of the series next holiday season”

December 17, 2010September 12, 2018

Click the link and watch….

….Pete Brown and his great videos of pubs and beers in Great Britain. You will learn something.

Click HERE

If you haven’t read any of his books. Do yourself a favor and add them to your Christmas list. You can take my word for it or you can read his review of the Stella Black beer….“So what’s it taste like? I told you my expectations weren’t that high, but I was prepared to be open-minded. Well. No aroma whatsoever. I don’t know what they did with the Saaz hops, coriander and orange peel, but they didn’t put them in this beer. It’s so long since Stella has seen whole Saaz hops perhaps no one at the brewery knew what they were and they made a weird, bitter salad with them instead.

The taste has a very brief flash of malty sweetness, then a chalky dryness that disappears almost instantly, and that’s it – until the unpleasant aftertaste starts to build after a few sips. Then you need another beer to get rid of that. Stella Black is one of those special, rare beers that manage to be both tasteless and unpleasant. A beer that’s merely tasteless we can all understand, but this? It’s like a 4.1% standard lager with a weird, Special Brew type finish. The worst of all worlds. Utterly undrinkable”

December 17, 2010September 12, 2018

XMAS Beer – Christmas with the Pelican

Here are a flurry of options from Pacific City, Oregon’s Pelican Brewery.

These Pelican brews may not last ’till Christmas and some may be draft only. If you taste them, let me know what you think.

Here are Pelican’s descriptions:

About Bad Santa:
>”You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout the Brewers at Pelican are telling you why, Bad Santa has arrived. This mysterious dark elixir is filled with complex malt flavors and aromas. Toasted malt and roast character blends seamlessly to the alluring herbal hop aroma that comes from copious amounts of Fuggle hops. Bad Santa doesn’t care if you’ve been naughty or nice, he wants this beer on your list.”

About MacPelican’s Wee Heavy Ale:
“Our version of the “Wee Heavy” Scotch Ale style is literally a batch of MacPelican’s Scottish Ale brewed with half the water and twice the boiling time to create a beer with a massive malty flavor and a deep red color. The aroma hints of rich caramel, cocoa, toffee, and tropical fruit, with a full-bodied mouth feel and a velvety sweet, slightly dry finish. A robust beer with a dangerous, drinkable smoothness.”

About Stormwatcher’s Winterfest
Stormwatcher’s Winterfest is the perfect brew to savor on a stormy Oregon Coast day. Its deep amber-red color, massive toasted malt, toffee and caramel aroma, and full-bodied malty flavor lead to a smooth, soft and warming finish. The floral aroma and flavor highlights come from Mt. Hood hops, while a toasted malt sweetness balances a mild, subtle bitterness in the finish. Its big, rich flavor makes it the ideal complement to nasty weather.

December 16, 2010September 12, 2018

Bookshelf – Dethroning the King

I have added this book to my Kindle for iTouch and from the looks of the reviews, I will be e-turning pages very fast.

This is the story of how InBev took over the King of Crappy Beers. And it goes over the Busch legacy and the torch passing from father to son.

UPDATE:
I am part way into the book and it is telling that the beer itself is rarely talked about. A lot about Busch 3 and 4 and their conversions to adulthood and the damn Bud frogs have made an appearance but as I have told too many people to count. AB is a selling company, not a beer company.

December 15, 2010September 12, 2018

Sunset Beer Company – Interview

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with the driving forces behind a new and new kind of craft beer addition to the Los Angeles brew scene.

John Nugent and Drew Vonah took the time to speak with me about how to create an atmosphere for beer exploration, their plans for the Echo Park space and what kind of beer they drink.

Sunset Beer Company will be a 2,000 square foot craft beer store with a few tap handles in the revitalized beer area of Echo Park.

The seed that sprouted into this new venture starts with their other establishment, the Colorado Wine Company. This Eagle Rock shop is my go-to spot for wine tasting. It is comfortable and the wines chosen are invariably challenging to my beginners wine palate.

That same welcoming feel is what is being aimed for with the new space that is still under construction. They are looking to be a comfortable place to explore the 500 beers they plan on having. It will not be a loud, male-centric cave.

What I like though is that John and Drew are coming from a background in wine as a starting point. But they both have a love of beer and seem excited that the same passion for wine exists in the beer world. They are fans of Eagle Rock Brewing (as am I) and have that “beer da vivre” that I love to see.

The plan is to open next year on a date to be named later. In the meantime, visit the wine version and imagine what a great addition the Sunset Beer Company will be to the Los Angeles beer scene.