Innis & Gunn original - A second chance

I decided to give this beer another try. The last time I had it I was not impressed and it was one of the few beers I have actually poured down the drain. I am pretty sure the last bottle I had was off, due to an overpowering rusty metallic taste, a flaw with the clear bottle.
This time I was hit with an immediate vanilla on the nose and a lovely vanilla sugar sweetness balanced with the oakiness in the background. The oak did not overpower the beer and I quite enjoyed it.
As you can see in the picture I had this with a cheese plate. The cheese plate was not too impressive, one of the tesco ones. The Cheddar was the tastiest thing on there and it was mediocre. The cashel blue I am sure is a good cheese but I have not got in to blue cheese yet, I am trying to get there though a little at a time.

Brewday efficiency

Yesterday I spent the day brewing. Now since I brew all grain it means that brewing is an all day affair. Gone are the days of brewing a kit beer in an hour. When I first switched to all grain it took the expected 8 hours or so from start to finish. I have managed to slowly get my time down.

Yesterday was exceptional though. I decided to start brewing just after noon and had started my mash by about 1:30 in the afternoon. I downed tools just after 6 in the evening (18:06 to be exact). I know my times as I twittered everything I did. Twitter does not give me times but it updates facebook which does so I can tell what time I did each process. I am such a nerd!

So an all grain batch of beer in less than 6 hours, only 4 and a half hours from start of mash to the end of brew process when the fermenter is in the fermenting room (spare bedroom). I even had time during the boiling time to keg and bottle my previous beer (applewheat).

So for those people wo brew beer but are afraid to make the move to all grain for fear of not having a life, I say that once you get in to the swing of things you can actually get it down to a reasonable time. I did extract brews that took longer than yesterday.

I reckon I can get it down quicker if I had a second boiler and a sparge arm for my mash tun because at the moment I do batch sparging which takes time.

You do not even need a mash tun, you can use your boiler and insulate it. The low tech method can be found here but I think a mashtun makes things easier so is worth the extra modest investment.

Brew #13 Blonde Beggar

This should be a nice inoffensive blonde ale. Something for the wife to drink. I doubt it will be very interesting but it will certainly go down easy.
The good thing about it is, it will be so boring I will want to do something completely opposite to it and make a very interesting beer next.

Blonde Beggar

6-B Blonde Ale

Author: Reuben Gray

Size: 25.0 L

Efficiency: 75.0%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Calories: 134.25 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.041 (1.038 - 1.054)

|==========#=====================|

Terminal Gravity: 1.010 (1.008 - 1.013)

|==============#=================|

Color: 8.28 (5.91 - 11.82)

|==============#=================|

Alcohol: 3.97% (3.8% - 5.5%)

|=========#======================|

Bitterness: 22.1 (15.0 - 28.0)

|================#===============|

Ingredients:

4000 g Pearl Pale Ale Malt

200 g Munich Malt

400 g CaraPils Malt (brupaks)

20 g Challenger (6.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

10 g Northern Brewer-Hallertau Hersbruck (10.9%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min

10 g Progress (6.3%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min

1.0 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.3

It's amazing what a little age can do to a beer

A few weeks ago, after I got back from Rome I took my US family to Galway (above) for the day. My destination was the new brewpub (Galways first) to see what its like. I parked in Salthill and walked to the town centre looking for it. It was closer to the beach than I thought. This is not a review of the place as they did not have their own beer on tap yet (not till October 15th I was told) so I settled for a Galway hooker Dunkel and it was better than the last time I had it. One thing about the place, the food is quite excellent and worth a visit for the food alone. Their beer has since gone on sale but I have not heard a good report yet, I will give it some time and let them settle in before going back to review them. It is called The Oslo and even if their own beers turn out to be boring, they do have a great selection of world beers.
After a little tourist shopping we headed back home and the beginning of todays beer reviews, though only the first one was actually tried on that night.


I had a fantastic beer tasting session with my brother in law that evening. I had been saving a Fullers Vintage Ale (2007) and Brewers reserve I bought back in April. I also had a bottle of O' Haras Celebration stout courtesy of The Beer nut, as well as a bottle of Lovibonds Gold reserve wheat wine. All of them went down an absolute treat but what struck me was the brewers reserve. Originally I had concurred with Beer Nut that while it was a good beer, you might as well spend the extra money and get the Vintage Ale. Beer nut did not think the oak ageing did anything for it. This time around I found the brewers reserve a little more to my liking than the vintage ale? The oakiness and whiskey feel were more prominent than I remembered. The vintage ale was very smooth though.
Similarly the Lovibonds gold reserve was also very smooth and even my mother in law said she liked it (thought was satisfied with a taste).
The Celebration stout was unspeakably good and did not last as long as I would have liked.

Anyway on to the last beer of the night, which is the one pictured above. It is Harvisoun Ola dubh 16. I was commended for my choice at the till where I purchased it in McCambridges of Galway. He was obviously a beer fan but had never heard of Irish craft brewers so I gave him a card that Beer nut had given me and he said he would check us out.
Anyway this was the first beer I have had from Harvistoun and I was very impressed as was my brother in law. It poured a dark thick black with a hint of red, smelled of dark chocolate, treacle and had a light smokiness to it.
It tasted very rich, smoky, sweet but also a perfect bittering balance and had an earthiness to it.
We were both very impressed and I was sad to have only bought the one little bottle. I will have to look out for more.


More recently I picked up a Lindemans Kriek. This was for my wife but I tried a little naturally. Having had a proper kriek from Cantillon which is very sour and acidic, I could immediatly tell that this had added sweetness to it. The bottle even mentions that this is the case. Cherry juice is mixed in with the lambic when bottling so it gives you a sweet cherry beer that tastes a lot like cherry Kool-Aid with plenty of sugar.

I was in lidl recently and noticed a new (to me) Shepherd Neame beer called Late Red. As the name suggests it is a seasonal Autumn beer. It is a red colour and smells like toffee, caramel, fudge, pine needles??? It tastes a little grassy. It also has a metallic taste. There is peraps a little caramel in there too but mostly it is quite bitter. It feels a little chewy in the mouth too.
I liked this, though it is not the best Shehard Neame beer I have had. I would imagine this being interesting on cask.

Brew # 12 Apple Wheat

I decided today was going to be brewday.
I originally was going to press my own Granny Smith apples but This proved impossible with my fruit press so I cheated and bought pre-pressed apple juice. I wanted Granny Smith and I am not sure what the packaged juice is but the pictures show red apples like Golden Delicious.

Should be an interesting beer either way.
The apple is not taken in to account in the calculations below so the alcohol may be higher.

Apple Wheat

15-A Weizen/Weissbier

Author: Reuben Gray

Size: 23.00 L

Efficiency: 75.0%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Calories: 146.88 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.044 (1.044 - 1.052)

|========#=======================|

Terminal Gravity: 1.011 (1.010 - 1.014)

|============#===================|

Color: 16.41 (3.94 - 15.76)

|========================#=======|

Alcohol: 4.34% (4.3% - 5.6%)

|========#=======================|

Bitterness: 8.7 (8.0 - 15.0)

|=========#======================|

Ingredients:

3500 g Pearl Pale Ale Malt

413 g Wheat Malt

400 g Munich Malt

150 g Crystal Malt

150 g CaraPils Malt (brupaks)

16 g Saaz (2.1%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

15 g Challenger (6.5%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min

1 L Apple Juice (Pressed) - added during boil, boiled 15 min

1 ea Danstar Munich

Notes

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.3

Rome - Beer street (Italy part two)

As I said in the last post, once the tourist stuff was done came the real beer. Trevi fountain was last on the list and when I got to the bus stop for our open top bus, while we were waiting I found a free wi-fi spot so got on the Iphone and got the address for "The football pub". We then rode the open top bus as close as it came to it and walked towards it. By now it was evening and the walk down by the river was lovely. We worked up a good appetite.

When we arrived on Via di Benedetta we found an oasis of restaurants and bars and not a tourist in sight. I am going to go out on a limb and say that few tourists ever venture here so I was expecting some proper food as so far, Rome left us with little to recommend it from a food perspective. I selected a brewpub, conveniently opposite Ma Che Siete Venuti A Fa' (Football Pub). The menu was all in Italian, there was no English, thankfully our waiter got someone else to deal with us who spoke English and could translate stuff for us.


Inside it is quite lovely and they list their beer and food specials on chalk boards, not that I understood any of it.


I ordered a tasting tray of 5 beers, there were many more available as you will see from the photos of their menu further down the post.
Starting from the left we have Lambrate Pilsner which was a very hoppy bitter Pilsner and quite good.
Second we have Carminia IPA which is a very hoppy IPA, thought not a lot of sweetness to back it up.
Third is Birrificio Italiano Weizen which is a 5% German style wheat beer, very tasty.
Fourth is Duchessa which reminded me of a trappist beer and there seemed a lot of alcohol, more so than its 5.8% would suggest. A very nice sipper.
Lastly came Genziana which did not seem to be the 6.2% claimed. It reminded me of a Belgian Blonde and was very sweet.
The only full beer I had was the Reale IPA which was a lovely IPA. It was not too bitter and had a lovely sweet malty background, similar to Big daddy I thought.




The food at Bir & Fud was the best food we had in Rome. The Reale (IPA) marinated chicken wings were fantastic. I would have loved to have more time to spend there trying different beers.

After dinner we popped over to the football pub. I have heard great things about this place and I was not disappointed. I would love to spend a whole night, even a few nights sampling everything they have to offer but I did not have the time and left Rome the next morning.

Inside the amount of taps as a little disconcerting, as you can see from the three images I had to take to get them all in and you still can not make out all of them as some are to the side, such as the cask pumps (left).


I initially ordered a Brewdog trash blond but was told I would have to wait as they were changing the keg so I had a Cantillon lambic instead and that was a shock. It was not a sweet style lambic I have had before, rather it was sour and bitter and hard to drink. It did grow on me but is not the sort of thing I enjoy. It was packed full of different fruits like Cherry & raspberry. It was very acidic, like vinegar. The tap label said 2006. I was not a big fan I have to say. I will have to check with BeerNut as he was at the brewery so will have tasted it.


The Trashy Blond from Brewdog was nice enough, it was like a light IPA. It had all the typical IPA characteristics but without being too hoppy so my Wifes Aunt (who I ordered it for) was able to drink it.



I saved the best till last here but in fact it was the last beer I had anyway. I did have another IPA while I was there, it was nice enough but not memorable. I think it was the Lambrate I saw in Bir & Fud. The bartender advised me to get it instead of what I asked for first which was called JJJ IPA. Thankfully I asked him for a taste of JJJ as well and as soon as I tasted it I told him to pour a pint of it sharp! I gave that pint to my brother in law while downing the other IPA counting the seconds so I could run back and get my own pint. JJJ is simply one of the, if not the best tasting beer I have ever had. It pours a brown colour and smells of chocolate (an IPA??). It was very Belgian in feel and I was very shocked to see Somerset England on the tap. The taste was full of chocolate, very rich malt and it was just so good I can barely describe it. When I handed my brother in law the pint I said it would "kick your face off" and that is precisely what it did. He fell in love with the beer also and promptly ordered another one. The beer is 9% so is pretty strong and up in the realms of a Belgian Tripple.

In Italy, a bar serves coffee and little beer - Italy part one

I arrived in Pisa very late and it was after midnight by the time we got to our hotel in San giuliano. After walking around the town looking in vain for some sign of life we gave up and went back to the hotel. The friendly guy behind the desk said he could sort us out with beer from the taps and I was introduced to my first Italian beer other than Nastro Azzurro and Peroni. This was from Birra Moretti and it was called La Rossa. At over 7% it was quite strong and not knowing anything about it I was very surprised to taste it. It tasted like a bock to me at the time and on further investigation it seems it is a dopplebock. I had no notes or camera as I figured I could get it again and take notes, sadly this little hotel was the only place that stocked it until I found one place in Rome but never got a chance to go in for a drink. What I remember was that it was a very lovely beer with a hint of sherbet fizziness but not enough to put me off.

The next day I did the sightseeing thing and saw the leaning tower before picking up the rental car and driving to Florence.

Florence was fantastic, lots of great restaurants and bars but it became pretty obvious at this point that a bar in Italy is a café and they usually only have one beer on tap and if you are lucky a few bottles, most of which are not Italian beer. I can not recommend Florence enough for the food though.

It was in Florence that I had my first normal Birra Moretti. As lagers go, this was pretty tasty. There is not a whole lot to it but there is a nice malty base and enough bitterness to balance it. I had it in bottle and on draught and the draught was better I thought. A good thirst quencher if nothing else is available other than peroni and Nastro Azzurro.


There were a few times when having Italian beer was a little boring because the sheer lack of it was a little depressing. A lot of places had bottles of Heineken and other muck like that but a I saw a few of these Ceres Strong ales and decided to give it a go.
It is 7.7 % so the strongest beer in Italy so far It has a strong malty base with fruity alcohol and a fruity bitterness, though what fruit I can not guess. It is tasty enough but nothing special, it does make a nice change to Italian lager though, even if this is more a strong lager than an ale. It does not seem to be listed on their website so seems to be mainly exported to Italy and probably some other countries too.

I am going to hold my hands up and say I was ill prepared for this trip in terms of beer. The biggest mistake was not printing out directions and addresses for places to go. I figured I could just get on the internet and find places once I had my bearings, unfortunately there is little to no free wi-fi in many of the places I was. As a result, I left Florence with very little to remember about the beer, even though I know there is at least one brewpub there and went to Rome. The other thing is that since I was not on my own I could not concentrate on beer tourism. I was with my mother and brother in law as well as my wife's aunt so it was old fashioned tourism all the way.

In Rome I found the same thing I did in Florence, bars everywhere but little to no beer and little in the way of Italian craft beer.

After finishing up at the Colosseum we found a nice restaurant nearby and I found this German wheat beer called Oberdorfer and was pleasandtly surprised to find it came in brown swingtops. Between myself and my wife we had 4 of them and I took the bottles home for homebrewing. The beer itself was a very respectable heffeweisse. The usual banana/clove thing was going on. There does not seem to be a website for the brewer so I am thinking it is a pretty small operation. If anyone knows then let me know so I can link up to it.


On my last full day in Rome (leave the next morning) I got a little breather, while everyone else went gift shopping, I had an hour to find some beer. I was in what is probably the biggest shopping area in Rome given that all the large names such as gucci, armani etc are all located here. I was hopeful for something and eventually I found what looked like a wine bar but had a long sit down bar (not normal for Italy I found) so I went in and found they had a few extra beers than the normal stuff. I had a pint of Hopfweisse hoping it was hopfenweisse but alas it was not. I am not sure which Hopf beer it was as it did not say but it was probably this one. I can not say for certain if it is but I did not enjoy it. It was not a typical weisse beer, little in the way of sweetness or banana/clove. It was actually rather bitter and it just seemed wrong.

The bar also had London pride on tap, I avoided temptation as I can get it any time in bottle at home.

So that is it for part one of my Italian trip and you might be thinking that I just said it was my last day in Rome? Well that evening, once all the tourist stuff was done deserves its own blog post.