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Today was an epic day for those fortunate enough to live near Bend, OR. Today was the release day of 3 hop-centered beers including the classic Jubelale and new annual, Hop Trip. Below you’ll find the descriptions from their beer menu. Get thine ass down to the pub for a pint or four!

Jubelale - Perfect for a cozy winter gathering, Jubelale is a festive ale characterized by a large malt body balanced with hop bitterness derived from a variety of American & European hops. Enjoy this celebrated seasonal tradition! IBU’s: 60 Alcohol Content: 6.7%

Hop Trip - Deschutes’ brewers took the journey over to the Willamette Valley to pick an abundant amount of the freshest whole leaf Crystal hops straight from the vines of Doug Weather’s farm. The return trip to Bend was greeted with a homecoming welcome as the hops were immediately added to the boiling brew kettle. The first brew started soon after a phone call was received from the Willamette Valley confirming the hops were loaded on the truck. Roughly 680 pounds of Crystal hops were added to each of the 120 barrel batches in addition to some dry kilned whole flower hops. All together, there are 7 pounds of hops per barrel. A brisk flavor is created with a finish of soothing bitterness from the fresh hop oils. IBU’s: 38 Alcohol Content: 5.5%

Superstition Fresh Hop Stock Ale - We developed a Stock Ale recipe that has a subtle but complex malt profile. We used Willamette hops upfront in this beer but the wow factor comes from the tremendous amounts of fresh Crystal hops in the back end of the beer to accentuate the hop flavor and aroma. This is a beer to take stock of. IBU’s: 52 Alcohol Content: 5.3%

Biggest “hmmm?…” moment - Jubelale. I’m just not sure what to say about this except that it tastes “green”. It has a gummy, resiny flavor that knocks it out of balance in relation to the roast, bitter, and malt. It also suggests that it needs to mature a bit as well. I love Jubel. I’ve got a bottle collection dating back years. I’m going to buy a case (as I always do) just to stay true to tradition, but I have to say I was caught off guard by what I tasted.

Biggest “exactly what I expected” moment - Hop Trip. Two words … “love it”. This is hops showcased as they should be. Big, chewy, up-front, and yet completely complemented by the malt they rest upon. Aroma, flavor, and drinkability all in one tasty package. Get it … while it lasts.

Biggest surprise - Superstition Stock Ale. There was once a brewery called Orchard Street Brewery out of Bellingham, WA that was the only brewery that I had a stock ale from, and it was a treat when I could find it. What a great beer. Orchard Street went under (from what I understand), but this beer is damned close to it. Hoppy like an American Pale Ale with a slight caramel malt flavor reminiscent of an amber without the cloying qualities that I get from many ambers … a great session beer. And this one is fresh-hopped! Awesome, and brought back such great memories.

And there was a surprise. I overheard and saw brewers talking about and sampling an Oktoberfest they brewed at the pub. Got a quick sampler, and it was highly drinkable. Very highly drinkable. Good job guys!

So there you have it. Four new beers at the pub, and they’re all most definitely worth have a pint or more of.

Cheers!

Last time I went in to my local homebrew shop, they were thankfully carrying copies of the special edition of Brew Your Own magazine that contains nothing but clone recipes they have published over the years. I had seen advertisements in my subscription, but hadn’t bothered sending away for my copy. Lucky for me, my homebrew shop had copies set out for the impulse buy. When I went in last time, I picked up a copy. I’m so glad that I did, because on pages 28 and 29 are a hop lover’s recipe paradise.  There you will find BYO’s clone recipes for Alesmith’s IPA, Three Floyd’s Dreadnaught, Bear Republic’s Hop Rod Rye and Racer 5, Russian River’s Pliny The Elder, Rogue’s Imperial IPA, and Lagunitas’ IPA.  I was realized that I had quite a few batches of IPA ahead of me, and figured why not start big?

I’ve been wanting to try Pliny The Elder for a long time, given its 100 percentile rating on RateBeer and 93 percentile rating on BeerAdvocate. I went to the homebrew shop, and decided to change things around on the recipe just a hair to get rid of some leftover hops and save some cash.  I also didn’t use the recommended American Ale yeast, and went with the American Ale II yeast.  This was mostly because they called for White Labs California Ale, and I’ve never had to make a decision about a substitution there.  I knew that the most common substitution there is American Ale yeast, but I didn’t know that WYeast also offers an “American Ale II” strain.  I went with the II on the homebrew shop’s recommendation, but I think that might not have been the closest substitution.  Regardless, I’m sure it will be close.  I started early on Sunday morning last week.  Here’s the brew day notes:

8:00 AM: Started bringing the 16.68 quarts of strike water up to 164°F to hit a rest temperature of 152°F.  Added 3.2 grams of the gypsum to the strike water (remaining 1.8 grams will be added to the water used for lautering).

8:40 AM: Dumped strike water into the cooler, and stirred in the grain.  Threw the top on the cooler, let it rest 10 minutes, and checked the temp.  Spot on!

8:50 AM: Started bringing second addition of water up to temperature.

9:40 AM: Dumped second addition of water in to step temp up to 168°F.  This is one area that I have to go out to the net to get some feedback on.  Using brewing software to formulate temperatures yields what I feel is way too high a temp and way too much water in the mash/lauter tun (mash schedule portion of BeerSmith told me to bring this second amount up to 207°F).

9:50 AM: Vorlofed and lautered out a little over 6.5 gallons of wort for a five gallon batch.  Figured I’d boil off a little over 1 gallon in a 90 minute boil, and the tons of hops would soak up some of the wort.  Took a sample, and OG was 1.071 (pretty damned close to 1.074 OG stated by the recipe).  I think that this will concentrate down after being boiled for 90 minutes.  Need to go check the net for an equation to calculate OG based on evaporation, but will probably be too lazy to do that after brewing.

10:30 AM: Began bringing wort up to boil.

10:35 AM: Set out hop additions for boil.  Holy crap what a load of hops!  It smells amazing over on the counter!

11:10 AM: Wort is boiling.  Dumped first load of hops and started the clock.  Now onto cleaning and sanitizing the primary fermenter, stopper, and airlock (food-grade plastic bucket).  Set aside the mash tun to cool off.

11:45 AM: Boil progressing nicely. The evaporation rate appears to be progressing as expected, and I think that I’ll actually end up with 5 gallons of wort after draining from the boiler. Keeping my fingers crossed.

12:25 PM: Inserted immersion chiller so it will sanitize. Dumped in yeast nutrient and irish moss.

12:42: Began crashing wort.

1:12 PM: Wort is crashed to 78°F. Opened up valve on brew pot, to let it splash drain into primary in hopes of introducing oxygen into liquid. Pitched yeast and began to clean up.

10:00 PM: Seeing signs of life on the airlock.  Bubbling away!

Day 5: 5:30 PM: Time to dry hop.  Measured out all dry hops, and there’s a boatload!  It smells amazing.  1.75 oz of Centennial, 1.75 oz of Simcoe, and 3 oz of Columbus (Tomahawk).  Daaaaaayum!  In all seriousness, this is quite the incredible haul of hops going into 5 gallons of beer.  16.75 ounces!  Holy hop slam Batman!

Rick Lyke over at Lyke2Drink has this month’s Session, and the theme is “The Brew Zoo“. Essentially if an animal is present in the name of the beer or brewery, or if an animal is linked with the branding, it’s in. Rick put it this way:

“The basic rule is that either the brewery or the beer must have a real live creature in its name. We will also allow beers with prominent animal label art (think Geary’s Ale from Maine and its Lobster) to be added to the Brew Zoo.”

In addition to the theme, another important point to note is that this month’s Session is appropriately dedicated to prominent beer author, Mr. Michael Jackson (to whom all beer lovers owe a large debt of gratitude).

So let’s see what animal Brewerman will contribute to the zoo.

Kiuchi Brewery - Hitachino Nest White Ale
Kiuchi Brewery is located in Japan. The iconic owl on the front is present on all the Hitachino Nest beers. It is one of the more distinct Japanese labels making this little bird easy to spot in the bottleshops’ coolers. This is one of their top selling beers for a reason. It’s an award-winner that people like. Let’s see what it’s all about.
Appearance: Classic haze of a white. Straw color. White head that quickly dissipates.
Smell: Whites are traditionally brewed with orange peel and coriander. This one appears to be no exception as the aroma is heavy on both fronts, but the coriander is coupled with an apparent nutmeg addition. Hops are not obvious or even apparent, which is to be expected for the style.
Taste: Nice, heavy fruit and spice sitting on top of the classic wheat-heavy grain bill. It is a big, bright flavor that dissipates cleanly.
Mouthfeel: Light and clean with lively carbonation that plays well with the flavor.
Drinkability: I like this beer, and will definitely pick more up the next chance I get. It is easy drinking and clean finishing despite the prevalent spice, which might be a bit on the strong side for some fans of Belgian witbiers

Ratebeer: 3.43/5 [80 percentile]
Beeradvocate: 3.99/5 [87 percentile]

So play nice with the other animals, little Hitachino Nest owl. Know that we’ll all be coming to visit you and your other Brew Zoo friends regularly.

Cheers!

First off, let me just say that I love Bell’s beer.  It is one amazing brewery. Their ability to put out so many different beers of such high quality is something to be respected. Ratebeer has 12 of their beers (not marked as retired) above the 90th percentile. Now that I’ve said what I love, let me say what I don’t love: the beer distribution system of this country, but that’s another post.

My buddy, Hophound, brought this (and several other Bell’s beers) back from a trip to the Midwest.  God bless him for that.  I’ll be posting about the other beers as they are consumed.

Appearance: Pours a hazy pale golden.  This beer is noticibly unfiltered, so there’s lots of little floaties (which, in my opinion, is a good thing here).  Decent carbonation.  The head dissipated quickly, leaving a little ring around the glass.
Smell: Pale malt, hops, clean, spicy, classic midwest beer smell (don’t know how else to say it).
Taste: Pronounced hop bitterness and spice against malt sweetness. A bit of nuttiness and melon in the background.  Lingering bitterness after the spice and malt die off.
Mouthfeel: Not too crisp, good solid carbonation.  Good medium bodied beer. 
Drinkability: Very easy to drink.  Very tasty.  The balanced bitterness and malt sweetness make this such an enjoyable beer to drink.  I like it a lot.  I wish that we could get Bell’s here.

Ratebeer: 3.35/5 [74 percentile]
Beeradvocate: 3.59/5 [82 percentile]