Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut-down Ale

12oz.

9.87% abv

72.41 ibu

Susan surprised me with a fresh selection of commercially available brews to sample. So of course I cracked one open with dinner.

Aroma has a lot of citrus notes, with a good balance of malt. Flavor is very interesting, with a nice crisp bitterness up front that remains throughout. It isn't overly bitter, but it does have a nice crispness to it. Lots of very smooth maltyness and warm alcohol flavors stick with you. The alcohol notes were much stronger early on, but after it warmed, it really mellowed out. Color is a deep amber, and mouthfeel is thick but clean.

Overall, a really nice beer. Full flavored, lots of punch, bot very well balanced.

C'

Sierra Nevada Ovila Dubbel

Sierra Nevada Ovila Dubbel

25.4oz.

7.5% abv

Sierra Nevada's first offering (of three) from a collaboration with the New Clairvaux Abbey, located just north of Chico in Vina, CA. More info about the project can be found here.

This is very nice! A fantastic combination of sweetness, sourness, and rich malt flavors. It poured with a thick creamy head, and has a syrupy body that clings to the glass. I should have a lot more to say about it, but I can't really add much more than this is awesome. I must drink more.

Thanks to my sweetie for picking it up for me. A nice Sunday sipping beer!

C'

Canadian Dark Cedar

Yes, I got the idea to use cedar in a brew from the show Brewmasters. But beyond that, this was kind of like an end of the week stew, a little of everything thrown in for good measure. And it turned out quite good!

Nice dark color with a thick head. When poured cold, it was a bit strong in alcohol notes in the body, with a light bitterness on the end. After warming up, it got much smoother with some nice chocolate and coffee notes, and almost a nutty/woody bite to it. Very surprising considering it used a very light Canadian Draft extract as the base.

Recipe Characteristics

Recipe Bitterness 62 IBU

Alcohol by Volume 5.2%

Recipe Color 39° SRM

Alcohol by Weight 4.1%

Ingredients

0.50 lb Brown Sugar

0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (US) Grain Mashed

1.00 lb Crystal 120L Grain Mashed

0.50 lb Molasses Sugar Other

1.21 lb MrB. High Country Canadian Draft Extract

0.50 oz Centennial Whole 15 minutes

0.50 oz Magnum Whole 40 minutes

1.00 unit Mr. Beer Dry Ale Yeast

1.00 lb Cedar Wood Chunks - in for full mash and boil

Canadian Honey Brew

I bottled this "Canadian Honey" two weeks ago, so it was time to try my first bottle. Overall, I'm very pleased. It has a nice light body, but with a well balanced hop flavor from aroma to a light bitterness on the back end. Not a lot of honey flavor, which surprises me, since it was quite honey strong when I bottled it. But still quite good.



Recipe Characteristics
Recipe Bitterness 42 IBU
Alcohol by Volume 4.9%
Recipe Color 13° SRM
Alcohol by Weight 3.9%

Ingredients
0.50 lb Brown Sugar
0.50 lb Crystal 60L
1.00 lb Honey
1.21 lb MrB. High Country Canadian Draft Extract
0.50 oz Centennial Whole 5 minutes
0.50 oz Magnum Whole 30 minutes
Irish Moss Fining 1/2 tspn
Mr. Beer Dry Ale Yeast Yeast
1.00 unit Orange Peel, one large
1.00 unit Vanilla Other 1 tsp


C'

Homebrew Notes

I always like to try a bottle of homebrew at the two-week point, after bottling, just to see how it's coming. As luck would have it, I bottled both my Christmas Ale and my Irish Red two weeks ago.

My efforts to pay more attention to my recipes using the Qbrew software I downloaded is paying off. Everything I have brewed since I started using it have turned out very good. I haven't had any bad beers, but my Double Batch IPA was pretty meh, and my Cran Wheat wasn't very cranny. Having run both recipes through the Qbrew, I can understand why.

So with a better process implemented, I'll jump into my Christmas Ale, which used a Mr. Beer Cowboy Lager as a base. I used cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla extract, and some orange zest. I also added a 1/4 pound of honey, and Willamette hops for 20 minutes. What turned out is a very nice surprise. Not one of the spice adders jumps out at you, everything seems very well balanced. It also has a nice crisp bite, with just a hint of hop bitterness. The only thing I'm curious about is how dry it tastes. Might still be too young, or might be a result of the recipe.

The Irish Red was a bit more basic, starting off with a Mr. Beer Bewitched Red Ale. I added a 1/2 pound of molasses, and used a long boil of Magnum hops and then dry hopped with the last of my Willamette hops. So not a great deal of modification, which results in a very good red. Just enough hops and bite. I should add, this was my first time using irish moss as a fining, and it worked. This is by far the clearest beer I've brewed. I've since used irish moss in subsequent brews, mostly for a better look in the glass. It takes as little as 1/4 tsp to be effective it seems, and a small bottle of it cost like $2.

I need to get my oatmeal stout bottled this weekend, and I need to come up with a new recipe to brew. Any ideas Sean?

Chris H.

Random Stuff

I've been spending time on Salty, so I haven't had much to report on. I've been hanging out for the past week with my better half recovering from surgery. That means I've been sampling numerous brews, watching quite a few movies, and tinkering in the garage.

Speaking of brews, I had my first bottle of a coffee stout I brewed about 6 weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised. The up front coffee aroma is a tad too strong, but it really mellows out in the body and has a great stout finish.

I also sampled my first bottle of what I call "Hoppy Magnum Alexander." I used a Pale Ale Mr. Beer kit, added some Alexander pale malt extract, and did a long 60 minute boil of magnum hops, which have a high 13.5% alpha content. I've been using a simple program called QBrew to make up my recipes, and it is helping me keep track of things. It's also helping me to tinker with quantities to better match up what styles of beers should be, in terms of bitterness and color.

On an unrelated note, here is a quick picture of Salty, my C110 racer bike I've been building over on this blog: http://saltygarage.blogspot.com/



And yes, I need to rake the leaves. But with the wind blowing everyday, I've decided to let mother nature have her way with the trees first. If the leaves happen to end up all in the neighbor's yard, who am I to argue?

C'

Week 1 of Vacation at Home

Since Susan had her surgery scheduled for this past Wednesday, I decided to take a full 10 days off work, which sees me at home until after Thanksgiving. I knew the first few days would be me just hanging out caring for Susan, but I had hoped to get a few little projects finished up after that.

Luckily, Susan is up and running much sooner than anticipated. So much so, that I was off riding motorcycles this weekend, and decided to jump into a few projects early. In no particular order, here is a quick recap:

Beer brewing

I'm on my tenth Mr. Beer brew. I bottled an Irish Red and a Christmas Ale on Saturday. Sunday I brewed a new batch of Oatmeal Stout and a rip of a Anchorsteam. This is on top of the Coffee Stout I have in the bottle, and something I call a "Hoppy Magnum Alexander" which as the name suggest used some Magnum hops and Alexander Pale Extract. This led too...

Beer storage redo

I've been using an old coffee table and bookcase to attempt to organize all my bottled beer and brewing equipment. It wasn't working. So I put together three new bookcases together that will work magic for cleaning up the spare room, as witnessed below:

Kickstand and Number Plate for the Trials Bike

I used a bicycle kickstand as the basis for a new kickstand. It fits nicely under the skidplate using stock mounting holes, and is tucked up and under the swingarm. I also made a new fron number plate, since my old one no longer fit after using a different handlebar mount. I broke everything in with a 45-minute ride around a huge vacant bit of property near our house. Lots of bumps, jumps, puddles and mud.

Helmet Mods and Paint

I took an old open face helmet I had laying around and drilled some vent holes in it, lined with screen mesh, and added a bit of extra padding in key areas so it fits better. I couldn't let it remain boring white, so I decided to give it a quick paint job. I'm not quite done yet, but it is basically some simple red scallops running back and over the helmet, like a Rams football helmet. Here is me working on it:

Tune in next time for more exciting stay-at-home vacation news.

C'

Old Man River

I took the day off today to spend my birthday hanging out with my little Mexican. We ate, shopped, watched movies, and I drank and brewed some beer. Overall, a great day.

I made a good haul too, as shown below:

Yes, two pairs of New Balance shoes (thanks Craigs and Susan) two beer shirts (thanks Panama) and two CDs. One is a "Book on CD" of three different Ken Follet novels. The other is a Phil Collins greatest hits. Hells yeah. a 6-pack of brew was also in the mix, but those are chillin' in the fridge already.

This evening I started a brew for a Christmas Ale. It has some orange peel, cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, and some Willamette hops for a 15 minute boil. It smelled super yummy! I'm hoping this will be ready for some Xmas sipping.

C'