BEER

[Zarathustra]

And the winner of Malik's competition is.......??

Inquiring minds want to know!

Thanks for humoring my obsession.

I liked the Dogfish Head Worldwide Stout the best. It was orders of magnitude better than the rest.

Though it's easy to see how a beer with nearly twice the ABV of the others could put it in a completely different level of taste, it's not obvious that this would make it the best. The bigger the beer, the harder it is to do right. (This one has a fermentation process which lasts months to get it up that high.)

A bigger beer is going to be sweeter, because the wort (unfermented beer) becomes increasingly difficult for yeast to ferment. The environment becomes increasingly toxic to the yeast. So many more unfermentable sugars are going to be in there.

Sometimes this increased sweetness can be cloying and overpowering. Syrupy. But everything balanced in this one so that nothing was overpowering. Sweetness + alcohol bite + darkly roasted malt = heaven. In fact, I think this is exactly what the others were missing, enough sweetness to balance the bitter coffee/chocolate flavors, in addition to enough alcohol to help compensate for the sweetness. While all were good, I liked the "softer," less harsh and bittern ones the best.

Stone's RIS was a very respectable 2nd. It was more chocolately, and less bitter roastiness than the others (more chocolate malt and/or brown malt vs black patent malt, to be a bit more technical).

However, something has to be said for aging. My two favorites were also the oldest two. They were both about a year old.

[Mortice Root]

Malik wrote

Thanks for humoring my obsession.

Hey, anytime. But it's not just humoring you. I'm fascinated by this subject as well, though I have nowhere near your knowledge base. I look forward to your posts in this thread - I always learn something by reading them. Thanks for being so detailed.

BTW, what makes a brew a "Russian Imperial" Stout as opposed to a stout in general?

[Menolly]

Malik wrote

Thanks for humoring my obsession.

Hey, anytime. But it's not just humoring you. I'm fascinated by this subject as well, though I have nowhere near your knowledge base. I look forward to your posts in this thread - I always learn something by reading them. Thanks for being so detailed.

*nodding*

I am not a fan of beers and ales, but I am enjoying learning of the differences as well. And if I can come on the camping trip, I hope what little I have learned from reading Maik's posts here will help me appreciate what I hope to sample of his home brews there.

[Zarathustra]

Malik wrote

Thanks for humoring my obsession.

Hey, anytime. But it's not just humoring you. I'm fascinated by this subject as well, though I have nowhere near your knowledge base. I look forward to your posts in this thread - I always learn something by reading them. Thanks for being so detailed.

BTW, what makes a brew a "Russian Imperial" Stout as opposed to a stout in general?

In short, a RIS is a stronger stout. Usually about 9%-13%, but in a few rare cases much stronger (18%-22%). A regular stout is usually just like any other "session" beer, anywhere from 4%-6%. But stronger doesn't mean just more alcohol, it also means a higher original gravity (a measure of the sugars in the wort prior to fermentation) as well as more hops and specialty malts to balance out the increase in alcohol. The point isn't to merely make something that will get you drunk faster, but something which has more flavor than any other beer. Literally. This is the pinnacle of beer, the boldest, most extreme you'll ever taste.

Here's a link which details the stout family:

www.ratebeer.com/Beer-News/Article-500.htm

The entire article is informative, but this is the part about RISs.

The granddaddy of stouts, Imperial Stout is one of the most revered styles of beer in the world. Indeed, it is a very easy style to love. As with Gueuze, even mid-range Imperial Stouts rank amongst the world’s greatest brews.

The style has dual nationality. Imperial stouts were originally brewed in England for the imperial courts of St. Petersburg. When tsarist rule came to an end in Russia, the trade died out. This trade left a taste for the style in the area and this eventually manifested itself as Baltic Porter. Imperial Stout, however, almost died. Courage Imperial Russian Stout was the sole surviving example of the style, and this was only made every few years or so. Then, in the 80s, US importer Merchant du Vin convinced the Samuel Smith Brewery, one of their clients, to make an Imperial Stout and ship it to the States. The rest, as they say, is history.

Imperials range from almost black to pitch in colour. They have massive flavour and aroma profiles. Dark malts, dark fruits, roast, a little bit of hop, massive bitterness and ultra thick bodies are all hallmarks. Alcohol taste will probably show through a bit as well, given that the strength ranges from 8% to over 12%. Imperial stouts age very well, for ten to twenty years, though three to five is often the peak.

[drew]

From time to time, its nice just to drink a plain old generic case of brew.
Christmas day and Boxing day, I drank a case of plain old Molson Canadian; though normally I do enjoy smaller breweries, and honey-browns, and whites and ambers. But it was good to drink it for the sake of drinkning it.

[Worm of Despite]

It's not beer, but I had some mead recently. It has no alcoholic burn and a honey aftertaste. It tastes like a really, really good wine. I used to think it was a hard drink, for some reason. Maybe I'm drinking the wrong mead?

[drew]

Oh man I wish we could get mead around here.
One local winery makes what they call HoneyMoon wine.
It's honey-based I think...but it's so sweet it sickening.

[Menolly]

Mead is always a must have treat for me at the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire, m'l-rd. I am glad to hear you have discovered it as well.

[jelerak]

What exactly is cold filtered? Does it really make a difference over other filtered beers?

[Zarathustra]

What exactly is cold filtered? Does it really make a difference over other filtered beers?

Cold-filtering is a way of clarifying beer with a shortened lagering
time. Beer (lager particularly) becomes clearer with extended storage
which allows proteins and other particles to coagulate and settle out
of suspension. The beer can then be drawn off and bottled. One way to
reduce the time required is to chill the beer causing these molecules
to "clump" and be easily filtered out. The up-side is that the time
from brewing to finished product is shortened, thereby boosting
productivity. The down-side is that cold-filtering also removes many
components which contribute flavor and body to beer.

www.faqs.org/faqs/beer-faq/part1/section-11.html

Now, if you'd asked me what "ice brewed" means, I'd have no idea. Brewing happens at 212 degrees fahrenheit. No where close to freezing.

[Mortice Root]

The down-side is that cold-filtering also removes many
components which contribute flavor and body to beer.

Heh. Ain't that the truth.

[Zarathustra]

I brewed my first batch of the year (batch 36!). It's a very big, sweetish, hoppy porter. Lots of chocolate and crystal malt. Simcoe hops late in the boil for a strong hop flavor and aroma. This one is an experimental brew. Strongly hopped dark beer is an underrepresented style in the market, but they're slowly catching on. Stone's 11th anniversary "black IPA" was a huge hit last fall, and I think the trend will continue.

It's currently bubbling away like crazy in the fermenter, so that's a relief. Stuck fermentation is perhaps the biggest problem in homebrewing. But this one is chugging away nicely. I'm constantly drawn to the "plop, plop" sound coming from the kitchen as CO2 bubbles out of the airlock. I keep finding myself mesmerized by the vigorously swirling concoction as the yeast whip the wort into a frenzy of chemical magic. I can't wait until it's done. In about a month I'll let you guys know how it turned out.

[Lady Revel]

I like beer. Any beer. In fact, I am a cheap date. The cheaper the beer, the better I like it. I know I'm not supposed to like the cheap stuff, but I do, and I can't help it.

I wrote that in 2005, and I must admit, I feel exactly the same way now. I just like beer. *burp*

I think its awesome that folks are so knowledgeable, though, and I am reading through trying to spiff up what I know, too

[Mortice Root]

Malik, man, you're makin' me thirsty. I've never had a dark IPA, but it sounds intriguing. Usually IPAs are my least favorite style, but the chocoalte malt sounds like the right touch to offset the IPA bitterness. Mmmmmm.......

And Lady Revel, there ain't nothin' wrong with liking cheaper stuff. If you like it, it's good. They don't call beer the nectar of the gods for nothing....(or maybe that's just me )

[sgt.null]

watching the John Adams mini has awakened a thirst for a Sam Adams draught.

[Zarathustra]

Malik, man, you're makin' me thirsty. I've never had a dark IPA, but it sounds intriguing. Usually IPAs are my least favorite style, but the chocoalte malt sounds like the right touch to offset the IPA bitterness. Mmmmmm.......

And you would be right! I took a hydrometer sample to see if fermentation was complete. And no homebrewer in his right mind pours that sample down the sink. This stuff is amazing. If it's good now--at room temperature, flat, and still raw--it will be transcendent once it's had some time in the bottle.

[Zarathustra]

Ah god! What a treat. I bottled my batch 2 days ago and it's already carbonating! This sh*t is da bomb! (Ok, never in my life would I actually say the words, "da bomb," but I really couldn't describe it any other way. )

It's 7.2% ABV, so strong but not too strong. I can enjoy a couple without getting too messed up.

But the taste! Wow. This is truly the rarest beer on the planet. It comes out of my fermenters. It wouldn't exist if I didn't take the effort to put it into this world. What a nice birthday treat.

[aliantha]

You could bring some to the Denver Seafest with you this summer. Some of us will be camping, you know. *nudge*

[Damelon]

Now you got me wanting to get my homebrewing gear back together, Malik.

[Menolly]

And yet again,
Happy Birthday, Malik.
ali...what a great idea for the Denver get together...