[pete b]

I got just in just in time to arrive in October, due to arrive at Mr. Chrispen's house by the end of Friday.
Matt, I sent a 2013 Cyser, a 2013 Blueberry Mead, and what I'll call a "New England Amber Bitter" which is made with all locally grown and malted barley (80% Pale, 20% Munich) and English yeast and hops.
My commercial beers are: Spencer Abbey Ale, Pretty Things "Jack D'Or: American Saison, and Brewmaster Jack's "Total Eclispe" Rye Porter. The Spencer and Pretty Things are favorites that I get all the time. The Brewmaster Jack I just tried yesterday. I liked it but don't get how its a Porter and not a stout.
I'll PM tracking.

And oh yea, I also included a pint of honey from my hives to play with. I think its a very distinctive tasting honey and although its not enough to make a batch of mead with it might be great if you back sweeten.

[pete b]

I'm going to get a box out to Paul Blatz before the end of the week/month.

I've got to send it on the last day of the month because one of the commercial samples won't be available till Friday. I'll grab that and drop with UPS. Won't arrive in October but it'll get there.

looking forward to it.

am debating about waiting to send my package out as I may be heading over to tampa this weekend and could pick up a brewery only bomber for peteb, otherwise the commercial shipments are kinda boring.

Either way is fine Paul.

[klickitat jim]

Pull up a stump. I'll tell you what, I dont always drink IPA. But, when I do, I drink Inappropriate Brühaus! Also known as IBEricbev, or erockrph!

Can I get an Amen for all the homebrewers who beleive that IPA is NOT about IBUs?... its about hop flavor and aroma! Its also not about being 7-10%. I dont care what the bloggers say, there is no WE in IPA. Its about what I like. This one is so smartly brewed it should be called iPA.

Inappropriate Brühaus "Competition IPA"


First off, you have to admire a guy who names his beer "Competition"! Eric so fully knows how good he is that Stone has named a beer after him. (Kidding, relax)

The nose is not lacking in hop aroma at all. Even chilled as cold as I poured it. Piney-citrus, orange zest and grapefruit pith, and Doug fir needles. No stray cat strutting here! Fermentation esters are super clean. Malt escapes my crappy nose.

The eyes are hazy yellow with a bright white head that fades quick to a ring. Any lace is swept away and leggy. No homebrew chunks-n-funk. But this beer aint about looks. As Bobby Orr would say, pretty dont check.

My tongue gets similar to the nose up front. Piney citrus, oranges and grapefruits and Christmas trees. Thats followed by a wonderful unknown to me. I fished for it. Is it a yeast I dont know, crystal im not familiar with? At first I thought super faint smoke, but thats not it. I settled on calling it roasted golden rasins. Probably the best word is Intangible! A great beer ought to make you wish you knew the secret.

Its a fullish bodied, I'm guessing force carbed, appropriately carbed, medium dry finishing beer with no faults. Unless that intangible is the doorstep to oxydation. But at the moment its splendid.

Overall,  a skillfully made, flawless, tasty, very drinkable IPA. I have to reiterate... if you think an IPA should be so bitter it hurts your teeth, find another table to drink at. If you think IPA should showcase hop flavor and aromas, and finish dry enough to invite another drink other than ice water, this is a great example for you.

If this was a Competition Id give it a 40. That way I would certainly be within 6 points of any other judge. If I didnt care what other judges thought... I know, imagine that... Id give it a 45.

My first bottle of erickrph's beers. I think he gets it. You're not going to pick CaCl chunks out of your teeth. You wont be suggesting sanitation procedures. You won't be wondering if he mistook his crystal 60 for pils malt. You might argue guidelines, but you would be wrong. Drinkability baby! And something wonderful to keep you guessing.

Kudos up the wazzu Eric! I'm on your side!

[Joe Sr.]

Don't know how to quote from tapatalk but I want to hear a review of te spencer abbey ale.

I enjoyed it but not sure it would become a regular. $$ plus all my bottles were gushers. Of course for it to be a regular I'd need to move east.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[69franx]

Nice review Jim. And for someone just trying to start to like hockey, a hockey star quote, even better! If you work at him a bit, erockrph may share his secret

[klickitat jim]

Nice review Jim. And for someone just trying to start to like hockey, a hockey star quote, even better! If you work at him a bit, erockrph may share his secret

Honestly, I don't know if Bobby Orr ever said that. It might have been Benjamin Franklin lol

[69franx]

even better!

[mchrispen]

Jim, I would love to read one of your arrest reports!

[klickitat jim]

Jim, I would lov to read one of you arrest reports!

Edited...

No you wouldn't.  Boring work stuff

[pete b]

Pull up a stump. I'll tell you what, I dont always drink IPA. But, when I do, I drink Inappropriate Brühaus! Also known as IBEricbev, or erockrph!

Can I get an Amen for all the homebrewers who beleive that IPA is NOT about IBUs?... its about hop flavor and aroma! Its also not about being 7-10%. I dont care what the bloggers say, there is no WE in IPA. Its about what I like. This one is so smartly brewed it should be called iPA.

Inappropriate Brühaus "Competition IPA"


First off, you have to admire a guy who names his beer "Competition"! Eric so fully knows how good he is that Stone has named a beer after him. (Kidding, relax)

The nose is not lacking in hop aroma at all. Even chilled as cold as I poured it. Piney-citrus, orange zest and grapefruit pith, and Doug fir needles. No stray cat strutting here! Fermentation esters are super clean. Malt escapes my crappy nose.

The eyes are hazy yellow with a bright white head that fades quick to a ring. Any lace is swept away and leggy. No homebrew chunks-n-funk. But this beer aint about looks. As Bobby Orr would say, pretty dont check.

My tongue gets similar to the nose up front. Piney citrus, oranges and grapefruits and Christmas trees. Thats followed by a wonderful unknown to me. I fished for it. Is it a yeast I dont know, crystal im not familiar with? At first I thought super faint smoke, but thats not it. I settled on calling it roasted golden rasins. Probably the best word is Intangible! A great beer ought to make you wish you knew the secret.

Its a fullish bodied, I'm guessing force carbed, appropriately carbed, medium dry finishing beer with no faults. Unless that intangible is the doorstep to oxydation. But at the moment its splendid.

Overall,  a skillfully made, flawless, tasty, very drinkable IPA. I have to reiterate... if you think an IPA should be so bitter it hurts your teeth, find another table to drink at. If you think IPA should showcase hop flavor and aromas, and finish dry enough to invite another drink other than ice water, this is a great example for you.

If this was a Competition Id give it a 40. That way I would certainly be within 6 points of any other judge. If I didnt care what other judges thought... I know, imagine that... Id give it a 45.

My first bottle of erickrph's beers. I think he gets it. You're not going to pick CaCl chunks out of your teeth. You wont be suggesting sanitation procedures. You won't be wondering if he mistook his crystal 60 for pils malt. You might argue guidelines, but you would be wrong. Drinkability baby! And something wonderful to keep you guessing.

Kudos up the wazzu Eric! I'm on your side!

great review of what sounds like a great beer.

[pete b]

Don't know how to quote from tapatalk but I want to hear a review of te spencer abbey ale.

I enjoyed it but not sure it would become a regular. $$ plus all my bottles were gushers. Of course for it to be a regular I'd need to move east.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

From another thread I get the impression that the gusher thing was an early QT problem. I started a thread yesterday in the commercial beer section with a link to an article about new offerings from the Abbey. In it they mentioned that they got feedback that the price is too high and are now recommending 12.99 but I still paid 17 at the local farm store. I'll check the price next time I go to a bigger liquor store. The problem with the price for me wasn't that the quality wasn't there, I think its great. Its just that as a patersbier its supposed to be and is sessionable. I will pay 17 bucks no problem for a four pack of a fireplace sipper that will last me a few nights bit its tough to pay that for something I can crush in 2 hours.

[erockrph]

Thanks for the great review, Jim. This was my IPA for the BrewUnited competition, which had a limited ingredient list. You needed to use Pils, Munich, Flaked Wheat and 60L Crystal as your only malts, and needed to use exactly two hop varieties from a small list of choices.

Centennial was the only remotely IPAish hop on the list, so that is where the bulk of the hop character came from. I used a small addition of Northern Brewer at 60min to meet the 10% of the hop bill requirement, then I whirlpooled 6oz of Centennial at 195F for 45 minutes to get a moderate amount of additional IBU's while extracting flavor and aroma. There were 2oz of Centennial in the dry hop as well (3 gallon batch).

I never use Centennial in IPA's, nor do I typically use it as a single hop. That is mainly because so many commercial brewers use it, and I prefer to make stuff at home that I can't buy at the store. I was surprised at just how much dank/resin/pine I got out of it in addition to the usual C-hop citrus.

Jim, I'm not sure what the note was that you couldn't place, but I used CaraMunich III as my crystal and BRY-97 for yeast. Maybe it's one of those?

[klickitat jim]

The intangible could very well be a combo of things. In any event, the biggest take away on that beer for me was this. In IPAs, as long as abv, color, and bitterness are not grossly out of whack, pleasant obvious hop aroma and flavor should rule the day. I am well on my way to hating IPAs that have a course grating overwhelming bitterness, and not much else. Give me a mellow 6% 40-50 IBU beer that nails it in aroma and flavor and complexity and drinkability!

[coolman26]

I've not found many ipa beers of late that hit the mark.  I'm sick of dumping cash to try a new ipa and it being sub par.  Not a little sub par, but way out there sub par.  Agree on all points

[AmandaK]

I sent this to Jim via PM and was cleared for posting.

--------------------------------------

Drinking the Helles now.

Aroma starts with an interesting white wine grape ester. Follows with a touch of light, floral honey notes. Very light grainy character in the background. No off aromas.

Opens with a light hiss. Poured vigorously to produce a 1/2", frothy, pretty head. Falls to a 1/16" cap quickly, but cap persists. Gold color, light haze.





Presents initially with a sweet, honey like malt flavor. Initial flavor subsides to a lightly sweet, toffee like flavor. Med-low bitterness. Very low floral hop(?) flavor. Clean fermentation, no off flavors. Finish comes across as a touch too sweet for style, but body suggests that the FG is on point. Honey and light floral flavors linger into the aftertaste.

Med-light body, med-low carb. Could be crisper, but I'm nit-picking here. This is a well made beer that *may* be showing signs of oxidation or age. That is just a guess though. The honey, if unintended, sometimes can indicate the very beginnings of oxidation. Or it could be Vienna malt. I always hesitate to say stuff like that on a scoresheet, but since I have you here...

Overall, great beer. It's a bit off center of a "Pils malt showcase", but who cares! I'm personally enjoying the crap out of this thing. It's got this multi layered interest to it. First you get honey, then maybe a bit of grape (? - this is the really interesting bit for me. Where does it come from? There are no other 'esters'? What yeast was this then? Was there a malt in there that I don't know about yet?), then some floral, a touch of graininess, and it's cleanly feremented to boot.

PS: damn, that grape aroma was fleeting. Or maybe I'm crazy. Either way, it's gone now. Still enjoying the beer.



Cheers!

PPS: Jim, was this a bit boozier than usual? I'm not gonna lie, now that I've finished the beer, I'm feeling like I should either drink water or lay in the corner of the couch. Ha!