kchophead

Hello, Goodbye.

2009-12-17T21:56:00.021-06:00

December 16, 2008 marked the first post of this site. One year later I am closing the site down or at least not posting anymore to focus more on my family and career. I figured I'd end it with a top 10 list of happenings during the year of the blog.

10. Growing Hops

As a homebrewer and a do-it-yourself'er I wanted to get into beer gardening. I started out with hops in the spring and got 3 full grown hop bines. I only produced a dozen or so hops but that is typical when you're not using miracle grow for the first year. Next year should bring me quite a few more and I should be able to start brewing with them.

9. Kegerator Project

I decided that kegging my brew was much, much easier than bottling. I tore apart an old fridge to build a custom kegerator into my cabinets. I continue to make it more efficient and better looking but it is pouring like a champ right now.

8. Collection

I started my beer bottle collection in 2007, but added the most bottles during the period of this blog. I have roughly 800 bottles and will probably stop it right around there. One of these days I'll probably donate or sell them. I was able to try some of the best beer in the world and drank 44 out of beeradvocate.com top 100 list.

7. Motorcycle trips

Motorcycle's have always been a part of my life and it was great to make trips to visit breweries and sample beers from far away. Whether it was dirtbiking or road trips I am always able to incorporate some great beers into the trips.

6. Tripel

One of my favorite beers is Schlafly's Tripel, and not because it's too style so much as the wow-factor with the sweetness. I got a hold of brewer Stephen Hale and he guided me to making a great tripel, or triple. Although some of the bottles had a little off flavor, I thought the kegged version was great.

5. Brew Days

The Worthog and I were able to coordinate some great monthly get-togethers that formed the name of 'brew days'. The idea started out with helping people learn to brew and grew into tastings of home brew and commercial brew. Gallons and gallons of beer had been brewed. Great food and great beer were consumed and I hope that the events carry on with everyone as the winter melts away.

4. Boulevard Brewing

My interaction with Boulevard has been a big surprise to me. They have been very responsive to me and they really pay attention to the fan base and keep up with the latest gossip or news. Everyone I've met there has been very friendly and open. A typical business wouldn't be as inviting and sharing of their knowledge and products. During my blog Boulevard released a huge range of beers (Single Wide, Bourbon Barrel Quad, Imperial Stout, Pilsner, Two Jokers, Seeyoulator, Harvest Dance, and the Collaboration Imperial Pilsner). Great job guys and thank you for the great times down at the brewery.

3. Followers

I have to give a big thank you to my followers. 38 of you follow me publicly but it was a blast to meet someone at a bar or even at work that had been following my blog and I had never known. Kyle, one of my followers, is in the military and stationed overseas. He once asked kcbeerblog and I to post something about the beer summit with Obama. I thought it was fun to get a post request.

2. Bloggers

Pictured in no particular order is the list of bloggers that kept up with their blogs and I enjoyed to read. Some of them are the reason for starting mine and some of them started theirs because of my blog. It was great to meet all of them and learn from them. I met Bull, Chimp, Worthog, Muddy Mo, Jennifer, Drunk Monkey, Sara, and Hop Frog. Also trading beers with bloggers is great. Thanks for keep eachother on our toes.

1. Homebrewing

Something that I will keep doing is brewing, just not so publicly. My blog pretty much started with my first home brew and I wound up brewing close to 50 gallons. So far I've made a blonde, wheat, double IPA that exploded, milk stout, oatmeal stout, tripel, another double IPA, and a hefeweizen. I've learned some great techniques from pro's and home brewers. I have also talked several people into starting the hobby so I feel pretty successful.

Thanks again to everyone for making the last year my "Beer Year". Feel free to drop me a note through a comment or email.

Worlds Strongest Beer

2009-12-01T08:35:00.004-06:00

Hey have you readers ever done this as an expirement at home? You can freeze a few of your favorite beers and pull out the liquid into a glass to get a stronger beer. Fun expirements!

Tactical Nuclear Penguin from BrewDog on Vimeo.

Damn Sam

2009-11-26T13:54:00.004-06:00

Samuel Adams has released a couple news items recently. One is about teaming up with the oldest brewery still open, Weihenstephan Brewery, to make a collaboration beer. The most recent press release is about their limited release Barrel-Aged beers. A lot of beer enthusiasts are annoyed at all of the barrel-aged fad, but for me it is just some more bottles to add to my obsessed collection. They are coming up with a Tripel, a Kriek and a Red. These will only be sold in 4 states (3 in the Northeast and also Denver, CO). Who knows if I'll get any of these but figured I'd show my ever-growing Sam Adams collection where each of those pictured is Sam Adams:

Winter is Here!

2009-11-24T13:51:00.003-06:00

So what is your favorite winter beer?

Anyone want to go in half on a Sam Adams Utopias with me? It's only $200 a bottle. Gomer's Midtown just got some in, not sure how many. Oh and I'm only joking about buying one. I already have an empty bottle of it and the smell alone will get you drunk. Utopias is 27% abv and barely a beer. The bottle is shaped as a brew tank. Pretty cool.

I really like Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale. Great stuff. Also you should buy some Nutcracker that I got to help dry hop this year!

Big Brew Day 5

2009-11-16T09:18:00.007-06:00

If you follow my blog then you'll have seen that we have been organizing brew day get-togethers for a few months now. They really are a great time if you like good beer. This go around I hosted for the first time as we took the brewing North of the River with a theme that was across the pond. Our theme this time was British style beer. I did not brew this time because of hosting but we did get a couple of first timers to brew and it was great to just help out and get people into the hobby. Matt brewed a Coffee Porter. He had ground his own coffee beans to give the recipe his own twist and it made my garage smell heavenly. Drunk Monkey brewed up an English Special Bitter (ESB) using his friends home grown hops to add his own special touch as well. Jason was going to brew but we were running short of time.
There were about 30 people throughout the day to sample beer and learn about the brewing process. I had my Hop Retarded double IPA on tap and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. We got through about 5 gallons or so. Then everyone brought some great English styled ales but mostly imperial stouts were being drank. The Worthogs brought an English Bitter and a Roggenbier they brewed. Jake brought his first lager. So we had plenty of homebrew along with an entire fridge stuffed full of commercial brews.

Probably the two top beers of the night for myself was the Imperial Stout Trooper from 2006 that Matt brought and then the Alaskan Baltic Porter was incredible. Something I'm not proud of is 14 hours of straight drinking with no food. It was a rough Sunday morning to say the least. It's a tough job but someone's got to do it! I'm happy to say both brews are fermenting away. Thanks everyone for making the day rock!

Float Fail

2009-11-10T09:08:00.003-06:00

So I had heard of Guinness ice cream floats before and it sounded delicious. I have tried a bite of this once or twice before with other stouts and thought it to be fairly good. So I figured I'd take it to the next level... FAIL.

The other day I had a Péché Mortel and loved it. It's rated very high on ratebeer and beeradvocate and finally found it in KC. It's now at 3 stores that I know of. It's an imperial stout with coffee. The coffee isn't quite as overwhelming as a Founders Breakfast Stout because of the bold malt backbone. As this warms to room temperature it tastes magnificent. So I poured some in with some frozen yogurt, hey it's all we had. It tasted terrible. Why did it fail? Tasted the yogurt by itself and it was fine. Drank the rest of the beer and it was awesome. But the two went together like cheese and dirt. Oh well, it looks good.

Beer Geek Tuesday

2009-11-06T08:05:00.002-06:00

Want to see what beer geeks look like? Remember when I was trying to coax someone in LA to get me a bottle? Check out this great video from the Black Tuesday release party. This kind of thing happens all over the country and I think it's a great way for breweries to make money and build hype. Black Tuesday now stands at #3 on beeradvocate.

The Bruery - Black Tuesday from benjamin weiss on Vimeo.

Gomers and a Cuvée

2009-11-02T21:14:00.007-06:00

I was over in Lees Summit yesterday and decided I'd stop by Gomers since it is the only place that I've heard has the Olfabrikken Porter around Kansas City. I had been to almost every good beer store in KC except for this Gomers. I picked up a La Trappe Tripel, Rochefort 10 and a Mikkeller Black and then realized I'm going to need a shopping cart and knew I was in for a large bill. I rounded out with (you ready for this?) Sierra Nevada Big Foot, Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast, Oflabrikken Porter, Péché Mortel, Nogne #100, Southern Tier's Oak Aged Cuvée Series 1 and Boulevard Nutcracker that I got to help dry hop which was fun. Oops, that's a large bill. I signed up for their savings program and got 5% off, but still going to have to delay my next beer run. This store has a great selection of beer and wine.

Tonight I'm drinking Southern Tier's Cuvée at 11% abv. The other night I had the Series 2 and tonight Series 1. There is a Series 3 to come out at some point and I believe that is it for the Cuvée's. All 3 Series are American Strong Ales. American Strong is an interesting category which is beers that don't really fall into any category that are higher than 7% abv or so. Typically these are experimental brews that can go as high as alcohol can go in beer; however, most taste like a cross between a farmhouse and a barleywine. This particular beer tastes like sugar bomb. Tons of residual sugars and maltiness. You can taste a bit of the French Oak but not much, like a ligther Gread Divide 15th Anniv. IPA. A fair amount of bitterness and somewhat of a sour taste. Smells of apples and apricots with a sipping drinkability. Pretty good, but I'm not rushing out to get another. Have you tried Ska Decadent IPA or a DFH 120 min IPA? It's kind of like that. Love/hate beer.

My Name is Mud

2009-10-27T17:46:00.008-05:00

On our last brew day get-together I decided to change up my previously successful double IPA. I wanted to do an extract brew for time's sake and hauling my equipment around. This time I wanted to push the envelope with abv and hops. Well maybe I should have stuck with my original recipe, I haven't decided yet. I wound up with 2 kegs that have over 4 gallons and Mr. and Mrs. Worthog wound up with 3 or so gallons and fermented with US-04 yeast whereas I fermented with US-05. Nice experiment.

As you can see this brew looks incredibly similar to mud water. "Muddy Mo" if you will. I thought about that for a name, but we'll get to that soon. The merkiness came from tons of pellet hops and scorching the extract some. Now the floaties are because I am kegging 3 oz of hops in each keg which I decided not to filter out the dust. I went with an 80 minute boil here. I figured, the typical homebrew boil is 60 minute and sometimes 90 minutes, why not go with something else. I yielded an 8.1% abv with this guy and some ridiculous amount of IBU's. You can do the math if you'd like. Yes those are Chinese lanterns below, no I did not pick them out.

13 gallons of water

steeped 2 lb of Crystal 60L for 30 or 40 minutes at 150-160 F

16.3 lbs Briess Light LME

3 lbs Briess Light DME

All pellet hops:

2 oz Warrior 90 min

2 oz Simcoe 70 min

4 oz Cascade continuously between 60 and 30 min because they were handed to me!

4 oz Centennial 25 min

whirfloc at 15 min, oops!

2 oz Willamette 10 min

2 oz Simcoe in keg

4 oz Tomahawk in keg

I was talking about how much hops I put in this brew with someone and I told them it was a stupid amount. Suddenly I realized that maybe that's how Lagunitas came up with the name Hop Stoopid for their brew. And it dawned on me that I can make fun of their beer without copyright infringements because, well, it will only be consumed at my home for free! Hence the name, Hop Retarded. Now I know it's not politically correct but it's the only thing that came to mind when I have went beyond stupid and put too many hop pellets in. I hope you enjoy my new logo that will not be printed or distributed :)

Boulevard Harvest Dance = Awesomeness!

2009-10-26T21:18:00.003-05:00

I didn't get enough to fully review, but it is some good malty liquid!

Up in da Club

2009-10-21T10:47:00.005-05:00

What a great Tuesday I had yesterday. I shot down to Lake Lotawana right after work to Cullun's place. Normally if I am going to Lotawana it's for a fancy dinner at Marina Grog and Galley (highly recommended), but this time it was for beer. We jumped on Cullun's boat and headed out to sea, well KC sea. We joked that instead of seagulls they have lakegulls.

No I didn't just go there for some lake action, it was the 3rd Tuesday of the month which means one of KC's homebrew clubs, ZZ Hops, was to meet. I figured I'd mosey on down and check out a meeting and it was very convenient because it was on the same lake. Neither of us had been to an official homebrew club and I wanted to see what it was all about.

Everyone at the meeting was incredibly nice and I liked the low-key atmosphere they provided. It could have been a little more organized, but overall a good meeting. Apparently they rate homebrew brought in so first thing was they slapped a number on my Tripel Hose I brought. I think there were around 7 or 8 homebrews and about 6 different meads which was fun. Some of those guys even kept their own bees. The brews were really good and I think everyone appreciated my Tripel which was nice to hear.

While I have no ties to a homebrew club yet, I do enjoy learning about them and what they represent. I think they are a good idea to get a little more serious about your hobby.

KC BeerFest '09

2009-10-19T12:03:00.012-05:00

I wasn't going to do a write up on the beerfest because everyone already has, but I need to state my opinions in hopes that they get heard. I had a feeling this festival was going to be not my type of beer event, but I had to go see what it was all about for myself. This event was held at the top of the parking garage at Legends. Not a bad idea in case the ground was wet. We were greeted with a KC BeerFest snifter glass that was pretty cool and a band that was, eh, good enough. I turned the corner and walked right up to Sam Adams area that had their Imperial Series. I am a big fan of that stuff and figured an Imperial Stout was a great way to start off the day! I made my way over to Free State which had a great booth. I tried the Eccentricity which was explained as a barrel aged ale that was blended to perfection. Then I asked what style they were going for and they just said it's a style of it's own. Hm...

From there I found tons and tons of crappy beer you can buy in any liquor store and then all of a sudden I realized that every booth except for Boulevard's Nuttsack Ale and Free State booth everything there was something you could just go to the liquor store and get. But it was kind of cool to see almost 250 different beers in one spot.

None of the volunteers knew about the beer. Don't get me wrong, I am happy that these volunteers were pouring, but I just feel like having some conversation about it. Instead I felt like I was to move out of the way so this other guy can get his drink on. Then it became very crowded. Hundreds of people swarming BMC booths and taking down the Corona, the Smirnoff Ice and the Bud American Ale. Dude, buddy, homey!

The beerfest was to last from 1-5. At 4 most tables were being cleared off and the lines became very long for the people who actually brought kegs. A big thanks to Boulevard, Schlafly and Free State for holding down the fort. The only spots besides High Noon that actually had their own staff pouring.

Closer to 5 people started swarming to the edge of the parking garage to gawk at some white-trashiness fight. We saw two bloody fights ensue and people getting arrested. The whole time I was thinking about Parkville's Microfest and how awesome and laid back it is.

- picture taken from pitch.com

Later that night the Mizzou game was on and what better time to keep drinking. Okay maybe that was a bad idea. Bryan came over and he brought back his collection from Florida: 13th Anniv. Stone, Cigar City Bolita Brown, Terrapin Rye squared, Smuttynose IPA, and a couple others. As a night cap I popped my Southern Tier Cuvee. WOW, what a day of drinking! Time to take a long break from drinking that much.

Recycle Kansas City

2009-10-15T13:36:00.004-05:00

As I resident of Kansas City, MO, I know garbage day sucks. Two bag minimum outside of garbage cans so the animals are free to rip into them. Then these recycle bins that blow down your street on a windy day only to never find them again. At least it's free (taxes) I suppose. I remember when they started with these recycle bins and the first trash day I had put a glass bottle in the recycle bins and they didn't pick it up. This means that my two bags of trash, that can only be 50 lbs, are heavy as hell because I have to put all my glass bottles into them.

Well not anymore. The good people at Ripple Glass (pretty much the Boulevard guys) are making it possible to take your glass to man convenient locations and should be opening up within the next month or so.

Of course you could always just donate your rare bottles to my 700+ collection.

Tripel Hose

2009-10-13T12:18:00.010-05:00

One of the brews in my ever-changing Top 5 list has been Schlafly's Tripel. While my tongue hasn't been calibrated as a BJCP judge or a brewing QC personnel I do know what I like. I view the Schlafly Tripel as Americanized Chinese food, meaning that the style has been tainted by American characteristics (and I like it!). I feel that this version is a bit more sugary, slightly higher in IBU's and a hint more chewy than, let's say, a La Fin Du Monde. Let's just say it's damn good and in my opinion under-rated.

As a beginner home brewer I hadn't felt I was ready to break off and do my own variables in brews so I wanted to semi-clone the Schlafly brew. I got a hold of Stephen Hale at Schlafly who guided me through the beer. I won't be posting my ingredients on here for the integrity of Schlafly, but I will say that the key was in the yeast. And boy did this yeast work. The name "Tripel Hose" came about because I roasted my garden hose on my burner when I was about to chill the wort. One of the many things you can do wrong when drinking while home brewing.

I listened to a show on the brewing network with Jamil about Tripels and the candy sugars. It was suggested that you let the yeast work on the more complicated sugars from the malts first then once attenuation starts to slow down, dump in the candy sugars. He equated to filling up too fast on the junk food and not having any of the healthy food because you're too full. The yeast sure did it's job finishing out with a Specific Gravity of 1.009 meaning I had 91% apparent attenuation which is crazy. I have heard of a lot of tripels getting around 95% attenuation and mine almost got there. I am very sad to say that I did not get an original gravity so I can only roughly estimate the abv. However with a 70% brewhouse efficiency I would estimate a range from 11.5-12% abv whereas Schlafly's is about 10%. This is far too high to be judged properly in the Tripel category where BJCP looks for 7.5-9%, but you know what, I don't care. This beer is mighty tasty. It is a bit dry, but the heavier malt backbone gives a good balance as long as their is high carbonation. Leave it to us Americans to bastardize recipes and double up on ingredients.

Because I did not get an original gravity reading, the good people at Boulevard took a sample to get an Ethanol spike using their chromatography machine (GC). While I actually never got a reading for my ABV, I did get a ton more and I was very happy with my results. While some were marked as high, sometimes they are acceptable for a Belgian-Styled brew. It was also ran through a 7 person tasting panel and received a 6.8 rating which is right in line with many commercial brews.

Acetaldehyde (ppm) - 25.80177
Diacetyl (ppb) - 12.38845
DMS (ppb) - 136.67268
Ethyl Acetate (ppm) - 40.55405
Ethyl Butyrate (ppb) - 1527.58567
Isoamyl Acetate (ppb) - 3002.76315
Isoamyl Alcohol (ppm) - 256.3184
Ethyl Hexanoate (ppb) - 186.61994

Who invited the 14 yr old?

2009-10-11T16:32:00.004-05:00

14 yr old whiskey that is. Long night last night. The picture says 1000 words.

The Missing Link - A Pilsner Story

2009-10-08T10:06:00.014-05:00

Many Kansas Citians know of the recently released Boulevard Pilsner. Some of those beer drinkers know that it pays homage to the late Kansas City's Muehlebach Pilsner, but most probably were not ready for the old school label. What most do not know is that in between the two there was another Pilsner that was created based on the Muehlebach brand. This is the story of those beers.

George Muehlebach came to U.S. from Switzerland in 1859. He was a very well known Kansas Citian like Harry S. Truman or Walt Disney. George had business on the mind and he ran a large Hotel in KC as well as a brewery. In 1879 there were 67 breweries, but only 2 in KC. George had to sustain a business that dealt with alcohol through the prohibition and like Anhueser-Busch selling Bevo through drought, George sold Mulo, a non-alcoholic beverage, or near-beer, to get through rough times. Muehlebach Brewing Company lasted though prohibition and became a very strong contender during World War II. While there were many different styles of bottles that Muehlebach produced I was able to obtain the rare green bottles that have the U.S. Victory Bonds label at the top.

What sparked my interest in this whole story was when I was shopping for some interesting beer at a Berbiglia store. While I do not have any loyalty to a particular beer store I rarely make it to a Berbiglia. As I was purchasing some Rochefort 6 and 10, I noticed behind the register what I thought was a recently released Boulevard Pilsner bottle. As I took a closer look I noticed that it looked very aged. It said "Berbiglia Pilsner" and I thought to myself that Boulevard must have copied off Berbiglia. The next day I talked to Boulevard's marketing and Jeremy Ragonese reminded me of Muehelbach. I took a look online and sure enough both bottles look extremely similar to the much older brew. When I spoke to the beer clerk he said that the manager there had been working there since the 70's and that she saved back a bottle when it was brewed. That made me think it was brewed in the 70's. I contacted Marcia Butterbaugh of BCCA Magazine and she informed me that the Berbiglia Pilsner label by Dick Brothers in Quincy, IL and by Huber Brewing in Monroe, WI date to between 1946 and 1951 and that both breweries are closed. Now what is interesting is that I found this label from the Fischbach Brewing Co in St. Charles, MO. Where was Berbiglia brewed at what times I still do not know.
Boulevard Brewing released the Boulevard Pilsner in the summer of 2009. It created a lot of buzz with the vintage logo. The price of these beers at $6 per 6 pack are lower than typical craft 6 pack that Boulevard makes. This makes it a convenient contender for the Budweiser or the Millers on the shelves. I am often asked how many calories are in a Boulevard Pilsner. While calorie information is not yet obligated by the breweries I was informed that the calories would be more equivalent to a Budweiser as opposed to a Bud Light. While this brew is nice, light and refreshing this was not Boulevard's way to compete with the lightest of light beers. Another interesting fact about Boulevard was that when they opened in 1989 they were the first brewery to open in Kansas City since Muehlebach reopened after prohibition in 1938.

I hope you have enjoyed the first blog article of many to come.

References:

Hometown Beer: A History of Kansas City's Breweries
James Maxwell
Jeremy Ragonese
Marcia Butterbaugh
http://www.usbeerlabels.com/

Very Black Tuesday

2009-10-07T11:37:00.006-05:00

I'm not speaking of yesterday. I'm speaking of the future. October 27th at 5:30 pm Pacific time to be exact. That is when The Bruery will be releasing their famed Black Tuesday Imperial Stout. Why am I mentioning this on my Kansas City blog? Because I can and because I am a huge beer geek. If you or anyone you know is in Los Angeles area and could swing by to get one for me then I'll put you in KC Hop Head's Hall of Fame which doesn't exist yet.

This beer became popular because of the crazy rating system on beeradvocate. These guys claim that the calculation is that way so that very good beers that have few highly ranked tastings would get noticed as they come out but the more tasters the further it moves down the list and lands where it should. For Black Tuesday 28 reviews and is top 5 in the world currently. It's caused a lot of controversy about the rating system and whether this beer is really that good at close to 20% abv.

So here's the calculation and you can tell me your thoughts.
You must have 10 reviews, but I think it should be 100.

weighted rank (WR) = (v ÷ (v+m)) × R + (m ÷ (v+m)) × C

R = review average for the beer
v = number of reviews for the beer
m = minimum reviews required to be listed (currently 10)
C = the mean across the list (currently 3.64)

Another Brew Day in the Books

2009-10-04T21:25:00.009-05:00

Our 4th successful brew day! Next one is at my place!! KCWortHog hosted our 4th brew day as an Oktoberfest style event. She and Mr. Wort Hog made tons of excellent German food to soak up the beer. Three of us decided to brew. Hop Frog went with a tangerine IPA, while the Wort Hogs decided to go with a Roggenbier. Below is the roggenbier moving from the chilled pot to the carboy. Mmmm...

I decided to brew up an altered version of my double IPA proclaimed as Hop Explosion. This time I will not be having the explosion part of it. I have more than a pound of hops that are going into this 10 gallon batch. I actually wound up making about 12 gallons and letting the worthogs do their worst to the left overs. I went with an extract brew just because it is easier when traveling with equipment; however, with what time I saved I made up for boiling 13 gallons of water. I'll post the recipe at some point.

Probably the highlight was all of the good brews that Jeremy D, from Blvd, brought along. An Imperial Stout aged to perfection, an aged Saison-Brett that the funk turned to sour and reminded me of the recently drank Goose Island Sophie and then the Nutsack Ale. Now if you remember, I was at Blvd helping with the hop bags. These hop "sacks" from the Nutcracker Ale are then drained and kegged. Well Jeremy decided to bring some of the extremely hoppy brew along for our drinking pleasure. It was like a very hoppy Nutcracker however this one hadn't been carbonated, but I can look past that.

Canadian Breakfast Stout

2009-10-02T09:15:00.009-05:00

Oh Canada, aye? Not exactly. Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS) comes from Founders Brewing out of Grand Rapids Michigan. This is a beeradvocate world's top 10 beer as it currently stands.Here is the description of the beer:

Founders Breakfast Stout aged in Kentucky whiskey barrels that were also used by a small maple syrup maker. The beer is then aged underground in the town’s local mine. Maple & whiskey soaked wood, Sumatra and Kona coffee beans breakfast stout.

I've heard different stories on how many kegs Missouri got, but as I understand it there was some at the Stable in St. Louis and then at Flying Saucer last night in KC. Beeradvocate had some interesting outrages over the beer and I knew all the beer geeks were going to come out of the wood-works for this. I know people were coming in from Columbia, Wichita, Omaha, all over. I specifically tried not to draw much attention to such an event because I knew it would be a cluster. I was happy on how the Saucer handled the situation by selling tickets very early on in order for everyone to get a sample. At first I thought 4 oz samples were going to be too small but I had 8 oz of this and it was worth all 800 pennies.

I got there promptly at 5:00 when tickets started selling like any beer geek should. I ordered a Goose Island Sophie and found it to be slightly sour which was enough for me to pour half to a friend. I was hanging out with a couple friends when I noticed a familiar face, but it was someone I'd never met. Then I realized it was Chimpolte. Good to see another beer blogger made it out. I then ordered a Trappist Achel 8° Brune which I found to be quite amazing. Day one of October and I was able to drink two amazing brews that will probably make it onto this months top 5 list.

5 till 7 and the line of geeks began to form. I got my pours, sat down and dove right into it. Now I've had regular bkfst stout (too much coffee) and Kentucky bkfst stout (too much bourbon) and was worried this would be like Sam Adams Triple Bock and be too much syrup, but no. It was quite well balanced. This beer was very very good. My only complaint is it needed a touch more carbonation. I realize for the style you don't need much if any, but Dark Lord left a special place in my liver... I mean heart and it had plenty of carbonation for an Imperial Stout. I'd say CBS is in my top 5 for the style and would toy with my constantly changing, all time top 5 list. I'll think about it...

Barley's Beer School with Pauwels and Kins

2009-09-29T10:32:00.005-05:00

Please read through all of this to pick up any Boulevard sneak peeks...

Usually I stay away from promoting commercial material on my blog, but I had a great time at Barley's Brewhouse yesterday that I highly suggest signing up for the next event. I will keep everyone posted on the next Beer School. I went to the first event a few weeks ago where Free State brewery from Lawrence spoke about their beers and the technical process of each brew. It was good, but there were so many people there and it was hard to hear. This time they got it right by setting up a p.a. system and toning down the crowd. And for $10 what you get was amazing. The first event was only $5 so you're not going to be breaking your wallet here. It was a little disheartening that I had to miss out on the Founders' tasting at Flying Saucer, but kcworthog was able to go get the scoop over there.

A big thank you to Jake and Mark for donating to my September Drought. I did not pay a penny for all of the beer and food for the night. Also thank you to Randyl and KC Hopps for organizing such events.

The hosts were Steven Pauwels (master brewer at Boulevard) and Carl Kins (International Beer Judge and all around a great beer geek). Also Jeremy and Dustin (brewers from Blvd) came and sat at our table so there was a brewer overload going on. Both guys are from Belgium and the focus was around Belgian beers so I knew I was in for a treat. It was fantastic to hear Carl explain the map of Belgium and get the history of the country instead of diving right into the beer. Before the event started I got myself an Odell IPA which, to me, is an incredible version of that style. Then it was the following for tastings:

1st - Duvel

2nd - La Chouffe

3rd - Urthel Hop-it

4th - Orval

5th - Matilda

6th - Saison-Brett

7th - Sixth Glass

8th - La Folie

First of all, that is a ridiculous line up of decent sized tastings for $10. Second, I was not expecting this and what was to follow. Steven and Carl continued to switch off by explaining the beers and stories that followed them. Also explaining that Jean-Marie Rock from Orval was going to join Steven for the next Beer School at Barley's. Now why would he be coming from Belgium and leaving his Trappist Orval brewery? Well because he's doing a collaboration brew with Steven to be released under Boulevard's name. Man I hope they call this "Rock On Collaboration". I learned this the other day but didn't want to give too much away until Steven announced himself. After the tasting ended I was quite hungry and Markbe, follower of my blog, met up with me and offered me a beer. So we sat down and ordered some food and Tank 7 only to be joined at our table by Steven and Carl. Steven was happy to see we ordered some of his Tank 7 and went to explain that it will be bottled (and I assume) that will replace the Saison. Steven ordered some Seeyoulator and some more Tank 7 along with food so we all were doing 'pretty well' by the end of the evening. We talked about the Wheatwine "Harvest Dance" that will be coming out very soon. I tried the other version of the Wheatwine that had been aged in chardonnay and pinot and liked it very much. We also discussed the smokestack series being packaged in a 4 pack of 330 ml bottles which I had also learned earlier. Now something I can take to lunch at work... kidding.

Humerous GABF Medals

2009-09-27T09:38:00.004-05:00

Results came in from Great American Beer Festival. Boulevard won a Gold for Belgian-Style Wit with their Zon. But let's take a look at some other interesting medals. A big shout out to Coors for winning Gold and Silver with Keystone Ice (a fan favorite). The winner for Rye was named Crazy Jackass Ale. Uncle Billy's Brew won with a beer called Hell in Keller, and in the same category the Silver goes to Natural Born Keller. Miller stepped in and pulled some Silver for Hamm's and High Life which are two beers that I drink and think to myself, "these should really be winning some competitions." A beer called Bloody Beer won a Silver for experimental category and I really don't want to know how their experiment went.

To Microwave or Not to Microwave

2009-09-25T21:55:00.014-05:00

The day started out in the office. I spent the first half of the day trying to convince co-workers to go out for lunch, but no luck. So was it my typical microwave lunch? Jeremy, from Boulevard, would not have it that way. I was invited for the 3rd time to a Boulevard Luncheon and apparently the 3rd time's the charm to where I actually have time to go. Last minute I shot down to the brewery in time for the end of the tour portion of the Luncheon only to find Jeremiah from HopFrog to provide me with some great pictures. J and I sat down across from Payton from Blvd who was great company and later learned that he is in possession of the Muehelbach bottle that I donated to Blvd. Payton has been involved with every bottle label and any aspect of copy or pictures that involve Blvd. He had been old homebrew buddies with John McDonald, owner/founder of the brewery, and had some good stories. The food was prepared by Bluestem.

First up on the menu was a Shrimp Bisque labeled as "Corn Bisque, Rock Shrimp, Fingerling Potatoes, and Braised Berkshire Bacon". Right away I knew I made the right choice in going down to Blvd. The bisque was paired with the Wheat because of the acidity. Interesting. The creamy soup, paired with the rolls, could have been a meal within itself.

Next on the 3 course menu was the main course. Beef short ribs, now we're talkin. This style of ribs was cut to make rib stakes which was kind of a mix between a typical filet and a slow roast. No knife needed. Now this was paired with the rare unblended Rye on Rye. The Rye on Rye (now with a name) is currently set to come out in February of 2010. Now I've already tried this a couple weeks earlier from a bottle Steven Pauwels lended. It was very oaky and will need some blending, but is backed full of flavor. I looked down our table and noticed the slow sipping of the Rye did not go down like the Wheat. More pictures of the Rye on Rye below...

Finally a great treat. Bob's 47 Ice Cream. Bob's is Boulevard's Octoberfest beer and pays homage to a great brewer of the late Muehlebach. 1947 is the year he graduated brewery school. The ice cream was paired with Sixth Glass Quad which Payton decided to make a float out of his dish. Brilliant!

There is one more Luncheon setup and I highly suggest you sign up and try this. I now leave you with some of J's fine photography:

New Busch Marketing - Class it up!

2009-09-22T14:21:00.004-05:00

The drunk hunter couldn't find where he set his beer!

I saw a case of this at the grocery store yesterday and didn't have the heart to take a picture of it so I stole this one.

What's next, a Wal-Mart version of Natty?

Tasting Night

2009-09-21T09:10:00.005-05:00

Come all beer geeks! Some friends and I organized a nice little tasting on Saturday night downtown and a thanks to Rian for hosting. I'll give the quick and dirty run down: We started the night off with some wheat home brew and moved into some Missouri beers with the Seeyoulator and Schlafly Tripel. AleSmith's Horny Devil was the next victim. Then a rare brew called "L'Ange Tombé" Fallen Angel brewed once by De Proefbrouwerij for Julios liquor store. At this point I can't remember which order, but we dove into a 120 minute IPA from Dogfish Head which is over 21% abv. This is a love/hate beer and I tend to appreciate the flavor. You can't hide alcohol at that point but the sugars and hop flavor are great. This is basically an overdone American Barleywine and a slow, slow sipper. Of course I had to finish some of the tasters as I was not driving. A Pliny the Elder (no explanation necessary) and then to Smoke From the Oak from Captain Lawrence Brewing in New York. This was extremely sour and not pleasant to me. Matt from the Flying Saucer brought a Stone's '07 Old Gaurdian Barleywine that was probably my favorite of the night. At this point we had to call it a night even though there were several other amazing brews that were brought to the table.

Heard it Through the Grape Vine

2009-09-16T13:39:00.005-05:00

If you follow my blog posts, you'll know that I brewed up an Oatmeal 'Raisin' Stout for the latest KC Irishfest Stout competition. Then I see this picture today. Maybe FCB was reading my blog (probably not):

Not Your Uncle's Back Pocket Chew

2009-09-16T09:20:00.003-05:00

Unfortunately this is not bottled for distribution.
Check out the interesting process of making Chicha from DFH.
Now that's a beer adjucnt!

Boulevard Hop Day gets 9 out of 9

2009-09-09T20:58:00.014-05:00

Today was 9/9/09. A very, very rainy day in Kansas City, but a very fun day for myself. It all started a few days back when KC Worthog met Steven Pauwels (brewmaster) at a Boulevard dinner. He invited her to a special day at Boulevard for wet-hopping the Nutcracker Ale. She was gracious enough to invite me (hophead) along. The Chinook hops were picked just yesterday in the Yakima Valley in Washington. They were overnight shipped (as they have been for years) to Kansas City where Steven and crew quickly get them into the secondary fermentation tanks to dry hop (or wet hop in this case). We showed up promptly at 8 a.m. to meet Steven. He showed us around the brewery from place to place but I think he was just pacing in anticipation for the hops to arrive. 8:30 and still no hops. We made our way to the microbiology lab where we learned about how tasting panels work and the quality control checks in place to test for off-flavors. There was another lab where new equipment is used to measure alcohol content and other consistency issues.

Once we made it to Steven's office he plucked up a couple of extremely rare bottles for us to try. A Rye aged in Templeton Rye Whiskey barrels. I thought it was a nice tribute to our neighboring state, Iowa. This is unblended so should be pretty raw with oak. Also donated was a bottle of trial Wheatwine that was aged with Pinot and Chardonnay. Now this brew also came from a barrel and was primed with grape juice. More on these bottles after the tasting...

Because the hops did not arrive on time, we headed back to our places of work in waiting for a call from Steven. The hops arrived and I darted back over to the brewery during lunch only to find a large crew of beer-loving fellows beginning to bag the hops. Once the door opened up you could smell the lupulin right away. Steven found me a pair of gloves and with my nice work clothes on, I dove right in with my free labor. I found myself stuffing hop bags full of these 2 inch cones and prepping them for the fermentation tanks. This lunch hour was far from some reheated leftovers at my desk.

As time was running out for me, I collected some left over hops from the ground to smell back at work. After it was all over I met up with Jeremy from Boulevard who came to our 3rd Big Brew Day to get a hardy send off back to work. It was a great day that even all the rain could not get me down.

GO TIGERS!

2009-09-02T16:14:00.003-05:00

Two things I like, beer and Mizzou. Two things I don't like, bad beer and poor marketing. Anheuser-Busch decided to go for a new marketing scheme by offering up Bud Light in college colors to promote "Team Pride". If you take pride in your beer you will not take pride in this terrible decision. This article mentions Purdue, but we all know the black and gold represents the University of Missouri for the St. Louis, MO based company.

September Drought

2009-09-01T09:17:00.003-05:00

I promised myself to not purchase any alcohol or alcohol related items for the month of September. The reason behind this is my compulsive demeanor to where I see something I want and all of a sudden I have to have it. I could use a month off of collecting bottles, finding rare beers and purchasing brewing equipment. This should give me more time at home and less stress on my wallet. If you'd like to join in with me, I won't be so lonely. I already have one person who is interested.

Now this does not mean I can't drink. It has nothing to do with drinking too much at all. So I have plenty in my fridge to get rid of and if I go out and someone buys me a round I will not complain.

The end and the beginning: Yesterday was the last day to purchase any beer so I went to Barley's in Overland Park where they hosted a Beer School. The good people from Freestate Brewery came out and did a tasting where they spoke about the ingredients and processes used. Most everyone there was a homebrewer so I enjoyed the pace of the class. My only complaint was there were so many people that I could hardly hear what they were saying. Good job though and next month will be Steven Pauwels (and someone else from Belgium) to discuss Belgian beers. You should definitely chip in to allow me to go on my drought month. :) The first day in October will be a glorious comeback as a keg of Canadian Breakfast Stout will be tapped at Flying Saucer. People from all around are sure to show up for this event and I truly hope to be there.

August Brew Day

2009-08-31T10:45:00.012-05:00

August represented our 3rd successful brew day. A lot of great, rare beers were drank, a lot of interesting people conversed, a lot of good food was ate, and I don't remember the rest. The highlight being the Boulevard Seeyoulator that Jeremy from Boulevard so graciously brought along with a couple others. More on that in a moment. A mead, braggot and an Amber ale were made. My posts are usually not wordy, but there's a lot to talk about here.

The day started off right around noon with 3 Westvleteren beers. Westvletern 12 is the highest rated beer in the world. It is incredibly hard to get a hold of in Kansas City. I've heard different distributing stories, but the main one is that the only place you can purchase this beer is in limited quantities from the monastery in Belgium. The monks look down upon resale of the beer and with my compulsive ways, I had to break the monks wishes in order to taste the best beer for myself. I have been reading "Brew Like a Monk" and I find the 6 Belgian monasteries who brew very interesting and historical. My taste buds did not agree that their '12' was the best beer in the world unfortunately. It was a magnificent brew with a ton of sweetness. It is truly an original of its kind and I highly appreciated drinking it. Their '8' was quite delicious and I found it to be their best. Their 'Blond' was very good as well and is under-appreciated in the beer world making it that much more rare.

Tim will be our lovely hand model for the bottles:

I went to pour a Boulevard Tripel that had been opened only to find that everyone was itching to get the bottle of Seeyoulator poured. I think people overlook the fact that a drinker or eater's judgement on drink or food is altered by the place when and where consumed. The brew day was an amazing setting to try the finest beers in the world. The Seeyoulator Dopplebock was hyped and did live up to the expectation only to have unexpected flavors and color. The cedar that it was aged with gave a nice piney taste, but was surprised that it wasn't overpowering. This beer had a good amount of bittering hops which you know I will not complain about. The color was much lighter and orange that I expected. This brew crosses lines of different styles and categories but what progressive brewery actually follows standard guidelines on the best brews?

The day kept producing several incredible tasters. Dogfish Head Burton Baton was by far my favorite of the day. The Lost Abbey 10 Commandments was another incredible beer that I was excited to drink. I brought a Pliny the Elder that made one hophead very happy. Bourbon County Stout, Inferno, 75th Street's Dante's Dream, Augusta Saison and the list went on and on of incredible commercial brews. Several homebrews were handed out as well.
Some new bloggers came along. Of course Worthog, the other organizer, was there. Along with another hophead, Muddy Mo and a Missouri beer lover. I know a lot of people almost made it out but next brew day will be in another location so we should see another good showing.As the Chiefs game began and the gathering ending, what other way is there to complete a 12 hour drinking session than to go bar hopping in Waldo area? I think the long, long day was incredible. My only complaint was that some of the beers for savoring could have been more appreciated towards the beginning of the day when I could remember them.

Oatmeal 'Raisin' Stout

2009-08-27T21:57:00.010-05:00

Remember the purple brew? This is it. I bottled two different ways and evaluated both to see which I wanted to send to the KC Irishfest competition. I bottled five beers over a mixture of heated and blended raisins with some vanilla extract. I decided to send those to competition. As I was at the brew shop I noticed most of the field was oatmeal stouts. Damn.

The beer is 4.3% abv and packs a TON of taste for just that. The brew-in-a-bag process only yielded a 57% efficiency. In layman's terms, there could have been more alcohol, but the bag I used was not suited for the process and the grains were not crushed fine enough. That's okay though.

Ingredients:

.5 lb flaked oats

.25 lb toasted rolled oats

.75 lb roasted barley

1.75 lb chocolate malt

9 lb American 2 row

1 oz of Fuggle @60 17.2 IBU

Whirlfloc @15

Here is how I would rate this beer.

A (appearance), S (smell), T (taste), M (mouthfeel), D (drinkability)

A - Pours very black with a dark tan head about 1-1/2 finger width that stays for about 5 minutes. Black, but in the brightest light you can see an orange on the edges. No lacing.

S - Smells thick, roasted malts coming out. A hint of coffee and chocolate.

T - Big bold roasted malts that finishes creamy with chocolate. The aftertaste is like chocolate coffee but in good way. The taste suffers slightly from the lack of alcohol for such a big flavor. I would expect this to be at least double the abv. The aftertaste is a bit more sharp and almost more bitter in the raisin/vanilla version.

M - More carbonation than I had originally planned but this is because it was going for competition and it works quite nicely to bring out all of those flavors.

D - While this is low in alcohol and quite tasty, I'd say a bomber (22 oz) is perfect for a chilly evening, but not much more.

Overall I'd give it about a B with the main drawback of the alcohol content.

75th St Homebrew Competition

2009-08-27T08:47:00.005-05:00

Wow, a good night at 75th st Brewery. I've been bad-mouthing this place here and there even though I keep hoping for a good change there. Last night was a good excuse to get out and try again. 75th st is celebrating their 16th anniversary all week and doing something different each night. Last night was the home brew competition that Dan from GoneMild won last year. I just read his blog and found out that he pretty much submitted most of the beer choices. I would've been in the compeition if I knew about it in time. It was only $5 to jump in, try the beers and give your vote. Pretty good deal considering how much they were pouring.There were 9 beers (Dark American Lager, ESB, Hefe, Schwarzbier, Porter, Rye, Milk Stout, APA). You were to drink all and write your top 5 in order. As you can see from my list (that I can't spell) that the Schwarz won hands down. This Black German Lager tasted very much like a chocolate porter, but with a solid amount of bittering hops. The ESB was a solid 2nd place and the rest kind of fell below. I think I offended a guy (probably the brewer) when I said the APA was terrible.

Afterwards, we had an assortment of new beers that 75th was offering that were quite delicious. My top 3 in order for those were: Whiskey Stout, Coconut Porter and Irish Red; not that it really matters. The whiskey stout was a little rough around the edges but reminded me of a thinner, stronger Old Rasputin. The appearance and smell was quite good and rated very highly with me. I hope that they keep this one going for the reputation's sake.

Brew Beer Professionally?

2009-08-24T12:41:00.008-05:00

I find it amusing when someone hears that I brew my own beer and their first response is, "Wow, you should open up a brewery!" I am sure the majority of home brewers have though extensively about what it would take to make money in the beer market whether it's a brewpub or working somewhere in the industry to find a niche. Knowing what I know now, it is pretty scary to walk into a beer store, see all the selections and think about your own little beer up there among the giant collection of brews. A brewpub can be fun and a way to get your foot into the door of producing beer for money. I think that is the way to go depending on what city/state you want to open.

Take a look at what the recent years have been like for breweries and brewpubs. What I find most interesting in the statistics found below is that even though the demand for breweries isn't growing at a very rapid pace, the supply (breweries) are growing at a significant pace. Kansas City may be a slight difference considering the closures of Power Plant Brewery and River Market Brewery, but the hope of a couple more to rejoin around the corner may bring us up to par.

http://www.beertown.org/craftbrewing/statistics.html
http://www.beertown.org/ba/media_2009/midyear2009.html

The 3rd Brew Day is Upon Us

2009-08-22T13:37:00.004-05:00

Brew Day 3.0 is on August 29th. The last couple have been successful in brewing, drinking, learning, drinking and fun. Did I say drinking twice? Worthog and I have been organizing these events and hosting them around different areas of KC each month. They will most likely continue as the months come.

Come all beer drinkers, brewers, interested company, interesting company, beer geeks, non-beer geeks and bring your grandma. Just let me know if you're interested.

Picture from 1st Brew Day:

Picture from 2nd Brew Day:

Great Trip, Great Beer

2009-08-18T12:28:00.012-05:00

Just got back from Taylor Park area in Colorado. It is beautiful out there in the middle of CO. I'll try to make this as much about beer as possible. There were four guys, our dirt bikes and a tent. They left me in charge of beer gathering before the trip since we'd be in the middle of nowhere. I thought to myself, what is a good mountain camping beer? Ah yes, PBR! And of course I'll throw in some Coors so they'll let us into the state. Going with family and being out of breath all day I didn't think it was a time and place for beer snob brews although I did throw in a couple Smokestacks and a Caldera Pale Ale for fun.

On our way out there we stopped off in Gunnison to pick up a few more supplies and I ran over to this little liquor store to see what the small town had to offer. To my surprise they had a lot of individual bottles including Boulevard Smokestacks. I picked up a couple NB Lips of Faith bottles and a Dogfish Head Theobroma to bring back home and savor. On Saturday we headed on an 85 mile round trip to Aspen with 1.8 gallons of 91 octane. We went over Taylor Pass on some difficult terrain. If anyone has ever done this, you'll know how tough that is. We wound up at the top of the ski run in Aspen overlooking the entire town. We coasted down the ski runs to the bottom and walked our muddy selves up to a fancy restaurant outside. The waiter said that we should go inside to order a beer. So we stomped our nasty boots on their rich mahogany floor to order us a nice Aspen Brewing Company Hefe. It was quite delicious after a tough ride. On the way back I was swept off my bike by a tree branch! I have the whole thing on video from my helmet cam. Then I fell on some boulders. So when I got back to camp I was ready to have a few PBR's and hit the hay.On our way back from the trip we stopped off at Phantom Canyon Brewing Co in Colorado Springs. This was an eclectic spot with tattoo'ed up people playing pool upstairs and family eating downstairs. First thing I did was order an IPA (my usual). I was sadly disappointed in the non-carbonated brew. However, I sampled their Blonde and Amber then was happy to then order an Oatmeal Stout which was perfectly silky smooth. Then I ordered a Hefeweizen which was incredible, one of the best I've had. Overall the place was B- or so.

A.M. IPA

2009-08-10T08:26:00.004-05:00

Over the weekend I got invited out for a mountain bike ride and brewing beer combo. Two hobbies I like, sure lets go. See ya at 8. 8 pm right? No, 8 am. The night before I was at the "K" drinking and then to home to cap off the night with an Old Rasputin and a glass of water (Old Rasputin Light). As I rolled out of bed I knew I was in store for some hurtin. I made it though about 3/4 of the rocky, hilly trails before I realized I was dehydrated to the point of dizziness. So let's go brew some beer. The guys all stopped for some biscuits and gravy. I couldn't stomach that. We got back to the brew spot and I was feeling back to 100%. We all pitched in and got a 10 gallon batch of extra IPA going using tons of homegrown hops. Check out those bad boys on the 2nd year of production.

I'm Having a Lupulin Threshold Shift!

2009-08-07T08:55:00.009-05:00

I love me some hops! If you've been following my hop growing then you might know they're about to be plucked. I thought about boiling up some extract with them and seeing how it turns out. I'd just ferment a pint with some left over yeast. I'll keep you up to date on that mess. So I went to the garden this morning and cut open a hop to see how they are doing. Voila, lupulin. Not as much as I'd like to see, but it was there. Lupulin is what you smell and taste in your beer. The actually hop flower basically holds the lupulin like a typical flower would hold pollen (just upside down).

Odell, one of my top breweries, just shed light to the non-home brewer to the idea of lupluin with St. Lupulin Extra Pale Ale. This is a bit lighter than their IPA but with more hops (me likey). Everything they make is delicious. I have still yet to try the Woodcut but I have a No. 1 and 3 No. 2 in the fridge... mmmm.

I'm going to go ahead and give props to the liquid diet because this post sounds a lot like his but not intentionally and not with great use of the English language. My hops are just ready to go.

Check out this link...

http://www.russianriverbrewing.com/LTS/

Speaking of Russian River, I had some Blind Pig earlier this week. This brew is historic in the fact that it was likely to be the first ever Double IPA. It was very delicious, but not quite as good as their Pliny the Elder.

What'll Ya Have?

2009-08-05T12:19:00.010-05:00

Apparently you'll have a pint of Pale Ale. The favorite beer style poll expired and I thought I'd share the results before I remove it. This is sort of a biased poll considering the location and the choices I put on there, but I am a bit surprised at the results. Being that Boulevard Wheat is sort of the flagship beer for most Kansas Citians, I wasn't surprised at so many votes for Wheat. I didn't put up IPA and I think that might be why Pale Ale got so many votes. I'm glad to see Stout making an appearance as 3rd, but I am curious to see what "Other" categories people liked. I think Belgian came in a close second because of all the beer snobs that read my blog.

Speaking of which, my new poll consists of rankings that I would like you to vote on. What do you want to read here? I notice that blogs tend to lean more to educational or entertainment. Educational being reviews, latest news, terms and tricks of the trade whereas entertainment might be funny stories, pictures, video or controversy. What do you tend to like?

I've been a recluse on the beer scene lately and rightfully so. If you opened my beer fridge, you'd loosen your pants and get to drinking. Although I've already drank a lot of good stuff out of it here's what I've got currently:
AleSmith - Horny Devil, Old Numbskull, Speedway Stout,
Odell - Woodcut #1, Woodcut #2 (3),
Homebrew - Porter (3), Milk Stout (20ish),
Mikkeller Single Hop, Delerium Tremens,
Boulevard - RIS, Saison-Brett, Two Jokers (2),
Deschutes Black Butte XXI, New Glarus Imperial Saison,
Russian River Pliny the Elder (2) and Damnation,
Goose Island Peres - Jacques, Matilda,
O'Fallon Wheat, Old Rasputin (4), Geenflash Barleywine,
Moylans Kilt Lifter, Avery Maharaja,
Lagunitas Hop Stoopid, Sam Adams Triple Bock (2),
Clipper City Heavy Sees Loose Cannon,
Schlafly APA, Weston Drop Kick Ale,
Dog Fish Head 90 min IPA, Stone Oaked DB,
Soutern Tier Cuvee Series Two,
Mikeller Beer Geek Breakfast,
Mix pack of Chimay, and New Belgium Lips of Faith

Hopdate - The H is silent...

2009-08-01T21:29:00.010-05:00

Three months ago I planted my very first Hop Rhizomes and I am so proud of my nine fluffy, yet thin hops that have just blossomed. The Cascade is growing at a crazy pace. It is now as tall as my deck which is about ten feet and then goes a little bit further as I extended the rope. The birds keep eating the ends so it won't go further unless I figure a way around the birds. The other two (Northern Brewer and Centennial) finally got going after the birds terrorized them. I think the birds like noble hops more.Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The cascade towers above the other two.

Centennial, they don't have spell check when writing with a Sharpie.

Damn it, once again how I rely on spell check to make this blog work!! Tomorrow morning I'm going out there and fixing these!!

Boulevard's Seeyoulator Dopplebock

2009-07-31T13:49:00.003-05:00

From Boulevard's Facebook Page:

"The first batch of our new fall Smokestack Series Seasonal, Seeyoulator Doppelbock, is bottling this morning. A Doppelbock aged on cedar, it will be released along with Bob’s ‘47 Oktoberfest near the end of August.
Medium amber in color, Seeyoulator offers a heady, estery banana aroma. A luscious maltiness predominates, with balancing notes from Hallertau hops. Cedar aging lends just a hint of spice to the finish."

A good beer to match this side-by-side with is Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock that I have seen at Hy-Vee in the singles for $2.

Biden wasted on Buckler!

2009-07-31T09:05:00.004-05:00

Short and sweet here...

Obama - Bud Light (Cha Ching)

Gates - Samuel Jackson Light (mmm mmm)

Crowley - Blue Moon (poser)

Biden - Buckler (see picture)

Happy Hour at the White House

2009-07-28T21:08:00.009-05:00

Wit so much drama in the W-DC, it's kinda hard bein P.R.E.S.I.D.E.N.T.

President Obama says Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley need to stop by the white house and smooth things over with a beer. Now I wouldn't normally get involved in something so controversial on my fun website but a great American and KC Hophead follower, Kyle, asked Bull and I our take on the matter. I had already been reading about it and it is great news to the beer community that the top of the headlines on world news had the word "beer" in it. I have heard Blue Moon and Budweiser being the top two choices but I found this poll interesting from SFGate where most people want them to drink a non-traditional beer:

Most interesting are the posts on BeerAdvocate. Some suggestions have been "Buried Hatchet Stout", "Ale to the Chief" and "Collaboration Not Litigation" (which is REALLY good). My favorite is Bock Obama, which I drank at Parkville Microfest.

My personal opinion on the matter (at least towards the beer) is that they should drink 5 bottles of Russian Imperial Stout and play washers.

Beer Porn, Pliny and the Lake

2009-07-27T08:46:00.005-05:00

Calm down it's not what you think. Beer Porn is typically pictures of your latest beer haul. Maybe because it turns us beer geeks on, I don't know. Regardless, this is my latest haul via San Diego.

This weekend I brewed up a clone of Schlafly's Tripel. I was pretty upset because I wasn't able to get a gravity reading. Once again I learned my lesson on not drinking while brewing. We started off slow and wound up drinking several Smokestacks and other beers that I should have saved for sipping on. One of the many casualties was Pliny the Elder by Russian River (bottled on my birthday just a couple weeks ago). This beer continues to be rated in the top 10 on several websites. According to BeerAdvocate this is rated No. 7. I have two more that will probably be gone soon.

Later that night we hit up one of my favorite spots to hang out, Castaways at Smithville Lake. This bar and grill sits on one of the Marinas at the lake. They have bands that play Blues or Classic Rock while you grab a bucket of beer and have some good food. The service is usually not good but that just gives you more time to sit out on the lake and watch the big boats roll in. Yes it's probably going to be 30 mins to an hour drive for most of KC but it is worth the drive to check it out once, and it makes you feel like you're on vacation. Apparently we came back to my place and kept drinking.

Boulevard Pilsner & Random Wednesday Night

2009-07-16T15:19:00.005-05:00

I have to revise my thoughts from my last post about the new Pilsner. I was ranting about how I wish your local craft brewery would make a "light" beer to compete with the big dogs. I actually think they are making a small dent in that area with the Pilsner. Now if they would put their pilsner in the aluminum bottles and sell it at the games and golf courses I think we're getting somewhere. The taste isn't going to rock your world but it is a nice refreshing brew for the summer. They are able to compete with BMC by charging $5.69/6 pack (at least that's what Gomers was charging). I had my 5th one with a nice family meal. This picture represents just how American we are :)

After putting baby hophead to bed I was off to see my friend before he travels the world. He wanted to hit up the Republic Tigers in a free concert at Power and Light. Pretty crowded for a Wednesday. We hit up Raglan Road for a Boulevard Tank 7 on tap and then over to Flying Saucer where I had New Belgium's Lips of Faith on tap.

Purple Brew & Red Goatee

2009-07-14T15:02:00.009-05:00

Our second brew day hosted by Sara was quite fun and I think we'll continue to do a monthly brew day. Let me know if you're interested in joining us. Depending on where and who hosts it many are welcome who want to learn or who brew or who just want an excuse to drink the good stuff.
So the Worthog brewed up a Kölsch while I was gearing up for the KC Irish Fest Stout competition with an Oatmeal 'Raisin' Stout. That's right, get ready KC. Check out that Oatmealy froth on the mash! For strictly fun and show I threw in a dozen raisins in the mash. I'm not kidding when I say the wort that was transferred was PURPLE! Of course in the carboy it looks pure black but if you thin the brew out you can clearly see the dissolved raisin skin purple in the brew. Pretty cool. It smelled delicious and I can't wait to try that and the Kölsch.

Only one and half injuries during the whole event. Sara was being the good host by patching up my leg and since there were no Scooby Doo band-aids then we had to make do with a smiley face with a red beard. The other half of an injury was everyone who was trying to help me squeeze the wort out of my Macgruber Mash Bag. Sorry for the scalding liquid everyone.

Birthday Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad

2009-07-09T16:18:00.007-05:00

That's right Quad B's for my bday. I took this Thursday off of work and it was worth it. After a while I went up to Smithville Lake with my waverunner and headed for a nice quiet cove where I could get my drink on and read some of Brewing Like a Monk. I popped No. 8000 of Boulevard's Bourbon Barrel Quad from last year. I'm not going to lie, I like it WAY better than Saison-Brett and it still remains in my top 5 all time (which includes situations where I've drank). What are the top 5? Wouldn't you like to know. Email me...

Right before I went to the lake I stopped off at Oxbrow Brewing to pick up some chocolate malt for my next brew. I've got to say that I was very impressed. I don't think Tim will mind me pimping out his side business, but if you look at Kansas City's home brew shops in Olathe and Shawnee, then you've got to wonder where you can get local supplies on the MO side or North of the river for that matter. Oxbrow is very small but can get just about whatever you want at a competitive price and has bulk grains. He meets by appointment. Just email Tim.

Great Trip, Bad Beer

2009-06-29T12:45:00.013-05:00

Cousin Hophead and I found the curviest roads in Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas and took our bikes down to have some fun. On the way down we stopped off in Aurora, MO (the Hound Dawgs) to drop by the Brew Pub, Bootleggers. I had the privilege of tasting the worst beer I've ever had to this day. I feel bad bashing because I drive by this neat looking place 3 or 4 times a year and would love for them to do well; however, their beer needs a complete overhaul. We sampled a Dark Wheat, Raspberry Wheat, Bock and Pilsner. The Pilsner was okay and I wanted a growler from their to add to my collection so I picked it up. Bootleggers is a neat place to grab a bite to eat but don't plan on drinking their beer.

We got down to our starting point, took a small break and then headed out for Eureka Springs, AR. It wasn't until we left the following day that we saw any sort of straight roads. Probably my favorite stretch of the trip was Highway 86 from the Missouri state line up to Casseville. Imagine a tunnel of trees cooling a hot day at the tops of the Ozarks and not being able to see more than 80 yards of road because of the curves. Perfect for two wheels and some g-force. We got back to the lake and did some cliff jumping in Table Rock Lake. Then we went to our family's new restaurant on the water and had some beer at night. We got back and opened the growler of aforementioned Pilsner. Disgusting! The taste lessened 10 fold. Bad way to end a great day.

The next day we had another big day of riding ahead of us. We went down to Bull Shoals Lake and found that the highway went straight into the lake. We took a ferry across and both ways were full of motorcycles. Cool stuff. On our way home we stopped off at Springfield Brewing Co. I was just there a few weeks ago and really liked it. This time I got some pictures to show you. Very cool place, staff has good knowledge of beer and food is good. We got a pitcher of Pilsner and a pizza for $12 to split. I met one of the brewers, Trey Manning, but he didn't have much to say.

Downtown Eureka Springs looks like somewhere in Europe:

Overlooking Branson:

Road to nowhere:

I had to put this picture in for all those people who think it's gross to swim in a lake. You can see the bottom of 5ft deep water here:

Cousin Hophead's bike on the ferry:

Springfield Brewing Company:

Lacing

2009-06-26T08:07:00.008-05:00

No not that kind of lace. I'm talking beer lace (or lacing). Not familiar? See the picture above. Lacing is the beer head (or beer muff as Jake doesn't want to be sexist) that sticks to the glass. Originally it was noted by the sheet of lace but has developed into lines of lace left after drinking. You're not cool if you don't have lace! It is suppose to show how fresh the hop oils are in your drink. Worthog, friends and myself were at Flying Saucer last night for the rare New Holland Brother Jacob Dubbel. After a few I ordered Southern Tier Iniquity and had to capture the lacing on the glass with my handy camera phone. About the same time someone pointed out some guy who had passed out right after ordering a full beer (notice the daylight). I couldn't resist so I went up and talked to his buddies who were having a casual conversation while this guy was snoring in the middle of the bar. They say that he does this all the time and he is just power napping, but he was out for a while. Can someone say narcoleptic?

Pork Chop Express

2009-06-22T09:12:00.009-05:00

I'm not talking about the same Jack Burton's Pork Chop Express from Big Trouble in Little China. No no, but I'll get there. This weekend Albert Pooholes and his giant St. Louis crew rolled into KC whooping up on our Kansas City Royals. It's all good, I'm still holding onto the 1985 series as long as I can. My cousin and friends came in and wanted to hang out and see what Power & Light District is all about. Well, okay. They got in from a fishing trip so we started out by heading to the Rockies with some Busch-Light at the hotel. Hey, it's a fishing beer right? Yeah it's nasty. We took a van from the hotel to downtown. We were heading through the strip club area just South of downtown and someone asks the 80 year old driver which club is his favorite and he pulls out a great one liner, "Man, strip club? I'm 80, I'd rather have a poke chop." Classic. So pork chop drops us off in P&L but I decided to haul these guys a few blocks over to show them one of my favorite bars, John's Upper Deck. Not the classiest joint downtown but what a great place to see a band up 3 floors on a rooftop in the middle of the sky scrapers. If you have not tried the place, you should. We were trying to decide to head over to Harry's Country Club because some of their friends were over there, but never made it. Then I learned that the Worthog was over there and I missed out on all that action. Why have a blow-up pool 3 stories up next to the edge of the roof with a bunch of drunk people? Why not? Probably because the new hot spot above Cosentino's is a pool bar and opened up this weekend. My cousin fell in the pool and had wet shorts for the rest of the night. We headed over to P&L to find tons of Cards fans getting arrested. Thousands of people crowded in paying for their $9 small plastic cup drinks. By this time, I just didn't care after having Jager shots. We quickly lost everyone and I found myself talking to very uninteresting people all night. Closer to sunrise we all eventually wound up back at the hotel finding different cab rides. Went golfing in 100 degree weather the next day. I'm pretty sure I was sweating at least 3% abv.

Big Brew Day

2009-06-15T10:09:00.004-05:00

A lot to talk about. Luckily the Wort Hog explained all of it and I can just link you off to her site. I am going to post this one picture of Dave getting the siphon going the ghetto way...

Springfield Brewing Co

2009-06-09T12:07:00.003-05:00

I was with family in Arkansas last weekend riding dirtbikes. On the way back home we stopped off in Springfield, Missouri. I can't believe I went to school there for a semester and missed out on this great downtown spot. Similar to Tom Schlafly/St. Louis Brewing Company, Paul Mueller/Springfield Brewing Company has used the last name as a label for their beers. From their website, Mueller has a company that does brewery stainless steel fabrication which works out well because the brewery is great looking. Sorry no pictures with me, but let me tell you, what a great building. Two story, lots of wood, band playing in the middle of a Sunday, cigar room and huge brewery with lots of windows. I ordered a sampler of Wheat, Lager, Porter, Kolsh, Special (dark lager) and Pale Ale. When I left I bought a 6 pack of Parliment Stout and a 750 ml of Blackberry Wit. I haven't tried either yet. Pretty solid beer and a great place to check out.

My Double IPA - Deliciousness

2009-06-03T10:09:00.003-05:00

I finally made a beer for a hop head like myself. About 120 IBUs and 7.8% abv = some good stuff. Just to be hard on myself there is some room for improvement but I'm keeping the recipe around. So I kegged some and bottled some. I still need to come up with a fun label. The kegged beer tastes much better because I'm able to dial in a little more carbonation which really brings out the hop aroma and giving a nice creamy head on this beer. I compare this beer with an Avery Maharaja. It's a smoother IPA with a complex hop taste as opposed to just a powerful slap in the face hop taste. It keeps getting better every day in the keg. Maybe I didn't use enough corn sugar when bottling? I'm pretty sure this will go in my top 5 for June, but I've got a lot of days left in June so we'll see. If you're just now seeing my site for the first time there are a couple different posts about brewing this beer and the explosion on the ceiling it caused. This was an expensive and loaded beer made to enjoy and savor. Maybe I shouldn't be slamming so much down.

Boulevard Two Jokers - Double Wit

2009-05-28T21:48:00.008-05:00

Boulevard has been enhancing their regular beers with a more powerful, tasty limited brew in some of the Smokestack Series. They have gone from a numbering system to a seasonal Smokestack and Two Jokers is their latest. It is a delicious double-wit based on the Zon summer beer. At 8% abv yet very light and bubbly, it is a great summer brew coming out at a good time. If you are able to get some a hot July day is a good time to hammer a 750 ml down with a friend. Not sure how much will be out this summer, but Gomers in the Northland has already sold out and I found Bubbles on N. Oak had just got their shipment in and was able to pick up a few before they got it on the shelves. Back to the taste: you definitely taste the carbonation bubbles dancing with a dominant Belgian yeast. Orange and coriander stand out (just like the Zon). Very easy to drink especially when sweating (sorry no electrolytes). Expect to belch with the carbonation level. Lovely. Overall I like the beer but it won't make my top 5 for this month. Maybe it will for a hot June month? If you get some let me know how you like it.

Grow Your Own

2009-05-17T11:03:00.008-05:00

...hops that is. I bought 3 types of hop rhizomes this spring and thought it'd be fun to grow some different kinds for bittering and aroma. I bought left overs from orders so I didn't have a lot to choose from. I planted Northern Brewer, Centennial and Cascade. This spring has been the perfect time if you want to grow anything. Rain, sun, rain, sun. The Cascade took off like a rocket and it's about 10 inches long so far. The Northern Brewer plant is slow going and the brids keep eating on it. The Centennial never made it out of the ground and I might just replant it. I thought that when I move out of this house I'll just move the plant to and then found out that the roots can get up to 13 feet deep. I listened to a radio show on the brewing network that talked about growing hops. The bine (not vine) will grow to the top of my deck the first year and then the second or third year should start giving me something to work with. I wonder how an high alpha acid hop would grow here. Maybe one day I'll have a little hop garden with several kinds but for now I'm starting small. If you ever want to try it I suggest watching youtube videos on growing them. Youtube always gives me more confidence than a book because you can see normal people with finished results (brewing, car repair, growing hops).

Boulevard Pilsner

2009-05-14T14:37:00.004-05:00

Boulevard Pilsner is coming out later this summer. Is a pilsner really an American lager? I guess it's turned into one but what makes a German pilsner different? Regardless, I look forward to tasting the hoppy, light beer.

I wrote a comment on beernews and figured I'd post my thoughts on my blog as well. I'd be interested in what others have to say about this idea. Craft brewers basically put out the good stuff. They put out the beers using pure, quality ingredients. Why don't I see craft brewers battling the "light" beer market? I always support local brewers when I can but there are lots of events where I can't drink too many craft brews. If I was at a game and there was a choice between $6 Bud Light, a $6.50 Boulevard Light and a $7.00 Boulevard Wheat I'm going to pick the $6.50. Sure it's a little more but hey I'm not have a dinner beer because I'd like a few more after this one. On a side note, sorry if those were your kids sitting next to me at the game. I don't know, what do you think?

Beer Fridge and Sunday Beer Trip

2009-05-12T22:04:00.007-05:00

Well my fridge is happy again and filled up. Let's see what we've got here. Left Hand Milk Stout, Lieny's Amber Ale, New Belgium's Trippel, Schlafly APA, Raspberry Heff, Pale Ale and Tripel, Boulevard's Double Wide, few BBQ's and few Saison-Brett's, a random Sam Adams Lager, O'Fallon's mix 8 pack and a De Proef Reserve Signature. I've also got an Odell's Woodcut No. 1 that I had just traded a BBQ for. I am waiting until No. 2 comes out this month and then I'll compare them side by side. The Woodcut is individually numbered and signed in pen. Odell's has been one of my top breweries. It's something about the water maybe that gives all of their beers a good crisp finish.

I took another motorcycle trip this weekend and skipped out on the KC Biermiester's cookout. We had three bikes and went on a 160 mile circle and stopped off a few times for some beer. We went to Leavenworth, KS at High Noon Saloon and Brewery for a beer and pleasantly found out that they are going to start canning their Amber Ale. Really cool looking cans. We also stopped off at Free State Brewery in Lawrence, KS and I had a delicious Barleywine. Then we finally got back to Missouri after a couple more stops. Great times. I'm hoping to do a tour of Nebraska and Iowa with my bike this year and find a bunch of small breweries.

Royals Winning? Another '85?

2009-05-08T10:37:00.008-05:00

Royals are top of the AL and we're well into May now. A lot of us are wondering how long this will last. I think it was back in '03 when KC got off to a really good start and then slowly wound up back where they have been for the last 20 years or so, at the bottom. However, this season seems different. We've got some decent hitters and some great defense. There are a couple other teams looking good in the AL but I'm just going to point out that this could potentially be another Cards/Royals matchup in the Series. Just throwing it out there.

I think KC has become accustomed to a loosing season and for the most part okay with it. It's fun to get the family or friends out to a ball game and sit back to watch the fountains. But this year we've got a new Kauffman stadium with some good pitching. It's a little different going to a game these days. It kind of feels like the pressure is on the fans a little bit. Kind of fun.

The new stadium comes with the new prices. The "K" is very cheap for the MLB still, but I just got so used to it that as prices creep up it just creeps me out. We paid $16 for some upper level and then worked our way around the stadium between beers. Parking was around $8. So not too bad, but the beer, wheeew! Different prices for different spots around the stadium. When we snuck up on the Party Deck it was $7.50 for a Miller Lite. Boulevard was $7 a pour. I had a couple pre-game drinks and still emptied my wallet at the stadium. Oh well, I suppose the winning and the new stadium makes up for my cheap ways.

If you post it, they will come...

2009-05-06T18:15:00.005-05:00

Greg Koch, Greg Koch, Greg Koch. Hey Greg, if I post your name will you find my blog too? Are you just as big of a beer geek as all of us bloggers?

Recently I found theweeklybrew blog and this blogger wrote a smash post on Greg Koch, CEO of Stone Brewing. I found myself most intrigued with this particular post and felt like joining in. I don't know why, but it just seemed out of the ordinary to say something against a craft brewer mixed with the whole BMC buzz. That's like saying a song writer is a jerk yet I will still listen to their music, but it is compelling because Stone beer is good! Then Greg wrote a comment on the post, then comes the apology, well you read it...

I also found Amy at theworthog wrote about Greg's keynote speech and Greg made a comment on it for the honorable mention.

You know what, maybe Greg is a nice guy, maybe he's not. I'll just shut up and keep drinking.
Oh and I found this ironic, if you check out my IPA brew post there is an ingredients picture with a bottle of Bud Light sitting next to a Stone Arogant Bastard Ale.

Crown Valley Brewery

2009-05-06T16:20:00.003-05:00

Let the competition begin. For those Kansas City beer drinkers that don't get over to STLHops very often, I read an interesting post that I think you should take a look at. What really got my attention was the fact that their goal is to become the largest craft brewer in Missouri. They've got a long haul after Boulevard and Schlafly, especially that they're not located in a big city. I was very impressed with the pictures included in the post and with their good looking, expensive equipment. Bling bling. Unfortunately they were not able to get to Parkville this year and I assume that is because St. Louis had their beer fest. While I am interested in trying their brews and collecting their bottles I am skeptical of how well they will do. I wish them the best of luck.

http://stlhops.com/photos-crown-valley-brewery/

Parkville Microfest and the Nebraska Hangover Cure

2009-05-03T15:22:00.004-05:00

Turned out to be a good day for the festival and I was worried it was going to be rainy. Unfortunately, the ground was too wet to have the festival on but it worked out pretty good having it on the asphalt. There were around 26 or 27 breweries. There were 2000 people drinking this year. Although I am a hop head, I'll have to say that the Concentrated Evil from Lucky Bucket (NE) was the best. I was pretty disappointed with some of the booths because they didn't know anything about the beer. Whoever was pouring O'Fallon didn't even know it was sold in Kansas City. It was unfortunate that STL brew fest was going on the same day. I didn't get to try all of the beers because I was busy yapping to people. But I did get plenty of time to get good and drunk. My buddy Jason drove me to the Saucer afterwards where it was jammed packed because of the anniversary and I got to drink some more! This morning was like someone hit me on the head with a 2x4 and you gotta wonder what stupid things you did the previous day. Well, can't wait for next year's.

Speaking of Nebraska, I took the bike up to NE this morning. Good way to cure the hangover is to get that adrenaline pumping. I am a KC MO resident and took me 1 hour from my house to get to the corner of Nebraska. On my way back I stopped off in St. Joe because I heard about this "Belt Brewing Co", but come to find out it went out of business. I looked around St. Joe for an hour or so and talked to a few people in search for a St. Joe beer, but none were found. Oh well, fun ride.

Ceiling Decorations

2009-04-27T20:26:00.008-05:00

I got home from work and found a little surprise. I had green decorations on the floor, couch, pool table, bar and ceiling! You brew and you learn. One thing I learned today was when dry hopping not to overfill your carboy. You can see from my last post how full it was. 48 hours and this thing is still bubbling like crazy. At least while I was cleaning hops off the ceiling it smelled delicious. Yeah the wife didn't appreciate that. You can see from the pictures below how active the brew was before it exploded and then the hops lying around the carboy. Yeah Jared, you did mention a bomb in my last post :) My new name for this beer is Dropped-Explosion IPA.

Looks like I'm not the only one who's ran into this...
http://www.batchesbrew.com/wordpress/?p=589

IPA Brew

2009-04-26T11:21:00.008-05:00

I took off the training wheels and stepped up my game. It was time to make an extremely hoppy, high gravity beer (my style). With the kegerator complete I'll probably keg most of this and bottle a few for those really interested. I woke up at 2am this morning and remembered that I forgot to take a reading. So 8 hours after transferring I took the original gravity and it was 1.076 or so. It will probably be a little over 8% abv. I got a yeast starter going strong the night before and this beer is ACTIVE! From the picture you can tell I got it a little too full but wort activity is starting to push it's way through the airlock now. Any of you brewers know if that's bad? I think it should be alright because no oxygen is coming in.

Check out this recipe I kind of compiled:

Mashed 1 lb of Crystal 40L, .5 lb Munich, .5 Wheat

6.6 lbs Briess Light LME

3 lbs Light DME

WLP001 California Yeast - Starter

Hop time...

1 oz Warrior 70 min

1 oz Simcoe 50 min

1 oz Cascade 35 min

1 oz Cascade 15 min

.5 oz Amarillo 5 min

1 oz Simcoe at KO

1 oz dry leaf Cascade 1st fermentation

1 oz dry leaf Cascade 2nd fermentation

116 IBU - OG 1.076 - FG 1.015 - SRM 9

Kegerator Project

2009-04-20T20:52:00.014-05:00

I was able to do all of this yesterday (Sunday). The biggest part was to tear apart this tank of a mini-fridge. Built in 1987 and with the family ever since then. This sucker has been in more dorm rooms than I can count on one hand. It's time for old woody to graduate to the kegerator. I already had the components ran in the bar for parties with an ice bucket, but because I'm brewing now, I'd like to keg my beer and enjoy it for a while. I took the components and sacrificed a drawer that kept my cigars. My brother and I insulated the hell out of the inside using a couple different styles of insulation and lots of duct tape (ghetto). Just needs a coat of paint and a keg. Let me know if you have any questions on it. Pretty cost efficient.

Beer Wars: The Movie

2009-04-17T14:15:00.006-05:00

Did everyone hear about Beer Wars that Ben Stein backed? I didn't find out about it until a couple weeks ago, but it played last night and I got a good group to go with. So it only played once simultaneously across America so that they could do live interviews at the end of the movie. It was a production that started in 2005 and finally finished 4 years later. I thought it was a very good documentary. It got off to a slow start but essentially the meat of the story was following around Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head) and Rhonda Kallman (Moonshot). The whole premise was just ripping on BudMillerCoors and the politics of the industry. But they did that through the eyes of these two small and medium-sized breweries. I found out that Sam is awesome. I am pretty sure he was Ted in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Ha ha. You should hear is 90's-tastic surfer accent. Side topic: Bring Dogfish Head to Missouri group on facebook from Bull. Rhonda represented the small brewery struggling to survive. She got an ear full from the craft brewers and from beer advocate, but she is trying to make a caffeinated party beer. Anyway, it was very interesting perspectives. The movie was focused more on the marketing and politics as opposed to making the beer or tasting it.

Here is a picture of Sam and Rhonda:

So before the movie we hit up Granite City. I found out they brew the beer in Davenport then ship in the wort to the stores and pitch the yeast there. I was talking to the brew master from Amerisports and he was kind of joking about how they just put up the pretty fermenters. Anyhow, the beers are still better than watery beer.

After the movie we hit up O'Dowds at Zona Rosa. To my surprise Bob Reeder was there busting out all his dirty limericks. Yes! Few more beers and it was quite the Thursday night. Also I did notice that as everyone from Granite City was getting off work (including the bartender) they were heading over to O'Dowds. Funny stuff.

Did anyone else see the movie? What did you think?

KC Breweries, Old, New, Hopeful

2009-03-29T09:21:00.015-05:00

I've been meaning to get to this post for a while, but I've really been slacking. A quick note, you should really try the Sam Adams Imperial Series. Just don't drink 6 or 7 at once like I did. There's been a lot of change in breweries with the economy sinking. Late last year Power Plant Brewery in Parkville shut down "indefinitely", according to the sign on their door. Economy, service, and a political mess ended that brewery but I am hopeful that it will open again. With Parkville's exciting Microbrewfest (coming May 2nd) you'd think they'd get a lot of business.

River Market Brewery was another casualty. To me it's not a huge surprise. With the new Power & Light district dominating the downtown cash flow, RMB became an okay lunch spot, if that. The beer was decent, the service not so great. Still it's sad to see another original bite the dust.

So did Flying Monkey close down? I heard rumors that Flying Monkey Brewery in Olathe shut down, but haven't confirmed that. I saw that up in Ontario recently a brewery just changed its name to Flying Monkeys Brewery. Hmm...

On a brighter side of the topic we've got two hopeful breweries in DCB and DBC both in KC area.

Doodle Brewing Company in Liberty is underway with a building site. Nick Vaughn from KC's 75th st brewery has a good resume of brewery experience and knowledge. Nick is taking a leap with his kids college money to construct his dream. KC should really help Matt once he gets his operation in full force.

Dead Canary Brewery has kept us awaiting some good news for a while, but has plans in the West Bottoms to create a fun nano-brewery that contains a dodgeball league. Also they did a better job on the new logo.

KC New School VS. Old School (NBA Style)

2009-02-28T14:04:00.009-06:00

Bull, over on kcbeerblog has inspired me to come up with this ridiculous post. He posted a Roylas line up roster and associated beers. I came up with two NBA teams, one with Boulevard beer and one with old school beer. You can vote who would win if all of the players and beers were in their prime.

Boulevard (non-limited edition) Current Players

Single Wide - Chris Paul (New, Small, Sell out fast)
Wheat - Steve Nash (Well known, light color)
Pale Ale - Dirk Nowitzki (Rich, Pale)
Bob's 47 - Bobby Jackson (He's 36 not 47, but old for NBA)
Zon - Bruce Bowen (Zone defense)
Irish Ale - Brian Scalabrine (Red Head, Part Time)
Dry Stout - Shaq Diesel (Need I say more)
Bully Porter - Omeka Okafor (Bull in a China Closet)
Lunar - Jamario Moon (duh)
Nut Cracker Ale - Ron Artest (He will crack you nuts)
Double Wide - Glen "Baby" Davis (He's a big boy)
Long Strange Tripel - Chris "Birdman" Anderson (Trippy, Tall)
Sixth Glass - Manu Ginobili (Sixth man in '08)
Saison - Tony Parker (French, Smooth)

Old School Players, Old School Beers

Sam Adams - Larry Bird (Boston Classic)
High Life - Charles Barkley (The Champagne of Players)
Schlitz - Dennis Rodman ('Cause nothing says class more)
Budweiser - Michael Jordan (the King)
Old Style - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Fundamentals)
Miller Lite - John Stockton (Small, Light, Fast)
Black Label - Robert Parish (The beer has perished)
Stag - Tim Hardaway (A Man's Beer, look him up)
PBR (tallboy) - Dominique Wilkins (Tall, Consistent)
Falstaf- Bill Walton (Drink if you've got buck teeth)
Old Milwaukee - Moses Malone (Milwaukee Great)
Hamm's - Rick Barry (Rockin' the 70's)
Coors - Alex English (Rocky Mountain Delight)

The Wheat Beer

2009-02-21T10:11:00.004-06:00

My brother and I just got done brewing a wheat beer even though I promised an IPA next. I'm going to call this one a success. Okay semi-success. It tastes like a craft brew. It tastes like a wheat beer. There is no saltiness this time. It is a bit too malty in flavor and color. It is a dark wheat beer but I'm definitely going to down all of this batch. Let me know if you'd like to try some. I'll be getting new ingredients soon for the next batch which should get even better. You learn something every time.
Mmmm... look at that tasty wort.

New Belgium La Folie - Sour Slap

2009-02-21T09:53:00.005-06:00

New Belgium La Folie. Do you remember Gobstoppers? Or better yet, have you ever been slapped in the face? Yeah, La Folie has both. It is a very strong, tart, complex beer. Maybe I'm not the best beer advocate yet, but I don't get it. I was so excited to get a limited edition find at Red X the other day (they actually write the number on the bottle). I did get down quite a bit more than the Sam Adams Triple Bock, but the La Folie is definitely a sipping beer.

No Love for Natty

2009-01-29T18:11:00.002-06:00

After about a month of running the favorite beer poll and 44 votes I figured we had a clear winner. Not that Kansas City voters were biased or anything but Boulevard Wheat won by a long shot. 54% of you liked the Wheat. Sam Adams is still one of my favorites and Fat Tire was the start of my craft brew journey, but I figured I'd throw in one of everyone else's favorites. Of course I figured one jack ass would vote for Natural Light, but I guess everyone was sober when voting.

I will put up some more voting soon. Either that or a top 5 beer list. Either way I'll make it a little more advanced than what I had.

Beer and Snow

2009-01-26T20:04:00.006-06:00

So I had a week off of work in between jobs to do whatever I wanted. Unfortunately I got sick most of the time, but the first thing I did was get the new snowboard out to Snow Creek before heading out to Colorado a couple times this year. I went hard for a few hours and finally went in for a break. Upstairs they had a cozy bar where plenty of people were "working from home" on their wi-fi. I went up to the bar and selection was pretty weak. Suprising for such a nice bar, but they did have the Blue Moon knock off that AB came out with "Shock Top". It's an alright wheat beer. Got a couple of those in me and was good to ski the rest of the day.

Boulevard Imperial Stout

2009-01-16T13:21:00.008-06:00

I was heading to 75th St Brewery yesterday and had some time to kill so I stopped off at Berbiglia nearby and discovered that the Imperial Stout had been distributed. I picked up a bottle and drank it late last night. It was good but not great. I've been really impressed with the Smokestack Series, but maybe it's because of my taste for sweet bitter hops but Imperial Stout just doesn't float my boat. I am definitely proud to add it to my collection. You'll have to give me your thoughts on it...

Speaking of 75th St Brewery, what do others think about the establishment? I have mixed feelings about it. Service is pretty good, but the beer overall is a bit flat to the taste and they don't seem to carry much if at all of anything else besides their own beer. I can tell by the beer collection around the brewery that there is a good beer appreciation, but I think they should substitute beer styles that they do not make with ones from around KC. Their food is okay. Overall, I do love going there, but I think there are things that bother me about the place. If you have not been there, you've got to try it out.

Sam Adams Triple Bock

2009-01-15T15:38:00.002-06:00

Wow. So I finally opened a bottle of Sam Adams Triple Bock. I found this online at a store in San Diego for $4 per bottle. I had a very nice family member ship me 3 bottles. This is a very historic brew that pushed the envelope for craft brewers in the States. It was only brewed 3 years in the mid-90's. I had read that it gets better with every year. Man, I am glad I didn't try it the first year it came out. Well over a decade this bottle has been sitting and aging. Right when I opened it up the smell will knock you on your ass. 17.5% ABV.

Ingredients: Maple Syrup, Malt and Craziness. I will admit that I could not finish this as it was my first beer of the day. I had read about the cork getting wet and because this was shipped to me, well I had a bad experience opening the bottle. Some of the cork may have fallen into the bottle. Oops.

Well we all know Samuel Adams beer has a variety of awesome beers and they're doing very well. Now if I can just get my hands on some Millennium and Utopias, my set will be complete.

Random Old Beer Pictures

2009-01-05T21:18:00.003-06:00

I figured I would post a few good beer pics from over the years. Memories!

Click on the picture to see...

Christmas is Over

2008-12-26T11:00:00.007-06:00

It was a white Christmas in KC. Lots of family for Christmas. The good news is we had a lot of taste testers on my new brew, the bad news is it was a bit salty tasting due to the tap water. I used half tap water and half filtered water from the fridge. Next time I'm buying water. I compared it to O'Fallon's Blonde Ale because really, Blonde Ale is hard to come by around Christmas time. Well the carbonation rocked. The fermentation was rushed so it was a little too malty. Otherwise the taste is great. As you can see it was quite a bit darker than the O'Fallon. By the way the 5 day IPA from O'Fallon and their Smoke Porter are ones that you should pick up. O'Fallon makes a wheat and cherry-chocolate that I do not promote as much. I found a mix pack at Red-X. I'm not sure what I'm going to brew next, maybe a wheat, maybe an IPA. I've got plenty of the blonde ale left over that I'll be handing out to friends and family. I'm going to pick up a Cornie keg or two to put the next brew on tap here at the home. What should I brew next? IPA or Wheat?

1st Home Brew

2008-12-21T09:54:00.006-06:00

So the home brewing equipment sat around for over a year before it was touched. I finally hauled it out of the basement with some motivation from my brother. We started this batch on Dec 3rd with the intentions of rushing the process to get some good ale by Christmas time. I know I know, Blonde Ale for Christmas? Well, it's what I had so drink and be jolly. Maybe you can pour some cinnamon in and call it good. The wort really stunk up the house. As you can tell from the picture we did not have a wort chiller handy, but the brew isn't looking hazy so I think we got it cold quick enough. You might be able to see the nasty hop residue on the brew pot. MMM delicious! It's not as good as the scum at the bottom of the fermentation tub. Now that stuff was nasty. We let it ferment for 2 weeks, just long enough to bubble over 2 minutes. Then we went straight to the bottle so that we could let the priming sugar do its thing before Christmas. We did go ahead and take hydrometer readings along the way but didn't really mess with IBUs and gravity, we looked at the % by vol. It turned out to be exactly 6% abv. I was able to get almost 5 gallons (46 bottles). I'll update the post to let everyone know how bad it's going to taste. Let me know if you want a bottle, I may have some left over.

Single Wide

2008-12-20T09:17:00.000-06:00

I was down at Boulevard Brewery yesterday getting Christmas presents (for myself) and found out that they're making wine. So I picked up a bottle of Chardonnay to add to the collection. I saw the Single Wide on tap and unfortunately the tap room was not open for taste testing. I still have yet to make it out to a bar that has it on tap. People have already been complaining about too much hops. That sounds like the perfect beer to me!

I asked one of the workers when it was going to be bottled to see if there were any updates and it's still in March of '09. Of course I am now awaiting the Imperial Stout (2) that will be coming as #7 in the Smokestack Series.

The Collection

2008-12-16T13:10:00.000-06:00

As a first post, I decided to show my average sized bottle collection. I started this collection in March of 07. My goal was to build a basement ceiling border and fill it up for aesthetics. I completed the collection in March of 08. Ever since then I've been collecting one-offs to complete the specific brewers collections. I do drink most all of them instead of leaving the beer in them like most collectors. Why waste a beer?

I have a need/have list that eventually will be moving to ratebeer.com. Mostly I'm just trying to complete the collections of Sam Adams, Boulevard and Schlafly.