|
|
Yesterday marked the end of my 1+ year project at work to bring our cash register system up to PCI-DSS compliancy. After spending more months than I have fingers, dealing with vague requirements and vaguer QSA interpretations, it was time for a well-deserved beer. To toast the occasion, I opened a bottle of Pinkus Muller Munster Alt, one of my favorite German ales. And seeing as how I was enjoying a great beer, it seemed appropriate to break my 2 week hiatus and type up a quick review. Forgive me if this is a little shoddy, a surprising amount of rust can accumulate in a very short time.
I’ll start my saying it is wrong to compare Pinkus Muller’s brew to other German Alts. It is the lone commercial example of the Munster style; an altbier worlds apart from its Dusseldorf and Northern German cousins. The two most striking traits of Munster Alt are its use of malted wheat and its exposure to lacto during conditioning. The result: a beer that seems more at home with Berliner Weisses than with its fellow Altbiers.
Munster Alt pours a slightly hazy, golden color; a deceptive cover for its malty, well-rounded body. The flavor is a balance of wheat and bready Munich malt. The Alt yeast and long, cool fermentation give the beer a clean, minerally, lager-like quality. The lactic acid, while not nearly as pronounced as in a Berliner Weisse, is still apparent and provides the same drying finish and refreshing sensation.
Munster Alt’s highlander status prevents me from rating it against its style; after all, it IS the Munster Alt style. So, eschewing style conformity and assigning a rating base solely on merit, I give it a well-deserved A.
Munster Alt is a unique beer that is truly in a category all unto itself; an over-used an often inaccurate, but in this case, completely fitting description. It also carries a more than reasonable price tag. The 16.9 oz bottle pictured above came from the newly-expanded beer section of my local Fred Meyer, priced around $3.50.
And for those of you whose Lord Northbournes gets all erect when you hear the “O” word, I’ll mention that Munster Alt is certified organic. Actually, Pinkus Muller is one of the pioneers of organic brewing. They started producing organic beer in 1980 and later became the first brewery to use entirely organic malts and hops.
Well, there you have it. A small review with a little bit of history. My work is done.
Cheers!
Kevin
Amid the void of recent posts, Beer and Coding quietly sneaked past the one year mark last week. And while my anniversary got completely lost in a calendar of meetings and deadlines, happenstance found me at the place responsible for my downward spiral into all thing beery for the momentous occasion; Ninkasi.
Just a few short years ago, I was positive Fat Tire was the be-all end-all of craft beer. Hell, I didn’t even know what “craft beer” was at the time; New Belgium made micros. Then, through one of those friend-of-a-friend things, I got a chance to try a test batch of what we all know (and love) now as Total Domination. Talk about a game changer. From that first enamel-stripping sip, I knew there was no going back. My name is Kevin and I am a hops addict. For the next year I asked/begged/pleaded for Ninkasi IPA at every bar or restaurant I visited. Daddy needs his fix. Luckily, Eugene was just as much a Ninkasi junkie as I, and my requests were rarely denied. The rest is history: I drank more beer. I obsessed about it. I brewed it. I prattled endlessly about it. I bored my wife. I started a blog. Oh, and Ninkasi got bigger too.
On Saturday my wife and I escaped the heat in the shade of Ninkasi’s newly finished patio area, where we unknowingly celebrated Beer and Coding’s first anniversary. I enjoyed a sample tray containing Nuptiale Cream Ale, Quantum Pale, Tricerahops, Radiant and an unnamed dry-hopped IPA while my wife had a Believer. It’s hard to image that only a few years back, I would have been sipping my Fat Tire while my wife drank a Coors Light or Widmer Hef.
As you may have deduced from the introduction, the rest of this post will be a stereotypical, sappy gush-fest, looking back over the first year of Beer and Coding. Won’t you join me?
In The Beginning…
When I get into a hobby, I go deep. Craft beer was my new mistress and my wife was tired of hearing about her. My friends and coworkers probably felt the same way. Fortunately we have this thing called the Internet, and anyone with one of these computer thingies can blather on all day about whatever tickles their undercarriage without threat of recourse. That founding ideal, plus a clever pun for a title, and we have inception. Beer and Coding.
Initially, I wanted my blog to sound similar to the way I talk. Unfortunately, as I muddled through my early posts, I realized they had the cohesiveness of a caffeine-addled squirrel that had taken one too many falls from the old oak tree. I now understand much better the confused look on my wife’s face after I have been talking for a few minutes. This was followed by a short stretch of posts where I dabbling in a more serious tone. But for me, serious writing is analogous to tedious writing and dabbling is best left for college dorms. I think I have finally found my “voice,” and at least the act of writing feels like it has better flow. The biggest variable at this point is use of imagery, which seems directly proportional to the hour at which I am writing. It is 9:07 p.m. if you are wondering. Now if only I could figure out a way to transcribe my thoughts faster, so I am not finishing this at midnight again. Moving along…
Want Beer, Will Review
One of the best things about this beer blogging shtick has been getting invited to beer events, or at least having a semi-plausible (by “wife standard”) reason to attend them. The Fresh Hop Festival, Holiday Ale Fest, KLCC Brewfest, Zwicklemania, Sasquatch and OBF are all recent notches on the bedpost. And I can’t even begin to count the tastings and bottle releases. I am glad I don’t live in Portland; the little life I have outside of beer would be completely gone.
Over the last year I have reviewed several beers, most of them purchased, but occasionally grafted. At first, I made it a point to review without using any “beer snob” terminology. I wanted to write reviews for people in my position – those who liked craft beer, but didn’t care about descriptions like “cloying” and “horse blanket”. I quickly realized that people aren’t in my boat for too long. The palate develops pretty quickly, and at the end of the day “horse blanket” is the best way to describe something that has a horse blanket taste. I still find the term “nose” pretentious, but have conceded to using “notes” and “hints”. See, I can grow as a person.
Beer and CODING
I’ll admit it, I’m still lagging on the coding front. Who would have thought that after writing code for eight hours, I wouldn’t be keen on doing it when I got home? I mean I think about beer all day and I still want one when I get home. Anyway, I do have a few coding projects in the works that I will get around to finishing at some point, but I will leave that for the Future section. Which brings us to…
The Future
When looking back, it’s always good to end looking forward. I’m sure there’s a pun in there somewhere, but it’s getting late.
In year two, expect more reviews and event reports; the bread and butter, or meat and potatoes for those of you with a more carnivorous leaning. As I’ve mentioned before, Eugene beer culture is growing rapidly and as it does, my posts will grow increasingly local. Of course, I’ll never turn down an opportunity to travel.
I am also picking back up my exploration of nanobrewing. I started with a primer back in February, but Mt. Tabor and Naked City were the only nanos that returned my call (or more accurately e-mails). Since then, my initial post has been referenced quite a bit around the interwebs and recently I have received e-mails from a couple prospective nanobrewers, asking for advice. Not being in the business of brewing myself (dare to dream), I am reminded of the old adage, “Those who can’t do, teach.” And teach I shall (attempt – Honesty Editor). In addition to the two aforementioned breweries, Hess Brewing, Healdsburg Beer Company and Beetje Brewing has all answered the calling. I am currently compiling their responses to some questions I asked, and the first article should be up soon. Thanks again guys! If any of you other nanobrewers want to pitch in, shoot me an e-mail.
On the coding side, the Beer Test is partially written using the Android SDK and I have also started a tasting notes app. All the parts are sitting in a SparkFun shopping cart to turn my Arduino into a temperature controller for a fermentation chamber. When I pull the trigger, you can follow along as I build my lagering freezer. And not one to look a gift segue in the mouth, I’ll use the opportunity to transition to homebrew.
My home brewing is getting a little out of control, more and more of the garage’s floorspace consumed by the hobby. I recently installed a conditioning fridge and yesterday picked up a new (used) wort chiller from a great guy named Adam who threw in 100+ bottles and about a pound of home-grown Cascade, Chinook and Magnum hops. Still going is the starter of wild yeast I cultured from the plum tree in my yard. I’m excited to brew a “Eugene” beer with my yeast and Adam’s hops. Anyone growing some barley they want to throw in?
Conclusion
Once again, I want to take the opportunity to thank the craft brew community, both brewers and bloggers. This is the most fun I have ever had learning. Remind me again why they don’t teach beer in school?
In typical PBS fashion, I am going to end with a serene montage. In this case, pictures from my trip to Ninkasi. Here’s looking at another great year!
Cheers!
Kevin
Over the past few months, I have been following a Homebrewtalk.com thread titled Can I culture yeast from Juniper Berries? COLObrewer, the thread’s originator, not only succeeded in culturing yeast from juniper berries, but was also able to use said yeast to ferment a beer with a 1.116 starting gravity down to 1.010, or just shy of 14% ABV. His success had me searching my property, all .19 acres of it, looking for yeast to culture. As luck would have it, a few weeks ago, I noticed some plums on a tree in my front yard had a powdery white coating; similar to COLObrewer’s juniper berries. I was sure I was staring at either wild yeast or car exhaust. The only way to be sure was to put into practice the time-honored adage, “When life gives you plums, ferment them.”
Saturday, I picked up a couple pounds of DME from the homebrew shop and began my quest to culture yeast/exhaust from plums. I made up a 1 quart starter of 1.040 wort in a spare growler and went outside to gather some plums. Unfortunately, with the recent heat, my tree had already dropped all its fruit. I managed to scavenge about a dozen intact windfalls, all but two (pic, far right) already starting to brown. Oh well, in you go.
After about 48 I had signs of fermentation. There was a foamy krausen occupying space between the floating fruit. There was also a yeasty aroma and a good deal of sediment in the bottom of the growler. Liftoff.
Tuesday I made a new 1/2 gallon starter, lightly hopped with some left-over Columbus. My plan was to decant the first starter and pitch the settled yeast into the new one. When I opened the growler, I was met with a strong yeast aroma. A strong Belgian-esque yeast aroma; quite similar to the smell my Wit had while fermenting. Excited, I charged my wife, growler in hand, yelling for her to smell the jar. I was met with a fist.
Back on my feet, I took a hydro sample while decanting the growler. The gravity was still about 1.040, but there was a ton of yeast in suspension. The picture below shows the new starter, directly after the yeast was pitched. Ooh, so cloudy.
Within a couple hours, the new starter had developed some splotches on the surface. Had this been several days in, I would have been firing off shoddy picture-laden “Is My Beer Infected?” posts to all the homebrew forums. But at sub-three hours, I don’t think anything but the yeast had time to take hold. Here is the starter at 24 hours; you can see the pile of yeast building in the bottom of the container.
Since I don’t own a stir plate, I have been giving the starter a good shake a few times every day. I am currently fermenting around 75 (F), but this will probably rise over the next few days as the outside temperature starts to climb again. I plan to let the starter go until I see a noticeable change in gravity, or get some horrible infection. If the yeast succeeds in fermenting the starter, I’ll give it a real beer to chew on. Assuming this all works out, anyone interested in a beer swap (Watch it. The OLCC could be reading – Legal Advisor) where we all brew the same recipe and ferment with locally cultivated yeasts? Could be fun.
Cheers!
Kevin
This weekend marks a rare occurrence in little Eugene, two beer events on the same day. Well, I may have overstated that a bit. The first event is at least equal parts blues and brews, if not tilting in blues’ favor. And the second event is not really a beer event at all, but more of an event that happens to take place at and around a brewery. Confused yet? Perfect, here we go.
Willamette Valley Blues and Brews Festival
Tomorrow afternoon, the 2nd Annual Willamette Valley Blues and Brews Festival kicks-off in Springfield’s Island Park. All of the information for the 2-day event is available on the Festival’s Website. Here is the festival’s beer list, cuffed from their website and reformatted for easier perusing.
| Brewery |
Beer |
| Block 15 |
Boneyard Beer |
Bone-a-Fide Pale Ale |
Black 13 |
| High St. (McMenamins) |
Copper Moon Pale Ale |
Hammerhead |
|
| Hop Valley |
IPA (no name given) |
Blonde (no name given) |
|
| Hopworks |
Rise Up Red |
HUB Lager |
|
| Kona |
Longboard Lager |
Wailua Wheat |
|
| Ninkasi |
Total Domination |
Radiant Summer Ale |
|
| Oakshire |
Watershed IPA |
Line Dry Rye |
|
| Redhook |
Copperhook |
Blonde Ale |
|
| Sierra Nevada |
Pale Ale |
Anniversary |
|
| Three Creeks |
Knotty Blonde |
Old Prospector Pale |
|
| Widmer |
W’10 Pitch Black IPA |
Drifter Pale Ale |
|
Three blonde ales out of 23 beers, apparently the festival has a type. Block 15 and Three Creeks are a couple nice additions for us townies who can’t be bothered to make the trek to Corvallis or Sisters.
I know the festival is still in its infancy, but it could only help if they spent some extra time securing beers and publicizing the ‘brews’ aspect of the event. For example, while the list of performers is displayed prominently on the main page of the festival’s website, to find the list of beers, you have to select ‘Brewers’ from the ‘Vendors’ dropdown. And up until a couple weeks ago, only Ninkasi and Sierra Nevada were listed. Eugene/Springfield is hungry for more quality brewfests. I would hate to see this become the Willamette Valley Blues Festival (with beer garden).
4th Annual Whiteaker Block Party
Saturday welcomes the return of the Whiteaker Block Party, a free community gathering and street fair that shows off the best of Eugene’s most eclectic neighborhood. 37 bands are scheduled to play across 6 stages; a schedule is available at the Event’s Website.
Ninkasi, who happens to be located in the heart of Whiteaker, will once again be hosting one of the stages and a beer garden at the brewery. The newly-finished patio area should be a welcome change to the paved lot of years past.
Interestingly, two of the bands playing at the Blues and Brews Festival, Volifonix and Jerry Zybach, will also be appearing at the Whiteaker Block Party.
So, there you go. I don’t want to hear any complaining that there is nothing to do this weekend. Get your lawns mowed early and go have some fun.
Cheers!
Kevin
Here we are, just over a month into summer and at the market, I am greeted by a floor display of Okto. With the seasonal brews being rotated off the shelves, I figured I should post my summer beer roundup before they all disappear.
Starting on a positive note, none of the seasonal beers I’ve tried this summer have been complete disappointments. All of them seem comfortable to occupy the space between mediocre and quite good. Although, this statement should probably be qualified. My house has been inundated with homebrew as of late, severely reducing my consumption of commercial beers. It is quite possible that the shelves are teeming with abominations and I’ve just had the good fortune of avoiding them thus far.
Oakshire – Line Dry Rye
Line Dry Rye is my favorite of the summer brews I’ve sampled this year. A crisp Pale Ale with enough rye that I can actually taste it. Again, further clarification is in order. Be it beer or bread, I have a real hard time detecting rye if it is not either used in copious amounts or accompanied by the tell-tale caraway. For example, the Rye Beer I brewed a few months back had 27% rye in the grist. And I though it could have benefited from another pound or two.
For their summer beer, Oakshire used 20% rye, split evenly between flaked and malted. At this level the rye spiciness is present, but not overpowering. And while the rye-tio (you’re kidding me right? – Pun Editor) has not change from last year, I believe something else in either their recipe or process has. This year’s incarnation is both drier and cleaner tasting than the inaugural run. A great summer brew; worth trying if you have not yet done so already.
Ninkasi – Radiant Summer Ale
While Oakshire marked the shift in season with the switch from CDA to Rye Ale, the change is harder to detect at Ninkasi; hoppy spring Pale giving way to hoppy summer Pale. Radiant is just a touch sweeter and a touch malter than the preceding Spring Reign. Not a bad brew, just not remarkable.
Maybe sentiments differ outside of Eugene. See, around here, you can always find a tap of Quantum, Ninkasi’s year-round Pale Ale. So having another two oh-so-similar brews released as back-to-back seasonals leaves something to be desired.
Widmer – Sunburn
I really appreciate this beer for it is; a low ABV (4.3%) Pale with a simple grainbill (2-Row & Light Crystal) that somehow packs as much hop flavor as some IPAs. If only that flavor didn’t come in the form of Citra; a hop that tastes so much like tropical fruit candy that I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that is isn’t artificial, lab created.
This is probably just my hang-up though. I have the same issue with the Nelson Sauvin hops, which I think taste like tangerine Jolly Ranchers. I will say that the unique flavor of Citra hops do provide a quenching sensation, which is both apparent and welcome in Sunburn. A nice, light summer ale, my idiosyncrasy aside.
Redhook – Rope Swing
Rope Swing is a Czech style Pilnser, hopped entirely with Saaz. I received a couple sample bottles in late spring and was pleasantly surprised with Redhook’s first foray into Lagers. The beer does have a hint of caramel malts, making it slightly sweeter than my favorite NW Pilsner (hush this “NW Pilsner” nonsense –Style Guideline Editor), Ltd 03.
Personally, I found the Saaz hops to be bright and flavorful, but there are Other Opinions floating around the interwebs that rebuke this assertion. Rope Swing isn’t breaking any new ground, but it’s a decent, inexpensive Pils. And props to Redhook for not filling their seasonal slot with a “lite” beer this year. New Belgium, take note.
Deschutes – Twilight
When I first tried Twilight on draft this year, I was taken aback by the huge Amarillo flavor. Did the recipe change? I don’t remember it being so distinctly hopped. Unfortunately the bottles have been a little hit-or-miss. Some sport the same lush, citrusy flavors of the draft version, others are dull and grassy.
I didn’t think to check the batch numbers on the bottles, so I can’t say if the problem is a production issue, or just improper storage. I’ve picked up the same off taste in other beers that spent too much time under harsh florescence at the mini-mart. In any case, kegged Twilight has done right by me this year; proceed with bottles at your own risk.
So, that’s it for my summer beer roundup. I’m sure a few more seasonal brews have passed my lips in the last few months, but I failed to write anything down about them. And while I have no qualms with recalling a recently imbibed brew from memory, performing postmortem without proper notes leaves a bad taste. It’s funny how the application of time to memory causes a twisting of recollections. Oh well, the weather is nice. Grab yourself a summer brew.
Cheers!
Kevin
|
|