Russian River Consecration Tasting

Stopping back through Chicago at the end of our summer travels, Mrs. Absalom and I were once again gracefully accepted under the roof of Br. & Mrs. Thelonious.  In celebration, Br. Thelonious and I shared a bottle I discovered in Philadelphia, Russian River's Consecration, their strong sour ale aged with currants in cabernet barrels.  This not being something one can find in the Midwest (or most other places) and being such a marvelous, complex sour, it was a rare treat, and very satisfying to share with a fellow member of the Order.

Date: 30 July 2012

Venue: Damen Abbey (Br. Thelonious's)

==========

Appearance: Clear cherry amber; head burns off quickly.

Smell: Berry, lots of warm mellow wood, a little tartness.  This is the first beer to which I can actually attribute a measure of "barnyard" aroma; it's only slight, and in no way objectionable.

Taste: Sourness right from the start.  Tart cherry continues to intensify through the entire draught, deep oak & red wine in the middle to the end.  Despite being 10%, the alcohol does not show itself here.  The tart to tannic transition is seamless; very well integrated.

Mouthfeel: Prickly carbonation lifts the winey finish, keeping it from hanging on too long.

Overall: An incredible, complex beer that really shows the cab barrel character.  A shame the distribution for this is so limited; just about has me ready to road trip out to California for more right now.

- Br. Absalom

#IPADay Cometh

If you hadn't heard already--and I'm sure nearly all of my fellow beer geeks out there have--today, 2 August 2012, is the second annual IPA Day.  While it's meant bring focus and increase excitement to the general craft beer movement, IPAs are specifically chosen for celebration because of their iconic status in the craft community.  There are a whole lot of great posts out today bringing focus to the various and sundry aspects of the "humble" India pale ale; for my part, just off the road yesterday after six weeks away from home, I can muster the strength to offer up a couple homebrew recipes from my archives--one extract and one all-grain--that have been among my favourites.  Here's to all of us taking a moment to enjoy a nicely hoppy beer today!

=====

Hop-On Ale (extract)

I first brewed this as my third-ever batch four years ago while living in Hawai`i.  It turned out so well I did a rebrew when I moved to Chicago and split the batch to experiment with different yeast characters.  Unfortunately, two of the splits picked up acetobacter infections; the last bottle of the third split, cracked open with the now-Mrs. Absalom and my father after several months of aging, was downright glorious.

Batch size: 6 gallons
Projected OG: 1.068
Projected SRM: 7.2
Projected IBU:61.0
Boil time: 60 minutes

Grains/Fermentables
7 lb Extra Light DME (added at 15 min)
3.3 lb Wheat LME
10 oz Munich
10 oz Crystal 10

Hops
2 oz Cascade (6.3%) (60 min)
1 oz Cascade (20 min)
1 oz Cascade (5 min)
1 oz Cascade (dry hop)

Yeast
WY1056 American Ale

Furious-ish Clone (AG)

Having sampled (and loved) MN-born Surly Brewing Co's aggressive flagship IPA, I went hunting for mystical internet speculation to help me formulate this recipe (for the record, this was before Northern Brewer came out with their Pro Series kits).  Looking at it now, there's a HELL of a lot of crystal malt, but it seemed to balance pretty well.  While I ended up kind of turned off to Simcoe hops for a while after a fellow homebrewer described their dank flavour as tasting of "sweat and piss", this was a great beer.  Why the heck haven't I brewed this again?

Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.072
Projected SRM: 13.2
Projected IBU: 68.5
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 65%

Grains/Fermentables
71.4% - 10 lb Maris Otter
14.4% - 2 lb Crystal 40
7.1% - 1 lb Carapils
7.1% - 1 lb Light brown sugar (10 min)

Hops
.5 oz        Columbus (14.4%) (60 min)
.5 oz        Millennium (17.1%) (60 min)
.2 oz        Amarillo (8%) (20 min)
.2 oz        Simcoe (12.9 %) (20 min)
.2 oz        Amarillo (15 min)
.2 oz        Simcoe (15 min)
.2 oz        Amarillo (10 min)
.2 oz        Simcoe (10 min)
.2 oz        Amarillo (5 min)
.2 oz        Simcoe (5 min)
.2 oz        Amarillo (0 min)
.2 oz        Simcoe (0 min)
1 oz        Amarillo (dry hop)
1 oz        Simcoe (dry hop)

Yeast
1.5 pkgs US-05

- Br. Absalom