It finished fermenting in under a week. This past Sunday, I kegged it, and added 2.5 ounces of dry hops into the keg with it. It will still continue to improve as it extracts more and more volatile compounds from the dry hops. But, even after only two days (just long enough to get it adequately carbonated), I’m tasting it.

Wow. Delish. It is quite fine. Purty, too.

Hooch, Resurrected

I also managed to dig up a photo taken a couple of months ago of Hump’s Hooch. This was snapped in a side-by-side, next to Sweetwater IPA (which was sort of inspiration for Hooch – though I think Hooch turned out even better than Sweetwater’s brew).

The one on the left (the hazier one) is Hooch. Sweetwater IPA is on the right.

Le Roi est mort. Vive le Roi!

The other weekend, while we were brewing Hump’s 100, we finally managed to crack open the Big Bastard: a three-liter bottle of Stone Double Bastard.

It was good.

And now I can re-use the bottle for homebrew. I have a big, bad-ass barleywine recipe that I call Hump’s Ballroom Brawl Barleywine. I think it could be worthy of aging in this ludicrously over-sized bottle.

The Champ

The Challenger

The contrast between this latest opponent and the last one (McRogue) couldn’t be sharper. McRogue was so chocolatey and rich that it made Fat Bastard look fruity by comparison. Old Chub is the opposite. It tastes fruity and caramelly by comparison and makes Fat Bastard taste like the chocolate-cookie part of an Oreo — dark and roasty with distinct coffee and chocolate character.

Just like the last contest: I preferred Fat Bastard, but vote #2 was cast in favor of the challenger. Another draw.

We’ll try to nab some of Great Divide’s Claymore Scotch Ale for a third installment. Stay tuned…

In this corner, the champion, standing at 8% alcohol by volume, made with seven types of malts and a single hop variety, is the Fat Bastard (with a hefty 1.034 finishing gravity — told you it was fat). And in the other corner, the challenger from the west coast, made with five types of malts and three varieties of hops, standing at 7% alcohol by volume, is McRogue.

Fat Bastard was crafted using British pale (Maris Otter), dark Munich, British crystal (55°L and 150°L), special roast, and peated malts as well as unmalted roasted barley. It was bittered with U.K. Phoenix hops and lightly spiced with crushed coriander seed (intended to be a subtle nod to Traquair Jacobite – a Scotch ale made with generous amounts of coriander).

McRogue was built using amber, pale, and chocolate malts; rolled oats; and Rogue’s own home-grown Dare malts. McRogue features Kent Goldings and Willamette hops as well as Rogue’s own home-grown Revolution hops.

Fat Bastard on the left; McRogue on the right

Appearance: Both beers pour brown, with less than stellar clarity, and medium-sized light tan heads. The Rogue brew is cloudier and not quite as dark. The fat bastard is nearly black except when held to the light, revealing a hazy (but not as opaque as the Rogue) dark brown.

Aroma: The Rogue has a distinct chocolate character to the aroma whereas Fat Bastard has a distinctly fruity character (no fruit in particular – just the vaguely fruity aroma of esters, produced by ale yeast during fermentation). The variance is significant and the contrast is great enough that each beer accentuates the character of the other. In other words, the McRogue brew seems even more chocolatey after sampling the Fat Bastard, and – similarly – the Fat Bastard seems to be more distinctly fruity after a sip of the McRogue. The Fat Bastard also has a touch of drying ethanol in the aroma, divulging the brew’s greater strength. Despite the use of a small portion of peated malt and coriander in Fat Bastard, it is lacking any noticeable contributions from either.

Flavor: The flavors follow the aromas in both beers. The McRogue is thick and malty with a surprisingly strong chocolate character with other hints of sweet and roasty malts. The Fat Bastard, on the other hand, has a more straight-forward malt character that has a slightly rougher edge from alcohol, a subtle chocolate character, and continuing tones of fruity esters. Both finish dry with a hint of ethanol. Fat Bastard is a touch more warming in the finish.

Overall: Though I formulated the recipe for Hump’s Fat Bastard with the intent that it would reach down to a 1.028 finishing gravity (which would translate to just over 9% alcohol), I’m still quite happy with the finished product. I actually prefer it to the Rogue brew. However, my better half (wife), prefers the Rogue. Of course, she’s also quite partial to chocolate.

So, the final verdict? A draw. Perhaps next time we need an odd number of votes cast.

We’ll have to schedule a re-match, pitting an aged bottle of McRogue against some aged Fat Bastard to see how they smooth out.

Title Bout

Hump’s Naughty Monk Ales

On the left, with visibly greater carbonation (though about the same level of head retention), we present the draught version of Hump’s Naughty Monk Ale. And, on the right is the bottle-conditioned version of the same brew.

Let’s conduct a side-by-side tasting, shall we? Or, as Michael Buffer would say, “Let’s get ready to rumble!”

But first, some background…

The draft version was made using real watermelon juice. It was served only draft so as not to re-ferment (serving temperature is much cooler than even the low end of the range for the yeast that fermented this brew). The bottled version, on the other hand, was flavored with watermelon extract. Both beers, before their melon incursions, were the same – one five gallon batch split into two.

The base beer is a Belgian Tripel – malty, spicy, and strong. At kegging/bottling time, the bottled version appeared to be much lighter and clearer. The watermelon juice added some color and cloudiness to the draft version that extract could not provide. However, the darker brew in the photo is the bottled version. I suspect it is suffering from chill haze, since the bottle was only in the fridge for a couple of days. The draft version, however, has been in the fridge for a couple of months, so any chill haze has probably precipitated already, leaving behind a brighter beer.

I originally suspected that the draft version would be a much better brew than the bottled version. Immediately after adding extract, tasting the bottled version (before it actually went into bottles) seemed to confirm my suspicion – very, very strong and annoying watermelon character that overpowered the beer. The draft version also had a very strong watermelon character, but seemed more refreshing and appealing. But now that the bottles have conditioned, I felt it was a good time to try them side by side to see how they’ve turned out.

Back to the match…

The draft version looks nice due to its color and brilliance as well as its thick frothy white head. The bottled version, though conditioning for over a month, still needs a little more carbonation. Its darker, cloudier appearance also makes it look a tad lifeless next to the draft version.

Appearance: Draft wins!

The draft version has strong aroma of watermelon with a slightly vegetal character. The bottled version has a much softer watermelon character that has a distinctly candy-like (Jolly Rancher?) tint. Both exhibit bready, cakey malt notes and spicy phenols from fermentation.

Aroma: Bottled wins!

The draft version has a very smooth blend of watermelon juice and abbey-style strong beer. Both are distinct. The slight vegetal character in the nose dissipates and, luckily, doesn’t emerge on the taste buds. It has a dry but malty (with touches of soft fruit) finish with a pleasant watermelon and oatmeal cookie aftertaste. The bottled version has a much more muted watermelon character (what a surprise considering how it tasted before going into the bottle!). It is a very crisp and strong ale with notes of spice and fruit. The malt character seems strangely muted compared to that of the draft version. It has a very dry finish with a touch of alcohol bitterness. It is warming with a short, crackery aftertaste. The bottled version is actually very nice and much better than I expected. The watermelon character blends so seemlessly that it is pleasant and far from overt. The draft version, on the other hand, almost has too much watermelon. However, in the end, the draft version tastes fresher and also has slightly stronger malt and yeast presence that gives it a slight edge.

Flavor: Draft wins!

The draft version has a very smooth mouthfeel that is slippery and creamy around mid-palate. The bubbles provide a soft, pillowy frothiness that pampers the tongue. The bottled version seems a little thin and is very, very crisp. Despite not pouring with a thick head, it feels like it has much higher carbonation. The bottled version is quite drying – obviously a stronger beer (which it really is since the draft version was “watered” down with alcohol-free watermelon juice). Though the level of carbonation is more lively and more appropriate in the bottled version, the draft version just slightly edges out the bottled version for its creamy and full-bodied texture. The watermelon juice probably may have a bit to do with the mouthfeel as well.

Mouthfeel: Draft wins!

Overall, these are much closer than I expected. I expected the draft to be the hands down winner, but they’re really close. Tasting them side by side, it is obvious they aren’t the same beer. The different characters imparted by watermelon juice vs. watermelon extract are immediately apparent. But, despite the contrast, they do share a strong “family resemblance”.

The draft version edges out the bottled version, but just slightly. If the draft version only smelled like the bottled version then it would be perfect! But the slight vegetal character in the nose isn’t a big enough distraction to keep it from winning this challenge. It simply looks better, tastes better, and is smoother. Admittedly, it has a slight advantage in the smoothness department since it is about 8.6%abv compared to 9.2% for the bottled version.

Overall: Draft, for the win!

What a fun experiment! Just one reason out of so many that this hobby rules.

Two of our beers are entering the final round of judging in the National Homebrew Competition.

Hump’s Back-Breaking Brown scored 41 points in the first round and netted us a gold certificate. It also got 2nd place in the Specialty category – which means we got a red ribbon. I’m totally stoked about this beer and hoping it continues to do well in the next round.

Hump’s Irish Dry Stout scored 36 points – good for a silver certificate and a 3rd place (yellow) ribbon. I like this beer, but I’m not quite as excited about it because I just don’t think it stands out as well as Back-Breaking Brown. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed though. After all, a medal in the Stout category would make me just as happy as a medal in the Specialty category.

The other beers entered (Hump’s Old Humperdink Barley Wine and Hump’s Yankee Doodle Brown) didn’t place, but scored well enough to get silver certificates.

April 20^th

Almost exactly one month ago, our younger son turned one year old. His mother and I celebrated by cracking open the last bottle of a beer that was brewed in his honor: Hump’s “Welcome to the World!” Wit.

Recently Brewed

Over the past month I’ve made two batches of beer.

Hump’s Cascade Pale Ale is a fine and delicious single-hop (Cascade) American Pale Ale. It has a wonderfully balanced bready malt character with just a hint of residual sweetness. It has a strong sweet orange citrus aroma and distinctly citrusy hop flavor. It finishes dry with a firm but balanced citrusy bitterness. A blend of hops would have certainly added some complexity to the very-orange hop character, but I was really going for the kind of citrus character that only a single-hop beer could provide. Ahtanum, Amarillo, or Centennial may have been good substitutes, but Cascade – being the stereotypical American hop variety – seemed just right for this recipe.

Hump’s Jeroboam is a mind-bending Double IPA. It is made with all Magnum hops — Jeroboam is a wine term that means “Double Magnum” (aka 3 liter bottle; a Magnum is a 1.5 liter bottle). This brew is amazingly balanced and almost (dare I say) delicate from the unbelievably neutral and clean hop character that is Magnum. But it weighs in at nearly 10% (so maybe “delicate” is a poor choice of words). It has a pleasant, green hop aroma (from generous dry-hopping) followed by a rather complex and mesmerizing flavor. It is very strong and warming from the alcohol, but it also has various notes of spice (noble hop sort of spiciniess), fruit (touches of tropical fruit), and honey. It finishes very dry and firmly bitter – but a very clean and sublime bitterness.

On The Horizon

We are anxiously looking forward to hop-harvesting time this year. Two of our four hop plants (the Willamette and the Chinook) are really growing and are already producing wonderful-looking hop cones. The Horizon looks like it could provide a half-way decent yield this year. The Centennial, however, is looking pathetic. It had a strong start but has already stalled.

We will also be brewing again soon. I was really hoping to cook up a batch this weekend, but it looks like it will be delayed to next weekend. The next batch will be Hump’s Saison – a no-nonsense Belgian-style farmhouse ale.

Fellow Brewer

A friend of mine from work (the day job, not brewing) has shared with me an interesting story of a guy he knows who recently made the switch from day job to professional brewing. His beers have just begun production (contract brewed at Thomas Creek for now).

I’m quite interested to pick some up once it comes to Georgia. Apparently, the guy has won awards for his homebrews (not unlike Hump’s). It makes a nice story and is certainly inspiration for us to follow suit (though probably not anytime really soon…).

His brewery is named Bottle Tree Brewing. Check them out!

And Once Again…

Your moment of Zen.

I know, I know — this is a beer blog, not a Scotch blog! Forgive me once more for this distraction into the craft of distilling.

The most recent malt I’ve tried, Caol Ila 12, is a fantastic Islay malt. It is crazy smokey (like my other favorites from Islay), but it is also quite malty with just the right touches of sweetness. I’d place it somewhere between the Ardbeg 10 and the Lagavulin 16 (and a little less expensive than both).

Burton Baton

I just drank a new bottle of Dogfish Head Burton Baton and am now opening an old bottle (3 years old). My are they different. No offense to the old guy, but this beer is better fresh.

Admittedly, my three-year old bottle tasted “old” even when I bought it. My review of the beer from 2007 indicated a beer that was very malty and not particularly hoppy – definite barleywine territory (despite being labeled as an Imperial IPA). Three years have done nothing, obviously, for its hop presence.

The fresh stuff – still more like an American Barleywine than an Imperial IPA – is a wonderfully balanced, big, delicious beer. The old stuff has lost all pretense of hop aroma and is cloying in the nose.

The flavor of the old stuff is quite smooth and actually very good. But, man, is it sweet. It tastes like candy… malted barley candy. It has just enough hints of hops in various areas (subtle bitter fruit, subtle evergreen, subtle citrus orange) to balance the big-ass wave of candy-sweet malts. So it is actually drinkable – not too cloyingly sweet in flavor. But not drinkable enough to have a pint. It sits quite heavy in the gut (even the fresher stuff). That and the fact that it’s a strong beer, make me reconsider the idea of opening two of them. Oh, well — I’ll call it a nightcap and hope it help me sleeps…

Running On Empty

We had a brew day a few weeks ago, and it was very successful: our overgrown stock of fine beer was vastly diminished. We still have an absolutely silly amount of fantastic beers sitting around, but two homebrew kegs (out of three) now sit empty.

We will be filling one of them on Monday with Hump’s Union Jack Bitter — the beer that we made on the brew day. It is currently sitting on a half ounce of U.K. First Gold hops and isn’t due to come off until Monday.

The one remaining keg stores the remainder of Hump’s Irish Dry Stout. I totally dig this beer, but I sort of miss not having a hoppy one around. And that’s why the next two beers we’re cooking up will be such a perfect fit.

This weekend we’ll brew Hump’s Cascade Pale Ale. If there ever were a stereotypical beer (other than the sea of stereotypical bland pale lagers), this is it: an American Pale Ale… made with Cascade hops. It seems that every brewpub has a beer like this — it is required fare for almost any craft/small brewer in the country. Is this kind of beer overdone? Nah…

I enjoy Cascade hops, and I love hoppy pale ales. We’ll see if we can make something truly exceptional out of what amounts to the “apple pie and baseball” of American craft beer.

And after that we’ll be making a truly special brew – another Imperial IPA. We may end up making it next week. (Is brewing back to back weeks insane? Didn’t think so…) This will be no ordinary Impy though. It will be our first attempt at a single-hop Imperial IPA (our last single-hop brew, Old Humperdink, was a wonderful success). What hop variety you ask? Magnum. Were it a normal-strength IPA, we might call it “Magnum IPA”, but this is a Double IPA. So what do you call a “double magnum”? A Jeroboam. So we’ll call this one Hump’s Jeroboam.

Perhaps we’ll have an opportunity to empty our Jeroboam of Stone’s Double Bastard and fill it with our own Jeroboam brew. Is it just me, or does that seem poetic?

Hot Liquor

We’ve now made a couple of batches using the latest gadgets added to our hot liquor tank. Back in December, I had a 15.5-gallon Sankey keg converted into a hot liquor tank. We chopped the top off (losing about 1 gallon of volume), added a thermometer, and added a spigot.

The latest gadgets: we put a down-tube on the inside of the keg, attached to the spigot. This means that we can extract almost 100% of the hot water since the tube pokes down close to the bottom of the pot. We also added a sight glass.

Having a nice hot liquor tank setup definitely takes some of the “chore” away from all-grain brewing. It makes it much easier to hit my dough-in temperatures and is easier-to-use to boot.

Competitions

We used our 5 Seasons Westside gift certificate (part of the prize for placing 5th in the BEERmuda Triangle Competition) the other day, sampling their Plan B IPA poured through the world’s largest Randall: a conical fermentor packed with Willamette hops. Apparently, since the conical is so big, they just dumped a keg of Plan B into it after filling it with hops (it must have been either not completely full or very loosely filled with hops – because that seems like a waste of so much hops otherwise since most of them would have such little contact time with the beer…). They then opened the transfer valve on the bottom of the conical to pour each pint. It was a damn tasty pint. I was amazed by the fact that the flavor was not that radically transformed. I tried another sampler (just two ounces) of the normal Plan B that night, and the two tasted almost the same. The Randallized one was a little hoppier in aroma, but the biggest difference was actually the mouthfeel. The Randall must impart loads and loads of hop oils or other mouth-filling compounds, because it was very full-bodied. Chewy… but not in a bad way. Delicious in fact. Another big difference between the two versions of this IPA: the Randallized one was way cloudier.

Speaking of the BEERmuda Triangle Homebrew Competition, we entered brews into Georgia’s Peach State Brew Off this year. The PSBO is an AHA-sanctioned event, so we got BJCP-certified feedback on the beers we entered.

How did we do? Old Humperdink received 45 points (!!!) and got honorable mention. I know, I know – I ask myself the same question. “How the hell did three other beers score better than 45?!?!?! Were the judges wasted?” Maybe… It was a record number of entrants, and I’d heard they were frantic to get a sufficient number of judges lined up for it…

We also got high marks for La Brabançonne. The scoresheet indicated that it also moved on to the Best of Show round. Back-Breaking Brown (my personal favorite) received good marks but not as high as I had hoped.

You can see the feedback I received on the latest page that I’ve added to this site: Contests (click Brews, and you’ll see the link there).

We currently have four entries in the NHC. I believe the first round judging is supposed to take place tomorrow. To be honest, I almost hope that some of our beers do not make it to the second round because that means I get to keep the other bottles (which I set aside just in case they advance) and drink them myself (or with suitable company of course).

Hop Plants

Our hop plants are coming back this year and all looking fantastic. The worst looking plant is the Horizon plant, but even it looks to be doing fine. The Centennial, which did horribly last year and didn’t produce a single flower, is looking great. The Willamette and the Chinook are off the hook.

We’ll be getting hog-fencing and rebar this week to make a new, taller trellis for the vines to crawl up.

We were hoping to add another bed of hop plants to the garden, but – alas – no dice. Doug at Just Brew It only received orders for 7 rhizomes. Four of those seven orders were from me. Unfortunately, it costs him about $100 to ship the rhizomes as they must be sent very quickly and in temperature/humidity controlled transit so as to maximize their viability when they go into the ground. Doug’s prices were already set much lower than the pro-rata shipping costs alone, so he couldn’t afford to deliver. Doug was super-nice about it. He regretfully informed us of the situation, gave us store credit for what he’d already collected, and offered to give us a free potted hop plant from his personal garden. I politely declined the plant (though he may still bring it in to his store and try to give it me) because I didn’t feel it was necessary – I completely understand and empathize with the situation. And it’s not like anyone lost any money. Were I that set on having more hop plants, I could mail order them myself. But four is a fine number, so we’ll stick with that… for now.

Scotch Whisky

The morning of brew day, I had a couple of birthday gifts to snag. So I headed to the liquor store. (Where else?!) I nabbed a nice bottle of beer and a nice bottle of wine for the two friends whose birthdays I had missed and while there nabbed a bottle of Scotch for myself.

I was hoping to find the Uigeadail expression of Ardbeg – a distiller from Islay. It was not to be found (and I’ve called a few other places around — it’s just plain hard to find in this part of Georgia). But I did grab their flagship: Ardbeg 10 year.

This one packs a punch. It isn’t as intense, medicinal, or crazy strong as the cask-strength 10-year-old Laphroaig I have, but it is much more intense than the Lagavulin and Talisker (all but the last being also from Islay; Talisker hails from Skye). It is smoky and crazy phenolic. But in a good way — at least if your palate is like mine – which, luckily, mine happens to be! ;)

And Now…

Your moment of Zen:

Several weeks ago, Malin and I did a side-by-side tasting of my recent home-made Old Humperdink Barley Wine against Sierra Nevada’s Bigfoot (2010).

Both beers are very similar in color and clarity. In this photo, Bigfoot is the one on the right – with the bigger foam. Both beers are remarkably smooth and drinkable considering their dangerous strength: 9.6% for Bigfoot and a whopping 10.8% for Old Humperdink.

Both are hoppy, but Bigfoot is noticeably hoppier. It is also richer and more complex in malt character. I wonder how they achieve such an amazing profile – a pleasant blend of breadiness, caramel, chocolate, and residual sweetness. Old Humperdink is no slouch, but it lacks some of the depth – particularly in the hints of dark malt character. Perhaps a touch of chocolate malt should go into the next barley wine we make.

Sierra Nevada’s website says that Bigfoot is hopped with the three C’s: Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook. Old Humperdink is hopped 100% with Zeus hops (part of the CTZ family: Columbus-Tomahawk-Zeus).

Sierra Nevada is brimming with sweetness and complex malt flavors, but is tempered by an equally huge hop bitterness and immense evergreen and grapefruit hop flavor. Old Humperdink on the other hand is a little more light-handed. Despite our beer being bigger and stronger, it doesn’t punch you in the face (or in the palate rather) quite as firmly as does the sasquatch. Old Humperdink has a straight-forward maltiness with some caramel and toffee notes and a very spicy and resiny hop profile that has a touch of evergreen, wads and wads of tropical fruit, and a hint of mint and herbs.

I personally think I have a ways to go before I make a barley wine as good as Bigfoot, but Malin actually liked mine better. I’m planning to send Old Humperdink to both the Peach State Brew Off and to the NHC. I think it could fare pretty well.

Beermuda Triangle Homebrew Competition

Speaking of contests, we entered La Brabançonne Grand Cru, Old Humperdink Barley Wine, and Back-Breaking Brown into the Beermuda Triangle Homebrew Competition, hosted by Hop City, Octane Coffee, and Five Seasons Brewpub.

All three beers made it to the semi-finals (top 20), and Back-Breaking Brown landed in the finals (5^th place). The top five finishers, me included, received gift cards for the three hosting businesses. We used the Hop City gift card today.

I plan to use the Five Seasons Brewpub gift card in a few weeks once the winner is on tap. Yes, the winner of the contest gets their beer brewed by Five Seasons and served on draft at the brewpub. From what I heard at Hop City today, it should be pouring in four weeks’ time.

Yankee Doodle

We’ve cooked up three batches of beer so far in 2010. Back-Breaking Brown – an Imperial India Brown Ale – was the inaugural batch and is amazing. We used 1/2 pound of whole leaf hops for that one: Magnum, Nugget, Simcoe, and Chinook. The beer finished at about 8.9%abv, and is deadly smooth for that strength. If I do say so myself, it masterfully blends the perfect amounts of malt complexity, dark malt character, residual sweetness, and raging hop flavor.

The second batch of the year was sort of like a scaled-back version – a hop-bomb American brown ale. We call it Hump’s Yankee Doodle Brown. It stands at around 5.8%abv and was made with over four ounces of whole leaf hops: Magnum, Amarillo, Cascade, and Crystal. It has a very pleasant citrus and peach fruitiness to the hop profile, a strong bitterness, and a dry malt backbone that has just enough sweetness to keep the dry bitter finish from being brutal.

Our most recent batch is Hump’s Irish Dry Stout. I don’t want to rename it again (last attempt was not nearly dry enough, so we renamed it and reformulated a better recipe for this title). But I might have to. It did not finish dry enough. I still want to warm it up before coming to the final verdict (it’s at 64 deg.F; maybe 70 deg.F can squeeze out another point or two of attenuation). Either way, it tastes good, so we’ll be sucking some down on St. Patty’s Day.

Brew day for the stout was a serious pain in the neck. The grist included a decent bit of unmalted barley (1 pound of flaked barley, 1 pound of unmalted roasted barley), and the manifold on our mash/lauter tun didn’t like it. After fighting what was almost a stuck mash, we finally got it through. Based on the mash schedule – which included a protein rest and a few decoctions to heat it up to what still amounts to a low temperature saccharification rest – I expected it to attenuate very well. Alas, it was not meant to be. It got down only to 1.015 (shooting for 1.012 or lower). Perhaps a warmer climate will help it finish…

Any time I brew a beer that seems like it could age well, I save at a minimum two bombers. I open one when it’s one year old, the other when it’s two years old. In fact, I have a bottle of Hump’s Fiftieth Brew that is just over two years old, waiting for the right moment to be opened and consumed. I have a wine fridge that used to hold wine but recently holds only aging home brew. The bottles to its right are the overflow – too many aging bottles to fit in this thing.

The Stash

I’m also an acquisitive sort when it comes to shopping for commercial brews. I frequently stop by the local fan-frickin-tastic bottle shop (Hop City in midtown Atlanta) to see what’s new. They are the only place in town that I know of that will break up six-packs. Other places do something similar, but to a lesser degree – letting you buy singles from a limited selection or making you buy in increments of six. Hop City is much more lenient and enabling for the “I wanna try a little bit of everything” kind of shopper. The commercial selection is generally kept at serving temperature (vs. cellar temperature) and is tucked away in the same fridge that dispenses the home-made stuff.

The bottom shelves of this stash feature the older bottles – a few vintages of various beers. Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale and Bigfoot are most prominent since they are the most recent additions from the 2009/2010 winter season and thus on top. The Weyerbacher Heresy is actually from last year (I haven’t bought any of the currently available vintage yet). Buried beneath are various offerings from Clipper City, Dogfish Head, Victory, J.W.Lee, Thomas Hardy, and others.

If you were to look closely in this fridge, you’d see that the single oldest bottle contains 750ml of Chimay Grande Réserve from 2001. This was a gift from my brother-in-law. He suggested I hang on to it for awhile. So I did. Next time he and my sister are both out this way, we will open it. I’ll have to nab a new bottle, too, and do a vertical tasting. It will be interesting to see how this beer had changed after 10 years of aging (most at cellar to room temperatures, but the last few years at lagering temperatures).

Another interesting option tucked away in here is the jeroboam of Double Bastard. This one is big enough that the “right time” will be when plenty of good friends are around. Perhaps that will be on our next Brew Day — we try to do three batches or so a year where we invite friends over to help brew and to partake of the ever-growing selection. I guess you could call it our “inventory management” function – it’s how we keep the selection from growing too big.

I actually have another stash of refrigerated brews, too – “on deck” if you will. It usually features up to four 750ml or 22oz bomber bottles and up to a dozen 12oz/33cl bottles (okay, sometimes more than a dozen). For these beers, the right occasion is “tonight”. This particular night for example, the wife and I split a bottle each of Founder’s Breakfast Stout and Founder’s Imperial Stout – both quite excellent.

The final area where we stash brews is our unfinished storage area. It’s in the basement, so it stays at a decent temperature for aging/cellaring (though a little on the warm side during the summer). Only home-brewed beers live in this part of the house. Currently, we have some Hump’s La Brabançonne Grand Cru waiting to be sent off to the Peach State Brew Off (or maybe the NHC – don’t have enough for both, so I still have some decision to make there). Those bottles are nearly a year old, but the rest of the bottles in this picture are much more recent. Despite the labels you see, there are no Samuel Adams or Sierra Nevada brews among them.

Decisions, Decisions…

Deciding when to open these brews is always a tough decision. We’ve got enough of a selection, that there is always something interesting to nab almost no matter what we feel like. And yet, typically we just reach for home brew.

For tonight, we celebrate with something newer: a bright, super-hoppy, home-brewed Imperial India Brown Ale that we’ve dubbed Hump’s Back-Breaking Brown. I like to break into the old stuff every once in a while, but when you’ve got beer that is so good when it’s fresh, that’s where the hand tends to reach (at least mine do).

So the display shelf gets more and more trophies. And then we invite friends over to beat back the horde before it takes over. Lather. Rinse. Repeat…

Other than New Year’s Day this week, the holidays are behind us at the hump-house. The whole family had a rather wonderful week. And there are a few exciting things to report on the beer front.

For starters, I received a very pleasant surprise from my folks with the Jeroboam (aka Double Magnum) of Stone’s Double Bastard pictured here. My dad thought I could put the giant glass bottle to good use in my own brewing. I don’t think he was particularly knowledgeable of the actual beer inside, but it turns out to be damn fine beer.

Somehow I’m going to have to arrange a party in order to actually empty this thing. Three liters of 10.5%abv beer will require more than just a casual evening with just me and Malin. Perhaps I’ll break this one out at the next brew day if there is a sufficient crowd to drain it (without impairing anyone’s ability to get back home).

Another tricky thing will be cooling it. It is incredibly big and will not easily fit in a fridge due to its height. I think I should be able to squeeze it alongside a corny keg in the “cellar” fridge though. I may have to temporarily remove a few other gems down there to make room.

In case you can’t really tell how big this thing is from the picture, below is one that shows the scale a little better. The small bottle next to the big one is a normal 750ml bottle of wine:

Another wicked thing about this big bottle: it is locked closed with a chain and a small padlock (keys included, thankfully):

Another Fine Scotch

Another great gift I received this season was a bottle of 10-year-old Talisker. This is one of the malts I’ve mentioned to my wife (so she must have told her mother-in-law about it).

I sampled a small dram of it yesterday. It has a sweetness – almost like a fine aged Rum – and flavors of floral honey. It does have a decent bit of smoke in the aroma, but it is fairly soft in the mouth and only reveals itself towards the back of the palate. It is smoky but not particularly peaty (missing the pungent peat-bog earthiness that can sometimes accompany the smoke). The body is full and velvety. It is a subtler and sweeter beast than the Lagavulin – and much subtler than the Laphroaig. But, despite the fact that it is not an Islay malt (it instead hails from the Isle of Skye), it is not a big departure from the other malts I have. It too is quite smokey. That was one of the reasons I’d expressed interest in it to Malin.

Now I just need to get my hands on the other two Islay malts known for their peculiarly strong flavors (especially in the peat and smoke departments): Ardbeg and Caol Isla. After that I may expand my horizons towards very different Scotch whiskies – like the Macallan.

The Keg Conversion

This holiday season, I’ve converted a 1/2 barrel keg (standard 15.5 gal Sankey keg) into a new hot liquor tank for brewing beer. Actually Doug, at Just Brew It, did the conversion for me. I dropped the keg off at his store, and he chopped off its top, drilled the necessary holes, installed the new doo-dads (a stainless steel valve and a thermometer), and welded on a carbon heat shield to protect the thermometer:

I’m looking forward to brewing with it on New Year’s Day.

Recent Brews

Speaking of brewing on New Year’s Day, I’m pretty stoked about the recipe. I’m making an Imperial Brown Ale, but based on a hob-bomb brown ale, not a nut brown ale. It will basically be like a Double IPA, but with a darker grain bill to provide a richer malt base with a nutty and chocolaty character.

I currently have this year’s Holiday Ale on tap. Hump’s Holiday Ale 2009 is a spicy English stock ale. Unfortunately, it is spicier than intended. I will certainly have an even more restrained hand with next year’s holiday brew. Fortunately, it is still quite drinkable. It tastes very much like a liquid gingerbread cookie. It is surprisingly similar to last year’s Gingerbread Bock, despite using a little spice, a touch of vanilla, and a very different base beer.

I also have my Zeus single-hop barleywine on draft right now. It is freakin’ awesome. ‘Nuff said.

IPA Battles

On a completely unrelated note: a few weeks ago I did a side-by-side comparison of the two local IPAs — Sweetwater IPA and Terrapin Hopsecutioner.

Overall, both beers are fantastic examples of American IPAs. But if I had to pick a winner (which I hate to do since I enjoy both of them very much), it would be Terrapin. The Hopsecutioner has a very pleasant evergreen character to the hop flavor and is a little bit drier. The Sweetwater’s hop profile is also very nice – lots of bitter citrus fruit – but is missing the evergreen notes that I personally find quite appealing.

The real verdict: there is no loser here. Georgia residents, support your local breweries and buy more Sweetwater and Terrapin! I’d highly recommend starting with one (or both) of these.

Rock Art Brewing has come under flagrant legal attack from the makers of Monster Energy Drinks. They received a cease and desist order asking them to stop the production and marketing of their “Vermonster” barley wine. The makers of Monster Energy Drink, Hansen Beverage Company, claim that the beer’s label is a copyright infringement – which is pretty obviously bollocks.

To support Rock Art Brewing, boycott Monster Energy Drinks. And show your support by buying something from the Rock Art Brewing online store – like a shirt or a glass or something!

RIP Greg Noonan

Gregory J. Noonan, a pioneer craft brewer that started Vermont’s first brew pub and author of Brewing Lager Beers, died this past Sunday, October 11^th. I had not heard of or read anything of Mr. Noonan prior to hearing about his passing, but various beer authors on the web have written tributes describing his legacy. I’ve put his book on my Amazon shopping list to learn firsthand more about this man’s work posthumously.

In Progress…

On the homebrew front, we’ve got a couple of new ones racing for an opportunity to be consumed.

Hump’s Devilish Nectar is a Belgian Strong Golden Ale that is finally almost finished – after five weeks of slow fermentation. The beer is finally down to 1.014 (9.4%abv!). I think it will get even lower (1.010 -> 1.012), so I’m patiently waiting. The yeast are still in suspension and there is still the occasional bubble slipping loose from the fermentation lock.

Hump’s Estate-Hopped Rye is a Rye Pale Ale made with our homegrown hops. We just brewed it this past Sunday (10/11), but it’s already mostly finished. Attenuation appears to be complete. Now, we just wait for the yeast to flocculate and fall out. This beer is very malty with a restrained rye character and a somewhat restrained hoppiness. The hop plants were not very productive this year, so we didn’t harvest enough to make a hop bomb. But it does have a distinctly grassy hop flavor throughout that is quite pleasant – and quite a surprise for Chinook hops (which are usually resiny and piney/evergreen, sometimes with grapefruity bitter citrus).