Mug Warrior

I am a member of both Beer Advocate and Rate Beer. I like to by a mixed 6 pack at my local beer store, but I don’t like knowing what the rating is until I drink it. I try to drink the brews and make my opinion first, then see what everyone else on these sites think. I tend to agree with the majority on both sites, but I noticed one big difference between both sites.

One thing I found is that Rate Beer’s ratings are always high. They have a slew of beers that are rated 99%. Though most of the beers are good, 99% should be reserved for the best beers EVER!. In my latest 6 pack, 4 out of 6 of the beers were rated 99%, the other 2 were 95+. I just feel that you can’t get an accurate reading from the rate beer ranking number.

On Beer Advocate, these beers rated 88%-92%. The difference between %’s are some what equal, but Beer Advocate leaves room in the %’s for that truly amazing beer. In fact, I don’t think I ever come across a 99% on Beer Advocate, but Rate Beer has hundreds rated in the 99% range. Even though the beers were awesome, they in no way were 1% below the best beer ever.

I’m about to venture into the world of home micro brewing. I have made a couple batches of wine recently and I feel it came out pretty well. After the primary and secondary fermentation, there is a lot of waiting while making wine. Though my most recent Argentinian Malbec is over 8 months old, it still is going to take another 8 months to be at a top quality level. That may also take a year or more. I like wine, but I love beer. So I feel it is time to put up or shut up.

One of the biggest reasons it has taken me this long to decide to make some home brew was the bottling of all the bottles. Though it isn’t the toughest job, cleaning and sanitizing 70 bottles does take some time. I would prefer just to keg the beer, but kegs are heavy, bulky, and hard to transport to a friends house for a party. So I have slowly been searching for alternatives. I think I found the perfect device. The Mini Keg Beer Dispenser by Avanti.

Features

• Ideal for Use In Your Home, Boat, BBQ, RV or Camper
• Uses All Standard 5L Mini Beer Kegs (Not Included)
• Heineken Type Keg Adapter Included (Use of CO2 Cartridges Not Necessary)
• Digital Display for Temperature Settings (ºC/ºF)
• UL Listed AC/DC Power Adapters Included
• Tapping / Cleaning Kits Included
• CO2 Pressure Regulator Included
• Three 16 gram CO2 Cartridges Included (Enough to dispense 3 or more 5L Kegs).
• Instructional DVD Included
• Lightweight for Easy Portability
• Thermoelectric Technology
• Soft Interior Lighting with On/Off Switch
• Can Accommodate a larger (340 gram) CO2 Cylinder (Enough to dispense up to 20 Kegs)
• PLEASE CLICK HERE to view a special video presentation about this product!

First I woudl like to apologize for my hiatus, me and the intertrons have not been much on friendly terms since the release of Burning Crusade. What is Burning Crusade? It’s an expansion to the revoltingly popular World of Warcraft MMORPG. Which brings me to the story.

So within the first few hours of installing the game I was cruising around Hellfire Penninsula when some one made an off comment about beer in the general chat. Naturally I immediately drop everything and defend my beverage of choice, as a beer guy is wont to do. Apparently so did every other beer guy who plays WoW (as we colloquially refer to it), and within seconds the chat was an explosion of pleasant frothy conversation. Then of course something terrible happened, someone who had some idea what they were talking about, but not enough to be remotely well informed, showed up spewing his somewhat questionable information. Some of his drivel were opinions (”only ales and stouts are REAL beers”) some of them sheer nonsense (”Pilsners are just watered down lagers,” and “All lagers and pilsners are made with chemicals”). No amount of explanation that a lager and a pilsner are as different as a stout and an ale (which was the extent of the conversation) could make this fellow understand that all beers are different and all have their places. So I dropped the conversation, which seemed to be what most people had done at this point, given that this guy had the uncanny ability to mutilate polite conversation, after which the fellow immediately began whispering me, and I, not quite as politely as I should have, told him that I was done with this conversation, to which he responds with “You’re an idiot. You don’t know beer” and that he was putting me on ignore.

The moral of this story is not that WoW is full of retards, which I can assure you, it is. The moral of this story is that  this fellow got mad about beer, and I can safely say that though he may have been misinformed about many things, I am happy to see that there are people in this world harboring so much passion for our foamy friend.

I’ve been working on this entry for about two months. Its been about that long since I picked up a case of Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre. After my first sip, I was sure it would be gone in a few days. I stretched it out a lot longer than I thought I would.

The Belgian family of beers hold some of my favorite styles. This Belgian strong dark ale put itself at the top of my list right off the bat. With a nice light tan head, the Raison D’Etre pours a dark caramel color. Strong malty flavor and an 8% ABV give me the flavor that I love so much in my favorite Belgian styles. What separates this one though is the earthy sweet flavor of raisins it is brewed with. The flavor is fruity and satisfying.

As I write this entry, I am about halfway through my last bottle. It’s a sad day, but luckily Raison D’Etre is one of Dogfish Head’s year round beers. I suppose I’ll have to go find another case.

Well the six-pack is finished and I feel like I took a trip around the world and back. Overall, the beers were delicious, but some were definitely better than others were. Now I am no expert on beer nor can I yet explain the textures and subtle tastes each beer exudes in detail, but I will do my best.

The Westmalle and Duvel were the lightest of the six with the Westmalle containing a little more flavor than the Duvel.  Though the Duvel gets very high ratings on Beer Advocate, it was my least favorite of the group. It was very crisp and light, but compared to the others, it lacked character.

The Maredsous 10 and Watou were darker than the Westmalle and Duvel and had a bit more flavor. The Maredsous 10 had a slight hoppy taste along with some light spices, but nothing that stood out. The Watou was very crisp and tickled my tongue with a carbonated nutty almond taste.

Now I don’t know if it is because I am just used to an American style of exaggerated hops, but my two favorite beers were definitely the Victory Old Horizontal and Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barley wine. They both contained deep character and flavor explosions. The Bigfoot was no doubt tough for my palette to adjust to at first, but after a couple of sips, it quickly became a favorite of mine.

The Tripels and Barley Wines are very strong beers, but some of them are deceivingly smooth and light in taste. I may next try to find some beers aged in an Oak barrel and do a review on them. If you have any beers that you would like me to taste and review, leave a comment below.

As some of you may know from my personal blog, I am fermenting wine for the first time. I love the subtle complexities in wine and different approaches wineries take while fermenting and ageing. A Cabernet from winery x, may taste very different from winery y. Beers are the same way, but probably with 10 times the different character and complexities. The type of hops, barley, and yeast really defines the flavor of a beer along with the different methods in brewing. I love them both wine and beer equally, but since this is a beer site, I will talk about some beers that rival wine in both complexity and character and also in alcohol by volume.

While on my way home from work the other day, I decided to stop by one of the greatest beer stores ever and pick up a selection of Tripel Ales and Barley Wines.

Tripel Ales get their name due the addition of triple the amount of malt used during brewing process. Tripels came to life in the early 1930’s when the Trappist Monks in Belgium produced them. Today, Tripels are a popular style within the craft beer circles.

Due to the amount of malt used during brewing, Tripels average an alcohol by volume of around 8.5-9%. This creates a strong stomach warming beer with outstanding character. Traditionally Tripels are bright gold in color, but many new age crafters are producing amber and darker colors.

Barleywines are similar to Tripels, but were created in England in the early 1900’s. Barleywines often are darker and more bitter than Tripels. But in this day and age, the difference between the two are often blurred. Barley wines can reach up to 12% ABV. That is three times the alcohol than what is in Miller or Coors Lite. American Barley Wines usually contain a boatload of hops to produce an extreme bitterness, while English Barley Wines are usually more rounded in flavor between the hops and barley.

My mixed six-pack contained these six brews:

1. Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale by Sierra Nevada
2. Old Horizontal by Victory Brewing Company
3. Westmalle Trappist Tripel by Brouwerij Westmalle
4. Watou Tripel by Brouwerij St. Bernardus NV
5. Maredsous 10 by Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat NV
6. Duvel by Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat NV

I bought some of the beers on merit and some on instinct, but I never had any of these beers before and I can’t wait to enjoy them.

I will write about my experiences with these strong ales over the weekend or early next week. This will give me something to do while my wine finish up its second stage in fermenting.

Philadelphia is the 5th or 6th largest city in the United States, but yet we are usually one of the last cities on any event promoters mind. New York City and Washington DC overshadow us and places like Atlantic City are growing in events. Philadelphia seems barefacedly underused. Put the murder rate and suspect government aside, Philadelphia is really a nice city.

Finally Philly gets an event that is worthy of some attention. The Philly Craft Beer Festival will be held on Saturday March 3rd. Over 50 brewers and hundreds of beers are going to be showcased in the Philadelphia Naval Yard. I purchased my afternoon tickets in advance for $37. At the door, the price rises to $45. Here is what the website says about the event.

On March 3rd, over 45 small craft breweries will take over the Navy Yard in Philadelphia for the inaugural Philly Craft Beer Fest.

With over 120 different beers available for tasting, this event has been created to celebrate and promote the great quality and diversity of quality craft beers being brewed today. The beers will come from breweries such as Rogue and Deschutes (Oregon), Boulder (Colorado), Unibroue and Sleeman (Canada), Ommegang and Southampton (NY), Lagunitas and Stone (California) as well as special local offerings from Victory, Flying Fish, Dogfish Head, Yards and Nodding Head.

Go to http://www.phillycraftbeerfest.com for more information.

So after a week of having a white barrel farting and foaming in my apartment. We have our first specific gravity reading for our barrel of brew (1.14 at 70 degrees or so) which seems really, really high, but the hydrometer is calibrated for 60 degrees so there is actually some leeway in some direction. I am not going to worry about it. After having taken my sample, being careful to sanitize the cup I used to extract the beer, I gave our baby the ultimate test. I took a sip, and it it tasted like…

BEER!

Warm, flat beer, but beer none the less. Actually, it’s quite good, a little hoppy for my taste, but I knew that going in. So I am finishing the sample, which has already had a pleasant warming affect, that could be entirely attributed to the excitement of having made what is going to turn into a decent first batch, or to the high alcohol level the owner of the homebrew store told us it would have. So initial results are in, it’s looking good, and I am very pleased. Part III: The Bottling should, if all goes well, be on your screen by tomorrow.

Magic Hat is a happy-go-lucky brewery based in South Burlington, Vermont and those hippies up there really love to mess around with their Beer Faces! Their Faces are all over the map as far as design, color, type and style. If you look at a Face and ask “What the hell am I drinking?”, it’s probably a Magic Hat brew. This adventurous design approach is admirable, whether a noble conscious effort or unconscious acid-tripped night on the ol’ Flower Power iMac. As you can imagine, the results are often disastrous.

A friend brought over a sampler the other week and I was immediately drawn to the Face of their Hefeweizen, Circus Boy. The bottle has 3 labels, two ovular ones one the body and a Magic Hat promo choker on the neck. The face is largely an illustration, with a warm yellow color palette which looks great against the dark brown bottle. The hand-drawn treatment of the beer’s name works well, the near white letters are clear and their strong contrast from the textured background give the title a high level of prominence. The title’s typography is uneven and organic, flowing from the top down around to the right side of the label and illustration. Below we find a ornate circus carriage dubbed “The Hefeweizen!”, wow, what showmanship! This provides the focal point of the label, which is the dark rectangular shape of the hull of the carriage, barred for transporting animals. Kinda looks like a dark bar code though. Hey, something’s reaching out and grabbing the letter “y” in the title! OMG!

Upon closer inspection, we’ve found Circus Boy! His beady white eye are dotted in darkness as he reaches out for help from a life on the road with smelly animals. Nice touch Magic Hat, a subtle clever interpretation of the name. Fun typography, a great color pallette, appropriate illustration and a drugged-out game of “Where’s Weird Waldo?” make this Face a winner. So get yourself out the circus (er, bar) and save this freak (uh, boy) today!

I was looking through the cases at the Frontier Saloon last night and had almost resolved myself on a six pack of the Golden Monkey and I was slapped with a wonderful feeling unmatched by 26 years of present unwrapping. Sweet baby Jesus, I wish you were born more than once a year. I spotted what that bright star was pointing me to. Tröegs Brewing Company has shipped this years Mad Elf.

I’ll be damned if Christmas doesn’t come earlier every single year. It’s not even black Friday and the Christmas crap is already popping up in the stores. Bah-freaking-humbug. This encroachment into my life of my least favorite holiday has finally pushed into one of my favorite things in life and for the first time I am elated.

I was introduced to the Mad Elf last year around Christmas shopping season. Mug Warrior writer Mark, myself, and our friend Geoff, went to the Frontier for drinks prior to shopping, and the Mad Elf was on tap. Two pitchers between three guys later and I had my best shopping experience since Mark and I downed a bottle of Southern Comfort before shopping a few years ago.

It’s a dark red Belgian Ale packed like Santa’s bag with honey and cherries. At 11% ABV it packs a wallop like Prancer’s hoof to your groin, but it goes down so smooth and nice that you’ll feel like Mrs. Claus is massaging your yule log. Not only that, but tomorrow morning when you get up early to make the toys, you won’t have a hangover.

The Tröegs brothers may have saved Christmas for me in a way the Grinch never could. Find yourself some Mad Elf and bring in the holiday right.