Our friends over at Nelson County Life bring us this story as a hint of the upcoming Spring. The folks at Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton were planting hops on Monday.

Temps made it to the middle 60’s Monday afternoon in the Rockfish Valley of Nelson County, and people that have been waiting on the warmer weather made use of it! Our Paul Purpura caught up with Stan Driver, owner of Riverside Horticulture & Nursery in Nellysford, getting the ground ready and putting in hops at Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton.

The hops will be used in the beers produced at Blue Mountain. For more on the hop farm at Blue Mountain see the brewery’s web site.

More photos at Nelson County Life.
Photo By Paul Purpura : ©2010 www.nelsoncountylife.com

The 8th annual St. Patrick’s day parade at the Blue & Gray Brewery will be held on Saturday, March 13. There is a full day of events planned. The parade starts at noon on Saturday, March 13, through the Bowman Center. Irish entertainment will take place at the brewery from 11:00AM – 3:00PM.  The Rappahannock Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society will be giving rides on historic rail cars on nearby tracks starting at 11:00.

Beer by the glass and food will be available for purchase. Homemade soda and hot dogs for kids too!

Like all Blue & Gray events, the St. Patrick’s Day celebration is family-friendly. This is a always a fun day and I look forward to seeing you there and enjoying some fresh, local beer.

Pictures from previous years are here and here.

Here’s an early look at the first in a new series of beers from O’Fallon Brewery they’re calling the ‘Brewer’s Stash Series.’ O’Fallon Wee Heavy weighs in at a massive 10.4% ABV and promises to be both substantial and delicious from what I’ve heard. I understand a portion of the grain bill employs cherrywood-smoked malt to add a new twist on a classic scotch ale technique. Who needs peat after all.

I recon that O’Fallon did not use their house kolsch yeast strain to create this monster beer, so it will be very interesting to see something completely new and different coming out of the little brewery that could. Free these guys up to brew big beers and they go crazy! I love a good wee heavy, so bring it on.

I’ve got to say, too, that the label is terrific. I’ve been an advocate of O’Fallon’s beers for years, but I’ve also always been very critical of their “cartoon-like” labels. I just feel like they don’t do the brewery any favors with winning over critics. This one is just the right balance of whimsy and professionalism, I think. Well played. 

On another quick O’Fallon note – those of you who are fans of the made-for-summer Wheach – a peach flavor-infused American wheat beer – you’ll be able to find it in cans this year just in time for your summer time events! Here’s hoping that the label (see afore-mentioned criticism) gets an upgrade as well, but I’m not holding my breath. Regardless, break out the can koozie and enjoy this summertime favorite! 

In general I’ve had mediocre to poor luck with “concept” beers, my Oatmeal Cookie Beer being the prime example.  My father is a big oatmeal raisin cookie fan, so back in 2006 I decided to try brewing a beer for him with similar flavors as a Christmas present.  I started with a relatively standard brown ale base and added home toasted oats, brown sugar, raisins, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and toasted walnuts (sounds good right?).  The flavor wasn’t terrible (although it wasn’t great either), but what really killed the drinking experience was the complete lack of head retention and the oily mouthfeel both due (I suspect) to the fat in the walnuts.  I knew something was wrong when the beer fermented without a krausen, who knew that 1 cup of ground walnuts in the mash would provide enough oil to have such an impact?  Lesson: Be careful when adding fatty ingredients to a beer.

One of the beers that got me into “good” beer early on was Ommegang Hennepin, the subtle ginger flavor really struck me (especially since I was into Jamaican ginger beer/ale at the time).  My friend Jason and I wanted to do something a bit more “interesting” though, and when you are first brewing that means strong.  We took a clone recipe from BYO and increased the malt/sugar/hops by 50% to make it closer in strength to a Belgian Strong Golden.  The recipe suggested 1 oz of dried ginger (we upped it to 1.25 oz), which turned out to be far too much, especially because I used ultra-potent ground ginger that I picked up at Penzeys shortly before brewday.  Farmhouse Ales suggests only .5 -1.2 g of ginger in 5 gallons of saison (I had good luck with the saison I brewed for my Cable Car clone falling those guidelines).  After choking down most of the batch I am still sensitive to the flavor of dried ginger in beer to this day.  Lesson: Don’t trust any recipe, even if it is from a “reliable” source. 

The first all-grain batch I brewed was a English Pale Ale named Dodgy Hampshire with my second brewing partner (and my buddy since 3rd grade), Jason.  It was so good that soon he and I brewed a second version, this time adjusting our local water to match Burton-on-Trent (specifically by adding gypsum and Epsom salt to get close to 800 ppm sulfate).  Needless to say the beer came out tasting like harsh mineral/chalky flavor that made it almost undrinkable.  I still have a couple bottles and I think the minerals dropped because it is a much more balanced, drinkable beer today than it was back 4 years ago.  I had a nearly identical experience with a Westvleteren 8 clone I brewed using the water listed listed for the brewery in Brew Like a Monk (even though I reduced the bicarbonate to make it easier to work with).  Lesson:  Don’t emulate a classic water profiles.

Luckily these failed batches have been few and far between, and each one has taught me a lesson about recipe design, ingredient selection, or water adjustment.  If you have a brewing FAIL you’d like to share please leave a comment letting everyone know what went wrong (and hopefully what you learned).

We are currently holding a contest for March where we’ll be giving away 10 $100 gift certificates to different bars across the NoVA area and thought your readers might be interested. We’ve focused on March Madness and St. Patrick’s Day, and have 5 sports bars and 5 Irish pubs who have donated the certificates. The contest is a drawing of sorts, and we thought your readers might like to take advantage of the offer and maybe win some free beer money!

Just fill out the survey at http://www.northernvirginiamag.com/snowmageddon to be entered to win. But, you better hurry, the deadline is noon on March 10.

In the ‘can you believe this’ file today …

Like something straight out of Keystone Kops, three Philadelphia bars that specialize in hard-to-find craft and specialty import beer were raided – and product confiscated – all due to a consumer complaint. Apparently, several of the beers available at the establishments were not properly registered with the state’s liquor control board for sale in the state of Pennsylvania. The bar-owners had purchased the beer legally, it seems, but some of the particular beers in question didn’t match up with a list of registered beers the state police used to cross-check the establishments inventory during the raid.

I say ’some’ of the particular beers because it seems that the blundering cops might have grabbed far more than what they had the right to confiscate because they didn’t know what exactly they were looking for. According to an article appearing on the philly.com website, the cops took beers like Duvel along with the unregistered beer because the liquor control board’s list read ‘Duvel beer’ instead of ‘Duvel Golden Ale.’

Hilarity. It probably went down something like this:

“Hmmm … must be a different beer. Says beer, not ale on the label. This one’s not on the list, Charlie. Let’s grab it!“

Kind of crazy, but this sort of thing should serve as a wake up call to specialty bars and retailers everywhere. Make sure all your ducks are in a row, along with your beers, or you might just have the Keystone (light) Kops knocking on – or down – your door next!

“Charlie, I don’t know what all these beers are, but I’m glad they don’t have any good stuff here. Just stuff I’ve never heard of … Pliny the what?”

Appearance – Slightly hazy (which I’ll blame on the dry hops) pale yellow (just a shade or two darker than Bud). Nice tight white head, beautiful lacing, and great retention (the carapils did its job).

Smell – Pine, tropical fruit (mangoes), resiny, pretty close to sticking your nose in a bag of Pacific Northwest hops. That’s pretty much it, no malt, alcohol, yeast, or subtlety (just about perfect in my book).

Taste – Big bitter assault on the back of the tongue that lingers until you take another sip (or a couple minutes if you don’t). The volatile hop oils carry through in the flavor as well with similar notes of resinous pine and tropical fruit, as well as citrus (orange) there in the background. A bit of clean malt in the middle, but it stays out of the way of the hops. The alcohol is well disguised for 8% ABV, thanks to the hops. Not balanced in any sense of the concept, but that is what I want from a big IPA.

Mouthfeel – Light and crisp (the sugar really helped out), with moderate carbonation. The bitterness is more a part of the mouthfeel than in any other beer I have brewed, but it is not rough/tannic luckily.

Drinkability & Notes – The epitome of a “West Coast” IPA, highly drinkable if that is what you like. This is the happiest I have been with any hoppy beer I have brewed. I could count the commercial IPAs I would take over this beer (and just about all of them are from Russian River). Hopefully this one keeps drinking this well as it continues to sit on the keg hops.

Bonus - I also tried a quick ice concentration (EisPA) on this batch a couple days ago, using the same process I did to make the Dave clone (freezing it overnight and letting it slowly drip through a metal strain for 20 minutes or so).  Instead of aging it in the bottle though I put the concentrated beer into a plastic bottle and used my carbonator cap to give it a bit of carbonation.  It worked well resulting in one of the tastier “massive” IPAs I have had (not hard compared to Dogfish Head 120 Minute and Founder’s Devil Dancer).  The hop aroma was just about as aggressive and the bitterness kept up with the increased sweetness.  The alcohol was present (~14% ABV if the 75% increase I got with the Dave clone held true), but we dark it pretty cold so it did not come off as harsh. I think this is a much more practical way to get a giant alcohol/hop bomb rather than fermenting our a very high gravity wort which tends to leave too much residual sweetness.

Appearance – Slightly hazy (which I’ll blame on the dry hops) pale yellow (just a shade or two darker than Bud). Nice tight white head, beautiful lacing, and great retention (the carapils did its job).

Smell – Pine, tropical fruit (mangoes), resiny, pretty close to sticking your nose in a bag of Pacific Northwest hops. That’s pretty much it, no malt, alcohol, yeast, or subtlety (just about perfect in my book).

Taste – Big bitter assault on the back of the tongue that lingers until you take another sip (or a couple minutes if you don’t). The volatile hop oils carry through in the flavor as well with similar notes of resinous pine and tropical fruit, as well as citrus (orange) there in the background. A bit of clean malt in the middle, but it stays out of the way of the hops. The alcohol is well disguised for 8% ABV, thanks to the hops. Not balanced in any sense of the concept, but that is what I want from a big IPA.

Mouthfeel – Light and crisp (the sugar really helped out), with moderate carbonation. The bitterness is more a part of the mouthfeel than in any other beer I have brewed, but it is not rough/tannic luckily.

Drinkability & Notes – The epitome of a “West Coast” IPA, highly drinkable if that is what you like. This is the happiest I have been with any hoppy beer I have brewed. I could count the commercial IPAs I would take over this beer (and just about all of them are from Russian River). Hopefully this one keeps drinking this well as it continues to sit on the keg hops.

Bonus - I also tried a quick ice concentration (EisPA) on this batch a couple days ago, using the same process I did to make the Dave clone (freezing it overnight and letting it slowly drip through a metal strain for 20 minutes or so).  Instead of aging it in the bottle though I put the concentrated beer into a plastic bottle and used my carbonator cap to give it a bit of carbonation.  It worked well resulting in one of the tastier “massive” IPAs I have had (not hard compared to Dogfish Head 120 Minute and Founder’s Devil Dancer).  The hop aroma was just about as aggressive and the bitterness kept up with the increased sweetness.  The alcohol was present (~14% ABV if the 75% increase I got with the Dave clone held true), but we dark it pretty cold so it did not come off as harsh. I think this is a much more practical way to get a giant alcohol/hop bomb rather than fermenting our a very high gravity wort which tends to leave too much residual sweetness.

Homebrew – 26%
Commercial Beer – 73%
277 votes

A hard decision, but these days I feel like I’m buying less commercial beer than at any other point since I became interested in beer.  I’ve only been buying beers that are unique or interesting, when I’m at home and I want a beer, its rare that I open anything commercial (unless someone else is there to share it with me).  Commercial beer has become a source of inspiration more than anything else to me, allowing me to taste different combinations of ingredients without having to devote the time and effort to brewing an entire batch.  Part of the decline in my commercial beer consumption is also due to the fact that I simply don’t get as much enjoyment out of a great commercial beer as I do from a great beer that I (or a friend) brewed.

There are some times when craft beer is a necessity though, for example when you go out to a bar or restaurant with friends.  I would also really miss the semi-regular beer tastings with my group of friends, getting to share the interesting beers they acquire in their travels or trades (last night it was growlers of Brooklyn’s Cookie Jar Porter and Russian River Redemption my friends Peter and Alex shared).  That said, I enjoy brewing and drinking homebrew with the same people even more, so (if I had to choose) commercial beer would be the one I would give up (seems like most of the people who voted agree).

If anyone has any compelling thoughts in either direction let’s hear them, and vote in the new poll on homebrew competitions by visiting the blog.