Class six was in the seventh week thanks to Easter, and the nice holiday that Les gave us. The weather warmed up quite a bit, and I was initially not looking forward to drinking a ton of heavy, darker beers so far into April. Maryland Homebrew Day member Stefin Clapham presented a flight of excellent beers, and I have to say that I enjoyed this tasting session pretty thoroughly despite not feeling like I was in the right season to drink them. The technical topic presented by CRABS member Glenn Quinting — mashing — is probably the most important activity we’ve discussed so far, and I hope to put as much of what I’ve learned from this session to use in my own brewing.
As usual, we started with some questions to answer, and we also did our first legitimate scoring of a beer. Then we moved into “Guess that beer,” and most of us — even the more experienced folks who had already been through the course — were completely stumped. We tasted a beer that featured almost no hop character, but was still pretty malty. There was some light ester going on, but without that hop character it was difficult to pinpoint what the style was, let alone what kind of beer it was. I guessed bock, as there was some minor alcohol heat to it, and the color seemed appropriate, and I was totally off the mark. It turned out to be Morland’s Hens Tooth Strong English Ale, but the bottles were a bit old, per Les’s admission. Despite the age on the bottles, this was a great exercise. (more…)
Oh boy! Yesterday’s class was intense! Not that you should really expect any less considering the fact that it was focused on the all-important hop plant, and the intensely hopped Pale Ales and Bitters. We also did a couple of short exercises to test some of our developing knowledge. Les gave us a pop quiz of sorts, requiring us to talk about some of the things we learned in our water session, and also a bit about general BJCP rules. Then we played “Name That Beer,” a game in which we are given a blind taste of a particular style of beer — one that we tasted the previous week, and try to guess specifically what style it is down to its country of origin. This week’s beer was a Munich Helles. I guessed a German Pils, but this was a rather hoppy example of the Helles so Les said that would be a pretty fairly understandable mistake.
There’s a fair number of connections I notice between beer and bicycles. How is there any natural commonality between bikes and beer, you might ask? What do bicycles and beer brewing have in common? Honestly, not a whole hell of a lot, but I dare you to do a google search for “beer and bikes,” or “bikes and beer” and see what comes up.
This past Sunday saw me at my third BJCP course. The technical topic — water — was something I had a broad understanding of, but no real depth of knowledge. Light lagers are something most of us are familiar with — some people experience that familiarity with less enthusiasm than others, and the class was largely unified in its disdain prior to the tastings. More on that later…
Yeah yeah yeah, St. Patrick’s Day swiftly approaches. Break out the Pogues’ records, be sure to put in your order for a big brisket of corned beef, make some soda bread, get some green clothing to avoid being pinched, etc.