Sunday’s class involved some nastiness. As part of our training, Les doctored a number of Miller Lites with various chemicals and extracts that we then had to taste in order to become familiar with the specific flavors, odors, and mouthfeels associated with them. Les specifically said that this week’s tainted beers were significantly jacked up, mainly so we could become familiar with the flavors, aromas/odors, and moutfeels associated with them. We also tasted some flawed homebrews presented by MALT member Jeff Heneks, and my fellow Wootowner, Dave Bradley.
FOAM member Bill Heverly presented our tasters.
Of course we started with “Guess that beer,” and tried Kona’s Longboard Lager. I guessed lager but didn’t quite get the style. We also tried Wee Beast, which was a Scottish Ale. (more…)
We started with guess that beer, and had another slightly off go at a German Lager. This time it was a Kellerbier — a cellared German Pils. Les admitted that it might have had some age on it. I guessed a Maibock, but was wondering the whole time why there was no alcohol in the flavor.
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 
So you may have noticed SYD sitting here kind of quiet all week, but there was definitely a good excuse. Sunday was my presentation of the technical topic, yeast. I spent a healthy portion of my week’s free time working on a handout and Power Point presentation on the all-important single celled organism we use to make beer, bread, and lots of other good stuff.
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.
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…