Stone Belgo Anise Imperial Russian Stout

Ale brewed with anise, oak chips and Belgian yeast.
22oz bottle, 10.5%abv
Stone Brewing, Escondido, CA

This is a really tasty, very dry and cola-like stout. Highly recommended.

Rogue John John Ale

Pale ale brewed with juniper berries and aged in spruce gin barrels.
Rogue Ales, Newport, Oregon
22oz bottle, abv not specified.

Not a bad beer.  Juniper adds some interesting notes to an otherwise normal pale ale. Nothing super special, but not bad either.

Rogue Northwestern Ale

Trace brought this back from her trip to the Oregon coast today.  It's a nice tasty pale ale with pleasant hops and mild malt.  Quite enjoyable, and a good brew for fans of "The Deadliest Catch" on Discovery Channel.

The End Of The World

As the Canadians brew it...

La fin du monde
Unibroue, Quebec, Canada, eh.
12oz bottle, 9%abv

Pours straw colored and a bit cloudy, with a white head that dissipates fairly quickly.

Aroma is bubblegum and light malt, with some wheat graininess.

Flavor is less gummy with more malt and a hint of warmth. Little to no hops.

Mouthfeel is smooth and creamy, with a slightly sweet finish.

Tasty.

Corvallis bike night

Beautiful evening, good turnout.

Canadians...

...make good beer.

La Maudite (the damned)
Unibroue, Chamblay, Quebec, Canada, eh?
12oz bottle, 8%.abv

This is a really nice super malty beer from up North.

Pours dark amber with a fluffy white head that lasts well.

Aroma is almost entirely malt. There are some subtle fruit candy notes -- like a freshly opened lollipop.

Flavor is also all about malt, with some nice fruity hints (like most fruity Canadians, they're a bit restrained, perhaps with straps).

Finish is balanced toward sweet.

Pretty yummy, and vastly superior to Molson's.

Wilco Tango Foxtrot

"A malty, robust, jobless recovery ale"
Lagunitas Brewing, Petaluma, CA
22oz. Bottle, 7.8%abv

I'm drinking this "WTF" ale in honor of the beautiful summer day that today started as, and the wet crappy day it turned into that I got to ride my bike home in.

The beer pours moderately dark, with a thick white head that lingers forever.

Aroma is malt with balanced hops. Nothing crazy, just good.

Flavor is malt with some nice fruitiness and medium hops.

Mouthfeel is fairly big without being too sweet.

Finish is balanced a bit toward sweet, bit not overly so.

Another yummeh beer from those crazy Californians.

Lucky 13 Anniversary Release

22oz bottle, 8.9%abv
Lagunitas Brewing
Petaluma, CA

This year's Lucky 13 has a bit different label and, if I'm remembering correctly, a bit bolder flavor.

Pours quite clear with a nice white head. Color is dark gold to light amber -- it's quite pretty.

Aroma is nicely hoppy, but with a big malt undertone with nice caramel too.

Flavor is similar with robust hops and matching malt. Very tasty but also noticeably big with a good bit of alcohol warmth.

Finish is a bit on the sweet side, but not overly so. This is strong enough that it would probably age nicely and dry out a bit.

Pretty darn tasty.

(Posted from my new phone -- hopefully the pictures will be better than my old Blackberry)

For Chris

Look what was parked next to my building at work today!

Great Weekend

What did you do this weekend?

I got to pretend to be a rock star for a couple of days.

It was awesome!

Happy hops

After a cold, wet start to the season, a week of dry weather has really perked up the hops. The tops of the posts where the cable attaches is 14 feet. Wish it was a little taller, but WTF.

Hugo Bock

Heater Allen Brewing, McMinnville, Oregon
22oz bottle, 6.2oz bottle

I'm normally not a Bock fan. This one is pretty good. Being from the Northwest land of hops, it's weird to have a beer with essentially no hop character though.

Color is dark reddish brown, with a light head that dissipates quickly.

Aroma is nonexistent. Really, it's like smelling distilled water.

Flavor is all about the malt. It's quite nice -- a great nutty and roast flavor, with light sweetness.

Finish is clean and crisp, with just enough bitterness to perfectly balance the light sweetness in the flavor.

A really nice beer. If all bocks I had were like this, I'd drink more bocks.

Homebrew CDA

I've been enjoying a variety of the Cascadian Dark Ales that have been available recently. We decided to brew our own, and it turned out great. I figured I'd share the recipe:

5 gallons:
9 lbs 2-row malt
6 pounds pilsner malt
1 pound Carrafa II malt
1 pound 60L crystal malt

Hops:
Bittering: 1.5oz Amarillo for 60 minutes
Bitter/Flavor: 1 oz Mt. Hood (homegrown) for 45 minutes
Flavor: 1 oz Cascade for 15 minutes
Aroma: 1 oz Cascade for 5 minutes
Aroma: 0.5 oz Amarillo for 5 minutes
Aroma: 2 ounces Cascade dry hop in secondary

1 hour mash @ 150 degrees. Standard sparge and boil.

White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast

Original Gravity: 1.079
Final Gravity: 1.015

Alcohol By Volume: 8.5%

---

This turned out really well for our first attempt at a CDA, other than being a bit strong. The real secret is the Carrafa malt -- it's a de-husked roasted barley. Any other roasted malt would turn this into a hoppy stout, but the Carrafa lends the dark color without a ton of the flavor.

Appearance is black, but with good clarity.

Due to the dry hopping, the aroma is great. Tons of traditional Cascade hop aroma, that lasts surprisingly well.

Flavor is solidly hoppy, with a bit of malt sweetness to balance it out. A hint of roast, but just enough.

Mouthfeel is surprisingly light, especially for the strength. It's almost too easy to drink. Finish is also a surprise -- the balance turned out great. It has enough bitterness to be clean, but enough sweetness to balance it out.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this beer. It was really fun to come up with a recipe for a new style and have it come out halfway decent.

2011 Mac Ale

IPA
Oregon Trail Brewing, Corvallis, Oregon
22oz bottle, 6.3%abv

This is a "meh" IPA that still tastes good because it's only given to those folks that ran the Mac Forest 50k. Funny how limited access "improves" a thing.

Ignoring the "special" nature of the beer, here are the details:

Aroma is a bit stale, with oxidized notes. Hops and malt are there, but don't dominate.

Flavor is better, with a bit less oxidation and better malt and hops.

Finish is initially smooth and lightly sweet, but transitions to a solid, lingering bitterness.

Not horrible, not great, but I'm still going to enjoy it, 'cause only a couple hundred other people on the planet have access to this beer.

What do you get...

For running 31.4 miles and 6700 feet of elevation on muddy trails?

Beer, of course! With a matching pilsner glass

Oh, and a nice long sleeve t-shirt (not pictured).

And sore muscles (also not pictured).

Yesterday I ran the 2011 McDonald Forest 50k trail run. It's Oregon's largest Ultramarathon event, and one of the tougher ones around due to the difficult terrain and crazy elevation gain/loss of the course.

Up to this point, I'd never run an official event longer than a half marathon, but I decided to go right past a "normal" marathon distance and go right for an ultra. Since I live here in Corvallis I got to train on the actual trails the event is on, so I knew what to expect from the event. It went well, I actually had fun -- yes, running for 6 hours and 49 minutes can be fun, if you're crazy enough -- and I beat my goal time of 7 hours. That was my secondary goal after just finishing the damn thing -- plenty of the entrants don't manage to finish.

I had lots of help -- Tracie was patient with my long hours of training, and she and the fam were a great support crew during the race. My brother-in-law Stafford was a great training partner, and it was great to see him kicking ass out on the course.

This is what exhaustion, endorphins and relief look like:

Will I do it again next year? If you'd asked me before yesterday, I'd have said, "No, once will be enough" but today...? Today my answer would be more of a "hmm, maybe..."

I should probably write up a more detailed account of the nearly-seven-hours of running for posterity while the memories are still fresh. Maybe tomorrow...

Southern Tier 2XIPA

Is yummy. That is all.

Russian River Sanctification

"Blonde" ale

This is an interesting one -- they call it a blonde, but it's super sour. Sour nose, with a bit mellower sour flavor, that mellows to malt and a clean finish.

Yet another Russian River beer I like. I'm going to have to make a trip down there some time...

Ninkasi tasting

Photo: double-dry-hopped Tricerahops Double IPA, and Unconventionale Imperial Stout.

Th Tricerahops is a great big IPA, and this extra hoppy version is an improvement on the original.

The Unconventionale is an interesting one -- it's brewed with heather, lavender, and tarragon. Normally I'm not a huge fan of spiced beers, but this is really well done. The spices are very subtle, lending a pleasant "foodness" to the beer -- almost like a middle-eastern dish. It is also very drinkable, for its 10%abv.

Nice to try some Ninkasi beers I hadn't had before -- very enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.

Laurelwood Workhorse Limited Edition Double IPA

There's a free Laurelwood tasting near campus. This is their 10%abv double IPA. I like the standard version, and this one is great too. Definitely doesn't seem like it's 10% -- it's a good thing they're only selling it in 10 oz glasses...

Hooligan Brown Ale

Laurelwood Brewing
Portland, Oregon
22oz bottle, 5.3%abv

Pours dark amber, with a substantial head.

Aroma is light malt with a hint of toast and subtle hop that dissipates fairly quickly.

Flavor is similarly lightly malty with little hops.

Finishes clean and crisp with a relatively big hit of bitterness that comes very late.

Overall a decent beer. I'd like a bit more malt -- it seems more like an amber than a brown.