So stand by, friends! I shall report in when we rack to the secondary fermenter next weekend and then at the bottling and then… the drink!

*this is true assuming you are me, Sergeant Stout, Brigadier Bock or Admiral Ale. The rest of you can go home now.

IT WAS A DRINKY OLD TIME, FRIENDS! Fine beer, fine food and fine friends. And then more beer. Folks gathered at our house around half past twelve and we set out on the (slightly longer than I had said it was) walk to the lovely Red Carpet Liquors. There we came upon several tents, tables laden with krauts—er, kraut—and brauts and potatoes and… why… there was another tent… a tent where upwards of 15 kinds of BEER were available!

And oh, many a fine beer was had. There were the staples: Franciskaner Heffeweizen, Edel Weisen, some Paulaners and Spatens… there were some curveballs, like Brooklyn Brewery’s wonderful Schneider Weissen. If you’ve not had this beer, have this beer. It is a Weisen unlike any weisen… it’s… hopped! Yes, that’s right: a wheat beer with a significant hop balance to the sweet malt and with a refreshing, bitter finish. Florals and pine. In a wheat brau. Very nice, friends, very nice.

There were also plural cases of Sam Adams Oktoberfest and good old Sam Lager. Now… we’ve made our feelings clear (more clear than this take on a Marzen—oooh!) on Sam’s take on Oktoberfest beer. It’s only OK. But, hey I’ll take a Sam Lager any day! And I did. I took a lot. It didn’t hurt that there was some sort of weird cooler-connected to-keg-with-taps-coming-out-of-the-cooler thing that was essentially a never ending supply of a light but refreshing and crisp pilsner.

Much of the Fleet and some friends assembled. Why, we had Sgt. Stout, Admiral Ale, Brigadier Bock, Commander Cheap and, of course, this good Captain. Once we had drank our fill, we ate our fill. Delicious Deutschness! They even had some fine young vegetarian brauts for Mrs. Beer. So thoughtful, those guys. Aw gee. Anyway then we drank our fill again and indeed it was good that the comfort of home (and more beer) was a walk and not a drive away.

That’s right! Captain and Mrs. Beer’s Maple Porter received a score of “very good” from the professional panel of tasters from the Sam Adams Longshot homebrew contest! Not only that but as you’ll see below, one of our judges indicated they would “pay money for this beer” which is rockin! I think. Look I’m struggling with humility here.  I  swear I’m awesome trying. Anyway…

Oh, happy day! Look, some people have been brewing for decades. Some people have more time and capital than certain young men. But dammit, I gotts me some moxy! Or maple. It was maple. See here:

Now I’m not saying I’m King Brewhammer (though if there’s any justice in this world some day I will be, and you will KNEEL, dammit!), but I do direct your attention to the bottom grid. Notice any marks? No… you don’t. Because THAT is where the tasters noted flaws. So… maybe we didn’t win uber alles but… flawless? Why thank you, Mr. Koch! Anyway, they sent a letter, our detailed score sheet and a free t-shirt! The t-shirt could easily house four of me and at first I was all: “What gives!?” But then I remembered that this is A) A hombrew thing and B) in America. So the Mrs. is going to try to do some magic to make it fit, as it would be awesome to have a lovely Longshot 2008 shirt to strut around. Booya.

* But, well, part of it that is… look what number post this is for good ‘ol Captain Beer! I am at the penultimate step before reaching the historic century post mark! DAMN!

I have sampled and slammed many a-delicious beer all in service to the Fleet and to the Greater Beervolk and it’s been a pleasure. It’s all for you, beer readers. And even more than for you, it’s for me. Oh how I love beer! I may well make my historic one-hundredth post a humble yet proud affair… perhaps just a fine young review of a fine young beer. I guess… you’ll see. PROST!

* nice beard, Cap’n! (Is what you’re probably saying…)

So it was (or we hope it will turn out to have been) an interesting brew session…

The Sergeant and I brewed two batches of beer. Both are wheats. That’s about where the similarities stop. One will be an easy drankin, American style wheat. All malt, one stage hopping, some spices in the secondary fermenter and bam… that’s the beer. T’other? A German Weizen. Malted barley and unmalted wheat grains… POUNDS of dry malt extract. Sugars. 3 stages of hopping and a bit of sweet orange peel in the cooling wort.

Different yeast strains too. So we shall see, beervolk, if both beers come out very well, excellently or just quite well (because they will, dammit). The boils went on at the same time, the cool down took the same amount of time, we pitched the yeast simultaneously… so if one of these beers is more suited to the temperature and conditions they were brewed under, well that will be interesting. They’ll sit in both fermenters for the same amount of time so if the aging process yields different qualities or unique characteristics, THAT will be interesting.

But here’s what I predict: two damn good beers. Stand by for that. Cap’n OUT!

* do not sue me… I have three dollars left to my name and one of them is promised to a dowager aunt in the country.

** I literally just remembered that a few people wanted to be included in the next brew session and man, I blew it. You’ll be invited next to fo sho.

What tales have I to tell! I mean… what tales have I to tell? Why don’t you read on!?!?

The good folks at Red Carpet had come up with an interesting and enjoyable whathaveya: the tasting focused on Belgian and Belgian-style beers, and each round was served up blind. One glass held a genuine, “old world” Belgian brau, the other an American beer in the same style. I’m proud to report that the Fleet came to a correct consensus as to Belgian v. American* with 90% accuracy! That’s because we have refined and trained palates, eyes and noses:

It was a lovely event with lots of great beer and it was informative too! For instance, I never knew that Belgians brewers are taxed based on the amount of grain they use, and thus have grown resourceful and tricky, adding more sugars, fruits and other elements to their beers. This in turn lets (and indeed they encourage) the yeasts to play a much more prominent role in shaping the flavors and characteristics of the beer. German beer’s flavors, on the other hand, are much less influenced by yeast which serves really just to convert the starches of the malt (and/or wheat) and break down the hops.

Yowza, right!? RIGHT!!! Oh, and then there was this:

That was… later in the tasting. (Wonderful beard, Brigadier! Prost!) Anyway, along with some excellent cheeses I have heretofore not mentioned because, c’mon hosebag, we’re here for beer! But naw, there was good cheese as well… anyway, all the great beer, and even the surprise finish of an Old Rasputin Imperial Stout from 1997** made for a great time and a good way to salute Sgt. Stout’s birthday (shared with The Kolonel and the General by the way! Ey!). In fact, damn… how better to spend a Sunday? Perhaps with even more beer… but I’ll take it!

* now THAT would be a fair fight. Heh.

** the flavor was INTENSE. Oily, thick mouthfeel bringing in deep chocolate, roasty coffee, almost leathern and smoke notes. Damn. The carbonation was too low and I think the brau was maybe a year past its prime but man… awesome 11 year aged stout? Sweetness.

The first is a pile-on to the General’s comments of a few weeks ago. He remarked about how freezing a jug of (distilled) water and then dropping the ice directly in your wort to rapidly cool it worked well, but urged caution when cutting the plastic jug off the frozen water. Well, I took it a step further and used a couple of plastic cups. That way when it came time to cool the wort, I just immersed the outside of the cups in some warm water to melt the outer edge of ice, then dropped that in. Less mess, and less chance of a knife mishap, especially if you like to combine brewing with drankin, as I do. This definitely saved 15-20 min of cooling the wort in an icebath, which is the most boring part of the whole process besides waiting for the water to boil.

The second is a [possible] solution to the Sgt’s recent clogged-airlock-fermentation-explosion disaster. If you do primary fermentation in a 5-gallon plastic bucket, as I do, try setting it in a big trash bag–one with a pull-tie at the top, then pull the bag up around the bucket and pull it tight around the top, leaving the airlock unobstructed, of course. That way if the foamy goodness gets out of hand and happens to clog the airlock, when she blows the top off the bucket, the destruction will be contained. Still probably ruin the batch, but hey, there are coats in the coat closet to think of as well. Monitor that airlock well during the first 24-48 hours and this hopefully will be a no-factor.

Right then… happy brewing, and happy drinking.