Much of my excitement for homebrew derives from drawing inspiration from my surroundings. Fall in Minnesota is one of my favorite experiences, and sadly, Fall will be coming to a close in the coming weeks. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate its passing with a beer.

Wild Rice in Minnesota is a grain typically harvested in September. Truth be told, Wild Rice is not actually rice but a water-grass seed.¹ The techniques for harvesting wild rice have remained unchanged for centuries. Two people will occupy a canoe in which one, the “poler”, pushes the canoe through the wild rice bed of a lake, and the other, the “knocker”, uses cedar sticks to bend the wild rice stalks over the side of the canoe and taps the kernels off the stalk.² In Minnesota, the celebrated grain finds its way into many food dishes like salads, soups, and Thanksgiving stuffing. Even Fitger’s Brewhouse in Duluth made a vegetarian wild rice burger. So, when looking for a Minnesota native ingredient to infuse in a Fall-seasonal beer, it is only sensible to make one with wild rice.

How Will This Be Used

Wild rice has to be considered in your homebrew recipe much differently than American white rice. Though there are exceptions, white rice will contribute little pronounced flavor to your recipe and can be used to give your beer a lighter mouthfeel. Wild rice, on the other hand, can contribute a nutty flavor as well as color. In the summer of 2010, August Schell Brewing Co. of New Ulm, Minnesota released their Wild Rice Farmhouse Ale. The Schell’s ale married the nutty characteristics of the wild rice with the yeast to create a self-described “dry and quenching”³ beer.

My intent in using wild rice was to experiment with the Minnesota-native grain and find a late-fall seasonal beer recipe that I could continue to share and revisit each year. From what I had read I would want to focus on allowing the nutty, earthy flavors and aromas from the wild rice to shine through. I had a basic idea of what I wanted and knew that I would use wild rice. But there is so much more to a beer recipe that needs to properly come together before you have a worthwhile product.

Let’s Get Into It

I am a fan of using Kölsch yeast in my homebrew. I thought that perhaps a lower temperature fermentation with time could lead to a clean finishing beer. However, I feared that whatever unique flavors Kölsch yeast brings along may distract from the raw flavors in the wild rice. I opted, instead, to play it safe by utilizing Wyeast 1056, American Ale yeast — a relatively neutral choice. The direction I took with my beer was instead in the form of an amber or brown ale. When the snow hits the ground, I want my beers to be a little darker. An ale with the malty backbone of something like a nut brown resonated well.

As I said I wanted the wild rice to shine, but I would need some malt character. Nuttiness and chocolate would be the aim. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine a beer like New Belgium’s Fat Tire to slip into place nicely as a base beer.

The Recipe

Fermentables

• 5.0 lbs Extra Light Dry Malt Extract (DME)
• 0.25 lbs Crystal 20? L
• 0.25 lbs Crystal 60? L
• 0.5 lbs Carared Malt
• 0.5 lbs Biscuit Malt
• 0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
• 1.0 lbs Minnesota Wild Rice (more about preparation later)

Hops Schedule — (90 minute boil)

• 1.0 oz. Willammette (4.5%) @ 90 minutes
• 1.0 oz. Fuggle (4.0%) @ 60 minutes

Yeast

• 1 packet Wyeast 1056 – American Ale, pitched from a starter

Specifications

• Batch Size: 5 gal
• Original Gravity: 1.066
• Final Gravity: 1.029
• ABV: 4.9%
• Bitterness: 26.9 IBU
• Color: 17 SRM

Preparing Your Wild Rice

I think there are a few ways wild rice can be prepared for your homebrew successfully, but I followed the direct advice of Schell’s David Berg. He recommended that I boil the wild rice and add it directly in to my mash. For now I am an extract brewer, and I treated the wild rice much as I would specialty grains.

For my 5 gallon recipe, I started with one pound of hand harvested wild rice. Most recommendations have you consider using wild rice for about 5-10% of your grain bill to bring through the desired nutty characteristics. I rinsed it first in the sink and then soaked the wild rice overnight for about 8 hours in cold water. I wanted the wild rice to absorb the water in an attempt to soften the husks. Once I had strike water, I placed the wild rice in a strainer inside of the boil kettle. With that, I slowly raised the temperature of the water to boiling. I boiled the rice for about an hour before rinsing and removing the husks. I re-used the water I had been boiling the wild rice in and pitched it into my wort and began my regular extract brewing process. At this point I had both the wild rice and specialty grains in their own straining bags in my brew kettle.

The Results

When I was transferring the beer from carboy to keg, I was amazed by the intense nutty-aroma coming from the wild rice. However, somewhere between that transfer and the serving glass, most of the aroma was lost. When I was pouring the beer for Jimmy Carter Happy Hour in Des Moines, the reaction towards the wild rice was mostly because of its curiosity. It allowed me to start many conversations with other homebrewers and beer drinks that were not familiar with the ingredient. It definitely struck a chord with a number of the attendees. I think the resulting beer allowed the wild rice adjunct to stand alone, but I didn’t support it enough with the rest of the beer. I know that during my brew day that I had a bit of panic during the morning hours and felt more hops were needed. Again I was seeking a balance between making the beer right and not distracting from the characteristics of the wild rice. You will notice that I did a 90 minute boil, and that was a last minute decision to raise the bitterness of the beer by using the hops I had already added. As a result, whatever aroma the hops were meant to add was quickly boiled away. I will also add that the finishing gravity wasn’t as low as I had expected, but I was initially successful in hitting my target original gravity. To sum it up, there were definitely fans of the beer, but I felt that the flavors were a bit muddled and not as complementary as hoped.

I will be trying this beer again because I know that it could be awesome. I didn’t dislike my first trial, but I know it can be stronger and it will have its fans. I encourage anyone who has read this far to research using wild rice as an ingredient in recipes of their own. With some more trials we can create a unique and flavorful beer.

With the holiday season upon us, more family and friends are regularly hosting gatherings. With gatherings come food and beverage, particularly of the fermented nature.

This week I had been in Iowa visiting friends when a message came across that Peace Tree Brewing Company had placed a recently finished apple cider on draft in their taproom. The Knoxville, Iowa based brewery is tucked away behind a 45 minute drive from Des Moines. I hadn’t been to the taproom since its beginnings about two years ago. The brewery is certainly an enjoyable space with room for entertainment including a bar with fresh offerings.

Peace Tree has been exploring their range of fermented opportunities since opening in 2009. They introduced one of the first Iowa produced beers that had an alcohol content higher than 6.5%,the Belgian-style Blonde Fatale. In 2010, Peace Tree brewed a farmhouse-style ale using sweet corn, and iterated upon it this past summer by infusing a batch with Brettanomyces. With Autumn fading, but in time for holiday gatherings, Peace Tree has now released a Champagne-yeast based cider, currently available only in their Knoxville taproom.

It sounds like this is the second shot Peace Tree has taken at creating a cider, the first having been only a 5-10 gallon batch. This time around Peace Tree has enough to serve on tap, and will as well sell about 200 bombers within the coming weeks. I stopped in for a pint in the taproom, but also took a home a growler to share with friends over dinner.

The cider was a rather hazy yellow and didn’t present itself as a light, refreshing drink. I think the cleanest looking cider I have come across is a Crispin Light, and Peace Tree’s entry looked more like a Crispin Honey Crisp. Again, this was not a cider looking at refreshment but I think rather attempting to produce a bit more daring flavor.

The cider has a big punch up front. I didn’t catch what the ABV of the cider was, but it led with the bite and followed with a residual sweetness. This cider was a sipper to best balance the flavors and prevent a clash across the palate.

Peace Tree is not the first Iowa brewery to make a cider in-house, but they’re giving it a go with one of the state’s best entries.

From the bottle:

ep•ic adj.

(1) Heroic and impressive in quality.

(2) Surpassing the usual or ordinary, particularly in scope or size.

(3) Of, constituting, having to do with, or suggestive of a literary epic.

The tenth in an “epic” series.

“As with any good epic, herein lies the promise of larger-than-life experiences, heroics and twists & turns as the adventure unfolds. This bottle-conditioned ale is chapter ten, and is specifically designed to be aged until sometime after December 12th, 2012. Provided you can wait that long. At that time, enjoy it in a “vertical” tasting along with its ten Stone Vertical Epic Ale brethren. Each one unique to its year of release. Each with its own “twist & turn” in the plot line. Each one release one year, one month, and one day from the previous year’s edition.

This year’s Stone Vertical Epic Ale might justifiably be considered the non-sequitor edition. We somehow came to the conclusion that adding Anaheim chilies from New Mexico’s Hatch Valley, plus whole cinnamon sticks, to an amber-hued brew fermented with Belgian Flanders Golden Ale yeast (which provides fairly invest character, with lots of clove & banana overtones) would create a very tasty result. And we believe it does! The Anaheim chili is known for its rich flavor more than endorphin-inducing heat, and the cinnamon adds a nice twist… part of the promise behind the Vertical Epic Ale series itself. As with any epic, remember that it is not just the destination, but the journey!”

[As with all Stone VE editions, a detailed home-brewing recipe is available at www.stonebrew.com/epic ]

Specs from the Stone Brewing Blog:

ABV: 9.4%

IBU: 65

OG: 20.5° Plato

TG: 2.5° Plato

Malts: Pale, Crystal, Munich, CaraBohemian and Special B

Hops: Warrior, Target, Perle and Pacific Jade

The Review

(As with most reviews we post here, I try to loosely stick to the form for a BJCP review.)

Appearance

The body is deep, bright ruby/brown, approximately 20 SRM. The head is dirty white, pouring rocky, and lacing the glass as it subsides.

Aroma

Initially, the sweet qualities of a Belgian dubbel transition to a slightly smoky–yet very present–pepper. I’ve never had (at least as far as I can remember) an Anaheim chili. It seems similar to a chipotle pepper, only less intensely smoky, with secondary kicks of warmth.

Flavor

The clove/banana notes the yeast impart shift to a spicy paper on the sides of the tongue, swinging back to a Belgian ester, then it finishes with a very mellow cinnamon punch.

Mouthfeel

The 11•11•11 is bigger than most beers, but it’s pretty standard for Stone’s limited releases. What I mean by that is they have done very well at balancing a beer with a higher percentage ABV, while at the same time, not overpowering the flavor. It’s not thin, as sometimes happens with larger beers. It’s malty and sweet, not viscous and oily. The aftertaste is very much reminiscent of an Abbey dubbel (if you can look past the notion of a Belgian beer with pepper and cinnamon).

Overall

This is only my second time sampling a beer in the Stone Vertical Epic Ale series (the first was 08•08•08, which I shared with friends in early 2009). It seems like a nice shift from others in the lineup, and I can only forecast this beer beer will be even more mellow and balanced with a year’s time in the cellar.

It would be a great beer to pair with a fajita and fried rice, since the food would accentuate the spicy flavor the Anaheim imparts, while the fruity Belgian tones from the yeast would lend a contrasting sweetness.

11•11•11 was a fun beer to try. It’s nice to throw your palette a curveball once in a while. I went into the beer expecting a very subtle, then suddenly intensely spicy beer (think Fitger’s Wildfire, a lager brewed with Serrano, habenero, and jalepeno peppers) but I ended up concluding this is a Belgian-inspired ale, like a hybrid of a golden and a dubbel, with palette curveballs of pepper and spice.

Definitely worth seeking out.

Thanks to Randy Clemens at Stone Brewing for providing me this sample.

It was at about this time last year that I started putting together my ideas for what a pumpkin ale should taste like. Granted, I was not sure if I would actually be able to deliver on the vision, but I was willing to give it a go. My pumpkin ale in 2010 was my first recipe from scratch; meaning, for the first time I was not brewing my beer from a kit, but instead with a crazy concoction of extracts and grains that I felt would generate the right flavors and characteristics. A year has passed and I have used each new homebrew since then as a chance to hone skills and further develop my process.

The New Brew

I created a Pumpkin Stout last Fall. This year I decided I could not make the same beer again, but instead I would make two new beers. I could have reused and followed my recipe from last year but I will tell you why I did not. First, I have not brewed all too many beers in the past year. I like to keep things interesting and once I really feel comfortable with my technique then I will try the same beer again and look for improvements. Secondly, I actually still have a few bottles of last year’s Pumpkin and it is drinking very well. So I did not see much need to try making the same beer again, yet. Instead my fervor for creating a pumpkin ale this year really came down to reading a few reviews and press releases of what other breweries were doing. The release that excited me most for the season was Oak Jacked Imperial Wood Aged Pumpkin Ale by Uinta Brewing Company.

Jacked is brewed with fresh pumpkin and fall spices and has been aging in Oak barrels for 6 months. The oak barrels add subtle nuances of toasted vanilla and bourbon notes. With an ABV of 10.31% (a play on the date of Halloween), Jacked is a big, unique pumpkin ale.

My mouth could not stop watering. I have not tried this beer and I doubt I will, sadly. But it gave me the Brewer’s Itch™ and I knew I had to recreate this beer for what my mind thought it should be. Again, though, today’s story is not about my take on this beer. That idea will become pumpkin beer number two for the season. It did however fuel the flames and lead us to today, where I present the story of a desire for an Oktoberfest, but with pumpkin.

Septoberfest

I love a traditional, German Oktoberfest. My favorites have a rich, malty backbone. If one were to look at the grain bill for one of these beers, I would venture a guess that very few different grains are used. Last year I decided on brewing something of an Irish ale, with dark malts and an Irish ale yeast. This year I wanted a lighter colored beer, but still the rich body.

Pumpkin ale and Oktoberfests are the two popular seasonal beers available at this time of year, but they can be quite different. A pumpkin ale can choose to embrace its unique flavor and delve into the world of sweet and spicy by mimicking the flavors of pumpkin pie. Other brewers instead choose to make their pumpkin ales using the fruit as a way to add a bit more earthiness and body to what is usually an Amber lager. These are two different interpretations (and there are more) of the seasonal beer, and I think both can be great.

The other idea floating around was to make a traditional Oktoberfest. This presented a number of problems for me as well. I don’t have the proper lagering facilities. I cannot control the temperature of my fermenting beer enough to really get it in the range that lager yeast do their work, roughly 45 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. The other problem in my mind is that I believe Oktoberfests to be a fairly simple grain bill and probably more appropriate to be brewed using all-grain methods as opposed to extract. I did not rule out the idea, however, and decided to conduct some unofficial research by sampling whatever Oktoberfests I could find at the local store. It was in the Victory Festbier and Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest that I found my answers. These wonderfully malty, and nutty beers were the flavors I craved. I would recreate them, but I would not be creating an Oktoberfest. I would instead use their recipes and inspiration and brew an ale with pumpkin.

Putting It All Together

Maybe I was making an Oktoberfest. By any traditional means, and especially by the reinheitsgebot, this was no Oktoberfest. But the flavors I tasted in the Hacker-Pschorr and Victory cemented in my mind that I needed to use a simple grain bill to build out that malty backbone. I lacked the proper fermenting temperatures to lager the beer, or did I?

Wyeast 2112 California Lager ferments in the range of 58 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, and will help me retain some of the lager characteristics I seek if I can keep the temperatures just a little bit lower. This was my answer going forward. In choosing my yeast it was important to try and find something that wouldn’t necessarily impart a lot of flavor but at the same time perform respectably at these early Fall temperatures. I had also considered using Wyeast 1338 European Ale but it gets very active and likes a bit higher gravity than what I was aiming for, I believe. Even when I first started conceptualizing the beer I had considered a Scottish Ale yeast. Rich and malty? You bet. It’s homebrew and it’s pumpkin; why not be crazy?

In researching the Oktoberfest beers I scrounged for clone recipes and tidbits residing on brewers’ websites. It became evident that one of my main grains would be Munich. Fortunately it seems that Northern Brewer, a local homebrew shop, recently added Munich Malt Syrup to their inventory. This would become my “base malt”. In keeping true to the idea of a simple grain bill, I didn’t stray far from the German malts and included a small amount of Vienna as well.

The Recipe

Fermentables

• 6.0 lbs Munich Malt Extract
• 0.5 lbs Dark Dry Malt Extract (DME)
• 0.5 lbs German Dark Munich
• 0.5 lbs German CaraMunich II
• 0.5 lbs Vienna
• 45 oz. Canned Pumpkin @ 15 min left in boil — pre-baked for one hour in oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Hops

• 1 oz. Cluster (6.8%) @ Sparge
• 1 oz. German Tettnang (3.7%) @ 60 minutes

Other

• 1 tsp Nutmeg @ 15 minutes
• 1 tsp Cinnamon @ 15 minutes

Yeast

• 1 packet Wyeast 2112 – California Lager, pitched from a starter

Proposed Specifications

• Batch Size: 5 gal
• Original Gravity: 1.054
• Final Gravity: 1.013
• ABV: 5.5%
• Bitterness: 24.4 IBU
• Color: 10.9 SRM

Introduction

I have never brewed a cider before, but it’s always been in the back of my mind. With the autumn season quickly approaching, I have actually begun to pick up whatever interesting ciders I find at the store. Ciders are a great beverage that act as a substitute or complement to beer. It’s flavorful, crisp, alcoholic, but also very light. I’m sure there are enough sugars and whatnot to make the caloric intake very similar to a beer, but a cider always feels light. Anyway, with all my home brewing recently, a cider is another concoction that can be easily shared with friends — particularly if they are not beer fans to begin with.

I’m in St. Paul now, home to many of my beer brewing friends. I don’t have my own equipment with me in the North yet, but I will be joining Shawn during his brewing adventures. Apparently his wife’s boss has an apple orchard and picked about 30 pounds of as yet to be identified type of apple and lent Shawn’s family a juicer as well. So our plan for this evening was to throw them in the juicer, and hopefully end up with about 3 gallons of apple cider. And then we are going to ferment it.

The Plan

Shawn stopped at Northern Brewer today and asked of their advice when picking up the necessary ingredients for the cider. He was initially only expecting to get Saccharomyces bayanus, a champagne yeast. As I stated earlier, we are using a basket of apples which will be juiced and poured into a carboy. With that information given, we should have concern for potential “wild” and off-flavors. We are using the Lalvin EC-1118, which according to the manufacturer works well over a wide range of temperatures, and has a high alcohol tolerance. It should also compete well against the wild yeasts that will be present in our cider. However, we will want a little something extra to take out the wild bacteria. For this task we have also decided to use Campden Tablets (Potassium Metabisulphite). It will help kill off the wild bacteria and hopefully gives us a little more control in the final flavor. So we have stocked up on Star San and sanitizing it all so it is prepped and ready for some juice.

The Juice

The best guess is that we had one bushel of apples at our disposal. We were also equipped with a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer Pro, which looks remarkable. The machine comes apart at all seams for easy cleaning. At the top is a cylinder that feeds the fruit, grinds, and filters through a mesh grate. We had it on loan, but if I plan on making more ciders in the future, this is the machine to get.

I would guess that we only yielded about 2 gallons of cider from our roughly 30 pounds of apples, but still, I think it was a great yield. I remember trying to make orange juice in the past with press and it was miserable. We are going to keep a watch on how much cider we can actually extract from the carboy. The apple juice in our carboy is quite pulpy, which I like, but it is going to need some time to settle out.

Looking Forward

The current plan is to let the cider ferment for two to three weeks. At the moment, the juice is in the carboy with two Campden tablets. It is supposed to give off a bit of CO₂. After about 24 hours, the next step is to pitch pectic enzyme, to help with our yield by preventing some of the haze caused by the skin of the apple. A yeast nutrient (food grade urea and diammonium phosphate) will be added to our dry yeast to help increase the culture before pitching. Since our original juice yield was lower than expected, we are hoping to juice an additional two bushels of apples. This yield will then be added to the same carboy.

On Saturday, July 9th, Des Moines played host to Cityview’s Brewfest, a beer event that supposedly offered over 400 beers from 125 brewers. Who could count? Saturday’s event was the fifth annual festival and the first that I have had the pleasure attending (along with Jason). Let us discuss.History

Iowa does not get to play host to beer events all too often. We had our inaugural Iowa Craft Beer Festival in May, but Brewfest seems to be the largest and longest running festival in the state. In the past my largest consideration when deciding not to attend the festival is that of the beer selection. A little over a year ago, Iowa’s alcohol distribution laws changed and gave rise to the selection of beer available for purchase. Our own Jason had attended previously, and the impressions I have gotten from him is that past events were mostly a sampling of the bottles available in the beer aisles at the grocery store. That is not to say that good beer was not available at the event, only that a craft beer minded person may not find too many new and interesting beverages to try. The scope of beer available in Iowa has changed, however. Any distributor can now handle beer up to 15% alcohol by volume, and the state is now home to at least 25 breweries.

Location

Brewfest was held at Principal Park, home of the Iowa Cubs. On this particular day the site turned out to be perfect. The breweries were spread across two levels, with the local Iowa breweries dominating the second floor. I liked the setup because it gave so much space for the breweries to spread out and allow lines to form in front of each table. My only quibble was that it became difficult at times to see which brewery I was standing in front of and what beers they had available. There were two tools I had to aid me in my quest, however. The first was a print out of each of the beers available with checkboxes for your rating. The second tool was a webapp built specifically as a guide for the festival – made by the same guys who created the Beer Genius for El Bait Shop.

Selection

As I said, there was something on the order of 400 different beers available at this festival. Granted, many of the beers represented were shown off by distributors and thus were poured from bottles — not on draft. This festival definitely has appeal to the craft beer drinker, but the main goal, I believe, is to provide as much variety as possibly to introduce the general populace to the wide world of beer. There was truly a beer for everyone at this festival. The only item I had a hard time finding was the soda and water for the designated drivers. Where was the root beer? Knowing all of this, there were a few items that stuck out to me.

• Backpocket Brewing – I do not believe I have ever had the chance to try any of the beers from these guys before, and that is a shame. I tried three of the beers they had on draft, Jackknife German Pale, Gold Coin Helles Lager, and the phenomenal Slingshot Dunkel. If you ever come across Backpocket Brewing, get a couple pints.
• Great River Brewing – This is a another Iowa brewery new to me. Based in the quad cities, Great River Brewing appears to be on board with the pint-sized cans for distribution. The Roller Dam Red Ale was quite good, and reminiscent of New Belgium’s Fat Tire. They also has a cask conditioned ale that reminded me of Oskar Blue’s G’Knight, but I was definitely wanting more “sticky” from the beer.
• Crispin Cider – We have reviewed a few of Crispin’s products in the past for our project and I am a fan. Crispin has an “Artisinal Reserves” series that puts a unique spin on each of the ciders. The Saint is fermented with Belgian Trappist yeasts and Lansdowne uses “Irish stout ale” yeast. Both are phenomenal ciders.
• Peace Tree Brewing – One of Peace Tree’s seasonal beers is a farmhouse-style ale brewed with sweet corn named Cornucopia. On its own, it is a great beer. But for Brewfest, Joe decided to make a Brettanomyces infused version of Cornucopia. It was probably worth the price of admission alone. Personally, I was getting a lot of mustard seed flavors from the beer. I do have to wonder what the risk of infection is for the rest of the brewhouse.
• Madhouse – Whatever you thought of this brewery in the past you can forget about. They are getting their act together and I can point to Hopburst and their Honey Pilsner as proof of their desire to make good beer.
• Rock Bottom Des Moines – The Bushmaster Rye wine-style is a champion of a beer, and you have to savor it. Tremendously flavorful.

Reaction

This certainly wasn’t a festival for tickers in need of a list of rare tastings, but it truly offered something for almost every type of beer fan. It serves nicely to introduce people to the wide variety of beers available in Iowa and I hope people found something new to buy and tell friends about. The venue was packed, even with ticket prices close to $30 a head. I would say we are doing all right here in Iowa. Beer is plentiful, delicious and more people are picking up on that vibe. If you see our local breweries’ beers beginning to pop-up in your regions, they are worth your while. Meanwhile, I’m curious to see how our local beer scene will evolve and if we will begin to see more seasonal events. Time will tell.

Did you attend Cityview’s Brewfest? Sound off in the comments.

The first beer I decided to review after the announcement and arrival of Stone is the Cali-België (also known as Cali-Belgique) IPA. According to Stone:

“When reading the name “Stone Cali-Belgique IPA”, “Cali” hints that it is a California-style IPA, and this brew has an undeniable Belgian influence, indicated by the word “Belgique” (which is how Belgium’s French-speaking population says the word “Belgian”; the Dutch-speaking Belgians say “België”). We carefully selected a Belgian yeast strain that illuminates a fascinating new aspect of the beer that is otherwise quite simply Stone IPA. The result is both completely new and different, while still being recognizable as a Stone brew—and Stone IPA in particular. Think of it as an otherwise identical twin to Stone IPA that was raised in a Belgian culture. Literally.”

A quick rundown on a few key facts for Cali-België:

Style: India Pale Ale ABV: 6.9% IBU: 77 Hop varieties: Columbus, Chinook, and Centennial First released: August 2008

Stone Cali-België IPA

(As with most reviews we post here, I try to loosely stick to the form for a BJCP review.)

Appearance The Cali-België poured with a bright amber/copper body and a rocky, but quickly-fading, white head. The beer has striking clarity, and carbonation appears normal.

Aroma As aroma is the most fleeting aspect of a beer, I try to make a note of how a beer smells immediately after pouring into the glass. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I tried to avoid checking reviews and comments on the beer to prevent myself from establishing how someone else interpreted the beer. I found myself drawing close comparisons to the Belgian dubbel style (BJCP category 18B), with initial floral, clove notes. As the beer warmed slightly, and the head subsided, the bouquet opened a bit, and the stronger clove notes faded, leading to a bread-like aroma. Although pleasant, it is not quite the potent, resinous, aromatic hop attack I expected when I opened an IPA. I wasn’t put off, however; I really enjoy Belgian beers, enough to have made a trip to Brussels during my honeymoon. Whereas most people expecting an American IPA, or as I like to refer to the style–IPA 2.0– may be slightly confused.

Flavor The aroma of cloves and fresh-baked bread continues as I sampled the beer. I sampled the beer over a fifteen minute person, allowing it to warm to near room temperature. After that time, I did not notice any increase in hop flavor, like that one would normally anticipate in an IPA. The beer has a sweeter, more balanced finish, lacking the strong bitterness often present with an aggressive IPA.

Mouthfeel The Cali-België does differ from its Belgian peers in that the beer is thinner than some examples of the dubbel style. In contrast to an IPA, my tongue did not have the aggressive, hop-forward palette attack normally present. The finish is smooth and far from astringent.

Overall Occasionally, I find myself sitting with a Belgian dubbel during the fall and winter months, savoring the beer as a nightcap. This beer, however, does not need to be savored. It’s very quenching, and I was able to drink a good portion of the bomber right away, because the body was lighter, and the ABV a bit lower than a beer meant to be savored. Throughout the review, I kept struggling with the notion this beer is branded as an IPA. The Stone crew are quick to point out on the bottle, however, that this is literally the same recipe as their IPA, the only difference being the Belgian yeast strain they used for fermentation.

It’s amazing how much of a different finished product one can experience when only changing a single variable. If you’re a hop head, this might be a fun reprieve from your typical palette-crushing IPAs. If you are not (yet) an IPA enthusiast, this is a much more approachable means to move forward into the style.

Stone’s Cali-België IPA was a fun beer to try. It’s nice to throw your palette a curveball once in a while. I went into the beer expecting a typical, aggressively-hopped, West Coast IPA, but I ended up drawing parallels between the IPA style and the Belgian dubbel style. Check out this Periodic Table of Beer Styles to see how close the two styles are (at least by the numbers).

Thanks to Randy Clemens at Stone Brewing for providing me this sample.

Last Sunday, a friend of mine posted on Twitter that he was frustrated by an experience he had while at a restaurant at the Mall of America. He was put off by a “buttery” flavor in the pint of beer he ordered. This “buttery” off-flavor found in beer, known chemically as diacetyl, is a natural byproduct of fermentation, which at high levels, can impart a buttery flavor. However, this buttery off-flavor can sometimes be attributed to unclean draft lines. After posting a few responses to my friend Scott’s unfortunate experience, Dave Berg–brewer at Schell’s Brewery in New Ulm–inspired me to establish a new hashtag, in the spirit of the #MNcleanpint competition, that addresses my friend’s frustration.

Sure, a venue with “beer clean” glassware is making an effort to provide drinking receptacles that allow a beer drinker to enjoy the brew as a brewer intended, with its wonderful lacing adorning the glass. But what happens when a venue doesn’t make enough of an effort to regularly clean its draft lines?

I am fortunate to have many friends who are craft beer aficionados, many of whom are certified beer judges and avid homebrewers. A few years ago, while still new to my journey into craft beer, I would tell these friends when I had a bad experience at a restaurant or bar with an unsavory beer. My friends would be quick to let me know that an unsavory beer should not reflect poorly on the brewery; a venue may not have taken the proper quality control measures to ensure my experience was enjoyable. Had I not bothered to tell my beer friends about my bad experience, I may have written off that entire brewery, unaware that it was not the way a brewer intended the beer to taste, but rather poor quality control at a venue.

In an effort to prevent similar experiences from happening to craft beer drinkers–both the neophytes who may be exploring a brewery’s offerings for the first time and the seasoned craft beer die-hards–I proposed last Sunday night via Twitter:

Perhaps the Twin Cities should start a hashtag for venues not taking care of their draft lines. #TCdirtylines should do the trick, right?

Taking it one step further, I put forward that we should reward those venues with clean lines using #TCcleanlines. Let’s use these hashtags to help inform others of the efforts a bar or restaurant makes to ensure that we craft beer drinkers always get the same level of quality control, no matter the venue. Our experience with a brewery’s beers should be the same, whether we’re enjoying it from a can or bottle at home, or on draft at a bar.

Are you up to the challenge?

What is your favorite beer style? Currently, mine is a toss-up between gueuze and American wild ale.

Not too long ago we met some new friends, the members of the band Pictures of Then. As is typical with Shawn and myself, the conversations held revolved around beer, technology, and music. As our podcast grows, we are looking for new ways to uniquely identify ourselves. Our podcast introduction music has evolved with us on this journey. After listening to Pictures of Then, of Minneapolis, through and through, the decision was made to partner with our friends as they graciously allow us to utilize some of their music for our podcast. Episode 28 was the first episode to feature music from Pictures of Then – their “When It Stings” leads us in. Stay tuned, as Casey and other band members will likely record with us in future episodes. Cheers to Pictures of Then for lending their talent to our project.

• http://www.picturesofthen.com
• http://www.myspace.com/picturesofthen
• http://twitter.com/picturesofthen