8th Annual Autumn Brew Review, Minneapolis, MN

Hooboy, that was fun. Harder to handle than the Russian River Beer + BBQ Revival, mainly due to the lack of all-you-can-eat BBQ.

But we're still alive...his (J) and hers (R) comments and ratings on a scale of to

MN Breweries:

• August Schell Brewing Co: Schell's Original, (J, correctly guessed at the "guess the MN beer" game put on by MNBrew.com)
• Barley John's Brew Pub: Belgian Enkle (J); Wedding Ale (R)
• Brau Brothers Brewing Co: Ring Neck Double Nut Braun (R); Strawberry Wheat (J, too much berry)
• Finnegans: Irish Amber (J+R)
• Fitgers Brewhouse: Wildfire Lager (R...really, it's hhhhHot); Dread Pirate Dunkelweizen (J...mmm...hoppy); Tugboat Irish Stout (R...not as good as Big Boat Oatmeal)
• Herkimer: Sky Pilot (R)
• Lake Superior Brewing Co: Special Ale (J...okay...nice bitterness, nothing fantastic...R guessed correctly and won us a pint glass)
• Lift Bridge Brewery: Blueberry Blonde (J...it was purple...not well balanced with bitterness IMO)
• Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery: Oak Porter (J...so good); Fresh Hop 2008 (R...again correctly guessed!)
• St Croix Brewing Co: St Croix Maple Ale (J...needed more hop, if I recall); Cream Ale (R)
• Summit Brewing Co: Wet Hopped Extra Pale - Cask (R); Something...Wet hop? (J...I remember liking it!)
• Surly Brewing Co: Furious (R the hophead); Cynic Ale (J...mmm...saison!)
• Vine Park Brewing: Rabid Penguin Porter (R), Flanders Red? (J...okay, maybe I like some sours)

(J...very disappointing); Starfire Pale
Non-MN Breweries:

• Avery Brewing Co: New World Porter (R); 15th Anniversary Brett Gueze (J...not a fan of most sours I'm learning...)
• Bell's Brewery, Inc: Amber Ale - Cask (R); 3rd Coast - Cask (J)
• Boston Brewing Co: Sam Adams Cherry Wheat (R...mmm...cough syrup?)
• Some Meadery...: Blueberry Mead (J...too sweet)
• Boulevard Brewing Co: Unfiltered Wheat (J...eh); Bob's 47 Oktoberfest (R)
• Furtermore Beer: Knot Stock (J...my pick of the day!); Something nutty...definitely not Knot Stock or Oscura... (R)
• Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co: Oktoberfest (R); Big Eddy RIS (J...blech, not a good RIS, IMO...too sweet and smoky without enough bitter?)
• Moyland's Brewery & Restaurant: Moylander DIPA (J)
• New Belgium Brewing Co: 1554 (R); Giddy Up! (J...okay, not great)
• New Holland Brewing Co: Ichabod Pumpkin (R...can tasty the pumpkin, a little clove heavy); Dragon's Milk (J...better for long sipping...bourbon aged black ale...kinda soy saucy)
• North Coast Brewing Co: Scrimshaw(?) (R)
• Brewery Ommegang: Hennepin (R...fantastic, really); Witte (J...not what I was in the mood for, I guess)
• Shmaltz Brewing Co/He'Brew: Lenny's RIPA (R..."if our RIPA smells like this, I'll be really happy"); Rejewvenator Fib Dubbel (J...kinda figgy, duh)
• Tyranena Brewing Co: Bitter Woman IPA (R); Dirty Old Man (J...again...the whiskey barrel ruined it for me...the idea of an imperial rye porter i like, though)

I guarantee I missed one (we played the game where you try to remember what you had after the fact, and not all of it was in the tasting guide...the game's hard when you have about 50 smileys between two people)

Weird.

Halloween's a-comin', so here's one of the draft beers for that. I revised the recipe from last time. The main goal was to use fresh sugar pumpkin. Fresh pumpkin was located...after I started the mash. I scaled back the amount of canned pumpkin under the assumption that I'd find the fresh stuff in time to secondary for a bit before kegging. This one should actually taste like pumpkin. I also toned down the spice and added some chocolate malt for color and maltodextrin for body. Still f-ing terrible efficiency on this one, though.

Batch #22
Old Pumpculiar v1.5
--8 lbs 2-Row American Pale Ale Malt (RAHR)
--1 lb Flaked Wheat
--2/3 lb Crystal 75L
--1/8 lb British Pale Chocolate
--4 oz Maltodextrin (60min)
--8 oz Cane Sugar (15min)
--8 oz Molasses (15min)
--45 oz Canned pumpkin (in mash)
--1/2 fresh pumpkin (15min)
--1/2 fresh pumpkin (in primary)
--1 oz Glacier 6% AA (60min)
--0.5 oz Willamette 4.6% AA (15min)
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--1.25 tsp pie spice (15min at flameout)
--White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast (1.1L starter)
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.007
ABV: 5.1%
Calc. IBU: 27

Single infusion, 1hr at 150F. Collected 6.5 gallons of wort with an efficiency of under 60%. Rargh. No idea what's up with that, seeing as I pulled 75%+ on the blackberry a couple weeks ago. Fresh pumpkin was split in half (goo and seeds removed) and baked face down at 300F long enough to soften the flesh. Pie spice was 2 parts cinnamon to 1 part each of cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger.

Not funny anymore.

This post is no longer funny. I got home yesterday and checked on the barleywine. Good thing, too. The dimples on the caps were on their way from innies to outies. I managed to get everything in a refrigerator, but have no room for anything else right now. I'm hoping that crash cooling will prevent these from become bombs. Why oh why did I have to be so impatient...next time I'll know better, I suppose. Hopefully I won't get back from vacation in two weeks to find the worst mess ever in my kitchen.