Bottling Update

54 BJ Border Jumpers on the Wall
44 American Ambers on the Wall

The Hop.2 will be ready to bottle on Sunday

God... now that's a different story. We'll keep you posted there

...And We're Back

...or, at least, I'm back. Had me a nice little week break in the Rockies and now it's time to get down to business. I'll be heading into Chicago on Thursday to pick up Dave.1 and between now and then i'm looking to bottle Border Jumper, The Currently un-named Amber Ale, God, and The Hop.2. Also, I've received my gigantic order of hops and will be brewing up The Hop Mod1, Batch Eleven. Gon' Be Crazy n shit.

Until Next Time...

So I'm off today, for Crested Butte, CO with the UC ski club until next sunday. No more updates for a week from this guy (but hopefully from the other components of the davedave crew... *hint* *hint*) anyhow, i'll be sure to sample and possibly bring back some new west coast and mountain beers that i can find. if you know of any good beers that one can only find out west, let me know and i'll be sure to pick one or two up.

ski trip babay!

As We Speak...

Brewing the first official DaveDave remake batch, The Hop, staying as true to the original recipe as possible. The differences in this batch and the original are 3/4 lb. less honey, US Magnum hops instead of Yakima Magnum, and tap water instead of filtered.

As for the tap water, buying 5 gallons of water every time i brew is a pain in the ass. I'm just gonna go with tap water from now on to give all my brews that same "tappy" base and cincinnati style. dig?

Bells 8000 Ale Review

Cracked open one of these bad boys tonight to drink alongside some jalapeño and cheese pirogies. The 8000 is a Belgian style witbier, and it was poured from a 12 oz bottle into a pilsner glass. The pour was rich and full, with a perfect amount of mellow golden head topping off the glass. The color of the beer was a slightly cloudy, and was a light honey orange hue. The aroma was spicy with hints of orange and banana. The beer had a nice medium malty flavor and a good amount of spice. There were hints of coriander and grains of paradise on the tongue. grains of paradise, mind you, are "what acid is made of to make, like, acid," as the party source employee so poignantly put it. I've never been a huge witbier fan, but the 8000 is definitely something i'm glad to have 5 more of in the fridge. i'll probably even pick up another 6 pack once i run out of this one. the taste also went along perfectly with the spicy pirogies, which were smothered in saracha sauce. probably my favorite witbier to date, although i haven't had the pleasure of enjoying many. if you've heard of any other good ones, hit me with those suggestions boys and girls. and thats all i got.

11

so thanks to my favorite brewing bible, the complete joy of homebrewing by charlie papazian, i located a website that has hops hops hops available. so i decided to celebrate by ordering 11 different kinds of hops. that's right, 11. i already have enough hops to make 2 batches of 'the hop,' but i decided, why make 2 batches of the hop when we can kick this shit up and make one batch of 'the hop' and a complimentary batch, 'the hop: overkill,' which will feature the 11 different kinds of hops i speak of, including: pacific gem, sorachi ace, amarillo, cascase, centennial, chinook, mt. hood, perle, summit, williamette and fuggle. count 'em. we'll use a combination of these in the boil as well as use quite a few of them in a dry hopping stage propsed to go exactly 22 days young. f'in crazy... and we'll definitely keep you posted.

Brew Reviews, Etc.

So yesterday I was browsing through beer advocate, as recommended by Timmy Tomato, and I came across some brews I was hoping to try. I put a quick list together and sent it to my boys at the Party Source, the worlds largest and most decidedly excellent candy store for adults. They only had one of the brews in stock on the list, the Fullers Vintage Ale. So i naturally had them hold onto 4 bottles, since they only had 9 total. Emma and i headed to the Party Source to pick up the brews and others. I came out of there with, Goose Island Demolition, Goose Island Imperial IPA, Limited Edition Flying Dog Wild Dog Weizenbock, Avalanche Special Edition Christmas Ale, Bell's Batch 8000 Witbier and Expedition Stout as well as, of course the Fullers Vintage. I was very excited to see they were carrying the Goose Island Limited brews and I would of course like to think that maybe I had something to do with it...? Hah. Anyhow, I have since had the pleasure of sampling the Imperial IPA, the Expedition Stout and the Fullers Vintage. Although the Expedition Stout was the first real beer of the night, I remember this beer the least. That is, to say, not that it wasn't a fantastic and memorable beer - i really just didn't pay much attention to the fact that i was drinking it. my minimal thoughts on the beer, was that it had very rich espresso and molasses notes with a dark as night color and a thick golden brown head. It was quite smooth considering its 10.5% abv. i'll have to try this out again and really chew into it.

the goose island imperial IPA was certainly one to remember. i recently read a review of the beer stating that, "you could smell the hops before you opened the bottle." what a completely spot on description. as of late i have more and more become a man who loves his hops and this beer is no disappointment. brewed with copious amounts of tettnang, simcoe and cascade hops, it pours rich golden amber and releases the heavenly aromas heavy enough to fill up the room. what was interesting was that although the hop aroma was so intensely robust, the flavor of the beer was rich and full, and very well rounded. don't get me wrong, the hops are still there, but the balance of the hop is much better in this Imperial IPA than, for instance, the Sam Adams Hallertau Imperial. And for not being the worlds largest IPA fan, even Timmy Tomato enjoyed the brew! Although expensive, this one was a really great pickup that I'm really looking forward to trying on draft in chicago in a few weeks.

so then we have the fullers vintage ale, the reason for the party source trip! i'm a huge fan of the fullers brews, especially the esb they offer - which just happens to be one of the very very few beers that like to i purchase when i can't decide on anything else. so needless to say i had high expectations of the vintage ale. four out of only one hundred thousand made (this is not that much), mine were numbered in the 83000's, and they each came individually in a nice red box. the pour was shiny copper and the head came out a light golden amber. the taste was of burnt caramel, marmalade and a bit of orange. the beer was quite malty, but had an incredibly balanced full flavor which left a wonderful aftertaste. personally, i find some more malt-heavy brews to finish bitter and harsh at the back of the mouth, but the vintage ale rounded out quite well. i took a good half hour to finish the brew without even realizing that that amount of time had passed, it was very relaxing and was a perfect fit for the cold winter evening. i'm very glad i have three more of these. i may actually have to go back to the party source and buy the rest of their stock just to put a few in the basement and let age for a few years.


one thing that i've recently come to very much appreciate is bottle conditioning. when i first started brewing i thought, give the beer a week to carbonate and that's that and it's done. boy was i ever wrong. every time i have a homebrew that i've left sitting for just a few months, it's always better than ever. for instance, the hop has been maturing and time after time lives up to its incredibly high standards; man has been maturing quickly and is becoming one of my new favorite brews as well. i can only imagine what some of the other beers might taste like in the future. i also have a 4 pack of the goose island matilda and demolition aging in the cellar as well. i guess the only bad part now, is the waiting!

Davedave is no democracy

So, uh, the poll is over. Looks like a 3-way tie. Hrm. Well, I guess it really doesn't matter since we weren't going to use your vote anyhow. yep.

Fingers Crossed

Well well, not too much currently going on, but we do have a nice update on all of the brews.

First off, we sampled another man or three last night, and they have really come along. the brew is just top notch and will get even more delicious as it bottle conditions over the next few weeks.

Re-carboyed god today, pitched a new vile of yeast, added a lb. of boiled xtra dark malt, along with oak chips that have been soaking in whiskey for the past 4 days. should be interesting... we'll have to keep you posted as that comes along. it looks like god should be able to bottle on the 15th or 16th.


The Hop! With the hop crisis bearing down on all us poor brewers, I have somehow managed to fenangle all 7 different kinds, coming to 11 oz. of quality hops to be distributed over a 10 gal batch of The Hop which will be (actually, has to be in order to get the right dry hopping schedule) brewed on Tuesday after the chair crit. And when i say ten gallons i mean it's a double batch tuesday, so it'll definitely be a late night.

lucy was tested; lucy is delicious. this being the first davedave lager, the results have come in well. the brew definitely needs to bottle condition for at least a few more weeks to pull out some of the *off* flavors that detract from the great berry sweetness.

so once i return from the ski trip, it sounds like that's when everything is going to go down. the hop, god, and the mexican will all be ready to bottle. aka one really long day. i mean seriously. really long. who wants to help with 200 bottles of beer??? any takers? seriously. help.


later