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Liminal Space – New England IPA

Imagine Nation Brewing – Missoula, MT

A little over 4 years ago a small brewery called Imagine Nation Brewing opened up in Missoula, Montana.  They were the first combination brewery and Center for Community Transformation; they were looking to be more than just a place that makes beer.  It could be very easy for the folks at Imagine Nation to just be satisfied making good enough beer.  This is where the other first comes in.  Imagine Nation was the primary brewery in Montana to really focus on New England style IPAs, and they are great at it.  Their Lupujus series would often sell out within the week for the first couple of years (the Lupujus 8 NE Double IPA still sold out in less than 2 weeks this year).

After working over two decades in conflict zones, Robert Rivers and Fernanda Menna Barreto Krum decided to come back to Montana.  They wanted to create a space where people could gather and discuss issues concerning the community.  Starting a brewery seemed like a good way to bring people together.  Coming from a background in education and psychology, it’s clear to see why their vision is very different from your typical microbrewery.  Their ideas and goals for their brewery might seems like a stretch, but Imagine Nations taproom feels more like somebody’s home, and a lot of that comes from their great staff.

As I mentioned before, Imagine Nation Brewing were really a head of the game with their early adoption of New England style IPAs in Montana.  Most other breweries in the area looked at NEIPAs as more of a fad than the groundbreaking style that would take over the U.S. craft beer world.  Having that vision and head start to embrace and hone their recipes really put them on the map, and left their competition clamoring to catch up and cash in their success.  In that time, they have created some amazingly delicious flavorful beers.  Even today, their New England beers are quite a bit better than many I’ve tried and can easily compete with the “big names” in that style.

Full disclosure.  I am totally biased, I LOVE Mosaic hops, they are my favorite!

Liminal Space from Imagine Nation is an all Mosaic hopped New England India Pale Ale with a lot going for it.  First off, a warning if you don’t like fruity smells, do not put your nose anywhere near opening of the can!  When you open the can and start pouring, it fills the space with a wonderful fruity aroma.  For those that don’t know, or don’t really pay attention, Mosaic hops have a very citrusy scent and aroma.  They can be described as Mango, stone fruit, piney, tropical, grassy, earthy.  Anyway, they’re juicy and delightful, haters can leave and go drink a wheat beer!  The appearance is a hazy straw color with not much head, and this would be my only real slight with this beer.  The carbonation was inconsistent between the two cans I sampled, but I chalk this up to the fact that they just started canning a few weeks ago.  The flavor, like the scent, was amazingly fruity and amazing.  Overall, this is a solid beer in the New England style with a good aroma and strong flavor. 

Happy Exploring, 

Tim – Fermented Explorer

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Fresh Beer/Old Beer Challenge with Fremont Brewing’s Modpod

Fremont Brewing

I’m a beer hoarder.  I love beer a lot and I’m always buying new ones that I want to try.  This project came out of circumstance, I fell in love with Modpod last year.  This is a seasonal beer that is available from October to the end of December.  Last year, I got back from my holiday trip and bought the last available pack of it for the season.  I’ve been holding on to it like Gollum with the frickin’ one ring!  Precious, my precioussss! 

Well I’m an idiot, because in saving this for the right time, I let it go past the fresh date.  I had heard that that could affect the beer, but was like…  meh, it’ can’t be that big a deal, and I keep my beer in a beer fridge.  Well guess what?   After this evaluation, I realize it really matters, a lot.  Craft beers are made to be consumed fresh and sooner, than later.

To do this comparison I took a can from the 4-pack dated from 12/27/18 and a can I just purchased with a 10/17/19 date.  I blinded tasted them each in the same type of glass and logged my reflections.  Here are my thoughts on the differences between the two batches.

As soon as I poured them, I had an idea of which was old, and which was fresh.  Upon seeing them side by side, the difference was pretty apparent.  Visually, the fresh version is brighter and has a more vivid bright yellow color.  While the older one is more of a golden yellow color.  Also, the 2018 version had a lot more trub (the leftover bits of yeast and hops that brewers leave in the beer to make it hazy).  The older beer had a fruity scent, but it had a rubbery essence to it.  The newer one had a strong fruity/citrus aroma, like lifesavers candy.  Tasting them was another interesting encounter, the newer can tasted lighter with the flavors like a citrusy stew, where I could taste the flavors more distinctly.  The older version’s flavor was muted with a small bitterness and tingly feeling in the back of my throat.  It tasted like a bitterish fruit soup.  Overall the fresh can was really good with lots of color, flavors and aromas.  The older one was less carbonated with muted flavors that tasted tangy and smelled rubbery.

           The takeaway from this experiment is this –

If you don’t drink your beer within 90 days of purchase, you’ve wasted your money!

So, drink up and enjoy the amazingly fresh craft beer that we have available to us.  We have thousands of breweries and beers at our fingertips.  Brewers work hard long hours to deliver you beer that deserves your respect and appreciation.  If you have older beer, drink it fast or dump it.  Enjoy that fresh delicious beer!

HAPPY EXPLORING!!

Tim – Fermented Explorer

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Milk Stout Nitro – Sweet Stout

Left Hand Brewing Co. – Longmont, CO

20 years ago, Left Hand Brewing Co. brewed their bestselling beer, Milk Stout.  It is the most popular beer in their extensive lineup.  In 2011 the introduced the first packaged nitro beer without the use of a widget.  About 4 years ago, Left Hand contacted Ball Canning to see if they could develop a can that could deliver the amazing beer in a canned product.  Ball came up with a small plastic widget that secures to the bottom of the can, and when the can is opened it releases the nitrogen gas into the beer.  (here’s the link the video of this process – https://youtu.be/uwH78O7cJE8 ). The result is an amazingly creamy delicious straight from the can drinkable beer.

            In 1990 co-founder Dick Doore received a small home brewing kit for Christmas and was obsessed.  Left Hand Brewing Company began in Longmont, Colorado in 1993.  They have a long history of producing great beers and in 2015 became an employee owned (ESOP) company with a dedication to sustainability and craft brewing independence.  Their products are available in over 40 states in the U.S.

            On a trip to Africa in 1998 Dick was inspired by a local sweet stout, and upon returning home, began working his own recipe.  A year later, the first batch of Milk Stout was brewed.  What makes the sweet stout different from a traditional or imperial style stout is the lower bitterness.  If you have ever had a stout, and didn’t like the roasted coffee beer taste, then this style is for you.  Sweet stouts have a milder flavor to bring out the malt flavor and its sweetness, they also tend to have a lower (4-6%) alcohol level.  A Milk Stout is a sub style that adds further sweetness by adding lactose.  Interesting fact, it was marketed in the early 1900’s to nursing mothers a s nutritious beverage.

Those of you with dairy sensitive tummies (like mine can be at times) will read that paragraph and dismissing trying this beer but hold up!  I had absolutely no adverse reaction after drinking this beer.  I also can see those of you who hate “sweet beverages” also starting to move on.  You should also hold your horses.  Left Hand’s Milk Stout Nitro is a full bodied, well balanced stout that doesn’t taste overly sweet.  They use several other types of grains to keep the bitterness down and to achieve this stout’s incredible soft mouthfeel.  This beer has an amazing dark black color with a creamy tan head that looks as great as it feels and tastes.  It has a dark malty fragrance with hints of cream and coffee.  The taste is like a dark chocolate milk, with a roasted barley maltiness.  Like I mentioned, Milk Stout Nitro has a full body, but feels so soft and warm when you’re dinking it and finishes with a chocolate sweetness.  I’ll be honest, I was thoroughly sold on this beer from first taste and it will be a regular staple in my fridge this winter.  You’d be happy settling into a couch on a chilly afternoon or evening and enjoying a few of these beers.

Happy Exploring,

Tim – Fermented Explorer

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American Beauty – Pale Ale

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery – Milton, DE

I saw this beer back in August when I was spending a couple weeks with family in Connecticut.  It looked interesting and I thought about trying it.  Unfortunately, I was leaving the next day and I couldn’t justify using the precious baggage space on it.  Truth be told, I had already overfilled the bags and pushed my family’s patience.  So, it just didn’t make the cut.  Earlier this month I found it again while traveling to Yakima, Washington when I stopped by the Booze Behemoth (Total Wine…).

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery started in 1995 by Sam Calagione in the town of Milton, Delaware.  He and the DH crew are legends in the craft beer scene, and their beers can be found almost (not in Montana?) everywhere.  Their tagline is “off-centered ales for off-centered people” and they mean it.  Dogfish Head are known for their dramatic, bold, and sometimes extreme flavored beers.  I have tried some I thought were crazily awesome and others that were too much for me.  I did not have that problem with American Beauty.

In preparing to brew this beer back in 2013 Dogfish Head took suggestions from the Grateful Dead band and their fans.  They received over 1,500 ingredients suggestions including wildflower honey, with granola at the top of the list.  Originally, this beer came in at an alcohol level of a strong 9% abv.  Also, it was a special release and only available in 750ml bottles.  American Beauty returns in 2019 as a year-round beer available in 12oz. 6 packs and at an easier drinking 6.5% abv.

Dogfish Head’s American Beauty is a pretty good all-a -round beer that is fairly well balanced.  It has a light copper/orange/golden color and a decent head to it.  The aromas coming off this beer are a carmel maltiness and honey with some fruitiness I can’t figure out. I found out later that it might be marzipan/almond cherry with orange.  It is soft on the mouth and has a good carbonation and light effervescence feeling with a warm sweet aftertaste with some bitterness.  The taste is a well-balanced, malty and with a light honey flavor.  Overall, I think this is a solid pale ale that I’d be happy drinking and sharing on cool nights by a bonfire with friends. American Beauty is not a beer that seeks to be bold or the center of attention.  It is comfortable just hanging out just being part of the group.  It’s a good beer that feels soft and warm and tastes balanced and sweet.

Happy Exploring,

Tim – Fermented Explorer

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Ace of Spades – Imperial IPA

Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) – Portland, OR

Like its namesake, one of the pivotal songs from the band Motorhead, this beer is going to grab you by the shirt and make you take notice.  Ace of Spades from Hopworks Urban Brewery aka HUB located in Portland Oregon is a seriously hopped IPA.  Ace of Spades is one of three beers from HUB’s Imperial series that they tout as breaking the rules of the playground and seeing how much hoppiness and sustainability you can fit in to a 22oz. bottle.  At 8.6%abv and an ibu of 100+ this beer is not for the casual drinker, but if you like IPAs, I highly recommend you give it at least a couple of tries.

            I first tried Ace of Spades on tap about a month ago at Rumour taproom in Missoula, MT, when Steve, the manager and purchaser there highly recommended it.  I was there looking for a great New England style IPA, so I was not a big fan.  But, going in blind to a beer can be a real crap shoot. Everyone’s tastes are different, even between two people that love the same styles and beers.  About a week ago, I saw it in the 22oz. bomber bottle and thought I’d give it another go.  I came into this tasting much more open, and Ace of Spades delivered BIG time. 

            They pack nearly 200 lbs. of Amarillo, Cascade and Centennial hops into this IPA by adding them in every phase of the brewing and fermenting process, so you can probably guess: it is a real hoppy beer.  Using that many hops in that kind of way could be a real mouth-puckerer, but HUB balances it out incredibly well with its choice of malts to make it a very drinkable beer.

            Ace of Spades – I think it has a good yellow/orange color with some haze to it, yet is still fairly clear, and has a nice full head.  It has a full-flavored taste, with slight hoppy bitterness that works well with the caramel malt flavor.  I think it comes on strong with a sweetness, then fades into a nice well-balanced hoppy IPA and tastes really nice.  It is a bold feeling beer that packs a good punch, hence the imperial.  Overall, if you’re a hophead or someone that likes to explore new beers (especially IPAs), I would recommend you give Ace of Spades Imperial IPA from Hopworks a try.  I think you’ll enjoy the experience.

Happy Exploring,

Tim – Fermented Explorer

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The bottling of Oddball Brown Porter

Two boxes of our OddBall Porter.

… it’s a week later, and it is time to put this teetering idea of a concoction into glass bottles.  The process seems simple enough, you take your fermented brew and mix it with a sugar solution (priming sugar), and then put it into bottles and cap it.  Easy, right?  Well….  The whole beer can get TRASHED if you touch it or, anything you’re using comes into contact with it that isn’t SANITZED!  No pressure, do it right or you flush about 6 hours of brewing down the toilet!

Good news!  This is a happy story, not a story that ends with me destroying my friends’ garage and leaving thousands of pieces of glass carboy all over the concrete floor.  As with many things in life, it took longer than it should have.  We got a late start and fumbled for too long with what kind and how much sugar to use.  Then, came my frustration about home much water to add for the solution, and the lack of internet access to find out.  I figured it out and began boiling water while Brutus started sanitizing all the equipment for transferring into the bottling bucket and for bottling.  With the priming solution finished, I set it aside to cool down, and we had a beer (Upslope – Chocolate Orange Stout / tap room series) and waited.  After about 40 mins, the solution still wasn’t cool enough (if it’s too hot it will kill the yeast and stop fermenting, … and ruin your beer), so we put it in the fridge had another beer (Odell’s – Jolly Russian / 2018 cellar series).  Finally, the priming solution was ready, and we put it into the bottling bucket, then also transferred the fermented liquid into the bucket.

Transfering from carboy.

Once this was finished, it was time to start sanitizing our bottles and crowns (caps) and begin bottling.  This is the part that can get tricky, you need to keep everything sanitized while you’re bottling, so that it gets sealed clean.  I’m really obsessed with keeping my hands clean while I’m doing it, if I touch the table, drink a beer, pat a dog or llama, I re-sanitize immediately.  A lot of people don’t realize how hard bottling is, it takes serious work and you can run into dehydration issues.  So, we poured another beer (Junkyard – DDH Belma (Double Dry hopped with Belma hops), then we ran into a different issue.  At this point we had a little over a case of beer (24bottles), and we started running out of clean bottles.  Usually in this kind of situation, I tend to get worried and go into overdrive trying to fix the problem, but this time I had calmed the anxiousness with the preceding beverages.

Brutus started furiously cleaning out the extra case of bottles, putting each clean one into the sanitizer bucket, while I added more crowns to the sanitizer and then continued to bottle.  We finished off the last of the bottles and most of the beer and began the process of capping the bottles and cleaning up all the containers and buckets.  Brutus sampled the last little bit of the leftover beer as we cleaned up, and I had a beer (Oskar Blues – Ten Fidy).

Good to the last drop.

This beer came out kind of interesting.  It was lighter in color (like a YooHoo chocolate drink) than I had planned, probably needed more boil time or hotter/longer mashing.  The flavor was good, but a little thinner than a traditional porter.  It has a little bit of a hoppiness to it, but not to overwhelming.  At first, I was disappointed and thought it a failure because it didn’t represent the original (Edmund Fitzgerald Porter) very well, but over time it has grown on me.  I’ve had a lot of people who don’t like “dark beers” respond very positively to it. 

Next up – and IPA