Mmm…Skunky Porter…
So tonight I popped open a Fat Monk Porter – not my favorite of MNB’s creations, but a noble beer nonetheless. To my deep dismay, I tasted a faint skunky flavor, not completely overwhelming, but substantial enough for me to pour the remainder down the sink. Ok, clearly it was pretty overwhelming. So here’s my theory. It was in a green bottle.
Now we have been using green bottles to date, but I’ve read contradictory reports about the vulnerability of green bottle beer to light-induced off flavors. You, dear Monday Night Brewery Blog Reader, must weigh in with your experience and wisdom. Green bottles – begging for skunk or a viable alternative to Despondent Brown?
Death averted
After 6 days of fever and general sickness, the antibiotics are finally starting to kick in. Sorry for the lapse posting. I know, bush league blogging. As I sip my tea and take my naps, I leave you with this:
“The church is near,
but the road is icy.
The bar is far away,
but I will walk carefully.”
“You’re my favorite mistaa-aake”
Long story short, the beer was tasty, but not an IPA. More of a bitter. It was so tasty, in fact, that we ended up tweaking the recipe to turn it into a genuine bitter which we brewed last week. (We still don’t have a name).
All that to say, does anyone else have a brewing- or life-related success story that “rose out of the drudges of a cockeyed IPA” (so to speak)? As with any new endeavor, our brewing is bound to encounter more slip-ups and, er, learning opportunities. Any other favorite mistakes out there?
Book Learnin’ the MNB Way
Keith from Kansas City dropped us a note recently asking about good brewing books for those just getting starting or getting back into the beautiful art of homebrewing. I figured this is good info for all our loyal readers, so a couple must reads for any aspiring homebrewer:
1. ?How to Brew? by John Palmer. You can get an older version of this book for free at www.howtobrew.com, but it?s worth it to order the most recent addition if you have some success with a batch or two.
2. ?The Complete Joy of Homebrewing? by Charlie Papazian. The author is a legend in homebrewing and this book will give you lots of easy to understand guidance on homebrewing.
As always, don’t hesitate to drop us a line – just click on the “Contacts” link.
A Quite Nice Weiss
I’m not sure if it’s bad luck to prematurely say that a beer is a success but I must say I think our WeissGuy is gonna be a winner. On Monday a few of us took swigs of the uncarbonated, warm, weiss guy and it was actually good. The last time I tasted one of our uncarbonated beers was our pumpkin brew and I almost threw up. That one turned out to be a true winner (Bob even said it might win a ribbon in a competition) so I’m thinking this one has a good shot of being quite nice. I’m already lobbying for this to become an MNB standard and I’d like to hear from all you Hefeweizen fans out there to keep it in the line. Yeah, some may say that wheat beers are for wusses (Jonathan thinks we should brew a kiwi strawberry wine cooler) but I think just because it’s slightly sweeter and comes from wheat there is no need to discriminate. BTW there is a cool pizza place called Blue Moon that has a drink where they mix Blue Moon and Guiness…had it once and was a very interesting combo. I plan to do the same with our WeissGuy/Breakfast Stout….it’s sort of like if you combined Oatmeal and Cream of Wheat (two of my least favorite breakfasts growing up). I’ll let you know how it turns out…could be a whole new realm for MNB.
Wortface killa
I’ve been meaning to post this picture for a long time, but I’ve been, like, sooooo busy. This, ladies and gentlemen, is our brewmaster, Jeff. Some people think that brewmasters have to be meticulous and have a keen eye for detail, but Jeff is out to prove those naysayers wrong. Yes, even experienced brewmasters can trip over themselves, spilling sparge water everywhere. Including all over their faces.
I’m pretty sure it was the pre-boil wort because of the smile.
Help us name our bitter!
We brewed an English Special Bitter last night (Jeff might call it a “special bitter” with just a hint of brewmaster stuffiness). Joel had the idea of holding off on brainstorming until we were buzzed, but we forgot. I blame Joel.
So… we can essentially go anywhere with this one. Feel free to bring in England, but don’t feel like you have to. The one stipulation is that it needs to be based around an interesting character like a knight or a sea captain or something. Also, we’d like to continue the play-on-words theme (Weissguy, Swashchuckler), so keep that in mind.
And many thanks to Walter for naming our last beer! The label turned out really well. And even though it was uncarbonated and tepid, the hefeweizen tasted pretty durn good. A sign of things to come, no doubt.