Blondes Are More Fun

This beer brings back many fond memories. Randy and I ventured to France on vacation for 17 days in the year 2000. We were there visiting his family. I already had a taste for fine beer for quite a few years. This beer, Leffe Blonde was everywhere in the south of France. We had countless bottles of this. This is the first time I has seen Leffe for sale in Muncie, Indiana.

If I tasted this not knowing its name I would say it is a little too sweet and too Hefe-like for a Belgium ale. It definitely smells of banana. I have had better. Knowing I am drinking Leffe Blonde puts me back in Montpellier France. Good times.

Why Homebrew?

My start in home brewing began years ago as a young man simply because it was legal to brew at age 18 but legal consumption did not start until the age of 21. I found it odd that it was legal to make but illegal to drink the beverage made by my own hand. That dream turned into an obsession for me over the years as I began to realize the art that is brewing and all its wonders. I started out with the canned kits and slowly graduated to the partial mashes and all grain batches that I do today.



As I started to learn more I slowly added additional equipment to my home brewing arsenal. From wort chillers to auto-siphons and any other cool home brewing gadget I could find. From making my own mash tun from a cooler and parts from Home Depot to building my own stir plate from hard drive parts, a computer fan and a cigar box. Homebrewing brought out the creative side in me in many ways.



I like to think of myself now as an experienced home brewer but there is always so much to learn. I cannot tell you how thankful I am to the home brewing community and friends that have taught me so much over the years. You all have inspired me to try new things and teach others the art. I’ve started blogging about my homebrew experiences (shouldibrewthat.com) so that others can learn from my experiences and mistakes.



So I say to all of you with that one question in the back of your mind “should I start home brewing?” I say yes! From learning the craft to sharing your own handcrafted beers with your friends and family there is no better hobby in my opinion. You will learn so much not only about good beer but about yourself. So go to your local homebrew shop today and pick up that beer kit, what are you waiting for?

Ø come, all ye faithful...

In the north of the country of Norway, by this time of the year, the sun makes an appearance for approximately four hours a day. It's not surprising, then, to find that Norwegians place a bit of attention on distracting themselves with wintertime holidays and seasonally appropriate libations, with the Norwegian brewery Nøgne Ø involved in making (at least) two holiday-themed beers. Beating back the potential doldrums of a long, dark winter, along with it the doldrums of tiresome, schmaltzy Christmas brews, they not only produce a Winter Ale ("God Jul") but also this one, the Peculiar Yule ("Underlig Jul"), a distinctively Norwegian take on the theme of winter warmers.

Gløgg, the Nordic take on mulled wine, is a comforting, bone-warming concoction spiked with cinnamon, vanilla, cloves, citrus, and sometimes even almonds and raisins. The Nogne folks have captured this spirit in a beer meant to be enjoyed with holiday cookies, like fattigmann and goro,  by fusing the above spice bill with a 6.5% dark ale. It crackles with strangeness, as unlike most holiday ales, the hops are present enough to provide a bitterness that bounces off the spices without allowing for the pervasive sticky sweetness brewers sometimes feel the need to allow, as if the cookies had already been blended into the glass. Not here, an adult beverage worthy of being enjoyed with or without the accompaniment of sweets, perfectly suited to fend off the polar night. Dry, vinuous, and peculiarly pleasant.

Bell's Pale Ale

For those who are "not in the know"... Bell's had pulled all of their beers out of Illinois over a year ago after a distribution dispute. All of us Bell's drinkers in Illinois had been relegated to border runs to Indiana for any of those great Bell's beers!

And they are always worth it!

So, when I was headed back from Indiana a few months ago... I picked up some six packs of Bell's 2 Hearted and Oberon. I saw the Pale Ale sitting their... And realized that I have never had this beer. Now, I did not have to go to a resource book, website or ask for advice on whether or not to buy this beer... No... This is a Bell's beer... And with that in mind... I was fully confident that I would be buying a quality beer.

In hindsight... How many brewers do we really say that about? Most of us have a trusted few.

This beer is everything advertised. A great American style pale ale. Lots of hop flavor... But smooth and easy to drink. I would probably call it a session beer solely on the fact that it does not knock you around with hard edges and extreme taste. Don't take that as a bad thing. A balanced beer that is easy to drink is really what I am looking for most of the time.

Sure, there are more glamorous beers out their... But at the end of the day... A tasty, quality and reliable brew from Bell's will never let you down!

Oaked Arrogant Bastard

For the last couple of days I have been drawn to Stone's. Here locally, the big beer bars here in Muncie are in a "Most Arrogant Bar" contest. They have Arrogant Bastard, Oaked Arrogant Bastard, and Double Arrogant Bastard on tap. I normally drink 2 pints a day at lunch and for the last couple of days I have been loving the Oaked. I am totally a fan of Stone's for the simple reason they have gotten out there on the shelves all over the US. I normally do not purchase their products in bottle but cannot help myself when it comes to draft.
Arrogant Bastard in the stock form is a beer thats want you to know it is there. Always begging for attention, it flicks you in the nose with its trademark bitterness and roughness. In the Oaked form it is very mellow and well-balanced. It is unbelievable that there is so much difference between them. I am a very happy man while Oaked Arrogant Bastard is on draft. When it comes to the regular, I will visit it from time to time. "I am worthy".

What are you doing with all that beer?

Rule: A good brewer should have more refrigerators than televisions.

This is one of many rules I will be throwing in your direction as I contribute to this blog. It will make things easier on both of us if you accept that these rules are non-debatable, as I have often put little thought into them and thus have no real basis to defend them.

Still, if you are a brewer, you'd certainly want to have more refrigeration in your life and less Dancing with the Idols, right? Right!

On to the point of this post. What's in all those fridges?

What are you doing with all that beer?

Well, it's not all that much really; all of it is there for a reason. The reason is: If there was no reason, all that beer would already have been consumed. And that is why it is still here.

In order to continue this circular delusion, I took a quick inventory and I mean quick. Even this photo is strategically under representative of what I have. I mean if I was to go bottle-by-bottle then you'd see a whole array of reason why it's still there and not gone and that would be wordy and dull.

Rule: A good brewer has hand-crafted beer.

• 5 kegs of delicious homebrew- Apfelwein, Honey Wheat, APA featuring Simcoe and Amarillo, Mild, Irish Stout. These are all being consumed. NO Problems here!
• Oops. Got some beer of other homebrewers that I am supposed to review. I make sure that I give them my full attention and so there is a bit of a backlog here. Manangable.

Rule: A good brewer is a good beer host and has beer on hand for non-beer folks.

Because clearly these folks have no concept of anything good and so you have to trick them into drinking some good beer. Among these:

• Deus for when there is a special occasion with someone that is not a beer person.
• La Folie, NG Rasberry Tart, Lindemans Pomme, which are among my wife's favorites. She is a beer person, so these could serve double duty, but nah. These are beers for us and those beers... well... they need to be savored... as romance beers (Implied Rule).
• One or two ciders, perry.
• moving on- some other stuff. Save. Save. Save.

Rule: A good brewer has research beers and beers to enjoy with other aficionados.

And realistically these aficionados aren't here every day. I'm just not on the aficionado circuit, but you have to be prepared. Research takes time. It demands your full attention. Among these:

• Armageddon with Brett, LaChouffe Dobbelen IPA, Sprecher Tripel, a couple of Cantillons, Fantome, a 2004 Three Philosophers, Damnation, Brooklyn Local One, Allagash Black, Rodenbach Grand Cru... clearly meant to be shared with another beer aficionado or used as style examples for future brews.
• 5 Bud American Ales as a curiosity (everyone wants to try, but not buy), 2 or 3 gluten free beers in case I want to brew it and it also qualifies under the good beer host rule.
• A number of Stouts that were to be part of my SOS- Summer of Stout concept. Drinking stout on the hottest Phoenix Day possible. Avery Czar, Rogue Imperial, Sprecher Imperial... oh that was going to be some day. Better save them for the coldest day in Phoenix and a new acronym.
• moving on- some other stuff. Save. Save. Save.

I am taking positive steps. I have 2 RR Plineys and 2 Blind Pigs in the Civilian Fridge (the one with food) because the label says, "Age Your Cheese, Not Your Pliney," and how am I to argue that?

Oh and the closet. I think there's 3/4 of a case of 2007 Alaskan Smoked Porter... and shh... a good brewer breaks the rules.

Beer on Guam

Hafa Adai from Guam!

This is literally "Where America's Day Begins." Before the 1980s it was not even shown on most globes, but is an integral part of American history nonetheless.

We are one of the 4 US Territoies, which basically means we are US Citizens who do NOT get to vote for President and do NOT have actual voting representation in Congress, but rather a delegate figure head who tries to lobby on our behalf.

You can find much more about Guam by doing a Wiki search--no not Waikiki as that is in Hawai'i, a series of islands which actually enjoys the benefits of statehood.

Because Guam has a rather large Asian influence owing to its position in the Pacific (just three hours south of Japan by plane) the beer landscape is quite dismal, but has improved marginally since I moved here nearly two years ago.

Budweiser and Miller products rule this island unfortunately. Heineken is a popular import, as are Singha, Asahi, Tsing Tao, and to some extent Foster's. Guinness, though available, is different from mainland US, and comes in at an ABV of 7.0. Nice!, except for the price. We're talking about $12.50 for a six pack, or basically what you'd pay at cost in a tavern back in Muncie, Indiana my former hometown for instance.

I am celebrating the recent increased availability of Hoegaarden in selected gas stations on island as we do not have many of your typical "liquor" stores or "Beer Stores" for those of you playing along in Pennslyvania.

What "top-shelf" beer we do get on island tends to be sort of name-brand like Lindeman's Krieg for instance or Schneider Weiss.

Guam is blessed with one microbrewery--a charming little establishment called The Mermaid Tavern, named after the John Keats poem, an excerpt of which you can find on their homepage at http://www.greatdeepbrewing.com/.

The owner/operator is a chemistry professor at University of Guam and his establishment has been featured on The Good Beer Show hosted by Jeffrey T--a program I co-hosted and miss very much after contributing to winning two Podcast Awards in 2005 & 2006.

To be honest, I've scaled back my beer consumption immensely, and in large part due to lack of variety. As a general rule, I'm prone to drink the aforementioned Guinness or Peroni (owing to my Italian girlfriend), and the occasional Fat Tire when available. I've been also been ordering the recent acquisition of Carlsberg at a few restaurants. If you haven't figured it out by now, lager is the chief choice on island. Since we don't really have more than one season, you can understand why we don't stack up on Oatmeal Stout and then go out with a light sweater and play in the snow drifts.

Recently I consumed Bud Light for the first time since college (circa 1990) at a poker match as I did not want to offend those who offered. Needless to say, I don't think I ever got over the legal limit to drive no matter how many I consumed.

That's about it for my first beerblog. I'm not sure how much I'll have to contribute in the future, but I welcome anyone who is willing to mail me good brews...bubble-wrapped for protection during shipping of course :).

Take care fellow beer enthusiasts, and happy drinking!