Gouden Carolus & Co.

Gouden Carolus is one of those beers I remember drinking in the Porterhouse, Dublin, with great pleasure, back in the early days of my voyage of beer discovery. While on a trip to Brussels a few months ago, I picked up a couple of bottles for old times sake, including a new member of the family, the hopsinjoor.

Of course, I had to start with the Gouden Carolus Classic. Pouring a warm-looking, ruby-tinged brown with a tight beige head, my memory was getting a refresher course, reinforced with that sherry-like aroma on top of a darkly malty, spicy backdrop. On first sip there's a blast of dried fruits, sticky caramel, vanilla, pepper and chocloate wrapping up in a solidly zesty cherry/sherry finish. It has a smooth, almost creamy mouthfeel, yet a dryness to the finish. But, I got a slight hint of plasticy resin to the finish that I didn;t really like. And then I began to find it too sweet, reminding me of a malzbier (the German non-alcoholic malt drink that even my son will drink) with added cherry and spices. Cherry cola even! Still, at 8.5% and with those chewy, fruity flavours going on, it still makes a nice winter warmer. Clearly my tastes have changed more than I thought in the intervening years, which I can accept. But I was a little saddened that I no longer really enjoy what used to be one of my favourite indulgences.

I thought I could perhaps find comfort in Charles' younger, blond sister, the Gouden Carolus hopsinjoor. A slightly hazy, honey-gold with a huge pillowy white head, it wafts off aromas reminiscent of lemon meringue, almonds and cough syrup. I was expecting some sort of Belgian interpretation of a hop bomb, but this is really nicely balanced. Feeling more like a wit beer with it's citrus stylings, and hints of banana and bubblegum, but cut with assertive, yet smooth, hop flavours. They feel like noble hops, showing lemon, lime, floral and spicy qualities. The finish delivers vanilla and a gentle bitterness. This is a really nice beer.

Glad to find my tongue must work ok, as I just read the hops are Golding, Spalt, Hallertau and Saaz. I'd call them noble (I'll let the Goldings pass as they are delicious)

Some Bottled Beers from Orkney and Atlas

I'm slightly ashamed to realise that the last time I was in Münster's Yorkshire-themed bar, The James, was last February! This week, as my wife and son were away, I took the opportunity to get out into the city to see what new beers Axel had gotten in, if any. Walking in, I was greeted with the gentle hum of chat, and the place was fairly full. Whatever he's doing in there, he's doing it right. And the selection? Last time it was Theakstons, Black Sheep and a few others. This has been exteded with a few from Fuller's, including ESB on tap, and bottled beers from Orkney, Marston's as well as some of the usual suspects from Greene King.

Sat at the bar, I was enjoying the clear love the owner took in selling ales, and describing them to potential customers. A pair of 20-something men sat close to me and were given tasters of ESB, Abbot Ale and something else before they split a bottle of Strong Suffolk between them. The same guys were chuckling to themselves as they watched me take a photo of a bottle, sniff the beer and start writing, until I told them to F-off. Well, I actually said that yes, I was a geek, and they seemed curious, asking me if I rated beers (which I do not, I think) and chatted a bit before wandering off.

Anyway, on walking in and taking my seat, a blackboard above me said Fuller's London Porter, so I had one. I've had this before, and really enjoyed it then, and really enjoyed it this time too; rich, chocolatey, roasty and almost chewy. It was then I noticed another blackboard listing four beers from the Orkney Brewery. I think I've only had the Skullsplitter (rushed at the end of a festival), so the dormant ticker in me was happy to have a couple of new beers to try.

I went for the Orkney Dragonhead first, against the recommendations of Axel I might add, just because his recommendation of Dark Island was a little higher on the alcohol scale than this 4% stout, and I wanted to raise the bar (after a 5.4% London Porter there was clearly no logic to this). Rich and dark looking, with dark berry aromas, a roasty character and a hint of a seaside saltiness. The flavour is not as powerful as the aroma suggests. It has this slight iodine thing going on under a chicory-like roastiness. There are slight vegetal undertones to it, and I thought it felt a bit thin. The finish delivers a touch of piney bitterness, a nice roasted character and more of that seaweedy/salty/seaside thing. It's an interesting combination of flavours, but overall I felt it didn't hang to well together and was a tad disappointed.

Moving on to the Orkney Dark Island, somehow looking even darker and more inviting than the Dragonhead, with a lovely roasty aroma, loaded with berries and chocloate. The flavour gives an initial fruity burst, but it feels thin, and dissipates into a soap-like residue. Again, a slight vegetal backdrop that didn't sit right with me. Above this there is slight figs, dark fruit, but the lack of body makes for a swift finish, so the flavours, nice as they are, feel fleeting. Taking a good deep draught yields a slightly artificial fruit juice quality. A slightly greater disappointment than the Dragonhead.

I should say that while drinking these I had broadcast on Twitter that i was a bit disappointed, and responses indicated surprise. Perhaps these are really meant for cask, but I can only describe what I taste. I will, however, try them again, perhaps before having a London Porter!

Last beer before stepping outside to the bus was an Atlas Three Sisters. Oh yeah! A deep chestnut brown, this gives off strong fruity and malty aromas and delivers on first sip. Light caramel wrapped in a strawberry-like fruitiness followed up by a floral bitterness. There's hints of orange peel in there, and perhaps a suggestion of pineapple cubes. It finishes dry with light toasty/roasty undertones, but with a sweet coating on the lips. I was sorry I had to rush it a bit. Very nice.

While trying to figure out exactly what "that seaside smell" actually is - always thought it was ozone or iodine-y seaweed - it seems that it is actually dimethyl sulphide, or DMS, the very stuff produced during the boil that brewers don't really want in their beer. It creates vegetal flavours, like brussel sprouts. I'm now wondering if this seaside and vegetal flavour I was getting in the Orkney beers were actually two sides of the same coin.

Krug-Bräu Lager

Paging through my old notebook, I had to scratch my head at some of the descriptions that spewed out of my brain. I'll reproduce this one for Krug-Bräu Lager verbatim:

Was expecting pale lager, so the chestnut brown liquid was a bit of a surprise. The nose is an interesting mix of faintly sulphuric farmyard with a mound of cabbage somewhere in the neighbourhood. Interesting, and not as unpleasant as it sounds. Some of these themes continue in the flavour, most notably an earthy farmyard-like hint, slightly sweet caramel and a metallic edge. It's a bit thin in the mouth, and I'm really not sure what to make of the flavours. A green hop flavour emerges later. Ginger?

I sometimes wish I could make short-hand notes.

A Weekend of Brewing

Whenever my wife goes to visit her parents down south, I tend to go brew crazy, but I think this weekend has been a little more brew-intense than normal as I've made two beers. I don't even need them, but it's a case of striking while the iron is hot. Saturday was to be Imperial Stout day. I'd been planning on making one for some time, and after receiving a little gift of some peat-smoked malt from Eddie Gadd of Ramsgate Brewery, I wanted this to be a special, slightly smokey one. I have to admit, the recipe was only finalised as I was heating up the strike water, but there ya go.

The bad thing is that I'd never used so much grain in my home-made coolerbox mash tun, so I wasn't sure how it would behave. As it turns out, I got terrible efficiency, I think because the mash was really thick. I normally have efficiencies of 80-85% with a mash of 3-4 litres per kilo. This one was certainly less than 3. Lesson learned: for really big beers, use DME to provide some of the gravity, or get a bigger mash tun! Anyway, I could have intervened as I knew from the first runnings things were not as planned, but I let nature take its course. Thanks to TheBeerNut for the name suggestion. It was originally planned to be an Imperial Stout at 10% ABV with peated malt, but I don't know what it would be classed as now (Peater the almost Great might be a more appropriate name now, or Peater the Foreign Extra Stout). Do I care? No. As long as it tastes good.

Peater the Great

Ingredients:
4.0 kg Pilsner Malt
3.0 kg Munich Malt
1.0 kg Caramunich® TYPE III
400 g Chocolate Malt 800
250 g Black Malt 1200 (Dehusked - Carafa)
250 g Rye Malt
150 g Peat-Smoked Malt

25 g Challenger (5.8%) - boiled 60 min
25 g Challenger (5.8%) - boiled 30 min
25 g Northern Brewer (11.4%) - boiled 25 min
25 g Northern Brewer (11.4%) - boiled 15 min
30 g Saaz (3.8%) - boiled 3 min

Fermentis Safale S-04

Stats:
Batch size: 20.75 L; Efficiency: 59.32% Estimated Attenuation: 75.0%
OG: 1.072, Estimated FG: 1.018, Estimated ABV: 7.1%, Estimated IBUs: 70.

It began bubbling away within a few hours, so mission accomplished, almost.

Today is another brewday, but for quite a different beast. Around the middle of September my son and I went on a hop hunt, and successfully gathered almost 70g of wild hops from the area. There's a fuller account of how I processed them here on IrishCraftBrewer.com. I've been thinking about a beer to showcase and experiment with the wild hop, and thought to model one on a pale ale I'd made before. In reality, the unknown alpha acid content of the hops made me reconsider, as to rely on them for bittering would be risky. I ended up using a classic German Perle hop for bittering, but staging the additions of the wild hops towards the second half of the boil to try and wring as much character from them as I can. That is of course assuming they have any! I could end up with a very bland beer, a terribly over-bitter beer or something just fine. We'll see. I also tweaked the malt bill of my original plan, adding Munich malt to get a more caramel character into the base. Again, a beer designed while the strike water was heating. Fun, eh?

Wild-Hopped Pale Ale



Ingredients:
3.5 kg Pilsner Malt
1 kg Munich Malt
500 g Caramunich TYPE III

10 g Hallertauer Perle (9.3%) - boiled 60 min
10 g Hallertauer Perle (9.3%) - boiled 45 min
17 g Wild Hops (4.0%) - boiled 20 min
17 g Wild Hops (4.0%) - boiled 15 min
17 g Wild Hops (4.0%) - boiled 5 min
17 g Wild Hops (4.0%) - boiled 0 min

Fermentis Safale US-05

Stats:
Batch size: 23.5 L; Efficiency: 87% Estimated Attenuation: 75.0%
OG: 1.052, Estimated FG: 1.013, Estimated ABV: 5.1%, Estimated IBUs: 32.

Early indications are that the wild hops may be stronger than predicted, as on tasting the sweet wort there's a really good hop flavour; grassy, and a touch spicy. However, time will tell. Experimenting is fun!

Hallerndorfer Kellerbier and Weissbier

Brauerei Rittmayer occasionally produces one of the smokiest beers I think I've had, the not-for-everyone Smokey George, so I set myself up for a fall by expecting more great things from one of their more regular beers, the Hallerndorfer Kellerbier.

A dirty amber with a very short-lived head, this is sweet. Like Woah! sweet, sweet caramel-like malts. It has a slight bitter-almond hint and a touch of orange zest, which tries to cut it a bit. Otherwise, it's fairly nondescript, and the sweetness gets a bit cloying after half a bottle. I have to admit that it got so cloying and boring that I couldn't face finishing it. I'll try it again if given the opportunity to do so down in Hallerndorf of course.

As a Brucie Bonus, I'll throw in the Hallerndorfer Weissbier, a murky weissbier with a solid cloves, cinnamon and, strangely, a decaying apples kind of aroma. Nice and earthy in fact. The flavour delivers pears, cloves and a little sharpness which provides a pleasant edge. Despite, or perhaps because of having a slightly thin body, it makes for a fine thirst-quenching summer drink.

Meusel-Bräu Kellertrunk

From Brauerei Meusel, the makers of the rather interesting Lichtensteiner Schwarzbier, Meusel Bräu Kellertrunk is a bit of a different beast, but I expected good things from it. When I see the word Ungespundet on a label, I feel I've been conditioned to tug my forelock (if I had one) as it suggests craft, tradition and loving care. Experience tells me to not expect anything, of course, and to just drink the stuff and see.

Meusel Bräu Kellertrunk has a sweet, almost candyfloss nose with herbal hop highlights and a light fruity tone. Actually quite nice. Unfortunately the flavour is not so interesting, providing mostly a sweetish light toffee with a slight herbal bitterness. Very slight, mind you. The label states Kräftig gehopfte. Certainly on the aroma, but there's no power to the taste. Pity...

I should note that this was made using hop extract. So much for craft and tradition.

PS, yes, another oldie from the notebook. I didn't let the date go that far beyond the best before!

Zischke Kellerbier

Zischke Kellerbier, presumably brewed as well as being bottled by Königsbacher in Koblenz, but owned by Karlsberg Brauerei in Hamburg. A cloudy, yellow affair with hints of almonds and lemon on the nose. This continues in the flavour with a definite lemony streak with a light carbonic tingle, but it does go down quite smoothly. There's a malty backbone tying to come out, but it disappears under the lemon. Sweet and refreshing, it's almost like 7-Up with a malt body. Radler anyone?

Yes, I'm scouring the dregs of an old notebook as a way of building up into more regular posts again. Gotta clear the dross :)