1001 Beers

Beer No: 110
Page No: 838
Category: Dark

Once again, I'm starting to slack on my reviews.  It's odd because I'm not watching extra TV on my DVR, I'm not playing World of Warcraft or StarCraft II (though I might fire that one up again later today), but I've just become lazy I guess.  I'm working on two beers now that I had a few days ago (this one and the next review) and back dating them to the proper dates, and then I had a beer today (the 17th) and might have another one or two if they get cold in time, but it's more of a chore now to write all these articles on each one and rate them all.  But I'll try my hardest to keep it going, it just unfortunately means that there could be more periods of inactivity and then flurries of posts when I feel up to posting again.

Anyhoo, some back story on this fine German beer.  Named for the Asam brothers who built the abbey's church (yes, this is an abbey beer - brewed by monks), this malty beer is perfect for a cold evening as it warms with almost 7% ABV and fills with a huge malted flavor.  What's interesting about this brewery is they are one of the oldest, if not the oldest brewery in the world.  1001 Beers says they're most likely the 2nd oldest brewery in existence, but who can say for sure when records date back only to 1050.

"Weltenburger has a longer history of brewing than [the Trappist monasteries].  The monks arrived here on the banks of the Danube in the 7th century and probably began making beer immediately.  No records exist, but it is known that the abbey was brewing in 1050, which makes Weltenburger second only to Weihenstephan, just north of Munich."

First, second, or somewhere later, the monks here know what they're doing.  "loaded with sweet malts, balanced by local Hallertauer hops, and lagered for twelve weeks," this is one is definitely one to try.  Sweet, malty, hints of hops, a nice full-bodied balanced bock.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Weltenburger Kloster Asam Bock by Klosterbrauerei Weltenburg

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 7/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 15/20

Rating: 3.6 / 5.0

Had from bottle. Pours dark brown with huge frothy tan head. Too much carbonation right off the bat. Aroma is heavy bready malts with a hint of some spices and a bit of toffee. Flavor is full-bodied with bit malts, molasses and roasted toffee. Mouthfeel is less carbonated than the pour and has good body to it. Finishes sweet and satisfying. A solid bock.

Beer No: 71
Page No: 736
Category: Dark

Day three of the 330ml strange bottle journey leads us to Maredsous 8.  A "Certified Belgian Abbey Beer," this Dubbel is actually brewed by mega-brewer Duvel which then pays royalties to monastic institutions to certify it.  However, according to 1001 Beers, unlike many other large breweries that just pay the royalties for the "Certified" stamp, Maredsous is actually brewed in a small Flemish town and does derive from the original brews from the Benedictine abbey at Maredsous.

Following up on the malty beers I had just tasted in both Gulden Draak and Piraat, I had hoped for something a little hoppier, though, I knew it being a 'dubbel' it would be fairly malted.  And boy was it.  The aroma is very malty - sweet, fruity, sugary.  The taste manages to one-up the aroma though with a sweet complexity that features candi, plums, raisins, and nuts.  It's definitely a very malty beverage with very little hop balance to it, but I found Maredsous much better than the Gulden Draak which it would compare closer to (while the Maredsous 10 is closer to the Piraat).  Even though it's from a larger brewer in Duvel, it maintains its humble roots and complexities.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Maredsous 8 by Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat

Aroma: 6/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 14/20

Rating: 3.6 / 5.0

Had from 330ml bottle from BevMo. Pours dark brown with slight tan head and good lacing. Aroma is very sweet - candi, raisins, alcohol. Taste is better than aroma - again sweet, but complex. More sugars, plums, raisins, nuts, and caramel. Finishes sweet, lingers nicely with a bit of sticky, syrup texture. Had in succession with Gulden Draak and found this one much more palatable and complex.

Beer No: 47/1001
Page No: 614
Category: Dark

Ahh, beer #47.  A special number.  A unique number.  A random number.  My number.

If you saw yesterday's beer, you'll notice this is on the same counter top because I actually had this last night with the dinner we cooked for my mother.  And it paired perfectly with the steak and crab legs I thoroughly enjoyed.  There's not much more to say about the pairing that wasn't talked about yesterday, so I'll just go on with another fun topic...

Home brew!  Yup, today Arkh Brewing (e.g. me (Scott had to work late)) bottled the American Stout.  It is DARK...not too thick, a very good stout consistency I think.  I just can't wait for it to carbonate.  And it'll be ready just in time...  For what?  Why the Inaugural Hanger 24 Home Brew Competition of course - and we also plan on entering it in the OC Fair Home Brew Competition.  We hope to enter all four of our current beers in both competitions - the English Pale, American Pale, American Stout, and Cream Stout.  They are all sufficiently different to enter in different categories, so I'm really looking forward to get some unbiased feedback on our brews.

Back to the beer, the 10 Commandments is a Belgian Strong Ale that says it is brewed with raisins, honey, and rosemary.  The raisins stand above the rest of the ingredients though and almost overpower the flavors.  The spices are there, but I couldn't quite pick out the rosemary on its own.  The sweetness mostly comes from the malt, but I could taste just a hint of honey in there (though if you didn't tell me it was there, I might have missed it).  It's a very good beer, but could be great with a few years of aging.  A solid anniversary ale from the folks down in San Diego.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Lost Abbey 10 Commandments from Port Brewing / Lost Abbey

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 7/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 14/20

Rating: 3.6 / 5.0

Had from 750ml bottle from Total Wine. Pours very dark brown, not too hazy, a ton of carbonation, very good head and lacing. Aroma very sweet, raisins very pronounced in nose. Some plum, spices, and malts round it out. Taste is very malty sweet with nice fruity finish. Alcohol is somewhat hidden, still apparent, but not too strong. Mouthfeel is standard with lots of bubbles. Good, but probably would be great after a few years of aging.

Beer No: 23/1001
Page No: 636
Category: Dark

The second of the two Sprecher beers in the book, this Black Bavarian is a dark, velvety, malty delight.  I'm usually not a fan of the heavily malted beers that this one was modeled after (e.g. Paulaner Salvator), but this interpretation of a German Schwarzbier balances the malts well with a nice addition of hops.  The chocolate and roasted malt flavors linger after you're done drinking and I was pleasantly surprised by this beer.

I've got just a couple of beers left in the fridge and both are porters, neither of which will go that well with the homemade pizza that is about to be put into the oven.  I think I might go with a second beer from the 1001 today as I'm fairly certain I've got a Pizza Port Hop 15 chilling in my secondary fridge.  There's just something about hops that go well with pizza.  Maybe it's the bready/yeasty crust that balances well with the bitterness of the hops, or maybe I've just grown used to hoppy beers with pizza.  Either way, here's a quick recipe for your own pizza dough.

This recipe is from the awesome My Bread by Jim Lahey.  If you want to start making your own bread, this is the way to go.  No kneading required and I get a perfect loaf every time and the pizza dough is just as easy to make and turns out perfectly.

Enough for 2 13x18 inch pies.

3 3/4 cups bread flour (500g)
2 1/2 tsp instant or other active dry yeast (10g)
3/4 tsp table salt (5g)
3/4 tsp plus a pinch of sugar (~3g)
1 1/3 cups room temp (~72 degrees F) water (300g)
Extra virgin olive oil for the pans

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar.  Add the water and, using a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until blended, at least 30 seconds.  Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature until the dough has more than doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

Oil two 13x18 inch rimmed baking sheets.  Use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to scrape half the dough onto an oiled pan in one piece.  Gently pull and stretch the dough across the surface of the pan, and use your hands to press it evenly out to the edges.  If the dough sticks to your fingers, lightly dust it with flour or coat your hands with oil.  Pinch any holes together.  Repeat with the second piece or refrigerate in an oiled plastic bag for 1-2 days or freeze for up to 30 days.

Top however you like.  Bake 25-30 minutes at 500 degrees F (I actually bake 20-25 usually or it burns a bit - just depends on your oven).  I also am trying right now to substitute the pans for a pizza stone I have placed in the oven.  We'll see how that turns out tomorrow.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Sprecher Black Bavarian from Sprecher Brewing Company

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 14/20

Rating: 3.6 / 5.0

Pours dark black with a tan head that disappears quickly. A slight ring lingered around the edge, but for the most part, a creamy beer with little carbonation. Aroma is roasted coffee with hints of chocolate, and not as much smokiness as I was expecting. It’s got just the right amount of hops to balance the heavy malts and the chocolate/roasted malt flavors are delightful. Not as heavy as a porter or stout, this creamy schwarzbier delivers.

Beer No: 2/1001
Page No: 491
Category: Blond

I had hoped for something a bit more exotic for beer #2 of my 1001 beers, but when you see one lone Sierra Nevada Pale Ale sitting in the fridge, it has to be imbibed.  This poor bottle was the sole survivor of last night's festivities.  During that time, 5 of his brothers perished and 6 of his cousins, the Torpedo Extra IPA also gave their lives.  But he survived, showed true grit, and almost made it to the weekend, but it was not meant to be...

So while this lone bottle might not be the most exotic or rarest beer in the book, when I started reading about it, I was happy about my selection.  The author calls it "one of the most important beers in th[e] book."  First brewed in 1980, this pale clocks in at just 5.6% ABV, but the true genius of the beer is the ability to perfectly balance the hops and malts.  And the true beauty of the Sierra Nevada lies in the hops.  Randy Mosher continues, "Sierra Nevada's founder Ken Grossman wanted to make a beer that didn't reference English pale ales, and that had a pronounced hop aroma - there weren't that many in those days."  It goes on to recount how he formulated the original recipe and used a new strain of hops for the time, Cascade.  It's hard these days to imagine a beer world in which Cascade hops don't exist.  They're a staple that first appeared in the late 1970's and are used in most every American pale, IPA, or any hoppy beer.

1001 Beers goes on to talk about how it is still brewed to this day with whole hop cones rather than hop pellets, a tradition that I hold near and dear.  Though I have recently converted to hop pellets for recent home brews, I do believe that some of our best beers (Arkh Brew is a collaboration between myself and a friend) contained whole cone hops.  I just believe there's something more "pure" about using the cones instead of the ground cones that make up the pellets.  I hope one day to return to whole cone hops and, hopefully, create something as amazing as Ken Grossman's quintessential pale ale.

A final note: this post is labeled with (Bottle) at the end because, and this was news to me, there is a draft version of this pale ale that is available on tap only at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.  It's a long, 8.5 hour drive away for me, but one of these days I'll make it out there.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (Bottle) from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Flavor: 7/10
Palate: 3/5
Overall: 14/20

Rating: 3.6 / 5.0

Had from bottle. Pours golden-amber with a slight, quickly dissipating head. I might be a little too used to the Torpedo, so the hops are a bit too disguised within the malts in this finely balanced pale ale. Aroma of hops, citrus, and sugars. Flavors are a nice balance of hops and malts. I have to just remind myself that this is a pale ale, and not an IPA or an extra IPA. It’s supposed to be balanced, not too hoppy, and not too bitter. In that case, Sierra Nevada does a great job here.