The Wonder of Samuel Adams One Batch Series

Whoever says Sam Adam's is not a craft brewer and/or doesn't make good beers, I'm going to punch you in the face. And then I'm going to prove you wrong.

You see, a week ago I had two brand new Sam Adam's brews and holycrap was I collectively blown out of the metaphorical water. I originally was just going to do a review on The Vixen, a chocolate chili bock, but then my dad decided to break out Griffin's Bow Oaked Blond Barleywine Ale, and I took one sip and had to review it. Had to. There was no way I could not bring this treasure to the masses. Also, Sam Adams brews this in one batch series, so best get in on this quick if you want to try them.

But let's start with The Vixen first.

As mentioned before, this is a chocolate chili bock, made with chilies from Mexico, cocoa nibs from Ecuador, and Cinnamon from Southeast Asia. It's brewed with Hallertau Mittelfreuh and Noble hops, and is 8.5% ABV.

Color: Dark and dense, and it pours that way too. It has a nice slightly brownish / off white head, and is very foamy. Starts out large and thick, but disappears relatively quickly. The color of the brew itself is so dark it's really almost black, even when you hold it up to the light.

Aroma: Smells like it looks--dark. There's definite chocolate notes and a bit of that roasty smell coming from the malts. A little hint of alcohol, but it's not too strong. I also get a hint of something else that I think is the chilies. It's a unique smell. I actually can't remember if I've ever had a beer with chilies in it, so this was a new experience.

First Sip: Well isn't that something. A little peppery, a little chocolatey. It makes me think of Mexican hot chocolate (which, if you've never heard of or had before, has chilies in it). The pepper taste is mainly in the back of my throat, if that makes any sense. It's more like as you swallow it you get a hit of pepper. Well, not a hit, that implies it's overwhelming, and it's not. There's also some definite malt taste. It doesn't taste too strong (like some other dark beers) but the malts and the alcohol are definitely there.

Mouthfeel: A lot more of a roasty/toasty malt-like taste. Although they go out of their way to say what hops were used on the bottle, I can taste very little of them (and by that I mean not at all). Definitely chocolatey, definitely peppery. I find that I'm loving the pepper taste--it creates a nice warming sensation as it hits the back of my throat. It's like chocolate with a kick. And alcohol. Alcoholic chili chocolate. That's what this is. (Lindt has dark chocolate with chilies in it that would probably go very nicely with this.)

Aftertaste: Definite spicy taste that's left lingering.

The Vixen is a great beer to start off the colder weather, the holidays, and the dark beers of winter. Definitely try it if you're looking for something a bit different.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the beer that you absolutely must try...

Griffin's Bow Oaked Blond Barleywine Ale.

This absolutely DELICIOUS beer is brewed with two row harrington, metacalfe, copeland pale, and paul's caramalt. The hops are Sauvins (from New Zealand) and Zeus. It was also aged in oak barrels, and has an alcohol content of 11.5% (so you can imagine what I was like afterward).

Now, I've looked at other reviews for this and no one seems to be as crazy about it as I am, but hey, they probably don't know what they're talking about and I definitely do, so you should totally listen to me. It's possible my taste buds are more sophisticated.

Color: Orangey blond color with a thin white head. Just a tad cloudy, but mostly clear. Think cream soda, but natural cream soda. The kind that's not bright orange. Okay, maybe cream soda is a bad comparison. Think.... think honey and oranges blended together.

Aroma: Smells very hoppy, which I think is coming from the Zeus hops (smells kind of similar to the Sam's Deconstructed Pack I reviewed over the summer). Has that great fruity, grapefruit smell, with a little bit of vanilla thrown in (from the oak barrels). Smells really yummy, but doesn't smell like a barleywine.

First Sip: Holy shitake mushrooms this is so fucking tasty I'm going to fall out of my chair in excitement it goes hoppy to fruity to smooth to OH MY GOD I NEED TO BREATHE.

Mouthfeel: This has such an array of tastes, it's like a roller coaster ride. Very complex in that it has a lot of different flavors, but they are present themselves in the following order. First, the hops--fruity and bitter. Then once you swallow a sip, the smooth vanilla taste from the oak barrels kicks in. Underneath that are pineapple, honeysuckle, and toffee flavors, blending together in a joyous melody of harmony and love. I didn't find it too sweet or cloying, more like fresh flavors. Fresh hops, fresh honey, fresh pineapple. The vanilla and the toffee make this really smooth. It really is like a parade procession of flavors, or a roller coaster of delight. And I normally hate roller coasters.

Aftertaste: More of the toffee flavor, with a traditional barleywine taste. Some bitterness is leftover, as well as a tiny bit of fruitiness. The taste sticks around for a while.


Overall, GODDAMN. I would definitely recommend this to others, although it may not be for everyone (although I think it should be). You should at least try it (and in my view, stock up). If you're not a fan of oaked beers, or toffee, or anything in this, I dont give a damn. TRY IT ANYWAY. And if you hate it, don't blame me. Blame your silly taste buds.

An Introduction to the World of Home Brewing

A few weeks ago, I received my introduction into the world of home brewing. And I suppose I should further clarify that statement by adding that this wasn't done at a special place for brewing your own beer. This was buy-your-own-ingredients-and-off-into-the-barn-you-go brewing. I vaguely remember my dad home brewing when I was younger, but all I can recall is that the kitchen was full of buckets and tubing, so I suppose we can count this as my first, do it yourself, at home, hope-to-God-nothing-explodes beer brewing.

One of my co-workers (same guy who gave me the home brewed pumpkin beer--which by the way, was tasty, but even tastier straight out of the tap) has a whole set up going on in his barn, so that's where I went.

As mentioned in one of my previous posts, brewing your own beer is about 85% drinking beer and standing around and 15% actually brewing. I don't mean to say that there isn't any work involved or that it's an excuse to get drunk in the middle of the day, because it's not like that at all. There's just a lot of waiting, and naturally, you need something to do while you wait.

First step is the set up. Well, if we're going to be technical, the first step should be to choose what kind of beer you want to brew, as that greatly affects the ingredients that you need. In this case, it was a Belgian Cranberry Dark Ale. At least I think that's the official name for it. It has Belgian chocolate and candied sugar in it, as well as cranberry juice, so sounds right to me. It also sounds extremely tasty, and I'm somewhat obsessed with cranberry juice, so... It's a bit of a shame I didn't get to add the chocolate to it (I was totally going to sneak some) as that happens at a later point in the process.

The ingredients. You've got yeast, the malt extract, grains, and the hops in the front.

Anyway, once you have your beer recipe and your ingredients, then you need the set up. The set up involves a lot of buckets and bucket shaped objects. (I'm going to say there were at least three separate buckets, which I guess isn't really a lot, but you can never have enough buckets when brewing beer, so go ahead and buy 20.) One of these should be fairly large and able to drain liquid in some manner. In this case, it was a Gatorade cooler with a modified spout (this was our "mash tun").

Mash tun!

You also need a method to heat up the water and the brew itself. A stove works fine, or, if you're doing it outside, a propane burner. You also may want a bucket or container with a sterilizing solution in it so you can sterilize tools and the like--important for keeping your beer free of things like bacteria. Also important to keep out of your beer: cats, mice, rodents, or wild half-crazed creatures living in the ceiling.

Oh, you'll probably want a thermometer as well, and some sort of stirring tool. You may also want to have a drink handy. Just because.

So, assuming you have recipe, ingredients, buckets, and a source of heat, you're ready to get started (theoretically).

First thing we did was to heat up the propane burner and get some water boiling. And can't be just boiling, it has to come to a certain temperature (175 degrees). While waiting for the optimum temperature, we poured the grains into the Gatorade cooler. It must be said that pretty much everything you use to brew beer smells really, really good. In this case, the grains kind of smelled like raisins. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to grind the grains up like I did a Barleycorns (even though I was absolutely horrible at it). These came in pre-measured amounts, or at least I assume they did because that's how it was set up when I got there, and we did pour the whole bag in. We used two types of grains: Belgian Special B and Belgian Carapils. Originally, the recipe called for 2lbs of Canadian 2-row pale, but that was scrapped and liquid malt extract was added instead (although that was added later).

The propane burner.

Once the water was at the right temperature, it was taken off the burner and poured into the Gatorade cooler with the grains. Mix it up, put the cover on, and wait 30 minutes. This is when the first beer should be poured. In this case, it was an Ipswich Winter Ale. (Dark, a bit roasty, overall tasty.)

Mmmmmm.

It was also during this time that we prefermented the cranberry juice that was going to be added to the brew at a later point. Basically, all this involved was pouring a packet of yeast into a bottle of cranberry juice. There were two types of yeast: Champagne Yeast and Belgian Ale Yeast. I dont know which type was added to the cranberry juice, but I'm going to guess and say Champagne. There's a 50% chance I'm right.

After enjoying your first tasty beer, and the allotted time has elapsed, pour the liquid mixture back into the pot. This is is where the spout thinger came in handy. On the inside was this sort of mesh material that kept the grains from coming out with the liquid. The spout made it easy to pour into the pot, and then, voila! You have a sort of beery mixture that smells really really good. The technical name is wort, but I like "beery mixture" better.

The wort pouring out of the mash tun.

At this point, the pot went back onto the propane burner (which started off outside, but was then moved inside for the simple convenience of staying warm) and the beery mixture is heated again. Assuming you've finished your first beer, now is the time to pour the second one.

Now, there's a lot of timing involved in this part of the process that I didn't exactly keep track of. Partly because I didn't have a watch of my own to check, and partly because drinking two beers in about an hour and a half makes me a little fuzzy. Although I don't remember the timing, I do remember that we added the malt extract first, the first round of hops, then the Belgian candied sugar, then the last round of hops. (Hops were Mt. Hood and Willamette.) These were all added at specific points in the brewing process.

You can practically smell it.

After everything was added and the time was up, the brew was poured into another bucket and left to cool. (I guess that makes four buckets.)

And this is when my part in the process was over. This is when the beer is left to cool down, and then ferment once the yeast has been added. It's also when the cranberry juice and the Belgian chocolate is supposed to be added, which again, I was not there for. The cranberry juice is added in primary fermentation, and the chocolate (after being melted) is added during the secondary fermentation. The reason for this is so that a bit more of the chocolate taste would come through. Yeast, as any good beer geek or scientist knows, eats sugar and releases alcohol as a by product of its eating sugar process. If the chocolate had been added during primary fermentation, more sugar would have been eaten, and less of the chocolate taste would have been present. By adding it in during secondary fermentation, more of the sugar sticks around. (Am I getting this right? Someone correct me if this is all horribly wrong.) After fermenting for about 2 weeks, the beer will be ready for bottling, and then left a bit longer to age in the bottles.

Beer (with cranberry and chocolate added) being siphoned from the glass carboy into a bucket.

Beer going from the bucket to the bottle.

After it has aged for the appropriate amount of time, then it at that point, presumably, that I will get to taste the brew that I helped create.

And as soon as I get that taste, I might just have to review it.