21st Amendment - Hop Crisis (Imperial IPA)

I know it's been a while since my last post but I've been busy with some other stuff so I haven't been able to get around to posting.  I do have some good news though and it's that I've drank a good amount of beer in that time and am prepared to do a lot of reviews.  The bad news is I still haven't had a chance to brew my beer yet and I'm not sure when I'll be able to, but I'll make sure to let everyone know when the date will be.  So know for the review.

21st Amendment - Hop Crisis (Imperial IPA) 9.7%

The Brewery:

http://21st-amendment.com//splash.html

More Reviews:

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/735/42063

So I found out about this beer when I stopped into Martys (my local liquor/beer store) on what my Mom calls BEER FRIDAY!  The only thing was that the beer wasn't coming in till Saturday so I came in the next day and picked up this beer and am glad I decided to come back in because this was a very tasty beer.

I had to post pictures of the entire can because they have some pretty cool phrases written on them.  Not sure if you can read the can or not but if you'd like to read it you can always pick up a four pack of this delicious beer, it won't be a waste of money in my mind.

Before even opening this beer I noticed that it said it was aged on oak spirals.  I wasn't exactly sure what to expect in terms of flavor from this but I figured it would only make it taste better.

Pour/Look:

This beer pours with a beautiful golden yellow/amber color. You could practically see through this beer. The head was nice and white with a little bit of a yellow tint to it.  The head wasn't thick and was surprisingly thin even though it tended to stick around for a while.  Normally I'd expect the head to fade faster then this beer did.

Smell:

I loved the smell of this beer.  If there was a candle that could be made into this smell I would probably buy it.  It had that flowery/hoppy smell that I really enjoy and on top of that it had a brillant citris smell that I enjoyed.  I didn't quite get the smell of oak which surprised me but I don't think my smelling sense is all that great.  Even though I really enjoyed the smell of the beer it got me that much more excited to taste it.

First Taste:

I thought this was going to be very hoppy based on the smell that I was receiving but it really didn't have all that much of a bitterness to it.  This is a perfect summer beer for me because of the smooth light finish it has to it and the nice citris flavor.  Not only does it have that going for it but it has the strength to go along with it.  If I were to hand you this beer you'd have no idea that it was 9.7% which speaks volumes about how smooth, light, and balanced this beer tastes.  Along with the hops you get a nice taste of the malts (which helps the control the bite of the beer) and there was the perfect amount of malt for my taste because they didn't completly hide the hops which some beers can do.  This beer wasn't really carbonated all that much and I think it could be due to the fact it was aged on oak spirals.

Lasting Impression:

I was very impressed with this beer as I was drinking it.  There was the perfect balance of hops and malts and even had a nice mild citris flavor that only made the beer that much better.  It's being sold in 4 packs of cans.  I reccomend this to anyone, especially if you are an IPA fan because this beer is really perfect for the summer IPA fan. It goes down smooth and I could really see myself drinking a bunch of these and will most likely be buying an other package of this beer.  I don't know if it'll make my top 10 (which I still really need to think about) but it'll definitely be making a strong case.

Next Beer:

Dogfish Head - Robert Johnson's Hellhound on My Ale (Imperial IPA)
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/10099/67219
I first had this at Publick House in Brookline and really enjoyed it and when I saw it at the store I had to buy one and now you'll get to enjoy my review of it.  I already drank it and composed my initial thoughts and just have to do some edits and add some additional thoughts.  It's getting late here tonight so I should have this up tomorrow at around this same time.  Till then drink beer, love life.

Homebrew Kit Arrives!

I was originally going to post another review today, but after I came home from a review class for a certification test that I'm taking on Saturday I came home to find some packages waiting for me at my doorstep.  Right at the moment I got really excited and couldn't wait to see what was in the package.  Of course I already knew what was in them because the brewing kit was the only package I was waiting for.  I do have to mention that my lovely parents bought this kit for me for my birthday and just shows why I love them so much.  Any parent that approves of their kid brewing beer is awesome! Thanks Mom and Dad!

As soon as I opened the packages I was greeted with a plethora of packaging peanuts.  I usually try to remove all the peanuts neatly but I just dove right in and pulled out all the supplies which of course in turn made a mess on my floor.  That's a small price I was willing to take though.  Enough of my gibberish and time to get into the supplies.

This is your basic starter, nothing to fancy but is the bare minimum that you need to brew beer (minus the 50 some 12 oz bottles that you'll need).  It includes two 6.5 gallon jugs that'll be used for both the fermenting and bottling phases.  A 5 gallon stainless steel pot for the boiling process.  The bottle caps for the bottles, cleanser to make sure everything is clean,  the bottle capping device, a hydrometer to help determine the alcohol content, and all the tubing and other supplies needed for the transfer of the wort.  Of course there is other equipment out there that could be used to make the process easier but this is the bare essentials and you can always upgrade this kit simply by buying the new equipment.  I'd go into detail about this but there is so much additional equipment that you can add to this that it'd have to be a whole different post on its own.  If you are truely interested in brewing there are plently of sites that you can look at with all the equipment.  I could give you a little help/direction, but with me being very new to the brewing process I could only help so much.  I'm sure that as I keep progressing in the brewing process I'll add more equipment and will do my best to explain it as I add stuff to the process.

But of course in order to brew beer you need to have the ingredients......

Like I said in one of my previous posts I got the stout kit since I only had 3 choices and stout to me seemed like a fun beer to brew even though it may turn out to be difficult to brew for my first beer.  I'm not going to into too much detail about each ingredient but just state what the ingredients are.  Since this is an extract kit it came with the a dark malt extract, which is in milk jug.  It also came with specialty grains (crystal malt, roasted malt, chocolate malt, and flaked barley) which are located in the bigger plastic bag below the jug and these grains help add flavor and color to the beer.  The next ingredient is the hops (my favorite) and there are two sets of hops.  One that you add in the beginning which allows for the bitterness and then the hops you add later for the finishing/smell that a beer will have.  The rest of the ingredients (yeast and sugar) are very vital for the wort to become beer because both are important for the fermentation and carbonation processes that a beer will go through.

When I actually do my first brew I will try to document the process as best as I can (which could possibly have to be in multiple posts) but I've gotten some comments where people would like for me to document this process as best as I can because they're interested in possibly starting to brew themselves.  So I'll try to include important procedures to take note of and any problems that I ran into.

I'm going to try to do a beer review at some point later in the week but with my certification test coming up on Saturday I need to do a good amount of studying so I'm not going to guarantee anything.  I can tell you though that next week I will be be posting more so please keep checking my blog.  I will also be posting the updates on my facebook (if you're a friend of mine you'll see them, sorry not giving out my facebook account) or on my twitter for this site (Hoptastical). Until next time drink beer, love life!

The First Review: Arcadia - Hopmouth (Double IPA)

If anyone is intersted I just created a twitter account for my blog.  You can follow me here: http://twitter.com/#!/Hoptastical. I'm going to post on here when I update my blog and will include pictures of the beers I'm drinking with some shorter reviews.

I was working on this a bit last night while drinking this beer and wanted to make my first review to be a good one and one that I could use as a template for my later reviews to come.  As you read through my review please let me know if you have any suggestions that I could add or correct to make the review more interesting or better.  So with out anymore of a delay here it is:

Arcadia - Hopmouth (Double IPA) 8.1%

The Brewery:

http://www.arcadiaales.com/

More Reviews:

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/454/27286

When I picked this beer out I was pretty excited because both the name of the beer (Hopmouth) and the style of beer (Double IPA) were exactly what I look for in a beer.  I also knew that this brewery makes some very quailty beers so I knew I was in for a treat.  As you can tell from the picture that I have that this beer came in bottles.  Not in your normal 6 pack but instead was being sold in a 4 pack which isn't too uncommon for beers with a higher alcohol content.  Now onto the actual review aspect.

Pour/Look:

This beer poured with quite a nice head which got me excited because I thought it would leave notches as I went along drinking it.  Notches I define as being the line around a glass that the beer leaves after you take a sip. This left a white head and wasn't very thick so I wasn't sure if it was really going to give me those notches but I knew that at least it'd have some flavor to it.  It poured with a lighter brown color and almost a tint of red to it.  Which made a sort of caramel/coppor color.  From first glance this beer didn't seem to be all that bubbly so I knew I wouldn't be facing too much carbonation.

Smell:

When I smelled this it smelled like a little than the other double IPAs I've had.  Not too a strong hop smell but had a distinct caramelish sugar smell that you can tell came from the malt they added. I also got a good sense of the strength of the beer because when smelling through that strong malty smell I could really smell the alcohol hiding behind it.  This didn't really surprise me because with a beer so strong the additional malts will allow for a much cleaner and sweeter finish as your drinking and won't give you as much of a kick at the end.  Overall the smell, to me, seemed to almost be more Barelywine like because with the IPA in the name I expected more of a hoppy/flowery smell while this one had the malty, caramelish, and alcohol scent to it.  The only thing different is that a Barelywine tends to have even more of pungent alcoholic smell to it.

First Taste:

When first trying this beer I really got the taste of that malty caramel smell that I noticed.  I didn't notice too many other flavors as I let the beer linger a little as this taste tended to overpower any other flavors.  After the first taste it had a very nice aftertaste, not too light, not too bitter, and not too strong of a flavor.  It had a perfect blend of flavors that allowed for this smooth finish.  The nice quality and taste of the malts really allowed for this to stand out.

The Final Thought/Lasting Impression:

With me liking really hoppy IPAs this one didn't really stand out too much out in that front and the hoppyness tended to hide behind the strong malty/caramel taste. This however was a very tastey beer and tends too be in the same line as many other Double IPAs that I have tried.  It wasn't too hoppy/bitter and contained a good amount of malt that hid the true amount of hops that a double IPA contains but still left me satisfied with the taste.

There wasn't any notches like I orginally thought there was going to be but that doesn't define a beer. I like a little bit more of a bite to my beers (especially if it's claiming to be a double IPA) but it is still a very good beer and I reccomend it to anyone that likes the flavor of an IPA but doesn't like that bite/bitterness that the imperial IPAs bring.  This in turn allowed for a smooth finish and not too strong of an aftertaste, so it definitely went down very quickly.

With this being my first legit review I would consider this beer to be above average and recommend it to anyone looking for a strong malty IPA that is pretty evenly balanced.  It didn't take too many risks and stuck to the concept of a double IPA.  It's being sold in a four pack of bottles (at least how I found it). This is a very quality brewery and they did live up to their expectations, a very solid beer with nothing too crazy.

Next Beer:

My next beer I will review is 21st Amendment - Hop Crisis (Imperial IPA). http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/735/42063

I have already tried it and did really enjoy it.  I just need to compose a blog post for you all to read which should be coming tomorrow.

You Don't Just Drink A Beer

It all starts at my local beer store, Marty's (http://www.martysfinewine.com/)  This store is great, they have a massive microbrew selection of various six packs, four packs, pint bottles, and so much more.  They also do tasting every Saturday!  The staff is also very knowledgeable and I've had many a times where I shared stories with them of recent beers I've tried and they respond back with some reccomendations of their own.  This tends to be very helpful because as anyone who has ever gone into a beer store with me I can take upwards of 20 minutes or more to determine which beers I want to get.  Part of the problem is that I've tried so many different beers and would like to try something new.  At least I like to think that's the problem but in reality I enjoy taking my time and look at everything from brewry, alcohol content, style of beer, color of beer (if it can be seen), and how much the label sticks out to me.  Then once I get back to my place I'm able to finally open the beer and get a true sense of if I hit the jackpot or it's just another beer that gets lost with all the other various beers I've drank.

For me this process isn't just a simple open the beer and taste it.  There is almost a step by step process I take.  A site Beer Advocate does a great job of breaking it down (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/taste) but I still have my own differences and little things that I like to do.  For anyone who considers themselves a wine expert you have to treat tasting a good beer with almost the same sort of finesse.

The first step is the pour/look of the beer.  If you are at home and have the luxury of pouring a beer into a pint glass or some other beer glass, please do, it allows for the beer to breathe.  When pouring it is best to pour with the glass at a slight angle but you still some head formation because the color of the head also will show characteristics of the beer.  When analyzing the beer itself you want to take note of the color it pours (http://beerrecipes.org/beercolor.php) this site does a good job breaking it down but I won't get that specfic in my reviews.  There is also the head that you have to pay attention too.  Did it pour with a very think foamy head, what is the color, how long did the head last for, and is the beer itself very carbonated?  Next step is the smell.

When smelling a beer you always want to swirl it around in your glass first because it will allow for the beer to airate and release some of its flavors.  If you look at the beer advocate tasting link I posted they really explain a good way explaining what they consider the right way to smell a beer.  For me I smell the beer because it allows for me to get a sense of what the beer tastes like without having to actually try it.  This allows for me to pick up on any hidden flavors that I can try to single out while tasting the beer.  I think this step is actually the most important step while tasting a beer because it'll really show you how the beer was created and how it'll taste.  A lot of times I can tell you whether or not I'm going to like a beer even before I take the first sip.

When you take the first sip I like to do it instantly after I'm done smelling for the beer because those smells are still fresh on your brain and you can really compare the two against each other.  I know how tempting it is just to swallow that sip right away but you should really let it sit and hit all your taste buds.  Take not of any distinct flavors, maltiness, hoppiness/bitterness, after taste, and try to compare this with what you'd classify as a perfect beer for that style of beer.  Everyone has different ideas of what their perfect beer is so I always try to rate them based on my preferences and ideas of what I'd like that style of beer to taste like.  Some of the times while drinking a beer your opinion of it can change and also some of the hidden flavors can really pronounce themselves as you drink on.  So I always try to another comparison of the taste after I'm done drinking the beer.  This is roughly what I like to do while drinking a beer.

I'll try follow this process when reviewing my beers but sometimes it's hard to describe exactly what I'm tasting while drinking a beer because the flavors can be very distinct.  I'm sure as I go along with this process I will get better at explaining these to you and maybe if any of you have tried the certain beer for yourself you can comment on what you thought of this beer.  I'd like to almost make this like an open discussion for beer so if any would like to post on here reviews of their own just let me know and I can make this site available for you to post your own reviews.  Or even if you have a beer that you'd like me to try I can do my best to find it and post a review for you.  Even if you haven't tried the beer yet and would like get an opinion of it before you buy it I'd be more than willing to give it a try before you buy it. 

I know I promised my first review today but I wanted to get this tasting guide up so you can get an idea of what goes through my head while tasting a beer.  I have started writing my first review but I still have yet to find a good format that I want to use and also am still working on trying to figure out this whole blog format considering this is my first attempt at blogging so you'll have to bare with me through this process.

The Beginning

So I've decided to start this blog to try and make a catalog of all the various beers I've tried and still have yet tried.  I don't consider myself an expert on beer at all but I do enjoy beer, especially IPAs. In no way am I an English major so you'll also have to bare with me on any spelling errors or improper use of grammar.  This doesn't mean all you'll see on here is IPAs but the majority of the beers I post on here will be IPAs so you'll have to bare with me on my love for hops (just look at the title of the blog and that will explain my love for the hoppy beers).  With that said I still do enjoy all types of beers (minus Hefs) and will still document these through all the beers I do try.

While starting this blog I will try to document the various beers I've already tried (which is quite an extensive list) and also include the ones that I'm currently drinking.  I wish I could have started this from my very first beer I tried but that probably would have been a very bad first impression of beer because I believe my first beer was at a young age (legal of course-hahaha).  It wasn't even a full beer as a matter of a fact because every guy reaches a certain age when their Dad hands them a beer that he's drinking and says try this (Love you dad, Happy Father's Day if you read this).  I'm almost positive that my first thought was gross how can you drink this.  Now I look back at that moment and think to myself everything gets better with age and so did my taste for beer.  It's also funny now because before I left to for Boston I found myself buying all these fancy microbrews and having my Dad try them.  I wish I could still share these expirences with him everyday, but everytime I see him we're always trying great beers. 

Not only have I shared great beers with him but I guess the hop head runs in my family because my brother is also a big IPA fan.  With my first post being written a week after a great visit to Boston from him and our friend Chris we of course drank copious amounts of great beers and played lots of Disc Golf (Even though my bro beat me by one stroke in our 3 person tournament I still love him).  I would continue to talk about this trip but this isn't a blog about myself it's a blog about my love for beer.

I believe in the mantra that everything you have a passion for you have to try it for yourself.  So as I'm typing this my first home brewing kit is being shipped to me and I'm anxiously waiting it's arrival.  Since I'm no expert this should be an interesting first brew.  I was a little disapointed that my first beer couldn't be an IPA but this was because they only offered 3 different extracts.  So I picked a stout which I would say could be my second favorite beer type.  If you don't know what an extract is, it is pretty much beer brewing for dummies because it's the majority of the ingredients in extract form.  So I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on my home brewing adventures as soon as I start.

So now that I've given everyone a background on my life as it pertains to beer I'll leave you with my ultimate goal for this site.  To start off I'm going to leave you with this post and update it with the various beers I've tried over this weekend, of course they'll mostly be hoppy beers.  I'm going to attempt to try to add a different beer I've tried everyday (until I catch up to myself which will probably never happen) and then as the weekend comes I'll post the beers that I'm drinking in one post (since I drink about 3-4 beers in a weekend).  Eventually I'm hoping to come up with a top 10 list that will constantly be updated with the beers I'm drinking.  This will be for people that don't drink as many beers as me and would like to get into the world of IPAs.  I'd like to keep typing but hopefully my first beer post will be coming either later today or tomorrow. So for now enjoy life, beer, and all that they have to offer.