Beer Review - Zlur-piss (Zlurpus 10th Anniversary Brew)

Jeffro's Basement - Zlur-piss Green India Pale Ale

Beer Type: Green American IPA - ??? ABV

Appearance: 12 oz brown bottle and with a label featuring a rampaging undead zombie halfling on it. Not much else going on. A QR code that takes you to someone flipping tables. Beer poured a foamy "mint flavored" piss green color that was both too dark and too light in color to be anything natural. Drank it out of a hot pink plastic cup so I have no idea what color it changed to under that foamy head (that never went away).

Smell: Hops and halfling piss.                

First Drink: Bitterness comes on strong quickly followed by something that can only be classified as "Dubinski DNA". 

Mouthfeel: Slick and a little oily but it has a bit of body too (or little bits of body anyway).           

Last Drink: The dirty feet flavor is really coming through now.          

Drinkability: I had one and I felt drunk as shit. Then I just felt like shit. The next day I couldn't move and I think I might have shat out a lump of green halfling guts.               

Notes: Super limited edition brew courtesy of Main Guy and Xtreme from the Zlurpcast in honor of Zlurpus and his 10th un-birthday.                 

Verdict: ??? out of 5. Cannot be classified. I'll let you know if a few years what the results of drinking this turned out to be.

Beer Review - Anchor Christmas Ale 2013.

Time for a beer review! But before we get into the Anchor Christmas Ale I wanted to show a photo of my own "christmas brew" which is a batch of hard cider I started a day or two before the holiday. It's been moved over for a secondary ferment now and I really hope it turns out excellent!

Yum! I used English Cider yeast this time around.

Anchor Brewing Company - Our Special Ale 2013 (Anchor Christmas Ale)

Beer Type: Winter Warmer - 5.50% ABV

Appearance: A jaunty (and slightly stunted) 12 brown bottle with a very seasonal/merry snowy tree on the label. Beer pours a dark red/brown/black color with a nice big tan head.

Smell: Cinnamon, candied fruits, ginger, clove, and something odd like cardamon or coriander.           

First Drink: Not as nice as the aroma sadly. Something acrid and a bit bitter up front followed by hints of the flavor in the sniff I just had.  

Mouthfeel: Pretty mild, a little oily maybe, not getting much here.       

Last Drink: Something more "dark fruit" coming through now along with a bit of caramel. Pretty muddled.             

Drinkability: Not in love with this beer.             

Notes: Rarely drink Anchor beers so I can't really compare this to too much of their regular line. Not impressed with this one though.                

Verdict: 3 out of 5. Seems a little muddled or not focused enough. 

30 years of what the hell am I doing!?

Well the day is finally here. Today I turn the big three-oh. 30 years of not really knowing what the hell to do with myself and what do I have to show for it? Well aside from a pretty damn good life I have a kick ass and supportive girl. We made a wonderful baby beer together and bottled it just the other day - we named it Black Ork Ale.

Can you see why!?

It would probably be easier to put the beer in a keg but there is something about cracking open a bottle of your own beer that is just too good to pass up. Plus it makes it easier to share it with friends and family. Here is what our little bottling setup looks like (the red thing is called the "red baron" and is used to put the caps on the bottles).

It is my job to put the caps on and bring new bottles while they are being filled.

Now the Black Ork Ale is finishing in our cupboard where it will sit for another 2-3 weeks before it is ready to drink. In the meantime there is a whole batch of our last beer (a Brown Ale) in the fridge to finish before this one has to move! It's a tough job but someone has to drink all this homebrew!

It has been too long since I posted a beer review. Here is one I had after my trip to Fort Collins, CO back in January of this year (so long ago now), Alaskan Pale Golden Ale.

Alaskan Brewery - Alaskan Pale Golden Ale

Beer Type: American Pale Ale

Appearance: 12 oz. brown bottle with a kind of crappy looking label (featuring a font I strongly dislike). Don't let the crappy label fool you though, this beer is quite nice to look at. The beer poured a clear golden color with a short lived head.

Smell: Carmel with a bit of citrus and hops.

First Drink: A sort of sour citrus up front followed by sweeter caramel flavors. I can just make out some hops in the taste but the bitterness is what really comes through.

Mouthfeel: Light and maybe a bit thin? The carbonation is a little high for me but it is well balanced overall.

Last Drink: Still a lot of sour flavors with a bit of yeast or bread flavors as well.

Drinkability: Overall this is quite different from the Pale Ale I typically drink. Not too light and not too heavy and a little creamy, this is a good session drink.

Notes: Another beer from my trip to Fort Collins, CO. This brewery is not available here in Texas that I have seen but they make a lot of beers. I also have some of their Amber to review and I hope it is as good (or better).

Verdict: 3.75 out of 5. I could finish off a six pack of this without a complaint.

Links: Beer Advocate and Alaskan Brewery.

So what is in store for my 30th birthday you ask? Well I intend to eat some breakfast tacos, drink some coffee, paint some models, play some Warhammer Fantasy, and drink plenty of beer. Not too different from a typical day really, but at least today I can blame the drinkin' on the birthday and not the work day!

Homebrew review.

Here it is. This is our first baby beer. Homebrew!

Looks pretty tasty doesn't it?

Frandall's Brewbucket - AHS Newahtarillo Pale Ale

Beer Type: American Pale Ale

Appearance: 12 oz. brown bottle without a label - recycled and washed out from a batch of New Belgium something or other.

Smell: Fruity hops and malty biscuit aromas.

First Drink: A three pronged attack of hops. First a sweet bitter, followed by a floral flavor, and finished with an earthy note.

Mouthfeel: Smooth and well carbonated but a bit acidic feeling.

Last Drink: The high ABV of this homebrew comes out more as it warms. There are distinctly alcoholic flavors in the aftertaste.

Drinkability: I couldn't ask for a more drinkable first attempt at homebrewing. If all our beers come out near this we'll be doing good!

Notes: This beer started out a bit rough but has really mellowed with age. It seems to be a "fan favorite" as well - a majority of this batch went to friends and family and nobody spit it back out!

Verdict: 3.5 out of 5.

Links: Austin Homebrew Supply.

Yum!

(Beer) Progress Report - 3/16/09.

Sadly I don't have much to report from the wide world of Warhammer. I have been busy preparing for my upcoming trip to the Czech Republic! I will be spending about 10 days in Prague, leaving tomorrow (Tuesday 3/17) and returning towards the end of the month.

I have never been overseas (or out of the continental Americas) and I am really looking forward to it. The whole trip is being paid for by my company (it is a business tripe after all), so I just have to survive the plane trip (I hate flying) and then I get to have fun and work my ass off. Expect pictures of the historic city when I return.

While there has been little to no modeling or hobby related progress (still trying to finalize a list for Capital City Carnage in May), there has been quite a bit of progress with our first batch of beer. After a few days of furious eating, belching, farting, and wasting, the beer was ready to move into the secondary fermenter with the additional dry hops.

It is a bit cloudy right now, but in a few more weeks the yeast should clean up after themselves, and the beer will clarify. If it doesn't .. well I will have some cloudy and delicious beer to bottle and drink.

One thing that is not so delicious is the protein sludge left at the bottom of the fermenter when the yeast are done with their work. It is called "trub" and it looks and smells a bit unpleasant. Don't believe me? See for yourself.

Not the best looking stuff, but "trub" might make a good name for one of the Ogres in my tribe! Perhaps a Butcher or a Bruiser? Hold that thought, I will return to this once I have landed safely back here in Austin in about 12 days.

Progress Report - 3/8/09 (now with MORE BEER).

Progress and beer!

Last weekend's tournament didn't go so well for the Beer Gut Tribe. The Ogres fought bravely against swarms of Lizardmen, a wall of Goblins, and the hordes of Chaos Daemons, but in the end victory was not achieved. All in all it was a good time, and I learned a few new things about playing the game, and that is what matters (although winning is welcome too).

I didn't take very detailed notes so I will spare you from a rambling recount from memory over a week later. I am in the process writing my final list for the upcoming (and first ever) Austin IGT. The event is called Capital City Carnage (great name by the way) and it will take place in early May at the Austin convention center. I am planning on taking the Beer Gut Tribe as it seems unlikely that I will have my VC fully assembled, based, primed, and even partially painted. Speaking of painted models, here is another completed Irongut from the series of pictures I took a few weeks back! I really like the first one as the IG looks quite menacing!

In other news, I have discovered I have a fairly acute allergic reaction to the super glue I have been using. I switched brands last October, but did most of my major gluing and modeling in the months since December. During that time I have developed crusty spots on my lips and eyelids, red itchy bumps on my hands and fingers, and some rather nasty wounds in my throat and sinuses. I finally realized it was the glue doing all of this (and that I wasn't turning into a zombie yet), so I switched brands again. I glued a little bit yesterday (still recovering from the last time I used the old glue) and I noticed a big difference. Sadly, I got a little on one finger and it is itchy and red today. Maybe I need to wear gloves while I am working with it?

All in all it is a pretty crappy allergy to have for someone in this hobby and I don't recommend it. It has really slowed down the progress of my Vampire Counts army even though I have plenty of models to assemble and convert.

But enough about models and allergies and tournaments. What about the BEER?! Oh .. well there is beer, or there will be in a month or so to be more precise!

We (the girl and I) have purchased our first home brewing kit! Went out and picked it up yesterday, as well as the ingredients to make our very first batch of beer. It will be a Pale Ale (although a fairly hoppy variety, not an IPA) and it is already bubbling away.

Making beer is fairly simple really, but it can be quite complex if you want it to. We opted for the simple method of Pitchable Yeast. This saves some time and it is easier for novice brewers like us.

The only problem we ran into was finding a vessel large enough to cool down the multiple gallons of boiling wort (the mixture of grains, malt, and hops pictured above) to stop the last bit of hops from losing all of its flavor. We ended up putting it in our bathtub and cooling it down there (though not quite fast enough so we may have lost a little of the hops flavor from the last addition).

It can be quite nerve wracking to have this (possibly) living thing hiding away in a bucket where you can't see it (sort of a Schrödinger's beer cat). We finished the beer at about 7pm last night and woke up this morning to find it bubbling away! It's alive! ALIVE!! Now for another 5-7 days of yeasty action and we will transfer it to the secondary fermenter (the box on the left) and add more hops. Another few days of that and its off to the bottles (with some priming sugar) for aging and carbonation.

Then we will have some beautiful baby beers to drink. I can't wait to try it!