I usually take a look through the beer section whenever I find myself in a grocery store these days. Even if I’m stocked up, I like to see what’s out there, especially if it’s not my usual grocery store. While trooping the line a couple of days ago, I spotted a little something that sounded just right for a late October refreshment: Shipyard Brewing Company’s Smashed Pumpkin Ale.
Shipyard’s Smashed Pumpkin Ale
Vandal Kolsch all grain home brew
My all-grain Kolsch home brew beer was intended to be a light summer beer with a bit of character. Now, summer beer doesn’t mean no flavor. Summer beer means lighter-bodied, fruity, crisp, and not too bitter. That’s just what I got with this batch, and I even managed to get a decent gravity yield from my all-grain mash after a little studying up on water chemistry. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor’s Orders Ale
Actually, I don’t know if this was intended to be an English-style ale, but that’s what it makes me think of. My wife gave one of her co-workers a six-pack of my Vandal Kolsch (stay tuned for a blog post on the Kolsch). He sent back a homebrew six-pack that she said was a pale ale. After tasting it, I don’t think of it as a pale ale. To me it seems very English, but I am not sure if I would compare it to a bitter, a brown ale, or a mild ale. I guess I am not enough of a beer expert to say. But I know enough to say that it’s tasty. Read the rest of this entry »
A glass of Crusader Ale
This home brewing recipe ties in with the English beer kick I was on last year. I took a really basic pale ale style and added some English Crisp’s roasted malt to see if it would add a little of that caramel confection feel I like so much in an English bitter beer. It didn’t work out like that, but it was tasty and educational nonetheless. Read the rest of this entry »
Hops and Honey make my beer yummy!
A few months back, I hit an unexpected problem with my day job. I suddenly had a lot of unscheduled time, but for a variety of reasons, I didn’t get much blogging done. Thing is, I still had the motivation to do the brewing, even if I wasn’t writing about it. We all soldier on the best we can, right? So now, I have a backlog of home brew batches to write about. Today its time to talk about Summer Buzz Honey Blonde Ale. I’ve done this before as a malt extract brew, but I tried the idea recently as an all-grain home brew. With 1980’s heavy metal and album-oriented rock in the background, the brew session went something like this. Read the rest of this entry »
I fired up a batch of home brewed beer back in November, throwing in a little apple and a little maple syrup. I haven’t written a blog post about it yet, though I have mentioned it briefly in previous posts. I hit a little snag with my day job, and I haven’t posted in weeks; but I just drank the next to last bottle, so I guess it’s time to write something down for posterity about Apple Crisp Ale. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the Christmas season, I had a chance to cruise by the grocery store in the Fresno area of California and pick up some beer that isn’t available in my home town. The best part was, Save Mart stores have a selection of beers that they let you mix and match to put together your own variety six-pack. I was after some goodies from the Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Company in Fresno, so I grabbed two of the Half-Dome Wheat Beer, two of the Tamarack Amber Lager, and one General Sherman India Pale Ale. I also grabbed one Red Nectar beer from Nectar Ales in Paso Robles.
I’ve already reviewed the wheat beer, but its tasty, so I had to have more. Now, a few notes on the other three. Read the rest of this entry »
When drinking beer starts to feel like work, you know you’re not doing it right. But I’m getting dangerously close to 
skidding off the highway to true beer happiness because of all the great beers I’ve tasted over the holidays and haven’t blogged about yet. So I’ve gotta start firing off two or three reviews at a time until I’m caught up. Otherwise, every new beer I try puts me another step behind. Today I’m going to write a little bit about two absolutely spectacular dark beers that were perfect for the holidays: Old Rasputin Imperial Stout and Chimay Ale Grande Reserve 2012. Read the rest of this entry »
Home Brewed Prickly Pear Ale
In the past I have tried to keep the blog on pace with my actual home brewing, writing about my new home brews as I first taste them. Real life has intruded a bit lately, and I am now almost two batches behind. That means it’s time to throw down a few words about the tasting of my Prickly Pear Ale. The recipe has already been posted, so here are some impressions about this novel brew. Read the rest of this entry »
I made several stops at a variety of local shops looking for Lagunitas Capuccino Stout after pocketkkings did a review of this winter seasonal last year, but I caught on too late. I never did find it. But patience is a virtue, and in the fullness of time, my reward has come. I don’t think the world is gonna end in 2012 just because the Mayans ran out of toner cartridges right when they were printing up 2013, but if it does, at least I got to try this winter treat. Read the rest of this entry »
Man Seeks Beer 