“Roasty”, “chocolate”, “coffee-like”, “dark”, “intense”, “cocoa”, “expresso”, “buscuity”, “vanilla”, “mocha”, “dark fruit”, “sweet”, “dry”, “creamy”, and “like an ash tray”. All of these are terms that were used by BJCP judges to describe my entries into the 2012 Three Rivers Alliance of Serious Homebrewers (aka TRASH 22) competition. As one might imagine, only one of these terms kept repeating over and over and over in my head... “like an ash tray”. What the fuck.

To reiterate my previous entry (Leinenkugel Oktoberfest review), my father in law is the most generous person I’ve ever met. I am fortunate enough to be the beneficiary of his extreme generosity, on this occasion, in the form of a mixed case of 12 oz bottles.

Never heard of this one... a new find!

Upper Canada Dark Ale pours as described: dark. Holding it up to the light, it’s sort of a nice dark crimson - which is a fancy way of saying its dark red.

Smells like an overly ripe plum... and cherries. This isn’t going to be hoppy.

My father in law is the most generous person I have ever met. For real. He is a GREAT man. His generosity extends, not just to close friends and family, but throughout his entire community. So when Christmas rolls around, he gets showered with gifts from various professional organizations, clients, associates, close friends, and family. Being the great son in law that I am, every once in a while I get to be the beneficiary of some of that gift overflow. For the past few weeks he has been hounding me about getting some beer out of his house...

Namaste (to skip straight to the review, skim down three paragraphs to “REVIEW”)

Victory Brewing wins a huge victory with this pale ale offering. That opening sentence has to be an annoying cliche when reviewing Victory’s beers, regardless, its the truth. Headwaters Pale Ale pays homage to the Brandywine Creek, Victory Brewing’s water source. Many brewers add minerals, such as calcium and bicarbonates, to mimic the famous Burton-on-Trent water. But when you have a creek that runs through the Appalachian mountains as Victory does, you have an awesome water source packed full of minerals that will give your brews a character of their own.

http://www.bobbygspizzeria.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/2010_Beer_Torp...

Finally got over the hump... I finally MASHED. After nearly a year of researching and figuring, I went a head and built a mash tun out of my picnic cooler. It only took $40 in brass and stainless fittings and about eight trips to Lowe's to finally get it right. I forced myself to build it when I went in on a bulk grain buy with some other local home brewers. So build it, or be stuck with four 55 lbs sacks of grain. I might go further into detail on how to build a mash tun in a later post, but let me get back to the pale ale.

Straight outta Humbolt County, California, Eel River Brewing presents its certified organic Earth Thirst Double IPA. It pours a very solid gold color leaving a huge head... oh wait... tilt the glass a little.... there we go. Correction, leaving a nice two finger white head (see video).

Bigfoot is of the barleywine style... my favorite kind of "wine". At a solid 9.6% abv, it really is the perfect sipping beer. The maltiness is so big that it nearly makes the 90 IBUs taste closer to 75. Actually, I bought an entire case of the bigfeet. With the first one that I cracked open, I was blown away by the hopiness. It hits you right off the bat. The SN website sites the following hop profile: Bittering Hops: Chinook / Finishing Hops: Cascade & Centennial / Dry Hopping: Cascade, Centennial & Chinook.

During my recent trip to the west coast I brought home three beers that I thought might be tough to get here on the east side. Drake‘s Denogginizer, an Imperial IPA out of San Leandro, Ca, is the first of three that I‘ll be reviewing.