A Black IPA

March 14, 2016

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First “leaning on the Jeep” review of the year!  

We pouring a the LakeFront Brewery’s Its My Turn series Imperial Black IPA… Josh. (Sadly, they are not making it any more)

Wow. Just pouring this gives you a blast of good ol American hops right in the face. I don’t pick up any roast at all which is what I think makes a black stand out from any kind of stout. 
Not quite as black as I think a “black” IPA should be but it’s nearly there. The thin tan head disappears pretty quick, but with those all those late hops I’m not surprised. 

Oh but now for the taste. This is 100% what I’m looking for in an IPA. Bitter but not jarring. And that hop taste that some where in the middle of citrus and danky. 
And just the slightest ever bit of roast and a hidden touch of sweet is exactly what it needs to pull this all together. 

I’m usually pretty tough with my ratings. But, wow. This should be the picture you see when you look up Black IPA. 
Giving this a solid 4.75 on the Untappd scale. 

Tres Blueberry Stout

December 22, 2015

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Looks interesting. And I love blueberries. 

Just cracking the cap a little gets you a blast to the nostrils of blueberry. Promising. Always seems hard to get and keep blueberry aroma. 

Pours a beautiful tan head that sticks around the entire drink. Black malt what I can grab underneath the berry smells. It does smell a bit sweet but not so over powering. 

First taste confirms the black malt. I can tell some may complain about how burnt roasty this tastes. But not me. It’s a good thing it does have a bit of burnt in it. It needs to try and hide the almost artificial tasting sweetness. 

The blueberries must have given everything they had to aroma because there isn’t really much for taste. Sweet though. But in a sweet   And low kind of vibe. 

There is a delicate hop bite there, but it really gets hidden behind everything else that’s going on in this  medium bodied but very slick feeling stout. 

Not quite sure where I stand on this one. Not sure I could drink two in a row. Once again blueberries prove to not be my favorite thing to put into a beer. 

I give a plain old 3/5 on the untappd scale

Incoming

December 11, 2015

stoutmaker Uncategorized Leave a comment

Sure its been a couple of months, but I’m still here. Got a few quick updates, and then I can get back into the regular swing of things again.
– Since this is the frozen tundra here (not so much this year so far, but its coming) I have moved the brewery back down to the basement for the blizzard season.
This means I mostly brew 3 gallon batches for the next couple of months. All of my kegs are currently full. So these 3 gallon batches get bottled.
– My 3 gallon set up is electric. And I like it so much I have started to convert my full set up to electric as well. Getting the kettle ready is basically nothing. But the running of better power options outside for the summer is where most of the work will be.
-I actually have no (none, 0, zip) stouts kegged. But I do have one hell of a porter that I’m getting ready to tap. And will be going into full stout production here pretty soon. I need to get a few up and ready for the April contest.
– Picked up a few more Stouts the other day so look for more “reviews” soon.
– And lastly, a couple of homebrew buddies are going to brewing up the Ballast Point Homework series Porter. We each gonna take the recipe and brew it on our own systems. we all brew very differently, but in theory, we should all end up about the same. We will see.

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