Finch’s Beer Company Secret Stache Stout

All this talk of porters and stouts has gotten me thirsty.

Finch’s Beer Company supposedly makes a tasty stout – their Secret Stache stout scores 88 on Beer Advocate. It’s infused with vanilla, but doesn’t come with any mustaches. You win some, you lose some.

Secret Stache had an odd collection of smells, most notably one of root beer that I simply couldn’t shake the entire time I drank the beer. When I think “stout,” I think notes of roasted chocolate, maybe espresso if I dare to get wild. But it’s the smell of root beer that dominated my nostrils.

That’s not to say there weren’t other aromatics. Creamy vanilla was most definitely floating around with hints of chocolate (from what I assume is chocolate malt) hiding behind it all. It wasn’t until the beer had sat for a few minutes that I really started to pick up secondary smells aside from the root beer.

While Secret Stache has a smooth mouthfeel, there’s an acidic dryness on the front and left my mouth feeling chalky on the finish. Unlike the smell, there weren’t traces of root beer in the taste, which was more geared toward a light mocha. Chocolate or vanilla wasn’t nearly as present as I’d thought it would be, especially given the fact that “vanilla” is plastered on the front of the can. Earthy/grainy tastes of corn popped up every now and then.

The characteristics of this beer all felt a little muddled. Secret Stache could probably use a little fine tuning. A handlebar mustache wouldn’t hurt, either.

Secret Stache stats:

• ABV: 5.3 percent
• Brewery: Finch’s Beer Company of Chicago, Illinois

Opportunities A Brewin’

This guest post is written by Jake Metzler (HI, JAKE!), who spends his free time writing songs, brewing beer and drinking his creations. He’s still perfecting the practice of doing all three at once. He also has a growing collection of brewing supplies.

I’ve been brewing for a few years now and believe it adds a lot of positive aspects to my life. Not just the fact it provides me with beer, because let’s face it; you don’t have to be a brewer to enjoy a good (or inexpensive) brew.

I’m referring to the process of brewing itself. I once read a webcomic that proclaimed “Baking is like science for hungry people!” Well, brewing is science for those who like to drink.

Jake Metzler

The great thing about cooking sciences is that you don’t have to understand all the processes in order to get them to work. You can follow the recipes and procedures of those who came before you and add your own flair once you get your bearings.

Here are the different opportunities I believe brewing brings to your life.

What’s a Stout? What’s a Porter? What’s the Difference?

Stout? Porter? Can you tell the difference?

I love Twitter, if only for its constant stream of real-time information. It’s also good to provide inspiration, like when Beer Is My Church posited these lines:

Ok. Enough. If I hear one more “#beer nerd” say “this porter tastes more like a stout”, I’m going to lose it. Explain to me the difference.

— Beer Is My Church (@BeerIsMyChurch) May 7, 2013

The argument can be made & won, that 100+ years ago there were differences between stouts & porters. That is no longer true.

— Beer Is My Church (@BeerIsMyChurch) May 7, 2013

… so that got me to thinking: is there a discernible difference between a porter and stout? More important, is that something we see today?

Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder, so what makes a porter a porter or a stout a stout could simply be left up to the whimsy of the brewer (or drinker). There are set “guidelines” of course, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.

So, I’ve turned to some trusty beer reading materials to see just what this difference might be and how much weight this “porter vs stout” issue had. I found that there might just be something to this after all.

Hair of the Dog Fred

West Coast beers have always been mysteriously aloof to me. Aside from being thousands of miles away, local/regional loyalties and distribution boundaries make the best of the best seem more like a Holy Grail (Pliny!) than Real Live Beer.

So it’s nice when that wall comes tumbling down from time-to-time. Like when I got to meet Fred from Oregon’s Hair of the Dog Brewing Company. It (he?) has a 92 on Beer Advocate. It’s a beer in honor of beer writer, historian and general Man About Town Fred Eckhardt. For some reason Fred is also a dog wearing a World War I-style helmet.

Categorized as an “American strong ale,” Fred sits somewhere between the profile of an amber and barleywine beer. The smell is off-the-charts with loads of sweetness. Freshly made caramel and table sugar are easily detectable, but toffee and marshmallow aromas supply plenty of depth.

For some reason there was a faint smell of carrot to me. That never had much of a chance against all the biscuity sweetness of this beer which was amplified by the “aromatic and rye malts” used in the brew process, according to the label.

Oddly enough, the use of 10 different hop varieties doesn’t register in the beer’s smell, but is easily found in the taste. It’s impossible to miss the sweetness of the malt on each sip, but there is a solid hop bitterness and bite at the end of each taste. The hops provide some pineapple and peach notes, but I was mostly struck by an impression of honey and green apple.

It’s easy to tell there is yeast everywhere in this bottle-conditioned beer, but instead of being overbearing with esters, the strain used in Fred only complements the malt. At 10 percent ABV, booze is always hiding, peeking out every so often on the aroma or flavor, but it never comes close to punching you like a barleywine would.

Fred stats:

• ABV: 10 percent
• Brewery: Hair of the Dog or Portland, Oregon

+Bryan Roth
“Don’t drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life.” — Jack Kerouac

Light Beer Battle: Beer, Calories and Weight Gain

You can’t have a beer gut unless you drink beer, right?

Wrong.

Among the physical characteristics generally associated with beer lovers – aside from beards, of course – is the beer gut. The rotund, sagging mass of flab gravity mocks and terrifies gym rats. But wouldn’t you know it … you can get a “beer gut” from drinking just about anything and not taking care of yourself.

A recent study showed that orange juice or wine could cause weight gain just like beer. Here’s what nutritionist Dr. Kathryn O’Sullivan had to say about it:

“If you are a massive consumer of beer you will of course put on weight,” but, she added: “if you are a massive consumer of wine the same would be true.”

It’s a matter of perspective. Drink lots of alcoholic beverages and sit on your butt all day, things aren’t going to turn out well for your waist. That’s why exercise is such an important part of my routine.

With all this in mind, I was inspired this week by Friend of the Program, Glen, of Beer is Your Friend. Hailing from Australia, he looked at the calorie count of several of that country’s popular brews. I decided, why not do a comparison of sorts for drinkers here in the good ol’ U S of A?

What Makes Beer “Local?”

Because of immense growth in the number of breweries across the country, the idea of “world domination” may not necessarily be a reality any more. Domination, like many start-ups’ distribution network, can be accomplished in a city, town, state or region.

Is it realistic for any new brewery to become the next Sierra Nevada or New Belgium these days? More importantly – does that matter?

Not necessarily.

One of the great things about our craft beer boom is that as breweries start small, many are staying “small.” Or, at least, staying committed to their hometown audience.

That’s good because in recent years, consumer behavior has shifted toward the “buy local” movement, especially those that emphasize the ideals and practices of “local” or “community” within their business. Essentially, if a business is good to its local, loyal customers, they’ll be loyal right back.

“From a business standpoint, local consumers are a huge component of a brewery’s fan base, and in many cases their bottom line,” said David Ackley, founder of the Local Beer Blog. “A brewery taproom offers a significant profit margin that can be especially useful, if not critical, to smaller breweries just getting off the ground. The local fans are also usually the first to spread the word about a new beer release or a special event, either over social media or by word of mouth.”

Local, dedicated business is important – no doubt – so what is it exactly that makes people think “local” when it comes to their beer?

Moylan’s Brewery IPA

On the side of this bottle, Moylan’s Brewery states something to the effect of “LIVE ALE.” That is, like my homebrews, it was bottle conditioned.

I have no idea why they went this route instead of filtering the yeast out, nor does it do this beer any favors. For what it’s worth, this brew has an 86 on Beer Advocate.

From a drinking profile standpoint, this IPA is kind of bland, especially for a West Coast offering. There are four different kinds of hops included in this beer, but they all seem muddled together and I wasn’t able to distinguish the piney Chinook from the dirty earth Columbus from the citrusy Simcoe from the citrus/floral Ahtanum. All I can say is it was all very resinous with specific hints of “wilderness.” Think pine needles or rosemary.

The flavor was super bitter. At 70 IBUs that might be expected, but Moylan’s did use some Crystal and Munich malt in an attempt to balance things out. In theory, that should’ve given the beer a backbone along the lines of bread, caramel, toffee and the like, but none of that really showed.

When I wasn’t working hard to overcome the dry bitterness left on my tongue, I was certain this IPA tasted like honest-to-goodness grapefruit. But in a way that reminded me of when I was a little kid watching my grandparents eat grapefruit, trying it for the first time and being completely thrown off by how awful it tasted. The grapefruit flavor of this beer was unpleasant, bitter and was almost like an not-yet-ripe fruit.

So there you go.

WARNING: BEER NERD TEXT FOLLOWS
Putting all that out there, here is what I’m most curious about… on their website, Moylan’s has spec sheets for all their beers (which is awesome) and this IPA is listed to have an original gravity of 1.094. Maybe they used a lot of 2-Row base malt for fermentable sugars?

What that means is before yeast were added to turn this IPA into beer, it had a TON of sugars for those yeast to eat and then poop out CO2, alcohol, etc. Typically, you’d only see that high of a gravity figure with big beers like barleywines, imperials or a double IPA.

Knowing the ABV of this beer is 6.5, that means that the final gravity was roughly 1.044ish. The yeast attenuation of this beer is terrible. I have no idea why Moylan’s would load up the sugars in the brewing process unless there was a specific end game in mind. I don’t doubt there are others who may be more adept at deciphering this than I, so I welcome insight.

IPA stats:

• Malt: 2-Row, Crystal, Munich and acidulated
• Hops: Chinook, Simcoe, Columbus and Ahtanum
• Adjunct/additives: N/A
• ABV: 6.5 percent
• Brewery: Moylan’s Brewery of Novato, California
• Beer Portfolio: Moylan’s IPA of Moylan’s Brewery

I Can Haz Brewery? Memes for ‘The Session’ May 2013

This month’s “Session” effort is hosted by Chuck over at AllBrews. Rather than dip into the waters of beer nerdom, he’s asked a novel question for this month’s community blogging effort:

In this Session, I’d like to invite comments and observations from bloggers and others who have first-hand knowledge of the complexities and pitfalls of starting a commercial brewery. What were the prescient decisions that saved the day or the errors of omission or commission that caused an otherwise promising enterprise to careen tragically off the rails?

The ideal assistant brewer for my business.

Technically speaking, I’m not fit to answer this question as I am but a mere homebrewer. Although I did tackle this topic earlier this week about some who make it seem easy to “go pro.”

In that vein, I believe Chuck makes an adept observation about the idea of becoming a professional brewer: “Making beer is the easy part, building a successful business is hard.” Craft beer is all the rage right now and the last thing I’d want for others to do is get involved and not be successful. Although I’m constantly pleased to see homebrewers making that shift because of their knowledge and love for beer, not simply to make money.

Either way, being a brewer, brewery owner or even a homebrewer isn’t glamorous. So I put together this handy chart to give you a better idea (click image to enlarge):

+Bryan Roth
“Don’t drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life.” — Jack Kerouac

Everyone in the Pool! The Rush for a Craft Beer Business

Thanks to a few recent posts on the Great Recession and the possibility of the “craft beer bubble” I’ve been thinking a lot about beer industry lately. I couldn’t help but chuckle when I caught this tweet from ABC/ESPN business reporter Darren Rovell recently:

Taxi driver says he wants to open a craft brewery. When taxi driver told me years ago he did real estate I knew the boom was done

— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) April 23, 2013

I believe that Rovell’s tweet is mostly tongue-in-cheek, but I also think there’s some credence to what he’s saying. Not necessarily of whether the “boom was done” – craft beer sales are strong and brewery numbers are growing – but rather how anyone thinks they can get into the craft beer industry.  To once again paraphrase DigBoston‘s Heather Vandenengel: It used to be about making great beer to make money, now it’s a matter of whether operating brewers have the money to make great beer.

The magic lamp for your own business?

That’s why I’m a little dismayed to see the Brewer’s Association pumping up the release of the second edition(!) of their Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery by Dick Cantwell. Or, you can simply head over to Amazon and find a handful of books that will teach you how to open your own craft beer business.

I am not against people pursuing their passions and I’m certainly not against the idea of more (good) beer. I am against providing people with a spark of an idea that for the low, low price of $95 you can buy a book that will guide your path to going pro.

My feelings are a bit exacerbated by an online certificate program available through Portland State University in the “Business of Craft Brewing,” which promises that “[b]y the end of the program you will have an investor-ready business plan for your own craft beverage business.”

Sigh.

Just like any other beer-loving fool, I want this industry to thrive as much as possible. I just get a little weary when people get into craft beer because … well … they can.

So what happens if our taxi driver starts that brewery? Does he succeed? Does he make lousy beer? If it’s the former – wonderful. If it’s the latter – no matter how small a brewery – it reflects on the industry and not just one person or business.

If we live in a climate where everyone wants to make and sell craft beer, is that a good thing?

+Bryan Roth
“Don’t drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life.” — Jack Kerouac

Cherry Bomb: New Glarus Belgian Red

“Flavor: Highly carbonated and intense with cherry flavor and bouquet”

No kidding.

That’s taken from the New Glarus description of their beer, Belgian Red. There is over a pound of cherries that go into each bottle (not IN the bottle, but, you get it). Never in my life have I uttered the words while drinking a beer, “This could really use some more alcohol.”

This is not a knock against Belgian Red. At 4 percent ABV it’s meant to share with friends as a delightful session beer, however that pound of cherries really packs a wallop. It’s got a 97 on Beer Advocate.