Utopias

So we went and gosh darn did it. We got the Utopias by Samuel Adams Brewing. That beautiful bottle sat on the shelf for almost a month maybe more, just sitting there staring at me. It's glossy glass look glimmering orange and pearl as you walk by against a bright white shelf. The little metal door that my young daughter loves to open and close knowing she can't touch the bottle. In conversation it would come up, how can you pay so much for a bottle?

Well it's not a open and done bottle, so it will last. You're only supposed to drink about two ounces at a time so it will last... Then the questions, won't it go BAD? How do you know it will stay GOOD? Well because we've done research on the internet and it's more similar to a port wine when stored than a carbonated beer. Well this flew over most and honesty the internet wasn't 100% sure. So A decided to settle this once and for all. He was going to the source, there would be no doubt any longer. He emailed Sam himself. The old guy that's been dead for generations and couldn't convince of the internet and its awesomeness. When he didn't respond he decided to email the brewery.  Here is their response:

December 27, 2017

Dear A... ,

Thank you for your message and your interest in Utopias.Using processes that we learned in making the not-currently-brewed Triple Bock and Millennium beers, the brewers at Samuel Adams have created a truly unique brew.

Because this beer is un-carbonated and high in ABV, it can be opened and closed to be enjoyed when you want to enjoy it. However, you won't want to store this beer in the fridge- a cool and dark place is ideal. And don't be afraid to hold on to the bottle, the liquid will only get better with age!

Our brewers recommend serving Utopias as an ideal after-dinner drink or toasting a special occasion at room temperature (about 70 °F) in 2oz pours.

I hope this answers your question. Thanks again for contacting us and Enjoy!

Cheers...

There you go, the facts, the DL, the meat of the pie. Ohh and the first 2 ounces, wow. You want to try it. I hear folks are selling it for 20.00 an ounce, I think it's worth about 15... Hit me up I may have some left, just know it's a sipper and you should have a great cigar to go with it.

Smoked beers

So I was just reading an article about smoked beers. Here it is for your reference (https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/all-beer-tasted-like-smoke-brewing). I can't speak for A on this but a smoked beer intrigues me. In all honesty the few I've had I won't want to try again. For the most part I think these are to heavily smoked. I want  a smoked beer like I make smoked meat, a heavy layer but when mixed with the rest it is subtle and soft.

This is why I don't often smoke with mesquite it's just to harsh for the palet. Now if I need a blast of smoke for something that's being cooked quickly I have a bag of mesquite lying around. So there's a time and place for everything. All the smoked beers I've had so far are dark from the smoke and the fact they are often stouts to begin with. I'm wondering what a little apple smoke to the hops would do for an IPA.  Wouldn't need the heat if using pellets but if you have the flower maybe some indirect heat could completely change their profile. With all the oils in the hop I wonder if it would bitter more or sweeten. A light smoking of a sweet wood or even cherry just sticks in my mind as an occasional delight.

If anyone's done this and there's a reason why I don't see them everywhere (I'm certain this isn't an original thought) please tell me. Does the hop not roast well? Do we end up with hopcorn instead of a delicious bittering and preserving bloom? I need to know.

Visit Dog Rose Brewing

In September the wife and I (J) visited the Ancient City of Saint Augustine Florida. We stayed at the Saint Francis Inn and did the whole walk around town thing. Pretty much hop from bar to bar to distillery. You know had a good time. The we were walking down Bridge Street, there it stood a big redish building with the word Brewing inscribed . I was excited, mouth salivating with anticipation of new never before had brews.  I walk briskly up the steps grab the handle of the door and look through the glass as the door doesn't open. Dust, unfinished bar top, paint in progress. It isn't open. Disappointment rushes over me like a kid opening an empty box on Christmas. I walk on and enjoy the rest of the trip with an emptiness inside that I must shelve for next time.

Since we come often I knew it wouldn't be more than a few months before I could walk up those steps again. So yesterday while coming for the city in lights show I decided we had to try again. After a nice dinner downtown we started the walk to Bridge Street. The anticipation mounting with the slight memories of failure from the last trip melding in the back of my mind. We walk closer this time child in tow. She's jumping on an do the crooked sidewalks laughing and singing. I think she's displaying the excitement I wish I could let out. There it is, the redish building, lights on, it looks occupied from down the road. Joy sets in new beer is on the horizon. We'll it disappoint, well it be amazing, only one way to tell.

Walking in is a nice open Floorplan. Real darts in the corner, shuffle board next to that, a large wrap around bar and several table of varying sizes. In the back the shine of fermentation tanks bring joy to my eyes and maybe a tear. On the left a board with seven colored names. Speedball Stout, Ramble on Red and Roadside IPA catch my eyes. We take a seat and I walk to the bar. How many are in your flight? "As many as you want." Oh these are my favorite words... One of each please. "I'll bring the right over." Wowzers full service, nice...

I try all seven, even the wife has a sip to see if her pallet has matured to beer. The six year old sticks to water for this trip and is enjoying the electronic device in her hands. The beers overall were good. I wasn't disappointed at all by them. It seems they are Brewing for both the first timer (bud light drinker) and the craft beer lovers. So there is certainly something for everyone. Two I would consider the New guy first step beer, either their Lincolnville Lager which is really lightly hoped or the Palace Pale Ale which is more the citrus route. My favorite here was the Roadside IPA which smells as good as it tastes. The Set Break oatmeal stout and the Speedball stout also very good.

Saying I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin in advance (mostly because it's almost always pumpkin spice) I wasn't a fan of the Jolly Jack's Pumpkin Ale. It gave me more of an Old Bay taste than a strong pumpkin spice.

All in all it is a nice brewery to visit. I'll look forward to coming out again and will certainly visit each time. It's nice to have two good Taprooms downtownish and worth the short walk to each.

The road to @GABF

The Great American Beer Festival is approaching. A and J are sitting at the Rum Fish in the C terminal of Tampa International Airport. Enjoying a Reef Donkey from Tampa Bay Brewing Co to start the prep of our livers for two days of trying to try 3800+ Craft beers from around the country. Can we prep for this? I'd like to think the years and years of beer has been prep. How many can we try? Well the dream goal is is all of them, reality will break our spirts at some point  but the alcohol content will keep them alive.

We board our flight shortly hoping to meet new brewer's and most importantly new masterpiece craft beers.

-J

Beer for Breakfast

Now I've seen a lot about this recently. It is like a craze and people are going nuts over it, I mean not anyone I know. We are all for it! For some reason, my guess is the same reason we still can't buy liquor in some places before 11 am on Sundays, having a drink before noon is still Taboo. This is ludicrous folks, there is absolutely no reason that "In the land of the free" (I know some may not be here) we are not "free" enough to have a beer with or even for breakfast.

Was it that it was a British thing to do and when we crossed the pond we threw it out? Come on you know George sat in his favorite chair in Mount Vernon with a nice stout in hand. Imagine that; Martha walking by seeing George's cup empty thinking , You're already on your second one George?, heck no the man was a general! She called to the kitchen and shouted, friends he's out again!
Here's a fun article about good old George and his Beer.

So beer was originally for breakfast because well water was horrible, carried these killer bacteria and people knew it was bad. So the solution Brewing and fermentation. I mean you could just pour yourself a glass of Airag which is a delicious glass of fermented milk, I'm guessing it tastes like the way I'm saying the word in my head (Eh - Rag). Personally I'd rather pour a glass of Chicha de jora which is drank in the Andes, you can already guess from my enthusiasm its almost a beer. As great science fiction movies would say "Would you like to know more".

 

I could keep going and who knows maybe I will do the history of beer as breakfast in the future but for today's point, get over it! Grab your favorite stout be it coffee or otherwise, sit back with the paper on whatever day your weekend may be and cherish in the fact that you're celebrating history and not breaking a single rule for life.

Enjoy your beer, enjoy your life!

Mistakes - Great and Not so

I'm sitting here at Escape brewing thinking, it's amazing how many mistakes make really good things. A and I have been to so many breweries over the last few years and a common theme is an oops beer on tap. They never mean to and doubt you'll ever see it again but they all have them.

It's like a great chef, they say in pairing food you taste each bite, you consider the emotion that it brings forward. The memory from the smell and the visions of childhood wonders. Like the smell of fresh baked bread making you recall the bakery down the street you had to pass on the way to school. You didn't have that memory? Neither did I but that's why we aren't great chefs.

Anyways back to beer. Always be willing to try that beer in the bottom right corner of the sign. Great breweries admit their mistakes, they wear them with pride and gosh dang a few of them that will never be duplicated again, you'll wish for, you'll desire, you'll crave one last sip and damn it they won't let you fill the growler. 

Six Ten Brewing First Impressions

Well A and J are off tasting as many beers as our livers will allow, or our wives which ever tell us to stop first. While we were out and about this last weekend preparing for the big event of the 4th of July we went to a nice little spot in Tampa called Six Ten Brewing.

The location was nice, a small number of tables and nice size bar. They appears to have a nice crowd there most of the time at least during the Saturday night rush in which we went to visit for.

Here are our reviews for the different Beers we tried, I truly think we would both suggest this place as a nice little joint to stop.

I'm declaring the Vanilla Porter the winner of the trip. Nice smooth and still remember the lovely vanilla smell so many days later..

OWC
Six Ten Brewing
IPA - American
A'S RATING (4.25)

GLOBAL RATING (3.68)
6.8% ABV
NO IBU


TPA
Six Ten Brewing
IPA - Imperial / Double
A'S RATING (4)

GLOBAL RATING (3.85)
10% ABV NO IBU


Vanilla Porter
Six Ten Brewing
Porter - American
J'S RATING (4)
A'S RATING (4.75)

GLOBAL RATING (3.98)
5.9% ABV 38 IBU

Poco Loco
Six Ten Brewing
Pale Ale - Belgian
J'S RATING (3.25)

GLOBAL RATING (3.51)
6% ABV No IBU

Shameless
Six Ten Brewing
Blonde Ale
J'S RATING (3.25)
A'S RATING (4.0)

GLOBAL RATING (3.56)
5% ABV No IBU

Monk's Milk
Six Ten Brewing
Blonde Ale - Belgian Blonde / Golden
J'S RATING (3.5)

GLOBAL RATING (3.53)
5.2% ABV No IBU


CBGB
Six Ten Brewing
Berliner Weisse
J'S RATING (3.25)
A'S RATING (3.5)


GLOBAL RATING (3.75)
3.5% ABV No IBU

Gateway
Six Ten Brewing
Pale Ale - American
A'S RATING (4.25)

GLOBAL RATING (3.47)
5.5% ABV No IBU 

YouTube videos are go

So like we started below in singe other post we've started paying YouTube videos. Well we may pretty much suck at it today but in a year we might just get dang good. Don't you want to be one if the first to subscribe? Rhetorical question, we know you do. So enjoy the pre perfection entertainment now, one day well be charging for this stuff...

Days without beer

The days between beers, oh what long days those can be. Been super busy running around with family and having a generally good time. I noticed something missing, the new beer experience. Found myself looking for something new to try and nothing could be found. Well nothing without driving away from the family fun and since I'm the only one who drinks the beer it wouldn't really be a good time had by all. This needs to be remedied folks, why even today local restaurant's don't have local brews or even why chain names don't bring in the community brews blows my mind. Yeah sure Bud sells the most but one barrel of a local alternative a month might slow that down a bit.

Have one person from your location who likes beer go out to a local tap house and find the closest thing to Bud Light they can. Bring it in and give it one tap, that's all I'm asking. If it goes well then fantastic, if it sits there and spoils no one was told you have a local on tap. That's really what it is, I hate going to a place and saying what beers do you have on draft. I know you have Bud, Bud Light maybe Miller, I want to know the oddballs. I want to hear "Well we have a local lager by XYZ down the street and Bud, Bud Light...."

Damn how that would change the world. Get out of this same old garbage routine, people want to try new things if they don't then they're missing the spice of life.

Enjoy the spice of life drink local brews...

J

The video barrier

AJBrew has just broken into the video world. Honestly this is how we planned on starting this thing but we got distracted by delicious beer. Now that we've had so much delicious beer we figure it is time to show our faces, those handsome (ha) faces.So anyway our New Years resolution (one we hope not to fail at) is post at least one video a week, may be short may be long but we will be using Periscope and\or Snachat so follow us at both those places. As usual AJBrewReview will be the way to find us. Here are the links for your enjoyment. Let us know what you think, good, bad or otherwise. On everything but the Snaps we will make sure to do them in landscape because that horizontal video thing we hate it too.

AJBrew You Tube Channel

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 DrinkMoreBeer

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Side Trip New Belgium - Quick Review

Leave Santa a Beer!

Dear Kido's,

I know Christmas is right here, I mean it is only a few days away. Your house is decorated in the finest LED lights your old man could find. Your mother has made plans for the family to come over. Hopefully the two of them have snuck out and had a nice evening without you little brats, I mean adorable children. Point is the entire family has been busting their butts to get everything ready for you. You are the stars of the show. The whole holiday is focused on kids.
You're forgetting about one thing. The fat man, the man in the red suit, the guy who's been busting his butt with hundreds of little elves and Mrs. Claus breathing down his neck to get that gift to you on time. He's been working the last 364 days, slave driving the elves into a workshop groove that rival's the workshops in China.
What do you do for him? You only think about the guy in November when that elf shows his/her face around Thanksgiving. Yeah mom or dad may have threatened you in July but you were all like, I have 5 months to make up for that.
Bottom line is your going to give Santa a sugared up cookie, some milk, and those reindeer a piece of celery or a carrot. Have you ever busted your butt and then drank milk? The answer is no! If you had you wouldn't think of leaving that curdling cup of stomach ach. Sugar cookies? Come on that's a temporary high followed by a crash and bed rest for two days with the number he needs to eat in one night. No wonder he takes a bite and leave the crumbs, really he's throwing it out the window of the sled hoping some squirrel eats it before you see it.
What the man wants is what your daddy wants. It's that simple, an ice cold beer (maybe Mrs Claus in a nice teddy too, skip that part kids). If you really want to get on the fat man's good side leave him a growler full of that local nectar. It will allow him to relax, you'll certainly end up on the nice list. If it's a good red or brown you might even end up with a free pass for the next year! Reindeer if they're anything like horses they'll love it too.
No worries Santa isn't drinking enough to get drunk. He would never drink and sleigh. You'll be the only kid in the block doing it anyways. He might even steal the growler and bring some up to convince Mrs Claus to wear that other thing we talked about. You'll be THE kid, the one he remembers, so don't chump out next year, he'll be looking forward to your house!!!

Merry Christmas from AJ Brew.

How dare you use a Pint Glass!

How dare you! Got your attention for a few seconds now? I've been reading a bit about glasses beers "should" be served in and the poor common shaker glass, the glass every American knows, is being kicked to the curb. I mean it was bound to happen. In my journey through the beer world, still a young-in to many, I've noticed something when using a shaker glass; it doesn't smell right.

So what, you're not there to smell beer!   Yes I am, I (you) need those odorants to complete the true flavor of the drink. With the introduction to the craft world I noticed first that beers often smell better than they taste. Now that my flavor profile has evolved to enjoy many more beers one of the flavors I enjoy most is the smell. So to get back to the glass issue. Try a little experiment. Take a shaped glass, any glass like a wine glass with the nice curved in rim and a common shaker. fill them both with the exact same beer. 

Look at the beer, chances are your shaker glass looks a little more clouded (thicker glass) where the wine glass will have a crisper look, colors a little brighter. Obviously don't use a super dark beer for this test, it will be harder to tell. Now smell the beer, which one smells better? This is really pronounced when using an IPA as the floral smells come out even more. Now taste the beers, first the shaker, inhale through your nose as you taste, now the wine glass... Which one was better? Your saying their the exact same beer, now give it to your friend, pose it as two different beers. which do they pick?

Most of the time the wine glass will be picked. The other thing I'm liking more is the shaped glasses, some have a bump at the base of the glass or Samuel Adams etches a line in the base. This causes the carbonation to cluster and rise from there, releasing it quicker than if it was in a standard shaker glass. More air being released the more smell into your nose as you drink. I know I sound crazy but give it a try. I didn't believe it either but it seems science wins out again and when you mix that science with a little bit of glass art beer drinking becomes an experience. 

You probably can't have a glass for each type of beer in your fridge but hey I'm getting myself a good stemless snifter for my all propose glass, and it will easily double as a large wine glass. 

Here are a couple sites that attempt to pair up glasses with types of beer. 

Beer Advocate

Craft Beer Restaurant

Real Beer (I like theirs the best, it's a picture...) 

On My Wish List!!!

Enjoy!

Do you miss Beer?

So as far as I can tell I'm not an alcoholic. With that said I find myself missing beer. I don't mean missing it like I need to have it, I mean when I go out to a restaurant or sit at a bar there's nothing there that I want to drink. Sure there's Budweiser (check my Untappd profile to see how often I drink that) and now one craft beer or so called big name craft beer. But what I really want is the local tap house at my bar. Two or three different locals, real locals from a few miles away.

I've been visiting several places lately and since I travel I have to hit a place with food every now and then (otherwise I'd be revisiting the alcoholic statement). When I see the label local I ask, obviously, from where. They often say some place hundreds of miles away from the location I'm at.
There's 6 places within 10 miles, why won't the owners go and get a barrel? Try it out, support your local area, local jobs. These are the people visiting your restaurants and bars. Give them something to be proud about, right? Pimp your local employers, instead of saying local say from <entry your city name>. I have no doubt your local breweries would sell you the barrel, crap some might give you one to try out. Take a chance, the big breweries know it's a good path, they keep buying them up! #drinklocal #reallocal!

Why don't you brew your own beer?

We get asked this all the time, "Why don't you make your own beer? I'm sure it would be great."
Anyone who knows A & I know we enjoy going out to the Tap houses trying new beers. We are the beer snobs of our friend circle. Honestly I think we are both proud to say that these days.

At least once a week we get together and hit up @BigStormBrewing , @SilverKingBrew or one of the great places that carry a ton of the locals like @JohnnysFillin and @TarponTavern (trust me the list of locals for us is much longer but I cant name them all). So weekly we are enjoying a brew or two.
I get the pleasure of traveling part of the time for work, so I get the opportunity to visit those far off tap rooms like @ConfluenceBrew, @515Brewing and @FireTruckerBrew to name only a few of the most recent ones.

I have a passion that's developed for beer. I love the stuff, even the bad ones. To think someone poured their heart and sole into making a batch of deliciousness out of water maybe hops and malt, threw in some oddball stuff and took their valuable time to pick through various forms of yeast to find one that burps just the right amount to make perfection.

Why would I even try to step on the toes of this process by making my own brew? The first dozen batches would be insulting, it would be an assault on ones palette, a disgrace to the craft. Yeah eventually with enough practice maybe we turn out a brew that competes with the artists of the craft brew world. I'm confident if our hearts were in it we would.

But why? Right now I can sit back after a day of working drive within 5 miles from my house, meet up with good friends and enjoy a pint (or more) of perfection. No more work than that. No sweat, no tears and no mistakes. Yeah we don't get the recognition of having our names on a can. Who cares? I get my recognition by knowing my few bucks are going to support something someone absolutely loves to do. Something someone cares enough about to fuss over which yeast has the right burp, which malt to use and from what region of the world or country, which hop and when or how many times to throw it in.

It's amazing and at least for now we're going to enjoy sitting on the customer side of the bar.

Enjoy!

The Reviewers Position

So I was reading an interesting story the other day. It was from a magazine I read all the time and was about how a reviewer can ruin a beer with a single bad review. How they don't take into consideration the hard work involved. I haven't been doing this long (drinking beer yes posting my opinion about them no), and part of AJ Brew Reviews goal was to offer two peoples tastes as a guide for others. 

Everyone has a different pallet of taste. Same as with movies everyone has a different style of movie they like.  Beer should be treated no differently. If two popular movie critics  said some movie was bad, that may stop me from seeing it in a theater but it wouldn't stop me from seeing it all together. Beer should be the same way.

If we say a beer is horrible (we don't really use that wording) that shouldn't mean don't try it. What it means is that A or J said hey our palette is not enjoying this beer maybe you should try a smaller sample than commit to a full glass as you sit. The great thing about the Craft industry is they are pretty much setup this way. I have never been to a Tap House that wouldn't give you an ounce or so taste of every beer on tap.

It's almost like they want you to find the beer you like, the one your going to enjoy, the one that makes your taste buds sing.

That is truly our goal and that is why both of us post our own opinion about the beer. Some people are going to align more with A's pallet and other more with J's. Honestly there are few beers we agree fully on but many we both like.

To me the article was almost saying that we are hurting the breweries feelings and I just don't believe it. I was sitting at a Tap House the other day and the brewer said we put some pretty crappy beers out just to get rid of them some times, everyone in the back hated it, then we find ourselves making more because  we ran out so quickly. We had one brewer tell us he had a request to make a beer again and he had to tell the guy there was no way he could duplicate all the mistakes that happened to make that beer again.

The bottom line is we are not out to tear down a brewer or brewery we would like to think we are helping them just a little bit. I know for a fact we've converted a couple people from always drinking Bud Light or Coors to have an occasion a craft beer.  I've even describe beers as a great starter or Bud Light converter.

A&J's goal is to enjoy a good beer and let you know what we think. We just want a reason to go out more and drink even more beer.

Enjoy!!!

The Facebook Like issue

J: You know it is a very interesting thing. Post the same content in multiple places but one if extremely hard to get noticed. It's almost like the follow a different model forcing you to want to pay for the same likes and information you can get elsewhere. Well I refuse to pay for something like a like. To me it's the equivalent of walking down the street and giving someone a quarter because they might like what your offering. Isn't traffic the ultimate goal? That seems to be the model the most successful companies use, share all the content in the world your content being exposed to the masses through simple means allows us to generate income from companies who have real money.  Rant over but hey if your on the FB and want to like our page please do. I will prove them wrong one way or another.

 https://www.facebook.com/AveageJoeBrewReview