Finally got my mouth around some tasty tasty W00tstout last week. It's pretty damn sexy, I need to see if I can find more as my pallet was completely wrecked at the time.

This whole week has been macrobrew for me while I was in Las Vegas for DefCon. Closest thing I got to craft was a single sad, lonely bottle of Arrogant Bastard found in the back of a refrigerator case in one of the casino gift shops.

I'm brewing my last round of summertime saison this weekend. Its a quick turn around and should be ready in 3-4 weeks. If I'm feeling super ambitious, I might go for a double brew day/weekend and start something that will be tasty come November/December. Something big, clean and stupid malty sounds fun, I just need to figure out exactly what I want.

 

When in vegas, beer is free. And so is hard stuff. Consider it a "pass".

in other news, I've been drinking my way through Michigan thanks to a neighbor who is repaying me for watching his cats. I gave him two bottles of #w00tstout for his help with my shed.

 

Appearance – Dark, clearn brown with a tan head, light lacing.

Smell - Dark fruit nose, cherry-date thing going on

Taste – Dark fruit, caramel, bread-like finish.

Mouthfeel - Mid to low carbonation, middle of the road to light mouthfeel

Overall - Sweet and refined,fruit hinted bock beer.

 

Drinking at the pub in Arcata California. Redwood curtain. Centennial Jack Pale Ale .44 IBU. 5.7 abv.
Very tasty.
My favorite brewer and pub. I only live like 12 miles away in a rural area. 20 min drive.. excellent beer at this place.

 

Southern tier pumpking is back in season...I bought some. Also bought a case of Anderson valley winter solstice (**** is so good) for $25 a case.

 

Tonight consists of hanging out with my cat and a 4 pack of West Coast IPA and a Ninkasi Total Domination. The Green Flash is excellent, I'm not impressed by the Ninkasi, maybe it was too hyped up by the guys at work. Have to get up at 5am to go wood cutting tomorrow, going to be a rough morning.

 

I'm making an epic beer run to Europe, and have picked up almost all of the Trappist brews (Including at least one that isn't available to the public )

Had a bottle of Westvleteren 12 today, and I must say, it is every bit as good as the hype around it and then some. I cannot speak highly enough of it, which is why I'm importing a crate. Seriously, I thought something this highly hyped was going to be like every other highly hyped beer I've heard of, including dogfish head, but for once, the actual beer exceeded the reputation.

I've got a picture of some of the beer I am importing to the US. I have been impressed by Belgian brews in the past, but never quite as much as with this Westvleteren.

 

I'd love to get my hands on a couple bottles of Westvleteren Blonde (do they even sell this?) or 8. I have a microbiologist standing by to propagate if I can get a couple sealed bottles. The Blonde or the 8 should be the best bet. We tried 2 of my bottles of 12, but the ABV was too high so the yeast all had fetal alcohol syndrome retardation upon propagation. Need a lighter Westvleteren for better results.

I am jealous you are drinking your way through Flanders. There, I said it.

 

St. Bernardus brews use the exact same yeast, E02K. Have you looked into them at all?

The secret with the Westvleteren is only in part due to the yeast, they have other (very labor intensive) brewing tricks that you wouldn't likely be able to apply outside of a trappist abbey.

 

I was actually unaware! I'll look into that... but I bet its fresher from the brewery either way

 

St. Bernardus is a LOT cheaper and easier to get then Westvleteren, I'd hate to "waste" a bottle of Westvleteren when you can get the same yeast from a brew available in the US.

At this point, with how my luggage is, I'd have to leave behind bottles of 12 to take extra bottles of 8 or blonde.

 

Pssht! There was/is no waste, of that you can be sure

 

Would I be able to get a sample of the resulting yeast for brewing purposes?

 

Trust me, there is no labour saving in homebrewing. I'm not at the point where I'm growing and harvesting my own sugar beets to make dark candi sugar, but I am equipped to do all-grain step mash. I'm vetting my steam gear this weekend by doing a steam powered step mash on a 5g batch of Flanders Brown.

It sounds like I need to PayPal you $50 so you can buy another bag and put it on the plane I'm such a beer *****, you really have no idea.

Sure! If we can propagate it and its viable to brew with it, I have no problem sharing. You will notice there is a big "if" in that statement, propagating from commercial samples can be a real bastard. Easiest way would be to build it up to some useable volume, do a batch, and then wash/harvest the yeast and send you a mason jar or an 8oz bottle in the mail.

 

Dude.

Let me look into the cost, if you are willing to pay for the extra bag, I'll take sixxers of blonde and 8 for you back as well as St. Bernardus and anything else you can name that fits in the extra bag.

(Edit) I'll have to call the airline in the morning, but it looks to be 200 euros for an additional bag. That's a /little bit/ much. Let me see if I can pack a couple extra bottles of blonde and 8 in, as I just read the bags can carry up to 23 kgs - I thought it was 22kgs. That's enough for 2-4 extra bottles.

 

Hmm, how about postal service? My grandfather mailed a pile of stuff home from Germany because it was cheaper than the airline. How much cheaper, I couldn't tell you. Just a thought, not sure what time/resources you have available.

 

Couple of IPA's at six rivers with dinner. Now at Redwood curtain. Now a dry hoped pale ale with Centennial hops . Then a growler of Dubbel to go. 8.6% ABV 25 IBU. Tasty.

 

That has potential (felony) legal implications that can be a bit scary when it comes to shipping alcohol, I looked into that originally.

 

You pee ess. Just send two well packed bottles at a time. The tightest ship in the shipping business.

 

you cant ship federal, but you can ship 3rd party legally.

fedex
UPS
DHL
etc etc