MaineBrewed

Re-using yeast

2010-02-11T11:42:00.003-05:00

Quick recap: I got married and brewed a dry stout, a Scottish, a saison and a Belgian honey pale ale for the occasion. They all came out well, though I liked the saison best.

Brewed a pale ale with my garden hops and four different small-batch, single-hop IPAs that I really should have documented here. Decided Zeus was my favorite of the hops I tried.

I just bottled a hoppy amber ale, like Troegs Hopback Amber or Nugger Nectar- I'm hoping for something in between them.

I've got a Dubbel (from a Northern Brewer kit) in secondary, and I made a strong golden ale and poured it onto the yeast cake from the Dubbel. There might be off tastes, since I used the same fermenter, krausen and all, but I'm no longer worried about the yeast not being to handle the OG 1.084 wort. For 24 hours, the fermentation was so vigorous I couldn't even hear separate bubbles on the blowoff growler. It was just pushing out gas so fast it sounded like there was a small motor running in my closet. Two days after brewing, I'm still hearing about 3 bubbles/second in there,

A brewery for every 42,000

2009-04-15T14:14:00.002-04:00

So Maine has a brewery for every 42,000 people, according to the Brewers Association. That's awesome as a consumer, maybe not so great if you're a craft brewery, after you figure out how many of those 42,000 actually drink craft beer. It helps that most of our breweries are good enough to keep people coming back, and that my fiance and I are drinking our share of Maine-brewed beer.

The report also states that Shipyard is the 26th largest brewery in America, and the 16th largest craft brewery. I'd quote the AP brief on it, but the AP would sue me for that, even though it's just a summary of a press release, so read it here if you don't want to bother wading through the info in the Brewers Association pdfs. Also, Magic Hat is the 10th largest craft brewer, and Vermont has the highest number of breweries per capita.

Atlantic Brewing buys Bar Harbor brewing

2009-04-15T01:39:00.003-04:00

Good news, I think. A year ago, Bar Harbor brewing was bought by an out-of-state firm, which is about when they started selling Geary's-brewed six packs. And the six packs were almost as good as the bombers. But Atlantic Brewing just announced they bought up their Bar Harbor competitor. It's such a weird thing to have mergers and buyouts in the tiny Maine brewing community. For years, according to the MaineBiz book of lists, Bar Harbor Brewing was only putting out 300 barrels a year. Not surprising since it was a cellar operation for so long.

I suppose it's good in that Bar Harbor beer will have access to Atlantic's distribution chain. I've seen their ales as far south as New Jersey, and meanwhile Cadillac Mt. Stout is hard to find outside of Maine, where it's treasured as one of the best on the world.

I hope all this works out. At the very least, arguably Maine's best brewery is back in Maine hands.

WABI: Brewing uo business in Bar Harbor
Beer Scribe Andy Crouch's take on the buyout.

Blueberry Imperial Stout

2009-01-29T02:20:00.002-05:00

I'm sipping my new stout, which turned out pretty good. I was inspired to make this one down in Florida by Mack in Black, brewed in Fort Lauderdale by Holy Mackerel brewing. It was an imperial stout with a hint of pomegranate juice. You can't even taste the pomegranate when cold, but the fruit comes out as it warms up.

So for mine, I set out to brew it at about 8.5% abv. Unfortunately, the yeast died before long. It was a strong enough strain- I think the cold temperature in my house (around 50 at the time) killed it off too fast. So I added some champagne yeast, and got a bit more bubbling out of it. According to my final gravity reading, it should be about 7% abv, which means I left quite a bit of sugar unfermented.

I added some of that fake blueberry extract for flavoring beer, but not a lot. Half the recommended amount for the batch size, because I didn't want it to be overpowering.

I just opened my first bottle tonight. First impression is that I need to let it carbonate a bit more, although I did get a 1/2" head out of it. Pitch black with a tan head. A little bit of roastiness and blueberry in the nose.

The taste is roastiness first, followed, mixed with a sour blueberry flavor and a bit more hop bitterness than I'd expected.

The main thing I'll change next time I try this is to tone down the hops. I'd also like to use real blueberries in the brew. If that comes out better, I'd try a 3rd batch with a Belgian yeast, which is what Mack in Black uses.

Still, this isn't a bad start. The blueberry is as subtle as I was aiming for, although going down there's a bit of sourness/bitterness that I wasn't looking for. I don't want to give up on this beer, though.

Here's a link to my recipe. I'd love any feedback, suggestions, etc.

5 1/2 month anniversary!

2009-01-16T12:27:00.004-05:00

I realized today I've had this blog for 5 1/2 months. I'm happy to report that through Twitter, placement on the beer sub-Reddit, and a lot of posting, I have two regular readers: my girlfriend, Pattie, and my friend Mary. I guess it doesn't matter since this was meant to be a personal document as I explore my state's craft brew scene, but I think in the near future I'll work to get my numbers a little higher. 5, maybe.

I've got a lot planned this year, especially in terms of home brewing. I plan to move to smaller batches, probably 3 gallons, so I can make stronger beers and be more experimental. I want to start all-grain batches, and I plan to move my hop garden this spring to a huge trellis attacked to the back deck so my plants can grow higher- at least 10 feet up.

And there's plenty in my own state I haven't done. Never been to 3Tides or Ebenezer's. Never toured Atlantic or Bar Harbor breweries, even though they're two of my favorites. Never been to a beer festival. Lots of ground to cover in 2009.

Gritty's 21 IPA

2009-01-15T01:56:00.004-05:00

I've been drinking this stuff for a month now without writing about it because I just can't take the time. Who wants to slow a great drinking experience by taking notes? Plenty of people, I suppose.

This is definitely an English-style IPA, with toffee/caramel flavors competing with the piney/grapefruit taste of the hops. It's a balanced, complex IPA, and my favorite Gritty's offering to date. A hell of a way to celebrate their 21st anniversary.

I didn't like Gritty's when I first got into craft beer. My palate immediately picked up on the toffee flavors that seems to be prominent in all their brews, and that's all I'd taste until the bitter finish. Besides my immature palate, I think a big problem was that I was buying the beer close to its expiration date up in Old Town, and that's no way to enjoy beer, especially beer in a screw-top bottle.

Drinking at the pub in Auburn definitely changed my opinion, and Gritty's has become a sort of comfort food to me. As soon as I taste a Best Bitter or a Pub Style, I feel relaxed. I'm sure I've has more meals at Gritty's than any other restaurant, never mind any other brewpub.

I do have one qualm with the 21 IPA, though: I'm already done my 4-pack. This should come in 6-packs, or 8-packs, or 12-packs. It's not fair to just leave me hanging like this.

Sea Dog brewpub in Bangor

2009-01-13T16:04:00.004-05:00

For the past few months, the Sea Dog in Bangor brewing again. Good news for me, since I'm in Bangor often to see Pattie.

One qualm with the article:

'For people, it’s just the novelty of the thing,' said Sea Dog general manager Larry Killam.

I think there's more to it than that. When you brew on premises, you can brew what you need as you need it. I hope that's what they'll be doing. Fresh beer is almost always better, of course, especially with Shipyard stuff. Last week I got my hands on some Gritty's IPA set to expire way off in September, and it's as fresh-tasting as anything you'd get on tap at the brewpubs. I can't say that about any Gritty's bottles I've bought before.

I recommend the Sea Dog. Great pub food -- it could go toe-to-toe with Gritty's in that department -- and the one in Bangor usually has 2 ales on cask. Last night, that included Old Thumper. It's clearly the center of the Bangor social scene, though, so good luck getting a table on the weekends. If you haven't been, though, don't judge them by their fruity wheat beers. They brew an English-style pale, a roasty stout, a mild porter (the other cask beer last night) and a highly-quaffable brown.

Otherwise in Bangor, there's Paddy Murphy's, which doesn't make great food but has a cooler atmosphere/people, and Christopher's, which is usually kind of dead and is expensive, but it's got the best bottle selection in town.

Good morning!

2009-01-12T07:06:00.003-05:00

A great new beer. Went to Novare Res last night with Pattie and a couple of friends from college. I was just a day early to catch their 12 Stouts of Christmas. We were meeting people later, so I grabbed a Rogue Double Dead Guy, then a Petrus Dubbel Bruin, both on tap. I decided I'd finish it with a hop bomb and finally try Victory Hop Devil IPA, which they had bottled, but the bartender said they were out.

"If you're into pale ales, though, we've got a new one from Belfast." It wasn't even on the tap list yet, so I ordered it, thinking it was from Belfast Brewing Company, who brew McGovern's Oatmeal Stout and Lobster Red Ale.

At my first sip of Tug Pale Ale, this clearly did not come from by Belfast Brewing. The hopping was so big, bright, so citrusy, that this couldn't even be from Maine. Maine breweries mostly go balanced and English-style with their pales.

On my way out, I checked the tap handle and double checked, "Is this from Belfast Maine?

It turns out they've been brewing for more than a year down there at Marshall Wharf brewery, run out of the 3Tides pub. I remember hearing about the pub a long time ago, in someone's blog, then I guess I forgot.

Well I'm embarrassed not only that a brewery went under my radar, but that it's a brewery of this caliber. I wish I could read more about them, but the Village Soup story that covered them originally is closed to people who don't have paid subscriptions.

What I do know is that they have 12 house beers on tap at a time, with an ambitious rotating lineup that includes 2 IPA's, a mild, an oyster stout, a Scotch ale, a Baltic Porter, and the most intriguing to me: Illegal Ale-ian, described by their Web site as a "hybrid kolsch / wheat beer brewed with blue agave nectar."

Kind of makes me want to call in sick to work tonight and drive up to Belfast. I won't, but I will be begging Florian's to get their hands on some growlers.

Jan at Beer Bloggers has a great review. On Tug Pale, she writes, "at the other end of the scale the Tug Pale Ale offers a hop experience as dramatic as any I’ve had at any gravity." So true. It's a 4.2% abv that could easily become a favorite session beer, if I can get my hands on it here in town.

Peak Organic Espresso Amber Ale

2009-01-08T01:33:00.005-05:00

They say the main difference between beer tasters and wine tasters is that beer tasters swallow. Guilty as charged. But we don't do it to get drunk, although I like to imagine beer drinkers have a better appreciation of inebriation than the wine crowd.

We do it because beer is complex enough that our tongues detect different flavors as it passes across. The tips of our tongues are more prone to pick up the malty flavors, while the backs detect bitterness. So beer has a 'finish,' the taste we get as we swallow. EDIT: I have been contacted by someone quoting science, saying that the tongue taste map has been debunked. So I'll search for a more plausible reason that the taste of complex foods/drinks changes and post back here when I find it.

So for tonight's featured beer, I decided to draw a diagram of the tastes encountered drinking Peak Organic Espresso Amber Ale. It's a relatively simple beer with three waves of taste: the maltiness at first, the huge taste of espresso as it passes through the mouth, and a pleasant, lightly hoppy finish.

So here it is:

I know it looks like a floor tile sample here, but it tastes delicious. I thought it was novel of Peak Organic to make an amber coffee beer, and this beer exceeded my expectations. Although one can't drink too much because it clocks in at 6.8% abv, I could easily drink 2 or 3 of these in a session. I've seen complaints that the espresso flavor is overwhelming- that's true only if you're serious about the German Beer Purity Law, or you just don't like espresso.

Otherwise, you'll see this, as I did, as a huge step for Peak Organic. I've always respected their beer - the maple oat ale was pretty good - but it was nothing remarkable until this bold, beautiful creation. Definitely check this one out.

Maine Coast Brewing

2009-01-07T03:50:00.002-05:00

Maine Coast is a brewpub I didn't know existed until recently. So, my girlfriend Pattie and I drove to Bar Harbor the other day to check it out.

Going to Bar Harbor in the winter is kind of a waste of time, as the town is about dead. But I saw online that Maine Coast was open year-round and I was anxious to try a new brewpub.

It's a pretty little restaurant with a nearby building where the beer is brewed. The brewery looked closed for the season, and there were only two other tables with diners. On tap, they had a stout, a brown, and IPA, and what I suppose was an imperial IPA called "Armstrong Ale."

I ordered a brown and Pattie got the IPA. The biggest aspect of the beer was the ocean water taste. Seriously, this beer tastes a bit like sea salt, which makes me think seaweed was added to the mash. I'm thinking this because I bought the "Historic Ales from Scotland" giftpack recently, and it includes a seaweed ale. Here's how the brewer describes it:

Prior to the 1850’s there were many Scottish coastal ale-houses which brewed their own ales, these ales were made from local malted barley which was grown on fields fertilised with seaweed. This environment gave the barley a very specific flavour which we have recreated by the inclusion of fresh seaweed in the mash tun.

The brewer wasn't around, and I didn't think to ask the waitress if she knew. But I'll say Legends' Kelpie Ale is a lot more subtle than Maine Coast's beer, where the 'ocean' taste can make it a challenging drink. Like a heavily-smoked beer, it takes a little time to adjust to it.

It mixes easily with the brown ale, but when combined with hops in the IPA Pattie ordered, the result is a strong tang. Pattie said it tasted "like dishwater," but I thought it was interesting. I wanted to buy some to bring home, but our waitress said they didn't have any at the time. Lesson: Don't go to Bar Harbor in the winter. I do plan on heading back sometime to buy some bottles or a growler. God knows how much they'll cost, though- a pint glass there is $9.

Real ale from Sheepscot Valley Brewing Co.

2009-01-04T01:18:00.003-05:00

Last week my friend John and I took the hour-long drive from Auburn out to Whitefield, Maine, where the Sheepscot Valley brewery was open from 4-6 p.m. refilling growlers.

Steve Gorrill, who along with a barn on his property comprises the entire brewery, only sells his beer twice a week. He once told me he started the brewery so he could spend more time with his kids, so despite the demand for his beers he doesn't let the brewery consume his life. So you call ahead, then show up during his hours on Friday evening or Saturday afternoon. $6.50 to refill a growler with most of his beers, or $8.50 if you're buying a full new growler.

So it must be pretty good if I'm driving an hour away, down a dirt road called "Hollywood Boulevard," to a barn that's only open 4 hours a week. It's actually incredible. Gorrill's flagship ale is a Scottish style called Pemaquid Ale. The demand for it is so high that he has Sebago contract brewing for kegs in bars and for the 22 oz. bombers you can find in Maine's better beer stores.

But getting it fresh from Gorrill's barn is so much better. Pemaquid packs a kick, but it's medium bodied and malty sweet- heavy on dark crystal malts. He makes a citrusy pale ale and a roasty stout, but I haven't had either one in months.

If you get one growler, get a Pemaquid. If you get two, grab a double brown. It's $9.50, or $7.50 to refill. It's a strong ale, but like the Pemaquid hides it well under malty sweetness. It's a little heavier than the Pemaquid, but I didn't find it overly filling.

I figure Gorrill's setup is perfect. He does everything on his own terms. He's not in a convenient location and he doesn't keep the most convenient hours. But I waited in line to get my growler refilled, and there were several people in line behind me. John and I had stopped at the Liberal Cup (a brewpub which will get its own post) and I asked Gorrill if he had a bathroom there. "I have an outdoors," he said.

Totally on his terms, and the beer is so good, I keep going back.

The New York Times visited the brewery and a half dozen others on a tour of Maine beers. It's a good read.

The season for new beers

2008-12-23T23:47:00.003-05:00

OK, time to get back into blogging. Why? Maine breweries are releasing new beers, mostly seasonal, and so far, all better than their average offerings.

Take Geary's Wee Heavy, a mean beer I bought in a 4-pack. There was no abv on the packaging, but the profile on Ratebeer says it's 8% by volume. I guess they put this out a couple of years ago for their 20th anniversary and brought it back recently.

What little head appears in the drink goes away quickly. Sipping this, I was surprised at its dryness. I was expecting something like Belhaven Wee Heavy, but McEwan's is a better reference point for this. There's an alcohol burn that reminds me of Old Rasputin.

I feel like a Wee Heavy should taste sweeter and cover the alcohol a bit better. This had a hard edge I didn't expect.

Still, it starts and ends with a pleasing maltiness; the burn only happens at the middle of my tongue. And, despite its dryness, I kept going back. Every pint of this I drank was a quick one. This is not a sipper.

I'm conflicted. I'm not crazy about this as an example of a Wee Heavy, yet I'm crazy about this beer. Like McEwan's, but without the peat flavor, and with a sweetness that's more malty than syrupy. At the risk that this is a seasonal, I'm going to but another couple of 4-packs and cellar them, which means I'll put them in a box under my bed next to my Weyerbacher XIII.

Yes!

2008-10-19T02:52:00.002-04:00

After a week of miserable sobriety, I've found a new reason to drink.

No, I haven't been dumped again. Florian's expanded their beer cooler! The most notable addition is beer from Stone Brewery out in San Diego, but there's a handful of other new names as well.

Yes, I should be concentrating on Maine Beers. Stone Coast is closing its doors, which is probably a signal the Maine craft brew market has finally reached saturation.

It's a tough loss, though. Their 420 IPA was Maine's best IPA, at least the best you could buy in bottles, and I'll miss it. But don't worry, I haven't abandoned Maine beer. I have a few bottles of Casco Bay Summer Ale, along with a bomber of Atlantic's Scottish Ale, which I'll report back about in the next few days.

Yeah, I love Maine beer, but variety is always exciting. If you live near Auburn and haven't made it to Florian's in the past few weeks, it's worth a visit.

Geary's Autumn Ale

2008-09-29T08:09:00.001-04:00

There are a few styles of brown ale, but for me, there are two categories. Some are classic session beers, like Brooklyn Brown Ale, Pete's Wicked Ale or Newcastle. They have some malty taste, but they keep a low profile and generally a low abv, with the intention you'll drink it in long sessions, like an eight-hour social gathering. Then there are the nutty, malty sweet browns, like Samuel Smith's Nut Brown, Oak Pond's Brown, or Bar Harbor Real Ale. Geary's Autumn, which has been my favorite Geary's brew for years, is in the latter category.

I say this not only because of the round, malty flavor, but because at 5.8% abv, this is a bit strong for a long night out. Delicious beer, but it's changed a bit over the years.

Just a couple of years ago Autumn Ale had a real carbonation bite. I think the carbonation is markedly softer than it used to be.

On a different front, the label has changed. I was first drawn to this beer by its warm, watercolored label. But these days, it uses these days ridiculous 3-D lettering. Come on, guys. Why would you abandon the 2006 label? Well, even if the label has gone downhill, the lower carbonation is a smart touch.

A note on spolied beer

2008-08-28T16:05:00.002-04:00

For the second time, I was burned after buying a bad beer. This time, it was Oak Pond's Laughing Loon Lager, a dark lager I usually enjoy. But this bottle had gone sour, and there was no warning to protect me from wasting $3.50 on an undrinkable bottle of beer.

It's absurd that all beer doesn't have an expiration date. Food does, as do drinks that spoil. But beer can be expensive and no one wants to pay big money for beer that isn't good. It doesn't help that many stores carry good beer but ignore expiration dates on the bottles.

To some brewers: I don't understand why you wouldn't include expiration dates. A spoiled bottle of your beer might be someone's first. It's stupid to risk losing that customer for life because he/she thinks you have no idea how to brew.

To those who haven't tried Oak Pond, they're delicious beers, big on malty taste. You can tell the brewer loves Munich malts and adds them recklessly. Find some on tap or fresh. But if you see Storyteller Bock at a certain Auburn establishment, keep in mind that it's last year's winter seasonal brew.

Nice article about Maine Beer

2008-08-24T14:41:00.003-04:00

George Smith at the Morning Sentinel in Waterville had a pretty good writeup about Maine beers. Apparently his son has a beer blog and introduced his father to good beer.

My only criticism of the story is his criticism of Dieu du Ciel's Peche Mortel, their amazing imperial stout. My girlfriend and I had never heard of it until we wandered into their Brewpub in Montreal in March of this year. We got to talking with a fellow American beer tourist, and he bought us a round of the Peche Mortel so we could try it. Even after sampling 5 other brewpubs that night, we could tell this was something special. I didn't take down any notes, but there are coffee flavors and, damn. I do remember it was great.

Anyway, it's always nice to see Maine beer getting attention. He has some interesting info about brewing during prohibition. I'm going to find out where he got the info and see if there's more.

New! Bar Harbor Pale Ale

2008-08-23T04:14:00.002-04:00

I just realized the bottle of Bar Harbor Acadia Pale Ale I bought today cost me $4.89. It's on the high side for a bomber, but I'd have gladly paid twice that to try a new beer from Bar Harbor Brewing. There it is, posing with a bunch of my college textbooks.

No surprises here, just a solid pale. Note from the photo that this is a bomber, actually brewed by Bar Harbor, as opposed to the 12 oz. bottles. I don't have anything against the little Geary's bottles, except that the stuff brewed in Bar Harbor is made in small batches and bottle conditioned, and I think it makes a difference. As a homebrewer, I love seeing the layer of yeast at the bottom of the bottle.

And oh, those hops. I'm not experienced enough with hops to guess what variety, but it's pleasantly bitter in an herbal, citrus way. This is definitely a pale in the British sense, not the American. It's vaguely cloudy, probably because of the live yeast, and the malt character is pretty light. If it wasn't suicidal, I could drink 40 of these in a night. I'm kind of sad the one I'm drinking is down to the bottom already.

I've heard Bar Harbor Brewing is under new ownership, but can't find any info on this. Anyone know anything, or have links?

Belfast Bay McGovern's Oatmeal Stout

2008-08-22T16:48:00.002-04:00

Finally rating the Belfast Bay Oatmeal Stout I bought last week. I've been drinking it a bottle at a time for the past week, considering the taste. Oatmeal Stout is generally a smooth, heavy stout with all the chocolate and roasted malt flavors you'd expect from a good stout, but this beer is a little different.

The hop character is out in the open, which surprised me a little considering the style. Still, the bitterness, provided by Fuggle hops, I think, competes with formidable malt character underneath. There's a smooth roastedness, and the sweet taste of crystal malt is present. The beer is well-carbonated, which contributes to the hop taste coming out. After the bubbles on my tongue washed away, the hop bitterness got me a second time. Impressive.

I'm not totally crazy about the bitterness of this stout, but you can't argue that it isn't full-flavored. I've bought this before, and I'm sure I'll try it again. It's definitely one of Maine's best stouts. The dark roasting, combined with the bitterness, gives it a black coffee smell. Head is the color of root beer fizz, but it stays around for a few minutes. It's a nice beer overall.

Speaking of Maine's best stouts, by the way, Bar Harbor Brewery, brewers Cadillac Mountain Stout, just released a pale ale. I've got a bottle in my fridge, and when I get out of work tonight I'll try it and share the results.

Hop harvest

2008-08-13T03:08:00.004-04:00

My hops were finally ready to pick Sunday. I was afraid the days of rain we've had would ruin them, but no such thing. When we finally had a dry day, my hops were fine, and just ready for harvesting.

I shot this same branch in an earlier post. You can see how much the cones have grown in a week.

I picked more than 5 oz. of Sterling hops, and about 3 oz. of Cascade. Here's the Sterling. Btw, I didn't do anything to enhance the colors. Hops are really this beautiful.

I added my Cascade hops fresh into a pale ale I was brewing. I'd already added bittering hops (Super styrians) – you can tell by the hop gunk on the spoon and the sides of the brewpot. The fresh hops are just for aroma.

And there it goes. I've never had fresh hop beer, so I'm really looking forward to this.

As for the Sterling hops, they went into my new food dehydrator so I could ready them for later use. They'll be going into the Oktoberfest I brew later this month.

Here are the Sterling hops in a one-ounce, vacuum-sealed bag. I froze them for later. Once the hops were dried, they only weighed two ounces, so I have one more bag frozen with this one.

As for my fresh-hop pale, I tossed in Safale-04 Ale Yeast, and when I woke up for work 6 hours later, it was already happily bubbling away. That should have been a hint.

When I got home, the airlock was filled with green bubbles, and it was starting to bubble through the holes in the cover. As I was getting some sanitary solution together, I heard a hiss. It was spraying straight up against the ceiling of my closet, and onto my clothes, too.

I'm not sure why it overflowed. I had a gallon of empty space in my carboy, and it wasn't a high-gravity beer. But I do have a lot of beers that start fermenting vigorously, then die off almost completely after a few days. I'm not sure why.

Respect for Old Thumper

2008-08-10T02:15:00.001-04:00

If you didn't know, Old Thumper has been brewed in England at the Ringwood Brewery since 1979. Shipyard's brewmaster Alan Pugsley trained under Ringwood's brewmaster, Peter Austin, years ago. When Pugsley joined Shipyard as brewmaster and co-owner he got permission to brew Ringwood's most famous beer in America. Austin even sent him his own Ringwood yeast so the beer would be identical.

When you hear about Ringwood yeast in Maine, it's usually in the context of “I'm getting tired of Shipyard using that same Ringwood strain in everything.” I think a big reason for that is that Shipyard doesn't make bold beers. They're mild enough to let the Ringwood taste come through. And why not? It's the one thing they have that no other American brewery can replicate. If I had a proprietary hop or yeast, I'd use it in everything I made, too.

I didn't know the story with Shipyard's Old Thumper until about a month ago when I was visiting my girlfriend in Ft. Lauderdale. I found a great bar called Original Fat Cats, with a great bartender who knew beer. I don't think I got his name.

They had Shipyard Export and Old Thumper and a couple of Sea Dog brews, but Old Thumper was on cask. It was already my favorite Shipyard brew, but I couldn't put my finger on why. As I was drinking it, the bartender told me the story about Alan Pugsley, and I gained a new appreciation for the beer. I'm drinking the last in a six-pack I bought last week right now.

It's on the strong side at 5.8%. Not strong for an American craft beer, but strong for England, where the government taxes high-alcohol drinks more. There's an apple taste, then a faint leathery taste, and on top of that is something like buttermilk. These tastes are present in all Shipyard's brews, but it's more apparent in Old Thumper, especially on cask.

The thing with Shipyard is, enjoying the Ringwood yeast is a prerequisite to enjoying the beer. I love it, others don't. But understanding the yeast is the key to enjoying their beer. Their beer isn't loaded with Munich or Crystal malts or specially-bred, high-alpha hops like most of the best American craft brews. But it has some subtle charms that eventually grow on you.

S.O.B.

2008-08-07T00:43:00.000-04:00

Part two of my Oak Hill Beverage tasting is Atlantic's Special Old Bitter, or S.O.B. Their take on the Extra Special Bitter has a reasonable 5.5% abv, which is about average for this brewery. I'm surprised I'd never tried this before. I'm a big fan of Atlantic's Bar Harbor Real Ale and Coal Porter. The blueberry is pretty good, too, but I've never had the courage to try the Island Ginger.

Anyway, I was pleased with this. Head was thin, but had a nice hoppy aroma. Not bright and floral, but bitter. Crisp on the tongue, with moderate bitterness like an ESB calls for. A hint of pale malt under all that hop, but the hops really dominate here. Their Web site says they use Northdown hops for bittering. I'm not familiar with that variety, but it kind of reminds me of the Amarillo I've used in my last two beers.

This beer is nice and light bodied, and I've long felt bitters had just the right amount of hop character. I'll get around to reviewing Andrew's English Pale Ale soon. Might be my favorite summer beer.

Although if this one came in six packs, it might manage to steal that crown.

Brown Hound

2008-08-06T03:16:00.001-04:00

Unfortunately, the first local beer I tried for this blog was a bad experience.

I went to Oak Hill Beverage in Scarborough for the first time because I was downstate to get some brewing supplies. Turns out I could have saved a stop because they have a good selection of brew stuff there. Picked up two tasty-looking 22oz. beers because they were Maine beers I hadn't run into before.

After bottling some funky old Schwarzbier I made weeks ago and don't have much hope for, I cracked open the Brown Hound. Not really brown- more like a cloudy red. Thin head. Tart, surprisingly floral smell. I took a sip and-

-what the hell?

This beer is sour. Like a Warhead or one of those candies I had when I was a kid. I'd chalk it up to age, maybe, but it doesn't taste skunky. Just thin and sour. A disappointment because I love a good brown ale. I kept sipping searching for some sign of caramel malt, but I kept coming up short.

I don't know if I got a bad batch (possible) or maybe someone at the brewery accidentally put a really intense lambic in the bottle by mistake (unlikely). I'll search for this on tap to hopefully get a better idea about it.

Anyway, I sipped away at this for about an hour. The beer didn't improve as it got older. Finally, I threw in the towel, dumped the rest out, and poured myself an Old Thumper. Mmm. Apples. Almost buttery. I'll write more about Old Thumper later.

This was a bad first experience with Brown Hound as well as with Oak Hill Beverage. I noticed they had some expired beer in there. Their Wolaver's, which I've been meaning to try, was dated November 07. And the Sierra Nevada Harvest, which originally prompted my visit as I'll be making a fresh hop ale in the next week, was from SN's 2007 batch.

Still, they had the best selection I've yet seen in Maine, especially with 22oz. bottles. I grabbed a Young's Oatmeal Stout -- I'd only had their Double Chocolate Stout -- which was heaven in a bottle, but I won't review it here because the plan is to stick to Maine beers.

Hops are almost ready

2008-08-03T15:50:00.000-04:00

Here's one of my Sterling hop plants. I ordered some Nugget, Cascase and Sterling, two rhizomes each, from Northern Brewer and started them in pots after a few days in the fridge.

They all grew in the pots, but one of the Nugget vines didn't survive transplant into the ground. The other hasn't grown well. The leaves are yellowing and it hasn't produced any flowers or cones. Maybe it'll do better next year.

There are a couple of things I did wrong. One was not to prune enough. When my job at the newspaper went full time, it coincided with my getting a ton of hours at Staples and I hardly saw my vines for weeks. The other mistake was not properly supporting them. I started with a tomato trellis for each type. After a week and a half, the Sterling vines had outgrown its trellis. So I found a long piece of edgework that was eventually supposed to go in my house somewhere. I pushed about a foot of it into the ground and wrapped the vine around it. The vine climbed up that, too, and hung off, and grew back down the vine, then up itself and just got more and more tangled. That diagonal stick you see above is the original piece of wood, weighed down by the weight of the vine and the cones. The green post beside it is a metal vine trellis I picked up at Lowe's. I really underestimated how fast hop vines grow. I'll still get a good yield this year, but next year I'll be better prepared.

Here we go.

2008-08-03T04:00:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to do this for months, and now it's finally started. I get to write the kind of beer blog I like to read, and exercise my atrophied writing muscles while I'm at it. My name is Tony. I'm 25 and I live in Auburn. I've only been into craft beer for a few years, but for 1 1/2 of those I've been home brewing. I have sterling, cascade and nugget hops growing in my backyard. I don't drink much Belgian beer, except for special occasions with my girlfriend, Pattie, where we drink it like wine.

The craft of brewing excites me, and I've made some stuff I'm pretty proud of. I'll be writing about my own beer, but mostly I'll be writing about Maine breweries. I've had some great experiences with Maine beers, like going to the Sheepscot Valley brewery in Whitefield, and I hope this blog encourages me to seek out more beer adventures in the future.