Yesterday was one hell of a long day. Aching, tired, and spent. The night before I placed the dubbel and brown ale batches in the fridge, and after getting home from driving all day cracked open the brown ale. This was one of the singular forces keeping my eyes open on those boring long stretches of road in the rain even when you can't see much.... sooner I get back the sooner I can crack open a beer.
Verdict: Tolerable to decent, maybe the sock puppet wasn't half bad afterall.
It's okay, surprised by the "pssst" bottle opening sound, honestly was thinking the capper didn't do it's job on the different style bottles Founders uses and was going to be treated to 10 bottles of oxidized stale swill. But that little gasp made me smile. The beer itself turned out to have better body and flavour than I was expecting too. Little tart, but dark, smells nice, and goes down easy enough when blowing shit up on the Xbox before finally succumbing to the drift of snoozdom, actually cracked open a second one even. It reminded me actually as being very close to Mr. Beer's bottle brew Brown Ale, which ain't all that bad.
Now I still have to work on my bottling. Don't think I've made a batch yet that didn't have sediment, and this one by far had the most. Doesn't phase me much but still, not a clean presentation.
Still have to crack open a dubbel, but as I only have five 650ml bottles, will wait on it for a proper moment with others to taste test.
Now before all that, halfway through driving for an eternity yesterday and landing at the Buffalo airport, my loving partner in crime and I saddled up to the little bar there with friendly wait staff and tried a couple bottles of "Rusty Chain" Amber Ale from Flying Bison Brewery, who are local to Buffalo and Utica. This being the only beer there I hadn't had before, and the only beer there that wasn't your garden variety sports bar mass-produced piss in a bucket, we decided to give it a go.
It wasn't bad, little light on the body (I say that about almost every beer, I like my brews to unfairly feel just shy of melted butter on the way down so truly, it's not bad at all), refreshing flavour, nice to no aftertaste, and we went for round two.Another thing that struck us once again was the label, both of us being avid cyclists, the chain and cog on their label was a familiar bit of niceness. I'd have gone for round three if I didn't have a two hour highway drive ahead of me still and trying to cross the border to boot.
Over the second helping we started wondering out loud about future labels that may go on my bottles. I've always been a minimalist, desiring a more tasteful approach without the glam. I love Flying Monkeys out of Barrie, their Smashbomb IPA is still one of my favourites and my all time favourite of their under-the-cap sayings was simply: "Hi!". But their labels are so bright and tacky I think I'll leave that level of tie dyed artistry to them. Though have to admit, it certainly draws the eyes in the store away from other beers and there is an amazing amount of creativity and positive energy in every one of those designs. It's a blast, but not my style.
One that recently struck me both in labeling and taste was Collective Arts Brewing. I'd only just seen their name for the first time earlier in the week walking by the Gladstone Hotel when it was making a delivery. A tiny black minivan with their tasteful circular label on it. It was simple, tasteful and still drew the eye. That weekend for a Halloween dancemadnessdrinkathon with friends at a little bar just off Bloor, we found their "Rhyme & Reason" IPA.
So after a warmup dance, I dove into their IPA, and found it quite amazingly different, it had a unique taste I couldn't quite put my tonguebrain on. I'm not good enough to guess the hops they used, but it was fresh, spicy, and herbal. It tasted unlike any IPA I'd had before, and after a few more bottles, would place it not too far behind Muskoka's Mad Tom as something I truly enjoy. Mad Tom being second only to Ithaca's Flower Power in my mind for sheer awesomeness. Any beer I can drink a gallon of in a day and still love, is damn okay in my books. Rhyme & Reason may very soon join that very short list.
Now where this gushing leads us is back to their labels. Every single one was different. I don't know the story behind the brewery (yet!), but between the name and the variety of art on the labels I'd venture it's a beer loving crowd of artists using one art to share and advertise another. I'd say it is successful. We spent as much time admiring the bottles as drinking from them.
Now I'm truly understanding just how high the bar is set on craft/micro brewing in general, and I've only just begun. Those already involved, are hopefully only going to get better. How to differentiate ourselves, and make a name, will be truly challenging.
This will take a bit more thought and practice and brewing and drinking and talking and drinking and drinking. We'll see where the remaining brain cells go with this in the future.
In the meantime I still have to mark my bottle caps with a sharpie.
Sláinte
Verdict: Tolerable to decent, maybe the sock puppet wasn't half bad afterall.
It's okay, surprised by the "pssst" bottle opening sound, honestly was thinking the capper didn't do it's job on the different style bottles Founders uses and was going to be treated to 10 bottles of oxidized stale swill. But that little gasp made me smile. The beer itself turned out to have better body and flavour than I was expecting too. Little tart, but dark, smells nice, and goes down easy enough when blowing shit up on the Xbox before finally succumbing to the drift of snoozdom, actually cracked open a second one even. It reminded me actually as being very close to Mr. Beer's bottle brew Brown Ale, which ain't all that bad.
Now I still have to work on my bottling. Don't think I've made a batch yet that didn't have sediment, and this one by far had the most. Doesn't phase me much but still, not a clean presentation.
Still have to crack open a dubbel, but as I only have five 650ml bottles, will wait on it for a proper moment with others to taste test.
Now before all that, halfway through driving for an eternity yesterday and landing at the Buffalo airport, my loving partner in crime and I saddled up to the little bar there with friendly wait staff and tried a couple bottles of "Rusty Chain" Amber Ale from Flying Bison Brewery, who are local to Buffalo and Utica. This being the only beer there I hadn't had before, and the only beer there that wasn't your garden variety sports bar mass-produced piss in a bucket, we decided to give it a go.
It wasn't bad, little light on the body (I say that about almost every beer, I like my brews to unfairly feel just shy of melted butter on the way down so truly, it's not bad at all), refreshing flavour, nice to no aftertaste, and we went for round two.Another thing that struck us once again was the label, both of us being avid cyclists, the chain and cog on their label was a familiar bit of niceness. I'd have gone for round three if I didn't have a two hour highway drive ahead of me still and trying to cross the border to boot.
Over the second helping we started wondering out loud about future labels that may go on my bottles. I've always been a minimalist, desiring a more tasteful approach without the glam. I love Flying Monkeys out of Barrie, their Smashbomb IPA is still one of my favourites and my all time favourite of their under-the-cap sayings was simply: "Hi!". But their labels are so bright and tacky I think I'll leave that level of tie dyed artistry to them. Though have to admit, it certainly draws the eyes in the store away from other beers and there is an amazing amount of creativity and positive energy in every one of those designs. It's a blast, but not my style.
One that recently struck me both in labeling and taste was Collective Arts Brewing. I'd only just seen their name for the first time earlier in the week walking by the Gladstone Hotel when it was making a delivery. A tiny black minivan with their tasteful circular label on it. It was simple, tasteful and still drew the eye. That weekend for a Halloween dancemadnessdrinkathon with friends at a little bar just off Bloor, we found their "Rhyme & Reason" IPA.
So after a warmup dance, I dove into their IPA, and found it quite amazingly different, it had a unique taste I couldn't quite put my tonguebrain on. I'm not good enough to guess the hops they used, but it was fresh, spicy, and herbal. It tasted unlike any IPA I'd had before, and after a few more bottles, would place it not too far behind Muskoka's Mad Tom as something I truly enjoy. Mad Tom being second only to Ithaca's Flower Power in my mind for sheer awesomeness. Any beer I can drink a gallon of in a day and still love, is damn okay in my books. Rhyme & Reason may very soon join that very short list.
Now where this gushing leads us is back to their labels. Every single one was different. I don't know the story behind the brewery (yet!), but between the name and the variety of art on the labels I'd venture it's a beer loving crowd of artists using one art to share and advertise another. I'd say it is successful. We spent as much time admiring the bottles as drinking from them.
Now I'm truly understanding just how high the bar is set on craft/micro brewing in general, and I've only just begun. Those already involved, are hopefully only going to get better. How to differentiate ourselves, and make a name, will be truly challenging.
This will take a bit more thought and practice and brewing and drinking and talking and drinking and drinking. We'll see where the remaining brain cells go with this in the future.
In the meantime I still have to mark my bottle caps with a sharpie.
Sláinte
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