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Seasonal Beers Taking The Stage... Of Love of Hops, Malt & Barley, and Strength

TasteYourBeer.com — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:26:57 GMT

Go ahead and pour those pumpkin-flavored beers down the drain. Halloween and Thanksgiving have passed us by. The big rage now has moved to Christmas Ales and Winter Ales. You can't drink these in the summer heat, at least not in most places in the northern hemisphere, but now is the time of year that should help Christmas and Winter Ales shine.

Rich thick ales, holiday spices, and a love of microbrews and craft brews... All that is missing is a fire and a good book. We recently got to taste the new limited 2011 seasonal release from Belgium's Troubadour called the Troubadour Magma Special Edition 2011. The large format bottle boldly states "Cascade Hop" on the front. We measured it up against our Hops Appreciation Kit and sure enough, you could easily smell the Cascade Hops. The beer offered much more as well. It was more than a Duvel, yet nowhere as full in the mouth as a Chimay Blue nor as a Trappistes Rochefort 8 (or 10). Some citrus, and a 9% ABV to get you through a cold winter evening.

Other great Winter and Christmas Ales we have enjoyed to start off this holiday season:

Sierra Nevada Celebration, available at most stores outside of high-end and specialty beer, wine, and spirits shops. 6.8% ABV, West Coast Hops. A routine favorite each year (and well past New Years).

St. Bernardus Christmas Ale, available at better grocery stores and many large format beer, wine, and spirit stores. ABV about 10%. Don't tell anyone, but we generally keep a few of these even for April.

Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale, only about 6% ABV but malty and floral. For those who don't really want a hops explosion in their mouth, this is one for you.

And finally, an after-dinner enjoyment that is almost a substitute for port wine... Avery's THE BEAST GRAND CRU. We could get a bit of a whiff of the Hallertau and Saaz hops from our hops appreciation kit, but there are multiple hops at work here that mask the primary hops. It is also thick and dark and felt somewhere between a rum drink and port wine. At 14.9% ABV, it helped to reinforce that we needed to take a cab home.

Avery's real Winter Ale is the seasonal Old Jubilation Ale, which we are looking forward to trying out. Avery uses Bullion hops and specialty hops for a normalized 8.3% ABV.

Enjoy your seasonal ales, even if the hops and malts are out of the norm for the rest of the year from many brewers.

For the perfect beer gift for those interested in learning more and more about beer, try out our Beer Tasting & Hops Appreciation Kit.

John & Costa

A Beer Lover's Challenge For Wine Lovers

TasteYourBeer.com — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:40:10 GMT

Taste Your Beer has a challenge for oenophiles. Just because you love wine does not mean that you do not enjoy what some people call "wine's lesser cousin" of beer. As a beer lover, it is easy to admit that an in-store price of a bottle of beer has a limit. Wine has a limit in price as well, but how many people in America would balk at spending $25.00 or $30.00 for a bottle of beer? Probably about 99%, and maybe more, while many wine buyers won't think twice about buying a $75.00 or $100.00 wine bottle just because they read a good review or on a recommendation. Taste Your Beer has a challenge for oenophiles and fans of wine who are also beer lovers... We want you to learn one-tenth of your wine knowledge for beer using our Beer Tasting and Hops Appreciation Kit.

The Brewers Association put the overall U.S. beer market at about $101 billion in 2010, and that was down 1% from 2009 despite that craft beer sales continued to rise at the expense of the mass-brewed market. Wineinstitute.org gave a retail value figure of about $30 billion for U.S. wine in 2010, up 4% from 2009, based upon 9-liter cases.

Many non-industry consumers in America have spent thousands of dollars to learn about wine, how to identify aromas, flavors, textures, and more about wine. While there are thousands and thousands of craft beer homebrewers, many beer drinkers consider oenophiles as wine snobs and many oenophiles consider a lager a lager and an ale an ale. Our aim is entirely different. We sure enjoy our beer, but we also enjoy wine, spirits, and even sometimes take the effort to enjoy a nice glass or two of water and other beverages. The preference of wine over beer does not have to be an exclusive choice.

Our Beer Tasting and Hops Appreciation Kit is the perfect gift for wine lovers who also enjoy beer. Consider the kit a bridge for oenophiles (and others) who want to learn to be able to identify the beers they enjoy. Perhaps even more important is that you may learn that there are certain hops that just don't agree with your tongue. It happens, just like some consumers prefer Malbec over Pinot Noir or vice versa. This is a great beer gift that might be considered a wine gift for the holidays, Christmas, a birthday, a party, or Father's Day.

This kit could even save you hundreds or thousands of dollars (let alone unpleasant tastes) in not wasting your money on beers that have the few hops that are truly unpleasant to your palate. On a personal note, it was this revelation after trying our kit out against a range of beers and then comparing the results against our hops database that made us even more excited about the kit. It turns out that some hops loved by others would be a "Not so much..." by others.

So, what does the kit offer you? For starters, the Beer Appreciation Guide offers a quick-hitting 47 page reference book helping you with each and all of your needs in beer knowledge. Our online hops database allows you to compare beers and the hops that are in them. The big hit is the 13 varietals of hops found in many of the craft beers (and in many mass market beers) in America in order to help identify the hops. You are to smell these hops while sampling your beers. There is a beer color guide, and then there is a how-to on how to host a beer tasting and other games/events for beer tastings.

We encourage our oenophile friends to take the beer tasting and hops appreciation challenge. This is a very unique gift that is almost certain to please most drinkers who enjoy both beer and wine.

Here is the Beer Tasting and Hops Appreciation Kit by Taste Your Beer.

Great Holiday Beer Gifts Under $50.00

TasteYourBeer.com — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:47:14 GMT

The holidays are rapidly approaching and people need beer gift ideas. Whether it is Christmas, a birthday, or just fun treats for your family and friends who are beer lovers, we have compiled a quick-hit list of great beer gifts. These are all under $50.00 as well, before shipping and taxes. Really, how can you go wrong with any of these? They are awesome:

Intro beer making kits, awesome beer glasses, a sampler pack of craft beers, an awesome beer magazine subscription, a killer beer book, remotely buy a beer for your buddy afar, and a beer tasting and hops appreciation kit! All of these for under $50 each, a steal.

They say that you can win love through the stomach, and beer fits right in there! Here are some awesome beer gift ideas for the holidays, all for under $50.00 each:

STARTING TO HOMEBREW
MrBeer.com is a starting-off point for people who might want to try a homebrew experience without having to commit hundreds and hundreds (or more) in dollars to find out if they enjoy it or not. This might not be the destination for expert and advanced homebrewers, but it is great for those who want to find out if they would enjoy it. Our take is the Premium Edition.... Everything you need to brew/bottle 1 batch of great tasting beer. For $49.95... Included: 1 Fermenter (2 GAL); 1 Standard Booster™ Refill; 8 Bottles with Caps; 8 Labels; Brewer's Guide and Instructions.

DRINK WELL MY FRIEND! If you are using regular bar glasses for good craft beers, shame on you. Would you drink tequila from an aluminum can? Don't treat good beer badly! Kegworks sells the Classic Beer Glass Connoisseur Collection that is a 4-glass set and it comes with a tasting book. $34.95

BEER SAMPLER PACKS.... Bunch of Brew 12-Pack for $29.95.... You get to pick from the following: Sun Brews - Light to medium beers; Golden State Brews - Mix of light, medium & heavier brews; and/or High Sierra Brews - Medium to heavy beers... Sorry, but state laws prohibit shipping of this to GA, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, OK, TX, UT, or VA.

For those in Texas, Spec's can bundle many craft beers in a box and ship to many zipcodes within the state to Houston, Austin and others but not in Dallas nor in counties where there is no Spec's store. Spec's confirmed they will bundle these in however you want them.

A GREAT BEER MAGAZINE... There are many beer magazines and publications, but the one that brings new beer ideas each month and that keeps up with craft brewing trends is BeerAdvocate. Right now, a subscription for a year delivery to your mailbox is a mere $15.00.

SEND A BEER TO SOMEONE AFAR!!! Want to send your friend, family member, or work associate a beer on you at a local pub? Try Beer2Buds.com to prepay for a beer (or several) at one of their local pubs and taverns in many cities around the country. $5 to $25 packages available. Think of it as "pay-palling a beer." Nice idea.

THE BEER BOOK... Literally! The Beer Book by one of our favorite publishers because of illustrations, photos, and quick-hit facts without all the fluff and filler. THE BEER BOOK by DK Publishing... List price is $25.00 but Amazon listed it for $16.50. Hardcover, over 350 pages.

AND FINALLY.... THE BEST BEER GIFT OF ALL.... And our own personal favorite, for novices and experts alike... Please don't just drink your beer. Taste your beer. This is the Beer Tasting & Hops Appreciation Kit from Tasteyourbeer.com. For $39.00 you get more than a dozen individual hops that make up many of the popular craft beers. Also included: a beer color chart, a hops database, beer tasting games, an awesome beer appreciation guide book, and more! Beer tasters will learn more than most wine snobs! This is how you will learn to find out which hops you like, and those you don't like, so you won't waste hundreds or thousands of dollars over the years trying new beers with hops that don't quite agree with your tongue.

-The Team

What Is The Most Important Beer Today?

TasteYourBeer.com — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 22:41:27 GMT

So, yesterday, as is often the case, we were engrossed in another of our beer debates… This time an acquaintance was with us who, although enthusiastic about beer, was new to our more “formal” beer sessions. And he posed an interesting, if not altogether different, question for the group: “What”, he asked, “is the most IMPORTANT beer?”

“Important? –What do you mean, important?” I asked. He didn’t have much else to say but it got us to thinking… We’ve debated so often the quality, taste, aroma, etc. of beers from all over the world but not until yesterday did this question to come to the table – Important?

Well… After a great deal of thought I’ve got an answer! Now, it should be noted that I’ve fine tuned the question a bit, rendering it specific to modern times – no need opening up the debate to the first of this or the historical something-something of that (all worthy topics in and of themselves). Simply, the most important beer of, say, the last 50 years. With that in mind, the answer is: “The most important beer of the last 50 years is Samuel Adams’ Boston Lager.” Now before everyone starts throwing bottles at me, and arguing their side, hear me out…

The Why: Let’s not forget that the Big Three – Bud, Miller and Coors – have had (and still do) a strangle hold on the American beer market for years and years and years. The truth is that up until 15 years ago, you were hard pressed to go to a bar/lounge/and certainly a restaurant and find much else on the menu beyond the Big Three. Then came the push from Samuel Adams. Starting out as a micro-brew, slowly, slowly, they were able to position their beer in more and more mainstream locations – not just beer joints, but cocktail lounges and restaurants. They were, regardless of what you might think of the brew, masters of marketing in those early years of the push (late 80’s and through the 90’s) and the Boston Lager was and still is tasty enough to appeal to those of us “in the know” but not so different as to turn off the first time drinker of anything other than the Big Three. This, I contend, was the turning point. By kicking the door open and creating an alternative in the minds of the American masses, they enabled the hidden army of micro-brewers, craft beer men and women, and even those of us that brew a couple gallons at a time in our storage closets, to come storming out of the shadows and make our voices heard and our presence felt. Onward beer soldiers!

Whether you like Boston Lager or not, we all owe Sam Adams a BIG Thank You!

As posted on Sam Adams web page: “The Noble hop varieties of Hallertau Mittelfrueh and Tettnang Tettnanger add a wide range of floral, piney and citrus notes, which are present from the aroma, through the taste, and all the way to the lingering smooth finish.”

As it turns out, both varieties are in our beer and hop appreciation kit.

Don’t just drink your beer, Taste Your Beer!

-C.

Making A Whiskey Drinker Identify The Right Beer Hops, Total Success

TasteYourBeer.com — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:21:45 GMT

We had a total success this week. It was totally unexpected and I would have frankly bet against us on this instance. One of our dear friends named Bryon, a financial planner in Houston, is not exactly a beer geek. He is a Scotch and Bourbon man through and through. He usually enjoys beers on hot days or if we entice him to sample ales at one of our dinners. He had never once tried to identify hop aromas in beer.

Sometimes Whole Foods carries it and sometimes not, but we were able to get several large bottles of a current favorite called The Wytchmaker (Witchmaker for the rest of us) from Jester King Brewery outside of Austin, Texas. The Wytchmaker is a Rye India Pale Ale and the alcohol (ABV) clocks in at about 6.5% or so, so it isn't so high that it rivals booze or wine and the ABV doesn't interfere with identifying the aromas.

Jester King lists its hops on this one... Cascade, Centennial, Falconer's Flight, and Warrior. I knew this, but Bryon did not. Two of these hops are in our Beer Tasting and Hops Appreciation Kit. Without boring you with endless detail, the game was simple... "Bryon, here is a beer you have seen me order and enjoy and here are ten small bottles full of hops. I want you to smell this beer and then taste this beer (the Wytchmaker) and then I want you to individually smell each of these raw hops containers. After that, tell me which one of the hops you think is in the Wytchmaker."

Simple enough. Bryon smelled and tasted the Wytchmaker (and said he knows why I order it now). He then started smelling the various hops. He even looked at the names expecting that the "Euro-sounding hops" might give it away. Saaz, a frown of no... Hallertauer, a frown of no... Another sip and smell of the beer... This went on for a couple of minutes with a few smirks of interest here and there after smelling the hops. At the end, the answer was a shock. Bryon said, "You know I prefer whiskey, but I think it is one of these two..." He had the Centennial and the Cascade hops pulled aside.

My response surprised him as much as his selections surprised me. You see, I never said that there was more than one variety of hops in the Wytchmaker. I said 'which one.' My response... "Bryon, Wytchmaker has both the Cascade and the Centennial hops in the beer." This was truly a total surprise.

I would have bet against Bryon and I would have bet against the kit this time. The Beer Tasting and Hop Appreciation Kit won and Bryon won.

-J.

"Don't just drink your beer. Taste your beer."

TASTEYOURBEER.COM

Welcome

TasteYourBeer.com — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:08:33 GMT

Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.