In order to help you all better understand the style guidelines we will be publishing, here is a little bit of info on how to read the specifics of the beers.
O.G. - This number is the Original Gravity. This number lets you know how much sugar is present in the wort before fermentation.
F.G. - This number is the Final Gravity. This number tells you how much sugar is present in the beer after fermentation. You take the difference between the amount of sugar before fermentation and the amount of sugar after fermentation, and this tells you how much alcohol was produced during fermentation (During fermentation, sugar is turned into alcohol).
IBUs - This number is the International Bittering Units. This measures the bitterness of your beer. This number is related to the addition of hops during the brewing process. The more hops that are used, the higher your IBUs will be. Ideally, you will balance your malt with the hops, or the beer will be unbalanced and, potentially, undrinkably bitter. This is why most beers with high IBUs will generally be high gravity beers. You need that many hops to balance the massive amounts of malt, and vice versa. Lighter Lagers can be as low as 5 IBUs, and some beers can range up to 100+ IBUs, such as many Imperial India Pale Ales and Barleywines.
SRM - This number is a measure of color. The following is the BJCP scale for calculating SRMs
Straw................2-3
Yellow...............3-4
Gold ..................5-6
Amber.............. 6-9
Deep amber/light copper..................10-14
Copper..................................................14-17
Deep copper/light brown...................17-18
Brown....................................................19-22
Dark Brown..........................................22-30
Very Dark Brown................................30-35
Black......................................................30+
Black, opaque........................................40+
Hope this info helps. Let us know if there are any questions. Cheers, all.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
New Beer update
502 Beer's first retail update comes from Todd at The Keg Liquors in Clarksville. If you've never been over there before, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Here's what Todd had to say:
The day before Thanksgiving is always a huge delivery day for all of our specialty winter beers. This year was no different, check out what we got this year:
- Cantillon Geuze
- De Ranke Pere Noel
- De Ranke XX Bitter
- Mikkeller Big Worse
- Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper
- Mikkeller To/From
- Mikkeller Not Another Wit
- Mikkeller Black Hole
- Tripel Karmeliet Gift Sets (4 bottles and a huge tulip glass)
- Sunner Kolsch
- Geants Goliath Tripel
- Nils Oskar Imperial Stout
- Olfabrikken Winter Porter
- Struise Tsjeeses
- Two Brothers Bonfire (Dunkle Weiss)
- DEUS Brut des Flanders
- Podge Imperial Stout
- De Glazen Cuvee Angelique
- De Glazen Toren Saison D'erpe
- Einbecker Mai-Ur-Bock 5 Liter Cans
- Hanssens Mead the Geuze
- Dansk Mjod Viking's Blod Mead
- Meantime Coffee Porter
- Affligem Abbey Blonde
- Chimay Gift Set (1 bottle of each style and a Chimay Goblet)
- Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
- Rogue Yellow Snow IPA 5 Liter Can
- Wychwood Hobgoblin 16 oz cans
Also, we are holding our 4th Annual Holiday Beer Tasting on December 17th from 5 - 8 PM. I'm still working on the lineup for this, but will have it shortly.
We'll update the lineup for the tasting as soon as Todd gets it to us. Cheers, all
The Keg Liquors
617 East Lewis and Clark Parkway
Clarksville, IN
The day before Thanksgiving is always a huge delivery day for all of our specialty winter beers. This year was no different, check out what we got this year:
- Cantillon Geuze
- De Ranke Pere Noel
- De Ranke XX Bitter
- Mikkeller Big Worse
- Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper
- Mikkeller To/From
- Mikkeller Not Another Wit
- Mikkeller Black Hole
- Tripel Karmeliet Gift Sets (4 bottles and a huge tulip glass)
- Sunner Kolsch
- Geants Goliath Tripel
- Nils Oskar Imperial Stout
- Olfabrikken Winter Porter
- Struise Tsjeeses
- Two Brothers Bonfire (Dunkle Weiss)
- DEUS Brut des Flanders
- Podge Imperial Stout
- De Glazen Cuvee Angelique
- De Glazen Toren Saison D'erpe
- Einbecker Mai-Ur-Bock 5 Liter Cans
- Hanssens Mead the Geuze
- Dansk Mjod Viking's Blod Mead
- Meantime Coffee Porter
- Affligem Abbey Blonde
- Chimay Gift Set (1 bottle of each style and a Chimay Goblet)
- Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
- Rogue Yellow Snow IPA 5 Liter Can
- Wychwood Hobgoblin 16 oz cans
Also, we are holding our 4th Annual Holiday Beer Tasting on December 17th from 5 - 8 PM. I'm still working on the lineup for this, but will have it shortly.
We'll update the lineup for the tasting as soon as Todd gets it to us. Cheers, all
The Keg Liquors
617 East Lewis and Clark Parkway
Clarksville, IN
Beer 101: Styles - Munich Helles
In order to help the beer community at large become a more educated base, 502 Beer presents the first in a series designed to make us all better beer advocates. With the "Styles" portion of the Beer 101, each week we'll feature a different style of beer and give you the BJCP (That's Beer Judge Certification program) guidelines for that style. Eventually, we'd like to have monthly tastings featuring the styles that were featured for the month. But, we'll save that for later.
For our first beer, we will be doing one of our favorite styles, the Munich Helles. An often overlooked style, our very own Browning's Brewery (RIP) made one of the best American interpretations of the style. Light, clean and malty, the Helles is more malt forward than your typical German Pilsener. Tasty stuff. Enjoy.
Munich Helles
Aroma: Pleasantly grainy-sweet, clean Pils malt aroma dominates.
Low to moderately-low spicy noble hop aroma, and a
low background note of DMS (from Pils malt). No esters or
diacetyl.
Appearance: Medium yellow to pale gold, clear, with a
creamy white head.
Flavor: Slightly sweet, malty profile. Grain and Pils malt flavors
dominate, with a low to medium-low hop bitterness that
supports the malty palate. Low to moderately-low spicy noble
hop flavor. Finish and aftertaste remain malty. Clean, no fruity
esters, no diacetyl.
Mouthfeel: Medium body, medium carbonation, smooth
maltiness with no trace of astringency.
Overall Impression: Malty but fully attenuated Pils malt
showcase.
History: Created in Munich in 1895 at the Spaten brewery by
Gabriel Sedlmayr to compete with Pilsner-style beers.
Comments: Unlike Pilsner but like its cousin, Munich Dunkel,
Helles is a malt-accentuated beer that is not overly sweet, but
rather focuses on malt flavor with underlying hop bitterness
in a supporting role.
Ingredients: Moderate carbonate water, Pilsner malt, German
noble hop varieties.
Vital Statistics:
OG: 1.045 – 1.051
IBUs: 16 – 22
FG: 1.008 – 1.012
SRM: 3 – 5
ABV: 4.7 – 5.4%
Commercial Examples: Weihenstephaner Original, Hacker-
Pschorr Münchner Gold, Bürgerbräu Wolznacher Hell Naturtrüb,
Mahr’s Hell, Paulaner Premium Lager, Spaten Premium
Lager, Stoudt’s Gold Lager
For our first beer, we will be doing one of our favorite styles, the Munich Helles. An often overlooked style, our very own Browning's Brewery (RIP) made one of the best American interpretations of the style. Light, clean and malty, the Helles is more malt forward than your typical German Pilsener. Tasty stuff. Enjoy.
Munich Helles
Aroma: Pleasantly grainy-sweet, clean Pils malt aroma dominates.
Low to moderately-low spicy noble hop aroma, and a
low background note of DMS (from Pils malt). No esters or
diacetyl.
Appearance: Medium yellow to pale gold, clear, with a
creamy white head.
Flavor: Slightly sweet, malty profile. Grain and Pils malt flavors
dominate, with a low to medium-low hop bitterness that
supports the malty palate. Low to moderately-low spicy noble
hop flavor. Finish and aftertaste remain malty. Clean, no fruity
esters, no diacetyl.
Mouthfeel: Medium body, medium carbonation, smooth
maltiness with no trace of astringency.
Overall Impression: Malty but fully attenuated Pils malt
showcase.
History: Created in Munich in 1895 at the Spaten brewery by
Gabriel Sedlmayr to compete with Pilsner-style beers.
Comments: Unlike Pilsner but like its cousin, Munich Dunkel,
Helles is a malt-accentuated beer that is not overly sweet, but
rather focuses on malt flavor with underlying hop bitterness
in a supporting role.
Ingredients: Moderate carbonate water, Pilsner malt, German
noble hop varieties.
Vital Statistics:
OG: 1.045 – 1.051
IBUs: 16 – 22
FG: 1.008 – 1.012
SRM: 3 – 5
ABV: 4.7 – 5.4%
Commercial Examples: Weihenstephaner Original, Hacker-
Pschorr Münchner Gold, Bürgerbräu Wolznacher Hell Naturtrüb,
Mahr’s Hell, Paulaner Premium Lager, Spaten Premium
Lager, Stoudt’s Gold Lager
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Beer Geeking out in the Windy City
This past weekend, the wife, myself, and one of her best friends descended on Chicago for a couple of days. Priority number one was that I was going to be taking the Certified Cicerone exam. Basically, the Cicerone program is the equivalent of a Sommelier program for beer. This test was the middle level of the program, with Master Cicerone being the highest mark one can reach. 
Saturday morning we took off. The three of us piled into my Honda Civic, which was probably a little too small for three people to be comfortable, and headed for Chicago. Before we got there, we made a pit stop at Three Floyds' Brewpub in Munster, Indiana. One of the premier craft breweries in the country, the brewpub couldn't be situated in a stranger place. It is in the middle of what can only be described as a business park with lots of other warehouse type buildings surrounding it. You are greeted by the Alpha King/Calumet Queen statue at the entrance to the parking lot and immediately you forget about its awkward positioning. You know that you are in for something special. We went in and grabbed a table, although the place was quite full as FFF only does one brewery tour a week, and it is on Saturday at 3 p.m. We arrived at 2:45. We decided to pass on the tour, as we have seen our fair share of breweries, and we were here to do only one thing...drink.
The wife ordered a Kasteel Rouge to start (she skipped the extreme stuff as she was nursing a fairly severe cold), her friend went for a Dreadnaught (good taste!) and I got the Apocalypse Cow. It is an Imperial IPA brewed with Lactose. My initial plan was to have a couple different beers, but once I tasted the AC, I knew that it would be the only beer I drank during our lunch. Incredibly balanced, the lactose added some sweetness and little body that took the edge off of the hops. The citrus of the hops was almost juicy. Absolutely fantastic. For lunch, I ordered the pulled pork sandwich served on a pretzel bun. While it was good, the BBQ sauce reminded me more of Buffalo sauce, as opposed to traditional BBQ sauce. Just a little disappointing. Their fries that they serve with the chipotle aioli, on the other hand, are fantastic. The real star of the lunch was the wife's White pizza. Olive oil based sauce, roasted garlic, feta cheese, kalamata olives, rosemary and basil on a thin, perfectly crispy crust. Her friend and I stopped eating our own lunch at one point and helped her finish the pizza, it was so good.
Full and a more than a little happy, we pressed on to the big city. We hit downtown around 5 o'clock, right as the winter lights festival was in full swing. After an hour of circling within a few blocks of our hotel, but not being able to actually get there due to closed streets, we finally arrived at the Hotel Cass. Once we threw our stuff into the room, we realized that we needed more beverages. So, we headed to Rush street. We walked up and down Rush looking for a good place for a drink. We stopped at a place called MPXX @ The Whiskey, overpaid for three short poured drinks, and headed on. I'm sorry, I still to this day can't understand a bar that has 30 wines by the glass, over 200 different liquors to choose from, and the best beer I can get is Fat tire on draft?!? (FYI, for those who haven't had it, it's not all its cracked up to be.)
Anyway, we decided to go to the Rock Bottom brewery for dinner. For those of you who've never heard of the Rock Bottom, it is a chain brewery, but arguably one of the best of the chains. Also, Chicago's brewery is pretty much considered to be the best RB in the country. We settled in and ordered the drinks. A Chicago Gold (APA) for the wife and a Rye IPA for myself. Her friend moved on to Bourbon and ginger, so for all intents and purposes, she was dead to me at this point. I get my RIPA, and something is off. A sour quality immediately tells me that their lines are dirty. Either that or the beer is infected. But, dirty lines is the more obvious choice. So, I flag down the waitress and explain the problem and she tells me that that sour flavor is from the Rye. Not wanting to make a scene by decreeing to the entire bar that our waitress didn't know what she was talking about, I politely asked for the Terminal Imperial Stout instead. And boy was I glad I did. That is one mighty fine brew. This is evidenced by its multiple medals at both the World Beer Cup and the Great American Beer festival. Rich, jet black and loaded with dark chocolate and licorice notes. This was gonna be a one beer night. I had a test to take after all. After dinner, we decided to pack it in for the night.
I woke up early Sunday morning and headed up north to Lincoln Park, to the Siebel Institute, to take my test. I walked out of there at 3 o'clock happy and feeling like the weight of the world was off of my shoulders. And, more importantly, I was ready to drink. While the girls were shopping, I decided to check out the Clark Street Ale House. I have wanted to go here my last two trips to Chicago, but have never made it before. Well, I didn't make it this time either. Even though the door said they opened at 5 o'clock, and it was 5:15, the door was locked and all of the lights were off. Too bad. I hear they have three cask beers on at all times. Oh well, maybe next time.
Feeling a little defeated, I grabbed the girls and we headed back up north to go to the Piece Brewery for dinner.
We walked in and I was greeted by Surly Furious on draft. If any of you have never had this beer, you should make it your life's work to try it. It is simply divine. An American IPA that blows Two Hearted and Alpha King out of the water. On draft it is even better. At this point in the evening, things start to get a little fuzzy. I had 2 Furious very quickly and the alcohol combined with my state of utter relaxation and I was as mellow as I have ever been. As a result, I can't remember a lot of details about the beers I had the rest of the night. but, I do remember names. At Piece, I had their Dysfunctionale (6% IPA) and a glass of their Camel Toe (8% IIPA).
After Piece, we headed to The Map Room. One of the premier beer destinations in this country, it didn't disappoint. Here, I had a bomber of Flossmoor Stations IPA (A Belgian-ish IPA) and a 750ml bottle of Lost Abbey Devotion (A Belgian-style Fresh Hop Pale Ale). After that we headed home, drunk and very giddy.
The next day we had to depart. Man, I love Chicago. I have never failed to have a fantastic time, each time I go. Hopefully it won't be too long before we get to go back. Oh, and before we left town, we hit Sam's Fine Wines near Grant Park. I picked up bombers of Port Brewing's Hop 15, Shark Attack and Santa's Little Helper, and a 750 of Lost Abbey's Judgement Day. Two days, countless beers, and every single one something I have never had before. That is a beer geek-tastic weekend. Cheers all.
Saturday morning we took off. The three of us piled into my Honda Civic, which was probably a little too small for three people to be comfortable, and headed for Chicago. Before we got there, we made a pit stop at Three Floyds' Brewpub in Munster, Indiana. One of the premier craft breweries in the country, the brewpub couldn't be situated in a stranger place. It is in the middle of what can only be described as a business park with lots of other warehouse type buildings surrounding it. You are greeted by the Alpha King/Calumet Queen statue at the entrance to the parking lot and immediately you forget about its awkward positioning. You know that you are in for something special. We went in and grabbed a table, although the place was quite full as FFF only does one brewery tour a week, and it is on Saturday at 3 p.m. We arrived at 2:45. We decided to pass on the tour, as we have seen our fair share of breweries, and we were here to do only one thing...drink.
The wife ordered a Kasteel Rouge to start (she skipped the extreme stuff as she was nursing a fairly severe cold), her friend went for a Dreadnaught (good taste!) and I got the Apocalypse Cow. It is an Imperial IPA brewed with Lactose. My initial plan was to have a couple different beers, but once I tasted the AC, I knew that it would be the only beer I drank during our lunch. Incredibly balanced, the lactose added some sweetness and little body that took the edge off of the hops. The citrus of the hops was almost juicy. Absolutely fantastic. For lunch, I ordered the pulled pork sandwich served on a pretzel bun. While it was good, the BBQ sauce reminded me more of Buffalo sauce, as opposed to traditional BBQ sauce. Just a little disappointing. Their fries that they serve with the chipotle aioli, on the other hand, are fantastic. The real star of the lunch was the wife's White pizza. Olive oil based sauce, roasted garlic, feta cheese, kalamata olives, rosemary and basil on a thin, perfectly crispy crust. Her friend and I stopped eating our own lunch at one point and helped her finish the pizza, it was so good.
Full and a more than a little happy, we pressed on to the big city. We hit downtown around 5 o'clock, right as the winter lights festival was in full swing. After an hour of circling within a few blocks of our hotel, but not being able to actually get there due to closed streets, we finally arrived at the Hotel Cass. Once we threw our stuff into the room, we realized that we needed more beverages. So, we headed to Rush street. We walked up and down Rush looking for a good place for a drink. We stopped at a place called MPXX @ The Whiskey, overpaid for three short poured drinks, and headed on. I'm sorry, I still to this day can't understand a bar that has 30 wines by the glass, over 200 different liquors to choose from, and the best beer I can get is Fat tire on draft?!? (FYI, for those who haven't had it, it's not all its cracked up to be.)
Anyway, we decided to go to the Rock Bottom brewery for dinner. For those of you who've never heard of the Rock Bottom, it is a chain brewery, but arguably one of the best of the chains. Also, Chicago's brewery is pretty much considered to be the best RB in the country. We settled in and ordered the drinks. A Chicago Gold (APA) for the wife and a Rye IPA for myself. Her friend moved on to Bourbon and ginger, so for all intents and purposes, she was dead to me at this point. I get my RIPA, and something is off. A sour quality immediately tells me that their lines are dirty. Either that or the beer is infected. But, dirty lines is the more obvious choice. So, I flag down the waitress and explain the problem and she tells me that that sour flavor is from the Rye. Not wanting to make a scene by decreeing to the entire bar that our waitress didn't know what she was talking about, I politely asked for the Terminal Imperial Stout instead. And boy was I glad I did. That is one mighty fine brew. This is evidenced by its multiple medals at both the World Beer Cup and the Great American Beer festival. Rich, jet black and loaded with dark chocolate and licorice notes. This was gonna be a one beer night. I had a test to take after all. After dinner, we decided to pack it in for the night.
I woke up early Sunday morning and headed up north to Lincoln Park, to the Siebel Institute, to take my test. I walked out of there at 3 o'clock happy and feeling like the weight of the world was off of my shoulders. And, more importantly, I was ready to drink. While the girls were shopping, I decided to check out the Clark Street Ale House. I have wanted to go here my last two trips to Chicago, but have never made it before. Well, I didn't make it this time either. Even though the door said they opened at 5 o'clock, and it was 5:15, the door was locked and all of the lights were off. Too bad. I hear they have three cask beers on at all times. Oh well, maybe next time.
Feeling a little defeated, I grabbed the girls and we headed back up north to go to the Piece Brewery for dinner.
We walked in and I was greeted by Surly Furious on draft. If any of you have never had this beer, you should make it your life's work to try it. It is simply divine. An American IPA that blows Two Hearted and Alpha King out of the water. On draft it is even better. At this point in the evening, things start to get a little fuzzy. I had 2 Furious very quickly and the alcohol combined with my state of utter relaxation and I was as mellow as I have ever been. As a result, I can't remember a lot of details about the beers I had the rest of the night. but, I do remember names. At Piece, I had their Dysfunctionale (6% IPA) and a glass of their Camel Toe (8% IIPA).
After Piece, we headed to The Map Room. One of the premier beer destinations in this country, it didn't disappoint. Here, I had a bomber of Flossmoor Stations IPA (A Belgian-ish IPA) and a 750ml bottle of Lost Abbey Devotion (A Belgian-style Fresh Hop Pale Ale). After that we headed home, drunk and very giddy.
The next day we had to depart. Man, I love Chicago. I have never failed to have a fantastic time, each time I go. Hopefully it won't be too long before we get to go back. Oh, and before we left town, we hit Sam's Fine Wines near Grant Park. I picked up bombers of Port Brewing's Hop 15, Shark Attack and Santa's Little Helper, and a 750 of Lost Abbey's Judgement Day. Two days, countless beers, and every single one something I have never had before. That is a beer geek-tastic weekend. Cheers all.
Welcome all...all two of you
So, why in the world would I create a blog? Who in the hell cares about what I have to say? Well, it is my hope to follow in the footsteps of my friends at hoosierbeergeek.com and stlhops.com, and provide Louisville with a one stop access point for all things beer. What beer events are going on? What new beers are in the market either at a bar or on tap? I promise to keep this blog updated as much as possible as long as you all will tell me when I have officially worn out my welcome. Cheers all. Hang on, 'cause this ride could be a little bumpy.
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