My Girlfriend (now fiance) and I just got back from an 11 day trip to Austria. We had an absolute blast. Saw some beautiful places, ate some great food, drank some great beer, and I suppose most importantly, got engaged!

I was re-reminded on this trip how nice a well brewed Munich Helles can be, which is the de facto beer style in Austria and Bavaria. Unfortunately, after eleven days, I was ready for something with some American hops, so it's nice to be home.

Obviously I don't have too many home-brew related updates at the moment, but there's some stuff in the pipeline, so I'll have some more posts up soon. But in the meantime, Prost!

My Black Rye IPA is finally on tap, and tasting delicious. I had talked about the recipe here, and I found out shortly after I brewed this, that Firestone Walker is brewing nearly the same damn beer. Now I'll be honest, I had heard they were brewing a Black Rye IPA, but I had no idea our recipes would be so flipping close. Their beer is a little bigger (8.5% ABV), looks to be a little less dark, and uses a slightly different malt bill, but it still looks remarkably similar.

Beer reviews aren't something I ever intend to post, as there are a million blogs that do just that. But this isn't exactly a review, and it's worth sharing. Two weekends ago, my friends and I, had an IPA and chicken-and-waffles night. One of my friends makes knock-out chicken and waffles from scratch, and I happened to have a fridge full of awesome IPAs.

It was definitely a great night with great friends. My boy Greg made some killer ribs on the grill, and Floyd's chicken and waffles didn't disappoint. Pictured above were eight of the beers we sampled. My Furry Penguin was also there, as well as about eight others that Greg had picked up.

Double Jack was the clear favorite. Followed fairly closely by Hopslam. Furry Penguin was the third favorite. Hoptimum was good, very pungently hoppy, but overly bitter compared to some of the other beers. Union Jack and West Coast IPA were excellent as always. Scuplin and Mycenary were both about three months old, and a little past their prime. It showed compared to some of the fresher examples. Odell's IPA wasn't the hoppiest beer of the night, but well liked. Sierra Nevada made a strong showing, Ruthless and Torpedo were also well received. And last, but certainly not least, Hop Knot stood it's ground against some tough national competition. I'd say it was in the top third of the pack; great beer.

In other news, my Amber Ale placed 2nd in a local competition last weekend with a 39! None of my other beers place, but I'm still excited regardless.

I don't need to stress how much science is involved in brewing. We're constantly taking measurements, temperature readings, and gravity readings. After running into various issues that didn't make much sense, I learned that much of my equipment wasn't calibrated correctly. My hydrometer was off, my thermometer was off, even my water level measurements were off.

As hard as I try, I never get sick of IPAs; it just doesn't happen. I can drink IPAs all night, and still crave an IPA the next day. I'm probably in the minority here, but my taste buds are always craving something extraordinarily hoppy. In Vinnie Cilurzo's words, I've definitely had a lupulin threshold shift.

I have my own IPA and DIPA recipes that I am absolutely in love with, but as they say, variety is the spice of life. So I'm going to spend the next few months trying my absolutely hardest to brew spot-on clones of some of the best IPAs in the country. Typically I take some creative liberties when I brew clones, to tailor them to my tastes, but for this little run, I'm going to brew them as exact as I can.

I'll be working off of known clone recipes, and a few of my own to try to replicate these beers. Other than Pliny, the commercial examples are all available here in Phoenix, so it won't be tough to see how close my attempts are.

In no particular order, the line up is:

• Russian River - Pliny the Younger
• Firestone Walker - Union Jack
• Bell's - Two Hearted Ale
• Russian River - Pliny the Elder
• Four Peaks - Hop Knot
• Firestone Walker - Double Jack

Thankfully I have all the hard-to-find hops needed for these recipes. Union Jack and Pliny the Elder should be slam dunks, since there are well established recipes for those. That is assuming I can muster the brewing prowess. For Hop Knot, I've already put together a solid recipe, but it still needs some very minor tweaks. Pliny the Younger, Double Jack, and Two Hearted Ale all required some research, but after a lot of digging, I've got some good info.

Look forward to recipes and brew day notes here soon. The Younger is first!

Amber and DIPA

My two most recent beers are finally carbonated, conditioned, and tasting their best. The first is my Amber Ale, and the second is my Furry Penguin that was brewed here. Below are the tasting notes.  

American Amber:
**Update (05/18/12) - This beer took Silver with a 39 in the Great Arizona Homebrew Competion!!**

Clarity is good, but not brilliant. For some reason, this beer never fully cleared up. Color is a beautiful deep red. Aroma is a mix between citrusy hops and sweet toffee from the caramel malt. Taste is more of the same. Malt sweetness hits first, then some hop citrus, then some bitterness in the finish.

I'm very happy with this beer, but the recipe still needs a little tweaking. I'm thinking a little less C60, and a little more dry hops. It's really close to where I want it though.

Furry Penguin Double IPA:
I absolutely love this beer. Clarity is fantastic, color is golden with a little orange. Aroma is heavy citrus notes, with some sweet tropical fruit character. There's also a little oily, resiny, dank character in the background. The taste follows the aroma. Sweet citrus, tropical fruit, and a smooth but firm bitterness that doesn't linger.

Definitely a dry beer, but there's some light background sweetness that keeps it drinkable. This beer is just a mouthful of hop oil, which I absolutely love. I'm submitting this one to the NHC this week, so let's all keep our fingers crossed that it does well.

Photo credit: donosborn.com

Over the past year I've really studied the differences between professional brewers and home brewers. While there are many, one of the big differences in hoppy beers is that pro brewers whirlpool their wort post boil (hot), and home brewers typically do not. Pro brewers often add copious amounts of hops during this time, while it's rare to see home brewers add hops after flameout, and delay chilling their wort. After thinking about this for awhile, I realized, why not?