The bottle label for Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA has been released.

75 Minute IPA is a blend of their 60 Minute and 90 Minute IPAs. Dogfish normally only makes this beer for their brewpub in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware or for special events and festivals, so it’s nice to see them bottling it for more people to enjoy.

The label states that this bottled version will be bottle conditioned with maple syrup. To bottle condition a beer means that instead of force carbonating it after fermentation, additional sugar is added at bottling time resulting in an additional fermentation period inside the bottle. The benefits of carbonating beer this way is that it gives the beer a smoother carbonation but it also makes it ideal for aging, since there is still living yeast inside the bottle changing the beer over time. Since maple syrup is being used, this beer will have some additional complexities and flavor due to the longer sugar chains, called polysaccharides, that normal ale yeast cannot consume.

No release date has been set yet for this beer since Dogfish Head have not even made an official press release. The label art looks rather festive so here’s to hoping for a December release!

A vast and expansive book, The Craft of Stone Brewing Company succeeds in so many levels for its varied topics and sections. You need not only be a Stone fan, or even a beer fan, to enjoy this book as it also includes various food recipes as well. Even better, the entire book is written in the same arrogant sarcasm that Stone is known for. After all, the subtitle is Liquid Lore, Epic Recipes and Unabashed Arrogance!

While the book does include other topics, the main point of the book is on the company. The history of how Greg Koch and Steve Wagner met along with how the company grew is detailed. The book is filled with side bars from each other giving different perspectives on how each felt at different stages. Also included is stories of other people involved in the history, like the illustrator for the now recognizable gargoyle motifs.

The real highlight in this section is the history of their beers. Every official beer they’ve made is listed along with a brief history or flavor profile and primary hops used. Also included are each year of their anniversary beers, each year of their Vertical Epic series and their collaborations. The only beers not listed here, are the ones released after this past spring and their beer variations (bourbon aged, double dry-hopped, chipotle pepper etc).

The other section of the book that deserves a mention is the recipes. Recipes included are from Stone’s World Bistro and Gardens restaurant as well as a few extras. Many of the recipes can be used as a starting point for your own dishes such as Arrogant Bastard batter, hop vinegarette, or barbecue sauce.

The second part of this section is the homebrewing recipes. A brief overview of how to brew beer is provided for those new to brewing. Despite the short overview, it is a very thorough guide that can definitely be used as your only source for beginning to homebrew. Recipes include a few of Stone’s year-round beers as well as some of their anniversary and collaboration beers. This chapter really highlights Stone’s open honesty, and even arrogance, in that they are giving you recipes for their beers. They even give you the water profile for their brewery so you can match their water chemistry. A few obvious beers are omitted, like Arrogant Bastard, but nonetheless, they are willing to share their secrets. It’s almost as though they are daring you to attempt to recreate their beers.

As I mentioned in the beginning, this is a very thorough, entertaining book, well worth the read for any food or beer aficionado.

Scotland’s Brewdog, is the outsider of the European breweries. Whereas most of Europe sticks to traditional, balanced beers, Brewdog makes beers that are far from subtle. Brewdog is often recognized for making the beers with the highest amounts of alcohol (some dispute whether they count as beers since a cold distillation process is used). Not only is their End Of History beer 55% alcohol, it is packaged in stuffed roadkill.

More recently, they’ve even produced a beer that they fermented in the bottom of the ocean (yes really).

Something else Brewdog has done that I wish more American craft breweries would be open to, is sold company stock. Equity For Punks is a program allowing consumers to purchase company stock directly from Brewdog, allowing fans to help grow the company. While many attribute the idea of going public as selling out, Brewdog has managed to do this while still holding onto their punk attitude and giving their fans a sense of ownership and pride in the company. Considering the beers that Brewdog makes, and the online videos they produce, very few people would see this as a company that has sold out.
The most fascinating aspect of all of this, is that it works. Through the Equity For Punks program, Brewdog has managed to raise £1.5 million from their fans. THAT’S ~$2.4 MILLION U.S DOLLARS! Combine this with their 200% growth this year and they have now secured funding to begin building a new £6.5 million low carbon brewery, along with 5 more bars across the U.K in 2012. Seriously, what’s more punk then raising that much money without a bank?
Incentives for buying shares include a lifetime discount, exclusive options for purchasing limited edition beers, participating in brewing an annual beer just for shareholders and voting on future company decisions.

More info on Equity For Punks can be found here.

Best to disregard this press release. It’s unlikely that you possess the sophistication to fathom the overwhelming gravitas of the potation it discusses. Thus, stop reading now. Hit delete and retire outside with your fizzy yellow beer. But if, by some infinitesimally minute chance, you are one of the Worthy craft beer cognoscenti and you’ve somehow surmised that you’re prepared for today’s release of Double Bastard Ale, then do proceed. With caution.

Link to full press release on Double Bastard: http://tinyurl.com/6hys9zw

Dogfish Head is one of my favorite breweries. I’ve yet to have a beer of theirs that I didn’t like. I often recommend their beers to those who are new to craft beer. Dogfish’s beer tends to be much more “approachable” than most of my other favorite beers.
That said, I’m torn as to whether or not I am interested in their new music related beer: Faithfull Ale. It’s not that it doesn’t sound good, a Belgian golden ale with black currants sounds amazing, actually. However, I’ve been a longtime hater of Pearl Jam. I blame growing up in the Pacific northwest and being force fed grunge music as why it’s never interested me.
If Pearl Jam is your thing, and you would like to continue celebrating their 20 years of… whatever, check out the below link to see details of it’s release.

http://tinyurl.com/3lr2r2t

This past summer Dogfish Head made its first gluten-free beer, Tweason’Ale. The beer was a huge success in its Rehoboth Beach Brewpub so Dogfish is planning on releasing four-packs of the bottled beer.
Like nearly every gluten-free beer, Tweason’Ale uses sorghum as its base. To keep the beer from tasting as bland as most gluten-free beers though, the beer also includes buckwheat honey and fresh strawberries.
I know what you are thinking, strawberry, honey beer sounds terrible. Like the sugary malt beverages made by Bacardi or something similar. Having tasted this beer at GABF, I can tell you that it isn’t what it sounds like.
First of all, natural sugars, like honey and fruit, are highly fermentable, leaving very little residual sugar. Despite having over a pound of strawberries per gallon, the beer is not bright red. It is a pale orange color, like most other beers. The taste is very refreshing, with a light, fruity finish. As I mentioned before, it is not a sugary, sweet beer. It is however very light bodied, with a slight tanginess from the fermented fruit.
With how much fruit is in this beer, I can’t imagine that this is an easy beer to make a lot of so it is very likely to be difficult to find this December. No announcement has been made as to which markets this will be distributed to.
For more info, and some moving pictures of the creation process, see Dogfish Head’s website: http://www.dogfish.com/tweasonale

Left Hand is a Colorado brewery that I have heard of various times. Previously, I had never tasted anything of theirs since they don’t distribute to Nevada. The one beer that I have consistently heard of is their Milk Stout.

What is a milk stout? It is a stout with lactose added. Lactose is a sugar that comes from milk. Lactose is not fermentable, meaning any lactose that is added when brewing will not get converted into alcohol and instead remains in the final beer adding more body and residual sweetness. Left Hand assures it’s customers that “milk sugar in your stout, is like cream in your coffee.”

This past Friday, Left Hand had a press event, that was prefaced by mysterious magazine ads, announcing the release of Milk Stout Nitro in bottles. They are the first craft brewer to bottle a beer using nitrogen gas. What this all means: Beer is normally carbonated using carbon dioxide (CO2) as this is a byproduct of fermentation. However, many brewers will force carbonate their beers with a blend of CO2 and nitrogen gas (N2) (typically just called “nitro”) because it gives the beer a smoother softer carbonation than just pure CO2. This is typically only done with stouts or porters as this primarily complements these styles. While nitro stouts feel and taste better than CO2, the problem is that N2 gas does not mix in the beer as easily. Special nitro taps are installed in bars that have the proper pressure to hold the gas in the beer. However, nitro beers cannot be used in growler fills because the gas dissipates too quickly, the beer must be served fresh. Which means bottling nitro beers was not possible for a long time. Guinness, the most famous beer served on nitro, developed what’s called a widget that contains N2 gas and is inserted into the bottles at bottling time. Once the bottle is opened and poured into a glass, the widget forces N2 gas into the beer allowing nitro beers to be enjoyed at home. Young’s Double Chocolate Stout is another common beer that is bottled with nitro widgets.

Back to Left Hand: Milk Stout was always available on nitro tap but the bottled version used CO2. In planning to bottle Milk Stout using nitro, Left Hand did not want to use a widget. They spent over two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars developing a way to bottle nitro beer without a widget. They are choosing to keep the secret to themselves rather than risk patenting the process and it becoming public knowledge. The result is amazing. I tasted this beer at GABF and was very impressed. I would happily drink this over any other stout, yes even Guinness. There is no “milky” taste, only a very balanced, smooth stout that is neither too bitter and roasted or too sweet. It’s perfect. Life was much easier having never tasted this beer, I didn’t know what I was missing. I am now forever longing for the day that this beer becomes available in Las Vegas.

*Photo credit: Left Hand Brewing Company

Last night, Greg Koch posted the above photo along with the caption “I predict a Crime will happen this week. I also expect Punishment. #crimeandpunishment”

Let me use this as an opportunity to talk about some of my favorite beers: In 1997, Stone released Arrogant Bastard, an aggressively bitter, malty beer. To celebrate the one year anniversary release of Arrogant Bastard, Stone released Double Bastard, an angrier version of Arrogant Bastard. Stone later released OAKED Arrogant Bastard in 2004, a version of Arrogant Bastard with oak chips added to smooth out some of the harshness. Finally, in 2010, Stone released Lukcy Basartd as a celebration of the 13th anniversary of Arrogant Bastard. Lukcy Basartd is a mix of all 3 of the Bastard beers.

Not content with the aggressiveness of these beers, Stone created two more beers earlier this year using these beers as a base: Crime and Punishment. Crime: Double dry-hopped Lukcy Basartd, meaning even more hops are added after fermentation, aged in an oak barrel with chili peppers added. Punishment: Double Bastard aged in an oak barrel with chili peppers added. Punishment is obviously the spicier/angrier version of the two. Double Bastard is a far bitterer beer than the rest and adding peppers only makes it burn more.

As awesome as these beers are, they are hard to find. When they were last brewed, the kegs were available at various special events and festivals held by Stone. Crime was in Las Vegas earlier this year at Aces and Ales so I had a chance to try it there. It’s likely that these new batches will be used again for special events or as part of Stone’s specialty bottled line: Quingenti Millilitre, which are currently difficult to get a hold of as well.

Few people can handle drinking any of the Bastard beers, and even fewer can handle Crime and Punishment, but if you ever get the opportunity, I highly recommend at least trying these out, just for the experience!

By far, the best beer fest I’ve been to, obviously, since this the biggest in the country. I finally had the chance to taste so many different beers that I don’t have access to in Nevada. In future posts I’ll write about some specific breweries or beers I tasted.
Downside of visiting the final day, a lot of the more rare beers were already out. However I do have a list of favorites that I did get to try:
Stone BELGO Old Guardian Barley Wine
Rogue Old Crustacean Barley Wine
Dogfish Head Tweason’ale
Ballast Point Victory at Sea
Left Hand Milk Stout
Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti and Espresso Oak Aged Yeti
Alaskan Smoke Porter aged since 2000

And the list goes on. Attached are a few pictures I was able to take. Yes I took a picture in front of the Anheuser Busch booth for fun, no I didn’t try anything there. I was surprised to see how busy the booth was, which is a shame considering all the great craft breweries that were there in attendance.
Got to meet Zane Lamprey from the TV shows Three Sheets and Drinking Made Easy, super nice guy. Also saw Greg Koch from Stone, he insisted that a picture be taken with him.
All in all, it was a great time. I highly recommend you take a trip to Denver for future GABF’s. It is impossible to not have fun.