2011 Best Beers

So I just picked up the latest Zymurgy Magazine because every July/August edition has the best beers lists. How awesome is that. Well I have a few things to say about some of the lists.

The first list is the Top-Ranked Beers list

1. Russian River Pliny the Elder - A knock out!

2. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale

T3. Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

T3. Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout

5. Bell’s Hopslam

6. Stone Arrogant Bastard - My Favorite

7. Sierra Nevada Celebration

T8. Sierra Nevada Torpedo

T8. Stone Ruination - Delicious

10. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - Refreshing

11. Stone Sublimely Self Righteous - No Words

12. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine

13. Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

T14. Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

T14. Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale

T16. Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA - Delicious!!!

T16. New Glarus Belgian Red

18. North Coast Old Rasputin - Great Imperial Stout

19. Bell’s Expedition Stout

T20. Deschutes The Abyss - Chewy!

T20. Left Hand Milk Stout

T20. Odell IPA

T20. Samuel Adams Noble Pils

T20. Surly Furious

T20. Troegs Nugget Nectar

T26. Rogue Dead Guy Ale - Delicious

T26. Samuel Adams Boston Lager

28. Anchor Steam - Great Beer

T29. Bear Republic Racer 5

T29. Ommegang Three Philosophers

T29. Oskar Blues Ten Fidy

T29. Three Floyds Alpha King

T29. Three Floyds Dark Lord

T34. Avery Maharaja

T34. Dogfish Head Indian Brown

T34. Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

T34. Three Floyds Gumballhead

T38. Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

T38. Lost Abbey Angel’s Share

T38. New Belgium La Folie

T38. New Belgium Ranger

T38. Oskar Blues Old Chub

T43. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA

T43. Great Divide Yeti

T43. New Belgium 1554

T43. Russian River Blind Pig

T43. Ska Modus Hoperandi

T48. Alesmith Speedway Stout

T48. Dark Horse Crooked Tree

T48. Green Flash West Coast IPA

T48. Summit EPA

T48. Victory Prima Pils

I must say that I was not surprised to see Pliny the Elder winning again for the third year in the row. I must say that I was not surprised to see only a few Oregon breweries on this list but I was also surprised how low some of the Oregon breweries scored. I know that Oregon has the most breweries per capita and coming in at a whopping 93 breweries in the state! One reason I believe that more beers are not on this list are because a lot of the breweries do not commercialize their beers. This I believe most of the breweries do not want to go big like Samuel Adams(Boston Brewing) who just had their microbrewery status revoked because Sam Koch got a large head like Sam Caligione that arrogant prick.

Anyways as you can see I added in a few comments of the beers I have had and I need to get my hands on the rest. The Pliny I am unable to find around Portland. Anyone know where to get it?

The Wandering Monk

So, after a 2 month hiatus from brewing due to many a weddings and the activities that go along with weddings, I have decided to get back to brewing. During my hiatus I found a book called Beer Craft. In this book it is written by people like me who brew in an apartment. These people brew up one gallon of all grain batches and so I decided to double a recipe for a 2 gallon batch of a Belgian Abbey Ale or more commonly known as a Dubbel. These recipes are also all all grain. SO I can move on to all-grain brewing but in small batches with all the equipment that I have without buying new stuff for 5 gallon batches.

The Wandering Monk
5lbs Belgian Pilsner malt
1lb Munich malt
8oz Special B
4oz Biscuit malt

20g Fuggle Hops
8oz Dark Belgian Candi Syrup

Pre-boil TG: 1.046


I am brewing this up tomorrow so I will let you all know what happens and how it turns out as the process goes on!

Well so far brewing has gone well. I mashed at 154 for 1 hour. Pre-boil gravity was 1.044 so I cannot complain with it being close to the target gravity.

The boil has started and my Fuggles have been thrown in. I have started to put everything into nylon and fine mesh bags to reduce the amount of extra nonsense that has come into my beer.

Everything went well! The beer is in the fermenter and yeast is pitched. We will give it a few weeks and see what happens! It is fermenting beautifuly. Gravity not where I want it to be so the Monk will sit for a few more days.

Well after 10 days in the secondary, the beer is delicious but it definitely needs some bottle conditioning time. The beer has a potential alcohol content of around 6.8%. At first tasting it is a little thinner than I had hoped but we shall see after about 1 month of bottle conditioning.