KBS 2015 Kentucky Breakfast Stout by Founders Brewing Company
KBS 2015 Kentucky Breakfast Stout by Founders Brewing Company is such an amazing beer if you can even call it that, that I had to enjoy it like a frosty desert with its amazing bourbon and coffee flavors. The bourbon and coffee are very smooth even with all of the flavors of the smooth oak aged bourbon hitting you at once with such a high ABV of 11.2% yet finishing with a rich dark bourbon taste with hints of vanilla, brown sugar and raisin on top of a rich chocolate blend and still finishing with that bourbon coffee finish. Warning this is strong and you if you love stouts, chocolate and some of the best bourbon you’ve ever tasted this is the beer for you. Sadly this is a rare white rabbit but it is truly worth the hunt and and can be caught as Founders has increased their output of this beautiful beer from the original 24 bourbon barrels back in early 2000 to around 4,700 bourbon barrels for their 2015 release. Keep in mind Founders KBS, Kentucky Breakfast Stout has been aged just over 12 months in a bourbon barrel so just imagine having the best Chocolate Coffee Oatmeal Stout you could humanly imagine and then dropping a shot of the absolute best Kentucky Bourbon into the mix and that will bring you one step closer to imagining this amazing beer or desert based on how you look at it or should we say, enjoy it. If you find a friend willing to share a Founders KBS 2015 Kentucky Breakfast Stout, thank them and then ask for a ride home as this 12 ounce bottle has some serious kick.
Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout 2015
Sixpoint Jammer Gose Review
Wow another Sixpoint skinny 12 ounce can but this one is a bit of a change compared to any beers currently available from any brewers that I am even aware of. This is based on a very old style that vanished for a while before being revived called a Gose. Sixpoint’s Jammer Gose is based on a style created 100’s of years ago along the Gosse River in Germany and brought to us here in the U.S.A. back in 2011 when Sixpoint met and worked with a German Brewmaster that helped to bring this style back. Just imagine a quality lager with a hint of coriander and the smell of a beach breeze. With the first sip you think you are sitting back at your local beach on a warm Summer day with light salt bite at the front and a mild nip of salt at the end too. My only negative is that once you finish this great quality craft beer the glass has that funky old lager smell that no one really wants to smell so a quick fix is to simply pour another fresh cool glass and relax. If anyone cares about the details this wonderful brew is actually one of the lighter ones for Sixpoint pouring a very light gold almost transparent color at on 4.2 ABV and kicking a very low IBU of 16 which appears to be perfect with that hint of the old salty tang that has a more tart aspect compared to the ever so mild sour notes.
Sixpoint Jammer Gose
Sixpoint’s Resin Review
The name of the beer says a lot, Resin but it really doesn’t tell the whole story but you must admire the simplicity of the name as it really is the majority of the flavors that hit you from beginning to end of every enjoyable sip. Sixpoint makes some great beers but Sixpoint’s Resin has been one of their best known IPAs which most people consider a double IPA or even an imperial IPA. This skinny looking can packs 12 ounces of pure hoppiness clocking in at 103 IBU at 9.1 ABV. Transparent dark golden color with a ton of resin from start to finish with a nice malty flavor with hits of sweet toffee flavors packing tropical fruit flavors with a very strong resin flavor and some subtle pine in the finish. Don’t let the small can fool you this little can contains amazing beer to finish with a great meal or simply to enjoy with friends at home or your favorite hangout. Sixpoint’s Resin should be one of your top 100 must try beers of all time.
Sixpoint – Resin
Abita Spring IPA Review
For anyone who’s never had an Abita brew they are about 30 miles north of New Orleans and it is almost impossible not to find Abita’s great brews at just about every beer serving establishment within and around New Orleans. I tried their Abita Amber and Purple Haze back before I knew much about beer but I was amazed at how smooth and how great beer could really be. Now days I am tempted to try just about anything and with that said when I saw Abita’s Spring IPA earlier this year I snagged a 6 pack and have snagged a few more sense the first 6 pack as this stuff is great for a nice session-able 6.25 ABV West Coast Style IPA with a great citrus with a lot of grapefruit flavors, pine and resin from the Centennial and Amarillo hops with a strong bitter kick from the 65 IBUs. This beer pours a beautiful copper color with a mild haze and a lovely white foam head and great head retention. The only negative I think I could say would be that this beer is easily addictive and with a 6.25 ABV it may creep up on you a bit faster then expected. Currently this great beer is priced conservatively and is available at my favorite grocer which makes it even more attractive.
Abita Spring IPA
Bitter Reality of brewing all grain beer!
Home Brew Ales
The Bitter Reality of brewing all grain beer is that it is really easy! If you can brew tea or make a simple meal you can brew beer, I promise. Brewing beer really can be very simple and straight forward or it can be as complex as you wish to make it. I strongly recommend jumping in head first doing 1 gallon small batch brews as it is inexpensive and carries a low commitment level so if you screw up the lose is low but if you do a great job you will be left with 8 to 10 – 12 ounce bottles of bliss. Brewing beer is not only easy but it is a great learning experience for everyone involved from beginning to enjoying the finished product. It really can be as easy as Water, Malted Grains, Hops and Yeast but each of those can really have a huge impact on the final product more than most people realize.
The hardest part of brewing beer is keeping everything clean and sterile so if you can handle that you can brew beer. Think how great it would be to first learn how to make beer and then perfect it to a level where you can make the exact beer you’ve always wanted to try or even enjoy on a regular basis. Once you are able to make beer you love it is really easy to duplicate that same beer in larger quantities as long as you can learn to take good notes. The key is keeping everything you do simple but keeping it all clean and documenting every step and the amount of time between them so that you can easily reproduce the same beer again if you find it to be something you want to brew again over and over and of course in large quantities.
One thing I have found that almost no one thinks about until they start brewing beer themselves is just how much you will learn both about beer and about yourself plus a few friends that you allow to be part of this journey. When I first started brewing beer I knew I liked a few styles from Ambers, IPA and Reds but once I began experimenting I quickly discovered I loved Wits, Hefeweizen, Dunkels, low ABV Oatmeal Stouts and Rye everything. The thing most people don’t seem to get is that something as minor as ABV can really make a difference in the taste of beer or even something as simple as a certain grain or yeast can make a huge impact on the taste and complexity of a beer. A great example would be two people brewing the exact same Hefeweizen but while one is fermented at just over 70 F and the other is fermented at just under 70 F one will carry a great deal of banana esters based on warmth of the yeast while the other will lean towards clove esters based on how cool the yeast was kept during fermentation. Witbiers can be a ton of fun too as they are the perfect beer for adding citrus flavorings and other complimentary flavors like coriander and even peppercorns. Even IPAs can be an endless journey with so many flavors from different hops from around the world which can also be influenced by how much is added and when it is added during the process even if you used the exact same grains and yeast in every IPA you’d be shocked at the differences and complexity created based on timings.
I will try to share everything I learn on my journey to hopefully help you in your journey.
