Deciding to start a blog is a test of one’s dedication. When I first started actively writing BetterBeerBlog, it was to catalogue all the beers that I would be drinking as well as homebrewing. Sounded simple enough, didn’t it? What ended up happening was I started to write about all the festivals I went to. Then I became a BJCP judge and wrote about all the homebrew competitions I stewarded or judged. Then I started doing beer and food pairings and I started to catalogue that. Needless to say, BetterBeerBlog has become my other 9-to-5. While I feel a great deal of satisfaction and happiness doing this, the pay sucks ass. Let’s just say that I won’t be quitting my day job any time soon.
I’d like to take this time to welcome Derrick Peterman, aka the Beer Runner, to the blogging world. In a nutshell, Derrick likes to drink beer and he likes to run. He likes to drink beer after a run. And there you go; the birth of the Beer Runner. I met Derrick and his wife at the Beer and Dessert Event I hosted for SF Beer Week. He’s a cool guy with a great palette and I’m looking forward to reading his thoughts on running and beer.
Cuvee de BetterBeerBlog
To “commemorate” April 20th, I did a hop-forward beer review featuring beers from Lagunitas, Deschutes, Green Flash and Beer Valley Brewing Companies. I just happened to have left over beer from that tasting and I blended them together. No real rhyme or reason, just poured the left-overs into a pitcher in nearly equal amounts and poured the blend into my glass.
The blend is relatively clear, amber in color with a wisp of an off-white head. The aroma is a combination of a sweet malt aroma with caramel and toasted notes while the hop aroma has an earthy citrus character. The flavor is primarily sweet, malty, toasty with caramel notes and a touch of oxidation. The hop flavor had diminished from the original beers but the hop bitterness is still strong. Cuvee de BetterBeerBlog has very low carbonation and is medium-high/high in body.
These beers were stored in the bottom shelf of my refrigerator but I made the mistake of not recapping them with my bottle capper, I just put them back on. From what I remember of the original tasting and contrasting it to the blend I currently have in hand, it would seem that the Lagunitas is providing a strong malt base for this beer while the Green Flash’s aggressive bitterness still shines through. Beer Valley was a cloudy beer to begin with and hazed up the clarity of the blend.
This was just a fun and last minute experiment I did to get rid of old beers I had. Is it a bit pretentious of me to call this a cuvee? I would hope not, this all tongue-in-cheek for me. Has anyone else blended any beers with successful results?
Related posts:
- Beers in Review: FourTwenty Special Today (well, at the time of writing this post anyway)...
Blended beers? You mean like Beer Cocktails?