Quick Wit...

Rob and I decided to brew up another Belgian Wit last Saturday. Both wives were tied up in Houston so we found prime time to get some steady tastings in as well. Beautiful weather and lots of fun was had.

The Wit is a pretty straight forward partial mash recipe, however, no spicing was added this time. The fermentation has been monstrous... blowing krausen out the top of my air lock. Time to fabricate a blow-off tube for the carboy. Rob has never had a problem but both times I made a wheat based beer at my house the fermentation blows up! Hopefully things will reside today and we will let this one clean up for a few days. This should be a wonderful beer to session through christmas time.

We managed to put down a respectable list of beers Saturday as well. The most intriguing (but a bit of a let down overall) was Deschutes Dissident. Dissident is a Flanders Oud Bruin that has certain funk characteristics but the 'wow' factor of Jolly Pumpkin or Russian River sours wasn't quite there. As much as we enjoyed it, hype fooled us. To honor the begining of this years holiday season I cracked a couple 2008 Sierra Nevada Celebration Ales. Such a great, hoppy beer. I really love how the fresh citrus hops mingle with the minty pine notes. Other honorable mentions include Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout, Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale, Fishermans IPA, Cisco's Indie Pale Ale, Cisco's Pumpkin Drumkin, and plenty others that I am forgetting. Maybe we can get Rob to come in here and remind me.

Election party tonight at my parents' house!!! Rob and I will have some treats to bring in the new leader of our country. Look for an update soon.

I'm Married!

Welcome back! Sorry for the delay in updates but we have been unusually busy with my wedding! Weddings are momentous moments in people's lives and do require celebration. Thus, we indulged in some amazing beers over the weekend.

The Thursday prior to my Saturday wedding, I invited all of my family and out of town friends over to our house and grilled out burgers and sausage for everyone. While my family is not huge on craft beer they all enjoyed Saint Arnolds Texas Wheat. For the rest of us I had coolers full of Stone Ruination, Real Ale Rio Blanco Pale Ale, Saint Arnolds Elissa IPA, Southern Star Pine Belt Pale Ale etc... Wonderful time.

Friday night after our rehersal, we had a wonderful dinner at Robinettes in Seabrook, TX. They were nice enough to allow us to bring our own drinks. My awesome dad stocked us up on Dale's Pale Ale, Reale Ale Full Moon Rye Pale Ale, Saint Arnolds Oktoberfest, Elissa IPA and Lawnmower Kolsch, and more Stone Ruination. Needless to say, the time was enjoyed by all. That night my groomsmen and I retired to Rob's (Twin #1) upper deck, smoked cuban cigars and drank a couple more beers. The memory gets a bit hazy here but I am certain there were some Miller Lite cans in circulation. Roots.

Saturday, THE BIG DAY!, was no different than the prior two. Me and my grooms men dove into some awesome beers. For breakfast I had a Bronco Burrito (Galveston classis!) with Rob's (Twin #1) Sour Belgian Wit. Rob's (Twin #1) sour wit is outstanding! While watching Texas Longhorns handle Oklahoma Sooners, I popped the cork on a DeProef Imperial Wit. What a solid beer! While us Americans have become accustomed to associate Imperial with over-the-top, this bigger beer was well balanced and full of awesome flavors. Before heading off to the wedding venue, I eased any last minute nervousness with a 2007 North Coast Old Stock Ale. I had asked Rob (Twin #1) to bring some snacks to the Gentlemen's Changing area so all my guys could sit around and relax a bit... and instead Rob (Twin #1) brought a cooler full of Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout, Unibroue Maudite, Saint Arnolds Oktoberfest, more Pine Belt Pale Ale and Ruination. We all respected the beer, nobody overindulged and we had a beautiful ceremony. Unfortunantly our wedding venue had a limited beer selection so the best I could do for my guys was Shiner Bock.

Sunday, Stephanie and I made our way back over to my parents' house to visit with my Grandfather, Uncle Don, Aunt Jan and Cousin Farish. Rob and I knew Uncle Don really enjoyed craft beer and loved maltier, english origin beers. We shared Randy's (younger brother) Homebrewed American IPA, Meantime Porter, 2007 Ommegang Three Philosophers, 2007 Oregon Trail Bourbon Barrel Imperial Porter, and the star of the evening, 2007 Smuttynose Imperial Stout. I can't say enough good things about the Smuttynose Imperial Stout! Just the smell was intriguing enough. So many wonderful layers of flavor. This beer ranks up there in my top 3 beers ever. What a way to wind down an awesome weekend.

I would like to thank my new wife for being so understanding with this hobby of ours. I would also like to thank all of my groomsmen, Rob, Randy, Scott, Kevin, Ryan, Kenny and Matt for all their help. I hope everyone enjoys our latest installment. Hopefully we will have some new homebrew news sooner than later.


Take care.
-Rick

Divine Reserve 7

St Arnold's new Divine Reserve release, a Weizenbock, debuted on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008. Specs Warehouse downtown (Houston) had a very large shipment (larger than most stores) and they were completely wiped out in less than two hours. Kevin and I just happened to enter the Bayarea Specs right on time to pick up 4 six packs between the two of us. I have had two DR7's thus far. It is an amazing beer. Very complex, but pleasant and easy to drink. I will review it soon once I can fully wrap my palate around all the flavors found in this fun Weizenbock. Speaking of Divine Reserves, Rick now has a small vertical collection of DR5, DR6, and now DR7. After a few more DR releases, we may get to do a vertical tasting (if Rick is kind enough to invite us to join him.)


In beer news. I tasted one of Rick-n-Kevin's DAPA's dry hopped with Cascades with Rick on Sunday night. The beer was a bit sweeter than I was expecting, but its a really great homebrewed Double American Pale Ale.

On the homefront, I have bottled my Blanche De Chambly clone. The beer should be just about perfect for drinking around the time that Rick's wedding rolls around (October 11, 2008.) We will have friends and family in from out of town, so maybe I will unveil it to them. I think I will call it, "Its a great day for a Wit Wedding."

Sorry for the delay! Hurricane Ike.....

Well, ever since Friday, September 12th, 2008 we have been dealing with Hurricane Ike. Ike made landfall on the Upper Texas Gulf Coast late Friday night... the eye wall traveled directly over us. Our area has seen extensive damage. Ike claimed many houses and boats in our area. Luckily for us, Ike only damaged Rob's house and our parent's house. I am still without power but that should be resolved within the next couple of days. To put it shortly: sorry we haven't updated the blog but we have been dealing with life.

To make it beer related, I can assure you that Rob and I have been drinking plenty of wonderful beer to help us get through these hot and steamy nights. Just recently our area got access to Brooklyn's line up, as well as new Stone offerings (Oaked Arrogant Bastard, Smoked Porter, Ruination), and new Ommegang offerings (Chocolate Indulgence Stout). Rob and I have found time to grab a couple of these new to our area beers. Look for more extensive reviews in the following weeks... or whenever I get refrigeration again.

The beers that helped me weather this storm have been Russian River's Pliny The Elder, Bling Pig and Green Flash's West Coast IPA. Something about those west coast hop bombs numbing all your senses that helps you fall asleep in a balmy, humid house without air conditioning.

Due to the storm, Saint Arnold had to push back their Houston Area release of Divine Reserve 7 until September 30th. The delay is due to damage at their distro center here in Houston. Austin and Dallas metro-areas saw the DR7 released on September 23rd. Reports are that the weizenbock is full of wonderful chocolate and wheaty, bready malts with that beautiful banana and clove yeastiness of a bavarian style wheat beer. We will provide a full review once we get our hands on some.

Sour Bret Bier De Guarde Update

The home-brewed experiment is still coming along nicely. Took a sample last night and the beer is nice and sour with a tart raspberry experience in there, as well as an oaky astringent mouthfeel. The nose is extreme right now though, with leather, earth, and sour notes. Time will do this beer well.

In other odd homebrew news... Rick and I brewed was an Abbey Ale about 6 months ago. This brew was deemed, a good try, but far from good early on, due to some strange tastes, low carbonation levels, and apparent early oxidation.

However, on a whim, Rick and I opened up a bottle last night and found that our secondary bottle fermentation had created some nice carbonation, the astringent flavors had weakened, and the entire beer was starting to come together. I think this beer wants some more time in a cool dark place to age out a bit more and let the nose tame down (serious alcohol bite), but in due time we may have a winner!

Last but not least- google "Rob Beer" and you will find this gem. This man is named Rob Beer. Gnarley.

A Full Family of Brewing

Last weekend, the youngest brother in the Sawyer family, Randy (pictured to the left), joined the homebrewer community! He made an extract / partial mash American IPA (recipe kit from Austin Homebrew). He must have done it right because 12 hours later his california ale yeast was eating up the wort. I am guessing that sometime during thanksgiving or christmas there will be a sawyer brother collaboration brewday. Awesome job Randy!

In other news, Kevin and I plan to prime and bottle our IPA on Saturday. We are quite excited to see how our hop schedule will work out: 2oz Magnum @ 60 min., 2oz Cascade @ 15 min., 2oz Cascade at flame out, fermented in primary for 7 days, split batch into two separate secondaries and dry hopped 2.5 gallons with 2oz Columbus and the other 2.5 gallons with 2oz Cascade. It is good to know that beer is still fun in Kemah, TX!

Weekend Beer Tasting with Friends

The crew joined together over the past weekend to do a bit of work on some of the homebrews, as well as taste some new beers in on trades. A short synopsis of the festivities are as follows:
1) Go to homebrew store and get bags for hops
2) Transfer Rick-n-Keven IPA into two different secondaries
3) Toss 2 oz of cascade hops in one secondary
4) Toss 2 oz of columbus hops in other secondary
5) Clean up brewing stuff
6) Taste green sample of Rob's Sour Bret Bier De Guarde fermenting with fresh Raspberries and Oak.
7) Taste Russian River Blind Pig (wow- serious hops here...)
8) Taste Russian River Supplication (amazing, sour, amazingly sour!)
9) Taste Russian River Redemption
10) Taste Avery Maharaja
11) Continue tasting Ricks beers
12) Smoke a pipe with Rick, Kevin, and Neil
13) Grill hamburgers
14) Continue putting a hurting on Ricks beer stash
15) Have Rick administer a wedgie strong enough to allow Rob to go commando without removing his shorts

The debachery, drinking, and good times continued on until the wee hours of the morning. Fun time for all, and some homebrewing work even went down. SUCCESS!

Homebrew Updates

We brewed two different beers this weekend. I (Rob) brewed a Blanche De Chambly Clone (Belgian Wit), while Rick and our buddy Kevin, brewed an IPA. Its looking like both beers will be ready to transfer to secondary this weekend.

Another homebrew note- my sour Bier De Guarde is coming along nicely. I primed the beer and pitched Whitelabs Bret. A quick sample after 2 weeks of bret fermentation displayed a solid sour taste begining to appear. To up the ante, I dropped in about 1 pound of frozen raspberries. I am thinking that this beer will get transfered this weekend as well.

120 Minutes of Luck?

Monday night, all of us tucked away on the upper Texas Gulf Coast kept an eye on Tropical Storm Edouard. This storm happened to be zeroing in on us the very same week that Dad and Rob flew out of the country. I spent all day Monday preparing all three of our houses for the storm. That evening we (Steph, Mom and I) had a hurricane party on the bay. While the ladies sipped champagne I drowned my fears in the depths of Dogfish Head's 120 Minute IPA. For those unfamiliar with 120 Minute, this is a 21% ABV beer unlike any other. Even as vigorously hopped as this beer is, the fermentables required to help this beer reach 21% ABV subdue what should be a very bitter beer. I wasn't concerned with a formal review as I had other things on my mind, but what really stuck out was a very prominent alcohol note, crisp apples, some tropical flavors I tend to associate to champagne and a very full mouthfeel. The photograph attached shows the 120 minute along with the calm before the storm. Well, that is sort of an exaggeration. The storm ended up hitting a bit north of us. The bay looked like a lake all day, there was no major flooding, none of our houses had any damage and we never saw any winds greater than about 35 knots max. All said and done, we lucked out. Did this extraordinary beer have anything to do with the storm's sudden change of position? I can't say for certain, but all signs point to yes.

Southern Star Pinebelt Pale Ale

I have sent this beer out on a few trades now, as both main trading material and as an extra, and I have gotten the same response by all that have tried it; from New York to Washington State... 'Wow!'

Many of the people have responded to me with statements such as- I didn't know Texans knew Pale Ale like this! If you have a chance to try it, go get some!

Here is what one BeerAdvocate member had to say about this brew:

Cracked open a Pine Belt Pale Ale after your recommendation.
Man this beer is crazy GOOD! (kinda smells and tastes like Gumballhead if you've
ever tried that) I'm definitely gonna be burning through this stuff pretty quick
and will be wanting more! Hopefully we can setup some kind of trade in the
future. Good night dude and thanks again!

Click on the image to go to Southern Star's website.

Ommegang Ommegeddon

I picked up 6 bottles of this beer from LiquidSolutions this weekend. Probably didn't need to spend more $$$ on beer- but I couldn't pass up the opportunity! I can't wait for it to get here! Here is a BA page discussing this wild ale:

Hello, Ms. Vaughn... Do you like anyone from class?

I have one bottle of Fantome left in the house, and it has been begging for me to drink it for a while now. I think I am going to try and resist, so I can share it with Rick and Randy... For some reason, I feel like downing an entire 750 full of great beer is wrong...?

Seawall Boulevard Bier De Guarde

The title of this post is the name of my most recent creation. Seawall Blvd is a street in our old home town of Galveston. This brew is a partial mash Bier De Guarde that on top of your normal Bier De Guarde boil, had local (grown on my land) Texas figs, and some lemon zest. Its still in the fermenter now. This brew clocked in with an O.G. of 1.080... I took a hydrometer reading today and found that its now at 1.011. I think I am going to transfer to secondary, add some priming sugar and roasted live oak, and then re-pitch with a whitelabs sour lambic yeast strain. I will then have a secondary fermentation going that I hope will generate some earthy, sour tones for this ale. More info as its becomes available!

Southern Tier Un-Earthly

Wow- this is a great DIPA. Solid earthy / floraly hops on the front end, balanced by a roasted barley / biscuity malt profile to balance. At 11% abv this brew is deceivingly dangerous!

Rob's Hopped Up Saison

Saison is one of our favorite styles. Fantome's Saison in particular goes on my list of top three beers I have ever had the privilege to drink. Accordingly, Rob and I decided to brew an extract saison two months ago. The brew day was full of fun, including a tasting that brought out half a dozen different Saison's from Rob's recent LiquidSolutions order plus several bombers of my 12% abv cider that tastes like an apple champagne. Thus, it was no surprise that we threw in the aroma hops (cascade), bittering hops (saaz) and lemon zest with an hour left for boil.... Well, train wreck right? No, not exactly. The end result is something quite interesting. Pours a vibrant amber blond orange with a minimal head that resides to a beautiful pattern of film across the top of the beer. The smell is dominated by a very pleasant earthy, bready aroma, befriended with hints of lemon, orange zest, slight metallic notes (most likely the over hopped notes) and some floral, earthy yeast. Taste follows suite, dominated by the fresh cut grass, hay, floral hops with vibrant notes of fresh baked bread and balanced by fruity flavors of fresh red apples, pine apple and some tropical hints of mango. Well done Rob.

Belgian IPA's

Recently, Texas has had an influx of fun, interesting new beers. One emerging style that has hit our state is Belgian IPA's. The style has actually been accepted as a whole new style by BeerAdvocate and certainly has been accepted with open arms by beer lovers world wide.


I had the opportunity to try Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel.

Tasting notes:
Pours an effervescent golden hue with a pillowy cream white head that mountains up to the top of the snifter. As the head recedes it leaves thin tiny bubbles, thickly laced in spotty patterns across the walls of the glass. Smell is intense! Ripe pear, green apple, orange juice, banana, white pepper, and clove. Taste isn't quite as intense as the nose, however it is very balanced and very unique in a good way! Begins with sweet caramel banana bread and transitions into a citrus orange zest with a tongue tingle-ing, peppery finish. The alcohol slowly warms the back of the throat but is never overbearing. Everything seems to balance out with no overbearing flavors. No doubt there is a lot going on in this glass, however the champaign like mouthfeel certainly helps meld it all together and allows the flavors to dance across the taste buds.


Yesterday I picked up a bottle of Urthel HopIt, another Belgian IPA and plan on comparing the two beers to see how this style shapes up. Look for a homebrew update this weekend.

-Rick

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! Who are we? We are Rick and Rob, two twin brothers who share a passion for craft beer and home brewing. We have created this blog as a means for our friends and anyone interested to follow our adventures. Look for updates soon.

-Rick & Rob