The Beer Life of Brian

Its xmas time again (and a new seasonal beer!)

2008-12-12T06:12:00.004Z

Wow, apparently I've kept this blog up for more than three years now. Often times (like these last few months) its been very sparse in posts, but I think there is some good content over the years. In fact, I know there is some good content since I still get emails and comments from people for several of my posts over the years.

Anyway, I only have one bit of news I suppose. Last Friday I brewed the new seasonal beer at Alley Kat, which will be an English dark mild of about 3.5% abv. From the test batches, it should have lots of crystal & chocolate malt flavours with just enough hop bitterness to balance the sweetness. I love the mild style, and I think we should be drinking it more in North America. When I was in Scotland it was great to go to the pub and drink pints of real ale that was often below 4% abv. You could drink good tasting beer and not get trashed. Unless you drank a lot of it... but even then you were far less hungover in the morning.
In any case, I can't wait for the final product.

In other news... I've gone crazy buying safety equipment for my new car. I can't wait to get stuck in a remote wilderness location so I can use my fire-staring equipment and blankets. Or find a new car accident so I can use my first aid kit. Or pull up to someone on the side of the road who just happens to need a 1/16" nut driver... anyway, yeah I went a little crazy at Canadinan Tire. I love going there.

Cheers

Yep, a whole month.

2008-10-30T02:26:00.003Z

So its been an entire month since I've posted a blog entry. But that's the way it goes I suppose...

Being a head brewer has been a learning experience so far. I'm good at brewing and working on my own, I just have to get good at getting other people to do what I want them to. Also, going from sitting on my fattening ass being a student to going back directly to hard physical work for 8+ hours a day is very tiring.

Anyway, some cool beers coming up in the next few months, more notes on that later. The nice thing about being the head brewer is that I pretty much brew all the "interesting" stuff. The normal day-to-day stuff the other guys can do.

So thats the quick and boring update.

Cheers!

One more thing I love about Canada... the CBC.

2008-09-28T23:51:00.004+01:00

Frankly, I love the CBC. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Well, the radio at least. I was just thinking that I seem to listen to CBC radio almost all weekend (commercial free of course). Quirks & Quarks, Vinyl Cafe, Rex Murphy, Wiretap, Michael Enright, DNTO, C'est la vie, Dispatches, Search Engine... and more.

I love that we as Canadians can get this excellent content, and even more that most of it is available for free whenever you want to listen to it as a podcast. The CBC is part of my cultural identity... part of our cultural identity.

When I was (much) younger I used to think of the CBC as some annoying thing that my parents listened to; except for the Vinyl Cafe, I always loved that. And Quirks & Quarks. Oh, and several other shows... I'm not really sure what turned me off CBC when I was young. Maybe it was just that I wouldn't be caught dead listening to it in front of my friends. But I know I would listen to it when nobody else would be able to judge me. So maybe I've really always loved the CBC. Especially the Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean. I've always loved the Dave & Morly stories.

In any case, I now officially proclaim my love for the CBC. I think that we, as Canadians, should listen more. I think that we, as Canadians, should be proud that we have such privilege to have access to such content.

That is all.

Cheers,

Submitted!

2008-08-22T19:14:00.002+01:00

Well, I've submitted my dissertation. "Effects of dark specialty malts on the growth of common brewing bacteria". I'm tired... a couple of beers, then I think I'll go to sleep early. I'm drinking a Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted and eating Ritz crackers... the combination of the two leaves the taste of chineese food in my mouth. Weird!

Anyway, some good beer-drinking tomorrow night then on Monday morning bright and early I begin the trip back to Canada. As much as I like Scotland, I think being away makes me know why I love Canada.

See (some of you) soon!

Cheers!

What happened to my iTunes -> amarok script?

2008-08-12T02:30:00.004+01:00

Hm, I've got a couple of comments on a post about a script I made a couple of years ago that converts all of your iTunes data into the Linux amarok db format. Unfortunately I have no idea where it went. I must have accidentally deleted it at some point.

Oh well. I got several emails back in the day telling me people found it useful, but doing a quick google suggests that somebody else has made a much better solution than my quickly hacked together perl script did. Plus I'm sure both have changed their data formats slightly enough to break my script.

Ah, to be breifly fameous to 10 people.

Cheers!

Half Cycle Off

2008-08-11T20:37:00.003+01:00

I woke up at 8:00 today. Unfortunately it was the wrong 8:00 and the sun is just heading down. My sleep schedule has been so messed up lately. I lasted until noon today before I had to go to bed, maybe tomorrow I'll last until 2 or 3 pm and wake up even later. Its easy to mess up your sleep schedule when you don't have any place to be at any time.

Hatin' on 0844

2008-08-07T01:33:00.005+01:00

So, last month the university residence people here (Heriot-Watt) upgraded the phone system to a VOIP carrier with much cheaper rates. However, they neglected one thing: they didn't check to see if international incoming calls worked. I can't receive calls from Canada. Apparently, according to the tech support guy, and some information held on the second page of a googling, not all service providers in all countries allow calls to 0844 numbers in the UK. Carriers of particular to note: ones in Canada and Australia. Hm. Crap.

Now this may seem surprising at first, but this is more common that it seems. No UK service provider I have have had access to seems to allow me to call 1-800/866/etc numbers in North America. Presumably, this is because they can't collect their money for the collect calls. Apparently if I call the international operator I can do the 1-800 calls but at great expense to the receiver. If they accept the call. But what chance is there of that on the computer automated system on my bank. So I make due by paying the cost out of my own pocket the few times I've needed to call.

But back to the 0844 issue... what possible reason is there not to allow a call to such a number? And who's problem is it? Is it my new UK service provider (Freewire)? Or is it my girlfriend's calling-card company and my parents provider (Telus)? Or is it all Canadian carriers? Or is it the UK phone system? Or is it my university's residence manager who decided to change to the cheaper system without proper due diligence? From my perspective, even though my call rate is cheaper, the service provided to me is technically worse.

Every provider I've emailed has either not got back to me, or just said that the problem is with the provider in the other country. Can this seriously be a problem that hasn't been widely considered int he telephone-o-sphere?? Seriously?

Dissertating

2008-08-05T03:11:00.002+01:00

So this is what my floor looks like these days. I've started in again on writing my MSc dissertation again. Its going alright... we finally received a notice from the faculty about what they are expecting, and its not as much as I thought. Its important to be straightforward and concise about the research done and literature review. So the length isn't as important as the fact that you say what you did, give the results, and back it up with prior literature. I had written a lot of the literature review a few months back, and I think I was trying to write too much. Like I don't need to go over all the basics as they are... well, basic. I can assume, for example, that my audience actually knows what barley is; I don't need to tell them!

Anyway, in writing this I am actually procrastinating from writing again. But thats ok. I'm staying up alllll night long tonight and all day tomorrow as I'm trying to break my recent sleep schedule of going to bed at 5 am and waking up at 2 pm.

Cheers!

Slave to bacteria

2008-07-24T04:42:00.004+01:00

My MSc project deals with Lactobacilus brevis, a common beer spoilage bacteria. For some tests I'm doing, I need to sample every 6 hours (or less...) in order to get some decent results.

This doesn't bode well for my sleep... I've already done two (6pm and 12am) and I pretty much stayed awake all night to do the 6 am sampling... not that I intended to, but I think I drank too much strong coffee before going in for the 12 am sampling so I wasn't able to sleep.

Anyway... I'm not looking forward to this time tomorrow (5 am) as I may be going out of my skull by then. Unless I can force myself to sleep in the middle of the day for a couple of hours.

Damn bacteria.

Cheers!

Scheduling Software for a Small Brewery

2008-07-22T11:40:00.010+01:00

In the past few months I've been contemplating and working on a wee software solution to a problem that I've seen at many small craft breweries that I've visited:
Scheduling

A lot of breweries I've been to have scheduling methods that work for them just fine... but usually involve a pencil and some paper. Maybe and excel spreadsheet if they're lucky. Existing production management software can be too expensive for a small business, and there is no guarantee that the investment will pay itself off. These software packages are bloated with more features than are needed for a brewery, since they are for "any" production environment. As well, they often require the software be installed on a Windows computer... ONE Windows computer per license.

What I'm working on is a schedule helper for the small brewery. The schedule is to run off a webserver, with a database back end. This has the advantage in that no additional software needs to be installed by the client, and it doesn't matter weather the client is on Mac, Windows, Linux, etc. In theory, the software could be accessed from anywhere in the world (of course, significant security measures would have to be employed!)
This also means that schedule information can be viewed and modified on, say, an iPhone :).

I have broken it down into several separate modules:
1. Scheduler - Books batches of beer on resources (fermenters, conditioning tanks, humans, etc). Displays output in a graphical format, so that the schedule can be visualized for any conflicts or problems. An example schedule ought to look something like this (click for larger view):

The basic scheduler has no data for recipe, volumes, etc etc. I'd also like to have it possible to enter a matrix of dependencies, and provide an "auto schedule" algorithm. But thats way off in the future.

2. Recipe data - As a separate module that can be added in if needed. Basically, this module can handle what goes into each batch of beer, as well as record volumes throughout the process. I've designed it is such a way that the client can add almost an infinite number of ingredients.

3. Consumables management - of course, if you have ingredients, you ought to be able to manage them. This should be able to keep track of ingredients and help plan when to order more supply. This isn't limited to ingredients, this can include bottles... cleaning supplies... boxes... etc.

4. Quality control - This is very important to the brewer. This module can handle data from quality control checks, as defined by the client.

5. Sales & Customer Database - I've not programmed or planned anything around this section. However, it would definitely be useful if this software is ever to be a complete solution for the small brewer (for now its just a helper!).

Timeline: when do I see this being produced? Since I'm working a full time job, I'll be doing it on my own time, don't expect anything public for quite some time! In theory, I'll using it to help with my job at a small craft brewery (more on that news later)... it could be years before I feel comfortable releasing it.

Of course, for now I should be finishing my MSc thesis...

Cheers!

Leave your bag at the front counter, please.

2008-07-15T11:31:00.003+01:00

No.

On the surface, such a request seems innocent enough. But it also implies that I might be a criminal. I don't like being made to feel like a suspected criminal while I intend to buy something at your store. Besides, what if somebody steals my bag? Or the punk behind the counter rifles through it?

As such, I refuse to shop at any store that requires me to remove my bag.

Society these days seems willing to put up with an awful lot of little inconveniences for other people's security and peace of mind. Are we ok with being treated as guilty until proven innocent? I think most people would say no. But we allow it every day.

We put up with it at a much larger scale too. Apparently now there is over a million names on the US terror watch list. One million names. Added with secret criteria, and impossible to remove. If you are unlucky enough to have a similar name as somebody who may have possibly had a connection to something that might have maybe been a possible terrorist action, your flying days will become very difficult. You can't defend yourself against the accusations (since you don't know what they are) and you can't fight the label (unless you have a lot of money for some lawyers). Guilty until proven innocent... but you can't prove innocence.

Being a shoplifting suspect and being a terror suspect are certainly several orders of magnitude different. But they follow the same principle: give up your rights for the peace of mind of somebody else.

Are you willing to be treated like a shoplifting suspect for the peace of mind of the shop owner?
Are you willing to be treated like a terrorist suspect for the peace of mind of a country?

Cheers.

Back from Belgium

2008-07-07T18:05:00.003+01:00

Yes, I went to Belgium last week. Just 5 days for a quick vacation... and "research".

I managed to do some very good "research" mostly on the under-appreciated lambic (sour) beer style, as well as some of my old favorite Belgian Trappist and Abby beers. As well as an excellent visit to the Affligem brewery. I'll write more in due course, as I've just got back and have a heck of a lot of work to do in the next day or two.

Best part: Sitting in an off-the-tourist-path cafe terrace under trees in Graanmarkt in Burssels, sipping on beer, people watching, and reading all afternoon on Sunday.

Worst part: Spending too damn much... everything else was pretty good, really.

I love Belgium!

Cheers for now

No visit to Canada :(

2008-06-26T23:03:00.002+01:00

I can't come back to Canada in July for a visit. I just can't afford it.

This is due to the fact that I'm pretty much out of money and can't afford another return flight to Edinburgh (I already have a flight back to Calgary). In retrospect, it was a little naive of me to think that I could do it.

The bad side is, of course, that I won't be there for Brier's wedding, won't see my girlfriend, won't see friends who are only in town from abroad then, won't be able to have fun (drink) at Bruce's lake cabin, and won't be able to do the job interviews I had semi-planned.

But the good side is that I can therefore come home much earlier (I just moved my flight to August 25th). This is more than 3 weeks earlier than I had initially planned. Which means I'll be home before my girlfriend moves to our place in Edmonton. Then I spend a month visiting people, doing job interviews (in theory)... OH, and spending a lot of time doing the write up for my thesis before the 20th. Can't forget that last one...

Cheers!

The Short Loop Parade

2008-06-24T23:32:00.003+01:00

Hey.
Nothing beerish this time, just posting a wee mix I made. Its called "The Short Loop Parade", and the name suggests what it is. Its basically a mix of several short loops. Download it, perhaps even enjoy it. Let me know what you think... Download it here. Its only 28 minutes long, but has about 1.5 hours worth of music mixed together! Woo!

Here is the list of samples, in order of appearance:
Slyandro.mod - From the classic game Starcontrol II
Idioteque - Radiohead
Circles Blurring - Minus 8
Jah - The Playing Orchestra
American Life - Primus
Da Funk - Daft Punk
Looking down the barrel of a gun - Beastie Boys
The Battery - Boys Noize
White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
Blood Runs Cold - Jedi Mind Tricks
Summertime (UFO remix) - Sarah Vaughan
Kinetic - Radiohead
Noctuary - Bonobo
Difficult score - Marco Carola
Underwater - Elkysia
...then... - Black Era
Adn poubelle - David Aubrun
Turn Deaf - Modeselektor
Dead by Dawn - Future Forces
Thunder - Christian Smith & John Selway
Medusa's Path (cry on my console mix) - Prodigy
The Key - Tosca
Make me fly - Makingthenoise (Miximal)
Why do fools fall in love - Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers
Mango pickle down river - M.I.A.
Croissance dans le mur - David Aubrun
Synthetic Rhythms - Ghislain Poirier
Come as you are - Nirvana
Galang - M.I.A.
Sea Lion Woman - Fiest
Girl - The Beatles
Flim Flam (David Alvarado Remix) - Yellow Sox
Sly (underdog mix) - Nicolette
Fast Track - Radiohead
Credits - Amon Tobin
Marine Machines - Amon Tobin
Chocolate Elvis - Amon Tobin
There is a war going on for your mind - Flobots
Credits - Amon Tobin

Cheers!

Exploding Kegs and Bob McKenzie

2008-06-19T23:18:00.002+01:00

Sorry for the lack of posts of late, my brain has been occupied with researchy stuff.
All I feel like posting today is this link to a story on exploding beer kegs that stopped traffic. The most interesting part? The driver was a guy named Bob McKenzie.

On a more technical note, why did the kegs explode? The police said "carbon dioxide in the kegs"... well that doesn't help, all beer ought to have carbon dioxide in it. Kegs are rated to take more than 60 psig in pressure, but a filled keg really ought to not have more than 30 psig pressure, even in hot weather. Unless, of course, the temperature was very very hot. Or the beer was very over carbonated. Seems weird... the only time I've heard of kegs exploding are from drunken idiots throwing them on the fire or somebody hooking up an un-regulated beergas line to the gas-in (which would be like 2000-8000 psi instantly).

Anyway, that was a lame post. Cheers!

America not for sale anymore

2008-06-13T11:22:00.005+01:00

Just saw a funny quote in a story covering the possible InBev purchase of AB:
"Go home, InBev, and keep your money in your pocket. America isn't for sale any more."

America was for sale... not anymore though. Maybe its just funny to me.

The bigger point, I think, is that AB has the American market wound up so much with its marketing that they've made Budweiser synonymous with America.

Cheers

Fight the Candadian DMCA

2008-06-13T01:55:00.004+01:00

For years our poor American brethren to the South have been subject to a horrid beast, tearing the heads off of file-sharing youth and breathing fire on fair-use. This beast has been known as the DMCA, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. While the name sounds great, is misses the point. Big media realized that technology had changed such that they no longer had control over the media. So rather than change their business plan to take advantage of this new era of technology, they lobbied to create the DMCA.

And now, its coming to Canada. With more restrictions on consumers. Who is this law for? We're the citizens... why are corporate ties dictating what laws should be? This law is worse... FAR worse for the consumer than what we have now. It limits what you can do with what you own. It limits what you can try to do with things that you own but are supposed to be "locked" (like cellphones and out-of-region DVDs). This all benefits the media corporations.

Here is my point... why are we making laws that benefit corporate citizens? Mostly AMERICAN corporate citizens. We are the actual citizens of Canada... fuck them. We want to copy stuff. We want to be able to use our technology. We want a world without these restrictions imposed for the benefit of corporate profit. Big media needs to realize that technology has changed... the ability to create media is at the hands of almost all of us. They're not going to make as much money as they used to....

Who will? People who have figured it out. Like Jamendo.com, for example. Free music, from the artists. Pay a donation, or go see them live. The big media method of spending millions on marketing to get us to think that we actually like band X isn't going to work anymore. Big media requires so much money to pay for the marketing and the execs in the middle. When you pay for music by traditional methods you don't pay very much to the artist, after all.

Anyway, read this criticism on the bill, and contact your MP. Luckily we're in a minority government, so there is a chance that it won't pass.

Cheers

InBev to buy Anheuser-Busch?

2008-06-11T23:12:00.004+01:00

According to this press release that just fell into my inbox, InBev is offering to buy Anheuser-Busch.

This is interesting. InBev is the global supergiant. AB is also a supergiant, with about 45% of the American market last time I checked. If it goes through then most of the beer in the world will be produced by a ridiculously large company. Although to be fair, most of the world's beer already is produced by ridiculously large companies.

Will AB accept? If they do they won't be an "American" brewery anymore. In fact, none of the superbrewers will be American anymore... Coors became Molson-Coors (Molson being Canadian, of course). Miller became SAB-Miller (South African Breweries). AB played up a lot of marketing that they were the "only" real American brewer. Of course, that ignores the many many small American breweries.

So if AB takes the offer (it sounds like an easy retirement for the already wealthy board of AB), then the only way to get a true American beer will be to head to your local craft brewer. At least thats a good marketing angle for the craft brewers ;)

Cheers!

Black Malt Tea

2008-06-11T20:45:00.005+01:00

I've started looking into lab work for my thesis project (more on that some other time). Basically my work involves specialty brewing grains - those brewer's among you know that this includes crystal malt, black malt, chocolate malt, and roast barley. Depending on the grain, they are roasted in a coffee-like roasting drum at high temperatures. Some grains, like black malt and roast barley, are basically burnt.

So these special malts have a lot of flavour. I'll have to do 100% extracts of these (usually they are used in <15%>

Here is what I did:

Crushed two tablespoons of the grain (crystal, black, or roast barley)
Placed it in a small French coffee press.
Added about 200 mL of boiling water
let it sit for 10 min
pressed the plunger down, poured off the liquid

Drinking it was interesting...

Crystal (140 EBC) had exactly what you'd expect - a massive aroma of sweet malt. The flavour was very weak though, but still pretty sweet. It was dark pale in colour.
The black malt of course created a dead black liquid. The blackness had a red hue, though. Sweet aroma with some burnt notes. Didn't taste too bad actually... it was a little sweet with some astringency.
Roast barley was similar to the black malt, except the colour hue was much more yellow than red. As well, the flavour was much drier compared to the black malt.

I suggest people do this with any malt they purchase, you really need to taste the product in some water to get an idea of how what flavour it may add to your beer.

Cheers!

Beer Stories

2008-06-09T00:15:00.004+01:00

In the last few days I've added a Google Blogs search for "beer" RSS feed to my Google Reader aggregator. The search is actually quite good, and I get lots of interesting blog postings. Some from proclaimed beer bloggers, some from "normal people" who just happen to be writing about beer. The most interesting thing I've found is that there are very few beer reviews, or at least the beer review isn't the central point of the posting. I've found that most people tell a story, and somewhere in the story is something about beer, perhaps a beer review.

I like this because I've generally enjoyed the stories I've read. I honestly pass over most straight-up beer review postings quick scan for history or some interesting brewing fact. A story to a beer review makes it much more interesting, certainly.

Anyway, just a shout out to the blagosphere, keep up the good work.

Cheers

How I Judge Beer

2008-06-07T00:09:00.006+01:00

I've had this in the back of my head for awhile... I've given up on the 'traditional' beer-nerd style of judging a beer. I've also given up on judging a beer 'to style', but thats a different story.

I'm not good with the fluffy verbiage. I can pick out certain things, I know what they are in my head... I can name a lot of key flavours and aromas just from sheer repetition, but I just can't write more than a few sentences about any beer. People like Michael Jackson, Rodger Prost and Rob Millichamp are good at that. I don't like trying to name flavours, or write descriptions, honestly.

I have one overall judging parameter for beer I drink: quality. Quality is, basically, does it meet (or exceed) my expectations as a consumer? Getting into the details is a bit harder certainly as my expectations can chance based on my mood, what I've eaten, what I've drank, what music I'm listening to, etc. But all other things being equal... there are two things I look for in a beer:

Technical quality: Do I like it, and is there any "flaws"? This is very tricky... what is bad for one style of beer is perfection for another. This is where the expectation comes in... eg, if I order an English bitter and it tastes sour and acetic, it fails my expectations. Its technically flawed. Colour, clarity, taste, aroma, malt sweetness, bitterness, off-flavours, etc. But I also include in this category the ultimate question - do I like it? This last question is really the most important one. Usually, one spends the most time considering this category.
Uniqueness: This is the bane of most brewers, I think. A beer can be technically perfect... a great beer. I can like it. I can even love it. The problem with tasting so many beers is that you seem to taste a lot of the same thing. I'm always looking for something different. Its few and far between. It seems to me that a lot of brewers, even small craft brewers, don't often like to stray too far from the mainstream of their market. Of course, there is "good" unique and "bad" unique. Bad unique probably results from a significant technical flaw.

Of course, there is a balance between these two. I've had beers that are technically great beers that I really like but just aren't unique - these end up as good stand by beers. I've also had unique beers that were technically well done but I didn't really like. Of course, I've also had technically horrible beers that were unique -- the bad kind. Most beers I try I think about the technical quality, and make a note of any uniqueness.

So this concept isn't all that ground-breaking, but it is how my head works when I taste a beer. Its also why I've pretty much stopped reviewing beers on this blog. I only ever write a couple of sentences and thats just not interesting to the reader!

But, I did have a bottle of Bacchus Kriekenbier today as I mentioned on my last post. I can say it was technically quite well done - good balance of flavours between the acidity of the beer and the sweet/sour of the cherries. Quite refreshing and made me glad I'm heading to Belgium at the end of the month. I liked the beer, probably 7/10 if I had to quantify. Uniqueness? Hm, well I know I've tasted similar krieks, perhaps this had a bit more robustness to it, to put it difficultly. Overall, it met my quality expectations!

Damn that sounds boring... So I'll post a photo to reward you for reading to the end. Its from the Heriot-Watt beerfest which I never got around to blogging about:

Cheers!

I'm going to Belgium

2008-06-06T19:48:00.003+01:00

First, some of you with keen eyesight may notice that I've re-branded my blog. The Beer of Brian sounds slightly less lame than Brian's Beer Blog. I'm trying to think of a better name, but for now this is all I have.

Anyway, in regards to the title... yes, I am going to Belgium. My friend Mike is doing some traveling to Europe. So we'll spend a few days sampling the local product here in Edinburgh, then onward to Belgium July 1st-ish.

When I was in Lisbon I was very kindly offered a place to visit/stay in Ghent by some fellow tourists, so that ought to be on my list to see. Hopefully I can get access to some "inside tours" at some breweries. After all I'm a pro-brewer, and just finishing off my MSc in brewing, so hopefully that pulls some weight when contacting breweries. Its nice to talk to the actual brewers, after all. Maybe I'll get some hints on brewing methods ;). When I was working at the craft brewery I enjoyed other brewers coming by, after all. Perhaps somebody else will feel the same. Otherwise I'll have to settle for the usual touristy tours that explain all the basics. Bah.

So I'll update when I know more. In celebration, I drank Bacchus Kriekenbier which is from a family-owned brewery in Belgium. Not too sour, not too sweet. Good amount of cherry, certainly not overdone. I quite like it, I'd say its quite well rounded and I like the slight sour bite. Its been awhile since I've had a decent sour beer (other than at Mather's the other night, but that wasn't supposed to be sour...)

Cheers!

Something amiss at Mather's

2008-06-04T14:26:00.005+01:00

Last Monday was our last day of exams for our MSc Brewing course, and naturally we went out drinking. We stopped for a pint at Mather's Bar, a relatively famous pub in Edinburgh. Four of our group grabbed pints of Batemans XB Bitter... and we each independently and immediately thought "this is off". The beer was clearly acetic (acidic character often a sign of an older cask). So we sent them back and got something else. The bar staff was very grumpy about this, as they all claimed it was fine when they tasted it (as well by some bloke at the bar drinking Foster's... clearly a man of fine taste). It was clearly off... I don't mind acidic beers, but if I buy a bitter I expect a bitter not a lambic.

To make matters worse, I tasted somebody else's Theakston Old Peculiar as I heard them say "wow, this beer tastes like apples!"... since I know this beer well I knew that wasn't right. I judged it was full of acetaldehyde (green apple character) which can be a sign of infection too or bad brewing practice. I assumed the former. I didn't tell them to send it back as I think I was in enough trouble with the bar staff and my friend seemed to be enjoying his beer regardless.

To make matters even worse, a couple of months ago we had the former brewing students dinner and the pub crawl stopped there for a few pints. I met an older gentleman who was sending back his pint as he said it was acetic. Turns out he was a retired brewer of 30 years.

My point is that there is a pattern of unkempt beers at Mather's. The only bad pints I've had in Edinburgh were there. Cask ales are alive need attention and proper cellarmanship. Bar staff needs training on off flavours. But perhaps if they're tasting the off beer regularly, and nobody complains, then they'll think everything is fine.

Otherwise, Mather's is a great little traditional pub with great beer selection. Its a shame that I'll unlikely go back there.

Cheers

Expensive Scotch Drinking

2008-06-02T00:35:00.005+01:00

Last Friday the student Whisky Society here at Heriot-Watt got together for our 'expensive' drinking night. Well damn, it was good. Below is the four bottles we drank, which totaled almost 300 quid in value! I've added a brief tasting note for each of them, but very short.

Redbreast Irish Whiskey 12 yr 40% v/v- This was a good start to the night as it was a fairly clean, smooth, and easy drinking spirit with strong vanilla notes. Irish Whiskey are (usually) triple distilled to obtain this smoothness. This retailed for about £28.
Glenfarclas 21 yr 43% v/v- I very much liked this one. Very complex nose and flavour. A little burn on the mouth. Heavily sherried. Retails for approximately £50.
St. Magdelin 32 yr ?% v/v- This distillery has apparently been closed for quite some time, which of course makes the value skyrocket. 32 years is pretty damn old too. Not that 32 years automatically means its good, of course. It was smoother than the Glenfarclas, but with a distinct bite of some kind. I hadn't much to say about it. I liked the Glenfarclas much better personally. This just seemed a little odd to me... don't get me wrong it was a good scotch, but I've had spirits I liked a more that cost a lot less... this retails for approximately £110, apparently.
And finally, the big hit of the night... Ardbeg Lord of the Isles 25 yr 46% v/v - Well I have to admit this was a pretty damn good scotch, and it better be for the price. At the distillery it costs £200, but a shop in town here sells it for £170. Still pretty damned expensive for 0.7 l of fluid. Anyway, usually Ardbeg is a very peaty (smoky) scotch. This was peaty, but not too over the top. It was very well balanced between the harsher flavours and the smoother flavours. Brillant!

So, obviously a pretty damn good night. Followed by a few pints of fresh cask Deuchar's IPA down at the Riccarton Arms. Click here for photos from the night.

As for brewing school... I have one more exam left. Its today at 14:00... then all I have to do is research my thesis and try to have fun!

Cheers...

29th Birthday

2008-05-27T09:31:00.007+01:00

I actually had to be reminded this morning that I am 29 years of age today. Not the most exciting birthday... one more year and I'm no longer a twenty-something. In the past couple of years I've already began to notice some key indicators of an aging body & mind:

I don't care as much about what other people think anymore. That goes for what people think about me or what people think about in general. Its really a waste of time.
I can't drink as much in one sitting as I used to be able to. Or I just have no desire to... hard to say which. Not that getting drunk doesn't happen once and awhile. But more often than not I find after a couple of beers I don't feel like drinking anymore.
I've been reading a lot more in the last year. But that may be because I don't have a TV here in residence at school (although the internet is pretty bad for taking up my time). In any case, I think when I move back to Canada I'm going to get rid of the cable TV.
I can't stay up as late as I used to be able to. I've tried to pull a couple of all-nighters here at school, but I end up feeling absolutely horrible by about 5 am. Maybe I just need more practice.
I can't stand hangovers anymore. I used to be able to go out the night before work, get in at 3 am or something, get up and be at work at 8 am(ish). And I'd feel ok. Now the times I do get drunk it just kills my next day. Maybe thats another reason why I don't get drunk much anymore. Although "much" is a relative term.
I feel like cooking good food. Although that could be my girlfriend rubbing off on me.
I might be lazier than I used to be... not sure about this one. The brewing program here doesn't push me very hard, so I don't feel like I'm working hard. Maybe I still have hard work ability in me, but I just need a good reason to do it.

Anyway, thats my birthday thoughts for now. Unfortunately I have an exam at 9:30 tomorrow morning, so any celebration will be delayed until after that event. Speaking of which... I should probably be studying for that.

Cheers!