Tag Archives: Dubbel

A trio of Juhani’s homebrews

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Today I will be tasting and reviewing a trio of my homebrewing neighbor Juhani’s homebrews. The beers include his #24 Dubbel (with Orval dregs?), #28 ‘Ryssänpelko’ Imperial Stout and #42 Blonde Ale (brewed with yeast harvested from a bottle of Lente Blond). I’ll be starting with the latest, #42 Blonde Ale, moving on to #24 Dubbel, and finishing off with #28 Imperial Stout. This should be interesting!

  • Brewery: Juhani’s homebrewery
  • Country: Finland
  • Style: Belgian Ale
  • ABV: 4.7%
  • Size: 330 ml
  • Bought from: Gift
  • Not on Beer Advocate
  • Not on RateBeer

 

This should be a Belgian-style blonde ale, and it has been brewed with a tin of Coopers Lager extract (1,7 kg), 700 g Brewferm light DME and 300 g sucrose (20 l batch, OG 1,044, FG 1,008, ABV 4.7%). It has been hopped with Styrian Goldings, and the yeast (as I already mentioned) has been harvested from a bottle of Lente Blond. Let’s see what it tastes like!

[easyreview title=”Juhani’s #42 Blonde Ale” cat1title=”Appearance” cat1detail=”The beer pours with a brilliantly clear golden color, and a large fluffy white head, that collapses quite slowly. Nice appearance! The second pour was hazier, as I poured in some yeast as well.” cat1rating=”4.5″ cat2title=”Smell” cat2detail=”The aroma is spicy, phenolic, yeasty and has slight fruit notes as well. The aroma reminded me quite a bit of the Tripel I brewed last December. No off-aromas, and it would be hard to tell this is a homebrew from the aroma alone. Typical Belgian-like aroma, difficult to give any tips for improvement. As the beer warms up you can pick up some alcohol notes as well despite the low ABV.” cat2rating=”3.5″ cat3title=”Taste” cat3detail=”The flavor begins with a slightly honey-like, almost sweet, maltiness, and also features many of the tones present in the aroma. There are spicy and phenolic yeast tones (reminding me of coriander), together with a slightly citrusy and grassy hoppiness. The finish is quite dry and has a subtle bitterness. The flavors are quite well balanced, but the spicy yeastiness is definitely in the center. With the second pour they become even more evident.” cat3rating=”3.5″ cat4title=”Mouthfeel” cat4detail=”The beer has a medium-light body with a medium-high carbonation level. Quite refreshing and definitely a nice beer for the summer!” cat4rating=”4″ summary=”Overall a really nice Belgian-style blonde ale, that is both refreshing and tasty. Can’t find many faults in this, just some slight alcohol notes in the aroma, which are acceptable for the style. This is gonna be a good beer for the summer! Good job!”]

  • Brewery: Juhani’s homebrewery
  • Country: Finland
  • Style: Abbey Dubbel
  • ABV: ?
  • Size: 330 ml
  • Bought from: Gift
  • Not on Beer Advocate
  • Not on RateBeer

 

Next up is the Dubbel. I unfortunately have no information about this brew, but if I remember correctly Juhani added some Orval dregs to this batch, so it should contain some Brettanomyces bruxellensis. Should be interesting, since I haven’t had many Brett beers before!

[easyreview title=”Juhani’s #24 Dubbel” cat1title=”Appearance” cat1detail=”The beer pours with a slightly hazy dark amber color, and a cream-colored head that quickly collapses.” cat2title=”Smell” cat2detail=”The aroma is a lot subtler than the last beer, with much less phenolic yeast, and more tones of dark fruits and red berries. There is a strange off-aroma as well that I have noticed in some of Juhani’s beers before, reminding me a bit of plastic.” cat3title=”Taste” cat3detail=”The flavor begins with a sweet maltiness, drawing to tones of dark fruits, red berries and raisins, but it is quickly taken over by a plastic-like (maybe even burnt) flavor that could be detected in the aroma as well. Not sure what the origin of this off-flavor is, but have tasted it in some of his earlier beers before, but beers from his latest batches have been free from it.” cat4title=”Mouthfeel” cat4detail=”A medium body and carbonation level, with a slightly acidic/astringent bite.” summary=”Unfortunately it seems as if there was something wrong with this beer, as the plastic-like aroma and flavor made it impossible for me to finish the bottle. If it is from an infection via contaminated gear, Juhani has hopefully been able to get rid of it, as I haven’t tasted it in his recent batches.”]

  • Brewery: Juhani’s homebrewery
  • Country: Finland
  • Style: Imperial Stout
  • ABV: 9.5%
  • Size: 330 ml
  • Bought from: Gift
  • Not on Beer Advocate
  • Not on RateBeer

 

The last beer of the night is the Imperial Stout. I have limited information on this brew as well, but it has been fermented with Westmalle yeast (harvested from a bottle?), aroma-hopped with Amarillo, and it should have an IBU around 90 and an EBC of around 115. I think it contains malt extracts, but am not fully certain.

[easyreview title=”Juhani’s #28 Ryssänpelko Imperial Stout” cat1title=”Appearance” cat1detail=”The beer pours pitch-black with a compact tan-colored head that collapses quite slowly.” cat1rating=”4″ cat2title=”Smell” cat2detail=”The aroma is dominated by tones of roasted malt, coffee, vanilla, coffee, and caramel. I couldn’t really detect anything from the Belgian yeast in the aroma. There is some alcohol in the aroma as well.” cat2rating=”4″ cat3title=”Taste” cat3detail=”The flavor begins with roasted flavors drawing from roasted malt, coffee, dark chocolate and ash. The flavors are then coupled with some caramel and vanilla. The finish is sweet and quite bitter. The bitterness is smooth and I wish it was a bit more pronounced, even though it apparently should be around 90. The flavors are quite balanced, but the roastiness is definitely in the center. Really nice! Only complaints are that the roastiness is just slightly astringent, and it seems just slightly one-dimensional.” cat3rating=”4″ cat4title=”Mouthfeel” cat4detail=”The beer has a full body and medium carbonation level. This is definitely a slow-sipper. The astringency draws away some points.” cat4rating=”3.5″ summary=”Overall a really nice Imperial Stout, and the flavors are definitely down my alley with the roasty coffee-like tones. Liked this a lot more than the last Imperial Stout I tasted from Juhani, and this was my favorite of the trio. The beer was missing some complexity, and was a little astringent, but otherwise not much I would change. Maybe raise the bitterness just a bit? Otherwise, a great beer!”]

Thanks Juhani for the beer!

Trip to Amsterdam

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I’m just back home from a great and relaxing trip in Amsterdam with my girlfriend. Had some great beers during the trip, and even managed to bring back home 10 bottles. I really fell in love with De Bierkoning, a small beer shop featuring some very nice brews from around the world (they even recently got some 1 month old bottles of Pliny The Elder, which I didn’t buy since I’ve tried it before and didn’t want to pay the 15€ for the bottle). The prices were mostly nice, but the American beers were predictably quite pricey. They had a large selection of Dutch microbrews, which was really nice.

The first beer of the trip was ‘t IJ Zatte, an Abbey Tripel by Amsterdam-based craft brewers ‘t IJ.



Zatte poured with a hazy orange color and a small off-white head. It featured some caramel and some nice spicy and fruity yeast tones in the aroma. Flavor is similar with tones of yeast, citrus and coriander. The finish was quite dry, with a slight bitterness. A nice attempt on a Tripel. I had the beer while we were at blue°, a cafeteria/bar at the top of a shopping center in the middle of the town.

 
Next, I tried a couple of bottles I bought from Bierkoning at the hotel. First up was Cigar City’s Jai Alai IPA.



This IPA was bottled 23.06.2011, so it was around 7 months old. It poured with a slightly hazy golden-orange color and a fluffy white head, which collapsed leaving some nice lacing along the glass. The aroma featured tones of caramel, resin, grass, citrus, and flowers, and was mostly hop-dominated. The flavor begins with slightly sweet caramel tones, that were joined by piney, resiny, and grapefruit tones from the hops. The beer ended with a quite dry and biting bitter finish. The beer features lots of hop flavor. This was a really crisp and smooth IPA. Overall a very nice American IPA, with some huge resiny hop flavors with a bitter finish. Would really like to try this one fresh. Score: 4/5

 
Next up in the hotel was The Kernel’s India Pale Ale Simcoe Centennial. The Kernel are a London-based microbrewery, that I’ve been hearing some great things about.



This IPA had a BBE of 27.07.2013, so guessing it was bottled 27.07.2011, making it about 6 months old. The beer poured with a slightly hazy golden-orange color (very similar to Jai Alai) and a slight white-colored head, that collapsed leaving minimal lacing along the glass. The aroma was very hoppy, with fruity, resiny and citrusy tones. Really liked the aroma. The flavor begins with a minimally sweet and caramelly maltiness, that is overtaken by hop tones of grapefruit, tangerine, resin and grass. The flavor ends quite dry and a nice bitterness. I thought the flavors were nicely balanced, and the hop flavors were especially nice. The beer had a smooth and medium-full body, making it easy to drink. A great American IPA, that in my opinion was slightly better than Jai Alai. Great hop flavors in a better balanced package. Simcoe and Centennial are amongst my favorites hops as well. Score 4-4.5/5

 

Next, it was time to head to Beer Temple, a quite small and cozy bar focusing on American craft brews, located right next to De Bierkoning. They had 30 beers on tap, with the majority being from the US (e.g. Great Divide Titan IPA, Rogue OREgasmic Ale, and Flying Dog Kujo Coffee Stout), the rest being from different European craft breweries (E.g. Mikkeller and Brewdog). They had an awesome list of bottled beer as well, and the first beer I ordered was Founders Breakfast Stout (since I brewed something similar a couple of weeks ago):



The Breakfast Stout was fantastic, and poured thick and black, with tones of coffee, chocolate and roasted malts in the aroma and flavor. Hopefully my latest homebrew inspired by this tastes at least half as good. After the stout, it was time for both an Imperial IPA and an Imperial Red Ale: Weyerbacher’s Double Simcoe IPA and Rogue’s Imperial Red Ale (from tap):



Unfortunately I only took a picture of the Weyerbacher brew. Both beers were very nice, with the Double Simcoe IPA being my favorite of the whole trip, and probably one of my favorite IPAs ever. Fantastically balanced Imperial IPA, with truckloads of resinous and tropical fruity hop flavor and aroma, and a pleasant bitter bite. The Imperial Red offered a nice combination of caramelly maltiness and citrusy hoppiness. Great beers and a great bar. Definitely worth the visit if you are after tasty beers in Amsterdam. The place got quite crowded when we visited it again on a Saturday, so come early. On the second visit I had some Brewdog/Mikkeller I Hardcore You from tap, which tasted very similar to what I remembered, but with even more hop aroma. After our first Beer Temple visit, we headed to ‘t Arendsnest, a bar serving only Dutch (craft) beer. They had tons of De Molen and Emelisse beer, and of course other beers from other nice breweries such as SNAB, ‘t IJ, and La Trappe. I played it safe and ordered a bottle of De Molen’s Tsarina Esra (Imperial Porter) and some Emelisse Triple IPA from the tap (note the fantastic drapes of lacing along the glasses):



The Tsarina Esra was a very Imperial Porter, with sweet roasted malt tones, chocolate, licorice and hops in the aroma and flavor. Really nice beer to sip on. The Triple IPA had a sweet caramelly maltiness, combined with grapefruit and resin tones. A nice Imperial IPA, but there are better beers in the style available. ‘t Arendsnest was also a cozy bar, with a great selection, and definitely worth a visit if you’re after some great local brews.

 

The beer selection in the largest (?) supermarket chain in Netherlands, Albert Heijn, was quite bad, but at least they had something else than bulk lagers. La Trappe Dubbel and Tripel 6-packs were available for 6 euros (which is fantastically cheap for Trappist beer), as well as Duvel, La Chouffe and Mc Chouffe for around 1.40€. I had a La Trappe Dubbel, La Trappe Tripel (sorry no picture) and La Chouffe in the hotel:




 


I liked the La Chouffe best of the trio, with it’s spicy and lightly hoppy finish, and really disliked the Dubbel, which in my opinion had too much alcohol presence, and an unpleasant estery fruitiness with tones of banana and raisins. The La Chouffe has recently become available at Alko as well, so you can try it out at home.

 

I managed to bring home some really nice beer I bought at De Bierkoning to Finland. A nice blend of Pilsner, IPA, Imperial IPA, Imperial Stouts and of course a bottle of the famed Westvletern 12:



Back row, left to right: Alesmith Yulesmith (Summer), Port Brewing 3rd Anniversary Ale, Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti, Hoppin Frog DORIS the Destroyer, and De Molen Hel & Verdoemenis 666
Front row, left to right: De Molen Hel & Verdoemenis, De Molen Vuur & Vlam, De Molen Winterhop, ‘t IJ Plzen, and Westvleteren 12

 

Overall, it was a nice and relaxing trip. One week was a bit too long for a small city as Amsterdam, as we ran out of things to see and do after a couple of days (we were not interested in the coffee shops), but my travel companion was great, so we were never bored. For a shorter weekend trip, I would definitely recommend the city though, especially if you want to see canals, crooked houses, windmills, or want to try some nice beers.

Below are some random photos taken during the trip: