Old Ale Project – Prairie Artisan Ales’ The Beer That Saved Christmas (#8)

16.9oz bottle decanted into a snifter.  10% ABV.  Served at 55F and allowed to elevate to room temperature. 

Appearance:  Deep chestnut, pours brilliantly clear until you get into the dregs, relatively fat bubbles make up a pretty firm head (3.5/5).

Aroma:  Wood, leather, molasses, bourbon, Cherry Coke, and a touch of sweet vinegar (4.5/5).

Taste:  I’m initially struck by an interesting sour note that I did not expect.  That flavor crescendos pretty quickly, and then it thins out and clears with only a soft touch of oak left behind.  A little research has informed me that Prairie spikes the beer with a “mixture of wild bacteria”, so I’m glad to see the infection is intentional. I also get some tobacco, cherry, vanilla, and chocolate.  As it warms, the cherry flavor comes marching into the forefront.  God… what an interesting beer (4.75/5).

Mouthfeel:  Rather thin with a touch of astringency from the oak (3.25/5).

Overall:  Man, this is great.  It’s an old ale, aged in bourbon barrels, and inoculated with wild bacteria.  I’m (nearly) speechless.  It certainly isn’t traditional by any stretch of the imagination, but I love what they have done with it (4.25/5).

-Matt

Beer Projects – Homemade Dave

In case you hadn’t already heard about this, twelve bottles of Hair of the Dog’s Dave sold for $2000 a piece a few months ago.  Dave is a 29% ABV monster that took the gold medal at the 1998 Toronado Barleywine Festival, and has been the “Great White Whale” for many hardcore beer collectors ever since (more information about this event can be found here). 

Hair of the Dog made Dave by taking 300 gallons of Adam, their flagship beer, and freeze distilling it down to a third of its original quantity.  This process removes water, and leaves the alcohol behind.  What remains is a spirit-like solution that is rich with intense flavors and concentrated alcohol.

While all of this business was going on, I stumbled across a link where a homebrewer described the process he used to make a Dave homebrew recipe.  This got me to thinking… maybe I should make some Dave too.  I have some experience making Applejack, so I’m already familiar with the freeze distillation.  I don’t have the time right now to brew a full clone batch of Adam, but I could definitely pick up three twelve ounce bottles and try to turn them into one.  And this is how beer projects begin.

I started off by purchasing three bottles of Adam from my local bottle shop.  They cost me a total of $17.98, so I figure I’m already ahead by $1982.02.  A few days later I got up early and sanitized a 9” by 7” by 2.5” Pyrex baking dish and an oversized, stainless, slotted spoon with Star San.  The Pyrex dish worked great because it easily accommodated all of the liquid, it spread everything out over a large area which facilitated ice crystal formation on the surface, it could withstand freezing temperatures, and it had a matching lid that I could use to keep any critters out that may be floating around (not that anything could survive in 30% alcohol and freezing conditions, but I’m paranoid). 

After a couple of hours in the freezer the first suggestion of ice was forming around the edges of the dish, and an hour after that there was enough to harvest.  I took my sanitized spoon, skimmed off the ice, and dumped it in a bowl.  I quickly realized, however, that the slots in my spoon were not adequately effective as drains, so I sanitized a fine mesh strainer and added it as a step between the dish and the bowl.  This addition improved my process and helped me optimize my ice-to-beer ratio. 

As a side note, I’d like to suggest that you keep the ice in a bowl, let it thaw out, and throw it in a pint glass for later that evening.  It may not have quite the punch that Adam does, but it’s too good to just toss out.  Smoke and pipe tobacco dominate the aroma.  There is heavy smoke in the flavor, along with some roasted malt and leather.   Think of it as a flat, super-sessionable Adam.  Adam Lite.  All the Adam but a fraction of the calories.  If you are not inclined to drink flat Adam Lite, save it to use as the base in a soup or for a marinade.  But don’t just pour it down the drain.  Angels will weep.

Anyway, back to Dave.  I continued checking and skimming throughout the day (I had a mark on the Pyrex to let me know where to stop).  The entire process took approximately seven hours from start to finish.  In the end I was able to reduce my thirty six ounces of Adam down to sixteen.  I probably could have run it through one more session in the freezer to get it closer to Hair of the Dog’s one-third ratio, but it seemed good enough for a first attempt.  It may not be 29% ABV, but I’m certain it’s somewhere over twenty. 

I poured my homemade Dave into an empty twelve ounce bottle, capped it, set it in the fridge, and waited for the right occasion to crack it open.  New Years ended up fitting the bill.  I had some great friends over who are also passionate about beer.  We all got about three ounces of homemade Dave in a snifter, which was actually just about enough.  My Dave was intensely woody and smoky.  It was a deep mahogany with (obviously) no carbonation or head.  It had a port wine flavor, with strong dark stone-fruit notes.  The final product was so incredibly rich that it more than three ounces may have been challenging to finish, but we powered through what we got like champions.

I don’t know that I would necessarily classify this a Hair of the Dog Dave clone recipe, but it’s an interesting project that will probably put you in the ballpark if you don’t have two large to drop on a beer.  I don’t know that I would do this project again, but I certainly don’t regret the time or expense behind this one.  It’s fun sometimes to glimpse through the window and see how the big dogs drink.

-Matt

Old Ale Project – Harviestoun Brewery’s Ola Dubh 30 (#7)

11.2oz bottle decanted into a snifter.  8.0% ABV.  Served at 55F and allowed to elevate to room temperature. 

Appearance:  The color of a deep porter.  No head, virtually no carbonation.  Visually, it lives up to the name “Black Oil” (3.75/5).

Aroma:  Sweet whisky, oak, and damp mustiness.  Molasses and licorice.  Very rich and interesting (4/5).

Taste:  Very dry and oaky.  Nicely attenuated.  Smoky and charred.  But fairly one dimensional.  It’s like drinking a nice whisky, but after the tumbler has been sitting out for a while and all the ice has melted.  And maybe somebody put a cigar out in it.  Where’s the beer flavor in this beer? (2.5/5).

Mouthfeel:  Thinner than expected.  Flat and heavy on the tongue.  A lingering astringency from the wood (2.75/5).

Overall:  Well… this was kind of a letdown.  For a beer that cost almost $20, I would have expected something that tasted more like beer and less like diluted, smoky whisky.    It reminds me of Hair of the Dog’s Adam, but watered down.  It's not awful, but overall it's too thin, too woody, too little like beer (3/5).

-Matt