A Flowery Song

2 cups spent grain, drained
1 cup plain yogurt
.5 cup warm water
.25 cup packed brown sugar
1 packet (~1 tablespoon) active dry yeast
.25 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
3.5 cups bread flour

Combine the grain and yogurt in a food processor or blender and process for a minute or so. Pour the resulting mixture into a large mixing bowl. Rinse the blender into the bowl using .5 cup warm water. Add brown sugar and yeast; stir. Let the yeast proof for about ten minutes, then add the oil, salt, and half of the flour. Gradually add the remaining flour until the dough takes on the correct consistency. Knead, and let rise in a warm place until doubled. Punch down and transfer to a lightly oiled bread pan. Let rise until doubled, then bake in a 400F oven for approximately 45 minutes.

Background: Another drink with chunks of Nata de Coco floating in it, this one from Thailand and, according to the ingredients, pandan flavoured.

Nose: Sweet and reminiscent of coconut.

Taste: Whatever pandan is supposed to be, this tastes to me an awful lot like toasted coconut. Very sweet, slightly fruity.

Overall: With chunks of Nata de Coco and bits of aloe vera floating around, this is a defiantly textured drink. I had difficulty finishing the glass, as it’s quite sweet and the flavour is very one-dimensional.

Background: The third batch of this collaborative brew to be made, but only the second to be released (the one brewed in Jolly Pumpkin’s facilities is undergoing extended barrel aging, like many of their beers). See my notes on the first here. This release uses the same recipe, but was brewed and aged at Nøgne Ø in Norway.

Nose: Prominent sage, hint of hops.

Taste: Sage and spicy rye on the first sip. Juniper influence makes itself felt. Medium hop bitterness in the finish. Solid nutty malt backbone.

Overall: Comparing my notes to last year’s, it’s evident that (as would be expected) these beers are fairly similar. I don’t have a perfect memory or another bottle to compare, but I think this one is slightly heavier and sweeter, and the alcohol isn’t particularly noticeable. What I said then stands: an intriguing and drinkable special beer, but not an everyday beer.

Background: It’s soda, it’s flavoured with juniper berries, it’s poncy. Dry also make several other flavours, including rhubarb, lavender, and lemongrass.

Nose: Citrusy, piny, sweet.

Taste: Lightly sweet, lightly tart, barely piny.

Overall: I like it. It could do with a bit more oomph in the flavour department, but as-is it’s very refreshing (and you could always splash in a bit of gin).

Background: Beer, probably made with molasses. Also, it’s named after a pneumatic drill that killed miners with dust inhalation-related illnesses.

Nose: Subdued, slightly metallic, not much going on.

Taste: Slight molasses flavour, light tartness, smooth biscuity malt.

Overall: The can isn’t lying when it calls it light bodied, and a slight metallic twinge isn’t helping. It might make a decent quenching summer beer, but I’m not loving it.

Background: This fall release from the wonderful Great Lakes Brewing Company is a highly-hopped amber ale named after a vampire.

Nose: Caramel and treacle, with citrusy hops in abundance.

Taste: Big punch of hop flavour contributing piny, citrusy, and vegetal leaf mould accents on a bed of rich caramel malt.

Overall: It’s very good.

Background: Lychee is a fruit. Nata de Coco is more interesting; it’s produced by fermenting coconut water with Acetobacter xylinum, a unique bacteria that synthesises cellulose. The result is a chewy, translucent, slightly sweet jelly-like substance.

Nose: Sweet, floral lychee.

Taste: Very sweet lychee. It’s got a good fruity flavour, but this is flavoured sugar water, not juice. The Nata de Coco is floating around as small cubes, approximately 3mm on a side. It adds an interesting texture dimension, but has a tendency to settle to the bottom.

Overall: I found it too sweet for my tastes, but other than that very interesting.

Background: Founders’ strong Scotch Ale is called “Dirty Bastard”; the bottle only gives us “ale aged in oak bourbon barrels” as the description, but I think it’s a fair assumption that the base beer is Dirty Bastard.

Nose: Fresh corn bourbon and vanilla oak.

Taste: Sugared oak. The caramelisation from the wee heavy plays nicely with the sweet bourbon flavours from the barrel, but the extra alcohol really thins out the body. Somewhat fruity.

Overall: I like barrel-aged beers, I really do. Unfortunately, I find that the bourbon barrels most commonly used have a tendency to overwhelm even the most robust base beer, giving them a distressing sameness. This is good beer, but it’s not great and it’s very bourbon.