Brewday with The Kernel

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of a brew day with Evin O'Riordan of the popular micro brewery The Kernel Brewery.
I asked Evin if I could come and brew with him a couple of months ago and he very generously agreed, I came up with the idea of doing a black IPA which Evin got really excited about. THEN I had the fortune of being brought a can of 21st Amendment's Back in Black IPA and I got even more excited about brewing a black IPA! - I wrote about the Back in Black here.
Then Evin suggested that because I liked the BIB so much we should do an homage to it, I very swiftly agreed to that because if ours is half as good as the 21st Amendment version, I'll be really happy. Evin got the recipe from Phil Lowry of beermerchants who knows the guys at 21a and had done his own version called Military Intelligence. We were now good to go.
Boggle turned up to chronicle the event/make fun of me and you can read his blog on it here.
I'm not going to bore you with the brewing details as frankly I've been too busy in the last couple of weeks to make the notes up, I'll have some of them available at the launch on the 9th January if you really must know.
Hops we used were five editions of Centennial and Columbus. Malts were Pale, Carafa & Munich.

So as I type, it's two weeks later and I have tried the beer! I have one sentiment to convey as far as the beer goes and that is : oh my!
I've only had the last runnings of it and as yeasty as they were they were also superbly tasty! Can't wait to try the good stuff!
Anyway we're launching the Black IPA at The Rake on Sunday 9th January between 12pm and 5pm for the first of our Sunday Specials of 2011 so come on down and try it!
Hope to see you there and more importantly, I hope you enjoy the beer!

21st Amendment Back to Black

In may and June for a couple of weeks I was lucky enough to be in California. Whilst we were there we were also lucky enough to get to 21st Amendment brewpub, one of my favourite places on earth!
My favourite beer there was the Brew Free or Die IPA, but more about that later.
My friends Matt and Karen who run the Evening Star pub in Brighton were recently out in California and New York and they managed to pick me up this on their travels.

Pic from thebeersessions.com

Back in Black IPA. The first thing you notice is that the art work is amazing.

The second thing is the aroma, lots of liquorice, some orange and mango. Totally black unlike some supposed black ipa's. 

Now, I know some of you will say black ipa's blah blah oxymoron blah blah; Whatever. 21st Amendment have decided to call this a black ipa and I personally think they've done an absolutely amazing job with this beer. It's totally moreish which at a lowly 6.8% abv and a not so lowly 65 IBUs it's a wee bit dangerous but I want more! No, really! Matt and Karen found this in New York apparently, if you're in NYC any time soon, bring me back a couple, I'll sort you out for them! I love this beer!

Dredge would FABPOW this, I'm just gonna say I will happily SMILE for this beer and those who know me will say what a big deal that is! 

Brew Free or Die Next....

Beerymoon - Part Seven

I have to complete this series before I forget everything I drank, ate and did. Pity it's so fucking late really, I'm going to be knackered tomorrow!
The last post about San Francisco is not about the last place we went, it just happens to be my favourite, It's 21st Amendment. The first time we went in there it was on the Saturday night just before the baseball game we went to. I went for the Brew Free or Die IPA, I love the name and it's fair to say I love the beer too, it's a big but drinkable IPA that's really well balanced. Fair to say I don't think I had a better beer the whole time we were there.
The bar is laid out nicely, it's square, there's a lot of space behind there. There's a restaurant area with an open kitchen at the back, above the kitchen there's a mezzanine area. It's all pale wood, a bit like an all bar one only better and with cooler beer!
The service is impeccable as usual, there are enough seats around the bar to satisfy most people that want to sit at it whilst still having room for those that just come to the bar for their drinks.
Mrs RBF had a Watermelon Wheat beer, now I'm not one for sticking fruit in beer but this is presented differently.
Unlike the 'tards that put lemon in Hoegaarden or the brewer 'tards that say putting orange slice in the Blue Moon will enhance the flavour, the slice of Watermelon is served wedged onto the rim of the glass having no contact with the beer and it provides a tasty treat to go with it!
I could easily have spent the rest of the trip in this bar but it wasn't a beer trip(if I say that enough times, I might just believe it!).
I decided that I couldn't come to this place without trying the food and I was going to get a burger before another customer sat next to us at the bar ordered jerk chicken and my mind was made up!
It was so well presented and really hit the spot! I'm not usually someone who likes spicy food but I have found my perfect match for the spicy foods from now, unfortunately I'm going to have to make do with another hugely hopped IPA as you can't get the Brew Free or Die IPA over here. What a perfect mix, the heat of the Jerk played off against the cool of the Hop. It was heaven, I have to cook it, and soon! If you want to read a better post about this kind of beer and food match, then you can read Mark's version here.
There were other beers we had there(one or two anyway) but I stuck to the Brew Free or Die IPA most of the time.

I'll leave you with this thought on San Francisco and I'm going to quote a young man who's far too excited about beer in general(and we thank him for that!)...
FABPOW!!! Best place to get beer anywhere on the planet! I can't wait to go back.
That's the last post on San Francisco, I can heartily say we love it there, if you go we're sure you will too. Until Next time.