Back with a beer review – and its been a while for one of those. The most recent was This is Nut the Fluff Your Looking For by Fourscore Beer Co on March 24th and before that it was the Irish Car Bomb by Rotunda Brewing on March 16th. This beer review is a bit different… because this beer was released over two years ago. This is a science project beer review, similar to the Black and Blue Tastee beer review I did. I figure since I have the entire month of April off, I’ll do like November, and release a new blog post (at least one new blog post) each day. It’ll help me fight to keep my sanity anyway. Also, as a heads up, its come to my attention as I’ve started writing this, that the Y-U-H-N-M buttons on my laptop’s keyboard aren’t working the best (I have to press at certain angles or all but hit them). Thats what I get for letting my ten year old do her first from-home school project on my computer during this quarantine. So hopefully, I’ll catch all the errors, but sorry if any pop up.

So while everyone else was busy in the house, I cleaned out the beer fridge a bit, and in the process, found this gem buried waaaaaaaay deeeeeeeeep in the back of it, behind some September Spring House IPAs and a wet hop IPA can from Pizza Boy done with Sunny Brae hops farm (which sadly, is no more). I might due science experiment beer reviews of those beers as well, we’ll see.

I’m not a drain pour type guy, even when a beer is old, or what have you, I typically finish it (even if that entails doing a chug and just getting rid of it that way). So I had to crack this bad boy open and give it a try.

Also, as those who have been following the blog know, I’m a big Seinfeld fan – as my Haze Charmer review can attest. This particular reference stems from the episode – The Mom and Pop Store (Season 6 – Episode 8). In it, George Costanza buys what he thinks is Jon Voight (the actor)’s car. It turns out its not the real actor’s car, but a periodontist.

Ok, so lets just get to the review, enough about the sillyness that is Seinfeld and how I’ve managed to find a two year old can in the back of my beer fridge!

Beer: Jon Voights Car
Brewer: RAR Brewinng
Style: Sour – Other
ABV: 4%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

My original check-in on Untappd, from January 2018:
Super tart. A little sweet but not cloying. Downright delicious. The plum isn’t as noticeable as the boysenberry or currants. Thanks Matt!

(I had gotten a four-pack from a friend in a trade, thus the shout-out.)

But, lets break it down, now.

Appearance is a vibrant, pretty, royal purple. Foamy still with a great amount of carbonation still. Its sparkly, its pretty, it looks just like a sour. Despite its age, nothing looks off, even leaves a nice purplish foamy head and leaves good lacing too.

Aroma its not as potent as it probably would have been. Its still pretty heavy on plums, some notes of blackberries, currants, boysenberries, and possibly other berries. It smells like most sours do, fruity, tart, some pungent-ness.

Taste is still there, but this is probably where it dips the most. The plums taste a lot more acidic, a lot more funky than tart or even sour, theres an underlying heavyness to this, that I doubt was there the first time (especially for only a 4% sour). You do get some notes of boysenberry, currant, etc, but not really strong or anywhere near as powerful as I imagine it used to be. This has settled some, so the sweetness is pretty much out of it, but its still not cloying and the mouthfeel still feels right.

My original Untappd rating (two years ago): ****.75
My rating for it *NOW*: ****
Global Rating: 4.07 (as of 4.1.20)

Sorry this took so long to post. It is incredibly frustrating having to all but smash my fist through my keyboard to get the U-N-Y-M-H buttons to work, never realized just how often I use those letters!

And I know I should have done some kind of April Fools post…. but I just can’t bring myself to doing it. This past twenty days, and the next thirty days, feels like a joke enough. So please everyone, take care of yourselves, distance, washing, love your loved ones, help your communities. Cheers!

-B. Kline

I have previously gone and done all of the brewery safety courses offered by the Home – Brewers Association. They offer a large array of courses designed for working at breweries and have videos hosted by Bell’s Brewing and Founder’s and a host of other breweries in the area. They do offer (free) certificates at the end of each course.

So, while looking for things to entertain my feeble mind during this quarantine, I’ve come across a brewing class: Beer – The Science of Brewing. It is offered by EDX.org through the KU Leuven University.

Some basic notes on the course:
* Typical Length: 13 Weeks
* Effort: 4 – 6 Hours Per Week
* Price: Free (verified certificate: 99$)
* Level: Intermediate

Things You’ll Learn:

• Explain the importance of the 4 basic ingredients of beer in shaping beer taste and aroma
• Understand the different processing steps in malting and beer brewing
• Understand the key biochemical reactions occurring during each of these steps
• Recognize and describe the main beer styles, and understand how the brewing process contributes to the different beers
• Identify key factors affecting beer identity, quality, and stability
• Carry out basic sensory analyses of beers and identify key flavors and off-flavors and their molecular origin

So there is a lot to learn here, and yes, its possibly long (13 weeks, is the equivalent of 3 months, give or take). But, we are all on lockdown and in quarantine for an indefinite amount of time, and even once its lifted, 4 – 6 hours of ‘commitment’ a week, is far from impossible, even around a 40 hour work schedule. And of course, thats an estimation for commitment time, some might find it easier, some might find it harder.

So, long story short, I’m going to dive into this, and continue a series of posts about taking the course. I recommend others do the same, and we can discuss it in the comments, or you can just follow along as I tackle this, and learn through me vicariously. All up to you!

So this should definitely be interesting, and fun.

I will post updates to the series, and will title it: Beer Education: X.

Where X will either be substituted for week, day, or possibly module name / number or section or course. So it might look something like this: Beer Education: The Science of Brewing: Week One or Beer Education: The Science of Brewing: Module One or something similar. In each successive post, I’ll link back to past updates so if you join in later, you can catch up and see where we (or I) am at.

At worse, running this series will force me to make sure I finish, otherwise I look like a big stupid idiot in front of you all, and who wants to look like a big stupid-head right? Not this guy!

Ok, so this is just the overview post, my next will be my signing up for it, probably reading over the syllabus, and making whatever selections I need to do, to get it all set-up. So please join with me on this fun adventure. Hopefully see you in the virtual class room or just on here, either way, grab a beer and please follow along!

Cheers fellow students and readers!

-B. Kline

The Beer Education Series:
** EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing
* Beer Education: Series
* Beer Education: Syllabus
* Beer Education: Introduction
* Beer Education: Module One: The History of Beer Brewing
* Beer Education: Module Two: Barley and Malting
* Beer Education: Module Three: Water
* Beer Education: Module Four: Hops and Spices
* Beer Education: Module Five: Yeast
* Beer Education: Module Six: The Steps of the Brewing Process
* Beer Education: Module Seven: Fermentation and Maturation
* Beer Education: Module Eight: Filtration and Packaging
* Beer Education: Module Nine: Beer Quality and Stability
* Beer Education: Module Ten: Beer Assessment and Tasting
* Beer Education: Series Overview

Looking in my fridge after a long day of work on Memorial Day while everyone else was out picnicking and enjoying a beautiful sunny day, I was thrown all over the world in the casino working numerous different games, getting yelled at by numerous different types of guests, and just needing something to drink, like a usual night after work. This time instead of grabbing something new and familiar from the front of the beer fridge I decided to see what all might be lurking in the back of the fridge, and to my surprise, I found this.

I had traded/bought a four pack of this straight from The Veil Brewing Company over a year ago (according to my stats, my first time having it was on 2.23.18, and this is currently now 5.24.19). So this is definitely going into the “science experiment” beer drinking category. And have no fears as a review, this is going to be based on the beer when I had it the original time with my original notes on it, as well as how it is *NOW*.

These were gushers when first released. Meant to be drank pretty much the day of. And even then there typically was still fermentation in the can and a release when poured the day of/after/soon-after.

The first time I had this, I had it 3 days after its canning release, and the fermentation in can wasn’t too extensive, and I had kept it cold (after receiving it cold) so as not to let it warm and allow the yeast to do more work inside the can. Even still, there was a bit of foaming and loss, but nothing horrific and nothing more than a good sip’s worth.

So diving into the beer, we have:

Beer: Black & Blue Tastee

Brewery: The Veil Brewing Co.

Style: Sour – Ale

ABV: 5.5%

IBU: No IBU

Untappd Write-Up: Tastees are kettle sour ales clocking in at 5.5%. We add a ton of lactose to these and brew them intentionally to be fuller bodied to try and replicate a fruit smoothie. We then select two different fruits and bomb them out in secondary fermentation at just shy of double fruited goses levels of fruit. For the third fruit blend in this series, we decided to use Blackberry and Blueberry. This one is literally like an adult fruit smoothie.Tastes like grandma’s blueberry pie filling with some acidity to it.

If replicating a smoothie was the goal, it was accomplished with 100% accuracy. For those who do that dreaded “work out” stuff and drink smoothies and all kind of muscle-building and dieting concoctions that require blenders can attest to, this is exactly what the pour looked like right out of the can after the foaming settled. Likewise, that’s how it tasted, a sour version of a blackberry and blueberry fruit smoothie with just a hint of alcohol in it, enough to give you the slightest buzz after a full-drink.

For those with lactose intolerance (your gracious reviewer included) this is definitely loaded with lactose and will result in the ‘results’ therein. The sour of the beer is never complete full on pucksucker but it definitely has that sour flavor and the slight bitterness to it that comes with the kettle souring process.

The true hero of the beer though is the blackberry and blueberry base. They are a perfect combination, especially for a sour, and even moreso for one that is to be an “adult smoothie”. Always been a huge fan of blackberry and blueberry flavors, in beer, in food, in pretty much everything, and the two work so well together. Especially with the slight acidity of the kettle souring that really brings out the flavors of the two berries.

So, now onto the “science experiment” portion of drinking a beer 1+ year old that was potentially a “fermentation bomb” only a week old. …Well, it definitely continued stayed that way. It obviously hit some point where it stopped fermenting, and being left cold in a fridge for this entire time it never got to the true temperatures needed to really make the yeast do what it does, but it was much more of a ‘bomb’ than when I originally had the first three. I would say roughly 45-55% of the beer was lost to foam and carbonation and overflowing issues (thus why I opened it in the backyard and far away from anything I didn’t want stained purplish).

As for the aroma and colorization and other visuals it held the same as it did in it’s release.

The taste was still spot on to what I remembered, though more sour now with the year on it, and more acidic. It went from being tart to full sour and pucksucker, but no bad aftertaste that “older” beers sometimes get.

The year of sitting in the fridge didn’t harm it or really make it worse and it was still pretty much the same beer as I originally had a year plus ago.

My Untappd rating: ****.75

Global Untappd rating: 4.3 (as of 5.27.19)

-B. Kline