Brewers and Friends

When learning how to brew beer, it's helpful to taste new beers and find what makes them a hit for you. It's also to your benefit to have friends try out your homebrew with you and let you know how they found it. Though as long as your beer makes you happy, we're happy. For this week's Thirsty Thursday, we tasted beer from our own team members, and friends of team members. I've got to say, there was some serious beer brewing talent.


Josh's "Altbier"

Josh R. is our Brewmaster here at Mr.Beer, and when Renee from Customer Service handed off a new recipe idea, Josh ran with it and brewed this awesome Altbier.

Appearance This Altbier poured a warm, amber-ish brown color with a soft haze to it. We saw diminishing head and a fizziness to this beer.

Aroma Smells of sweet, biscuit, caramel malts – even a little toasty. The hops have a citrus, herbal scent; and the yeast smells clean and lightly of ester.

Flavor The malt tastes sweet, biscuity, grainy, and toasted with some notes of dark stone fruit. The hops taste predominantly herbal, and the yeast tastes more estery than it initially smelled.

Mouthfeel Josh's Alt has a medium body, moderate carbonation, and a long, creamy finish.

Overall Tasting Notes Our team said, "good, easy drinking beer," "slightly sweet and spicy, mellow," "good," "overall it was good - darker than what expected, but good none the less," and "nice and mild with subtle caramel sweetness."


Chris' (Sitris Brewing) "Dr. Von Hefestein"

Josh R. (the Brewmaster) is buds with Chris, so Josh was kind enough to share not one but two of Chris's seriously stellar brews. This and the chocolate coffee stout.

Appearance A pale gold/honey color with that soft, wheat beer haze and a diminishing head.

Aroma Chris' Hefe smells of sweet, biscuit malts; herbal, earthy, spicy, floral hops; and estery yeast.

Flavor Tastes like sweet, grainy, nutty, biscuit malt; spicy, herbal hops; and estery yeast.

Mouthfeel Light body, moderate carbonation, and a crisp/dry finish.

Overall Tasting Notes "Nice beer," "nice esters, true to form, nice banana notes," and "good hefe if you don't mind banana aroma and taste."


Jackson's L.E.O. IPA

Jackson, our Warehouse Manager and knower of all things, brewed up some L.E.O. IPA – which we previously offered as a collaboration recipe with Wavelength Brewing.

Appearance Jackson's IPA poured a gold/copper color with a diminishing head.

Aroma L.E.O. smells like citrus, piney, floral hops and sweet, biscuit, toasty, caramel malt.

Flavor The hops taste predominantly floral and citrusy, while the malt flavor has some grain and dark stone fruit to it.

Mouthfeel This one goes down with a medium body, moderate carbonation, and has a bit of a bite.

Overall Tasting Notes "Great beer," "very good, not overly bitter, very drinkable, nice and hoppy," and "mosaic hops = yay!"


Chris' (Sitris Brewing) "Chocolate Coffee Stout"

Appearance This flavorful stout pours a root beer/brown color with a cream, diminishing head.

Aroma The malts hit your nose first, and they smell of sweet, chocolatey, roasty, toasty malts. The hops come next with their earthy, herbal smell.

Flavor Each sip has that sweet, chocolatey, roasty, nutty, malt flavor – delicious.

Mouthfeel Full body, moderate carbonation, and a wonderful, creamy feel.

Overall Tasting Notes "Great, nicely done stout with great chocolate, vanilla and coffee flavors," "no ingredient overpowers the other, vanilla is pretty noticeable, but chocolate and coffee come through nicely," "perfect mouthfeel for a stout."