Lagunitas Cruising with Ruben and The Jets

I picked up a bottle of Lagunitas Cruising with Ruben and The Jets ale last week and decided to crack it open today. I see most websites listing it as a Imperial Stout. The bottle makes reference to an ale but that is it. It is dark, roasty with a brown head so IS it is. This is much more complex that most Imperial Stouts I run into. Very spicy taste with a good bit of sweet raisins in the nose. Very little of the roasted nose that I would expect. There is a roast to the taste but this is almost secondary to the spicy sweetness. It does have what I would call a Lagunitas quality to it, probably from the use of a proprietary yeast strain. It is interesting enough to keep my attention, but not something I would seek out.

Just wanted to note that I purchased my tickets to the Mark Haugan Birthday Beer Bash 2009 aka Mesa Strong Beer Fest. They are holding it at the end of Feb (day before my B-Day) this year. Lagunitas should be there with tastes of Maximus if I so desire. Some great breweries are announced and I can't wait to post about them. Check back in a month. Next up for homebrewing is the Belgian blonde. Look for me to brew this next weekend or the weekend after.

Mild Tasting

I went ahead and grabbed a taster of the mild I kegged this past weekend. It wasn't quite fully carbed, but the style should be a bit light of CO2 versus things like a pale ale or IPA. The nose on this beer is incredible. It has notes of chocolate and great maltiness. The flavor is somewhere around a light nut brown. I taste a nutty flavor with a pleasant maltiness to it. This is going to be a very easy drinking beer. Sharon liked it, but is looking for more CO2, so I will up the PSI a bit. I followed this taste with another taste of the milk stout I have on tap, so I can compare the 2. The mild is definitely easier to drink. Without the stout roast flavor it goes down easy. I could see having the mild on tap year round, where I think it might be tough for me to drink the stout in the warm months. This has led me to think that I should concentrate on the milk stout keg for a while. I am also still thinking about experimenting with bottling from the keg, as I have a nut brown and beligan blonde kit waiting to be brewed and I don't want them to sit around too long. I will have to wait at least another 2 weeks (no earlier than January 25) to brew the blonde next as I am too busy the next couple of Sunday's, but I will need to have fridge space by February 15 or so to move the blonde.

What Happened in December

Let's start with what I brewed. On Sunday December 21 I ran outside and brewed my NB Mild kit. It was easily the coldest brew day I have done. I thought that being able to sit by the burner to keep warm would not be bad, but I was mistaken. I ended up breaking out gloves to keep from freezing. I had a boil over, but this was due to being distracted and inside taking care of the kids for a bit. I racked this beer to a keg on January 3rd but due to a bad arm, I did not brew on the 4th like I had planned. I finished off the Wit keg this past weekend as well. I have the fermentor and keg sitting outside soaking in Oxyclean. I also have a plastic bucket out there that I need to rinse out and start another cider soon while the temps are still low and easy to control. I should try and get 2 cider batches done while the temps are down, but right now I need to finish off the keg I have on tap so I have some place to put all of this cider. The mild will be ready to tap in time for my 1/2 marathon completion party, where I can start having a beer or two more frequently during the week. I ran over a bottle of my red to the neighbor while I was off and he seemed to enjoy it as a easy drinking beer. I still find it a bit sweet and would love to dry hop it, but I am thinking about bottling an bunch of it up then hitting about half a keg with the hops. I was able to hit the Lost Abbey party at Papago on 12/18 after doing some Christmas shopping. I got Old Viscosity and Gift of the Magi on tap and it was a great party.