Sambal

Went to a new liquor store today — around 78th and Calgary Trail North, I guess it’s called Strathcona Liquor Store. They had a better beer selection than any I’ve seen in Edmonton. Still no Hophead. I asked; he said he could bring it in for me in cases if I wanted it.

I got two kinds of dark beer: Beck’s dark and Big Rock Black Amber Ale.

I won’t get the Beck’s again. Too beery — in a Miller Lite kind of way, you understand. A lager masquerading as an ale.

I will get the Black Amber again. It’s a real stout (the label says, “Dark Alberta Stout”). The last allegedly dark Canadian beer I had was a serious disappointment. In the mug it’s nicely black, but when you hold it up to the light it’s a dark bloody red. A good solid taste with a creamy finish. Not overpoweringly hoppy, but bitter enough.

It will do.

Started a six of this beer with high hopes. The high hopes were quickly dashed and I’m left with a five-pack of blah ale. No accented hop flavor, no heavier than a normal pale ale — Big Rock WTF is more like it. Nor am I alone in my opinion..

Big Rock is a local micro, too. I wish this beer were better.

So far the only Canadian micro I’ve really liked is Hophead IPA. Buy it at the liquor store on 82nd Ave around 107th St.

Since I’ve been too lazy to brew for the last month or so, and we had company for dinner last Sunday, I picked up some beer at Cristall’s Wine Market.

I wound up with some Okanagan Spring English Porter. Their website copy claims

It is a flavourful porter with a well rounded, fruity taste.

It’s pretty damn sweet, too. I wouldn’t get it again, but if you like sweet porters, this might be for you.

Today is probably the day: it’s long past time to bottle the Arrogant Bastard I laid down over a week ago. I will go start on that now.

Nobody minds because it means I clean and sterilize the kitchen.

First beer explosion occurred today. I salvaged about a glass from a blown 22-oz bottle. The beer I laid down about a week and a half ago (it’s a hefeweizen) seems to be carbonating well, but it’s not mature enough to drink.

If another one blows, I’ll open them all up to relieve the pressure. My current theory is that the bottle was weak.

Today is my second attempt at making Arrogant Bastard. Last attempt was reasonably successful but flawed due to my dumping in about 500g of dextrose as priming sugar, which added about 7 atm CO₂ to the finished beer, so it was horrifically over-carbonated. But good, though.

This time, I’m using a weird yeast (Wyeast 1028 London) which smells very fruity. I’m not sure whether to supplement it with the 15g Dry English Ale yeast I have left over from a kit…

UPDATE: The 1028 seemed pretty fruity, but I looked up the yeast I used last time (1098), and Wyeast claims it’s fruitier. So I guess it should be fine. The LCD thermometer on my primary looks like it’s failing.