A Festival of Flavors

Despite the nearly exclusive consumption of American lagers in this fine country, I wanted to clarify just exactly what sort of beverage will bear the Dierksenkougan name, because if you were expecting something between Old Milwaukee and bathtub hooch, you're about to get a lesson in fine brew. While I don't pretend to think that my familiarity of beer styles by taste is extensive, I do have a few favorites that will occupy my first few batches. As a caveat, this projection may and probably will change as September ever so slowly creeps nearer.

Dierksenkougan Rachel: Red Ale.
Bears likeness to Killian's Irish Red, except that it is an ale. The difference is, fundamentally, that Ales use top fermenting yeast and lagers use bottom fermenting yeast. What that means as a general rule for flavor is that lagers are smoother and generally more watery, with fewer hop characteristics (bitterness) and less essence of grain. Lagers also need to be refrigerated during fermentation (an issue I will bring up shortly). Rachel should be medium to rich red in color, with a suppressed hop flavor, but the specialty roasted barley malts will seep through. This should be drinkable by quantity, likely containing a normal alcohol content and resembling any old American lager but with a better aftertaste and a more sophisticated, slightly fuller flavor.

Dierksenkougan MacKenzie: Scotch Ale.
My first and only Scotch Ale was Founder's Brewery's Dirty Bastard. This beer has a big kick of both alcohol and flavor, and probably shouldn't be heavily consumed for risk of liver failure. Excess grain sugars and chocolate malts help bring out natural sweetness, but the kicker is that MacKenzie, when bottled, will be primed with a shot of scotch in place of regular dextrose. The leftover yeast cells use the sugars in this scotch as they would with the dextrose to produce carbon dioxide inside the sealed bottle and a negligible extra amount of alcohol. This adds the complexity of scotch into an original brown ale, the sweetness balanced by lots of additional hops to really fill the mouth with flavor.

Dierksenkougan Jasmine: IPA (India Pale Ale).
Another full-flavored beer, and definitely an acquired taste. Don't expect much for sweetness in this one; instead, IPAs are tremendously hopped to subdue an equally evident alcoholic character. Historically, IPAs were special formula English ales developed during the colonization of India. To survive the long journey by boat, yeast activity had to be controlled as to avoid spoilage or autolysis (yeast eating itself, causing sulfur-like flavors in the beer; think rotten eggs). To do this, alcohol content was increased, effectively killing the yeast. Then hops were added en masse to counterbalance the alcohol presence, resulting in a brew that lingers in the back of the mouth and throat, often with mild oak flavors to emulate the characteristic formerly acquired by gentle sloshing in oak barrels. Jasmine is a beer to be drank slowly, one at a time, and over a meal because it truly possesses a comparable complexity to good wine.

Dierksenkougan Shannon: Traditional Irish Stout.
Think Guinness or, more appropriately, Mackeson Stout. Shannon is all Irish attitude, full bodied, thicker, and opaque black, but don't expect the punch generally credited to dark ales. This stout, like most, has a relatively diminished alcohol content which allows the chocolate and dark caramel characteristics room to breathe. Shannon should go down like an elixir, with little to no bitterness and all the subtle malt character as possible. If you pride yourself on your Irish heritage, you should be able to drink this shit like water.

Dierksenkougan Hannah: Honey Lager.
Hannah is the only lager on the lineup for one very important reason: required refrigeration. With very few exceptions, lagers require fermentation temperatures only sustainable via thermostat, something of which the Brew Crew is not yet in possession. If you have an old fridge or know somebody who does, please let me know. Attaching a thermostat is cheap and easy, but a refrigerator is required to make lagers and we could really use the donation. Hannah should closely resemble Honey Brown, an extremely drinkable, tantalizingly smooth, subtly sweet lager, and we should be able to knock this stuff back by the gallon. If we can get the fridge, this will be a house favorite, I guarantee it.

Want something else? Let me know and we'll brew it up. Do some research, make a recipe, and it could be a winner. On that note, I suppose my ultimate goal is to be the youngest brewer to ever be recognized with a prize at the American Homebrewing Association nationals, like the Beer Oscars. I also want to drive down the street in a Caterham Classic 7 surrounded by beautiful women who think brewing your own beer is sexy. Neither of these things will ever happen.

Well Drinks and Well Wishes,
The Brewmaster