Let me preface this entry to apologizing to the search engines whose indexing of this blog comprises 99% of my readership. I didn't really drink the previous week and have used up my tasting notes.
Wormtown-Be Hoppy IPA
I love this beer. Living one town over from its source gives me something to lord over my brother, thus continuing the fine tradition of the youngest infuriating his elders. In addition, it introduced me to the concept of beer jerky.
I ran across multiple marinade recipes using equal parts worcestershire, soy, teriyaki and beer. They made it sound like adjunct lagers should be used. This got me wondering what one could achieve using something with an actual flavor profile. The answer was pure fucking magic.
Be Hoppy jerky went quickly. Hoppy flavors survived the dehydration and imparted this awesome citrusy kick to the meat. It was totally worth the nerve wracking that went with cooking off alcohol right next to a heating element.
Beer: 95/100
Jerky: 97/100
Stone Brewing Co-Arrogant Bastard
I've always been a fan of the beautiful balance malt and hops in this beer. If not for the moderate alcohol content and dog walking duties, I'd session this monthly. So it was a natural to attempt during my jerky experimentation. Taste buds told me most it would need was a hint of smoke. Sadly, I listened to the Internet and shortened marinating time by about eight hours. The end result was still delicious but I prefer my meat completely saturated in the stuff. Part of the fun of beer jerky is getting to taste great beer when it's unwise or illegal to do so. This jerky had some traces of malt and hop flavors but nowhere near enough for my taste.
Beer: 90/100
Jerky: 75/100 due to my error
Wachusett-Milk Stout
I dig this beer. Milk stouts in general scare me as lactic sugars are easy to overuse. It drinks smooth and has just the right balance of chocolatey malt flavors and sweetness. This one is so beautifully balanced I just had to try some jerky.
The Jerky Bastard failure made me curious as to what I could do to reduce the time meat sat in the fridge I share with my vegetarian wife yet still get flavorful jerky. So I decided to try enhancing flavor with brown sugar which I figured might be earthy enough to compliment a stout. It turned out okay all told. Dehydration unbalanced the brew in favor of malts a bit so yay on the sweetness. However, next time I'm either double bagging the meat or storing it in the beer fridge.
Beer:91/100
Jerky: 80/100 due largely to my learning curve
Wormtown-Pro-am Porter
I have a knack for missing this beer when it's in production. Lucked out this time and finally met this nicely malted baby. It drank smooth, tasted chocolatey with a smidge of roasted coffee in the background.
I decided to add a dash of brown sugar to the jerky marinade as this batch was supposed to be shared with a non-beer geek type. It got about 24 hours to soak and came out fantastic. There's this really robust maltyness counterpointed beautifully by a sweetness that manages to be earthy enough to not clash. Someone on the brewery's twitter account told me I could get beer in exchange for jerky but I'm not sure I want to give this stuff up.
Beer: 92/100
Jerky:95/100
Jack's Abby-Smoke And Dagger
Chocolate malts with a hint of smoke? I believe Frank Oz put it best OM NOM NOM NOM NOM.
Jack's Abby-Jabby Brau
Malts and hops in perfect balance to produce a delightfully sessionable lager with a nice light body and fruity hints in just the right places. Very worth spending a Sunday afternoon correcting label machine errors just before shipment.
96/100
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