Now THIS is Some Fermentation

Mark and I just completed a brewday in which the main attraction was a Rye Saison stuffed with two smack-packs of Wyeast 3711.  I say stuffed, but since it's a Belgian saison, we actually went a little low on the yeast, to try to stress it out a bit.  That and a warm fermentation temperature (71+ degrees) should add that characteristic Belgian-y flavor to the beer.

Despite pitching just two packs (probably about 20% less than a usual batch's pitch), I came downstairs the next morning to audible hissing  and spitting from the airlock.  It was absolutely clogged up with dried foam and CO2 was being produced faster than the airlock could accommodate 

I immediately unplugged the blow-off tube line and there was a huge rush of CO2 out of the carboy.  

After filling a spare two-gallon carboy with sanitized water and attaching a blow-off tube to the primary fermenter, I sat back and enjoyed the show.  The video above shows just how active the yeast was; enough so that it attracted plenty of attention from the cats for about thirty minutes.

The yeast continued on like that for the rest of the day, and it was still bubbling away just as fiercely when I went to bed that night.  The next morning it had slowed somewhat, but was still bubbling away more than any other beer we've ever made.  Clearly the Wyeast 3711 is living up to it's fearsome reputation for wildly active and attenuating little critters.

I do believe we just narrowly avoided a full-on Belgian Blow-Out.

Terrapin Hopsecutioner

It had been a while since the crew and I had gone regularly to Pint Night at Tyler's Taproom in Durahm, and even longer since I'd written about any of the Pint Night beers or glasses.  We've gotten back into the habit again, and it's been a good time each time.  Especially more so lately with more friends coming along each week, too.

The last few months we've had some Oskar Blues beers, all enjoyable.  The same can be said for all the Smuttynose pint nights over the last month or so.  Sadly, I didn't have the presence of mind to take notes or photos of the glasses.  Regardless, let it be known that I have been very happy the last few months drinking their great beers.

The Hopsecutioner

This last pint night, though, I was a little better about things.  Tyler's was featuring Hopsecutioner, from Terrapin Beer Company, and in some nicely fancy glasses, too.  I enjoyed a pair of them this time around.  The beer is a pleasant gold to amber color with a thin head.  I didn't smell a whole lot from it, just a light hoppy aroma.  The Hopsecutioner is an IPA, and I think it lives up to it well.  Terrapin describes it as a "killer" and "aggressive" IPA, but in the face of all the overwhelming hops-for-hops sake IPA's out there, I think it's a very nice above-average, but not crazily hopped beer.

There's a good citrus flavor to the beer, more on the grapefruit bitter side than a lemon or lime taste.  It's difficult to single out a particular hop style, and when I visited Terrapin's website, I found out why: the brewers used six different types in this beer.

The first taste is bitter, as you'd expect, but there is a strong malty flavor to the Hopsecutioner that I think goes a long way toward making it considerably more drinkable and enjoyable than the Terrapin marketing blurb would have you think. After a few swallows, the hops have done their shocking and you can start to enjoy the rest of the beer as well.

All in all, Terrapin's Hopsecutioner is a great IPA for a warm summer day.  It's quaffable (as in, you could quaff it; Mark knows this is a sign of respect from me), and at 7.3% ABV, you could probably make them last all day as long as you drank them a bit slower than one if it's lower-gravity pale ale cousins.  You'll get plenty of refreshing hop flavor, but it's balance with the maltier flavors will make sure you won't get burned out over the course of the day.  Definitely recommended.

The Glassware

The glassware for the day was very nice, too.  I'm really happy to get a glass that's not the typical straight-sided pint these days - there's just too many at home now - and the curving sides of these glasses are nice looking and classy.  Terrapin and their logo are frosted in the sides of the glass, for an overall nice design.  These will probably replace some previous glasses in my cabinets.