We made 17 batches in 2010. Fifteen of those were regular, full-sized batches; the other two came from a split batch and were each half-sized (Hump’s Naughty Monk Ale — see below for more details).

  • Back-Breaking Brown
    ★★★★★
    OG: 1.080
    FG: 1.013
    ABV: 8.9%

    This is the best damn beer I’ve ever brewed. It is a big hoppy Imperial India Brown Ale. Deliciously hoppy but with just the right touches of dark malt character, residual sweetness, and complexity.

    This beer was made with 1/2 pound of whole leaf hops of several tantalizing varieties: Magnum, Simcoe, Nugget, and Chinook.

    • Appearance (1-5): 5
    • Aroma (1-10): 10
    • Flavor (1-10): 10
    • Palate (1-5): 5
    • Overall (1-20): 20
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 5.0
  • Yankee Doodle Brown
    ★★★★
    OG: 1.059
    FG: 1.015
    ABV: 5.8%

    A delectably hoppy brown ale. The recipe is sort of like a smaller version of Back-Breaking Brown, but different hops were employed that give this beer a totally different hop character. Back-Breaking Brown is big with evergreen, and spicy, resiny, citrusy hops; whereas Yankee Doodle Brown has a more fruity hop character, distinctly orange flavored with touches of peaches and tangerines.

    This beer is also sweeter and showcases the chocolatey, nutty, and toasty malt flavors commonly found in brown ales.

    • Appearance (1-5): 4
    • Aroma (1-10): 8
    • Flavor (1-10): 8
    • Palate (1-5): 4
    • Overall (1-20): 16
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 4.0
  • Irish Dry Stout
    ★★★★
    OG: 1.050
    FG: 1.014
    ABV: 4.7%

    A delightful roasty stout, brewed especially for Saint Patrick’s Day. It isn’t as dry as typical Irish Dry Stouts (like Guinness, Murphy’s, and Beamish), but it isn’t sweet – instead balanced more on the side of black, roasty, coffee-like bitterness with a complementary punch of earthy Kent Goldings hops.

    • Appearance (1-5): 5
    • Aroma (1-10): 7
    • Flavor (1-10): 8
    • Palate (1-5): 3
    • Overall (1-20): 15
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 3.8
  • Union Jack Bitter
    ★★★
    OG: 1.038
    FG: 1.012
    ABV: 3.3%

    A pleasant and balanced English-style bitter ale. It has a pleasant mix of toast and toffee malt characters with an earthy hop aroma and flavor with a firm but balanced bitterness in the finish.

    • Appearance (1-5): 3
    • Aroma (1-10): 7
    • Flavor (1-10): 7
    • Palate (1-5): 3
    • Overall (1-20): 14
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 3.4
  • Cascade Pale Ale
    ★★★★
    OG: 1.052
    FG: 1.012
    ABV: 5.2%

    A classic American Pale Ale with lots of citrusy American hops. This beer was hopped exclusively with Cascade and was dry-hopped for wonderful fresh hop aroma. Flavors of tangy honey and bitter grapefruit combine elegantly in this dry, firmly bitter yet slightly sweet, refreshing pale ale.

    • Appearance (1-5): 5
    • Aroma (1-10): 8
    • Flavor (1-10): 8
    • Palate (1-5): 4
    • Overall (1-20): 15
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 4.0
  • Jeroboam
    ★★★★
    OG: 1.085
    FG: 1.011
    ABV: 9.8%

    In wine-/champagne-speak, a Jeroboam is a three-liter bottle. This size bottle is also sometimes known as a Double Magnum (a magnum being 1.5 liters, a Jeroboam double that size).

    This brew is a single-hop Imperial IPA made with all Magnum hops – or you could call it a Double Magnum IPA. We just call it Jeroboam.

    It has a soft but fresh Magnum hop aroma (soft considering the very generous amount of dry-hopping employed with this beer). The flavor is sweet but complex with a very clean “noble” hop flavor that has hints of flowers and fruit. The finish is very dry and very strong (slight warmth and bitter bite from alcohol) and finishes very bitter (from immense amounts of very clean and neutral bittering Magnum hops and from ethanol).

    In its youth, a little rough on the edges with alcohol, but still complex, hoppy, and mesmerizing. A delicious treat, for sure!

    • Appearance (1-5): 4
    • Aroma (1-10): 7
    • Flavor (1-10): 8
    • Palate (1-5): 4
    • Overall (1-20): 15
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 3.8
  • Saison
    ★★★★★
    OG: 1.066
    FG: 1.008
    ABV: 7.6%

    This brew was a fantastic and authentic-tasting Belgian farmhouse-style ale. Dry, crisp, and refreshing with just a touch of malt sweetness and lots of spicy, grassy, and fruity complexity from fermentation characteristics. Like having a little piece of Belgium in your glass…

    • Appearance (1-5): 5
    • Aroma (1-10): 8
    • Flavor (1-10): 8
    • Palate (1-5): 5
    • Overall (1-20): 15
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 4.1
  • Hop Along Pale Ale
    ★★★★
    OG: 1.058
    FG: 1.014
    ABV: 5.8%

    A hoppy pale ale, made with a mix of five awesome hop varieties: Ahtanum, Zeus, Simcoe, Amarillo, and Sorachi. Lots of resiny, piney, citrusy hop character and a big bitterness balanced by strong bready malt backbone with just a touch of residual sweetness.

    • Appearance (1-5): 5
    • Aroma (1-10): 7
    • Flavor (1-10): 7
    • Palate (1-5): 4
    • Overall (1-20): 15
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 3.8
  • Wry Wit
    ★★★★
    OG: 1.058
    FG: 1.014
    ABV: 5.8%

    A unique spin on a Belgian Witbier: made with copious amounts of malted and unmalted rye instead of the usual wheat. The beer turned out spicy and refreshing.

    • Appearance (1-5): 4
    • Aroma (1-10): 7
    • Flavor (1-10): 7
    • Palate (1-5): 4
    • Overall (1-20): 15
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 3.7
  • 10th Anniversary
    ★★★★★
    OG: 1.070
    FG: 1.016
    ABV: 7.2%

    We brewed this special batch to commemorate our tenth anniversary in the business (er… hobby) of brewing. (Our first original recipe, Hump’s Mild Brown ale, was brewed on 7/2/2010.)

    This beer is a great big, hoppy American Amber Ale. Early bittering hop additions consisted of Magnum hops. But then the brew was generously late-hopped (and dry-hopped) with a blend of Nugget, Amarillo, Centennial, Chinook, and Simcoe hops — all of our favorites. This batch turned out absolutely exquisite. I think it even rivals the Back-Breaking Brown. Awesome, awesome beer!

    • Appearance (1-5): 5
    • Aroma (1-10): 10
    • Flavor (1-10): 10
    • Palate (1-5): 5
    • Overall (1-20): 20
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 5.0
  • Naughty Monk Ale, Bottled
    ★★★★
    OG: 1.081
    FG: 1.012
    ABV: 9.2%

    This brew is a watermelon Belgian Tripel. After doing some research, we came up with two methods of infusing beer with watermelon flavor that would work well. Other methods produced off flavors, including nasty, bitter “watermelon rind” and “squashy/vegetal” character. One method – the easy way – was to use watermelon extract.

    This batch received a small dose of extract to get its flavor. After mellowing for a few months, the batch turned out marvelously. It has a “Jolly Rancher” watermelon-candy tint to the aroma and just a hint of watermelon in the flavor. It’s just enough to give the impression of the melon without overpowering the spicy and strong Belgian Tripel base beer. The base beer was 9.1% abv, but was ratcheted up just a modest amount from the extract addition (since the extract is mostly alcohol). Unlike all of my other brews over the past few years, this one was bottle-conditioned (not kegged).

    This batch was actually split into two. We also tried the other method of infusing beer with watermelon flavor with the other half. (See below…)

    • Appearance (1-5): 4
    • Aroma (1-10): 8
    • Flavor (1-10): 7
    • Palate (1-5): 3
    • Overall (1-20): 13
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 3.5
  • Naughty Monk Ale, Draft
    ★★★★
    OG: 1.081
    FG: 1.012
    ABV: 8.6%

    This brew, like it’s non-draft sibling above, is a watermelon Belgian Tripel.

    Instead of getting dosed with extract, this half of the batch was cooled to serving temperature and then dosed with a generous amount of fresh watermelon juice. Since it was fresh juice (not fermented), it lowered the base beer’s alcohol content from 9.1% down to 8.6%. It was then kept at serving temperature to prevent refermentation of the sugars in the watermelon juice.

    Needless to say, this beer had a much fresher, brighter, and more pleasant tone to the watermelon flavor. The extract brew turned out surprisingly well, but this one turned out even better. The amount of watermelon juice was a tad more than “perfection”, however, as some of the more subtle aspects of the base beer were a little overrun with watermelon. But overall, it is a better beer than the bottle-conditioned version.

    Making both and trying the side by side was a fun experiment though!

    • Appearance (1-5): 4
    • Aroma (1-10): 7
    • Flavor (1-10): 7
    • Palate (1-5): 4
    • Overall (1-20): 14
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 3.6
  • Roggendoppelbock
    ★★★★
    OG: 1.088
    FG: 1.021
    ABV: 8.8%

    This brew was an experimental batch – a strong Weizenbock, but made with rye instead of wheat. It turned out fantastic. It has a strangely viscous (almost syrupy) mouthfeel, presumably from using such a large portion of malted rye. The aroma of the flavor of the brew were fantastic: very reminiscent of a Weizenbock. The spicy character of the rye strangely didn’t stand out as much as expected. Instead, it melded and was complemented by the spicy character of the Weizen yeast. A successful experiment.

    • Appearance (1-5): 4
    • Aroma (1-10): 8
    • Flavor (1-10): 8
    • Palate (1-5): 3
    • Overall (1-20): 16
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 3.9
  • Five Grain Ale
    ★★★
    OG: 1.055
    FG: 1.012
    ABV: 5.7%

    This recipe started out as an American Wheat beer but was then mixed up with five different grains (three more than a typical wheat beer): Barley, Wheat, Rye, Oatmeal, and Corn. It poured a cloudy gold and had a very strong flavor – grassy and spicy from both the hop varieties used and from the generous amount of rye used. It was quite dry, no doubt aided by the use of corn in the grist, but not too light in body, no doubt aided by the use of Oats. Overall an interesting multi-grain experiment that also made a good thirst quencher in the late summers of the Southeast.

    • Appearance (1-5): 3
    • Aroma (1-10): 6
    • Flavor (1-10): 7
    • Palate (1-5): 4
    • Overall (1-20): 14
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 3.4
  • Holiday Lager
    ★★★
    OG: 1.058
    FG: 1.016
    ABV: 5.5%

    This batch was supposed to be a pumpkin pie bock beer, but the gravity turned out low for a bock and the pumpkin contribution is about non-existent. So the final product is really more like a holiday spiced Munich Dunkel lager. Ginger and cinnamon are the stand-outs of the spice addition. Nutmeg, allspice, and vanilla were also used but are hard to detect in the final product.

    Despite not turning out as planned, it still made for a decent, drinkable spicy Christmas brew.

    • Appearance (1-5): 4
    • Aroma (1-10): 6
    • Flavor (1-10): 7
    • Palate (1-5): 4
    • Overall (1-20): 13
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 3.4
  • Fat Bastard Ale
    ★★★★
    OG: 1.094
    FG: 1.034
    ABV: 8.0%

    This batch is a heavy-hitting “Scotch” ale. The final product is a bit more complex than the normal straight-forward huge-malt core of most Scotch ales. It has a mostly neutral (and surprisingly firm) bitterness with touches of earthiness. It has a lot of pleasant and complex fruity esters from the Scottish yeast strain used. And it has a lot of complexity from the grain bill, which employed numerous specialty grains across the Lovibond spectrum that add toffee and chocolate character on top of the big malty core.

    I was a bit surprised when it refused to attenuate below 1.034. I had aerated well and pitched a fairly large starter. Perhaps my mash temperature was higher than I thought. In any event, the high finishing gravity does not detract from the beer at all. It is full-bodied, but not overly so and not at all cloying. It is quite drinkable.

    • Appearance (1-5): 5
    • Aroma (1-10): 8
    • Flavor (1-10): 8
    • Palate (1-5): 3
    • Overall (1-20): 15
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 3.9
  • Hooch
    ★★★★★
    OG: 1.059
    FG: 1.010
    ABV: 6.5%

    The final batch of the year was a dry, hop-bomb American IPA. It was hopped generously with a blend of Amarillo, Simcoe, and Zeus and then dry-hopped right in the keg. It has just enough sweetness and maltiness to balance the intense grapefruit, evergreen, resiny hop bitterness. The bouquet is mesmerizing. A winner for sure!

    • Appearance (1-5): 4
    • Aroma (1-10): 9
    • Flavor (1-10): 8
    • Palate (1-5): 4
    • Overall (1-20): 16
    • Final (0.5-5.0): 4.1