Columbia's River Rat Brewery expanding

We just discussed a beer from the local River Rat Brewery on Sunday, so I was very excited to see a report in Columbia's The State newspaper about River Rat's expansion plans for 2016, an expansion that will allow them to more than double their production capacity and add a canning line and a food truck to their operation.

The expansion is seen as very necessary, as they would likely max out their production capabilities in 2016. The facility additions will ensure they have enough capacity for the future.

Congratulations to River Rat Brewery on their success!

Source: The State newspaper

Beers in Review: Two beers with a whole lot going on

A couple of beers still unwritten about from the weekend. First is Brooklyn Brewery's Sorachi Ace saison. It is named after a rare Japanese hop strain of the same name that was recently reintroduced to the hop supply thanks to farmers in Washington state. It pours a deep golden color, has a pretty light body, and has a pretty unique flavor profile. It contains a lot of fruity sweetness that blends with lemongrass notes, signs of that Sorachi Ace hop. Add to it some citrus notes, most notably lemon, and you have a complex saison that is very much worth drinking.

Our second beer is Dogfish Head Craft Brewery's Sixty-One, a hybrid ale combining their famous 60-Minute IPA with the "must" (pressed grape seeds and stems--thanks, Dad!) from Syrah red wine grapes. The wine influence is evident from the pour, as it is a ruby red to lightish red wine color. I wasn't getting a ton of aroma from my glass--certainly some red wine-like notes. The flavors were very balanced with toasty malts and hops combined with slight wine notes that were less evident in the sip came through more in the aftertaste. Overall, another very complex beer.

Christmas/New Year's Programming Notes

So, what will the next week look like, blog-wise? Excellent question, you few readers!!!!

Expect an entry on Monday or Tuesday with a couple more beers from this week.  I'll be travelling to Pennsylvania in the back half of this week to spend the holiday with the family (hi, guys!). After Monday/Tuesday, I'd say the next blog entry will be next Sunday or Monday. I hope to have a lot of Pennsylvania breweries and beers to write about next week. The New Year's holiday should have a minimal impact on blogging, as I'll return to South Carolina before the New Year's holiday.

Also, look for Pourly Reviewed Beer video reviews starting in January 2016! Thanks, everyone!

Beers in Review: Two seasonals and a local

Beer seasons move so quickly. It's always a tad disconcerting to see Samual Adams put up their pumpkin beers in JULY. And the excuse they gave me a few years back was that they "didn't make enough summer seasonal", so they decided to just ship the next seasonal. If that's their business plan, so be it. But I personally disagree with that sentiment.

But I digress. The point is, given Christmas is nearly upon us, we've moved out of the cinnamon/nutmeg/clove/all-spice holiday beers that dominate the 4th quarter of the calendar year and into the true winter season: heavier styles with typically high alcohol content, and typically darker styles like porters and stouts, and old ales or strong ales from more-ambitious brewers. We'll get to a couple of old ales later.

First up is the local, which is a bit of a revisit. I first did a quick Beer Flight fly-by of River Rat's Broad River Red in October while I was getting caught up on my beer tastings. I revisited the beer to bring more detail this time around. So, let's get to it. Broad River is among the tastier reds I've had. Malts dominate the make up of this ale, resulting in some grainy, toasty flavors followed by caramelly sweetness. It has a light-to-medium body, and is very smooth and easy-drinking. Arguably, this might be my favorite beer out of my favorite hometown brewery.

The first of our winter seasonals is Southern Tier Brewing Company's Old Man Winter. The Old Man pours a reddish brown color, and contained hints of caramel, nice dark fruit sweetness, and additional boozy sweetness. Piney hops also were present, and contributed a fair amount of hop bitterness to the taste.

The second seasonal was Great Divide Brewing Company's Hibernation Ale, which poured a muddy brown color. It contained a whole lot of boozy sweetness (coming in at 8.7% ABV) and not a lot of body to me. Flavors included coffee hints along with caramel and toffee sweetness. Roasty maltiness comes through in the finish of the taste, and remains in the aftertaste. The Hibernation Ale to me seemed more indicative of the kinds of styles that tend to come out during this early calendar year season.

Beer in Review LIVE: In which I jump on board the "Star Wars" train.

So, I first saw it in this week's Free Times, Columbia's outstanding weekly alternative newspaper, and I'm sure they're not the only ones, given tonight's/tomorrow's release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". One of Westbrook's fall releases is Dark Helmet, a Schwarzbier/German-style black lager. This beer utilizes the very funny Mel Brooks "Star Wars" spoof, "Spaceballs", as is obvious in the beer name and the fact that it is a SCHWARZbier. The description on the label adds to the punniness.

So let's get to it. It pours pitch black, or damn close to it. Aroma came through as very roasty, almost to the point to burnt, and some hints of chocolate. The sip is much more generous. It has a medium body, and the chocolate comes through much more in the taste than in the smell. The taste also has strong roasty malt notes that provide some bite, but does not push too far like in the aroma. Coffee is also a notable player in the taste. Goes down fairly clean, and you're left wanting to take another sip.

I'd had Dark Helmet once before a couple of years ago, and wasn't super-impressed. This was a far better drinking experience than the last time.

Beers in Review: A local beer, and a very not-local beer

Let's start with the local: Holy City Brewing's Chucktown Follicle Brown. This was a commemorative beer brewed for the Holy City (Charleston) Beard and Moustache Society, and it shows on the can:

Yeah.

Moving on to the beer, it has a medium body and is quite delicious. Nice chocolate notes, combined with a faint burnt flavor and considerable maltiness, all rolled together into a chocolate cake kind of thing for me. There was a mild hop bitterness in the middle of back of the sip, but the prevalent flavors for me were the chocolate and malts. Really delicious.

The second beer today is California-based (but likely Chicago-brewed) Lagunitas Daytime Ale. Referred to as a "Fractional IPA", the theme to me overall was "light". The beer poured to a very light straw color, and was see-through. Flavor-wise, they were there, but not dominant: some mild piney hops combined with, to me, a bit of a straw or grainy flavor. There's nothing bad about this beer. Combined with its ABV (4.65%), it executes the "session IPA" concept very well.

Beers in Review: A pair of Shiners/Spoetzls and a revisit

Today's review features two beers from the Shiner family of beers from the Spoetzl Brewery, along with a revisit of one of my very first reviews on this site. More on that later.

Shiner's holiday seasonal, known as Shiner Cheer, is delightfully different from your standard winter seasonals. Cheer is a Dunkelweisen, or dark wheat beer, and utilizes some very specific flavoring options from its home state of Texas: peaches and pecans. Feels more Georgia to me, but the flavors are a great addition to this beer, especially the peaches. They are prevalent in the aroma and the taste, though the peach sweetness was not too overwhelming. There is a nice level of maltiness, and just a low-to-moderate amount of body. Overall, a very nice beer, even if it might evoke more summer than winter.

Wicked Ram is a new Shiner beer for 2015, and the first attempt at an IPA in their history. The result is an incredibly balanced beer. The malts and hops complimented each other nicely, and some earthy notes were present in the taste. There was some hop bitterness, mostly on the back end, though that bitterness did increase throughout the taste as it warmed up. Overall, a good 1st IPA from a crew of experienced brewers.

As a policy, I don't want to repeat beers very often. Seasonals will likely come around every year (I wouldn't expect multiple reviews in one seasonal's production cycle), and I typically want to allow at least six months (and ideally longer) in between year-round-produced beers. That said, Boulder Hazed was one of my very first reviews, so I thought it might be fun to see what I said about that beer, and see if my writing AND my palate have improved after 3+ months of beer reviewing. Let's see what I wrote about Hazed on September 22nd:

“This session pale ale has some evident hop notes, but puts a lot of the focus on a fresh, clean beer that combines with a peach or apricot sweetness...not much of the normally-accompanying bitterness.”

The use of the awful phrase "normally-accompanying" notwithstanding, and allowing for a bit of stiffness that comes from a novice writer (hell, I probably still have that stiffness), I didn't do too bad on talking about Hazed. My new beer this weekend was also very crisp and clean, with piney hop flavors (something I missed the first time around). The fruity sweetness was there, though not as prevalent and not as easy to identify the first time around. I found the maltiness to be more evident this time around. I think this may be a legitimate result of more critical thinking around the beers I drink. That was a fun little exercise. Probably not something I'll do often; there are WAY too many beers to taste to get into repeats. But fun to revisit.

Beer in Review LIVE: Lagunitas Sucks (the beer, not the sentiment)

Lagunitas Sucks is known as the substitute for their Brown Shugga winter seasonal. It's a double IPA, but seems to trend on the lighter side of the DIPA spectrum. The beer pours an orange-ish color, and just explodes with sweet aromas as it is poured. Per their website (which features a whole lot of really cool tunes, by the way), Sucks utilizes a "cereal medley" of barley, rye, wheat, and oats. The result does have a hint of bready/crackery/wheaty characteristics, but there is a slight hop bite followed by fruit (such as apricot) qualities in the front, then some maltiness and a slight bit of alcohol in the back of the sip. Really, a very solid, very delicious beer.

A-B InBev throwing their weight around

Despite its best and ongoing efforts, Budweiser parent A-B InBev knows it can't buy up ALL the craft breweries. So, the behemoth beer company has come up with a heavily anti-craft solution to turning around their declining market share (45% vs. 49% in 2008): use their massive financial resources to incentivize independent distributors to carry more of their products.

Per this Mother Jones article (and originally reported in the Wall Street Journal, but sadly it's behind a paywall), A-B InBev will "reimburse" independent beer distributors up to $1.5 million (and, per the WSJ, an average of $200,000) each if A-B InBev sales make up a certain percentages of distributors' sales. Additional requirements of this program will push larger, widely-distributed (read: more dangerous to A-B) craft breweries such as Sierra Nevada and Oskar Blues OFF THESE DISTRIBUTORS' SHELVES ALTOGETHER!

The folks at A-B InBev have seen craft beer's surge eat away at their market share for years now. A-B has now created a plan and dedicated up to $150 million over the next three years to get that market share back. And it's already working. Per the article linked, Oregon's Deschutes Brewery noted that a St. Louis distributor has dropped them in order to take advantage of the A-B reimbursements.

The Budweisers and Bud Lights of the world are the big money makers for these distributors. Ultimately, I can't blame them that much for accepting this strong-arm tactic. But I would much rather see craft beer continue to thrive and continue to chip away at the macrobrewers' market shares. I look at the explosion of high-end beer/wine/liquor stores and smaller (and largely small business) bottle shops, and would love to see them thrive at the expense of A-B InBev's tactics.

Beers in Review: Goze Duo

Before we start, a brief description of gozes, for the beer novices. Gozes, or gueuzes, are sour wheat beers that are very crisp and dominantly sour, often even venturing from sour to salty. They typically have very little body, fairly low alcohol content, and little to no hop presence. They can be quite the acquired taste, as you may imagine very sour/not heavily sugared lemonade.

First up is Anderson Valley Brewing Company's The Kimmie, The Yink, and the Holy Goze. Yep, that's the name. This goze has tons of lemony tartness, along with a hint of saltiness that comes through in the second half. The second half also has hints of earthiness as well, leading into a finish that is very clean. As expected, the whole thing is very effervescent and lively on the tongue the whole way through.

The second beer of our Goze pair is simply called Goze from Charleston's Westbrook Brewing Company. Westbrook's Goze is incredibly intense in every way. There is a hint of initial sweetness that quickly gives way to a strong citrusy bite--and I feel I'm getting assorted citrus in that flavor, not just lemon. The bite is powerful, and takes some getting used to. It does level out some in the back half of the sip, though a fair amount of saltiness is also added to the flavor near the finish. In a style of beer that tends to be pretty strong, flavor-wise, Westbrook's Goze would be among the strongest.

Beer in Review: A Winter Seasonal and a Brand New Brewery

Needless to say, when I think of pioneers of the super-hoppy IPA/beers in general movement that dominated a lot of the early craft beer movement, Sierra Nevada comes to mind instantly. Indeed, their famed Pale Ale was one of the first beers I ever remember having. Thanks, Dad.

When it comes to their many offerings, most of them tend to be very hop-forward, and their winter seasonal is no different. Their Celebration Ale is formally either an American-style IPA OR a Fresh Hop Ale. As in, freshly-harvested hops are used in this beer (typically, there is a roughly two-month window to harvest and store the full years' needed supply of hops). The result, like many of Sierra Nevada's beers, is a strong piney hop aroma and flavor, and a considerable amount of accompanying bitterness. Celebration bears a pretty full body and some malty flavors and a mild sweetness. Overall, though, this is another big, bold, hoppy beer from Sierra Nevada.

Frog Level Brewing Company is a brewery that I had NEVER heard of before, and they made a good first impression with their Nutty Brunette. Or, it may be listed as Nutty Brew-nette, I saw both. It probably just depends on your personal predilection for puns.

Nutty Brunette is a very flavorful brown ale that has a lot going on. While there is a little bit of hoppiness and a considerable amount of malts, the major player is the "Nutty" portion of the beer's name. Roasted nuts are the overlying flavor, along with some bready or crackery notes and not a whole lot of body.

I got burned on my conjecture of distribution previously, so I will just reiterate this was my first experience with Frog Level, and I hope to try more of their selections.

Beer in Review LIVE: Bell's Two-Hearted Ale

I'm already logged in and writing, so let's have a beer!

Bell's Brewery makes one of my favorite beers in their Oberon Ale, a REALLY tasty wheat beer. I recently picked up a four-can pack of Two Hearted Ale, their American-style IPA.

A golden-orange color, and translucent, this is an excellent APA/IPA. The taste starts out with some definite hop flavor, but not a whole lot of bitterness. There is some bite as the taste progresses, but this is tempered by mild fruity flavors. Underlying through out the entire drink, and especially notable at the end, is a significant malt presence. The body isn't super big, but the beer is crafted so as to be a sipping beer, certainly something to be savored, not downed quickly--a sentiment that matches a beer that is so well-executed.

I'm pretty sure this means craft beer is winning.

The Brewers Association, a "trade association for small and independent American brewers" (from the press release below), released some very good news for the beer industry as whole.

It is no secret that breweries have sprouted up at massive rates since craft beers have penetrated more and more of the beer market. In fact, the number of United States breweries has more than doubled since 2011, and the Brewers Association announced the U.S. has reached an all-time high of 4,144 breweries, beating the previous record of 4,131 set in 1873! Breweries open at a current rate of more than 2 per day, and 15 different states have more than 100 breweries. All of this is particularly notable, considering that the beer industry bottomed out just 40 years ago, with a mere 50 breweries nationwide!

I am glad to see the craft beer boom continue, and feel that most can survive so long as the quality remains high, as so many have done.

More info: Press release from the Brewers Association.

Beers in Review: An Additional Trio

Intros are hard, so let's just dive right in, shall we?

Rounding out the collection of Savannah/Georgia beers I recently tried is Service Brewing Company's Teufel Hunden, a beer brewed in the true Oktoberfest spirit. An unfiltered Marzen, the Tuefel features some mild "pumpkin pie spice" flavors, but nothing too overpowering, which I like. Also featuring some nice maltiness and a medium body. Another fall seasonal which I can enjoy, though their distribution doesn't make it to Columbia yet, to my knowledge. (EDIT: My knowledge is poor. Per Service, they are available throughout the Carolinas. -J.S.)

Next is Green Man Brewery and their ESB. Overall, this ESB is rock solid in style, and very good overall. Lots of toastiness and malts, with the signature ESB flavor--maybe a hint of bitterness. Also had some body, and finished with hints of grains and some sweetness.

The final Beer in Review had a whole lot going on. Unknown's Brown-Ryed Girl officially lists as a India Brown Ale. A super smooth beer, it starts with a light hop flavor before giving way to some roasty sweetness, and to me some darkly sweet flavors, such as caramel and the like. This may be a result of the rye spiciness. That spicyness especially shines through at the end of the drink. A really fun beer to drink.

Beers in Review: Some locals and a not-so-local (including the first winter seasonal)

And now, I give you four more reviews, including a Georgia beer I had during my trip to Savannah. We'll look at a few beers from pretty widely-available breweries, as well as a first-time tasting of a Wild Heaven Craft Beer. I'll also review this blog's inaugural winter seasonal, but we'll save that for last.

Leading off this review is Left Hand Brewing Company's Fade to Black, Volume 1, one of several volumes. This particular volume is a stout, and shows with a lot of the typical stout characteristics: pitch black, with a fair amount of body to me. There was some creaminess to it, with some cocoa and coffee notes. There was also some smokiness and smoky sweetness present, perhaps the most unique notes in what is formally called a Foreign Export Stout.

Next up is Oskar Blues' Dale's Pale Ale. This canned pale ale leads off with bitter citrusy hops and a slight malty sweetness. While these are fairly well-balanced early on, the hoppy bitterness maintains throughout, and my particular can was quite carbonated, which made it a bit of a tough swallow. This is nothing to dissuade me from having the beer again, I promise. Overall, this is a very solid pale.

My very first experience with Wild Heaven was quite extraordinary, as I was presented with quite the unusually-designed can of beer.

Emergency Drinking Beer was a very interesting Pilsner-style session ale. Weighing in at just 4% ABV, I put the pint glass up to my nose and immediately smelled Cherrios. Some faint fruit notes were present, but largely the typical Pils characteristics were there: very clean and crackery.

And now, Widmer Brothers Brewing Company's Brrr, our very first winter seasonal. Early on, the hops blend with caramelly malts. For me, the hops lasted all the way through the drink, and there was a good amount of bite in the finish. Now, I will write some more on this later this week, but I am not a fan of the super-spiced fall and winter beers, so I have no problem with a hoppy seasonal option.

Beer in Review LIVE: COAST's HopArt IPA

I'm fighting off the tryptophan (which is a misnomer, but this isn't a culinary blog) with a can of HopArt from COAST Brewing. Enjoy this quick live review!

This IPA is opaque, and the sip starts with a brief slight kick of alcohol followed by powerful sweet malty notes. The middle is a bit of a transition, and so it's a little tough to figure out what's going on. The transition leads into some bitter hop flavors that doesn't really hang around too much.

COAST, from Charleston, is one of the highly-regarded breweries in South Carolina. HopArt is a very good beer, though some of the flavor notes tend to make me want to push this into either the American Pale Ale or (given the 7.7% ABV) Double IPA territory. Still, this is a solid representative from COAST.

Beers in Review: Savannah's Moon River Brewing Company

As previously mentioned, I spent the weekend in Savannah, Georgia, and amongst many many miles of walking, shopping, and eating, my family and I happened upon the Moon River Brewing Company. I will review a couple of the beers shortly, but having tasted 4 of their beers in all (Swamp Fox American IPA and Southern Sour Blend #2, in addition to the 2 below), I think the most notable thing I found about Moon River is how much they have going on in their beers.

As the site name suggests (if you get puns), I don't claim to be any kind of expert in beer tastings. My palate is slowly but steadily getting better, but I am not one of these people who can pick out a half-dozen distinct flavors or aromas from each beer, like some folks. In Moon River's beers, I could taste the depth, which was very encouraging for me.

First off was Duppy Conquerer, a relatively low ABV beer, but I would hesitate to call it in any way sessionable, just due to its formidable flavor profile. A collaboration with fellow Savannah brewery Southpoint Brewing Company, Duppy is a Sour India Red Ale that is immensely fruity, with a powerful citrusy kick. A small amount of hoppiness is present, along with effervescent and fresh feelings. This ale really starts to make its left turn as it warms up. Progressively, some funky flavors start to creep in--they don't overwhelm the ale, but they are quite prevalent. The sourness also spikes as it warms up. The end result was that the last third or so of the pint was both a bit tough to get through while still being enjoyable. It's a really interesting ale, but I one must be into sours in order to enjoy Duppy.

The second beer I got a good taste of was the Boucane Brown Ale. I've started to stray away from browns in general, but if they all tasted like Boucane, I'd be downing browns with regularity. Oats and nuts were highly prevalent in both the aroma and the flavor, and was very smooth and tasty overall.

I wish Moon River made it across the Savannah River and here into South Carolina. One can only hope that some future expansion plan will make that possible. Moon River makes wonderfully complex beers that need to be appreciated by many more people.

A happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Coming up this weekend, some beers from my cellar, and the first of the winter/Christmas seasonals.

Beer in Review: Sixpoint Sweet Action (or, that funny-looking can)

It's been a quiet week on the beer front, frankly, though I hope to have lots of content out of tomorrow's Vista Lights celebration and this weekend's trip to Savannah.

A beer I am having right now is Sixpoint Brewery's Sweet Action. Now, there are two things I have noticed right away. First, the beer is named, but Sixpoint, even on their website, declines to note the type of beer, calling it "an undefinable beer...that your brain cannot categorize but instead speaks directly to your palate."

The second thing is, the odd can shape. This 12oz. can seems shaped more like a Red Bull can than your standard 12oz. beer can. Certainly not a bad thing. Just very apparent.

The beer has a pretty mild hop profile, but overall tends to be malty and smooth. Peaches are strong in the aroma--in the flavor, I tend to get more of the peach skins. Also, some apricots. Were I to label this beer, I think it'd fall into the APA category. Solid beer.

I hope to bring you lots more from what should be a fun weekend on Sunday and/or Monday.

Beers in Review: Beers from New Belgium and Highland

Just a reviews of a couple of beers I ahd this week.

First off is New Belgium's Long Table. It has the standard farmhouse ale sweetness, but also features pretty prominent notes of toasted bread or grains. It makes for a bit of an interesting balance, as the grains kind of put me in a Pilsner state of mind. But that saison/farmhouse fruitiness is fairly prominent, and tends to hang around the palate quite a bit after the sip.

Highland Brewing Company is one of my favorite regional breweries. I could drink their Gaelic Ale forever and probably not get tired of it. Like the Long Table above, Highland's Lost Cove APA also evoked some Pilsner-like feelings. This beer had some mild hop bitterness, but nothing overpowering, along with a nice citrusy bite. (Undoubtedly caused by the hop strains used in this beer, the bitterness and citrus came out in two separate stages of the mouth experience.) The finish went Pilsnery (a word I just made up), with prominent crackery malt notes.

Local news: new place in Columbia's Five Points with definite craft beer potential

I may be dabbling into local affairs a bit too much this week, but I was kind of excited by an Instagram picture I saw today.

The village of Five Points in Columbia, SC is typically seen as the collegiate night life district. It has a lot of great shopping spaces, and some great restaurants, but when the sun goes down, the students from USC take over. The result is a lot of PBR, Bud Light, and cheap liquor specials. And believe me, I can absolutely be down with cheap booze. But given the level of competition (Flying Saucer, World of Beer) in the Vista, Columbia's slightly-more-grown-up entertainment district, a few Five Points joints HAVE been making an effort to improve the Five Points beer scene. (shout-out to the Village Idiot and The Attic)

The scene may be taken to the next level with Publico Kitchen and Tap, a brand new beer joint and taqueria. Now, the picture that excited me is right here, and that is a really solid group of (mostly regional) craft beers, and a considerable number of taps for the Five Points area.

I am excited to check out Publico's beer AND food menu. The taco list is pretty crazy! Banh mi! Pad thai chicken! Tuna poke! Insane!

Best of luck to Columbia's newest restaurant! Hope you because yet another Five Points institution!