Beers in Review: Near and far

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A quartet of beers ranging from local to international are on tap tonight. Let's start with the international, shall we?

From Brouwerij Verhaeghe in Belgium I had the Duchesse de Bourgogne, a Belgian-style Flemish red ale. It pours a matching reddish-brown color, and not much body, but this ale was loaded with fruit flavors. This is a result of maturation in oak casks prior to bottling. The fruit experiences were quite diverse: pear or apple, maybe cherry, with a massive sweetness. It was almost too sweet for my taste. In addition, Flemish reds typically have some sour attributes to them, and here they were more a complementary feature--not overly strong like I find in most sours. I expect this might be a result of having a legit Belgian Flemish as opposed to American attempts at the sour style.

Next up is the closest-made beer, American Kolsch Story by River Rat Brewery. It pours a pale straw color, and serves as a solid hot summer day beer. Initial impressions had bready and crackery notes early on in the sip. This gradually lead to hints of traditional German beer sweetness. It also led to a bit of a bitter finish, which was a bit surprising.

Next up is Oasis Brewing Company and their Scarab Red Ale. A pretty solid ale overall, I first got notes of graininess and even possibly corn. There was also a whole bunch of initial malty sweetness that dissipated pretty quickly after drinking. Again, solid, pretty tasty, but nothing spectacular.

Finally, what was supposed to be an Anniversary beer for Unknown Brewing Company, but it wasn't quite done on time. The result is 1.5-ish, an ale aged in Cabernet barrels with strawberries and vanilla beans. We'll get to all that shortly. The ale pours a cloudy bronze color and has a lot of body. As you might guess from the brief description above, the flavor profile has a whole lot going on. The Cabernet barrels shine through with strong initial red wine notes, leading to a kind of strawberry sundae thing going on from the strawberry and vanilla bean infusion. There was lots of sweetness (but not overpoweringly so, like the Duchesse above nearly was--note these were enjoyed on different nights) and even a little bit of funkiness. A hint of sourness rounded out this wonderful flavor experience of this ale. I had sat on 1.5-ish for a while before drinking it for no particular reason. Truly, I wish I'd drank it sooner and bought 4 more bottles. A really great drinking experience.

Beers in Review: Beers from the Western USA

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So, earlier this week, I brought you three beers from a northern Nevada brewery, Great Basin. We will continue today with several more beers from the western half of the United States.

Up first is Red-Headed Stranger from Brasserie St. James. Formally a farmhouse ale, it played like a combination of a more traditional malty red ale and something even more Belgian than a farmhouse tends to be. The flavors tends to lean towards fruity sweetness and heavy malt notes. There was also a slight crackery or bready note going on, but it very much paled in comparision to the first two notes. There was also a little bit of funkiness that isn't a bad thing--it tends to be a result of Belgian yeast strains and other ingredients that lean towards these more Belgian styles. It was a pretty beer (a reddish bronze color) with some very different flavors that I really enjoyed. This Red Headed Stranger was one of my favorite beers in recent memory.

Next up is Ranch Hand American Ale from The Depot Craft Brewery and Distillery. This strikes me as their equivalent of the "pale lager" that so many American beer drinkers are used to, but there is so much more going on with this Ranch Hand. As expected, it pours a light/pale straw color and has a generally light body. There are no exceptionally strong notes with this ale, but plenty of flavor notes to go around, especially for the style. Early on, malt notes can be detected, which then leads to maybe a hint of hops as well as mild berry notes. Crisp throughout, with a clean finish, this beer does a very good job of doing what it wants to do.

Big Daddy IPA is from Speakeasy Brewing Company (who picked up the excellent web address of goodbeer.com), and has a fascinating complexity of flavor. Pouring a golden-orange color, the hop profile is prominent, with piney and dank flavors. The initial hop bitterness is fairly mild but ramps up as it warms. There is also a strong impression of dark fruity sweetness that almost makes this ale play like a Double IPA, but the ABV (6.5%) doesn't really support that. I also got a hint of perhaps some kind of mild spice, but I couldn't place it exactly.

Finally, an English-style ale from Firestone Walker. Their flagship beer is called DBA, or Double Barrel Ale. A straight forward ale that pours a pretty copper color, DBA has a medium body with initial malty and grainy notes. These notes eventually lead into sweet notes of caramel and toffee. DBA is well-executed and very enjoyable.

Beers in Review: Great Basin Brewing Company

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Hello, again, everyone. I am back from a vacation to the western half of the country, where I got to have beers from Nevada and several other western states. So, there will be a few posts over the next week or so containing reviews of these beers. We start today with a trio from Great Basin Brewing Company.

We start with their Icky IPA ("Icky" being short for "Ichthyosaur", the official fossil of the state of Nevada), which pours a light gold and has a medium body. I detected citrusy and piney hops, but what really played through were orange notes throughout, with some mild hop bitterness early on in the sip. The bitterness lingered a while during the sip, but was gone before finishing. Fairly light for an IPA--not surprising, as Icky seems to be one of Great Basin's prime/flagship beers, and  I'd expect they are going for something that can be enjoyed in the middle of a blazing hot day in the middle of the desert.

Next up is the Wild Horse. Listed as an amber ale brewed in the traditional German "Alt" style, which refers to differences in the fermentation process. The Wild Horse has a reddish-to-auburn hue. A very tasty ale overall, malty and sweet. Notes of dark fruit are quite prevalent.

Finally, Great Basin's multi-award-winning Milk Stout, called Outlaw. It pours nearly black, and has lots of sweet cocoa and caramel notes, along with some coffee, and maybe a little bit of roast from coffee or malts. The mouth-feel of this beer is exceptional. Having a decent amount of body, this beer is very smooth to drink, and is creamy and satiny on the mouth. A delicious beer with a great mouth-feel makes for a killer combination.

Beers in Review: With two holiday-appropriate beers

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With St. Patrick's Day just passed, and the big festival held here in Columbia yesterday, some of today's beers are still themed to the holiday, including the longtime Irish standard.

Leading off with a beer released by the local Conquest Brewing in honor of the holiday and the annual festival held in Columbia. Ol' Ossifer is a very low ABV (just 3.7%, lower than Budweiser or Bud Light) amber ale obviously intended to be able to drink all day during the St. Pat's festival. It pours a gold to reddish color, and didn't have a lot of body for me, though I may have been influenced by past beers I drank that night. Interestingly, the first note was some hops, with included floral and piney notes for me. This eventually leads to grainy, biscuity notes towards the end, along with maybe something a little smoky, but I again wonder if my palate was influenced to misinterpret a toasty malt note or something.

Next up is the St. Patrick's Day standard: Guinness Draught Stout. Now, in line with our disclaimer, I must mention that this beer was provided at no cost as a result of one being poured in error at a local watering hole. At this point, the beer either would have been given away or dumped. So, that was a free beer for me. Guinness is a pretty straight-forward stout with pretty strong flavors. They include primarily roasted malt. I also got some hints of coffee, and some very feint chocolate notes. This beer came from a nitrogen tap, just like the Murphy's Stout from this week's video review, so the beer was very smooth and creamy when drinking.

Finally, one of Sierra Nevada's newest offerings: Otra Vez gose. Flavors include sweet grapefruit and pear, leading into an increased sourness and some mild, but not overpowering, saltiness. The sourness continues to linger, turning into a tingly feeling on the tongue that continues after drinking. Putting it all together, with the specific flavors and fairly mild saltiness, this gose almost plays like a grapefruit soda instead of a beer. It's a very different year-round offering from Sierra Nevada, but one that could do well as a summer beer.

Beer in Review: NOT a beer from Ireland (Whoops!)

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So, in my journey to acquire Irish beers for this week's reviews, I made a slight error with one of them. Today's beer is an "Irish-style Cream Ale" that was made in England. Whoopsie!

Wexford Irish Cream Ale is made by Greene King Beers, though I can't find this particular beer on the website. This particular ale came in a larger aluminum can with a nitro widget. The result was that cascading bubble effect that Guinness draughts made most famous. The result is a smooth creamy white head on top of a gold-to-copper beer. The beer is flavorful, mostly consisting of bready malt flavors along with maybe a bit of caramel or toffee sweetness. The back end also has a mild amount of bite from the hops. This beer is much better than expected, as a lot of cream ales can be underwhelming in flavor. This one delivers very well.

St. Patrick's Week Beer Review: Guinness Foreign Extra Stout

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Because you KNEW we weren't getting through this week without a Guinness product.

The Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is pitch black with a bit of tan head, and has a fair amount of body. The first taste is a big sweet note of dark chocolate, combined with some breadiness. Towards the end I get a whole lot of maltiness, roasty and smoky notes, along with maybe just a slight touch of alcohol at the very end. I find this Guinness to have lots more flavor and be much more complex than the standard Guinness Draught Stout, which can be a little bit limited, flavor-wise. While not traditional, this is a nice alternative.

 

St. Patrick's Week Beer Review: Smithwick's Irish Ale

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Hello, everyone. It is four days until St. Patrick's Day, and we're going to honor such a notable holiday with four different Irish beers. Now, I will quickly note that these beers generally are wide commercial releases. This more or less can't be helped, as microbrews/craft beers FROM Ireland typically will not make it across the ocean to North America. So, we take what we can get, starting with arguably the widest release of the four: Smithwick's Irish Ale.

A Guinness product, Smithwick's is stylistically an Irish Red Ale. The most common Irish Reds available in the U.S. are made by Killian's and Samuel Adams. Smithwick's is typically better than either of those. It pours a pretty bold red color with perhaps some brownish hints, and has a nice pillowy light tan head. Upon drinking, the first notes are sweet notes along with some dark fruits. As my palate adapts, I find there is less sweetness that is replaced with just a small hint of hoppy bitterness. These notes gradually lead into maltiness and a hint of roast towards the back end of the sip.

Beers in Review: Sextet

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With the upcoming series of Irish beers this week, I don't want to leave any kind of backlog of pending beer reviews. So, I'll be knocking out six different beers in today's review. Let's get to it!

Leading off is Goose Island Beer Company's Green Line Pale Ale. It pours a crystal clear gold or honey color. Generally mild and well-balanced, initial impressions are of piney and citrusy hops and a hint of fruitiness. This all leads to a mild maltiness in the finish, along with some herbal flavors. The ABV is slightly high to fit into this category, but this pale ale otherwise falls into the "sessionable" category.

Next up is Brewery 85's Quittin' Time. Pouring a pale gold with a moderate amount of body and a notable amount of carbonation (with a white, pillowy head), this beer had some grassy and biscuit or grainy notes, but the most notable flavors were that of banana, and some kind of spice, something in the clove/all-spice vein (though, that may just be me interpreting the banana flavor).

Westbrook Brewing Company's Bearded Farmer #5 (also called "Thornhill") is a combination of sour and non-sour ales. Westbrook's Bearded Farmer series is a series of Saisons, which makes this all add up to quite a complex beer. A pale-yellow color, the first thing that hits are the citrusy notes from the sour side. The sour kick is noticeable but pretty mild, not overwhelming like some sours (this is helped by the "hybridness" of the ale). Eventually, the flavors transform into some very light grains as well as some funky Belgian notes along with some fruity Belgian sweetness. I would have called this one of the most complex beers I've had recently, if not for what came after this last night...

Evil Twin Brewing always makes stuff that's out there. It's not a surprise--they're from Denmark. Their collaboration with Connecticut's Two Roads Brewing Company resulted in Two Evil Geyser Goze. Now, because I don't think you'll believe my impressions, I feel the need to quote the Two Roads website's description of this beer, where they used "Icelandic moss, rye, herbs, sea kelp, skyr (Icelandic yogurt) and birch-smoked sea salt" in creating this beer. The Geyser Goze pours a light lemon color, and has very little body. Flavor notes? Smoky. Vegetal. Seaweed, of course. Peas (like, the vegetable). Once my palate started to adapt a little bit, I got some sweet hints, most notably of strawberries, but it was very faint. It wasn't sour, and only barely sweet. I can appreciate what Evil Twin and Two Roads were going for, but at the end of the day, it wasn't a beer for me.

Alpine Beer Company's Duet IPA brought me back down to earth a bit. Maybe it was just my palate recovering, but I found this beer to be quite straight-forward. A nice golden color with some body, I got a strong grassy aroma. Flavors of piney hops and sweet fruitiness. Pretty light overall. I enjoyed this beer, but I probably need to give it a second chance considering how extreme its predecessor was.

Finally, Southern Tier Brewing Company's 2X Smash, a Double IPA. Again, this is a beer I may need to revisit at a later date, but my local watering hole seemed to be excited about it, and had it in very short supply. I found the color beautiful, a rose gold (reddish-gold) hue. The DIPA led off with mild dank hops that leads to lots of nice tropical fruit notes--things like passion fruit, mango, and maybe some citrus. The hops were present but there was no bite; a bit of hop sweetness blended well with these tropical notes. The result was pleasantly sweet without being overwhelming.

Beers in Review: Plus a programming note for next week

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Three very different beers to discuss today. Let's get to it.

Vienna Lagers are not necessarily the most diverse of beer styles, but Devils Backbone Brewing Company is delivering on the style in a big way, having won multiple awards over the last several years. Their Vienna Lager pours a deep gold, and doesn't have a whole lot of body. Mild grain notes are accompanied by a great malt sweetness and some toasted notes. As expected, it is also very crisp on the palate and in the finish.

Next up, we try the Medusa Stout from Columbia's own Conquest Brewing Company. Pouring pitch black and having a good amount of body, you find many of the typical stout notes present: mild amounts of chocolate, some roasted coffee, some dark maltiness. There was also some bitterness present, but that tended to dissipate as it warmed. It had a pretty clean finish, but a bit of a smoky aftertaste or breathiness after drinking.

Finally, Terrapin Beer Company's session IPA, RecreationAle (not a typo). It's a pale gold color, has a moderate amount of body, and I find the flavors to be largely pretty mild. Citrus hops and a good amount of hop bitterness lead the way in sipping this beer. There is a bit of a fruity bite later on, along with something grainy as well. As a Session IPA, it's a relatively low ABV beer that would be best enjoyed quite cold on a summer day.

So, St. Patrick's Day is a big deal here in Columbia, South Carolina. We have a festival that draws 40,000 or more downtown to enjoy a big street fair, including 4 big stages of music, a parade, kids' carnival, and more. In the spirit of St. Pat's, check out 4 different Irish beer reviews next week, from Monday the 13th through St. Patrick's Day on Thursday. At least one of these will be a video review. That will all start Monday!

Beers in Review: Two more Pale Ales, plus a Lips of Faith

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We start off the latest trio of reviews with Dark Horse Brewing Company's Crooked Tree IPA. Pouring a deep gold and having medium body, the first thing to hit me on the sip were dank and piney hops. This combines with a mild maltiness and some hop bitterness towards the end, but generally this beer is pretty well-balanced. You might also find a hint of caramel in the flavor, as well.

Second is War Flag's American Pale Ale. It poured a hazy straw color, and featured a citrusy sweetness as the primary portion of the flavor profile. There were also some spicy flavors and a mild hop bite towards the back end of the sip, but it wasn't really bitter. I also found this beer to be crisp and fairly straight forward.

Finally, from New Belgium's Lips of Faith series, Le Terroir 2015. As a dry-hopped sour ale, this ale is quite complex. Sours by themselves typically have a unique combination of sweet, tart, and even salty flavors (see this December 8, 2015 review for a little more about sours/gozes). Le Terroir strikes many expected notes, but goes beyond. Early on in the sip, you get a lot of peach sweetness and dark fruit to winey flavors with some mild tartness that is really nice. The drinking experience becomes more powerful as the sip goes on, as the tartness ramps up with the ale becoming quite crisp, and there is even a hint of saltiness. In addition, the hops used in this ale (a unique addition compared to most sours) also make their presence felt in the second half of the sip. The hops make for a complex flavor profile that goes above the usual sour ale flavor profile.

I have waited so long to see this article!

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So, it's no secret that I am not a fan of the standard of the fall seasonal collection, the pumpkin beer. While I am happy to say I found a few that suited my palate fairly well, I typically dislike the all-in-pumpkin-pie flavor that many of these beers and the massive amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and other spices that accompany these beers. Again, moderation is okay, but I find few of these beers practice such moderation.

This recent Forbes article tells me I may not be the only one getting tired of the pumpkin beer craze of the past few years. Pumpkin beers enjoyed reported 30+% growth each of the last few years, but sales fell flat recently, and some major retailers had some of the best-regarded pumpkin beers (such as Dogfish Head Punkin Ale and Southern Tier Pumpking) still in stock in February of this year! This was seemingly confirmed by the heads of the beer-tracking app Untappd, who reported increased check-ins for pumpkin beers "far after the new year, as late as January, February, March, or April."

Some thoughts are given for the decline. One potential reason, which could be a possibly encouraging sign, is that many craft beer novices once purchased these beers, only for them to become gateway beers, with these once-novices now purchasing other, different craft beers. The article also points to such things as the often-bemoaned "seasonal creep"--the introduction of such fall beers as early as July--and beer drinkers simply trying to diversify their beer experiences, though there are mixed thoughts on these reasons.

Personally, I am not going to cry too much over a significant reduction in the nation's pumpkin beer supply.

 

H/t: forbes.com and Tara Nurin

Beers in Review: Pale Ales

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For this week's written blog entries, I have a quartet of pale ales to write about. We'll cover the first two right now.

After checking my notes, I realized I reviewed this beer in December. It's quite a bit sooner than I would want to repeat a beer, but as a year-round release, I'm fairly confident it's from a different production batch, so let's do it. Lagunitas Brewing Company's Daytime Fractional IPA is a high quality sessionable IPA. It pours a pretty clear gold color and has a pretty low body. Big, bold citrus flavors are very strong on the palate, along with some dank and piney hop flavors. Overall, it is very well-balanced, bright, crisp, and easily drinkable.

I also had Founders Brewing Company's seasonal fruity IPA, Azacca. Having medium body and pouring a red-gold, similar to a dark ruby red grapefruit, this pretty color sets the tone for the flavor of the beer. It is quite crisp and features flavors of fruits and tropical fruits, including passion fruit and papaya. I feel like there was also some mango and maybe peach there, as well, but there was less of the two latter than the two former. The tropical fruits are well-balanced against a mild amount of hoppy bitterness. This is a really neat beer with a really neat flavor profile--it's not a profile you see often in a lot of readily available IPAs. The last one with such a strong tropical profile was the Sierra Nevada Tropical IPA.

Later this week, more pales from a couple of lesser-known breweries. Also, expect the first of the week's two video reviews tomorrow!

Beer spa!

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I'm presuming spa days are fun. As a guy, I've never done one. Mashable, however, recently reported on a Sisters, Oregon spa involving some of beer's key ingredients in their treatments.

Live many spas across this nation, Hop in the Spa offers many standard spa treatments: Swedish massage, hot stones, various ancient healing treatments. They are also offering treatments such as "microbrew soaks" and utilizing ingredients like barley, herbs, and hops and "hop-infused oils". The idea is that microbrews are made from materials that include vitamins and minerals like iron, selenium, magnesium, B1, B3, and more, and that these vitamins and minerals "will help with insomnia, anxiety, stress and help calm the nervous system down." Per an interview with Mashable, Hop in the Spa plans a future beer garden so customers can relax with a pint after treatments, and to sell branded products via their website.

You check out the "Services" tab in the link above for a full rundown of their beer-related and non beer-related services.

H/t: mashable.com and Sarah Spiegelman Richter

Beers in Review: A pair of pales

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A pale ale and an IPA on tap for today's reviews. Let's do it!

Natty Greene Brewing Company's Southern Pale Ale, their only year-round pale ale (also have 2 seasonal IPAs) pours a gold color and has a medium body. Interesting blend of hop flavors, initially showing off bright citrus flavor before leading into a hint of piney hops as well. Not too complex, but a very solid flavor profile coming out of this pale ale. It is pretty crisp to drink and has a pretty clean finish.

Next up is Eight Point IPA from Devils Backbone Brewing Company. A similar light gold or rich hay color with a light-to-medium body, the flavor is bold, hitting you with rich piney hops, along with some dank hints and maybe a something a little bit herbal or peppery. Despite the strong flavors, there is only a moderate amount of bitterness that tends to occur towards the end of the sip. The overall result is a beer that is surprisingly NOT overpowering, as some hop-powered beers can be. That hop bitterness hangs around the palate and the throat for a little bit after drinking.

Coming this weekend, two words: Beer spa!

Beers in Review: Abita, Highland, Stone

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There are some very interesting beers coming up on the blog this week, via both the written and visual mediums. Let's get to it!

A local watering hole I visited on Saturday looked to have an Abita Brewing Company tap takeover this past week. I don't know if that stemmed from Mardi Gras earlier in the month or what, but the Abita Amber was still on tap, so I decided that would be a good opener. Pretty straight forward with good flavor for an amber ale. I detected a bit of a grainy note early on, but this quickly resolved into maltiness. There were also some very mild sweet and caramel notes throughout. Pretty crisp and, again, fairly straight forward overall.

Next up is Highland Brewing Company's St. Terese's Pale Ale. It's a little milder, hop-wise, compared to their Kashmir and the seasonal Devil's Britches IPAs. Mild dank hops were present throughout when taking a sip. Eventually, the malts come forward a bit, and there are some fruity or sweet notes towards the end, making a decent balance as you take a sip. Maybe something grainy or toasty there, as well, but it's very faint.

The final beer for this entry is Xocoveza, originally another collaboration by Stone Brewing, along with their Homebrew Competition winner Chris Banker and Mexico's Cerveceria Insurgente in late 2014. Xocoveza (which is fun to say, but a pain to type) proved so popular that Stone brought it back late last year. It's popularity is well-founded--this was an incredibly complex beer. A Mocha Stout, I found Xocoveza on Nitrogen locally. The result was a beer that poured pitch black with a creamy head. The mix was beautiful. The aromas were incredibly powerful coming off of this stout: a bit of cocoa, lots of coffee, and the coffee note played heavily in the flavor, where it came off as a very dark roast, almost to the point of burnt bitterness. It toed this line very carefully, but was partially saved by quite sweet vanilla and especially chocolate notes. When combined with the super-fine foamy head caused by the Nitrogen, the end result was this almost drinking like a milkshake! Very tasty with tons of flavor.

Coming up in this week's video review: Westbrook's 5th Anniversary Stout! Coming early this week!