Beers in Review: Mixtape is mixed up

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I begin this BiR post with a beer that had loads of potential, only for it to be unrealized. Among the many unique series of beers offered by Escondido, California's Stone Brewing is their Mixtape series, one-off batches created by blending of various Stone beers, an otherwise rare practice at Stone. I recently had Volume 14: The Gatekeeper, which seems to have been a release for the World of Beer chain, though there is some availability elsewhere. Gatekeeper is a blend of the 2015 and 2016 versions of the Imperial Russian Stout along with the Stone IPA. The result is a brown-to-copper colored beer that has almost no harmony. The Stouts and the IPA are seemingly at odds with each other throughout the drinking experience, as the separate entities and their hop/malt mix make no attempt to blend together or work as one beer. I found the hop bite to be on the harsh side. There were nice flavor notes hidden in the chaos, including some dark semi-sweet chocolate notes, as well as a little bit of fruit (in addition to the three beers, this blend also included figs, plums, and Hallertau Blanc hops, which should yield tropical fruit notes). There was also perhaps a slight cola note floating around there, as well, though it may have just been my interpreting the sweeter notes of the beer. The beer isn't really boozy at all, despite an ABV of 7.9%. This beer was not bad, and got sweeter, fruitier, smoother, and generally more enjoyable when it warmed up a bit. But this feels like two good-to-great beers that just didn't get along, and missed out on every ounce of potential the glass held. Not drinkable, but this beer was a disappointment.

Up next is J. Wakefield Brewing and their 24th Street Brown Ale, named for the street on which the brewery resides in Miami, Florida. There isn't much information to be found out there about this beer (get on that, J. Wakefield!), but it drinks as a straight-forward, on-the-mark Brown Ale. Coming in at 6.8% ABV, the beer pours a hazy chocolate brown, which is kind of pretty, if you've seen enough hazy dark beers (otherwise, it just looks like mud). The fairly standard but very tasty flavor profile includes lots of chocolate, as well as a fair amount of caramel maltiness, some coffee notes and nuttiness. I also enjoyed the creamy, smooth mouthfeel. J. Wakefield hit the nail on the head with this brown.

Six-Pack of News: Volume 16

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It's been close to a month since I've done one of these, but seems non-release news has been relatively sparse through the start of the holiday season. But I've saved up enough articles to fill up my carrier, so let's get to it.

Mark DeWolf from The Chronicle Herald in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada tries to bridge the gap between the beer-drinkers of the world and the wine-drinkers of the world by providing a guide that recommends beer styles based on one's preferred wine style choice.

The folks at Vinepair sure like their lists, and this week is no exception, as they list ten of the best Winter Warmer-style beers, which is appropriate, given the cold weather that has pushed through the U.S.A. recently. A number of the beers on this list have widespread or national/near-national distribution, so you should be able to find at least a couple of these in any area.

Vinepair also discusses the potentially-charged question of whether the craft beer scene suffers from a lack of diversity.

Draft Magazine getting into the listicle format with their selections of the 25 best beers of 2016. Like with so many of these lists, the beers almost completely come from small breweries, and likely were made in small batches, so good luck if you don't live near one of the breweries listed.

In the Thanksgiving edition of the news round-up, I mentioned that Avery Brewing Company elected to restructure its beer line-up to focus on barrel-based beers. Firestone Walker announced earlier this fall that it would discontinue a special line of beers, and New Belgium just announced an overhaul to their line-up, eliminating some core beers and creating some new ones.

Finally, one of the very first Six-Packs of News mentioned information from the Brewers Association noting that there were over 4200 breweries across the United States. Well, the 2016 Craft Beer Year in Review reported that there are now over 5,000 breweries in operation in the United States. The Association also notes that over 99 percent of these breweries are "small and independent".

Beers in Review: Dark Collaborations

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A pair of big time collaborations are on tap for today's BiR. They are a couple of Imperial Stouts that truly blew me away.

First up is And I Shut My Mouth Imperial Stout, from Columbia's River Rat Brewery and Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, FL. Pouring a very hazy dark brown (though the place I was drinking at was a little low-lit to make a fully accurate determination), I got notes of chocolate and spice, but to me, the prevalent flavor notes were raisins, as well as a fruit cake note. With just the mild amount of booziness, the beer is 9.6% ABV, I could almost reclassify the last note as rum cake or something similar. Some other fruits, such as plums, joined the raisin note. This was a tremendous beer to drink, but was only part of Imperial Stout experience this weekend.

My next collaboration was between Westbrook Brewing Company in Mt. Pleasant, SC and Denmark's eccentric Evil Twin Brewing. They essentially brought their own Imperial Stouts together to form a new Imperial Stout. Evil Twin combined their Imperial Biscotti Break with Westbrook's amazing Mexican Cake, slammed all the words together, and created Imperial Mexican Biscotti Cake Break, and I'm about 95% sure I got all those words in the right order. As expected, this Imperial Stout pours near pitch black, and had a pretty tan head. This beer is 10.5% ABV, but that alcohol blends into the flavor profile very well. Flavor notes include lots of chocolate and vanilla, as well as cinnamon and perhaps some brown sugar (perhaps I am detecting this from another type of spice). There was also a bit of coffee on the back end of the drinking experience. Just like the beer above, this was another excellent drinking experience.

Video Review: Christmas Beers, Part 3

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Today's Christmas offerings come from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and a mighty beer from Brouwerij St. Bernardus, a brewery I haven't had in about a year (so forgive me when I misremember the Abt 12 late in the video).

 

Coming Tuesday is one more round of Christmas beers, then a Christmas beer rankings video on Wednesday! But see you tomorrow for Beers in Review!

Beers in Review: Crossing Beer and Ice Cream

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First up in BiR is a collaboration from New Belgium Brewing Company. This isn't a collab with another brewery, but the latest New Belgium beer to incorporate Ben and Jerry's ice cream! This Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale utilizes a blonde ale base and incorporates the key ingredients from the ice cream into the ale. Those ingredients, the chocolate chip pieces and cookie dough, are very much present as flavor notes, but they generate a surprisingly low amount of sweetness. To be frank, I expected a beer bordering on the sickly-sweet side, and was pleasantly surprised to find such a low level of sweetness present. The chocolate did become more prevalent and just a hint sweeter as the beer warmed, but still nowhere near the point of intolerance. The beer pours a mostly clear, pale yellow color, and has an ABV of 6%. In addition to the ice cream flavor notes, the beer is fairly grainy and light, and thanks to the low sweetness, I found it to be an easy drinker.

Next up is a Rauchbier, or smoked beer, from the local German-style brewers, Bierkeller Columbia. The beer had a deep red hue, and the smoke note ("smoked beer" IS literal) was quite prominent, and got a tad overpowering for me over the course of the glass. Toasty malt notes are also present, along with a mesquite/grilled meat feeling generated by the smoke. Sadly, this beer is not for me. I have greatly enjoyed some of Bierkeller's other offerings, and despite past experiences, I occasionally give Rauchbiers another try. But I just couldn't get into this. I can respect Bierkeller's efforts--I'm sure they nailed exactly for what they were aiming. That target is just not for me. I look forward to my next Bierkeller Braunbier or Kellerbier.

Video Review: Christmas Beers, Part 2

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I have a couple of heavy hitters in today's Christmas beer video. They come from Avery Brewing Company and Brouwerij Corsendonk (link to importer). This seriously might be one of my favorite reviews ever.

 

More Christmas beers to come this weekend! See you then!

Beers in Review: Conquest Brings It

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A couple of beers from the darker side of the spectrum in today's BiR.

Leading off is Columbia, SC's own Conquest Brewing Company's Imperial Chocolate-Covered Cherry Porter. Now, this beer sounds like it could be a cloyingly sweet mess of a beer, but Conquest really made this work and delivered a terrific beer. The beer pours virtually pitch black and initially delivers a bit of an earthy note go along with a moderately sweet chocolate note. Now, I was impressed by the relative restraint of the sweetness in this beer--a sweet note is definitely significant, but is not even remotely close to overpowering, even despite the potentially sweet ingredients and a potential for some sweetness coming from the 9.2% ABV. There is just a hint of a cherry note; it was present, but I certainly could have used more, personally. There is a slight bite and maybe a hint of smokiness at the very end of the drinking experience and carrying over into the aftertaste. In addition, it gets a tad boozy as it warms. Really, not surprising given that alcohol level. But this is the best offering I've had from Conquest, and it's not even close.

Next up is a core beer from Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery in Farmville, NC, their Brown Ale. As expected, this beer has a powerful malt profile, using seven different malt varieties, but the strong hop additions (including Amarillo and Saaz hops) are unique to a brown ale. This Duck-Rabbit offering pours deep brown with cola highlights and has an ABV of 5.6%. I found the hops to push through a little bit with just a hint of hop bite, but the malt backbone and profile still manage to make a strong showing in this beer. It is a rich beer, with some chocolate notes. A caramel hint is also present among toasted malts and just a little bit of nuttiness. Duck-Rabbit deviates from the norm a little bit, but still puts out a very good brown ale.

Video Review: Rock Bros. Hootie's Home Grown Ale

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So, for my third video in roughly 24 hours, I present Hootie's Homegrown Ale from Rock Brothers Brewing Company. Check it out!

Christmas beers start on Tuesday! I have some neat beers stashed away for this! But first, I'll be back tomorrow with a Beers in Review blog post. See you then!

More about Victory Anniversary XX

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So, tonight I worked on finishing the bottle of beer from this afternoon's review, the Victory Brewing Company Anniversary XX Imperial Pilsner. While working through it, I discovered I had much more to say about the beer than what I said in this afternoon's review. So, here's a quick, 3 1/2-minute video with some further reflection on the Anniversary XX.

Video Review: Victory Anniversary XX

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This slightly tardy video review features a second beer celebrating Victory Brewing Company's 20th Anniversary.  I reviewed the first beer a couple of months ago--you can find that link in the YouTube video description.

 

Edit, 11:38pm: As it turns out, I had more to say about this beer. Check it out here!

I'll have another video review tomorrow, and my Christmas beer series will begin on Tuesday! See you then!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Hello! It is bright and early on Thursday morning here in American, and so allow me to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! With the holiday, I'm pushing the regularly-scheduled Thursday video review to Friday.

But don't worry. I won't leave you empty-handed on this Thanksgiving! Perhaps you are doing your final of about 17 runs to the grocery store, because you need extra potatoes or forgot to buy cinnamon for the pie, or dinner rolls, or a turkey or something. And just as you head for the register and pray the turkey in the oven hasn't exploded, you realize that you FORGOT TO BUY BEER!

Fear not, loyal readers! I have a couple of handy guides that will help you pair beer with the legendary Thanksgiving feast!

First off, Serious Eats engaged their on-staff Cicerone (certified beer expert) Mike Reis to break down several styles of beer and their Thanksgiving-appropriateness. He even matches up some of the beers with standard individual Thanksgiving dishes.

Earlier this week, the Denver Post sought a number of opinions, including those of Cicerones, brewery owners, and event planners, to find out the best beers for three categories: Pre-dinner sessioning, main course, and dessert.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Be safe and sound, and enjoy the day!

Overstuffed-Turkey of News: Even featuring a dessert article!

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I'll be honest. I've been stockpiling news links for a Six-Pack, but just never got around to writing it. But if I wait, too long, of course, the news becomes woefully outdated. So, with that and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday in mind, I give you today's massive news round-up. The Six-Pack of News has officially become an Overstuffed-Turkey!

We start with news of a beer line-up restructuring from Avery Brewing Company. They have decided to cut 7 beers out of their line-up so that they can focus more attention on multiple special release barrel series in 2017.

This is slightly old news, but the Brewers Association, a craft beer trade advocacy group, has backed the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA). This bill with the awkward acronym was first introduced to the U.S. Congress by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), and this bill and its House companion seem to finally be gaining traction in their respective bodies. Since the bill's introduction in 2015, the Brewers Association has maintained talking points and more information for supporters to use to lobby for this bill. More recently, Brew Studs broke down the bill's advantages, which include significant tax relief for small brewers and additional tax and process easements from the Alcohol and Tabacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

Not content to assimilate the craft beer scene into their collective, A-B InBev may be turning its sights on Coca-Cola. This seems to be fairly blatant cash grab on behalf of A-B InBev executives, as reports disclosed in regulatory filings indicate big paydays for the brewer's senior management team if annual revenues cross $100 billion, which a Coca-Cola acquisition would likely achieve. When news of possible acquisition became public early last week, Wall Street didn't react well to the news, pushing A-B InBev's stock lower.

The folks at Vinepair sure like their lists, and this week is no exception, even when they need to twist themselves into pretzels to find a theme. This week's is "Heal Your Family With These 10 Beers", which I think is supposed to be election result-themed, but really just looks like a list of 10 interesting beers.

This is more general alcohol-themed, but Vinepair also provides a fun chart that guides WHAT to drink (beer, wine, liquor) for assorted Thanksgiving situations.

I'm not going to go research this, but it feels like I had seen articles recently bemoaning shortages in certain hops varieties. Regardless, U.S. hop growers are set to have a record year in hop harvesting in 2016. In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports U.S. hop production has doubled since 2012.

Chicago brewpub Band of Bohemia became the first-ever brewpub to be awarded a prestigious Michelin star. Read all about it at craftbeer.com!

I had always felt like my home state of Pennsylvania had some bass ackwards beer laws--laws that seem to be finally becoming modernized. But I thought Pennsylvania was bad, the website Good Beer Hunting notes some states' really terrible beer laws--laws that are crippling the potential for small brewers in those states.

Finally, if you're still looking for what to serve as dessert for your Thanksgiving dinner...well, you're kinda up You-Know-What Creek at this point. But a fun option for the future might be beer- and wine-flavored lollipops, as reported on by Simplemost and sold by Lollyphile!

That's the news, everybody! Have a great Thanksgiving!

Beers in Review: Pre-Thanksgiving Edition

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Leading off today's BiR is Yeoman's Brown Ale from Greenville, South Carolina's Brewery 85. It checks in at 7% ABV (UPDATE: Current batches are 6.4% ABV. I got 7% from the Brewery 85 website.) and 16 IBU, and the beer pours a medium brown color with maybe just a hint of haze. Yeoman's has a decent malt backbone, and a very slight sweetness with caramel notes and a hint of cola in there, as well. I also detected a roasted coffee note, as well as something I couldn't QUITE place. I wanted to say it was something like coconut, or dare I say, artificial coconut. I'm in no way certain that that is what I tasted, and the tasting notes make no mention of coconut, but that is how I'm best interpreting that last flavor note. Despite that last bit, I found this to be a decent brown ale.

(UPDATE, 9:30pm: The folks at Brewery 85 were kind enough to reach out to me via Twitter regarding what I was perceiving as coconut. They pointed out, as is indicated on their website, that additional chocolate and rum flavor notes are typically found in this brown ale, and that may be what I was interpreting as the coconut flavor, somehow. Heck, I may also have been misinterpreting the cola note, as well. -J)

Next up is Service Brewing Company, a Savannah, Georgia-based brewery owned by veterans. Ground Pounder is their year-round core Pale Ale, and named in honor of the infantry soldiers of the Army. Sessionable at 4.6% ABV, the beer pours a nice, hazy orange, and had a solid roughly 2 fingers of head coming out of the can. A massive, bright citrus note was obvious at the start of the drinking experience, though it shortly gave way to peppery notes and just a hint of pine. While there are plenty of flavors generated by the hops, there is almost no bite--just a slight kick at the VERY END of the drinking experience. This is not shocking, given the relatively low 37 IBU (I find that most pales and IPAs tend to clock in at a bare minimum of 40 IBU, though there are exceptions). Just a hint of maltiness rounds out the flavor profile, though both the actual malt and hop presence are both mild enough that I can't really comment on a balance between the two. Still, those hops are creating plenty of nice flavor notes that result in a tasty pale ale.