Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The Beers of September

...as selected by Chris and Riggs

Schmaltz Brewery Coney Island Lager $4.05/ 22oz. (NY)
Intense, finely crafted East Coast lager with a West Coast muscularity to it. Finishes almost dry, with a long finish well-balanced between hops and malt.

Unibroue Ephémère $5.99/ 1pt 9.4 oz. (Québec)
A gorgeous, light beer brewed with apple juice, coriander, and curacao. Perfect for Indian Summer afternoons, the fruit flavors are very well integrated; the beer is not at all sweet, but enormously refreshing.

Lagunitas "Kill Ugly Radio" $3.49/ 22 oz. (CA)
A mightily-hopped double IPA that Frank himself would approve of, if he hadn't been a teetotaler. Lighter in color and more bitter than last year's incarnation, this is Lagunitas' second beer dedicated to the inimitable genius Frank Zappa. Drink it and think of the field day he'd have eviscerating our current "administration"... I did mention that this beer, and its reviewer, are from the Left Coast, right...?

Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale $1.35/ 12 oz. (CA)
To quote the earlier post on this beer: "This beer celebrates Sierra Nevada as pioneers in the craft brew revolution. On November 15, 1980, Ken Grossman began the first-ever batch of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and the world has never been the same. The Anniversary Ale is a worthy addition to the family. It has a beautiful, bright copper color, with floral, assertively Northwestern hops (they are Cascades, in fact), smelling like a fistful of the stuff right off the vine. On the palate it is super-clean, with its hoppiness wound around delicious malt and fine carbonation. It is reminiscent of a hoppy steam beer; absolutely delicious."

Bayern Oktoberfest $1.35/ 12 oz. (Montana)
The color is dark brown, the same as cola. The nose is classically styled, “varietally-correct,” you'd call it, to borrow a wine phrase. It smells of roasted chicory, rich and malty. In the mouth, its heavy mid-palate belies a crisp, rather dry finish. A fine effort.

Heather Ales Fraoch $4.45/ 16.2 oz. (Scotland)
A delicious beer whose style predates the widespread use of hops as a bittering agent. In existence for over 2000 years, this is one of the oldest surviving ale styles. Brewed with sweet gale and flowering heather, then poured into a vat of heather flowers for an hour before fermentation, it is delicious and unique, with a rich peaty aroma, light sweetness on the tongue, and a spicy herbaceousness to the dry finish.

Full Sail Vesuvius $3.79/ 22oz. (OR)

This is one of the best American Belgians around, better than last year's version by a fair sight. The nose is dazzling and rich, ridiculously true to style, full of lavender, lilies, white peppercorn, and ruby red grapefruit zest. It has a refreshing bitterness on the tongue, with the rich mid-palate you'd expect, but a surprisingly dry finish. A truly wonderful beer.


Stone Ruination IPA $2.49/ 12 oz. or $4.79/ 22 oz.

I have to hand it to them, the boys down south have shot the lights out with this beer. The label proclaims it to be a “liquid poem to the glory of the hop,” and I certainly couldn't describe it better. But I will say that it is an avalanche of floral, citric, peppery hops that glow around a lean malt nucleus, almost preening. Probably one of the best five or six IPAs around.

Samuel Adams Imperial Pilsner $2.75/ 12 oz.

Even though Sammy Adams are a gigantic brewery, and even though they were at the very forefront of the revival of American brewing, I can't help but to get a little aw-shucks when I try this beer. I mean, bless their hearts, it's just so cute for them to make a northwest-style hop-bomb! They're trying so hard! Don't you just want to take them out to Chuck E. Cheese's as a reward? Joking aside, this is a massively-hopped beer, verging on – gasp!- too hoppy. The Hallertaus they use are not as floral as our Pacific hops, and the resultant beer is bitter almost the the point of being acrid. It does retain an unmistakably Samuel Adams malt core, and that's a good thing. A beer you must try, even if it is kinda like stumbling through a hailstorm of peppercorns with a beer in your hand (I mean that in the best possible way).

Stone 11th Anniversary Ale $5.49/ 22 oz.

Did I mention that we dig Stone? Everything they make is great, including the labels to their beers (read up). This beer is the world's darkest IPA, cola-brown and nearly opaque. The resultant head is creamy and rich, and the nose is a massive wash of hops. On the tongue it shows a creamy texture, with pleasantly bitter flavors of cherry skins and malt. One of the most refreshing dark beers around, with the potential to inspire a trend in its wake- maybe this style, dark-brown, yet ultra-hoppy and lithe, can justify the moniker San Diego-style IPA. Whatever you call it, we like it a lot.



Tuesday, September 4, 2007

New Beer Reviews

Now safely home, I've gotten back to the vital work of tasting every new beer that I can get my hands on- and talking about the ones that got away. I'll start with one of those, described to me in exquisite detail by Chris, the Beer Guru:

Wild Dog Whiskey-Barrel-Aged "Gonzo"

This beer is available in extremely limited-edition gift boxes, only five hundred of which were made (the packages also contain a nice glass and a chunk of the barrel in which the beer was aged). This is their Gonzo Imperial Porter- a tribute to the famous Kentuckian Hunter S. Thompson- here aged in whiskey barrels, adding texture and weight. The head is fine, a light roasted brown in color. The beer attacks with an initial whiskey hit, followed by light oak flavors. Loaded with rich coffee notes on the mid-palate, it finishes with deep roasted chocolate flavors. The mouthfeel is silky and smooth, not as intensely viscous as expected.

The rest of these I tasted:

Butte Creek "Helltown" OG Hefeweizen
Super-light, with extremely subtle flavors that are almost not there. It's more Deutschland than NorCal, with prototypical banana aromas. The carbonation is very fine, and the finish is crisp and dry. This beer needs to be drunk very cold, and very quickly.

Pyramid Brewmaster's Reserve 2007: Imperial Hefeweizen
An interesting brew. The beer is very cloudy, with dense bubbles in its impressively European head. The nose almost reminds me of Gueuze in its tropical tartness, but this does not carry over on the palate. It is fruity and rich, with a marked peppery bitterness to the well-hopped finish. A somewhat awkward pairing of styles, this beer nonetheless offers the intensity of an Imperial with a bit of the refreshing aspect of a good Hef.

Taras Boulba
This is the hoppiest Belgian beer I have ever had. To the chagrin of the haters of the hop (i.e. folks who don't like to have their beers club them into hoppy submission), there is an ever-increasing trickle of European brewers who, having seen the bright white rainy light out here on the Left Coast, have taken this inspiration back across the Atlantic. More than one Belgian beer trumpets this fact on its label, only to disappoint with barely noticeable hoppiness- not so Taras Boulba. These folks have nailed it. The nose is filled with aggressive, peppery hops and lily flower. With starry, assertive carbonation, the beer finishes bright and bitter. By God, it's alive! This wouldn't pass for a Northwestern IPA, but it is just as hoppy.

Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale
This beer celebrates Sierra Nevada as pioneers in the craft brew revolution. On November 15, 1980, Ken Grossman began the first-ever batch of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and the world has never been the same. The Anniversary Ale is a worthy addition to the family. It has a beautiful, bright copper color, with floral, assertively Northwestern hops (they are Cascades, in fact), smelling like a fistful of the stuff right off the vine. On the palate it is super-clean, with its hoppiness wound around delicious malt and fine carbonation. It is reminscent of a hoppy steam beer; absolutely delicious.

Monday, September 3, 2007

Back from the Bluegrass

I spent last week in the swelter and haze of my natal town, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Bowling Green is an old town with old money, home to Western Kentucky University (go Hilltoppers!), Lost River Cave (neat!), the Corvette plant (cool if you like cars), and once the short-lived Confederate Capital of the state (not cool). It reminded me of 82nd Ave with nice houses and golf courses, but my family are there, and that's reason enough to go. OK, it's the only reason.

So, welcome home, me! I am delighted to be back in the warm embrace of civilization, once more safely within reach of the Pacific Ocean, sheltered behind our mountains, once more in close proximity to the world's finest beers.

That said, there are at least five beers that we can't get out here in Oregon (surely sour grapes on the part of those poor sots unlucky enough to dwell outside of the Pacific Time Zone). The ones I hear about most often are Magic Hat from Vermont and Bell's from Michigan. When I'm on the East Coast I drink Magic Hat, but usually find it to be a bit underwhelming, especially given the hype (although, since it's from Vermont, I assume the beer tastes better stoned).

This time, I was able to try Bell's Amber Ale for the first time. The packaging betrays its non-Left Coast provenance, expressing wonderment that the consumer would "read a six-pack holder." Ahh, they'll get it someday- careful, detailed perusal of beer packaging is part and parcel of the Oregon experience, but I'll rein in the condescension and go on...

Superciliousness notwithstanding, it was a good brew, hoppy like a Callie amber ale, with a nice malt core to it. Not one to write home about- although I guess that's exactly what I'm doing- but a nice brew all the same. And I hear the brewpub up in Kalamazoo is a great time as well.

Other exotic beers I tried included:

Goose Island Bitter: The best beer I've had from this Chicago brewhouse. Crispy, hoppy, and, yes, bitter. There was also a Nut Brown, but I did not try it (it was 95 degrees and 99% humidity, so refreshment was at a premium)

Kentucky Ale: OK, a solid B. Malty, but dry. They also made (of course) a Bourbon-barrel-aged pale and porter. I did not try these.

Bluegrass Brewing American Pale Ale: Better than the above beer, with a nice hop profile to keep my Northwestern palate happy. Crisp.

Great Lakes "Burning River" Pale Ale: A bit maltier than I would have liked, but with a touch of sweetness that became unobtrusive once the palate acclimatized to it.

...sorry not to have tried more, but ridiculously, no mix-and-match 6ers were available, so I had to buy by the 6-pack; a dangerous proposition in beer exploration, but a risk I was willing to take for my loyal readers.