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A Sour Kiss From The Lips Of Faith (New Belgium La Folie)

Sunday, September 6, 2009

New Belgium is an absolute powerhouse in the Craft Brewing scene — the kind where you know what they stand for even if you’ve never had their beer.  The only experiences I’ve had with New Belgium’s product include a few bad experiences with the flagship beer Fat Tire, mostly while already very drunk in Los Angeles.  So in other words, as always, my judgement may be off.This time, however, I approached the issue head on and with about a clear a mind as they come for me these days.

La Folie is a very significant beer in our country’s brewing history because it was the innoculation point, pun intended, for a streak of brewers who ended up taking the initial experiments of Fort Collins, Colorado via Roeselare, Belgium (New Belgium’s brewer, Peter Bouckaert, came from Rodenbach) to a variety of deep levels all over California and Beyond.  The barrels from the first batches of La Folie were used in other experiments by other brewers, reliving the Rodenbach tradition of sharing it’s resources with other brewers which was brutally severed by the corporate hand of Palm.  The beer itself has gone through the paces at this point, now in it’s second or third incarnation, taking it’s place amongst the “Lips of Faith” beers which serve to classify the “experimental,” including a few Sour or “Wild” beers.  Of course just as people say that Rodenbach and Orval have changedm they say La Folie has changed, but I wouldn’t know.

La Folie is an Oud Bruin or Flemish Brown style Sour Beer.  It’s one of my favorite styles because of how it incorporates the chocolate and earthy flavors of both good brown ales and good sour beers.  La Folie doesn’t dissapoint at all, pouring a deep dark brown with a very crackly head, immediately releasing lots of great barrel and sour aromas.  The chocolate is big in their too, as well as on the tongue where it is very assertive.  An awesome, desert like beer with a very intense sourness that is pushes the boundaries of sharpness but retains a very round flavor which comes with age.  This is a blended beer as well, taking old and new batches to find the right balance.  It’s awesome to have bombers of this in circulation, printed on like a regular American Style beer as opposed to being in a cork and cage.  I think I’m going to have to make some friends in Fort Collins so I can get a more regular supply of this and their other sour beers.  La Folie is a great example of a beer that really pays seeking out and more evidence of how huge and deep our beer culture is at this point, and it’s good to know that even a company with a message can produce awesome tasting beer.

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Brew Logs (Big Hoppy American Wheat and Halloween Black Saison)

Friday, August 28, 2009

I’ve been brewing a good amount this summer, enough that I’ve actually managed to fall behind by a few batches, so I’m going to catch up here with two new styles.  I have a lot of beer currently fermenting in the basement, at room temperature (between 70 and 80 degrees), including a pale Sour Ale (Fantome Brett + Al’s Bug Farm chips), and the “Breuckelen” Flanders Red Ale (Al B’s Roselare Blend + Abbey Yeast), which I am planning on racking and splitting up soon, after some fruit additions to part of each batch.  Both are tasting nice now, so we’ll see what happens.

Inspired by the lack of Three Floyd’s Gumballhead that has been plaguing me this summer, I decided to brew my own version, which came in at almost double the ABV% and double the bitterness.  I was playing around with the name “Gumballfaced” because you can get quite “faced” off of a few pints, but I digress.  I looked all around to see what people had for clones on this beer and most people were aiming for something sessionable.  I wanted something strong but drinkable, so I amped up what is actually a pretty obvious recipe, but an ingenious one that I will be basing beers off of for a long time.  It’s generally accepted that Gumballhead is a 100% Amarillo beer, so I went with that.  Amarillo turns out to be awesome for bitering, flavor, and aroma, and so I think I’ll be buying some in bulk.  I’ve been drinking and sharing this beer and the general agreement seems to be that it’s pretty awesome, which makes me happy.  It’s intensely fruity because of the dry hopping and generous late hop additions, and smooth due to the wheat and caramel malts. I might bump the Caravienne up to a pound next time, especially because it comes in 1 pound bags. This was the first time I put the fermented in my serving refrigerator with the temp. control so I could keep the yeast under control, and the results were fantastic – a very clean fermentation.

Recipe For 6 Gallons:

8# German Wheat Malt

6# US 2-Row Malt

12oz Caravienne

1# Dextrose

All Amarillo: 1oz @ 60, 1oz @ 30, 1oz @ 15, 1oz @ 5, 1oz @ 0.

Mashed at 152 for 60 minutes, 60 minute boil, fermented at 66 degrees for 1 week, then racked to keg and dry-hopped with 3 ounces of Amarillo for 1 week at 65 degrees.  Force carbonated in 5 gallon keg.

Stinky and I wanted to squeeze in a brew day together so we decided to brew another batch of Black Saison, similar to what he had brewed last year around this time.  The recipe is kind of all over the place, literally, so I’ll just post some pictures here. When I can figure out what the hell we put in this beer, I’ll post it here.

Mashing The Black Saison

Mashing The Black Saison

Boiling the Black Saison

Boiling the Black Saison

Juniper, Fresh Cascade Hops, and Coriander Seeds

Juniper, Fresh Cascade Hops, and Coriander Seeds

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Eating Bass and Kicking Ass: My Boston Beer Trip (Cambridge Brewing Co., Founders, Pretty Things, Publick House Provisions)

Thursday, August 13, 2009

When plans to leave the country for a couple days fell through, my wife and I, already having convinced our brains that we were going to be out of the city for the weekend, decided we needed to get out of town anyway.  We looked around for some weekend getaway options until remembering that we had been threatening to go and stay with some friends in Boston, and so arrangements were made and off we went.  The weekend happened to coincide with a Striped Bass and Beer Dinner at Cambridge Brewing Company, and I had  a few other items on my Boston Beer agenda I wanted to cross off as well, so the timing seemed impecable.

After raging on the road through a rain storm and other epic weather conditions, we finally landed on our friend’s couch around midnight, and immediately cracked open a couple things I brought up from NYC with me.  We decided to call it a night pretty quickly given the amount of beer we were planning on consuming the next day, but not before I was able to impress my friend with a year old bottle of Captain Lawrence Xtra Gold, which he had never been able to try, and a few other miscellaneous treats.  After a booze-free brunch the next morning, our beer day began at The Independent Pub in Union Square with a big round of Founder’s Red’s Rye P.A. I was supposed to write up a big batch of Founder’s a while ago and never got around to it, which is a shame, as they are one of my favorite Michigan breweries.  Founder’s produces a nice stable of both year round and seasonal beers, and besides the Centennial IPA, I’ve gone for their Red’s Rye Pale Ale more than any other.  Red’s pours a deep reddish brown color, clear as a beer could possibly be.  The nose is pure citrus/grapefruit/tropical fruit explosion from the insane amount of Amarillo hops used in the beer, without much malt or spice to be found, but only small hints of both.  The flavors this beer packs are more balanced but it’s still more or less a fantastic citrus bomb that stas crisp and smooth throughout.  Drinking it a bit warmer will make it seem more malty and balanced, but no matter the temperature, the bitterness is never harsh or overpowering.  A new fangled, more modern version of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is a good touchstone — more in your face, less concerned about mass market drinkability.  All in all, an awesome start to a great weekend of beer.

After the Independent we started to make our way over to the Cambridge Brewing Company, a rather storied institution whose beers I have tried only once, at a festival, far from their home base.  CBC has been around for 20 years, which is a hell of a lot considering there are hardly any functioning brew pubs that have been going continuously for that long.  What makes CBC special, besides their focus on beer’s relationship with food, is their obsession with producing a vast array of beer styles, not specializing or focusing too heavily in one area.  In one night of moderate drinking, my friends and I were able to taste a classic-styled Kolsch, a barrel aged Sour Kriek, and more.  Here’s a recap:

Regatta Golden: I’m starting to appreciate it more and more when I can go to a place like CBC which sells a lot of far-out beers and also try a more classic style, like this Kolsch styled German Ale.  Kolsch is like the Pilsner of the Ale world, if that makes any sense, and the Regatta Golden is a pretty damned good take on a difficult to pull off style.  There’s a common understanding amongst home brewers and even profressional brewers that sometimes the simplest beers are the hardest to brew.  Sure, you can easily pull off a super bitter IPA, a fruity Wheat Beer, or even a gigantic stout, but can you balance your Kolsch? Can you produce a flawless Pale Ale?  CBC clearly can, and the Regatta golden is as clear and crisp of a golden ale as I’ve ever had.  Very refreshing, balanced, and, damn, I gotta say it again, CRISP, there’s also a nice touch of bitterness, spiciness, and breadiness to keep everything together.  Awesome with food, before food, or after food — just awesome.

Jedi Mind Trick: The terrible name aside, the Jedi Mind Trick is actually a Belgian Styled IPA or an American Styled Tripel depending on who you ask or how many versions of this beer you’ve had before.  The combination of American Hops and Belgian Yeast is probably my favorite innovation in the past few years, and with excellent breweries like Stone, Green Flash, and other West Coast pioneers perfecting it, it’s always nice when an East Coast example steps up.  Since CBC doesn’t have the overwhelmingly insane track record for dealing with massive amounts of hops, I was surprised and delighted to be … so surprised and delighted with this beer.  It’s a difficult balance to pull off, that of balancing Yeast and Hops, and the JMT is a great example of a beer that can pull you in one direction one minute and then another the next without being overwhelming, inconsistent, or fatiguing on the palate.  There’s nice malt sweetness, Yeast spiciness, Hop bitterness, and a nice amount of Hop flavor as well that all swim together in your goblet to give you a great picture of the amazing conversation going on right now between Belgian and American brewers.  Fresh and delicious, JMT skirts enough lines without crossing too many boundaries and becoming muddled, to the point where I’ll even forgive them the name.

Arquebus: Arquebus is definitely the beer I heard the most about before ever trying any of CBC’s beers, and with good reason.  It’s billed as a “Summer Barleywine,” and the CBC website explains that it’s produced with a lot of local honey, enhanced with white wine grapes, and then aged in chardonnay barrels for 18 months.  The result is a massive 11% ABV beer that pours a beautiful deep golden color like an Itallian white desert wine.  There are oxidative, fruity, and phenolic notes when you sniff, and a whole kaleidoscope of flavors when you sip.  Arquebus is smooth and deep, not too overwhelming but hardly something you could drink a full pint of either.  Really one of those beers that needs to be experienced in person, it is by far one of the most wine like brews I’ve ever had, and one of my favorites of all time for that matter.  Just absolutely intense and if I had a stock of 33ml bottles of this, I’m not sure I’d ever leave the house.

Cerise Casee:  Anytime I see a “Barrel-fermented Sour Wild Ale” on any beer menu, I’m excited, but after seeing all that CBC had to offer, and reading about their process for producing this beer, I was out of my mind stoked and shocked at the same time.  I’m not sure why CBC doesn’t get more credit in beer circles for doing some truly unique things with Barrel-aged and Sour beers, but Will at Cambridge is easily on par with Vinne at Russian River and Ron at Jolly Pumpkin in terms of truly pushing the envelope.  Cerise Casee is produced using the “Solera” fermentation system, which, like the system used in Belgium to produce Gueuze, has young, middle-aged, and older Lambics mixed together to produce the final product. CBC takes this further with an insane sour mash, and barrels that go back 6 years, producing a concoction that is just not attainable had these techniques not been employed.   When you add fresh cherries into the mix, the resulrs are just spectacular.  There is an aged, sherry like quality that accompanies this beer, which serves very nicely in balancing the sour tartness natural to the fermentation style. There is also a noticable amount of flavor from the wood, and a good amount of aroma as well.  This is going to be a once in a lifetime style opportunity for most people who try this beer, and it should be savored.  Make the trip and find out how good it is and how shitty I actually am at describing beer.

After a ridiculous helping of beer and some pretty damned good presentations of local Sea Bass, we called it a night at CBC, hit a local loft to see some out of town friends play an excellent show, and called it a night.  The next morning we hit another brunch spot and then did some shopping before hitting the road.  We had been talking about hitting Publick House Provisions, the retail arm of the well-renowned pub and bar in Brookline called the Publick House.  After a nice coffee at a friend’s coffee shop, we wandered in to Boston’s Beer Mecca.  Provisions is a very clean, well stocked shop that focuses on Beer, Glassware, and Cheeses, which, aside from the glassware, of course had me thinking of Bierkraft.  I was mainly in the market for Pretty Things beers, of which I was able to score a few bottles, but was also pleasantly surprised to find a bottle of Cascade Kriek.  I wasn’t very impressed by the “display only” case of Westvleteren beers behind the counter, the somewhat asshole-ish attitude of the guy behind the counter, or the outrageous prices on glassware ($12 for B. United glasses? What the hell? Should have checked before I walked out), but hey, this is a beer store, not social hour, so what am I expecting? All in all I would be excited to have this place as my local shop as I’m sure Brookline heads are, and I walked out with a nice haul.

I was very impressed with the beer offerings Boston had, especially it’s focus on pairing awesome beer with awesome food.  The beer culture there is strong and I’ll be back soon to hit it again.  Thanks to KFW and Robyn for the hospitality!

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The “I Guess I’ve Been Drinking Summer Beers” Roundup, Part 1 (Sierra Nevada, Alesmith, Ithaca, Samuel Adams)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

At first, the Summer comes slowly.  You’re full of anticipation.  You’re longing for the freedom, the warmth, the celebratory feeling that washes over the city.  You’re enjoying the gentle pause between Spring’s breezes and Summer’s punishing inevitability, and all of the sudden, you find yourself sweating and panting, walking the avenue looking for a corner store that sells “passable” beers, wherever you are.  Your thirst for summer has turned into straight up thirst, and before you know it, in the intervening weeks, you realize you’ve been drinking summertime beers like its your business, which in a way it is.  Here’s a roundup of several recent initiates into my warmth-destroying army of Summer quenchers, to be followed up by a few other installations.

Summer is Here

Sierra Nevada Kellerweis – No big surprise that this beer is surfacing on this blog as I am a devoted Sierra Nevada acolyte and seek out all of their new releases as soon as I can.  Sierra’s newest entry into their expanding lineup of year round beers, Kellerweis is “one of the only American Hefeweizens made using the traditional Bavarian style of open fermentation.”  In addition to this process, a secret proprietary yeast strain is used, giving Kellerweis a crisp, delicious flavor that is unique to American brews.  It’s great to taste this beer at its peak of freshness.  It pours a hazy golden color when you swirl and pour in the yeast from the bottle, and reminds me a lot of the cloudy sunshine we’ve been having in Brooklyn lately.  The sixpack I scored at a local bodega didn’t last me too long, and was a great beer to have on a hot as hell brew day this past weekend.  Kellerweis has all of the fruity, spicy notes in aroma and flavor that you could ask for in a Hefeweizen, and is almost as crispy and delicious as the all time undisputed king of Wheat Beers from Schneider Weisse.  There’s of course an amped up amount of hop character in this beer, which is very welcome to my tastes.  This isn’t a mindblowing beer or anything and if you’ve ever had peak Weisse in Germany, you’re not going to find an exact reproduction here, but in terms of Sierra nailing a “Chico-ized” version of a classic beer style, it’s a knockout.  Awesome work guys.

Sierra Nevada Summerfest 09 Lager – Recently I ran into a certified hopophobic dark beer fanatic friend of mine (I know, somewhat contradictory) on the beach, and was very surprised to see him toting a six-pack of Summerfest.  Since I’ve never seen him enjoy anything by Sierra, I asked him what was up and he just shrugged his shoulders and said “Dude, it’s the summer.”  So I grabbed one of his bottles and checked out this year’s version of one of Sierra’s only Lagers.  Summerfest pours a brilliant golden color, with a thick crackling white head and a ton of hop aroma, backed by the sweet breadiness you would expect from a Pilsner style beer.  Not quite the extremely hoppy amped up Pale Lager that you might expect, Sierra shows some restraint hear and brings a lot of crisp fruitiness to the table with this beer.  It’s an excellent beer that gets fruitier as you let it warm up, but in terms of drinking it fresh and crisp, I like it pretty cold, like right out of the fridge.  This is a good opportunity to taste something brewed by Sierra that doesn’t use their signature yeast, and the lighter grain bill leaves a lot of the hop flavors exposed that the Pale Ale covers up.  A delicious, cheap alternative to horrible skunky Euro-Lagers — drink Chico!

Alesmith Summer Yulesmith – I was always kind of confused by Alesmith’s Yulesmith, until I read the bottle.  In the summer, Yulesmith is a big old IPA, bursting with fresh west coast hop flavor and backed by a nice assertivle malt backbone.  I loved the big gamut of hop flavors and aromas happening in this beer, and it reminded me how I need to seek out more of Alesmith’s regular IPA, which was one of my favorites when I tried it for the first time.  A little on the big and heavy side for a typical Summer Beer, Yulesmith works because of how incredibly bright it is — there’s plenty of sharp citrus and cool pine to keep you going.  Split the bomber with a buddy, though, and you’ll be glad you did.

Ithaca Flower Power – I come back to this beer again and again, whenever it’s fresh, and it definitely tops the list of my favorite East Coast IPAs, if you can call it that, and if there’s such a thing.  You know what I mean.  It pours a beautiful brilliant golden orange color with a tan, crackling head that releases a ton of hop aromas.  There’s a lot of up-front citrus and fresh hop aroma which is complemented by the perfect amount of caramel and a tiny bit of deep, toffee like flavor.  Flower Power finishes very dry and remains super drinkable at almost 8% ABV.  I’ve been sending these beers to the West Coast for a while in trade and they’ve been loving it out there — not enough to admit it rivals their hometown favorites, but what can you expect?

Samuel Adams Summer Ale – Faced with the task of choosing beers for a large group of people to drink with food, this is one of three six packs I ended up with.  The task at hand was a Maryland crab feast, and while we usually have Corona, which I fucking hate, I wanted something a little different, so I was happy to see this available at the liquor store next door to the crab joint.  Summer Ale is a Witbier brewed with lemon zest and grains of paradise.  It pours a very pale golden yellow color and crackles away with alternating lemony and hoppy aromas and flavors.  Somewhat thin and artificial tasting on its own, Summer Ale was actually very good with the spicy, sharp Old Bay on the crabs, and paired very nicely with the richness of the crab meat.  I was happy to drink a few of these with the crabs, potato salad, corn, and other summer treats, but I had to wait until I was several beers deep before I was close to hitting these up later on in the night.  Not a bad jam for Sam Adams at all, and again, surprisingly hoppy and somewhat uncharactaristically bitter for the style — I like.

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Happy Birthday America: July 4th Roundup (Jolly Pumpkin, Lagunitas, Chelsea, Captain Lawrence)

Monday, July 13, 2009

July 4th is the supreme beer and meat holiday, automatically putting it in the running with my favorite holidays of all time.  Add in fireworks, copious sweets, great weather, and a bunch of friends outside of the city that oppresses us all so regularly, and you have a recipe for a hell of a time.  Of course Stinky and I purchased and lugged a large quantity of beer with us out to the house, taking the opportunity to grab a bunch of growlers at Bierkraft plus a healthy mixture of big and sessionable beers in 12oz and 22oz bottles.  Since I haven’t posted any photos here in quite a while, and Aaron was stoked to break in his new camera, I’ll post some food and fun pictures here with his permission, along with capsule reviews of a few of the beers we sampled.

The fact that Lagunitas has not gotten a lot more play on this blog is a testament to how dense the American Craft Beer scene is these days.  Lagunitas is one of the first craft breweries I got into after Sierra Nevada, and I enjoyed discovering that I indeed like to drink Pilsners, Copper Ales, and a variety of other flavors by making my way through their catalog.  Since being introduced to the brewery, I have had the opportunity to drink a lot of their seasonal offerings.  The latest release for summer, available in 12oz 6-packs, is somewhat misleadingly named “A Lil Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale.”  I half-expected a low ABV session beer until I remembered I was dealing with Lagunitas — so the result is a nearly 8% ABV Pale Ale/American Wheat Beer hybrid, intensely hoppy both in aroma and flavor, with a delicious smooth maltiness provided by the combination of wheat, base, and specialty malts.  With this awesome combination you get the great mouthfeel provided by the wheat, the aromatics provided by Ale Yeast and Hops, and the flavor provided by all of the above.  “A Lil Sumpin’ Sumpin’” turns out to be quite a beast of a beer if you knock a couple back — the alcohol is very well hidden, and this copper colored beer is a great choice for a warm, celebratory day.

Jolly Pumpkin is no stranger to the pages of this blog, and being that it’s essentially my favorite American Brewery, it’s always a pleasure to cover another of their brews in the ranks of the Brew Dog Blog.  Bam Noire is their “Black Saison,” a style that doesn’t really exist aside from a few examples.  The concept of Seasonal Saisons comes from the Fantome brewery in Belgium for the most part, and Jolly Pumpkin’s version, although a deep reddish black and adorned with Halloween motifs on the bottle, holds its own just fine in the heat of the summer.  Light, refreshing, dry, and perfectly fruity and tart, Bam Noir brings just about everything to the table in terms of being a fantastic A+ Summer drinker.  A lot of complexity in the nose and on the palette makes it more than a chugger, and takes it into the slow sipping realm, if you can make it last that long.

Chelsea Brewing Company disproves the notion that many people have that there are no Craft Beers produced on the sainted “Money Makin” island of Manhattan. While most of the brews they pump out are highly drinkable, delicious beers, none are particularly mindblowing, yet they exist as examples of good, fresh beers you can regularly get around bars and at the brew pub over on the west side.  Recently Bierkraft, a big seller of Chelsea beers, sourced a cask of one of Chelsea’s new offerings, the USA, which was dry hopped and being served in 64oz growlers.  Stinky brought one out to the barbecue and I was really glad he did.  It was a low ABV, not quite brilliantly clear golden Ale in the English style, and it had an enormous hop presence both in the nose and in the spicy, fruity flavors.  Low carbonation emphasizes the delicious maltiness of this beer also, altogether a hell of a summer drinker too and the growler disappeared quickly.

Hard to believe there’s still a Captain Lawrence beer that I haven’t written about, and one of their flagships, no less.  Freshchester Pale Ale is a very, very good East Coast style Pale Ale, from a dude who worked at Sierra Nevada and can brew any kind of beer well.  It has the perfect balance going on that is the SN trademark, and a delicious blend of hops (definitely some PNW hops in there) and malt (2-row and crystal) is extremely satisfying.  It starts bubbly and fresh with awesome hop aromas, and finishes nice and dry with a malty, rounded finish.  Not too bitter, not too sweet, just how I like it.

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Quick Summer Updates (Port Brewing, Ballast Point, Contreras)

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

I’ve been pretty wrapped up in everything except writing these days, including a recent obsession with Chess, trying to get back into gardening regularly, working, and playing music a few times a week.  As usual I’ve had plenty of time to try lots of new beers, so instead of letting these new ones sit in the “queue” and eventually never get written up, I thought I’d highlight a few recent favorites in one blast.

Port Brewing is probably no stranger to anyone who reads this blog (don’t laugh, we have a few readers, even some who aren’t related to me), and their Hot Rocks Lager is one of the more interesting sounding of their seasonal, somewhat experimental beers.  While most of the barrel-aged, soured, fruit adding beers are done over at Lost Abbey, there’s plenty of intriguing stuff coming out of Port to keep you busy for a while.  When a recent stroke of luck saw a friend on his way back to NYC from PA with a detour programmed in for grabbing beers, I asked him to grab whatever Port stuff was around, as I usually do, and I was rewarded handsomely with this 22oz bottle.  Hot Rocks Lager is a “Steinbier,” an obscure German Style beer where the wort is boiled by dropping super hot rocks into the kettle, causing a ton of caramelization along with the typical wort boiling.  Actually it seems that Steinbiers could take different forms, therefore making it more of a process than a style, but you get the point.  I’m not 100% sure how far Tomme and his collaborator went in creating this Steinbier, but I understand he presented on the subject at the National Homebrewer’s conference a few weeks back, so maybe an astute reader can comment.  Hot Rocks turns out to be a very satisfying Lager, true to the Lager style with its lack of yeast aromas, and big on the malty, chocolatey aroma ostensibly caused by the Steinbier process.  A smooth, very drinkable, ruby red lager with a crackling white head that hangs around, Hot Rocks is somewhere near a Bock in style, but not quite as fruity, if I’m keeping my styles straight.  It’s a delicious beer with an interesting story, though, and it doesn’t take much more than that to get me on board.

Ballast Point is one of the San Diego area breweries that us New Yorkers have been waiting to get our hands on for quite a while.  Despite the fact that their Yellowtail Kolsch is their flagship beer, they entered the NYC market with their Calico Amber and Big Eye IPA.  Both are available in 12oz bottles now, so in the name of research, I grabbed one of each.  Big Eye IPA is not quite the “classic” West Coast IPA you might expect upon picking it up, but it still proved to be quite delicious and very drinkable.  It pours a deep orange color with a huge white head, just like you want an IPA to look.  All of the right hop aromas are there, with a touch of caramel on top.  There’s no realy bracing bitterness here, and in fact, this is more of a balanced IPA from the West Coast than any I’ve had in quite some time.  In a lot of ways its closer to an East Coast style IPA, or maybe a West Coast style Pale Ale.  A nice thin-medium body keeps it drinkable as well, and the moderate ABV could make this a killer session beer.  I’d love to try this on tap, I think it would be very delicious.  Not a mindblower, but I’ll definitely return to it.  Likewise the Calico Amber is a very balanced, delicious, sessionable beer, although one with a lot more malt complexity and not as much hop aroma.  There are sweeter smells on display here, with some toastiness to boot, and overall the Calico could be a great choice for someone looking to check out some West Coast styled beers without having to split their tongues for an entire night.  I’m looking forward to getting my hands on some of Ballast Point’s bigger beers so I can see what they can do when they stretch their legs out a bit.

Contreras is one of the many obscure breweries brought in by the magnificent 12 percent importers, and their “Valeir” series of beers have been favorites of mine since they started coming in last year.  Their newest, the “Extra,” is another excellent example of the Belgian response to American innovation, in the form of the “Belgian IPA.”  If you’re not familiar with this style, I would almost describe it as a hoppier Saison with American Hops, and that’s exactly what you get here.  A very dry beer in the tradition of Belgian “digestability” with the added benefit of the delicious citrus and bubblegum flavors we’ve come to love from American IPAs.  Extra pours a beautiful golden orange with a classic Belgian styled rocky head which bursts massive aromas of hops and a slight bit of toasty malt.  No extra sweetness, no extra body, just beautiful refreshing beer flavors and aromas through and through.  The Belgian Yeast and American Hops compliment each other perfectly here, and unlike other Belgian hoppy beers in green bottles, there’s no oxidized skunk aromas or flavors.  Another winner!

Bonus points: does anyone out there know why Belgian IPAs tend to carry the “Extra” appellation? This has been bugging me for a while now.

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Life is Beautiful (Saison Senne and Nogne Saison)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Reaching back a bit in my archive of notes to write up two beers in one of my all time favorite “non-styles,” the Saison.  One is a very authentic modern take originating far from where the style was born, and another a kind of ancient take from right in the heart of the Senne valley.

Nogne 0 has gotten some nice attention lately here in New York City where their portfolio of available brews is increasing and more people are taking notice of their excellent takes on almost any style imaginable.  When I noticed that they threw their hat in the Saison ring and was simultaneously encouraged by Stinky to check it out, I knew it was probably going to be a winner.  Nogne’s Saison pours a deep Orange color, closer to red than blonde, which right away gives it a distincitive look.  A large amount of crackling off white head is evidence of a lot of carbonation, which continuously releases a lot of great aromas for a long while after the beer is poured.  There’s apparently no extra spicing in this beer, only the aromas and flavors lent by the Saison style yeast, and that’s quite an accompilshment because there’s a lot of complexity in both departments.  Even though this is an appropriately dry Saison, there is a decent amount of maltiness and body, and the herbal and citrus notes do a lot to compliment that and prevent it from overwhelming the beer.  One of the better Saisons to come from anywhere outside of Belgium, Nogne scores again with this very balanced, very delicious version that would go very well with almost any food imaginable — I’m thinking a nice Steak, but I’m usually thinking about Steak these days, so that doesn’t say that much.

At an event at Spuyten Duyvil a little while back, I had the opportunity to sample some of the beers of Brasserie De la Senne, a Belgian brewery in the Senne Valley, where certain Belgian beer styles are said to have originated.  The beers are difficult to find in the United States, and as it was a joint “event” with the greatest brewers in the world (Cantillon), I was more than pleasantly surprised to learn that Senne’s Saison is actually blended with some of Cantillon’s young Lambic beer.  This Saison pours a pale golden color with a slighter quantity of carbonation than the Nogne version, but still enough to keep the drinkability nice and high.  There is a tartness in both aroma and flavor here, in addition to an array of sweet, spicy, and citrus notes which all come together in one of the more complex variations on any style I’ve ever had.  Easier-going than a Lambic, more adventurous than the average Saison, Senne’s version hits so many notes that really all you can say is that once again, Life is Beautiful.  Also check out Senne’s website for some of the best beer label artwork ever.

Filed in review by mrb | Comments (0)

The Summer Of The Can (21st Amendment and Oskar Blues)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Brew Dog Blog officially declares this The Summer Of The Can (TSOTC).  TSOTC has begun a bit early this year, jumping summer’s official date by a full few weeks.  Partially responsible for this amazing situation is the timely introduction of the beers of the 21st Amendment Brewery from San Francisco to the New York City market.  Also not lending much credence to the whole idea of an official date for the beginning of summer is Oskar Blues’s Pilsner, Mama’s Little Yella Pils.

21st Amendment’s beers have been on my radar for a while, and I’m happy to finally get a chance to really sit down and enjoy their two current offerings available here in cans, Hell or High Watermelon, which is a Wheat Beer made with fresh pressed fruit, and Brew Free or Die, a west coast style IPA.  Hell or High Watermelon doesn’t really sound like a beer I’d be into, and at first, honestly, it wasn’t a beer I enjoyed.  That only lasted about three sips, though, and as I proceeded, I became very convinced that I could quite happily consume a large quantity of this beer, and be very proud of the fact that I was drinking a watermelon beer.  I have been drinking these more out of the can then in the glass, but when I did pour it, I was surprised at just how pale it is.  It pours a light yellow color with a quick, fizzy head, and coms out with a big kicking aroma of watermelons.  The fruit flavor isn’t up front when you sip right away, but as you drink it, it comes out more and more.  If this beer warms up a bit too much, it gets a little off and cloying tasting, but honestly, there’s no real danger of that happening.  You will chug this beer, I promise.  Brew Free or Die is a very tasty, highly drinkable IPA that finishes nice and dry like a West Coast IPA should.  A little maltier than the typical offering, and almost bordering on the Pale Ale in terms of its lack of bracing bitterness, this is a very successful, deep, golden IPA with nice aromas of Pine and Citrus.  Very well balanced, not too sweet and not too bitter, another insanely drinkable win from 21st Amendment.  What will they do next?

Oskar Blues has already been well established as an excellent purveyor of canned goods, and should be considered one of the forefathers of TSOTC.  Their latest contribution, a very delicious canned Pilsner, pours a beautifully clear golden color, with a touch of sulphur and a good amount of hops on the nose.  A bit hoppier than most Pilsners, and hence a lot tastier to this here tongue, Mama’s Little Yella Pils is a fantastic Colorado take on an all-time beer classic. Very drinkable with no hot alcohols or yeast aromas, this Pilsner is pure drinkability, in the right kind of package for almost any situation.

With all of these offerings and a lot more coming down the pipeline, the bottle may very well be on its way out — so embrace the can, my friends, The Summer is upon us!

Filed in review by mrb | Comments (2)

Let’s All Move to Hawaii (Maui Brewing Co. Coconut Porter)

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

There’s a generally accepted adage that beautiful, warm places have shitty beer.  I can think of a few exceptions to this rule (San Diego, mostly) and I can also think of a few places that thoroughly confirm it (Puerto Rico, all of Portugal, most of Spain, etc.).  Hawaii, a place I’ve never been but have a thorough desire to check out, seems to also be an exception.  My brother and sister-in-law recently returned from an epic trip around the islands and brought me back not a flower necklace, a coconut monkey, or a dancing hula girl sculpture — they returned with gifts of beer.  Craft beer — in a can.

Maui Brewing Company has a nice reputation on the west coast for creating a nice variety of canned beer, the most famous of which is the Coconut Porter that I was lucky enough to get a 4 pack of.  Not having ever had any coconut beers, I didn’t know what to expect, and after reading about how the oils and proteins in coconut can be destructive to head retention and mouth feel, I was even more intrigued.  After killing two cans in about 30 minutes tonight, however, I’m ready to set all preconceived notions aside, and if you don’t hear from me for a few weeks, you might just assume I’m holing up in Maui swilling this stuff like it’s my job.

Coconut Porter pours a deep black with a large tan crackling head.  Immediately upon pouring the beer, chocolate, roast coffee, and coconut flavors pour out.  It’s interesting that this beer would be popular in someplace warm, but hey, craft beer drinkers are an adventurous bunch, and Coconut Porter finishes clean and dry enough to dismiss most people’s notions that “dark beer is heavy beer.”  The same elements that come through in the nose come through on the palate as well, a nice range of chocolates, bitter grains, and a light hint of coconut.  Perfect in body, sessionable in ABV at less than 6%, and therefore eminently drinkable, Coconut Porter combines the classic elements of a Porter with an ingenious use of indigenous ingredients that just makes me really fucking happy.  I’m glad I have two cans left, but I’m sure they won’t last long.  Thanks Aja and Bret!

Filed in review by mrb | Comments (3)

Brew Logs (Breuckelen Red)

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Getting into beer and homebrewing has allowed me to meet some pretty interesting people — homebrewers in particular are relatively strange folk for the most part.  Dedicated to their craft, they embody a lot of the principles and attitudes I admire in people in general, and I’ve seen evidence of excellent homebrewers who are also excellent welders, chefs, entrepeneurs, designers, gardeners, and…chemists.

An association with a certain chemist has allowed me to trade beers for yeast and bacterial cultures — that’s right, I trade beer for the goods to make beer, isolated in the basement of a DIY lab in suburban New Jersey.  Recently my connection put together a blend of yeasts and bacterias meant to emulate the Rodenbach brewery’s culture that produces their distinctive Flemish Red style of beer, and I decided I had to get my shit together and brew in that style right away.

Having recently acquired a bottle of Lost Abbey Red Poppy, also within the style, I decided it was fate — I always try to drink a beer in the style I’m brewing on brew day.  I grabbed some specialty grains, hit up the “local” home brew shop for flaked maize and oak chips, and made it happen.  I brewed completely outside for the first time as well, which was awesome.  I stacked some milk crates, ran the hose outside, and went for it.  I’m glad I did, as it forced me to hang out outside all day in the yard, and it was a very peaceful and fun experience.  Brew Day is getting shorter and shorter, and I now have the whole process pretty much totally memorized.  I’ll post the recipes and some pictures here, and will also post a review of the (3*IPA)/2 which has been drinking really nicely the past couple of days.

The beer is named after the original, Dutch name for Brooklyn.  I designed the recipe to include some of the base malt I have left over, and added a complex array of high quality crystal malts to compliment everything.  Flaked Maize is a traditional ingredient.

Recipe:

5# Maris Otter

6.5# Vienna

3# Crystal Malt Mix (some English, Belgian, and American, mix of high and low, some red for flavor)

1# Flaked Maize

Hopped to 20 or 25 IBUs with some pretty old Northern Brewer pellets.

Mashed for 75 minutes at 153 or so, boiled for 75 minutes. Chilled down and pitched the yeast vials at 70 degrees. Vigorous fermentation around 36 hours later, it’s really kicking.  The OG came in around 1.090.

After primary, I will rack to a corny keg and drop in some medium toast oak chips, and let it sit for about a year.

Filed in homebrew by mrb | Comments (1)