Last night the Brew Dogs all gathered at my house to dip into a heavy stash of beers that we received in traded from a friend in San Francisco. We sent along some representative East Coast beers that he doesn’t have access to, and in return got a big box of California Brews, including several selections from Russian River, Port Brewing’s Lost Abbey, and Lagunitas’ Sonoma Farmhouse, none of which are available in New York City. It was a great night overall — we lit the grill, made a bunch of food, and made sure to have some complimentary cheeses on hand. T-bone, Stinky and I are going to review the beers in question, and Ceeg is going to contribute some photos. I’m going to publish this as a work in progress, and file it when it’s all done. Our first event was a big success and we’re going to have some outside guests in soon too, so watch out for that.
Stinky, as our resident expert, chose the beers for the “flight,” and he had a lot of good stuff to choose from. The order ended up being as follows:
Here’s my recollections in the order I had them, followed by Stinky and Todd’s. Photos to come.
Lagunitas Sonoma Farmhouse Saison
This is a beer that I’ve actually had before, when I was recently on the West Coast earlier in the spring. Stinky told me to watch out for the Hop Stoopid, which was an amazing beer, and when I saw another entry in Lagunitas’ “Sonoma Farmhouse” series, I was very intrigued. In the bottle out there, it was cheap and attractive, but I was left disappointed. Especially in the massive lineups we were concocting out there, this beer didn’t stand out and was even bland. Perhaps trying this beer again in basically the same kind of company was a mistake, because the same thing happened. While this beer was pretty much a by-the-books Saison, as I didn’t immediately recognize, it doesn’t seem to make much sense to not even give this beer some kind of Hops characteristic or impart some small signature that we have come to know and love Lagunitas for. Basically, this bomber is an orthodox, nice Saison, that hits all of the right flavors on the nose but is disappointing overall — mild, thin, bland in color and not complex. That being said, this is a killer Summer beer that you could drink all day long, but it paled in comparison to some of the monsters we were grappling with.
Lost Abbey Avant Garde
Honey, honey, and more honey. I couldn’t get over the floral honey stench that poured out of this glass. It was the flower, the honey, and the bee all in one, so to speak. The bee is the sting in the spice, which came with the nose and lingered on the tongue. Anyway, this beer poured a beautiful color out of the corked and caged Lost Abbey bottle which is adorned with some of the most ridiculous copy I’ve ever seen on a beer bottle — but I loved it. This was a surprisingly complex and easy to drink Bière de Garde at 7% ABV and it really had everything you could ask for in an American version of a Belgian beer, a theme which dominated the night’s tastings, to my delight. Brews like this really get me going, when they which pour beautifully, feel great in the mouth, and have something expressive and interesting to say about a specific well-treaded style. Lost Abbey is a hell of a brewery and I’m very excited to get into the Port Brewing beers I have as well, and to know I have a relatively close source for both labels.
Russian River Brewing Company Beatification
If only I had the same kind of access to the Russian River beers as I do to the Lost Abbey. If even they were even a little further away. A four hour drive. A five hour drive. Each and every one of the Russian River beers had something to fucking say, and it was a hell of a thing to experience them all in a row. The Beatification of all had the most intense things to say, just extremely funky and flowery on the nose. When I popped it open it smelled like diapers or something, heavily stank cheese, I screamed, I passed it around, I got stoked. This was the overall champion of the night for me by a long shot. Beatification is a barrel aged and “spontaneously fermented” beer, brewed with wild yeast and then aged in barrels which have been used for both its original purpose and for making other beers that Russian River offers, meaning that it has a whole lot of life in the wood that contributes an insane amount of complex flavor to the beer. This beer has a list of the known yeast and bacteria strains present in the beer, which beyond being geeky is so insane that you can’t just love it if you’re interested in the science and alchemy of brewing. Poured beautifully from the mini-Champagne like bottle with a cork and cage and it really is like an intense spoiled semi-brute Champagne that could only come from Belgium, except that it’s from California. Infected, golden, attractive. Russian River makes the beers that are closest to those from the motherland, with the perfect amount of American screw-all attitude to boot. This is so much like a Gueuze that it’s hard to believe it’s not, and it’s in the same family as the Leelanau and Jolly Pumpkin beers which are so overtly “out there” that you can’t help but listen up. Highest, highest respect for this brew, heavy dog compliments.
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