My wife doesn’t drink beer. This isn’t such a terrible thing — she still happily carts my fat ass to beer events, indulges my friends and I when we babble on about brewing minutiae, and does a bunch of other stuff for me that makes her a saint in my eyes. The thing about it that makes it hard is that up until recently, purchasing a growler of beer was a huge committment for me. I knew going in to any 64oz jug of beer that I purchased that I would be responsible for finishing the whole thing — which isn’t always an issue, but when a high test brew is on tap at Bierkraft and I want a jug, I sometimes have to think twice. Until recently, that is. Bierkraft started filling select beers of theirs in 22oz counter-pressure filled bombers, which makes it very easy for a compulsive beer sampler like myself to get into some brews that otherwise would destroy my brain if I consumed all 64 ounces.
Two recent excellent offerings there included a new beer from local favorites Sixpoint, and a small run beer from recent New York implant The Bruery.
Sixpoint’s Express is a Quadruple – another example of a Belgian “Trappist” style that is difficult to nail down but should contain a few benchmark traits in order to be considered part of the style. Typically very high in alcohol (check, this clocks in at 11% + ABV), dark reddish brown in color (this is a bit paler) and exhibiting the darker dried fruit range of flavors and aromas, some examples of the Quad style are so difficult to track down that it’s hardly fair to discuss all of them here. But of course Sixpoint shrugs off most of these things and makes a beer that is all their own. A deep, deep brew, this exhibits a good amount of dryness which is key to making such a heady beer easy to digest, and with a very small amount of residual sweetness, it does a great job. I’ve heard other people talking about how well hidden the booze is in this beer and I’d have to agree — it’s hard to know, aside from how your vision is blurring and doubing, that this beer contains as much alcohol as a glass of wine, and I’m sure happy that I didn’t spring for 64oz of this — it would cause me quite a lot of trouble. Pouring a beautiful but paler color than most quads, Express has a deep nose of chocolate, caramel, and raisins, with a hint of something lighter — a decent amount of hop aroma, a great amount of balance, and a nice full body that finishes dry. Balance, balance, balance. Sixpoint does it again. I love you guys!
The Bruery recently landed with quite a loud impact in the NYC area — every beer nerd I know has had the brewery’s name on their lips, and with good reason. Humulus Blonde is one of their latest brews to hit this coast, and it is a hell of a beer. Pouring a golden color, clear and bubbly, Humulus Blonde has so much god damned citrus hops on the nose that you can actually trick yourself into thinking you’re about to take a big swing of a Grapefruit Spritzer. A good amount of bitterness is countered with a nice malty backbone and a great amount of hop flavor. There’s a good amount of Belgian Yeast on the nose too — pretty much everything you could hope for from a “Belgian IPA” and more of a standout to me than the other West Coast renderings of the same style. Just beautiful all around, Patrick seems incapable of failing. I need to get out there immediately to check out the brewery and it’s tasting room which is famous for hosting great events and supporting the local homebrewing communities.
So thank you, Bierkraft, for giving a guy a break — keep those bombers flowing!
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