Hop Press: Deschutes Brewery VIP Tour and Media Event

September 1st, 2010

Last week I was invited to a special VIP tour and media event over at Deschutes Brewery, and I wrote about it for my weekend Hop Press article. It was pretty cool, and there are a number of interesting tidbits I learned.

Green Lakes Organic Ale: The Brewery loves this beer, even though it’s more problematic to brew than other beers—due to it’s certified organic status. For instance, not only do the ingredients need to be certifiably organic (or at minimum in the case of hops, salmon safe), but they have to properly prep the equipment before brewing to remove the residue of previous (non-organic) batches—things like vacuuming out the grain conveyors.

Twilight Ale: The breakout summer seasonal—actually one of Deschutes’ most popular seasonals—the hop schedule for Twilight is most interesting. They want to get lots of hop flavor and aroma into the beer without making it bitter like an IPA (“clean” beers are what the Brewery strives for), so to get that with Twilight there is hardly any first-hopping (merely 4 pounds per 150 gallons), no second-hopping, and a ton of third hopping (finishing and aroma hops). And then more hops are added to the whirlpool (the stage where they’re separating hops from the wort).

More to read at the link.

The Little Woody: The beers

August 31st, 2010

The beer list for The Little Woody, Bend’s barrel-aged beer festival (more here), came out today, and it’s looking really good. There are actually two versions of the beer list: one on the official site, and another one released over on Bend Oregon Restaurants (it’s from the marketing copy that the organizing company sent out).

You can view those pages for more details on the style and making of the beers, but in the meantime I’ve compiled them all into an easy-to-read list just for you (all breweries are from Central Oregon except the two I noted from elsewhere):

• 10 Barrel Brewing
  • Dubbel Woody: 7.7%, Belgian Dubbel aged in cabernet barrels 8 months
  • Dry Hopped English Style IPA: 7.2%, aged in bourbon barrels 3 months
• Bend Brewing
  • Metolius Golden: 5.2%, aged in a pinot barrel 8 months
  • Sour Outback X: 9.5%, BBC’s Outback X aged and soured in a bourbon barrel
• Block 15 (from Corvallis)
  • Super Nebula: 11%, Imperial Stout aged in bourbon barrels
  • Wonka’s Wit: 5.5%, Belgian Wit (wheat) aged and soured in oak barrels for 7 to 14 months
• Boneyard Beer
  • Bourbon Barrel Black 13: aged in a bourbon barrel
  • Sour Girl: A soured version of their cherry wheat aged in a bourbon barrel
• Cascade Lakes Brewing
  • Imperial Stout: aged several months in Jim Beam oak bourbon barrels
  • Blonde Bombshell: 4% (not barrel aged?)
• Deschutes Brewery
  • Berliner Weisse: 5%, German-style sour wheat beer, aged in oak casks
  • Mirror Mirror: 11.5%, Barleywine aged in a variety of barrels and blended
• McMenamins Old St. Francis School
  • Barrel Head: 5.93%, their Hammerhead ale aged in a Hogshead whiskey barrel for 4+ months
  • Dark Ages Stout: aged in a Hogshead whiskey barrel 5 months
• Ninkasi Brewing (from Eugene)
  • Wood Aged Total Domination IPA: 6.7%, aged in pinot noir casks
  • Believer Double Red Ale: 6.9% (not barrel aged?)
• Silver Moon Brewing
  • Merlot Cask Amber: 4.4%, their Hounds Tooth Amber aged in a French merlot barrel for 6 months
  • Winter Moon Bourbon: 7.4%, their Winter Warmer aged in a bourbon barrel
  • “Also prepare for a surprise (or two) we may dig up from the depths of our cellar!”
• Three Creeks Brewing
  • Beechwood Blonde: 4%, their Knotty Blonde aged in beechwood
  • Woodcutter Barleywine: blended with their Firestorm Red and aged in a pinot noir barrel for 9 months
  • Patio’s Private Reserve: one barrel of this special beer will be served “sometime Saturday afternoon”

While the “big” beers are always popular, I can’t help but notice and be very curious about the lighter beers on this list: the Metolius Golden, Wonka’s Wit, Berliner Weisse, Merlot Cask Amber, and Beechwood Blonde. I’d classify these as must-trys, and in particular make for an easy-drinking start to your day.

Also note the prevalence of sour beers, four by my read of the descriptions (18% of the offerings). This is definitely a festival that’s going to appeal to the beer geeks.

The next Session is this week

August 30th, 2010

It’s a bit of a late announcement this time around, but remember The Session is coming up this Friday (September 3rd). Session #43 is being hosted by The Beer Babe, Carla Companion, and the topic is “Welcoming the New Kids.”

With the astounding growth of the number of craft breweries this year, chances are there’s a new one in development, or has just started out in your area. My challenge to you is to seek out a new brewery and think about ways in which they could be welcomed into the existing beer community. How does their beer compare to the craft beer scene in your area? Are they doing anything in a new/exciting way? What advice, as a beer consumer, would you give to these new breweries?

Take this opportunity to say hello to the new neighbors in your area. Maybe its a nanobrewery that came to a festival for the first time that you vowed to “check out” later. Maybe it’s a new local beer on a shelf on the corner store that you hadn’t seen before. Dig deeper and tell us a story about the “new kids on the block.” I look forward to welcoming them to the neighborhood!

Hopefully we’ll get a few more participants than in the last couple of months. I want to read about these new breweries!

Fruit Beer Week: Lost Coast Raspberry Brown

August 27th, 2010

The other fruit beer that Lost Coast Brewery makes (along with their Tangerine Wheat) is Raspberry Brown. This beer is a version of their flagship Downtown Brown infused with real raspberries; however, where Downtown Brown is 5% ABV, Raspberry Brown is 6.5%. I’m not sure the raspberries alone would account for an extra 1.5% of alcohol, but I suppose it’s possible.

Appearance: Brown with red highlights, a nice color; tan head that’s thick and generous.

Smell: Nice mellow raspberry aromas, like raspberry tea. Floral, sweet, and lightly malty. Raspberry scone.

Taste: Earthy berry bramble; like fresh-picked raspberries that are just shy of being fully ripe so there’s a touch of tart, and a dry note from the brown (chocolate) malts backing it up. Not really dessert-y, but the raspberries are a nice complement to the brown ale.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with a fulfilling presence that finishes simultaneously sweet, dry, and the lightest touch of tart.

Overall: Nicely done with a very nice presence; no one component is out of control (balanced well).

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 3.2 out of 5, and is in their 72nd overall percentile (92nd for the style).

Fruit Beer Week: Chapeau Banana Lambic (Re-review)

August 26th, 2010

The other day, in reviewing Wells Banana Bread Beer, I wrote: “I can’t say as I’ve had many banana beers (the only other one that comes immediately to mind is a homebrewed banana wheat years ago)”—and then I found my original review of Chapeau Banana Lambic from 2008.

It’s brewed by Belgian’s Brouwerij De Troch to 3.5% alcohol by volume.

Appearance: Pale yellow-orange—golden, almost—bubbly. White head was fizzy but didn’t last long.

Smell: Delicate notes of sweet banana, slightly clovey. There’s a musty, horsey tang of Brett yeast… very delicate.

Taste: Tart green apple thing going on with sweet, very ripe bananas playing the background. Crisp. Pretty tasty. I want to say “Jolly Rancher” but not in the annoying way that Lindemans Pomme is. Nice interplay of sweet and tart.

Mouthfeel: Light, but a tad puckery, leaves a bit of a cloying aftertaste behind, but very drinkable.

Overall: Yum! Unusual but I like it.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of C+. On RateBeer, it scores 2.38 out of 5, and is in their 15th overall percentile.

Fruit Beer Week: Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat

August 25th, 2010

Lost Coast Brewery down in Eureka, California, brews a couple of fruit beers, and Tangerine Wheat is (I think) the newer of the two. This a light, summery American wheat ale brewed “with natural flavor added.” I’m not exactly sure what “natural flavor” refers to, but if I didn’t know better I would guess that they added plenty of actual (possibly whole) fruit to this beer.

Tangerine Wheat makes for a nice light summer beer (especially on a hot day), and it’s perfectly sessionable at 5% ABV.

Appearance: Hazy golden color with white head that started smooth and got choppy.

Smell: Bright tangerine—citrusy and zesty like freshly-zested peel. Juicy with sweet fruit and a touch of bitter peel.

Taste: On the tongue there’s more of that bitter, pithy peel flavor than fruit itself. Light, sweet fruit comes out though at the back of the mouth and as it warms; nice orange/tangerine notes (though still has bitter peel overlaying those).

Mouthfeel: Light-bodied, effervescent and I want to say a touch oily as citrus peel can be. A bit dry in the finish, too.

Overall: Light and refreshing, a bit different as far as fruit goes—it’s like they use lots of peel (whole fruit maybe?) in the brewing.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B-. On RateBeer, it scores 2.94 out of 5 and is in their 44th overall percentile (74th for the style).

Fruit Beer Week: Great Divide Wild Raspberry Ale (Re-review)

August 25th, 2010

Great Divide Brewing, out of Denver, offers a Wild Raspberry Ale made with wild raspberries:

[A] unique, thirst-quenching ale fermented with real red and black raspberries. Its balance of malt and fruit flavors make it a beer lover’s fruit beer.

It’s offered year-round, which makes me curious how they handle seasonal variations in the berries. Or perhaps I’m over-thinking it—I have the image of hand-picking mountain berries in my head, but a brewery as big as Great Divide probably has the berries commercially provided.

I reviewed Wild Raspberry Ale back in 2006:

Appearance: Red… the color of dark red berry juice. No real head. Clear. The red is a bit brownish—a brick red. Adobe?

Smell: Raspberries—dark and sweet. Almost like a raspberry syrup. Nice.

Taste: Pale maltiness… very light. Berry character is likewise light. Fruity, not extraordinarily sweet. No bitterness though. Not as infused with berry as I would’ve thought from the aroma.

Mouthfeel: Very light and thin… very effervescent but not bubbly (does that make sense?). This makes it seem lighter than it is.

Wild Raspberry Ale is 5.6% alcohol by volume.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 2.94 out of 5, and is in their 43rd overall percentile (though 73rd for the style).

Fruit Beer Week: Melbourn Brothers Strawberry (Re-review)

August 24th, 2010

Melbourn Brothers beers hail from England and they offer three varieties of fruit beers, all spontaneously fermented—which technically qualifies them as Lambics. (Though I believe the fruit is added post-fermentation in the form of concentrate or syrup.) Back in 2006 I reviewed their Strawberry beer, and this is what I had to say about it:

Appearance: Poured into a Pilsner glass, it resembles a slightly dark rose champagne, pink and orange. Faint pink head, very thick and creamy.

Smell: Strawberries! Very sweet. Champagne again, hardly any beer character.

Taste: Strawberry sweet and a bit tart, a nice combination. Similar to Lindemans Framboise. A hint of malt in the background, but no hops.

Mouthfeel: Sparkly, on the thin side, thinner than a lambic, more like (you guessed it) champagne. Seems appropriate.

This is actually quite a fruity “non-beer” beer, one that people who ordinarily don’t like beer (like my wife) will enjoy. The beers (the other two are Apricot and Cherry) are imported by Merchant du Vin, so you should be able to find it easily enough at a good beer outlet (at least, on the West Coast, I think). Plus, it’s a very easy-drinking session beer with only 3.4% alcohol by volume.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 3.32 out of 5, and is in their 84th overall percentile.

Fruit Beer Week: Wells Banana Bread Beer

August 23rd, 2010

I can’t say as I’ve had many banana beers (the only other one that comes immediately to mind is a homebrewed banana wheat years ago), so Wells Banana Bread Beer stands out in that regard. As it happens, I’d been hearing for a while how this beer actually smells exactly like banana bread, but I’ve never been able to find it in Central Oregon; however, I did find a bottle on our spring break Lake Tahoe trip and couldn’t resist picking it up.

(Yes, I’ve been sitting on this review since March.)

Wells Banana Bread Beer is a 5.2% ABV ale brewed (according to the label) “with bananas and banana flavor added.” According to the web the bananas themselves are Fair Trade bananas, so that’s a good thing.

Appearance: Clear brown-copper with a bit of an off-white head. Bright and effervescent.

Smell: Definite aroma of ripe bananas, bready and sweet. I don’t know if it’s exactly like banana bread, but I am enjoying the banana. A little brown sugar and that’s about all.

Taste: Nice banana notes in the flavor too; the malt behind is a touch sharp and roasty with some earthy bitter hops. A touch zingy—label mentions “peppery spice” of hops. Bready, sweet, interesting.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with a bit of a bit (from the effervescent body).

Overall: Lots of banana character here, interesting and tasty though I’m not sure I’d make it a regular.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B-. On RateBeer, it scores 2.91 out of 5, and is in their 42nd overall percentile.

Fruit Beer Week

August 23rd, 2010

I’m a bit behind on Theme Week this month (August has been busy!) but I’ve been wanting to do a Fruit Beer Week for a while now (it makes for a good summertime topic), so I’ve decided to mix it up a bit this week: I have some new reviews to offer, and I’ll be re-running some older reviews of fruit beers—perhaps even ones you might not have seen.

Fruit beers are an interesting topic among beer geeks; in a way they’re kind of the bastard stepchildren of “real” beers (considering something like the BeerAdvocate Top 100 only has three fruit beers represented) but when one is done right, it can be really right.

Hopefully we’ll stumble across a few of those this week.

Received: Jubelale

August 20th, 2010

Last year I received three bottles of Jubelale on August 31st and noted that it seemed awfully early for the Deschutes Christmas beer to be out.

This year I’ve received the Jubelale even earlier:

I’ll wait to open a bottle.

This year’s label features something new:

This year, Oregon artist Natasha Bacca’s unique “creation of light” adorns the label. Bacca works in complete darkness, using beams of light with a tool she invented. By manipulating the color and the intensity of the light onto light sensitive paper, she literally paints with light. This is the first non-traditional, photo-based art medium used for the Jubelale label.

I do find the label rather striking.

Received: 33 Beers

August 19th, 2010

No, I didn’t receive 33 literal beers (I wish!), but rather the beer sketchbooks 33 Bottles of Beer. Portland beer blogger and journal entrepreneur Dave Seldon of The Champagne of Blogs is the man behind the booklets, and it’s a clever and well-executed idea (one I wish I’d had). The premise is, these are pocket-sized beer journals ideally suited to note-taking during events like beer festivals where it’s not very convenient to lug around a larger notebook:

This beer journal is designed for ease of use. It’s tough to hold a notepad in one hand, a pencil in the other, and have another hand left for beer. Taking notes with 33 Beers is as simple as checking a few boxes and entering a few basic facts.

Each page contains the necessary note-taking space for a single beer: name, brewers, price, rating, 5 lines of notes, and the facts about the beer (IBUs, ABV, OG and FG). The most unique aspect, though, is the flavor wheel on each page which gives you a visual “image” of the flavor and body characteristics of the beer, with values like dark fruit, hoppy, malty, toffee, sour, and more. You rate each characteristic on a scale of 1 to 5 on the wheel, then connect the dots. I’m really curious as to how well these “images” of beer flavor work across like styles—for example, would you be able to tell the style or type of beer by the flavor wheel image you see?

Each booklet is 32 pages long—32 pages plus the inside back cover give you 33 reviews per sketchbook, a nice maximizing of space. And here’s something else to like, too:

33 Beers is made with 100% recycled papers sourced in the Pacific Northwest. Interior pages are 100% post-consumer recycled content and covers are 85% post-consumer recycled content and 15% recycled content. The booklets are printed using US-grown soy-based inks in sunny Portland, Oregon.

The booklets sell for $4 each or $10 for a pack of three. I received my three as review copies, but I think that’s a good deal from what I’ve seen so far.

I’ll be trying it out this weekend at the Bend Brewfest, and let you know how it worked out for me.

Bend’s two beer festivals

August 17th, 2010

The two big beer festivals for Bend are just around the corner, and are nearly back-to-back: the Bend Brewfest is coming up this weekend, and The Little Woody is two weeks after that, on Labor Day weekend. Interesting how that worked out on timing; a little closer together and we almost could have had a Bend Beer Week.

The Bend Brewfest takes place Friday the 20th and Saturday the 21st, from 4 until 11pm and noon to 11pm respectively. It takes place at the Les Schwab Amphitheater in Bend’s Old Mill District. Admission is free but—as usual—the purchase of a souvenir tasting mug is required to drink beer, and tasting tickets (or tokens, I’m not sure which they’re using) are $1 each. (No mention of the mug price on the site that I can find.)

In addition to a pretty impressive brewery lineup (including all eight Central Oregon breweries) with some 67 beers, there will also be wine from Volcano Vineyards (one of Bend’s local wineries) and hard cider from Crispin Cider Company. There will be food vendors on hand, and children will be allowed up until 7pm (though parents will be required to sign a pledge “acknowledging the responsibility of preventing children from consuming alcohol and the penalties for the parent and child”—an OLCC holdover from last year’s cancellation).

There will supposedly be “activities and music” but that page on the site still says “info coming soon.”

The site for The Little Woody, on the other hand, lists just about everything except exactly what beers and food are going to be served up. This year’s Little Woody still takes place on the lawn of the Deschutes Historical Society, and it has expanded: in addition to Central Oregon’s local brewers (plus newest Boneyard Beer), Eugene’s Ninkasi and Corvallis’ Block 15 will also be represented. Plus, there will be a bourbon tasting: six tastings of five bourbons (not sure how that works) for $30.

It takes place Friday, September 3rd and Saturday, September 4th, from 5 until 10pm and noon until 10pm, respectively. Admission is $6 and includes the commemorative glass; tasters should be $1 (like last year), but I’m not finding that specific fact on the site.

The event details page lists the live music schedule for the two days, as well as the bourbon offerings. I have an email out to the organizers to see if I can get a beer list (and food list), which I’ll post if I get.

Update: I forgot to mention that The Little Woody is not kid friendly, it’s a 21 and over event only. And besides the beer and bourbon, there will also be cocktails from Bendistillery, wine, and soft drinks.

Hop Press: Batch sparge grain bill calculator

August 14th, 2010

Over on Hop Press today, I have an article that is pointing back to this site: I’ve developed an online (Javascript) version of the batch sparge calculations that John Palmer outlines in How to Brew. The actual calculator is here.

Last week’s Hop Press article has a bit more backstory.

Bashah

August 12th, 2010

Last year, Stone Brewing teamed up with Scotland’s BrewDog to brew up a collaboration beer, and Bashah was the result: a “Black Belgian Double IPA” (how’s that for a style designation?) that weighs in at 8.6% alcohol by volume.

(Yes, this was last year’s beer—this is a review from February I hadn’t posted yet, though I’ve still seen Bashah on the shelves, so if you have a decent bottleshop nearby there’s a chance you can still find it.)

You might be thinking “Black IPA,” and that’s more-or-less what I thought when I picked it up. What I found instead was a much more Belgian-influenced character without being overpowering.

Appearance: Black pour without much carbonation at first except a light brown head that built up gradually. Deep ruby when held to the light.

Smell: Roasted malts with a bit of earthy hops but with a chocolate “funk” that strikes me as Belgian and reminds me of earthy mushroom at the same time.

Taste: Definitely hoppy but also spicy up front—peppercorns and radish greens in the mix. Roasted malts and bitter cocoa powder with a bit of sweetness like… honeycomb? Raw honey maybe. Hops again follow up with a minty “green” bitter-spice.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with a lightness on the tongue, finishing the sweetish body with a roasty dryness.

Overall: Unusual and tasty, not the assault on the tastebuds I’d feared. Nor (for me) nearly as bitter as expected. Nice, interesting mix of flavors happening.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.66 out of 5 and is in their 97th overall percentile.