Category : Reviews
Pyramid (Spring) Fling Pale Ale
March 1st, 2010
Ah, Pyramid. Between owning MacTarnahan’s, being owned by Magic Hat, contract brewing at several locations, it’s tough to know what’s what with them. I still remember the Pyramid of the ’90s and early ’00s, with their Apricot Ale and Snow Cap in particular as strong, leading beers, so I’ve been a bit confused over the various branding changes they’ve undergone over the past few years—if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and I never thought their old identity or branding was broke.
But that certainly shouldn’t stop me from enjoying the fruits of their latest efforts, their Spring seasonal, Fling Pale Ale. This is one of the three types they sent me just over a week ago, and the one I have yet to have tried (I’ve been drinking and reviewing the other two over the years).
Fling is an American Pale Ale at 5.2% alcohol by volume; it’s moderately hopped (36 IBUs) according to their site, though brewed with three different hops.
Appearance: Pale gold in color, clear. Bubbly—lots of beading—but a minimal pale tan head on top.
Smell: Fresh and floral, green grassy hops. Bright. Toasty-sweet malts, raw bread dough. Nice!
Taste: Surprising rush of bitter hops up front, not what I expected from the fresh floral notes. Clean bitterness, resiny and earthy, kind of a dandelion bitterness. A bit of cracked wheat in the malts, otherwise relatively mild.
Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with a crisp finish.
Overall: A nice fresh pale ale with big hops—well-played for the Northwest crowd. Otherwise I’d call it a fairly standard pale ale.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B-. On RateBeer, it scores 3.08 out of 5, and is in their 46th percentile.
Big Beer Week: Noël Des Géants
February 26th, 2010
I suppose you can’t talk “Big Beers” without mentioning (at least in passing!) Belgium. In this case, it’s a Christmas beer: Noël Des Géants from Brasserie Des Géants in Wallonia, the French speaking half of Belgium; I picked it up shortly after Christmas without knowing much about it (but it was a good price).
It’s not just a big Belgian beer in terms of alcohol however (8.5% by volume); “géants” in French literally means “giants” and the town of Irchonwelz in which the brewery is found has an annual “giants march.” I’m not sure what such a spectacle would look like but it sounds like one of those things that should go on the list to see someday.
Appearance: Nut-brown and cloudy, with a rocky, impressive tan head.
Smell: Rich and sugary with only the barest hint of fruit. A touch of flossy cotton candy and maybe bubblegum; caramel malts and brown sugar.
Taste: Spun sugar in the mouth, makes me think “sugarplums.” It’s toffee-rich caramel and a hint of smoky malt; a rummy note hinting at its strength. A little more alcohol heat at the back of the mouth. Very rich but holding “Belgium” in check.
Mouthfeel: Chewy and sharp—bright effervescence and some alcoholic astringency on the tongue.
Overall: Sweet, rich, cloying, yet a bit restrained. Decadent and tasty.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.4 out of 5 and is in their 80th percentile.
Big Beer Week: Widmer 84/09 Double Alt
February 25th, 2010Widmer’s 84/09 Double Alt was actually a beer that showed up last summer to celebrate their 25th anniversary—but I missed it the first time around somehow. Fortunately the Brew Shop here in Bend still has a few bottles, so I snapped one up.
84/09 is basically a double-strength version of their famous and pub-only Altbier, the first beer they brewed and what was notorious, in the early days, for being the “only true Alt” brewed outside of Dusseldorf, Germany (at least, according to some aficionados). It’s 9.8% alcohol by volume and if you can still find a bottle or two I’d say grab them.
Appearance: Mahogany brown with red highlights when held up to the light. Woody putty head.
Smell: Old Ale notes, malty and alcoholic, spicy phenolic notes. Leather and molasses and a bit roasty.
Taste: Spicy and malty, tobacco, nutty and hoppy with spiced earthy notes. A touch hot with alcohol but with a nice sipping character.
Mouthfeel: Full-ish bodied with a dry finish and a bit of heat.
Overall: Warming, tasty, like a spicy, leathery Old Ale. A little different but nice.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 3.18 out of 5 and is in their 60th percentile.
Big Beer Week: Ten Fidy Imperial Stout
February 24th, 2010Imperial Stout is one of those styles you would never expect to see come from a can, yet Oskar Blues Brewing is doing just that with their Ten Fidy, a burly motor oil of a stout that’s 10.5% alcohol.
Oskar Blues is of course most famous for being the first all-canning microbrewer, producing big bold beers that turn the general notion of canned beer (that of being weak industrial brew) on its ear. Ten Fidy takes that a step further, putting a huge and delicious beer like an Imperial Stout into a can (and one with a rather innocuous but great design)—rue the unsuspecting person that grabs and chugs this by mistake. It may well be the only canned Imperial Stout out there.
Appearance: Pours thick and oily from the can, very little carbonation though a chocolate-brown head builds up a bit after the pour. Dark brown/black and thick.
Smell: Sweet coffee, rich and syrupy like molasses. Doesn’t really move beyond “thick and sweet” in the nose.
Taste: It’s very sweet in the mouth too, dark chocolate that’s liberally sweetened with coffee liqueur. The alcohol is hidden well, dangerously so. Roasted malts (more coffee-ish) without being astringent or too bitter.
Mouthfeel: Thick and syrupy, a creamy full-bodied presence.
Overall: Decadent chocolate-y sweet, very nice. It’s sweeter than I’d expect, but that doesn’t hurt a bit.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of A. On RateBeer, it scores 4.09 out of 5 and is in their 100th percentile.
Big Beer Week: Stone/Maui/Schmidt Kona Coffee Macadamia Coconut Porter
February 24th, 2010You almost can’t think “Big Beer” anymore without Stone Brewing coming up somehow. Most of their beers would easily qualify for a Big Beer Week review, so how do you go bigger? Select one of their collaboration beers, of course! These are “big” not only in a strength and style sense, but also in ambition and creativity.
Hence, the collaboration between Stone, Maui Brewing, and homebrewer Ken Schmidt to produce Kona Coffee Macadamia Coconut Porter, a monster of a beer at 8.5% that just oozes “Hawaii.” It’s probably a first in commercial brewing; coffee beers are common, and coconut has been used by several breweries (Maui of course being the most prominent), but I don’t know about macadamia nuts—and all three together? Yeah.
Interestingly, unlike a lot of big beers coming out these days, this is only available in 12-ounce bottles (rather than the 22-ounce bombers everyone seems to be using). That makes for a nice serving size but the price is steeper than what you might be used to: $8-9 for the 12-ounce. It’s worth it, though.
Appearance: Coffee-black with barest ruby hints at the light. Light cocoa-colored head is creamy and fine.
Smell: Rich coffee and dark chocolate with hints of coconut; roasty-sweet without being burnt.
Taste: First impression is a sweet, thick dark chocolate syrup and coffee—dark mocha. There’s a buttery, nutty essence and the coconut comes out lightly in the back. It’s like Death by Chocolate Cake times 2. Absolute dessert in a glass.
Mouthfeel: Syrupy and thick with a touch of dry from the roasted malts giving way to sticky sweet layers on the tongue.
Overall: Pretty amazing.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of A-. On RateBeer, it scores 3.91 out of 5 and is in their 98th percentile.
Big Beer Week: Deschutes Jubel 2010
February 23rd, 2010Though every year Deschutes Brewery brews a draft-only version of their Super Jubel—a double-strength Jubelale—only twice have they bottled this beer: once in 2000, and now again in 2010. (Respectively known as Jubel 2000 and Jubel 2010.) This time around this Jubel 2010 “Once a Decade Ale” is bottled in 22-ounce bombers and wax-dipped as part of Deschutes’ Reserve Series of beers. And (you’ll recall) that the Brewery sent me a bottle.
It’s 10% alcohol by volume, and is aged in Oregon pinot oak barrels (or at least, part of it is). The Brewery calls it a “deeply dynamic presentation of the flavors found in… Jubelale” which is a bit marketing-ese but also gives license to say “like Jubelale, but different!”
Appearance: Very dark red-brown; you can just see ruby when held to the light. Finely-bubbled half-finger of tan foam.
Smell: Sweet and boozy, reminds me of a Barleywine with molasses and dark fruit. Brown sugar? Cloyingly roasty.
Taste: Sweet, almost syrupy on the tongue, and it hides the 10% well. What I’m getting are various layers of sugar—caramelized, beet sugar, molasses, licorice, burnt sugars, toffee, and more. I’m actually envisioning cooking white table-sugar in cast iron until it caramelizes. Something strikes me as “Belgian” in a way, too; perhaps hints of candi sugar or even star anise in the licorice?
Mouthfeel: Full and thick and sticky. Leaves a very pleasant sweet aftertaste.
Overall: A winner, fun to drink but one you shouldn’t take lightly. However, I think it’s a bit over-balanced towards the sweet and while “fun to drink,” this is the first Deschutes Reserve Series beer that I would rather have in a 12-ounce bottle—or split the 22-ounce among a friend or two; it’s almost too cloying for me to drink by myself. I’d really like to put this away for a year or more to see how it ages (which I plan to do).
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of A. On RateBeer, it scores 4.06 out of 5 and is in their 94th percentile.
Big Beer Week: Anchor Old Foghorn
February 22nd, 2010Let’s start off our Big Beer Week reviews with a classic: Anchor Old Foghorn, the venerable Barleywine from one of America’s oldest craft breweries. Barleywine is one of my favorite styles of beer, and Anchor has been producing their Old Foghorn since 1975—I wrote “classic” above, and to my mind this beer sits in the pantheon of American Barleywines.
The current bottling has a strength of 9.4% alcohol by volume (their site gives a range of 8-10%, which makes me think it possibly varies by batch—or year). Here’s Anchor’s description:
Old Foghorn is highly hopped, using only Cascade hops. It is fermented with a true top-fermenting ale yeast. Carbonation is produced by an entirely natural process called “bunging,” which produces champagne-like bubbles. Our “barleywine ale” is dry-hopped with additional Cascade hops while it ages in our cellars.
Appearance: Hammered copper in color that’s deep red when held to the light. Nice tan head that broke down to lacy rings.
Smell: Rich and aromatic, nicely fruity when I first opened it; sweet brandy character after that. Toffee, vanilla, maple, leather, lightly peppery.
Taste: Smoky wood and a touch of cherries; honey-caramel sweet and has that luscious brandy alcohol heat and sipping character. A bit cloying, a bit plummy, a touch of leather and perhaps star anise.
Mouthfeel: Think and syrupy and slightly sticky; eminently satisfying on the tongue.
Overall: Superb—balanced, mature, perfectly sippable, simply one of the best Barleywines out there.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.85 out of 5 and is in their 98th percentile.
Cream Ale Week: Terrapin Golden Ale
January 29th, 2010
Even though they call it “Golden Ale,” Terrapin Beer’s Golden Ale does in fact fit the Cream Ale style bill—and the ratings sites both classify it as such. Intrigued, I contacted Terrapin to find out if they would provide a sample for review; they generously sent two bottles to me. (They in fact arrived just this week—in the nick of time!)
Terrapin is based in Atlanta Athens, Georgia (updated—see comments, and you’d think I’d do my homework more diligently), and this may well be my first Georgia craft beer. So far it’s a nice introduction.
The spec sheet they included with the package indicates an alcohol content of 5.3% by volume (the website says 5%), and has an interesting grain bill: 2-Row Pale, Munich, Vienna, Malted Wheat, Flaked Barley. (The site indicates Carapils as well, but it’s not on the sheet.) The wheat is what caught my eye; it’s not a component of Cream Ales I’ve seen much in commercial beers (though I’ve used in it my own recipe), though it would help to lighten the body and aid head retention.
Appearance: Hazy honey-gold in color with one finger of ivory head.
Smell: Nice malty nose, toasty and a touch floral. A mild fruitiness as well… mango or something tropical?
Taste: It’s got a tart bite punctuated by a wheaty bread crust flavor and a touch of green apple. Tart enough to be dry but not off-putting—a nice thirst-quenching quality to it.
Mouthfeel: Light, slightly puckery, effervescent with a tart, dry finish.
Overall: Definitely grabs you, in a good way—lots of character for a light beer.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B-. On RateBeer, it scores 2.75 out of 5, and is in their 24th percentile.
Cream Ale Week: New Glarus Spotted Cow
January 29th, 2010The most-rated beer for the Cream Ale category on both BeerAdvocate and RateBeer comes from Wisconsin, specifically the town of New Glarus: Spotted Cow, from (fittingly enough) New Glarus Brewing. As it happens, it may also be Wisconsin’s best-known beer—it’s certainly the flagship beer for the brewery.
At 4.8% alcohol by volume it’s a true session ale. Here’s their description:
Cask conditioned ale has been the popular choice among brews since long before prohibition. We continue this pioneer spirit with our Wisconsin farmhouse ale. Brewed with flaked barley and the finest Wisconsin malts. We even give a nod to our farmers with a little hint of corn.
Naturally cloudy we allow the yeast to remain in the bottle to enhance fullness of flavors, which cannot be duplicated otherwise.
Normally only available in Wisconsin, I was able to acquire some just to be able to review it for Cream Ale Week.
Appearance: Golden yellow with a bit of haze; two fingers of fine white head.
Smell: Crisp wheat and a touch of sweet corn. Bread yeast, slightly grassy.
Taste: French bread crust, wheat and a bit of sweet green grass. Fairly clean and crisp, tiny notes of hops and a little mineral-y.
Mouthfeel: Light and crisp with a pleasing mineral-sweetish afterbite.
Overall: I think this is pretty prototypical of the Cream Ale style, light and sweet and grassy but very clean. It would be a good go-to session beer and I can see how it’s a big seller.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 3.03 out of 5 and is in their 49th percentile.
Cream Ale Week: Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema
January 28th, 2010It would be hard to talk about Cream Ales on the West Coast and not mention Anderson Valley’s Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema. It’s a Cream Ale that actually achieves a creamy flavor (and aroma)—though it’s through the addition of a mystery spice. So it’s sort of a hybrid of a hybrid style…
No matter—this is still one very tasty beer that I find enjoyable to drink.
It’s 5.6% alcohol by volume and only 4 IBUs (according to Anderson Valley’s website).
Appearance: Substantially darker than the other cream ales—amber honey-colored. Generous off-white head.
Smell: Spiciness that’s a bit coriander and a bit… nutmeg? Has kind of a creamy aroma that makes me think so. Clean malty notes.
Taste: Real nice creamy-spice character that’s nutmeg-y and something else I can’t identify (cardamom?). Mild hops and tasty honey malts move into a nice toasty-biscuit aftertaste.
Mouthfeel: Light-to-medium-bodied with a tangy-spicy bite on the tongue.
Overall: Tasty and rich; I’d like to know what spice(s) they incorporate and what gives it the creamy flavors. A little heavy for a traditional Cream Ale but very enjoyable.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 3.1 out of 5 and is in their 55th percentile.
Cream Ale Week: Laughing Dog Cream Ale
January 27th, 2010Laughing Dog Brewing is one of those Pacific Northwest microbreweries you may or may not have heard of; located in the Idaho panhandle (way up north) in the town of Ponderay, the brewery has been making something of a splash in the PNW for their Alpha Dog Imperial IPA. This week, however, I’m interested in their Laughing Dog Cream Ale.
Here’s their process:
Laughing Dog Brewing’s Cream Ale is a traditional cream ale fermented with both ale and lager yeast, this gives us the creamy smoothness of an ale with a nice dry crisp finish.
We start with premium American grown 2 row pale malted barley, add a touch of German pils malt then Australian malt for color and flavor. Finally only choice Northwest grown Hops are added. After carefully fermenting for 2 weeks, we quickly chill the beer and filter.
It’s all-malt, and they don’t mention what variety of hops or yeast is used. No mention of alcohol content either, but around 5% by volume is probably a good guess.
Appearance: Pale, bright yellow and very clear—very lively with a huge head of beaten egg white building up, thick and rocky.
Smell: Grainy with a bit of wheat, light with a fruity note. A touch of earthy hops.
Taste: Earthy and fruity at first, brings to mind a green apple or a not-quite-ripe apricot, maybe. Nice depth of character, curious as to the hops (and the yeast) used… a bit of a bite. I keep coming back to “earthy”.
Mouthfeel: Light and crisp and just a hint puckery.
Overall: Crisp, light, gassy, and it reminds me of a homebrewed apricot ale I made way back when (in the mid-90s)—it has the same kind of earthy apricot character that I remember from that.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B-. On RateBeer, it scores 3.26 out of 5 and is in their 69th percentile.
Cream Ale Week: Kiwanda Cream Ale
January 25th, 2010The first Cream Ale I picked up to review this week is an award-winning beer from (big surprise) Oregon: Pelican Pub & Brewery’s Kiwanda Cream Ale. Pelican is one of the top brewers in Oregon right now, and it’s not much of a stretch to say Kiwanda Cream Ale is one of the best around for the style; it has won a number of medals at the Great American Beer Festival and Draft Magazine even named it one of their 25 best beers of 2008.
What’s amazing is how simple the recipe is (from Pelican’s site):
- Two-row malt
- Carapils malt
- Flaked barley
- Mt. Hood hops
Plus yeast and water and that’s it. But once you have a pint in front of you it’s obvious why it’s a top-rated Cream Ale.
It’s 5.1% alcohol by volume, just a tad over session strength (for certain values of “session”), and very easy drinking.
Appearance: Clear and golden yellow with thick fluffy white head. Effervescent beading of tiny bubbles off the bottom.
Smell: Mellow floral hop aromas, a touch citrus and fruity. Clean malty notes follow and a touch of raw wheat.
Taste: Flavorful and toasty—more than meets the eye! It’s got a luscious malt-forward blend of biscuit and granola and toasted wheat, and there’s a light but noticeable spicy hop presence backing it.
Mouthfeel: Clean with—yes—a creamy feel to it in the mouth, more medium-bodied than the eye would suggest.
Overall: Excellent and satisfying. Eminently drinkable and flavorful enough that you just want to keep drinking. A standard?
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.11 out of 5 and is in their 54th percentile.
Hop Henge (2010)
January 21st, 2010
Tonight I opened up the bottle of Hop Henge that Deschutes sent me a week and a half ago; it’s been staring at me in the fridge as I’ve been contemplating it.
To my mind, Hop Henge is one of the best Imperial (or Double, or maybe to best use Deschutes’ own term, Experimental) IPAs out there: it’s intensely hoppy but not at the expense of the rest of the beer, and it’s not in-your-face with it’s alcohol content, either (8.75% worth). Each year they play around with the formulation a bit—as I understand it, it has as much to do with their processing of the hops (which is indeed “experimental” in nature) as it is with tweaking the recipe.
Hop Henge has been brewed annually beginning in 2006; for fun you might want to go back and read my 2006 review, 2008 review (I somehow missed 2007), and last year’s batch comparison review.
Appearance: Shiny-penny copper with a beige froth of head. Very nice lacing as the drinking progresses.
Smell: Signature Deschutes hopping (of late); green and resiny and a touch of citrus and a touch catty. Brightly and deeply hoppy with a hint of caramel.
Taste: Big and hoppy, full of juicy, fruity bitterness that’s lip-smacking and sticky. Caramel sweetness that reminds me of brown sugar but also the flossy-sugar note of alcohol, a touch cloying. Hop juice. Very tasty and mouth-watering.
Mouthfeel: Full and sticky with a coating, bitter aftertaste.
Overall: Very yummy and deliciously hoppy and really appetizing; perhaps more balanced than what I remember from last year.
(Though interestingly, I still have some Batch #1 bottles from last year that I should open for a mini-vertical, and test whether that’s true.)
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an impressive A-. On RateBeer, it scores an equally impressive 3.87 out of 5 and is in their 98th percentile.
Very Noddy Lager
January 15th, 2010
The final of the four beers that Buckbean Brewing sent to me is their Very Noddy—or more properly, “Doug’s Very Noddy 40th Birthday Lager.”
Ostensibly they are calling this an “Imperial Schwarzbier”—10.5% alcohol and it’s basically a doubled-up version of their Black Noddy:
Brewed specially for owner Doug Booth’s 40th birthday, this Imperial Schwarzbier has twice the malt and hops of our Black Noddy Lager, creating a deep black color, rich, nutty malt flavors and a smooth hop bite. A symphony of balanced intensity!
Unless we see more of this showing up, I think it’s safe to say the Very Noddy is a “reserve” type beer with a limited run. I notice a number of bloggers have received and reviewed it, but there’s not much more about it online.
Appearance: Very black, red at the edges when held to the light, with a substantial head of tan foam.
Smell: Dark but clean; roasted notes and a whiff of dark chocolate.
Taste: Very similar to Black Noddy with a thicker presence of dark chocolate and a touch of alcohol burn. More sweetness to it. Creamy notes, cocoa powder.
Mouthfeel: Medium-full bodied, still relatively light, and finishes fairly clean—a bit lip-sticky and sweet.
Overall: Very tasty, different—they’ve pumped up the Schwarzbier to strength, but is there much difference with a Baltic Porter?
This beer is limited enough that it’s not on BeerAdvocate yet. And RateBeer only has 8 reviews, scoring 3.22 out of 5 but not enough for a percentile.
Black Noddy Lager
January 14th, 2010
Black Noddy is a Schwarzbier from Buckbean Brewing in Reno, Nevada, one of the four that they sent me. Buckbean, as you’ll recall, is one of the few (but growing number of) craft brewers who can their beers.
Black Noddy is 5.2% alcohol by volume and is easy-drinking like a Schwarzbier should be. Here’s their description:
This is a traditional Bavarian Schwarzbier style with a deep color and a smooth rich flavor. Specially roasted malts give the black color and mild roastiness to this beer while Munich, Caramel, and Honey malts add depth and character to the malt flavor. Moderately hopped with noble aroma varieties to achieve a perfect balance and a clean finish this beer is a perfect complement to smoked, grilled, and roasted foods, flavorful meats and cheeses or chocolate desserts.
Appearance: Black color with red-brown tints when held to the light. Fairly flat pour, there’s a brown touch of foam that doesn’t last.
Smell: Pretty clean nose with a touch of floral hops and chocolate.
Taste: Roasted malts that are dry but not burnt or astringent; nice bit of charred wood builds after in the back of the mouth. Clean and crisp. There are some hops—a touch herbal—but really a clean lager profile. Smoky notes comes out as it warms.
Mouthfeel: Clean, medium-bodied, with a smoky, dry finish.
Overall: A nicely-crafted Schwarzbier, roasty, smoky and dark without the heavy presence of a Porter. Enjoyable.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 3.3 out of 5 and is in their 71st percentile.
