Category : Theme Week
Session #38 announced
March 8th, 2010The roundup for Session #37 has been posted (hmm, seems a little sparse; I don’t see mine or several others I remember reading listed there yet…) and the topic for The Session #38 for April has been announced:
With Kate the Great Day a recent memory and the day of the Dark Lord fast approaching, I started thinking about what beer or beers that I would get up at 4:00 in the morning, drive across state lines, stand in a long unmoving line in the cold and rain for the chance to taste with a crowd the size of Woodstock.
So here is my question to you (with a couple addendums).
What beer have you tasted recently (say, the last six months or so) that is worthy of their own day in the media sun?
And to add a little extra to it, how does “great” expectations affect your beer drinking enjoyment?
AND If you have attended one of these release parties, stories and anecdotes of your experience will be welcomed too.
The host for April is Beer Search Party. The usual rules apply: publish your Session blog post on Friday, April 2nd, and shoot an email or leave a comment on the host blog. And be sure to read all the others posts that day, too—putting the “group” in “group blogging” you know.
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.
Big Beer Week
February 22nd, 2010February is a short month, which is why Theme Week almost slipped away from me—but not to worry! I do have a plan!
Something about February always says “big beer” for me (like when I hosted The Session back in 2008 and declared it Barleywine season): perhaps it’s the depths of winter when a big, warming beer is comfort food, perhaps it’s simply the daylight hours are growing visibly longer and it feels contemplative. Regardless, this month’s Theme Week here at The Brew Site is all about the beers that are “big” in some way—Big Beer Week.
I have plenty of big beers to review—of course, it helps that I splurged some of my Christmas money on some high-strength specialties, and of course everyone’s dying to know how the Jubel 2010 turned out, right? (And needless to say, I won’t be covering the Pyramids this week.)
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: The origins and style of Cream Ale
January 26th, 2010Cream Ale is classified by the BJCP as a “Hybrid Beer”: category 6A. It’s classified as a hybrid because it was originally developed as an ale version of the American light lager that was popular in the latter half of the nineteenth century:
An ale version of the American lager style. Produced by ale brewers to compete with lager brewers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States. Originally known as sparkling or present use ales, lager strains were (and sometimes still are) used by some brewers, but were not historically mixed with ale strains. Many examples are kräusened to achieve carbonation. Cold conditioning isn’t traditional, although modern brewers sometimes use it.
There’s a bit of murkiness surrounding the issue; I’ve read that Cream Ales variously were:
- Brewed with ale yeasts but cold-conditioned like lagers;
- Brewed with lager yeast at ale temperatures;
- Brewed with a blend of ale and lager yeasts;
- A blend of ale and lager (finished products).
Randy Mosher in Radical Brewing offers some insight:
As the American brewing industry shifted into the hands of German immigrants familiar with the Altbiers (ales) of Cologne/Köln, brewers cast pale ales in a Continental mold rather than an English one. To my mind, there is little theoretical difference between Kölsch, cream ale, and blonde ale. (p. 80)
And:
The cream ale style is a kind of amalgam of the English-derived American ale style, as brewed by German brewmasters in American lager breweries. It’s my view that many of them simply applied their experience with German ales such as Kölschbier, and voilà, Cream Ale. (pp. 90-91)
From a style and recipe formulation perspective, we’re looking at a very light ale, yellow to gold in color, and generally of “session beer” alcohol levels—anywhere from 4% to 6% and possibly higher. It’s mild on the tongue, crisp and refreshing (often from cold-conditioning), a good lawnmower or summertime beer.
Brewing these beers with corn and/or sugar as an adjunct is acceptable, and even common—and keeping with the style’s historical roots. Understandably, it’s this fact that also gives people a bit of a hang-up when confronting the style: corn is considered to be less-than-desirable in beer—it’s the kind of cheap grain the megabreweries will use in their beers, for instance, and we all know what sort of stigma that carries.
Using corn sugar in a (homebrewed) recipe for Cream Ale is acceptable, up to 20% of the fermentables. When I was formulating my own Cream Ale recipe I settled on one pound of corn sugar and four pounds of dried malt extract, and that seems to work out well.
Of course, many brewers are brewing all-malt version of the style and are foregoing the corn altogether.
Finally, for the numbers-and-stats people, here are the BJCP’s guidelines for the style (you know, if you’re planning on brewing for competition or anything. If not, carry on):
| Vital Statistics: | OG: 1.042 – 1.055 |
| IBUs: 15 – 20 | FG: 1.006 – 1.012 |
| SRM: 2.5 – 5 | ABV: 4.2– 5.6% |
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.
Cream Ale Week
January 25th, 2010Welcome to Cream Ale Week! All this week I’ll be reviewing and writing about Cream Ales, the light “hybrid” style of American golden or blonde beers (why it’s considered something of a hybrid style is something I’ll cover this week as well).
Why Cream Ales in the middle of winter? Well, why not? I’m drinking strong beers as much as the next guy, but at the same time it seems like every other news item is “strongest beer this” and “barrel-aged that”—sometimes you just need a breather, and take time to celebrate a session beer.
Plus I’ve been interested in the style lately; simple and unassuming, many might turn up their nose at it because it’s similar to the “fizzy yellow beer” of the industrial macro lager—and if so, they’re missing out. A Cream Ale might be a fairly basic recipe to brew, but it’s unforgiving of mistakes (i.e., easy to screw up!). Getting it right is an accomplishment.
So read along this week, and seek out some Cream Ales to try yourself. You might be surprised.
