Mild Ale notes (The Session)

The next Session is coming up this Friday, and it’s all about Milds. (Previously.) Jay (who’s hosting) posted a good piece about Mild Ales today, worth reading. The BJCP organizes milds under their Style #11, English Brown Ale, with 11A designated mild and two additional sub-styles, northern and southern English … Continue reading

Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic

Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic

Every good brewer has a miss now and again, and unfortunately, that’s how I’d rate Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic. It’s tough to do lambic well, even tougher when you’re not actually located in Belgium. So I’ll give Sam Adams props for trying. And, they were brewing this beer as early … Continue reading

Stone Old Guardian

Stone Old Guardian

Stone Brewing‘s Old Guardian is a serious barleywine: it comes in at 11.26% alcohol and is vintaged by the year it was brewed. I had the "early 2007" release. Appearance: Lighter than expected—a pinkish orange, nice and deep. Murky. Head didn’t last long, but it’s lacing the glass nicely. Smell: … Continue reading

Jenlain Ambrée (French Farmhouse Ale)

Jenlain Ambrée (French Farmhouse Ale)

The version of Jenlain Ambrée that I found locally was actually labeled a bit confusingly: "Jenlain French Farmhouse Ale." Unable to find anything definite referring to this online, I was clued in by RateBeer, which had a pointer and a note that it’s an alias of the Ambrée. My assumption … Continue reading

Josephs Brau Winterfest

Josephs Brau Winterfest

Ah, the elusive, mysterious Josephs Brau Brewing Company… really a front for some of the Trader Joe’s line of beers. I’m sure there’s more of a story there somewhere. But what’s more curious is the source of this particular beer, Josephs Brau Winterfest (a "double dark Bock"); apparently it’s too … Continue reading

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel

Now that’s a mouthful of a name for a beer. The Hefeweissbier Dunkel ("dark hefeweizen") from the Weihenstephaner brewery in Germany is one of the foremost wheat beers of the world from the world’s oldest brewery. Appearance: Light copper, hazy. Head foamed up a lot—it’s light tan. Color is actually … Continue reading

The Beer Hacker: Finding inexpensive beer

It’s the ongoing dilemma: you want to drink well, but are on a budget. Sure, you could always bite the (silver) bullet and go with the always-cheap "American macro lager" a là Budweiser or Coors. But notice the headline says "inexpensive" beer and not "cheap" beer—the distinction is important because … Continue reading

Woody Organic IPA

Woody Organic IPA

Roots Organic Brewing, Oregon’s first organic brewery, opened up in 2005 in Portland and made a name for themselves brewing up locally-acclaimed beers. I say "locally acclaimed" because until recently (to the best of my knowledge, anyway), the only way to drink any of their brews was to visit their … Continue reading

OLCC is allowing minors at the OBF again

Back in January I reported on how the OLCC was banning minors and families from the Oregon Brewers Festival this year. Definitely a misstep, and cast a pall over the OBF for its 20th anniversary. Today, though, I’m happy to point to a post on the Realbeer.com Beer Therapy blog: … Continue reading

Pizza Port (& Port Brewing Company)

Pizza Port (& Port Brewing Company)

The final brewery review for our San Diego trip (skipping over Oggi’s, since I originally reviewed them here and it pretty much is the same) is for Pizza Port in Solana Beach. This is the original Pizza Port, though it has since branched out and there are several Pizza Port/Port … Continue reading