Posts filed under 'Beer'
So I picked this one up at the Whole Foods at Cicero and Peterson here in Chicago. The guys at Dogfish make (reluctantly, IMO) some fruit-based beers, but it’s not where they shine. According to the label, this is “a neo-Berliner style Weisse fermented with peach juice.”
Berliner Weisses are a style unique to Berlin. They’re much more sour than your average German wheat beer. A Hefeweisen is a riot of bananna, clove, vanilla, cotton candy and PALS bubble gum. Berliner Weisse, not so much. They’re meant to be sour. Normally, they’re served with a shot of syrup as well. If you really want to nerd out, here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry.
At any rate, the DF version is pretty good, but not their best attempt. You get a nice golden hazy pour, be sure to swirl the bottom of the bottle to get the yeast sediment. The head is nothing to write home about, but then it gets interesting. Definite hints of bread, canned peaches and funk abound in the nose. Pinpoint carbonation cascades that bread and funk onto your palate. The mid-palate takes a turn towards sour, finishing with a very dry peach-flavored Sour Patch Kid bite.
At 4.5% alcohol, this is a sessionable beer. At $8.99 for a four-pack, not so much. I enjoyed this, but probably won’t revisit it. In the price to awesome equation, this just isn’t good enough to merit a re-purchase, and I probably wouldn’t stock it at the store. I would buy this again to help train my buddy who wants to take on a beer buyer job, but yeah.
At the same time, I think this is a must-try for someone who really loves Dogfish Head in general. It’s definitely worth a try. You’d be doing yourself a disservice to not try this beer. However, as an everyday drinker, I think you’d do better snagging a sixer of Indian Brown for a dollar more and only needing three to do the job.
June 4th, 2008
Arcadia Brewing Company currently has two spots on my beer shelf. One slot was filled by their IPA. Arcadia is known for brewing English-style ales with an American twist, but I hadn’t yet tried this one. Keeping OpSec in mind, let’s just say that the beer needs to really step up and deliver to keep its spot.
My tasting notes and verdict after the jump.
According to Arcadia’s handy-dandy packaging codes, I can determine that I have a bottle of IPA that was packaged on 19 November 2007. Granted, to get the packaging codes, you have to visit the website, navigate to the “Ales” page and then click the link. Maybe I just suck at the internet, but I cannot seem to find the exact path to the file.
But I digress. This is a beer review.
Appearance: Pours a golden amber with a short-lived head that leaves some solid lacing on the top of the glass. A tiny stream of active carbonation streams up from the center, but this could be a function of pouring into a Chimay goblet.
Smell: Earthy and subtle citrus aromas in the front, with some biscuity malt in the background.
Taste: Sharp lemony/grapefruit citrus bite in the, well, in the vast majority of the sip. The finish is very long and reveals a touch of malt, which slightly dulls the hop bite. Overall, very dry.
Mouthfeel: The very active carbonation in this beer helps disprese the flavors across the tongue. It also creates a very light to slightly medium-bodied beer. Not too filling, although it is rather belch-inducing. That’s not a bad thing, mind you. You could easily session this beer. It clocks in a bit under 6% abv, so you’d have to be a big nancy-boy to not handle it.
I’m going to pair this with burgers, green beans and tots later, but I think this would be a great candidate for any spicy dish as well. We have some random bag of frozen Thai stir fry veggies that I may cook up tomorrow to see how this beer stands up to a peanut sauce curry type situation. IBUs vs. Scoville. It’ll be epic.
My overall grade for this beer is a B+. There are plenty of IPAs that I prefer, largely based on choice of hop varietals. This one uses Columbus hops, which are great and tasty, but I’m really a fan of the Amarillo. With such a wide range of IPAs and double IPAs and whatnot to choose from, it’s tough to love them all.
Arcadia has a nifty assortment of brews, but I think I’ll keep the IPA around. It just means that its sibling is going to the chopping block . . . maybe.
March 8th, 2008
I’m normally not a huge fan of flavored porters. Most of them end up being too heavy on the added flavor for my taste (I’m looking at YOU Breckenridge Vanilla Porter). This offering from Southern Tier, on the other hand, is chock full of win.
Appearance: Pours a deep brown with plenty of ruby hints. This may be due to the lighting in the room. Clearly, not as dark as your average porter. A vigorous pour yields a two finger head.
Smell: Raspberry is the first aroma that hits your nose. Hints of roasted malt in the background.
Taste: In the mouth, some good roasted malt flavors, but a bit thin. The finish is all raspberry, but not a mouth-coating, syrupy taste. There are lingering hints of roasted malt as well, but raspberry tends to lightly dominate. I have no other way to describe it, but it’s a light lingering flavor, not some heavy-handed, tongue-punishing fruit bomb.
Mouthfeel: Rather thin for a porter, but it seems to work. I’d like a bit more malt on the palate but you can’t ask for everything in a fruit beer.
Overall: A solid flavored porter, much less aggressive than many other fruit-based beers, with more balance. Overall, I’d give this one a B-. A bit too thin and not enough strong malts to really be a must-drink.
March 7th, 2008
So I guess this is a quasi-review. I read about this kit in the latest issue of Beer Advocate. It’s basically a set of thirteen jarred hops and a scent cleanser. In my kit, I have a jar of coffee beans (the cleanser), and the following hops: Cascade (US), Centennial (US), Chinook (US), Liberty (US), Willamete (US), Fuggles (UK), Target (UK), Goldings (UK), Hallertauer (DE), Perle (DE), Spalt (DE), Tettnanger (DE), and Saaz (CZ). The overall package presentation is very nice — a bit of DIY with a load of polish. The resources that come with the package are well-done. There is a 47-page guide to tasting beer with tons of tidbits about beer — as a long-time beer geek, I actually learned a few things.
The kit is to be used to assist in picking out hop flavors and aromas in beer. You sniff and sip the beer, then sniff a jar of hops, then sip the beer again. If you have a good match, you’ll taste the difference between the two sips. Take, for instance, this glass of Abita Golden. It’s made with Hallertauer hops. Without the kit’s aid, I can make out some earthy aromas, with some subtle spicy hints in the finish. After sniffing the kit’s included jar of Hallertauer hops, I get strong earthy aromas of sawdust and a nice, herbal, sage finish.
There really is a difference here and it will be interesting to see how quickily I can train my palate. I’m also wondering about the shelf-life of the hop jars. How long can I expect them to retain their aromas? Clearly, it’s smart to keep the box lid closed as much as possible — light is not a friend to the hop. I guess time will tell - a quick skim through the use manual yields little information.
So far so good, however. If you want a fun beer geek item, I suggest checking out TasteYourBeer.com for more details.
February 14th, 2008
For those of you who live in the Land of Lincoln and miss Bell’s, you can now find Kalamazoo on tap at select locations in Chicago. It is currently only available in an on-premise manner, but I have it on good authority that we’ll be seeing Kalamazoo in stores on or around March 1 of this year.
For those not in the know, but who are aware that they haven’t seen a bottle of Bell’s in the state in ages, here’s the skinny: Bell’s didn’t want to do business with their distributor. In Illinois, distributors can buy and sell the rights to distribute specific beers within specific geographic areas. Bells was sold to someone they didn’t like. The brewery’s only option was to pull out of the Illinois market entirely.
I have no idea why they’re re-launching as Kalamazoo. It’s my understanding that they’ve waited out whatever statutory period they had to remain out of the state and can come back as Bell’s if they damn well please. A distributor for my specific retail location has yet to be established, but I’m aware of two that are servicing areas in Chicago proper.
I don’t get out to bars in the Chicago area as much as I’d like — but hey, that’s being a dad. If anyone gets their hands on some Kalamazoo before I can get it in stock, let me know how it is!
February 13th, 2008
I was going to do a writeup of Fuller’s 1845, but then I cracked open this bottle that I picked up on a whim at my local Whole Foods. I pour the beer, it is really black, but the lighting isn’t super-bright in the room, so I figure it’s maybe dark, but probably not as dark as say a Goose Island Bourbon County Stout. Now, with better lighting, I see that it is also a beer from which light cannot escape.
But I digress.
So I pour the beer, trying to collect my thoughts on the Fuller’s. The smell of chocolate syrup hits my nose. From at least one foot away. So I was inspired to whip up a review for this instead. The smell has forced me to ruin my palate and just dive in. This one is in realtime.
Appearance: Inky black, short-lived head with some moderate lacing on the glass and some patchy tan remnants on the surface of the beer. A more vigorous pour of the last bit in the bottle yields a half-inch tan head that is slowly fizzing off.
Smell: Well, it’s chocolate syrup. Closer sniffing reveals a smell like making a hot chocolate with high-end, expensive (Vosges Chocolate or better) mix and steamed milk.
Taste: A strong chocolate lead-in. I cannot begin to express just how chocolatey this beer is. In the middle are strong notes of caramel malt, with a hint of chocolate malt. Although you barely taste the hops (Chinook and Wilamette), this could be simply a blend of the bittersweet Belgian chocolate and the bittering effect of the hops themselves.
Mouthfeel: Thick and chewy with a creamy smoothness, this one finishes up with considerable sweetness and some dryness largely due to the bittering effect of the chocolate and hops.
Pairings: I’d pair this with dessert, but not a chocolate-based item. Fresh strawberries dusted with sugar would likely be the most sweetness you’d want to add. Heck, this is really dessert in a bottle.
According to my distributor, this one may be a limited run, so grab it while you can.
January 16th, 2008
The good folks at Anchor Brewing have once again hit it out of the park with the 33rd annual Anchor Christmas Ale. This year’s version is a porter-style ale. Packaged in six packs and magnums (also on draft), it is full of seasonal flavors and an excellent winter warmer. The beer itself is as dark as a winter night, almost pitch black and mostly opaque. A moderately vigorous pour yeilds a medium-sized light brown head that leaves a ring of lacing after each sip.
This year’s spicing reveals cinnamon, clove, ginger and allspice. I also get a good deal of sweetness from the dark malts, but it may also be honey in the mix. The hop finish is pleasant and piney, but well in line with what a porter should be (malty but not as bitter as a stout). There is a bit of chocolate, but my mouth always reads that as “dark malt.” Most beers made without cocoa tend to not come across as chocolatey as reviews would indicate.
For some reason, this seems to taste better out of a magnum bottle than a twelve ounce bottle. I’ve had it both ways, and maybe it’s just the Lil John in me, but I really enjoy the magnum more. Either way, this is a must-buy if you’re a beer geek. I would almost replace Sammy Smith’s Winter Welcome with this year’s Anchor Xmas brew as my favorite winter warmer ever. But hey, Winter Welcome.
December 1st, 2007
