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In case you missed it yesterday, my Hop Press articles is a meditation on the aging of beer.
When does the aging end and the drinking begin? Do you follow the Pliny school of thought, or the Reserve Series? Lately I’ve been drifting a bit from the Reserve Series column to the Pliny column: beer is meant to be drank. But there are some styles of beer that are worth aging; it’s not an absolute either way for me.
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.
The 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.
It 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.
Laughing 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 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:
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% |
The 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):
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.
Welcome 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.
When I posted my interview with Greg Koch of Stone Brewing, mention was made of upcoming collaboration brews Stone was spearheading. This month it’s with 21st Amendment Brewing and Firestone Walker Brewing, and the Stone Blog has a good writeup of what was brewed and the overall process:
Shaun O’Sullivan of 21st Amendment and Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker joined our very own Head Brewer Mitch Steele for one of our coolest collaborations yet. Since this was an all-California brewing team, they decided to expand upon that theme by using indigenous California ingredients in the beer, including chia seeds, pink peppercorns, fennel seeds, and 35 lbs. of Mission figs Shaun brought from a friends’ farm.
The result of this momentous collaboration will be a strong black ale of distinctly Californian pedigree. Named El Camino (un)Real Black Ale in honor of the historic Spanish mission trail connecting Northern and Southern California, this beer is going to be pitch-black monster loaded with roasty, spicy flavors.
15% of the batch will be fermented in oak barrels, and the beer should clock in at about 80 IBUs. No word yet on alcohol content.
Based on that ingredient list, though, this sounds like it will be a very interesting beer.
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.
It came to my attention that the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference is coming to Walla Walla, Washington, this June, and it got me reflecting on that fact that there even is a Wine Bloggers Conference. I don’t read any wine blogs (I should probably start) but it seems to me that they’re probably not too much different from beer blogs, at least in concept; so the question that naturally comes to my mind is:
Where’s the Beer Bloggers Conference?
There needs to be one. In fact, it seems like a no-brainer! Now I don’t know jack about organizing such a thing, but I’d gladly participate if someone who knows these things did. I will suggest the location for the first Conference though: Portland, Oregon (of course).
Stan touched upon this topic back in November of 2008; and I just found this thread on the Beer Bloggers forum on Ning asking and discussing this very question from the middle of last year. (Interesting takeaway: it’s possible one may be organized for 2010, in Colorado.)
You may remember I blogged back in August about Abraxus Brewing, the new microbrewery slated to open in The Dalles. Wondered what was going on with that? So was I, but it had frankly slipped my mind until I received an email from the founder, Ray Bustos:
Currently we on a hiatus because my brewer and partner relocated to northern Washington. I still have plans on opening a brew pub but it will be at least a few years down the road. I’m still brewing test batches, but until I can locate some funding the brewery is on hold.
It’s unfortunate news, but I’m glad to see that he hasn’t given up on it entirely.
I’ve decided to change up Theme Week a bit starting this month; instead of starting on the third Monday (third full week) of each month, instead it will be the last full week of each month. It’s a minor change, but gives me a bit more time to track down elusive beers (for instance).
The Hop Press is going strong, picking up steam even. I pretty well finished up my overview of the Bend Beer Scene on Saturday, and for a concise table of contents for that series, here it is:
I’ll be getting back on the “Beer Hacker Brewing on the Cheap” series again very soon as well; first off will be re-examining some of the cost assumptions I laid out early on—hops are cheaper now, so that equals a nice reduction in brewing costs.
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 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.
No, it’s not a review (for reasons I’ll get into in a moment), but I need to at least mention the Tule Duck Red Ale from Buckbean Brewing—since they sent me the four beers last month and I’m sure you’re all wondering what became of them.
Unfortunately, why I’m not reviewing it is because it was a bad can of beer: the beer was infected (or otherwise spoiled somehow), and I don’t think it would be fair to review in that condition. Under the circumstances, it’s not fair to judge a beer based on something that can happen to, well, any beer really.
I will say, though, that this seemed like a promising beer, and I hope I get to try it again someday.
For those of you that missed the news, Red Chair NWPA (Northwest Pale Ale) is the new seasonal beer from Deschutes Brewery that is replacing Buzzsaw Brown and Cinder Cone Red. (Cinder Cone Red, in fact, is now in its last bottling, and only available in Oregon and Washington.) It’s based on last year’s Red Chair IPA, though the website lists slightly more IBUs in NWPA so the recipe has been tweaked slightly. Their own description:
What makes this copper colored beauty so wildly popular? As a debut Northwest Pale Ale, it’s an adventure all its own. It has a plush body with satiny caramel flavors derived from seven varieties of malt. Yet, despite it all, it remains a hop-forward ale with that distinctive citrusy punch. Just minus any mouth-puckering bitterness.
You’ll recall that I received several bottles of Red Chair from Deschutes just after Christmas. I was able to drink one after the New Year (and our week-long vacation).
It’s quite good; at 6.4% alcohol by volume it’s up in IPA territory but it doesn’t have the high bitterness of today’s typical American IPA; rather, they are really focusing on bringing out the flavors and aromas of the hops, not just the lupulin.
Appearance: Clear golden-copper color with off-white head. Nice legs.
Smell: Nose is full of the fruity-hoppy aromas that’s the signature of Deschutes’ experimental hop these days: with biscuit notes and bright green, citrus hop aromas.
Taste: Bracing mix of green leafy “salad” hops and crisp wheat-biscuit malt—malty-sweet and hoppy without being overly bitter—really, really tasty.
Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied and crisp with a nice freshly-hoppy aftertaste.
Overall: This could be a new go-to beer for Deschutes. Yum! Glad to see Red Chair IPA reincarnated.
(Neither one of the rating sites has this beer listed yet, it’s too new. But it’s similar enough to Red Chair IPA that I’ll list those stats instead.)
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.59 out of 5 and is in their 91st percentile.
Our first day in San Diego (which was the first Monday after Christmas), we headed up to Carlsbad to hit the shopping outlets and visit Pizza Port Carlsbad for lunch. In the past we’ve visited the Solana Beach Pizza Port, but my brother assured me that Carlsbad is a bigger (and better) location—after all, they’re one of the most-decorated breweries at the GABF this past year, and the winner of Large Brewpub and Brewer of the Year—so we decided to check it out.
It was a beautiful sunny day—even in December! That’s one thing SoCal has going for it—so we opted to sit outside. Along the length of the building there is plentiful outdoor seating at picnic tables and benches, with easy access to the pub/restaurant through the rear door. (There is also gated access to the outdoor seating, so we could have gone through the gate and front door just as easily.)
(The outdoor seating is to the right of the building in this picture.)
The first thing that’s apparent is that this is a much bigger place than the Solana Beach Pizza Port. There is plenty of seating, inside and out, and the number of taps they have available—both Port Brewing house beers and many guest beers—is impressive.
Here are the house beers:
And here are the guest beers:
Here’s a shot of the taps themselves (coolers on either side with bottles beers), one thing I liked but didn’t get in this picture is a rinse spigot built in to the bottom (in the drain catch) that allows the bartender to do a quick upside-down rinse of the glassware—which gets rid of any particulates and helps head retention.
The beer itself is really good, too—naturally, for a Great American Beer Festival winner. I started with their Plant to Pint, a 7% ABV fresh hopped pale ale. My notes on that:
Hot and hoppy—strong and intensely green and viney. Clear and amber with a nice lacing. Maybe too heavy for a fresh hop… mouthfeel moves into DIPA/BW [Double IPA/Barleywine] territory. Nose is hoppy and malty… not really “fresh hoppy” but intensely hoppy nonetheless—lupulin syrup. [BA: A-; RB, 93%]
My brother didn’t like it, the aroma was too off-putting for him. (”Dirty sock” was mentioned.)
I snuck a sip of their Reed’s Wee Heavy Scotch Ale from my sister-in-law brother, and found it to be sweet and boozy.
Next I grabbed a tray of four tasters (you can pick any four):
Left to right are Good Grief Brown (5.6%, English style Brown Ale, won the bronze at the GABF), Cow Stout (5%, Milk/Sweet Stout, won gold at GABF), Carlsbad Cream Ale (4.5%), and Trigger Hoppy IPA (8.4%). I was enjoying myself visiting with my family so I only wrote down notes on the Good Grief Brown, but I do remember some impressions of the others.
[Good Grief] Chocolate and roasty and delicious—completely GABF-worthy. Still mellow and very drinkable—possibly the best brown I’ve had in awhile. [BA, B+; RB: 70%]
I didn’t say I wrote a lot of notes, okay?
Of the others, I remember the Cream Ale to be crisp and clean, the Cow Stout to be good and roasty but possibly lighter in mouthfeel than I expected, and the Trigger Hoppy to be a tasty but fairly standard Double IPA (big and hoppy which is the San Diego beer character).
I finished with a guest beer: Sierra Nevada Belgian-style Trippel, a treat since we don’t get such things in Bend, Oregon. It was big and clean and spicy with a perfect peppercorn and coriander essence. I wish I could get this up here!
There was pizza and salad ordered, and I can confidently say that the pizza was excellent and the bites of salad I had were good too. My brother—who is the authority in such matters, living in San Diego and all—confirms that the pizza is better at Carlsbad, and overall I’d have to agree.
Inside there are video games on the back wall (near the rear door leading to the outdoor seating), lending to the “old school pizza parlor” vibe that they’re cultivating. There’s ample seating inside as well, and some room at the bar if you only feel like a beer. It’s very comfortable and laid-back, we were able to take our time without being rushed and the kids had a great time as well (the video games helped with that).
I highly recommend visiting, both for the beer and the pizza, and though it’s located some 30 miles north of San Diego proper, it’s well worth the trip.
Pizza Port Carlsbad
571 Carlsbad Village Dr.
Carlsbad, CA 92008
(760) 720-7007
The 2010 iteration of Deschutes Brewery’s Hop Henge Experimental IPA arrived today:
The label looks the same as last year, and I checked for the presence of “Batch #” text on the site. (There was none.) I actually still have some bottles of 2009 Hop Henge in my stash; might be a fun vertical.
Yes, you read that correctly: I have decided that this month, Theme Week is going to be Cream Ale Week.
Why?
Maybe it’s a rebellion against all the super-high-end beers coming out these days. (Ironically written as I drink an Anchor Old Foghorn Barleywine.) Or maybe it’s a way of easing back into session beers after the holidays. (See previous parenthetical comment.) Or—most likely—it’s just a style that has me interested right now, and I want to take some time exploring it more.
Theme Week kicks off next Monday, the 18th.
As promised, here are some additional bits about my meeting/interview with Greg Koch of Stone Brewing. Call them “liner notes” or “special features” or something.
Anyone who’s had a Stone beer is familiar with the text on the labeling—the paragraph of text first made famous on the Arrogant Bastard bottle admonishing would-be drinkers for not being worthy and probably not liking the beer is the classic example—and what’s interesting is that Koch writes all of that text himself.
Each year’s edition of their Old Guardian Barley Wine features different text written each year by Koch, and his tradition is to open a bottle (or two) of the previous year’s Old Guardian for inspiration. He never plans ahead what he’s going to write, it’s as much stream-of-consciousness as anything, and he’ll take the time to write it wherever he happens to be at the time. This year it was in India; another time while he was in Istanbul.
You can imagine bringing along a couple of bombers of beer along while traveling the world is a bit of a pain… but not as much as leaving one behind! If you follow @StoneGreg on Twitter then you likely saw the posts alluding to this—yep, the second beer was accidentally left behind in the hotel minibar as he was leaving India.
That bit of the story made it into the label of this year’s bottle, which you can (squintingly) read over at Beernews.org. It’s rather meta—writing the label text about writing the label text.
Remember the hop shortage a couple of years back? I asked about how they affected Stone—known for being a rather hop-intense brewer—and Koch confirmed that they were hit pretty hard by the shortage. It manifested across the board by price raises and they were adaptable to various changes in their hopping (mostly minor changes involved with bittering hops), but they definitely felt the pain.
(Regarding prices, anecdotally I’ll point out that even in San Diego, Stone beer is more expensive than other local beer: $10 to $11 and up for a six pack of Pale Ale or IPA, for instance, while other offerings hover in the $7 to $9 range per six-pack. I’m painting with broad strokes, obviously, but it seems similar to the Rogue effect we have here in Oregon: six-packs of Rogue beers are markedly more expensive than those of other Oregon brewers, which leads to a bit of grumbling. No theories here, just an observation.)
Because I am interested in such things, I found out Stone has a laboratory with which they can properly analyze their beers. (Of course, all large-enough breweries should have an in-house lab, but I’m a nerd and had to inquire anyway.) Has Stone ever offered (or considered offering) use of their lab to other, smaller area brewers? No, said Koch, a bit surprised, that’s something they’d never thought of doing before. But he certainly seemed receptive to the idea; maybe (giving myself far too much credit here) someday Stone will do just that (nothing Koch said, I’m just reaching).
All in all, it was a really good meeting, I thought, and even though I’m quite sure I babbled like an idiot more than once, Koch was extremely friendly and forthright and was generous enough to donate about 45 minutes of his day to me.
And I’ll reiterate from past reviews, if you ever find yourself in San Diego, take the time to visit Stone Brewing up in Escondido. Totally worth the trip and you’ll be glad you did.
My article today over on Hop Press is the write-up of my visit with Greg Koch of Stone Brewing last week. He’s a really cool guy, and had no problems about meeting with me—which is awfully generous for the busy CEO of a big company.
I’ll be posting some “liner notes” of things about our meeting that didn’t make the cut over at my Hop Press article, sometime this weekend. Some fun stuff—all about the beer, of course.
It’s time to write my “Best of 2009″ wrap-up post, looking back over the past year to come up with “The Brew Site Best”: those beers and breweries and festivals that really stood out for me personally. (Which is my disclaimer to say that in no way am I proclaiming these to be the “Best of All Time” or willing to get into fisticuffs over.)
BeersI drank a lot of good beer last year, and weeding down the list of the ones that really wowed me was difficult. Predictably there are a lot of Oregon brewers represented here, because I happen to live in Oregon and we have good brewers and fresh beer available.
My criteria for coming up with this list was: first, what were the really good beers I reviewed; of those, what really stand out in my mind; of those, which were the Wow beers—the stand-up and take notice, revelatory beers. All subjective, mind you. The only other criteria was that I wrote a review of it last year.
Here’s my Best Beers of 2009:
If I pick just one beer from that list, it would be… hmm… the Cherry Oak Doppelbock. The biggest factor I’d have to say that it possessed is that it surprised me completely.
BreweriesI visited a number of breweries this past year, but I only wrote up “real” reviews on the ones listed below, so that was my criteria for this list. Like the beers, it’s not a knock against the other breweries I’ve been to, just what I happened to write up and found memorable.
In addition, I visited Pizza Port Carlsbad not long after Christmas, but I haven’t yet written up my review of it.
If I pick just one of these? It’s tough and a toss-up between Barley Brown’s and Double Mountain… but I think the edge goes to Barley Brown’s, for the fantastic beer deals (and the great beer) and the even better food.
FestivalsThis is a misdirection: I only attended one beer festival last year, so by default it is named the Best. Fortunately it was a really good festival, as well.
I threw this category in here just to share some stats. Last year, the top 2009 posts were:
The top search terms used to get to The Brew Site were:
Overall, Google Analytics tells me I had 180,189 visits for 2009. That seems pretty good to me.
The next session—number 36 (a milestone!)—has been announced: it’s being hosted by Yours for Good Fermentables and the topic is Cask-Conditioned Beer:
Cask-conditioned ale —or “real ale” as it is called, somewhat boastfully, by the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA), a beer consumer advocacy group in the UK— is defined by that organization as
beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide.
Viewers of this blog have read my opinions on cask-conditioned ale, and probably once too often. So, let’s hear yours, and not only yours. Why not invite brewers and drinkers and bemused casked-spectators to contribute essays for the Session?
He lays down a number of suggestions for what to write about, including: definition, encomium (praise), rant, lifestyle, practical, and more. Should be a good one!
Also, don’t miss the wrap-up of Session #35 (New Beer’s Resolutions).
Last month on the 19th we stopped in for lunch and beers at Bend Brewing Company, and I was hoping to find out if they were going to have their Desert Rose on tap sometime soon. I had first heard about this beer on Twitter: the Homebrew Chef Sean Paxton came to Bend to brew a collaborative beer with Tonya Cornett of Bend Brewing, and they posted a YouTube video of the collaboration:
What struck me about the beer is how creative they got with it (I hesitate to say “innovative” as there seems to be a growing backlash against calling beers innovative these days): it’s a Berliner Weisse style of ale, brewed with 50% Pilsner malt and 50% wheat malt, with hops added to the mash. They then added hibiscus and craisins (dried cranberries) for the boil, and after it cooled a bit of sour wort was added (which they acquired from Deschutes Brewing, in another nice collaborative touch).
After sitting overnight, it fermented out to a session-strength 4% alcohol by volume and developed a nice red rose color.
As I said, when I arrived I was simply hoping to find out when it would be available, but I was in luck: Desert Rose was already on tap!
So I ordered one up and made a few notes as I drank it:
Tart nose, crisp with floral berry aromas. Berry tartness right up front with sour floral notes—the hibiscus is prominent and it finishes dry with a touch of hops and cranberry. Not sour with any Brett notes or funkiness—more lactic and straight-up fruit tart.
Overall I found the beer to be extremely interesting and lively, and I think this would be a fantastic summer beer.
Locals: I haven’t checked to see if this is still on tap, but if it is, you definitely need to head in to BBC to try some of this beer.
Just so the suspense can start killing you, I’m working on my “Brew Site Best of 2009″ post which I should have online in the next day or so: my personal “best of” list as gleaned from the beer and brewery reviews I made online in 2009.
I don’t have the review written yet, but technically I visited (and have notes and pictures) Pizza Port Carlsbad in 2009, so I’m debating adding it to the list of eligible breweries; my own admittedly weak criteria has been to consider only those I wrote a review for, and the Pizza Port review will technically be up in 2010. Oh, the dilemma of self-imposed rules for building out an entirely opinionated list…
But I’m curious as to what all your “Best of 2009″ beers and breweries were. Let loose in the comments.
Buckbean Brewing’s Original Orange Blossom Ale was the first of the beers I opened from what they sent me in mid-December. If you recall (and looking at my picture makes it quite obvious), Buckbean is one of those (few) craft brewers that can their beer; and they host an annual Canfest celebrating canned craft beer.
Their Original Orange Blossom Ale is at its heart a Pale Ale, brewed with orange blossom water (according to the text on the can). It’s 5.8% alcohol by volume and here is the description from their website:
Inspired by the rich fragnance of blooming orange groves, this copper colored ale combines the flavor and aroma of real orange tree flowers with a well balanced, full flavored ale to produce a real treat for the senses. Munich and light Caramel malts produce a smooth, creamy malt complexity, and American hops give the beer a bright, refreshing bitterness and dry finish. The orange blossom aroma blends superbly with the other beer flavors, providing a unique dimension that is the perfect complement to tangy, herbal or spicy foods, soft cheeses or pastries.
Appearance: Hazy amber-orange in color, with a thin white head that fell quickly. (There was in fact not much carbonation.)
Smell: “Beery” with a touch of green hops and a fruity, flowery note—which does have an orange-y character. Reminds me a bit of a witbier.
Taste: Light and somewhat flowery—honey malt and definite orange blossom character—bitter like orange peel but “green” and herbal. Some of the bitterness comes from the orange blossoms, which give it a nice crisp, biting edge.
Mouthfeel: Lightly medium-bodied with a clean, crisp bitterness.
Overall: Pretty good; more bitter than I expected but a nice floral-fruity character to it.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of C+. On RateBeer, it scores 2.68 out of 5 and is in their 21st percentile.
My year-end was spent in San Diego for the second time this year; how was yours?
It was a bit of a last-minute trip. When we visited in June, it was to attend the baby shower of my sister-in-law and see them (her and my brother) before their first baby was born. We had talked about doing a post-Christmas trip to see the baby, but had ruled it out until the very last minute.
So, the day after Christmas we packed up everything and the next day (Sunday) we got up really early and drove to San Diego.
In one day.
Which is not really a trip I recommend two days after a major holiday.
But while we were there, I was able to squeeze in a couple of beer-related things—of course! We visited Pizza Port Carlsbad (one of the most decorated breweries at the GABF this past year, as well as winning Large Brewpub and Brewer of the Year), and I was able to sit down for a little bit with someone you may have heard of: Greg Koch of Stone Brewing.
I’ll have a write-up of that visit over on my Hop Press blog this coming Saturday, and I’ll post some extra notes (think of them as “special features” on a DVD) here on this blog shortly thereafter.
I’ll post my review of Pizza Port Carlsbad this week too. So far it’s my favorite of the Pizza Ports I’ve visited (the other thus far being Solana Beach—haven’t been to San Clemente yet).
Today is not only the first day of 2010, it’s also the First Friday of the month and in the beer blogging world that means it’s time for The Session!
Today’s Session is being hosted by The Beer Chicks, Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune (authors of The Naked Pint), and their theme is New Beer’s Resolutions:
The New Year, of course, is the ultimate time for reflection of the previous year’s mistakes as well as a time of making resolutions to make our lives better in the future. Its also the time of year where all the lists happen. You can’t turn the TV on without seeing a “Best of 2009″ list: the best movies, best iphone apps, best sports moments, the best scandals, the best sports stars in scandals, etc…
So we want to know what was your best and worst of beer for 2009? What beer mistakes did you make? What beer resolutions do you have for 2010? What are your beer regrets and embarrassing moments? What are you hoping to change about your beer experience in 2010?
I haven’t yet worked up a beer predictions post—or addressed last year’s—and while I’ll be working up a personal “best” list of 2009, I don’t really have any regrets (beyond missing a beer event here and there) or “worst moments” that I dwell on.
So really, the one “beer resolution” I can come up with for 2010 is easy: write more about beer. (I figure the “drinking” part is pretty well understood.) Stepping up the beer writing is going to be one of my big goals for this new year.
What’s on your New Beer’s Resolutions list?