Wonky barrel-aged blogging continues, and today's nerdery centers around the concept of bourbon barrel aging. It seems that every brewery has a barrel-aged program of sorts, and the most commonly used barrels appear to be bourbon barrels. Why is that?

If you've ever done any reading about the history of brewing*, you'll notice that many of the distinctive characteristics of beer are not solely the result of genius brewers. Indeed, it seems like the history of every style of beer comes attached with a million caveats about how brewers had to account for new government regulations, laws, and taxes. And bourbon barrels are no exception.

As it turns out, the legal definition of bourbon states that it must be aged "in charred new oak containers" (amongst other requirements). The operative word there is "new". This means that bourbon producers can only use their expensive barrels once before having to discard them. As such, a secondary market for used bourbon barrels is thriving due to their wide availability and flavor contributions.

While it has been well established that using new oak barrels is a best practice, I found it odd that such a thing would be codified in law, so I dug deeper and it turns out that this is all an artifact of prohibition and the great depression. As the U.S. was emerging from the long national nightmare of prohibition, the government did its best to ruin things through excessive regulation (stupid three-tiered system!). Enter Wilbur Mills**, a representative of the great state of Arkansas, who lent his support to the bill defining bourbon, but only if he could add a requirement for new oak barrels as a benefit for Arkansas' lumber industry. It was a win win. Arkansas lumber magnates were delighted at the increase in business (don't forget that this is all happening during the depression), and the Kentucky Bourbon barons also loved the law because it legally protected their preferred spirit.

In essence, they did the right thing for the wrong reasons, and us beer dorks are still reaping the benefits to this day. Speaking of which:

Schlafly Reserve Imperial Stout 2008

Schlafly Reserve Imperial Stout 2008 - Pours a very dark brown color with very nice amber highlights (not as dark as I was expecting) and no real head to speak of... Smell is filled with bourbon, caramel, chocolate, oak and vanilla, maybe a tiny bit of dark fruit too. Taste is very sweet, tons of that rich caramel flavor, dark malts, and a nice, boozy bourbon punch in the middle. There's very little stout-like roastiness here, though some of it does peek out in the finish. Very complex stuff, and it continues to evolve as it warms up, with the various flavor components jockying for position... without ever seeming to overwhelm the palate. Mouthfeel is nearly perfect. Well balanced carbonation, very smooth, full bodied, rich, and chewy. It's not something you gulp down or anything, but it's well balanced and goes down dangerously easy. Overall, this is a wonderful beer. I suspect there are some who would want more typical stoutlike flavors of roast and coffee, but those are not my sweet spots - this beer hits my palate very well. A

Beer Nerd Details: 10.5% ABV bottled (750 ml capped). Drank out of a snifter on 4/12/12. 2008 vintage.

Between this beer and their oak aged barleywine, I'd say Schlafly has made quite a nice impression. I'd love to try a newer vintage of their barleywine, and they seem to have quite a selection of good beer available. But tomorrow, we're going to look at yet another bourbon barrel aged white whale beer. Stay tuned. Same bat time, same bat place.

* Or, I suppose, alcohol in general, as you're about to find out when it comes to bourbon. And I suppose it's not limited to alcohol either - ever wonder why the US government defines a tomato as a vegetable (and not a fruit)?

** Incidentally, Mills is apparently more famous for a whiskey-soaked and scandalous liaison with a stripper named Fanne Foxe, aka "The Argentine Firecracker". Heh.

Firestone Walker XV - Anniversary Ale

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The Firestone Union was formed a few years ago when overworked, beer-soaked employees rose up against their tyrannical masters, Adam Firestone and David Walker. Ok, just kidding, the Firestone Union is actually a unique (in the US at least) way of fermenting beer. As it turns out, the beer I'm talking about today also has another unique component, which is that it is a blend of several other batches. This post got a bit out of hand, so stay frosty, plenty of beer wonkery ahead, but I'll eventually get to a review of the beer...

Modern breweries generally conduct primary fermentation in huge stainless steel tanks. Even "barrel aged" beers are typically fermented in such tanks to start, then go through an extra period of maturation in the barrels. But back in the day, stainless steal tanks weren't available, and brewers would use large oak casks for all steps in the brewing process. This presents a number of problems, namely that you need more fermentation vessels and that wooden casks don't last forever. This constant turnover costs a lot of money, and it also sometimes lead to inconsistent results.

Conducting primary fermentation in oak casks is also a problem because as the yeast multiplies during primary fermentation, it starts to foam up and take up a lot of space, so you need to leave some headroom in the casks (i.e. you can't fill the casks up all the way or else they'd explode), further increasing the cost. Enter the devious and clever brewers in Burton-on-Trent, who devised what's called the Burton Union system in the 1840s. Basically, you set up a series of casks, but instead of leaving headroom and adding an airlock to each casks, you install a series of blowoff pipes that will shunt yeast overflow up to a trough, then (as the yeast settles down) back into the union. This creates a circulation throughout the entire union.

As the industrial revolution marched on, brewers eventually switched to more modern techniques that were cheaper and more easily maintained. However, as we learned more about the brewing process (and especially yeast), scientists noticed that the Burton Union system produced some unique results. Since yeast is alive, it's constantly adapting to its habitat, and the Burton Union system forced this circulating yeast to evolve new characteristics. When breweries started modernizing, many of them lost their distinctive house yeast strains because they were no longer putting their yeast through the same regimen. As far as I can tell, there are only two major brewers in the world that still use a Burton Union system: Marstons (in the UK) and Firestone Walker. The Firestone Union differs in a few ways from traditional Burton Unions in that it generally uses smaller barrels and also because Firestone Walker is actually seeking to impart oak flavors in their beer (traditional Burton beers were not centered around that purpose).

It sounds like a very expensive proposition, and I'm sure the impacts are only really noticeable to the really hardcore beer dorks out there, but I love that brewers like Firestone Walker are out there, creating complex, oak fermented beers via this insanely elaborate system.

But wait, there's more!

While Firestone Walker was built on the concept of barrel-fermented ales, they also do a fair amount of aging, and in 2006, they began a yearly tradition in collaboration with some of their neighboring California winemakers. Basically, the Firestone Walker brewers take an inventory of what they have. Old beers aged on bourbon, brandy, and retired Firestone Union barrels, newer beers still in Union, and some of their non-Union beers. Then they lay it all out along with a shitload of glassware and invite the winemakers in to create a blend of all the Firestone Walker beers. Winemakers are used to blending all their beers and working with barrels, so they're apparently quite comfortable doing this, while at the same time bringing something different and unique to the beer world.

One of the weird things about beer nerds is that you sometimes find folks who have a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to beer's relationship to wine... and sure, there are lots of restaurants that don't take beer as seriously as they should, but it's really nice to see this sort of collaboration between beer brewers and winemakers.

XV is the sixth time they've done this, and was released last fall. It consisted of a blend of 8 different beers from 197 oak barrels. The bottle also comes in a fancy scmancy box, inside of which is a sheet explaining the entire program and listing out all the components and processes that went into the beer. Gotta love a beer that comes with reading materials! Per the sheet, here's the breakdown:

  • 18% Helldorado (11.7% ABV) Blonde Barley Wine. Aged in Bourbon and Brandy Barrels.
  • 17% Sticky Monkey (12.5% ABV) English Barley Wine. Aged in Bourbon and Brandy Barrels.
  • 17% Bravo (13.5% ABV) Imperial Brown Ale. Aged in Bourbon and Brandy Barrels.
  • 13% Double Double Barrel Ale (11.5% ABV) Double Strength English Pale Ale. Aged 100% in Firestone Union Barrels.
  • 11% Good Foot (14.3 ABV) American Barley Wine. Aged in Bourbon Barrels.
  • 10% Velvet Merkin (8.6% ABV) Traditional Oatmeal Stout. Aged in Bourbon Barrels.
  • 9% Parabola (13% ABV) Russian Imperial Oatmeal Stout. Aged in Bourbon Barrels.
  • 5% Double Jack (9.5% ABV) Double India Pale Ale. Aged in Stainless Steel.

Phew. This apparently works out to 76% Barley Wine style beers, 19% Stout and 5% Imperial IPA, a promising combination to say the least. Alright, enough with the beer wonkery, let's drink this stuff:

Firestone Walker XV Anniversary Ale

Firestone Walker XV - Anniversary Ale - Pours a clear, deep, dark amber color with beautiful ruby highlights and minimal head. The smell is filled with bourbon, oak, vanilla, caramel, and an almost fruity malt character. Jeeze, I don't really know where to start. This is complex stuff. I can definitely pick out the bourbon and barrel aged notes, and it has a distinct, barleywine-ish character... caramel malts, fruity hops, but there's a lot of other stuff going on here. I can taste a hint of roasted malt in the finish. Hops are present but not super-prominent. It's sweet, but not cloying. It doesn't feel bitter though, which speaks to how well balanced this is... Really, a ton of complex flavors, but nothing overpowers the palate. Mouthfeel is a rich, velvety dream. Smooth, light carbonation, just a hint of stickiness in the finish. It's clearly boozy, but I don't know that I'd have guessed that it's as strong as it is. I wouldn't call it a dry beer, but my guess is that it's well attenuated. Overall, this is a great beer. I wish I bought more! A

Beer Nerd Details: 12.5% ABV bottled (22 oz. bomber in box). Drank out of a snifter glass on 4/6/12.

Well, my love for Firestone Walker continues unabated. This is the best I've had from them yet, but I've got a bottle of §ucaba laying around that probably won't last much longer. A big barley wine aged on bourbon, wine, and retired Firestone Union barrels. Should be amazing. Stay tuned for a few more barrel aged beers this week. I've been making a lot of progress against my cellar, and it looks like I'll have a solid week of barrel aged reviews for you coming up...

So I've written about gypsy brewers like Mikkeller or Stillwater before, but a recent comment about contract brewing got me to thinking about the differences between contract brewers and gypsy brewers. For the uninitiated, contract brewing is basically outsourced brewing. People who can't afford breweries themselves find a facility with excess capacity, and leverage that to establish their brand and start building a revenue stream. So I guess the question is: aren't these gypsy brewers just glorified hipster contract brewers?

Contract brewing has something of a negative connotation amongst beer nerds. There's a perception that these brewers are cheating and that the final product would be better considered as something made by the actual brewery involved. The extent of the outsourcing seems to be somewhat variable. There are apparently companies that are really just marketing firms that rely entirely on the contracted brewer for the beer stuff (not hard to see why contract brewing would get a negative reputation in that case). Then there are companies that have a little more control over the end result. In reading around about gypsy brewers, it seems like they have a much more active role in the process. They're physically at the rented facility, making the beers themselves, with minimal involvement of the host brewery.

I suspect we're going to see the devaluation of the term "gypsy brewer" over the next few years as the marketers pick up on the hype and attempt to exploit it. Pretty soon, we'll have "gypsy" brewers making beer at a Miller or AB Inbev plant. Riiiight. In the meantime, it appears that folks like Mikkel Borg Bjergsø (Mikkeller) and Brian Strumke (Stillwater) are the real deal, and their beers really show that, like this IPA from Mikkeller:

Mikkeller Green Gold

Mikkeller Green Gold - Surprisingly dark amber color with minimal head. Tons of hops in the nose, full of pine, and some citrus too. Taste is also dominated by pine and citrus hops along with a very prominent, dry bitterness that hits in the middle and lasts through the finish. There is a nice malt backbone though, enough to balance out the bracing hops. Lightly carbonated and medium bodied, it's not quite refreshing, but it's still easy to drink... Overall, another winner from Mikkeller. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7% ABV on tap. Drank out of a pint glass on 4/1/12.

This is a relatively straightforward brew (apparently one of Mikkel's first IPA recipes), but Mikkeller continues to be one of the more interesting brewers out there (Gypsy or not). I've got another review of his stuff coming soon, and I'm sure I'll continue to explore his ridiculously large selection of beers.

April Beer Club

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Tonight was beer club, a meeting of beer minded individuals from my work who get together for a meal and lots-o-beer once a month. We had a good turnout this month, with quite a few interesting beers to try. As usual, we hit up a local BYOB, this time a sushi place that seems to be a regular beer club venue. Good food (and the waitress put these amazingly intricate designs on our plates - see photo below) and good times were had by all.

April Beer Club
(Click for bigger image)

For the sake of posterity, some thoughts on each beer are below. As usual, these were not ideal conditions, so take it all with a grain of salt or whatever superstition floats your boat. In order of drinking (not in order of the picture above):

  • My Homebrewed Earl Grey Bitter - The first thing we opened was my most recent homebrew, an English bitter style beer brewed with Earl Grey tea. I've actually been sampling this on a weekly basis since bottling, and it keeps getting better. At week 1, it was still very thin, but by week 3, it had really matured into a really nice beer. It is a low gravity beer, so it's not a powerful beer, but it's actually got a lot of flavor packed in for an approximately 4% ABV beer. I don't know that you get a really big Earl Grey component, but there is more citrus here than in your typical bitter, which is exactly what I was going for. It's got a really nice nose, with a light earthy hoppiness and plenty of citrus (from the hops, but probably more from the bergamot and orange peel). The taste matches, and while it is a light and quaffable beer, it's not thin or watery. It's got a certain delicacy to it that wouldn't stand up to stronger flavors, but it's still exactly what I was going for. I'll probably do a separate post on this at some point as well... For now, I'll give it a B+
  • War Horse Peace Bomber German Lager - I'm pretty sure this is a tiny brewery, but one of our beer cub peeps visited New York recently and picked up a bottle for us to enjoy. It turns out to be a pretty straightforward lager, sweet but muted malt character, not a lot of hop character but enough to match the flavors. A solid beer. I'm not too familiar with the Vienna Lager style, but this seems like a worthy example, even if it's not really my thing. B-
  • Philadelphia Brewing Fleur De Lehigh - For those of you not in the know, Lehigh is an Eastern PA town with the third largest city in PA (Allentown). Also notable for Lehigh University, who I seem to recall had some recent sports success, but I don't really know or care about the details (probably because it had something to do with the contemptible sport of basketball)... The beer looked like a wheat beer and the nose is very much in line with a Belgian wit beer, light with very interesting and heavy spicing. But I didn't get much in the way of wheat out of the taste (Update: probably because there was no wheat in the beer! It's actually classified as a standard Belgian pale ale.) Still, it's got a similar sort of light-bodied summer-drinking character. It's not something that knocked my socks off or anything, but it would make a nice warm-weather quencher. My friend Mike gave this a nice writeup in Epikur magazine (though he only gave it 2 out of 5 stars) I'll say: B-
  • 5even Dillon Imperial Pilsner - This was the other beer club homebrewer's beer, and it turned out great. Sweet, assertively hopped but not overpoweringly so, and a nice, quaffable mouthfeel. B+
  • Lester's Fixins Bacon Soda - Bonus non-alcoholic review! Bacon flavored soda? Sounds disgusting? Well guess what? It is disgusting! Ok, so maybe it's not that bad, but I didn't really care for it. Overly sweet and not really much in the way of bacon flavor. (unratable!)

    Bacon Soda
  • Lagunitas Hop Stoopid - I've had this before (I even reviewed it), and it's just as good as last time, though I will say that it wasn't quite as bitter as I remembered (not that it was a bitter bomb last time, but still). Great citrus and pine character, highly drinkable beer. It shall remain at the most excellent A- level I rated it before!
  • The Bruery and Cigar City Collaboration: Marrón Acidifié - This was my other contribution for the night, and it's another beer I've already reviewed in detail. I'm really hoping that we'll get to see more of this stuff, but I have a feeling this will be the last I ever see of this collaboration. As sours go, I think it may be my favorite, and as I've noticed before, it goes exceptionally well (luckily, a fellow beer club member had stopped at famous West Chester chocolatier Eclat recently and had a nice dark chocolate bar available, which really goes well with the Flanders Oud Bruin style). Excellent stuff. A
And we called it a night after that. I had also brought a Founders Porter (reviewed recently) and a Centennial IPA (review forthcoming!), but we never cracked them open. We also didn't get to the DuClaw Soul Jacker (a blend of Blackjack Stout and Devil's Milk barleywine), but maybe I can pick a bottle of that stuff up for later! I will leave you with a picture of a plate of sushi:

Sushi plate and design
(Click for bigger image)

Beautiful stuff, and each of our plates had custom, hand-drawn artwork that was just as intricate and pretty.

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

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Back in the day, when I was still trying to wrap my head around the daunting complexity of the beer world, I put together a dorky list of beers I should try. It was based on recommendations from friends and things I read on teh internets (because that's a trustworthy and reliable source, right?) Anyways, this was one of the beers suggested to me (by frequently mentioned beverage compatriot Padraic), and in true Kaedrin fashion, I picked up a bottle about two years later, and here we are:

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja - Pours a dark amber color with a a bit less than a finger of whitish head. Smells funky, with some Brettanomyces character and that twang that makes me expect sour flavors, but there's also some malt sweetness peeking through. The taste is very sweet with a tartness emerging in the finish. It's not super sour, but that twang is there, along with some of that barnyard Brett character. Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied. The sourness makes it more of a sipper, but it's not heavy. Overall, quite solid, a nice example of the style. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7.2% ABV bottled (750 ml capped). Drank out of a tulip glass on 4/21/12.

Yeah, so I'm, uh, still working through that list of beers I made in 2010. For the most part, I'm not actively pursuing the list (rather, the list of stuff I want to try that resides in my head has grown exponentially - I should really post a most wanted list or something), but I've actually made a great deal of headway. One of these days I'll pick up a bottle of Rodenbach, as was also suggested to me way back when. I do not forget these things... it just sometimes takes a few years for me to get to them.

The Monkey Julius

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I'm not entirely convinced by the whole beer coctail craze - beer is good all by itself, thanks - but I have to admit, this does sound pretty good:

I'm a little surprised that I've not reviewed Golden Monkey on the blog yet, a situation that will have to be rectified soon. But this coctail does sound pretty interesting. Orange juice seems like a really nice match to the spiced Belgian tripel style that Golden Monkey falls into, and the sparkling wine would give it an extra efferfescence. Sounds like a great brunch drink, and a nice alternative to the bloody mary (a drink I've never quite been able to get behind).

Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA

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Dogfish Head is always producing interesting, if perhaps a bit gimmicky, beers. Unfortunately, interesting doesn't always translate to "tastes good". Yeah, yeah, you developed the recipe from some three thousand year old tomb, but it doesn't taste very good (I'm looking at you, Midas Touch!) And lately, it seems like everything has to have the weirdest ingredients ever. But when it comes to more normal styles, Dogfish Head can really nail it. In particular, they're great at IPAs. Their Minute series of beers is exceptional. I'm sure many would call the whole continually hopped nature of the series something of a gimmick, but compared to some of the other stuff they do, I think it's a valid approach.

The 60 Minute IPA is an excellent take on a standard style (though I may have overrated it a bit), the 90 Minute is an exceptional beer (and the best thing Dogfish Head makes), and the 120 Minute is a monster. Then there are the variations. Squall is bottle conditioned 90 Minute IPA, and it's really nice (alas, this beer was discontinued... in favor of the beer I'm reviewing today). Burton Baton is wood aged 90 Minute IPA, also a fantastic beer. And now we come to the 75 Minute IPA, a blend of the 60 and 90 Minute beers, with additional dry hopping and bottle conditioned with maple syrup. Also, I think this is their first beer bottled in their fancy new embossed bottles...

Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA

Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA - Pours a bright but slightly cloudy golden color with tons of billowy white head. Smells strongly of sugary sweet citrus, with plenty of pine and hints of something else too. Perhaps a bready yeast character? And as it warms, it takes on a more earthy character. Taste has a nice, sweet profile that eventually gives way to a nice dry bitterness in the finish. You get a little of that citrus and pine flavor too, and again, something I'm having trouble placing. Perhaps it's the yeast or the maple syrup... and again, as it warms, an earthiness emerges. Mouthfeel is strongly carbonated, but still surprisingly light to medium bodied. I haven't had a 90 Minute IPA in quite a while, but this feels a lot lighter. Overall, a damn good IPA and a solid addition to the minute series (though I think I still prefer the 90 Minute). B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7.5% ABV bottled (750 ml capped). Drank out of a tulip on 4/12/12.

While Dogfish Head can be hit-or-miss with me, I'm always at least interested in trying their stuff. I don't really have anything in the pipeline right now, though I do have a couple bottles of 120 Minute aging in the cellar right now, along with the monster World Wide Stout (both of which are beers I really love).

Firestone Walker Double Jack

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Firestone Walker has one of my favorite logos, mostly because it features a standing bear holding up its paws like an old-timey boxer. This is across from a more typical rearing lion figure that nevertheless seems like it's relying on wimpy slaps (though, granted, it looks like it has some pretty vicious claws) in the implied fight to the death depicted on most labels.

Firestone Walker logo

Oh, and I guess the brewery is somewhat known for their beer too. While it's far from my first of their beers, this is the first time I've actually reviewed one... a situation that will reverse itself in a few weeks, I suspect, as a few others are in the pipeline. There are many interesting things about the brewery, especially their philosophy on barrel fermentation, but since this particular beer is fermented on stainless steel like most other beers, I'll save the barrel discussion for later:

Firestone Walker Double Jack

Firestone Walker Double Jack - Pours a gorgeous clear golden color with a finger of white, fluffy head. Smells strongly of bright citrus with some resiny pine aromas peeking through as well. As it warms, maybe some more floral notes come out to play. Taste also has a nice citrus and pine character to it, with a robust bitterness emerging in the middle and intensifying through the finish. Mouthfeel is smooth, medium bodied, and goes down pretty easy. Overall, fantastic double IPA. I feel like I should have more to say about a beer that is this good, but the only thing that comes to mind is that... I want more! A-

Beer Nerd Details: 9.5% ABV bottled (22 oz. bomber). Drank out of a snifter on 4/7/12. Label sez: 02/29/12 (presumably bottling date).

I've had some of their standard Union Jack IPA before, and I really enjoyed that. I actually mentioned Walker's Reserve Porter in my Oscars post, though I never got around to doing a full review. I wasn't a huge fan, but it's a solid take on a style I don't usually love. Coming up, we've got Firestone Walker XV, their blended anniversary monster beer that everyone's been raving about (as will I, when I get to the review, probably next week!) and Sucaba, another barrel aged barley wine that I'm very much looking forward to... Basically, they're a brewery to look out for...

Another Note on Commenting

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One of the really annoying things about running your own site and blog software is that spammers are a constant pain in the arse. As such, hosts often implement new and fun (and by "fun" I mean invasive and disruptive) security measures... which can sometimes wreak havoc on blogging software, particularly the commenting. Those who've tried to comment in the past week or two may have had a great deal of difficulty, as certain authentication methods (particularly Wordpress.com) were throwing nasty little 403 Forbidden errors. Other methods had sporadic problems. It looked like it was fixed earlier in the week, but apparently something else changed.

Well, that should all be corrected now. A thousand pardons for the inconvenience. I've got some ideas for future enhancements to the site, but progress is slow, and I'd rather spend my time writing posts than figuring out a way to optimize the way the site rebuilds after a comment. So commenting is going to remain a bit funky, but it should work. Now if you'll excuse me, this beer ain't gonna drink itself.

Lavery Imperial Red Ale

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So I've heard a lot about these Erie, PA brewers from the guys over at Aleheads, who did a great interview with the founder, Jason Lavery. As such, when I noticed a few bottles popping up here in Eastern PA, I jumped at the chance to try some of this stuff. Selection is still limited and I'm holding out hope for their summer seasonal, apparently a huge saison-style beer. In the meantime, I figured I'd check out this Imperial Red Ale.

This can be a bit of a strange style. A lot of times, it comes out like a reddish IPA or DIPA (think Gordon/G'Knight or Yule Smith Winter), but in this case, it was much more recognizable as a souped up Irish Red Ale. Knowing more about the brewery now, this is unsurprising, as these brewers are Irish, and you can see that influence all throughout their catalog.

Apparently the recipe for this has changed significantly. They originally used all Amarillo hops, one of the most popular and trendy varieties out there, but apparently small breweries can experience supply problems... From the Aleheads interview: "It's a really sad story. The Imperial Red Ale was originally all Amarillo. From the hops in the kettle to the dry hops, but our hop contractor told us that since we're so small, we won't be getting any more Amarillo until 2013." Well, crap. I love me some Amarillo hops. They've got this bright, juicy citrus flavor and aroma that's just very difficult to replicate, hence Lavery's woes. The beer I had was apparently a blend of Centennial, Cascade, and Nugget, but I'd love to get my hands on some of that Amarillo version someday (perhaps next year!), assuming the great hop contractor conspiracy deems it acceptable.

Anyway, I cracked this open to celebrate the return of Game of Thrones. It's not a very... Irish... show or anything, but something about this beer seemed to fit with the atmosphere of that series quite well. Go figure.

Lavery Imperial Red Ale

Lavery Imperial Red Ale - Pours a deep, dark red color with two fingers of small bubbled head. Smells are interesting... definitely some sugary sweetness and plenty of hop character, but when put together it's hard to place. Is it... is it like a fruit rollup, but with earthy, piney hops instead of fruit? Geeze, I hate it when reviewers say stuff like that, but that's what I'm getting out of this. The taste features a well balanced sweetness and bitterness, with neither overpowering the other - a relatively mild seeming beer. The malt backbone is similar to that of an Irish Red (amber and caramel malt, probably a hint of roasted malts for color), but unlike most in the style, strong hop flavors hit in the middle with a burst of citrus and pine (but not a lot of that resin character that I usually expect), leading in to a very dry finish. Mouthfeel is surprisingly light to medium bodied, and again, the finish is extremely dry. Overall, it's more like a hopped up Irish Red Ale than anything else, but I like that concept and would gladly try this again. B

Beer Nerd Details: 7.2% ABV bottled (22 oz. bomber). Drank out of a tulip glass on 4/1/12.

Well, there you have it. An interesting first taste, but I'm intrigued by a lot of Jason's experimental talk in the Aleheads interview... though I have to wonder how much of that stuff will make it over to us Easter PA folk. As previously mentioned, I'm really hoping to get my hands on some of their Imperial French Ale, apparently a summer seasonal...

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Hi, my name is Mark, and I like beer.

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