AleSmith Vietnamese Coffee Speedway Stout

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According to BeerAdvocate, there are currently 34 different variations of AleSmith's venerable Speedway Stout, ranging from numerous different coffee varieties to different barrel aged treatments to totally wacky shit like Tiramisu or Maple Blueberry Pancake. In general, though, what you see at the store is the original Ryan Bros. Coffee version, which is fantastic, to be sure, but you hear about all these variants and can't help but wonder... The grand majority of this stuff is probably brewery-only distribution, but one can't help but pine for a taste. So I was more than a little surprise when a little birdy told me that a local beeratorium was going to be tapping a keg of Vietnamese Coffee Speedway Stout, a particularly prized variant. Despite my legendary antipathy towards coffee stouts, I rather enjoyed regular Speedway, and still wanted to get a taste of the good stuff.

So what makes this special? First made in 2012, this beer utilizes a blend of four Vietnamese coffees, known in Vietnam as cà phê sa đá, that are then slow roasted at low temperature (a salient point, and perhaps one of the reasons I like this - that treatment supposedly lends a less bitter, less roasty, less burnt flavor, though I'm obviously taking someone's word for this since I'm not a coffee guy) and brewed using traditional Phin-style filter. Looking into this, it seems a bit odd, because the Phin-style filter is a single-cup, gravity driven brewing tool, so did they brew enough for a full batch of beer using single cups? Whatever the case, it worked, because the result is a wonderful beer (erm, not the greatest picture, sorry about that):

AleSmith Vietnamese Coffee Speedway Stout

AleSmith Vietnamese Coffee Speedway Stout - Yes, it's black with half a finger of tan head that leaves lacing as I drink. Smell has a great vanilla component, but the typical roasty, coffee, dark chocolate notes also make the requisite appearance, seems less intense but more complex. Taste is all rich, dark malts, caramel, vanilla, well balanced hop bitterness, a healthy roastiness, and yes, a very nice mellow coffee, especially in the finish. We all know I'm no coffee fiend, but this is my kind of coffee beer. I had this a second time later in the week and felt that the vanilla component wasn't as prominent, but I'm guessing that was just because I had it after drinking a bunch of other beers. Mouthfeel is full bodied and moderately carbonated, well balanced but a little boozy heat makes itself known, especially as it warms up. Overall, right up at the top of my coffee beer ranking... A-

Beer Nerd Details: 12% ABV on tap (10 ounce pour). Drank out of a tulip glass on 11/7/15.

After getting a small taste of BA Speedway, and now this, I'm thinking I need to get on the ball with AleSmith's special releases!

So we all know about Abbaye De Saint Bon-Chien due to their delicious hybrid beer/wine nature and pricey vintages. Those swanky Swiss brewers make some damn fine beer, but those releases are all big blends of a variety of barrels. However, they do make some individual barrel releases to hone in on a specific character, and those beers are marked with the Grand Cru designation (remember, though, Grand Cru means almost nothing in the world of beer and is never consistently applied between brewers). This particular bottle comes from Rum casks, and is labeled "Megamix Rum Casks Vol 2", which I assume means this is the second time they've done rum casks or something like that. It would be interesting to taste a few different Grand Cru expressions, and I'm sure I could afford the second mortgage it would take to make that happen. We'll just have to live with the single bottle my procurement department scrounged up. Woe is me.

BFM Abbaye De Saint Bon-Chien Grand Cru 2015 (Megamix Rum Casks Vol 2)

BFM Abbaye De Saint Bon-Chien Grand Cru 2015 (Megamix Rum Casks Vol 2) - Pours a moderate amber color with a cap of off white head. Smells along the lines of regular old Bon-Chien, hints of vinegar, oak, and vanilla, but with less of a vinous feel. I don't really get rum, per say, but it does feel more spirits based than wine based, so that type of barrel character is coming through in the nose. Now the taste, on the other hand, does feature rum rather prominently, along with typically mellow Bon Chien acetic sourness, and some general malt sweetness that plays well with the rum sweetness. Mouthfeel is rich and full bodied, not as sour or acidic as usual, but that's there too. Carbonation a little low, but that might be a general feature of Bon Chien. Overall, this is an interesting twist on the Bon Chien paradigm, tasty and worth checking out, but perhaps not as complex or balanced as regular Bon Chien. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 11% ABV bottled (375 ml). Drank out of a wine glass on 11/6/15. Brewed in 2013. Bottled in 2015 (somewhere around March 2015).

Not too shabby, and I'd have to imagine some barrels would be better for this treatment than others, so I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for more...

session_logo.jpgThe Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants, along with a short pithy critique of each entry. You can find more information on The Session on Brookston Beer Bulletin.

I've sporadically participated in "The Session" many times over the years, but this is the first time I've hosted. Many thanks to those who took the time to put together a post on this month's chosen topic, a "Double Feature", wherein participants drank two beers, compared and contrasted, and maybe even paired with some form of media for extra credit. Let's check out your responses:

First up, Sara Q. Thompson takes on two Imperial Stouts made with coffee that were aged between 1.5 and 2 years. Coffee is one of those ingredients that tends to fall off over time, so this is certainly an interesting approach. For the media pairing, it Sara points to the Taster's Choice Gold Blend saga, a series of flirtatious coffee commercials (And she's in good company: Stanley Kubrick was apparently fascinated by the storytelling economy in coffee commercials, and would recut them to make them even more concise.)

Next, Sara's husband Mark Lindner went British, pairing two Samuel Smith Organic beers with the last two episodes of Doctor Who Series 2 [reboot, David Tennant]. I have to say, that pale ale doesn't look pale at all, and from the sounds of it, it wasn't particularly fresh, which is a pity. "So the moral, I guess, is old TV shows are OK to visit for either the first time or to revisit, as the case may be, but other than the beers-that-can-be-aged most beers should not be."

The Beer Nut has some choice words for celebrity chefs and their bumbling attempts at beer tie-ins. "It's always mediocre, lowest-common-denominator, beer for people who aren't especially interested in beer." J'accuse! Will Kevin Dundon's pair of beers, brewed "round the back of his posh country house hotel", break down The Beer Nut's cynicism? Or will they be the same bland, uninspired stuff of most celebrity chef fare? Only one way to find out, and along the way, we're treated to some thoughts on beer and food pairing as well.

Gary Gillman over at Beer et seq. busts out "two beers, both lagers, yet different as can be." Unimpressed with each, he takes to blending the two together to see if a more harmonious brew results, always an interesting exercise.

Derrick Peterman at Ramblings of a Beer Runner strains our premise to near its breaking point by drinking a pair of Ciders. Ciders! Actually, I love that he went far afield on this one, and I learned that ciders are more of "a study in subtleties". Plus, Derrick perfectly captures what I was going for when I chose my topic:

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for crystal ball gazing, thinking deeply on esoteric beer concepts, or waxing philosophical on beer culture. But I love his Session topic harks back to an earlier, simpler time of The Session, where the idea was let's all drink a beer and talk about it. Maybe too many topics only a hard core beer geek could possibly care about, let alone write about, was a big part of why The Session was almost no more.
Indeed, and I'm happy my topic seemed to have the intended effect.

Tom Bedell recalls previous beer duos and then devises some of the most excellent movie pairings for those beers that I've seen (certainly the best of this Session!) Filmic choices range from Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry, to Anchorman, Rocky, and even Sophie's Choice (that last a particularly good choice when rating two great beers). The movie nerd in me adores this post. Well done Tom!

The Brew Site's Jon Abernathy also picks up on my purpose for the topic, noting recent higher-concept sessions and calling this one a homecoming of sorts. To celebrate, Jon picks up two canned, hop-driven session beers, one a hoppy saison, the other a straight up session IPA. Both sound great!

Sean Inman at Beer Search Party surveys a pair of Victory beers, going for a sorta old-school East Coast IPA battle I guess. I like how Headwaters has morphed from an American Pale Ale to a "Quasi-Session IPA" because that's basically what a Session IPA is anyway. While he's at it, he dissects the can designs as well. For the movie pairing, he picks a duo of Steve Jobs bio-picks and laments the lack of available suds at movie theaters (dear Alamo Draft House, if you're reading, please open theaters in LA and Philadelphia, thank you.)

A Good Beer Blog's Alan McLeod has done this. He's done this a lot. Over a decade ago. In fact, he points to a couple of quadruple features and a triple feature before settling on an actual double feature (interesting tidbit, I'm pretty sure that's my buddy Mike correcting the location of Victory brewing on that IPA post, heh). He mentions these exercises were helpful in trying to "figure out my own lexicon of tastes and descriptions", and that's my recollection as well. Bonus: we get another round in Alan's ongoing feud with Oliver Gray. Delicious.

Finally, your humble host contributed a pair of entries of his own. One welcoming Almanac to Pennsylvania, the other a more harmonious combination of beer and movies, a tribute to Wes Craven. And I'm sure I'll continue to play with such things in the future, so stay tuned!

Also of note, Boak and Baily didn't get a chance to put together a post for this session, but as it turns out, they were already embroiled in a series of posts on Bottled Milds that actually seems appropriate. This one even compares a canned mild versus the same beer in a bottle. That is a great double feature, if you ask me!

And that just about covers it. If I missed you or if you want to be a little late to the party, feel free to send your post to me via email at mciocco at gmail dot com or hit me up on twitter @KaedrinBeer (apologies again for the misbehaving comment system I have in this antiquated blog).

Next up for The Session, while not officially announced just yet, appears to be Holiday Beers, hosted by one of the founders of the Session, Jay at Brookston Beer Bulletin.

Update: Added another entry from Beer Search Party...

Wes Craven Double Feature

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session_logo.jpgOn the first Friday of every month, there's a beer blog roundup called The Session. Someone picks a topic, and everyone blogs about it. This time around, I'm hosting a discussion on Double Features:

So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to drink two beers, compare and contrast. No need for slavish tasting notes, but if you want to, that's fine too. The important part is to highlight how the two beers interact with one another during your session (pun intended!) For extra credit, pair your beers with two films to make your own Double Feature. Now, I'm a big tent kinda guy, so feel free to stretch this premise to its breaking point. The possibilities are endless!
Endless indeed! This is the second iteration on the theme I've posted this week.

This time, we've got a more harmonious double feature, two beers and two movies themed around Wes Craven. Since his passing, I've been catching up with some of his work I hadn't seen before and revisiting his classics. On Halloween, we had a little mini-marathon, starting off with his most famous work, A Nightmare on Elm Street. The premise alone establishes it as one of the purest distillations of horror ever committed to film. Is there anything more inescapable and terrifying than a monster that can get you in your dreams? We could debate some third act issues, but it's still a classic.

Nightmares on Brett Street

To pair with this, we've got a doozy from Colorado, Crooked Stave's Nightmare on Brett, a clear reference to Craven's masterpiece (also paired with some Eclat Chocolate, because why not?) There are a bazillion variants of this beer, but this one was aged in Leopold Bros. Whiskey barrels with cherries. Previous iterations indicate that the base for this was a soured baltic porter, and the aging intervals are usually pretty long (1 year plus). I'm also not sure if the cherries were included in the past, but this one is pretty clear. Clocking in at the cheeky ABV of 9.666% ABV, it was the perfect accompaniment and tribute to Craven and his movie:

Crooked Stave Nightmare On Brett

Crooked Stave Nightmare On Brett (Leopold Bros. Whiskey Barrel-Aged) - Pours like a stout, a murky black color with a finger of light brown head, quite nice looking. Smells fantastic, an almost chocolate covered cherry aspect that pervades the nose, but also a hint of roast and musty funk. Taste goes in with sweet and sour up front, cherries, actually let's call them rich caramelized cherries, less in the way of chocolate but those dark malts are there and come out more towards the finish, which is also quite sour and a bit funky. Lingers a bit on those sour and funky notes. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, medium to full bodied, with a barrel aged richness cut by moderate acidity. Pretty easy going for the ABV. Overall, this is quite spectacular. A

Beer Nerd Details: 9.666% ABV bottled (375 ml). Drank out of a flute glass on 10/31/15. Bottled September 2015.

Next up, some lesser Craven, a movie called Deadly Blessing. One of the few Craven directed movies I've not actually seen, there's certainly a reason for that, but as with literally everything I've seen from Craven, he has this X-factor, a way of getting under your skin that is usually present in varying levels. It's true, this isn't a tremendous film, but it's got lots going for it, and some really effective sequences that make it worth seeking out for students of the genre. To match, we cracked open a growler of an unsoured baltic porter from Tired Hands called, appropriately, Craven (part of their Horror Auteurs theme for the season - which includes beers named after Carpenter, Argento, Hitchcock, and others!) Just one of the many reasons I love Tired Hands so much. The beer's pretty good too:

Tired Hands Craven

Tired Hands Craven - Pours a deep, dark brown color with a finger of tan head. Smells nice, sweet dark malts, hints of roasted marshmallow, baker's chocolate, maybe even coffee (maybe even coffee with sugar and creme). Taste has much more of a roasted character to it, some coffee-like flavors coming through, but also dark chocolate and just a hint of molasses, finishing back on that roasted tip. Mouthfeel is full bodied, well carbonated, and well attenuated (not dry, but not a sugar bomb either), no hints of the booze at all despite the highish ABV of 9.8%. As it warms, it feels a little more rich and chewy, but nothing ridiculous. Tired Hands isn't really known for their darker beers, and this probably won't change that, but it's certainly worthy. Overall, a rock solid baltic porter here, tasty and complex enough to stand apart from the crowd. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 9.8% ABV from a growler (1L swingtop). Drank out of a charente glass on 10/31/15. Growler filled 10/31/15.

It was quite a night. Is it really fair to compare a soured baltic porter with a non-soured baltic porter? Nope! But it was interesting nonetheless, and while it's hard to compare the two against each other, they do work well as contrasts. Anywho, we popped in Scream after Deadly Blessings, though we were still working our way through Craven. It's very much a product of its time, but if you keep that in mind (as you should), it holds up reasonably well.

Big thanks to Kaedrin beverage compatriot Jeff for smuggling the Nightmare on Brett bottle back from Colorado when he went to GABF back in September!

There may be one more Double Feature this week, or maybe not, depending on my mood (it wouldn't be beer anyway, so don't hold your breath), and of course, the roundup will be posted this weekend. I hope you're all toiling over your posts as we speak!

session_logo.jpgOn the first Friday of every month, there's a beer blog roundup called The Session. Someone picks a topic, and everyone blogs about it. This time around, I'm hosting a discussion on Double Features:

So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to drink two beers, compare and contrast. No need for slavish tasting notes, but if you want to, that's fine too. The important part is to highlight how the two beers interact with one another during your session (pun intended!) For extra credit, pair your beers with two films to make your own Double Feature. Now, I'm a big tent kinda guy, so feel free to stretch this premise to its breaking point. The possibilities are endless!
Endless indeed, hence I'm going to post at least two double features this week in anticipation of the big event on Friday.

First up, a double feature of convenience. Longtime readers know I'm a big fan of San Francisco's Almanac Beer Co. and while I've been able to snag a bottle here or there through means, they've just recently started distributing to the Philadelphia area in earnest. As such, every time I go to the store, I find myself drawn to purchase another of their delicious beers I've not had before. A hearty welcome to Pennsylvania from all of us (i.e. me) here at Kaedrin:

Welcome to PA

Anywho, here are two beers I cracked open this weekend whilst viewing a bunch of horror movies in honor of Halloween (notably Trick 'r Treat and Ghostbusters, neither of which are particularly well suited to the beers I'm drinking except that, well, they're all quite good!) First up is Citra Sour, the first of a new series of single hopped sour beers (up next is Simcoe Sour), an interesting fusion of styles that has never quite caught on, but which might if efforts like this keep things going. Truth be told, I think I prefer the straight up fruited sours moreso than hopped sours, but variety is a good thing, and this is pretty tasty.

Citra Sour

Almanac Citra Sour - Pours a cloudy straw yellow with a finger of white head that sticks around for a while. Smells... interesting, that Citra hop character is prominent, floral citrus notes, but an underlying sour twang is there as well. Taste is a good deal more vinous than the nose would suggest, clearly those wine barrels kicking in, and the oak features prominently as well. The Citra hops do kick in about halfway through and persist through the sour finish. Quite puckering, actually, I think the hops only serve to intensify the sourness. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, light, bright, and quite acidic. Overall, I'm still not convinced that high amounts of hops are a great match with sour, but this is still rather nice. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7% ABV bottled (375 ml). Drank out of a flute glass on 10/30/15. Bottled July 2015.

After letting the palate cool off for a bit, I cracked open Farmer's Reserve Citrus, which I believe is the same base Sour Blond Ale aged in wine barrels, but instead of hops, we've got a melange of citrus fruits, including Buddha's Hand Citron, Blood Orange, and Yuzu. The Farmer's Reserve stuff have been my favorite offerings from Almanac, and this one did not disappoint:

Almanac Farmers Reserve Citrus

Almanac Farmer's Reserve Citrus - Pours a mostly clear golden yellow color with a finger of short lived white head. Smells more funky, some citrus and sour twang, but some earthy Brett character pitching in here too. Taste again hits with that earthy, musty funk, lots of tart citrus fruit, a little wine barrel, oak and vanilla, and finishing with a nice sour bite. Mouthfeel is slightly less carbonated, still light and bright, the acidity feeling a bit less intense too. Overall, this is not quite as intense, but it is much more balanced than the Citra Sour. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 7% ABV bottled (375 ml). Drank out of a flute glass on 10/30/15. Bottled June 2015.

So there you have it. Next up in the Double Feature realm will be a much more harmonious beer and filmic pairing centered around Wes Craven. Stay tuned! And if you've got a blog, feel free to play along. More details on The Session and how to participate can be read here!

Prairie Okie

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Okie is the shortened form of Okie Dokie, which is itself an alternate way to say Okay, which can be abbreviated OK, which is the two letter state code for Oklahoma, which is where Prairie Artisan Ales is based, which is why this beer is named Okie. Though clearly it should be called Oakie, since this is a whiskey barrel aged imperial brown ale. We will give them the benefit of the doubt and guess that these Prairie guys don't enjoy puns as much as most brewers. You stay classy Prairie. In the meantime, I will drink your beer:

Prairie Okie

Prairie Okie - Pours a clear, deep brown color with some amber highlights and half a finger of white head. Smells of dark malts, toasty, nutty, toffee, not a lot of barrel character, but some vanilla comes through. Taste is very sweet, some of that typical brown ale toast character, a little nutty, maybe hints of molasses, again very little bourbon barrel, but it's there, and it contributes to the sweetness factor. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, full bodied, very sweet, almost creamy. Full bodied, but not super heavy, and it feels mellower than you'd expect from a BA imperial brown. Overall, this is quite nice, though one could wish for a little more barrel character. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 12% ABV bottled (12 ounce). Drank out of a snifter on 10/24/15. Bottled July 11, 2015 (I think).

I think I've generally enjoyed everything I've ever had from Prairie, but few things have blown me away. This one is on the upper end, and I have generally been impressed with their barrel aged stuff. Nothing on the immediate horizon, but I will clearly be seeking out more from these fine gentlemen.

The Bruery Cuir

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The Kaedrin beer cellaring program, also known as that shelf in my basement, is getting out of hand. As such, I think it behooves us to dip into some of these well aged bottles and see how they're doing. Tonight we tackle a bottle that we've intentionally aged for a while, The Bruery's third anniversary ale, Cuir (French for "leather", corresponding to traditional wedding gifts). This series holds a certain sentimental value for me, so the Kaedrin cellarman always ensures I have a bottle to age each year. We know from experience that these age reasonably well, though at 4ish years old, this represents the oldest Bruery Anniversary beer I've had yet.

2011 was also the last year where only a portion of the standard release was aged in bourbon barrels (25% of this bottle was BBA, though there was a 100% BBA version that the cool kids got to drink), so I expect the fruity aspects to come out more than the recent, more Bourbon forward entries. I won't rehash the pedantic Solera discussion yet again, but it is one of the more interesting long-term projects going on in the beer world these days. Clocking in at 14.5% ABV, this is a bit of a project to take down, but it's a delicious project and certainly more manageable than the recent 16+% ABV entries. I actually wonder if it might be beneficial to do another blending year in order to keep the ABV in check, and allow for some additional complexity. Anywho, enough preamble, let's get down with some swanky leather sugar water:

The Bruery Cuir

The Bruery Cuir - Pours a deep, murky brown color, maybe some robey tones if you look at it right, and just a cap of slowly-forming, off-white head. Smells deeply of dark fruit, plums, raisins, caramel, toffee with just enough oak and vanilla to offset the fruit and malt. Taste starts off sweet, with rich caramel, toffee, vanilla, and oak, but those dark fruit notes come through strong too, maybe some chocolate covered fruit caramels or something like that (do such glorious things exist?), hints of unidentifiable spice (cinnamon?), finishing with a bit of booze and that fruit. Mouthfeel is full bodied, rich, and chewy, low to medium but perfectly calibrated carbonation, some sticky sugary qualities, a bit of boozy heat but it doesn't quite feel as strong as it is. Overall, this is a beauty, rich, intense, and complex, but it's right up my alley. It's definitely showing its age, but hasn't started a decline just yet. A

Beer Nerd Details: 14.5% ABV bottled (750 ml black waxed cap). Drank out of a snifter on 10/23/15. Vintage: 2011. Bottle Number: 06677.

A delicious trip into the cellar. More are sure to be coming in the near(ish) future, so stay tuned...

Fiddlehead Understable

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Is it surprising that people in Vermont like to play Disc Golf? Is it surprising that world champions Nate Doss and Valarie Jenkins actually play Disc Golf for a living? Is it surprising that Vermonters like Nate and Valarie really like beer and are homebrewers? Is it surprising that a visitor from Vermont very generously gifted this beer to me? To answer those questions: No. Yes. No. Yes!

It's always funny when you meet people you know from the internet out here in real life. This has happened to me a few times, most recently this past weekend when @LipstickNLager visited the Philly area (we met up with some other beer Twitter peeps). Much fun was had by all, and she generously offered a couple of us cans of this exclusive Fiddlehead Session IPA that were brewed for the Green Mountain Disc Golf Championship (and only really available there). Fiddlehead is one of the new crop of Vermont brewers tearing up the scene and I've quite enjoyed most of what I've had from them, so this was a most welcome development. I know squat about Disc Golf, but near as I can tell "Understable" is a reference to disc stability (i.e. it's tendency to bank laterally). I can't find any details on hops used, but my SWAG is that this is some Nelson Sauvin juice right here, very nice:

Fiddlehead Understable

Fiddlehead Understable - Pours a slightly hazy, very pale yellow color with a couple fingers of fluffy white head, retention, and lacing. Fabulous nose on this, lots of juicy citrus hops, but also some grassy, floral notes. Taste starts off with those floral characteristics, moves on to the citrus towards the finish, which has a nice, bitter bite to it. Mouthfeel is crisp, light, and refreshing, very dry, crushable. Overall, this is a rock solid session IPA, the sort of thing you'd love to have on a hot afternoon in the sun (while disc golfing, I guess). B+

Beer Nerd Details: 4.8% ABV canned (12 ounce). Drank out of a tulip glass on 10/18/15. Caned 09/16/15.

Fiddlehead continues to be a winner in my book, and I will always be keeping an eye out for Second Fiddle and whatever else they have available. Many thanks to LipstickNLager again for sharing this beauty with us!

Logsdon Far West Vlaming

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Everyone loses their mind when a brewery sells out, but the business of brewing is one of those topics I just can't seem to get too worked up about. That being said, I can get on board with the anxiety of a sell out if it's one of your favorite breweries. There's a natural worry that your favorite beer will be reformulated or go away completely because the new regime is unenlightened or something. So when I heard news of David Logsdon's sell out of Logsdon Farmhouse Ales along with a simultaneous announcement that Brett Porter was leaving (one of the best brewer names ever, right up their with Wayne Wambles) I was a little worried. Seizoen Bretta is one of my favorite beers and a go-to way to blow less-beer-focused minds, Oak Aged Bretta is spectacular, and Peche 'n Brett is delicious. I don't want to lose these brews!

Fortunately, there are a few bright spots in this whole transaction. Firstly, this wasn't a sellout to a giant multi-national conglomerate, but to another relatively small beer-focused local business. Second, Logsdon will still be involved: "I am not stepping away from Logsdon Farmhouse Ales. I am stepping away from the day to day operations of running this farmhouse brewery. I will still be overseeing the brewing and recipe development and quality control with no plans to remove myself from that." Finally, this might even involve more availability, which would be a great thing for this beer. So it appears all my old favorites aren't going away and will still be under the watchful eye of David Logsdon. That's a relief! To celebrate, lets crack one of their specialties...

Far West Vlaming is a reference to the West-Flanders style of beer historically brewed by the Flemish people (a Germanic ethnic group who speak dutch, and to bring it all together, Flemish translates to Vlaming in Dutch). I'm not an expert on brewing this style, but there are some distinct practices here. It's a mixed fermentation, meaning standard saccharomyces yeast in primary, followed by a wild secondary fermentation (Brett and souring bacterias) and a long stint in oak. The resulting juice is then blended with young beer to balance out the sourness. Logsdon's take differs from most Flanders Reds that I've had in two ways: 1. It's highly carbonated and effervescent (the style is usually lower to medium) and 2. It's mostly a lactic sourness as opposed to an acetic sourness (i.e. no real vinegar type flavors here). Of course, there's nothing wrong with either of those things, and the resulting beer is delicious, but it doesn't really feel anything like other Flanders Reds that I've had... Let's take a closer look:

Logsdon Far West Vlaming

Logsdon Far West Vlaming - Pours a very pretty, deep orange amber color with a finger or two of fluffy white head that actually sticks around for a change. Smell has that characteristic Logsdon funk, musty with a little earth and lots of fruity esters. Hints of oak and vanilla as it warms. Taste starts off sweet, hits some vinous fruit notes, a little lactic tartness but not super sour, circling back to earthy funk in the finish. Again, as it warms, maybe a little oak comes out, but it's not a big influence. Mouthfeel is highly carbonated and effervescent, medium bodied, only a hint of acidity kicking around. Overall, this ain't no Flanders anything, but it's pretty darned good in its own right and maybe you could just think of it as a different take on a classic style. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 6.5% ABV bottled (750 ml waxed). Drank out of a flute glass on 10/16/15.

I usually try to have some Logsdon bottles around the house in case I get an opportunity to share, and it usually goes over like gangbusters. Well worth seeking out.

Four Seasons Of Mother Earth - Autumn

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According to my record-keeping gnomes, I have reviewed beers from 318 breweries (check them out over there on the right of the page), which sounds like a lot and also like I should seek professional, medical help, but given that the good ol' USA has surpassed 4000 craft breweries (not to mention non-craft and imports), I've barely scratched the surface. To the procurement department! These folks are always busy here at Kaedrin, such that we often collect too much beer, but they also keep their eye out for breweries that are new to me and that are putting out interesting stuff.

Enter Mother Earth Brew Co., a San Diego area brewery that friends have nice things to say about, but which I know almost nothing about. Everyone seems charmed by their IPAs, but we thought we'd check out their barrel program, because we're like that. Four Seasons of Mother Earth is a quarterly release roughly aligned with the various equinoxes and solstices, and every release is different. Last year's Autumn release was a BA stout, this year it's a Bourbon Barrel Aged Quadrupel. There's some florid description about "Johnny Law" on the back of the bottle, but barrel aged quad? Procurement department done good:

Four Seasons Of Mother Earth - Autumn 2015: Johnny Law

Mother Earth Four Seasons Of Mother Earth - Autumn: Johnny Law - Pours a murky amber brown color with a cap of head that is short for this world. Smells utterly fantastic, boozy bourbon and oak, rich caramel, toffee, dark fruit, vanilla. Taste feels a bit muted compared to the nose, but the flavor profile is similar. Caramel and toffee, but not nearly as rich or sweet as you'd expect from the nose. Not as much dark fruit either, but it's there. Bourbon, oak, and vanilla, but surprisingly balanced, maybe more booze emerges as it warms up. Mouthfeel is medium bodied and surprisingly dry, only a hint of stickiness in the finish along with a little boozy heat. Overall, quite an interesting brew, I usually think of dry belgian ales as not working so well with bourbon barrels, but this one bucks the trend, even if it's not necessarily top tier. A high B+

Beer Nerd Details: 12% ABV bottled (22 ounce bomber). Drank out of a tulip glass on 10/9/15. Vintage: Autumn 2015.

Certainly a good first impression, and clearly I need to try out more of their stuff. Also of note, a NC based brewery of basically the same name. I smell epic legal showdown in the future.

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

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