Grade Archives - Kaedrin Beer Blog

Gold Dot

November 20, 2024 by Mark

Usually, when you look up ratings for a lager, even a well respected lager with a long history, you have to sorta grade on a curve. For an IPA or pastry stout, a rating of 3.5 on Untappd is disastrous. But it’s pretty typical for legendary lagers to come in even lower than that.

Naturally, this is why aggregate ratings are kinda goofy. Most of these lagers don’t get hype and the clean, subtle approach simply doesn’t tweak the intensity junkies that made exploding fruit smoothie cans a thing. So they rate low. It’s not really a big deal. Heck, I used to be that guy.

All of which is to say that when I look up a new lager and it’s rated above a 4 on Untappd, some sort of alarm goes off in my head. What bizarre pact with a crossroads demon did these brewers make to get people to like lagers? It at least warrants some investigation. Especially when you look at something like, say, a Rice Lager (not exactly the most respected of styles) that’s rated 4.12.

So I look into these Gold Dot people. It turns out that Gold Dot was started by Lisa Allen and her partner Kevin Davey and they brew all their beers at Heater Allen. That’s weird, I wonder if Lisa has any relation. Oh, she’s the head brewer of Heater Allen, the Portland, OR lager specialists? I guess that explains some things, but it almost raises more questions than it answers. Why create a new brand when you are already one of the most respected lager producers in the country?

As it turns out, there’s a two pronged (twok!) answer to the question. One is that Heater Allen almost exclusively focuses on lagers (some arguable exceptions that turn out to be collaborations, Kolsch is technically an ale but who are they kidding, etc..) and they wanted to make some genuine IPAs (and not just Cold IPAs or otherwise hoppy lagers). The other difference is that Gold Dot beers are filtered, and Heater Allen is not. Is all of this really necessary? Hell if I know, and I have yet to procure one of their IPAs, but these are damn good lagers.

Gold Dot Super Clean Rice Lager – A collaboration with SakéOne, utilizing their Koji to aid fermentation of Calrose rice, which makes up 40% of the grist (this… seems very high to me). Rice is typically used as a cheap adjunct in mass produced lagers (i.e. Bud Light), but I expect the proportions are very different here, as is the Saké-like treatment…

Pours a crystal clear, extremely pale, light yellow color with a finger or so of white had that resolves down to a cap that has good retention and leaves a bit of lacing. Smells lightly of crackers, maybe a hint of earthy noble hops. Taste hits a similar noble hop and crackery character well. Mouthfeel is where this really shines though, light bodied, crisp, dry, and utterly quaffable, I’ve crushed half the can without realizing how quickly this stuff went down. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 4.8% ABV canned (16 ounces). Drank out of a Willi Becher glass on 4/19/24.

Gold Dot Connoisseur’s Choice Export Lager – Pours a clear golden color with a finger or two of fluffy white head with good retention and some lacing. Smells sweeter and fuller than the rice lager (as you’d expect), bready, a bit of biscuit, and a healthy dollop of noble hops. Taste also hits the sweet malt notes well, crackers and biscuits, plenty of noble hop character and a well balanced hop bitterness in the finish. Mouthfeel is a little heavier, but barely medium bodied (if that), well carbonated and crisp, not as dry but still quaffable. Overall, yeah, quite good (and better than Heater Allen’s Export). B+

Beer Nerd Details: 5.6% ABV canned (16 ounces). Drank out of a Willi Becher glass on 4/26/24. Canned on 02/14/24.

Gold Dot Blue Label Dark Lager – Pours a very pretty amber brown color with a solid finger of off-white head. Smells of lightly toasted malt, a hint of caramel, and some light earthiness. Taste is sweet, biscuity malt, light caramel and a bit of toast adding complexity. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, moderately carbonated, and quaffable. Overall, hell yes. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 5.4% ABV canned (16 ounces). Drank out of a on 4/20/24. Canned on 01/26/24.

I’ve had a couple of other Gold Dot beers since these three (which, to be fair, was many moons ago because I’ve been horrible about keeping up the blog) and they’ve been uniformly great. If you fancy a lager and you see Gold Dot (or Heater Allen, while we’re at it), go for it.

Free Will Dystopias

August 1, 2024 by Mark

Free Will made a name for itself (at least, among the all important market segment of “me”) with its Ralphius series of barrel-aged imperial stouts, a project that has been getting more and more ambitious over time. Released on Black Friday, it’s a clear local answer to the now ubiquitous BCBS (this prompts plenty of teeth gnashing from the local beer dorkery about which is better, a digression I will avoid right now because it’s… a pretty boring subject.)

A couple years ago, they also set their sights on another craft beer oddity and released Dystopias, the clear local answer to Sam Adams’ infamous Utopias. Details are a bit sparse, noting only that it’s a “new blend of stock aged for multiple years, in many types of barrels, utilizing a unique fermentation technique along the way, with multiple yeast strains and sugar additions.”

If you’ll permit some wild and unsubstantiated speculation on my part, I’m guessing that there’s some shared DNA with Ralphius (especially given the depth and breadth of their Ralphius barrel stocks in recent years) and Ella, though I wouldn’t be surprised if the yeast, fermentation technique, and sugar additions transformed the result into something less recognizable as such. Or I could be totally off base – the beer does resemble something more like an oxidized barleywine a la Utopias or Xyauyù than a stout or quad. Whatever the case, it’s a delightful mad scientist experiment that turned out great, and I’m happy that this sort of thing is happening locally…

Free Will Dystopias – Pours a deep, dark brown color with maybe a hint of amber, no head or carbonation whatsoever, but it leaves legs as I drink, the same way a liquor would. Smells great, sweet, dark fruit, raisins, dried figs, caramel, toffee, tons of brown sugar, molasses, oak, earthy leather, tobacco, it just keeps going. Taste hits the caramel and toffee a bit harder than the nose would have you believe, but the brown sugar, molasses, and dark fruit (raisins and figs) are all there and making themselves known, plenty of oak and vanilla too, and those amazing leather and tobacco notes, along with a heaping helping of booze. Mouthfeel is rich and full bodied, completely still (no carbonation whatsoever), and while it has alcohol heat, it’s nowhere near as hot as you might expect from a 20.1% ABV monster. Overall, this is amazingly complex stuff and while it might be a bit awkward to say this is balanced, the various elements are in some sort of equilibrium here. It’s fantastic, and compares favorably to stuff like Utopias and Xyauyù and while I don’t usually factor cost into these reviews, this is considerably cheaper than either of those (even if it’s still pretty damn expensive). A

Beer Nerd Details: 20.1% ABV bottled (750 ml whisky style cork). Drank out of a snifter on 5/22/23. Batch 2.

And a surprise bonus review for an unexpected Ralphius variant in last year’s drop:

Free Will Dystopias Ralphius – One of the 14 Ralphius variants released in 2023, this was Ralphius aged for one year in Dystopias barrels (presumably the Dystopias batch one barrels). Pours the standard extra dark black color with a ring of short lived tan head around the edges of the glass (and yet, a light lacing somehow). Smells great, lots of brown sugar, oak, and caramel on top of the stout base. Taste hits rich caramel mingled with brown sugar, molasses, and a heaping helping of booze. Mouthfeel is very lightly carbed (still appropriate for what it is), full bodied, rich, and chewy, with a pleasant boozy heat. Overall, it’s quite distinct from the bourbon barrel variants of Ralphius, while still providing great complementary flavors. My only real comparison point (beyond other Ralphius variants), is Dogfish Head’s Utopias Barrel Aged World Wide Stout, which is nice, but not as distinctive or good as this… A-

Beer Nerd Details: 15.1% bottled (375 ml capped). Drank out of a snifter glass on 11/28/23. A total of ~200 bottles were produced.

While this has turned some heads amongst the Barleywine is Life crowd, the high price tag (while not nearly as high as Utopias) has perhaps let this slip under the radar a bit. Batch 3 was released a few months ago without much fanfare, but I’d say it’s just as nice. I’ve got a bottle in the cellar too, as I suspect this will age spectacularly.

Anywho, as you can tell by the “drank on” dates, this post has been lingering in the drafts folder for quite a while and indeed, there’s quite the backlog of posts in there. I’ve been woefully neglectful of the blog of late, and it’s not like anyone reads this stuff anyway, but I’ll probably bang out a few more in the nearish future.

Moonlight Reality Czeck

April 3, 2024 by Mark

Moonlight Brewing Co is one of those 90s era breweries that’s still kicking, and their catalog reflects this history well. In a good way! They’ve got the occasional wacky offering (a Gruit made with Redwood branches?) but it’s mostly comprised of traditional beer flavored beer.

I’ve heard about a few of their beers quite often, but due to the relatively small size of their brewery, their beer was usually limited to kegs and sold almost exclusively in the San Francisco Bay Area. They played around with cans for their flagships and when the pandemic hit, then pivoted entirely to cans during lockdown (they’ve since settled on a mixture of packaged and kegged). I suppose I could have gotten some poor schmuck to smuggle me an off-brand growler years ago, but that turned out to be unnecessary.

Reality Czeck is their flagship pilsner with a reputation as one of the best in the game. Is this justifiable pride for a hometown brewery’s offering, or does its history as a hyper-specific local offering inflate its ratings? Does everyone do this sort of thing with their local pilsner purveyor? Do pilsners attract a more loyal local following than other styles? I mean, this beer is quite good, but for us Philly area goobers it’s just so much easier to grab a Prima Pils (or one of Human Robot’s many pils offerings). Obviously I’m the type of dork that will jump through hoops to get my hands on a can of this stuff, but most folks probably have a local pils slinger that will do the same job…

Moonlight Reality Czeck – Pours a clear golden yellow color with a few fingers of head, good retention, and lacing as I drink. Smells nice, bread, cracker, with floral, spicy Saaz hops balancing things out. Taste hits that bready cracker character well and the herbal, spicy Saaz pitches in here too, with a nice balancing dry bitterness on the finish (it’s not “bitter” like a WC IPA or anything, but it’s there). Mouthfeel is crisp, clean, well carbonated, and relatively dry, absolutely perfect balance of all elements. Overall, fantastic Pils here… A-

Beer Nerd Details: 4.9% ABV canned (16 ounce pounder). Drank out of a Willibecher on 9/2/23. Canned on: 08/07/23.

I didn’t take detailed notes, but also drank a can of Death & Taxes, a “San Francisco Style Black Lager”, which was quite roasty but also deceptively light bodied. I also got a can of Rythmic Chaos, an old-school American Barleywine that is piney and resinous, a decidedly untrendy approach these days, but it’s actually quite nice and tickled a nostalgic itch. Overall, definitely glad I sought these out and will probably try some of these again, but it’s not like it will displace my local purveyors..

River North Anniversary 11

November 9, 2023November 7, 2023 by Mark

I don’t know much, but I do know that more is always better. More passion. More respect. More gratitude. More empathy. More money. More calories. More alcohol. More weight gain. Not just tension, more tension, hypertension. More cholesterol. More world domination.

Alright, I seem to have gotten turned around here. Some of those… aren’t better. Like I said, I don’t know much, and there’s a reason why, when you google the phrase “more is always better”, you get an endless stream of results about how more is NOT always better.

When it comes to beer, I feel like we’ve been down this road a million times. More hops isn’t necessarily better. More alcohol isn’t necessarily better. And so on. But I will say this: more is often pretty damn interesting, even if it might not be better (and sometimes, you know, it is better). So when I saw this quadruple barrel-aged stout, meaning that the beer went through successive aging in four different sets of barrels, I felt like I had to give it a try.

Lord knows I love barrel-aged beer, and as fancy beer trends continue to evolve, the barrels get swankier, the aging goes longer, and yes, the notion of successive barrel aging has become much more common. There are now tons of “double barrel-aged” beers out there, and yes, they’re often pretty fantastic. Much more rare are the “triple barrel-aged” beers, but they exist. I don’t know who first crossed the quadrupel barrel-aged Rubicon, but this 11th Anniversary offering from Denver, Colorado’s River North Brewery is my first example. I enjoy River North’s wide variety of barrel-aged brews (they do a lot of this sort of thing), though I’m rarely blown away by them. How will this one fare? Is more better? Honestly? I’m not sure, but it’s a fascinating beer!

River North Anniversary 11 – Quadruple Barrel Aged Stout – Aged in Colorado whiskey barrels, then Kentucky straight bourbon barrels, followed by Colorado bourbon barrels, and finished in Colorado single malt whiskey barrels. Pours an extremely dark brown color, almost black, with just a cap of short lived brown head that quickly resolves to a ring around the edge of the glass… which, by the way, has developed “legs” as befits the 23% ABV. Smells very boozy, tons of whisky and oak, with rich caramel, a bit of vanilla, and just the faintest hint of toast. Taste starts very sweet, hits a big, hot, boozy note, moving into some of that stout base, followed by a reprise of sweet, tingly booze in the finish. Mouthfeel is full bodied but not insanely so, moderate to low carbonation (which fits well), an interestingly unique sorta viscosity that’s hard to describe (not thin, but not as thicc as you’d expect either), extremely hot booze character but not as harsh as some things I’ve had that aren’t as strong. Lots of reviews seem to indicate that they can’t tell it’s that high of an ABV, but I feel like it’s pretty obvious. It’s not bad or anything, and indeed, I think it’s pretty great. Overall, it’s quite intense and downright unique – I’ve never had anything quite like this. This is partly the treatment (the only quadruple barrel aged beer I’ve ever seen/had yet), and maybe even due to the choice of barrels (Colorado Single Malt Whiskey, etc…) Worth checking out, but obviously not an everyday treatment. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 23.1% ABV bottled (375 ml capped and waxed). Drank out of a snifter on 4/14/23. Vintage 2023.

Lately, River North has been putting out a lot of well-regarding Double Barrel versions of their lineup, and I’m looking forward to trying a few of those (I seem to have missed out on the DB Father Time, which was the one I would most look forward to, but I’ve managed a few others).

Fantôme Nuit Noire Calvados

May 30, 2023 by Mark

The ghost is infamously cryptic and mysterious, so when rumors started spreading through the Serious Knowers (of all and nothing!) community of a new series of Fantôme beers aged in various barrels, I knew I had to find a way to procure a bottle.

This particular iteration of Fantôme Nuit Noire is described in typical Dany-speak as “Fantôme Special stored from Long date in Calvados wood barrels” and it clocks in at a whopping 16% ABV. While this is more information than you can usually glean from a new tôme, I still had no idea what to expect from this. It was the perfect beer to crack open on Halloween night though, and it wound up knocking my socks off:

Brasserie Fantôme Nuit Noire Calvados – Cap pops off the bottle with nary a hiss. Pours a deep, viscous black color with no visible carbonation or head whatsoever. Smells of boozy oak, sweet, almost stoutlike in nature. Taste starts off rich and sweet, with a bitter roast element emerging in the middle, finishing with boozy oak and vanilla tamping down the roast. Mouthfeel is rich, full bodied, dense, and thick, completely still, no carbonation at all, and as such a little sticky, with a bit of not-unpleasant alcohol heat. The lack of carbonation feels oddly appropriate, and I suspect something more effervescent would not work nearly as well. If tasted blind, I think I could peg this as barrel aged, but probably would not guess Calvados and definitely would never, in a million years, have guessed this was made by Fantôme. Definitely a pleasant surprise coming from them (who are pretty famously difficult to peg down in the first place). A-

Beer Nerd Details: 16% ABV bottled (250 ml capped). Drank out of a tulip glass on 10/31/22. Lot 11 c20, “best before end 2028 or many more”

It’s nice to know that the ghost can still surprise me after all these years of strange brews… The bottle does mention that this was brewed “for our good friend Franco Fratoni, best beer connaissor [sic] in the world”, and that guy seems to be pretty well plugged into the beer world – Cantillon made a beer for him as well, so you know, good company (he owns a bar in Italy, so it’s not just some rando who drinks a lot).

There are several other Nuit Noire barrel variants, including Vermouth Barrels (side-eye, but it could be good I guess), Laphroaig (always suspicious of peated Scotch barrels, but the base seems strong enough and it has pretty good ratings), Rhum (would definitely be my top choice of the remaining, even if Rum barrels are wildly varying in quality), and De Garde (they make sours, so this might not work out so well and the ratings seem to bear that out, but then, who the hell knows?)

Athletic Brewing Co. Triple Feature

May 18, 2023 by Mark

Continuing with coverage of the annual beer slowdown, we come to a bit of a sticky wicket. While non-alcoholic beer still contains a trivial amount of alcohol, it’s still technically beer, right? Well, I figure this is still in the spirit of the exercise, and since there’ve been a few NA brewers stepping up the game of late, I figured it would be interesting to sample it. Think of it as a particularly vexing googly (ok, sorry for all the cricket references which I admit I don’t fully understand, but I just watched Lagaan so we’re just going to have to live like this from now on).

Anywho, Athletic Brewing Co. seems to be a leader in the newfangled space of NA beer that features actual flavor. Wild idea. Let’s take a look at a few of their offerings.

Athletic Tucker’s West Coast IPA – Pretty straightforward West Coast style IPA with a nice citrus punch that was originally an experimental one-off brew that was popular enough to bring back. Pours a bright yellow color with a finger of white head. Smells great, lots of bright citrus hops, tropical fruit, certainly feels like an IPA. Taste hits standard IPA notes, a hint of sweetness up front, bright, tropical citrus hops, and the nice bracing bitterness you get out of west coast IPAs. Mouthfeel is light bodied, well carbonated, crisp, and a pleasant dryness that makes this quite quaffable. The dryness could be a bit too much in the wrong circumstances, but it worked well enough for me. This went down awful quick. Overall, this is pretty damn good for an NA beer, and indeed, it probably compares favorably to lots of, er, less famous small breweries out there. B or maybe even a B+

Beer Nerd Details: 0.5% ABV canned (12 ounces). Drank out of a tulip glass on 1/20/23.

Athletic The Ocean Under the Moon – This is an experimental pilot program stout that claims to be inspired by barrel-aged beers and is aged on french vanilla oak chips, which sounds right up my alley… but didn’t quite play out that way… Pours a very dark brown color with a solid finger of tan head. Smells extremely roasty, maybe hints of dark chocolate, and coffee. Taste hits that roast hard, I don’t mind a bit of bitter roast, but this borders on acrid… “borders on”, it’s not terrible or anything, but it does overwhelm pretty much everything else. The promise of french vanilla oak is mostly left unfulfilled, though perhaps some of that acrid character comes from oak tannins… Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied, well carbonated, dry, and despite the intense bitter roast, it’s pretty easy going. A sipper, but not terrible or anything. Overall, it’s fine, but I was really hoping for more of an oaky richness. C+

Beer Nerd Details: 0.5% ABV canned (12 ounces). Drank out of a snifter glass on 1/20/23.

Athletic Lodge Life – This one bills itself as a campfire brew crafted with cinnamon, vanilla and cacao nibs, made with smoked malt, it seems to be going for a sorta s’mores type situation. Pours a dark brown color with a finger of light tan head. Smells of roast and smoke, maybe the faintest hint of cinnamon, but I’m really stretching the nose here. Taste isn’t quite as strong as the nose would have you believe, but the roast and smoke are the primary drivers here too, a little bitterness in the finish too. No cinnamon or vanilla to speak of in the taste, maybe chocolate is there but it fades into the roast and smoke. Mouthfeel is light bodied, well carbonated, and thinner than I’d want for something like this. Overall, I was hoping for stronger cinnamon and/or vanilla notes out of this. It’s perfectly cromulent for what it is, but I’d rather it be a bit more sturdy… B-

Beer Nerd Details: 0.5% ABV canned (12 ounces). Drank out of a snifter glass on 1/21/23.

In theory these are somewhat mixed results, but compared to my previous experiences with NA beer, these are at the very least fascinating, and generally more tasty than anything I’ve had before. I will definitely be playing around with more NA beer whenever it comes time for a slowdown (even if it is a bit of a cheat!) This will just about cover it for this year’s beer slowdown coverage – stay tuned for a triumphant return to beer reviews (up next: a beer I drank last Halloween… so yes, I’m a bit behind).

Boon Oude Geuze Apogee

March 9, 2023 by Mark

I’ve long enjoyed Boon’s series of Mono Blends, which are basically single-barrel Geuzes. They even release a Discovery Box of four different Vats for easy comparison. By my count, I’ve had 7 different Mono Blends, and there’s a surprising amount of variance between them. Some really lean into what I think of as Boon’s house minerality, some are brighter and fruity, others are more funky and earthy, and so on. Eat your heart out, whiskey!

What we have here today is Boon Oude Geuze Apogee, which is brewed in honor of the two generations of family brewing talent now working at Boon. To symbolize the transition, this blend primarily consists of 2 year old lambic from Boon’s newest foeder (Vat N°83) and 3 year old lambic from Boon’s oldest foeder (Vat N°79 which, incidentally, is my favorite of the Mono Blends).

No sisyphean power struggles for succession in the Boon family, which may not be as exciting as Frank Boon pitting his two sons against one another in a bloody battle royale; two men enter, one man leaves and gets to continue making lambic… but hey, I guess we’ll just have to console ourselves with some fine lambic wares:

Boon Oude Geuze Apogee – Pours an almost clear yellow gold color with a finger of white head and moderate retention. Smells of sweet, tart fruit, oak, a bit of minerally funk. Taste starts with that sweet, tart fruit but quickly moves into that minerality that I always associate with Boon, then some more complex earthy funk, oak and a hint of vanilla, finishing on that tart fruit note again with some minerality sticking around. Mouthfeel is light bodied, well carbonated, and crisp, moderate acidity but still nicely dry. Overall, really solid and interesting little Geuze; not quite Boon’s best, but it’s a blend worthy of the celebration. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7% ABV bottled (750 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a flute glass on 9/30/22. Batch #: 14902. Best Before: 31/12/2039. Bottled: 29/4/2019.

Always love the novelty of new Boon releases, though I will almost always find myself falling back on my beloved Boon Black Label (at this point I am contractually obligated to note that, as much as I love the beer, the label is not actually black, which has always annoyed me).

Wayfinder Terrifica Italian-Style Pils

March 1, 2023 by Mark

Every year, there’ve been some optimistic beer dorks who would claim that IPA’s ascendance and dominance would wane in favor of craft lagers. Well, IPAs are certainly still dominant, but I think the rise of craft lagers has finally come to pass in the last few years. And this isn’t just because I find myself drinking much more from the lager family (though that’s obviously a key indicator you should pay attention to, as I am definitely not the worst, no sir), but I do see more breweries specializing in lagers these days, and even beer geeks getting excited for new offerings from said breweries.

Granted, no one’s lining up in the streets overnight to get a taste of the latest Czech dark lager from the likes of Bierstadt Lagerhaus, Suarez Family Brewery, Notch, or Human Robot… but they’re not really doing that for IPAs anymore either and there seems to be actual buzz around lager releases sometimes. I actually see lagers rated higher than a 4.0 on Untappd occasionally, which is surely a sign of the end times…

Another sign of craft lager’s rising popularity (né end times) is the emergence of new styles, often sliced rather thin. Take today’s beer, Wayfinder Terrifica, described as an Italian-Style Horror Pils. The “horror” part is obviously tremendously important and speaks to the black magic used to make lagers popular (and also the Giallo movies I was watching whilst imbibing), but the “Italian-Style” Pilsner is something that does seem to be catching on with other breweries. With a traceable origin from Italy, it basically represents a standard German Pils that’s been dry hopped (with, it should be noted, noble or Euro hops that accentuate the standard pilsner profile – not so much new world citrus bombs, which is perhaps a separate thin slice of the new lager pie.)

This particular example is made by another brewery that seemingly specializes in lagers, Wayfinder Brewing. I’ve been drinking a lot of their stuff over the past few years (but, for some unfathomable reason, have not covered on the blog… until now). It’s a collaboration with Heater Allen (yet another lager specialist) and Modern Times, whose brewers were all inspired by a particular Italian brewery at a Pilsner beer festival (yes, those exist too, a further sign of the end times). Hopped heavily with Spalt Select and Tettnanger and then dry-hopped Polaris and more Tettnanger, this seems like a pretty damned good example of the style:

Wayfinder Terrifica Italian-Style Horror Pils – Pours a striking, clear, bright golden yellow color with a couple fingers of fluffy white head, great retention, and lacing as I drink. Smells nice, bready malts and lots of noble hop character, herbal, spicy, floral, a bit of brighter citrus too. Taste starts with a nice bready sweetness that gives way to spicy noble hops, some floral, herbal notes, and finishing with a solid bitterness. Mouthfeel is light bodied, well carbonated, crisp, fairly dry, and quaffable. Overall, excellent little pils, A-

Beer Nerd Details: 4.7% ABV canned (16 ounces). Drank out of a Willibecher glass on 10/28/22 (i.e. Halloween weekend!)

As mentioned above, Wayfinder has emerged as a reliable go-to brewery for all manner of lagers (not to mention the unsexy ale styles like Altbier), so you’ll hopefully be seeing more of them here sooner rather than later.

A Very Special Old Revolution

February 23, 2023 by Mark

The first time I had Revolution brewing’s fabled Straight Jacket, I obviously enjoyed it, but came away somewhat disappointed. Years of hype had taken a toll, and expectations can be hard to live up to. It happens. That being said, it became somewhat easier to obtain cans for reasonable cost, and weirdly, with each new can I drank, I felt myself falling more and more in love with this barleywine. The 2022 vintage, in particular, was really something else. At this point, it basically lives up to the hype. Fortunately, that sort of thing happens sometimes too.

So when Revolution announced their most recent variant, a Double Barrel Very Special Old Jacket (V.S.O.J.), I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much. As fortune would have it, I managed to procure a can, which was far from a certain proposition. Why all the fuss?

Double Barrel V.S.O.J. is a blend of Straight Jacket barley wines that’ve been aged in bourbon barrels for one to three years. That type of blend has been released all on its own in the past as VSOJ, and is generally considered the pinnacle of Revolution’s barrel program. However, in this case, they took that blend and then racked it into Templeton Rye barrels for an additional eighteen months.

Lord knows I’m a sucker for this sort of thing, but it should be said that this is not necessarily the slam dunk that it seems. On its face, the heuristic of “longer age” and “more barrel treatments” being better makes sense, and it certainly justifies extra expense, but it doesn’t always result in a better beer. There’s a lot of moving parts here, and a lot of things that could go wrong, even excluding blatant failures like infection.

Extended aging can thin out a beer or provide too much oxidation character (a little can be pleasant and add complexity, too much can make a beer taste like cardboard). Age and extra barrels can result in too much oak extraction, providing tannic notes or overly boozy character. Choice of barrels makes a difference, especially if you’re mixing different spirits. And so on. Look, I’m not a brewer or cellarmaster and who knows what manner of barrel gnomes or beer gremlins lurk in the shadows of the brewery, but I’ve had some treatments that sound great on paper, but fall short in execution. (Not to point fingers, but for a couple examples of this sort of thing: Medianoche Premier Vol 1 and Bruery Soie Reserve both sound great on paper, but aren’t as good as their humble base offerings…)

If you’re still reading this, you may have deduced that the past couple paragraphs were basically just a pathetic attempt to throw you off the scent, because any fears about this beer are unfounded. It’s utterly phenomenal.

The Revolution Double Barrel Very Special Old Jacket (V.S.O.J.) clearly pours darker than regular old Straight Jacket, and this is rich, intense, decadent stuff, with the usual caramel, toffee, vanilla, and oak, but also a nice rye spice, graham cracker, booze soaked raisins aspect, dark fruit, leather, lots of complexity. At 16.8% ABV, it’s certainly boozy and you can tell, but it’s not overly hot either. Balance is not a word you’d really use for something this bold, but its disparate elements are in harmony, or something like that. A

Beer Nerd Details: 16.8% ABV canned (12 ounces). Drank out of a snifter on 2/3/23. Canned on 12-29-2022.

The Double Barrel certainly distinguishes itself from the humble, regular Straight Jacket, but the real question is how it compares to Revolution’s regular Very Special Old Jacket? Conventional wisdom was that regular V.S.O.J. was about as good as you could get. Fortunately, I managed to get ahold of the 2021 vintage of that release as well. It’s maybe got a bit less body and a tad more boozy heat, but we’re splitting hairs here at this point (i.e. neither of those things are faults, really, just different). Both are hugely complex beers, but they are distinct from one another, a little less of the earthier rye tones in the non-double-barrel version, but again – that’s not a bad thing. It’s got that whole Straight Jacket barleywine character, only moreso. Really can’t go wrong either way when it comes to this and the double barrel. Everyone loves to pit stuff against one another and declare a winner, but in reality, there’s no need to do such things. If you can get your hands on any of these Revolution Very Special Old Straight Jacket beers, you’ll be in for a treat. Hell, at this point, just plain ol’ Straight Jacket is worth the stretch. Anyway, V.S.O.J. also warrants an A

Beer Nerd Details: 15% ABV canned (12 ounces). Drank out of a snifter glass on 2/10/23. Canned on June 29/2021.

Obviously this is just contributing to the hype, I guess, but the Revolution barrel program deserves all the plaudits it gets. Except for Strawberry Jacket, that stuff is genuinely disappointing. Anywho, someday perhaps I’ll also cover the Ryeway to Heaven line, which are almost the equal of Straight Jacket, and in some cases, maybe even arguably better.

Lindemans Oude Geuze Cuvée Francisca

January 12, 2023 by Mark

The likes of Cantillon, Drie Fonteinen, and maybe even Tilquin tend to dominate the lambic discourse these days, but that just leaves some room for lesser known producers like Boon and maybe even Lindemans to peek their head in the door and sneak a word in edgewise. I’m… not sure where said door leads or why everyone is clamoring to get in there, but I’m glad to see other producers doing interesting stuff with lambic.

Indeed, due to their availability, Lindemans is probably the most accessible lambic out there. This is something of a double edged sword though, as part of the reason you see so much of this stuff is that it is basically young lambic that uses artificial fruit sweeteners which, to my palate, resemble a particularly fine vintage of Robitussin. That being said, while my first Cuvée Rene didn’t do much for me either, once I got onboard with sour beers, it turned out to be a legit Geuze (and the Kriek Cuvée Rene also has a leg up on their regular fruited line). So when I saw this 200th Anniversary Blend, I took a flier on it.

Named after Francisca Vandersmissen, the wife of Joos Lindemans, who together started a lambic brewery 200 years ago, this is a blend of 4 year old lambic and younger lambics. Traditionally, a Geuze is a blend of 3, 2, and 1 year old lambics, so the inclusion of 4 year old juice represents something quite special (reminiscent of Drie Fonteinen’s Golden Blend). My kinda blend:

Lindemans Oude Geuze Cuvée Francisca 200th Anniversary – Pours a slightly hazy golden color, maybe a hint of yellowish orange, with a solid two fingers of head and surprisingly good retention. Smells nice, a little earthy funk, a hint of spice, a helping of oak, all leavened by a tart, fruity character, pears and lemons. Taste is sweet up front, those pears and tart lemons make themselves known before the funky, earthy notes emerge, finishing dry and oaky. Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied, well carbonated, and crisp, with a pleasant dry character emerging in the middle and lasting through the finish and only moderate acidity. Overall, this is certainly an improvement over Cuvée Rene and honestly, the more effervescent nature compares favorably to recent 3F Golden Blend vintages as well. It’s definitely worth seeking out for Geuze aficionados. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV bottled (750 ml capped and corked). Drank out of a flute glass on 9/23/22. Bottled: April 2021. Best before: 2031. Lot # BD15USE

This was a really pleasant beer and I’m absolutely going to buy another bottle of this stuff if I see it again. Here’s to hoping they make it another 200 years…