IPA

Cigar City Hopped on the High Seas (Calypso)

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So there’s this hoary old tale about the origins of the IPA style being that beers couldn’t survive the trip to India without being highly hopped. There appears to be a nugget of truth to this, though there are lots of details that trip up all but the most wonky of history nerds. I’m not such a nerd, so don’t break my legs, but the general idea is that a beer will require extra hops if it is being exported to warmer climates.

These days, with our fancy refrigeration devices, it doesn’t really matter anymore, but that doesn’t stop folks from doing wacky experiments like this one, where Cigar City gets their friends in Puerto Rico to brew up some IPA, then send it on a boat back to Florida in order to be canned. During the trip, this IPA is dry hopped with a single hop variety. Each batch uses a different variety, ranging from the heaven-sent Citra (I never got to try this one, but it has great ratings) to experimental hops (which I didn’t particularly love, but it was fine). What we have here is Calypso, a relatively new American hop that’s supposed to have some stone fruit character but also an earthy, tea-like note. We’ll see about that:

Cigar City Hopped on the High Seas - Calypso

Cigar City Hopped on the High Seas (Calypso) – Pours a cloudy golden orange color with a solid finger of fluffy white head. Smells of citrus and earthy hops, pretty straightforward. Taste has a decent malt backbone, but the hops do not come through as much in the flavor, excepting the bitterness which does hit pretty strong towards the finish. Mouthfeel is low to medium bodied, well carbonated, relatively dry. Overall, a fairly pedestrian IPA… B-

Beer Nerd Details: 7% ABV canned (12 oz). Drank out of a tulip glass on 5/9/14.

So I’ve had two different varieties of this beer, and I didn’t really enjoy either of them. I suppose I may grab a Citra if they make that again, but if I’m really in the mood for a Cigar City IPA, it’s hard to beat Jai Alai (and its variants).

April Beer Clubbing

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Tonight was beer club! For the uninitiated, beer club is a gathering of beer-minded individuals from my workplace who get together once a month for beer and revelry at a local BYOB. This time around, we went to a local Pizza place, got our fill of deep fried pizza pockets and other such delights, and naturally partook in lots of beer:

April Beer Club Selections

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For the sake of posterity, completely unreliable notes on each beer are below. Standard disclaimers apply, and other such waffling. Great, now I have a sudden craving for waffles. Thanks a lot. Anywho, in order of drinking (not necessarily the order pictured above):

  • Green Flash Le Freak – Labeled a Belgian IPA, I didn’t get much in the way of hops out of this, but it remained a pretty solid Belgian Strong Pale nonetheless. Nice spicy Belgian yeast character. B
  • Ovila Abbey Saison – Bog standard saison material, nothing special at all, though certainly not bad or anything like that. Still, there wasn’t much to make it really stand out in a setting like this. Mild Belgian yeast character, maybe a hint of lemon peel if you are really looking for it. B-
  • Stone Stochasticity Project Grapefruit Slam IPA – Rock solid IPA that feels like it’s actually made with grapefruit (as opposed to only hops that lend a grapefruity character). I don’t actually know if that’s the case for sure, but that’s what it feels like. Beautiful nose, what seems like Stone’s trademark hop profile, and a heaping helping of citrusy but astringent grapefruit. An interesting beer. B
  • Evil Twin / Crooked Stave Ryan And The Gosling – One of my contributions for the night, this is dominated by funky Brett. This is quite welcome in the nose, and the front end of the taste is fantastic, but the finish is very odd. That funk turns super earthy, almost savory in the finish, which brings this down a bit. Still an interesting beer to try though. B
  • Allagash Midnight Brett – Hey, look at that, a beer I just reviewed yesterday. And it held up rather well in this setting as well.
  • Ken’s Homebrewed Honey IPA – Brewed with a bunch of New Zealand hops, this was quite nice.
  • Sly Fox Nihilist – An interesting take on the imperial stout style, huge carbonation, dryer than I’d normally expect, but a nice roast character, with hints of booze (but not overpowering). It’s definitely a decent brew. B+
  • Kaedrin Bomb & Grapnel – Straight up imperial stout, this one compared very favorably to the Nihilist, definitely thicker and more creamy, less roast, but really quite nice. B+
  • Kaedrin Bomb & Grapnel (Bourbon Oaked) – Interestingly, I feel like the char that came through on early bottles has mellowed out, and the bourbon seems to be lessening the roast as well, making this an interesting blend of flavors. It’s turned out quite well, though not at all like your typical bourbon barrel aged stout. Still, not bad for a first attempt, and quite nice on its own. B+
  • DuClaw Dirty Little Freak – Holy hell. Huge chocolate nose, like powdered cocoa. Less chocolate in the taste, as it takes a back seat to a big coconut character. Surprisingly not super sweet, and it works well enough I guess (certainly a unique beer), though I was a little disappointed. B-
  • DuClaw Cocoa Fuego – Brewed with dark chocolate and chipotle peppers, its the latter that seems to dominate this beer, even contributing a sorta smokey flavor that’s pretty tough to overcome. There’s some peppery heat that takes up residence in your jaw, but it’s not punishing or anything like that. Not the worst hot pepper beer I’ve had, but not a beer that I connected with either. C+
  • DuClaw Hell on Wood – Ah, now this is more like it. This is DuClaw’s excellent Devil’s Milk barleywine aged on bourbon barrels, and it turned out reasonably well. Clearly not a top tier BBA barleywine, but it works really well on its own. B+

So all in all, quite a nice night. As per usual, already looking forward to next month… In the meantime, stay tuned for another .rar wale review tomorrow.

March Beer Club

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I won’t lie, this was a really good night. I went a solid week and a half without beer before completely falling off the wagon this past weekend (as planned, to be sure) and drinking a bunch of beer (and bourbon, and moonshine, and other stuff) during Fat Weekend (a gathering of portly individuals from across the northeast, and some points west, for drinking, fun, and fatness). Now here I am a few scant days later, drinking more beer (again, as planned). For the uninitiated, beer club is a gathering of beer-minded individuals from my workplace who get together once a month for beer and revelry at a local BYOB. This time around, we returned to a classic Beer Club venue, Jimmy’s BBQ. Lots of smoked meat, dirty corn, beer, and fun was had by all:

March Beer Club

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Meat induced thoughts on each beer are below. This is for posterity, so I will be sure to be honest, though you might want to take this with a grain (or giant block) of salt, as this BYOB wasn’t a hermetically sealed isolation chamber that is ideal for precise tasting notes. Caveats aside, here we go, in order of drinking, not necessarily in order pictured:

  • Kaedrin Fat Weekend IPA – This year’s batch finally got that Simcoe and Amarillo loving that I’ve been trying to get for a few years. My only issue is that I’m still getting a handle on this kegerator operation here, so I feel like I frittered away a significant amount of aroma in the process of trying to get the carbonation and pressure right. I think I’ve figured out this process well enough that I won’t ruin future batches, and it’s not like this one turned out bad or anything. Indeed, just a few of us housed 3 whole growlers during Fat Weekend (we would have done so on Friday night if I didn’t insist we save one for Saturday). So yeah it was good, and it compared somewhat favorably to tonight’s IPA lineup, which was considerable. I’ll give it a B for now, though I think it could easily go higher with some slight tweaks to recipe and kegging procedure.
  • Dogfish Head 90 Minute – The old standby, I feel like the last couple times I’ve had this, it hasn’t been quite the mindblower it once was for me. Still a rock solid brew, though I might downgrade it to a B+
  • Maine Lunch – One of my contributions. In case you can’t tell by the first three beers of the night, we overcompensated for the past couple of beer clubs and brought a shit ton of IPAs this month. Not that I’m complaining, as they were all pretty damn good (to spectacular). This one was a really nice citrus and pine take of the style, in competition for my favorite Maine beer. B+ (though it might go higher outside of this setting)
  • Petrus Aged Pale – Nothing like a sour to cleanse the palate, eh? A very nice oak aged sour beer, something I’ve had before, and one of those things I’d use to help convert the heathens to the world of sours/good beer. B+
  • DC Brau On The Wings Of Armageddon – Many thanks to Dana for rocking the DIPAs tonight, including this rarity (at least, to us PA folk), which turns out to pretty much live up to the hype, a super piney, dank take on the DIPA, nice body, really well rounded and delicious beer (along the lines of those Pipeworks IPAs I had a while back). Really fantastic, and I hope to someday snag a few fresh cans of this for myself. A-
  • Sixpoint Hi-Res – Alright, so we’re getting to a point where specifics about given IPAs are starting to blend together in my head, but I my thoughts on this one are that it comported itself very well in this rather strong lineup of IPAs and DIPAs, actually better than I was expecting (though I’m not sure why, as Sixpoint has always been a pretty solid brewery for me). We’ll go with B+ and leave it at that.
  • John’s Homebrewed Porter – A relative newcomer to beer club, John made his first batch of beer in about 20 years recently. He went with a pretty straightforward porter that, to be sure, turned out well. But he’s working on some interesting stuff in future batches, including a port wine soaked oak beer, possibly even a wile beer, so I’m quite looking forward to it. B
  • Alchemist Heady Topper – Yeah, we’ve already beaten this one to death before on the blog.
  • Bell’s Hopslam – Another one we’ve covered before, but I certainly ain’t complaining, as I do really enjoy this beer and this is the first time I’ve ever had it out of a bottle. Thanks again to Dana, who brought a crap ton of DIPAs tonight.
  • Ken’s Homebrewed Coffee Porter – No real coffee added, but it used some sort of special coffee malt. Not sure if that’s malt soaked in coffee or something like that or if it’s just roasted to a point that it gives off coffee character, but whatever, it came through well in the beer and did not overpower it at all. Granted, coffee porters aren’t really my thing, but this seemed to work reasonably well. B-
  • North Coast Pranqster – A nice little Belgian pale ale, very sweet for it’s relatively middling ABV, but still well carbonated enough that it works really well. I enjoyed, and it fit after all those IPAs. B+
  • Widmer SXNW – It came in a fancy box, so it has to be good, right? Well, it’s made with Pecans, Cacao beans, and Green Chiles, so I was fearing another hot pepper beer, but it turns out that the dominant character came from that cacao. Huge chocolate notes in the nose, with a corresponding taste. The chiles are there, but in the background, just providing some complexity. Overall, it’s an interesting beer, though not one I’d really seek out again. B
  • Humboldt Black Xantus – So I didn’t realize this when I bought it, but this is apparently one of them barrel aged Firestone Walker beers, even if it’s bottled under the older Nectar Ales brand. That barrel aging comes through loud and clear, and it’s quite nice, but there’s also apparently a coffee component that also shows up, though it’s not as dominant as, say, BCBCS. One of my favorites of the night, though not quite Parabola levels awesome (but still regular beer levels awesome). A-

So there you have it, an enjoyable night had by all. Already looking forward to the next installment of beer club…

Maine Another One IPA

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When Main Brewing Co. expanded their brewery, the stress was getting to them. The label on this beer says that when they ran out of creative juice, they just decided to have Another One. It’s an IPA with a very clean malt bill and hopped generously with Warrior, Cascade, Citra, and Simcoe. Creative juices flowing, they went ahead and made another beer with the same hop schedule, but a much darker malt bill. The result of that was a beer I had a couple weeks ago, Weez. It was fine, but I lamented the fact that I’d never had this pale counterpart so that I could compare notes. As luck would have it, I ran into a bottle last week, and now here we are. It might seem paradoxical to start my night with a beer called Another One, but that’s what I did on Friday:

Maine Another One IPA

Maine Another One IPA – Pours a light golden yellow color with a couple fingers of dense head that leaves lots of lacing as I drink. The nose has a huge Citra hop component that comes through strongly, a big whiff of tropical fruit and with some herbal, floral, grassy notes pitching in too. Cascade and Simcoe come out a little more in the taste, with the fruity flavors leaning more towards grapefruit, and an increase in the herbal, floral, and grassy character too. Some hop bitterness emerges towards the finish and lingers a bit. Hops are doing all the heavy lifting here, with almost no malt backbone to speak of. Mouthfeel is light with a very tight, smooth carbonation. It’s not watery, but it’s very lightly bodied and the finish is dry enough that it doesn’t feel thin. So it comes off as quaffable, is what I’m saying, and that’s good. Overall, this is a rock solid IPA, better than its darker counterpart, Weez. borderline A- stuff, but I’ll stick with my initial gut feeling of B+. But it’s a high B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7% ABV bottled (500 ml capped). Drank out of a tulip glass on 2/14/14. Bottled 1/21/14 (05).

So there you have it, the lighter counterpart works better than the darker. Go figure. One of these days I’ll need to try my hand at a dark, hoppy beer. In the meantime, I’m told I really need to try Maine’s King Titus, a beer that seems pretty easy to find around these parts. But that may be a while…

Tired Hands Compilation

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It’s been a while since I’ve recapped recapped some recent Tired Hands beers, and these notes just keep piling up, so here goes nothing. Note that the earliest of these is from late August, so it really has been a while since I’ve attempted to stoke the jealousy of my readership with these local gems. Most are one-offs that will never be brewed again, but we’ve gotten to a point where I’m starting to recognize rebrews of some of their beers, so you never know.

Screeching Loud Thrashing Death Metal Offensive Song

SCREECHING LOUD THRASHING DEATH METAL OFFENSIVE SONG – 10.5% ABV blended old ale – Named after a review on Yelp where someone complained about the, shall we say, eclectic mix of music you hear when at TH (it looks like someone told her that they brewed this beer in her honor, so she updated her review, but the original one is still there.) A blend of 9 month old Flemish red (25%), fresh Barleywine (65%), and rye whiskey barrel fermented Barleywine (10%). Very interesting! Not a ton in the nose, but the taste is unique and interesting. I’m getting lots of chocolate, and maybe even coffee-like notes. Faint hints of cherries and a note of something bright escaping in the finish (prolly that Flemish red). Unique beer, never had anything like it. B+

Singel Hop Saison Citra – 5% ABV saison – Hurm, either this has gotten a lot better since my last glass (my previous note expressed surprise that Citra wasn’t that potent – but it was great this second time), or my palate got destroyed by Vermont beer and is only coming back… Juicy citrus hops and saison spice. Glad I gave it another shot, upgrade! A-

Tabel, Sacred – 4.2% ABV spiced saison – Brewed with oats and Holy Basil, fermented with a touch of grapefruit and pomegranate. Is there a touch of funk in here? Not sure, but it’s a nice, quaffable saison, with some citrus rind character, maybe a hint of lemon, an herbal note, and slight spicy yeast notes. B+

Mt.Sharp – 7.2% ABV Citra and Columbus IPA – Interesting sticky icky citrus and pine combo. Sticky and yet creamy? This is striking a chord that I can’t place, but who cares, because its awesome! A-

SuchUnique – 8.2% ABV Double IPA, Simcoe & Centennial hops – Nice floral and citrus notes, mango, flowers, good stuff. Well hidden ABV. Good! A-

Pub Style Ale – 4.5% ABV pale ale brewed with oats & Centennial hops – Great nose, lots of citrus, big floral hops in the taste. Quaffable! B+

Sad State of Affairs – 8.2 % ABV DIPA – A less profane reference to the cease and desist for FarmHands? Regardless, this is a rock solid DIPA, citrus and pine, a little slickness but still well balanced. Fantastic! A-

Lizard Queen – 5.2% ABV Motueka & Centennial Pale Ale – Yep, another great pale ale, juicy citrus nose (maybe even a lemon note), some earthy floral notes too. Crushable. A-

Euphoric Sunshine Drip – 5.7% ABV spiced saison with Meyer lemon and pink peppercorn – Another typically great Tired Hands farmhouse saison, not quite funky, but that lemon makes overtures in that direction, and the peppercorn accentuates the yeast well… A-

The Multiverse – 8.1% ABV pear farmhouse DIPA – Wow, really nice pairing (pearing?) of farmhouse spice (funk?) and hops, with neither dominating, but instead melding into something different. Really nice! A-

Critical Anxious – 7.8% ABV Biere De Garde – And I didn’t take any notes on this one, though I did write down that I had it, so, um, I dunno. Mulligan.

Oktüberfest – 6.1% ABV Ser Gut Yam Bier – Very nice Oktoberfest style beer, mild, light toasted bread, but still relatively sweet. Great mouthfeel on this one too. Not really my style, but this is my kinda take on the style. B+

My Favorite Show – 5.7% ABV classical modern saison – Typically great Tired Hands saison, almost funky, nice peppery notes, highly drinkable, like a slightly amped up FarmHands (er, SaisonHands). B+

Communication is the Key – 5.5% ABV crushable Simcoe pale ale – Typically great Tired Hands pale ale, big juicy fruit notes, hint of pine, crushable is a perfect descriptor. A-

Tired Hands Murky Growlers

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So I’m at the bar one night and Jean fills a couple of growlers. He gives them to some guy who’s making a trip to Hill Farmstead and says that Shaun Hill likes his beer extra cloudy, so he renamed “Communication is the Key” to “Communication is the Murky” and “We Are All Infinite Energy Vibrating At The Same Frequency” to “We Are All Hazy As Hell Vibrating at the Same Cloudiness”.

Fall Precious – 6.6% ABV autumnal saison – Really nice saison, it’s got that typical Tired Hands farmhouse character, but it’s carving out an identity of its own. Sweet up front, maybe some fruit, with the spice emerging towards the finish. A-

H.C.S. – 5.9% ABV viscous and delicious saison – Power of suggestion, or is this really viscous? Definitely a fuller body than your typical TH saison, very cloudy, a little yeasty spice, well done. B+

MortalGrade – 8.2% ABV DIPA brewed with wheat, oats, Chinook, Citra, Zythos, and Simcoe – Fantastic, one of my favorite Tired Hands DIPAs! Huge juicy citrus, some grassy, floral, and pine hop notes too. Obscenely quaffable for its ABV, no real hint of booze. Great stuff! A

MoMoCoe – 5.5% ABV Motueka, Mosaic, and Simcoe pale ale – Great juicy hop character, lots of grapefruit, nice bracing bitterness, really good! A-

Singel Hop Saison, Chinook – 5% ABV – The 8th singel hop saison, and probably around the middle of the pack. Indeed, the hops and saison yeast seem a little at odds here. Still good, of course, but not the best of the bunch. B+

Under Pressure – 7.6% Blended Artisanal Farmhouse Biere de Garde – Excellent malt forward Brett beer, some nice malty fruit notes, with some peppery yeast and complementary Brett. Great! A-

Coulton Hop – 5.5% heirloom cider/pale ale – 49% of the fermentables came from cider made of apples, pears, and quinces. Hopped with Simcoe and that’s really what stands out, but it’s amazing that they were able to coax something so beerlike out of something comprised of so much cider… As I drink more, the cider twang becomes more pronounced… Really nice. B+

Coulton Sour – 5.5% heirloom cider/Berliner Weiss – Similar approach with the cider used as fermantable. Holy sour patch kids, this is super tart, and you really get that cider side of things here too. Really interesting beers here. A-

Cosmic Slop – 8.3% DIPA – Tired Hands’ 200th batch is a typically great fruit and hop forward DIPA, lots of citrus, pine, and floral notes, very well done B+

Hail Santa – 6.4% ABV Rye IPA – Slightly darker than typical, but still a pale yellow, beautiful juicy hop nose, with some floral and spicy notes hitting in the taste. Really good! B+

I See a Darkness – 8.5% ABV porter brewed with coffee and honey – Collaboration with Sante Adairius, very nice, bigger than normal porter. Tried getting some a few days later, but they were out… B+

Sgt. Salamander – 5% ABV Holiday Sour Berliner Weiss – Wow, this has a typical Berliner nose, but the taste is all sorts of great. Really tight lactic sourness, puckering really, and it’s great. Also had some dosed with cinnamon & vanilla bean syrup that just puts this miles ahead. Super flavorful. B+ (regular) and A- (with syrup)

Trendler – 5.5% ABV alt bier – Very interesting and different, Jean is branching out here, malt forward but not heavy at all… B+

Praise Bee – 9% 2X honey IBA – Zombie rides again… Sorta! Doesn’t quite live up to zombie levels, but it’s really good, nice hop character, well matched dark malts, excellent. A-

Circumambulation – 7.2% biere de garde – Fermented with kolsch yeast and lagered three weeks, this is a subtle beer, super creamy head, not a typical TH feel, but still very good, lots of muted flavors, complex but not overwhelming… B

Bucolic Overlord

Bucolic Overlord – 8% DIPA – Brewed with oats, Citra, Columbus, and Simcoe hops. Great stuff, dank and resinous, with floral and citrus notes rounding it out. Superb! A

VOID ego VOID – 9.8% ABV blended imperial stout – Partially barrel aged in Tuthilltown rye whiskey barrels for 7 months… Not a lot of barrel character, roasty up front, sweet towards the finish with a nice hit of vanilla. Not as thick or heavy as you’d expect, but it still has admirable heft. I really enjoyed this! A-

Principal Eel – 6% sour farmhouse IPA – Well this is unusual, better than the last sour IPA I had from TH last year, but something about the strong hop and sour combo doesn’t completely work for me… B

All-O-Gistics – 5.9% Experimental IPA – Experimental hop #05256 – Whoa carbonation! Not that I’m complaining, but this is more carbonated than your typical Tired Hands beer. Great juicy hop nose, citrus, pine, and grass. Maybe something like green onion. Taste is more piney and it’s got a sharp bitterness. Definitely not your typical Tired Hands IPA, but still great. A-

Can’t Keep Up – 6.2% Spontaneous Saison – Fermented in old Tuthilltown rye barrels that had previously been used to make some apple cider (by frequent TH collaborator, Tom Culton), only 10 gallons produced. Amazing, nice oak character, sharp but very pleasant sourness, almost vinous tart fruit, really great. I love this! A

And that just about covers it. If you’re local and heading over to the next release on Sunday, let me know!

January Beer Club

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Just in the nick of time. This was scheduled for earlier in the month but got delayed due to snow and other such things. But we persevered, and Beer club marched on. For the unawares, beer club is a gathering of beer minded folks from my work, who get together once a month at a local BYOB for beverages and fun.

January Beer Club 2014

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For the sake of posterity, some thoughts on each beer are below. As per usual, these are off the cuff responses with no formal notes, so they’re basically useless for you, but I’m including them anyway because why should I care what you think of my drunken recollections of these beers? In order of drinking (and not in the order pictured above, and there are definitely a couple beers not pictured at all because I took the picture early and didn’t feel like updating it later and why are you so confrontational about this, it’s just a thing, and fine, you want to fight about it? Let’s do this thing. Or not. Whatever. What were we talking about?)

  • Stone Double Bastard – Probably not the best beer to start off a tasting with, but it worked just fine, and it was as good as I remember. Which is to say, it’s good, but not mind blowing. B+
  • Unibroue Éphémère – This is not as apple-flavored as I remember, though that character is still fully present in the beer, which is a pretty solid Belgian Wit style affair and would make a great summer beer.
  • Boxcar CarKnocker IPA – The uber local (i.e. within a couple miles of my house) brewery’s take on a standard IPA, it’s decent, but not quite as good as their original (kinda, sorta Belgian style) IPA. B-
  • DC Brau The Corruption – A beer I reviewed in more detail just yesterday.
  • Bell’s Midwestern Pale Ale – A fine offering, but perhaps sampled too late in the the night, as it sorta suffered in comparison to the other IPAs. B-
  • Boxcar Belgian Tripel – One of uber-local Boxcar’s best beers, it’s still a pretty straightforward Belgian style tripel. Along those lines, it’s pretty good. Not a top tier effort, but quite nice. B+
  • Element Brewing Dark Element – A rather nice India Black Ale (or whatever you want to call that hoppy stout style), this sucker had just a hint of roast, a nice malt backbone, and plenty of dank, piney, resinous hops. One of the best of the night. A-
  • Ken’s Homebrewed Hybrid Thingy – A sorta beer/wine/mead hybrid, this was made with some barley, copious amounts of honey, and muscat grapes. This is some crazy Dogfish-head style shit, but it actually worked pretty darn well. Clocking in at around 10% ABV, this thing didn’t feel like it at all, making it dangerously easy to drink. B
  • Kaedrin Bomb and Grapnel (Blend) – This is the version that contains a blend of straight RIS and Bourbon Oaked RIS. It turned out pretty darn well, though the oak character is a bit muted here. I don’t know that I’d be able to pick it out blind, but regardless, it turned out pretty well and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Look for a triple feature (with all the variants) soon. I’ll give it a B+ for now, though it could easily be higher.
  • Spring House Satan’s Bake Sale Mint Chocolate Chip Stout – One of my contributions, this was a fascinating sorta Girl Scout Thin Mint beer. Not sure if I would have reacted so positively if I drank the whole thing by myself, but it’s a perfect beer for the setting. The mint chocolate chip character comes through strong, but not in an overpowering way. Very nice, and I enjoyed muchly. B+
  • Boulevard and Sierra Nevada Terra Incognita – A whiskey barrel aged beer that shows off that character pretty well. I still think that stouts and barleywines work better on that front, but this was certainly a fine effort. B

And that just about covers it. Good times had by all, and I’m already looking forward to the next installment (which should be sooner, rather than later… hopefully!)

DC Brau The Corruption

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Yet another storied brewer makes its way to PA, and novelty whore that I am, I tried some. DC Brau is a small brewery located in Washington, DC, home of the Beerbecue. As such, I’ll let him explain the story behind this particular beer (by which I mean that I’m too lazy to do so myself):

The Corruption is named for “the corrupt bargain”. What’s that you say? Well, in the 1824 presidential election, when no candidate had a majority of the electoral votes, the 12th article of amendment to the Constitution dictated that the House of Representatives had to break the “tie” between the 3 candidates who had the highest number of electoral votes. “The corrupt bargain” refers to the rather dubious dealmaking of Henry Clay in securing the White House for John Quincy Adams. In doing so, he out-Blagojeviched Rod Blagojevich and was quite coincidentally appointed as John Quincy Adams’ Secretary of State.

As noted at Beerbecue, this was a pretty gutsy move on Clay’s part, as Andrew Jackson is in the top 3 most badass Presidents of all time (perhaps a dicussion best saved for later).

Anywho, the beer itself is a relatively straightforward single hop IPA, made with Columbus hops. These are not particularly trendy hops, but let’s just say that hops corrupt, and Columbus hops corrupt absolutely. A nice accompaniment to this smoke-filled room, if I do say so myself:

DC Brau The Corruption

DC Brau The Corruption – Pours a deep orange color with some coppery tones and a couple fingers of fluffy white head that has pretty good retention and leaves some lacing as I drink. Smells full of citrus and pine hops (I originally guessed Simcoe, but as I learned later, it’s Columbus) But also something I can’t quite place, perhaps a malt or yeast focused difference. Taste has more of that stuff I can’t quite place, along with a heaping helping of citrus, resinous pine, and earthy, spicy, almost herbal hops, nice bitterness in the finish. Mouthfeel is typical IPA, well carbonated, light to medium bodied, goes down quite easy. Overall, it’s a very, very good everyday IPA. If I didn’t already have, like, 7 alternatives, it would be something I came back to regularly. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 6.5% ABV canned (12 oz.) Drank out of a snifter on 1/26/13.

Now I just have to brave the inevitable shitshow once On the Wings of Armageddon makes its way up here. From what I’ve heard, it’s well worth the hassle. Let’s hope I’m equal to the challenge (it’s apparently already shown up on tap in the city and it appears to be a semi-regular limited release beer, so it will hopefully not be too difficult to secure some).

Victory Double Feature

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It has been far too long since I’ve written about our friends in Downingtown, PA. Victory’s staple IPA, HopDevil, will always hold a special place in my heart, as it was probably the first beer that really got me to love hops. Sure, I’d had other pale ales before and thought they were fine, but HopDevil got me to love those citrus hops and bitter finish. Flash forward a decade later, and their line of IPAs was starting to feel a bit stale. HopDevil is still a staple beer and a sight for sore eyes at a lot of local non-craft focused establishments, and I really enjoy the occasional Hop Wallop, but I get the impression that Victory started to see their sales plateau despite the generally skyrocketing sales of IPAs overall.

Perhaps as a result, Victory slowly started fiddling with hops at their brewpub. In 2009 or 2010, they did a line of single hop pale ales called the Pursuit series. I had one of these by chance and wasn’t a huge fan, but clearly the experimental aspect of the series was a success, because it culminated in Headwaters Pale Ale, which is a fantastic yet simple take on the lowly pale ale style (it’s also a huge seller and may even have surpassed HopDevil to become Victory’s flagship).

In 2011, they started playing with Double IPAs and worked with their contacts at hop farms to create the Ranch series (a name which seems to inspire visions of ranch dressing in all who hear it, but it’s actually a reference to the hop ranches that victory sources from). This kicked off with Ranch S, which was Cascade single hopped (and which I quite enjoyed), then Ranch R, which was Centennial single hopped (and which I didn’t like as much). Things proceeded from there, with other single hop beers (Chinook, Simcoe, Citra, etc… most of which I did not have) and then some hop combos (Philly Beer Week saw a Simcoe and Amarillo combination that was really quite nice). The Ranch series eventually culminated in Dirt Wolf, which uses Citra, Chinook, Simcoe and Mosaic hops. It’s also one of the beers I’ll review later in this post (sorry for taking so long to get to the point).

Now, to make matters more confusing, in the summer of 2013, there was a short offshoot of the Ranch series that had a lighter bodied malt bill and utilized a cleaner yeast strain. The first of these was called K-Bomb and it used an experimental hop known as ADHA 483 (it has since been named Azacca). It was quite nice! For Philly Beer Week, Victory evolved that recipe to include Mosaic hops as well, and called it Liberty Bell Ringer and that was a very well received beer. So Victory took that recipe, made some minor tweaks, and just released it in December as Hop Ranch (even though it doesn’t really taste like any of the Ranch beers).

I suppose this could be confusing to local beer wonks like myself, but who cares about us? Especially since these beers are really very good. I really have to admire a brewery the size of Victory taking the time and effort to revamp their DIPA line into something worth talking about. I’ve had both on tap at the brewery and even got a growler of Hop Ranch, but I wanted to do a head-to-head comparison, so after I took in Wolf of Wall Street (a little overlong and vulgar, but also vibrant and energetic), I headed home, popped in The Place Beyond the Pines (very ambitious but also overlong, with an oddly structured story) to complete the double feature that would complement my dueling Victory IPAs:

Victory Hop Ranch DIPA

Victory Hop Ranch – Pours a clear, light golden yellow color with a finger of dense white head. Smells beautiful, mango, juicy citrus hops, very “new” IPA feeling. That’s not a real thing, but it could be. You with me? No? Fine then, the taste is very sweet, juicy citrus hops (dat mango), nice balancing bitterness toward the finish. Mouthfeel is very light, crisp, clean, and tightly carbonated, smooth and dangerously drinkable. Maybe a hint of belly warming if you drink quickly. Overall, this is fantastic! A-

Beer Nerd Details: 9% ABV bottled (12 oz.) Drank out of a tulip glass on 1/4/13. Enjoy by May 19, 2014.

Victory Dirt Wolf DIPA

Victory Dirt Wolf – Pours a clear golden color, a little darker than the hop ranch, with a finger of white head and some lacing. Smells dank and resinous, some citrus notes, maybe even some malt and or yeast aromas. Taste definitely has that dank pine and citrus character, maybe even some kolsch yeast or something. Some malt too, more bitterness, and even a little booze (which is funny, because this is slightly less ABV). Mouthfeel is bigger and heavier, but not a monster. Pleasant boozy feel too. Overall, its very good, definitely better than most (if not all) of the Ranch series that I’ve tried, though I think I like Hop Ranch is better! B+

Beer Nerd Details: 8.7% ABV bottled (12 oz.) Drank out of a tulip glass 1/4/13. Enjoy by May 18, 2014.

It appears that 2014 has started out Victorious. I got a several Victory beers as gifts over the holidays and it’s been fun. Old Horizontal will be making an appearance at the next beer club, and I’m sure I’ll be hitting up some interesting stuff this year as well (now that the new brewery is up and running, we don’t have to worry about capacity anymore, so I’m hoping for the return of stuff like Wild Devil, or more adventurous BA stuff)…

November Beer Club

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Tonight was Beer Club, a gathering of beer minded friends from work who get together every month at a local BYOB for libations and fun. This month, we hit up a local BBQ joint, which is always nice. Got me some smoked Chorizo, Brisket, and some fixins which made for a great accompaniment to all the beer. And there was a lot of it this time around. The picture is actually missing a bunch of bottles because we did not account for people showing up later with their own stuff.

beerclub-november13.jpg

(Click for larger version)

So yeah, lots of stuff this month, so these notes are almost certainly useless, but for the sake of posterity, I’m including them anyway. Because I’m a good person, that’s why. Yeah, let’s get to it: in approximate order of drinking (not necessarily pictured):

  • Southern Tier Krampus – An “Imperial Helles” is sorta like a contradiction in terms, but hey, it’s an amped up Helles, and it works well enough. Nice uncommon hop character gives an otherwise clean beer the punch it needs. Really quite nice. B+
  • Ithaca Excelsior! White Gold – Bottle wasn’t quite a gusher, and we managed to not lose any, but it was hugely carbonated and most of us poured a cup of foam that resolved into more normal beerlike appearance in a minute or two. Once we got to it, it was pretty damn good. Nice Belgian yeast character, wheat is there but not as dominant as you might think (slightly reminiscent of something like St. Bernardus Tokyo). This was one of the first beers we tasted, and I liked it a lot, but we revisited it towards the end of the night and damn, it got almost (not quite) sour. Big fruity esters started showing up when it was warm. Again, not quite sour, but it was going in that direction. All in all, I enjoyed this more than the Ithaca Excelsior Rye beer I had recently… B+
  • Victory Root Beer – Yep, it’s a root beer! I’m no expert (hay, there’s no alcohol in this!?), but it’s really good as root beers go.
  • Sprecher Bootlegger’s Bourbon Barrel Hard Root Beer – Not sure I would have pegged this as having anything to do with a bourbon barrel, let alone an alcoholic beverage at all, but perhaps the power of suggestion lead me to believe that there was some bourbon present in the taste. Or something. Ultimately, it drinks like a good root beer, which is nice…
  • Avery White Rascal – A beer I’ve had before and greatly enjoyed, it doesn’t quite fit in with a tasting like this – it is easily overwhelmed by the other brews of the night. Still, I like this as a lawnmower beer on a hot day (alas, it’s pretty cold here these days). B
  • River Horse Double Wit – I don’t know if it’s the 7% ABV or the way this was spiced, but it didn’t really connect with me. It’s not bad at all, and other folks appreciated the different take on spice and booze level, but it never quite hit me where I wanted it to. B-
  • Ken’s Homebrewed Schwarzbier – We need to get on Ken to start entering his beers into untappd or something, because these are getting good. Not my favorite style, but it’s a nice dark lager style beer, clean and crisp, lighter than it looks, and quite flavorful. Toasty but not quite full on roast. Me likey. B+
  • Kaedrin Xmas Dubbel – My homebrewed dubbel, with a slight dose of cinnamon when I was bottling, is actually drinking really well right now. The regular dubbel has really matured and changed a lot over time, getting more and more raisiny, but this one was more subdued (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I’ll leave it at B+
  • Lost Abbey Deliverance – One of my other contributions, and a beer I’ve reviewed before! It’s still great. A-
  • Atwater Vanilla Java Porter – While opening this directly after Deliverance was a supremely bad idea, I still get the impression that this would underwhelm. It does have a nice vanilla character, but it’s a little thinner than I generally want out of a stout and while I’m not a big fan of coffee, it’s nonexistent here. Certainly a drinkable beer and would be welcome change of pace at a macro bar, but it’s not something to really seek out. C+
  • Spring House Big Gruesome Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout – Can I just point you to a review from a couple weeks ago? No? Well too bad, cause that’s what I’m doing. Still a B+ in my book.
  • Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale – The younger, weaker, smaller sibling to Really Old Brown Dog is a rather straightforward brown ale, which naturally has its merits (nice toasted malt and some heft to it) but again, should’ve probably opened this earlier in the night. Still glad I tried this, just to give context to Really old Brown Dog if not for its regular solid nature. B
  • Saucony Creek Chocolate Cherry Schnickelfritz – An object lesson in things sounding better than they taste, this seems to be a relatively well made imperial milk stout, but it’s got this artificial feeling cherry aspect that sorta ruined the beer for me. Not an abomination, but not particularly good either. I guess all the beers I bring can’t be winners! C
  • Ommegang Game Of Thrones #2 – Take the Black Stout – These Game of Thrones beers are actually pretty solid introductions to the whole Belgian beer world, and they work well enough for beer dorks too (a neat trick, appealing to the jaded hardcore and mainstream alike). I actually would call this more of a roasty Belgian Strong Dark rather than a full on stout, but to each their own. It’s got a nice Belgian yeast character, spice and light fruit, with a hint of that roasted malt too, but the carbonation (and presumably attenuation) cuts through more than your typical stout. Still, it’s very good, if not my favorite Ommegang beer. B+
  • River Horse Special Ale – No idea why this was opened so late in the night, but it’s such a profoundly average beer that I doubt it would have made that much of an impression earlier in the night. There’s absolutely nothing wrong wit it, and it’s certainly a step up from fizzy yellow stuff light lagers, but its not really something to get excited about. C+
  • Victory Harvest Ale – I totally fell in love with Victory’s Harvest Ale last year (and while I’m not a big Pils guy, the Harvest Pils was pretty good too), but this year’s take fell completely flat to me. Not bad, per say, but something about this is rubbing me the wrong way. Perhaps it was a different hop variety, perhaps they used their Kolsch yeast instead of their normally clean IPA yeast, but whatever the case, it didn’t inspire like last years. Again, it’s pretty good, but it’s disappointing. And I had this a couple weeks ago straight from the source too, so it’s not just palate fatigue talking here! B

Yikes, that was a lot of beers. Luckily there were a lot of people in attendance, so my tastes were limited on most of these (yet another reason to take my notes with a grain of salt), but this was a really fun installment. Here’s to hoping the December one will be just as great!

Tired Hands Monster Beers

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As previously mentioned, Tired Hands really gets into the spirit of the Halloween season. Last year, they made a series of beers named after classic monsters like Vampire, Zombie (a personal favorite), Ghost, Goblin, and so on. This year’s theme appears to be 80s horror monsters, including some suitably obscure choices that warm this jaded horror movie lover’s heart (if you’re so inclined, check out my generalist blog, where I’ve been marathoning horror movies for about six weeks at this point). As I write this, Tired Hands is hosting their All Hallows’ Eve Supper which features all of these beers and food pairings (not to mention an exclusive, Captain Howdy, which sounds rather great). Alas, I was not very quick on the gun for that, so no supper for me. I’ll have to content myself with the regular awesomeness of their beer. So let’s do this:

Jason

Jason – 6.9% citrus IPA – Awesome juicy ipa, citrus and pine hops, nice bitterness in the finish, just great! I feel like I should have more to say about this since I really enjoyed it, but I’ll just note that Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is arguably the best of the series (with strong contenders in IV and of course, the original). A-

Pinhead – 5.9% ABV saison with cascade, Simcoe, and Amarillo hops – Nice blend of saison and pale ale attributes, a little sweet saison spice upfront with the hops hitting in the middle and contributing a nice bitterness to the finish. In other news, they’re remaking Hellraiser. Barker is involved, which is promising, and it’s hard to be annoyed by this when there are literally, like, 7 sequels, most pretty terrible. On the other hand, dammit Clive, we need you to finish that third Book of the Art you started writing, oh, 20 years ago (though apparently the manuscript for The Scarlet Gospels, another book he’s been talking about for decades, has been sent to the publisher, so that’s cool)! And now that I’ve spent more time talking about Clive Barker than the beer itself, I’ll stop. B+

Herbert West

Herbert West – 7.6% ABV Coffee IPA Ethiopian Worka beans courtesy of ReAnimator coffee in Philly (hence the name of this beer) – An interesting spin on your typical Tired Hands IPA, juicy hops of course, but the coffee adds something that doesn’t immediately read as coffee. Easy to pick out when you know it’s there, but the character is more earthy and almost chocolaty than your typical coffee. In other news, don’t you think that the severed head from Re-Animator looks an awful lot like John Kerry? A-

This next beer is a sour wheat saison brewed with PA wildflower honey and fermented atop passion fruit, lime, and grapefruit. Jean kept posting pictures of the pellicle on Twitter, but when I looked at it under my electron microscope, I saw this:

Screenshot from The Thing

The Thing – 6% sour wheat fruit saison – Um, wut? Halp, this am so fruity that I can has lolcat speech. For realz, this is very strange and quite pleasant, tropical fruit all over, light tartness that is perfectly balanced, sorta like a bigger, stronger Berliner Weiss, really nice! Also, The Thing holds up pretty damn well. Best damn practical effects ever. A-

Freddy – 8% robust porter – Dark like my nightmares, not your typical porter, lots of complexity, chocolate, coffee, very light roast, hint of caramel, smooth as can be, easy going. Keep picking out new flavors as I drink. Really solid stuff! I know Robert Englund got a little down for a while because he was so well known for this one character, but he’s become this great horror icon, a grand old man in the genre, and he’s raised the profile of a lot of small horror movies in the past decade, so good on him. And Freddy (at least in the first film), is still fantastic. B+

Emerald Skeletons Listening To Your Footsteps – 7.5% IPA – I suppose this is arguably not part of the Monsters series, but it sounds pretty scary, and apparently Emerald Skeletons are gigantic spiders, which are terrifying in themselves, so I’m including it. And yep, another typically great Tired Hands style IPA (at this point, I’m pretty sure I can pick out their IPAs blind), standard citrus and pine, maybe some floral hops too, interesting complexity beyond the hops that’s hard to place, but all is well balanced and it’s really nice stuff. A-

Blonde Zombie – 11.5% imperial honey IPA – This is basically the same beer as last year’s Zombie, but without any of the dark malts. Whoa, this is really nice, citrus, pine, and floral hops in the nose and taste, a little sticky, but it doesn’t feel like 11.5% at all. Dangerously drinkable for such a monster (pun intended!)… I might still prefer the original Zombie, but this is still a great beer. Favorite zombie movie I saw during my horror movie marathon this year: Pontypool. It doesn’t quite stick the ending, but it’s pretty solid (but then, I’m not much of a zombie fanatic, so take this with a grain of salt). A-

Marty Rantzen

Marty Rantzen – 6.8% smoked gourd brown ale – I love the obscurity of this beer name’s reference, and if you haven’t seen Slaughter High, um, well, you’re in for something strange. For instance, during a sex scene, the girl asks the guy for a little mid-coital dirty talk and he responds with “Uhh..tits! Screw! Tits!” He’s a poet, I guess. Also notable, someone is dispatched with… a “poisoned” can of Pabst Blue Ribbon (that or it’s just regular PBR, they never really say). Oh yeah, the beer. It’s a straightforward brown ale base with some added complexity (presumably from the smoked gourds, though I can’t really pick them out), nice toasted malt character, easy drinking. I like. B+

Will the real Marty Rantzen stand up?

So there you have it. A pretty interesting bunch of beers, actually, so kudos to Tired Hands. Moar holiday beer reviews to come later this week.