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Review: Embree’s Northern Dark Baltic Porter

January 21, 2013
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embreeslabel

To start this review, a full confession. I do not care for many Porters. I find very few that really make a positive impression on me. When I drink a Porter I often wonder why I didn’t just grab a nice stout instead, because it usually tastes like the Porter is a Stouts wingman, at best.

With that said, I really like Embree’s Northern Baltic Porter.

What makes a Porter a Baltic Porter you ask?

The style started in the Baltic states of Latvia, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia in the 18th century. It was derived from English porters that were introduced to the Baltics in the 18th century. However the higher alcohol content and sweet malty character shares much in common with more robust Russian Imperial Stouts. Baltic Porters were largely forgotton in the West until the fall of the Iron Curtain in the late 1980′s when craft brewers reintroduced the style.

Last year, the Cincinnati craft brewers got together to brew a collaborative brew for Cincinnati Beer Week. They churned out a hopped up Barleywine that for me, was less than spectacular. And because of that, I had a healthy amount of skepticism before trying this years collaboration.

On to the beer. embrees

It looks like any porter you might have tried in terms of appearance, with just enough carbonation. But the sweet malty goodness of the drink really come out right away. This is truly a beer that I would consider pouring over ice cream because it already tastes like dessert. And the alcohol level, which I’m not totally certain of (between 9-10%??) is hidden really nicely. It isn’t hot at all and goes down smooth with little to no aftertaste.

I’m not saying this beer is something to go nuts over, but it is an incredibly solid offering in my opinion. Especially after how mixed I felt about last years collab, and how, as I mentioned, don’t care too much for the style in general.

So if you are in the Cincinnati area, grab some Embree’s Dark Northern Baltic Porter and enjoy all winter long.

IPA freshness and bottle dating

January 9, 2013
By

enjoybyipakoch

The demand for more and more hops has caused the IPA market to grow by leaps and bounds in recent years. We not only need regular IPA’s, Double IPA’s and even Triple IPA’s but we also now require our Pale Ales to come hopped up and even some of our stouts and barleywines as well. But I’m not writing today because I have a problem with this, no, I actually love hops and have even identified the specific hop strains that I gravitate to the most (citra and simcoe).

No, I’m writing today about a serious problem I have. The ability to taste how fresh or not fresh an IPA is. I blame it on getting certain fantastic IPA’s incredibly fresh or trying them on tap for this problem. After all, when you have Heady Topper less than a week since it was canned, you are spoiled for life. And of course, a good majority of the best IPA’s on the planet, or even the best hopped up beers of other varieties don’t seem to care much for bottle dating. And yes, I’ve written a little about this before.

The biggest violator of this is of course one of the best when it comes to hoppy beers, Three Floyds. I mean, Zombie Dust, Arctic Panzer Wolf, Dreadnaught and even Gumballhead and Alpha King are known for their citrusy, amazing hop smells and flavors. But have you ever had a Gumballhead that is two months old? Yeah, it tastes like glue. And since Three Floyds refuses to bottle date, you really don’t know what you might be getting.

It’s the classic….”something about this is off” taste that is utterly disappointing and downright sad. IPAs are meant to be consumed as fresh as possible, and even though an old IPA certainly won’t kill you and at times is even pretty damn good, it’s not what the brewer intended it to be.

Of course this is why I’m such a fan of the approach Stone takes to their IPAs. Their Ruination 10th Anniversary last summer was so great that I snatched up four bottles as soon as I could. I drank one within the first week of purchase and it was fantastic, the second one was just as good a week later. Then two weeks passed and then bottle #3 was opened I started to notice the subtle changes. The hops were fading, I was starting to get some mild oxidation already from the bottle and it just wasn’t the same. Because of this, I dove into bottle #4 the next night, because you know, I had to. Of course Stone upped the anti even more with its Enjoy By series last year as well.

I realize that this might make me sound incredibly dorky, or even worse, like a total jerk, but I’ve been spoiled. So here are some simple tips to avoid drinking IPAs that are nowhere near their peak.

1. Look at the bottle date! I think if you are within a month, you are in the sweet spot for most IPAs. But after a month it can get tricky. Avoid that sixer of 60 Minute that was bottled 8-10 weeks ago, it’s not as good as you think.

2. But what about the breweries that refuse to bottle date? This makes it tricky of course, so take some things into account. First off, does the beer location you are buying from have plenty of hop heads and craft beer fans frequenting the store? If so, don’t worry. Is the beer actually in season? Don’t get all happy if you find a bottle of a summer IPA on ‘sale’ and snatch it up. And of course, I’m not above just asking someone how long the beer has been sitting around if I need to.

3. Watch out for beer (IPA and others) that come in green or clear bottles. Light is the enemy of fresh beer so if you can avoid these, please do. The consistency is bound to be lacking from pack to pack.

Finally, I think I’ve linked to this site before, but it gives you a nice list of breweries that bottle date and ones that don’t. It also gives a nice list of the breweries that bottle date and how to decode their markings.

Thanks for letting me rant….

The Best Beers Of 2012

December 28, 2012
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Alright, so I had plenty of beer in 2012. I tried a lot more than in previous years, a lot more. Thanks to Untappd, I can look back at what I drank and put together a list of my favorites from 2012. These are beers that were either new in 2012, or just new to me this year. So even though I drank plenty of Zombie Dust, Gumballhead and Heady Topper this year, they don’t make this list.

Dark Horse Bourbon Barrel Plead The 5th

bourbonplead
For a long time I thought that nobody could touch the perfection that is Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Stout. That is until this years Bourbon Barrel Plead the 5th from Dark Horse. It is now the 1a to BCBS in the barrel aged stout category for me.

Founders Better Half
I already love Curmudgeon’s Old Ale, so when I heard they were aging it in Maple Syrup barrels I kind of went nuts. And it lived up to the hype for me, smooth, sweet and just amazing. I drank all mine, who wants to trade me theirs?

doublecitra
Hill Farmstead Double Citra
I admit to loving most everything with a healthy dose of Citra hops but there is always something unique about a Hill Farmstead offering. It’s like a giant basket of citrus fruit in your nose and mouth, with a bitter finish that is just the right balance. Yeah, it’s that good!

Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout
This might be the best coffee stout I’ve ever tasted. It’s dark, rich and fresh on tap. I know KBS is a coffee stout and of course Bourbon County Coffee is fantastic, but I just love this beer and pick it up whenever I see some on shelves.

Cigar City Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout
2012 was the first year I got my hands on some Hunahpu’s and man was it phenomnal. The rich vanilla and cinnamon tastes with just enough of the chile on the end made it really stand out and made me craze more of this hard to find beer.

ruination10
Stone Ruination 10th Anniversary
The best Double IPA Stone has ever released. And they put a lot of IPA’s on the market, especially this year. No offense to the 16th Anniversary and the Enjoy By releases but fresh Ruination 10th Anniversary was out of this world. A true palate wrecker that was instantly addictive.

Founders Backwoods Bastard
I’ve had Backwoods in previous years of course, but there was something about this years batch that did it for me. It didn’t feel as hot and boozy fresh as previous vintages and the smooth scotch ale flavors mixed with the barrel really made it shine.

Quaff Brothers Joseph
A bit of Cincinnati love on the list from Quaff Brothers. This bourbon barrel stout was aged in Elijah Craig barrels and had coffee added as well. It’s a mild stout that when at room temperature can stand up to some of the big boys in its category. In my opinion, it was the best thing to come out of Cincinnati in 2012. (Honorable mention to Quaff Sour Grapes and Rivertown Ojos Negros)

jackies
Jackie O’s Bourbon Barrel Nutted Brick Kiln
I’d really like to include just about everything in the Brick Kiln series, Bourbon Barrel and Rum Barrel but something about the Nutted version just stood above the rest. Jackie’s already has the market cornered on beers with walnut infusions but if you can try just one, I recommend this bad boy. Lets hope it gets bottled for a future release.

richlife
Three Floyds Live A Rich Life
Yeah, I adored this beer in 2012. The collaboration with De Struise to honor former employee, Rich Sheppard, is a Belgian IPA and might be the best Belgian IPA I’ve tasted. Tons of citrus and plenty of IBU’s to enjoy throughout this 22 oz joy.

Fat Heads Head Hunter
I had my fair share of this once it became more available in the Cincinnati area this year. It ranks right up there with the best IPA’s you can get your hands on. Yeah, on the same plain as Heady, Pliny and other world class IPA’s.

Green Flash Rayon Vert
It’s a pretty bold move to make a beer like this, full of tasty tasty brettanomyces that are constantly changing in the bottle and making it a year round offering. And since it’s bold you might not expect it to be consistently good, but it really really is.

hillE

Hill Farmstead E.
Speaking of fantastic beers with brettanomyces, Hill Farmstead knocked it out of the park with E. This funky version of Edward, their Pale Ale, gets plenty of brett, galaxy hops and is aged on stainless for four months. My favorite farmhouse pale of the year, hands down.

Alpine Nelson
The award for best use of New Zealand Nelson Sauvin hops goes to Alpine Nelson. Seriously fresh hoppy and smooth every single time. If you see it, and its summer, don’t hesitate to snatch up as much as you possibly can.

Craft Beer Glassware: Three Glasses For Every Cupboard

December 12, 2012
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Image from craftbeer.com

Plenty has been written in the past year plus about having the proper glassware to consume your craft beer in. There are some compelling arguments out there to be sure, but whenever I mention it to my friends or especially my friends and family that might not care much for craft beer, I usually get a heavy eye roll at best. Before we get started, how about a word from some craft brewers and lovers about why glassware is important.

Feeling a bit more convinced? Would you drink wine out of the bottle and not pour it in a glass? Wait, don’t answer that. I think the single most important thing you can do is get a really great Double IPA or Imperial Stout and pour it in a snifter and in a pint glass. Take a sip of each and see if you can notice a difference…and be honest. So now that we are at least a little closer to agreeing that glassware is important, lets talk about what glassware you should be using to consume that delicious craft beer.

Here are the three glasses I prefer when I drink craft beer, and in my opinion should be in every cupboard.

1) THE SNIFTER

The ole stand by, the glass I reach for nine times out of ten when I’m ready to consume a craft beer. Why? I have a bunch of them, and because they are a great choice for most of the styles I prefer. Those styles include Double IPA’s, Imperial Stouts, Barleywines and Lambics. So what is so great about a Snifter? Well, someone smarter than me at Beer Advocate explained it this way, and well, they’re right.

Used for brandy and cognac, these wide-bowled and stemmed glasses with their tapered mouths are perfect for capturing the aromas of strong ales. Volumes range, but they all provide room to swirl and agitate volatiles**.

2) THE TULIP

I have a Tulip glass from Boulevard Brewing that I use more than most of my other glasses. The others are probably jealous too. It’s a perfect choice for Guezues,Lambics, Scotch Ales, Double IPA’s and Belgians…lots of Belgians. It has similar benefits to the snifter, but can take on a little more beer and a larger head as well. From BA…

A stemmed glass, obviously tulip-shaped, wherein the top of the glass pushes out a bit to form a lip in order to capture the head and the body is bulbous. Scotch Ales are often served in a “thistle glass,” which is a modified tulip glass that resembles Scotland’s national flower.

3) THE MUG

I know, I know, not exactly the same kind of choice as the other two right? And it doesn’t boast the same qualities for enhancing your beer either, but when I want a good ole simple beer, I reach for a heavy mug. I have a couple of these dimpled ones and they are just perfect for an American Amber, a Porter, and Irish Dry Stout or something English as well. Since the main qualities are the feel in your hand and amount of beer it holds, I won’t provide any more description here, but I do love these.

**Volatiles are compounds that evaporate from beer to create its aroma, such as hop oils, all kinds of yeast fermentation byproducts like alcohol, fusels and fruity esters, spices or other additions.

Building Your Thanksgiving Beer Menu

November 15, 2012
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Photo from seriouseats.com

It’s Thanksgiving dinner time and you’ve been tasked with an incredibly important mission….to buy the beer. Whether your family and friends like good beer or not doesn’t matter, because you get to curate things. But this is also an opportunity to sway your ‘Bud Man’ uncle and ‘Jack & Coke’ cousin over to the craft beer world, so you want to do it right. After all, I’m a firm believer that people that don’t drink craft beer just haven’t tried their favorite craft beer yet.

With the holiday fast approaching, I wanted to share my process coming up with the beer menu for Thanksgiving at my home last year, and what I plan to do for this year. When I went searching for guidance last year around this time, the article I was pointed to the most, and the one that was the most helpful was this one from Beer Advocate. Sure, it’s six years old but holds up really well.

With that and other advice in mind, along with what I knew about who would be attending, I began to craft my Thanksgiving Beer Pairings.

I didn’t get too crazy because of those in attendance, I was by far the biggest fan of beer. We were probably outnumbered by wine drinkers, but I wanted to take a shot and see if I could turn anyone over to the beer side.

Pre-meal beer: At my house, Thanksgiving Dinner is really more like a mid-afternoon meal. So it’s right in the middle of all the football watching. I chose a Pilsner for this time period because I knew it would be accessible, and not overwhelming to anyone’s palate. I also knew that it wouldn’t fill anyone up before what is always a gigantic meal. So I chose one of the best American Pilsners around.

Brooklyn Pilsner

This year, I might change this up and go with Sierra Nevada Celebration. It’s a bit more palate challenging, but this years batch feels a lot less hoppy that previous years, so it’s up for consideration. I will likely also make Anderson Valley Boont Amber Ale available, which is a fantastic Amber. Here are some other Pilsners and Ambers I would recommend.

Victory Prima Pils, Brooklyn Lager, Hudepohl Amber Lager, Three Floyds Alpha King Pale Ale, or Sixpoint The Crisp.

During the meal beer: I’ll be the first to acknowledge that beer during a meal doesn’t work for some people. And those people usually just haven’t given it a chance. It might not be the highlight of the meal, but it can certainly be a really great role player on an already crowded field. My research last year suggested I go with a stronger Belgian style choice. Because of their higher alcohol percentages it can cut through fats and starches, and give just enough sweetness to make it a real winner. Last year I grabbed an easy to find Belgian Strong Dark that one of my relatives said was..’the best beer I’ve ever tasted.’

Delirium Tremens

This can be had at most grocery stores and for a reasonable price if you are trying to keep things on the cheap, and it pairs really nice with the meal. To keep it simple, it’s the bottle with the pink elephant on it.

This year, I’ll be serving another strong Belgian, but have a wild card in mind as well.

The Bruery’s Autumn Maple. Here is the description.

Brewed with 17 lbs. of yams per barrel (in other words, a lot of yams!), this autumn seasonal is a different take on the “pumpkin” beer style. Brewed with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, vanilla, molasses, and maple syrup, and fermented with our traditional Belgian yeast strain.

Yes, I think that will do nicely.

Here are some other great options for your Thanksgiving meal.
Chimay Blue, Allagash Odyssey, Unibroue Maudite, Unibroue La Terrible, AleSmith Grand Cru Ale or Jolly Pumpkin Noel De Calabaza.

Dessert beer: Now that the pumpkin pie, cheesecake, cobblers or whatever sweets you serve are on the table, it’s time to bring more beer out too. This is probably the best course to pair beer with, so if you only do one course, make it this one. Last year, I served Dogfish Chicory Stout and while I think it’s a great beer, it was the pairing I was least satisfied with. I think what I needed was something with a little more sweetness to match the desserts on my plate.

This year, I haven’t decided what I’ll choose, but here are the ones I’m considering the most.
Founders Breakfast Stout, Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, Great Divide Espresso Yeti, Southern Tier Choklat, or Port Santas Little Helper.

After dinner beer: Yes, you can still keep drinking beer after dinner! It’s digest that huge meal time and you are feeling bloated while your stomach goes to work, this is when you reach for a smooth and boozy Barleywine or Old Ale to sip slowly and savor. Here are some great ones I’ll be choosing from.

Founders Curmudgeon’s Old Ale, Great Divide Old Ruffian, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, Three Floyds Behemoth, Kuhnhenn Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine, Lost Abbey Deliverance or some Great Divide Hibernation.

Image via staythirstyblog.com

What Thanksgiving Beer Pairings are you planning this year?

The 4 Best Breweries For Stouts

November 8, 2012
By

It’s International Stout Day! With the temperatures beginning to dip, it’s a fine time to crack open your favorite stout and let it warm you from the inside out. The dark, rich flavors that a stout provides are nothing short of amazing so it’s great to be able to celebrate this great style today. There are way too many stouts to make a comprehensive list, we adore so many including Black Tuesday, B.O.R.I.S. from Hoppin Frog, Cigar City Hunahpu, and many many more. But for this post, we grabbed four breweries that not only make one great stout, but they make several. Have a look below at four of our favorite breweries when it comes to stouts.

I should also say, so this doesn’t turn into a discussion, these are my own four favorite breweries for stouts. :)

Bell’s Brewery

Not very many breweries enjoy stouts as much as Bell’s does. Not only do they have a stout that stands up to any when it comes to aging with Expedition, but they have quite a collection of regular, off the shelf stouts of high quality as well. And their bourbon barrel aged Black Note Stout (which is a blend of Expedition and Double Cream) is in a class of its own. Here are our favorite stouts from Bell’s.

Black Note
Expedition
Kalamazoo Stout
Double Cream Stout

Goose Island

From my perspective, the absolute best stout around is almost anything in the Bourbon County series. The standard BCBS or almost any of the variations are nothing short of phenomenal. But Goose has also thrown out some non-barrel aged stouts that are fantastic as well. Big John is one of those, and it’s little brother Night Stalker. Night Stalker might be out of production right now, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be found on shelves every now and then. Here are our favorite stouts from Goose Island.

Bourbon County Brand Stout + Variants
Big John
Night Stalker

Founders Brewing

Founders has some heavy hitters as well in the stout category. Their hard to find stouts like KBS and CBS are at the top of most peoples want lists and their easier to find stouts like Breakfast Stout and Imperial Stout are consistent and excellent year after year. Here are our favorite stouts from Founders.

KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout)
CBS (Canadian Breakfast Stout)
Breakfast Stout
Imperial Stout

Southern Tier Brewing

I think Southern Tier has a list of stouts that are very different than the breweries we have already covered. They specialize is what I would call ‘desert stouts’ because most of their best ones are really sweet. So they might not stack up with the barrel aged stuff I listed above, but do a great job with the niche they have carved out for themselves. Not to mention you can easily find all of these on stores shelves when they are in season. Here are our favorite stouts from Southern Tier.

Choklat
Mokah
Creme Brulee
2X Stout
Oat

What are your ‘go-to’ breweries for great stouts?

Empty Growler returns to MOTR for Between The Bookends

November 5, 2012
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Earlier this year, we had the honor of participating in ‘Between The Bookends’ at MOTR pub here in Cincinnati. Well, we had so much fun that they asked us to do it again! So on November 21st, just in time for your Thanksgiving break, you can kick things off with us at MOTR and drink some excellent craft beers.

And of course, since this is an Empty Growler event, you can get a growler fill that evening to take with you and serve to your friends and family on Thanksgiving. We promise it will be better than getting a last minute six-pack at the grocery. Here are the beers that MOTR will be serving for our event on the 21st.

Dogfish Head Burton Baton
This oak-aged gentle giant has been gaining popularity over the past few years and is now available year-round. For Burton Baton, we brew two “threads,” or batches, of beer: an English-style old ale and an imperial IPA. After fementating the beers separately in our stainless tanks, they’re transferred and blended together in one of our large oak tanks. Burton Baton sits on the wood for about a month. When enjoying the Burton Baton, you’ll find an awesome blend of the citrus notes from Northwestern hops melding with woody, vanilla notes from the oak. The wood also tends to mellow the 10% ABV of Burton, so tread cautiously!

Oskar Blues Ten Fidy – 100 Rating On RateBeer
This titanic, immensely viscous stout is loaded with inimitable flavors of chocolate-covered caramel and coffee and hide a hefty 98 IBUs underneath the smooth blanket of malt. Ten FIDY (10.5% ABV) is made with enormous amounts of two-row malt, chocolate malt, roasted barley, flaked oats and hops. Ten FIDY is the ultimate celebration of dark malts and boundary-stretching beer.

Stone Double Bastard – 100 Rating On RateBeer
This is a lacerative muther of a beer. The evil big brother of Arrogant Bastard Ale. It is strongly suggested you stay far, far away from this beer. Those foolish enough to venture close enough to taste will experience a punishingly unforgiving assault on the palate. ’Course there’s always the masochists…

Fat Heads Sunshine Daydream (Wet Hopped) Session IPA

Breckenridge Vanilla Porter

Who would have thought deep in the jungles of Papua New Guinea and Madagascar grew the perfect ingredient to build an extraordinary Porter in Colorado? An ale that has all the chocolate and roasted nut flavor of a classic Porter, with an enigmatic surprise thrown in for good measure, real vanilla bean. Breckenridge Brewery’s Vanilla Porter. A vanilla kiss in a rich, dark sea.

Sixpoint Spice Of Life Series Wakatu

The Spice of Life Series is an ongoing, monthly installment in which Sixpoint produces a single-hop IPA with 12 different hop strains over the course of the year. All other elements of the recipe remain the same – the malt bill, fermentation regime, yeast strain, etc. The only ongoing variable is a different hop strain is featured each month. Under this “controlled experiment” one can appreciate the dynamic difference between various hop strains, covering a wide spectrum of flavors and aromas.

And oh yeah, did we mention The Sundresses are playing that night? Well, they are, and are worth showing up even if this beer list wasn’t available…. but it is, so make your plans to be there!

UPDATE! – Growlers will be filled tonight from 5-9. Prices for a growler fill, including the bookend taps are as follows.

Hudepohl Amber Lager 8$
Christian Moerlein OTR 10$
Breckenridge Vanilla Porter 10$
Fat Heads Sunshine Daydream (Wet Hopped) Session IPA 12$
SixPoint Spice Of Life 12$
Bell’s Two Hearted 12$
Guinness 12$
Stone Double Bastard 20$
Oskar Blues Ten Fidy 30$
Dogfish Head Burton Baton 35$

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Celebrating Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

October 30, 2012
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Ah, the feel of the crisp cool fall air. The colors changing all around and the holidays just around the corner. I’m not ashamed to say it is also the time of year when pumpkin beers start to get phased out, and I for one, am happy to see it. But the seasonal nature of craft beer continues of course, and flows right into Christmas / Holiday beers.

I don’t love many Christmas beers either, but maybe that is why I love Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. It’s not even a traditional holiday beer. When you get right down to it, it’s just an IPA, a celebration of the first hops of the harvest. But since it gets released around holiday time, many expect it to have spices or something more consistent with a Winter Warmer style. I found a great quote from The Full Pint in an interview they did with Sierra Nevada’s own Bill Manley a couple years ago that addresses that point.

Celebration Ale is, and always has been, an American IPA brewed with the first, fresh hops of the growing season (i.e. fresh hop ale.) The beer has been in production since 1981, and in its current form (recipe) since 1983. It was one of the first legitimate IPAs brewed in the “American” style and has never contained any spices; only hops, water, malt and yeast. Despite nearly 30 years of (roughly) the same recipe, we get lots of complaints each year from people who are expecting a spiced holiday “Winter warmer” style of beer. And oddly, we also get lots of emails from people telling us how delicious the spices we used tasted…specifically nutmeg and cinnamon. As I’ve said, this has never been the case. No spices are or were used in the beer. We chose to highlight Fresh Hop Ale to clue people in on the real nature of the beer so folks know what they’re getting into.

We use a blend of Cascade, Centennial and Chinook hops to create an interesting citrus, pine and (kind of) spiced flavor, but all of the higher tones in the beer come from hops and yeast esters. The beer does change from year to year, but that is only because it relies so heavily on hop flavors, and hops can vary wildly from year to year and even from field to field.

Should I Cellar Celebration?

For some reason, this is an IPA many choose to cellar as well. That piqued my interest so I decided to take four bottles from the case I bought last November and see what they would taste like with some time on them. At the six month mark, the beer looked the same but the signature citrusy hop profile had faded. It was still a tasty beer though and brough plenty of malt and piney hop to the table.

Fast forward six more months, with a little over a year on it, and it is still really good. A little more malt but still plenty of piney flavor to go along with the always consistent golden red appearance. No oxidation right now, so I’ll let the other two bottles mature for awhile longer and maybe do a side by side with a fresh batch this winter. The oldest I’ve had this beer was on tap earlier this year when I sampled a 2006 vintage. For me, this was past its prime and the oxidation was very evident. So for those expecting it to turn into some sort of hybrid barleywine with that much time might be disappointed.

But even if you don’t care about cellaring this beer, it’s worth grabbing and keeping around during the holidays. A Sierra Nevada sixer won’t hurt you in the wallet much, and it’s a great beer. So get out and buy some of the fresh batch, which should be hitting store shelves soon, if it isn’t on them already.

Vertical tasting of Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, Stone RIS, Bell’s Expedition and more

October 15, 2012
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Have you ever been a part of a vertical tasting? It’s not your average craft beer party, for certain, and sometimes, it turns out to be an epic experience. If you don’t know what I’m talking about when I say ‘vertical tasting’ let me catch you up. It’s when you take a beer, of several vintages and try some from each year to compare how they taste. For example, maybe you have a Sierra Nevada Bigfoot from 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 and you want to try them all side by side, well, that’s a vertical.

So, back to the tasting I attended this weekend. Put on by the guy better known in the BeerAdvocate community as UrbanCaver, the lineup going in looked beyond ridiculous. After all, it was to celebrate his birthday, so, why not? Below are some pictures, listings and tasting notes from a great event.

Trappistes Rochefort 10

Vintages tried: 2009, 2010, 2011

Tasting notes: I arrived a tad late for the first batch but tasted each one. There was something strange about the 2010 in my opinion, but the 2009 tasted great. The freshest of the group was good as well, but I’d say the 2009 was the clear winner.

Bell’s Expedition Stout

Vintages tried: 2002, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Tasting notes: The 2007 was smooth, balanced and just delicious. I also like the 2008 and 2009. To be honest, I liked them all, but the 5 year point seemed to be the sweet spot. That is until a generous attendee surprised us all with a 2002 bottle. It’s hard for me to recommend you sit on Expedition Stout for 10 years, but if you can do it….wow! The 2002 wins the award here for me, with the 07′ coming in second. All that said, a tremendous beer at any age.

Stone Old Guardian Barleywine

Vintages tried: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, Bourbon Barrel 2010, 2011, Belgo

Tasting notes: I’ll say upfront, I’m not a huge fan of this beer to start with, but a few stood out very clearly. The 2010 Bourbon Barrel aged one was great, but has a distinct advantage, of course. Of the regular ones, I think my favorite was 2006 and 2007, which seemed to have smoothed out nicely over time, I felt like the 2005 was past it’s prime. The Belgo just isn’t my thing, regardless of age.

Chimay Bleue (Grande Réserve)

Vintages tried: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Tasting notes: The 2007 was from a magnum and in my opinion was the best. I got some different complex flavors that didn’t show up in the others. The 2008 was really bad, but we suspect it was cellared improperly. The 09, 10, 11 and 12 were solid, but nothing about any of them stood out above the rest.

Stone Russian Imperial Stout

Vintages tried: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, Belgo

Tasting notes: Talk about consistency! The Stone RIS has it down when it comes to that. As much as I enjoyed the older vintages, the fresher stuff was just as good and made it really tough to choose a favorite amongst this group. The only one I just didn’t like was the Belgo, guess anything with Belgo in it is a stay away for me.

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

Vintages tried: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Tasting notes: This was a beast, as you might imagine. With ABV’s ranging from 18 up to over 20% it was tasted in very small doses. As you might expect with something of this gravity, the older vintages are the best and I liked the 2004 and 2005 the most. They are still hot and don’t resemble an IPA, but were much smoother than the others and tasted more like a good barleywine. The 2008 was just awful, and tasted like drinking bad perfume while the 2009 was more like hop syrup. I think the 3-4 year range for this beer is it’s super awkward stage. The fresher vintages were decent, but not much had changed from the 2010, 11 or 12 yet.

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Vintages tried: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Tasting notes: At this point I was getting pretty fatigued but the Palo Santo was too fantastic to skip. Similar to the Stone RIS, the consistency on this was impressive. I didn’t have a clear winner but if I had to choose it would probably be the 2009. There was just something about that one that stood out a little more to me. Palo Santo fresh however might be the best beer on the list overall, just amazing.

Did we try too many beers? Probably. That being said, it was a really fun experience and I’m glad I got to participate. If I had to choose one of the beers we tried to recommend to cellar it would be the Bell’s Expedition Stout. I was really impressed with how well the 2002 stood up and how tasty the 2007 was. The beer that was best fresh was the Dogfish Head Palo Santo. I liked the vintages but there wasn’t enough about them to make me want to lay it down for a considerable amount of time. And as I mentioned the consistency award goes to Stone RIS. I’d love to try one with 8-10 years on it at some point to see how it changes but the ones we tried were all consistently good.

What is the best craft beer vertical you have ever tasted?

(Also, I’m inviting some of the other tasting participants to comment here as I’m sure I remembered something wrong or they might just disagree with me)

Deschutes Brewery launches Deschutes River Recordings

September 20, 2012
By

They are already one of the better craft breweries around, but Deschutes just won some major points with music lovers as well. The Bend, Oregon based brewery, which sits on the banks of the Deschutes River, is already known for their great beers like Hop In The Dark Cascadian Dark Ale, their Mirror Pond Pale Ale and of course their Black Butte Porter.

But instead of curating great beer, Deschutes recently decided to become curators of great music as well. Here is how they started Deschutes River Recordings.

- The brewery issued a call to its fans through Facebook, Twitter and email lists to choose songs with a river theme through an online voting process.

- Next, the brewery teamed up with indie artists to record the selected songs. The musicians traveled to Central Oregon and recorded the music “streamside high-wire: live, unadorned, far from a studio safety net”, resulting in a completely unique sound blending acoustic tunes with the sounds of nature.

- A partnership with Pitchfork.com was created to host the films and links to MP3s on their Pitchfork.tv site.

- Fans can download the songs for free, and are able to make a donation if they desire. Proceeds from downloads of this new music benefit the Deschutes River Conservancy, which is working to preserve streamflows and the health of the river in Central Oregon.

Pretty great right?

Well it gets better because the choices of artists is off to a great start. For the first video, they enlisted Eric Johnson of band Fruit Bats, and he performed this video

This is just part one in a three-part series with two more recordings coming up in the next few weeks, featuring Laura Gibson and also Eric Earley of Blitzen Trapper.

This is what happens when you combine experimental craft beer, indie music and a love for a river.

For more info and to download the MP3, visit:

http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/river-recordings