Beer of the Week: Pike Monk’s Uncle

By Iron Chef Leftovers

There was a time where I really liked Pike’s beers. They were at the minimum solid and usually bordering on spectacular and were always a nice go-to when I was down at Pike Place Market and in the mood for a beer. They changed brewers and company focus a couple of years ago and the beers have not been the same since. I decided to give them another shot on a recent trip down to the market and they had one of my favorites of theirs – Monk’s Uncle on tap.

The gritty details from the Pike website:

OG (ORIGINAL GRAVITY): 1.075

ALCOHOL VOLUME: 9.00%

MALT VARIETIES: Organic Pale, Organic Pils, Wheat, Aromatic

HOP VARIETIES: Nugget, Saaz

IBU (BITTER UNIT): 38

COLOR: Straw

YEAST: Belgian ale

FLAVOR PROFILE: Big, full bodied & complex with a yeasty nose, fruity esters & malty dryness.

The beer pours golden yellow in color with heavy notes of grain and yeast and light notes of orange and coriander on the nose. The beers starts off bready with lots of alcohol notes before moving further into a Belgian character – notes of citrus and yeast occupy the middle of the beer and the beer finishes bready with spice and coriander couple with a significant alcohol burn at the back of the throat. Once you move past the alcohol, there is a relatively pleasant dry yeast character that is almost toast like. The beer, however seems out of balance because of the alcohol, making this one almost too hot to drink (it feels like the rushed it out before it had a chance to mellow). The alcohol diminishes some as the beer warms, but not enough to save it. A Belgian triple should be an exercise in warming, bready, yeasty goodness that is smooth and complex and this beer was none of that. I remember this being so much better than it was.

Pike Monk’s Uncle sings and out of tune 2 chants out of 5.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Snowfield 2013

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I love the winter warmer style of beer – malty but not too sweet with plenty of character to get you through a cold evening. I was excited back in December to see that NW Peaks was bringing back their Snowfield beer, a wonderful winter warmer.

From the NW Peaks website:

The name. The mountain. With a name like Snowfield, we couldn’t resist naming our winter beer after it. Additionally, Snowfield is a mountain that takes more effort and time to climb. While it weighs in at a mere 8,347′ and Washington’s 90th highest peak, it stands 6,500′ above the Pyramid Lake trailhead with multiple ‘ups and downs’ and glaciers en route. The Pyramid Lake trailhead is right off hwy 20 just S of Diablo dam. While the trail is nothing to write home about, once into the Colonial basin views are truly spectacular with the whole N Cascades park within view and Snowfield a half day’s hard work from there. But we digress, we just loved that climb so much, just like the beer, that we could ramble on forever.

The Beer.This is our latest version of the Snowfield. We used largely the same ingredients, but played with the ratios and yeast. This year, we used the American yeast that ferments clean and dry, pushing the hop aroma forefront. We also added another variety of hops – Sorachi Ace – to increase the lemon/citrus aroma to play off the chocolate notes from the malt. The result is a nicely balanced winter beer featuring notes of chocolate and citrus hops. While not a heavy hitter in ABV for winter beers (6.6%) Snowfield is still a great winter beer, perfect to warm you up on a dark winter evening.

Malts: ESB, chocolate, honey, crystal. Hops: centennial, sorachi ace. ABV: ~6.6%

The beer pours dark brown in color with a cream colored head. It shows loads of malt on the nose with hints of dried fruit and chocolate coupled with a subtle note of spices. The beer starts out on the palate with lots of pleasantly sweet malt before moving into deeper flavors – first with roasted chocolate before transitioning into hints of dried fruit and finishing with a mild and pleasant hop bitterness that mingles with the other flavors in an extremely long finish. The beer drinks deep and complex with a great balance of malt and dark roasted flavors to warm you up on a cold winter day.

NW Peaks Snowfield 2013 straps in and goes for a hike with 4 snowshoes out of 5.

Beer of the Week: New Belgium Lips of Faith Heavenly Feijoa

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Let me be right up front, I had absolutely no idea what Feijoa was prior to buying this beer. I did end up buying it because it was collaboration with one of my favorite breweries – Brasserie Dieu du Ciel! out of Montreal. In case you are wondering, the exclamation point is actually part of their name and it translates roughly as Oh My God!, which is the reaction that you have with a good number of their beers. They were one of the first craft brewers in Montreal and have been at it a long time. Just a handful of their beers get bottled and even fewer make their way out to the west coast. You can find them occasionally at the better bottle shops. The Lips of Faith was available in 22 oz. bottles for around $7 and the beer clocked in at a robust 9.4% ABV.

About the beer, well I will let New Belgium’s website fill you in on the details:

Heavenly Feijoa Tripel combines Dieu du Ciel!’s love of hibiscus flowers with New Belgium’s passion for strange and worldly fruit. Feijoa, also known as pineapple guava, has a sweet, aromatic flavor, which makes the aroma of Heavenly Feijoa Tripel luscious and tropical. The beer has Belgian yeast and Nelson Sauvin hops, combining to make a sweet fruit taste, mild spicy tones and a sharp bite. Hibiscus adds a cranberry tartness and an ambrosial quality to the color.

The beer pours deep golden, almost toasted brown in color with yeast and malt dominating the nose and hints of floral hibiscus and light pineapple hiding in the background. The palate is interesting – the beer starts out with noticeable Belgian yeast moving quickly into a mild dry tartness, similar to what you would find in a beer made with cranberries, before changing direction and bringing out a sweet mango and pineapple component that decides to stick around a bit longer than the first few notes of the beer. The finish is dry with hints of banana and coriander coupled with a slightly floral character of hibiscus. The flavor progress quickly when the beer is first served, but as it warms they become more distinct and linger for longer periods of time, providing a nice transition and balance into the complex flavors. The alcohol was completely unnoticed despite its high ABV and this beer was an interesting exercise in deep and tropical character.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Heavenly Feijoa rocks in and cries out 4 No Hiding Places out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Xtra Dry Hopped Cask IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Another day, another cask review from our friends at Populuxe. Populuxe, the beer to drink if you are looking to drink cask beer on a Thursday night. This time they decided to double dry hop their IPA with, well, I don’t remember what they hopped the beer with because I forgot to write it down in my notes.

The beer pours hazy orange in color with hops and citrus (mostly grapefruit) dominating the nose. The beer is surprisingly mild to drink – fruity wish very little bitterness up front before moving more toward a solid foundation of grain and then gravitating back toward citrus – reminds me of juicy fruit gum. Smooth with just a hint of hop bitterness and burn, reminding you this is an IPA but it is by no means palate blowing. Smooth and easy drinking, a great version of an IPA that you could easily find yourself having more than one.

The Populuxe XTRA Dry Hopped Cask IPA is gonna move ya with a happy 4 packs of gum out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Boatswain Chocolate Stout

By Iron Chef Leftovers

It may seem a bit strange, but Trader Joe’s actually has a decent beer selection with a combination of some of the larger local breweries like Fremont and Ninkasi (sometimes at slightly cheaper prices than anywhere else) and bigger nationally available craft beers. In looking at the shelves, I saw Boatswain Chocolate Stout at $1.99 for a 22 oz. bottle. I figured, for that price, it was worth giving it a shot, but I didn’t have high expectations for the beer. Boatswain is brewed by Rhinelander Brewing, a company that mostly contract brews for craft breweries. The description of the beer from the TJ’s website:

Cocoa beans were the Aztec’s gold standard – they were used as currency and were the key ingredient in the king’s coveted chocolate drink. No longer used as coins, they are still used to create venerated brews. Case in point: Boatswain Chocolate Stout. As it states right on the front of the label, this bold bomber is “brewed with cocoa powder.” It presents aromas and flavors of dark chocolate and coffee with assertive, tangy hops and caramel maltiness. While it sounds like you might need a fork to enjoy this, it’s actually super drinkable. And it’s a respectable 5.4% alcohol by volume. Brewed for us in limited quantities to assure the quality, this beer delivers craft, without the crazy price – each 22 ounce bottle is just $1.99*.

The beer pours jet black with a light tan head and notes of hops and light roasted malt dominate the nose with mild notes of chocolate and coffee supporting. There are strong notes of malt on the front of the palate before fading quickly into a very mild chocolate flavor, which also makes a very brief appearance, before finishing in a slightly bitter, coffee-like finish that decides to stick around for a while. The bitterness is interesting (it felt like it may have been from hops), and leaves a slight resin burn on the back of the throat, which does throw the beer slightly out of balance. Not a bad beer, but could use a slightly more pronounced chocolate component to balance out the stronger coffee notes.

This isn’t the best chocolate beer that you are ever going to drink, but it isn’t terrible and, considering the price, it might be a good beer to try to introduce someone to the world of darker beers.

Boatswain Chocolate Stout rows into the picture with a creaky 3 skiffs out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Terrapin Moo Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Chocolate and beer is a great combination if done correctly, otherwise you end up with a sweet mess that is neither good chocolate or good beer. I think that the best chocolate beers are the ones that use either really high percentage dark chocolate or cocoa nibs, since you get all of the complex flavors of the chocolate (and the beer) without adding much in the way of sugar. Terrapin, a brewery out of Athens, GA, does this, adding nibs and shells from a wonderful small chocolate maker out of Nashville, TN, Olive & Sinclair (these guys are really great, I highly recommend trying their stuff), to produce their one of their seasonal offerings – Moo Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout. The beer is not available in the Seattle market, but intrepid internet searchers can find it and have it shipped.

The stats from Terrapin’s Website:

ABV: 6.0%

IBU: 30

OG: 16.1

Malts: 2-Row Pale, Flaked Oat, Crystal 85,Chocolate, DH Carafa III, Roasted Barley

Hops: Nugget, Willamette

Other: Olive & Sinclair Cocoa Nibs, Cocoa Shells, Lactose

The beer pours jet black with a light brown head. Cocoa nibs, malt, roast, chocolate and light vanilla all appear on the nose. The beer drinks lighter than you might expect, starting off with a light malty sweetness before moving into deeper flavors of roast and cocoa nibs with an ever so slight bitter bite (think really high percentage dark chocolate). The beer then moves to a more classic chocolate profile with long dark chocolate bar and vanilla notes before finishing with a creamy, chocolate-like finish in both taste and texture – it reminded me of the mouth feel of melting chocolate. The finish is long, lingering and pleasant and more of the fruity notes of the chocolate begin to show on the finish as the beer warms. Not as chocolate forward as many chocolate beers but well balanced and layered with the complexity of a well-made chocolate bar, allowing you to appreciate both the chocolate and beer notes.

Terrapin Brewing’s Moo Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout comes in from the pasture with a perfect 5 bovines out of 5.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Cave Ridge Rye

By Iron Chef Leftovers

For our loyal readers, I am going to take us back on a trip to January in my beer of the year post:

This really was a challenge – I had about 15 beers that I scored 5 points so I took down my list from there to 4 contenders for the best. It was actually going to be 5, then I realized that the one that would have been in the 5th spot has not yet had a review posted, so, it is an early contender for 2014 (and no, I won’t tell you what it is).

Well, I am ready to reveal what that 5^th beer is since this is the review for it. In some ways it is better that the review slipped to 2014, it would not have won in 2013, but it is really the front runner for 2014’s title of beer of the year.

From the NW Peaks website:

Cave ridge, fresh hop, rye. Cave ridge rye features fresh simcoe hops, imparting a beautiful/delicate piney aroma and acidity in the beer. To feature the simcoe hops, we put the hops on top of a light, dry pale. We used ~35% rye, which aids in drying out the beer, but also adds a little complexity complementing the simcoe. Some might find this a strange pairing, but they work really well together in Cave Ridge rye.

The beer pours a very pale yellow in color with strong notes of berries, grain and mild notes of rye on the nose. The beer starts out quickly with a quick hit of hops showing some light resin and pine before moving into heavy rye notes with a mild fruitiness before finishing off with a tinge of very pleasant bitterness, pine needles and more rye dryness at the very end of the beer, showing notes of raspberry on the finish as the beer warms. Layered and complex, the beer doesn’t have the strong bitter/citrus hop character of most fresh hopped beer, but is much deeper and show how the hops can play with several other complex players, making a the hops an important member of the symphony rather than the star of the show.

NW Peaks Caver Ridge Rye stirs the cauldron and makes a prediction of 5 oracles out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Epic Ales Bottom of the Sea Batch 1

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I like beers that are different; it makes drinking beer fun since I don’t tend to get caught in a style rut. I also, when I am in the mood, love sour beers since they tend to jumpstart the palate and, when they are done right, are as complex and deep as any beer out on the market. Epic Ales out of Sodo in Seattle cover both of those points – they make beers that are definitely different and they do a bunch of sour based styles. On a trip to Bottleworks, I noticed Bottom of the Sea – a beer brewed with oysters and wasn’t a stout. Actually, I had no idea what style it was until I opened it – it was a gose, an obscure German sour style. I figured that for $5 for a 22 oz. bottle, it was worth the shot. The beer is just 5% ABV and a minuscule 10 IBU.

The beer pours jet black with a creamy brown head and shows lots of malt and barley on the nose with light amounts of roast, hints of what reminded me of pilsner yeast and a vague smell of salt air. On the palate, the beer betrays its dark color by showing light on the palate with a hint of sourness upfront that gives way to salty malt and grain, before finishing with a long sour cherry, light roast and mildly salty ending. As the beer warms, the oyster component becomes more pronounced – more a briny sea water type taste than a fishy one and the sour component becomes more subdued. It is very complex and layered and brings to the table flavors that you would not regularly find in beer, especially the combination of cooked oysters and sour.

This is definitely not a beer for everyone. Heck, it isn’t a beer most people would enjoy. I will be honest, I thought the beer was good, but I struggled to finish off the 22 oz. bottle. I wish that is was available in a smaller bottle size. If you are feeling adventurous, find a couple of likeminded friends and give Bottom of the Sea a shot. You might find you like it.

Epic’s Bottom of the Sea (Batch 1) attaches itself to a rock with a solid 3 Ostrea conchaphilia out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Dry Hopped Saison Cask

By Iron Chef Leftovers

If you are free on Thursday nights, you should join me at the Populuxe Brewery for their weekly science experiment known as Cask Night. Most Thursdays, they tap a cask of something delicious and interesting for your drinking pleasure and, in most cases, those beers are fun. One of their experiments was with a dry hopped saison. Not a beer that you would normally associate with a cask beer, which meant that I needed to try it. The beer clocked in at 7.3% ABV and was dry hopped with horizon.

The beer pours hazy orange in color with plenty of grain on the nose coupled with lemon and passion fruit accompanied with light hop notes. The beer is dry on the initial taste with lots of grain before transitioning off to a pleasant hop middle coupled with citrus and lemon, before finishing slightly tangy with long notes of passion fruit and citrus. The classic saison earthiness/grassiness runs throughout this beer, but there was a touch of alcohol burn at the back of the throat on the very end of this beer which, while not unpleasant, did distract from the finish.

Populuxe brings in back home with their Dry Hopped Saison, carting in a strong 4 musty barns out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Elysian Dark O’ the Moon

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Every year I look forward to the early fall release of my favorite pumpkin beer – Elysian’s Dark O’ the Moon. I love the stout combined with the roasted pumpkin and just a hint of spice to balance and bring the beer to the next level. The best part of this beer is it is available both on tap and in bottles (about $7 for a 22 oz. one), so it is readily accessible. This review is for the beer I had on tap.

From the Elysian website:

TASTING NOTES
Pours dark as night with creamy tan head. A little smokiness on the nose with malty bittersweet chocolate and a little coffee with subtle earthy pumpkin and spices for an overall nice and creamy mouth.

MALTS
Great Western pale, Crisp 77° Crystal, Munich, Cara-Vienne, roasted, chocolate and Special B

HOPS
Bittered with Magnum and finished with Saaz and crushed cinnamon

SPECIAL
Pumpkin in the mash, kettle and fermenter

ABV: 6.5%

IBU: 20

The beer pours jet black in color with copious amounts of roasted pumpkin, roasted malt and chocolate on the nose with background notes of allspice and cinnamon. Pumpkin dominates the palate early on before yielding to roast malt and grain with bits of pumpkin pie spice and finally finishing out with a rather intense and moderately long chocolate and cinnamon finish – intense dark chocolate and cocoa nibs (not at all sweet) and a strong burn of cinnamon, with just a hint of bitterness coupled with more pumpkin notes. The chocolate plays hide and seek on the tongue long after the sip, but is eventually overwhelmed by building cinnamon, especially as the beer warms, to the point where the cinnamon becomes the dominant flavor on the finish by the end of the pint. The 2013 version is definitely more cinnamon forward but the chocolate and pumpkin notes are still present and discernable, but the increase in the cinnamon intensity seems to throw the beer out of balance. Still delicious, but not as great as it has been in the past. I am wondering if the cinnamon needed a bit more time to mellow out and integrate into the rest of the beer.

Elysian Dark O’ the Moon draws blood with 3 Warren Zevons out of 5.