Category: Beer

Beer of the Week: Flying Dog Brewery Snake Dog IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Flying Dog Brewery is a brewery out of Frederick, MD, known for their Hunter S. Thompson inspired labels and solid beer lineup. Flying Dog used to be available in Washington, but for some reason, no longer distributes here (or Oregon, or Idaho). I was lucky to see that Chuck’s Hop Shop had a keg of Snake Dog, probably forgotten somewhere, and put it out on tap.

Snake Dog clocks in at 7.1% ABV and 60 IBU and uses a combination of Warrior and Colombus hops.

Snake Dog pours almost orange with a frothy cream colored head. This beer is aromatic with hops – I can smell them while I am sitting 2 feet from the beer. Lots of citrus on the nose with a slight hint of grain. The beer is initially crisp, followed by a sweet maltiness giving way to a building bitterness from the hops. The beer finishes long and tannic with overtones of hops and resin. This 60 IBU beer is a hop bomb without actually being one  – it has good balance and enough hop flavor to satisfy any hophead, but is restrained enough to be enjoyed by those who like a milder IPA. My only complaint is that the sweetness becomes more pronounced as the beer warms and lingers too long for my liking. The beer also becomes much more restrained when it warms, with fewer hops and more citrus on the palate.

Outside of the sweetness, this was a fine example of a hoppy IPA from a non-west coast brewer. Unfortunately you won’t find it in Cascadia anymore and I am not sure if it is worthy of a road trip somewhere to find it. If it happens to show up again in Seattle, I would recommend drinking one for yourself.

Snake Dog gets itself 3 Serpentes Lupis out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Lakefront Brewery Bridge Burner

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Lakefront Brewery is a brewery out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin that has been around since 1987, but their beers are just starting to show up in Seattle. The Lakefront website describes Bridge Burner as:

The assertive aroma is dominated by dry, earthy American hops: citrus, floral and pine tree notes all make a showing. The hops dominate, lending a hefty bitterness to the palate, but are backed up by the caramel malts, which lend a substantial body without any extra sweetness. A warm alcohol burn finishes it off with a nod to its considerable 8.0% ABV. 2009 Los Angeles County Fair gold medal barley wine winner.

This brew needs a big, rich, flavorful meal to stand up to its intensity. Try it with the traditional German fare our Milwaukee ancestors would have loved, or serve it with BBQ or hamburgers.

Let me be honest about this beer, I am pretty sure what the good folks in Milwaukee consider dominating hops, barely registered to the group of beer drinkers in Seattle I tasted this beer with. I really found this beer to be thin, flaccid and not even close to anything resembling a barley wine.

The beer poured dark amber, like an iced tea. Lots of malt with a hint of hops on the nose, but a bit flat on the initial sip. There is a big malt hit on the palate with some sweetness, followed by a small amount of hoppiness which faded quickly – there was no real note of citrus, floral or resin in this beer. After a few sips, there is a bit of lingering hoppiness at the end, but it is barely noticeable and not something I would describe as a pleasant finish of hops. The hops begin to disappear as the beer warms and it is just a single note of sweet malt with no other dimensions – it made me think this is what scotch ale might taste like if the brewer did not know what they were doing. On the bright side, there was no excessive alcohol on either the nose or the palate despite the beer’s 8% ABV.

Overall it was a forgettable drinking experience, easily one of the less memorable beers that I have had in a long time.

Lakefront Brewery’s Bridge Burner garners a rickety 1 foot bridge out of 5.

Fresh Hop Beers

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Blog friend Annie S. asked me about fresh hop beer recently while we were knocking back a few malt beverages. I mentioned that they are generally only available in the spring and fall, right around harvest time for hops.

In case you are not familiar with fresh hop beers, they tend to have a very robust and green hop flavor and need to be consumed within about 6 weeks of production before the hop flavor starts to fade. Most beers use a dried form of hops and do not suffer from this issue.

I happened to be surfing the interweb recently and noticed that our friends at Seattle Met magazine had a story about fresh hop beers.
So for Annie and any other readers out there (all 5 of you) who care, here is some info on fresh hop beer s and where/when they will be available:

Once again, Two Beers is the first out of the gate on this; the brewery’s Fresh Hop 2012 started flowing in the SoDo taproom over the weekend, and is now surfacing outside the brewery. It’s the earliest release yet for its beer. Big Al Brewing also does a fresh hop brew each fall; the Santiam hops are being picked this very morning, and are destined for a batch of Big Al Brewing Harvest Ale, a malty amber, later this afternoon.

Fremont Brewing gets its hops from a one-acre plot in Yakima Valley’s Cowiche Canyon, half of which is dedicated to its Cowiche Canyon Fresh Hop ale. The brewery is hoping to release this year’s version the first week of October, but like a restaurant opening, such matters are moving targets. Schooner Exact, 7 Seas, Big Time, and Iron Horse have also done fresh hop brews in past years.

Not surprisingly, Oregon breweries like them some fresh hop, too. Geoff Kaiser of Seattle Beer News and the excellent Noble Fir bar in Ballard put on an annual Oregon vs. Washington fresh hop throwdown, where 15 versions battle for crowd supremacy. This year’s hop bonanza happens Saturday, September 29. Get there early, brace yourself for a line, and be assured that what awaits inside is completely worth the wait. Not surprisingly, Yakima is also home to a Fresh Hop Ale Festival happening October 6.

One that I would love to get my hands on – Laughing Dog Brewing’s Fresh Hop. They picked 150 lbs. of hops by hand this past week to go into the beer. Hopefully it shows up in Washington

Beer of the Week: Lantern Brewing Dubbel Abbey Style Brown Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Lantern Brewing is a small brewery located in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle. They are relatively new to the game and their beers have a somewhat limited availability (check Chuck’s Hop Shop, they usually carry a couple). Lantern doesn’t have a website (I hate that trend), but they do have a Facebook Page. It also means I can’t give you any stats on the beer.

I was in the mood for Belgian style ale recently and this one was sitting in the fridge, so I cracked it open.

The beer pours brown, like a dark brewed tea, with a dark cream head. Malt and yeast are prevalent in this been from the second you open the bottle, even before it hits the glass. The initial sip is also dominated by malt and yeast, giving way to caramel and sugar, with a short finish of bananas; exactly what you would expect from a Belgian style beer. There is a hint of hop bitterness, but it is not present on every sip; sometimes it is there and you can taste it for a few seconds, other times it is not there at all, but this is only when the beer is cold (there were no detectable hops as the beer warmed). As the beer warms, caramel and burnt sugar flavors dominate and a longer, smoother finish appears, with notes of banana and yeast. This beer reminded me of a liquid banana crème caramel – I kept thinking that I needed a burnt sugar wafer while drinking it.

This beer was delicious and a somewhat unusual style for a Seattle brewery, there are a handful making abbey style beers, but very few are doing Belgian browns. If you are in the mood for a Belgian brown, give this one a try instead of your regular one from Belgium. I think you will find that this beer holds its own against the ones made by guys in robes.

Lantern Brewing Dubbel Abbey Style Brown gets 4 beacons out of 5.

And Now For Something Completely Different…

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I like strange and unusual beers. There are tons of great beers on the market, but a great IPA is still an IPA and I pretty much know what I am going to get with the style. Experimental beers are a different matter. Places like Dogfish Head and Elysian (with their 12 Beers of the Apocalypse) are probably my two favorite breweries consistently putting out the odd ball stuff. We even have the Strange Brew festival in Port Townsend annually. There are plenty of misses when breweries try something completely different, but even their failures are worth trying since they are styles that are generally not really being done anywhere else.

I saw a post of the BrewDog website recently about a “collaboration” they are doing with Flying Dog Brewing out of Maryland, called International Arms Race.

From the BrewDog website:

When the team at Flying Dog threw down a gauntlet and challenged us to a battle collaboration entitled International Arms Race there was no way we were not going to take them on and show them who is boss when it comes to the brewing dogs!

The International Arms Race is a new type of collaboration: the brewing team from both Flying Dog and BrewDog set the parameters for the beer and the battle kicked off.

Both beers are dubbed ‘Zero IBU IPA’ and the challenge was to brew an IPA style beer using no hops: the hops are replaced with berries, herbs and roots. And we want you to judge who the winner is: Flying Dog or BrewDog!

I love the concept – and IPA with no IBU and using no hops! Unfortunately the BrewDog website does not mention any events for this in the U.S. and the Flying Dog website does not mention the competition at all. I would love to get to taste these 2 beers – a truly experimental IPA.

If I can’t get my hands on this beer, I would love to get a hold of the bottle. Maybe I can spend another 60$ on shipping beer?

Beer of the Week: Firestone Walker Wookey Jack

By Iron Chef Leftovers

To celebrate National IPA day on August 2nd, I decided to crack a bottle of Firestone Walker Wookey Jack, combining a couple of my favorite offshoots of the IPA style – black IPA’s and Rye IPA’s. It is a big beer coming in at 60 IBU and 8.5% alcohol and is available in 22 oz. bottles and on tap in Washington. My beer was from a 22 oz. bottle.

From the Firestone website:

Wookey Jack is our first foray into the dark outer world of black IPAs. Rich dark malts and spicy rye careen into bold citrus laden hops creating a new dimension in IPA flavor. This brew has been left unfiltered and unfined to retain all of its texture and character. At 60 IBUs, Wookey Jack is gnarly on the outside yet complex and refined on the inside.

This beer pours jet black with a cream colored head – looks like a stout and you would probably guess that if you didn’t know what you were drinking. You would definitely know it when you smelled it though – lots of hops on the nose with hints of malt. The initial sip brings roasted malt on the palate with some caramel which gives way to floral and fruity notes with just a smattering of hops. The finish fades nicely into a mild bitterness.

Pleasant to drink but the rye is lost in the mix until the beer warms slightly. At about 50 degrees, the hop finish yields to a strong hit of rye a few seconds later. Reminded me of toasted pumpernickel bread as it warmed, with the addition of hops.

The beer is enjoyable but it just feels like it is trying to be too much at once. I would love to see Firestone produce a Black IPA and a Rye IPA separately just to see what the part taste like.

Firestone Walker Wookey Jack IPA gets itself 3 Kashyyyks out of 5.

101 Must Taste Beers – The US Edition

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I was recently digging through some old papers and I came across a well-worn photocopy of an article that was in All About Beer Magazine, probably in 2003 (there is no date on the article) called “One Hundred and One Must –Taste Beers.” This list was a compilation of a request that the magazine sent out to a number of beer experts, so it was an interesting list – some are easily found and others are very regional. The writer of the article called this a beer “life list.” Only 41 of the 101 beers are American – the rest are from 11 countries. Of those remaining 59 beers, 21 are Belgian and 16 are German.  The list is not necessarily the 101 “best” beers, but really a list of things that you should drink because they are unique or the best example of a style of beer.

I am going to reprint the list in a couple of posts – one for the US, one for Germany and Belgium and one for everyone else, since I want to add some commentary around each section and that would make one massive post if I did not split it up.

Each country has 2 numbers – the first is the number of beers I have tried from that country and the other is the total number of beers on the list from that country. Needless to say, I have tried a lot of beer.

USA (33/41)

Beer Brewery
Liberty Ale Anchor Brewing (CA)
Alaskan Smoked Porter Alaskan Brewing (AK)
Belk’s ESB Anderson Valley Brewing (CA)
Avery IPA Avery Brewing (CO)
Hop Rod Rye Bear Republic Brewing (CA)
Monster Barleywine Brooklyn Brewing (NY)
Blonde Dopplebock Capital Brewery (WI)
Bohemian Pilsner Cleveland Chophouse (OH)
Traditional Lager Yuengling Brewing (PA)
Hampshire Special Ale Geary Brewing (ME)
Mirror Pond Pale Ale Deschutes Brewery (OR)
90-Minute IPA Dogfish Head (DE)
World Wide Stout Dogfish Head (DE)
Perseus Porter Elysian Brewing (WA)
Imperial Eclipse Stout Flossmoor Station Brewing (IL)
Crooked River ESB Frederick Brewing (MD)
Imperial Porter Full Sail Brewing (OR)
Elliot Ness Great Lakes Brewing (OH)
Gritty’s Best Bitter Gritty McDuff’s (ME)
Adam Hair of the Dog (OR)
Bells Two-Hearted Ale Kalamazoo Brewing (MI)
Live Oak Pilz Live Oak Brewing (TX)
Indica IPA Lost Coast Brewing (CA)
Steelhead Extra Pale Ale Mad River Brewing (CA)
Duck’s Breath Bitter McNeill’s Pub (VT)
Moylan’s Double IPA Moylan’s Brewing (CA)
La Folie New Belgium Brewing (CO)
Wisconsin Belgian Red New Glarus Brewing (WI)
Old Rasputin Imperial Stout North Coast Brewing (CA)
Red Seal Ale North Coast Brewing (CA)
Tupper’s Hop Pocket Ale Old Dominion Brewing (VA)
Stovepipe Porter Otter Creek Brewing (VT)
XXXXX Stout Pike Brewing (WA)
Cuvee de Tomme Pizza Port Brewing (CA)
Old Crustacean Barleywine Rogue Brewing (OR)
Pale Ale Sierra Nevada (CA)
Arrogant Bastard Ale Stone Brewing (CA)
Tabernash Weiss Tabernash Brewing (CO)
Hoppy Hour IPA The Mash House (NC)
Hop Devil Ale Victory Brewing (PA)
Raspberry Imperial Stout Weyerbacher Brewing (PA)

As far as I can tell, all of the breweries listed are still in business and I assume that they still probably make these beers. This list came out sometime before I moved to Seattle, and, at that time, I had only tried 15 of the US beers, since the list has a heavy West Coast presence and most of those beers were not available in Boston at the time (and some still are not). The GABF has also helped me try a number of the Midwestern beers that aren’t distributed to either coast.

It would be interesting to see how this list would change if it was done today, since brewing has changed so much in this country. I am sure that Pliny the Elder would be on here, and I can think of probably 10 or so more beers that could easily be on this list. For me, there are 2 beers I am surprised that I have not tried – the Pilsner from the Cleveland Chophouse and the Stout from Weyerbacher. The Weyerbacher brewery is 5 minutes from my parent’s house, and yet, I have never been there. I have been to Cleveland a number of times to visit my “brother from a different mother” and yet we have never been to the Chophouse. How have I managed that, especially since I have spent the cost of a plane ticket to have beer shipped from Scotland? Go figure.

 

Beer of the Week: Latona 25th Anniversary by Anacortes Brewing

By Iron Chef Leftovers

One of the beer week events that we went to was the Latona Pub’s 25th anniversary party which featured some beers from Anacortes Brewing. I have never been shy about my love of the beers brewed by the guys there – they are my favorite Washington brewery and I think they consistently put out the best beers in the state. For the Latona’s 25th, Anacortes brewed a Rye IPA – which was available in both cask and regular draught that night. The draught was great, the cask was amazing.

A very typical IPA from Anacortes, light amber in color; very hop forward and floral on the nose with lots of citrus; both the hops and citrus were more pronounced in the cask version. Hints of rye and malt show up initially on the palate, but they quickly give way lots of citrus (grapefruit mostly) fading into a long and intense lingering bitterness from what I can only imagine is copious amounts of hops (I am sure this beer was 100+ IBU). This beer is hoppy to the extreme, if you don’t like an overly hopped beer; this is definitely not for you.

I love the regular IPA from Anacortes, but this version might actually be better than their standard – I would drive the 80 miles each way from Seattle to Anacortes just to have this beer.

The Anacortes Latona 25th Anniversary Beer scores a 4 out of 5 birthday cakes for the regular version and 5 out of 5 birthday cakes for the cask version. Regardless of the version you have, you would be a very happy hop-head with this beer.

Beer of the Week: Joseph James Hop Box Imperial IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I was in The Dray recently enjoying a cold malt beverage and I noticed that a large number of people were ordering a beer they had on tap that I had never tried – Joseph James Hop Box Imperial IPA. In case you are not familiar with them, Joseph James is located in Henderson, Nevada and has been brewing beer since 2006. The Imperial IPA is described on their website as follows:

… has a large Hop Aroma and sweetness from dark caramel malts. This brew uses Simcoe and Cascade hops and is hopped at 5lbs per barrel. The brew is 9.3% ABV, 90 IBU’s, and best enjoyed at 55F. Serve in a 25cl goblet.

Hop Box pours amber, almost ruby in color with an off brown head. Malty with a slightly floral nose and I was picking up something that I could not quite place my finger on (rosemary?) Lots of grain on the initial taste, with hints of flowers and citrus. There is a slight bitterness that fades rapidly with tons of tannins. Lots of sugar coated my palate, which is very odd for an IPA. My opinion kept changing on this beer as it warmed – one sip I thought it was a fine version of an imperial IPA and the next, it tasted like a liquid sweet tart. I can best describe this beer as confusing and inconsistent and I really think I need to retry it.

Overall, Joseph James Hop Box scores a preliminary 3 six-shooters out of 5, with me reserving the right to change the score on a retaste.