by A.J. Coltrane
Images from the Oregon Brewer’s Festival (Saturday edition).
Category: Beer
Beer of the Week: Fort George Spruce Budd Ale
By Iron Chef Leftovers
I like beers that are different. I have a ton of them stocked in the beer cellar right now that will keep me writing beer reviews well into 2013 (assuming the Mayans were not right). Recently, I saw an update to Chuck’s Hop Shop tap list that Fort George Spruce Budd Ale was on tap.
Here is the description of the beer from the Fort George website:
With the help of many Fort George fans we picked over 120 lbs. of Spruce tips, leaving our arms aching from the constant stabbing of the Spruce needles. Through all of that pain of picking over 35 lbs. of Spruce tips for each batch came a beer that cannot be rivaled in deliciousness. With nothing more than organic pilsner malt and Spruce tips for ingredients, this beer might be the best thing you have ever put in your mouth. With Spruce tips being full of vitamin C, this beer is incredibly good for your health* and can lead to a longer life.** With each glorious sip you are able to realize what an adventure into the woods taste like. With hints of Spruce, citrus, and more Spruce, these beer tastes like a Spruce tree. With the summer heat in full swing, grab a growler of Spruce Budd, find a some shade underneath a tree and enjoy life.
*Probably not true
**Definitely not true.
This beer clocks in a 4.9% ABV and is brewed with no hops (the spruce tips essentially replace the hops). I picked up a growler and the beer appears to only be available on tap.
Spruce Budd pours pale yellow in color with lots of carbonation. There are hints of malt on the nose, but not much else – it has the aroma of an American Lager (i.e. Bud) without any hint of adjuncts. The initial taste was slightly fruity and crisp, without much going on. After a few seconds, you get a burst of raspberry and spruce in a short, dramatic finish. It reminded me of a Jolly rancher candy – slightly sweet, slightly tart. The spruce flavor is balanced and it does not overpower a very subtle beer. As the beer warms, it become slightly bitter and tannic, but not hop like, and the bitterness and tannins fade quickly. Mrs. Iron Chef made the comment that she felt the beer was lacking something, and I immediately said “hops” – I had been thinking the exact same thing that she was. A bit of inclusion of hops would make for a more complex beer and probably would have helped the finish to linger just a bit longer.
Spruce Budd goes down extremely easily and would be perfect for sitting on the back deck on a hot day. The beer is light and refreshing and you feel like you can enjoy several without thinking about it when the weather calls for an ice cold beverage, but you want something with more complexity and flavor than a Bud.
Overall, Spruce Budd is interesting if you have never tried a beer made with spruce, and definitely refreshing if you are looking for something light and not hoppy, but still want something with flavor.
Spruce Budd gets 3 Piceae out of 5.
Beer of the Week: Fremont Dark Star with Lavender and Rosemary
By Iron Chef Leftovers
One of the reasons I like Brouwer’s Café in Fremont is that they tend to have the occasional short production, experimental beer from a local brewery that, if you blink, you will miss. That was the case recently when I was in for lunch and I saw the Dark Star with Lavender and Rosemary from Fremont Brewing on cask. Curious, I had to give it a shot, although, I have to admit that lavender tends to overpower beer and I am not a great fan of Dark Star to begin with.
Dark Star is, as you would expect, a very heavy, dark stout with just a hint of light able to penetrate its murky depths. Lots of roasted malt and smoke on the nose, with a serious lack of any floral characteristics of the lavender (this is a good thing). Heavy chocolate and roasted flavors appear of the front of the palate with just a hint of oatmeal, giving way to a slightly woody sensation (not really oak, more like chewing on a twig) with hints of rosemary. It finishes long and heavy with a subtle lavender background, but in a very pleasant way.
The restrained use of lavender was nice (it did not remind me of soap as so many lavender beers tend to do) and the beer overall felt like I was drinking a liquid Theo Chocolate confection. I was very surprised that the flavor profile did not change as the beer warmed.
Dark Star was a pleasant experience, but I don’t know that I would order more than one – it is a really heavy beer and didn’t pair too well with any of the food we had. Still, Dark Star with Lavender and Rosemary manages to score 4 Nibirus out of 5.
Beer of the Week: Hale’s Rudyard’s Rare Barley Wine – 2006 Vintage
By Iron Chef Leftovers
I am not usually much of a barley wine fan, there are a small handful of them that I like, but generally I tend to stay away from them since they are expensive and not high up on my list of beers I enjoy. Recently, I was at a friend’s place and he has a nice stash of vintage barley wine which he was kind enough to share some with me. One of the bottles that we opened was a 2006 Rudyard’s from Hale’s Brewing. This was poured from a 12 oz. bottle and comes in at around 10% ABV. We served it room temp to get the full effect of the beer.
The beer pours almost black like a porter with a small amount of carbonation and a fair amount of sediment at the bottom of the glass. Subtle hints of smoke and wood with a slightly musty smell permeates from this beer – it almost smell like a campfire that has been put out for an hour or so, nothing overpowering, but you know it was there. On the palate, this was a very different beer. Chocolate and malt dominate the tongue, with the some molasses there, but not in a cloying way. The beer finishes very long, fading into stone fruit (we thought cherry) and cocoa nibs at the end.
I did a little digging to find a review of what this beer was like upon release and I stumbled across this from beeradvocate.com’s rating board written in March 2007:
Poured from a 12oz bottle marked Dec 2006, so I’m drinking it relatively fresh. Pours with a thin mocha colored head that dissipates quickly. Very dark, color reminds me of molasses. Smells faintly sweet, of vanilla perhaps? Tastes of toasted malt. Very smooth, very nice. Hard to believe it’s almost 10% abv… VERY easy to drink… Retired? Hmm….if that’s truly the case then i guess i should consider myself lucky to have found this.
It surprises me that so much of what was in the original tasting notes, we tasted in the beer. I didn’t get any real vanilla, but that is probably where the campfire smell came from.
This was an overall amazing beer for being 6 years old and is easily on my list of beers that I wish I could have again but probably never will. It seems the key for me might be to buy a barley wine and stash it away in the cellar for 5 or 6 years.
Rudyard’s Rare manages to swing in with a stellar 5 Jungle Books out of 5 on the literary scale.
I really want to thank Bill D. for sharing his last bottle of this amazing beer with me.
Extreme Lengths for Extreme Beer
By Iron Chef Leftovers
Soon I will be preparing to Sink the Bismarck with a Tactical Nuclear Penguin (that sounds like a great T-shirt). I present to you, the world’s most expensive 6 pack – 4 bottles of Tactical Nuclear Penguin, 2 bottles of Sink the Bismarck, shipped from BrewDog in Scotland. These are generally not available in North America due to the way they are produced, but I guess that you can ship them – just be warned, shipping on this package was about $65 US, which is roughly what this beer cost a bottle. Soon there will be a tasting and if you are very lucky, I might invite you to partake. <Insert evil laugh here>
BTW – you are reading correctly. Those beers are 32 and 41 % ABV respectively.
Beer of the Week: Fort George Sunrise OPA
By Iron Chef Leftovers
Fort George Brewery is a brewery out of Astoria, Oregon. Their Sunrise OPA (Oatmeal Pale Ale) is a session pale ale made with rainier and cascade hops, chocolate malt and 50 lbs of oatmeal in each batch. It is easy drinking at 5.5% and 45 IBU.
The beer pours golden in color with a fizzy white head. Hop forward on the nose, with citrus undertones, but really no hint of the oatmeal is anywhere to be found. The initial taste is crisp and clean with a slight fruitiness as the beer lingers, fading into a pleasant hop bitterness that disappears quickly. This beer has a great hop balance that will remind you they are there, but not smack you upside the head with hoppiness. As the beer warms, there is a more pronounced lemon flavor on the palate. My only complaint – where is the oatmeal? There is a very slight oatmeal like mouth feel to this beer, but so little that you probably wouldn’t know it was there if you were not told that there was oatmeal in the beer. Any oat flavor (or even the use of chocolate malt) was completely overwhelmed by the hops in this beer. It is not a bad thing, but the beer could have been much more interesting with those as the dominant flavors.
Overall it was a pleasant drinking experience and a very refreshing beer if I am looking for something hoppy that I can drink more than one of, but not looking for a hop bomb.
Fort George gets a 3 gun salute out of 5.
Beer of the Week: Laughing Dog Brewing Alpha Dog
By Iron Chef Leftovers
Laughing Dog Brewing out of Ponderay, Idaho, is one of the more underrated breweries in the Northwest. The produce several good beers, but where they excel is in their IPA’s producing several outstanding ones. One of my favorites is the Alpha Dog, a very highly hopped double IPA, coming in a sizzling 127 IBU.
This beer pours amber and slightly fizzy with a smooth, white head. The nose is pleasantly floral from the inclusion of Columbus and Mt Hood hops and teases with hints of malted barley. The initial taste yields a great crispness without being tannic with a short hit of bitterness followed by a lingering hoppiness with a hint of sweetness on the finish.
As the beer warms, the bitterness fades and is replaced by a subtle sweetness with a more pronounced floral notes on the nose. My only complaint about this beer is that it lacks the strong citrus notes I love in an IPA – they are there, but barely noticeable, even as the beer warms. Even then, there is tremendous balance in this beer, producing a high IBU beer with enough bitterness to remind you that you are drinking an Imperial IPA, but not so much bitterness that the only people who would drink this are the most hardened IPA lovers. At 8%, you probably won’t find yourself having more and one or 2 of these.
Overall, I love this beer and would gladly drink it any time someone handed me one or I see it in a bottle shop.
Alpha Dog gets 4 canines out of 5.
Vintage Beer Tasting Part 2 – The Darks
By Iron Chef Leftovers
Now for part 2 of the Vintage beer tasting. When last we left our heroes they had just made it through 4 vintage Belgian beers…
While Belgian beers are interesting and tend to age well, the really good stuff for aging are dark beers. Darker beers tend to cover a wider range of the taste spectrum and lend themselves to the addition of additive flavors (spices, herbs, oak aging) that the Belgians do not. So without further delay, I give you the darks:
2007 Anchor Christmas Ale
This beer is best described as a liquid Christmas tree almost every year it is brewed and the 4+ years of aging on this beer were no exception. Pouring up dark and frothy, with lots of malt on the nose and hints of evergreen. The initial taste yielded notes of sweet cinnamon and nutmeg with more evergreen fragrance rather than taste. It was like having a spice cookie sitting next to the Christmas tree around the holidays. The finish was long with some resin and evergreen but mostly just a fading spice character that was pleasant. A sweet and spicy beer with Christmas tree notes that got better with age as it tamed the evergreen from being the predominant player to being a supporting cast member. A great beer on a chilly winter day.
4 Tannenbaums out of 5.
2009 Alaskan Baltic Porter
I originally bought 6 bottles of this beer when it was released, it was drinking extremely well when it was young and I drank 4 of the 6 bottles. Sadly, this particular Baltic porter recipe was retired with the 2009 batch.
An inky black pour with notes of roasted malt, vanilla and oak on the nose. The palate provided a wonderful booziness from the vanilla and a restrained sweetness from the brown sugar with a hint of cherry teasing your palate, making you wonder if it is really there. The finish yields slight hints of oak and vanilla, fading quickly into a milk chocolate covered cherry that lingers for a while. This was probably the only beer we tasted where the taste profile did not change as the beer warmed. Personally, I thought this was the best beer of the group, one of the 10 best beers I have ever had, and I am really sad that I don’t have anymore. This is one that I would fly to Juneau for and beg and plead with the brewer to either make again or tell me where they are hiding their stash.
5 Cossacks out of 5 (I would have given this beer a 6 out of 5 if my rating score allowed)
!!!!! ALERT!!!!!– I just checked the Alaskan Beer website and they are bringing the recipe back in September 2012. Seriously, when this comes out, buy a case of it and lay at least 6 bottles down.
2007 Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
The highest alcohol beer in the tasting, coming in at a whopping 20% on the 2007 vintage. This beer pours like a black hole – no light will escape its inky depths. Slight hints of oak on the nose with plenty of malt and booziness, smells more like a subtile malt whiskey than a beer. Surprisingly sweet on the palate with chocolate and brandy notes on the front fading into milk chocolate sweetness on the long finish, providing a slight alcohol burn, just to remind you this beer has some legs to it. The brewer recommends serving at 50-55 degrees, and the chocolate and brandy notes are joined with more pronounced vanilla flavors as the beer warms. I really think this beer could go for another 5 years easily and still be great. There are at least 2 more bottles of this vintage in the Iron Chef cellar with bottles from 2008-2012. One of these days there will be a vertical tasting on the WW Stout, until then…
4 Squalidae out of 5
Vintage Beer Tasting, Part 1
By Iron Chef Leftovers
Recently, Coltrane, Annie S. and I got together with a group of friends and had a rather unique beer tasting, one that involved a number of vintage beers. With the exception of one of these beers, it was a one shot deal: I had only one bottle of everything that we tasted from the particular vintage.
Cellaring beer is not like cellaring wine, even under the best circumstances you don’t really have a great idea how long a beer is going to last; will it get better with age? Will it even be drinkable? At least with wine, there is some indication from a reviewer or wine maker that a bottle will be best consumed in x years. I have never seen that in a beer review so I made a best guess based on my experiences with these beers.
The cast for the evening (in order of appearance):
2006 Ommegang Three Philosophers
2010 Ommegang Three Philosophers
Batch 68256 Boulevard Brewing Sixth Glass (I believe this was a 2008 vintage)
2007 Panil Barrque
2007 Anchor Christmas Ale
2009 Alaska Baltic Porter
2007 Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
There were a couple of backup beers in case none of the bottles that I opened were undrinkable. Fortunately, all of the beers were at least drinkable and some were outstanding, making me sad that I may never get to consume that particular beer/vintage again.
Since I took pretty extensive notes on each of these beers, I am able to provide a review for each and hopefully make a few beer drinkers jealous in the process. The reviews will be presented in 2 parts, the Belgian Style beers (which oddly none of them are actually from Belgium) and the dark beers.
Without further delay, I present to you the Vintage Beer Tasting (Part 1).
Ommegang Three Philosophers
Three Philosophers in general is a Belgian quad brewed in Cooperstown, NY with 2% added cherry beer from Duvel in Belgium.
2006 Ommegang Three Philosophers Cave Aged Beer
This beer was stored for a year in bottles after brewing in Howe Caverns, a cave system near the brewery at a constant 50 degrees and I picked up a single bottle from the brewery when I was there in 2008. The nose presents with aromas of malt and subtle cherries. Initial sips indicate a touch of wood (I don’t believe this beer was ever aged in oak though), giving way to sweet cherries and sugar fading with a slight sweetness on the back of the palate. As it warmed, the malt and cherry became more pronounced and the finish became reminiscent of drinking a fine sherry or Madeira; flavors that were completely unexpected and left me wanting another bottle of this beer. This beer was phenomenal and may have been the best beer in the tasting and was certainly a favorite among the tasters.
5 Monks out of 5.
2010 Ommegang Three Philosophers
What a difference 4 years of aging made. The 2010 was restrained compared to the 2006, with some malt on the nose and no indication of cherries. Greater carbonation than the 2006, with the initial taste yielding great maltiness and sweetness with just a hint of tart cherries. The finish was overwhelming with alcohol and sugar but that gave way to a more classic Belgian finish of nutmeg and bananas as the beer warmed to 55 degrees, but the cherry was almost non-existent in the beer. It probably could have stood another couple of years of aging, and, if I could do it again, I would pour the 2010 before the 2006. It was good, but disappointing compared to the 2006.
3 Friars out of 5.
Overall, my experience with Ommegang Three Philosophers is age at least 3-4 years before you drink it. It is worth it.
Boulevard Brewing Sixth Glass Batch 68256
Another Belgian style quad, this one out of Kansas City, and I believe a 2008 vintage. The nose is very malt forward and smelled slightly astringent to me right after I opened it, which lead me to wonder if the beer might have gone bad (it hadn’t). Overly sweet with lots of malt, to the point of being overpowering. Some fruitiness on the finish, but it would fade and then return. The malt becomes a little more balanced as the beer warms, but is still very prominent and we started to get a hint of a sherry like finish when the beer warmed to about 55 degrees. I like the beer when it is fresh, but I am not sure if I liked the aged variety of this beer. One taster made the comment that this beer was trying to be the 2006 Ommegang, but it wasn’t successful at it. With Sixth Glass, I would not recommend laying it down.
3 Gregorian Chants out of 5
On a side note with this beer – it actually paired well with the chili the Coltrane and Annie served; it brought out hints of banana and spice that I did not find just drinking the beer on its own.
Panil Barrque 2007
This beer is an Italian Saison aged in oak barrels.
The nose had hints of oak and vanilla with some light smoke. Sweet pickles and sauerkraut on the initial taste fade into a sour oak finish that lingers with hints of stone fruit (cherry possibly?). Reminded me more of a homemade wine – grapey and slightly sour as it warmed. This beer was definitely not a crowd favorite but the sourness is much more restrained in the aged version than the fresh version. It aged well and was probably a little past it best drinking, but I wouldn’t mind laying down another bottle for 3 years or so and giving it another shot. The only drawback, this beer runs $25 for a 750 ml bottle, so I think you are better off with taking that money and buying a nice wine. If the bottle was less expensive, it would have scored higher.
2 Pisanos out of 5
Beer of the Week: Hale’s Brewing Tres Fem
By Iron Chef Leftovers
I really liked Hale’s Tres Fem when I had it on tap at the Belgian Beer Festival in January, so I figured I would give it a shot in the bottle, since it is a much more convenient delivery format that getting a keg. Tres Fem is a collaboration beer between Kathleen Hale of Hale’s Ale and Jessica Husted and Reina Powers of Der Blokken Brewery. Belgian yeast blend, Saaz hops, 2-Row Pale Malt, Flaked Barley and Wheat Malt, and finally Tart Cherries make up this brew.
The beer pours with a slightly red, amber color, capped with a milky white head. Subtle hints of yeast and cherries are present on the nose and the initial taste was slightly sweet giving way to a dry palate followed by a pleasantly lingering finish of sour cherries. As the beer warms, it becomes creamy and sweet with a strong cherry flavor, but lacking some of the tartness that I initially loved in the beer. Overall, a wonderful drinking experience if you like cherry in your beer. I would recommend serving at 50 – 55 degrees to get a full appreciation for its range of flavors.
Rating – 4 Rainiers out of 5.
FlatbreadGarden 