Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Blimey That’s Bitter

By Iron Chef Leftovers

A bunch of Seattle breweries got together this winter and decided to go one the road with something they are calling the Hop Mob Road Show (coming to Naked City on March 13^th). Each brewery decided to produce a Triple or Imperial IPA. What makes it a Triple you might ask? Well, basically it is a high alcohol (9.5% +), highly hopped IPA, probably made most famous by Pliny the Younger. If I remember correctly (I really need to write these things down), the beer was dry hopped 4 times during the process of making it and clocks in at 10.5% ABV and 80+ IBU. The beer was available (very limited) in 22 oz. bottles, on tap and on cask. This review is for the tap version.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if the name Blimey That’s Bitter might be a play on the name of that Russian River beer…

The beer pours golden orange in color with significant citrus and hop resin on the nose combined with slightly floral hints and subtle grain. A hop monster on the palate, the beer quickly shows tons of citrus and citrus peel up front with just a touch of sweetness before the bitterness sets in. There are big bitter notes, but in a balanced, not palate blowing way, with touches of resin. The beer finishes incredibly long with juicy citrus and major citrus peel with a lingering bitterness and an ever so slight alcohol burn at the very end, not surprising for a beer this big – it is there but barely noticeable and not unpleasant and brings just a touch of heat to the party, cutting the tremendous hop character of this beer. This beer was amazing, making me joke that maybe this should be renamed “Blimey, That’s Fantastic.”

Hopefully you will still have a chance to try Blimey before it goes away until next year.

Reuben’s Blimey That’s Bitter drives on the wrong side of the street and picks you up with 5 black cabs out of 5.

Mee First Wine Revue

Bye Larry LeCroc

Me has touble weeth wine bottel.

From Pearls Before Swine on 2/7/14.

Beer of the Week: Laughing Dog De Achtste Hond

By Iron Chef Leftovers

It is easy to be an underrated brewery in the Northwest, since there are just so many great breweries. It is even easier to fly under the radar when you are located outside of the Seattle/Portland corridor, since that is where most of the beer drinkers tend to reside. Laughing Dog falls into the underrated category being located way out in Ponderay, Idaho. Fortunately for us, they do bottle and are readily available. I follow them on FB and I was bummed when they announced they were brewing a special sour beer for their 8^th anniversary, which was only going to be in kegs. Unfortunately for us, kegs from Laughing Dog generally means we don’t get the beer in Seattle. Fortunately, Chuck’s Hop Shop came to the rescue and managed to get their hands on De Achtste Hond – the 8^th dog.

From the Laughing Dog Website:

…our anniversary beer De Achtste Hond” ( the eighth Dog) Belgian Sour Ale

Our first ever sour ale 7.2% abv aged for 1 month in new oak Crisp and Dry with a tartness to it.

The beer pours very orange in color with light floral notes and hints of citrus with just a hint of funk and Belgian yeast. The beer starts off more tangy than sour, almost like a tangerine chard candy, with just a hint of funkiness before moving into dry, crisp apples and just a note of sweetness and Belgian character. The finish is long and clean, mild tart sour flavors linger forever with hints of citrus, banana and apple. Very well balanced and sour enough to remind you that this is definitely a sour beer, but not so sour that it will make your lips pucker. Definitely not one to try if you don’t enjoy sour beers, but if you do, you might find yourself going back for a second without feeling like you won’t be able to drink it.

Laughing Dog De Achtste Hond grabs its leash and goes out for 5 long walks out of 5.

The Lighting Rig

by A.J. Coltrane

Approximate dimensions are 26″ long by 22″ high:

The photo was taken with the window closed and the lights off — otherwise it would have been a big glare of light. The frame is probably a little taller than it needs to be, but that’s a simple fix if desired. The red power switches on the sides are easy to access, and the clamps make it super painless to slide the lamps up and down independently.

It’s two of this clamp lamp, which were ~$12 each at Home Depot.

and

A 1/2 pack of a 4 bulb “daylight” (5k) package. The four-pack was about $9.

So maybe $30 in total. Looking around the internet at T5 packages, there seemed to be a lot of “proprietary bulbs” and “cheap construction”, such as this. Most were in the $50+ range.

Anyhow, I’m pretty happy with it. The price was right, and it’s very well built. Gratuitous boy cat pic/closeup of the lighting rig:

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Black Berlinerweiss

By Iron Chef Leftovers

What can I say, I am sucker for sour beers. Mind you I do have my limits – if it tastes like you make pickles, I really don’t enjoy that flavor in my beer. Give me something with a hint of tartness and some complexity beyond that and I can almost guarantee that you will get me to try it. NW Peaks is back at it with their berlinerweiss, this time putting out a black version of the classic German sour, which is truly something that I had not seen before. I was excited to try it, but it meant that I was going to have to find some other folks to drink the beer with me, since my regular Mountainbeer friends are not much in the way of sour drinkers. Luckily, I know a couple beer people who were happy to share.

Unfortunately, NW Peaks didn’t put anything on their website describing the beer, but it I do remember it being something really low in alcohol (somewhere in the 3-4% range).

The beer pours light brown in color with a very light head and shows a complex nose – chocolate and roast are there without being dominating, coupled with notes of sour cherry and (surprisingly) some light notes of raisin make an appearance. All of this is supported with a tinge of floral barnyard character. The beer drinks light also, hints of roast and chocolate start before quickly yielding to a pleasantly mild sour component with hints of dried stone fruit that linger nicely before being joined at the end by light chocolate. The finish is dry and pleasant and the sour is balanced with the roast, making the beer surprisingly complex for both a small beer and a sour beer. There is an almost lightly gritty quality to the beer, giving it a very rustic quality.

If you don’t like sours, you probably won’t like this one, no matter how mild it is, but if you want to try something that is different without being completely bizarre, go for this. NW Peaks serves it in their taproom with a shot of raspberry syrup which does take the edge off the beer, but I honestly think that this one is better and much more interesting on its own without the syrup.

NW Peaks Black Berlinerweiss circles the city with a perfect 5 Alexanderplatz out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Alaskan Imperial Red

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I really love the Alaskan Pilot Series beers – big beers and interesting styles made in small batches. I was excited when they released the Imperial Red for the first time and ran out to pick up a 22 oz. bottle. It wasn’t inexpensive at $9, but Imperial Red isn’t a style that you see much and I figured it was worth a shot. The beer clocked in at 8.5% ABV and 70 IBU.

From the Alaska Website:

Recently made popular by west coast American breweries, Imperial Red ales feature high hop bitterness, full-flavored caramel malt profiles and a higher original gravity. While balance is key, Imperial Red ales are more malt-forward than other hoppy American beer styles.

Alaskan Imperial Red is a full-bodied deep mahogany ale with ruby red highlights. Citrus notes of chamomile, grapefruit and Meyer lemon brighten the aroma. A zesty array of hop flavors from mango and bitter orange to green mint and hibiscus meld with the nutty, roasted caramel and subtle dried fruit flavors of the complex malt profile to create a surprisingly fresh, yet warming example of the style.

Alaskan Imperial Red Ale is made from glacier-fed water, a generous blend of Centennial, Citra, Meridian and Summit hops and premium two-row and specialty malts. Our water originates from the 1,500 square-mile Juneau Ice Field and from the more than 90 inches of rainfall Juneau receives each year.

The beer pours deep amber red in color with notes of caramel, wheat, mild hops and just a small amount of oak and whiskey, which was odd since this beer was not barrel aged. The beer starts out with deep notes of caramel and toffee followed by heavy malt and medium hop profile with just a hint of bitterness. The finish is slightly syrupy and sweet without a great deal of complexity. The balance is slightly better as it warms but it was really lacking direction and focus and I got none of the hop character I was hoping for, especially with the high expectations I usually have with Pilot Series beers. I am wondering if I may have had a bad bottle since I did start to detect notes of wet cardboard toward the end of the beer.

Alaskan Imperial Red casts its pots but hauls up a disappointing 2 Paralithodes camtschaticus out of 5.

A New Weekly Feature at CSE

By Iron Chef Leftovers

In an effort to bring in more readers and further expand the scope of the blog, we have hired a new wine writer to produce a weekly review of wines. He comes well recommended with extensive wine knowledge and many years in the industry, so I will introduce you to Larry LeCroc, our new wine expert. Please welcome Larry to the CSE family, we look forward to many years of his insight and enrichment of the blog. For now, you will find him posting on the blog on Sundays.

A Sake Tasting

by A.J. Coltrane

We did a light dinner/sake tasting last night with a total of seven attendees, including us. As a group, nobody really knew much about sake going in. We’d previously decided that the right way to learn was to buy a bunch of bottles and do a big side-by-side tasting. With the exception of #4, the bottles mostly ran in the $17-25 range. This represents “mid-tier” in the sake market — anything better likely would have been wasted on us. All were served out of the wine refrigerator at 55F. The Gekkeiken website recommends 50-59F as an appropriate temperature for the varieties that we were drinking.

The list for posterity — The brand and title are in bold, followed by the type of sake, the text on the bottle is in quotes, then our impressions are in italics:

#1 – Mura “Canyon”. Junmai Ginjo. “Aromatic, crisp and dry with green apple and mineral notes.” Dry. We intentionally opened with three somewhat contrasting sakes, to try to cover as many bases as possible before everyone’s pallets were shot. Well liked.

#2 – Mura “Mountain”. Junmai Ginjo, Nigori Genshu. “Shake well.” (It’s the only cloudy sake that we served.) “Rich and complex. sweet, full bodied, delicate coconut and tropical fruit aromas.” The sweetest sake that was served, and big hit with the youngest person at the table.

#3 – Mura “Meadow”. Junmai Ginjo. “Rich Custard Aroma. Smooth lingering finish. Well balanced.” Balanced between sweet and dry. This one was a big hit with everyone.

#4 – Rock Sake. Junmai Daiginjo. “blah, blah, blah…and pure mountain spring water results in a delicate sophistication of aroma and flavor.” The most expensive bottle with the least descriptive text. Very, very smooth. One taster remarked that it was reminiscent of wine — that it almost didn’t taste like sake.

#5 – Momokawa “Organic Medium Rich”. Junmai Ginjo. “Vibrant tropical aromas open this fruity, medium-bodied organic sake.” This one drew a few comments such as “When I visualize what sake is supposed to taste like, this is what comes to mind.” Another big hit.

#6 – Momokawa “Ruby Lightly Sweet”. Junmai Ginjo. “Lush fruit and dense rainforest aromas with layered tropical fruit and red berry flavors.” #5 was better liked than its cousin here, but this one is still solid.

#7 – Sake “G”, “Joy” (A squat black bottle.) Junmai Ginjo Genshu. “Intense deep lush layers of flavor.” Everyone had already decided what they liked by the time we got to this one. It was a nice bottle, but nobodies’ favorite. I think to some degree seven sakes was one or two too many.

Most of the sakes (perhaps predictably) recommended pairing with seafood and other “lightweight” foods. With the sakes we served:

Proteins: Smoked salmon (from a bottle recommendation), ginger beef, Chinese BBQ pork.

Starches: Wheat thins, Triscuts, No-knead bread, Pita bread.

Cheeses: Smoked Gouda, Emmentaler (at least one of the sakes called for Swiss cheese), Kefalotyri, Montasio (the last two were recommended by the cheese monger, and they worked very well)

Dips and spreads: Butter, Dill (sour cream) Dip, Roasted red pepper (sour cream) dip, tzatziki.

Fruits: Cantaloupe, Honeydew, Strawberries, Red Grapes.

As a guess, I’d say #1, #3, and #5 were the most universally liked, but I’d feel comfortable serving any of these to guests. Ultimately it’d be about the pairing.

Really, I don’t think you could go wrong with any of them.

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Fresh Hop Chinook Pale Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I will admit that it is a bit odd writing about a fresh hop beer in March, but yes, I still have a backlog of beer notes to get through (it is getting better) so eventually I will catch up and you will be seeing reviews for beers relatively close to their release date. Populuxe did make a couple of fresh hop beers in 2013, one with chinook and one with citra hops. This was the chinook version of the pale which clocked in at 4.8%.

The beer pours light orange in color with a mellow hop character and hints of citrus. The beer starts out on the palate with a nice grain character before quickly becoming more complex and hoppy – orange and grapefruit first make an appearance, giving the beer a slightly sweet character, before heading in a different direction with light notes of citrus peel and spice, medium notes of green hops and a pleasant bitterness. The beer finishing with long notes of pine needles, hops and citrus coupled with a very long mild bitter finish. The beer is layered and complex at the same time being easy drinking and not palate blowing. This was probably my favorite fresh hop beer in 2013.

The Populuxe Fresh Hop Chinook Pale Ale strikes the line and lands a whopping 5 big fish out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Fremont Bonfire Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I sometimes really love Fremont beers and sometimes really don’t, but I do give them a fair shake and will generally try them all. I was a bit skeptical about Bonfire Ale; I have had way too many smoked beers that the smoke just overpowers everything else and made them undrinkable. At $5 for a 22 oz. bottle, I figured that it was worth the risk in trying this beer.

From the Fremont website:

Bonfire Ale steals from the winter fires its gift of dark barley and gentle hops to provide you, beer drinker, with this delightful winter treat. Fremont set the sky rockets to flight and wrote the book on afternoon delight before waking the night on the wings of a great blue heron to soar below the radar and above the clouds, raining down beer to blow your mind and caress your soul. Light a Bonfire today.

Down & Dirty: 2-Row & White Wheat, Midnight Wheat, Rye, Smoked, & Chocolate Malts with Cascade and Goldings hops. 6% ABV

The beer pours deep brown in color with a dark cream head and presents heavy notes of roasted malt supported by more subtle notes of rye and spice with just a hint of smoke noticeable in the background. The beer starts off on the palate slowly with mild malt before building win to more pronounced notes of roasted grain, chocolate and very mild hops. Up to that point the beer was very enjoyable, but then things went horribly wrong. The finish was astringently smoky, almost too harsh to drink – becoming very off-putting, and felt like someone had just dumped and ashtray into the beer. There was no depth, just burnt wood and ash on the finish, killing what was shaping up to be a very balanced beer (all 3 of the other people I tasted this with had the same opinion of the beer). This beer came so close to me liking it but lost me at the end, although we did discover that it paired better with spicy/fatty food – pepperoni worked well at taming the ashtray qualities while leaving enough of the roast and malt flavors of the beer to make it enjoyable.

Fremont Bonfire Ale is carless with it matches and burn down with 2 forest fires out of 5.