Tag: beer

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Pumpkin Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I love the fall when it comes to beers – you get the return of fresh hop beers, and you get the return of pumpkin beers, probably my favorite seasonal style. The newish Ballard brewery, Reuben’s Brews, tossed their hat in the ring with their pumpkin offering – a pumpkin rye. This beer comes in at 5.4% ABV and 32 IBU and is their rye beer brewed with the inclusion of pumpkin puree, toasted pumpkin seeds, spices, sugar and bourbon.

The beer pours a hazy yellow, almost golden hue. There are definite notes of pumpkin with hints of spice and rye hiding in the background. The palate is initially dominated by pumpkin pie spice, but not overpoweringly so, and it gives way to pumpkin puree, toasted pumpkin seeds and light notes of rye. The finish is short, with the pumpkin seeds fading after a short stay, but the flavor does stick around longer the further into the glass you dive – it reminded me of eating fresh roasted pumpkin seeds on a cool fall day and had me looking for a bucket to spit out the shells into. The beer is remarkably balanced with enough use of spice to remind you it is a fall beer, complimented with a dominant pumpkin flavor that stands out and reminds you that this is a pumpkin beer. The hints of rye add a little something that you can’t quite put your finger on, but server to enhance the finish product in a good way. This beer is definitely not the one you want if you are looking to drink something that is liquid pumpkin pie, but is one to order if you want to enjoy the flavor of pumpkin complimented by the inclusion of spice.

The rye base makes this a very different beer than many of the pumpkins out on the market and I would classify this one in my top 5 pumpkin beers.

Reuben’s did a fantastic job with the Pumpkin Ale, which is why they are getting an outstanding 5 Cucurbita maxima out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Ninkasi Imperiale Stout

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Ninkasi Brewing is located in lovely Eugene, Oregon and makes a wide range of beers, including a couple of pretty stellar IPA’s. The Imperiale Stout is a special release available in 22 oz. bottles and on tap; we consumed the beer in a bottle, and, as I didn’t purchase the bottle, I am not sure what the beer ran price wise. According to Ninkasi’s website, Imperiale is:

 

Strong, dark and brooding, Imperial Stouts were originally crafted by the British to survive the long journey to Russia through rain, sleet, and snow. Full bodied and surprisingly smooth, Imperiale Stout has a big roast hit up front, and rich, dark malt flavors balanced by ample hop bitterness.

  • Statistics
  • First      Brewed: 2011
  • Starting      Gravity: 1090
  • Bitterness:      70 IBUs
  • Alcohol      %: 9.1
  • Malt:      2 Row Pale Malt, Munich Malt, Crystal Malt, Carapils Malt, Flaked Barley,      Roasted Barley, Black Malt, Carafa Malt
  • Hops:      Nugget

 

This is a big beer, perfectly suited for a cold winter’s day. The beer pours jet black with a brown head. As you would expect, there are tons of roasted malt and chocolate on the nose. The initial taste yielded a beer that was more subtle than the nose suggested – very dry with hints of chocolate and roasted malt on the front of the palate, fading quickly into a smooth, milk chocolate like finish, that unfortunately disappeared more quickly than I would have liked. The beer stayed pretty consistent as it warmed, with some notes of toffee starting to show up at around 50 degrees. The beer lacked any real alcohol burn for being over 9% and lacked any real hop personality despite its 70 IBU. I actually had no idea the IBU was that high until I looked up the stats for this review; they are just about completely lost in roasted chocolate depths of this beer.

Impreiale was not an unpleasant experience – if you are looking for something dark and roasted, I would definitely give this one a shot. If you are looking for dark and hoppy, look elsewhere.

Imperiale generates a rating of 3 Sumerians out of 5.

 

 

 

Beer of the Week: Ommegang Seduction

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Ommegang is a Belgian style brewery nestled in the hills of Cooperstown, NY. They make some pretty fantastic beers, my favorite being Three Philosophers. On this occasion, we cracked a bottle of Seduction, which the Ommegang website describes as:

…is lovingly brewed with six dark malts. Chocolatier Callebut provides the chocolate, while Liefmans brings the cherries. This international romance is consummated with a full body, alluring aromas and flavors of Belgian chocolate, and tart cherries. Seduction is an ale to be lovingly embraced.

Beautiful, rich and smooth, roasty and malty throughout, Seduction offers balanced chocolate-cherry notes, a bit of caramel sweetness, and a long, slow finish. Seduction is welcoming and warm-hearted, gently hopped and harbors no bitterness, leaving only a lingering glow.

6.8% AB

This beer pours jet black with a cream colored head. The nose is dominated by coffee, caramel and toffee, and there is a hit of cocoa there if you look for it. The initial taste yields flavors of chicory, licorice, cloves and spices (predominately cinnamon) with overtones of dark chocolate providing a long, lingering finish (think hot cocoa) and some slight bitterness. There are supposed to be some cherries in the beer, but I didn’t really get any until half way through the glass before hints of cherries started appearing on the finish. We started this beer out at 55 degrees, so I am not sure if there would have been a big difference at 45 degrees on this one.

Seduction will definitely put you under its spell if you like heavily roasted or chocolaty beers. I really enjoyed seduction, but my one issue with it is its price – it runs about $13 for a 750 ml bottle, so it is more of a special occasion beer rather than something to enjoy regularly. I did factor that into my scoring decision. While I enjoyed the beer, I don’t know that it was significantly better than a number of other chocolate beers I enjoy to justify the added cost.

That being said, Ommegang Seduction gets 3 romantic rendezvous out of 5.

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.

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.