Beer of the Week: Kassik Brewing Moose Point Porter

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Raise your hand if you knew there was a brewery in Kenai, Alaska. Raise your hand if you know where Kenai, Alaska is. Well, there is a brewery there called Kassik Brewing and they produce some pretty tasty beers, which happen to be available in Seattle. A little about Kassik from their website:

Kassik’s Brewery is housed in a small warehouse, nestled in a clearing in the woods, adjacent to the Kassik’s home in Nikiski. Frank’s passion for brewing began when his wife Debara, bought him a home brew kit for Christmas. Frank was hooked and soon became a proficient home brewer. They built a 36 X 50 shop in hopes to someday have a brewery. In May of 2005 Kassik’s purchased a used seven barrel system, and then remodeled their building to accommodate the equipment with the help of family and friends. The brewery opened Memorial Weekend 2006 with their first brew Beaver Tail Blonde, their Moose Point Porter was on tap a few weeks later.

I cracked open a 22 oz. bottle of their Moose Point Porter, which ran about $5 and happens to be their flagship beer. It is available at most good bottle shops and the occasional mega mart (I believe I have seen their beers in Fred Meyer).

The description from their website:

ABV 5.2% – Silver 2011 World Beer Championship

A delightfully deceiving signature brew!

Moose Point Porter has a dark and heavy appearance with a surprisingly light and clean finish.

The beer pours on the dark side for a porter with light malt and hints of roast and chocolate hidden on the nose. The initial sip is slightly hoppy (and surprisingly so) with notes of caramel and toffee yielding to a slightly sweet but long finish. As you make it further into the beer, light notes of vanilla and sassafras start to appear, reminding me of a root beer or a cream soda. For being a dark beer, it is surprisingly approachable without any dominating flavor profile, making it a complex and well integrated beer.

Kassik Brewery’s Moose Point Porter saunters in with a strong 3 Alces alces out of 5.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Sloan Stout

By Blaidd Drwg

I love stouts, especially when the weather is cold. To me, they are the beer equivalent of hot chocolate – hearty and flavorful, warming the belly and feeding the soul. Needless to say, I was excited when NW Peaks released 2 stouts as part of their mountain beer collection, Sloan and Stuart. It was a fun experience drinking them side by side to compare them (Stuart was previously reviewed here).

From the NW Peaks Website:

The mountain. Sloan Peak is a prominent-looking mountain situated all by itself just off the mountain loop “highway”. It’s a great, distinctive mountain that appears to be falling over, depending on your vantage… The Beer. We used the same yeast used to make Guinness and tried to mimic the water profile of Dublin, Ireland to create our own interpretation of a dry stout, a style that Guinness has made ever so popular…

The beer pours predictably dark. Notes of coffee, toffee and chocolate permeate the nose with the coffee leading the assault. The beer starts off on your palate pretty light, giving way to a pleasantly mild astringency (think black coffee) before hitting you with a tidal wave of flavor. Coffee and chocolate dominate before leading into a long, sweet and slightly smoky finish. Sloan was much more robust than I was expecting and it becomes more so as it warms. It was like drinking a Guinness on steroids.

I case you are wondering, here is what I am referring to in the rating.

Sloan Stout was a wonderful interpretation of a dry stout and best of all, is still available in growler according to the NW Peaks website (you may want to call ahead and confirm). If it is, treat yourself to one of the better stouts available in the Northwest.

NW Peaks Sloan Stout stumbles into the brewery with an ethereal 4 St. James’s Gates out of 5.

And now a word from our sponsor…

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Greetings mortals.

It occurred to me as I was sitting at Reuben’s the other day drinking a Cream Ale, that I have a horrible backlog of beer reviews. It is so bad that I realize by the time I get around to posting my Cream Ale review, the beer is going to be long gone. It an attempt to post some more seasonally appropriate reviews, I decided that there are going to be 3 “Beer of the Week” posts instead of the normal 2, just until I can catch up on my backlog. You will still get the same witty banter about sports, games and food from our award winning writers Blaidd Drwg and AJ Coltrane, but with more Iron Chef Leftovers thrown into the mix. So, sit back, relax and enjoy the show, just with more beer. In the immortal words of Monty Python:

Beer of the Week: Stone Collaboration Cherry Chocolate Stout

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Finally the last of the Stone Collaboration Beer reviews. This one had been hiding in my notebook, so that is why I missed it. I love stout, I love cherries and I love chocolate and when you put them together well, it can be an out of body experience. Stone got together with Troegs brewing out of Pennsylvania and a couple of San Diego home brewers, Jason Fields and Kevin Sheppard, to produce this beer. From the Stone website:

The rich, smooth stout was brewed in late April, with a blend of dark-roasted specialty malts, Callebaut chocolate liquor, vanilla beans, and 9000 pounds of dark and tart cherries. “Seeing how much the recipe was blown up to brew it on this system is amazing,” Jason chimes in. “And getting to work with everybody… it’s been so cool.”

Single 12-oz bottles
Available in: AK AZ CA CO DE FL IL KY MA MD MN NC NJ NM NY OH OR PA SC TX VA VT WA
7.3% abv, 37 IBUs
2448 cases produced

I paid $4.99 for my 12oz. bottle.

The beer pours jet black with a mahogany head. Copious amounts of roasted malt on the nose with hints of cocoa nibs and a very small amount of cherries if you go looking for them. The beer starts out slightly sweet before quickly transitioning to the roasted malt and finishes long with hints of cherries during the fade. As you make it further into the beer, the cherries become more pronounced and the roast is replaced by a pleasant milk chocolate finish – it reminded me of a Theo Chocolates cherries and almond bar and I was looking for the roasted almonds when I was drinking it.

This beer was fantastic and I really wish that they would brew it again.

I cannot tell a lie, the Stone Collaboration Cherry Chocolate Stout coms in swinging a 5 Cherry Trees out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Black Raven Brewing Schwartzeit Black Lager

By Iron Chef Leftovers

There are times that I think Black Raven is one of the best breweries in the state and others that I think “WTH are they doing over in Redmond?” Schwartzeit Black Lager lends itself more to the former than the latter sentiment. In case you are not familiar with Black Lagers, Wikipedia comes to the rescue:

Schwarzbier, or “black beer”, is a German dark lager beer. It has an opaque, black colour and a full, chocolatey or coffee flavour similar to stout or porter.
Schwarzbiers are bottom-fermented beers, though originally top-fermenting yeast was used in brewing them. The alcohol content usually ranges from 4.8%–5%. They get their dark colour from the use of particularly dark malts in brewing. The malt in turn gets its colour during the roasting procedure.

The roots of the Schwarzbier lie in Thuringia and Saxony; the oldest known Schwarzbier is Braunschweiger Mumme (“Brunswick Mum”) brewed since the Middle Ages (the first documented mention is from 1390[1]) in Braunschweig. The earliest documented mention in Thuringia is of Köstritzer from 1543, a popular Schwarzbier still produced today. The East of present-day Germany has many unique varieties of this style from regional breweries. It is often served with dark, chunky breads with cream cheese. It also pairs well with marinated meats like brisket and is an excellent companion to German Sauerbraten.

I had the Schwartzeit in a 22oz bottle which ran about $7 and clocked in at 5.9% ABV.

The beer pours dark and slightly opaque with a generously fizzy tan head. A great deal of roasted malt appears on the nose with hints of chocolate and coffee – this beer could easily be confused with a stout on smell alone. The similarities end with the nose though – a slight sweetness starts you out, followed by a pleasant light grain flavor. That fades very quickly into light roast and chocolate (the chocolate is more pronounced as the beer warms) with a very mild bitterness from the hops at the end. The beer won’t win over light beer, drinkers despite being a lager, but it is balanced and delicious and should appeal to those who like a dark beer, but don’t want to go for full bore into the realm of stouts and porters.

Schwartzeit is a seasonal beer for Black Raven and one of the few that they actually bottle, so pick up a couple next time you see it in your local bottle shop.

Black Raven Schwartzeit Black Lager goose-steps in with a stellar 4 Achtungs! out of 5.

Beer of the Week – Reuben's Brews Cask Conditioned Auld Heritage

By Iron Chef Leftovers

It is a gutsy move in the Northwest to put out a beer style that you don’t normally see and it is even gutsier to put that style out in a cask, but that is exactly what the guys from Reuben’s did with their Auld Heritage Ale. Auld or Old ale is defined as follows (from Wikipedia):

Old ale is a term commonly applied to dark, malty beers in England, generally above 5% abv, also to dark ales of any strength in Australia. Sometimes associated with stock ale or, archaically, keeping ale, in which the beer is held at the brewery.

Reuben’s version clocked in at 8.7% alcohol and 58 IBU; not exactly a small beer.

Auld Heritage is mahogany brown in color. There is lots of malt and caramel on the nose with hints of toffee. The beer builds slowly as you drink it, starting off with little fanfare before showing lots of toffee then transitioning into burnt sugar and caramel before finishing off with a slightly alcoholic and sweet with notes of toffee, caramel and dried fruit. The finish is long – several minutes after taking a sip, you still get light notes of toffee, caramel and dried fruit, and it is not a bad thing. The beer is like enjoying a nice toffee or hard candy and the caramel notes made me thing of eating a confection and wanted a sprinkle of sea salt (salted caramel is one of my favorite flavor). For a moderately IBU beer, any of the hop character is lots in the deep flavors, but I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing.

If you are an advanced drinker or just someone who wants to try a new style of beer, you should head down to Reuben’s to have an Auld Heritage when it is on their tap list, and doubly so if they have it on cask. Because of its alcohol and deep flavors, it is a heavy beer and not one that everyone is going to enjoy, but it is different than most Northwest beers and you should at least give it a taste.

Reuben’s Brews Auld Heritage crosses the pond and collects 4 family heirlooms out of 5.

Beer of the Week – Reuben’s Brews Cask Conditioned Auld Heritage

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Old ale is a term commonly applied to dark, malty beers in England, generally above 5% abv, also to dark ales of any strength in Australia. Sometimes associated with stock ale or, archaically, keeping ale, in which the beer is held at the brewery.

Reuben’s version clocked in at 8.7% alcohol and 58 IBU; not exactly a small beer.

Reuben’s Brews Auld Heritage crosses the pond and collects 4 family heirlooms out of 5.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Redoubt Red

By Iron Chef Leftovers

One of the best things about NW Peaks is that, despite only having 4 taps, you usually know what 2 of your choices are and the other two tend to be rotating. Redoubt Red is one of the beers that you will usually find on tap in their brewery, along with a few other select locations.

From the NW Peaks website (check it out to find out the story about the mountain too):

The “Style”. What is a red? The only true red “style” is an Irish Red; however, Irish Reds are not a common place in the Pacific NW. Rather, in the Pacific NW it is a category defined by the color, giving a brewery complete flexibility to for their interpretation. Two reds from the region might have absolutely no similarity – other than the color – so loving one, might not mean loving them all.

The Beer. Our interpretation brings you a nice ruby colored beer. The aroma and flavor is dominated by the hops and is a nice blend of fruity and spicy notes (contrasting from the citrus notes of the Eldorado Pale and other NW Pales). A slight residual sweetness and mouthfeel is present to support the hop character in Redoubt Red. The result is nice, crisp, easy drinking red with a distinct hop profile that is sure to leave you wanting another.

ABV: 5.25% Malts: ESB, Munich, Crystal, Wheat, Black. Hops, Apollo, Liberty, Halertau, Columbus. American ale yeast.

Redoubt pours dark red with a pure white head, offering a great color contrast. Notes of spice and malt appear on the nose with hints of citrus in the background. Lighter than you might expect on the palate – grain and notes of citrus initially tease you before transitioning into a nice light spice blend (possibly cardamom or allspice?), before a final hint of bitterness – very mild and pleasant, nothing over powering, and slight malty sweetness. There is a final citrus burst on the back end of the beer for a nice surprise and to remind you there are hops in here, and those citrus notes become more pronounced as the beer warms, but never overpower any of the other flavors. Great balance and complexity, the beer drinks easy and clean and is a really great all-purpose beer for when you want something lighter, but still want big flavors.

NW Peaks Redoubt Red guides you in with 3 GPS locators out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Ninkasi Radiant Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I like Ninkasi beers – they tend to be solid and drinkable, easily available and priced at a point that you won’t break the bank drinking them. A while back, I realized that there were a handful of their beers which I hadn’t tried yet, so I decided to give them a shot. Radiant Ale, their summer seasonal, was one of those beers. The beers run around $5 in a 22 oz. bottle (which is what is being reviewed here) and are generally available just about anywhere you can buy beer. The beer clocks in with 40 IBU and a 6.0% ABV.

From the Ninkasi website:

Earthy and floral hops balance this Northwest-style pale ale, with a touch of Crystal and Vienna malts for flavor. Crisp and flavorful, Radiant Ale is a clean-finishing summer offering in the Ninkasi tradition. The smooth malt character is balanced by an elegant hop bitterness, the perfect complement to a glorious summer day.

Tasting Notes:
A touch of Crystal malt is used to sweeten-up this beer in addition to some Vienna malt for balance. The multiple hop varieties are grassy and earthy in tone and differentiate Radiant from most of the citrus forward Northwest Pale Ales!

Food Pairings:
Fish, Poultry, Tomato Sauces, Rustic Breads, Toffee, Cookies

The beer pours orange, almost tan in color with a fizzy, light cream head. Light amounts of hops and citrus appear on the notes with a fair amount of grain in the mix – reminds me slightly of a lager (possibly from the Vienna malt). A good bit of slight bitterness on the initial sip (not sure if that was a good or a bad thing), with a nice crispness which fades into a long, grain heavy finish. I really couldn’t find any defining notes in the beer – not a ton of hop flavor and not an overly complex beer, almost like an ale on training wheels. It felt like a beer that was designed for people who like lighter beers. That being said, it would be a fine beer to sip on a warm summer day on the back deck with a friend.

Ninkasi Radiant Ale orbits into the picture with a bright 3 masses of incandescent gas out of 5.

In case you don’t get the reference, They Might Be Giants can help you out:

Beer of the Week: Populuxe CDA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

The nice thing about Populuxe and their ever-rotating tap list is that I can drink a beer, take a couple of months to review it and it will eventually end up back on tap. This means that, unlike some of the beers that I am taking so long to post the review of (say Pumpkin beers in March), there is a good chance that you will be able to drink this beer somewhat soon after I review it. Populuxe continued their foray into the world of hoppy beers with the release of the CDA; Cascadian Dark Ale, or as it is otherwise known, a Black IPA.

The beer pours jet black with a tan head. Lots of citrus and hop notes with a bit of roasted malt hiding on the nose. The first sip reveals some chocolate up front, yielding to delicious roasted flavors that linger for a long time before giving way to an explosion of hops and citrus peel in a very long and pleasant finish. A little bolder than the roast on most other CDA’s (which tend to be more hop forward), but very assertive and hoppy enough to please the most ardent hophead. The best part of this beer is how layered it is. It moves away from the one dimensional palate that you get from a number of CDA’s, which look like a dark beer, but taste just about like an IPA and gives you something much more interesting. The amazing part of this beer is that you still and pick out those layers when you are on your second pint.

When this beer shows up on the tap list again, get yourself down to Populuxe and have yourself a pint.

Populuxe CDA sneaks in under the cover of darkness and scores a strong 4 things that go bump in the night out of 5.