Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Roggenbier Dry Hopped with Belma Cask

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Belma hops are fairly obscure around the beer world and a good number of beer drinkers probably have never heard of them. Belma brings strawberry quality to the party, but they aren’t available in huge quantities, which is why you see them more in experimental or one off beers. The guys down at Reuben’s had some Belma hops and happened to have their Roggenbier, which, in case you are unaware is a rye based hefeweisen beer, so it has a good deal of banana qualities to it. Bananas and strawberries in a cask beer? Are we about to have a chocolate and peanut butter moment?

The beer pours the color of cloudy tea with light notes of rye and strawberry on the nose. The beer starts out with a nice yeast component and a mild sweetness before bringing strawberry and rye into the picture. Those flavors linger all the way to the finish with a light breadyness and sweetness joining the party with some banana notes also. The finish is surprisingly long for a cask and the beer is layered and complex with none of the flavors dominating the beer. They all play well together, feeding off each other and making the transition from one flavor to another smooth, producing something very different and delicious. At only 5.3% ABV this one is also very easy to put back a few of.

Reuben’s Roggenbier Dry Hopped with Belma Cask produces a sweet 4 fruit bowls out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Xtra Dry Hopped Cask IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Another day, another cask review from our friends at Populuxe. Populuxe, the beer to drink if you are looking to drink cask beer on a Thursday night. This time they decided to double dry hop their IPA with, well, I don’t remember what they hopped the beer with because I forgot to write it down in my notes.

The beer pours hazy orange in color with hops and citrus (mostly grapefruit) dominating the nose. The beer is surprisingly mild to drink – fruity wish very little bitterness up front before moving more toward a solid foundation of grain and then gravitating back toward citrus – reminds me of juicy fruit gum. Smooth with just a hint of hop bitterness and burn, reminding you this is an IPA but it is by no means palate blowing. Smooth and easy drinking, a great version of an IPA that you could easily find yourself having more than one.

The Populuxe XTRA Dry Hopped Cask IPA is gonna move ya with a happy 4 packs of gum out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Dry Hopped Saison Cask

By Iron Chef Leftovers

If you are free on Thursday nights, you should join me at the Populuxe Brewery for their weekly science experiment known as Cask Night. Most Thursdays, they tap a cask of something delicious and interesting for your drinking pleasure and, in most cases, those beers are fun. One of their experiments was with a dry hopped saison. Not a beer that you would normally associate with a cask beer, which meant that I needed to try it. The beer clocked in at 7.3% ABV and was dry hopped with horizon.

The beer pours hazy orange in color with plenty of grain on the nose coupled with lemon and passion fruit accompanied with light hop notes. The beer is dry on the initial taste with lots of grain before transitioning off to a pleasant hop middle coupled with citrus and lemon, before finishing slightly tangy with long notes of passion fruit and citrus. The classic saison earthiness/grassiness runs throughout this beer, but there was a touch of alcohol burn at the back of the throat on the very end of this beer which, while not unpleasant, did distract from the finish.

Populuxe brings in back home with their Dry Hopped Saison, carting in a strong 4 musty barns out of 5.