Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews AmeriRoggen

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Reuben’s does love their rye beers and they excel at them. One of the styles that you don’t see very often anywhere is a Roggenbier, but that is one of their flagships (and one of the first beers they bottled) and they do it well. A few months back, they decided to use different yeast and transform the Roggenbier into AmeriRoggen, putting a twist on an already solid beer. The beer clocked in at 6% ABV and 28 IBU. It is not currently on tap, but might be making reappearance in the next few months, so keep an eye out for it.

The beer pours a solid brown in color, almost like dark brewed tea with notes of rye, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom dominating and a slight hint of chocolate on the nose. The beer drinks very smoothly – it starts out with a little citrus before moving into the spices and then quickly fading into a pleasantly mild rye finish with notes of warming spice and hints of grain. It drinks much lighter than it looks (it doesn’t have deep roasted flavors) and is smooth and well balanced. Definitely different than anything that is out on the market and a beer worth trying if you are looking for something unusual. It would probably serve as a nice gateway beer into the realm of ryes or browns also.

Reuben’s AmeriRoggen waves the flag to the tune of 4 National Anthems out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Blood Red Orange Rye

By Iron Chef Leftovers

There are very few flavors that I love more than blood orange, but the track record in having beers that included it are spotty. Some have been good (Elysian) and some not so good (also Elysian). I was excited when Reuben’s decided to do one as part of a Seattle Beer Week event – their track record on beers has been outstanding and if anyone was going to do it right, it was going to be them. So I rushed down to the brewery to try the beer.

The beer poured more pink than red, almost the color of pink grapefruit juice. Lots of mild citrus and grapefruit juice dominated the nose, reminding me of something that I could not quite place. The initial taste was slightly tart and sweet with mild fruit character. There were definite notes of blood orange in this beer but it completely overwhelmed the rye, no easy task, to the point of having to really look for it on the finish. The beer lacked balance and integration of flavors making it more like drinking fruit juice than beer as the hops and rye character of the beer were almost completely lost. It was still an interesting enough beer to be worth trying and probably could have used a bit more bittering from hops to balance out the sweetness of the blood orange and to add more depth, but it definitely falls into the miss category for Reuben’s, which was bound to happen at some point.

Maybe my expectations clouded my judgment on this beer, but it could have used more beer character and less fruit character to make it more interesting.

Reuben’s Blood Red Orange Rye peels out of the picture with a disappointing 2 sour oranges out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Rye Saison

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I can really appreciate the complexity of a saison – on the surface it looks like it is going to be a light beer with not much going on, but once you get past the looks, you discover that you are drinking something that can have as much complexity as any other beer on the planet. Saison has been made for hundreds of years and is not a beer that you usually see with much variation in the recipe – you will find very different tasting saisons from brewery to brewery, but they don’t generally deviate in their ingredients too wildly. When Reuben’s decided to do their take on saison by including rye, I had to give the beer a shot.

The beer pour a very un-saison like beautiful brown in color with notes of sugar and malt on the nose with mild fruit and hints of chocolate. Despite the lack of rye on the nose, there is no question that it is in this beer. The beer has roasted rye notes upfront before yielding slowly to a more saison-like back end with notes of grain and citrus in a slightly sweet, subdued finish. There is a very long, slow fade back into rye at the very end of the beer, producing something that just a touch dry at the very end.

I had some major doubts about this beer – saison’s appeal comes from subtlety of character and I was worried that the strong flavors of rye would overpower the beer completely, but Reuben’s did a great job balancing the beer out so that you get the strong rye character while still having enough of the saison character to appreciate the beer for what it is – an amped up version of a saison.

Reuben’s Rye Saison brings you back to the countryside with a stellar 4 farmhouses out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Red Rye Pils

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Reuben’s branches out into the world of pilsner in a collaboration with Airways Brewing, mixing in their signature use of Rye with a style that is known for mild, clean lines and flavors. Curious on what rye would do to pilsner; I had to give this beer a shot. It clocks in at a fairly mild 36 IBU and a light 5.0% ABV.

Golden amber in color with an interesting nose – hints of rye are noticeable but the pilsner yeast notes and grain dominate this beer. Think of this beer as a pilsner with a bite. The beer starts out unremarkably mild before building into something that is unmistakably a pilsner – dry with noticeable grain and a pleasant crispness. Once you move beyond that, the beer gets really interesting – the rye notes slowly replace the pilsner flavor, transforming the beer into something more spicy and deep. The rye notes accentuate the crispness taking it to a much drier place and bringing out just a hint of the hop flavor. The rye finish is long and pleasant and just hints of the pilsner notes hang around with it. This is definitely a different beer – not sure if a pilsner drinker would appreciate it and I am not sure that a hop-head would recognize the mild complexity of the beer, but if you are looking for something different and a touch on the lighter side, this would be a good beer to give a shot.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews German Hefeweizen

By Iron Chef Leftovers

A trip to Reuben’s yielded a few new beers, one of which was a new hefeweizen. Hefe is not a style that tends to be my first choice when ordering, but is definitely a style I do enjoy and appreciate. Being a new Reuben’s brew also means that I needed to try it. The beer brings in a miniscule 14 IBU and a healthy 5.4% ABV.

Hazy pale yellow in color with heavy notes of wheat and light notes of lemon, apple, pear and banana. Very crisp to drink, the beer starts out with a strong wheat flavor before mellowing out and transitioning into strong flavors of banana and ginger (mild spicy notes, but not a hard ginger flavor) before finishing slightly sweet an clean with a lingering banana note reminiscent of banana bread (I keep looking for some nut flavor in the beer) and just a hint of spice. A very hearty hefe, much deeper than what you normally get from NW breweries, and one that I am not sure that most hefe drinkers would appreciate, but one as an advanced beer drinker that you would appreciate.

Reuben’s German Hefeweizen bunches into the picture with a slippery 3 banana peels out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Roggenbier

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Until about a year ago, I had no idea what a Roggenbier even was, let alone what it really tasted like. Reuben’s changed all of that by putting Roggenbier on the menu and even making it one of the beers they initially bottled. The review is for the beer on tap, which clocks in at 5.3% ABV and 19 IBU. What is a Roggenbier you ask, well, the short version is a rye based hefeweizen. A much longer answer comes courtesy of the German Beer Institute:

Roggenbier is a medieval ale usually made from a grain bill of about half barley malt and equal portions of wheat and rye malts. Today, a Roggenbier may be either an ale or a lager. Modern renditions of the brew have about 5 to 5.5% alcohol by volume. Rye ales are mildly hopped, which allows the grain flavors to be dominant. Filtration appears to be optional in a rye ale and many, such as the Paulaner (depicted right) are “naturtrüb,” meaning naturally turbid. A yeast-turbid Roggenbier is more authentic, considering that the style had been around long before beer filtration was invented in 1878.

Being ancient brews, Roggenbiers can have a faint whiff of earthiness in the nose that is reminiscent of rye bread. The up-front sensation is one of mild fruitiness. There is a slight to extreme yeastiness and breadiness in the middle, and an almost smoky, spicy, faintly sour and very dry finish—clearly the effects of the rye malt. Effervescence ranges from medium to spritzy like a Hefeweizen. The body is substantial, almost reminiscent of a Bockbier. The brew has a pleasant, rich, off-white head when poured.

For the most part, Roggenbiers are tart, refeshing summer quaffing beers, a nice alternative to a Hefeweizen. They go extremely well with a succulent slice of barbequed roast pork.

Roggenbier pours dark amber in color with notes of rye, bananas, cloves and coriander on the nose. Slightly sweet when you first take a sip with notes of banana and wheat. The sweetness quickly drops off into light citrus and cloves before dropping the hammer with a rye finish = intense rye notes with hints of cinnamon with a dry mouth feel which lingers for a fairly short period of time before mellowing out and hanging around the palate with a background malt/rye/banana finish, noticeable well after you have taken a sip. For some strange reason, this beer seems like a liquid pretzel and that is a good thing. Incredibly well balanced and complex, you should try this beer if you have not done so already.

Roggenbier is a great alternative to a hefe or any other light beer if you are looking for something that isn’t terribly hoppy, is fairly low in alcohol and is refreshing, but still has a complex character.

Reuben’s Brews Roggenbier twists in with 4 Rolled Golds out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Nitro Roasted Rye PA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Sometime last year, I reviewed the Reuben’s’ Roasted Rye PA (short version, I liked it a lot, long version is here). Like everything else in my notebook, I never bothered to getting around to posting a review of the nitro version of the Roasted Rye, so here it goes:

The beer pours brown with hints of orange hue, almost looking like iced tea, and a short tan head. Light notes of rye and toast appear on the nose with a faint hint of hops hiding in the background. When you take a sip, a quick hit of hop bitterness gives way to a long, heady rye drag that seems to last forever before finally yielding to a burst of citrus and citrus peel on the very end. This beer has a creamy mouth feel from being on nitro. Some of the more interesting flavors from the regular version are subdued, but the rye is really the star of this beer; not quite the heavy rye bread flavor of the Imperial Rye PA, but a really pleasant rye/grain beer that feels the need to be its own beer.

Reuben’s Nitro Roasted Rye PA smokes it with a solid 4 kilns out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Russian Stout

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Reuben’s recently released their Bourbon Barrel Russian Imperial Stout for their first anniversary. I went it to taste it and compare notes from the first time I had it and realized that, for some reason, I never got around to posting about that beer. So you are in for a treat – you get a review of both versions of the beer in one post! Aren’t you all just lucky readers?

Batch #1 – 11% ABV, 64 IBU. Jet black with no head. Light notes of bourbon and vanilla with hints of wood on the nose. The beer starts off with slightly sweet roasted malt before it quickly transitions to wood with a strong but not overpowering bourbon finish which is coupled with a slight sweetness. As the beer warms at coats the palate, the vanilla and roasted components begin to take over, balancing out the wood and bourbon notes. The beer opens up the further into it you get. The beer is an alcohol bomb and there is definitely a slight alcohol burn associated with it (not nearly as much as I expected), but it dissipates/becomes less noticeable the further into the beer you get. This beer is definitely something you need to be in the mood for because of the heavy wood and bourbon components, and is probably something that you are not going to drink more than one of, just because it is such a big beer and is something that you are going to be sipping over quite a long time. I really liked this big, heavy, malty, boozy beer. Batch #1 dances in with 4 Cossacks out of 5.

Batch #2 – They reused the barrels from batch #1 and, from what I was told, the second use of the barrel tends to produce better results. The beer seemed more integrated than the first batch – there was less single flavor transitioning as you were drinking it. Each stage seemed to have multiple layers of flavors. The nose was more complex, yielding notes of chocolate, coffee, bourbon and vanilla. A slight sweetness once again starts you off followed by heavy malt and bourbon notes with hints of oak, vanilla, coffee and cherries. The oak and bourbon are much more supporting cast members in this version with then adding a pleasant background to the stout flavors without overpowering them. With the same alcohol as the first batch, there was no astringency, making this an incredibly smooth and well integrated wood aged beer. Batch #2 storms the Kremlin and takes over singing an amazing 5 International’s out of 5.

The good news is that Reuben’s is planning on making this beer again and bottling it sometime in the near future, so you will be able to take this home and enjoy it. I already am making room in the beer cellar for this one.

Beer of the Week: Reuben's Brews Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Russian Stout

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Cream Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I personally think that anything new that Reuben’s puts on tap is worth trying at least once. Usually the beers are somewhere in the very good to outstanding range, so there is very little disappointment. At the beginning of August, they debuted a few new beers in their lineup, one of which is their Cream Ale. The beer comes in at 17 IBU and 5 % ABV.

The beer pours very pale yellow, almost transparently so. Note of cream and grain with hints of what smell like English yeast permeate the nose. The beer builds slowly – it starts out with pleasantly mild yeast and a slight dryness before moving into a slightly fruity realm with some light sweetness before exploding into a long, slightly sweet, mild caramel finish. The finish was unexpected and was much less pronounced on a separate occasion where I had the beer. The second time there was more of a dry, yeast finish with very mild notes of the caramel. The caramel was also more restrained the further I made it into the pint on the first go around. The beer was a little more fizzy than I would have liked (personal preference, l like cream ale on nitro – hint to Mike and Adam), but it was a very enjoyable beer, crisp and refreshing, a nice beer if you are looking for something not terribly hoppy and perfect to be sipping on a warm summer day, especially if you are looking to have a couple.

Reuben’s Brews Cream Ale delivers with a strong 4 milkmen out of 5.