Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Doubloon’s India Wheat Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Yay! Another Reuben’s beer review! I admit it, I love their beer and with the ever changing tap list they have and the 5 minute walk to the brewery from the Iron Chef abode, it makes for an easy place to review their beers. One of their recent new additions was their Doubloon’s India Wheat Ale. Clocking in at 50 IBU and 6.9% ABV, I had to give it a shot.

This beer is golden in color with a nice grain and citrus nose – lots of wheat and grapefruit with hints of malt. The initial sip delivers a pleasant grain shot, yielding to grapefruit and citrus peel before finishing long and slightly bitter. Being a wheat beer, it was drier than I expected (think more like a kolsh than a wheat beer in terms of sweetness, not flavor) and showed more hop character than I expected given the IBU. Despite its higher alcohol content, the beer goes down easily and well-balanced, so it could sneak up on you if you are not careful, especially if you find yourself having 2 or 3. This beer is different than most hoppy beers on the market and is a nice change of pace if you are looking for something interesting with a great deal of hop character, but don’t want to blow out your palate with a giant hop bomb.

Doubloon’s IWA from Reuben’s eases into port on a score of 4 Spanish Galleons out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Reuben's Brews Doubloon's India Wheat Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Doubloon’s IWA from Reuben’s eases into port on a score of 4 Spanish Galleons out of 5.

The Other (Tastier) March Madnesses

By Iron Chef Leftovers

March Madness is upon us and there is more going on than just basketball. There are at least 2 beer related competitions going on in Seattle.

First up is the Thirsty In Seattle Beer March Madness. This is just a paring of 64 beers in a bracket and you vote on the better beer. It seems to be somewhat random parings and I don’t think I agree with some of their selections (some breweries have multiple entries, some do not), but it is what it is, so vote early and often.

If you happen to be voting, please consider voting for my friends at the newly opened Populuxe Brewing in their matchup against Foggy Noggin’s Bit O’ Beaver. Populuxe is getting smoked right now and they could use some help. If you haven’t been to the brewery, you should stop by. They have really good beers and the owners are nice people. You can also stop by Ballard’s only wine tasting room, Domanico Winery, across the street (OK, my shameless plug is done).
Also consider their Ballard neighbors, NW Peaks, in a tough matchup of their Redoubt Red vs. American Brewing’s Caboose Oatmeal Stout. Both are fantastic beers and worthy of moving on in this competition.

The other pairing that was tough for me was Reuben’s Imperial Rye IPA (which has been previously reviewed on this site) against Anacortes Old Sebastes. If it was any other Anacortes beer, I probably would have voted for Anacortes, but Old Sebastes is their beer I like the least, and I have a beer crush on the Imperial Rye, so you can guess how that one went. I feel like a guy cheating on his hot wife with an even hotter girlfriend with this matchup.

Opening round voting ends March 22nd at 10 PM

The other and, in my opinion, more fun March Madness is going on at the Latona Pub. Their annual March IPA Madness started last night. Each Monday and Friday for the next couple of weeks, they will be tapping 3 beers. The most popular beer from those 3 advances to the final 4. You will most likely find yours truly at the Latona on March 25th when they are tapping the Anacortes IPA. It should make easy work of its 2 competitors – Triplehorn IPA (although I have never actually had it, I may have to size up the competition) and Laurelwood Workhorse IPA. The Final Four tapping is April 2nd.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brewing Roasted Rye PA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I have really become a big fan of Reuben’s Brewing, and it doesn’t hurt that I can walk to the brewery from the Iron Chef abode. Their beer is usually solid and frequently spectacular and their beer board usually contains something for everyone. Reuben’s recently brought back the beer that got them started in the brewing industry – Roasted Rye PA, a rye IPA, which is rapidly becoming my favorite style of IPA because of their complexity.

From Reuben’s website about the beer:
We took one of our favorite hoppy IPAs and added some chocolate and rye goodness to create this tasty ale. It helps warm the soul on Seattle’s chilly winter evenings.
ABV: 7% IBU: 100+
First Place 2010 PNA Winter Beer Taste People’s Choice

The beer is hazy brown in color, almost amber. Lots of malt on the nose with citrus hidden in the background – I was expecting a more hop forward aroma, but it is subdued by the roast from the malt and that is not a bad thing. This beer goes through multiple stages on the taste buds: It starts off with a slightly sweet malt flavor, moving briefly to some light citrus notes, followed by a dry toasted rye flavor. The finish is long with pleasantly bitter citrus peel, more roasted malt and hints of dark chocolate and something that I couldn’t quite place (probably the rye) and there is a slightly tannic feel on the finish. Overall the rye flavor is much more pronounced in this beer as it warms. Despite the high IBU and alcohol, this beer doesn’t come across as a hop bomb and the alcohol is warming component rather than something that smacks you in the head.

This is definitely a different beer and a great one to have if you are only going to have one, but it is a complex beer and is probably not one that everyone will like.

Reuben’s Roasted Rye PA places a spectacular 4 gold statues out of 5.

The Ballard Beer Revolution

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Holy hops, Batman! Ballard is really becoming a hotspot for beer. I saw this on myballard.com, yet another brewery opening soon. That means when Peddler Brewing opens, we will have the following breweries in a 1 mile radius:

Hale’s Ales
Maritime Pacific
NW Peaks
Hilliard’s
Reuben’s
Populuxe (if they ever get their act together and finally open)
Peddler

I am not surprised that a brewery moved into the old Maritime space. I think it is a good location for a small operation.

If beer is not your thing, there you can always visit my friend Jason at the fun tasting room of Domanico Winery. Now if we could just get a distillery….

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.