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: Sam Adams New Albion Pale Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I am not sure why I waited so long to review this beer. I wrote about the beer here a few months back, and, in case you don’t want to go back and read it, the short version is that this recipe is generally considered to be the first American microbrew. It was available in 12 oz. bottles and ran about $9 for a 6 pack. Some additional info on the beer here:

Jack McAuliffe’s pioneering spirit paved the way for the American craft beer revolution. We’re rereleasing his original Pale Ale, with its distinct American hop character for the first time in 30 years in honor of Jack and his contributions to craft brewing. Cheers!

The beer pours golden in color with a fizzy white head. There are major grain notes on this beer – from a foot away, I immediately thought of a baguette when I smelled it. Upon closer inspection, grain dominates the nose with hints of hops and a touch of yeast interspersed. A very crisp and refreshing beer that is light on the palate – mild grain dominates and is followed by just a very light touch of hops, finishing long with a strong grain profile. Has some very lightly roasted character and very mild hop characteristics, such that you might not recognize this beer as a pale ale, but enough punch from the yeast that you know this beer is not a pilsner of lager. More of the pale character shows through as the beer warms but it is light enough on the palate that you can enjoy several in one sitting.

The beer is a study in how far craft brewing has come from its infancy in the 1970’s and New Albion Pale is a beer that every craft brew drinker should have at least once, just so that you can appreciate a time when that beer was so much different than anything else on the market.

New Albion Pale Ale waxes nostalgic with a solid 3 antiques out of 5.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Oak Aged Double Redoubt Red

By Iron Chef Leftovers

One of my favorite things about NW Peaks is that their brewer, Kevin, is not afraid to take some risks and put out a beer that isn’t exactly commonly found in the Northwest. He took his already tasty Redoubt Red and effectively doubled the malt and hops and made a delicious malt/hop monster. He then decided to take it one step further and aged some of it in a new whiskey barrel and blended it back with the base Double Redoubt to come up with the Oak Aged Double Redoubt.

The beer pours deep reddish brown in color with copious amounts of malt, strong notes of hops and hints of wood and oak on the nose, with the oak really being a supporting cast member rather than dominant as it is in so many oak aged beers. Malt and an almost creamy mouth feel are your introduction to tasting this beer before it moves slowly over to a spicy citrus middle, with very mild hints of bitterness, before finishing with a slight oak character, interspersed with hints of whiskey, malt citrus, spice and resin that lingers for a very long time, and, when it does fade, you wish it would come back. The beer is extremely well balanced – malty without becoming syrupy sweet, hoppy without becoming overly bitter or citrusy, warming without an alcohol burn, and notes of oak that don’t overpower everything else in the beer. This is the perfect beer for a chilly Northwest evening, complicated and rich, but one you could easily go back and have a second of (yes, I did) or switch over to something else and not have killed your palate in the process.

NW Peaks outdoes itself with the production of Oak Aged Double Redoubt Red, erasing any doubts you might have with a perfect 5 stills out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Mild

By Iron Chef Leftovers

There are times when I just don’t want something that has a great deal of hops but I do want something with complexity, especially on a warmer day. That means I am not usually in the mood for a something heavy like a stout or a porter and don’t particularly want something light like a kolsch. Populuxe has that niche covered with their Mild. It has everything that I want from a flavor standpoint – richness and complexity without being overly hopped and is a small beer, clocking in at less than 4% ABV, meaning more than one can be on the menu. Besides, how many other NW breweries do you know doing the old English style of a mild?

The beer pours deep brown in color with a solid foundation of chocolate and malt on the nose. Very light on the palate, almost surprisingly so, with light malt and caramel at the front followed by subtle chocolate in a very long and clean finish that lingers pleasantly. Very easy to drink despite its heavy flavor profile and incredibly complex beer – malty without being sweet, chocolaty without having strong burnt notes and different enough to make me want to drink it when it is on the tap list and I am in the mood for something darker but not heavy.

This is a gateway beer into the realm of darker beers – some of the complexity and depth of flavor that you find in a porter or stout, but restrained enough that those are not all of the flavors you are tasting. A versatile “session” beer that works on both a warm sunny day and a cold wet evening, if you have never tried a mild, you should definitely give this one a shot.

Populuxe Mild eases in with a not so middle of the road 4 Union Jacks out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Snoqualmie Brewing Louis Quatorze 14th Anniversary Stout

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I have become a big fan of Russian Imperial Stout over the years, so I was excited when loyal reader Annie S. was willing to share a bottle of Snoqualmie’s 14^th Anniversary beer – Louis Quatorze, which she had been aging for about a year. The beer came in a 22oz. bottle and clocked in at 8.6% ABV and 60 ibu.

The beer pours jet black with a tan head as expected. Coffee and chocolate dominate the nose with hints of toffee and what smells like either oak or vanilla, but it does not appear that there was any oak aging on this beer, so it is probably coming from the malt. The initial sip has loads of malt and chocolate character up front with a slight astringency (licorice maybe?) before mellowing out to a roasted malt middle and then finishing with an oddly aggressive finish reminiscent of juniper with a bit of alcohol bite. The initial taste is wonderful, the smell is wonderful, but the finish isn’t the most pleasant I have ever had and is somewhat off-putting. The beer lacks the balance of many Imperial Stouts, and I would love this beer more if the finish was less aggressive and more subdued. Maybe this beer could have used another year of aging to round out the finish.

Snoqualmie Brewing’s Louis Quatorze 14^th Anniversary Stout rises to power with 3 sun kings out of 5.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Kyes Kolsch

By Iron Chef Leftovers

We are into October, which usually means Fresh Hop and Pumpkin beers, but there are still a few straggling summerish brews out there, one of which is still on tap at NW Peaks – their Kyes Kolsch. I am not a huge fan of kolsch, it is fine, but it is rarely my “go to” style of beer as it lacks much of what I love about beer – bold flavors and complexity. Would NW Peaks change my mind, we shall see.

From the NW Peaks website:

The name. The mountain. Kyes Peak is a lesser known peak located in the Monte Cristo group. It is rises from one of my favorite lakes in the North Cascades: Blanca lake. Blanca lake offers a wonderful day hike on nice trail with Kyes and the other mountains in the Monte Cristo group offering some nice scrambles of varying difficulties and exposures.

The beer. Like the mountain, the kolsch style is lesser known amongst the US audience, but gaining popularity. Our interpretation is light, refreshing, and contains some fruity notes from the yeast fermentation on top of a very bready backbone. Compared to other examples of the style, Kyes is slightly lower in alcohol and strength, and hence the lighter fruity notes from the yeast. This is a light, refreshing, crisp, straw colored beer, perfect for quenching the thirst on a hot summer afternoon. Original gravity: 1.043. Finishing gravity: 1.008.

ABV 4.5%. Malts: pils, wheat. Hops: Hallertau.

The beer pours very pale yellow in color, almost clear but with a heady amount of yeast and grain on the nose interspersed with touches of lemon. The beer is surprisingly bold for such a light beer – plenty of yeast and grain at the beginning before transitioning to a slightly fruity middle and finishing off with light hops and a slightly sweet/bitter slide of bread, yeast and hops. The finish is long and delicious and slightly Belgian as the beer warms – there were very light notes of cloves and banana that were barely detectable. The beer has a great deal of complexity and layered flavors and could stand up on its own on either a warm summer day or a chilly rainy one.

NW Peaks Kyes Kolsch alters my perceptions of the style with a strong 4 mindbenders out of 5.

Beers of the Week: Anacortes Brewing/North Sound Brewing Maple and Smoke

By Iron Chef Leftovers

You may remember last week when I posted a terribly disappointing review of the Rogue Voodoo Maple Beer and I said the following:

I am willing to admit that I am not a huge fan of rauchbier, but I can appreciate the subtle flavors that smoke can add to a beer, lifting it up to a different plain. Stay tuned to next Tuesday where I actually review a beer that does this.

Well, lucky for you, I am going to keep my word and take it one step further, I am going to give you 2 beers that use maple and smoke well.

Back during Seattle Beer Week, Beveridge Place Pub in West Seattle held an Iron Brewer event. Basically a pair of breweries are given an ingredient that they have to use in a beer and then the two are put up head to head in a blind tasting with the winner receiving the most votes. In this case, North Sound Brewing and Anacortes Brewing were paired up together in this smack down. Here is what they turned out:

Anacortes Maple and Smoke – Amber in color with hints of brown depending on how the light catches it. Strong notes of maple and smoke on the nose, covering any other scents in the beer. Tasting it was a different experience; the beer was not as big as I was expecting, starting out slightly sweet with notes of nuts and malt and finishing up with a long maple syrup ending. There is very little smoke on this beer and it tasted like drinking a lightly smoked, maple glazed almond – all that was really missing was the salt. The beer was well balanced and easy to drink but I found myself wanting just a hint more smoke flavor to add more complexity.

The Anacortes beer fanned the flames with 3 roasters out of 5.

North Sound Maple and Smoke – tan/orange in color with light smoke and hops dominating the nose on this beer and maple in the background if you go looking for it. Slightly sweet on the initial taste before yielding to some resin hops and grain and then finally finishing with a long, slow transition to light smoke and hints of maple – reminded me of smoking fish over maple but being some distance from the fire. Incredibly restrained with the use of maple and smoke – they are there and in balance with the other flavors, but don’t completely overwhelm the other notes in the beer. North Sound made a maple and smoke IPA.

The North Sound beer torched the competition with 4 bonfires out of 5.

A few things about this event – there were 6 beers (3 pairs of beers with different ingredients) and I thought the North Sound was the best of the 6. I was absolutely convinced the North Sound beer was brewed by Anacortes – North Sound is not known for their IPA and Kevin at Anacortes brews what I feel is the best one in the state. These beers go to show that you can brew something with smoke and not have it taste like you are eating a smoldering log.

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Experimental Sour Brown Porter

By Iron Chef Leftovers

A few months back, Populuxe brewed a small batch of their Brown Porter as a sour beer. I tried it and thought that it was one of the better sours available and, for a while, thought it was the best beer that Populuxe brewed. It somehow got buried in my notebook and did not make it onto the blog as a result. It is time to correct that and oh, did I mention that the beer might be available on tap soon?

The beer pours medium brown in color with notes of chocolate and roasted malt dominating the nose with hints of light sour in the background. The first sip produces medium notes of chocolate and coffee at the front of the palate, yielding to malt and light English yeast in the middle before finishing off with a mildly sour/sweet malt finish. The sour lingers, not in a lip puckering way, but in a light and pleasant experience, almost like a sourball candy. The sour and chocolate flavors become slightly more pronounced as the beer warms, but neither ever become too heavy and dominate the beer. This isn’t a Flanders Ale – it has a great richness and complexity that you would expect in a porter and just enough sour to let you know that there is something beyond the porter going on here. The sourness integrates well with the malt character of the porter, leaving you with a complex and interesting drinking experience. The Experimental Brown Porter would be a good way to get someone who doesn’t like sours to try one – a number of friends who fall into this category tried this beer and liked it.

Populuxe Experimental Sour Brown Porter bellies up to the counter with a stellar 5 penny candies out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Founders Imperial IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Since I decided to post 3 beer reviews a week, I came up with a rotation: the Friday and Sunday posts rotate between NW Peaks, Reuben’s and Populuxe since I have a major backlog from those 3 and the Wednesday post is always some other brewery. I plan on keeping that rotation for the near future until I can get caught up or at least somewhat caught up. Today is an exception though and it is because I wanted to get this information out there to all of our readers in time for you to actually try a beer.

So why break from the plan now? Well, I sampled a beer that was so extraordinary that everyone should run out and try it.

Populuxe recently hosted a party for their Founders Club and were kind enough to put out 3 new beers for us to sample. One of those beers was their Founders Imperial IPA. As you can guess, this was a big beer, coming in at 9%. The beer is supposed to be on tap at the brewery starting this Thursday for anyone to enjoy.

The beer pours deep orange in color with a major amount of hops on the nose and copious amounts of citrus and citrus peel. An incredible hop bomb that is front loaded with juicy citrus and just a touch of barely noticeable bitterness. The beer then moves into the realm of citrus peel and hops where great balance keeps the beer from becoming overly sweet or bitter but with an abundant hop character (citra were used) that would please any hop head. The finish is long, with more citrus and decent amount of bitter peel but not so much to be unpleasant. The alcohol was very well integrated and not noticeable on the beer and the beer has enough bitterness to let you know what you are drinking but enough balance that you get to enjoy its many layers of complexity.

I haven’t been this enamored with a beer since the Imperial Rye IPA from Reuben’s and I will go as far to say that this may well be one the 20 best beers I have ever had. I would put the Populuxe Imperial IPA up against just about any other Imperial IPA and I think it would come out on top.

Check the Populuxe FB Page on Thursday and if it is on tap, get down to the brewery and drink it. Just save some for me.

The Populuxe Founder’s Imperial IPA builds its case with a perfect 5 monuments out of 5.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming already in progress.

Beer of the Week: Speakeasy Payback Porter

By Iron Chef Leftovers

It sometimes boggles my mind that a brewery that widely distributes its beer does not have one of its regularly available beers listed on its website. Speakeasy is a brewery like that. For a place that distributes to some of the bigger beer markets in the country and has been around for 15 years, you would think that you would be able to find information on their beers via their website. You would be wrong. So other than being a porter and being 7.5% ABV, I can’t tell you much about the beer, so here is the review (consumed in a 22 oz. bottle):

Jet black with a tan head. Notes of coffee and caramel dominate the nose with lots of roasted malt to accompany it. Much sweeter than you would expect, with coffee, chocolate and caramel dominating the palate in the beginning before yielding to a long coffee/roasted malt finish. This beer reminds me of drinking a caramel macchiato with a hint of bitterness and feels like it is a coffee porter without any actual coffee in it (as far as I can tell). Plenty of depth and complexity, with no single flavor overpowering the others and balanced with the alcohol. On a side note, this beer pairs extremely well with Mt. Townsend Creamery Seastack Cheese.

Speakeasy Payback Porter is a great beer to drink on a cold winter’s day if you are looking for something big and bold to get you through your evening.

Speakeasy Payback Porter breaks in with 3 revenge killings out of 5.