Beer of the Week: Speakeasy Prohibition Amber Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Speakeasy is a long time San Francisco Brewery that recently started distributing their beer in Washington. I have been to the brewery in SF, so I was excited when Annie S. invited me over to do a tasting of Speakeasy beers. Their amber is one of the first beers that Speakeasy brewed when they started and is available on tap, six packs and in 22 oz. bottles, which run around $4. This review is for the 22 oz. bottles.

From the Speakeasy website:

Prohibition Ale is the first beer we bootlegged back in the early days of the brewery. Anything but traditional, Prohibition pours a deep reddish amber hue, with a fluffy tan head that leaves a beautiful lacing on the glass. A lush, complex aroma teases the senses with juicy grapefruit, citrus, pine, spice and candied caramel malts. Mouthfeel is creamy, with a silky, medium body and modest carbonation.
Style: American-Style Amber Ale
ABV: 6.1%
IBU: 45
Color: 15L – Copper, Dark Amber, Red
Barley: Two Row Pale, CaraMunich, Chilean Caramel
Hops: Chinook, Cascade, Centennial
Yeast: California Ale

The beer pours ruby in color with a cream head. The nose has a light malt profile with decent amounts of floral hops. The beer has a slightly sweet, upfront character which transitions into a lightly floral and bitter lingering finish. The sweetness is much more pronounced as the beer warms, which was a bit off-putting for me, but I know people who like that style of beer. If you like more hop character from the beer, serve it around 40-45 degrees. If you like more malty sweetness, serve the beer at 50-55 degrees.

Speakeasy Prohibition Amber Ale is an easy drinking beer that, considering the price point, is one you should have in your fridge when you are looking for something nice to drink but don’t want to break out the really good stuff.

Speakeasy Prohibition Amber Ale sneaks up to the hidden door and gets in with 3 secret passwords out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Pale Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Every once in a while, you come across a beer that will please multiple segments of the drinking population; Populuxe Pale Ale is one of them. The latest new beer in the ever growing Populuxe lineup. Lighter than you would expect, this beer clocks in at 4.8% ABV and is a nice summer addition to their lineup. As with all of their beers, it is only available on tap in their tap room.

The beer pours golden straw in color. Grain and hops dominate the nose with hints of malt. The beer starts out very mild – much lighter than you would expect based on the way it smells and then you get hit with the wall of flavor – light sweetness gives way to a significant hop profile without being bitter. You know there are hops in this beer but they don’t overpower everything else. The hops linger for a bit before giving way to a really nice long grain finish, sort of reminiscent of a hoppy pilsner. The beer is probably a little hoppier than a light beer drinker would enjoy, but it has a restrained enough hop profile that a good number of beer drinkers would enjoy. The added bonus is that the beer has enough character and complexity that a hop head like me would not hesitate to order one (or two or three) as the beer goes down easily. I could see this being my go-to beer for a warm, sunny day out on the back deck when I want hops but don’t want to be drinking a hop monster IPA.

Run down to the Populuxe brewery and try their pale. You won’t be disappointed.

Populuxe Pale Ale sings in with a beautiful 4 Whiter Shades out of 5.

Beer of the Week – NW Peaks Stuart Stout

By Iron Chef Leftovers

One of the things I love about the mountain beer program at NW peaks is that if you sign up for 2 growlers and invite some friends over, you can compare and contrast both styles that they put out each month. A few months ago, it was stouts, and considering the way the weather had been, a stout tasting was very much in order. The beer is still available in growlers from NW Peaks if you are so inclined (or was as of this writing – check with the brewery).

The description from the brewery website:

Since Mt Stuart is one of the most noticeable, bold, non-volcanic peaks in WA we tried to make the beer bearing its name similar. We based this beer on last year’s recipe but reduced the munich malt and changed hop varietals (but the hops have the same characteristics). This resulted in a slightly smoother, lower-bodied beer while retaining the dark roastiness making Stuart Stout a rich, full bodied, deeply roasty interpretation of the style. A fine beer to drink anytime, but best enjoyed in front of a fire on a cold rainy winter evening.

Malts: 2 row, roast, chocolate, crystal 40, wheat, and a smattering of oats. Hops: Apollo, Goldings. ABV: ~4.75%

The beer pours jet black with a fizzy tan head. Lots of roasted malt notes on the nose with hints of chocolate and coffee. The initial taste yields a pleasant, slightly burnt roasted flavor (think dark roasted coffee) yielding to mild chocolate flavors with some sweetness and hints of oatmeal. The beer finishes long with a pleasant roast notes. As the beer warms, hints of cocoa powder show up and the finishes seems to go on forever.

Stuart Stout is a great beer to sip next to warm fire on a cold day to feed the soul.

NW Peaks Stuart Stout hikes into base camp with a tasty 4 s’mores out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Stone Collaboration TBA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Another Stone collaboration beer, this time with Bear Republic and Fat Head’s Brewing to produce a beer style known as a Texas Brown Ale. What is a Texas Brown Ale you might ask? Well I have never heard of the style, so I will let Stone’s press release talk about it:

This particular beer pays homage to a relatively little–known beer style called Texas Brown Ale, which, strangely enough, has its roots in California. It originated as a hopped up version of a brown ale recipe, and it got pretty popular with a group of NorCal homebrewers in the early 1980s.

“These California guys were tweaking an English-style brown,” explains Matt Cole, Head Brewer of Fat Head’s Brewery. “They added some Crystal and Chocolate malts, and supercharged it with a bunch of Cascade hops to get a bigger version with more hop forward aromas and flavors.”

While delicious, these beers failed to fare well in homebrew competitions, since there was no recognized category they could be entered in. They were far too hoppy and bitter to be considered a traditional brown ale. But when a competition in Houston, TX, accepted entries for what they named the “California Dark” category, the American Homebrewers Association followed suit soon after, though they perplexingly changed the name to Texas Brown Ale.

The beer was sampled out of a 12 oz. bottle and this review is for the 2012 version of the beer – Stone is getting together with the same breweries to brew this beer again in 2013. The skinny on the beer:

Stats: 7.1% abv, 81 IBUs
Malts: Pale 2–Row, Crystal 60, Toasted Wheat, Victory, and Chocolate Malt
Hops: Bravo, Brewer’s Gold, Cascade, and Columbus

This beer is reddish amber in color with a tan head, not the brown you might expect from brown ale. The nose is a pleasant conglomeration of hops, malt, sugar and molasses. A smattering of light hops appear on the first sip, but fade quickly into a pleasant nut brown profile. The sugar and molasses are there but don’t dominate and subtly compliment the nut brown characteristics of the beer without overpowering it. The finish is like drinking a liquid pecan pie with hints of hops; which makes for a fun and very interesting beer. Considering the hop levels on this beer, I thought the use of them was restrained and very balanced, so much so that occasionally I found myself wanting a slightly bolder hop flavor profile.

I really like TBA and wish there were more breweries doing a style like this.

Stone Collaboration TBA saunters in with an excellent 4 Lone Stars out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Epic Brewing Galloway Porter

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Did you know that they brew beer in Salt Lake City? The better question is did you know they brew really good beer in Salt Lake City? Epic Brewing is the one responsible for that. Not only do they brew some pretty good conventional style beers, they brew some pretty good experimental ones also. In a recent beer tasting, I sampled the Galloway Porter from Epic. The beer was poured from a 22oz. bottle, but I am not sure what the price was.

From the Epic website:

A dark, full-bodied and drinkable beer, Galloway Porter highlights rich roasted chocolate and coffee-like malt flavors and aromas. It has a very mild hop addition so that the chocolate malt flavor can shine through, 5.4% alcohol by volume.

The beer is almost jet black with a slight sliver of brown near the top. Lots of toffee and chocolate on the nose; it reminds me more of a stout than a porter. The beer has tons of chocolate and roast malt hitting the palate and remaining for a significant amount of time, with a lingering roasted, almost slightly burnt finale. Toffee also joins the roast in the finish as the beer warms, giving it an almost confection like ending. Dark and heavy, with all of the complexity of a good stout, this beer is not for the faint of heart.

This is definitely a beer that you don’t want to give to someone who does not like dark beers, but for those who do, the complexity and balance make it worth running out to try.

Epic’s Galloway Porter saunters in at 4 bovines out of 5.

Road Trip Review – Volt Restaurant

By Iron Chef Leftovers

It has been a long time since I wrote a restaurant review, so one is definitely overdue.

On a recent trip back East, I got the opportunity to travel through Frederick, Maryland on the way back from the Antietam Battlefield National Monument (on a side note – if you have never been to Antietam, you really should go.) Luckily, Frederick is the home to former Iron Cheftestant Bryan Voltaggio and his restaurant Volt. Located in downtown Frederick in a converted mansion is a mix of the old charms of a mansion and a sleek modern interior. We opted for the dining room, which was fairly empty on a Tuesday night, but there is a chef’s table option, which was packed and they seemed to be having a good time.

The menu is what you would expect from Voltaggio – twists on the familiar, artfully done with intense flavors done with seasonal ingredients and combinations that should not work but somehow do. Our server recommended 3-4 courses per person (they also offer a tasting menu) and, depending on what you order, 3 could easily fill you up. Because 2 of us ordered 4 courses and 2 of us ordered 3, our waiter, Joseph, arranged the plates to be delivered so that there was always a variety of food on the table. This was a great thing because the plates at Volt are worth sharing.

Here is what we ordered (with the prices after the |) – it represents more than half of the menu.

MOREL MUSHROOMS pickled ramps, steel cut oats, sea lettuces | 18
I wanted to try this since I am such a sucker for morels and they are in season. This was a take on a polenta dish and frankly this may have been the best dish of the night and possibly one of the best dishes I have ever eaten. The oats were combined with corn foam and might as well have been polenta and the smells and flavors on this dish were amazingly intense – I could actually smell this dish as the server was bringing it to the table. I really wanted to lick the bowl. I would go back just to have this again.

SPRING PEAS buttermilk, shrimp, smoked pine nut | 10
Perfect example of how well they use ingredients. I guess I would describe this as pea soup on steroids. Amazing intense flavors, but well balanced.

YELLOW MUSTARD RADIATORE rabbit, prosciutto, ramp pesto, cippolini | 11
Ok, I have to admit, I was skeptical about yellow mustard pasta, but after having this, I am going to have to try to make it at home. It was a light mustard flavor which paired perfectly with the rabbit and prosciutto. Ant the rabbit – perfectly cooked prosciutto wrapped cigars of loin. Probably the second best rabbit dish I have had in a restaurant.

CALAMARI BOLOGNESE miso, squid ink cavatelli, parmesan | 12
The most interesting dish of the night and certainly the most ambitious. It was good but wasn’t as good as the rest of the meal. The pasta was perfectly cooked the miso balanced the strong squid flavors well and the Bolognese itself was tender and delicious. It really reminded me of my dad’s seafood pasta that we ate growing up. If you really want to go out on a limb and try something different, this is the dish.

SOURDOUGH LINGUINI olde salt clams, smoked potato, chives | 14
This was probably the groups’ favorite dish of the night. It really had a ton going on for such a simple dish. The smoked potato really threw it over the top – they were crunchy like breadcrumbs and added a great contrasting texture to the pasta.

COD CHEEKS charred spring garlic, smoked raisin, pickled grapes | 23
There was some apprehension ordering the dish, but it was stellar – perfectly cooked cod cheeks, very mild in flavor balanced nicely with the salty/sweet/sour punch of the grapes and raisins. Heck, I could have gone for a bowl of the grapes. They were fantastic.

HALIBUT wilted green cabbage, chorizo, purple top turnip, mustards, green apple | 25
Living in Seattle, I am always hesitant to order halibut since it is usually either not done well or overwhelmed by the other items on the plate. This was a perfectly cooked piece of fish and another one that involved all of the senses. I think the chorizo really threw this one over the top and I am going to have to try a version of this at some point.

YOUNG CHICKEN chickweed, sunchokes, black trumpet mushrooms, dates | 23
This was far and away the best chicken that I have ever had. Delicate and intense at the same time, really makes me want to go out and get a sous vide machine.

BEEF SKIRT STEAK sugar snap peas, carrots, vadouvan, coconut yogurt | 31
Volt does something interesting here – they take 3 pieces of skirt steak and press them together in a meat napoleon. I have no idea how they do this but I really want to learn it. They also managed to turn a beef dish into something light and distinguished without skimping on the flavor. Extraordinary.

LAMB hulled barley, slow braised neck, chickpeas, lacinato kale | 33
It had all the intensity that you want from a lamb dish with so many subtle flavors from the compliments that I would have lost if I was making the dish.

Amuse Bouche – smoked oyster with rice wine vinegar and apple.
If you don’t like oysters – try this. Amazing flavors.

We didn’t make it to dessert – we were too full.

Service – the service was outstanding, some of the best I have seen in a long time. The table was completely cleared between courses, plates were put down simultaneously, wine glasses were never empty (nor were water glasses) and every need we had was attended to. The staff should be proud of the service they provide – it is how every restaurant should do it.

Wine – I wanted to give a special shout out to our wine steward for the evening. Volt has an extensive wine list and they were out of the Sassella which I spotted on their list. He listened asked me what I was looking for in the wine and brought back a couple of selections that had similar characteristics but were not on the list. It reminds me why all restaurants should have someone that knows their wine list well.

Overall, Volt was an amazing dining experience; so good in fact that I am going to say that this was the 4th best restaurant meal that I have ever had – behind, Le Bec Fin in Philly, Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal and the CIA restaurant in Yountville. If you are in Baltimore or DC, take the 1 hour drive north to Volt. You might even get lucky and catch a glimpse of Bryan Voltaggio in the kitchen on your way to/from the bathroom.

Beer of the Week: Reuben's Brews Cask Imperial Rye IPA

The Cask Imperial Rye on the left and its sibling, the regular Imperial Rye on the right.

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I keep all of my reviews in a notebook, which is why you see reviews for winter beers posted in the middle of spring – even posting 2 reviews a week; I have a backlog of about 30 to post. I usually write them in the order that I drank them, unless I have a bunch of beers from the same brewery; then I will break them up. On a rare occasion, I will drink something that is just so good that the review jumps to the front of the queue. This is one of those reviews.

I have written about Reuben’s Brews several times in this space. The short version – I really like their beer. They have been doing a weekly cask series – taking one of their beers and putting one of them on cask, usually dry hopped. It has led to some interesting variations of the beers that they are doing. This event usually takes place at 3 PM on Saturdays (check their FB site for details). Recently, they did a Double Dry Hopped Imperial Rye IPA on cask. Being a fan of the Imperial Rye IPA, I had to try this. Like its regular sibling, the beer clocks in at a hefty 8.4% ABV and 90+ IBU. Unlike it sibling, the second dry hopping was exclusively with citra hops.

It pours hazy orange in color with a pure white head. Intense hops permeate the nose with a strong background of rye and hints of grapefruit and citrus in the background. When you take a sip of this beer, it takes a second for the flavors to hit you, but when they do, it is like getting smacked by an oncoming truck. The beer starts out with a light bitterness before quickly yielding to strong rye and grain flavors with notes of toasted rye bread and a slight dryness. After lingering for a few seconds, the beer almost magically transitions into a burst of citrus peel and grapefruit in a very long and pleasant finish. There is some slight bitterness in the beer, but it complements the intense flavors that are present and aids the long transition between the flavors, acting as a bridge and helping this beer be extremely balanced; you could easily forget that you are drinking an 8.4% ABV beer.

I tasted this side by side with the regular version of the Imperial Rye, a beer I dearly love, and honestly, the cask version blew the doors off the regular version. After tasting the cask version, the regular, a fantastic beer in its own right, didn’t have the same level of intensity as its sibling. I am going to go on the record here as saying the cask version of the Imperial Rye IPA is one of the 10 best beers I have ever had and quite possibly in the top 5. Yes, it was that good. Next time it makes an appearance, you should be waiting in line for this beer when it gets tapped.

Reuben’s Brew’s Cask Imperial Rye IPA steps up to the podium with a perfect 5 pedestals out of 5.

I would have scored this beer a 6 out of 5, but since I really don’t do that, I leave you with this from This is Spinal Tap.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Cask Imperial Rye IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Reuben’s Brew’s Cask Imperial Rye IPA steps up to the podium with a perfect 5 pedestals out of 5.

I would have scored this beer a 6 out of 5, but since I really don’t do that, I leave you with this from This is Spinal Tap.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Black Eldorado

By Iron Chef Leftovers

NW Peaks is a nano-brewery located in Ballard, literally inside of a converted trailer. They are a brewery with a small production system and are only available on tap at their brewery and a few select locations (check their website for details). What they lack in size, they make up for in flavor, brewing a number of the styles that you would expect (Pale, Stout, Saison, etc.) as well as a few interesting beers for their Mountain Beer Club (check it out here), in an ever rotating tap list. One of their recent beers was their take on a CDA which they called Black Eldorado (their beers are named after mountains).

From their website:

The name. The mountain. Eldorado is a majestic mountain and stands at8,869′, the 25th tallest peak in the state. Many hikers will be intimately familiar with cascade pass trail at the end of the Cascade River road. The commonly used climbers path leaves the road about 4 miles short of the cascade pass trail head. The relative burly trail climbs several thousand feet through forest, talus, and rock leading to the Eldorado glacier with great views of the summit and the rest of the cascade river basin. While these views are excellent the real treats come at the top of the eldorado glacier where you get views of the Klawatti-Inspiration-Mcallister icecap and is knife-edge summit ridge.

The Beer. We took our pale ale recipe, a nice light pale with citrus notes, and threw in some Blackprinz and chocolate malts to it to add some color a a slight roast note to play off of the citrus hops. Black Eldorado presents itself as a light, nicely balanced version of a cascadia dark ale. Light on the palate with a nice combination of light hops and roasty malts.

Malts: Pale, ESB, Wheat, blackprinz, chocolate. Hops: Apollo, cascade, chinook, centennial ABV: ~5.25%

This beer pours brownish-black in color with a short, white head. Lots of roast and chocolate with a floral citrus hop background that hides itself nicely behind the stronger aromas of the beer. The initial taste yields a good amount of roast malt and overtones of chocolate lingering nicely on the palate before yielding to the hops. There are light notes of grapefruit and citrus peel appearing magically after the initial roast fade and they continue to linger for a long while before finally yielding to a pleasant bitter ending. More roast and malt flavors with less hops than most CDA’s but a delicious treat to enjoy when it is on tap. Incredibly well balance and easy to drink, it has all of the hop character of a big IPA, the roasted qualities of a dark and the drinkability of a pilsner coming together in a beer that you could easily knock back a few.

Black Eldorao self-arrests at a final rating of a perfect 5 Ice Axes out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Stone Collaboration Saison Du BUFF

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Collaboration beers can be fun and produce some interesting stuff. Stone has been running a collaboration series for a couple of years now working with brewers from around the world to produce some interesting beers. One of the first ones from this series that I tried was the Saison Du BUFF, collaboration between Stone, Victory out of Pennsylvania and Dogfish Head out of Delaware. This bottle was from the second brewing and was a 12 oz. container which ran about $4.

From the Stone website:

Appearance: This beer pours a beautiful pale gold with a white head of foam.
Aroma: Pronounced herbal characters, a wonderful blend of sage, lemon thyme, rosemary. It has some very pleasant citrusy notes, perhaps from the lemon thyme and the Citra dry-hop. And the Belgian yeast strain contributes low level banana esters and a hint of clove.
Taste: The taste starts with the herbal blend in the forefront, and then is backed by a clean malt balance and a very nice citrus and tropical fruit-influenced finish. The finish has a substantial, but balanced hop bitterness and hop flavor. It is a very dry beer, and has a nice refreshing quality that makes it wonderful for this time of year.
Overall: This is the second time that Greg, Sam, and Bill have brewed this beer here at Stone Brewing Co., and this time we were able to get all the herbs from Stone Farms! How cool is it to brew with ingredients from your own farm? Very, very cool.

Stats: 7.7% abv, 52 IBUs

Malts: Pale Malt, Pilsner Malt, Wheat Malt, Flaked Rye
Hops: Centennial & Citra

BUFF pours hazy yellow in color with a white head. Lots of lemon and herbs on the nose with hints of grain and yeast – basically this beer smells like a saison should. The initial taste starts with notes of lemon followed by a medley of herbs and a hint of hops. The finish is dry and lacking direction – some of the time it is green and unbalanced and other times it is even with a distinct progression through the herbs. It is a beer that relies heavily on the olfactory senses as well as taste and it reminds me of a liquid herb garden. The alcohol is there but it is hardly noticeable, I just wish the flavors from the herbs were more consistent throughout the beer.

Saison Du BUFF was interesting but uneven and definitely not a beer that someone who was a casual beer drinker would remotely enjoy. I had higher expectations for this beer and was unfortunately let down.

Saison du BUFF lifts into your fridge with a somewhat disappointing 2 Thymus citriodorus out of 5.