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.

Beer of the Week: Driftwood Brewing Fat Tug IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Driftwood Brewing is a long time brewer out of Victoria, BC, who started distributing their beers to the US a few years ago. They make some pretty nice, albeit expensive stuff in a small but diverse lineup. Fat Tug IPA is their required entry into the crowded Northwest IPA market. It clocks in at 7% ABV and 80 IBU and is available in 22 oz. bottles for about $9.

From the brewery’s website:

Brewed with the hop aficionado in mind!
Fat Tug is a northwest style India Pale Ale with an intense hop profile with notes of grapefruit, mango melon and passion fruit. Sufficient malt is there to provide support. At 7 % alc/vol and 80+ IBUs this beer delivers on the promise to satisfy anyone with a thirst for all things hoppy!

Fat Tug is an orange IPA with a lovely cream head. You won’t mistake this for another type of beer as you a hit with a wall of hops when you get within about a foot of it. Upon closer inspection, there are strong notes of grapefruit and citrus, a delicate, slightly floral aroma hanging in the background, and even then, it is barely noticeable and slight hints of grain. The first sip hits you with lots of bitter citrus peel and green hops giving way to a more pleasant grapefruit palate that lingers for a happy minute or so. After a few sips, the bitterness becomes more muted and the beer is a very stereotypical NW IPA (and that is not a bad thing). As it warms, it is a bit more floral but it complements the rich hoppiness that is Fat Tug.

I really like this beer but there is nothing outstanding about it, especially at its price point – it is a fine entry from Driftwood, but not spectacular enough to set it apart from its competition. I don’t think that I would ever refuse this beer if someone poured it for me, but I don’t know that I would run out and buy it again as it is priced on the upper end of a crowded IPA market. I would recommend picking one up if you have never had it and decide for yourself.

Driftwood Fat Tug IPA sails into port with a respectable 3 Theodore Tugboats out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Big Al’s Brewing Fresh Hop Harvest Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

When it comes to fresh hop beers, most of the local Washington breweries tend to go with an IPA or a Pale Ale style to showcase the hops. On occasion, you get a brewery that tries to do something different. Seattle based Big Al’s Brewing did that with the release of their Fresh Hopped Harvest Ale. I couldn’t find a description of the beer online so all I can tell you is that I had it in a 22 oz. bottle which was purchased at a local bottle shop for about $5.

The beer is a reddish-amber color. The nose is dominated by lots of malt and grain, with hints of citrus and hops in the background. The initial taste brings roasted malt on the front of the palate, so roasted that it is almost chocolate like, followed by a slightly grassy hop flavor. As the beer warms, it becomes slightly more bitter, the malt becomes more restrained, and the green hops become more citrus like, but are still a secondary player to the malt in this beer.

Personally I felt like this beer lacked balance between the malt and hops. The hops flavor, which is what I am really looking for in a fresh hop beer, seemed to be lost at times and just overpowered with what is a really malty beer. I appreciated the effort that Big Al’s put into this beer to make something different, but I think it needs some additional work. I would probably buy this beer again next year to see if it has gotten any better, but I don’t think I would run out and buy more than one either.

A disappointed Big Al’s reaps 2 combines out of 5 for their Harvest Ale.

Beer of the Week: Deschutes Brewing Chasin’ Freshies

By Iron Chef Leftovers

If there is one thing that you can count on from Deschutes Brewing out of Bend, Oregon is consistency; there beers are easily a great “fall back” if you’re looking to have a couple and don’t want to break the bank doing it. You can never go wrong cracking open a Black Butte, Mirror Pond, Inversion or Red Chair. They also produce a special series of beers; usually hop monsters, in their limited Bond Street series, which usually border on spectacular. This year, they produced a fresh hop beer, Chasin’ Freshies as part of the series. The beer was available in 22 oz. bottles and ran about $6 at your local bottle shop.

From their website:

Alc. 7.4% | IBUs 60
22 oz serving

Like fresh powder, it’s a seize-the-moment thing. At harvest, we rush Goschie Farms’ Cascade hops fresh from vine to kettle. Not any Cascades, mind you, but an heirloom strain, from a single field, restored from the original rhizome. Hope you’re as hopped up as we are.

Malt: Pilsner Malt, Flaked Oats
Hops: Bravo, Fresh Heirloom Cascades

The beer pours a very pale yellow in color, almost surprisingly so – I looks like it could pass itself off as a saison. Any confusion over what you are drinking is eliminated when you smell the beer – the nose is dominated by floral and grassy hops and something that I couldn’t quite idenitfy, which might have been the oats included in the brew process. The initial taste is more malt forward than I was expecting, but it is a brief hit of malt and is followed by a huge punch of citrus with hints of resin and grass in a long and pleasant finish. The beer is not overly bitter and the hops are the star of the show, but still show great balance between the malt, bitterness, alcohol and citrus. Despite its light color, the beer drinks like a much bigger beer and does a fantastic job of displaying exactly what I want in a fresh hop beer and showcasing its pedigree.
This is definitely not a beer that you would want to drink if you did not like hops, but if you do, you should be chasing this one down during its limited run next winter.

Chasin’ Freshies gets run down with a high-speed 5 Smokey and the Bandits out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Boulevard Brewing Chocolate Ale (Batch #8)

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Boulevard Brewing out of Kansas City makes some of the more interesting beers out there in their Smokestack Series of beers, especially if you are talking about anything Belgian Style. Their spring seasonal beer in that series is a Chocolate Ale. Being a fan of chocolate beers, I had to give that one a shot. I originally was lucky enough to head into Chuck’s Hop Shop when they had it on tap and liked it so much that I purchased a bottle that day to bring home. The review is for the bottle, a 750 ml one, that cost about $10, and is batch #8 of the Chocolate Ale.

From the Boulevard website:

In developing this beer, Elbow and Boulevard brewmaster Steven Pauwels sought to harmonize the interplay of chocolate and malt, with each supporting and enhancing, but not overwhelming, the other. Just the right chocolate was essential. Elbow recommended a rare variety from the Dominican Republic, prized for its robust flavor and aroma, and a personal favorite. More than a mere flavoring, the chocolate — in the form of nibs, or crushed, roasted beans – was incorporated into the brewing process itself.
Color (EBC) 41
Bitterness (IBUs) 24
Original Gravity (Plato) 20
Terminal Gravity (Plato) 4
Alcohol (ABV) 9.1%
CO2 – Bottles
CO2 – Kegs

The beer pours hazy orange with a cream white head. Slight hints of hops and malt are hidden behind roasted chocolate and cocoa on the nose. Taking the first sip of this beer is like biting into a good dark chocolate bar. There are notes of roast on the front followed by a slightly fruity background and finishing with intense chocolate fades slowly and pleasantly into the night. The beer has a crispness to it and there are slight notes of sugar and malt, but the chocolate is really the star. Unlike most chocolate beers, which are more like drinking a chocolate drink (hot cocoa for example), this beer retains a great deal of the fruity characteristics of the chocolate itself and is more like a liquid chocolate bar. It is well balanced and definitely something that you should try if you are looking for something that has more complexity than just chocolate flavoring in it.

Boulevard produced an outstanding beer here and it will be interesting to see if the next go around keeps with the same recipe or they try something different.

Boulevard Chocolate Ale (batch #8) cruises in with a sweet 4 cacao pods out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Bridgeport Fresh Hop Pilsner

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Bridgeport Brewing, out of Portland, Oregon, makes some very solid and occasionally spectacular beers. You can never go wrong with picking up a Hop Czar or Blue Heron – they won’t blow you away, but they are beers that you will enjoy drinking. In 2012, Bridgeport decided to try a fresh hop beer – a pilsner. I personally thought that was a gutsy move – pilsner is an under-represented style in the Northwest and because it is more delicate, it can be easily overwhelmed by hops if the balance is not just right. Of course, seeing the beer available in 22 oz. bottles, I had to pick one up.

According to their press release, the beer comes in at 8% ABV and 44 IBU. The beer uses Oregon Tettnang and Austrian Aurora hops to give it is complexity.

The beer pours golden yellow in color with a white head, exactly what you would expect from a Pilsner. A complex nose is dominated by lots of grain and sugar with plenty of green hops in the background, a wonderful balance of the two – lets you know you are drinking a pilsner, but this one has some legs to it. The initial taste is very crisp and dry with pleasant grain and a very quick grassy hop finish. The beer is not overly floral and is balanced with a hint of sweetness at the very end that comes out when the beer warms a bit. For an 8% alcohol beer that is on the lighter end of the spectrum, the alcohol is well hidden and I would not have guessed the ABV in that range.

The Fresh Hop Pilsner is not the most hop forward beer that you will ever drink but it had a good balance between grain and hops and would be a pleasant enough to drink it you wanted to experience a fresh hop beer without going toward the pale ale/IPA hop bomb end of the spectrum.

Although not a style I tend to prefer, Fresh Hop was a pleasant drinking experience and I would love to see Bridgeport bring it back in 2013.

Bridgeport Fresh Hop Pilsner crosses over with a respectable 3 suspension bridges out of 5.

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.

Beer of the Week: The Alchemist / Ninkasi / Stone More Brown Than Black IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

More Brown Than Black IPA is a collaboration beer between The Alchemist, Ninkasi and Stone Brewing and was brewed in November of 2011. It comes in at a hefty 7.4% ABV and 80 IBU and was brewed with a veritable kitchen sink of hops (Super Galena hop extract for bittering, Nelson Sauvin and Delta for flavor, dry-hopped with a blend of Citra and Galaxy) and malts (Maris Otter Pale, Light Munich, Carafa III Special Dark, and CaraHelles) The notes on the beer from the Stone website:

Tasting notes, provided by Brewmaster Mitch Steele

Appearance: Deep brown, a bit hazy, with tan foam.
Aroma: Whoa! This beer is all about, resiny, piney, dank and citrusy hops! The first shot is intense blend of pine and orange rind, and then as your sense of smell just starts to recover, the dankness and resiny herbaceousness come through with hints of grapefruit. This is a powerful hop blend!
Taste: The hops also dominate the flavor of this beer. Orange and grapefruit rind take center stage in the flavor, followed by, you guessed it: piney / resiny notes. The beer has a modest body…not sweet at all…and has a lingering bitter, drying end. Beyond the bitter end there are light hints of roasted malt and chocolate in the finish.
Overall: The hop character in this beer is unique and very pronounced. Galaxy is a newer hop variety from Australia that we think has strong tropical fruit and stone fruit characteristics. Citra and Delta are newer American hop varieties — Citra possesses strong citrus and dank flavors, while Delta has a milder profile with melon and berry notes. And of course Nelson Sauvin from New Zealand has its intense namesake’s white wine notes along with—surprise!—more dank notes. They all blended together well in this beer, a tribute to one of our favorite styles.

The beer was available in 12 oz. bottles for around $4 at the end of 2011. The beer that I consumed had been sitting in the cellar since then and I figured it would be a good idea to break it out to see how it held up.

The beer pours dark brown with a brown head. Hops and citrus permeate the nose on this beer – there is no doubt that this is an IPA. Slight hints of malt play hide and seek with your nose, but they are definitely there. Citrus and resin dominate the palate but they are balanced with the malt and grain. A slight malty sweetness quickly yields to green hops, resin and earthy citrus in a very long and not at all bitter finish. At no point in this beer does the alcohol dominate the flavor. As the beer warms, a slight smokiness shows on the nose and briefly on the palate. I had this beer fresh and it was a complete hop bomb and I think it is still enjoyable despite the recommendation to drink it fresh. The beer is slightly more restrained in its aged form and I think more approachable to the average beer drinker who is just beginning to cut their teeth on very hoppy IPA’s.

This beer was great when I originally had it and great when I had it a year later, which is unusual for an IPA. The character on this beer is amazing and I really wish they would brew it again.

More Brown than Black gets 4 Kumbyas out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Fremont Brewing Cherry Almond Dark Star

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I really like Fremont Brewing – they have great beers, a dedicated mission to reduce their carbon footprint and a really great tasting room located just a couple miles from the Iron Chef abode. One of the benefits of their tasting room is that they carry some one off beers on cask. The downside of this is that they tend to be very small production and are gone almost as quickly as they show up. A recent trip to the tasting room yielded a Cherry and Almond version of their very tasty Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout. It was a blustery day when I visited so something dark was in order and how could I pass up a beer with two of my favorite things – cherry and almonds.

I couldn’t find any info on the beer online, so here is what the regular Dark Star is described as:

Roasty, chocolate tones swirled with oatmeal smoothness and dark as the night. The Dark Star crashes, pouring its light into ashes, so follow as the Lady of Velvet in the nights of goodbye. This one is too smooth…and at 8.0% ABV, dangerous.
Down & Dirty: 2-Row, Roast Barley, Crystal-60, Chocolate, & Carafa-2 malts with Flaked Oats and Magnum, Wilamette & Cascade hops. 8.0% ABV
Availability: Year-Round

This beer pours jet black with the faintest hint of cream on the head, and was served at room temperature. There is lots of roasted malt and grain on the nose with a background of almonds, so subtle that you may not notice it if you were not looking for it. Taking a sip of this beer is an experience – lots of malt and roasting coffee initially, giving way to almonds, chocolate and dried cherries in a very long and lingering finish, which is good, since this beer is a bit boozy and a couple will do you in. There was also a bit of bitterness in the initial few sips, which might be off putting to some, but I thought was a nice balance to all of the flavors that were in the beer, and the bitterness did eventually disappear. There is a pleasantly mild residual almond flavor that lingers on the tongue between sips, and overall the beer makes me think of an unsweetened cherry almond dark chocolate bar – so much so that I could actually imagine it in a solid form.

This version of Dark Star was a very fun drinking experience and wish it was more widely available. My only complaint is that I would have liked a bit more cherry flavor on the finish, but that is a personal preference as I love the combination of cherry and stout. Other than that, this was a great beer and you should rush down to the Fremont tap room if it does make another appearance.

Cherry Almond Dark Star pulls is a heavy 4 gravity wells out of 5.