Beer of the Week: Black Raven Brewing Schwartzeit Black Lager

By Iron Chef Leftovers

There are times that I think Black Raven is one of the best breweries in the state and others that I think “WTH are they doing over in Redmond?” Schwartzeit Black Lager lends itself more to the former than the latter sentiment. In case you are not familiar with Black Lagers, Wikipedia comes to the rescue:

Schwarzbier, or “black beer”, is a German dark lager beer. It has an opaque, black colour and a full, chocolatey or coffee flavour similar to stout or porter.
Schwarzbiers are bottom-fermented beers, though originally top-fermenting yeast was used in brewing them. The alcohol content usually ranges from 4.8%–5%. They get their dark colour from the use of particularly dark malts in brewing. The malt in turn gets its colour during the roasting procedure.

The roots of the Schwarzbier lie in Thuringia and Saxony; the oldest known Schwarzbier is Braunschweiger Mumme (“Brunswick Mum”) brewed since the Middle Ages (the first documented mention is from 1390[1]) in Braunschweig. The earliest documented mention in Thuringia is of Köstritzer from 1543, a popular Schwarzbier still produced today. The East of present-day Germany has many unique varieties of this style from regional breweries. It is often served with dark, chunky breads with cream cheese. It also pairs well with marinated meats like brisket and is an excellent companion to German Sauerbraten.

I had the Schwartzeit in a 22oz bottle which ran about $7 and clocked in at 5.9% ABV.

The beer pours dark and slightly opaque with a generously fizzy tan head. A great deal of roasted malt appears on the nose with hints of chocolate and coffee – this beer could easily be confused with a stout on smell alone. The similarities end with the nose though – a slight sweetness starts you out, followed by a pleasant light grain flavor. That fades very quickly into light roast and chocolate (the chocolate is more pronounced as the beer warms) with a very mild bitterness from the hops at the end. The beer won’t win over light beer, drinkers despite being a lager, but it is balanced and delicious and should appeal to those who like a dark beer, but don’t want to go for full bore into the realm of stouts and porters.

Schwartzeit is a seasonal beer for Black Raven and one of the few that they actually bottle, so pick up a couple next time you see it in your local bottle shop.

Black Raven Schwartzeit Black Lager goose-steps in with a stellar 4 Achtungs! out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Ninkasi Radiant Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I like Ninkasi beers – they tend to be solid and drinkable, easily available and priced at a point that you won’t break the bank drinking them. A while back, I realized that there were a handful of their beers which I hadn’t tried yet, so I decided to give them a shot. Radiant Ale, their summer seasonal, was one of those beers. The beers run around $5 in a 22 oz. bottle (which is what is being reviewed here) and are generally available just about anywhere you can buy beer. The beer clocks in with 40 IBU and a 6.0% ABV.

From the Ninkasi website:

Earthy and floral hops balance this Northwest-style pale ale, with a touch of Crystal and Vienna malts for flavor. Crisp and flavorful, Radiant Ale is a clean-finishing summer offering in the Ninkasi tradition. The smooth malt character is balanced by an elegant hop bitterness, the perfect complement to a glorious summer day.

Tasting Notes:
A touch of Crystal malt is used to sweeten-up this beer in addition to some Vienna malt for balance. The multiple hop varieties are grassy and earthy in tone and differentiate Radiant from most of the citrus forward Northwest Pale Ales!

Food Pairings:
Fish, Poultry, Tomato Sauces, Rustic Breads, Toffee, Cookies

The beer pours orange, almost tan in color with a fizzy, light cream head. Light amounts of hops and citrus appear on the notes with a fair amount of grain in the mix – reminds me slightly of a lager (possibly from the Vienna malt). A good bit of slight bitterness on the initial sip (not sure if that was a good or a bad thing), with a nice crispness which fades into a long, grain heavy finish. I really couldn’t find any defining notes in the beer – not a ton of hop flavor and not an overly complex beer, almost like an ale on training wheels. It felt like a beer that was designed for people who like lighter beers. That being said, it would be a fine beer to sip on a warm summer day on the back deck with a friend.

Ninkasi Radiant Ale orbits into the picture with a bright 3 masses of incandescent gas out of 5.

In case you don’t get the reference, They Might Be Giants can help you out:

Beer of the Week: Stone Collaboration The Perfect Crime

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Next up in the Stone Collaboration Series is The Perfect Crime; a Black Smoked Saison brewed with the help of Evil Twin and Stillwater. The beer, as with all of the others I had in this series came from a 12oz. bottle and ran about $5.99. There are still a few bottles of this available at Chuck’s Hop Shop if you want to try it.

From the Stone website:

Evil Twin / Stillwater / Stone “The Perfect Crime” Black Smoked Saison. In a masterfully orchestrated collaboration of the minds, Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø of Denmark’s Evil Twin Brewing, Brian Strumke from Baltimore’s Stillwater Artisanal Ales, and Stone brewmaster Mitch Steele crafted a beer that cleverly exploits the definition of a saison.

Stats: 6.8% abv, 60 IBUs
Hops bill: East Kent Goldings, Chinook, and Cluster

This beer is jet black in color with a cream colored head. The nose has hints of smoke with tree bark, grains and hints of hops. The beer starts out on the palate with small amounts of smoke yielding to a bit of tartness (the farmhouse funk) and citrus – the grains of paradise and hops are definitely noticeable and balance nicely with the smoke giving a sweet/sour/smoky combination. The finish is slightly sweet with hints of sugar and mild hop resin. The beer is slightly hoppy but not dominating in a surprisingly long finish.

They really pushed the definition of saison on this beer and they nailed it. It has enough of the farmhouse funk and grains of paradise notes that you know there is a saison there somewhere, but it is far and away the most hoppy saison I have ever tried, The smoke surprisingly marries well with the other flavors and the brewers did a fantastic job keeping all of the individual components distinctive enough that you can still taste them without being overpowered by each other. A regular saison drinker would probably hate what they did to this beer, but if you are looking for something interesting, you should pick one up.

The Perfect Crime from Stone/Evil Twin/Stillwater gets away with stealing 4 Scott frees out of 5.

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

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I have said it before in this space, Reuben’s Brews really knows what they are doing with rye beer. Back at the beginning of the year, they debuted a Belgian version of their Imperial Rye IPA; it has since made a couple of appearances in the tap room, most recently at the Rye Fest they hosted for Seattle Beer Week.

The beer pours hazy orange in color with very little head. There are tons of citrus on the nose with some green hops and hits of sugar and rye. The first sip is a huge hit of hopes that lingers for a long time before moving into a long rye finish that is intertwined with the classic flavors associated with a Belgian beer – banana and cloves. The hop character is slightly more subdued and the rye finish is shorter and less intense that its regular Rye brother, but the Belgian yeast makes for an interesting and complex flavor and finish, making this beer a fine product in its own right. The bold flavors also go a long way in hiding the 8.4% ABV on this monster. It is a heavy beer in terms of flavor, texture and alcohol, but it is well balanced and smooth and you can easily forget how big this beer really is.

Next time the Belgian Rye IPA makes an appearance, get yourself down to Reuben’s and try one of the more interesting beers out on the market – even if you are not a fan of Belgian style beers.

Reuben’s Brews Belgian Rye IPA rings in with a clear 4 calls to prayer out of 5.

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

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Next time the Belgian Rye IPA makes an appearance, get yourself down to Reuben’s and try one of the more interesting beers out on the market – even if you are not a fan of Belgian style beers.

Reuben’s Brews Belgian Rye IPA rings in with a clear 4 calls to prayer out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Elysian Brewing Hansel & Gretel Pumpkin Pilsner

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I love pumpkin beers and there are a ton of them out on the market these days. Fall also brings us the annual pumpkin beer festival at Elysian Brewing, who seem to roll out somewhere around a dozen pumpkin beers themselves, with just a few making it into bottles. Hansel & Gretel is one that made it this year into the bottle. From the Elysian press release:

Brewed with organic pale, Weyermann Munich and Cara-Hell malts, with pumpkin added in the mash, kettle and fermenter. Spiced with fresh ginger and hopped with lots of Czech Saaz hops 4.5% ABV

This beer is unmistakably a pilsner – golden yellow in color with a fizzy white head. Initially you get a good amount of grain on the nose, but as you get closer, there are strong notes of ginger with a pumpkin background. The is initial sip is a strong hit of spicy ginger, like biting into a ginger snap cooking without the sugar, but it is so strong that your taste buds never fully recover from it. The ginger gives way to a distinct pumpkin flavor and it finishes just a bit sweet with a touch of spicy heat from the ginger. Any grain notes are completely overwhelmed by the ginger and there are no discernible hops on the nose or the palate. The spiciness is more pronounced as the beer warms and really overpowers everything else. There aren’t many pumpkin pilsners on the market so this beer has the potential to be a good one with more balance so you get more than a one note beer (and make pumpkin the star, not the ginger), but it is not quite there yet.

This was not my favorite pumpkin beer of the patch; so as a result, Hansel & Gretel skips into the gingerbread house with a score of 2 children out of 5.

Or was the Rabbit Correct?

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I am referring to this post.

I don’t normally order a pilsner, let alone when it is cold and raining in April. A recent trip to Elysian Fields caused me to make an exception to this rule when I saw that they had a new beer on tap – Discount Double Czech Imperial Pilsner. I will be honest, I ordered the beer solely because I loved the name – it does happen.

I tried to take a picture of the description from the beer menu, but I did not get a great exposure, so I know this beer has Czech Saaz and Mosaic hops and Pilsner, Munich and one other malt, clocking in at a whopping 7% ABV and 42 IBU. This is not your father’s pilsner. The beer is only available on tap.

The beer is golden straw in color with a creamy white head. It has a very subtle nose – light grain and malt with hints of hops interspersed. You are deceived into thinking that this big beer is anything but by the way it smells and its subtle nature. The first sip is lightly bitter with notes of yeast and malt giving way to a surprising grapefruit finish – very long and slightly sweet but not overpowering, with hints of orange peel. As the beer warms, the citrus flavors become more subtle and the beer becomes slightly more balanced between the malt and hops. This beer definitely has more hops than you would normally expect from a pilsner, but it felt just slightly out of balance between the hops and the grain if you are looking for a more traditional pilsner. If you like hops however, this beer is definitely right up your alley. There is enough balance to hide the 7% ABV on this beer and it has a hybrid pilsner/pale flavor profile – there is enough pilsner character in the beer to recognize the pilsner hops and malt, but enough hop complexity to know that this is something more than a pilsner.

I liked this beer – it was a nice change of pace from what I have recently been drinking and probably would order one without hesitation on a nice warm sunny day. The rabbit is incorrect, I would be happy if you ordered me this pilsner.

Discount Double Czech strolls in like a good neighbor with a respectable 3 Aaron Rodgers out of 5.

In case you don’t remember “Discount Double Check” because you were not paying attention/don’t care/hiding under a rock/abducted by aliens, here you go:

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Brewing Double IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I am lucky to live in Ballard – we have so many breweries popping up, all within walking distance, that this is becoming a beer nirvana in a city that is pretty close to being beer nirvana. One of the “new kids on the block” is tiny Populuxe brewing, located in a renovated auto repair shop on NW 49th between 8th and 9th Avenues (and right across from the Iron Chef family favorite – Domanico Cellars; Ballard’s only winery tasting room). Saying Populuxe is small is an understatement – they have a 1.5 barrel brewing system so they don’t brew a huge selection of beers. What they lack in size, they make up for in quality. The Double IPA is one of the beers that they have been putting on tap along with their IPA, EuroBlonde, Saison, Bitter and Brown. Check out their FB page for their current tap list.

The DIPA pours hazy golden orange with a white head. Lots of citrus and grapefruit on the nose with notes of grain; you won’t mistake this beer for another style. The initial sip yields large quantities of grapefruit and citrus which linger for a long time coupled with a hint of bitterness that reminds you that this is a northwest Double IPA. It has plenty of hop character but is well balanced and does not feel like a hop bomb – you are not going to blow out your palate after drinking this beer. That balance between the alcohol and hops coupled with a long, smooth, refined finish makes me want to drink more than one and it is easy to forget that you are drinking a 7.2% ABV beer.

Perhaps the greatest compliment paid to this beer and its drinkability was by Mrs. Iron Chef who described the beer as “Not Terrible”. Mrs. Iron Chef does not like anything that is remotely hoppy, so for her to say that is the greatest compliment that can be paid to an IPA.

Populuxe Brewing’s Double IPA pours into the foundation with a spectacular 4 Googies out of 5.

I leave you with this:

Beer of the Week: Stone Collaboration La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Another week, another Stone collaboration beer review. I should qualify this by saying that we did a horizontal tasting of all of the Stone collaboration beers I had at that point, so you should be seeing the rest of these in the coming weeks. The La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado (say that 3 times fast) is the collaboration pumpkin beer done between The Bruery, Stone and Elysian (should I have been surprised). This beer made its debut at the 2011 Elysian Pumpkin Beer Festival and made an encore appearance at the 2012 fest. I am reviewing this beer from the 12 oz. bottle that I purchased at around $3.

From the Stone Website:

The eclectic mix of ingredients was selected to introduce a decidedly different spin on traditional pumpkin beers. “The taste starts with citrus and herbal notes, but then a very smooth roasted malt character comes into play,” Steele explains. “The yam and pumpkin make their appearance on the finish, with some Eastern-influenced spiciness and trace maple notes from the toasted fenugreek, combining with hints of birch. This is no pumpkin pie beer. No cloves. No nutmeg. No cinnamon.”

Malt bill: Pale, Rye, Crystal, Chocolate Rye, English Brown, Aromatic, and Honey malt
Hops bill: Warrior, Motueka
Adjuncts: Pumpkins (grown at Stone Farms), yams, toasted fenugreek, lemon verbena
5% abv, 47 IBUs

This beer pours orange-amber in color. Lots of roasted pumpkin and birch dominate the nose of this beer with hints of lemon verbena in the background. The beer drinks like a soda – syrupy birch and toasted pumpkin are the dominant flavors, fading very quickly. There are slight notes of toffee and hers on the finish, but they come and go so quickly that you almost don’t realize they are there. The beer was more complex when I had it on tap – in the bottle it lacks the dominant pumpkin and roast that I was expecting. I am wondering, despite proper storage, if this beer was past its prime when I opened it.

It they ever decided to brew this beer again, I recommend that you try La Citrueille, especially if you like Pumpkin beers that showcase the pumpkin rather than the spice.

I was originally going to give this beer a rating, but considering that the bottle may have been bad and how much I did like the previous times I drank the beer, I am going to not score this beer at all. I would recommend drinking this beer fresh if you have the chance.

Beer of the Week: Laughing Dog Pure Breed Citra American Pale Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I really like the concept of a single hop beer. The great thing about them is that you really get to understand where certain hop flavors come from in the beers which use a combination of hops. When I found out that Laughing Dog Brewing out of Idaho was doing a single hop beer, well, I had to try it. I consider Laughing Dog one of the more underrated breweries in the US and I think they do particularly well with hops. The Pure Breed Citra American Pale Ale, their first entry into the single hop realm, came to me in a 22oz. bottle which ran about $5.

The description from the Laughing Dog website:

The first in our Purebred series of single hop A.P.A.s showcases the hop variety Citra. These are used for everything from bittering and flavor to aroma. The soft bitterness of the Citra hop makes this an extremely drinkable beer.
ABV 6.14%, IBU 67.8

Golden yellow in color and lots of carbonation on a slightly off white head. Strong notes of citrus dance around the nose with just a hint of grain lying in wait in the background. The first sip slaps you in the face – a very brief and pleasant bitterness quickly yield to a hop monster – lots of grapefruit and citrus peel, which lingers for a good few seconds before giving way to a light grain backbone and finally transitioning to a slight bitterness with hints of green hops in a long and pleasant fade. As the beer warms slightly, notes of peach show up on the nose and palate with the citrus, giving just a tease of sweetness before fading into the hop bitterness.

This is a fine beer which showcases the citrus aspects of citra hops in the best possible way. Grab your pooch and head on over to your local bottle shop and get yourself a bottle or three of this great beer.

Laughing Dog Pure Breed Citra American Pale Ale grabs 4 Best in Shows out of 5.