Beer of the Week: Elysian Brewing Good, Bad & Red

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Since I don't have a picture of the beer, are you feeling lucky, punk? — Since I don’t have a picture of the beer, are you feeling lucky, punk?

I love going to Elysian’s location near the stadium since they have a great staff, good food and an extensive beer list. One of the benefits of their list is that they tend to have stuff on tap at any given point that I have not tried before, which keeps it interesting, and generally means that I will order those beers (the exception is when they have Dark of the Moon on tap – that is what gets ordered). A recent trip to Fields was no exception as I stumbled upon “Good, Bad & Red.” I can’t find Elysian’s description of the beer , so I can tell you it is 6.2% ABV and 35 IBU is made with 4 hop varieties including Cara, C-77 and Columbus, and is only available on tap.

The beer pours a beautiful rosy red color. The nose is awash in malt and barley complimented with a heavy dose of citrus. The initial sip is a hammer of grapefruit and citrus peel followed by a mellow malty sweetness and just a hint of bitterness and barley at the very end. Despite its low IBU, this beer was very hop forward with its citrus flavors, but not bitterness, so I think that this one is a nice compromise for hop heads and casual beer drinkers alike. As it warms, the grapefruit remains the dominant up-front flavor with the sweetness and citrus peel much more restrained. The finish becomes dominated by the malt and barley with just a slight hint of bitter hop resin.

Overall this beer was a nice change of pace from what I usually get at Elysian.

Elysian’s Good, Bad & Red saunters into town with an inspired performance of 3 Blondie’s out of 5.

Ed Note: In case you don’t get it, Blondie was Clint Eastwood’s character’s name in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

Beer of the Week: Elysian Brewing Split Shot Espresso Milk Stout

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Living in Seattle, which does have a slight (and justified) reputation for being an over-caffinated city, you would expect that you would see more coffee based beers, but you don’t. For the 2012 Seattle Beer Week, Elysian Brewing was selected to come up with the beer for the event and they produced Split Shot Stout – marrying the city’s love of coffee with its love of beer. I generally will try anything new that Elysian puts out and I really think that their dark beers tend to be their best work. I have tried Split Shot both on tap and in 22 oz. bottles, and the review is for the bottle release. The beer runs around $6 at your local bottle shop (although it is often on sale at mega marts with a better beer selection).

From the Elysian Press Release on the beer:

In Seattle, beer and coffee grew up together. They’re like siblings, jealously balancing the day between go-go and go-slow, dividing the hip and tattoo’d into brewers and roasters, barkeeps and baristas. Split Shot Coffee Milk Stout combines the talents of Elysian Brewing and Lighthouse Roasters, and commemorates not only Seattle Beer Week as its official beer for 2012, but the fact that it took a lot of talk and lot of Lighthouse coffee to get Elysian off the ground back in 1996. Split Shot has a radically complicated malt bill, with C-15 and C-45 dextrine malts, Franco-Belges kiln coffee malt, Black, Roasted and Chocolate malts and flaked oats. It’s bittered with Magnum and slightly sweetened with milk sugar. OG 16 (1.065); alcohol 7.25% by volume., Split Shot is the official beer for 2012 Seattle Beer Week. Available in select Seattle area restaurants, bars and stores, on draft and in 22-oz. bottles.

Split Shot pours with a tan head and a pitch black body. There is absolutely no question what this beer is from the smell – coffee and lots of roasted malt dominate and that is from a foot away from the beer. Up close, this beer smells like a coffee shop roasting its beans – heavy espresso with hints of smoke and grains, taking me back to my bachelor days when I lived near Lighthouse coffee and would smell them roasting beans in the afternoon. The beer has a creamy mouth feel, like taking a sip of espresso with a good crema. Lingering coffee dominates the palate, with a slight bitterness and just a hint of malt and milk sweetness on the back end – this beer could easily be confused for an iced espresso. The coffee is strong but not completely overpowering, but I would still not recommend this beer unless you really liked coffee. As the beer warms, the coffee becomes more restrained and notes of chocolate, sugar, barley and grain start to appear. I would recommend serving this beer between 40 and 45 degrees if you like slightly bitter coffee and 45 to 50 degrees if you want to taste the full range of flavors that this beer has to offer.

If you like coffee and beer, get your over-caffeinated self to a bottle shop and pick this one up, you won’t regret it.

Elysian Split Shot Stout shakes itself down to the local coffee shop with a delicious 4 grande, non-fat mocha with whips out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Hale’s Ales Cascade Mist Wet Hop

One of the great things about where I live is that I have 5 (and soon to be 7) breweries within walking distance of my house. It makes for a regular rotation for me to stop in to each of these places and try the new and exciting stuff that they have on tap, and, in the case of Hale’s Ales, try the beers that they don’t bottle. A recent trip to Hale’s yielded such a treasure – the very last of their fresh hop beer. I unfortunately can’t find any stats on the beer (I did find a single reference to it being 5.5% ABV), so you are just stuck with my description.

The beer is very pale yellow in color with a snow white head. I took one look at it and thought to myself that this was going to be a major letdown. It wasn’t helped when I took a whiff of the beer – faint notes of grain with very mild hops, if you did not know what you ordered, you would possible be thinking pilsner. It is a good thing that I did not judge a book by its cover. The first sip delivered a very crisp and refreshing beer with lots of hops flavor up from with notes of orange and lemon lingering for a short time before giving way to citrus peel, grain and hop resin. A slight bitterness hides in the finish on this beer, but it is not particularly pronounced and it provides a nice counterbalance to the citrus notes. It is also just enough to remind you that this is a fresh hop beer but not off-putting to the point where a non-IPA drinker would hate it. There is great balance between the citrus and grain and it is a nice change of pace from the fresh hop IPA’s that tend to dominate the market in Seattle. When this beer makes a comeback, you should belly yourself up to the bar at Hale’s and knock back a few of them.

Hale’s Cascade Mist was an unexpected surprise when I went in the brewery and it made for a very happy Iron Chef when I left.

Hale’s Cascade Mist Wet Hop wafts in with a cloaking 4 cloudy days out of 5.

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

By Blaidd Drwg

A while back, I wrote a post on food memories. Smells and tastes can invoke a powerful emotion and sometimes they can come from an unexpected place. A recent trip to visit my friends at Reuben’s Brews was such an experience. With their extensive and ever changing tap list and usually stellar beers, I am always torn between trying their new stuff and old favorites. A recent trip to the brewery saw the Imperial Rye IPA on their board; a rye based imperial IPA clocking in at 8.4% alcohol and 90+ IBU. This beer is not really for the faint of heart – it is a big, bold hop monster.

The beer pours amber, almost rosy in color. There is lots of citrus on the nose (predominately grapefruit) and rye – you take one whiff of this beer and you have no doubt that this is going to be a big IPA. The beer has a smooth, almost creamy feel on the palate with a slightly sweet hit giving way to a light bitterness with tons of grapefruit. For a beer with that high an IBU, the hops bitterness is incredibly well balanced with the rest of the beer. The Imperial Rye then gets really interesting – the grapefruit gives way to a dramatic rye finish with such a rye hit that it brought back memories of my grandmother making me fresh rye toast from the Jewish bakery in my home town. My only complaint, and this is because of the memories this beer invokes, is that the beer goes from sweet to bitter to citrus to rye too quickly – I really want that rye to linger on the palate for a long time. The reality is that this beer does have a fairly long finish and it is very pleasant and not overpowered with the high alcohol content it possesses. The bitterness does become more pronounced as it warms and I think this beer would be a good candidate for a cask treatment (Note to Adam: Big Hint!)

I did try this beer a second time without my notes from the first tasting handy and compared the two – they were both virtually identical with what I initially wrote. I loved this beer. As Rye IPA’s go, I probably rank this one as my 3rd favorite behind Anacortes and Laughing Dog, but this one has the childhood memory associated with it, so it really does make ranking it a lot harder.

I would have given this beer an easy 4 out of 5 if it weren’t for the memories, but since I do consider emotion as well as price when I come up with my ratings, Reuben’s Imperial Rye IPA invokes a perfect 5 Judicke’s Bakeries (that is where my grandmother usually got the rye bread from – it is still there and has been in operation since 1924) out of 5. Thanks for the trip down memory lane as well as the fantastic beer!

Beer in Review: Crowning the Best Beer of 2012

By Iron Chef Leftovers

In 2012, I started writing beer reviews on this blog in a semi-regular segment titled “Beer of the Week”. It is a bit of a misnomer since some weeks you got 2 beers of the week (hey, those are good weeks) and some weeks you got none. Anyway, I don’t review every beer I drink and I don’t always post them right after I drink them, so you sometimes end up with beers that are out of season or just not available anymore. What I am most proud of is my 5 point rating system.

In case you haven’t realized, instead of awarding stars or mugs or whatever else, I usually award a rating out of 5 based on something to do with the beer or the brewery. For example, I rated the Diamond Knot Whip Ale 4 out of 5 Silent Lucidities based on the idea that the recipe came from Michael Wilton of Queensryche (get it…Queensryche…Silent Lucidity). Coming up with these can be a challenge sometimes – anything animal or plant related is easy, just use the scientific name. Some are harder and probably not quite as funny. My favorite for the year was when I awarded Firestone Walker Wookey Jack 3 Kashyyyks out of 5. Kashyyyk being the home planet of Chewbacca, Chewy being a Wookie, get it? See how my brain works?

I digress, I reviewed a number of beers this year and several of them score a perfect 5 out of 5 on my rating scale. Several of those were vintage beers, so unless you know someone who happens to be sticking stuff in their cellar for 5 or 6 years (like I do), I figured that I should eliminate them from the running for the beer of the year. That really brought me down to 2 beers for the coveted title: Latona 25th Anniversary Cask by Anacortes and Pumpkin Ale by Reuben’s. It isn’t an easy choice; both breweries are great, both are breweries whose beers I really love and the styles are completely different. I am a shameless hophead and the Anacortes beer really appeals to me, but I also love pumpkin beers, especially ones where you can really taste the pumpkin and Reuben’s really knocked it out of the park with a pumpkin rye, a style which you don’t see too often, giving everything that I love about pumpkin beers with an interesting twist (and if you haven’t tried any of their rye beers, you should, they are fantastic).

So after much debate and locking the judges in a room without food and water until they made a decision (not really, I just spent 15 minutes thinking about who should win), we have a winner.

In a stunning upset, the new kid on the block, Reuben’s Brews wins the coveted Cheapseateats.com beer of the year award for their Pumpkin Ale! I highly encourage you to try this beer when it comes back around next year. It is so good that it is close to replacing Elysian’s Dark of the Moon as my favorite pumpkin beer on the planet, which is no easy feat since I pretty much consider Dark to be the second best beer brewed in Washington, behind Anacortes IPA of course!

Congrats to the wonderful folks from Reuben’s for brewing such delicious beers and keep it up. You will have some stiff competition in 2013 if you want to retain your title.

The Top Beers From Each State

By Iron Chef Leftovers

A website, firstwefeast.com came out with a list of the “best” beers from each state. It is a tough thing to judge since you are going across so many different styles and tastes and then you have to ask are you limiting it by just beers that are bottled, etc. It is interesting to see what they came up with. The full slideshow is here, but here are my comments on a few (after the jump) in case you don’t want any spoilers before you see them all.

Continue reading “The Top Beers From Each State” →

Beer of the Week: Diamond Knot Whip Pale Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I have a soft spot in my heart for Diamond Knot beers. I really like their IPA’s and I learned a significant amount of what I know about beer from the late Brian Sollenberger, one of the founders of Diamond Knot. On a beer shopping trip, I saw a new beer from DK, Whip Pale Ale and I figured what the hell, I will give it a shot, not really knowing anything about it other than the description on the bottle. The description of this beer:

Diamond Knot Brewery has been working with Seattle metal legend Michael “Whip” Wilton of Queensryche for quite some time to perfect the recipe for the new Whip Ale. Whip Ale is an American Pale Ale bittered with Nugget, Simcoe and Cascade hops. Pale, Caramel and Vienna malts provide a balance to the bright, citrusy hop flavors. American Ale Yeast generates a clean, crisp finish.

I purchased Whip in a 22 oz. bottle (it can also be found on tap) for $5. It comes in at 6% ABV and 30 IBU.

Whip pours a golden orange color. Hops, caramel, malt and spice dominate the nose – this beer smells wonderful, and really reminds me of a Belgian IPA more than an American Pale Ale, it is a really complex olfactory experience. Malt and hops dominate the palate with a long, lingering, tannic finish, showing just a hint of hop bitterness as it fades. As it begins to warm, hops dominate the front of the palate and Belgian flavors – coriander, spice and yeast, dominate the back.

I really loved this beer and would not hesitate to pick up a bottle or have a pint if I was in the mood for something with hop character without being a hop bomb.

Whip Pale Ale strums in with 4 Silent Lucidities out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Sam Adams Veloren

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Sam Adams in the last few years has been getting back to its roots with producing some interesting beers on a limited release basis. One of those beers is Veloren – which is an almost dead style called Gose. What is Gose you ask? From the Sam Adams website:

A link to the ales of Saxony that have all but vanished, Verloren (translating to “lost”) is a peculiar yet captivating brew. This gose style (pronounced “goes-uh”), with its base of an unfiltered wheat ale, is light and refreshing yet also has a softness to it. Verloren’s flavor is brought to life by an unexpected touch of salt for a mineral quality, and coriander for a peppery spice. The result is an unusual and delicate brew that’s full of flavors to discover.

Our rendition of an old German style, Verloren is brewed with 50 to 60 percent malted wheat creating a fine haze, cloudy straw color, and crisp twang. The singularity of this brew however, comes from its soft creaminess, dry finish, and spices. The addition of salt creates a slight sharpness against the soft cereal character and enhances the other flavors around it, while ground coriander creates a peppery bite to enliven the brew.

I picked up this beer because, for the life of me, I can’t remember ever having tried a Gose. The beer ran $7 for a 750ml bottle, wasn’t particularly difficult to find (megamarts with a better beer selection should carry it) and comes in at 6.0% ABV and a very light 15 IBU. Gose is brewed with a bunch of malts, Saaz hops and salt and coriander are added in the brewing process.

This beer pour amber and slightly coudy, you would almost think you are drinking a strange colored wit just by looking at it. The nose consists predominantly of malt and sugar with some citrus and hints of spice and herbs in the background. Malt also dominates the palate, giving way to some spice with hints of sweetness followed by citrus and citrus peel in a very long finish. As it warms, sugar starts to compliment the malt without being over the top and hints of hop bitterness come out on the finish. I never really got any distinct salt in the beer, but that is probably the point, salt should enhance all of the other flavors without being a player itself.

Veloren isn’t the best beer you will ever try, but you should try it just because you probably have never tried the style. I don’t know that I would run out myself and buy it again, but if I was in the mood for something different, I probably would pick one up.

Overall, Sam Adams Veloren gets 3 Bubo virginianus out of 5.

How to Soften the Blow of a Bad Review

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I have never met Guy Fieri, but I really don’t like the guy who Anthony Bourdain once called “The Poochie of Food Network.” I have never been to any of his restaurants, so I can’t comment on if they are any good, but he recently opened a 500 seat monstrosity in Times Square in NYC. It seems that the place is terrible and has met with many bad reviews, including one recently from the NY Times writer Peter Wells (you can read that here – he actually gave the place 0 stars).

Eater.com, it all its wisdom, took some of the worst criticisms from Wells and in a shout out to Fieri’s feelings and in an attempt to soften the blow, added them to pictures of kittens. There is brilliance in this – I am going to have to remember this the next time I write a negative review on something. I highly recommend reading the review first then going here to see all the pictures, but here are two of my favorites:

Beer of the Week: Elysian Brewing Maelstrom Blood Orange Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

In celebration of the potential end of the world (according to the Mayans), Elysian Brewing introduced their 12 Beers of the Apocalypse series – a monthly release of a really off the wall beer. The story from the Elysian website:

In a year-long run-up to the end of all time (according to the Mayan calendar), Elysian Brewing Company and Fantagraphics Books, both of Seattle, are releasing a series of twelve beers, issued on the 21st of each month in 2012 and featuring the label artwork of Charles Burns taken from his weirdly apocalyptic work “Black Hole.” The “Twelve Beers of the Apocalypse” will feature the creativity and unusual ingredients for which Elysian’s brewing team is known. What twelve beers would you brew (and drink) if you knew they would be your last?

The August release was the Maelstrom Blood Orange Ale. I love blood orange, so I had to try this one. The description from Elysian:

Down, down, down Maelstrom will go, pulling the hapless beer enthusiast in with a beguiling blend of blood orange, Northwest hops and sweet orange peel. Stray to close and you may not escape the currents of this tender trap. Blood orange provides tartness and the blush of a brazen sea, Citra and amarillo hops from the Yakima Valley offer bite and aroma, and orange peel suggests a little something else on the wind. Maelstrom is brewed with pale, Munich and Dextri-pils malts bittered with German Northern Brewer and finished and dry-hopped with Citra and Amarillo.

The beer comes in at a hefty 7.25% and is available in a limited release in both 22 oz. bottles for around $7and on tap. I poured mine from a bottle.

The beer pours a cloudy light orange in color with a white head, very reminiscent of a hefe. Hints of hops, blood orange peel and malt dominate the ones on this beer – if you did not know what you were drinking, you might think it was a funky IPA. The initial sip yielded very little character (it may have been a touch too cold) with a hint of grain and a hint of hops, but subsequent sips build up, first with a slightly sweet, orange juice punch, turning into slightly bitter orange peel which lingers for a few seconds before fading. The finish is a bit tannic but very interesting with a lasting bitterness of orange peel and hops that linger well after the sip. The bitterness becomes slightly more pronounced as the beer warms, but it is more enhancing rather than detracting from the overall experience.

One thing that I did try with this beer was pairing it with a classic flavor combination to orange – chocolate. Paired with a single origin Tanzania, 72% chocolate (it had a fruity flavor profile), the beer is enhanced to pack an incredible orange punch and becoming very IPA like with significant presence of hops and notes of bitterness. The chocolate really enhanced many of the flavors that I loved about this beer.

Assuming the world does not end, I would love to see Elysian bring back this beer. It was fantastic; definitely one that I would want to drink if I knew that it was going to be my last one.

Maelstrom Blood Orange Ale gets a sacred 4 blood sacrifices out of 5.