Tag: Sorachi

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Kaleetan-weizzen

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I tend to stay away from the lighter beers, just because they usually lack the depth of flavors that I am looking for when drinking a beer. There are some breweries that I would still try their lighter beers, just because of their track record with making beers that I enjoy. NW Peaks is one of them. So when they released Kaleetan as part of the August Mountainbeers lineup, I was actually looking forward to drinking it.

From the NW Peaks Website:

The name. The mountain. Kaleetan is a peak close to Snoqualmie pass. It is one of the more impressive peaks in the area and its name means arrow, while others have described it as “matterhorn” (both aptly describing it). It’s a great day climb and/or ski depending on the time of year and conditions. In the summer trails go from Denny Creek to Melakwa lake. Heading up to the summit gully and easy class 3 scrambling can take you to the exposed summit. In winter, source lake is the preferred starting point.

The beer. Kaleetan is an “American Wheat Beer.” It has a wheat base and we used hops that have lemon qualities for the flavor and aroma. We finished off the beer with some lemon zest, enhancing the lemon properties. The result was a light beer with a light/delicate lemon aroma. The aroma is followed by a bready flavor with light herbal notes (a secondary characteristic from the sorachi ace hops). Overall, Kaleetan is an easy drinking wheat ale with light lemon and herbal notes.

untitle8dThe beer pours pale yellow in color with a fizzy white head. The nose is dominated by strong notes of yeast and wheat with touches of lemon interspersed. On the first sip, light notes of grain appear on the front of the beer with a very mild hint of yeast, before moving into slightly dry/tart lemon notes, before finishing with a hint of refreshing bitterness and touches of lemon peel. The beer is light and refreshing but surprisingly complex and it vaguely reminded me of a pilsner and would be perfect on a hot day. I think the beer is complex enough to keep an advanced beer drinker happy and subtle enough to have mass appeal.

NW Peaks Kaleetan-weizzen climbs to the top and announces its presence with a strong 4 yodels out of 5.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Silver Pale Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

untitle8dA few months back, the NW Peaks Mountainbeers were both pale ales, brewed with different hop varieties. I was excited for both of them, but especially for the Silver Pale Ale, which included spruce tips in the beer.

From the NW Peaks Website:

The name. The mountain. Like one of the April beers (Tinkham), Silver is off Snoqualmie pass. In fact, it’s juxtaposed to Tinkham just off the PCT and a great place for a good, light summer excursion. The climb is ~ 1,000 feet of a boot path from the PCT. The summit offers great views of the ever popular summits peppering the Snoqualmie area and serves as part of the boundary that surrounds one of Seattle’s 2 major watersheds (the Cedar River watershed).

The Beer. Silver pale is a standard NW style pale, featuring a couple of interesting ingredients, namely the sorachi ace hop variety and spruce tips. It has a medium body with nice hop notes and slightly forward bitterness. However, the sorachi ace imparts a “lemony” and to a lesser extent “dill” aroma which we paired with the (very subtle) spruce tips (and a few other hop varieties to round out the taste). The result was a nice, slightly bitter, NW pale ale.

Malts: Pale, ESB, Rye, crystal. Hops: Sorachi Ace, halertau, chinook. ABV: ~5.0%

 

The beer pours hazy yellow in color with light hops on the nose coupled with grain and faint raspberry/spruce hints. The beer starts off as a combination of slightly bitter and sweet before transitioning into light grain middle with strong notes of hops and lemon. The beer then pushes to the finish with a slightly sweet notes of grain and significant notes of raspberry and lemon in a very long finish. The beer is interesting, producing pronounced flavors from both the hops and the spruce tips and is one that is definitely not your average Northwest pale ale.

NW Peaks Silver Pale Ale pans the river and comes up with a solid 3 prospectors out of 5.