Newly arrived into my beer stash.  A gift from a co-worker who travelled abroad recently.  No tasting notes yet.

Slumbrew. No it is not a new term for 40 ounces of Malt Liquor, or Fortified Wine. It is actually the name of a new brand of beer from new Massachusetts beer maker, Somerville Brewing Company. Slumbrew started hitting shelves at the end of 2011 with three styles: Hefeweizen, IPA, and Porter. Now I am a fan of the Porter style (living by the saying “The more Porter, the more better”) but America being the country of IPA drinkers, I thought I would start with that one first. Lets hope the beer is more appetizing than the brand’s name makes it sound.

The amber-orange liquid hits the beer glass and produces a rocky off-white head that lasts a short amount of time, even with the fare bit of carbonation in the body. The aroma is quite fruity with orange, macintosh apples, and passion fruit greeting my nose. Mixed with the fruit is a light cereal grain and caramel malt character. The mouthfeel is enjoyable with the beer making its presence known and a subtle roughness around the edges. I get more earthy, black pepper spice characteristics in the taste then the initial aroma profile lets on. The fruit is still present, but less defined, and the earthy bitterness finishes quite strong. For a 7.5% beer the alcohol was well hidden.

For an incredibly crowded beer style, this one does stick out from the pack. I am not saying it is the best IPA ever, but it is different enough to a) remember and b) have again. Slumbrew is not the most appetizing of names, but at least they are doing something different with their beer, which is what matters the most (as long as people get past the name).

NB The name Slumbrew is “a cheeky, irreverant reference to a bygone era” for Somerville, MA. Marketing people… ya gotta love’em.

Photo Credit: walknboston, Creative Commons License

I have never been timely with my reviews (and why change that now?), so I am going to review a Holiday Ale in February.  Now I am not a huge fan of Holiday beers to begin with.  Sure there are one or two I look out for, but most of the time I find them too dark-fruity, too spicy, too boozey, or all three.  My co-worker however recommended Lagunitas Sucks, and valuing his opinion, I picked up a six-pack of the stuff a few weeks after Christmas.

Clear, golden-colored, with a head that rapidly receded to a faint white covering.  Pine sap, grapefruit, mango, and hints of tobacco in the aroma.  Clean with a heavy bitter finish.  Does that sound like a typical Holiday Ale to you?  For me it certainly does not.  Though the beer was enjoyable it does not change my opinion on the Holiday style because the beer is not one… it is a Pacific Coast Double IPA.

Now you might be kicking yourself because you skipped over the beer, thinking it was a Holiday Ale.  I would not kick too hard.  Yes the beer was enjoyable, but it did not stick out from the rather crowded Pacific Coast Double IPA pack.  (My co-worker recently told me he tried the Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale side-by-side with Lagunitas Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale and their was not much difference between the two for him.)

Photo Credit: walknboston, Creative Commons License

The latest trend/fad in beer styles is the White IPA (soon to be renamed by the Pacific Northwest as Cascadian White Ale) with Deschutes Chainbreaker White IPA, Samuel Adams’ Whitewater IPA, Saranac’s White IPA, Anchorage’s Galaxy White IPA, Harpoon’s White IPA, and even Shock Top Wheat IPA (does that mean the style has already “jumped the shark”?) all being announced or released recently.  I can understand why brewers are hopping on the White IPA train because it seems like a sales juggernaut to combine IPA (which is the largest selling single style in the US) with a White Ale (Witbier) (with Blue Moon producing upwards of two million barrels of the stuff a year* and their dollar sales increasing even faster than craft beer’s), and I am surprised it has not happened sooner.  Commercially the White IPA combination only came about recently with a collaboration between Boulevard Brewing and Deschutes (this statement will probably be proved wrong by either a former employee of the The Vermont Pub & Brewery or Ron Pattinson), when they brewed their aptly named White IPA.  Now I have in my stash said beer (the Boulevard Brewing version of the recipe), and decided to crack the beer open and find out what this White IPA style is all about.

“Enticing” was the first word in my head, when I caught the first whiffs of aroma, orange and fruit, emanating from the bottle.  Poured into a tulip glass the golden-colored beer produced a rocky white head with a good inch and half depth that lasted four to five minutes, and did not disappear until half the glass was consumed.  As the head’s bubbles burst, aromas of orange, green apple, herbs and yeasty tang ensconced in my nose.  My first sips were full of coriander, and sage, which I did not find overly enjoyable, and a sour yeast finish.  With time however, the beer’s orange and fruit flavor, initially noticed in the nose, made a more pronounced showing, though never truly overcoming the initial herb flavors.  The sour was also counter balanced by a light bitter note.  The beer throughout the session had a dry, crisp, and refreshing finish.

Now my foray with the White IPA was not on the best of terms.  As I was drinking the beer I happen to notice on the label a “best by” date (in my opinion “best by” dates should be found more often on craft beer) of 02-2012, so my beer was nearing the end of its “life”.  With that in mind, and my belief a fresher White IPA would display a stronger IPA characteristic that would counter balance the herbal notes of the White Ale, I am still on the fence with the White IPA style.  Adding white ale’s herbal characteristics to the fruity chracteristics of the IPA style did not do anything for me.  I am not a fan of herbal beer, and this did not help change that.  I did however enjoy the sour-bitter combination the yeast imparted, and the dry, crisp, refreshing finish of the beer, so I am not against trying the White IPA style again.  And with so many White IPAs coming out in the ensuing months, it looks like I will have plenty of opportunities to decide which side of the White IPA fence I am on.

*Guesstimate based on this post.

Photo Credit: walknboston, Creative Commons License

Hey all – just a quick post on this bomber of Life & Limb, a beer that many of you are probably familiar with. Obviously, Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada are two seminal breweries in the ‘craft beer movement’. I love ‘em both and I think they’ve both done a lot to push the industry forward. Therefore, I was pretty excited when I heard about this collaborative brew using maple syrup from the Calagione farm (DFH) and barley from the Grossman farm (SN). Disregarding the potential quality of the ingredients, the innovative natures of the brewers promises something worth trying. And, I must say, the beer did turn out quite tasty.

This beer pours a very dark brown, with a dense caramel head. The aroma is quite rich – notes of maple, caramel, and dark cherry do it for me. In the mouth, it stays true to form. At British room temperature, the beer exhibits tremendous richness – full of caramel and dark malt. The maple flavors really take hold around the back of the tongue, as does some flavor of sweet cream – very dessert-like and delicious. It isn’t as viscous as a stout. Rather, it comes across as a rich brown ale with big flavors and some yeastiness that isn’t in your face, but may borrow a bit from their Belgian brethren.

And, that’s about it. Frankly, it seems a short paragraph to write about a beer with such big flavors and some considerable hype. However, I have to wonder – at what point do we experience everything under the sun? This is delicious, sure. But, to be fair, I feel like I’ve tasted it a dozen times before. Don’t get me wrong, this beer is sophisticated and well-crafted and delicious, but it is *not* so different that I haven’t tasted all of these flavors before. And, in that respect, it’s a disappointment. But, I guess we were bound to get here. When dealing with a beverage that stipulates little more than 4 ingredients, the flavors are bound to run out. Leads me to wonder what keeps wine drinkers to interested? At any rate, I’m curious who out there is doing really innovative things and making them work? The further the ‘craft brew revolution’ goes, the weirder we gotta get to stay innovative. And, eventually, the beer is going to start to taste like shit. It’s inevitable. You can only get so weird. However, I’ll bet there are still some breweries pushing envelopes out there.

I’ll tell you the brewery that’s making the most innovative-yet-delicious beers that I’ve had in a while – Furthermore Brewery. Those guys make a coffee lager that’s amazing, and their cracked pepper pale ale is nothing to sneeze at – both fairly low abv beers with medium flavor profiles. I feel like the breweries to push us to the next level will be breweries that understand how to integrate flavors while practicing restraint – something that is, for better or worse, lacking in the current scene.

All I’m saying is that, while I *love* the craft beer culture in the US right now, I’m beginning to get bored with Imperial versions of the same old beers…

Narragansett beer is now available in North Carolina. So pick up a six-pack of Tall Boys at your local grocery store and pretend to go out shark hunting!  (Quint is a character in Jaws… I’ll let you guess which one.)

Also along those lines (of beer releases, not shark hunting), Narragansett Porter has recently hit shelves.  I should review the beer, but the less people know how good it is, means more for me! (Lew gives a good summary of the beer with “Wow!“)

Which brings us to (everything is just flowing together so nicely) another point of, will I actually post something of substance (i.e. a beer review)? Hopefully soon, but unfortunately raising an 18-month old is a bit of a time commitment (Who knew?).  Speaking of which, the little guy is up from his nap, so I’m off!

Listen. I know it’s been a long time since I rapped at ya’, and seeing as it’s been a solid 2 months since the last SevenPack post at all, I figure we’re a little overdue. So, I come at you know with a special Pacific Northwest posting of a brew that we’re nowhere close to getting on the East Coast. Tonight, I find myself in Seattle and, after being disappointed by the taps at some local restaurants, I decided to sidle into the local Safeway to see what they had in stock. As luck would have it, they had a number of brews that tempted my tummy, from a Fresh Hop Deschutes to an Elysian IPA to this little gem from a brewery I’ve never heard of. Long story short, I have one more night in town, so I had to settle for a single beer, and something called “Tricerahops” is bound to win. So here I am.

The Tricerahops hails from Eugene, Oregon which is, by all accounts, good hop territory. It pours a great deep amber color that is, while apparently not heavily filtered, not altogether too cloudy either. The aroma of the beer is absolutely fabulous – there is a lot of floral Northwestern hop here, but also a great bready sweetness. It’s the kind of beer that makes you want to hold your glass to your nose like a Halloween mask. The taste here is also excellent. Early on the tongue, there is a substantial hop burn – this is full of west coast fresh hops. The sting on the tongue is quickly mitigated by that malt backbone and some buttery flavors, killing the burn and mellowing out the hops while bring a strong sweetbread flavor through the mouth. The mouthfeel of the beer is thick and decadent, coating the mouth with sweet malts and fresh hops, and just a hint of citrusy grapefruit. In the end, the beer finishes with another pretty sharp hop blast that kicks back through the mouth. That sharpness sticks with you for several seconds, but eventually the malty sweetness reigns the aftertaste. Frankly, it’s one of the longer aftertastes I’ve tasted in a beer in a while, leaving a lot of flavor more than a minute after my last sip.

I don’t know much about Ninkasi, and this is their first brew I’ve tasted, but *man* am I impressed. I’m very excited to taste more from these guys, but sad that I don’t know when I’ll have the chance! See you tomorrow, North Carolina…

A bit of good news to report on a recent blog post of mine regarding the “Farmer-Brewery” license in MA. After a group of MA craft brewers sat down with State Treasurer Steven Grossman, Mr. Grossman announced, on August 8th, that the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission (ABCC) would be reversing the rule change dealing with “Farmer-Brewery” licensing and will schedule a series of public hearings for comments on the current system of licensing. That is certainly good news, especially since the ruling would have had a dramatic economic impact on current state breweries. Prior to Mr. Grossman’s announcement, legislation was filed by State Senator Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth), on August 4th, that dealt with the ABCC’s “Farmer-Brewery” ruling by creating a new craft brewer license. I am unsure where this legislation now stands, due to the ABCC’s reversal, but the press release announcing the legislation ended with a nice quote.

Craft brewers already must deal with many disadvantages, from our archaic regulatory structure to the outdated 3 tiered distribution rules to competition from international conglomerate brewers. We should be creating incentives to promote this industry not hamstring it,” said Senator Hedlund.

Amen.

Given that today is IPADay, I thought I would write a post I’ve meant to write for some time. A while back Alan wrote a post titled “Mr Gillman On APA, SN PA, Liberty, Ballentines And Stuff“. Having just read about Ballantine IPA in Amber Gold & Black: The History of Britain’s Great Beers, I was curious to read if the post had any more nuggets of Ballantine information.

Boy did it! The post references a forum discussion on how to make a recreation of Ballantine IPA. The recreation utilizes two currently (albeit seasonal) brewed Sierra Nevada beers, Celebration Ale and Bigfoot Barleywine, in a “Half and Half” mixture.

Unfortunately I have neither beer in my beer stash, so I will have to wait, anxiously, for this year’s seasonal release of both beers. I look forward to trying the mix out and reporting back with my thoughts.

Happy IPADay everyone.

PS  A good, quick read about IPA myths by Martyn Cornell.

Well this certainly is disconcerting news to read. It seems as though the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (the commission of patronage) is taking a firmer stance on “Farmer-Brewery” licenses that will surely put a damper on the recently burgeoning local craft beer industry of Massachusetts.

Though there is another style of brewing license available called “Manufacturer of Wine and Malt Beverages License”, this license does not allow for breweries to self-distribute or do on site brewery tastings (two major pluses for small craft breweries). If a brewery does want to self-distribute they need a second license called a “Wholesaler’s license”. As for on site tasting, I’m not sure there is another license that covers that. Granted this recent firmer stance by the Commission is a great win for distributors in the state, since the new breweries will need to go through said distributors if the breweries can not pony up the cash ($5000) for a wholesaler’s license (the distributors probably had nothing to do with this recent firmer stance). Unfortunately as it stands it looks like the law will need to be updated for either a reinterpretation of “Farmer-Brewery” or a new license devised for self-distribution and tasting, with distributors fighting tooth and nail against (as they have before when dealing with distribution law changes).

The thing is (and this may shock some people, because Massauchesetts is located in the grain belt*), and as a post on Brewbound points out, Massachusetts does not even come close to producing enough malting barley for brewers to meet the “Farmer-Brewery” requirement. I guess if all the local farmers replaced their fresh grown edible produce with malting barley and hops, this might all just work out however. Then again that seems like a rather strange priority to have.

*No it isn’t.

So, I’m not going to spend a ton of time reviewing this beer from Odell, because I think my past reviews will indicate how I feel about this. I’ve never had a bad beer from the folks at Odell, I think their label art is swell, and I reach for IPAs about 75% of the time. Therefore, it stands to reason that I’m going to like this. A lot.

And I do. Frankly, I’m surprised by the pour, as it is much lighter than expected, coming out looking more like a pale ale or a lager than a full-bodied IPA. It is really quite clear, but I’d wager unfiltered – just a hint of cloudiness presents itself. The head is stark white, fluffing up quickly but then dying down to a thin ring around the glass. A substantial effervescence remains, with tiny bubbles rising to the top of the glass throughout the session. The aroma here is full of fresh hop – very flowery with a substantial citrus hint. In the mouth, this is an IPA by the book, and one of the better IPAs I can recall having. There is a ton of sticky fresh hop flavor with a bit of pineapple citrus throughout the mouth. I wouldn’t call this very complicated – it presents it’s flavor at the front of the mouth, and that flavor remains all the way through to the aftertaste. Perhaps the citrus flares up a bit in the middle of the tongue, relaxing into more of a hop aftertaste.

All in all, I’d rank this up there with the old standards of IPA-dom, like a Dogfish Head 60-minute or a Bell’s Two Hearted. It’s an incredibly tasty beer, mildly sessionable, and impressive value for the cost. Odell’s remains one of my favorite breweries…

One month later, and another special batch from the folks at Rush River. This one is their Uber Alt – a large take on the German Altbier, a typically rich malty concoction.

This brew pours a very dark golden – just slightly cloudy with great effervescence and a creamy dense head that just won’t stop. The aroma of this is just fabulous. It lives up to the style with rich baked bread aromas with an extra slight dose of sweetness reminiscent of cotton candy. In the mouth, this doesn’t disappoint. The initial flavor is quite sweet. In fact, it gives me a light sensation of SweetTarts. However, this is quickly mellowed out by rich sweetbreads and hints of maple syrup. The flavors are undoubtedly rich and decadent. However, the texture of the beer maintains a fairly viscous texture and flows through the mouth quite easy. The flavor tends to stick on the tongue, but the beer comes off quite crisp and clean.

Frankly, I couldn’t be more impressed with this stuff. It’s such an interesting combination of candy sweetness and rich maltiness, and such an unexpectedly smooth and clean mouthfeel, that it’s really unlike anything I’ve tasted. However, it’s not *weird*, like so many ‘different’ beers can be these days (a good thing in its own way). What Rush River has done here is to incorporate flavors we know in a unique fashion, providing a beer that is both familiar and new, and very tasty.

All in all, I think this is a fabulous beer and a great value in a 6-pack. For sure, you’ll want to watch yourself, as this rings in at a deceptively strong 8.5% abv. However, I highly recommend picking up a batch.

Here is yet another brewery that I was not familiar with until spending some excessive time in the town of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I see quite a bit of Rush River around these parts, but I decided to take on the IIPA for my first dive into their catalog. This IIPA stands to be a bit more interesting (and boozy) as it is brewed with honey.

The pour of this is a surprisingly light golden color. Not quite cloudy, but not crystal clear, either – I’m guessing it is partially filtered. The head here is substantial but course, flaring up and then diminishing rather quickly. In the nose, I’m sensing an oddly nutty aroma. There is certainly a light sweetness from the honey and substantial hops, but the overall scent is more earthy than expected. In the mouth, as well, this beer is different than I had planned. Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty tasty; but it isn’t what I expected. The initial flavor offers hints of ginseng – lightly earthy – before merging into flavors of bitter hops. The hops here aren’t entirely floral, tending more towards an English metallic hop style. Later in the mouth, I begin to sense the honey to a greater extent, almost as the beer is going down the throat. There is a sharp moment of sweetness before the honey diminishes into the background. In the aftertaste, I sense mainly metallic hop flavors. All in all, it is an interesting beer, but nothing I’d write home about. That being said, I’ve been hearing great things about Rush River from the locals, so I’ll likely try out some of their other brews.

This is the first beer I’ve had from Furthermore. I’ve in fact never heard of them at all, but I do like their labeling and good taste in styles. This, the Fatty Boombalatty, is basically an Imperial Belgian White. Being a huge fan of the classic white, Hoegaarden, I am quite excited to try this.

The pour of the FB is a cloudy deep golden full of effervescence, kicking up a pillowy white head that still maintains a thick cake on the top of the beer 5 minutes after being poured. In the nose, this has all the trademark aromas of a witbier in spades – lots of malt with a strong yeasty scent and light citrus notes. The flavor of this also leaves little to be desired. If you’ve had Hoegaarden, then you’ll recognize the general flavor here – but this is turned up to 11. Belian yeast takes center stage, providing lots of sweetness and some bubblegum flavor. On through the mouth we get some spiciness redolent of citrus and coriander. Down the throat, the coriander spice sticks around the middle of the mouth while that bubblegum flavor shoots up the nasal cavity, leaving a lingering sweet essence. Frankly, I couldn’t like this beer much more. It has the trademark flavors of a good summer beer, but it is rich and bold enough to nearly be a dessert beer. Refreshing and decadent in equal measures. It is probably good that this is as rich as it is because, at 7.2% ABV, you wouldn’t want to session too many of these. Overall, a fantastic beer, and I’m looking forward to trying more from Furthermore…

photo credit: walknboston

With Ben reviewing some canned craft beer, I thought I would hop aboard with a review of a canned beer I have recently been enjoying, Bitter American by 21st Amendment.

Poured into a pint glass, the beer’s aroma of floral, with a tweak of lemon, hop, and slightly sweetened malt emanates from the off-white head. This head sits atop a body that is crystal clear, amber-copper in color, and interspersed with meandering bubbles of carbonation. The beer’s display is aromatically and visually enticing.

In the mouth the beer is rather light on the tongue with some carbonation “roughness” to make it slightly interesting. Without the carbonation, the beer would probably have a rather watery mouthfeel. The hops take the more central role in taste. The floral characteristic noted in the aroma is more earthy mid-mouth, though the lemon note is still there, if not subdued. The hops don’t steal the show though, because the malt arrives with a character of bread drizzled lightly with caramel (its dessert bread). The beer finishes dry and bitter with a taste that is minty and fruity. As the beer warms the midmouth hop character starts displaying a pine note. The challenge to this pine note is actually letting the beer warm up enough to reach it.

This is a wonderful beer (and the can’s label is a definite bonus), and I have been thoroughly enjoying it for the last few weeks. The only downside to the beer is the fact it is a “seasonal”. A flavorful, sessionable (the beer is 4.4% abv) beer found in a can is something the American beer market needs more of, so hopefully this beer becomes a year round offering sooner rather than later.