Archive for March, 2008
Bischoff Doppel Bock
This is the fourth offering from this month’s BOMC shipment. I’m glad to see we are transitioning from the darker beers of winter to the light varietals of spring and summer. This means we are one step closer to me playing bocce’ on the beach with a beer in hand while basking in the sun! I agree with all that Ben has written about the other beers in this shipment. This was a quality bunch, let’s hope the dopple bock rounds out a great selection.
This beer pours a clear, goldenish, copper with significant head. It has a sweet, metallic aroma reminiscent of grape juice and licorice. The taste isn’t quite as appealing. Grape/dark fruit flavors are apparent but they are accompanied by a mustiness that overcomes the tastebuds at the back of the mouth. This strange juxtaposition thickens and the flavor rises to the top of the palate before dissipating and leaving behind a bitter aftertaste. I’m sorry to say this may be one of the few BOMC selections of which I am not too fond. The flavor combination seems to be quite abrasive and dissatisfying. I guess I was looking for a refreshing brew and was privy to the exact opposite…not cool.
Happy Belated St. Patrick’s Day
Lake Placid “Ubu” Ale
Third up this month from the folks at the Beer of the Month Club is an ale from Lake Placid craft brewery. While I have heard of this brewery, I’ve never come before one of their beers before, so I’m rather excited to try it. Frankly, I don’t even know the reputation of these guys, but they seem like a fun operation. They named this beer after a dog, and the label art involves a lawn chair sitting in front of a lovely mountain scene – seems like my kinda brew.
The Ubu pours what is, I think, an exceptionally lovely hue. It’s a dark brown that is only mildly translucent and shows hints of ruby where the light hits it. There is, at first, a lighty caramel head, but that slowly disappears, leaving nothing at all. The aroma of this ale is complex and rich. There is a ton of caramel here with some hints of nut and dark malt – quite decadent, indeed. In the mouth, this is surely the gem of this month’s shipment. The beer starts light and flitting on the tip of the tongue with just the lightest candy sweetness. This continues down the tongue, making the beer seem deceptively crisp and light. However, towards the back of the tongue, a pronounced richness rears its head – the flavor is rich with caramel, some horehound bitterness, and a lot of nut. These rich flavors stick around and last well into several seconds through the aftertaste. The mouthfeel during this entire endeavor is fairly uniform and light throughout the mouth. Frankly, this beer surprises me. It has lots of character and a unique trip through the mouth. I would highly recommend this to most any beer drinker – there’s lots to like here.
Bischoff “Falkensteiner” Ur-Weisse
Second up in this month’s batch from the Beer of the Month Club is an Ur-Weisse from Germany that I’ve not yet seen or tried. It’s no secret that I’m a giant fan of the Bavarian wheat varieties – they’re one of my consistent favorites – so I’m mighty excited to give this bad boy a try.
The Bischoff pours a typical hazy mellow gold (note the Beck reference) with a very thin white head that quickly dissipates, but sticks moderately to the sides of the glass. The aroma of this beer is pretty typical Bavarian wheat, with the exception of an interesting sourish paper pulp aroma. I know that this might sound a bit odd, and it is. There are all the trappings I’m accustomed to – a soft sweet wheaty aroma, a light bit of citrus, some mild banana hints. And then there’s this sour papery aroma that kinda kicks it in the teeth – frankly, not too pleasant, but passable. The flavor of this beer is better than the aroma but, frankly, is a bit of a disappointment. The mouthfeel of this is thicker and sticker than most wheat beers, which isn’t a bad thing. There is a good bit of sugar sweetness, a bit of lemon, very little of the banana we sometimes sense. But, then, here we go again, there is this sort of sour flavor at the back of the mouth that tastes like something gone bad. And, frankly, I think this might be the case. The negative flavor here simply doesn’t taste like something that the brewery intended, so I think that I may have gotten a bad batch. So, for that reason, I’m not going to diss this beer – there are a ton of good flavors here that would make for a delicious treat were it not for the intrusive negative flavors. I’ll say that this bottle is a bit of a disappointment, but I have a feeling this might actually be a pretty good beer.
Beer of the Month Club
Flying Dog Wild Dog Collaborator Dopplebock
I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from the SevenPack scene, but now Dave is making me look bad so it’s time to do some work. I should point out I didn’t stop enjoying the best brews this area has to offer, just stopped putting my thoughts on paper. Like Ben said we just returned from the great state of Texas so look for our commentary soon. Until then know this; Texas, on a whole, knows nothing about good beer…
Tonight I bring you my thoughts on the Collaborator Dopplebock from the Wild Dog series. Flying Dog’s Open Source Project allows the general public, well homebrews/beer lovers, to offer suggestions on how to improve a particular recipe. I think they should have commercials with Ryan Seacrest giving a list of optional ingredients: “Text page 55501 of you want Saaz hops or 55502 if you want Hallertau hops. Remember America, you only have 2 hours to vote. Results will be revealed LIVE! on Thursday.” I don’t know if he would do it but it’s worth a shot because there is no one that exudes a beer-lovers persona more than Seacrest…OUT!
So this beer pours with a hazy, copper hue and thin off-white head. It smells sweet and “yeasty”, imagine your grandmother’s homemade bread. There is also a bitter dark fruit aroma that cuts the sweetness. The taste is viscous at the outset, then thins at the back of the throat. The dark fruit flavors tickle the front of the tongue then give way to a yeasty, malt-like finish. It’s not exactly a sweetbread flavor, more of a sourdough? (yes the ? is supposed to be there). It has a bite that I can’t quite put my finger on, but whatever it is that is causing it makes this beer taste very big. I’ve had a few of the Wild Dog offerings and while this one doesn’t seem to be as complex, it has it’s little intricacies. For a beer that was intended, at first, to be a simple dopplebock it sure has a lot to offer the palate. I’m not sure how this whole open source thing works or to what extent the publics’ input is considered, but if Flying Dog keeps making beers like this I honestly don’t care, I say keep keepin’ on.
New Belgium “Blue Paddle” Pilsner
Hey everybody – I know it’s been a long time since we rapped at ya’, and I apologize for that. Matty and I took a trip down to Texas for the SXSW music festival and to try and wrangle up a few new beers. While the beers didn’t flow so well down in Texas (at least the good ones didn’t), we’ll hopefully get around to writing about our experiences and the 2 real beer havens we found while down there. In the meanwhile, I’m going to get the ball rolling with this quick review of a New Belgium offering that I found in San Antonio.
The Blue Paddle pours a rather pretty soft golden color with a hefty bit of dense suspended debris. There is a paper-white head that starts thick but quickly dissipates into a paper-thin layer over the beer. The aroma of the Blue Paddle is really quite nice. Frankly, this isn’t quite as crisp or hoppy as some more traditional Pilsners. Rather, there is a heavy dose of rich malt that smells lightly sweet and very delicious. In the mouth, as I’ve come to expect from New Belgium, this is mighty tasty. It starts sharp and hoppy on the tip of the tongue, and that hoppiness sticks with us for the duration of the beer. However, around the middle of the mouth that biscuity malt flavor rears its head. This malt is much sweeter and richer than the malts I normally find in Eastern European Pilsners. Furthermore, there is a bigger mouthfeel than I am accustomed to in this variety. Basically, the flavor here is a three stage process: 1) hoppy bite, 2) malty rich, 3) a combination of 1 + 2. So, it’s a good beer. It lays its foundations and then builds them together to end with a fairly complicated flavor that sticks in the aftertaste. I will say that, if you prefer a crisp refreshing Pilsner, this isn’t your beer. However, if you’re in the market for something that carries Pilsner characteristics, but then also delivers with something a bit richer and more complex, then you’re going to like the Blue Paddle.
Narraganset Lager Beer
This is a beer that should have been reviewed during Beer Can Week here at sevenpack, but unfortunately the review did not happen. Narraganset is considered one of those “American retro-beers”. It dates all the way back to 1888 and has had its ups (at one time is was the number one selling beer in New England) and downs (closing of the brewery and changing hands numerous times) since then. Currently it is owned by local New England investors and is contracted brewed by High Falls Brewing Company (though there is the possibility of opening up their own brewery in late 2008). If you want to learn more about the company, definitely check out their webpage, because their history is quite interesting (or at least I found it so). Enough with the history however, lets review this beer.
Poured into a pint glass all the characteristics of a retro-beer were present. A finger of white head, which slowly dissipated into a thin, fragmented covering, and a clear, golden-yellow body. The aroma was a mouth watering spicy hop, cereal grain combination. Not overly strong, but present. The mouth feel was light, as to be expected, but there was some nice bubble action on the tongue. The cereal grain made its presence known but was clean and on the light side. Along with the grain there was a slight hint of corn to the whole flavoring. The finish had a slight bitterness to it, but, similar to the cereal grain taste, was on the light side. The beer left little after taste.
I find this to be a very enjoyable beer. Will it knock your socks off? Most likely not. Will it give you a good, enjoyable beer taste? I believe so. Given the price point of the beer ($10 for a 12 pack of cans), you could do much worse (I’m thinking of the macro brews that either do not taste like anything or taste like liquefied corn niblets). Also, drink it from the can (I only poured it into a pint glass for review purposes, typically I drink it from the can), because honestly, it feels good to drink it that way (and you can pretend to be Quint from Jaws). Overall, if my neighbor offered me this beer, I’d answer that call.
2008 Brewers Association Beer Style Guidelines
New Holland “Sundog” Amber Ale
I tell you what, New Holland is just flowing like wine down here in NC these days. First, we saw the Mad Hatter and the Poet come to town, and now we’ve got a solid 3-5 more varieties on store shelves. Personally, I’m very pleased. These guys make some seriously good brews and they’re helping to make NC even more of a beer mecca by shipping their wares over to us. Now, if they can just convince their figurative neighbors, New Belgium, to start distributing down here, we’ll have the whole shebang!
The Sundog pours a normal amber color with a light off-white head – frankly, doesn’t look like anything special, but looks good. I’ve got some serious allergies going on right now and can’t really smell a thing, but I’m sensing a good bit of malt and some light caramel in the aroma of this brew. In the mouth, despite my allergies, this beer tastes delicious. It is both rich and light – very well balanced. Towards the tip of the tongue, there is plenty of subdued caramel sweetness. This sweetness gathers a bit of toffee flavor and some light sweetbread. Then, a little hop blast hits the middle of the mouth, providing just enough bite to enliven the tastebuds a bit. On through the mouth, it’s a tasty melange of the aforementioned flavors, ending with a bit of hop that creeps up around the roof of the mouth and a tasty candy sweetness at the back of the throat that lasts for some time. The mouthfeel throughout the mouth is fairly light and airy, and the beer finishes quite clean. Altogether, this is one of the best amber ales I’ve had in ages and will definitely come up big on my list of the best American amber ales I’ve had, period. Very well done, New Holland – I’m going to go out and grab another sixer of this ASAP.
Woodstock Inn Brewery Pemi Pale Ale
Whether traveling near or far I always try to sample some of the local craft beers. This past weekend I only traveled to New Hampshire but I still tried to get my craft beer sampling. New Hampshire actually has a good array of local craft breweries, including one of the Red Hook breweries, and I hope to sample their offerings in later posts. For this review however, I settled on Woodstock Inn’s Pemi Pale Ale. The interesting thing about the Woodstock Inn brewery is the fact it is an actual Inn, and they offer packaged “brewer weekend” accommodation’s, when you can learn and help in the brewing process. I found this interesting, so I decided to pick up one of their six packs.
The beer poured a wonderfully clear copper color, with a finger of slightly off white head. Whaffing from the beer’s head was a pleasant fruity hop aroma. It was difficult for me to separate out individual fruit flavors, but hints of grapefruit were definitely present. Mixing in my nostrils with this fruit aroma were also smells of pleasant floral hops and sweet dough.
The beer in the mouth had a bit of a carbonation burn at the tip of the tongue to start things off. This mellowed out towards the middle of the mouth with the fruity hop and sweet characteristics of the beer being showcased. This sweetness leaned toward a caramel taste with some bread overtones. As the beer ended its tour of the mouth it finished clean, but with a hit of bitterness. This bitter hit seemed slightly out of place for the beer due to the other more delicate features of the brew. This bitterness characteristic also had some lasting power, compared to the rest of the beer’s characteristics, remaining between swallows.
I wish the bitterness of the beer was tweaked a little bit to be less of a presence and mix better with the more delicate flavors of the beer. However, this was an enjoyable beverage and served as a welcome reward for a day of winter hiking and shoveling snow.
Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron
I hate to sound like a Dogfish Head roadie, but I’ve been following these guys for about 4 years now (that’s a while when you consider the progress of the American craft brew scene), and it’s interesting to follow their progress. Back in the day when I was first getting into Dogfish Head, the proposition of an Imperial IPA was a pretty big deal, and it’s all you needed to do to be considered an ‘extreme’ brewer. But, frankly, times have changed. IIPAs are a dime-a-dozen now. Even though Dogfish Head does still make one of the best of that particular genre, they seem to realize that it is imperative to continue to push the limits to maintain the ‘extreme’ label. So, here they go pushing it again with the Palo Santo Marron, which appears to be an Imperial Brown Ale aged in Paraguayan wood. Some of you are going to say, “Gees, when does it end!? Can we just get back to making good beer?” I understand where you’re coming from. Seriously, some of these brewing practices are getting out of hand. But, at the end of the day, it’s about the beer, right? If someone can brew a delicious beer utilizing some bizarre brewing idea that they pulled out of their a** while taking a shower last week, I’ll drink it! Some bizarre ideas have made for some excellent creations, I think you’ll agree. So, anyway, I’m pretty excited about any new DFH brew, and this is no exception.
Palo Santo is aged in the furthest tank.
