May 12, 2009

New Glarus Hop Hearty IPA

Posted by amm002 under Rating: B Plus | Tags: |
[9] Comments 

DSC02098Local beer #2 in my celebration of American Craft Beer Week. And when I say local, I’m talking regionally brewed.

New Glarus is a fantastic little brewery out in, well, New Glarus, Wisconsin, and most of their beers get a lot of rating respect on sites like Beer Advocate and RateBeer. I’ve had several of their offerings, including Spotted Cow, Unplugged Iced Barleywine, and Edel Pils. And their Hop Hearty IPA is right in line with the rest, very well-crafted and exceedingly delicious. 

Aroma is filled with a boat load of piney hops — possibly Simcoe, Warrior and Amarillo — with a very pleasing caramel backdrop from the malt. They also dry hop with Cascade and East Kent Goldings, kicking up the hoppy nose. Beautiful deep amber coloring, and a big fluffy head that leaves sticky webs of hop resin and lacing on the glass. The taste is very nice, a blend of caramel and some citrus. A formidable bitterness after the caramel fades, but not overpowering, giving way to small hints of alcohol heat in the finish from the 6% ABV. 

My overall impression is that this is a very nice, balanced beer. Not one of the masterpieces in the IPA world, like Russian River’s Pliny the Elder or even Dogfish Head 60 Minute. But Hop Hearty definitely holds its own, and really reminded me of Oskar Blues Gordon, an ultra-hoppy IPA brimming over with aromatic hops and bready malt.

Rating: B+

 

April 27, 2009

Dark Lord Weekend 2009 – Part One

Posted by amm002 under Beer Events | Tags: , , , , |
[3] Comments 

dsc02021I woke up Friday morning and could barely bring myself to get out of bed.

The previous day, I’d spent a total of 20 straight hours traveling/working for a one-day business trip to Toronto, spending the majority of that time sitting in various airport terminals, running at breakneck speeds to make connecting flights, or slowly working my way through customs. I’d gotten home about midnight from Minneapolis/St. Paul International, and had slept for seven or eight hours, but I still felt completely exhausted. After sitting in uncomfortable airplane seats all day, my back ached like someone had dropped a 16 pound bowling ball on my lower vertebrae. And to add to the malaise, the severe head cold I’d been dealing with the previous two weeks was still maintaining dominance over my general well-being.

In short, I felt like a can of smashed assholes.

I laid there staring at my bedroom ceiling, wiping the cloud of sleep from my eyes, and wondering how in the hell I was going to summon the energy to move on. And then it hit me. One simple motivating image crept back into my mind…a review that I had read on Beer Advocate:

“The taste of Dark Lord is hard to explain. Imagine you’re walking down the street and someone just shoved a sandwich in your mouth. You’d be shocked, and I still am every time I drink it. Sorry I can’t go any further than that…just get some.”

I sat bolt upright, leaping out of my bed like Jarron Gilbert out of a pool, because this was no ordinary day folks. No illness or sore back was going to stand in my way. I was about to embark on what very possibly would become the greatest beer adventure of my life…the legendary Dark Lord Day, held at Three Floyds Brewery in beautiful Munster, Indiana.

I packed up the car and picked up my brother-in-law about 10:30, a trunk filled with various Surly stuff for trades (Furious, Bitter Brewer, Coffee Bender), and a couple growlers of Town Hall Masala Mama. I figured folks down at DLD would be clamoring for what were for most a couple very difficult breweries to come by, and I’d hopefully get some great stuff in return.

dsc019861We drove about four hours to the outskirts of Madison, making our first stop of the weekend at Tyranena Brewing in Lake Mills where we met my good buddy Stu at Friday Night Beer. Jessie Nimm, beer evangelist for the brewery, greeted us in the lobby and was kind enough to show us around the place. We grabbed a pint for the tour, trying their Benji’s Chipotle Smoked Imperial Porter, which was an incredibly well-crafted beer. I’m usually not a big chipotle beer guy, but this one really stood out for me. Beautifully balanced chocolate notes mixed with pepper and bitter smoke. Fantastic. 

We checked out their brewhouse operations, which were pretty impressive. A number of fermentors, each lovingly named after a friend or family member of head brewer Rob Larson. Most interesting for me was taking a peek in their cooler room where they kept their store of hops and aging beers in bourbon barrels, including Rocky’s Revenge. Along the way, we had the fortune of also meeting Nevin McCown, assistant brewmaster for Tyranena who was extraordinarily gracious in sharing his knowledge and perspectives on craft beer and Tyranena’s brewing process. Really smart, thoughtful guy who knew his stuff. 

dsc01988We ended up hanging with Nevin for a while in Tyranena’s tasting room, enjoying their just-tapped Scurvy IPA, a very unique beer brewed with orange zest, giving it a very nice citrus quality in the nose and a bitterness that explodes off the tongue. Nevin talked about his experiences as a homebrewer and how he parlayed that into a career in commercial brewing, which evolved into conversations about hot side aeration, beer distribution in the United States, and hop growing techniques. Coincidentally, I’d brought along some of my own homebrew to share with friends in Chicago (including my dubbel, port barrel-aged Belgian brown ale and smoked porter) and offered some to Nevin who agreed to sample a few. He provided some very nice and insightful comments which I found incredibly useful.

After a very nice experience at Tyranena, we continued our journey south to the west side of Chicago, home to Two Brothers Brewing in Warrenville. To say Two Brothers is a little tough to find would be an understatement, as we drove through every street in the area looking for the place. My college friend from Chicago who we were staying with for the weekend was already at the brewery, so he helped us navigate to what was a non-descript industrial park where Two Brothers was located, not a sign on the place. Kind of odd, especially if they’re interested in people actually patronizing their establishment.

But any misgivings we had about the location were quickly erased as we walked into a very nice brewpub with loads of people enjoying quality craft beer. In fact, a local Beer Judge Certification class was being held in the back corner, surely the mark of a well-regarded local brewery. My brother-in-law and I grabbed a burger and a snifter of their Northwind Imperial Stout, a very nice beer loaded with malty sweetness and a nice, smooth finish. My other friend sampled their Domaine Du Page biere de garde at my suggestion, which he found very nice and refreshing on draught.

With many miles and many craft beers under our belt, we headed back to my friend’s house to get some rest for what was sure to be an eventful Dark Lord Day…

Read on Dark Lord Day part two…

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April 9, 2009

Sausage Party

Posted by amm002 under Rating: A, Rating: B | Tags: , , , , |
[7] Comments 

If you haven’t been over to Kramarczuk’s in Northeast Minneapolis, I recommend you go as quickly as you can.

It’s a fantastic little neighborhood sausage maker, bakery and restaurant all wrapped into one. They’ve been making some of the best sausages this side of the Mississippi since 1954, and have truly made a name for themselves as a Minneapolis landmark. This last weekend, several of us got together for a little spring cook-out, and my friend tossed Kramarczuk’s andouille and curried brats on the grill. It was seriously some of the best stuff I’ve ever had. And paired with two incredible IPA’s and a nice imperial stout,  you couldn’t really ask for a better evening. Here’s the rundown on the beers:

dsc01886

Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel

This is a fantastic and unique blend of a Belgian IPA/Tripel from Brasserie d’Achouffe. Pours with a big yeasty head, with all kinds of champagne-like carbonation escaping from the beautiful lemonade colored beer below. The hops are certainly there in the nose, but the yeast also plays a nice role, kind of like each knows their place in the symphony. Some apple and pear notes come through as well.

Taste is magnificent. Unlike the nose, which trends more to the IPA side, you get more of the sweet malty tripel effect combined with some of the yeast and alcohol. A spicy finish that keeps you coming back for more. Really one of the more complex and well-balanced beers I’ve had in a long time. I’m hoping Alvey at the Four Firkins still has some of this in stock.   

Rating: A 

dsc01883Southern Tier Oak-Aged Unearthly Imperial IPA

As if Houblon Chouffe didn’t impress me, along comes Southern Tier with its enormously complex Oak-Aged Unearthly Imperial IPA.

My wine conoisseur friend, who has one of the more finely tuned palates I know of, couldn’t get over how well the oakiness came through like a fine wine. Not too much, but perfectly balanced with the combination of piney hops and caramel malt.

Pours with a great amber coloring, not a big head but you still get a great nose of the oak and hops. Taste is extraordinary, just so much going on. At once you get the big malt backbone, some caramel, maybe a little vanilla. Then the oak coats your mouth as the bittering hops come back in full force. Very thick and dense mouthfeel, something you just want to savor for hours.

Rating: A 

dsc01897Boulevard Smokestack Series Imperial Stout

One of Boulevard’s offerings in their Smokestack Series, and I’d have to say probably not my favorite of the bunch.

Pours with a jet black coloring, not much head, but a chocolately aroma mixed with possibly some licorice or molasses. A smoky quality in the taste, which I didn’t pick up in the nose. The sweet malt balances the bittering hops, but you do get a somewhat dry finish. Mouthfeel was a little thin, considering the style. But a decent imperial stout, nonetheless. I’d like to try it on its own sometime, instead of following a couple other big beers.

Rating: B

 

April 1, 2009

Tyranena Bitter Woman IPA

Posted by amm002 under Rating: B | Tags: |
[6] Comments 

dsc01766

I know you can get this in the Twin Cities, but I think I picked up Tyranena’s Bitter Woman IPA at Chicone’s in Hudson a while back.

I’ve had this on draught and from the bottle, and I think I like it a little better on draught, which is probably the case for many beers (and IPA’s in particular) that I’ve tried.

Poured with a huge fluffy head into my trusty Sam Adams Perfect Pint glass that, according to Boston Brewing Co., has been specifically engineered to unleash the full aroma and flavor potential of a beer (most notably Sam Adams Boston Lager, of course). Seems like a bit of a stretch, considering this beer glass is supposed to do everything from better maintain beer temperature, promote head retention, improve carbonation thanks to laser etchings on the bottom of the glass, and of course cure cancer and end conflict in the Middle East. But whatever, hats off to them for trying something new.  

Bitter Woman is very reminiscent in the nose to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale…clean and Cascade hoppy. Alot of the usual citrus and grapefruit-y aroma going on. Not sure when it was bottled, but the hops weren’t as aggressive as I remembered them being from a fresh keg, but that’s what happens as the hop resins subside over time. The color is nice, a rich copper tone that you don’t often see in some IPA’s.

Taste is good, but not as bitter as the name might suggest. I’d say definitely on the malty side of the IPA spectrum with more dominant flavors of caramel and toffee coming through. Very nice and refreshing mouthfeel thanks to the loads of bubbles in this one. It’s only 5.75% ABV, so definitely an offering you could hang out with for quite a while without needing to call in sick to work the next day.    

Rating: B

 

March 22, 2009

FirkinFest Recap on Heavy Table

Posted by amm002 under Beer Events | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
[3] Comments 

dsc017121Had a great time at yesterday’s FirkinFest at the Happy Gnome. Lots and lots of great beers, and very good conversations with some of the local brewers and other craft beer lovers.

I did a short write-up on the event for Heavy Table, which was a lot of fun to do and a nice way to spend a beautiful Spring afternoon.

In no particular order, here’s the full list of the beers I tried that may not have made it into the article:

  • Steamworks Oak-Aged Conductor IPA – nice and oaky, well-done
  • Dark Horse Plead the 5th Russian Imperial Stout – solid chocolate notes, nice finish
  • Surly Bitter Brewer – haven’t had this one before, and really enjoyed it, nicely balanced biscuit flavoring
  • Tyranena Dirty Old Man Imperial Rye Porter – excellent, one of the better beers I had all day
  • Lift Bridge Kimono Girl Saison – very enjoyable, nice and citrusy
  • Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree IPA – a hop blast
  • Brau Brothers Sheap’s Head Imperial Lucan Ale – very nice hop character, could be the best offering I’ve had from them
  • Bell’s Hop Slam – it’s Hop Slam…what else is there to say
  • Big Sky Dry-Hopped Scape Goat Pale Ale – smooth and refreshing
  • Summit Dry-Hopped IPA w/Amarillo - great hoppy nose balanced by caramel malt
  • Summit Dry-Hopped IPA w/Kent Goldings – more earthy and subtle version, enjoyable
  • Rush River Bubblejack IPA – have had this once before, not too impressed
  • Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout – surprisingly hoppy for the style, enjoyed it
  • Lagunitas Old Gnarlywine – not sweet enough for me, a little too much heat from the alcohol
  • Harviestoun Ola Dubh 12 Year Reserve – definitely get the scotch cask in there, really liked it
  • Surly Tea-Bagged Furious - good, but not as hoppy as I’d expected it to be
  • Surly Oak-Aged Bender – fantastic
  • Left Hand Milk Stout – very enjoyable
  • Furthermore Three Feet Deep Dry Irish Stout – smokey and peatey, pretty good
  • Surly 16 Grit – amazing beer, slightly different than the first time I had it
 

March 15, 2009

Minneapolis Town Hall Mango Mama IPA

Posted by amm002 under Rating: A Minus | Tags: , |
[4] Comments 

dsc016061As many times as I’ve been in to Minneapolis Town Hall to enjoy their fantastic Masala Mama IPA, I’ve never ventured beyond my safe zone to sample Masala’s distant cousin from southeast Asia, Mango Mama.

Usually when I hear fruit beer, I’m a little skeptical. I’ve been able to make some nice homebrews using fruit, like my raspberry imperial stout, but some commercial offerings I’ve had, such as Leinenkugel Berry Weiss or Sam Adams Cherry Wheat, hit the beer drinker in the face with what I can only assume are overdone extracts. Unnatural, typically overpowering, and often cloying. Mango Mama, however, lights the way for what a fruit beer should be.  

From my understanding, they put out a keg of Mango Mama on draught each Monday, and when it’s gone it’s gone. So if you’re a weekend warrior, odds are you’re going to miss it. The website also lists it as one of Town Hall’s seasonals. Which begs the question why a mango-infused IPA is around during the tail end of winter. Maybe it’s a year-round offering and they haven’t updated the site yet. Regardless, I didn’t spend much time pondering the seasonal logic of the beer, as I was quickly transfixed by what could be one of the only IPA’s around worthy of giving Masala Mama a run for its money.   

Poured with a beautiful amber coloring into a bowled glass featuring a big billowing head of tight bubbles. Very similar in the nose to Masala Mama with a burst of clean citrusy hops, followed up by a subtle hint of the mango. Enticing.

Tasting Mango Mama is a craft beer lover’s dream. I’m assuming the core recipe is the same as Masala Mama, except with this one they take it a step further and age the beer on a bed of mango fruit, helping to temper the bold hoppiness with some of the sweetness of the fruit. Very well done. No sticky hop resins or overly bitter notes. Just an extraordinarily drinkable and balanced beer that I’d venture to say may interest even the most ardent non-hoppy light beer drinker. I’m very impressed with their ability to retain much of the stylistic integrity of the IPA while augmenting it with a very unique ingredient.

Run out and get it, if you can.   

Rating: A-

 

February 18, 2009

Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA

Posted by amm002 under Rating: A Minus | Tags: , |
[10] Comments 

dsc01599So I’ve been waiting for this one to hit the Twin Cities market for quite some time.

I ran across a note on MNBeer.com that Sierra Nevada’s new year-round offering Torpedo Extra IPA was coming to a select handful of local craft beer stores on Tuesday, including my favorite The Four Firkins. I emailed Alvey late that morning to see if they’d already been picked clean, but he received more than a dozen cases worth and didn’t anticipate running out. So after work, I swung in and got myself a six pack…and might I add a very reasonably priced six pack considering this is such a high quality beer.

As I’ve mentioned a handful of times previously on this blog, Sierra Nevada — while of course highly deserving of the respect they’ve earned as one of the pioneers of the U.S. craft beer industry – has generally underwhelmed me with most of their stuff. And underwhelmed might not even be the right descriptor. How about failed to blow me away…predictably and safely impressed. Their Pale Ale is a very good beer…clean, bright and full of Cascade hops. As one of the first beers of its kind back in the early 1980′s, I can only imagine what folks must have thought of it. Original, innovative, groundbreaking. But compared to what’s coming out today from folks like DFH, Surly, Three Floyds and many others, Sierra Nevada has generally stayed the course with their archetypal ales.     

So enter Torpedo Extra IPA, their first new year-round beer in more than a decade. And for me, quite possibly the beer that nudges Sierra Nevada back into the “innovator” category. They call it an extra IPA, which seems pretty accurate considering it’s somewhere in the middle of the IPA spectrum…slightly more aggressive than your standard IPA from an IBU and ABV perspective, but yet not quite bold enough to call a DIPA. According to the company’s press release, the name derives from a device the brewers invented called a “hop torpedo” that acts like an industrial espresso machine…forcing beer in the fermentation vessel through a filter containing whole hop cones. The result is the clean extraction of hop oils and resins without the grassy bitterness that often can occur when using traditional dry hopping techniques.

Torpedo Extra IPA poured with a nice two finger head, off-white tightly knit bubbles. Really nice aroma, they use a handful of hop varieties in this one and you get a complex and layered nose of citrus and spice. Coloring is also excellent, beautiful golden amber, and holding it up to light it even came off with the faintest shade of burnt sienna. Interesting. 

From the first sip, you get a bitter blast of 80 IBUs that roll off the sides of the tongue. I hate to use the word, but it was really reminiscent of grapefruit. Nicely intense and well-balanced with a solid malt backbone that masks the 7.2% ABV. I wouldn’t go so far as session, but I can easily see hanging out with a few of these in the back yard on a hot Saturday afternoon. Or, as is my current situation, a bitter cold Minnesota evening huddled for warmth in my basement family room.

Rating: A-

 

February 15, 2009

Lactobacillus

Posted by amm002 under Home Brewing | Tags: , |
[7] Comments 

dsc01595This morning I cracked the lid on my fermenting Belgian Brown Ale and pitched an installment of lactobacillus, a bacteria found in some lambics. I got the 500 ml starter put together yesterday, and it fermented out very quickly, leaving a nice and healthy population of bacteria to work with.

With the lactobacillus, the goal is to complement the sweet malt and aromatic hops with a nice balance of  both traditional Belgian yeastiness (from the initial strain) and a slight sour acidity. Add on top of that the oak chips currently soaking in port that will be dropped into the secondary, and this one is sure to be a very unique, complex ale.

I also checked in on my Furious clone that’s been in primary for almost two weeks now, and while the bulk of fermentation has taken place, I can still smell a bit of diacetyl coming out of the air lock. I’ll give it another few days to rest so the yeast can clean things up, then rack to secondary where I’ll dry hop for a week with a couple ounces of Simcoe and one ounce of Amarillo.

 

February 4, 2009

First Tuesday Beer Club

Posted by amm002 under Beer Events, Rating: A, Rating: A Minus, Rating: B, Rating: B Plus, Rating: C Plus | Tags: , , , , , , , , |
[8] Comments 

I felt a little like we crashed the study party when a handful of us walked into Acadia Cafe on the West Bank of the U of M campus last night for our inaugural First Tuesday Beer Club meeting. Undergrads seated around pub tables with open books spread about, quiet conversations about the day’s lecture. A relaxed and scholarly environment mixed with the faint smell of hops and quality craft beer.

Calling our rendezvous a “meeting” might be a little formal. The small group was really a spin-off from a larger wine tasting circle, consisting of seven guys who realized that they all maybe enjoyed drinking and talking about beer slightly more than they do wine (maybe I’m just speaking for myself). After our last wine event, we decided to meet up at Acadia to test drive a few of their offerings, informally calling our gathering the First Tuesday Beer Club. But unlike the more rigid and structured wine events where scoring and extensive tabulations took place, we were just going to drink good quality craft beer and nod our heads in approval when we liked something. Maybe a few grunts mixed in for good measure.

We started the night with Surly Mild. I’d actually never seen this one on tap before, and was very eager to give it a shot. The menu described it as an English-style dark mild ale that resembled a malty version of iced tea. And that really wasn’t too far off. Given it was Surly, I was very surprised at just how little was really going on with this one. Barely noticeable aroma (save for the small hint of toffee), relatively nondescript taste, and thin mouthfeel. What immediately came to mind after taking a few sips of Mild was “session beer.” At 4.2% ABV, there’s no way anyone was going to have four or five or twelve of these and be in any danger of stumbling home. While this is probably a good stylistic example of a lighter English-style ale, it’s definitely the least favorite Surly offering I’ve had (Rating: C+).

The rest of the night went something like this:

Southern Tier Gemini Double IPA (far and away the crowd favorite – Rating: A-)
Rogue Yellow Snow IPA (so-so, pretty drinkable but compared to Gemini a little lower on the IPA scale – Rating: B)
Anchor Bock (very good…I’m not a big lager guy so I was pleasantly surprised – Rating: B+)
North Coast Old Rasputin (I’d had this in the bottle before, and was even more impressed with it on draught – Rating: A)
Saison Dupont Organic Farmhouse Ale (ick…something medicinal and uninviting about this one – Rating: C+)
Bell’s Sparkling Tripel 2007 (solid example of a Belgian tripel…yeasty up front with a nice, sweet finish – Rating: B+)
Bell’s Cherry Stout (enjoyable, nice way to cap off the night – Rating: B)

We each had our share, and ponied up the $8 per guy to settle the tab (seriously…I think they must have forgotten to put a couple pitchers on the bill). Next stop on the First Tuesday beer tour…The Muddy Pig. See everyone there.

 

January 31, 2009

Live Blog: Surly Furious Homebrew Day

Posted by amm002 under Home Brewing, Recipes | Tags: |
[2] Comments 

You can’t ask for any better weather during January in Minnesota. 45 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. There’s a chance I might actually get to see my driveway after most of the ice and snow melts off.

Today I decided to try and live blog my Furious brew day as best I could, providing video updates each significant step along the way. It gets a little cumbersome trying to video record everything you’re doing, especially when you sometimes need two hands for pulling pots off burners or getting your immersion chiller set up. But I’ll see what I can do to keep everyone apprised of the situation.

1:45 pm CST – Heating the mash water

2:03 pm CST – Mashing in and hop schedule

3:05 pm CST – Beginning the sparge

3:50 pm CST – Beginning the boil, first hop infusion

4:15 pm CST – Sanitizing

5:10 pm CST – Chilling the wort and pitching yeast

 

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