New Autumn Flavors

I have not been here in months, but there are plenty of stockpiled reviews to fill up random posts. But I'll start with two fresh takes on beers new to me.

I wish I had a report from the 2013 Montana Brewers Association Festival in Missoula, but I was 2,100 miles away. I hope to deliver a 2014 report. After all, there's always hope. 

New Belgium Pumpkick
Sampled: Sept. 29, 2013
Finally, those fall seasonals that have languished on the shelf since mid-August have temperatures suited to their best qualities. First up is New Belgium's latest fall season, which partially resurrects an old favorite.

I will miss Red Hoptober, New Belgium’s 2011 fall ale. Dropping Red Hoptober for a variation on my all-time favorite from the Lips of Faith lineup did not make me miss it too deeply. Pumpkick loses the high-alcohol of Kick, but retains the blend of ale brewed with pumpkin and cranberry juice, plus an ample amount of allspice (which is an actually berry, not a blend of spices). Kick was easily my favorite fall beer of 2011, and Pumpkick is in the running for the same honor this year.

Most drinkers seem lukewarm on Pumpkick. But you can’t make a $9/six-pack with the sour feistiness of Kick. Harvest beers should encompass flavors of the season, and Pumpkick fits from the equinox to Thanksgiving.

This brew combines two of my favorite attributes, complexity and light, crisp drinkability. Hops never really enter the picture, but the mild bite of the cranberry more than replaces them. They include lemongrass, which contributes to a dry, herbal finish.  It's simple, but the fruit juices add complexity that some fall seasonals try to mask with an overdose of holiday spices (cough, cough, clove). Pumpkick and I will run into each other again this fall.

Dr. Krunkles White Farmhouse IPA
Sampled: Oct. 2, 2013

Terrapin continues to push envelopers with its Side Project series of one-off brews (many of which have found their way into its seasonal lineup).

I could not skip Side Project Vol. 20, an amalgam of three beloved styles - Belgian wit, IPA and saison. The addition of wheat malt keeps this ale on the lighter side, while the combination of Belgian saison yeast and strong hops (El Dorado, Centennial and a dry hopping with the fickle Sorachi Ace). White IPAs have crept into the market in the past four to five years, but only a handful fulfill the promise of hoppy Belgian white. Dr. Krunkles goes well beyond that simple goal.

An array of spices, including coriander, several types of orange peel and white peppercorns, play nicely with the yeast and hops. ; Aged on White Ash staves, the ale has a tiny bit of wood-grain roughness that also fits with the rough textures imparted by the hops and the yeast.

Hop leaf and vegetative herbs dominate the nose. Hop cones, tea leaves bump up against lemon zest, the orange peels and coriander that influence the dirty orange body. Plus, there's just something about the presence of hop resin and Belgian yeast esters in one brew that feels so right. The saison yeast pushes into different directions than a standard issue white IPA.

The ingredients might prove too much to make Dr. Krunkles White Farmhouse IPA a Terrapin seasonal, but once again the Athens brewery shows off its ingenuity.

Blink and Miss Them: Yazoo Taproom Specials

Nancy and I don't usually venture downtown during rush hour, but Sept. 12's taproom exclusives at Yazoo were entirely too tantalizing.  With only one keg of a sour brew and something unique on the Beer Engine, we had to trek to the Gulch.

With just a single keg, the first choice was simple. Lange Sommer (Long Summer in German), a Berliner Weisse style ale brewed with local peaches. Forty pounds of local peaches. Berliner Weisse is often served with a syrup in Germany, but the addition of fruit to the brew adds bold new dimensions. This sour wheat ale comes off as quenching and complex. Lange Sommer has a cloudy, lemon-peach body. Slight wisps of lace crown Lange Sommer, which comes on strong with loads of peach, tangerine, orange and lemon. Tart and sour, the fruit presentation never turns sweet as a lambic would. The peach sour notes peak mid to late palate. The sour diminishes by the dry finish, which spots a dose of lemon pepper.

For an encore, Yazoo had primed its Beer Engine with a fresh-hop pale ale made with the hops Nancy and I helped pick a few weeks earlier. This was not Bell's Bend Preservation Ale, the primary source of the fresh hops we helped pick a few weeks ago and will soon hit the Nashville market, but another ale crafted with the same mystery hops. 

The engine supplies beer with much less carbonation and the flavors of the hops are highly expressive. The head was both creamy and oily, the latter due to the fresh hops. Rich hop aromas, with citrus and pine headlining, rise from the ale. Passion fruit is abound in its taste, with some slight mango and even blood orange creeping in behind grapefruit and the pine notes. More oily notes appear and there are some hints of resin, but nothing overwhelming. The hop fruitiness hit more on the early palate and does not carry to the finish, although some of the pine character does.

These two vastly different styles made a drive during rain and rush hour worthwhile. It'
hard to wait to see the next sour and hoppy surprises that end up on tap at Yazoo.

Aftermath of a Good Party of Six People

The beers shared at our Aug. 18 party (l-r): Jester King Das Uberkind Organic Vieille Saison; Full Boar Barrel-Aged Scotch Ale; Cascade Apricot Ale (Portland, Ore.); Goose Island Big John (imperial stout with Cacao Nibs); New Belgium French Aramis Summer IPA (Fort Collins, Colo.); Deschutes 2010 Jubel Once a Decade Ale (aged in pinot noir barrel); and Russian River Supplication Ale (ale ages in pinot noir barrels with cherries added)

Pittsburgh's beatified brewery

Nancy at The Church Brew Works

In Nashville, they call the Ryman Auditorium the "Mother Church of Country Music." I would not presume to dub anywhere the Mother Church of Craft Brewing, but given Church Brew Works' location, it's an applicable slogan.

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood was decommissioned then put to service as a massive brewpub.

Brew kettles soar above the dais that once housed an altar. The pews have been repurposed as dine-in seating and a large wooden bar runs along one wall, with several smaller brew tanks below the exquisite stained-glass panels of saints and martyrs.

None of the décor felt like sacrilege; the quality of Church Brew Works’ beer certainly helped. Starting with Heavenly Hefeweizen, we worked out way through most of Church’s regular and rotating lineup. The hefeweizen burst out with traditional hefeweizen notes (orange-banana-clove) them embellished them with notes akin to Belgian wit (lemon, pineapple, and lavender). Heavenly was a perfect pour for anyone after a single taste of what the Church could do.

Having recently become acquainted with the long-forgotten style, I could not skip Church’s take on Lichenhainer, a collaboration with Troegs Brewery. Essentially a smoked, slightly sour ale, this Lichenhainer lived up to its billing. Orange-bodied and tempered, the ale was slightly sour but well-smoked, with hints of wheat emerging throughout. The smoke lingered a little and mixed well as the cidery sour notes emerged later on the palate. Smoke is gentle but sticks around.

Brew tanks and saints in stained glass behind the bar.

Nancy picked Cherry Quadzilla, the Church’s strong Belgian ale, had a rusty, ruby body and the flavor to match. Rich with esters from its Belgian yeast strain and possessed with a ton of black cherry character, it was a good spin on a Belgian classic.

Nancy also went after St. Agricola Ale had a surprisingly aggressive nuttiness and sassafras character. Pipe Organ Pale Ale was leafy but light, with a bright orange hop citrus character ready for a happy hour session.

While some of Church’s large-format bottles tempted me (I have never been know to turn away a tripel), I picked an item both Nancy and I could agree upon – a six-pack of Thunderhead IPA. The rich, Cascade hop-laden brew competes with the best West Coast IPAs.

More brew tanks, this time replacing the altar.

Everything poured at the Church excelled, even if its location might earn it a little help from on high. It's a landmark for Pittsburgh and craft brewing.

Finally, a splash of Pliny (the Elder)

I owe a beer debt to my friend Jessica. She had a party where she planned to open a Pliny the Elder, Russian River Brewing Company's venerated double IPA. Generally considered the first double IPA, the beer has quite the cult and can be incredibly difficult to locate even in RR's core markets.

Meant to be imbibed fresh -- hops start to lose their flavor as beer ages and Pliny the Elder has to stay refrigerated.

The simplicity of the label struck me. For as flashy a style as American IPA has become, Pliny the Elder's logo is devoid of pretension (Don't believe me? Check here).

The beer tastes as one would expect for the pinnacle of this style. Cloudy and rusty orange, Pliny the Elder did nothing to diminish its great reputation. Clocking in at 8 percent ABV, quite a bit lighter than many double IPAs run, RR never sacrifices drinkability. The nose and body are rich in pine resin, blood orange, and bright pine needle notes. Rich but balanced, bitter yet fruit, Pliny the Elder scores again and again.

I have tasted many double IPAs reminiscent of Pliny and some might have been outright clones in flashier packaging. If there is a beer bucket list, I'm glad to have this one scratched off. Now I'll have to plan a Santa Rosa vacation geared around Russian River's annual release of Pliny the Younger, their similarly lauded triple IPA.

Of elephants and ales

On a dusty May evening in Birmingham, I set out to find a local brewery. Nancy was at a work retreat and left to my own devices, I plotted a course for a happy hour beer. Alabama opened up its craft beer laws about a decade ago and had undergone a boom, with several promising brews now sold in Nashville. Birmingham was not a challenge to navigate thanks to its gridded streets. After crossing several sets of railroad tracks, I entered the rebounding Avondale neighborhood, crowned by a beautiful urban park and rich with artisan businesses.

The Avondale Brewery filled out a brick building that once included a top-floor brothel. Avondale was once a city of its own, a mill town later annexed by Birmingham. Avondale Park once housed a former circus elephant named Miss Fancy, and Avondale Brewery themed its beers around her and the neighborhood.

But when I arrived, the block had no power. If I had cash, they could serve me. I didn't so I circled a 10-block area in a fruitless bank hunt. Down the street from the brewery, I found a gas station with an ATM. Cash in hand, it was time to sample.

The friendly bar staff put up with my indecision. With six beers in their standard lineup and a strong stable of seasonals, I had trouble choosing my two pours. But I had to start with Miss Fancy's Tripel. At 10 percent ABV, Miss Fancy's packs a wallop, but what else would a beer honoring an elephant do? The ale has a big orange and lemon bouquet and creamy textures that grew over time. A fine strain of coriander and a few notes of tangerine

After my first pour, the beers came from plastic cups because of the power outage and a lack of clean glassware. No one blames the brewery, and the second beer had too much flavor to be limited by its vessel.

Choosing between the standard saison and a cherry version brewed for spring, I picked the Peach Saison, an beautiful Southern representation. Yes, Avondale had three saisons to pour, immediately making me jealous that is was not my neighborhood brewer. Its peach saison has brilliant fruit and some mild sour notes, although it is by no means a lambic. Flavors included lemon pepper, cracked grains and wheat. For fruits, there's an undercurrent of melon (cantaloupe, perhaps) and closing notes of mango.

At lunch the next day, I paired my burger with Spring Street Saison.  The lemon grain textures and coriander notes have more strength in this medium-bodied ale. It has a nice herb and spice aftertaste. Easy to quaff, Spring Street Saison also has notes of peach and tangerine, but they are subtle compared to the peach saison. Were it available around the corner, I would be quite pleased. 

Avondale does not bottle its wares, but I'm hopeful that its fine brews will land on Nashville taps soon.

For an encore, I visited Hop City, a bottle shop with an intimidating selection. With dozens of taps for growler pours and samples, the retailer had everything under one roof.

I plucked a few gems not easily found in Nashville, including Caracole Amber (Nancy drinks from a Caracole chalice and had never tasted the beer), Shane's Big DIPA from South Carolina and Birmingham's own Snake Handler, an excellent double IPA from Good People Brewing. I could have spent hours and a fortune snaking through those aisles.

Then again, I could have spent hours at the Avondale Brewery alone.

Thrones, Pants, Fruit and Honey

Iron Throne Golden Ale

Sampled:April 2013

I shouldn’t be surprised that my favorite brewery produced a tie-in ale for the HBO series Game of Thrones. I have no desire to see the series, but attach Ommegang to anything, and I must seek it out.

Iron Throne’s nose is rich in lemon zest and the banana-clove-coriander produced by wheat and Belgian yeast. Beneath its thick head and golden-orange body, Iron Throne radiates crisp grains and faint traces of the Noble hops, but the flavor is intense, especially an assertive orange character on the finish. At times, notes of vanilla creep in.

At just 6.5 percent ABV, Iron Throne could pass for a lighter take on Gnomegang, the brewery’s collaboration blonde ale. This blonde might be lighter, but its intense flavor should hold no quarter for fans of Belgian beer or the show.

My Antonia

Sampled: April 5, 2013

I had little clue what a continuously hopped imperial lager might look like. Dogfish Head and Italy’s Birra del Borgo decided we needed to know. My Antonia bears little resemblance to anything I’ve tasted before, especially lager. It has a lemon cream nose with note of burnt orange above its cloudy body. I get flashes of muddled orange and ginger shavings that lead to a finish of lemon with grapefruit notes and a defined leafy textures. Some taste like spearmint at times. I can’t quite pin down the hop – Nelson Sauvin, perhaps? The finish is faintly herbal. The hop’s bitter presence is not intense but far from weak. A few snatches of grain sneak in randomly. My Antonia has little in common with imperial pilsner and at times tastes closer to Belgian-style tripel.

Stone Russian Imperial Stout 2008 Release

Sampled: 4/6/13

Cracking open big beers, and there’s a feeling that they’re ready to pick up from the moment when the brewer sealed them up. Stone RIS has always given me that feeling. I remember the first time someone recommended the stout as something to cellar. Almost five years after picking up this vintage, I felt compelled to measure its progress. A few sprigs of spearmint rise from the roast chocolate.

Five years later, this beastly Stone stout has plenty of life left. The coffee has turned to espresso, smoother but stronger and more concentrated. No beers o alcohol content because tone Russian Imperial has grown immensely since its dark ages began in 2008. An ambient hop bitterness gives the stout good counterbalance to the black pepper created by the alcohol. In fact, it’s almost elegant, praise usually not reserved for Stone’s brews. But give a big stout a little time, and it will sprout complex roots. I could only question whether I opened it too soon.

Stone Vertical Epic 12.12.12

Sampled: March 2

Stone too can go terribly wrong. I’m having a hard time with a metaphor for how badly the Vertical Epic series ended – if it were a lemon or had gone sour, I might be speaking euphorically. Instead, we get a Belgian Dubbel with lots of allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. If you can taste anything but the first and the last spice, count yourself lucky. The clove runs wild, and that isn’t a good flavor. I get good traces of chicory and sassafras but the beer gets a tannic, almost leathery taste at times. It comes off murky and unevenly spiced. I expected a better end to Vertical Epic, not this messy, unbalanced murk.

Terrapin Hopzilla Imperial IPA 2013

Sampled: 4/14/13

Four characteristics headline this big IPA – cream, peaches, apricots, and pepper. This imperial IPA lines up nicely with Flathead and St. Arnold Endeavour as big, high in IBUs and utterly drinkable. Brilliantly smooth, I must praise the malt as well as the hops; Maris Otter malt gives Hopzilla a rich, sturdy backbone. The hopes influence every crevasse of this ale but never overwhelm it. Hopzilla does not leave destruction; instead, notes of orange, tangerine (maybe even tangelo), plus nips of grapefruit and mandarin orange. The finish is peppery with a little meringue. Let Hopzilla rampage for a bottle or two, and you won’t regret how many different ways it can stampede the palate.

Abita Spring IPA

Sampled: March-May 2013

Centennial and Amarillo hops are not regular ingredients in Nashville grocery aisles, but Abita has successfully brought them to the masses. Not a brewery I associate with hops, Abita plows some leafy, citrus flavors in this IPA. A creamy, bitter head reveals an IPA rich in hop resin, tart citrus and spruce needles. Bright grapefruit and a little lemon pepper influence the finish.

New Belgium Rolle Bolle

Sampled: April 25, 2013

The Fort Collins brewing mainstay gets too little credit for its inventive session ales. Its latest summer seasonal takes inspiration from a Belgian yard game. As usual, it tastes nothing like anything else on the shelves. New Belgium brewed a golden ale with monksfruit and soursop, creating a crisp ale heavy on the tropical fruits. It sports nice strains of papaya, kiwi and mango. There are some herbs and traces of coriander as Rolle Bolle glides across the palate. There’s a little bitter uptick from its hops as its finishes, but the tropical fruit is the attractor here. There will be more rounds of Rolle Bolle this summer, whether I figure out the game or not.

Highwater Hoppy Tripel (Blue Pants Brewery)

Sampled: April 26, 2013

This could be the mullet of craft beers – it’s all tripe in the front, and IPA in the back. The tripel elements include coriander, peach and mango on the front and a hint of alcoholic black pepper.

Blue Pants cleverly markets this as an ale meant for fresh consumption. Sit on Highwater and the hops will fade, leaving the drinker with a standard tripel. In a fresh condition, HIghwater is anything but a traditional tripel, and a welcome Belgian-style hybrid from the Southeast. 

Terrapin Side Project No. 3: Gamma Ray Wheat Wine

Sampled: May 3, 2013

This bottle has sat in many places around my apartment. Until a few weeks ago, I had no inclination to open it. I remember struggling through my first bottle of Gamma Ray. There would be no struggle with more than four years of bottle aging on this specimen.

Still boozy as hell, the honey makes this wheat weigh heavily on the palate. The honey has developed into a brilliant orange blossom nose. Plenty of tropical fruit also lurks within. In 2008, Gamma Ray weighed in at 11 percent ABV. God knows how strong it had grown in 2013. But no matter its strength, Gamma Ray easily goes down as the best wheat wine I’ve tasted. It needed a little time, but it’s a brilliant bottle, a great experiment, and a testament to Terrapin’s brewing prowess.

Funky in Nashville

(Apologies for delays and for all the beer names I probably screwed up below).

A few months back, I took a rare opportunity to use my bartender’s card (a perk from my wine store days) to pour some rare sour and funky beers. Yazoo Brewing held its first Embrace the Funk festival and put out a call for pourers of high-gravity beer.

Unlike other beer festivals, Yazoo held its releases close to the vest, not giving festivalgoers any advance notice of when the beers would pour. That led to a lot of shuffling across the brewery floor and a spontaneity festivals usually lack. It also prevented people from queuing up when at the scheduled time for a rare beer. It just happened and people dealt with it.

I did get a few sips of Yazoo’s multiple sour and wild yeast experiments made in partnership with Brandon of Embrace the Funk. Bear in mind that these were mostly the smallest of tastes. Aside from two or three, I never tasted more than an ounce of any sour, so if you want to contradict what my palate registered, feel free. I spent most of the day pouring nonstop and these tastes came in fleeting moments.

Yazoo/New Belgium Rufus had notes of cherry, strawberry and other bramble fruits. It was creamy and light, its sour pucker more mild than most. At its best moments, Rufus reminded me of Russian River’s Supplication, a sour brewed with cherries and aged in pinot noir barrels. Yazoo used two Brettanomyces variations and aged the beer on currants and blackberries. New Belgium contributed Oscar, its proprietary dark sour ale that serves as the base beer for La Folie, its annual dark sour blend.

One of the other volunteers brought me samples of the rarities. Yazoo Sour Cherry went for the throat, more than living up to its name. I only took a sip, but could only be described as brute force sour.

Up next I received a splash (and only a splash) of Yazoo 100 percent Brett Custersianus Amarillo Double Hopped Ale. Too rarely do brewers add hops to sour/wild ales. New Belgium’s Le Terroir prove how sublime they can be. Yazoo makes the case for more meetings. Amarillo pairs perfectly with sour ale. This ale had a great twist of assertive, citrus-rich hops as it finished. The brett strain pushed a dry, herbal notes to the front of the palate.

After I poured more than 120 splashes of a Flemish red, the brewers broke out Liefmans Goudenband. This Flemish brown had traces of rum, molasses, and dark fruits, especially currants. Dark and chewy, Goudenband had a bright sour profile, with plenty of acidity and cider tones.

On the same break, I sampled Wild Child, a dark sour with Sue, Yazoo’s smoked porter, as its base. A batch of Sue spoiled with lactobacillus led to Yazoo’s sour revolution and Fortuitous, a decent sour porter. Here Yazoo blend Sue with its Dos Perros dark ale and barrel aged the blend. Wild Child had some interesting notes of smoke, anise and some peaks of spice (coriander), but it did not push any envelopes. In the last round of releases, Yazoo Brett Horyezons, 100 percent Brett Fermented Ale aged Rye Whisky Barrel. Chalk it up to me getting burned out on rye beer and whiskey, but this ale was a letdown. All that stuck out was a little spice and the sensation of licking the inside of a rye barrel.

My last taste introduced a new style. Yazoo Lichtenhainer-Style Ale was a revelation, a beer both smoky and sour. It seemed like the next evolutionary step from the Beacon, a smoked wheat ale produced jointly by Yazoo and Calfkiller.

The last taste was the least expected. I started talking with a few men who had been friendly when I poured beer for them all day. They worked at the Brewery at Blackberry Farm in Walland, near the Smoky Mountains in east Tennessee. The brown sour started off in line with the style, then broke from its sour character into an impressive finish of cayenne and other pepper heat. The heat never became overwhelming, but never lost its intensity. It was as rare as anything poured officially at the festival, and a great argument to the isolated areas on the east side of the Smoky Mountains.

Dark, Imperial and Retro: Last Brews of Winter

New Albion Ale

Sampled: Feb. 1, 2013

The return of this beer to the shelves completes a long circle in craft beer. Thanks to a Sam Adams partnership with New Albion brewer Jack McAuliffe, the original craft ale has come to the masses.

From the pretty orange hue, New Albion radiates hints of orange zest, lemon, and a lot of coriander. A little bit of malt sweetness creeps in. Near the finish, there’s an assertive leafy uptick. The Cascade hops are not as bright as one would find in an IPA or dry-hopped ale. But they definitely position New Albion outside the norm for pale ales.

While this follows the original New Albion recipe, I can’t claim to know how close it skews to the original ale. This ale definitely fits the bill of American/West Coast pale ale, but it doesn’t hit the highs of the more extreme variations to emerge in the past three decades. As evidence of where American craft beer began its innovative journey, New Albion provides a clear map of its progress.

Rampant Imperial IPA

Sampled: March 5, 2013

delved a little deeper. Rampant has rich reservoirs of resin, a mild leafy character and a few spruce tips sprinkled throughout. There are notes of lemon and hints of peach, but not the complex yet supple passion fruit I hoped for. I would not call Rampant a bad beer, but any IPA aficionado has quaffed their share of imperial IPAs just like this. It really adds nothing new.  I’ll take a Flathead or a St. Arnold Endeavour – if I had them available. Still, it went surprisingly well with a batch of chili spaghetti.

Santa Fe Black IPA

Sampled: Feb. 15, 2013

Not as pungent as some black IPAs, Santa Fe’s take presents an affable backdrop of pine needles, resin and citrus. None of those flavors reach extremes. The malts have a slightly toasted flavor with hints of tobacco to go along with hopleaf. The pine needle warmth sticks around. Some dry-hopped notes build to a simmering bitterness that never boils over. Subtle yet firmly defined fingers of grapefruit, tangerine and lemon spring up. Stone unleashed the black IPA seven years and scores of inferior black IPAs have since flooded the market. Santa Fe stands above them, and earns extra points for coming in a can.

New Belgium Springboard

Sampled: Feb. 10, 2013

New Belgium has reintroduced some old seasonal beers through its 12-pack mixer. Having missed out on Springboard in past springs, I eagerly awaited the chance. New Belgium blended 3 percent ale with 97 percent ale brewed with Goji berries and Schisandra. The berry acts a soft backdrop, not unlike blackberries. There’s an odd funk to this ale that stems from its super dry hops. Some hints of melon emerge, notably cantaloupe. The finish is strangely medicinal. I like it. I understand New Belgium is gauging interest in retired brews through this mixer packs. I wouldn't mind seeing Springboard pop up around March or April for some superior porch drinking.