BetterBeerBlog

Firestone Walker just released their Quercus Alba Thirteen (XIII). XIII is their fourth barrel aged beer release and, as the name would strongly suggest, it is their thirteenth anniversary beer. Firestone Walker’s barrel cellar topped off at 120 but only 53 of those barrels were used to make XIII. Here is a very quick breakdown of XIII’s components:

• 39% - Parabola, Russian Imperial Oatmeal Stout aged in bourbon barrels, 13% ABV
• 24% - Bravo, Imperial Brown Ale aged in bourbon (50%) and brandy (50%) barrels, 11% ABV
• 15% - Velvet Merkin, Traditional Oatmeal Stout aged in bourbon barrels, 6% ABV
• 6% - Opal, wheat wine aged in rye barrels, 11% ABV
• 6% - Rufus, Continental Imperial Amber Ale aged in rye barrels, 11% ABV
• 6% - Double Double Barrel Ale, Double English Pale Ale aged in retired Firestone Walker union barrels, 10.9% ABV
• 4% - Saucerful of Secrets, Belgian Strong Ale aged in bourbon barrels, 9% ABV

For a complete picture of XIII’s components, download a .pdf of Firestone Walker Brewmaster Matt Brynildson’s notes here.

Here’s a video of Matt talking about XIII from YouTube:

Last year, Sammy and I drove up to Toronado in San Francisco for the Quercus Alba XII release party. We missed it this year because it happened to fall on the same night as my Mom’s birthday. To make up for it, we decided to take the short drive up to Palo Alto where Rose and Crown was selling it for $28/bottle. Joining us were BJCP Grandmaster-level judge John Watson, Jen and Joey from Wet Your Whistles, Travis, Dean (510 Brewing) and their wives as well as homebrewer Jeff. I had no idea so many people were going to show up at R&C but it’s all good as there’s nothing like having good beer with good people.

So what about the beer?

Firestone Walker, Quercus Alba XIII, 12% ABV

Firestone Walker XIII poured a very dark brown, almost black color with a brown head. I picked up lots of oaky aromas initially followed by toasted coconut, some vanilla, a slight deep roasted malt notes and dark fruit character. The flavor is very similar; XIII has a malt sweetness that is like a deep, nearly burnt caramel with some roasted malt notes. I picked up some toasted coconut, vanilla while the dark fruit came through more in the flavor. This is a complex beer that seemed to get better as it warmed. XIII has a medium level of carbonation and is full bodied, with a light syrup viscosity and warming alcohol quality. This beer weighs in at 12% ABV. What a great tasting, layered beer.

As if XIII wasn’t enough of an experimental beer, Rose & Crown also had the Sierra Nevada/Dogfish Head collaboration beers Life & Limb/Limb & Life on tap as well. The story of Life & Limb is an interesting one. Instead of paraphrasing it, let me just copy it directly from their website:

Life & Limb is a collaborative effort, the brainchild of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. Life & Limb is a 10% ABV strong, dark beer that defies style characteristics- brewed with pure maple syrup from the Calagione family farm in Massachusetts and estate barley grown on the Grossman “farm” at the brewery in Chico, CA. The beer is alive with yeast-a blend of both breweries’ house strains-bottle conditioned for added complexity and shelf life, and naturally carbonated with birch syrup fresh from Alaska.

Collaborative beers seem to be the beer du jour nowadays and it’s great to see a craft beer trailblazer like Sierra Nevada teaming up with a leading edge brewery like Dogfish Head. In a way it feels like a passing of the torch moment but Sierra Nevada is still going strong releasing well made and interesting beers like Torpedo and Kellerweis.

Limb & Life is the other side of the coin. This is a “small” beer made from the second runnings of Life & Limb. Once again, copy and paste to the rescue:

Limb & Life is a ’small’ beer, made from the second runnings of the larger brew, Life & Limb. Limb & Life has a roasted malt flavor reminiscent of dark roasted coffee and toasted bread, combined with a pronounced hoppiness from the use of bold and aromatic American hops.

Limb & Life is an easy drking ’session’ beer - an antidote to the heavy sippers, and a beer that begs for another glass. It is balanced yet flavorful, hoppy yet not without strong malt, and drinkable but still complex.Limb & Life will be an extrememly limited draft-only release.

Sierra Nevada/Dogfish Head, Limb & Life, 5.2% ABV

We tried the small beer first. Served in a pint glass Limb & Life poured out a clear, dark brown in color with what looked to be an off-white/beige head. This was a hop forward beer that smelled overwhelmingly of pine, think spruce. The assertive hop character continued well into the flavor, dominating with a hop flavor I can only describe as piney/spruce that is not unlike the flavor of new growth evergreen tips. Any malt character was on the slight roasty side and played second fiddle the entire time. Despite all the hop aroma and flavor, the hop bitterness was on the medium-low side. Limb & Life has a medium level of carbonation and is very light in body, nearly watery.

I found Life & Limb Limb & Life to be a little disappointing. Sure, there’s a great hop character about the beer but I find it mainly to be unbalanced; it’s almost all flavor and aroma with not enough bitterness or malt character to make it a really enjoyable beer.

Sierra Nevada/Dogfish Head, Life & Limb, 10.2% ABV

Served in a snifter, Life & Limb pours out a very dark yet clear brown, nearly black color with a beige/tan head. This beer had a lot of alcohol in the aroma, almost hot, that seemed to dominate. The flavor of the beer was more promising than the aroma vaguely hinted at. Life & Limb has a complex malt character that has bits and pieces of dark, roasted malt, molasses and syrup/sap-like flavors. Maybe it was carryover from XIII but I thought I tasted a slight oak/woodsy note. The hop bitterness, about medium-high in level, was enough to provide balance to the sweetness of the malt. This beer was medium-high in carbonation with a medium/medium-high body.

I found Life & Limb to be a very complex beer. There were a lot of things going on, interesting things, but nothing in particular jumped out at me. This was a well-balanced beer, maybe a little too balanced. In any event, if I can find bottles of Life & Limb, I plan on picking up a couple of bombers to see how well this beer ages. Should be interesting. At the very least I’ll have good beer to drink when the world ends in 2012.

Overall I think I tried some very interesting beers. My favorite was the barrel aged XIII. There’s just something about the oak that adds such a complexity to the aroma and flavor of a beer that I thoroughly enjoy and find difficult to satisfy. Methinks I need to start experimenting more with wood in my homebrewing.

While Life & Limb was all about complexity tempered with balance, Limb & Life seemed to be a one-note wonder. Don’t get me wrong, it played that note really well but I think the experience as a whole would’ve been much more enjoyable with more balance.

It’s been a while since Sammy and have been to Rose & Crown. It was great to see so many people come out on a chilly, late fall California evening (well, as chilly as it gets for California) to hang out with us and drink some interesting beers. If I could afford it, or not feel guilty about doing so, I’d have purchased additional bottles of XIII to see how aging would change it’s character. Still, I can’t complain as I did have the oppportunity to try it. By the way, the mushrooms and fish & chips at the Rose & Crown are pretty damn good. The fish tasted fresh and the mushrooms moist and delicous. While not the ideal pairing for the beers we had this evening, they certainly hit the spot.

Sammy and I spent our Tuesday night celebrating the 50th birthday of our friend John Watson. John is a Grandmaster 2 level BJCP judge. What this means, simply put, is that John knows his beer. I first met John at the More Beer homebrew store up in Los Altos where he was teaching a BJCP prep/study group. Ever since then, we’ve seen him at the various Bay Area beer festivals and homebrew competitions. John is a soft-spoken man who loves his beer and gives back to the craft beer community by teaching others how to appreciate beer.

To help celebrate his birthday a group of us, mostly homebrewers, all headed toward the mean streets of Sunnyvale to Firehouse Brewery & Grill where we had dinner and threw back a few pints. Firehouse brewmaster Steve Donohue was there to play host to our little group of homebrewers and craft beer lovers. He was even kind enough to pour his Hops on Rye (HOR), Velles Baltic Porter (Velles being the name of the beer) as well as the last little bit of his Belgian-style tripel.

I’ve always stated that beer is a social beverage. The best beers often become that much better when you are able to share them with other people who can really appreciate them. It’s the truth. Even though it was his birthday, John was kind enough to whip out a vintage 2005 bottle of Samuel Adams much coveted Utopia beer. For those who aren’t familar with Samuel Adams Utopia beers, here’s a little background.

Weighing in at over 25% ABV (probably around 27%), Sam Adams Utopia beers hold the title of  “World’s Strongest Beer”. Utopia is a high gravity beer brewed with a wide variety of malts and hops with a “touch of maple syrup”. They then ferment the beer with two proprietary yeasts (one of which is a champagne yeast, I believe). The final product is actually a blend of different beers, some aged for up to 13 years, that came from bourbon, sherry, Madiera, brandy and Cognac. They didn’t mess around with this beer and at a MSRP of $100/bottle, you shouldn’t either.

Utopia, Samuel Adams, 27% ABV

To enjoy a Utopia is to enjoy all of it, especially the bottle. The bottle is copper colored and shaped to resemble a copper brew kettle. The “Sam Adams” name is on one side while a portrait of Paul Revere (why Paul Revere and not Sam Adams?) is hidden behind two “doors”. The bottom of the bottle lists what year it was bottled and what bottle number you have. The Utopia we had last night was from 2005 and was #01824. Beneath the lid is a crown cap.

Utopia pours out a light caramel brown in color with no head. The beer is too high in alcohol to even hold a head. Even before putting the beer to our noses we can already smell the alcohol. Despite the high alcohol level of the beer, the Utopia had the most amazing aroma. It was a mix of caramel with maple syrup undertones as well as some oak notes, vanilla, slight spiciness and a walnut-like sherry character. Because of the volatility of the higher alcohol, the aroma never faded and remained strong long after the last drop ws consumed. It’s hard to nurse a 1-ounce pour but we all tried our hardest. The Utopia had the most amazing malt flavor that was composed of caramel, brandy, slight bourbon, walnut and sherry. You would think that a 27% beer would be a hot beer but that wasn’t the case. Instead, I was treated to a luxurious and velvety smooth mouthfeel with a noticeable but not hot or harsh alcohol warming. As I said, the beer is flat and it was about medium-high in body.

Utopia definitely did not disappoint. I would purchase a bottle, or more, of this beer just to hold on to for special occasions. I think this beer is that special and I only hope the positive experience I received carries onto every bottle. While I could drink this beer alone, this is definitely a beer worth sharing with good friends who can understand and appreciate this beer.

Happy Birthday again, John! Thanks for bringing out the Utopia and sharing with us. There are more pictures from his dinner that you can see on my Facebook page. Won’t you be my friend?

I have always wanted to do video for this blog. I had a couple ideas but nothing came of them. Part of this is because, outside of animated stills, I don’t have much experience with video. It doesn’t help that I don’t have a video camera as well. The video feature on my point-and-shoot digital camera is serviceable but not ideal.

In comes Jeff. Jeff is one of Sammy’s friends from way back in the day. Jeff likes beer. More importantly, he majored in video while in college.

In case you wanted a quick rundown of what we thought in all it’s bullet pointed glory:

• Morimoto Soba Ale - Lighter than we expected, noticeable but balanced grain flavor.
• Hazelnut Brown Nectar - Brown ales are kinda boring styles but this is a really good tasting beer. Lots of hazelnut character without being overpowering. Sweeter than expected as well.
• Dry Hopped St. Rogue Red - Three for three. We liked this beer as well. Very, very nice, citrus/piney hop aroma and balanced flavor for the style.
• Brutal Bitter - Very well balanced beer. There’s an aromatic hop character and assertive hop bitterness that is supported by an equal intensity malt sweetness.
• Chocolate Stout - This was the dessert beer, you’ll see what we mean in the video. Hearty, rich, roasty, chocolaty beer that would be great by a campfire in a cool California winter night.

Basically, we were all surprised by Rogue Ales. We thought that we would like most of the beers but were pleasantly surprised that we like them all.

This is the first attempt at a Better Beer Blog Show. We apologize for the blurry video at times, but we were using a cheap camcorder and this will be resolved in episode 2. Let us know what you think. For maximum enjoyment, we recommend sipping on some of Rogue’s fine beers while you watch. Just to let you know, we actually filmed this a few weeks ago and I finally had the opportunity to post this after Jeff worked his post-production magic on it.

*Sigh*

The day job has been taking its toll on the night job. As a result, the night job (aka, BetterBeerBlog) has been suffering. Thankfully, there are some new beers in my near future as well as another beer festival that we’re stretching out into a long weekend. In addition to all the work piling up, I am attending the first ever Twitter Conference this week. So far, I have mixed feelings about the conference. The slant is developer-based but there are a few things consumer/marketing that look promising. I can tell you this, the Twitter community is very passionate about Twitter. You’ll see a lot of “twittiquette” posts here and there talking about the “proper” ways to Twitter and they’re all a load of crap. Use Twitter the way you want to, it’s as simple as that. Anyway, this is not a Twitter blog but a beer blog so let’s get to the beers.

Moinette Belgian Pale Ale, Brasserie Dupont, 8.5% ABV

Brasserie Dupont is a Belgian Brewery out of Tourpes Leuze. They make many a good beer but I think they might be best known for their Saison Dupont, a Belgian farmhouse ale. Most of their beers are bottle conditioned making them real ales. Depending on what link you click on when you run a Google search, this beer will either be a Belgian Blonde Ale or a Belgian Strong Pale Ale.

Moinette pours out a cloudy, dark gold color with a lasting, creamy looking off-white head. The beer has a sweet-ish malt aroma with a very pleasant fruit component. I can also detect slight honey notes as well as the alcohol. The beer is pretty well balanced. There is a noticeable hop flavor that is slightly spicy while the hop bitterness is much more than what the aroma would have you believe. Even then, it’s only about a medium hop bitterness. I can also taste hints of fruit. Moinette is highly carbonated with a medium/medium-full body. The beer is also a little dry on the palette. Even though this beer is 8.5% ABV, it hides its alcohol well.

This is a most excellent beer. Despite my the clinical nature of my review, this beer has a surprisingly depth and layering of flavors that is unexpected. Then again, I really shouldn’t be surprised by anything the Belgians do with their beers. I should just have faith, I’ve never been let down yet.

Note: I took these photos using the built-in webcam on my computer. It shows. I just wanted to try something different and actually have my mug in the pics. At least I’m not doing some sort of strip tease on the webcam. Be thankful for that!

I needed to clear some room in my beer fridge to make room for more beer. It’s the rule of equivalent exchange, somethings out, somethings in. I decided to go with Avery again because I just happened to have a few more bottles of their beers. Two I’ve had already, two frome BetterBeerBlog friends Diane and Mike.

14′er ESB, Avery Brewing Company (kinda redundant, I know but I’ve been doing this for a while so I’m just gonna keep at it), 5.0% ABV, 37 IBU

The ESB pours out a clear amber color with an off-white head. This beer has a light caramel aroma with low hop character. The flavor echos the aroma with a sweet malt flavor, caramel notes, with low hop flavor and bitterness. ESB is a medium-low bodied beer with medium carbonation.

I’m enjoying this beer. It has a very pleasant malt sweetness and character to it that makes it easy drinking. The beer gets its name from the 54 Colorado peaks all over 14,000 feet in elevation. Good way to celebrate the state you’re from.

Ale to the Chief, Avery Brewing, 8.75% ABV, 65 IBUs

Ale to the Chief is a “Presidential Pale Ale” brewed with Magnum and Cascade hops with two-row pale, c-150, Munich and honey malts. This beer was brewed to send off the old Bush Administration and welcome our new President, Barack Obama. A lot of the brewing community showed a lot of support for the new President by brewing up their versions of “Presidential” themed beers. I had a small tasting of this beer at the Double IPA Festival at the Bistro earlier this year but ti’s good to have a full tasting this time around.

Ale to the Chief pours out a hazy light caramel with amber highlights and an off-white head. The aroma has a toasty malt aroma, slight caramel with honey undertones with a fresh, floral, piney character. The beer has an initially sweet malty flavor that has toasty notes with some caramel character. The hop flavor has a slightly earthy flavor that has some spiciness with some piney and citrus character. The hop bitterness isn’t sharp but lasts into the finish. This beer is full-bodied with medium/medium-high carbonation with a slight dryness in the roof of my mouth.

I’m not sure if this beer qualifies for your standard Pale Ale. It’s more of an IPA with the 65 IBU reading and 8.75% ABV. While I’m enjoying this beer, I wish the hop aroma and flavor would be a bit more pronounced. The malt flavor and character is more than enough to balance and I’m enjoying the level of hop bitterness.

Update: After receiving a tweet from @ADavis91883, I just realized that this beer is starting to show some oxidation that is in the form of slight cardboard and sherry notes. Interesting.

I had two more Avery beers to drink tonight but I’m throwing the towel in. The last two beers, Hog Heaven Barleywine and The Czar Russian Imperial Stout, weigh in at 9.2% and 10.77% ABV respectively. That’s just too much for me and Sammy. I’ll have to save them for a cold and rainy day.

If you’ve had these beers before, leave me a comment and let me know what you think. I’d be interested in hearing about it.

Sonoma Chicken Coop was not our original destination. Sammy and I wanted to grab a couple of beers from the Tied House. I am admittedly not a big fan of Tied House beers. I’ve found the line of beers they carry to be boring and inconsistent at times. As a result, we don’t frequent them to often. Still, this is American Craft Beer Week and I wanted to support my local craft breweries.

At least I want to support my local craft breweries. It would help of they were where they were supposed to be. Sammy and I found street parking and walked over to the Tied House only to find out the Tied House (in San Jose) is no more. The signage is gone, it’s a mess in the interior and there’s a huge-ass hole in the front of the building where it’s obvious that’s where they pulled our their brewing equipment. All of a sudden, whatever critiques I had about that place flew right out of the window. I was sad. As big as San Jose is, we only have 3 breweries. Well, two breweries now and one of those two would rather be affiliated with a small town instead of San Jose. A quick check of the San Jose Tied House website shows that they were supposed to reopen from their remodeling on May 15, 2009, that’s today’s date, a date I seriously doubt they’ll be meeting.

With a heaviness in our hearts, we headed over to Sonoma Chicken Coop.

Stout, Sonoma Chicken Coop

I ordered a simple sausage and meatball spaghetti dish. What I should’ve ordered was their pale ale. The toasty malt flavors would’ve gone well with the sausage and meatball while the hoppiness would’ve been a nice compliment to the red sauce. Instead I ordered their stout. Couldn’t be helped, it was their seasonal beer and I’m a sucker for seasonal.

The stout pours out an opaque, black with a lasting brown head. This beer has a sweet, deep roasted, burnt malt flavor with lots of coffee and chocolate flavors. The hop bitterness is noticeable and in balance but takes a back seat to the malt character. The stout is a full-bodied beer with medium carbonation. Once the beer warms up, the aroma is echoes that of the flavor.

What I should’ve ordered with this beer was dessert.

ESB, Sonoma Chicken Coop

I’ve had this beer in the past. This time though, Sammy ordered it but I thought I’d do another write up on this beer. Why not?

The ESB pours out a clear, light brown/amber in color with an off-white head. There’s a toasted malt flavor with hints of offset by a medium/medium-high hop bitterness. This is a medium bodied beer with high carbonation. The aroma is similar to the flavor.

Sammy remarked that she thought this beer had a more pronounced hop flavor than was expected for the style. To my surprise, Sammy prefers the ESB we have on tap back at the house. I feel all warm and tingly inside.

Sammy and I end up meeting with more friends later on in the evening. We hit up the new tequila bar and I am introduced to the wonderful sipping experience that is Don Julio Añejo. I got a lot of woody character in the aroma and flavor as well. There was a spicy finish and I detected a boiled peanut flavor. I like boiled peanuts. I like Don Julio Añejo. Good times.

Here are the pics from the old Tied House.

Work has been taking up much more of my brain time than usual, something I’m not too thrilled about. In light of recent developments, this sort of thing is not unexpected. Unfortunately this has had a negative impact on this blog in the form of a decreased frequency in blog posts. Ah, such is life.

For those who don’t already know, this week is American Craft Beer Week. American Craft Beer Week (ACBW) is a celebration of America’s small and independent breweries. While you should already be doing so, ACBW is a great time to support you local breweries and brewpub. If you, for whatever reason, don’t have a craft brewery next to you, going out to your local bottle shop and picking a bomber or sixer of your favorite craft beer is okay too.

At BetterBeerBlog we celebrated the start of ACBW yesterday by having a few friends over to have a group “Beer in Review” session featuring Rogue Ales. In addition to reviewing a group of beers in, well… a group… we video taped the whole thing and will be posting it on the blog soon enough. I think it’ll be a regular, monthly thing. In the meantime, here’s a Beer in Review segment featuring a craft brewery uncommon ’round these parts.

Ninkasi Brewing Company

Ninkasi Brewing Company is based out of Eugene, Oregon and has been around since 2006. If you’re a beer historian, you might recognize that Ninkasi is the name of the Sumerian Goddess of Fermentation. According to their website:

The first recorded brewers were the Sumerians, who gave up their nomadic way of life to become agrarian to produce barley to make bread and beer. They were the first to write, have schools, laws and many other firsts including organized beer production. This fermented beer was able to nourish the settled people and provide potable water. It is our goal to educate the world that beer has played a significant role in the cultivation of civilization.

Sammy and got our first taste of Ninkasi beers over at the 13th Annual Legendary Boonville Beer Festival. They happened to be camped out next to us. As with what usually happens at Boonville, we walked over to them, introduced ourselves, made friends and drank a lot of beer. Employee #4, Troy, was a gracious host and was kind enough to send us home with a couple of their beers a few of their shirts.

Spring Reign, Ninkasi Brewing Company, 6.0% ABV, 38 IBU

Spring Reign is a clear, pale amber color with a lasting white head. The aroma is floral in nature with piney notes and citrus undertones. There’s a light, biscuity malt aroma as well. The beer has medium-high hop bitterness that is assertive and persists throughout the tasting experience and lasts well into the finish. The hop flavor is citrusy with a bit of piney/resiny character. The slightly toasty malt flavor definitely plays second fiddle to the hop character of the beer but is enough to be noticed. The beer is high in carbonation and medium, maybe medium-high in body. There’s an astrigency in the beer I notice on the roof of my mouth.

Spring Reign is a Ninkasi Brewing Company seasonal beer. There’s not too much information on the Ninkasi website about this beer and Troy didn’t say much either during the times we hung out at Boonville. The hoppiness of this beer surprises me. Spring Reign has a hop bitterness that seems much more robust than it’s 38 IBU rating would suggest. I’ve been on a malt beer kick lately, which may explain why this beer seems more bitter than rated. A tastey beer I can easily session throughout an evening.

Tricerahops Double IPA, Ninkasi Brewing Company, 8.8% ABV, 100+ IBU

Tricerahops (man, what a name!) pours out a slightly hazy, amber color with an off-white head. Right off the bat this beer has a great hop aroma full of citrus and pine notes, smells really fresh. There’s also a distinct hop aroma that was in the Spring Reign as well, smells kind of earthy and has a sour character to it. It’s not an “infection” sort of sour, more like “unripe” sour. Tricerahops is a well-balanced double IPA. Despite the 100+ IBU rating, the hop bitterness wasn’t as aggressive as I though it would be. It’s enough to let you know this is a double IPA style beer but not so much that it’s harsh on the palette. The malt flavor is slightly toasty with caramel notes and is enough to balance out the hops. Tricerahops is a medium-high/full bodied beer with medium carbonation that is creamy. I don’t even notice the 8.8% ABV on this beer as I don’t pick up much alcohol character in the aroma or in the mouthfeel.

Tricerahops in an interesting and balanced double IPA. The hop bitterness definitely hangs on the palette for a while but it’s not at all harsh because of malt sweetness. While I am enjoying the beer there’s that “weird” hop flavor and character that I’m not used to. I’m not saying it’s a bad beer, I’m enjoying it, but that unidentified hop character is throwing me off a bit. Anyone who’s had this beer, feel free to comment or to let me know what it is I might be tasting.

I feel like I’ve only had a tease of what Ninkasi is able to do. I wish I had a third beer, like their Oatis or Believer Double Red to get a sense of their brewing range. Out of the two beers I had tonight, Tricerahops was the most balanced between the two but I really enjoyed the clean, crisp and bright flavors of the Spring Reign. Hopefully Sammy and I will be able to visit Eugene and have a full flight of Ninkasi brews sometime soon.

To help “celebrate” the rest of ACBW, I think I’ll be paying my local brewpubs and breweries a visit to support them. Anyone care to join me?

It’s that time of the year again, the dreaded Cinco de Mayo. The plan was to hit BevMo and pick up some cheap-ass Mexican beer, cram a lime in it, and write about what a lousy time I had. In between trips to the sink to dump beer, I would regale you with the touching story of a man and his mouth loving relationship with a Corona long neck. Chances are good that I will still regale you with that tale but instead of drinking cheap, mass-produced lagers, I will be drinking beers from Cerveza Cucapá.

Cerveza Cucapá is one of the few Mexican microbreweries. Located in the city of Mexicali, Cerveza Cucapá is named after the one of the five Indian tribes that live in the Mexicali Valley. They currently have a 7 beers in their product line (according to their website): Clásica (blonde ale), Light (light beer), Honey (amber ale), Triguña (wheat ale), Obscura (American brown ale), Chupacabra (pale ale) and a barleywine. Tonight, I’ll be focusing on only 3 of their beers (because that’s all I could find at BevMo today).

Honey, Cerveza Cucapá, 4.5% ABV

Honey has a pleasant malt aroma that has a light caramel aroma, toasted grains with an equally, light fresh, hop aroma and honey undertones. The beer pour out a light amber color with a lasting, off-white head. Honey has a nice, sweetish, malt flavor this is part caramel and part toasted grains with medium/medium-high citrusy hop flavor and honey notes underneath. Hop bitterness is perfectly balanced and matched with the malt profile of the beer. The mouthfeel is medium-light with high carbonation.

The beer’s webpage (can’t link to it because it’s Flash) does an excellent job teasing you with a well-written description of what to expect but you have to take those with a grain of salt. It is marketing speak of course. Thank goodness this beer does a pretty good job of living up to the hype. I am pleasantly surprised by this beer. As it begins to warm, the malt character of the beer begins to open up to show it’s surprising depth and complexity. The hop bitterness is enough to balance but is full flavored with tons of citrus character. Honey is labeled as an American Amber Ale.

Obscura, Cerveza Cucapá, 4.5% ABV

This beer pours out a clear, dark brown with amber highlights and a lasting, beige head. The aroma has a wonderfully complex malt aroma that has slight dark fruit esters, roasted malt notes, toasted whole grain character and a touch of molasses. The flavor of Obscura echoes that of the aroma with more of an emphasis on the roasted grain aspect of the flavor profile and hints of dark chocolate. The hop flavor is subdued in this beer while the hop bitterness is low/medium-low. Obscura is medium-light in body with high carbonation.

Like Honey, Obscura is also an award-winning American Brown Ale. Most brown ales are, frankly, kind of boring. They’re malty and that’s about it, pretty one-dimensional. Obscura is chalk full of aroma and flavor and if I could make a brown ale like this, I’d be pretty damned happy. The beer is nearing a Munich Dunkel in aroma and flavor. Two-for-two for Cerveza Cucapá.

Chupacabra, Cerveza Cucapá, 5.8% ABV

Chupacabras pours out a hazy, amber with a short lasting, off-white head. The aroma is a balance between lightly toasted grain character, slight caramel and a citrus hop aroma. The flavor is initially of a citrus hop character followed by a lightly toasted maltiness. The hop bitterness is medium-high, lasting but isn’t harsh, just enough to remind you this is a pale ale. This is a medium bodied beer with high carbonation.

I have officially been won over by Cerveza Cucapá. While I have had better pale ales, this one is tastey nonetheless. Instead of overbearing hops, Chupacabra is well-balanced and shows a pleasant, yet multi-dimensional malt character.

Overall…

As I said in the previous paragraph, I am now a fan of Cucapá beers. I was originally skeptical because they were a Mexican brewery. In addition, two of the three beers I had tonight were sessionable beers that weighed in at 4.5% ABV. While not much of an indicator of anything, I usually think of low alcohol beer as low in flavor and character. Not sure where I got that particular “filter” but there it is. Cerveza Cucapá, thankfully, is breaking me out of old habits and pre-conceptions.

Vivá Cerveza!

Today (well, at the time of writing this post anyway) is April 20th. For those immersed in cannabis culture, 420 (pronounced four-twenty) is a counter-culture holiday that celebrates the use marijuana. According to Wikipedia, the number 420 was chosen for the following reason:

The origin of the term stems from a story about a group of teenagers at San Rafael High School in San Rafael, California, United States in 1971. The teens would meet after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke marijuana at the Louis Pasteur statue. The exact time was chosen because that was the time that afternoon detention was dismissed.

I won’t lie, I’ve partaken of the wacky tabacky. Nothing regular, mostly opportunistic, as in “it was being passed around and I didn’t want to be rude to I partook”. I’ve learned the hard way that smoking up and getting drunk do not mix well with me. In fact, many of the times I don’t remember but was told about the next day while nursing the mother of all hangovers was because I had mixed the two. So no more mixing for me. I’ve chosen my vice and it’s beer.

That being said, I decided to review IPAs for this week’s Beer in Review segment. If you didn’t know already, hops are related to marijuana so it only made sense to pick up highly hopped beers to commemorate the event.

IPA, Lagunitas, 5.70% ABV, 45.6 IBU

Lagunitas is definitely one of those breweries that is all about the “counter-culture”. I’ve heard some interesting stories regarding the work day at Lagunitas. Since I wasn’t there, I can’t really repeat what I’ve heard, especially if it wasn’t true. All I can say is that the happy people make happy beer.

The IPA pours out a clear, bright amber color with a white/off-white head. The aroma has a surprising maltiness that I wasn’tn expecting that is toasty with caramel notes. The hop aroma is lighter than I thought it would be and has hints of pine and citrus. The IPA has a strong malt character in the flavor. It is toasty, caramel, with a slight roastiness. The hop flavor has hints of citrus and pine while the bitterness is pleasant, soft on the palette and gently lingers. The body is medium-full/full while the carbonation is medium-high/high.

I must say that the Lagunitas IPA is nothing like I thought it would be. I was expecting a hoppy IPA and what I have before me is more malty but in an old sort of way. There’s no “born on date” on the bottle but the beer tastes like it’s been on the shelf for a while. The thing is, I’m actually liking it. A complex malt character in an IPA is a good thing. Then again, I could be wrong. If you’ve had the Lagunitas IPA before, let me know if you experienced the same thing.

Hop Henge Experimental IPA, Deschutes, 8.75% ABV, 95 IBU

Hop Henge is brewed by Deschutes and released under their Bond Street label. The Bond Street Series of beers was named after the original Deschutes brewery and public house. The beers developed under this label are meant to be fun beers and different from their regular series.

Hop Henge pours out a dark copper/brown color with an off-white head. The aroma is piney in character and is floral and perfumey. The malt aroma definitely takes a back seat and is sweet smelling. There’s a noticeable alcohol note.. The beer has an assertive hop bitterness with a piney/resiny flavor. The malt flavor is sweet and has a slight roasty note, caramel character and is enough to balance. Hop Henge is medium bodied with medium-high carbonation. There’s a slight astrigency to the beer that I think is from the assertive hopping. In addition, there’s some alcohol warming as well.

Even though Hop Henge is an “experimental” IPA, it falls into the Imperial IPA category with it’s high alcohol. Hop Henge is definitely a showcase of all good things hops.

Imperial IPA, Green Flash Brewing Company, 9.0% ABV, 101 IBU

San Diego has evolved from a chill, beach-side town into a real destination area for craft beer lovers and Green Flash helped to turn things around. Known for their hop-forward beers, their West Coast IPA is one of the most bitter beers I have ever tasted. Let’s see how the Imperial IPA is.

Imperial IPA has a huge hop aroma that has a big citrus/grapefruit component with floral notes and is pungent. The malt character is sweet but is definitely in the background. There’s also a slight alcohol note. The beer pours out a clear, dark gold/amber color with a white head. The flavor is very hop forward with an aggressive hop bitterness. The hop flavor is piney with citrus undertones.  There’s a pungent quality in the flavor that I can’t quite describe other than ‘pungent’. Catty? Wet blanket? The malt flavor is sweet and has a spiciness from the alcohol. This is a medium/medium-full bodied beer with medium/medium-high carbonation.

I’m not quite sure what to think of this beer. Imperial IPA is a very hop forward beer but I’m not sure if I’m enjoying the specific type of hops being presented. There’s a pungency in the aroma and flavor that I can’t quite place and I’m not enjoying all to much. Still, if you’ve had this beer before, I’d love to hear about your thoughts.

Leafer Madness, Beer Valley Brewing, 9.0% ABV, 100+ IBU

I am unfamiliar with Beer Valley Brewing. According to their website, they were founded in 2005 by brewer Peter Ricks and started production brewing in 2007 in Ontario, Oregon. I thought the name, Leafer Madness, was incredibly appropriate considering what day it is.

Leafer Madness pours our a cloudy amber color with a white/off-white, moussey, long-lasting head. The aroma is floral and perfumy while the malt aroma is grainy and husky. There’s also a cigar-like smoke character to the aroma. The alcohol is also noticeable. This beer is also aggressively hoppy but the hop character is much more palatable. The hop flavor is fruity in nature while the hop bitterness is soft. The malt flavor is sweet and enough to balance. The body is medium/medium-full in body and high in carbonation.

Hop lovers will love this beer and the cloudiness suggests that this beer isn’t filtered or pasteurized. A big plus.

Overall

Sammy was my tasting partner tonight and these notes are a combination of both of our experiences. We both enjoyed the Lagunitas IPA and it’s malty character. Between the 3 IPAs though, we felt the enjoyed the Hop Henge the most. It was the most balanced between the three while still having an excellent hop character.

At the time of this post, we hit record setting temperatures. It reached the mid-90s today and drinking beers in the 9% range makes the warm weather warmer. I’m glad I arranged the beers from lowest IBU to highest IBU because you can never go back with hop bitterness. I’m sure that if we tried the highest IBU beers first our palettes would’ve been blown for the others.

I hope you enjoyed our 420 Beer in Review special. Feel free to leave comments, especially if you’ve had experience with these beers already. I’m always looking to get feedback regards these reviews.

First of all, let me start off by saying that there are no “Easter” beers. To my current knowledge, I do not know of any beers that are specifically brewed in celebration of Easter. So I decided to go with an “Easter” theme. Here’s the basic premise: Easter celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Overly simplistically put, he dies, goes to Hell and rises up into Heaven. Somewhere along the way, a rabbit hides colorful, chocolate filled eggs from small children and some adults. And that’s my Easter beer plan.

Biere de Miele, Rabbit’s Foot Meadery, 4.2% ABV

Some people may think that I don’t have a sense of humor thanks to that whole St. Patrick’s Day thing. I still say that I’m being misunderstood but it is what it is. Anyway, Biere de Miele from Rabbit’s Foot Meadery fills in the “rabbit” part of the Easter equation. Da-dump, ching!

Rabbit’s Foot Meadery is a great meadery located in Sunnyvale a stone’s throw from where I work. Their meads are award-winning, their cysers refreshing and their beers interesting. Biere de Miele is their first attempt at a braggot and is brewed as a kölsch.

Biere de Miele pours out a hazy dark straw/gold color with a foamy and lasting white head. This beer had a pretty good pop when I first opened it up. The beer smells like pears, a hint of orange citrus and honey. The beer has a delicate flavor, it’s fruity, slight hints of citrus, with a moderate honey note tying everything together. There’s a low hop bitterness and flavor. The beer is low in body with medium/medium-high carbonation.

As far as a kölsch’s go, there’s a little too much heavy-handed flavor but it’s a very nice, drinkable and refreshing beer. The body is reminiscent of a hefeweizen. If you’re at BevMo, give ‘em a shot or stop by the meadery and check them for yourselves.

Dead Guy Ale, Rogue Ales, 6.50% ABV

Dead Guy Ale. Short of calling this the “Jesus” beer, this is the Jesus beer. Dead Guy Ale is Rogue’s interpretation of a Maibock. You can find Rogue beers in a many places as their distribution is pretty good. Let’s see how this maibock is.

Dead Guy Ale pours out an amber/light copper color, is clear and has an off-white, lasting head. The beer has a sweet, Munich malt like aroma and a light, hop spice undertone. The beer is sweet but not overly so. There’s a slight spicy character from the Saaz hop. Dead Guy Ale is medium-low/medium in body with medium carbonation and slight alcohol warming.

As a maibock, I think it’s a slight bit too dark but it’s a decent beer nonetheless. The spiciness comes out a bit more as the beer warms up and the hop bitterness becomes more apparent as well.

Arrogant Bastard Ale, Stone Brewing, 7.2% ABV

Arrogant Bastard. This beer is the devil, or at least as close as I could find to being the devil at BevMo. With the phrase “You’re Not Worthy” as the beer’s slogan, this beer is arrogant enough to have it’s own website independent of it’s parent company. Nice. If you find this beer, take the time to read the label, it’s a riot.

Arrogant Bastard pours out a clear dark brown with reddish hues and an off-white head. The aroma is hop forward, a combination of piney and citrus, clean and with an underlying malt aroma. This beer is very hop oriented. It’s aggressively bitter with a malt sweetness, slightly caramel in nature, that takes a backseat to the hops but is enough to balance. The hop bitterness is lasting and causes a slight dryness on my palette. This is a medium/medium-full bodied beer with medium-high carbonation and a slight astrigency from the alcohol.

The bottle label boldly states, “This is an aggressive beer. You probably won’t like it.” and if you’re used to drinking macro lagers, you will definitely not like it. As a hop head, I love this beer and if you’re one, you will probably like this as well.

Devout Stout, Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Company, 5.4% ABV

At this point in the tasting, we’ve ascended from Hell and are now making our way into Heaven. Devout Stout is a good beer to start this portion of the Easter festivities if you judge things by label alone.

Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing is an all-organic brewery. In my personal experience, I have had some pretty good beer that were organic. The one caveat to that was that they were darker beers. Organic beers seem to be problematic when it comes to lighter beers but we’re drinking a stout at this point.

Devout Stout pours out an very, very dark brown, clear as can you can get from the style, with a whispy beige/tan head. The aroma is of black coffee, dark chocolate with a lactic sour note underneath, which is odd for the style. It’s Flemish in character. The flavor is like black coffee with a lactic finish. Very little hop character in flavor but the bitterness matches the burnt malt flavor. The body is medium-full with medium-high carbonation and a dry-ish finish.

Hmm… maybe I haven’t quite ascended to Heaven just yet. A sourness is not unappropriate for Victorian-style stouts but in those cases, the sourness is an undertone. In this particular beer, it’s quite noticeable and distracting from the flavors of the stout. I suspect it could be an infection. The thing is, I like sour ales so I don’t think this beer is all that bad, it’s just weird that it’s so sour. I’ll probably be purchasing another bottle to compare with this review.

St. Peter’s Cream Stout, St. Peter’s Brewery, 6.5% ABV

Don’t know too much about this beer or the brewery. What I do know is that this beer is an example of the sweet stout style, at least according to the BJCP.

Very dark brown, almost black with ruby highlights and a tan head. The aroma has a deep roasted malt character and is sweet. The flavor is slightly sweet with a deep roasted flavor and has a bittersweet chocolate note. The hop bitterness is appropriate for the style and is enough to balance the sweetness. The body is medium-full body with medium-high carbonation with a silky mouthfeel.

Okay, we’re finally in Heaven, St. Peter has opened the doors to Heaven and we are here. This is a good example of the sweet stout style. It’s not overly sweet but the stout character is not lost. I think I’ll be purchasing additional bottles of this beer.

Brother David Dubbel, Anderson Valley Brewing Company, 9.0% ABV

Ah, the last of the Heavenly beers. Anderson Valley is literally located in the middle of nowhere. Despite that, they make some pretty good beers. Anderson Valley is also the host to the Boonville Beerfest.

The dubbel pours out a brilliantly clear dark brown with amber highlights with a thing off-white head. The aroma is of raisins, possibly figs and dates, and a sweet, complex malt character. The flavor is of a complex, malt character. There are some Munich malt notes, melanoidic qualities, dark fruit notes (raisins, figs) and a spicy note from either the alcohol or hops. This beer is medium bodied with medium high carbonation with a noticeable alcohol warming.

What a great way to end the evening. This is a great malt-forward beer brewed in the Abbey tradition. Great complex malt character but it hides the alcohol well. Belgian strong ales are considered “dangerous” because of that very reason.

In any event, I hope that you enjoyed this segment of Beers In Review. I wasn’t sure where this was going in the beginning but it turned out well in the end. I got to try a bunch of beers that I haven’t before and most were tastey.