The first of Clipper City's Heavy Seas bomber series has landed in local stores.
The Big DIPA or Double India Pale Ale appeared in 22-ounce "bomber" bottles. The Maryland distributor is Republic National. I found it in local liquor stores at $6 a bottle.
Clipper City's Hugh Sisson said the line began as pet project. Brewers made small batch experiments for folks who worked at the brewery. Now they are bottling these pet projects.
It is not officially summer until June 21, which also happens to be Father's Day. But it was so humid in Baltimore recently that it felt like summertime.
For me, the summer like weather is an invitation to drink Dunkel Weiss, a dark wheat ale. The other evening, as the wooden windows swelled and the doors stuck, I cracked open a Dunkel Weiss from Great Divide Brewing Co. in Denver.
The label describes it as "hefeweizen's older brother." I think that is accurate. It is 6.4 percent ABV. One touch I loved is the label warning: "Don't put any lemon in it."
It poured brown with a slight head. It had a medium body and pleasant malty flavor with pleasing banana notes (but it smelled more like cloves than bananas). I liked it in part because I am a big fan of bananas.
Continue reading "Great Divide: A Very Nice Dunkel Weiss " »
I don't like beets, but strange as it seems I liked Wacko Magic Hat's Summer Seasonal.
It is made with hops, malt, and are you ready for this .... beet juice. The juice adds color, and the shade of the beer reminds me of blanc de noir champagne.
It is malty and has a slight sweetness. About 4.5 percent ABV. It is part of the Magic Hat summer seasonal 12 pack.
My 28-year-old son, however, did not care for Wacko. Too sweet, he said.
Instead he preferred the Odd Notion, a Belgian Blonde . It is made with Pale and Apollo and Crystal hops, with an ABV of 5.9 percent. It is another Summer Seasonal from the folks at Magic Hat.
The Magic Hat website has a handy SipCode feature to show stores that sell the product. You simply type in the zipcode.
What do you think of these beers?
Are you pro-beet beer or again-it?
Where do you stand on Odd Notion?
Here's another dispatch from Rob on vacation:
It is a pairing few would have imagined, but those crafty Canadians at Brasserie Dieu du Ciel have made a Scotch ale, Equinoxe du Printemps, that is brewed with maple syrup.
I bought a 12-ounce bottle at the Wine Source the other day. It has the aroma, body and wallop of a Scotch ale, yet the maple syrup adds pleasing finishing notes of maple without cloying sweetness. The label notes said the beer "is the quintessential marriage of two great traditions: beer brewing in Scotland and maple syrup production in Quebec.”
I don’t know about that, but it is good beer.
I confess I have not been a big spring equinox celebrator. This beer could change that. Anybody else sample it? Any other ideas on how to celebrate the spring equinox?
I give the folks at Sam Adams a lot of credit for running an annual homebrewing contest. It has been going on since 2001. Moreover, the mother of all Sam Adams beers, its Boston Lager, came to life in 1984 as a home-brew in the kitchen of founder Jim Koch.
But I wasn't crazy about its three winning homebrews that are being packaged and sold in its LongShot Variety Six Pack. One of those beers, a Cranberry Wit, was made by Carissa Sweigart, a national sales rep fror Sam Adams in Colorado. The other two come from homebrewers not affiliated with Sam Adams. Those are a Traditional Bock made by Alex Drobshoff and a Double IPA made by Mike McDole.
The homebrewers of America also get a shot each year at getting a brew sent out on the Sam Adams label. McDole's beer won the contest in 2007, but it had so many hops, and hops were then in such short supply, that he agreed to wait a year for his beer to "go national."
McDole's Double IPA, which has six pounds and seven different varieties of hops per barrel, overwhelmed me. Drobshoff's Bock, an attempt to replicate an authentic German bock, was my favorite, but it was almost too sweet for me. And the Sweigart's Cranberry Wit, a blend of cinnamon, orange peel, grains of paradise and cranberry, was probably a brewing accomplishment, but it failed to float my boat.
I give the Boston Beer crowd props for trying to stretch the beer frontiers, even if I am not out there.
The deadline for entering this year's Sam Adams homebrew contest is April 15 through May 1. Details at this link.
Am I alone in my assessment of these homebrews gone big-time?
Anybody like them? Anybody drink more than one?
Watched Pittsburgh's victory over Connecticut in men's basketball last night. What a tussle! The action away from the ball looked like a "wrasslin" match.
Those big boys know how to use their bodies. Both DeJuan Blair of Pittsburgh and Hasheem Thabeet of U-Conn have a future in the NBA. Either there or the WWF. Looking forward to watching those two teams in March, when the madness begins.
In an effort to match my beer with the style of play, I sipped a Samuel Adams Double Bock. It too is very big. The label claims there is enough malt in this brew to make a loaf of bread. The ABV is a whopping 8.8 percent.
If you did put a straw in this beer, it might stand up. Yet it goes down smoothly. Nice malt flavors, firm but not sweet. You don't have to be a fan of Dopplebocks and big bodies to like this beer, but it helps.
Anybody else watch this game?
Taste this beer?
Is there a love/hate thing going on out there with Doppelbocks?
I had a Samuel Adams Imperial Stout the other night, or it had me. It will take me a day or two to figure which.
This Imperial Stout is one the brewery's new line of bigger beers, which boost ingredients and alcohol levels above those in normal craft beers. It sells in four packs for about $10.
This stout poured as dark as night, with a picture-perfect head. Nice coffee and chocolate notes, very smooth. Only later, after I nodded off, did I check ABV -- 9.2 percent. Wow!
Such stouts, I read, were first brewed by 18th-century English brewers for the Russian Imperial Court of Catherine the Great.
I would not have lasted in Catherine's Court. Falling asleep in the presence of royalty after downing an Imperial Stout would have soon had me tossed out of the castle to wallow with the peasants.
Anyone else sip this stout?
Once you enter the "imperial " lifestyle, can you come back to tamer beers?
Just in time for Lent, which begins Feb. 25, Shiner has released Commemorator, a dark brew modeled after the starkbier, or "liquid bread," that once kept European monks going during their Lenten fast.
The beer commemorates the 100-year anniversary of the Spoetzel brewery started in Shiner, Texas, in 1909 by some Czech and German home brewers trying to replicate the beers of their homeland.
It poured very dark and had smooth malt notes. The Shiner Web site describes it as an ale brewed in the Doppelbock traditon.
I got a sample Commemorator six-pack shipped from the brewery. It was very smooth and the toasted caramel flavor reminded me of candy, which I used to give up during Lent.
This is a beer I could drink during Lent and never suffer. The alcohol by volume is 6.8 percent.
It costs about $6-$7 a six pack. Bond, I am told, is the local distributor.
Do you give up beer for Lent? Or, instead, do you fast from food and just drink beer?
Cracked open a couple of new bottled beers: Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA, and Magic Hat Poppy Agave Pilsner.
I liked the Torpedo; was not fond of the Agave Pilsner.
Like most beers from Sierra Nevada, Torpedo is loaded with hops. In the past I have found some of their hoppy brews chewy. But not this one. It is amazingly smooth, with a delightful citrus finish.
The name Torpedo hails, according to the Sierra Nevada Web site, from the stainless steel device, invented at the brewery, that is filled with hops and submerged in the brew. It is, I am told, basically a new way to dry hop a beer, releasing oils without bitterness.
I found a detailed technical explanation of how the Torpedo works on the Beer Advocate Web site.
While I am fuzzy on "how" the Torpedo works, I clearly like the results. This is a winner.
The Poppy Agave Pilsner was simply too sour for me, and I am a pretty bitter fellow.
It is an interesting experiment, putting organic agave syrup and natural blue poppy seeds in pilsner. The brewers at Magic Hat concede this beer is part of their "odd notion" spring lineup. Different beers for different palates; that is what makes the world go round.
Anyone else try Torpedo and/ or Poppy Agave Pilsner?
Agree or disagree?
You gotta admire brewers brave enough to call their beer an "odd notion." But does that label scare you off ?
Thanks to a post from Sandy Mitchell, who writes his own blog for the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, on Tuesday I was able to sip a pint of a dark cherry porter from Ommegang brewery in Cooperstown, N.Y. The brew is known informally as Obamagang. I found it at Alsonso's bar and restaurant in Roland Park.
As I sipped the dark beer and watched the inaugural parade on the bar's TV, I did not, as every TV commentator felt compelled to say, feel "that I was a part of history."
But it was a pleasant experience. This beer, which apparently could not be sold in bottles because of a fight with the feds over putting the new president's image on a beer label, is sold only on tap and is called both 2009 Ale and Obamagang. It is dark , a porter, and a little over 6 percent alcohol by volume. It was a tad too sweet for me. That and the $8 price tag -- some of the proceeds are said to being going to charities -- limited me to one pint. Barack did say we are going to have to sacrifice.
Other area establishments pubs serving this beer, according to the Ommegang web site , are Max's on Broadway, Mahaffey's, Racer's and Frisco's Burrito's.
Anyone else sample this brew?
What do you think? Is it an historic winner or a pricey disappointment?
Having established that Iron City is the lowliest beer of Pittsburgh, a position Natty Boh holds in Baltimore, we switch now to a higher level.
What do we think are the best beers brewed in these towns, as well as those of Philadelphia and Phoenix, the other two cities with teams still in the NFL hunt?
Let's limit the nominees to bottled beers.
For starters, I say the best beer Pittsburgh has to offer is the Penn Pilsner brewed by Tom Pastorius at Pennsylvania Brewing Company.
As for Philadelphia, since we don't get Yards or Sly Fox in this market, I feel the best bottled beer that we can get our hands on comes from the distant suburb of Downingtown, Pa. That would be Victory Prima Pils.
I come up dry for Phoenix. I would guess Bud Lite. Anybody got a good Phoenix bottled beer?
As for Baltimore, I see a four-way race between bottles of Resurrection, Winter Storm, Pursuit of Happiness, and Flying Dog Gonzo Porter.
The floor is open for nominees.
This is Steeler week, meaning that emotions run high and common sense runs short. An ideal time, in other words, to compare and contrast two of the lowliest beers associated with these two towns -- Baltimore's National Bohemian and Pittsburgh's Iron City.
Price: Both are cheap. Not inexpensive; cheap. Natty Boh is cheaper.
I bought a six-pack of Natty Boh cans for $3.30 at the Wine Source in Hampden; that is, 55 cents a can. I bought a 30-pack of Iron City at Wells Liquors on York Road for $18.99. (This was the only available package in the store as the six-pack of bottles was sold out. Fresh supplies are on order.) This works out to 63 cents a can.
Color: Advantage, Iron City.
Natty Boh is an extremely pale yellow. Iron City is described by its fans as golden. To me, it looked like a Dollar Store yellow.
Aroma: Tie.
Natty Boh: Oh-so-faint aroma of hops. Iron City: faint aroma of spilled beer.
Taste (performed while blindfolded, eyes covered with a "terrible napkin"): Advantage, Natty Boh by default.
Natty Boh: Very little body, but no foul aftertaste. Iron City: Very little body, but foul aftertaste.
Aesthetics: Tie.
A difficult subject to address when talking about these two canned beers. but we shoulder on.
Natty Boh: Good slogan -- "From the Land of Pleasant Living." Gains points for the handsome mustachioed Mr. Boh on the can. Loses points for leaving town, like the Colts. The Natty Boh in cans is now brewed in Eden, N.C., and the beer in bottles is brewed in Wilkes Barre, Pa.
Iron City: Good slogan -- "Official beer of the Pittsburgh Nation." The shiny can does look "steely." But it is made of aluminum, and when emptied, in keeping with the tradition of the Pittsburgh nation, it should be crushed on the forehead.
So, in my opinion, Iron City is the more terrible of the two because it has a foul aftertaste, while Natty Boh has almost no taste.
Your views on these two?
