Brewery Blog

NoCal Brew Tour: Day 2, Sierra Nevada

2008-05-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

To be safe, responsible people, we decided to do tasters of all the beers instead of drinking ourselves silly trying pints of everything. This is what Sierra Nevada has to offer. (written by Tony)

Crystal Wheat
- A filtered wheat beer. Light wheat beer, not fruity at all.
- Your standard American wheat.
- As someone said, "It's something you'd want to shotgun."
Ruthless Hef
- Very clean and crisp. Much more so than a normal wheat beer.
- Very fruity with a hint of clove
Wheat Beer
- More aroma than the crystal wheat, but similar flavor
- A small amount of spice to the beer
Summerfest
- Mimi: "It smells like the monkey cage at the zoo"
- Just a lager. Nothing all that exciting.
- Easy to drink with flavor similar to the wheat
Blonde Ale
- Kenji did not like this beer.
- Very little flavor. It has beer flavor and that's about it.
- It's not bitter, though.
Best Bitter Ale
- Nice malt flavor, and hope flavor, but needs to be more bitter.
Draught Style Pale Ale
- A good, drinkable beer. Straight forward pale.
- An excellent sideline beer.
Pale Ale
- You have all had this beer before. It's the Sierra Nevada beer with the green label.
- Slightly more bitter than the draught style pale.
Early Spring Beer (ESB)
- "Tastes good for you"
- It's like eating a salad
- Much better than the best bitter ale, more hop flavor to it
Southern Hemisphere
- Wonderful Hop Aroma.
- Citrus Hoppy
- It feels like you drink it through the nose
IPA
- Doesn't taste like an IPA
- Very sweet and not very bitter
- Not as good as the Southern Hemisphere
Torpedo
- Well balanced is the best way to describe this beer
- It is a very good beer to sit back, relax, and enjoy
Brown Ale
- A well balanced brown
- Good and tasty, but a bit too watery
Porter
- Pretty thin
- "It's not Black Butte Porter"
- No foretaste, just a sort of burnt aftertaste
Stout
- Kind of more like a porter than a stout
- Decent chocolate balance, but lacks the burnt, roasted aftertaste
Bigfoot Barleywine
- Good floral aroma
- Fairly mellow barleywine, but nicely balanced
- Mimi, "Whew!"

The overall winner of the tasting was by far the Torpedo. We ordered a pitcher of it since the only thing left for us to do was go to the campsite and drink more there.

NoCal Brew Tour: Day 2, Chico

2008-05-08T16:35:00.000-07:00

We made it to Chico! The beer tasting would begin. Our first stop was the Butte Creek Brewery. Butte Creek is currently doing a Co-Op with Bison Brewery, so we essentially got a 2 for 1 deal. Unfortunately, they didn't have any tours or a tasting room. We went into the office hoping that we could buy some 22's. The woman working the office was very nice and although they didn't have anything to taste, she went back to the brewery and brought us a freshly bottled Bison Brewery Chocolate Stout. Our first beer of the trip!

Bison Chocolate Stout: A very rich, bittersweet chocolate flavor. Not very sweet and it could have been served cold, but good nonetheless.

We had a hard time picking out what exactly we wanted, so we purchased 4 cases of 22's.

Bison Farmhouse Saison
Mateveza
Butte Creek Hang Ten IPA
Butte Creek Fresh Hop Ale

After the quick stop at Butte Creek, we headed over to Sierra Nevada. They have an awesome brewery. It is a model of energy efficiency. From a chemical engineering standpoint, the place is awesome. Props to them. Couple of cool facts about the brewery: they use whole leaf hops in all of their beers, bottle condition all of their beers, and they generate about 60% of their electricity from fuel cells and like 20% from PV solar cells. Here's a few pictures we took from inside the brewery.

Kenji, Tony, and Dave just outside the gift shop.

Kenji making a lewd gesture

Here we are eating our dunch out on their patio.

Now then, on to the beers.

NoCal Brew Tour: Day 2, Medford to Chico

2008-05-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

Day 2 began nice and early (for us). We left Medford around 9. I've never driven on I-5 south of Ashland, so it was new road for me. Interesting fact: the pass over the border is the highest point on I-5. For those of you who haven't been on that stretch of road, it's gorgeous. Here's some pictures Mimi took from the car.

Yes, that's my tongue sticking out. It's bigger than Mt. Shasta!

Mt. Shasta through the clouds

Here's a cool cinder cone mountain further south.

Since we didn't have any breakfast, we stopped in the town of Mt. Shasta around 11:30 at a local natural food store recommended to us by a friend of Kenji's. It was delicious. If you're in the area, stop by. It's called Berryvale Grocery.

From there, it was only 2 more hours to Chico. We were pleasantly surprised at the much shorter drive time than we anticipated.

NoCal Brew Tour: Day 1

2008-05-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

First thing's first: we set out on a journey through Northern California to visit 15 breweries in a week. Our ultimate destination happened to be the Boonville Beerfest on May 10th. You can read about it here

We had been preparing this trip for a long time, so we had a couple of Bible pages to help us plan our way. Here is the Google Earth map of our plan, and here is our nifty spreadsheet itinerary.

Now, on to the trip. The four of us (Tony, Mimi, Kenji, and Dave) piled our gear into and on top of my car and finally left Kenji's house around 8 PM. We had originally planned to leave around 6:30, but I'm always late and refused to pack ahead of time. The drive to Medford, OR was mostly uneventful. It was pretty late by the time we arrived, and I had started to see things towards the end. We checked into our Motel, unpacked the car, and promptly fell asleep.

I live in Beervana

2008-01-25T21:39:00.000-08:00

If you read this blog and don't live in Portland I am very sorry for you. This town is probably now the beer center of the universe. Yet another beer-centric bar just opened in town and it is awesome. 20ish rapidly rotating taps, mostly local pretty local stuff. The place is called Green Dragon, I can't find a website. I think I saw one once and lost it. It caters to beer drinkers, first time I went in they had Green Flash IPA up on the board, but had just run out. Damn. Food is good too, I think. Quick and dirty beer reviews time, last time I was there I had:

Leavenworth Pilsner. It was awesome. Good pilsners are incredibly difficult to find in North America. The last good one I had was in Vancouver, Canada. (It was excellent). Strange, then that Leavenworth, a town known for its German heritage should produce such a quintessential Czech beer, but this was great. Nice head, slightly sour, a classic pilsner. 8.7/10

Then I had a Schwartz beer. It was a bock, and nice, but I can't remember the name of the brewery. Can't win 'em all.

Then they had a Belgian up on the board. Turns out it was an American brewery, but Belgian style. Usually these beers are terrible. But I was in a good mood. I trust this place. So what the hell. I ordered the Salmon Creek Brother Larry's Belgian. Holy shit! This compares favorably to Duchess du Bourgonge! I've never even heard of this brewery! I've been within a mile of it! Seriously. This had those wonderful sweet/sour characteristics of a good Belgian. I am going to go up to the brewery to check it out. 9.1/10

New Belgium 2 Below

2007-01-11T18:56:00.000-08:00

December 15

New Belgium 2 Below.

Light amber in hue, with a slightly sour nose. Also in the nose I pick up fresh hop notes.

Very interesting… a much different beer than I expected. Not much body, but with a big mouthfeel, if that makes sense. The flavor is slightly malty and very yeasty, reminiscent of bread baking. The sourness of the hops really accentuates this, so this beer is very much like drinking bread dough. Very crisp, refreshing bread dough. This is not nearly as bad as it sounds. It does get a little old pretty quick, though.

WDTB? They had it at Disjecta. That was cool. Other than that haven’t seen it much.

WSDTB? Bakers?

8.2/10

Lagunitas Brown Shugga

2007-01-10T21:04:00.000-08:00

I have been remiss. Appologies...

December 14

Lagunitas Brown Sugga

Slightly malty nose with good sweetness and depth. Deep red in hue.

Good flavor, rich and complex, but overly sweet at the finish, almost cloying.

It has the malty richness of a high alcohol beer in the finish, slightly overly sweet/alcoholic.

The start is very very mild, not much there at all. The body is good, but the flavor is not particularly interesting until the end.

Some people really like this beer, but I am rather blasé about it. There are not really enough hops to balance all the malt, and it lacks the spice or complexity in the middle to really distinguish it.

One dimensional beers can be good. However the flavors here are simply not exciting enough to be left unbalanced. The sweet is too overbearing and nothing balances the alcoholic twang at the finish.

WDTB? My team, as we are sponsored by Lagunitas. Awesome. Those who really like malty/strong beers.

WSDTB? People looking for mildly flavorful strong beers. This is definitely flavorful, but not on par with something like Arrogant Bastard.

Beervent Calendar

2006-12-20T22:41:00.000-08:00

Kyle made me a Beervent Calendar because we both play on Coltrane and he was my Secret Santa! Awesome! Let's do this!

Ceiling Booze from Rogue Distillery

2006-05-08T23:19:00.000-07:00

OK. So if you go to Rogue Brewpub on your birthday you get a free yard of beer and a t-shirt. The beer is awesome, their shirts tend to be horrid and the wrong sizes. So on Cammy's birthday I went to Rogue, with Cammy of course. I drank some beer. I forget what. While coolin' in the pub we heard a horrid crashing noise from above us. Although disconcerting nothing appeared to be threatening our immediate health, so we paid it no mind. A minute later a man went sprinting up the steps to the distillery. (You knew Rogue had a distillery, right? Of course.) While contemplating the deeply concerned expression on the erstwhile janitor's face I noticed that a clear liquid was dripping from the ceiling.

Intrigued, I caught a drop on my hand. It smelled like gin. It tasted like gin. At this point my eyebrows had migrated to very high on my forehead. I finished the dregs of my beer and proceeded to catch as much of the booze dripping from the ceiling as possible. It was delicious, strong, flavored slightly of gin and smoother than imaginable.

When the man whom we had previously seen sprinting up the stairs returned he noticed our quizzical looks and approached us to explain the situation. A large shelf had inexplicably collapsed, dropping container upon container of test batches of wasabi vodka, triple peppercorn vodka and gin. It was uncut, with a proof around 180, and as such was shockingly smooth. The master distiller was quite distraught, as the booze I was gleefully catching from above represented 6 months of test batches, most of which were intended for a tasting in a mere 2 weeks. When I confessed to having sampled his wares when the rained down upon us he replied "Drink all you can. That was good shit."

WDTB? Me. That is all.

WSDTB? Uhhh... Cammy and Chris should have...

Rating: Germaphobes:.2/10 Normal people: 7.8/10 (Asbestos...) Those without fear: 9.3/10

Fuck You Bridgeport Blue Heron! (for Steve)

2006-04-30T02:09:00.000-07:00

4/29/06 2:03 A.M.

My right hand is splotched with my own blood. I only noticed this several minutes ago.

Monica and John threw a party. Monica is on Coltrane while John is not, although he works for Addidas, which explains the sandals I was wearing an hour ago. They bought a keg of Bridgeport Blue Heron. I supplied the tap, as well as riding my bike to the party. I also drank as much as I could.

Later, and there was a girl involved, yet no "intimate relations", no fear Amanda, we attempted to go to the Gypsy. Upon arrival my lack of ability to contain my bodily fluids became apparent. My trip to the Gypsy, much to my chagrin, involved an unfortunately close encounter with a curb. I am currently doing my best to keep those afore mentioned bodily fluids (blood) from soiling my carpet. I have not been optimally successful.

Why my left foot is bloodied is no mystery, as the big toe is missing substantial skin, yet my right foot's predicament baffles me. I blame John.

The beer, of which I consumed prodigious quantities, left me particularly unable to ride my bike in a straight line. Luckily I found a party at PSU, locked up my bike and watched the police bust it. Good times were had by all. It was only 5 minutes before that I decided that it would be worthwhile to put on a pair of disgustingly damp socks under some even more wet shoes.

While locking up my bike I watched a frat boy who I immediately same to detest take several beers from a case "hidden" in a bush. I liberated one and set up an observation post across the street. It was an ideal location to watch the PoPo arrive and station themselves outside the door. They did not appear to bust anyone, simply to make a show of force.

The ride home was long and winding. Sober it is quite straight, but I was not sober.

My left foot is beginning to throb, but only a good 25 minutes after I began this post. I blame John.

WDTB? Yuppies. Costco shoppers.

WSDTB? This is a good light beer of last resort. Other than that I can think or many many many beers that are light and go down easy that one should purchase 15.5 gallons of. Many many many.

Rating: 7.0/10

Experiments In Beer Consumption

2006-04-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

I have, in my possesion, a case of canned Guinness, a nice light, low alcohol beer. No kidding. My weekend plans involve attending the Gandy Goose frisbee tournament. At this tournament I intend to consume nothing but the Guinness, and maybe some water if I get parched. What will happen? Maybe something good, maybe something bad! But unlike Ren and Stimpy, we will soon find out! Check back next week!

Hitachino Stout

2006-03-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

3/6/06

Live review of Hitachino Nest Sweet Stout from a bottle.

It isn’t that dark in appearance. Nor does it have much head, not a good sign.

The body is pretty thin on first taste as well. It is, as advertised, sweet. Not cloying by any means, simply sweet. However this is not the sweetness of a heavy alcohol beer, there is no bite, nor any bitterness. So to me this is more of a porter.

It smells red. It kind of tastes red as well. That doesn’t exactly make sense to me either, don’t worry. A little spicy as well. Cranberries? Lingonberries? These are the notes I am getting. The website claims it has coffee and chocolate notes. Find me a stout that does not make those claims.

I like it. I’m not in love, by any means, I simply enjoy drinking it. It is beer, however, so that is no major coup on their part. I would drink it again, certainly.

There is a pleasant smokiness in the finish, hidden pretty far back there.

They add lactose to the beer, as a sweetener 10 minutes before the end of the boil. To me this seems odd, as about half of all Asians are lactose intolerant. Including myself. So I may get a bit gassy soon. We shall see. I am guessing that the lactose either breaks down in the boil or is enzymatically transformed into something else because lactose is not sweet by itself. (Milk, for example.) However Lactaid type milks are. So I am guessing that this lactose is broken down.

As it is thin yet tasty without being super fizzy repeat drinkability is very high.

WDTB? Not really certain.

WSDTB? People who like Black Butte Porter. This kicks the shit out of Black Butte. Honestly, this beer is way way better. No comparison. Yet, as this is nearly 3 times as expensive it better be. So supposing you are in Japan, where all beer is really expensive, buy this because it is good.

Rating: 8.2/10

Samuel Adams Boston Lager

2006-01-25T22:27:00.000-08:00

Live fucking review, bitches!

Of Sam Adams Lager! From a bottle!

Decent color for a lager, a light amber in hue. It has a nose as well, a good sign. Unfortunately the nose has some off notes. Dirty, chemical tones, with a bit of natural rubber. At least it still has some lace.

The flavor is sour. Dominantly sour, with little else. Admittedly this particular beer has been sitting around for a bit, has been in and out of the fridge a couple times and is being consumed at cellar temperature. Cellar temperature brings out the flavor of a beer. In this case that is a bad thing. There is a bit of warmth hidden in the flavor profile somewhere, which, if emphasized, might counteract the sourness. But then we would have an ale type flavor, not a lager.

Ok, it is growing on me. I was strongly considering going to get a High Life to wash this down, but that will not be necessary. The mouth feel is clean, but not overly crisp. It is not over-carbonated, a major plus. The aftertaste is not too sour, nor too powerful. For a higher end macrobrew this is decent.

I could drink some more of this. If I had to.

Hmm. Now I kinda like it.

WDTB? People who live in areas where there are no micro brews. Me in airports.

Time for an aside. I do not know how well this sells in Portland. I certainly did not pay for it. I would guess that it either sells really poorly, because for lagers people dink piss water PBR, then pay real money for real beer, or it sells decently, as people have enough of a beer pallet to distinguish this from the other macros. I suppose I could to some real research, but that would cut into my drinking time. I would guess ‘poorly’.

WSDTB? Anyone who lives in an area where you can’t get real microbrews. This is better (I think) than Henry Weinhard’s, the local macro. For whatever that means. As soon as I get a free bottle of that I will review it.

Wow. I just went to Sam Adams website. It sucks. Things move around and make bonging noises, plus you can zoom way in on pictures of beer. In much the same way that you should not do that with porn it is a bad idea with beer. Everything is flash, so I cannot snag a picture for you, as I am too lazy to look elsewhere. Also if you swing your mouse in a haphazard fashion you are likely to induce an epileptic seizure from the jittery beer bottles.

Rating: 7.4/10

Hitachino Red Rice Ale

2005-08-31T13:32:00.000-07:00

So I was thinking of making dinner. Instead I decided to drink beer. So here is a live beer review of Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale.

The nose is elegant, sweet, a little malty, with some sour citrus notes at the end. There are also some musty notes around the start, like what most Bridgeport beer smells like, but less so. I see sedimentation, so it must be bottle conditioned, which would explain the smell. There is a bit of a floral note at the back as well.

The beer itself is a rich amber in hue, with a very complex flavor. It is warm and round without being particularly full bodied. The start is pretty smooth, as is the middle, but there is a nice sourness to the finish. This is a very warm beer, with good, rich flavor.

I could drink a lot of this. The sourness lingers a little overlong but otherwise this is a really good beer. I’m at a loss at ways to describe it effectively. It is superbly balanced and delicious. I’m not done with this one yet and I already want another.

I’m going to go ahead and christen this the best Japanese beer ever. Or at least the best Japanese beer that I have ever had. By a lot.

WDTB? Japanophiles? I’m not certain that the average Japanophile white guy would drink this. They tend to have already convinced themselves that they really like Kirin (ugh.) Lucky bloggers (my dad got this for me).

WSDTB? People who want to try something new for whom price is not important. Do it if you have the chance, at least to prove that all Japanese beer is not really only suitable for quenching thirst before you have a real beer.

Rating: 9.4/10

Hornsby's Hard Apple Cider

2005-06-10T00:13:00.000-07:00

Boy, oh boy, do I have a treat for you. My good buddy Chris has agreed to do hard cider reviews. Chris, due to genetic anomolies, is allergic to wheat, thus traditional beer makes him quite ill (perish the thought).

So here is his first review, forwarded on to you, dear reader, by me, Kenji.

Hornsby’s Hard Apple Cider

3/19

First of all, I would like to praise Hornsby’s for its availability, which is no doubt due to its status as a subsidiary of Gallo wineries. As one for whom it is physically unwise to drink beer and who has bad things happen to him when he chugs wine, it is nice to have an alternative alcoholic beverage that I can consume at the same rate as those drinking beer around me. I often find myself at a random supermarket, little country store, or hole-in-the-wall bar in search of a low-percentage alcoholic beverage that won’t send me into convulsions. More often than not, Hornsby’s is what I find. More often than not, it’s not that good.
Hard ciders tend to fall under two extremes: those that are so fruity that you think you’re drinking fruit juice (perhaps with an infusion of molten Jolly Ranchers), and those that are extremely dry—even beer-like—and refer back to their fruit origins more subtly and primarily in the aftertaste. Hornsby’s falls somewhere in between these two extremes, and does not come out the better for it. It has a mildly sweet apple flavor not unlike the apple juices they sell at fast food restaurants, but with a somewhat unpleasant- tasting alcoholic flavor reminiscent of rubbing alcohol. The aftertaste suggests rubbing alcohol first, apples second—no surprises here. Sip it and you’ll get sick of it after a while, chug it and you’ll get sick of it sooner but find yourself with a bit of a buzz (don’t forget, its alcohol content is 6.4%).

Sure you’ll be able to find Hornsby’s without looking too hard, making it suitable as a safety cider, but at the end of the day how can you be sure that you’re not getting buzzed by some old Treetop apple juice spiked with rubbing alcohol?

WDTB? Rhino lovers: a Rhino is on the logo—it’s called ‘HORN’-sby’s after all—and to our knowledge no rhinos were harmed in the making of this beverage. Girls under the misapprehension that this is a desperate non-beer-drinkers’ “girly” drink. Middle school alcoholics (we know you’re out there).

WSDTB? The makers of this beverage, so they can taste this monstrosity for themselves and improve upon the formula.

Who Doesn’t Drink This Beer? Guys under the misapprehension that this is a “girly” drink. A friend of a friend who brews cider to 10-14%, thus making it a non-“girly” drink. The English.

Rating: 3.9/10

***I can't find any homepage for Hornsby's, which is super strange. Ah, Fuck it.***

Hitachino Nest White Ale

2005-06-09T23:36:00.000-07:00

My brother Raf and I are going to try to make bloging history here, simultaneous food/beverage review postings by siblings. Actually I have no idea if we are the first to do that, checking on that would require work, and you know I tend to avoid that. But anyhow go to the Get Him Eat Him review.

So here is a live review of Hitachino Nest White Ale, which my father kindly surprised me with a bottle of as a gift. There were two others in the set; they will be blogged soon, no fear.

This ale is pale gold in color, but cloudy, apparently unfiltered (I tend to avoid reading the labels until after, they tell you what they want you to think, whereas I prefer to form my own opinion first. I’ll check on it’s filtration later). It maintained an excellent head for a lighter beer, with foam sticking around for a long time, a good sign.

The nose is floral, with a little bit of sweetness and a hint of grapefruit, giving it a nice crispness. I’m also picking up a little spice way at the back, but I can’t place it now.

The flavor is very bright, with many interesting notes, a veritable flavor extravaganza, easily the best white ale I have ever had. I think the only other white ale I’ve imbibed is that horrid Blue Moon. There isn’t a lot of flavor in the start; all the intriguing bits come in the middle. There isn’t a lot of mouth feel, this is a pretty light beer, and perhaps a bit over carbonated, as the start seems to be completely obscured by the bubbles in your mouth. So maybe the start is neat too, I just don’t know yet. I suppose I could wait until it gets flat, I just don’t want to. The odd thing is here I waited a couple minutes after pouring before I started drinking and it is still noticeably over carbonated.

Ok, I decided the spice note was coriander.

The finish is sour. I think it is too sour, as it lingers a little too long and can overpower the next sip. The sourness is citrusy, and is necessary to balance the other notes earlier in the flavor profile, but by it self it is a bit much.

Repeat drinkability is moderate. I would like another, but I’m not that disappointed that there are no more Hitachino Nest White Ales in the house.

WDTB? An extraordinarily good question, as I believe my father bought these at Uwajimaya, but I have no corroboration on that. Last time I checked these beers are very expensive, and unfortunately not worth the money for repeated drinking. However if I were in Japan and had this beer as an expensive option (as opposed to a prohibitively expensive option) I would totally go for it, as it is vastly superior to all other Japanese beer I have ever had.

WSDTB? Japanese people. Anyone deeply infatuated with white ales, a group I do not count myself one of. Anyone who needs to prove that Japan can produce a good beer, as opposed to decent, which is as far as Kirin/Sapporo/Asahi ever gets.

Rating: 8.4/10, with the caveat that those who really enjoy white ales would rate this around 9.1.

Oooh, oooh, time to check my palate. Ok, read the bottle... The bottle is almost entirely in Japanese. Hmm... OK, go to the website. Adjuncts: Coriander (I so fucking rule at this game), orange peel (ok I admit I said grapefruit because saying citrus all the time without choosing which citrus I meant is lame, and grapefruit sounds neater than lemon, might not have guessed orange, was considering being extraordianarily snobbish and saying Yusu, a neat Japanese citrus fruit, but decided against it), and nutmeg (which I missed).

Sierra Nevada Summerfest

2005-05-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, live one here.

I’m sipping a Sierra Nevada Summerfest from a bottle, their seasonal lager.

This is a really good lager. The nose is sour, with a bare hint of bitter melon. The body is crisp and clean, but with excellent character. The finish has just the right amount of sourness, lingering long enough to savor its complexity, but no longer.

I also get a tiny bit of natural rubber in the nose. That sounds horrid, but isn’t. I guess it is hard to explain that some scents, when alone are really unpleasant, but in a full bouquet are at home. I also don’t know if most people know what bitter melon is or smells like, but rest assured that it is excellent in Okinawan soup.

So I guess that is all I’ve got on this beer. The best way to describe it is to tell people to imagine a really good lager, then go from there.

Repeat drinkability is directly proportional to ambiant air temperature, which is to say the hotter the better on this beer.

WDTB? Hard to say on seasonals, this one is new to me.

WSDTB? Oh man, I’m imagining a beautiful sunny day, vegetarian hot dogs on the grill, frisbees flying through lazy summer air thick with the droning of June bugs, and I already want another Summerfest, even though it is rainy, the middle of the night and I don’t even know what a June bug looks like. So, under circumstances as I have described above, or any reasonable collection thereof, this is the beer for you.

Rating: 8.7/10

Cherry Chocolate Jubilee!

2005-05-16T22:43:00.000-07:00

I just received an excellent comment from John Duffell, who has a candy blog. Excellent. He refers us to visit his blog on cake-flavored beer.

Once, for a party at Carleton we bought two kegs and the liquor store threw in about 7 cases of Cherry Chocolate Jubilee flavored malt liquor (read beer). We took it, even though it turned out to be awful. Really awful. I, as the thrifty sort, did my best to use it as "I'm drunk, so it doesn't matter how it tastes, this will maintain the buzz" beer. Times have changed, I would not recommend such actions now, but I believe that such things are excusable in college. Anyhow this is a pic of the aftermath. I broke that chair, and to elude detection we threw it in a bush. Did I mention that I was drunk and my thought process was impaired?

So I have had cake flavored beer, and would heartily recommend the avoidance of such to other people. That being said I am still deeply intrigued by someone trying to do a cherry chocolate cake flavored beer, more power to them, the more the merrier, people should always experiment with new beer flavors. However history tends to be against them on this one.

A related side issue on this is the designation of this beer as marketed toward women. What do the women drinkers out there feel? Is the general feeling that women prefer sweeter, "gimmick" beers justified? I do not believe that women are pre-disposed to like flavored beer. However such beers do tend to be a little more accessible to people who have not developed a full beer palette, and as women are taught culturally that beer is a "men's drink", (a notion I thoroughly reject, incidentally) I do understand the marketing. I just don't agree with it.

Saint Rogue Red

2005-05-09T22:49:00.000-07:00

1/12/05 At Rogue brewpub.

Its my mom's birthday today, so here I am at Rogue.

I've got a Saint Rogue Red. There is not much nose to speak of, slightly malty and a little floral, with a hint of hops. It is deep red in color.

The start is pleasantly crisp for a red and the body is just full enough to balance a nice hop finish. Like most Rogue beers the beauty is in the balance. At first this is a fairly unexceptional beer, but its quality grows on you.

This is a pleasant, drinkable red, well balanced, but still complex enough to be interesting. A good standard for repeat drinking.

WDTB? Regulars at Rogue.

WSDTB? This beer is perfectly suited for people who really know and like beer and need a known, tasty standby.

Rating: 8.9/10

Descutes Black Butte Porter

2005-04-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

Hey Reed College! I'm rocking on your dime! How you like that?! Heh, heh.

So I'm doing a live review of a bottle of Deschutes Brewery Black Butte Porter. It has been my long standing policy to not spend money in such a way that it will end up in the hands of people who hate me. I have established in my post on Deschutes Mirror Pond that the Deschutes Brewery donates money to the Republican Party and tends to lean to the right in general. So by purchasing a Deschutes beer some of my money will end up in the pocket of Karl Rove. I cannot live with that possibility. Hence I never spend money on Deschutes beer. However I have been able, though various contacts, been able to procure a bottle of Deschutes beer that I did not pay for. It was not stolen, instead it was payed for by Reed College. So, dear reader, I now get to review a bottle of Black Butte Porter.

The beer is deep amber in color, dark, but not very dark. The nose is a little malty, but with strong dusty/musty notes. That's about it.

The flavor profile is pleasant enough to start, with tiny hints of chocolate. Tiny. Barely there. Also barely there is the body, which is a particularly strange thing for a porter to be missing. However that is forgivable, as this beer could be crafted toward a particular demographic. What is unforgivable is the finish, which is dusty and slightly sour, long after the beer has left the mouth.

Hmmm, this seems to be bottle conditioned, as is Bridgeport, for whom the mustiness is characteristic as well. Are they related? Only more beer drinking can tell. Maybe we can set up a poll. I'll ask Saren.

After discussion with my father we dubbed this beer "Bud Dark". Perhaps more fitting would be "Coors Dark" based on the political leanings involved. Now I don't want to spend money on this beer because it is not very good. I can think of few reasons to drink this beer. I don't particularly want to finish this beer, much less seek out another, (but I will, 'cmon, I don't want to waste it, its beer!) so repeat drinkability is low.

WDTB? Way to many people. This is one of those beers that makes me have less faith in the tastes of the American beer drinking public. This beer is not good, better beer can be found at comparable prices.

WSDTB? People who like thin dark beer with strange aftertastes.

Rating: 6.1/10

New Old Lompoc L.S.D

2005-04-26T23:05:00.000-07:00

Still at New Old Lompoc

L.S.D.

Now I’ve got a Lompoc Strong Ale, on nitro, I believe. The nose is rather smokey.

Not a huge amount of body, but that may be a perceptional effect of the nitro. A visual check shows that this is a deep red color, more like Guiness, which is rather thin as well. Most of the hops show up at the finish, which is rather bitter at the end. Overall the balance is a little hop heavy. I would personally prefer a little more malt and body to balance the hops, but some people might really like this.

Overall the complexity is above average, enough to keep it interesting. However the intense hop finish makes it more of a one pint beer.

The finish is quite smooth though, but kind of has a hole in the middle where the body should be.

WDTB? Apparently this beer is one of the most popular here.

WSDTB? Someone who wants a strong, dark, hoppy beer, although without much body.

Rating: 8.1/10

New Old Lompoc Jolly Bock

2005-04-26T23:03:00.000-07:00

12/27/04
In the New Old Lompoc brewpub, who seem totally without usable website, with a Jolly Bock on tap.

This is a dark lager, with a nice hop nose. It is maltier than most lagers (it is a bock afterall), yet is still pretty crisp, with a pretty high alcohol content, weighing in at 7.1%.

They lager it for over a year. Can I say that? Is that an acceptable use of the word? Did I just verb lager? Welcome the wild frontier of internet English!

This has some nice citrus notes in the finish, very subtle and totally unexpected. The finish also has less hop bitterness than you might expect, while the body is less malty than most bocks, I think. However itâs been a while since I last had a bock, so Iâm not entirely certain. Not too many breweries do bocks these days, which is a shame.

Repeat drinkability is quite high. We need to start a revolution here. Bocks should be the new ambers. Letâs do it. Iâll work on t-shirts and drinking lots of bock. You work on drinking bocks and wearing t-shirts if I ever do get them out.

WDTB? People in New Old Lompoc. Which is to say the only semi-worthwhile place on 23rd Iâve seen. Not quite hipsters entirely, not quite all yuppies either. I let the waitress choose this for me.

WSDTB? People who like bocks. People who like ambers. This is better than an amber. So fucking drink it!

Rating: 8.5/10

Editorial Time!

2005-04-12T23:58:00.000-07:00

Recently two very interesting and divergent news stories passed through my consciousness. The first, in the Oregonian, was on the state of microbrews in Oregon. The second was on NPR's Marketplace and was on the decline of breweries in Germany. They painted two very very different pictures. As the Oregonian piece will probably only be accessible for a week or so more I will summarize it briefly: beer consumption across the US is flat over 2003-2004, however microbreweries in the Pacific Northwest have seen strong growth, with several new breweries opening each year. Many established small breweries are seeing growth in the 10-15% range, with some even higher. Rogue brewery, in my opinion the best brewery in the country, managed a 33% increase in sales over 2003, despite expanding into no new domestic markets and seeing international sales drop 5%. So quality sells in the Northwest.

However German breweries are closing. Experts estimate there is a 30-40% overcapacity of production country wide, so more closures are expected. Young Germans are choosing wine and mixed drinks over beer. The situation for German breweries is so dire they are desperately trying to shore up market share by re-designing labels to make them more hip while introducing new flavored malt beverages to the market.

Most people are shocked to hear this, as Germany is considered a beer Mecca. However I am not in the least surprised one main reason. This may seem counter intuitive, however I pin the decline of the German beer industry directly on the German beer purity law, or Rheinheitsgebot of 1516. This protectionist piece of legislation has successfully made it difficult to import beer in Germany for many years. However now it has completely stifled any creativity in the beer industry. I just posted a review of Rogue's Half-e-Weizen, which, as it includes coriander and ginger, could not be sold as beer in Germany. It was delicious. German beer is limited. You can't make out there experimental microbrews, nor can you make a cheap, piss water macro. My beer world has room for both of those things. Germany does not. As a result young people are looking elsewhere for their drinks.

As a brief aside let it not be said that the German drinking public is too high brow to drink crazy beer mixtures. While my mother was in Germany recently her hosts would routinely drink beer at lunch. But it was not unadulterated beer. Instead a popular drink was "dirty beer" a pitcher half full of beer, half full of coke. Also popular was beer and lemonade, also popular with Londoners. A pity, that Rheinheitsgebot.

Unlike some smarmy newspapers, I'm going to sign my editorials.

Kenji Spielman,
Drunkard in Chief

Rogue Half-E-Weizen

2005-04-12T23:52:00.000-07:00

1/11/05 At Rogue Brewpub, with Dan who just turned 45. Iâm drinking a Half-e-Weizen (aka Mo Ale).

This is an exceptionally delicate beer. There is not much nose to speak of and the flavor sneaks up on you slow ly. IT is flavored very lightly with coriander and ginger, which are quite mild.

The body is a little thin, but that matches the overall ethos of the beer.

Usually this is not a type of beer I like (flavored beer in general and Hefeweizens in particular), but for what this beer is intended to do it succeeds perfectly. There is just enough bitterness in the finish and the unusually spices keep it very interesting, even if their flavors are rather muted.

This is perhaps the best light beer I have ever had. You could drink huge quantities of this quite pleasurably. I will have to do more research into that later.

This is a very good beer to start the evening with. It leaves no unpleasant tastes on the palette, yet is interesting to the finish. I would deem it comparable to a Kolsh in character.

WDTB? Honestly, I don't know. I'll let you know when I figure that out.

WSDTB? People who like light beers. People who find spice beers intriguing. People who are too hot and want to drink lots of beer.

Rating: 9.1/10

Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA

2005-04-05T23:32:00.001-07:00

2/17 at the County Cork with Portland Taiko

Matt requested that I review the Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA. Or maybe he wanted me to review the 60 minute or the 120 minute. Well, either way he gets the 90 minute because that is what is on tap right now. I really want to review all three, but I do not have that opportunity yet.

The nose is sweet, with a hint of cinnamon. The beer is light amber in hue, which belies its full-bodied nature.

This is a full-bodied, yet smooth. The flavor profile is quiet complex, with the hop kick at the very end of the flavor profile.

The body is warm and rich, with the full flavor only becoming evident late in the flavor profile. There are lots and lots of hops in this beer, so much that you can feel their residue on your tongue and lips.

The finish is the exceptional part of this beer. It is very hoppy and complex, but without being cloying or bitter at all, quite astounding for a beer with as much hops as this beer has.

This is a fascinating beer, complex, yet drinkable. The body is full enough to balance the hops, yet not overly malty in the least. As near as I can figure the true coup of this beer is the creation of a strong (9% ABV), tasty, full-bodied beer with the ability to withstand the rigorous hopping that is the main purpose of this beer.

WDTB? Hop heads. This is a true connoisseur's beer, dogfish head being known all over the country.

WSDTB? People with a serious yen for hops, but need the beer to back it up.

This is a very warm beer, with exceptional repeat drinkability for the amount of alcohol and hops involved. Which is to say I could drink another. But not more than two, let's not get crazy up in here!

Rating: 9.3/10