Southern Tier Brewing Co. - "Goat Boy" imperial weizenbock

Many times, reviews appear on this blog due to serendipity. Many of the beers I review are ones that I come across randomly, and decide to try with little or no knowledge of what's contained within the bottle. Today's is one such find. I saw this beer, all alone, on the shelf at Whole Foods on P Street. It had no siblings to keep it company. So, rather than letting it wallow all by its lonesome, I grabbed it. But - my knowledge of Southern Tier told me it would likely be good. I've had lots of their stuff in the past, and was never really disappointed. At one point, I even sought out one of their plum dessert ales - hoping I would finally be able to disapprove of SOMETHING they made - but no such luck...the "Plum Noir" was pretty good.  So, with that in mind, I figured that whatever was in this bottle would be pretty good.

But, standing in the checkout line, two questions came to mind:

1) WTF is a "goat boy?"
2) What is an "imperial weizenbock?"

Despite having no apparent answers to these questions, I bought the beer. $7.

So I stuck it in the fridge for a week or so and finally got around to trying it. But before doing that, I had to figure out what it is exactly I was about to drink. A quick Google search shows that "Goat Boy" was a Jim Breuer sketch on SNL in the mid-90s. I never warmed up to Breuer (I was more of a Tim Meadows / Norm MacDonald fan) but I guess that segment was famous (and, apparently, funny.) On the other side of the coin - according to the German Beer Institute, an "imperial weizenbock" is an imperial-strength German white ale that's essentially the stronger version of a wiezenbier (white beer.) So think of this beer as a super, amped-up version of a hefeweisen. This particular example is 7.5% ABV, which is a bit low for something to be called "imperial."

OK, so far so good.

Indeed, the bottle as well has a lot of information on it, including some tasting notes and a quick rundown of the hops and malts they use. I cracked open the beer, poured it, and as I was letting it sit and aerate, I read the back of the bottle. They claim it has a "deep ruby" color with a "banana" aroma. However...

The color is actually a murky orange that quickly turns to chocolate brown. 

Held up to the light:

Nothing about what you see above is "ruby red," amirite?

So let's talk taste. This beer is good. It's not awesome, just good. It reminds me a lot of Chimay. It's got that same color, the same aroma of sweet malts, and the same overall taste as an unfiltered Belgian. But it's not a Belgian beer. There's no real feeling to the flavor, no yeasty sediments lurking in the bottom of the glass, and no strength to the spice. The finish was a bit sweet, with no real lingering flavors. 

Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed drinking this beer. The flavor was good and it had the right mix of spice to be enjoyable, and sessionable - but I'm a bit curious since what I drank didn't match up at all with the tasting notes on the side of the bottle. The tasting notes claim the beer is supposed to taste like "caramelized bananas" - another Maury paternity test moment - and so I'm wondering whether I got a bad bottle, or maybe it sat too long in the stockroom, or what. Sometimes you'll come across this, with craft beer - something goes wonky in the brewing process, or perhaps some errant stockboy left the bottle in the sun too long and the light screwed up the beer. Or it was left out and got too hot (think an unrefrigerated truck in summertime.) Any of those things could damage the beer, and wine is the same way. 

So in conclusion, I don't know what to think about this beer. It was tasty, but  because of the way it was described on the bottle (and in other reviews I checked online) something leads me to believe I didn't quite get the "Goat Boy" experience. But no matter - this wasn't a waste of $7 and I'll probably grab one again, just to see if the first experience was truly indicative of the beer or not.

Rogue Brewing Co. - New Crustacean Barleywineish Imperial IPA Sorta ale

Yes, you read that title right. Today's review is a monster 11.6% ABV ale from Rogue called "New Crustacean Barleywineish Imperial IPA Sorta." Don't believe me? See for yourself.

Apparently, this started as an offshoot of Rogue's Old Crustacean barleywine. Rogue brewmaster John Maier mixed this with an Imperial IPA to make a brewpub special creation only available at Rogue's taproom. It caught on so much that they decided to make it into a special release beer and bottle it up. It comes in a cool blue opaque bottle with a stoned-looking crab on the front. I like the color and shape of the bottle - kinda like Rogue's Voodoo Doughnut that I reviewed in '12. Except, unlike that beer's bottle, this one doesn't look like Pepto-Bismol.

The eye is a beautiful cloudy orange, with a thin, bright-white seafoam head. The beer is neon orange when held to the light.

Definite barleywine-style alcohol notes in the aroma. Other than that, pretty clean. Time to take a taste.

Whoa.

The beer has the texture of the barleywine, but is missing out on the syrupy sweetness that most barleywines have. Here is where the IPA heritage comes into play; the beer has a serious, strong (but very pleasant!) hoppy taste with just a little bit of wood bitterness on the finish. The main taste here is apricot - pleasingly floral and strong.The aftertaste is still pleasant and floral, retaining a bit of that wood I mentioned.

What I like most about the beer is its strength. 11.6% ABV is nothing to scoff at; and a higher alcohol content can really carry the flavors well. As a result, this beer really engages your senses as you drink, taste and breathe. And the great thing is - this beer is readily available, so seek it out. Yes, you, Jon Roberts and Dave Slavick. Rogue has some shortcomings, as noted, but this isn't one of them. I've seen it  in a lot of places now - D'Vines, Whole Foods, Irving Wines and Spirits...so small shops carry it, as do big supermarkets. It's $12.99 and worth it for sure!

The Lagunitas Brewing Co. - Cappuccino Stout

Today's beer is a brew my brother Dan has recommended for quite some time - it's a 9.2% ABV limited-release coffee stout by The Lagunitas Brewing Company.

Lagunitas is based in Petaluma, CA - a city in Sonoma County, just north of San Francisco. Petaluma is pretty. In the first half of the last decade, I used to travel to the Bay Area quite often, and we used to hike the open areas around Petaluma:

Yep, that's me. Look at those fashionable chukka boots.

As for the beer's genre, coffee infusions are not new to beer. Some of the ones I've reviewed on this blog are Berkshire Brewing's Dean's Beans, and Stone's Russian Imperial Espresso Stout. All were tasty, and the combination of dark beer and coffee flavors is a natural pairing. But the downside here is that there are a LOT of variants, some better than others. Some, like this one and BBC's Dean's Beans, use local coffee shops as the contributor for their beans.

Lagunitas makes some good stuff, indeed, but I don't recall ever having a coffee beer from them. So when my brother Dan recommended this, and I came across it at Irving Wine and Spirits in Mt. Pleasant, naturally I needed to give it a try. It wasn't too expensive - roughly $8 for a 22oz bomber.

As you can tell, it's a dark beer. The pour is deep chocolate color, with an interesting brown color when held to the light.

The nose - thin chocolate / coffee. Very typical, not impressed yet.

The taste is rather good. It's got a surprisingly-strong coffee taste up front, lots of rich black coffee flavors with very little chocolate and some roasted bean tastes as the beer tapers off. Ground coffee aftertaste.  Both the finish and aftertaste of this beer is strong and surprisingly persistent.

Interesting thing here: all the flavors are polished, which is different from a lot of the coffee beers I've had. A lot of coffee beers either taste like gas station espresso mixed with beer, or are super gravelly and espresso-like as the brewers struggle to outdo themselves in making a beer more coffee-like. This beer is very polished, with smooth coffee flavors couched in a respectable ABV stout.

I'd say, this beer is worth trying. There are dozens of coffee-infused beers out there, so if you're into coffee (as I am) and you're into beer (as I am) it pays to seek out a marriage of the two. This one is available anywhere craft brews are sold, but since it's a limited release, it's only available certain times of the year.

Catoctin Creek "Roundstone" rye whiskey

Since all my posts last month have to do with rye, I figured I'd finish off the rye series and bring us into spring with a review of one of my favorite brown liquors - rye whiskey! For this review, friend and fellow gentleman Nathaniel offered up some of his private stock - some locally-made organic rye whiskey out of Catoctin Creek Distillery in Purcellville, Virginia.

As you can see, the batch numbers are written on the bottle. I've got B13A3.

In the United States, to be called "rye whiskey", a whiskey must be made from a mash of at least 51% rye. Other ingredients could be barley, wheat, or corn. These whiskeys are usually distilled and then casked (put into charred wooden casks to age) and left for some time, usually at least 3 years. For you Scotch whisky fans out there, Malt Advocate calls it "America's version of an Islay malt."

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Bill Toland wrote a nice article back in 2007 about rye production in America, specifically in western Pennsylvania where such a beverage was "invented." And evidently - I did not know this - aged rye came about by accident. Rye originally was intended to be enjoyed immediately but the travel time it took to get from some little hamlet in Allegheny County to a place like Boston or even Philadelphia could take years. So the rye itself aged in transit and when it arrived at its destination, had a much more refined tasted than perhaps came out of the still in western PA.

Anyways - about the drink. It's a straw-colored whiskey, nicely-colored with the usual expectant alcohol smells. Some notes of wood and honey in there, but mostly alcohol.

It's got a very pleasant taste - there's really no harsh burn or caustic alcohol tastes...instead, there's a delicious deep woodsy taste matched up with a faint caramel taste. The finish is the usual woody alcohol taste, but a pleasant aftertaste that tingles on your lips.

While this whiskey doesn't have the depth of flavor I experience in the Rye-on-Rye, I didn't expect it to. It's got a very clean, pure taste to it that makes it great for sipping. But most notably, it lacks the alcohol bite and grain spirits flavor that a lot of whiskeys have. This is why I usually take rye whiskey neat, for sipping. You can mix it, too - my usual bar cocktail is a rye Manhattan, using Bulleit rye with one cherry. But I think Catoctin Creek would make a fine Manhattan if you so chose.