Drinking tons of tasty beer isn't easy to do alone, so I'm super fortunate to have my colleague Christine K. (homebrewer, beer lover, and dog rescuer extraordinaire) to join me as Deputy Editor to help review the beers tonight. I found last year it was just too difficult to juggle the notes, the pictures, the tasting, and the interviews; in addition to having her help with editing and logistics, now Christine and I can compare and contrast our tasting notes.
And, of course, a big thanks to Emily and Abby at the Rosen Group for providing Christine and I media credentials and complimentary tickets for the event. This event is not cheap so we deeply appreciate their generosity!
Christine and I got in a few minutes early, thanks to the media credential, so we had a chance to drop our stuff in the media room and pick up our SAVOR commemorative beer: an imperial witbier aged in red wine barrels, produced through a collaboration between Port City Brewing Co. and Crux Fermentation Project. More on that, though, later. We made our way out into the Grand Tasting Hall, and no sooner did we get started with the first beer, below, when the loudspeaker announced that the public would be entering in five minutes. It was off to the races!
Ska Brewing Co. - "Pink Vapor Stew" sour ale from Durango, Colorado
We hit a winner right out of the gate. Ska's "Pink Vapor Stew", which is an awesome name by the way, is a 5.10% ABV kettle-soured ale made with beets, carrots, and ginger. It's designed to mimic a juice the brewers liked to drink when hungover.
Pours hot pink out of the can, which is neat. There's a slightly tangy aroma, but pretty subtle. The flavor is quite nice and refreshing, with a relatively low level of sourness, and tang of bitterness - maybe that's the ginger coming through? That flavor lingers for quite some time.
Actually, kind of like a sour version of Dogfish Head's "Dragons and Yumyums" and thereby an improvement. Overall, a nice beer, refreshing and light. We both liked it, and I could see myself drinking this the morning after a bender!
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Perennial Artisan Ales - "Abraxas" imperial stout from St. Louis, Missouri
This beer is quite famous - a double imperial stout, clocking in at roughly 10.00% ABV, made with Ancho chiles, cinnamon sticks, vanilla beans, and cacao nibs. Rated "Outstanding" by BeerAdvocate.com, the barrel-aged version is the #3 beer of all time on their website. High praise, indeed. In the spirit of full disclosure, I had it a few days prior at a Fremont / Perennial tap takeover event at Meridian Pint, in a side-by-side tasting of the regular Abraxas and the Vanilla Abraxas.
Whoa, this is thick. Has some of the brownest foam I've ever seen. Very oily and soft, it has strong vanilla extract flavor and some really intense roasted malt flavors. Aftertaste is insanely heavy with deep, powerful roasted flavors. Today's offering was paired with country-style pate, cornichon, and mustard, which was tasty but hard to sense the flavors given the strength of the beer.
OK, we are in dangerous territory here, but neither Christine nor I liked the Abraxas. It was too oily and bitter. Like overly burnt Starbucks coffee that's been sitting out for a while. And the aftertaste, Jesus. It just hangs on to you, coating your mouth and throat with this syrupy, acrid flavor. Feels like I gargled asphalt. Not even water gets rid of the taste. Funny thing is, I don't recall either of them at Meridian Pint being like this. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of stouts, for sure, and I know that this beer is highly regarded and loved by many. If dark, oily stouts are your jam, then this will be perfect for you. For us, however, this one was just too much. A certain person I know has a secret stock of these from 2015, which I'm sure I'll never get to try, but I think this might be a beer in which the aging is almost necessary. I'd give it four years and then come back to it.
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Biscayne Brewing Co. - "Dopplebock" from Doral, Florida
I like dopplebocks a lot, so naturally I was drawn to this. Dopplebocks are stronger, maltier versions of the German style of beer "bock", with relatives being maibocks, helles bocks, and eisbocks. Today's example is from Doral, Florida's Biscayne Brewing Co.
The Sip and Puff team has a bit of a disagreement on this one - while it's decent to the style, presenting some malty flavors and a low hop profile, we both were expecting something else. Christine wants it stronger, with more body and hops, and I want it a bit softer with more malty sweetness and biscuity wheat flavors. Interesting how we both found it lacking, in different ways and in opposite directions of the flavor "spectrum." Additionally, we would have liked to have had the pairing, but alas, no food in sight.
The Sip and Puff team has a bit of a disagreement on this one - while it's decent to the style, presenting some malty flavors and a low hop profile, we both were expecting something else. Christine wants it stronger, with more body and hops, and I want it a bit softer with more malty sweetness and biscuity wheat flavors. Interesting how we both found it lacking, in different ways and in opposite directions of the flavor "spectrum." Additionally, we would have liked to have had the pairing, but alas, no food in sight.
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MISHAP! Brewing Co. - "Fire Hole" chili porter from Buffalo, Wyoming
I have a soft spot for chili beers, and have reviewed many in the past, so this beer from MISHAP! was definitely on our list. Once called Clear Creek Brewery, Wyoming-based MISHAP! had to change their name under pressure from a vexatious neighbor who claimed ownership of their name. And yet they persevered, and are here at SAVOR for the first time. Welcome to DC, guys!
Christine and I were quite attracted to their "Fire Hole", a 6.80% ABV robust porter paired with beef berere on injera bread. According to the brewer, this is brewed with Japanese red chili peppers, which are added directly to the boil process itself. The fresh chilies are chopped up, seeds and pods included, and then combined with cocoa nibs.
Let's dive in. Nice aroma, some smoke, and just enough subtle peppers. The flavor presents a nice burst of chocolate first, then a long flavor, but - very strangely - it disappears. So odd. The pepper flavor holds on for just long enough, and then, poof - it's gone. The aftertaste is soft with more of that chocolate flavor. About the pairing - beef not spicy, but a bit smoky. Pairs nicely, although my worry was that the flavor might interfere and distract from the flavor. I'd definitely have this beer again, and maybe with a big plate of smoky barbeque!
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Maine Beer Company - "Woods & Waters" American pale ale from Freeport, Maine
This 6.20% ABV American pale ale was created in celebration of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. Using barley and wheat from Maine, this beer is heavily hopped and projects very pleasing nose of oranges, but aside from notes of hops and juice, but it's a bit flat in terms of flavors. I like the hoppiness and the piney, resinous quality of those hops, but the flavors are a bit soft. Don't take this as a dig on this beer - sometimes that's what you're looking for. Not every beer has to have funky ingredients or experimental hops or bright, strong flavors. Sometimes a well-crafted, easy-drinking pale ale is just what the doctor ordered. I bet this is super great on draft, as well.
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Ah, Fremont. A longtime favorite of mine, these fine folks make some of the best beer in Seattle, and I was quite happy to see them on the attendee list. On offer is their "Rusty Nail", which I had (along with Fremont founder Sara Nelson and events rep Carrie Guest) at Meridian Pint a few days prior. But there's only so much heavy beer we can have, so we opted for their lighter offering - a saison.
According to Carrie Guest, the Guava Saison is a Brettanomyces and guava in red wine barrels for six months. It's not as sweet as I thought, with a softer guava flavor than I was expecting. It's still bright and lively, though, and it was more sour than Christine was expecting, which is a totally fair point as we weren't expecting anything sour, frankly. Perhaps it's the Brett that we're detecting, not the sourness. The red wine barrel heritage is there, but just a little oak. Overall nice and soft and quite light, which is kinda what I was hoping for.
Paired with popcorn and yogurt , puffed grain, and blood orange powder. The orange brings out the guava, but the popcorn was a bit of a distraction from the beer as it was a bit soft. But the beer was great and I can see why they wanted this pairing.
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Great Lakes Brewing Co. - "Blackout" imperial stout from Cleveland, Ohio
I visited Great Lakes back in July of 2016 when I helped manage an academic program at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, and enjoyed the trip. Aside from the usual stuff like the "Elliot Ness" and "Edmund Fitzgerald", which you can find in any store, Great Lakes has quite the catalog of brewery-only stuff, including a really neat mole version of this beer, the Blackout stout. Named for the famous Ohio blackout of 2003, this is a 10.00% ABV imperial Russian stout has been specially aged for SAVOR by spending six months in Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels.
As stouts go, pretty good. Nothing terribly new or inventive, but I liked the wood aging of this...I could definitely taste that bit of oaky sweetness imparted by whiskey barrels. Average taste overall, with a long finish that was tasty. My parting quip was to ask the brewers if they could make a Great Lakes beer featuring some of the delicious bacon one could find just up the road at West Side Market in Ohio City, to which they replied "Challenge accepted, sir!" Alright, let's see it at next year's SAVOR!
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Moving a few tables down, we come across this, a rauchbier! This is a traditional German-style smoked marzen, which you may recall is a favorite of mine, having had the venerable "Seltzer's Smokehaus No. 7" from Snitz Creek up in PA (as well as an actual German variety, Schlenkerla's "Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen").
This one clocks in at 5.60% ABV. According to Jay Bullen, head of Silvaticus' brewery operations, this beer is made with a combination of beech and cherry wood using German-style lager yeast, then fermented cold so the yeast stays out of the way and doesn't interfere with the smoke. They use no caramel malts, instead relying on the cherry wood for sweetness. Jay went to brewing school in Bamberg, Germany, and discovered this style, and got the inspiration for this beer when he moved to Alaska and tried smoked porter.
So let's dive in - it's actually a bit different than both the Snitz Creek and the Schlenkerla variants. It's a bit...sweeter, which I wager is from the malts. It's like the kind of sweetness you get from barbeque sauce. Other than that, it's similar to its kin and presents a delicious, smoky, malty ale. Good flavor fidelity, nice smokiness all the way through, with a refreshing levity that makes me want to have another one immediately. Definitely one of the winners of the night.
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Lawson's Finest Liquids - "Fayston Maple Imperial Stout" from Vermont
Lawson's Finest Liquids, the creator of the "Sip of Sunshine", was at SAVOR with both their famous yellow IPA and a Canadian whiskey barrel-aged stout. I've already had the SoS, so we wanted to check out the other offering. It's called the "Fayson Maple Imperial Stout", and we happened to meet Sean Lawson, founder and namesake of the brewery, who clued us in on the heritage of this beer: it's actually a barrel-aged version of their normal Fayston, to which two gallons of maple syrup goes into every barrel. It's then aged in Glenora Distillers single-malt barrel for 18 months.
This beer has a very strong nose of maple, but sort of industrial, like floor cleaner. Vermont floor cleaner. Now, aromas can be deceiving, so just because it smells really overpoweringly artificial doesn't mean it will taste like it.
But in this case, it does. Man, this beer is oily. Heavy, syrupy, with a very long and strong flavor of dark maple syrup. There's that oaky acidity that comes from the barrel-aging making an appearance as the beer develops, and the finish is quite thick and long-lasting. The aftertaste is of dark maple and boozy alcohol. I think this is another one of those beers that would be better after a few years - just too heavy. Not all was lost, though - we palette cleansed with some Sip of Sunshine and grabbed some cool coozies!!
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Foothills Brewing - "Dead and Berried" from Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Although we had plenty of dark beers, I wanted to try this one in particular because of the fruit. Most fruit beers at SAVOR were sours or ales, so we were curious how this would turn out. According to T.L. Atkinson, brewmaster - this is an American imperial stout, made with six different malts and a single strain of hops - UK Challenger. The beer is then put it in Woodford Reserve bourbon barrels for six months and aged it on blackberries. Sounds great, right?
Not much on the nose, but it presents heavy chocolate on the first sip, followed by the berries coming through shortly thereafter. Of note - it's not overly fruited, and the beer was lighter than either of us was expecting. I kinda figured by the name that this would be another palate wrecker, but it turned out quite pleasurable. There are some roasty notes on the finish, which is to be expected.
This beer was served with pressed pork belly and blackberries, was awesome. The fat from the pork really served as a nice counter to the dark roasted flavors in the beer, and we both agree this was quite pleasant and one of the best dark beers of the night.
Although we had plenty of dark beers, I wanted to try this one in particular because of the fruit. Most fruit beers at SAVOR were sours or ales, so we were curious how this would turn out. According to T.L. Atkinson, brewmaster - this is an American imperial stout, made with six different malts and a single strain of hops - UK Challenger. The beer is then put it in Woodford Reserve bourbon barrels for six months and aged it on blackberries. Sounds great, right?
Not much on the nose, but it presents heavy chocolate on the first sip, followed by the berries coming through shortly thereafter. Of note - it's not overly fruited, and the beer was lighter than either of us was expecting. I kinda figured by the name that this would be another palate wrecker, but it turned out quite pleasurable. There are some roasty notes on the finish, which is to be expected.
This beer was served with pressed pork belly and blackberries, was awesome. The fat from the pork really served as a nice counter to the dark roasted flavors in the beer, and we both agree this was quite pleasant and one of the best dark beers of the night.
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The Bruery - "Yount" stout from Placentia, California
I've covered beers from The Bruery many times, so I am no stranger to the fun and funky stuff they make. This beer, however, is somewhat different than usual so I was especially interested in trying. It's called their "Yount", and it's a 15.20% ABV double imperial stout. We caught up with Patrick Rue, founder of The Bruery and Bruery Terreux, who gave us the lowdown on this beer: it's essentially a variant of their "Black Tuesday" stout blended and fermented with must of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Yountville, CA-based Perata Vineyards. It's 49% Cabernet and 51% imperial stout, so basically as close to wine as you can get while still legally calling it beer.
After they received the grapes, they were crushed and cold-macerated for six days whereupon they were sent into a fermenter. Then the proto-wine was infused with their "Black Tuesday", and after both liquids mixed and co-fermented, the grapes were scooped out and put into another fermenter to let the sediment drop. Finally, the liquid was pumped into 100% new French Oak puncheons (a kind of barrel that contains a third of a tun, or 84 gallons) where it remained for a year until a mobile bottling cart was wheeled over and the wine/beer hybrid was bottled in 750mL bottles. This amazing concoction is only available to The Bruery's elite "Hoarder Society" members (one of which I am not.) But we get to try it today!!
We were joined by my colleague from D'Vines, Martin O., who happens to love The Bruery. Martin also attended SAVOR as a treat for his birthday, and has been checking in with us throughout the night. He joined us for this tasting, as it was perhaps one of the most interesting of the night.
This "beer" has a deep nose of, well, wine. It's red in the glass, and swirling it around, projects a nice aroma. We all took a deep sip.
Holy shit. If you had blindfolded me, and had me taste this, I would 100% say this is a glass of strong California cabernet sauvignon. It smells like wine, looks like wine, and tastes like wine. I mean, it IS almost half wine. But I'm having a tough time detecting any of the stout flavors, or anything approaching roast malts or hops. That grapiness - the cassis, or grape skin flavors - come through quite strongly. I think the only way this does not completely resemble wine is the lack of the alcohol esters on the finish...there's not much of that "tang" you get with wine. This is much softer than many wines, so perhaps that's the only vestige of beer in this whole thing.
In the end, Christine loves it, I love it, Martin loves it, and I'm super glad to have the chance to try this...especially in the lead up to my July visit to Napa's wine country. None of us would probably ever be able to get this otherwise.
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Caldera Brewing Co. - "Coco Nutty Blonde" from Ashland, Oregon
OK, we needed to take a break from all these heavy beers, and we came across Oregon-based Caldera Brewery. A coconut beer! Although I've had some rough times with coconut beers, I decided to give this a shot...it's a 5.60% ABV blonde ale, using coconut toasted in the brewery's convection oven. Then they added rolled oats in the brew for body, with the intention of making a very light, easy-drinking beer.
And they succeeded. This beer is almost perfect. It presents just a hint of coconut on the nose, but any suspicion that this beer is only marginally coconut-flavored is cleared up on the first sip. There's a very strong, super pleasing flavor of coconut meat throughout the whole beer. The hops are present, but just enough to give it some body. The oats add a good touch, but aren't super powerful or "biscuity."
What's most pleasing is the "type" of coconut flavor...it's not artificial, nor is it super sugary or sweet, nor does it taste like those nasty dried coconut shreds they sell at Whole Foods for eight bucks. No, this is pure coconut meat, liked they served it right out of a coconut half on the beach. This is the polar opposite of the Ballast Point "Coconut Victory at Sea", which I felt was awfully artificial and quite disappointing. Christine is calling this her #3 beer of the night, and it definitely ranks in my top five.
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Band of Bohemia - "Bay Rum Cocoa" black ale from Chicago, Illinois
Since we're on a tropical kick, here's another summery beer by Chicago's own Band of Bohemia (the only Michelin-star rated brewpub!) The beer is a 5.60% ABV black ale, is made with Ecuadorian cocoa nibs, Florida bay rum leaves and dry figs. Last year, the brewers came across some bay rum leaves and thought - let's make a dark beer; something simple, clean, and that you can drink in 90 degree weather. Sounds good to me!
Wow, actually, this is much lighter than I was expecting. Closer to a Schwartzbier, this is not super cocoa-y. In terms of texture, Christine was pleasantly surprised, maybe influenced by our bad experiences with dark beers earlier in the night. I was expecting more flavor, however, as the brewer talked up the beer as being packed with flavor. Christine is missing the rum notes in particular. It's a good dark beer, light, subtle and light, but doesn't stand out with any unique flavors. Pairs with tapioca puree, which was not great at all. It was far too warm and flavorless...pictured is some more pork belly that I grabbed from the next table over!
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Fernson Brewing Co. - "Curio" Berliner Weiss from Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Our last stop of the night is Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Fernson Brewing Co. It was getting late, we'd been drinking nonstop for about three hours, and they happened to be the brewery that we were closest to when "last call" was announced. But we're glad we stopped by! We caught up with Blake Thompson and Derek Fernholz, brewers and co-founders, who spent quite a bit of time chatting with us and talking about their craft. One might assume that the name of the brewery is a portmanteau of both founders' last names.
On tap was the "Curio", a 4.00% ABV Berliner Weiss. As expected, it's true to the style and presents some appreciable tartness paired with grapefruit and some moderate malt flavors. There's a burst of wheat on the end, as expected, and the tad of fizziness really makes for good drinking. Very refreshing and perfect for an end-of-the-night beer (or hot afternoon at the beach!). This would be a great beer to have on hand and is the essential spirit of a session ale. And, unfortunately, no food to try. But grilled cheese would go great!
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It was time to call it quits, so we headed home with our tummies full of tasty beer and good food (and with our collaboration beer, more coming on that soon!) It was another great event, and I look forward to SAVOR 2019 to try a whole new set of potent potables.
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