Fort George Brewery and Public House - "Java the Hop" IPA

My brother Dan sent me this in the last box of beer he sent. It's from Astoria, OR-based Fort George Brewing Co. It's their limted-edition winter seasonal, called "Java the Hop", which is a 6.5% ABV India pale ale brewed with coffee beans sourced from Portland coffee shop Coava Coffee Roasters. Interesting!

Now, I know what you're thinking. Another coffee beer. And normally, you'd be right. Coffee beers are rather common, mostly in stout or porter format. And honestly, while coffee is good, I'm not really intrigued or surprised anymore. I've had too many and a LOT of them are the same, and many of them aren't that great to wit. Coffee's a common ingredient in a lot of craft beers, and a lot of them taste and feel the same.

But my curiosity was piqued when I opened up the latest beer box from Seattle (or, as I like to jokingly refer to it, a Marshall Aid shipment) and I discovered Dan sent me two pint cans of Fort George's "Java the Hop." Fort George makes some good stuff, including stellar beers like the Sunrise OPA, the Cavatica Stout, and the Quick Wit summer seasonal. So I knew that whatever was in those cans was worth trying. But I was even more intrigued when I read on the can that "Java the Hop" was not a stout but an IPA! I've never had coffee IPA before, so I was really looking forward to it. I hoped that it would break the tired mold of your typical coffee stout.

The can is a pint can, so larger than most usual 6-pack cans. I cracked it open and it had a nice hiss to it, so I knew immediately it was well-carbonated...another sign that this wasn't your run-of-the-mill coffee beer. I poured it out into my usual tasting glass:

It's got a surprising color - you don't see this sort of ale-esque orange color with a coffee beer. Usually it's dark brown or black. As you can see, the light hits it nicely and turns it a bright yellow color. I'd expect such a color more from a witbier than an IPA.

One sip told me I was in for a treat. The taste is very deep and delicious, like a smooth cup of Ethiopian Harrar, but matched up with the crispness of an IPA. There's a good, strong coffee taste here that's carried well by the hops. The finish is crisp, very very crisp, and the aftertaste is a very pleasant coffee taste with some complementary alcohol flavors. I must admit I immediately longed for another gulp!

Such a combination is rather unique. It's got the cloudy orange color of a lager, the nose of an hoppy IPA, and the taste of a refined coffee stout. I've never come across a beer like that and I didn't think such a flavor combination would exist. Such a thought was, well...

I do hope to have this beer again. It was a unique flavor combination that was a true pleasure to taste.

Herencia Altés - 2011 Terra Alta garnaxia negra (Spain)

Grenache is one of my favorite grapes. "Garnaxia" is the Spanish spelling of the more widely-known French grenache, so you may have seen them used interchangeably. Anyways, grenache is a great varietal that prefers hot, dry climates. It's low in acid, which is good (in my opinion) and it's is commonly mixed with syrah, tempranillo, or cinsaut varietals. It's a bright, floral wine with a lot of fruit power behind it. It's also relatively inexpensive, so everything in combination makes it a really great everyday wine. I'd drink it everyday, without a doubt.

I like this label.

Today's wine is happens to be a 100% grenache wine made by Catalonian vineyard Herencia Altés. This wine was made at very high altitude in the Terra Altes winemaking region of Cataluna, in northern Spain. The soil there is rich in clay, and has a generally dry climate, which as you know is best suited for this grape. I've had this wine for a few years and decided to enjoy it with some prosciutto-stuffed tortelloni, whole wheat penne, a homemade pasta sauce laced with red California chiles, and some sliced white mushrooms sauteed in garlic butter.

So I did the usual thing - put it in the fridge for a few minutes to bring it down to temp, opened it up, and poured some in my glass to mix with the air. It gives off a nice aroma, mostly floral. There are some muted tannins in there, with a little hint of alcohol smells. Nothing really out of the ordinary. I'm looking forward to this wine opening up though.

Pretty color.

The taste is where this wine shines (and I do admit, I've had this before, but maybe a year or so ago, so the taste may have mellowed and changed a bit.) It's got a nice, refined taste of dark fruit and jam - nothing overbearing (unlike Raymond R+Collection's field blend.) The flavor has a good weight to it, and has a very pleasing smoky finish with a slight alcohol-flavor aftertaste. Fruit is the base element here, no surprise given the varietal, and balance is good between fruit and tannins. Very pleasing indeed!

In conclusion, this is just one delicious variant of the grenache varietal that you could find. It's a good grape, is often in blends, but does appear - as this post demonstrates - in unadulterated form that it can be very tasty. It also probably benefited from aging a bit, since a lot of big, jammy, fruity wines don't have that mellowness to their flavor. I've had some that were good, but still maintained a slight caustic alcohol burn that I could have done without. This Terra Alta grape had none of that, and delivered a strong, delicious flavor that paired well with my dinner and would also be fine for drinking really any time at all.

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.

Boulevard Brewing Co. - Rye on Rye ale

Today's review is a special one: Kansas City, MO-based Boulevard Brewing Company's Rye-on-Rye grain ale. It's part of their Smokestack Series; a series of beers that focus on outlandish ingredients, special brewing methods, and interesting flavor combinations. Tribune newswriter Josh Noel wrote a really nice syndicated article about Boulevard a few months back:

"...one of the best and most dependable series in craft beer: Boulevard's Smokestack beers. Born in 2006, the Smokestack series includes five year-round brews (most famous is Tank 7 saison) and a series of limited-edition releases...[Master brewer Stephen] Pauwels said...the primary goal is to stay counterintuitive and fun."

That's a good way to describe these beers. Counterintuitive. I've tried numerous Smokestack beers, and all have provided an interesting twist on the base idea -the Tank No. 7 farmhouse ale, which was a lot spicier than most saisons; the Bourbon Barrel Quad, which is an epic quadrupel  experience; the Saison-Brett, also epic; the Grainstorm black rye IPA, which was oddly tasty; and the Dark Truth stout, which tasted more like liquefied road tar extruded through a copper whiskey still. I cannot recommend these enough, with the exception of the Dark Truth (unless you like drinking pothole patch.) 

Boulevard definitely pushes the envelope when it comes to their beers, and so when I saw this bottle on the shelf, I simply had to get one. Scratch that, three. The bottles are individually-numbered and dated so I won't forget when I bought these. I grabbed one to save until next year (to see how it ages, since beers of this caliber and alcohol content can be aged for years) and two to drink now. The first time I had this, I was so tipsy I couldn't even write a review. I'm now revisiting my second bottle, in the hopes of transcribing my divine experience to you.

The color is deep red, almost brown, with a warm clear orange when held to the light. The head is bony-white, with cool amoeba-like bubbles that developed after a few minutes.

The nose is of strong malts, alcohol, and citrus. Breathe deep - you are standing in the presence of a beer deity.

The taste is amazing. The first gulp hit my mouth like a whiskey-rye sledgehammer of deliciousness, bringing  a delightfully-deep taste of rye, wood, and toffee. The flavor is really rich and doesn't lose its grip throughout the entire tasting. The texture is thick but drinkable. The beer is warm and heavy, like a velvet blanket. The aftertaste is one of pleasant, warm alcohol flavors with toffee and dry citrus notes all the way. The beer warms its way down my esophagus, like a nice single-malt after a long winter's day.

This is simply how rye ales should be done. End of story. While both Sierra Nevada and Rogue had their chance - with the Ruthless Rye coming in far ahead of the Roguenbier in terms of taste - neither of them stand up at all to the Rye-on-Rye. The depth of flavor is really what does it here - there's nothing like experiencing the full flavor weight of that rye whiskey barrel-aged ale, borne on the wings of 12% ABV. That alcohol content and the delicious smoothness of the beer makes for some

While the Bourbon Barrel Quad had that deep, fermented taste of powerful quadrupel  ales, the Rye-on-Rye comes at you in a different fashion - with a direct, full taste and a hint of bitterness from wood, not hops. So the bitterness was just a hint, more of a flavor, than an actual element of the beer.

Another great showing. This beer is powerful, deep, and well worth whatever you pay for it. Seek it out!