Nicaragua Craft Beer Co. - "Panga Drops" keller pils

 I saw this fun-looking beer at the store, and figured I'd give it a go. It's a 6.20% ABV keller pilsner from Nicaragua's Nicaragua Craft Beer Co. A keller pilsner, also known as a keller pils, is a style of beer originating in Germany. "Keller" means "cellar" or "basement", and it refers to an unfiltered style of beer that was often stored in the cellar. I expect it to be a fuller, less attenuated version of a German pilsner. Plus it's from Nicaragua! Cool. And check out the shorty can - 8oz. Perfect camouflage for a "roadie."

Ok - pours out swiftly into my Fremont snifter. Projects honey notes, soft, yet somehow fuller. I like it! In terms of taste, it echoes the fullness of the nose, with a touch of citrus (like lemon), and a refreshing and quite satisfying flavor. It's definitely heavier than most pilsners, which I consider a good thing, but still has the effervescence I'd want in a lighter beer. Slightly bready notes round out the beer, and the finish leaves a crispness that's very pilsner-like. Pilsnerian, if you will. 

I do like this, and I'd certainly recommend it for anyone seeking to try a craft beer from Nicaragua. According to their website, the brewery is located in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, and was started by two Americans trained at Cisco Brewers in Nantucket (Cisco's "Grey Lady" is good!). So definitely an American craft brew angle here, but nothing wrong with that. The only sticking point is the cost - $9.99 for six stubby 8oz cans. While it's not the end of the world, it's a tad pricy for such a small format. The format is cool, for sure, but affects the cost / benefit ratio. Otherwise, a good representative of the style and nice to see something from Central America. 

Kizakura Brewery - Matcha IPA

I came across today's beer at Irving Wine & Spirits, and it's not something I've ever seen before - a "Japanese-style" IPA with matcha (finely ground green tea leaves.) It's made by Kizakura Brewery, a beer / sake brewery in Kyoto City, located on Japan's big island of Honshu. Kyoto is the capital of Kyoto Prefecture and served for 1100 years as the capital of Japan. Now, it's a major metropolitan center and considered the most important cultural city in Japan. 

In terms of Japanese beer, most people are familiar with the big guys: Sapporo, Kirin Ichiban, and Asahi. Smaller breweries do exist, such as Kiuchi Brewery (see my 2015 review of their "Hitachino Nest" beer), but don't account for the lion's share of beer production in Japan. Kizakura isn't new, and has been making sake for a long time, but it became Kyoto's first craft brewer in 1995. And I should also note that today's beer is 8.50% ABV, a marked divergence from the typical, commercially-available attenuated lagers of Japan, China, and Southeast Asia.

So, let's give this a go. The 11.15oz bottle opens via a pull-tab, which is fun, and I poured it into my Craft Brewer's Conference commemorative glass (such good memories of that conference). Whoa!!! Check out that color!!

Sadly, the color is artificial. But it is very cool and striking, and one of the more unique elements of this beer. But how does it taste? I really have had little experience with matcha, and never in a beer, so this is somewhat new territory. Let's dive in: the nose is super herbal, very potent aroma. Looks like swamp water.

Oof, OK, this is weird. This is so strange. It's probably the most bitter beer I've ever had - not just bitter from hops, as there's definitely some of that in there, but the matcha is just so overwhelming. It's chock full of heavy herbal flavors that really uppercut the taste buds. Some IPA characteristics come through, mostly initially (first half second), but then the matcha takes over and really serves as the main tasting note and deliver a sharp, heavy bitterness throughout. The finish is very dry - not creamy like a matcha latte, which serves to balance out bitterness and makes the beverage somewhat palatable. This beer has none of that, and really is somewhat tough to get through. The dryness and herbaceous quality likens to to a cup of overly-strong green tea, and the bitterness of the tea leaves compared with the relative high-proof of the beer make it a potent concoction. 

I think for the most part this is in the territory of unapproachable to most people, frankly. Cool concept, but what's under the hood makes it unique. Although this beer isn't something I'd seek out again based on my personal tastes, I'd recommend it to anyone seeking an out-of-the-box beer experience. Hopheads will love the bitterness, which exceeds most hop-forward beers on the market today. I wonder what the IBUs are?

Oddly, it's quite expensive online - one retailer in Oregon sells it for $47 for four bottles! I don't know about that, but it was certainly cool to try. 

Upland Brewing Co. - 2018 "Latitude Adjustment" pale ale

Today I'd like to comment on perhaps one my favorite refreshing beers, a winter seasonal called "Latitude Adjustment" from Bloomington, IN-based Upland Brewing Co. And yes, this pineapple coconut pale ale is a winter seasonal beer! Formerly released in December, it's the perfect counter to the heavy, sweet stouts that seem to permeate this season. Similar to Caldera's "CocoNutty Blonde", it's light, bright, and full of flavor. This is supremely refreshing and definitely in my top 20 beers of all time. I could drink this all day!

But I won't have the chance. Not to bring this party down, but when I had pre-pandemic drinks with Sam, the DC rep for Upland, he broke the bad news to me over a pint of Upland "Dragonfly" at Zeppelin bar - 2018 was the last year for Latitude. They've discontinued it! Hugely disappointed and a major bummer. Winter 2018 was their final batch, I'm told. I'll never see it again. 

But wait.

I was at [redacted liquor store] recently, and as I was perusing the IPA section, saw a very lonely six-pack behind some Bell's stuff that I thought I recognized. I took a closer look, and yes! I couldn't believe my eyes. The blue six-pack box. The dude sunning himself. The familiar words. Could it be?

It was perhaps the last Latitude Adjustment six-pack this side of the Virgo Supercluster.

I immediately extracted it and brought it up to the counter. This was it! A wonderful afternoon of drinking one of my favorite beers was ahead of me...or so I thought. Then I remembered the beer was last brewed almost two years ago. Which meant that this beer, in my hands, was also brewed two years ago. My heart sank, and upon further investigation, the beer was in rough shape. The bottles had a small film of beer mold on them from some other leaky bottle somewhere (not harmful, but best to wash off) and each bottle was labelled "Best by July 2019." Not good. But the store owner gave it to me for free, due to the condition, so nothing lost really. I'm mostly going to have them as an experiment, as light and fruity ales don't age well. 

Good hiss opening the bottle, so that's fine. Poured it into a tasting glass; no discernible off flavors here and in fact a touch of coconut.  

Yeah, it's pretty stale. Not revolting, but definitely a mere specter of its former self. The flavors here are definitely muted with a heavier malt flavor and a thick taste of stale hops. It's pretty dry and dusty, and while it's got a touch of that coconut and pineapple, it's not a presentation of what the beer should be. The back end has a fleeting grasp of pineapple and a dusty finish. 

Well, this sucks. But I'm actually kind of surprised how much of the original flavor is actually there. Obviously let this be another cautionary tale to not age your beers!

Elder Pine Brewing & Blending Co. - "Kankitsu" lager

This pint caught my eye at the Whole Foods in Tenleytown, and for $3.50 I bought it on spec without looking too much into it. It's from Gaithersburg, MD-based Elder Pine Brewing & Blending, a superlative brewery that sells a lot of product through D'Vines. I love Elder Pine, so I'm confident whatever is in the can is going to be good. 

Reading the ingredients - it's a "Japanese-inspired lager brewed with rice, green tea, lemon grass, and lime" and clocking in at 5.50% ABV. OK, very cool! That sounds very pleasant and seasonally-appropriate.

Pours swiftly into my tulip glass. Generates a light and zesty aroma, not unlike lemon peels. 

Whoa, OK. this is good. First there's this burst of lime, melding into a more herbal and rounded green tea that's silky-smooth, finishing with a notable grassiness and then a definite rice character as the beer wraps up. There's a touch of salt on the finish, which is quite welcome, and provides a savory character that lingers on the tongue after swallowing. 

What's most striking is the flavor development here - like some other beers I've reviewed, the flavors are "layered" and each ingredient makes a noticeable appearance throughout the drinking process. The opposite would be a beer that's "monolithic" or presents an even taste throughout. I usually find these "layered" beers quite fun, as they usually involve a simple style like a lager which forms a canvas on which to experiment with light, summery flavors. The use of lime, which is significant here, as well as tea and salt really transform this a base beer into something unique, and I hope they continue to produce it. 

Keller Estate Winery - 2016 Pinot Gris

Today's wine comes to me from Keller Estate, located in Petaluma, Sonoma County, California, only twenty miles from the Pacific Ocean. Keller Estate was founded in 1989 by Arturo Keller, an automotive engineer from Mexico City. Since the initial purchase of 650 acres, Keller has been has been "estate" for the past-quarter century (estate meaning their wines are made from grapes on premises). Like many wineries, they are environmentally-focused and have on-site bee and bat boxes, and a herd of sheep to help keep the vineyards trimmed and clean. Today's wine is a Pinot Gris from the La Cruz Vineyards section of Keller.

You might say that "pinot gris" sounds a lot like "pinot grigio". Indeed! That's because pinot gris is the same grape as pinot grigio. It's a mutation of the pinot family, and is grown all over the world with most notable examples in France, Italy, and Australia. It's called pinot gris because of the color - a plume can develop, or "fuzz", on the grapes to give them a greyish coloring. But make no mistake, the two names are not interchangeable - they're two distinct styles of wine. According to former sommelier John French, WSET-3 and Level 2 Somme, mass-produced pinot grigio from Italy has a bright demeanor, while  high Alsatian expressions (as pinot gris) are more complex can be age worthy, up to 2 or 3 years even. 

Let's get tasting. Poured this out using my Vintorio aerator, as usual. Since it's chilled, I gave it a little longer than usual to open up. I let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes and used my hands to warm it up a bit. In the glass, it's projecting notes of bright citrus fruit - like tangerine. Deep gold, viscous.

So John was spot-on: fans of pinot grigio may be somewhat surprised to find this is significantly cleaner and more complex that what they're used to. I'm picking up some lemongrass, a touch of fresh pear, strong peach notes, and some low-key minerality with moderately low acid, actually. Some spice on the finish followed by a nice tingle on the tongue after swallowing. Most noticeably, the wine lacks the bright acidity of Italian variants and seems also to lack the touch of honey that comes with French variants. 

I got this as part of Sonoma Wine Club shipment, for $29.99, so a good price point for a nice bottle of white. John French says that serious pinot gris should be had with food, so I paired this with some chorizo and asiago pizza from Timber Pizza. 

Crooked Run Brewing Co.'s Socially-Distanced Seventh Anniversary Bash

For my first foray to an actual in-person bar since the pandemic began, I decamped to Sterling, VA to attend Crooked Run Brewing Co.'s 7th anniversary event. You may recall I reviewed Crooked Run's superlative "Machu Pisco", a beer made in collaboration with Inca Kitchen. They tend to make a lot of lighter beers, like Berliner Weisses and such, with some funky ingredients. Last time I was out here was over a year ago, so this event was a great excuse to have some fancy beer! Today I'm tasting alongside my friend Andrew.

Big shout out to my main man Cody, former Churchkey tapmaster and current Crooked Run brewer. He's one of the fine folks manning the taps today and gave me a heads-up about the event, which was held in the parking lots and on the lawn, with tables at appropriate distances. A mobile beer trailer provided the suds. Scanning the taplist, there are some really interesting beers here, and we only have three hours, so we found some chairs under a shady tree, and got to drinkin'. 

First up is the "Toastmaster" - a 9.00% ABV fruit sour made with blueberries, strawberries, maple syrup, and vanilla. 

First, this smells insane. It smells like a breakfast pastry! It's uncanny, but I guess that's what they're going for. This portends well. And look at that color!

Wow, starting off right. Big flavors of blueberries and overripe strawberries, with a heavy dose of sweetness and Graham cracker breadiness. It's almost like the inside of those microwaveable Toaster Strudels - sweet, fruity, and thick. This beer has a good dose of maple, too, which is mostly present on the finish.

OK, well, that was great and would be amazing to have on nitro or with lactose. 

Next up is "Lupa" - a dry-hopped golden sour blend with Julius hops. Cody brought me over a tiny sample, gratis.

It's quite refreshing - this 5.50% has a good tang of hops, quite crisp with some orange rind notes, and a brassy character at the end. A slight wheaty chewiness develops at the end, but not substantial. Great for fans of dry-hopped Berliner Weisses, and dry-hopped beers in general. 

Next up is the "Melt", a 10.00% ABV milk stout which smells like ice cream sundae with Hershey squirt-from-the-bottle chocolate syrup. 

This milk stout, made with peanut butter, cacao nibs, and marshmallows, also frankly tastes like a melted ice cream sundae (Andrew notes - "with alcohol"). Full, silky peanut butter, milk chocolate, and sugar flavors carry throughout, with a surprisingly lighter in body than I expected. Quite delicious, but dangerous - at 10.00%, it's easy to down a couple of these and not feel it. Very nice.

Well, since we're riding the Dark Beer Express right now, here's another: "Day-o", another 10.00% ABV imperial milk stout, this time made with bananas, hazelnuts, vanilla, and cacao nibs. I can definitely get the hazelnut on the nose.

Another great choice! "Day-O" has waves of banana, with minor hazelnut notes, and a very sticky consistency. I can taste the banana but not the smell, and smell the hazelnut but not taste it. Interesting. The beer has a long, lingering sweetness and oiliness, definitely sweeter and thicker than the "Melt." Also, doesn't taste like 10.00%.

Well, as luck would have it, they have a barleywine here! It's called "Brave," and is an astonishing 16.00% ABV with coconuts, vanilla, and hazelnuts added, all of which spent 15 months aging in ASW Distillery whiskey barrels. Not a common set of ingredients in barleywine, nor is this Crooked Run's M.O, so very eager to try it.

Nose is pretty much spot-on. Yep, barleywine. 

Initially, flavors are of dried hops, crushed Saltines, chewy granola, and caramel. In terms of texture and weight, it's more like a dark red ale. I do sense the coconut here - like dried, shredded coconut - mostly on the finish. According to Cody, they used 30 lbs of coconut flakes, so that makes sense! This is probably the most complex barleywine I've had, and is WAY light for its weight - I guessed it was 12.00% ABV before finding out if was 16.00%. Jeez.

As the session wrapped up, and things got a bit slower, I was able to catch up with McKinnen Leonard, CRBC's head brewer. Whenever I attend these events, I always try to speak with the brewmasters to learn about what's next for the brewery, any upcoming beers, or neat stories behind the brews. McKinnen and I spoke for about 25 minutes, and I tried samples of all the other beers while we discussed technical elements of some of the beers. I begged them to make "Machu Pisco" again (no change) and I inquired about growth of the brewery. So what's next? McKinnen would like to see Crooked Run grow in several ways"

• Maintaining their sour programs, as this is what customers are looking for now (shock sours being somewhat of a fad, just like brut IPAs and goses were over the last few years.) Nonetheless, good sours sell well, so CRBC is looking to expand in this way. Plus, they have a koelschip (a large vessel for cooling beer) and they're in the process of making gueze-style beers. They've got a few in the back and will release them in the future. 
• Craft lagers. In the next few years, McKinnen wants to continue to make beers that they want to see and are proud of. And with the emerging market for craft lagers (ex Colimita), he'd like to start making more craft lagers. 
• Mixed fermentation. McKinnen and his colleagues are working on building up their native yeast culture game and work on experimental strains. He's been working on some of this already - for example, about a year ago, McKinnen, Cody, and a few others went to Churchkey and drank 8 bottles of Belgian beers from Brasserie Fantome, then chose which bottle they liked the most. Then, McKinnen took the yeast dregs from the bottle, harvested it, grew it up, and then made a gin-inspired saison aged in Caledonia Spirits "Barr Hill". It's unnamed, unreleased, and hidden away at Crooked Run. I must get my hands on this. 

Very cool event - it was nice to see their awesome beers, as Crooked Run has the uncanny ability to make "emulation" beers - beers that combine ingredients to emulate another drink or a food. Today's was no exception. And big thanks to Cody and McKinnen for taking the time to chat with me! I look forward to swinging by Crooked Run once this whole thing is over. 

Drew Estate - Herrera Esteli "Miami"

It's been a while since my last cigar post, so time to pick out and review a fancy smoke. Today's cigar is an offshoot of La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate's Herrera Esteli line, founded by master blender Willy Herrera (who I got to meet at the 2016 Connecticut Barn Smoker event at the Foster Family Farm in Windsor, CT, pictured below. Willy is in the foreground in blue.)

Called "Herrera Esteli Miami", this cigar first debuted in 2016 and was fully unveiled at 2018 IPCPR in four sizes. The really cool thing about the "Miami" is that it's made in El Titan de Bronce cigar factory, which I visited back in spring of 2016. Sandy Cobas, my tour guide and the master blender, is Willy's aunt.

El Titan de Bronce on Calle Ocho, Little Havana

So about the cigar - this 6x44 Lonsdale lancero consists of Dominican and Nicaraguan long-fillers that are bunched-up entubar style, an old Cuban technique of manufacture that is very labor-intensive but provides an improved draw. A Sumatra-seed leaf from Ecuador is used for the binder while a dark Habano Oscuro wrapper, also from Ecuador, wraps the rest of the leaves together secured by a triple-seam cap. Apparently these cigars are rolled by only Level 9 rollers, a designation used to describe the most experienced torceadoras. Cigar rollers, called torceador(a)s in Spanish, are ranked from levels 5 - 9; although nowadays the 9 designation is not commonly used. These designations refer to the types of cigars that these rollers can make - for example, a level 5 is only able to make marevas, or 5.125x48 size petite Cuban coronas, while levels 7 and 8 are skilled at larger, more complex cigars and a level 9 is a master of all vitolas. So in this case, it seems Willy Herrera only wanted the top craftsmen and -women to make this blend. I purchased this one at a unit cost of $7.20, so pretty decent for such craftsmanship.

I used my Colibri V-Cut to make a shallow v-cut, and due to its size, decided not to run the Drawpoker through it. It's been in the humidor since May, and is moderately springy. Lights up fine, partially a function of it's size as well as humidity.

First Third: Heavy chocolate notes, like baker's chocolate. Definitely has that leathery, slightly salty, heavy maduro character - full but very approachable. Medium-full at first, quite dry and bracing, with notes of nuts and untreated leather.

Second Third: definitely somewhat heavier, earthier, and more of what I was expecting. It's consistently nutty, like dry almond shells, with some salt and a touch more baking chocolate. 

Final Third: The oils are breaking down, so it's a little sweeter, presenting an espresso-like quality, with the earthiness giving way to more cinder / ash flavors. The leather present is still present, and as I smoked it down to 2" left, it started to turn acrid, with an overwhelming nicotine sweetness. 

Final take - a nice cigar, full-bodied and pretty aggressive, which I may get again in a different size, though. Heavier cigars, I find, are best enjoyed in smaller formats to mitigate "overdoing it" - that is, smoking a large, heavy cigar and feeling sick afterward. My philosophy is that it's better to put out a cigar too soon and risk wasting a bit than to put it out too late and feel like hell for a few hours. This cigar cost $7.20, so a decent price for something of quality and craftsmanship.