Brouwerij Lindemans - "Oude Kriek Cuvee Rene" lambic [Belgium]

You may have seen Brouwerij Lindemans' stuff in the store - they make a very popular line of fruit beers called "lambics" with tan labels and little pictures of fruit on them. Popular "flavors" of this style include peach, cherry, and strawberry. Lambic is a type of fruit beer and unlike most types of beer, lambics are fermented using wild yeast and bacteria. While I've had styles similar to it, I've never given this any kind of analysis here on the blog.

Today's beer is even one step more specialized than a lambic, though - it's a kriek lambic. Kriek is a term in Flemish that means "cherry", and in a beer context, it's usually used to describe beers (like sour beers, lambics, or even stouts) that have been made with whole cherries or cherry parts. Traditionally, these beers were made with a somewhat-uncommon variety of Belgian Morello cherry called Schaarbeekse, although such a variety is not exclusively used today. These aren't simply cherry flavored - cherries have a very active role to play in the entire brewing process.

The example we have today is a 7.00% ABV kriek lambic made with only water, barley malt, wheat, hop flowers, sour cherries and wild yeast. The bottle says it was bottled in February of 2016. So a bit aged, but that's ok. I grabbed this at Putnam Plaza Super Liquors in East Hartford, CT.

It's sealed with a bottlecap, and underneath is a cork, which opens with a pop. It emits a light haze.

Pours very fast out, and fizzy too! Lots of fast-receding foam. Check out that gorgeous red color - a cool neon color when candled!

I first noticed the texture - fizzy and dry, with a strong tartness. There's some acidity in there, but nothing approaching a gose. There's some lactic sourness, as expected, and the cherry flavors do make a late but noticeable appearance to the beer - nothing too overwhelming. Despite the super red coloring and cherry flavors, in my opinion this is more of an old Flanders ale than anything else. Fans of the peach lambics will see quite a difference, as this ale is quite different than its tan-labelled sisters (and stronger, as well!)

I should note that just like goses, this once-archaic style is making a resurgence in the American craft beer market. Breweries like New Belgium, Brooklyn Brewing Co., and New Glarus Brewing and are all making bonafide kriek ales, and Brewery Ommegang has some kriek-like offerings. So if you like cherry, or are a fan of sour and tart ales, give this authentic Belgian beer style a go.

Bedele Brewery - "Special Beer" lager [Ethiopia]

Washington, DC has a huge Ethiopian community - one of the biggest outside of Ethiopia - and as a result, we've got lots of great restaurants here. Aside from injera, delicious curried lamb, kinche, and ayibe, every so often you may see Ethiopian beers on the menu! I can't believe I haven't reviewed one before (although I also haven't yet reviewed tej, an Ethiopian honey wine, which you sometimes might see around and is quite tasty.)

Oromia region. Photo source: advocacy4oromia.wordpress.com

I found this beer on the menu at Quara on 18th St NW in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. It's an export lager called "Special Beer" produced by Bedele Brewery in the town of Bedele, in Oromia region of midwestern Ethiopia. Made in a Dortmunder-style, this brew clocks in at 5.50% ABV; not surprising given the style.

As you can see, it's very carbonated, and produces a foamy white head that clings to the glass. The aromas are faint, but present, and mostly some malty sweetness. I also like the deep golden coloring.

Although it's a light-bodied ale, it's actually stronger and more flavorful than I expected. I guess I was expecting something of the same caliber as other foreign lagers / pilsners, like stuff by Tsingtao or Heineken or maybe United Breweries Group's "Kingfisher", all of which are generally light and fizzy and attenuated. This beer is surprisingly hefty, though, and presents bready, slightly sweet flavors coupled with notes of honey and herbs which hide the carbonation well. Overall, quite refreshing and pairs well with the spicier offerings on the menu. Give this a try next time you order misr wat!

K. Hansotia & Co. - East India Trading "Red Witch" [Nicaragua]

Here's a cigar that caught my eye on the most recent round of cigar auctions I won. Made by the original and historic East India Trading Co., now an imprint of K. Hansotia & Co. (the same folks who brought us the famed Gurkha line of cigars), today's smoke is a 5"x52 robusto called the "Red Witch", named so because of its special rosado Ecuadorian Habano wrapper. This debuted at the 2012 International Cigar and Pipe Tobacco Retailers trade show in Las Vegas.

The cigar is box-pressed, which means it's been pressed into a rectangular shape using a wooden vise. Aside from the fancy wrapper, the innards comprise of Jalapa-sourced Nicaragua longfillers, aged three years, and a Dominican binder. The wrapper is what's most unusual, as in all my years smoking cigars, I've never seen or heard of a rosado wrapper. So I'm curious to give it a try.

The bare cigar smells kinda nice, very gentle aroma. I used a Colibri V-cutter, and discovered that it was a bit dry - the capa cracked a little, with one bit of the wrapper starting to unfurl. I could have used my El Ligador cigar glue to fix it, but figured I'd just hold the end. I guess that's life.

Construction issues aside, it lights up quite nicely, and really catches.

Initial flavors are like an oily maduro; but as the cigar warms up and hits the "sweet spot", the flavor profile evens out and presents some strong yet not overpowering leather / tobacco flavors. These are accompanied by some earthy coffee beans with a hint of sweet spice - reminds me, in a way, of Drew Estate "ACID ONE" with its spice notes (but without the other, sweeter infusion). I wonder if that's a function of the wrapper. The aftertaste has a hint of that dreaded nicotine "sponginess", which can't be avoided probably given the blend, with some tendrils of the spice flavor hanging on.

I'd say this is more medium-full than medium.  The wrapper adds an interesting visual touch, and I liked that the sweet spice holds nicely throughout the smoke. The burn was also very even as well, and the ash held on for about half the cigar before it fell. I think the shorter robusto format is best for this kind of cigar; anything larger (like a Churchill) would probably be a bit too much for me. Otherwise, an interesting excursion into rosado wrapper territory.

DC Brau / Flying Dog / Manor Hill / Waredaca / Vanish - "Family Tree" pale ale

I can't believe I forgot to post this! Today's beer is a special, once-only Belgian Pale Ale made for the Craft Brewers Conference a couple months back. According to the Brewer's Association website, each year they work with the local or state brewer's guild in whichever state will host the Craft Brewers Conference to create the recipe for a special beer, to be given out locally and at the conference.

This year's beer, a 6.0% ABV pale ale, is a five-way collaboration between Flying Dog Brewery; Manor Hill Brewing (based outside Baltimore in Ellicott City, MD); Gaithersburg, MD-based Waredaca Brewing Company; Vanish Farmwoods Brewery in Leesburg, VA; and of course Washington DC's own DC Brau. Just like the fancy tasting glass, this can was part of the swag bag concertgoers received upon check-in.

According to the can:

"The brewmasters of DC Brau, Manor Hill, Vanish and Waredaca all have one thing in common: they got their start at Flying Dog. It's no secret that craft beer is a brethren band of misfits. And this beer, like the industry itself, is a family affair. Family Tree was brewed for the Brewers Association Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America, April 10 - 13, 2017, in Washington DC."

Collaboration beers can be tough, but when there's five breweries in the mix? Not easy at all. In an interview with Brewer's Association, Ben Clark (the head brewer behind Flying Dog Brewery) discussed how brewers from the five participating breweries sat down to figure out this project. According to Clark, they focused on two ideas - one, what kind of beer would they want to drink after a long day of conference-ing; and two, what common experiences do they all share as brewers? 

As I discovered, the conference is a busy whirlwind of beer, people watching, and lectures, so it makes sense these five breweries settled on a Belgian pale ale, influenced heavily by their love for easy-drinking beers (and their enjoyment of previous CBC "Symposium Beers"). After all, who wants a super-heavy stout after a busy day?

So let's crack it open. Pours hazy orange from the pint can into my new Fermentis pilsner short glass (also a swag item at the conference.) There's a nice aroma of light spices and fresh hops.

Surprisingly, it's quite hoppy. The first taste shows some soft Belgian yeasty flavors, but with a nice bite of brassy hops - not quite metallic, but almost. I think the most prominent flavor is orange rind, with a smattering of other, harder-to-place spices. The beer leaves a typical Belgian spice flavor in the mouth after drinking. 

I like the hoppiness here, it adds an interesting dimension you don't see too often to a Belgian pale. Overall, nice and refreshing and would be great for those who like Belgian beer and IPAs.

Another interesting note: both Waredaca and Vanish are farm-breweries, meaning they grow on-site a lot of the ingredients they use to make beer. Another famous example of this is Rogue Brewery, which has a huge farm where they grow a lot of experimental hops and other ingredients. There's some value in this vertically-integrated business, since breweries can control all aspects of their production and can exercise greater (or total) control over the ingredient's quality and sourcing. 

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., et al - "Beer Camp Across the World" Part 2

And for the second half of the "Beer Camp Across the World" box review, I'm going to take a look at the internationally-sourced "Overseas Collaborators", Vichy jokes notwithstanding.

I went for this one straightaway - it's Danish brewery Mikkeller's "Thai-Style Iced Tea", a 7.20% ABV ale brewed with lactose, tamarind, black tea, orange peel, and star anise.

You may recall three years ago, I reviewed an oatmeal stout by Mikkeller, a gypsy brewery known to make fun and off-the-wall beers, with names like "Peter, Pale, and Mary," "Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy", "Mastodon Mother Puncher", and "Sap Brah?" They also push the envelope with crazy experimental stuff, including a mind-blogging 1000 IBU beer. So I'm kinda excited to see what they've got in this bottle (birth date is 4/20/17.)

Damn, that black tea is really coming through on the aroma...strong bergamot. Although I was expecting a milkier texture, it's quite thin and presents some nice sweet spice flavors accompanied by a slight bitterness bite not from hops, but from the oils in the black tea. Quite nice, reminds me a lot of last year's Beer Camp box, the "Sweet Summer South" sweet tea-inspired beer.

I was also pleased to see an entry by Kiuchi Brewery out of Japan. Among other things, they make the "Hitachino Nest" which I briefly reviewed about two years ago. This is their "White IPA with Yuzu", a 7.0% ABV white IPA made with yuzu, an Asian fruit which you may have also encountered in Boston Brewing Co.'s "Sam Adams Tropic of Yuzu."

Wow, this is quite tangy, and in a very peculiar way. It's hard to describe. It has much more character than the "Hitachino Nest", albeit with a slightly bitter texture from the added hops. It retains some of the white ale flavors but you can definitely taste the hops in this one. I don't know enough about yuzu to be able to detect the flavor, but I'd be curious to try more.

Now here's an interesting entry - "Atlantic-Style Vintage Ale", an 8.50% ABV ale made by famous English brewery Fuller's.

Unexpectedly, it's very fruity, but not in a sugary way - more like a dank, fermented way. There's some yeast, but it mostly presents an aged, fermented fruit flavor that's actually quite reminiscent of a barleywine in terms of texture and of strength. According to brewer Dick Cantwell's seminal book Barleywine, the modern barleywine style is a throwback to heavy beers of old - "big beers" - that were commonly brewed in the 18th and 19th centuries. These beers, usually pushing 10.00% ABV, were malt-rich and very heavy and high gravity. And so it's no surprise that this vintage ale may have some of the same qualities as an old-timey, proto-barleywine. Fuller's have probably made ales a hundred and fifty years ago that tasted just like this. I should have asked Dick Cantwell when I saw him at the Craft Brewer's Conference what he thinks of Fuller's!

Here's something new; a beer by Garage Project, based in Wellington, New Zealand, which has been called "the hottest brewery you've never heard about" by Draftmag. They're a small brewery but up-and-coming, so I was pleased to try their "Campout Porter", a 7.70% ABV porter.

Drawing on this beer's Kiwi heritage, it's made with vanilla and manuka honey and also smoked over manuka wood. It pours lighter in color than expected; I was expecting black but it's a medium brown. There's some very pleasing smoky flavors mixed with a bit of sweet chocolate. It's quite smooth, not a lot of fizz, and reminds me a LOT of Fremont's "Bonfire", which definitely is a good thing. Soft, dark, and slightly sweet, this porter is something of which I'd love to grab a six-pack and head out to the campsite.

Those of you familiar with Belgian beers will be no stranger to Brouwerij Duvel Moorgat, better known as Duvel. This next beer is Duvel's 8.0% ABV "Hoppy Belgian-Style Golden", made with lemon peel. Duvel is known for their golden ales, so this makes sense.

Pours clear honey, with a bright and wheaty nose. Generates thick white foam, and frankly, looks like every other Duvel beer I have had.

Light and fizzy, it's Belgiany, thin and representative of many similar lagers. Although I am a fan of the genre, I don't find this to be particularly divergent from what one might usually find in a Duvel bottle available at retail establishments. Don't get me wrong - this was tasty - it just was not as "special" as I hoped and doesn't deviate much from the established style. I'm not detecting too much hops or anything, so who knows.

Finally we have 5.70% ABV "Dunkle Weisse" by Bavarian brewery Ayinger Brewery. Reddish-brown in the glass, it's light and slightly sugared - reminiscent of a deep apple cider. They use "Tradition" hops, but it's more for taste than it is for bitterness. If you like malty, bready beers, this is a must-have. While not terribly inventive, it's a very mellow and soft and perfect for some lightly-spiced bratwurst and a shadegrown cigar.

Field Trip: Thimble Island Brewing Co. [Branford, CT]

Last year, the Connecticut State Society of Washington, DC hosted an event called "Discover Connecticut." With the support of Connecticut's Congressional delegation, it was held in the Russell Senate Office Building's Kennedy Caucus Room and served to highlight Connecticut businesses and products. Mystic Seaport was there; so was the Mark Twain House; Firefly Farms made Beef Wellington from happy Connecticut cows; and almost a dozen restaurants, distilleries, and brewing companies were there. One of the attendees was Thimble Island Brewing Co., based in Branford, CT. I enjoyed the beer they had to offer, got to talking with founder and president Justin Gargano, and made plans to visit when I was back in Connecticut. Fast forward about a year - and here I am! Along with my aunt Jayne and friend Terry, we headed down to the shoreline to check out the brewery and see what makes them unique.

A view of the Thimble Islands. It's hard to see, but some small islands have little cottages on them

The Thimble Islands, for which the brewery is named, is a series of over 100 small islands located near Stony Creek Harbor in Branford, CT, right near New Haven. Originally "discovered" by Adrian Block in 1614, the islands are now home to many small cottages, nature preserves, and open space.

The brewery, currently in its seventh year, is located a couple of miles from the above-pictured shoreline in an office park. The brewery space is coupled with a taproom, totalling around 30,000 square feet of space, at which location they've resided since 2015.

They had an extensive outdoor seating area, with a hightop table area to the left of the entrance, and a series of picnic tables (complete with umbrellas and lawn games) off on the lawn. I really liked the colorful flowers and well-kept lawn - we ended up sitting on the picnic tables since it wasn't too hot. There's no table service outside, but you can take your beer outdoors if you like.

We got two flights, which we all shared. We chose :

• "Thimble Lager", a 4.30% ABV lager made with Cascade and Northern Brewer hops
• "American Ale", a 5.0% ABV ale made with Mt. Hood and Northern Brewer hops
• "Session Forty-Five", a 4.50% ABV session IPA made with Amarillo and Citra hops
• "Ghost Island", an 8.0% ABV  double IPA dry-hopped with Citra hops. (Notice the cute ghost drawing on the flight)
• "Coffee Stout", a smooth and soft 6.00% ABV stout made with coffee beans from Connecticut's own Willoughby Coffee Roasters. 
• "Black and Tan", a mixture of the "Coffee Stout" and "American Ale".
• "Cask-Aged Session Forty-Five", a special dry-hopped, cask-poured variant of the "Session Forty-Five"

My favorites were the "Coffee Stout", the "Cask-Aged Session Forty-Five", and the "Ghost Island." The "Coffee Stout" was super smooth, very clean, and a bit light with no oily flavors or heaviness. The "Ghost Island" had a nice kick of bitterness, kind of expected given that it's over 100 IBUs, but wasn't harsh at all. I think the "Cask-Aged Session Forty-Five" was the star of the show, though.

I love the orange juice, Tree House Brewing-esque color. Hops came out in full force, but not super bitter. Texture is much softer than the original variant on draft. The cask version had strong flavors of flaked wheat and a lingering finish of juicy Galaxy hops and a little bit of salt. Really quite nice and drinkable, perfect for the weather, and it's no surprise I ended up drinking two pints later in the afternoon!

Aside from these draft offerings, they had a few bottles for sale: two 16.9oz, red wine-barrel aged beers (a farmhouse ale, "The Maiden", and a strong ale called "The Mutiny) and a vanilla version of their Coffee Porter; although this wasn't for sale on draft, they popped in the back and grabbed a cold bottle for us. Score!

The "Vanilla Coffee Stout" was just as smooth as the normal stout, this time accompanied by a pleasing vanilla extract taste. It didn't taste artificial or overly sweet; and just like the original, there was no heaviness or sweetness - just easy-drinking, dark beer. I grabbed a four-pack on my way out.

Now it was time to check out their operation. Marketing guru Gina kindly took the three of us on a private tour of the brewery space including the storage area, complete with barrels full of goodness:

Maybe they have "Mutually Assured Destruction", their Russian Imperial Stout, in there! Next we come to the brewing space. Thimble Island has a 30-barrel system, which means they can brew 30 barrels of beer at a time. Each barrel is 31 gallons, so the brewery can make 930 gallons of beer at a clip. According to Gina, annual output for this year is projected between 12,000 and 14,000 barrels of beer. This is not a lot, in the scheme of things - New Belgium Brewing Co., for example, makes about 900,000 barrels a year. That's about 2.3 million gallons a month, as opposed to Thimble Island's projected 31,000 gallons per month.

They've got a couple of 90-barrel fermenters where the beer is being stored. You'll notice the orange bucket with a hose in the lower lefthand corner...this is the point for natural Co2 extraction. There's a hose, coming from the tanks, that's looped down into that bucket which is filled with iodine. This serves as a way for gasses to escape and the pressure in the tanks to equalize (otherwise, the rising pressure from the fermentation process would make the tanks explode.) The iodine is there so that no germs can go up the tube into the beer. One of the buckets was bubbling so fast, it looked like it was boiling! Lots of happy yeast in there.

They can and bottle their beer in-house, of course, using two systems. The below photo is of the 6-valve canning line. Behind me, not pictured, is the 12-valve bottling line. At full speed, they can churn out 3,000 bottles an hour and 1,400 cans per hour. Not bad! Thimble Island is the largest self-distributing brewery in Connecticut, shipping beer to about 2,200 bars, package stores, and supermarkets in the state, so cans go right from the bottling line to the next room where it's packaged and picked up by the drivers.

As the tour concluded, we passed through a big room that serves as an event space to rent. They offer a variety of packages including open bar and cash bar, and allow patrons to bring their own food or have food trucks come in. At the time, the room was being set up for a wedding rehearsal dinner.

Beyond that, we return back to the bar space. We sat at a table - carved with a map of the Thimble Islands - and had a few more pints (that cask-pour session ale is great!) and made out way outside. I should also note they have food trucks out back; Jayne and Terry grabbed a fresh lobster roll and we headed out. Before I conclude, I have to give a short review of the "Maiden", which I tried the following day. It's a 6.50% ABV farmhouse ale aged in oak cabernet sauvignon barrels, costing $11 for a 16.9oz bottle.

Pouring swiftly and generating a fizzy white foam. Look at that beautiful orange juice coloring!

While the oak character of the beer is rather pronounced, this beer is showing some red wine flavors as well, which are interestingly distinct. It's hard to explain, but in some beers, the flavors are all mashed together...while in others, such as this one, it's easy to pick out the individual elements. I kind of like that, because you can appreciate each element without struggling to figure out what the brewers did.

Overall, it's got a tasty farmhouse flavor, a nice showing of tangy oak, and a long lip-smacking finish. This is a must-drink if you're into lighter, oak-aged beers.

If you're ever down on the Connecticut shoreline, please give Thimble Island a try. It's got everything I'd want in a brewery - good beer, nice indoor / outdoor spaces, casual and welcoming atmosphere, and a friendly, generous staff. One thing I would like to see more of is special, perhaps bottle-aged beer (like the "Mutiny" and the "Maiden".) The "Vanilla Coffee Stout" is part of their "Uncharted" series of beers, which may fit this bill. They've also made a series of smaller, experimental brews in 15-barrel batches, as well, so look for those.

I'd like to extend the sincerest of thanks to Justin, Aimie, Gina, and the bar staff for rolling out the red carpet for us. These guys are awesome, and although I never accept free stuff in exchange for good reviews, they did give us some of the beer we drank for free. So thanks for that, big time, and rest assured, I'll be back to Thimble Island as often as I can.

Union Wine Co. - "Underwood" pinot noir [Oregon]

Well, it's sunk to this. Wine in a can.

Just kidding. Actually, I'm surprised we don't see more wine in cans. Cans provide the same benefits to wine as they do to beer - opaque aluminum blocks harmful light, cans are not prone to shattering like glass, the pop top seals in freshness better than corks or caps, and they are of course more portable than glass bottles and work great for camping or sporting events. So it makes sense that this is a viable option, and it's a trend we may see more of down the line.

And I admit, like the beer drinkers of old who equated canned beer with cheap beer, I have wondered to myself just how good wine-in-a-can could be. I've seen this numerous times in stores, and for science purposes, I figured I'd give it a try. It's Union Wine Co.'s "Underwood" pinot noir from the Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Aiming to produce affordable, easy-drinking wines, Union eschews the overly-fancy and fussy tendencies of some wineries. According to founder and CEO Ryan Harms, the winery was founded to "successfully [create] the marriage of craft and small-scale manufacturing" while also emphasizing decent wine over complex convention. This wine, along with a half-dozen others in the Underwood line, are rather affordable at $5.99 for a 375mL can. The winery also sells them for $25 for a four-pack, which equates to about $12 per traditional-sized 750mL bottle.

OK, let's try this out. The can emits a really strong carbonated "pop!" when opened, which is generally unusual for red wine and an interesting development.

Very light strawberry red in the glass, throwing a bright soft nose of berry. There's also lots of bubbles, I mean, way more than any other wine aside from a sparking white. So this suggests to me some sort of additive carbonation.

Initially, there's a burst of soft, sugary notes and flavors of fruit (like cherry). The carbonation I detected earlier is there, but isn't very pronounced - just a tiny bit of effervescence, which is cool. Cherry is the dominant flavor throughout the wine, and there's a slightly cassis flavor on the finish. Quite tasty, and also rather easy-drinking. I like it!

If you see this on the shelf, don't expect some scummy "Two Buck Chuck"-style swill. While it isn't as elegant as a fancy bottle with a pretty label, it's really about having a decent Oregon pinot in a super convenient can. The brightness and fruit flavor of the wine goes well with hot beach weather, or with trail grub after a hike in the woods. My brother Dan and I should have grabbed a few of these when were were hiking in the Olympic Range a few years back!