New Arrivals For Tuesday 12.04.07

The flood of holiday brew has finally slowed to a trickle, and only a handful of new things appeared today, but when the newbies carry the names of such respected brands as Roots and Victory it's definitely worth mentioning.

New American Craft Beers:

Roots - Organic Island Red: Big, hoppy reds are perhaps the only style indigenous to the PNW, and Roots' entry is no slouch. They take a slightly different tack than Laurelwood (and others) by adding a fair amount of oats to the mix which helps give it a creamier mouthfeel and dampens some of the hop presence. The toasty, toffee malt carries a lovely grassy hop nose and some bitterness in the finish, but it's distinctly different than the "red IPA" that you expect when ordering a Free Range Red or IRA.

Victory - Old Horizontal: This reddish copper beauty falls squarely on the hoppy end of the barleywine spectrum. A sweet doughy body is propped up with massive amounts of hops to give the brew adequate balance. A good dose of alcohol burn helps to increase the illusion of dryness and keeps the "Old Ho" from coming across as a cloying malt bomb. Good stuff, and rarely available this far west, so stock up while you can.


Sam Adams - Winter Collection: This 12 pack contains 2 each of the following brews: Boston Lager, Winter Lager, Cream Stout, Holiday Porter, Old Fezziwig, and Cranberry Lambic. Personally I think the Cranberry Lambic is one of the most foul "beers" I've ever had the displeasure of tasting, but the others are all solid. The Old Fezziwig and Holiday Porter are only available in this package (at least in Oregon), so if you're curious to try them you'll have to take home the whole set. Despite my feelings on the "lambic", the rest of the stuff is tasty enough to justify buying this pack, and if you discover that you enjoy the Cranberry Lambic please let me know and I'll gladly trade you mine for a bottle or two of something else from the set.


New Imports:

Duvel - 3 liter (Jeroboam): Same delicious Duvel, now in a devilishly large bottle. Snag one for your holiday party and blow people's minds with 3 liters of Belgian goodness.


Coming Soon:

Laughing Dog beers from Idaho. I just received word from one of my reps that they expect the first shipment to arrive "this week", so there's a small chance it'll show up on Friday, but realistically I expect it to come in Tuesday the 11th. Ratebeer lists 12 different beers from Laughing Dog, but my rep wasn't able to tell me which ones are going to arrive, so we'll just have to wait and see.

I think that's it for now. Enjoy our brief respite from the rain and go outside for a beer while you still can!