New Arrivals for 9.15.09 - The Better Late Than Never Edition

Well, 09.09.09 has already come and gone, but Stone's latest Vertical Epic release didn't arrive until today. Such is the way of things I guess. Today's delivery brought a few other things besides the VE, so scroll down the list and see what catches your fancy.

New Beers:

• Stone - Vertical Epic 09.09.09: This year's twist in the story line brings us down a dark alley haunted by mysterious aromas of tangerine and vanilla. At 8.5% it begs for a snifter and your complete attention.
  
• Stone/BrewDog/Cambridge - Juxtaposition Black Pilsner: Ignore the fact that "black pilsner" is just another way of saying "schwarzbier" because this brew bears absolutely no resemblance to pilsner, black or otherwise. It's dry, roasty, and pushing a double digit abvmore which makes it more akin to an imperial stout fermented with lager yeast. It's really tasty, just don't go in expecting any sort of classic lager.
  
• He'Brew - Rejewvenator: I haven't had this one yet, but the label says, "Half Doppelbock, Half Belgian-style Dubbel" and it's brewed with date concentrate, which definitely sounds interesting. With Rosh Hashanah beginning Friday, it's worth noting that the entire He'Brew line is Kosher Certified. In addition to the Rejewvenator we have their Genesis Pale Ale, Messiah Bold (a flavorful brown ale), and Bittersweet Lenny's Rye IPA. L'Chaim!
  
• Alaskan - Baltic Porter: This brew sold out quick last year, and as delicious as it is I'm really not surprised. Cherries, vanilla beans, and French oak add dimension and complexity to this classic style. Get it while it lasts.
  
• Kona - Pipeline Porter: This tasty little porter is brewed with real Kona coffee to give it an extra little kick.
  
• Blue Moon - Harvest Moon: Nothing fancy from the house of Coors; just an unpretentious amber ale with pumpkin and spice flavors.
  
• Hopworks - Bike Beer IPA: Whoa, another hoppy beer from HUB!?! Seriously though, this one is a little less astringent and a little more fruity than their regular IPA. I'd have to bust open one of each and do a side by side comparison to nail down any other differences...
  
• Baron - Oktoberfest: Classic "festbier" lager from Seattle. Flavors of caramel and nutty malt compliment the clean, crisp hopping in the finish...
  
• New Old Lompoc - Monster Mash: Despite what the angry jack-o-lantern on the label would have you believe, this is an Imperial Porter and not a pumpkin beer. This should be around for at least a couple of months, but if it sells faster than the Heaven's Helles did it could be gone in a couple weeks, so don't delay.
  
• Midnight Sun - Obliteration V: The fifth beer in the Obliteration IPA series is an 8.2% double IPA brewed with Tomahawk and Magnum hops. I haven't had this one yet, but based on the hop selection I would expect it to lean more towards pungent and piney rather than a typical west coast citrus bomb.
  
• Elysian - Night Owl: The northwest's most popular pumpkin ale is back.
  
• Great Divide - Tripel: Great Divide's take on the trappist mainstay is a little sweeter than the classic Belgian examples, but all in all I think they did a great job on this one.
  
• Great Divide - Hoss Lager: This is becoming a favorite around the shop, and "Hoss" is well on it's way to becoming a slang term for rugged and/or manly. For example, Patrick Swayze's character in Road House was definitely "Hoss." Anyway, come and grab some Hoss before Jimmy and Lucas drink it all.
  
• Hales - Super Goose Imperial IPA: One person at the shop decreed that the Super Goose is superior to Russian River Pliny the Elder. Debatable perhaps, but at less than $5 per 22oz bottle it's certainly worth buying one of each and conducting your own experiments.
  
• Coney Island - Freaktoberfest: It smells and tastes like an oktoberfest beer, but the bloody red color might throw you off a bit. Buy some to freak out your Halloween party guests.
  
• Crispin - Honey Crisp: This seasonal cider from Crispin is only roughly filtered which results in a very cloudy cider (with a color reminiscent of dirty dish water), and the tartness of the apples is smoothed out with an addition of organic honey. Speaking of Crispin, we're hosting a tasting with them this evening, so stop in from 5-8pm and you can sample this for free along with the rest of the Crispin line.

That's all for now; keep your eyes peeled for the stream of fresh hop beers coming out in the next 2-4 weeks. Most of them are truly delicious, but the season is painfully short.

New Arrivals For Tueday September 1

Not much in the way of new things, but I figured people would want a heads up about a couple of these.

New Arrivals:

• Russian River - Temptation: A mid-strength (at least for RR) sour blond aged in Chardonnay barrels with every pretty much every wild yeast available. This is not an introductory wild ale as the levels of tartness and horse blanket mustiness will probably scare off people who aren't already in love with the style, but for lovers of wild brews this is one of the best. I'd put it second only to Supplication in RR's "regular" sour line-up.
• Mad River - The Mad Belgian: I haven't had it yet, but based on the few reviews that have been posted it's a coppery colored Belgian-style ale with some candi sugar maltiness, tropical fruit overtones from the yeast, and some citrusy hops to balance it out. Sounds pretty darn good.
• Flying Dog - Dogtoberfest: (commercial description) Dogtoberfest is a unique beer containing five premium malts. This lager draws its influence from the Vienna Marzen or Oktoberfest style. It is rich and malty with a sweet aroma and deep mahogany color.
• Leinenkugel's - Oktoberfest: A classic festbier from a classic midwest brewery. Ignore the low ratings, I think Leinenkugel's scores suffer more from being owned by Miller than from any flaw in the beers themselves. Except for the summery one that tastes like Fruity Pebbles™, that stuff deserves its low rating.
  
• Southern Oregon Brewing - "Na Zdravi" Czech Pils: Solid pils with a smooth body, just a hint of sulpher, and a crisp noble-hoppiness to the finish. This is a pretty short run seasonal, so grab some now.
  
• Hale's Ales - O'Brien's Harvest Ale: An aggressively hopped, copper-hued ale, perfect for the warm days and cooler nights of September.
  

The following aren't new, but they don't come in very often so it's worth noting:

• Alesmith - Wee Heavy
• Alesmith - Devil
• Alesmith - IPA

Last but not least, we should be receiving a small shipment of Russian River Pliny the Elder and Blind Pig IPA on Friday, but we're at the mercy of distributors and trucking companies, so don't get mad at me if it doesn't arrive.

Blue Frog Beer Arrives in Oregon

We got 5 new beers in this morning from Blue Frog Grog and Grill in Fairfield, CA. I haven't had a chance to taste any of them yet, but I'll try and squeeze them into the line up for this weekend.



We've got their Blonde Ale, Hefeweizen, Red Ale, IPA, and "The Big DIPA" imperial IPA.

In addition to the Blue Frog we saw a few seasonal favorites return to the shelves or coolers:

Moylan's Hopsickle Imperial Ale (very limited, so please don't hoard it)
Dogfish Head Midas Touch
Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron
Anderson Valley Summer Solstice
Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shutdown Ale (now in 6pks!)
Hale's Kolsch
Pyramid Curveball Blonde Ale

I think that's it for today. Don't forget about the Spring Beer and Wine Fest this weekend!

New Arrivals For Friday May 2, 2008

Mmm...Beer. The weather looks promising, and the coolers are full. We've got plenty of lighter summer offerings in stock, and if you feel like bucking the weather trend we've got a couple heavy-hitting dark beers for you to consider as well. Here's the newest offerings, roughly order from lightest to darkest.

NEW BEER!

Boulder - Sweaty Betty: Boulder's summer seasonal is often overlooked, but if you're a fan of Widmer (or Pyamid) Hefeweizen it's definitely worth a try. Light citrusy hop notes rise up and accentuate the hazy, smooth beer.

Cascade Lakes Pine Marten Pale: The Pine Marten isn't seasonal, but after changing distributors a few months ago we've finally got it back in PDX. It's chock full of piney hops riding a wave of bready, slightly toasty malt. Imagine walking the hills west of Redmond in the spring, while nibbling on a fresh baguette. Yeah. That sounds good.

Alesmith - IPA: This rare treat only makes a couple appearances per year in Portland, so it's always worth mentioning it when it comes in. I drank one last night and I remembered why I love it so much; the hops practically leaped out of the bottle before I could even pour the thing. Smooth and aromatic with a dry, clean finish, this is a great example of how San Diego does IPA. We only got a couple cases, so come and grab one before I drink it all.

Golden Valley - Geist Bock: Geist is German for ghost, and Golden Valley's tribute to the pale bock style is a deliciously unusual choice for a summer seasonal. It's strong like a doppelbock, but pale as a helles, and finishes clean and smooth like a lager should.

Deschutes - Hop Henge: Given the recent hop shortage, I'm glad to see Deschutes hasn't skimped on the hops, or scratched this recipe entirely. It's huge, but balanced. So balanced in fact that the only real complaints you'll see in theratings is that it doesn't taste "imperial enough", meaning it doesn't tear your palate apart with hops or fusel alcohol flavors. Any beer that's pushing 10% and manages to drink like it's 7% is OK in my book.

Brasserie Huyghe - Delirium Noel: I'm not sure what the hold up on this was, or why we didn't get any before Christmas, but better late than never. The Noel falls roughly in between the Delirium Tremens and Nocturnum. It pours dark amber with a big fluffy head, and is loaded with everything you love about Belgian Christmas beers; dark fruit, spices, and yeasty bread flavors wash over your tongue in an ever-changing medley of tastiness. This brew also cellars well, and it may not arrive in time for Christmas this year, so you may want to consider buying a couple to stash for a special holiday meal.

Hale's - Pikop Andropov Imperial Stout: At "only" 7.5% this is on the lighter end of the imperial stout spectrum, but that just means you can drink more of it. The dark (inky) black body releases dark fruit flavors and aromas of coffee and bitter chocolate. The finish lingers forever and leaves you with roasted coffee and hop bitterness. Pikop one today.

Alesmith - Speedway Stout: There's really nothing I can say about Speedway that hasn't already been said. If the name is familiar to you, you know how incredible it is. If the name means nothing I'd suggest clicking the link and reading all the rave reviews (over 900 to date!) that are posted on ratebeer.

Alesmith - Decadence 2007 Imperial Porter: I'll have to let the fine reviewers at ratebeer describe this one because I ahven't had a chance to try it yet. We were only able to get 24 bottles, and we like to "spread the love", so we kindly ask that you limit yourself to one bottle per person, per visit.


I think that's it for today, and there's no event notices to mention, other than the grand opening of a new brewpub downtown, but I'm sure you've already heard about that. Have a good weekend, and enjoy the sunshine while you can!

New Arrivals for September 18, 2007

Hale's - O'Brien's Harvest Ale: Harvest Ale is crisp and refreshing, made with fresh (wet) Central
Washington hops, harvested in early autumn. Rich & robust, O'Brien's Harvest is a much anticipated Northwest classic!

Allgauer - Oktoberfest: The official description simply states, "A pleasantly soft beer, makes everyday a holiday." I guess that's all you need to know!



I don't have time to list them all right now, but I also wanted to mention our small, but carefully chosen collection of premium Saké. We're just as committed to bringing you the best in Japan's national beverage as we are with beer, so the selection will be growing slowly as we personally taste test the candidates. In addition to Oregon's own Momokawa and Moonstone line we've got a handful of the best "value priced" options from Japan.

The Silence of the Blog

I apologize for the lack of posts recently but it has been incredibly busy (and chaotic) in my little corner of the beer world.

We've gotten a few new beers this week as well as a handful of returning favorites:

Local:
Alameda - Beaumont Bock

U.S. Micros:
Midnight Sun - Arctic Devil Barleywine
Midnight Sun - Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter
Hale's Ales - Nut Brown Ale
Bayern - Killarnny Red Irish Lager
Avery - Maharaja Imperial IPA
Boulder - Mojo Risin Imperial IPA
Marin - Tripel Dipsea (Belgian-style tripel)
Dogfish Head Pangaea (funky hybrid) and Fort (18%abv raspberry beer)

Imports:
St. Louis Framboise
Delirium Tremens returns after a long absence

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