New Arrivals For Friday August 21, 2009

It seems strange to be receiving "Oktoberfest" and pumpkin beers when the weather is pushing 90, but I guess it's just a continuation of the trend towards pushing seasonals out earlier and earlier. In any case they're nice and fresh right now, so you might as well drink them. We also got the first shipment of bottles from Upright Brewing, so if a light, refreshing farmhouse ale is more your speed we have you covered. On to the list:

• Boulevard - Bob's 47: (commercial description) Boulevard’s fall seasonal beer, Bob’s ’47 Oktoberfest is a medium-bodied, dark amber brew with a malty flavor and well-balanced hop character. With this Munich-style lager we solute our friend Bob Werkowitch, Master Brewer and 1947 graduate of the U.S. Brewer‘s Academy. Available from September through October in bottles and on draught.
• Bayern - Oktoberfest: Smooth, malty, clean, pretty much everything you want in a festival lager.
  
• Sam Adams - Oktoberfest: A dark amber lager with minimal hops and a smooth caramel/toffee malt flavor. One of the best in the Sam Adams line up.
  
• 3 Skulls - Hop the Plank IPA: 3 Skulls is an off-shoot of Baron Brewing in Seattle that gives them an opportunity to brew some NW-style ales without muddying up the German theme of their core lager brand. As a fairly new brewery there's very little in the way of reviews out there, but the distributor was kind enough to drop off samples, so we'll taste them on Sunday and I'll get back to you
  
• 3 Skulls - Black Bonney Porter: review coming soon...
  
• 3 Skulls - Pillagers Pale Ale: review coming soon...
  
• Buffalo Bill's - Pumpkin Ale: An amber ale with pumpkin spices. Not too shabby, but it can't hold a candle to the Elysian Night Owl.
  
• Upright - Four: A brilliantly balanced farmhouse wheat ale. Perfect for weather like this.
  

These aren't really "new", but Firestone Walker's products are pretty popular, so it's worth mentioning that their Pale 31, Double Barrel Ale, and Union Jack IPA are now available in 12oz singles and 6 packs for those times when a bomber just won't cut it.

That's it for now. Check back soon (or check the Twitter feed over there ----> ) for the latest on new tappings in the Biercafé and other info.

Recent Arrivals

Even ice and snow can't keep the good beer from reaching us. Just be sure to drive carefully (or take Trimet) so you can get home safely with your new found treasures. Speaking of Trimet, we're 4 blocks north of the #15 (get off at 45th and Belmont) and 5 blocks south of the #20 (get off at 44rd and Burnside), so even if you don't feel like driving you should be able to reach us fairly easily. That said, here's a few new things to drool over while you're snowed in...

New American Beers:

The Bruery Partridge in a Pear Tree: Based on the text of the back label it appears that The Bruery is beginning a "12 Days of Christmas" series. The first verse is a Belgian-style quadrupel, which seems like a fitting choice for something that's designed to be held onto for 11 more years. As it stands now it's a little bit under-carbonated, but I'd guess that was an intentional choice to keep the beer from becoming over-carbonated at some point down the line.

Lakefront East Side Dark: (Commercial Description) "The rich, coffee-like aroma and flavor of this fine Dark Bavarian style lager beer is derived from a precise blending of three different specialty barley malts: chocolate, black patent, and Munich malt. Munich malt is also added to bring about the creamy body of this malty brew that has an original gravity of 1060. The most impressive aspect of this brew is the perfect balance between the specialty malts and coveted Mt. Hood hops. Unlike many other dark beers, East Side Dark doesn't have the bitter aftertaste associated with it. Instead, your palate is greeted with the rich body and balanced flavor that only this beer can deliver."

Avery 14er ESB: (Commercial Description) "Named for the 54 Colorado peaks which tower over 14,000 feet in elevation, our session beer is a spectacular copper hued beauty. The treatment of our water to simulate English hard water and the blending of several specialty malts and hops produce a delicate balance between aromatic maltiness and herbal hops."

Avery Ellie's Brown: (Commercial Description) "This beautiful, deep russet brew has the sweet and somewhat nutty character of Adam Avery's late (1992-2002) Chocolate Lab, for which it is named. Crystal and chocolate malts give this beer a brown sugar maltiness with hints of vanilla and nuts, while subtle hopping gives it an overall drinkability that's second to none, just like Ellie!"

Sam Adams Chocolate Bock: (Commercial Description) Samuel Adams partnered with Scharffen Berger Chocolate to develop their newest innovation, Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock. Tettnang Tettnanger and Spalt hops were hand-selected from the world's oldest growing area and combined with a complex selection of malts including two row Pale, Munich and caramel to create a rich and satisfying brew. This dark beer has a big, malty character that is combined with the subtle sweetness of chocolate. The chocolatiers at Scharffen Berger crafted an exclusive blend of chocolate for Samuel Adams made with cocoa beans from Ghana called forastero. Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock was aged on a bed of this chocolate to create its unique layers of flavor. As the beer matured, the fruity, tart, earthy and chocolate aromas were infused into the liquid to give the brew a complex, full-bodied taste with a velvety finish. A hint of vanilla was added to meld the symphony of flavors together.

Woodchuck Oak Aged Cider: Personall I thought this stuff was painfully sweet, but no more so than any of the other varieties of Woodchuck. It does have the slightest hint of oak character to it, but as the cider warms up the residual sugar starts to dominate and it's hard to get past it. If sweet cider is your thing it's definitely worth a shot, otherwise I'd suggest moving on to something drier.

Heater Allen Sandy Paws Baltic Porter: (Commercial Description) "Our Christmas beer. This year's Sandy Paws will be a Baltic Porter - think Dopplebock with more roasted flavors. Big, roasty, malty. A great beer to sit by the fire with. (1.022 BG, 6.60%, 32 IBU, 30 SRM)"

New Old Lompoc C-Note Imperial Pale Ale: Now available in 22oz bottles! For most Portlanders this beer needs no introduction, but for the unfamiliar it can be summed up in one word: HOPS. A huge load of "C hops" (Centennial, Crystal, Cluster, Chinook, Cascade, and Columbus) induces lupulin-based euphoria and the 7% abv is tucked under the smooth, creamy malt profile where you won't notice it until it's too late.

New Old Lompoc Special Draft (aka LSD): I have a feeling that this beer would be flying off the shelves at a much faster rate had the folks at NOL been able to write "LSD" in drippy, psychedelic lettering on the label. But this is America, and the TTB wouldn't want people to get confused and think there's LSD-25 in the beer, so they were forced to drop the distinctive logo seen on tap handles across Portland and change the name from "Strong Draft" to "Special Draft". Other than that, it's the same strong, hoppy, and slightly smoky brew you know and love, now in a convenient take-home package. We postponed the NOL bottle release and tasting until Monday the 22nd, so cross your fingers and hope the weather is a little more agreeable by then.

New Imports:

Unibroue Taster 4-pack #1 (6% series): This gift set contains one bottle each of the Raftman (smoked ale), Chambly Noire (black ale), Blanche de Chambly (witbier), and Ephemere (Belgian ale with apples). With the exception of the Ephemere, none of these is available in Oregon, so it's a great way to try some of Unibroue's other offerings.

Unibroue Taster 4-Pack #2 (9% series): The "strong pack" contains one each of Maudite, Trois Pistoles, Don de Dieu, and La Fin du Monde. If you're new to the Unibroue line up you should definitely check this one out.

Haandbryggeriet Nissefar: (commercial description) This beer is full of all the dark malts that we have at hand and displays a full and complex malt taste, almost reaching in to the porter style. It has a balanced fruitiness from hops with a good mouth feel and smoothness, and a lingering aftertaste of roasted malts.

(Struise T'sjeeses: (commercial description) "Deep to orange blond abbey triple winter beer which has been lagered for 8 months on different stone fruits. Tsjeeses was born out of a 5 year brew experience regarding x-mas beer without being capable of finding a suitable name up to now. With the name came a face, a caricature actually, that was drawn on the day Urbain, our brew master and master brewer, drank too many Tsjeeses's. Every time he drinks one, he says "Tsjeeses, what a beer". Therefore the name is more an expression of stupefaction than a curse. We have had already many discussions around the pronounciation of "Tsjeeses". Very close would be that you say "cheeses" or cheese in plural.

Dieu de Ciel Solstice d'Hiver: Mmmm, barleywine. Nothing says "cold weather sipper" like a glass of strong, warming nectar. I've yet to try a bad beer from DdC, and this one is no slouch either. Low carbonation, subdued alchohol presence, and a full body encourage you to take your time and savor the season.

Olfabrikken Winter Porter: Apparently it's a spiced Baltic porter brewed with honey and cold fermented, which sounds delicious. I'll be drinking one of these in a little bit, so I'll try and update this post ASAP with some more info.

Returning Favorites:

Chimay Grand Reserve Magnums: Same Chimay, bigger bottle.

De Ranke Pere Noel: This hoppy Belgian delight never lasts long, so don't delay is you want to grab a bottle or two.

Reindeer's Revolt: This English strong ale is from Ridgeway, the same brewery responsible for the whimsical "Bad Elf" line of Christmas brews that have become popular the last couple years. I'm not sure why it arrived months later than the others, but it's back and ready to get stuffed into someone's stocking.

Weltenburger Wintertraum: Most German brewers eschew spices, fruits, and other adjuncts in an attempt to follow the Reinheitsgebot, so there's not much room for creativity when it comes to seasonals. None the less, Weltenburger has crafted a wonderfully full-bodied Vienna lager to capture the warmth of the season.

Redstone Vanilla/Cinnamon mead: Mmm, fermented honey with spices. Simple, clean, and potent, which is just what you need after spending the day with your family...

Kulmbacher Monchshof Weinacht Lager (5 liter mini-keg): The Weinacht flows from the minikeg with a deep golden hue and a frothy white cap, reminiscent of the picture of Santa on the outside. It's medium-bodied and has a fairly pronounced "cookie dough" malt character along with light herbal and citrus hop notes in finish. Bring this smooth, easy drinking beer to your next holiday party and see if you can find a couple of elves to do a mini-keg stand!

That'll do it for now. There's more snow coming, so stay warm and safe out there...

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!

New Beer For Friday Sept. 7, 2007

The holiday flood begins...


New Arrivals:

Serafijn Celtic Angel: There's no commercial description, so click the link to read some reviews or wait until I drink one and report back...

Serafijn Donker: This dark brown Serafijn has a spicy herbal character and a soft bitterness. The Achilles brewery has a unique way of achieving an even heating of the wort: using no direct flame or steam, the wort is pumped through a spiral that sits in a tub of hot water!

Serafijn Tripel: There's no commercial description, so click the link to read some reviews or wait until I drink one and report back...

Serafijn Grand Cru: There's no commercial description, so click the link to read some reviews or wait until I drink one and report back...

Hemel Nieuw Ligt Grand Cru: Translated from Dutch, on the painted label: "heavy beer, 12% ABV, for long cellaring. Full, dark, aromatic. Now ready to drink, but around 2008 at its peak. Store cool and dark. Drinkable until eternity." English bottles: Exquisitely brewed by Browerij De Hemel - "Heaven" in Dutch - and gently accented with spices lovingly picked from the Garden of Eden. It is specially brewed to give pleasure for all Eternity. Keep it in your cellar as long as you can. It just gets better as time goes by.

Gouden Carolus Noel: For the Christmas and New Year festivities the Gouden Carolus range is now extended to include this seriously heavy strong brown ale. Het Anker are thus rekindling a long lost tradition from the days of yore when they marketed Cardinal Christmas and Anker Christmas. The commercial description doesn't really say much, but I remember it being like a heavenly spiced dessert in a bottle. Take that for what it's worth...

Sam Adams Imperial Pilsner: This is easily the best brew I've ever had from Sam Adams, even better than the much maligned Triple Bock. Clear, golden, and medium bodied with a billowy white head. There's some malt in there somewhere, but this beer is all about the hops. Earthy, spicy Hallertau hops permeate every drop of this beer leave a lasting impression on your tongue. It won't be around for long, so try some while you can!

Six Rivers Bluff Creek Pale Ale: Citrus notes, well balanced, crisp with a hoppy aroma. Honestly, that commercial description leaves a lot to be desired, so I'll post something more thorough in a couple days.

Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale: A crisp and refreshing wheat beer with delightful aromatics and gently spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale : Punkin' Ale is a full-bodied, spiced brown ale brewed with baked pumpkins, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. Dogfish Head Punkin' Ale is named after the annual Punkin' Chunkin Festival held near Lewes, Delaware the weekend after Halloween.



Long Lost Friends:

Chimay Grande Reserve (Blue) 1.5 Ltr Magnums: It's the same Chimay Blue you know and love, but in a larger bottle that's perfect for holiday gatherings or family dinners.

Piraat 1.5 Ltr Magnums: Piraat has been out of stock for so long I'd almost forgotten the wonderful blend of sugar and hops it provides. At 10.5% abv its another great beer for gatherings or a really, really long solo session.



Note: Most of these descriptions came from either the bottle or the brewers' website. I take no responsibility if something doesn't live up to the flowery marketing-speak they use to describe it.

Have a good weekend!