Recent Arrivals and Random Notes

We haven't had enough new arrivals on any given day to justify a full post, but I think we've received enough in the last 10 days to make it worth your time reading.

Many of you have been asking for the Laughing Buddha Beers, and it appears as though the brewery has been listening. We recently received our first shipment of beer from the Asian-inspired brewery, all of which are well-crafted and fairly unique. The initial line up contains 5 brews that run the gamut from light and crisp to dark and full-bodied:

• Purple Yam Porter - This is probably my favorite of the bunch. There's a hint of hint of candied yam flavor, but the thing that sticks with you is the subtle vanilla notes that linger on the palate after each sip. All the folks that keep asking for beers with vanilla in them owe it to themselves to give the Purple Yam a try.
  
• Ginger Pale Ale - A light-bodied, spicy pale ale with a ton of ginger zing. This beer is the perfect counterpoint to spicy dishes, or anything with wasabi in it.
  
• Mango Weizen - The whole "American wheat beer with fruit" thing has almost become a cliche; it seems like every brewpub has some mediocre example on hand to appeal to the non-beer drinking crowd. Thankfully, the LB Mango Weizen is a heck of a lot better than the insipid versions you so often find. The mango character is noticeable without being overwhelming, and the underlying beer is solidly constructed. If they brought this to the OBF I could see it giving 21st Amendment's Watermelon Wheat a run for the money.
  
• Dragon King Lager - This Asian-style lager is brewed with Saaz hops and crystal malts (no mention of rice) for that "Premium Lager" flavor. Added bonus: It's a heck of a lot fresher than the actual Asian stuff
• Pandan Brown Ale - To the best my knowledge I've never had anything with Pandan leaves in it before, so I wasn't not sure what to look for in terms of flavor, but I'll go out on a limb and assume it was the slightly sweet/nutty character. Combined with the slightly roasty malt character it makes for a wonderfully drinkable brown ale.
  

Other Recent Arrivals:

• Full Sail - Slipknot Imperial IPA
• Alaskan Brewing - Barleywine
• Nogne O - Dark Horizon (2nd Edition)
• Oskar Blues - Dale's Pale Ale
• Oskar Blues - Old Chub
• Oskar Blues - Gordon
• Cascade Brewing - Apricot

Coming (Very) Soon:

• Sierra Nevada - Bigfoot Barleywine
• Sierra Nevada - Torpedo Extra IPA
• Cascade Lakes - IPA

Last but not least, Fuller's London Pride, Porter, ESB, and Vintage Ale are back after a long absence!

Upcoming Events:

Imperial Stout Week in the Biercafe!

Each afternoon we'll tap a new limited edition Imperial Stout (or two). (many of the descriptions that follow are based on commercial descriptions from the brewery).


MONDAY JAN 26:
STRUISSE BLACK ALBERT - Brewed and crafted in Belgium with 100% Belgian ingredients. Aroma of bitter-sweet chocolate, fresh torrified coffee beans, barley, candy sugar, complex fruits, and floral hops. The after-taste is well balanced and shows a panorama of extreme sensations like chocolate and coffee bitters, a plum cake richness that covers the palate, and a crisp impression of hop bitters that brings elegance and freshness into this massive brew. 13% ABV Rated 100 on Rate Beer!

LAURELWOOD MOOSE & SQUIRREL - Dark as night, thick and rich. Big roast and coffee flavors dominate this beer. 8% ABV 55 IBUs O.G. 20º Plato

TUESDAY JAN 27:
ELLEZELLOISE HERCULE STOUT - Belgian Stout lagered for ten days in German oak casks. Very malty, but dry, with a hint of sweetness in the finish, and balanced hopping. It has a very distinctive and intoxicating spicy aroma of fresh spruce. This unique house character probably derives from the strains of yeast used by the brewery – and possibly from the fermentation in oak. Named for legendary detective Hercule Poirot. 9%ABV. Rated 98 on Rate Beer.

LAUGHING DOG DOGFATHER - 7 different malts and 4 hops give this big stout a complex flavor profile. Over 11 months in the making with a portion barrel aged. 11% ABV 71 IBU. Rated 98 on Rate Beer

WEDNESDAY JAN 28:
DESCHUTES ABYSS - You already know all about this beer. You just want more. 11%ABV.

VICTORY STORM KING - With a huge, Pacific Northwest hop aroma & character upfront, Storm King subsides into massive, roast malt complexity. Rich, substantial & complex. 9%ABV


Last Minute Cascade Lakes Tasting and Release Party:

Be the first to taste & buy this fine IPA from Cascade Lakes Brewing in Redmond, OR. Owning Partner Rick Orazetti will be on hand to offer samples of the IPA & Monkey Face Porter and give you the lowdown on the brews. Plus Skookum Creek Strong Ale on draught!

That's all for now, but if you catch this post in the next hour we're having an Alaskan Brewing tasting until 8pm. We'll be pouring samples of their full bottle line-up as well as serving 2007 and 2008 Smoked Porter, Barleywine, and White Ale on draught in the Biercafe.

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...

Pike Entire Stout Arrives

Only one new beer today, but it's a special one.

via John Foyston's blog:

Pike Entire is a blend of three beers: Pike's XXXXX Extra Stout; the same beer aged for more than half a year in oak Bourbon barrels; and an Imperial Stout. The Entire blend contains 42.7% barrel aged beer and finishes at 9.5% alcohol.

Mmm...wood. We only received a couple of cases, so we ask that customers limit themselves to 2 bottles per person.



PS: We also received a keg of De Struise Black Albert, an incredibly rare "Belgian Royal Stout" from the brewers of Pannepot and Earthmonk. I'm not sure when we'll be tapping it, but it'll be publicized ahead of time so that anyone who's interested can hopefully have an opportunity to sample it.