Category: Brewery Tour

A concise brewery bio

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Mike’s Organic

We dip back into New Zealand to look at an organic brewery by the name of Mike’s. I like that they celebrate both mom and dad. (Some organics forget the male of the gender) “mike’s is committed to offering you the very best quality organic beer that we can produce. Joining us are mother nature, who supplies all of the ingredients, and father time, who matures the beer for us.”

Their IPA sounds like a bitter treat:
“Inspired by the hoppy English pale ales but leaning toward the highly hopped American variety. Pours rich golden amber with a faint haze and a creamy white head settling to a fine veil. The aroma is complex with tropical fruit including passion fruit, pineapple and melons all vying for attention.

The flavour is something to behold, with the sweet tropical fruits now balanced out by the strong biscuity malt flavour and absolutely intense hop bitterness. The very full mouth feel and glowing warm aftertaste serve to further keep the hop bitterness in check.

This is an extremely hoppy beer, if the drinker is not partial to hops, they might struggle with this drop. For the true hop heads, this is nectar to be savoured.

Serve chilled in small stemmed goblets, to be sipped on cool Autumn evenings. This beer needs to be treated with respect, weighing in at 9.0% ABV, it’s no lightweight and should be shared with good company.”

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Louisiana Beer – NOLA Brewing

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Each of the Louisiana breweries that I have focused on have great histories and NOLA is no exception. Here is the NOLA story: “NOLA Brewing is the concept and dream of entrepreneur Kirk Coco. Kirk is a native New Orleanian who earned his BA and Juris Doctorate from Louisiana State University, his MBA from the University of New Orleans and served 11 years as a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy. After watching the effects of Katrina while on deployment in the Arabian Gulf, he decided to come home to help rebuild and develop commerce in post-Katrina New Orleans.

While enjoying great tasting beer of fellow New Orleanian and home brewer Byron Towles, the question arose, “Why doesn’t New Orleans have several great local micro-breweries like Portland or Seattle to offer a variety of beer to a city full of brewing history?”

Once the cradle of brewing in the Deep South, New Orleans boasted world famous beers such as Falstaff, Regal, Union, Dixie, Jax, New Orleans Brewing and XXXX (Four X).”

And here is the beer that stood out amongst the many good choices:
“Hopitoulas is a West Coast style India Pale Ale that has 6 malts and 6 hops and has been additionally dry hopped for three weeks. A month and a half to make each batch, we think you’ll appreciate our extra work in the perfectly balanced, hoppy flavor Hopitoulas packs.”

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Louisiana Beer – Crescent City Brewhouse

To start the month of Louisiana Beer, I have to start in the traditional (some may say cliche) heart. The French Quarter of New Orleans. I will expand out as the month goes by but first I present, Crescent City Brewhouse.
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They have a really solid list of beers. All crafted by “Wolfram Koehler, [who] is recognized among his peers for his craftsmanship … and continues his family tradition of brewing the finest selection of world class beer. Our house selection of distinctive lagers has won numerous awards. World travelers will be pleased to discover that the German heritage known for fine beer making is continued here.”

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Ireland or Germany? – Clanconnel Brewing

Back to Ireland and Clanconnel Brewing. Do read their history on the home page of their website. It is very cool.

They have two beers in their line with a third in the works. You can have a Weaver’s Gold…
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“This refreshing blonde ale, strikes a perfect balance between the subtle sweetness of the malts; the wonderful zesty citrus aroma from the hops and the crisp, dry finish on the palate.”
..or the McGrath’s Red…
“A medium bodied traditional ale, combining the caramel sweetness of the malts with toasted biscuit notes, balanced carefully by the earthy hops, finishing slightly dry but smooth on the palate.”

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Cismontane Brewery

I was perusing the IPA list at the wonderful Tony’s Darts Away (which you should go to, RIGHT NOW!) and one of beers was the Coulter IPA from a brewery that I had never heard of before in Orange County.
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Cismontane brews the El Modena Brown, Peninsular Pale, two versions of a coffee stout along with the aforementioned IPA.

They have been open since April of this year and deserve a look see from all of you OC and South Bay beer geeks as well as us Los Angeles folk.

address
29851 Aventura Suite D.
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
92688

Phone
(949) 888-BREW [2739]

Open
Thurday 2-8
Friday 2-8
Saturday 12-7
Sunday 12-5

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Ireland or Germany? – Brauhaus am Waldschlossen

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On to Germany and a Brauhaus. The vibe and beer are completely different from Ireland but the classic quality is the same.

At the Waldschlossen, you can have their Zwickelbier which “is a pale, full-bodied beer. It is brewed on the basis of an original Waldschlösschen Brewery recipe. The special feature of this beer is the fact that it is left unfiltered. It is a bottom-fermented beer with an alcohol content of approx. 5.5%”

Also check out the links on the history of brewing and their brewing process. You will learn something fun for sure.

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Fullsteam Brewery

near-final

Fullsteam just opened last month and they have a unique twist to their business and their beers that stems from their community roots.

Did I mention that their beers are unique? Try these on for size:
Carver sweet potato beer
“North Carolina is the largest U.S. producer of sweet potatoes. In our quest to work with local Southern ingredients as much as possible, the humble sweet potato is an obvious choice. In fact, one-third of the total fermentables in Carver come from North Carolina sweet potatoes.

Perhaps less obvious: our decision to avoid cloying spices that would only serve to mask the savory-yet-delicate flavors. The goal of this modestly-hopped amber ale is to have you explore the nuance of the sweet potato…not hit you over the head with Obvious Spices. What is, after all, the taste of a sweet potato? Carver asks this quest ion and encourges you to explore the answer.”

Scuppernong sparkling ale
“A highly-carbonated, cloudy white beer with a surprisingly dry hint of scuppernong grapes. Perfect for a late afternoon. A local wheat and scuppernong blend that is 100% naturally fermented. Premiered at 2008 Southern Foodways Alliance Sympoium in Oxford, Mississippi. 5.0% ABV”

First Frost wild persimmon
“This unique winter ale is made from the winter fruit harvested from a 50-year-old Chatham County persimmon tree. The persimmons were added in secondary with a touch of cinnamon — a nod to persimmon pudding. We call this beer “First Frost” as persimmon fruit reaches its peak flavor after, you guessed it, the first frost of autumn. 7% ABV.”

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Darwin Brewery

Thanks to Jeff Evans, I finally learned about this Sunderland based brewery, Darwin.
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“Established in 1994 the Darwin Brewery has grown steadily over the last ten years to become one of the most respected micro-breweries in the north of England. Recent awards of ‘CAMRA North East beer of the Year 2003/4’, ‘2004 Asda Beer Festival’ award and most recently the ‘2005/6 Tesco Beer Challenge’ is the perfect way to celebrate it’s decade in Business.”

Two of the most intriguing beers in their range are the Ghost Ale, their flagship golden ale with citrus tones and the Hop Drop Champion Ale made with cluster and liberty hops.

They also have a sister company, Brewlab that does that pesky technical and science sides of things. AND they also team up with the University of Sunderland, so that the next generation can see inventive British brewing.