Category: Beer Reviews

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Home Brew Review – Cardamom Ale

Of the three home brews that I have tried in January, this is the best. By far. The cardamom is here! Unlike the absent spruce and sage from earlier beers.

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This ale is less carbonated and zippy but also has much less of the honey that pulled focus from the first two beers. And as you can see from the photo, it was a bit of a gusher.  A slow one thankfully. The aroma is a hit on the sweet side. Nice cereal taste here. The color is a bit fuzzy but with home brew that isn’t as much a concern as flavor for me. This is nice and simple but I wish the spice was even stronger. These days it takes a lot to break through my worn out palate and I could use an extra burst of cardamom.

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Home Brew Review – Honey Sage Saison

Next up in the home brew reviews of January is the Honey Sage Saison

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This concoction pours a lovely orange mimosa color. With a bit of haze and a prettu cap of foam on top. The aroma is a mixture of bread, honey and yeast. A mixture that doesn’t quite work for me. The taste veers from a splash of orange to farmhouse before settling in on honey. It isn’t thick or sticky like honey on the palate but it is close, (saved by some bubbly carbonation) and it certainly reminds me of opening the bear shaped honey container.

Much like the previous spruce ale, I’m afraid that the spice component, sage that I was looking for has gone missing though. It would have added a nice counterpoint / compliment to the honey. Surprisingly more dry than sweet, which I like.

Of the two, I would choose the Spruce over the Honey Sage. I am looking forward to the darker beers coming.

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$30 Taste Test

Traditionally, I break out the more expensive beers for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The holidays demand something more, in my mind.

This year, a bit of a change-up though. I had a Gose from Cascade to pop as 2014 became 2015 but decided to save it for a different type of taste test. A Colbert Platinum version. (Sad to see that show go)

I brought a Gose and my beer buddy Richard provided the Black Tuesday (2014) and we proceeded to have a light vs dark but both over $30 session.

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The Gose starts off with a green apple aroma coming off the well laced glass. The salt is in the foreground but not in a savory way until it sits for a bit. I took one sip near the end of the glass and it was a bit more concentrated. The sourness does bite. The mouth does pucker. This is certainly one of the more straightforward examples of the style. Especially considering that Cascade is not shy about additions of fruits and spices. After it sits for awhile, a ton of floral aromatics show up. Almost potpourri like.

The 2014 Black Tuesday begins with a hot aroma. That heat extends to the taste which is also quite syrupy. So to start it seems the balance is off. Was this meant to sit longer? Lots of chocolate and maple syrup taste. Their is some coconut from the barrels but the alcohol runs over that taste. Overall, the dominant flavors are syrup and caramel.

On a positive note, the near 20% alcohol doesn’t warm up the cheeks or burn on the way down which is good. But I just wish it wasn’t so syrupy. I keep thinking pancakes when drinking.  I think I will age my bottle a few years.

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The winner for me was the Gose.  It had multiple elements going on and despite the high salt factor it was still quite tasty to drink.

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Home Brew Review – Spruce Ale

So, the backstory. A dear friend has been home brewing all of last year and (hopefully into) 2015. For Christmas, I received bottle after bottle. OK, five all told. It was an awesome gift.  I highly recommend giving that gift to me even if you don’t know me.

I will be reviewing all of them this month and first on the docket is the Spruce Ale.

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The label is a bit smudged but believe me, it is a spruce beer. The beer is a hazy orange/red mixture with a big ol’ head of foam on it. The smell is a bit too sweet. Almost like a cough syrup. Any spruce notes have to be waited on but really only emerge a skosh in the taste. The taste is sweet as well even after warming. Not quite cherry but maybe spiced holiday cherry flavor. Little bit of fruitcake notes as well.

Overall, it needs more spruce and the sugar is too high. A little recalibration and further taste testing are in order.

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Review – Two IPA’s from Crux Fermentation Project

When you get a WOW! beer.  You just can’t get enough.  I review many beers on this blog but very few make me go WOW! Off Leash from Crux Fermentation Project is such a beer.

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A mega amount of Belgian Farmhouse funk is here but it doesn’t overwhelm like it can.  Why?  The hops are right there.  Fruit and mango and pineapple in abundance.  Then there is a spice note that is just as strong.  And yet, it works. Despite having three major competitive forces.  Which is usually a death knell for a beer.

This beer makes me want to find any other beer with a combination of Crystal, Citra and Centennial hops.

I am a cat person but the dogs and bones on this label might change me.  The beer is that good.

And since, Off Leash was so good, the next night I uncapped the Outcast IPA in search of another hop experience and I got it.  A notch or two below but since that is in comparison to a WOW! beer that is still pretty darn good.  Lots of grape notes here.  Almost Concord-y in intensity.  The bitterness is a lighter shade to my overworked palate but it is still a zippy beer. The Galaxy hops come through with flavor and aroma and the bitterness doesn’t fight the malt but work as an undercurrent to it.

Both beers show a deft touch for balancing flavors and I wish I had bought more.  ‘Cause I got no bottles left.

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Review – Our Special Ale 2014 from Anchor Brewing

Up from the Cellar for December will be focusing on multiple vintages of the Anchor Christmas beer. We have arrived at the present day like some Dickensian character.

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(You can check out last years review HERE)

2014 The new vintage is fairly plain compared with the past. No big spruce or pine notes to it. Not much hops either. It is a simple beer. More liquid bread and in line with a British winter warmer than anything else. It is pretty thick to me. There is almost a fruitcake without the fruit thing going on here. A bit of toffee notes for me as well. Decent. It won’t stop me from buying the 2015 version. But I wish it was more spicy with spruce. It is simply missing something.

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Review – Rhubarbian from 2 Towns Ciderhouse

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You are at Beer Search Party and yes, you are reading a cider review on this blog.  On my recent trip to Portland, I picked up this Rhubarb cider because when are you going to get a chance to taste this combo?  Maybe in a pie but in an alcoholic drink.

This Corvallis based cidery does plenty of fruity ciders but the combination promised on the can: “Tangy, wild, and not for the faint of heart, the Rhubarbarian is a fearsome hard cider made with fresh-pressed NW rhubarb” made me pick up a can.

The aroma doesn’t scream rhubarb to me.  More like a combination of cider and white wine.  The taste is both pretty smooth with an initial hit of tartness.  The apple taste seems most prominent to me though the rhubarb is a nice undercurrent throughout the drinking.  You do have to pay attention to get that rhubarb though which leads me to wanting a bigger hit of that and less of the apple.  They also do a version with hops by the name of Hop & Stalk which I wish I had seen to compare.

Now I want rhubarb pie!

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Review – Citrus IPA’s

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While perusing the shelves of Portland’s excellent Beer Mongers store, I noticed a trend of citrus IPAs. Not just hops with citrus qualities but fruit infused IPAs.

So, for science, I bought three to unscientifically compare and contrast.

From past experience, I ranked the Lompoc first followed by Hop Valley and Coalition. But that is not the final ranking after each bottle was emptied.

Pamplemousse from Lompoc Brewing initially smelled great. Big grapefruit notes minus the pith which I find most commonly in citrus hop combos. But as it warmed, this beer started to lose that fruit vibrancy and settled into a nice IPA only.

Citrus Mistress from Hop Valley was full of the pith from first sip to last. But it was a little too one note for me. I guess I expected a variety of citrus and not just one flavor note.

My winner was Space Fruit from Coalition Brewing. The fruit was there both orange and lime to me along with a spice component that I didn’t line at first but really grew on me.

I think a mix of the last two would have really done the trick.

Now I need to find three SoCal fruit IPAs to test.

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Review – Deception from Black Market Brewing

OK.  This beer has both coconut and lime.  On top of the relatively weak base of a blonde ale.  Can Black Market pull this off?

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Deception pours a murky orange color. I get more lime than coconut on the aroma and I get more tropical than coconut. The taste is very subdued. Coconut can be overpowering but it is barely hinted at here. I get just at the back before I take the next sip. The lime juice is more prominent but isn’t big on that citric note.

Overall, I found this beer to be too watery to me which I found disappointing. More lime zest and maybe some toasted coconut would improve it to me.

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Review – Blood Orange Gose from Anderson Valley

Not only does Anderson Valley can their Gose, but they also can a spin-off.  A Blood Orange Gose!  Time to see how the Gose melds with citrus.

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BOG pours a Tang orange color with absolutely zero head to it once the initial foam winds down. There is a certain orange jello aroma to this beer.

The taste has an initial bite to it. A slight tartness that fades into more of that Jello citrus note. Then the beer morphs into a salty drying note. Then a third taste of wheat and cereal pops in at the end. I am not getting the buttery part of blood orange that I really enjoy from the fruit. But this beer does not skimp on orange flavor at all.

But the salinity cuts through it to make this really well balanced.