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These are the beers that I wish I could taste for the first time.
Two purveyors of big stouts have teamed up which should fill some beer geek cellars.
AleSmith and Mikkeller are combining Beer Geek with Speedway and using the famed if slightly disgusting Kopi Luwak coffee. Yup, the poop one in this new and probably already sold out beer.
I wonder how it will compare to the rest of the large Speedway series?
First off a cashew pilsner does not sound very appetizing. Then you add in the notorious Durian “fruit” which even the brewer, MobCraft describes as smelling of “onions or rotting meat” and this has stunt brew written all over it. Thanks be that Wisconsin is far enough away from L.A. that I won’t have to smell this.
Or maybe I can carefully open the essence of Durian liquid that I received from my Oregon kin and place some drops in a Budweiser to see what happens.
One of the coolest items that caught my eye while reading Tasting Whiskey was this photo. Yup, whiskey with hops in them. Now they aren’t part of the regular whiskey line-up from Corsair Distillery but if you can find these rare bottles or their new whiskey, Rasputin that is made from the base of a Russian Imperial Stout then I suggest giving it a try. It really shows how much beer is a part of whiskey.
There are two mysteries surrounding §ucaba. Well three if you count the weird Double S at the start of the name.
1 is this fact:
“We’ve never talked about it, but §ucaba is actually a blend of two separate beers,” Brynildson said. “The base beer is what you would call §ucaba, but each year the final blend also includes around 10 percent of another barrel-aged beer, which gives it this chocolaty, dark cherry dimension.”
2 is how you say
So what’s the official pronunciation? “There is none,” Brynildson said. “SUC-a-buh, SOO-cah-ba, SOO-cab-uh, you hear it all, so it’s kind of fun. But in the brewhouse, we still call it by its original name.”
Either way, this is one of the Firestone Walker beers that you buy two or more of. One to try and one to cellar.
Is there a song playing in your head after seeing that post title? Blame New Belgium, not me.
And yes, this is another addition to the increasingly crowded SIPA category. But I do like the Couch car on the label so maybe they can be forgiven. Depends on the hops.
Sierra Nevada continues with hop innovation. From their Torpedo to their new method of using oil distilled from wet hops steam right there in the field. Minutes after the bines are picked.
The beer beer will be called Hop Hunter IPA though I would have gone with Hop Science or something punnier. The oil will be part of a hopping schedule to create a fresh hop essence as long as the oil lasts.
P.S. I am not even going to touch the nonsense surrounding the font. Nope. Not gonna.
I don’t think you need an actual harpoon if you are in a pool in Tuscany. But the beer that Harpoon made in collaboration with Birricio L’Olmaia might become a whale.
Tuscan Pool Party is part of the 100 Barrel series from Harpoon and mixes Amarillo hops with juice from Merlot and Sangiovese grapes.
You will be seeing more and more beer/wine hybrids so you best jump on the bandwagon now.
Maui Brewing had me at Blood Orange. But why not add some more local citrus and some Maui Cane sugar to a Double IPA. And I am always at attention when the Sorachi Ace hop is mentioned. I wonder what color this beer will turn out to be.
Oh, and proceeds from sales will go to shark research. Thankfully not to Shark Week or Sharknados.
To be completely clear, this is not a gluten-free beer. I believe that Stone is using a similar system to that of Widmer and the Omission series of beers where the gluten is stripped out later. Not brewed without gluten. Either way, the fact that Lemondrop and El Dorado hops are being used should be enough to get anyone, regardless of dietary needs, to check this out. I have been hard on Stone in past years for falling into a rut with their mainline IPA’s but they have done good work with the Enjoy By series and their Liberty Station brews are interesting and fun. 2015 might be a mini-revival for the brand in my eyes. And I will be looking for this beer.
UPDATE – If you can withstand a little bit of gluten, then this might be your IPA. And if you are gluten tolerant, then it might become an alternative, along with Go To Session IPA, to the massive hop bombs that are in the regular Stone line-up. This is a mighty hoppy beer. But it is also subtle. There are grape notes and a bit of peppery rye type spice in here. The bitterness really lingers on the palate but is quite nice. And big plus, it doesn’t have the Tofurky curse that some gluten free beers have where you know they had to substitute, and it just doesn’t match up. Good work.
I am going through a bit of a phase where I am in search of traditional solid examples of styles. I enjoy the creative impulse that brewers are following but it seems to be a bit aggressive at times. Maybe a plain Wit won’t sell even with the combined might of Terrapin and New Belgium but why make a Dark Wit, then add rye, then “Imperialize” it and then barrel age it? Seems over the top to me. The Rye Wit sounds better to me.