Hall-Woodhouse home of the Badger brand is a beer line that I wish I could get over here (as I have mentioned before in previous posts) Now they have a summer seasonal that would be great..
“It is a refreshing ale which abounds a certain zing. Lemon grass is used in the brewing process, this compliments the citrus aroma from the hopping level. The malt character that supports the refreshing undertones makes this beer suitable for both warm summer days or cool spring evenings. Lemony Cricket is 4.4% ABV and is described as ‘a classic beer with a twist’.”
Vaporizer
Double Mountain of Hood River has added Vaprorizer to its regular line-up, joining their Kölsch, India Red Ale, and Hop Lava NW IPA. Vaporizer was a seasonal last summer, and it must have passed the test to graduate a level.
It is a Pale Ale which features hops primarily of the Challenger variety, grown on a single farm in the Yakima Valley and Gambrinus malt. Brewmaster Matt Swihart and his crew dry-hop Vaporizer to amp up the hop. It is 6.0% alcohol by volume with 50 bittering units.
Sheep Head Ale
I have highlighted Brau Brothers once before and here I go again!
Sheephead is an 88 IBU bitter made with Sterling, Cascade, Centennial and Willamette hops that should make any hop lunatic happy. It certainly is on my list.
The Men’s Room
Elysian Brewing of Seattle had a beer named Loser that was Sub-Pop related now they have another special named after a local radio show. And it is one of the best beer names around. A little gross too but clever.
Here is what the brewery says:
TASTING NOTESAmber in color with a light hop aroma and toasty malt finish.
MALTS
Pale, Munich, Cara-Red, C-60 and small amounts of Special B and chocolate malts
HOPS
Bittered with Chinook and finished with Cascade and an abv of 5.6%
“A portion of the net proceeds from every Mens Room Original Red sold goes to helping support the families of our military vets through the VA Puget Sound Fisher House and Ft. Lewis Fisher House.”
LA-31
No this isn’t a freeway in Los Angeles. This is a bayou beer.
From Bayou Teche Brewing comes the first bottled batch of LA-31 Biere Pale . Lazy Magnolia is bottling their product because they have no bottling line yet, but that hasn’t stopeed Bayou Teche.
LA-31 is an American version of a Belgian Pale Ale. A late hop addition an American yeast strains give LA-31 a mellow bitterness and intense hop flavor over a continental malt base.
Two other brews are due from their tiny hand-crafted brewery, a dark beer called LA-31 Biere Noire, and a wheat known as Duck Blind Cherry Wood Roasted Wheat Biere. They will only be in kegs for now.
Coolships from Allagash
Allagash is doing some experimental beers that are done coolship Belgian style. None are available as of yet which is a bummer. Here are the first three in the line…
Allagash Coolship Resurgam
This is a Blend of 2 year, 40% 18 months, and 6 month spontaneous beers.
Allagash Coolship Cerise
Coolship Cerise is a blend of 90% 2 year spontaneous with 10% 6 month spontaneous which sat on local Maine Montmorency tart Cherries for 3 months.
Allagash Coolship Red
The same blend as the Cerise, but sat on fresh raspberries for 3 months.
Oyster Stout
Is this the start of a burgeoning craft beer trend? Oregon is starting to get into Oyster Stouts.
Here is what Fort George says about their version, “Right before we transferred this beer to the fermentor, we ran the wort through 3 buckets of Willapa Bay Oysters. We let the oysters sit in the wort until they started to pop open infusing the beer with the briny oyster juice. Although you cannot taste an immense amount of oyster in this stout, you can taste a hint of salty goodness that lingers in this beer. Drinking this beer is truly like kissing the ocean.”
And this is what Upright Brewing has to say, “In the end we decided to add roughly ten gallons of oyster “liquor” that Jason picked up fresh from the coast off a train. We didn’t want to brew an oyster stout without any oyster meat though so we also picked up eight dozen DeCourcy oysters from B.C. and cooked them during the kettle boil. After eating all the wort-soaked meat we cleaned and saved the shells to add later to the beer, post fermentation, like dryhopping.”