Well, if you brew a beer called Christmas Ale, it might as well be vivid red in color. That is what Bell’s has accomplished as you can see….
Their Midwestern take on the holiday seasonal almost smells like fruitcake as well. Their is a definitive fruit note here that evokes the better aspect of the oft neglected cake. The jelly note and sweetness is here as is a tang of metallic swirling with the soft malts. There is a tiny touch of bitterness as well but it doesn’t linger for long. A lighter take that I would like to see bulked a little bit with some roastier malt but is an interesting viewpoint on what Santa might drink.
Featured Review – Best Brown Ale from Bell’s
In addition to reviewing a pair of San Diego beers that were new to me, I will also talk about two Bell’s beers. One is their 30th Anniversary, but first is the 16oz can of Best Brown Ale.
Best Brown is one of those beers that touches all the bases for the style without really exploding. It is a plain amber/brown color. It is a little thin tasting but there are multiple flavors that are encountered with each taste. There is an untoasty malt flavor that is augmented by a touch of sweetness and a little bit of peppery-ness.
Past that, is not much else. It is the type of beer that is gone before you know it and you have to reach back in the memory banks to remember what it was like.
Review – Bell’s Beer Dinner @ Bourbon Steak
I have driven by and walked past the Bourbon Steak restaurant at the Americana at Brand quite a few times now and always wondered what it was like inside. And on Friday night, I was presented with the perfect opportunity to find out. (Full disclosure and tease of an opinion piece coming tomorrow, I had a media pass for the dinner)
Beer pairing dinners, for me, always have that item that you don’t like (for me it was the raw fish), an item that you don’t think will pair well with beer (Pad Thai) and an item that you know will be a home run (peaches, ricotta and Oarsman ale).
This was the 1st such beer pairing dinner for Bourbon Steak and partnering with Bell’s Brewing is a strong head start. They have a wide variety of beers and aren’t loaded down with IPA’s which are notoriously hard to work with.
As expected the first course with the quasi/neo/sorta Berliner Weisse Oarsman was an excellent opening salvo to the night. The cream and especially the cheese and the fruit were in marked contrast to the slight tartness of the beer.
Skipping over the raw fish course though, let’s go straight to the beer for that course, Oberon. I learned the proper pouring technique from the Bell’s crew. Pour the beer into your glass, swirl the bottle (or can) and get some of that yeasty sediment going. That way you get a nice cloudy Oberon filled glass.
Course three was a trio of pork with (2!) beers to compare and contrast. Amber Ale and the famous Two-Hearted Ale. The pork was delicious any way Bourbon Steak presented it. So much so that the food overpowered the beer. I thought the sausage with the Two-Hearted worked the best because it was a battle of spice on hop. The gentle amber with some tea notes was better as an after the course beer.
Then it was on to the steak and I really loved it. Yes, it was oversalted but it melted on the tongue brilliantly. Pure luxury. And it came from a family farm that has been in business for a long time. The Pad Thai noodles were also a bit on the salt side but paired so well with the licorice tinged Kalamazoo Stout. A pairing that I thought would clash like boxers in a ring. The stout dulled the salt and added that licorice bitter note that pulled the whole thing together.
I was dead full by this point. Beer is a much more varied and interesting pairing partner for food but the downside is that it fills you up. I so wanted to polish off the S’mores dessert which was excellent but I just couldn’t. The Double Cream Stout played well with the chocolate which brought out more coffee ground flavors from the beer but it wasn’t a Wow pairing. With each bite, I rotated through other Bell’s beers to see what would bring out more.
The verdict? – The sommelier at Bourbon Steak is a beer fan and if the Flat Iron is any indication, you will get a seriously good steak here and have some solid if not horribly exciting beer choices. With $4 happy hour beers. They also have a monthly “Down the Hatch” series which focuses on a tasting of different types of drinks. August covered Digestifs and maybe a beer-centric tasting will be happening in future months. But if Bourbon Steak puts on another beer dinner, buy it. $55 plus tip is a steal for the amount of food and beer that you get.
Bell’s @ Bourbon Steak
Just looking at the online menu for Bourbon Steak can make a person very hungry and they have been kinda quietly been making craft beer additions.
Nothing that the beer snobs will be interested in but solid choices. But now they have decided to pair the Michael Mina inspired food with Bell’s beers. Check out the MENU.
And that is not a bad price for the high quality you will be getting.
Featured Review – Third Coast Ale from Bell’s
The final beer in our featured brewery for the month is Third Coast Ale from Bell’s Brewery in Michigan. And it is the most disappointing of the trio.
When cold this old ale has pungent notes of strawberry jam on the tongue and if you attempt to avoid that sweetness, the warm beer is kind of metallic and off-tasting with a load of heavy bitterness to it. I have had this both on tap and in bottles to make sure that it wasn’t just a bad batch but it is nothing if not consistent. Stick with Smitten or the Northwestern Pale or go-to the go-to of Two Hearted.
Review – Expedition Stout from Bell’s
While the IPA obsessed on the West Coast were giddy about getting Two Hearted (and it is deserved giddiness). I was more excited about the stouts and porters. Ales made to warm on cold days. Cold days that L.A. brewers don’t normally experience. So let’s check out what the Expedition Stout from Bell’s is like.
It pours an inky black with some nice coffee colored foam that fades off but clings to the edges of the glass for a pretty picture of light and dark brown. Expedition is a really dark bitter roast. In line with a Starbucks coffee. There are also some burnt wood notes. This is a heavy, slightly viscous brew that lingers on the palate. Not much in the way of chocolate or fruit notes to balance out the near rauch character. Some balancing flavor or a rounding of the sharp edges would make this stout more tuned to my palate but it is a good late night beer.
In the Tap Lines for April 2015
There will be some Firestone Walker coverage this month. For that, I do NOT apologize. This year marks the third trip to beautiful Paso Robles to catch up on all things Parabola, Easy Jack and Feral. Don’t worry, there will be plenty other beer news too.
~ e-visits to three breweries from new-ish brewers in the GunBarrel District of Colorado Asher Brewing, Vindication Brewing, Finkel & Garf
~ special reviews of beers from Bell’s (that I didn’t do last month)
~ Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ Beer-centric podcast review, Tales from the Cask
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world
~ … and Session # 98 will converge bloggers onto a single topic, this month it is Cans or Bottles
Here are two events to get your April started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) April 7th – National Beer Day at Project Taco
2) April 15th – Beers and Cheers with El Segundo Brewing at the Doughroom.
Review – Maillard’s Odyssey from Bell’s Brewery & Sierra Nevada
I will be reviewing ALL 13 of the special Sierra Nevada Beer Camp collaborations this month. I had my non-drinking wife randomly select the order and the next beer on the docket is from Bell’s Brewery, Maillard’s Odyssey.
I think I have a contender for favorite. The MO pours similar to the previous Double Latte. A very dark brown with an espresso head. But then it veers off as I get a crazy mix of flavors. Coffee. Chocolate. Fig. And even a bracing dose of hops.
And it is very zippy. Not viscous or syrupy at all. At the end I start getting a slight burnt char flavor that just stacks on top of the rest to form a really interesting brew. This beer and the New Glarus were the most anticipated in my mind because we don’t get them here in LA and this works great.
Review – Kalamazoo Stout from Bell’s
Don’t get much Bell’s beer in these parts so any chance, I take it. That is why I picked up Kalamazoo Stout. And it pours a dark black color with loads of coffee and black licorice taste here. Oddly it is also very juicy and wet as well. Not a dry stout and there is some dark chocolate here as well. But there is almost more of a BBQ meaty sort of thing going on here. It is quite bright as well. Sharp tasting but still silky on the palate.
Hate the label though. Doesn’t evoke anything to me. Still don’t get the Bell’s logo either. Maybe someone can enlighten me.
Bell’s in SoCal
I don’t think we here in Los Angeles will be getting Hopslam anytime soon. But there are rumblings that Bell’s may follow Boulevard and Goose Island and Clown Shoes and Cambridge into the SoCal area.
But I can easily make do with Oberon…. “An American wheat ale made with European ingredients. Belgium wheat malt and Czech Saaz hops provide a spicy, fruity balance to this seasonal ale.”..
….or Expedition…”The darkest beer we make; this Imperial stout contains double the malt and five times the hops of our Kalamazoo stout and is perfect for cellaring as its complex character will evolve over time. Available October-March.”