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OK, I lied in the March table of contents post because, we return to Oregon for the beer names / beer labels highlight for the month. Both of these beers, despite the disparate styles sound like a good pairing to me but I really like the juvenile wordplay for the Coasted Toconut and then the old school ‘fridge graphic for the pastry stout. Kudos to Hopworks Urban Brewery.
Los Angeles has been getting a low flow of beers from organic brewers Hopworks of Portland. And though the excellently named Chill Murray is way too limited to reach us, maybe this beer will…
“Love Letter NEIPA is the third beer in our new Win-Win Partnership Series, which highlights ingredients from fellow eco-champion businesses. The beer truly is our love letter to Bob’s Red Mill, as it features Bob’s haze-inducing organic oats, organic wheat, and organic spelt for a velvety, fluffy texture. It is dry-hopped with citrusy and fruit-forward Jaryllo, Mosaic, and Denali hops.”
Why? Because we get Bob’s flours and other sundry items down here just like they do in Portland.
Today we go to Kentucky via Oregon and the Hopworks barrel-aged Christmas ale.
Portland has a slew of MLS Timbers beers but the latest celebrates the chainsaw toting Timber Jim. This new NW IPA is not only organic per Hopworks usual MO but will also help out Meals on Wheels as a portion of each sale will be donated to the charity.
I will be contacting my Mom for a special delivery of this new beer.
Totally Radler, as can be seen from the label on the can, is a 50/50 mix of Hopworks Urban Brewery’s Organic HUB Lager and organic lemon soda. And it clocks in at around 2.6% ABV. I had a Traveler Shandy the previous day to prepare myself. Previous soda (lemonade) beer concoctions had come off as too sweet or too heavily weighted to the soda side and I wanted to see how another example tasted.
That beer was fine. Though it was a little too candied peel strong for me which fought against the sweetness. Totally Radler on the other hand was so much less sugary that at first I was taken aback. It had the same lemon peel / lemon verbena bite to it but then it veered directly into unsweetened lemonade territory. I would call it close to Key Lime pie as well. To me the underlying lager is pretty much masked by that lemon hit.
Totally Radler tastes like an Italian soda. Tart fruit and carbonated bubbles. I liked it but to me it really isn’t beer. It is soda with it’s beer hidden from view
The 2nd annual PDX Beer Week begins tomorrow in Beervana and the 2012 official beer is a collaboration between Hopworks and Deschutes and is a style mash-up, an India Red Lager.
So, if you find yourself in Portland between tomorrow and the 17th. Be on the look out for this limited time beer.
Some interesting developments from Portland’s organic HUB, “Hopworks is introducing a new series of bottle conditioned beers featuring classic European styles through our own Northwest perspective. The first in this series is an Abbey Ale. The second in the series is a Belgian Pale Ale, launching in July.
Hopworks Organic Belgian-Style Abbey Ale is made with this year’s Portland’s Cheers to Belgian Beers yeast, Abbey is made with five different organic malts and organic dark brown sugar, resulting in a complex multi-layered aroma. The flavor is equally rich with a caramel malty sweet, fruity flavor finished with effervescent carbonation and a smooth, warming alcohol finish.”
We have reached the final March 2012 review with Noggin’ Floggin’ barley wine from Hopworks Urban Brewery. Just as with California beers, I am sure there will be more Oregon reviews before this year is out.
But now on to the barley wine……
I do not care if I bore you with Hopworks beers. Because I think they are great and can’t get enough of them.
Holiday seasonals seem to be showing up left and right. Though I give this one a pass because of the name.
Love the Rankin-Bass.
Here are the specs: “This mythological beer emerges from the depths of our brewery every winter. Made with Cascade, Centennial and Simcoe hops and six organic malts, “A-Bomb” has a complex floral, spicy and citrus hoppiness backed up by just the right amount of malt sweetness. 7.3% ABV.”