Trend forecasting is dicey. Did anyone see hazy IPAs coming in early 2016? I didn’t. But I will plant a prediction flag with gin barrels. I think gin influenced beers are going to follow a similar trajectory as pilsners. Slow and steady out of the niche styles not a tier below bourbon barrel aged beers. Don’t believe me? The labels above from Pelican and Ommegang tell me it could happen.
Sean Suggests for May 2017
This month we focus on sours from established breweries. Sometimes chasing new leads us to forget the classics. Well, and one new beer but from a classic brewery.
~LIGHT
Firestone Walker Barrelworks/ Bretta Rose5.3% ABV
“Thirty miles north of Barrelworks lies the fertile Santa Maria Valley. Its warm days and cool marine layer-fed evenings allow for a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables to be grown in its rich soil. One of Santa Maria’s crown jewels is locally grown raspberries. We jumped at the opportunity to ferment fresh local raspberries with one of our Barrelworks creations. Behold Bretta Rosé! A low-alcohol Berliner Weisse style ale, acidified and matured in French oak puncheons for 6 months, is the foundation for this gem. Add 1000 lbs. of fresh raspberries, allow a secondary wild fermentation for 4 more months and voila (!), we have a crisp effervescent concoction, bursting with raspberry perfume and flavor, a rosé color, bracing acidity, and a clean and refreshing finish.”
~MEDIUM
Ommegang/ Pale Sour6.9% ABV
“Pale Sour is an elegant, drinkable sour beer, unique in that it’s not wood-aged. It has a well-balanced blend of sweet and sour. Liefmans is such a historic, iconic brewery and having the opportunity to work with them has been an honor and very enjoyable. Pale Sour begins with a mixed culture fermentation in open copper vats. Aged over several months in stainless tanks, master blenders blend new batches with older ones until the optimal balance of flavors is reached.”
~DARK
New Belgium/ La Folie7.0% ABV
“La Folie, French for “the folly,” is a beer steeped in New Belgium brewing tradition. This wood-aged, sour brown spends one to three years in big, oak barrels, known as foeders. And when the beer finally hits the glass, La Folie is sharp and sour, full of green apple, cherry, and plum-skin notes. Pouring a deep mahogany, the mouthfeel will get you puckering while the smooth finish will get you smiling. Not a beer for the timid, La Folie is a sour delight that will turn your tongue on its head. Find out why it’s considered one of the best sour beers around. “
All of these beers can be found at Sunset Beer Co. (unless they got bought up real quick)
Bend the Knee
Is this the second golden ale from the Ommegang – Game of Thrones series of beers? OK, the first beer was a Blonde ale but it would have been fun to see a new beer style like an altbier or kellerbier instead of the golden ale of Bend the Knee (like the name)….
I think I missed the last beer in the series so I have some catching up to do, much like Martin has with writing.
Review – Three Eyed Raven from Ommegang
I am a season behind in Game of Thrones, the show. But I am well caught up on the beers that pair with the show. And though I still am unclear what Brandon Stark and the 3 Eyed Raven have to do in Westeros, I will still drink the beer.
Here are my thoughts on the latest from Ommegang:
Brewery Ommegang has the fun and hard work of creating beers to coincide with Game of Thrones. But part of me really wants to see a dark, dank Black IPA or and Old Ale as part of this series. It would seem more fitting to me than a Belgian Golden like the initial beer, Iron Throne. Another brewery, not constrained by Belgian sensibilities, might be able to produce something drastically different from beer to beer but Ommegang has a smaller palette to paint with.
That being said, Three-Eyed Raven though works for as both a beer and an accompaniment to the show. It has a pronounced rye spice character to it along with a hearty malt presence. It has a nice little carbonated kick to it as well which amplifies the spice and makes it very zippy while still being easy to drink.
# 4
Ommegang brewmaster Phil Leinhart is the latest to join Steven Pauwels the brewmaster at Boulevard for a collaborative brew. And befitting the Belgian background of these two Belgian owned breweries they have gone the Saison route. They brewed up a batch of wort wand split it into two fermentors. One had Boulevard’s primary Belgian yeast strain pitched into it, and the other got Ommegang’s house yeast strain. Then the two now different beers were blended into one, Collaboration No. 4. Oh and some sweet orange peel, lemon peel, coriander and grains of paradise were added in which is very wit-ish. Maybe it’s a new hybrid? SaiWit. Witson?
Dragons & Gold Lines
Occasionally, beer events come in pairs and this past couple days was no exception.
Sunday, Ommegang debuted their third installment from the Game of Thrones beer, Fire and Blood. Atop the Fonda and Blue Palms Brewhouse, I sipped the new beer whilst sitting in my rightful place. Well almost. The line for the Iron Throne was longer than the beer line.
The dragon themed red ale is my favorite of the three Game of Thrones offerings very Belgian Lots of esters here. Nice amount of hops as well. Well done. Some grape notes as well. According to the Ommegang folks in attendance the fire and blood is is a combo of spelt and rye and de-seeded ancho chiles.
As usual Brian and his crew had the show running smoothly satisfying beer nerds, Westeros fans and fans of really big turkey kegs.
Then the very next night, I headed into DTLA and Angel City Brewery to sample two of their newer offerings. I have had more beers from this new incarnation of Angel City that fall into the OK category than “Wow!” (and I am one of the few non-fans of the Avocado beer and their French Sip) but on the other hand I do like their pilsner and their Session IPA (which was one of the first I had seen before the 2014 explosion of SIPA’s) so my enthusiasm was both lowered and raised for their new Summer Wheat.
Re-tasting the newly christened Gold Line pilsner, it holds it’s place as a go-to beer for an L.A. summer. Slight minerality/metal note. But crisp with a note of wheat and grain to it. Simple and well done.
The new Summer Wheat is similar in composition but has a slight off note with a bit of citrus to it and a slight but strange tart note to it. The wheat taste isn’t there for me and it has a bitter finish that doesn’t work with the rest of the beer.
The winner of the night is a beer going on tap tonight that I got a sneak preview of. It is the winner of “What Would You Brew” contest. Emily Finch has created a blueprint that brewer Dieter Foerstner has taken to create a really complex beer. It is a Mexican Cola beer. It also has citrus and tamarind and it is flat out good. Certainly in the top 3 AC DC beers. And their will be a rum barrel version coming down the pike later this year.
#LABW5 Pick of the Night – Sunday 9/29
Another L.A. Beer Week comes to a close with a nod to our role in the mythmaking of the movies and TV.
Game Of Thrones “Take The Black” Stout L.A. release party at Blue Palms Brew House & The Fonda Theatre rooftop
Channel your inner White Walker and sample the 2nd offering in the Ommegang / Game of Thrones series, and Take the Black under the stars in Hollywood. A ticket is required if not already sold out.
Enter the Hop House
I am starting to really enjoy the Belgian IPA style. And yes, I know, this new Ommegang offering is a pale but I like the interplay of the Belgian funk and the bitterness of the hops. It eases the throttle on both flavors.
I am torn about the new label design though. It does look fresher and more of a brand than before but the graphics are muted to me. Maybe it is the colors that are not to my liking.
Duvel America
I wonder what the craft beer folk who hate “big” will think of this. A large foreign brewery looking into acquiring ‘Merican owned craft breweries. Does Duvel Moortgat get a pass because of Ommegang and Brasserie d’Achouffe (among other holdings)? Or will the following quote “We would like to acquire two or three U.S. craft breweries over the next five years,” that Simon Thorpe, the president and CEO of Duvel USA and Brewery Ommegang gave to Brewbound.com scare the bejesus out of people?
Will the anti-“big” brigade believe the next Thorpe quote, “We view ourselves as a craft brewer that happens to be based in Europe and has a brewery in the U.S.,” ?.
Duvel has a few prerequisites for potential partners: long term growth, potential for scaling up, geography and type of market the target brewery is targeting. The last generated this intriguing statement from Thorpe, “We are not interested in brands where margins and pricing is low,” Thorpe said. “We are only interested in the luxury end of the market. We are looking for premium, high-end, beautiful brands.”
Informal talks have been held but no names released. But this may be the start of a consolidation phase for craft beer.
Take the Black with another TV show beer
The second Game of Thrones inspired beer is for those who are sent to to the wall to protect the kingdoms from what lies north. Ommegang’s Iron Throne was a nice, spice driven blonde so I am looking forward to trying this stout which is something I don’t normally associate Ommegang with.
I myself would have probably done a beer called “Spoiler Alert” with a picture of {rest of post redacted}