Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
It is amazing the speed of time, every day you learn that a movie is ten years old or a song is thirty years old. Or that a beer is now twenty!
Heady Topper from The Alchemist has been around two decades and it has a special, amped up version to mark the occasion….
L.A. gets the Heady and Focal every once in a while but I do not expect to see this in California.
I wonder if there is cheese FOMO. Because Heady Topper from the Alchemist is a bucket list beer then this…
…must be a bucket list cheddar.
The name is just classic.
Since I am Los Angeles based, I decided to review Southern California beers to start off 2012. I probably will review many more before the year is out. So, without further ado, here are my video thoughts on More Brown than Black a collaboration between Stone Brewing, The Alchemist and Ninkasi Brewing…..
And here are some thoughts from Stone Brewmaster Mitch Steele,
“Appearance: Deep brown, a bit hazy, with tan foam.
Aroma: Whoa! This beer is all about, resiny, piney, dank and citrusy hops! The first shot is intense blend of pine and orange rind, and then as your sense of smell just starts to recover, the dankness and resiny herbaceousness come through with hints of grapefruit. This is a powerful hop blend!
Taste: The hops also dominate the flavor of this beer. Orange and grapefruit rind take center stage in the flavor, followed by, you guessed it: piney / resiny notes. The beer has a modest body…not sweet at all…and has a lingering bitter, drying end. Beyond the bitter end there are light hints of roasted malt and chocolate in the finish.
Overall: The hop character in this beer is unique and very pronounced. Galaxy is a newer hop variety from Australia that we think has strong tropical fruit and stone fruit characteristics. Citra and Delta are newer American hop varieties — Citra possesses strong citrus and dank flavors, while Delta has a milder profile with melon and berry notes. And of course Nelson Sauvin from New Zealand has its intense namesake’s white wine notes along with—surprise!—more dank notes. They all blended together well in this beer, a tribute to one of our favorite styles.”
Stone Brewing really picks interesting combos for their collaborations. Whether it is a big trio of Dogfish, Victory and Stone or a Japanese theme, they really explore many different breweries. And the latest duo to combine with Stone are Ninkasi (fresh off a collaboration with another Stone collaborator, 21st Amendment) and The Alchemist (the famed East Coast brewer that is on my long, long wish list of brewers to try).
Nelson Sauvin, Delta, Galaxy & Citra hops combined into More Brown than Black a brown/black ale with proceeds going to help The Alchemist dig out from flood damage caused by storms earlier this year. Maybe this will be the medium roast version of the Escondidian that was good but a little too roasty for the hops (which appears to be a trend in the Black IPA/CDA style).
Bottles should be available now and would make excellent stocking stuffers!