Tag: The Bruery

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Fruet


Year by Year I learn a little more Belgian/French thanks to The Bruery and their anniversary beers.

So far I have Papier, Coton and Cuir and now add Fruet! I am looking forward to trying many different versions of this beer because you know that the Bruery can’t just make one version.

If you are in the L.A. area you have many choices for the anniversary party. You can go classy at 38 Degrees for their fancy flight night. (They always do well with their flights) or you can head to Beer Belly like I will to try the latest and mispronounce the name.

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The Tripel + The Bruery =


The Tripel and The Bruery Team Up for Birthday Brews and Bites on Monday, April 16th from 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.. Cost is $65.00.

“In celebration of their one year anniversary, The Tripel invites beer lovers down to the beach for an evening of sumptuous suds & a delectable dinner. The Bruery’s own Ben Weiss will be on hand, guiding a tasting of some of their most hard-to-find brews. To complement the beer, Brooke & Nick have created a sublime four-course birthday tasting menu. This special evening on April 16th begins at 6:30 p.m. for a “cocktail beer” gathering, with dinner and tasting starting at 7 p.m. Act fast though, because there are only 30 seats available! For those unable to make the ticketed event, The Tripel will offer their new menu along with the limited selection of Bruery beers from 9pm to close.”

Check out the best of what The Tripel and The Bruery have planned, below:

Selection of Hors Oeuvres

Mother Funker
Over-The-Top Sour Blonde Ale Aged in Chardonnay Barrels

Coconut and Lime Leaf Bouillabaisse with Bourbon Shrimp Toast

White Oak
Blend of a Bourbon Barrel Aged Wheat Wine with a Belgian Golden Strong Ale

Duck Breast with Black Soybean and Black Trumpet Mushroom Sauce, Duck Leg Confit and Beet Taro Cakes, Wilted Bacon Infused Greens

Smoking Wood
Rye Barrel Aged Imperial Smoked Rye Porter

Selection of House Made Sweets

Sans Pagaie
Wine Barrel Aged Sour Blonde Ale Fermented with Cherries

Saison De Lente, 2010 Vintage

Earthy, Dry Belgian-Style Farmhouse Ale

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Bruery Reserve Society

Normally, I do not go out on St. Patrick’s Day. And if provoked, I will declare that it is a beer beginners night and I don’t fancy my chances on the road from other revelers and police checkpoints.

BUT…(and you all probably saw that coming), if the Bruery is throwing their Reserve Society Celebration that day? Exceptions are made.

Beer buddy Richard and I arrived in slightly rainy and slightly cold Anaheim in the afternoon to get in line for the festivities not knowing how it would play out since it was our first time at this event.

I had heard through the beer hop bines that last year’s party was not optimal. But from the start, this celebration was smooth as 2009 Papier. We were allowed in the tent early to avoid more rain. Check in was quick and painless and after the initial long lines as people targeted their must have beers most lines throughout the 3 1/2 hours were very short. You could walk up and get Chocolate Rain in no time flat.

The choices were ridiculously great. Papier, Coton and Cuir. Black Tuesday. Multiple versions of Carmen and Smoking Wood oh and Eagle Rock brought Libertine and Deuce, Bootleggers had Black Phoenix and Knuckle Sandwich, Hangar 24 had Pugachev’s Cobra and their DIPA and TAPS brought the awesome Imperial Balinese Stout and Crystal Pils.

But this was THE place to have Bruery beers. And my favorite was Sour in the Rye with Kumquats (Thanks Dave for the recommendation). Fruity and tart and well balanced. Just awesome. I had my first taste of ISO:FT and Carmen with Kiwi too.
And for those in the Irish mood, you could get a beer dosed with Centennial hop oil. My green beer was Humulus Lager and boy was it green and hoppy.

Oh and great food from Beachwood (love the blue cheese grits), plenty of water and soda and enough room that you did not feel cramped. I just wish I had more than ten tickets and another couple of days to work through the whole list of beers!

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Cellar Experiment # 1

Since 2009, I have been slowly but surely amassing what I think is a quality beer cellar. And with beer space getting tight, it is time to start cracking open some of these aged brews to see what time has done to them. Since, I am not a deranged millionaire like John Hodgman, I usually only have one bottle which precludes comparing with other aged beers but if I have sampled the beer before, I will include my initial review as a counterpoint.

The impetus for breaking some of these bottles out was a lovely bottle share party that I attended last night at Casa de Gev. Many great beers were poured from other peoples collections. Including:

Dogfish Head meets 3 Floyds
a rare Jive Old Ale courtesy of Victor from TAPS
A 2005 Baladin from Skipp

Enough of the luxurious rarities, here are my notes and photos from the first of what I am calling my cellar experiments.

The Beer – Red and White
The Brewery – Dogfish Head

My initial review on June 15th of this year – “Pours a red/orange color. Aroma is a bit off-putting. I am getting medicinal notes. Kind of harsh. maybe it’s the combination of wine and spice that cancel each other out. not a favorite.” I rated it 2.6 out of 5.

Aged from the bottle Red & White was a lot better than the initial review. It still had some harsh medicinal qualities and it lacked a certain fizz that would undercut that note but it was certainly an improvement. It paled though in comparison to the CismonTAPS barrel aged saison and the Dogfish Head / 3 Floyds collaboration Poppaskull that were also being passed around. I do think that more age would improve it and give it more texture and sweetness and continue to offset the medicine notes that I tasted.

Overall a good start to my cellaring experiment.

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Review – La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado

La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado from Stone Brewing is first up for review of the three Escondidian ales that I will tackle this month.

Here is the full spiel from Stone….
“All of us are kind of known for big, imperial beers, and the fact that we came together to make this mellower pumpkin beer… I think it was very restrained and dignified of us,” jokes Rue. “And I think we brought some really interesting spice additions to the table.”

The eclectic mix of ingredients was selected to introduce a decidedly different spin on traditional pumpkin beers. “The taste starts with citrus and herbal notes, but then a very smooth roasted malt character comes into play,” Steele explains. “The yam and pumpkin make their appearance on the finish, with some Eastern-influenced spiciness and trace maple notes from the toasted fenugreek, combining with hints of birch. This is no pumpkin pie beer. No cloves. No nutmeg. No cinnamon.”

Stone Brewing Co. President Steve Wagner had been tossing the idea around for a pumpkin beer with Elysian Brewing Company for over a year. Elysian, well known for conjuring up an impressive variety of pumpkin beers as well as hosting the annual Elysian Great Pumpkin Beer Fest, was quick to come on-board and loved the idea of working with The Bruery, which is highly respected for its innovative beers including Autumn Maple (made with “a lot of yams”).

“That’s the great thing about collaboration beers,” explains Cantwell. “Everyone brings their own strengths and awareness to the project.”

“This is one of the more unique beers I have ever been involved with,” says Steele. “A very cool beer, and I toast the creative minds of Patrick Rue and Dick Cantwell for their willingness to put this recipe together with us.”

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Bruery (Faster, Bigger) + Dogfish (Better, Bolder)

Today, I will feature two posts on beers that may very well be excellent but, to me, make me long for a simple pale ale.

“Faster, Bigger, Better, Bolder (Gradually, Quietly, Steadily) is an homage to the contrasting lifestyle views of American excess set against the more humble and traditional ways of Japan. Brewed with kumquats and our own seven spice schichimi togarashi blend along with sake yeast, this is an excessive beer brewed with tradition in mind. $1 from each bottle sale will go towards rebuilding Japanese breweries and households that were destroyed during the recent earthquake.”

I can live with kumquats. Spice is fine. I love sage in beer so it is no problem. But then combine with sake yeast. That is where I start to wonder.

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While the beer world was in Denver….

So the craft beer world was tilted towards Colorado, I didn’t sit on the couch grousing that I wasn’t there. Especially since my football team was winning (Go Linfield!)

I took to the road and visited 4 SoCal breweries. The first stop was Cismontane for the release of their Double Rainbow DIPA….

My driver and fellow craft beer fanatic Richard

We got to sample the “regular” version of Double Rainbow….
..and the cask version as well!

Cismontane even grows a few hops outside their pleasant little industrial park tasting room….
hops mark the entrance to Double Rainbow, Black's Dawn and Coulter

Next stop is the fairly new Anaheim Brewing. Another pretty interior in which to drink beer and aside from me in the foreground…
a nice patio to enjoy beer on a sunny SoCal day.

I will have to sample more to make a complete assessment of their creations…
maybe I will try out the regular stable of beers like the Hefe or Golden.

Richard and I sampled the Tavern Ale and the Oktoberfest both of which were underwhelming in comparison to Cismontane.
Third Stop was the Bruery...
and all of the choices on that board. The big winner was the Humulus Wet. Which in my opinion is the equal of Kern River’s Citra (which are both better than a certain PtY). Big citrus aroma. Light on the tongue. A hit of bitterness. Just delightful. The Berazzled was awfully good too. Almost a raspberry soda. Re-tried the Autumn Maple and still had a difficult time with it. To strong and medicinal to me.
I bought yet another bottle of batch 300 tripel too!

Our final stop was a quick jaunt to Eagle Rock Brewery to get a taster of Populist and to buy a small growler. Then home to sleep!

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Surly Goat + Dogfish Head + The Bruery =

…the kick-off to the latest announced collaboration between Dogfish Head and The Bruery.

I started off my Surly Goat night with The Wanderer from The Bruery. This is another semi-rare Bruery offering. This one was brewed for the excellent City Beer Store of San Francisco (that if you haven’t visited, shame on you).

The Wanderer

It was tart but not puckery with great raspberry/cherry notes. I could see this paired with ice cream.

After a somewhat desultory tasting of Red & White. (just didn’t work for me), the night was concluded with 90 Minute put through a “randall” with Intelligentsia coffee. Wow! The aromatics were amazing. And it carried through into the flavor. Tasted like a coffee amber. Delicious.