Evil Twin at Westbrook (Mt. Pleasant, S. C.) Whereof One Cannot Speak Therefore One Must Be Silent

Date:  Sept. 25 , 2018

The Story— Yesterday we featured Brian Strumke’s Stillwater beers.  Today we tip our hats to one of the other most aggressive American gypsy/contract brewers, Evil Twin.  Our records of beers from Evil Twin parallel that of Denmark’s extraordinary Mikkeler — the ultimate modern gypsy (yah, we know — but we’re using lower case and it simply means a brewer that doesn’t own a brewery.  If you’re offended, come up with a better term and get the brewing community to agree to it).

Westbrook is a sort of southern Two Roads that often goes off the roads and into the woods: they brew for a herd of gypsy brewers, but seem to specialize in wild and sour beers.   You can read elsewhere about our reservations about the wave of sours, but suffice it to say, our ratings of Westbrook have been all over the map.  (We think Westbrook would be proud of the low ratings we’ve given some of their most outlandish beers.)

This beer starts with three potential strikes against it.  Many consider our Hop Pocket Ale to be the first American IPA in the East (6.0% and 60 IBUs, though we never called it an IPA), but oh, my goodness, there have been so many IPAs that we’ve actually wearied of them.   It’s no one’s fault: we don’t buy unknown sours, there aren’t that many pilsners (yet?) and when we buy a batch of 180 new beers, it’s likely that 120 of them will be IPAs.  The point is that it takes an unusually good IPA to grab our attention.

This one did.   Hats off to Evil Twin and to Westbrook, which showed an ability to work within the box in the way that Picasso did portraits that would have made Leonardo jealous.   This was another find at Half Time in Poughkeepsie, but you should be able to find it — or its successor– in good Pennsylvania beer outlets.

The Beer— It’s chalky and fruity and softly sweet.  The palate is bathed in pale malts and a range of fruit – stone, peach, and pears with confectioners sugar and it all blends rather well.  This is one of Westbrook’s best.  Ellie noted that it keeps sipping and we both wished we had bought a few more cans of it.

Value — Good to very good.   This isn’t the only better than average IPA on the market, but it surely is one of them and the price is within range.

COMING UP –  More great American beers. Later, we’ll return to HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE 2018–  Surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities.”  The best we’ve found in researching our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.)

About these posts:  We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year.  The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings.   Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

 Jack’s Abby Springdale (Framingham, Masss.) Pearly Wit from Half Time, Poughkeepsie 

Date:  Sept. 22 , 2018

The Story— Jack’s Abby is full of contradictions.  It’s a lager brewery in an age of ales and the Abby is Jack’s girl, not his religious order.   Recently, Jack threw in the lager towel.  Jack’s Abby beers are still well-brewed and occasionally world-class lagers, but he’s joined the ale word with his Springdale spinoff.

We usually pick up a bunch of Jack’s Abby’s extensive range at the brewery or at Julio’s in Westboro, Mass.  Julio’s is one of the best beer stores in the east, but one of it’s most impressive rivals, Half Time, in Poughkeepsie, New York, saved us hours or driving and provided us with a good selection of the Springdale beers among their thousands of choices.

We tasted our first Belgian Wit at Pierre Celis’s Hoegaarden brewery — the one that brought back the style from historic obscurity.   Pierre taught us that ales can benefit as much as lagers from weeks of maturing in the tank and was a significant influence in the way we created our Hop Pocket Ale.  We had another chance to try it at a businessman’s hotel in nearby Teinen, where it came with a silver dish of salted peanuts.  It has been a hot day, and we thought the beer was getting us about as close to heaven as we needed to get at the time.

So we’re pretty picky about wits.  There are a bunch of them which we describe in a rhyming way we won’t discus further here.  But overall, since Hoegaarden is now an AB InBev rush job with at best a pale resemblance to its regal predecessor, we’ve found the best wits are coming from outside Belgium – especially the US.

 

The Beer–  Unusually good and echt wit if just a bit tart at the end  Lemony taste comes from the  wheat malt.  Mild  spice but it never takes a vacation and there’s a chalky astringency that recalls Hoegaarden well.  We tasted it twice — I like this much better the econd time around when it was the first beer of the evening, but another one later was just as good.   Ellie was consistent and spot on both times.

Value —  Good.  Maybe very good if you figure you might have to fly to Belgium to do much better.

COMING UP NEXT–  More great American beers. Later, we’ll return to HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE 2018–  Surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities.”  The best we’ve found in researching our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.)

About these posts:  We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year.  The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings.   Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

 

Azimut Avoine and Sorachi  Azimut Brewery, Bordeaux, from BOART, Nice

Date:  Sept. 22 , 2018

The Story— There are a few other places like BOART in Europe, but this was the first of its kind we have seen.  Boart is a small shop buried on a side street not far from the iconic and unmissable Negresco Hotel. The essence of the place is a sophisticated draft-to-go system on a wall that can pour up to 20 different craft beers.   It’s different from growler shops and brewpubs because he doesn’t charge for the bottles – like a bottled beer you’d buy off the shelf, the price of the beer includes the bottle you take with you.   Prices are, for France, close to bargains.   He has two sizes:  .33 liters and .75 liters – one for you and the other to—maybe—share.  An good find anywhere, Boart is a treasure in Nice.

The Beer—  Oats and Sorachi Ace seemed like an odd mix, but Azimut pulls it off and ends with an interesting thin mint chocolate. Rich dark malt with a softer chocolate is the foundation for the big Sorachi Ace: menthol, flowers, mint, herbs all follow with more bakers chocolate late.

Value — Very good, especially for France.

COMING UP NEXT–   We’ll take a break from our European tour to highlight some of the best of the many beers that were waiting for us on our return in August.  By the end of the month we’ll return to HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE 2018–  Surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities.”  Prizes and surprises that we’ve found in researching our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities, which plan on publishing in 2019.

About these posts:  We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year.  The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings.   Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

Popihn (Vaumort, Fra)  with Hoppy People (Switz) Russian Imperial Stout Cacao/Coco

Date:  Sept. 21, 2018

The Story— In our three years of travelling to “bad beer cities” we’ve only found a couple that really were.  In Geneva, Switzerland about the best you can do is settle for an Irish Pub or a Belgian specialty café, and you’d do much better in Ireland or Belgium.  Nice, France, is the other beer desert, but that’s starting to change and there are a now a few oases.  Boart, a  phenomenal bottle shop, fills bottles on the spot from a range of taps of craft breweries.  Allez Hops is a first rate bottle shop that occasionally brews its own beer.  Either of these places can set you up with superb libation for a seaside picnic (not strictly legal, but, you know, it’s France and what’s really legal kind of depends….)

There is, however, to our knowledge exactly one genuine beer bar.   Beer District, a manageable walk from the old port, could hold its own almost anywhere.  They struggle with distribution regulations and bureaucratic clumsiness that makes filling its many taps a challenge, but you’ll notice the successes long before you even think to ask about what they are still trying to obtain.

Popihn’s collaboration with Hoppy People  Russian Imperial Stout Cacao/Coco was one of the best beers we tasted on the trip.  Popihn is a small brewery that at a year and a half is still dealing with some birthing pains, but they’ve hit this one out of the park.   Even if you could find Vauort, however, you won’t get the beer there — no tasting room and no retail sales.   It’s pubs like Beer District that make breweries like Popihn possible, therefore, and we’re all better off for the combination that beats the French odds.

The Beer– There’s lots going on in this thick black big boozer. Rich cream explodes on the palate with an eyedropper of something fruity and lots of dark chocolate and cocoa. The end is nutty — peanuts, cashews, Brazil, and macadamias.  It’s huge and dangerously moreish.  Ellie’s comment say all you need to know:  ” Woe! This should be the 8th deadly sin– or at least the 8th serious mistake.”

Value –Good+     $8.50 for a half liter of this elixir is why it’s nice to be employed.

 

About these posts:  We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year.  The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings.   Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.