DuClaw All Along The Hop Tower, Baltimore, Maryland

Date:  November 25, 2018

The Story—  We haven’t talked to our friends at DuClaw to see where the inspiration for this beer came from, but we we can imagine the brewers sitting around designing a new hazy beer.   We can almost hear a voice from the side saying “Let’s put it in a lavender colored can and call it Purple Haze!”  Someone at the table would gently remind him that Abita bottled — and trademarked the name years ago for a beer that is indeed vaguely purple.”   So they settled on “All Along the Watch (no, copyright issues again) Hoptower.  The can isn’t quite purple and the beer isn’t as path-breaking as Jimi Hendrix’s music, but it’s a good example of the new wave of juicy and not overly bitter IPAs.

At 8% abv, it’s a relatively modest Double IPA, but well over the top of current IPAs.   Forty-two IBUs are low for either style and not far out of the range of traditional pilsner beers.   A blend of American Citra, Centennial and Amarillo hops ensure a range of fruity flavors.  Pale and pilsner malts are clean and the wheat and torrified wheat probably give a bit of a boost to the citrus.

The Beer—  This IPA does just what it’s supposed to do:  provide lots of fruity hop flavor in a big rich double IPA.   Rich and fruity.  Juicy flavors run to orange with some slight pineapple and all of it served up on a big chalky bed.  Some oil as it drinks, but nicely balancing by the end.  Ellie liked it but was less enthused — she found the alcohol a bit hot and the full body a bit syrupy.

Value —  Good; you could do so much worse.

This week we focus on the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.  Look for it in 2019.

Next week we return to  HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE–  Some of the great beers we’ve found in our European travels.   A few may be some of the surprisingly good beer we’ve found in “bad beer cities”  as we researched our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.)   We’ll shift back to great American beer finds next week.

COMING IN DECEMBER:   THE TEN BEST IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS.  We count down to the New Year by thinking back of some of the greatest beers we’ve found in the last five years of hunting.   These beers are in our top 0.2% of the beers we’ve tasted recently.   

 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.

Innis & Gunn Barrel Aged Kindred Spirits, Perth, Scotland

Date:  November 24, 2018

The Story—  Innis & Gunn sort of snuck up on us a decade and a half ago.   A brewery that had a presentation and image that suggested they’d been around for a couple of centuries was actually brewed its first beer in the 21st century.   Clever labels and, often, glass bottles hollered “gimmick” and some of the beers were certainly that.   A distressingly affection for additions of vanilla and other flavorings buried the quality of some of their early creations.  But lately they’ve been winning us over with sophisticated presentations of wood aged beers — some more and some less in traditional Scottish styles, but most relying more on the wood and less on the kitchen to reach deep and satisfying flavors.

When we last communicated with the brewery they were brewing many of their specialty beers in Perth and offered no tours our readers could easily arrange.   But we think things are in flux for this rapidly growing brewing enterprise.   They brew in Edinburgh and Perth, but a couple of years ago acquired the Inveralmond Brewery and have used that to expand their range.

The brewery now operates a trio of beer kitchens which showcase a wide range of their own beers, plus some additional guests and serve a good range of traditional Scottish dishes to go with them.   A trip to a “Innis and Gunn Kitchen” will be high on our list the next time we’re in the British Isles.

The Beer—  Milky clean and very flavorful.  Lots of roast but a deep fruit adds some sweetness.  Barrel sweet vanilla and very soft coconut. Hints of cola as it drinks but all of it is pretty yummy.   Ellie, quite correctly, pointed out the good use of the barrel to achieve a range of interesting flavors.

Value —  Good.  But sometimes very good if you can find a store that ordered too much of it and want you to keep it from languishing on their shelves.

This week have been featuring a half dozen really good European beers that we found in the United States.   We make pilgrimages to some of the best beer stores in Eastern America once or twice a year and we also just bump into incredibly good beer in places we don’t expect.  Not all of these are on the shelves, but beers much like them are.

Tomorrow we return to the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.  Look for it 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.

Boon Vat 109 Oude Geuze Boon Mono Blend, Lembeek, Belgium

Date:  November 23, 2018

The Story—   When we first discovered the appeal of first class lambic beers in the mid 80s the name Frank Boon was on the lips of every connoisseur of the style, but this legendary blender had yet to produce his first beer.  By the early 90s, he was producing some of the best lambic beer we have ever tasted.

A partnership with Palm gave him working capital and an ability to get his product to new markets and while he’s still a small brewer by modern standards, he’s producing over 10,000 barrels a year — far greater than, I suspect, he ever imagined.  Palm’s share of the business is now in the hands of a holding company and Boon has escaped Palm’s takeover by Bavaria (now Swinkels), a Dutch brewery.   Swinkels is trying to reinvent itself as a craft-holder.  When we first encountered them it was at the height of the can collecting craze.  They produced some of the most disappointing beers we’ve run into, but they did fill a shelf or two of our collection.

Boon, however, has soared from triumph to triumph, and this is one of his best.   The “mono blend” means that 90% of the beer comes from the single foeder — Vat 109, but it’s blended with about 10% of young lambic to give it carbonation and just a distant hint of sweetness.   Frank has done several of these sort-of-single-vat lambics, and I wish we had a reliable way of getting each one as they come out.

This one apparently kicked around someone’s shelves for a couple of years before we tried it, but whatever’s happened to it in the intervening time hasn’t done any harm for sure.

And a word of explanation about the description:  we’ve talked about habituation before — especially in terms of Schlenkerla’s smoke.   It refers to the brain’s tendency to downplay a distracting sensory input (think annoying ventilation fan) so it can better register everything else that’s going on.   In Schlenkerla’s case, the smoke that could choke in the initial taste fades to a distant spice by the time you’re working your way through the second liter.   Lambics, we contend, depend on the same kind of habituation to get past the fecal, urinal and barn flavors that smack your palate as you begin.   We’ve found when we’ve had the motivation, money, and opportunity good lambics are just gentle enough to let you get to a point where more subtle flavors come into play.

The Beer—Gueze in your face starts with fecal, woody dryness and very ripe and dried fruit.   As it drinks, the fruit grows and by the very end it’s much smoother with increasing roundness increases.   I know there’s lots of habituation going on and I’m not even sure what flavors are diminishing, but it is getting smoother as I drink it.  Ellie who has not had enough to habituate (and possibly never will) comments “Yuck, sorry.”  going back over our lambic ratings in the last 20 years, she’s always been able to sort out the great from the awful, but she, I don’t think, has ever really liked the task of doing so.

Value —  Very good.   It comes in a relatively small bottle that makes it affordable for a trial.   It’s a green bottle which is sort of OK since the only hops in a lambic are aged long enough to destroy their ability to bitter are therefore less subject to skunking.   I’d still guess that this bottle’s been kept in the dark, though.

This week we feature a half dozen really good European beers that we found in the United States.   We make pilgrimages to some of the best beer stores in Eastern America once or twice a year and we also just bump into incredibly good beer in places we don’t expect.  Not all of these are on the shelves, but beers much like them are.

Next week we return to the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.  Look for it 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.

To Øl @ De Proef Mochaccino Messiah, Lochristi-Hufte, Belgium

Date:  November 22, 2018

The Story—  To Øl is a contract brewery started by a couple of Danish high school buddies with some tutelage from Mikkeller founder Mikkel Borg Bjergsø.   The name  [toe-ool] just means “two beers” which is what the high school friend buying the first round would call out as he settled in.   They’ve done collaborations with a number of breweries, but unlike Mikkeller which has brewed many beers are breweries all over the world, nearly all of the To Øl beers we’ve encountered were brewed at De Proef brewery in Belgium.

De Proef has brewed some of its own beers, but it has acquired global fame for brewing private label brands.   They brew to the customer’s specification — they don’t just bottle the same beer with different.  RateBeer lists just short of 2,000 beers that De Proef has concocted over the years, but we think they missed a few.  They misstep once in a while but the overwhelming majority of their beers are very good.

We know for sure that De Proef influenced the decision of Beltway Brewing in Virginia to go into producing beers for contract brewers and we assume the brewers at Two Roads in Connecticut were influenced as well.  It’s easier in Belgium to crank out small batch beers — less governmental red tape– but the business plan works on both sides of the Atlantic.

To Øl’s Mochaccino Messiah, a 7% coffee brown ale, is one of the best that To Øl — and De Proef– has done.  Brewers like De Proef emphasize that they can’t make good beer from bad ideas, the contractor and the brewery need to be on the same page.   In this beer it seems like they might have been on the same letter.

The Beer—  There are so many ways of going astray in a beer with this many variables, but To Ol dodged every one of them.   The malt is a chewy chocolate and finishes with a creamy smoothness.  Some dark cherry notes add without complicating and more creamy roast hold center stage.  Coffee is very mild if slightly edgy, but the creamy roundness is the show.

Value —  Good.  These small batch beers aren’t cheap and some of De Proef’s beers aren’t much better than many that are a fraction of the price.   But a gem like this is worth the money.  ‘Nuff Said.

This week we feature a half dozen really good European beers that we found in the United States.   We make pilgrimages to some of the best beer stores in Eastern America once or twice a year and we also just bump into incredibly good beer in places we don’t expect.  Not all of these are on the shelves, but beers much like them are.

Next week we return to the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.  Look for it 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.

Fantôme DMV Cascadian Dark Ale, Soy, Belgium from Half Time, Poughkeepsie

Date:  November 21, 2018

The Story—  Danny Prignon started the Fantôme brewery in 1988 with his recently retired father.  The brewery was at first intended to be something larger than the true farmhouse breweries such as his family ran decades ago just to provide beer for the house, but still simple and limited.   I think if you had told him in 1988 his beer would be sold in the United States thirty years later, he might still be laughing.

Danny made his reputation on his saison, but he’s branched out over they years — as much to have fun as to make money.   We found this gem at Half Time in Poughkeepsie.   Half Time is one of a trio of stores that keeps us well oiled year round– it’s a must visit if you’re anywhere close to the Hudson valley.   This was probably the best bargain of the year for us – at a sale price of $5, it would have been a very good deal at twice that or the usual price for a beer of this caliber– mid double digits.   It may have been sitting around for a while, but while the hops of a Cascadian (aka Black IPA) fade with time, if it has a good malt underpinning, it settles into a different, but delicious, darkness.   This one still had plenty enough hop strength left, though, to pile on bitter at the end.

The Beer—  The dark malt is huskier than it is sweet and the dark herbal bitter piles on.  A bit of dark chocolate adds interest later.  I’m not sure I’d want a second 75 cl. bottle, though maybe with a good Belgian stew a second bottle would be exactly the ticket.   It’s a really interesting take on the style in any case.

Value — Excellent.   If I were panhandling, I could live on just this beer for days at a time.

This week we feature a half dozen really good European beers that we found in the United States.   We make pilgrimages to some of the best beer stores in Eastern America once or twice a year and we also just bump into incredibly good beer in places we don’t expect.  Not all of these are on the shelves, but beers much like them are.

Next week we return to the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.  Look for it 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.