Brewing All Stars #9: Rock Bottom Bethesda Bourbon Barrel Aged Export Stout Vintage 2017

Date:  July 28 , 2019  —  This post is in progress.  Return soon for it.  In the meantime, click “more reviews” below to see our most recent “Beer of the Day” posts.

The Story— Geoff Lively has been brewing his own beers within a chain brewery for the better part of 20 years.  Rock Bottom has not only had the smarts to let him alone– sort of–but to take some of his creations and make them the nationwide standard.

But the best part of his — sort of– independence is that he has his own barrel and strong beer aging program and pops out some absolute gems with only a bit of notice.   This beauty was an Export (read “strong”) Stout from 2017 that he aged in Jim Beam barrels for ten months.  It’s a strong – 8.9%–softly hopped –IBU 25– rich pleasuring sipping beer.

The Beer– Even, smooth and very very rich.  Lots of chocolate dominates early but the barrel and wood and bourbon emerges in the finish.  Deep fruits with lingering chocolate.  E Boozy, warming, rich, so smooth, dangerous.

Value —

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.

It’s All-Star season.  MLB has finished theirs, but it seems like a new sport is showcasing exceptional talent almost every day.  So we’ll be presenting our own all-star brewing line up.  We don’t claim to present– or even know– what the best beers in America are, but out of the hundred or so that we taste every month, some are indeed special.   For the second couple of weeks in July, we’ll share some recent standouts in  a very crowded craft beer field. .

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

All Stars

Date:  July 27, 2019  —  This post is in progress.  Return soon for it.  In the meantime, click “more reviews” below to see our most recent “Beer of the Day” posts.

The Story—

The Beer–

Value —

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.

It’s All-Star season.  MLB has finished theirs, but it seems like a new sport is showcasing exceptional talent almost every day.  So we’ll be presenting our own all-star brewing line up.  We don’t claim to present– or even know– what the best beers in America are, but out of the hundred or so that we taste every month, some are indeed special.   We;ve taken the last two weeks to share some recent standouts in  a very crowded craft beer field. Good luck in your own hunting

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Brewing All Stars #8: Gordon Biersch Rockville House Red India Red Ale

Date:  July 23 , 2019  —  Note- this is a tasting note from April.  No guarantee you’ll find this now, but it gives an insight into what you can look for at this surprisingly independent chain brewery.

The Story—  Until fairly recently Gordon Biersch tried to maintain a great deal of similarity among their dozens of breweries. The idea was that whatever GB you wandered into would pour the GB beers you had enjoyed in your last city.   There’s something to be said for that except, wait– big national brands and imports have made that a sure thing for decades.   The whole point of a “beer brewed here” was to have a beer that “wasn’t brewed there.”

The truth was, though, for those of us with even mediocre palates, the beers did vary.  The equipment wasn’t the same in every place and the brewers seized some breathing space to put their own stamp on the GB products.   For a while they had to do that under the radar, but over time, and in part due to the efforts of local Biersch overseer (and now master brewer for Devils Backbone) Jason Oliver, the brewery loosened its grip on some of the country’s best brewers and now you’ll find a dramatically different arrays of beers across the country and even across town.

The chain does have a tendency to play musical chairs with their brewers.  Our “local” in Rockville, Md. was one of the chairs in a recent move that brought Scott Lasater from DC to the the suburbs.  He’s settled in long enough now so that we’ve had a chance to taste most of his beers.  His predecessor, Nassim Sultan, was a talented brewer and we’ll miss the beers he did particularly well, but Scott has already shown us he’ll be bringing us some treats as well.

The staff tells us Scott tries to avoid the “name game” and just calls beers for what they are.   Good for him.  This “House Red” Red IPA is flashier in the glass than on the menu.   It’s just at the IPA threshold of 6.0% abv and the 30 IBUs shove it just down from New England but barely take a baby step towards the west coast.  What those hard working 30 IBUs do is balance red ale malts that can get leathery and sugary without their help. There must have been a good dose of late hops and/or whirlpool, or dry hopping to make the hops sing so strongly with “only” 30 IBUs. So many IPAs these days taste so much like so many other IPAs these days.  This one stands on its own.  It’s the best we’ve had from Scott so far…  but we’re looking forward to continuing to try more.

The Beer–  Full malt foundation with just barely leashed dark crystal.  Husky and some dankness to the hops along with leaf and herbs and grass and lots more.

Value —Excellent if you get to the brewery between 4 and 7 PM for their $4/half liter (oh so very) happy hour.  It’s still a very good value @ $6 a half liter at other times.

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.

It’s All-Star season.  MLB has finished theirs, but it seems like a new sport is showcasing exceptional talent almost every day.  So we’ll be presenting our own all-star brewing line up.  We don’t claim to present– or even know– what the best beers in America are, but out of the hundred or so that we taste every month, some are indeed special.   For the second couple of weeks in July, we’ll share some recent standouts in  a very crowded craft beer field. .

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Brewing All Stars #7: NOLA (New Orleans Lager and Ale Brewing) Hoppyright Infringement IIPA, New Orleans, La.

Date:  July 22 , 2019  —  This post is in progress.  Return soon for it.  In the meantime, click “more reviews” below to see our most recent “Beer of the Day” posts.

The Story—  Yesterday we featured one of master brewer John Maier’s last beers at Rogue, his triumphal Straight Outta Newport…Oregon IPA.  It’s worth keeping that beer in mind as we look at this almost (but not quite) as good beer from a very different part of the country.   There are some differences: this one is hazier.  John called his 8.7 an IPA while NOLA calls its 7.6 an Imperial IPA.  John packed a nicely balancing 73 IBUs in his slightly hazy beer; this one is lower.   What they both have in common, however, is a deep dankness.  NOLA get it’s dankness by a combination of Centennial, Citra, Ekuanot, and Mosaic.   None of these by themselves usually presents all that much dankness, but the combination– perhaps especially in the dry hopping– gives it a rich and lasting range of flavors that includes plenty of good old musty dank.

The Beer–  Wonderfully dank.  Rich ripe fruit and deep herbs on a slightly musty full malt.  Nice lasting bitter.    Slight hint of Dentyne gum cinnamon, but it’s more round and less hot.  Herbal, grassy and dank as it drinks.

Value —  Good to very good.  If the alcohol werejust a bit lower than its 7.6, I could drink it all night.  As it is, I could still drink it all evening.

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.

It’s All-Star season.  MLB has finished theirs, but it seems like a new sport is showcasing exceptional talent almost every day.  So we’ll be presenting our own all-star brewing line up.  We don’t claim to present– or even know– what the best beers in America are, but out of the hundred or so that we taste every month, some are indeed special.   For the second couple of weeks in July, we’ll share some recent standouts in  a very crowded craft beer field. .

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”

Brewing All Stars #6: Rogue Straight Outta Newport…Oregon, Newport, Oregon. Plus: Brewer John Maier retires from Rogue Ales.

Date:  July 21 , 2019  —

The Stories—          News Flash-– John Maier, the brilliantly talented head brewer at Rogue for the last three decades has announced he is retiring this month.   You can read details at Brew Republic here and scroll down to the comments for my favorite John Maier story

I was talking to a home brewer and fellow Beer Geek the other day who said his favorite beer to brew was a New England IPA.   My face delivered a message that was more candid than my verbal reply.  We talked on about the “style” and without actually making the connection between his earlier and later statement as he said that he’d about had enough of the New Englanders and thought the fad would fade soon.  In fairness, he’s not the first homebrewer I’ve known whose favorite style to brew was not his favorite to consume.

In any event, a goodly number of those of us who’ve been around a bit are getting more than a little tired of the “Try to Top the Heddy Topper” craze.  Alchemist did a great job of giving us something new to drink and think about, and hats off to them.   However, copy-crafters followed, of course, and have used up so much lactose I worry that America’s children may not be getting enough milk for healthy bones and strong teeth.  Some of the copies, we’ve heard, have even used flour to cloud up batches than came out too clearly.   Beyond that, we’ve encountered “New England” IPAs with IBUs ranging from near zero to 70 or more.  That’s not a style, it’s a wet sponge of cloudy paint thrown at a wall.

So there’s no surprise that some of the West Coast guys who did so much to put the modern IPA style on the world map, are pushing back.   Some of the newer danker hops have extended the flavor range of IPAs without pushing the essence of the style over a cliff.  Comet is one of our favorite for its earthy and– so we’re told– marijuana-like dankness.  Ironically, Comet is not a new hop — it was developed decades ago as a bittering hop for big brewers, but the big guys shunned it — it had actual flavor after all– and it almost disappeared from the planet.  Some enthusiasts, most of them home brewers we understand, reclaimed it from obscurity and now a number of commercial brewers are playing with it for single hop beers and in combination with other fruitier hops.

This is a big West Coast IPA – it’s 8.7% alcohol could nudge it into the Imperial range if John had chosen to brand it as such.  Whatever the name, it’s a glorious beer.  It’s probably the last John Maier beer we’ll get to taste; what a wonderful swan song.

The Beer–  Rich and dank and chewy.  Very ripe fruit leading to a long bitter.  It has a slightly chalkly feel and a slight haze that’s a haze and not a Newport (either coast) fog.   The dank aroma informs every return sip and helps frame some very nice herbal hops in the taste.  the long bitter helps bring it all into focus as it drinks.

Value —  Very good to excellent.  It’s hard to imagine getting this much pleasure– and change from a five dollar bill— from anything else.

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.

It’s All-Star season.  MLB has finished theirs, but it seems like a new sport is showcasing exceptional talent almost every day.  So we’ll be presenting our own all-star brewing line up.  We don’t claim to present– or even know– what the best beers in America are, but out of the hundred or so that we taste every month, some are indeed special.   For the second couple of weeks in July, we’ll share some recent standouts in  a very crowded craft beer field. .

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”