DrinkCraftBeer

Oakshire Brewing - Interview with Matt Van Wyk

Devon — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:29:00 +0000

You may not have heard of Oakshire Brewing Co. yet, but you will. Oakshire, a small brewery located in Eugene Oregon is poised to do some amazing things and we think the craft beer world is going to take notice sooner rather than later. The Pacific northwest has always been a driving force in craft beer and Oakshire is yet another example of great breweries still starting up. While many businesses have slowed or held off on expansion during a tough economy Oakshire business has been booming. So what makes them different; how come they seem to be able to do what many others haven't been able to? Simply put...it's all in the beer. We were fortunate enough to sample their Watershed IPA, a fantastically hoppy west coast IPA as well as their Overcast Espresso Stout, a beer that somehow feels both refreshing and soul satisfying. What gets us even more excited though are all the small projects brewer Matt Van Wyk is working on. We set up an interview so he can tell you more about those.

DCB: What go you into brewing?

Van Wyk: Like most brewers, craft brewers, I started out with a home brewing hobby. In the late 90's more craft breweries started popping up. I was a science teacher I started volunteering at a few breweries which eventually turned into an assistant brewing job. I thought that would last for a couple years and I'd go back to teaching because I had a degree in that. But it's been 8 years and it's sort of worked out ever since. I have a biology background and have taken several chemistry courses. So the background knowledge coupled with a love of brewing and drinking good beer meshed together into a new career.

Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale Review

Jeff — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:01:00 +0000

From Smuttynose's Big Beer Series, the Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale is one of our most anticipated limited beers each year. Smuttynose's interpretation of a Saison, it's normally out during the heat of summer, when it is one of the few big beers that can really quench your thirst during a heatwave. This year, though, it came out a little later than usual in mid-September. While it's a little cooler out lately, this beer is no less delicious!

A quick historical note, Saison was traditionally served to Belgian farmhands in Wallonia during the summer. It was kept low-alcohol and dry to be thirst quenching. Modern interpretations have often kicked up the alcohol a bit.

The Farmhouse Ale pours a golden coppery color with just a slight bit of haze. This is one you're going to want to pour carefully, because the white head is huge and doesn't go away any time soon! To get the picture in this review it took about 10 minutes of repeated gentle pours followed by time spent waiting for the head to die down. The color is a bit darker than a traditional Saison, but then again this beer has a much higher alcohol by volume than a traditional Saison at 7.5% abv.

The smell is apparent as soon as you pour it and that great head explodes, spicy Belgian yeast notes and sweet malt dominate. You don't get much hop aroma in the nose. There is no alcohol apparent, even as it warms.

The taste combines candy sweet, but not cloying, malt and black pepper from the yeast. It's a great pairing that works to balance both sides. The carbonation is strong and you get a second foam-up in your mouth, which makes for quite the interesting mouthfeel! While it's sweet up front, you get a very dry feeling in your mouth at the end. This works to help the beer as it brings it back to it's traditional, thirst-quenching dry and low-alcohol roots.

In the end the Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale is a perfect late summer beer. The higher alcohol makes it perfect for slightly cooler evenings, while the crisp, refreshing and spicy Belgian yeast makes it good for warmer days.

Wachusett Brewing Octoberfest Review

Devon — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:08:00 +0000

I love September almost purely for the reason that it means it's Oktoberfest beer time. Wachusett Brewing Co. is a local favorite of ours. While they may get notoriety from their blueberry ale, their IPA is something we consider a bit of a secret gem within their portfolio and the more recent release of the Ryde, their rye beer, just adds one more tasty brew to the mix. I hadn't tried their Octoberfest yet though, and that needed to be fixed.

The beer pours a nice dark coppery amber with an off white head instantly releasing a nice aroma of sweet malt. First off, this is just a tasty beer. Sometimes that's really all I want to say, it just is really tasty, though since that doesn't help you out that much I'll elaborate. This beer is exceptionally drinkable. The malt backbone is smooth and delicate with a bit of roasty notes and just the slightest touch of sweetness. The finish is really what sold me on this beer though; just a bit of hops and more sweetness leave a very clean finish to this Octoberfest brew, something rare for the style. It's a bit less hoppy than some other American offerings and that just makes it even more drinkable. It would take little effort to have a few of these. Definitely give this beer a go if you see it.

Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin Review

Devon — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:10:00 +0000

We've always like Shipyard Pumpkinhead so we were intrigued when we heard about Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin. Smashed Pumpkin is Shipard Brewing's Imperial Pumpkin, and it's new for 2009. The beer pours a nice deep amber with a light head full of pumpkin and spice aroma. You can smell pumpkin and nutmeg right away almost reminiscent of pumpkin bread. At 9% abv you'd expect the alcohol to come through but it really doesn't. The malt and spices really help balance out the alcohol quite nicely. There's no doubt this is a big beer and it's definitely has an ideal temperature. When we poured the first glass right out of the fridge the spices were a bit too dominant and the beer just didn't feel balanced. After letting it warm up a bit though this beer opens up into something pretty special. A rich malty pumpkin sweetness finished off with dry nutmeg and a hint of hops. Fans of Southern Tier Pumpking and Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin should definitely give this a go.

As a quick side note this beer is excellent for cooking. I tossed some of the bottle in with some ground turkey, zucchini, portabella mushrooms and caramelized onions and it added an awesome depth of flavor to a quick dish.

DrinkCraftBeer Sticker Contest

Devon — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:00:00 +0000

A reader recently noticed one of our stickers in the wild and used in a very cool way! Someone had cut our sticker up to make it fit their bike and well we thought it was pretty damn cool. So that got us thinking, how else can they be used? Well while we've certainly got some ideas we thought we'd put out a challenge to all of you. We'll be giving away 30 stickers for free all we ask is you send us back a picture of where you put the sticker. The best use of the sticker will win a special prize pack with some cool DrinkCraftBeer schwag.

The Rules

1. Send us a request for a sticker on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DrinkCraftBeer use hash tag #DCBSticker and tell us why you deserve a sticker

2. We'll pick 30 people to get stickers.

3. Stickers will arrive in the mail. You come up with your coolest use.

4. Tweet us a pic of how you used the sticker.

5. We'll announce the winner on October 2nd, 2009 and send him or her a DCB prize pack.

6. Keep it legal, we don't want anyone getting in trouble here! No street signs, private property (without permission), etc...

Victory Festbier Review

Devon — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 04:39:00 +0000

We love Oktoberfest, there's few other holidays that deliver us so many tasty lagers. Victory Festbier has always been one of our favorite offerings of the season. This beer is really clean. The malt starts of slightly sweet and evolve with subtle toasty notes. A lot of Oktoberfest beers can have a bit of a lager funk at the end. This beer is just smooth and malty with a nice hop finish that you'd expect from Victory. Victory puts out some of our favorite beers in fact we drive down to Pennsylvania from Boston each year to go visit Sly Fox Brewing and the Victory Brewery. One of the greatest things about this beer is that it doesn't try and be some imperialized version or super hopped version; it's just an immensely satisfying beer with a great malt profile that makes you want more with each sip.

Duvel Green Review

Devon — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:19:00 +0000

We're going to cut to the chase on this one, it's good, really good. We'll be honest, we often pass over the regular Duvel bottles. When we're out we tend to get something on draught and when we go to the store it's generally just not on our radar. Duvel Green is a totally new beer though. Think of Duvel Green as the cousin of Duvel, while related there's a lot of differences. Duvel Green was made specifically for the US market. Now many times we hear that we get scared, but there's no need in this case. Duvel green is a draught only product with a lower abv (6.8%).

We went to Sunset Grill and Tap in Allston, MA for a special release party for this beer. In addition to having Duvel Green on tap they also had a special menu prepared for us to sample. Anyone who follows us knows we're huge fans of beer pairing. This was a great way to really see what this beer had to offer. We tried the Duvel Green on it's own first. It was hot outside and we really wanted something refreshing...this fit that bill. While 6.8% is not a low ABV the beer drinks like it's less and the alcohol does not come through. The mouthfeel is light and the malts are delicate and not a bit heavy or cloying. Subtle hop notes finish the beer with a nice bitterness that doesn't wear on the pallet. In short it's pretty delicious.

We decided to do a side by side comparison of Duvel and Duvel Green. Just smelling each beer you can tell there's a difference. Duvel packed a sweet belgian aroma with hints of alcohol while Duvel Green released spicy hints of the yeast and hop notes. On taste the Duvel has a much slicker mouthfeel which coats your tongue. Prominent sweet malts combine with a bit of booze and yeast.

Sunset is offering a wide range of foods but we'd recommend a couple dishes to try these beers with. There's a great appetizer of mussels that pairs perfectly with the Duvel Green. The sweetness of the mussels combines perfectly with the light hops of the beer. We could eat/drink this combo all night. On the entree side of things there was a ravioli stuffed with goat cheese, ham and caramelized onions. While this dish was supposed to pair with Duvel Green we found Duvel a much better fit. This dish has a rich cream sauce and sweet filing from the caramelized onion. While the Duvel Green helps cut some of the heaviness and sweetness regular Duvel creates a rich amazing sweetness. The malts sweeten the cream sauce while bringing out subtle flavors in the onions and goat cheese. The fat in the cream sauce helps balance the alcohol and create and extremely balanced pairing.

We'd definitely recommend giving this beer a try. When you do let us know what you think!

Berman's Wine: Liquor Store Review

Devon — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:55:00 +0000

While there's lots of great beer to be found, sometimes that is the hardest part, finding it. We hunt out good liquor stores, bars and brewpubs and we thought it was about time we started sharing some of our favorites with you. We recently stumbled across Berman's Wine & Spirits in Lexington, MA after Matt Steinberg of Mayflower Brewing mentioned his beer was sold there. Our first visit was for an emergency beer buy(yes we realize that sounds ridiculous but we had to pair a beer for an event and only had no time to waste). While in the store I noticed one of the staff was helping a woman buy beer for a BBQ she was having. She wanted to pick up a fruit beer but didn't know what to get. The employee was extremely helpful and guided her through a series of good craft beer offerings while sharing his opinion of one's he'd personally tried and being honest about one's he had not. While lots of stores can stock a lot of beer, having good people at a store can be worth even more. Fortunately after a few visits to Berman's we've found that they have both selection and great staff. Oh, and lets not overlook their awesome discount policy where you get 10% off if you buy 4 or more bombers! That employee that helped that customer turned out to be Jesse Dooley, Berman's beer manager. We took a few minutes to talk to him a little bit about the store and what got him so interested in beer.

DCB: How long has the shop been around?

Dooley: We recently celebrated our 100th anniversary. We have been in business since 1909 and has been family run in Lexington ever since.

DCB: When did craft beer become a focus for the store?

Dooley: We have had the basics like the Sierra Nevada's and Longtrails for as long as I can remember but a real focus took place about 3 years ago when I took over the beer buying.

DCB:What got you in to craft beer, or beer in general?

Dooley: No one thing in particular. I made a decision to try and learn about beer and what made one style different from another. Beer pairings with food was another real big part of my interest as I have always been a bit of a foodie. I have personally put alot of time care, effort and drinking into this store. If anyone has questions please don't hesitate to ask me. I don't have an encyclopedic selection but what I do have is picked with love. Thanks Again!

While Jesse may not see the selection as encyclopedic we'd argue that it's better than most. As he mentions it's clearly picked with care. The wall of bombers and 750's tucked in the back left corner (go directly there when you go in) has Pretty Things full catalog, tons of Allagash offerings, as well as Port Brewing, Bear Republic, Southern Tier and many many others. The review could go on and on about the selection really including a great wall of Belgian offerings but we'll just put it simply. It would be nearly impossible to come to this store and not leave with some seriously tasty brew at a good price. This is undoubtedly one of our favorite stores now.

Drink New England Charity Pub Crawl

Devon — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:55:00 +0000

We've worked with some great local bars to put on a killer event for a great cause. The pub crawl "Drink New England" takes the traditional pub crawl and puts a local craft beer spin on things. We'll be featuring a New England brewed beer at each stop of the 6 bar crawl. Even better you get to help a great cause, the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism. 100% of the profits from this event are going to charity. Good beer, good people, good cause, how can you go wrong?

The event is capped at 75 people due to bar capacities so once all the shirts are sold, that's it. So get yours now!

Join us Saturday September 19th at 1pm to for some great beer for a great cause!

Click Here To Buy Your Shirt Now!

Pub Crawl Details:

Where is it?

The pub crawl will winding through Central and Inman Square in Cambridge visiting:
A. People's Republik
B. Tavern in the Square
C. Asgard
D. Cambridge Brewing Company
E. Atwoods
F. Bukowski

View Larger Map

How much does it cost?: $20

What do I get for my $20?: A kick ass pub crawl t-shirt, an awesome pub crawl, a donation to the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism, that warm fuzzy feeling you get from doing something good (and isn't that priceless really?)

What about the beer: You're responsible for the purchase of your beer at each stop. Be sure to bring cash as some of the bars don't accept credit.

What charity does my money go to? The Doug Flutie Jr Foundation for Autism

Obligatory disclaimer: We want everyone to have a great time but we do have to take a moment to cover a couple things:

1. You must be 21 to attend this event

2. We ask you to know your limits, just because we're visiting 6 bars doesn't mean you have to have 6 drinks. Everyone has their own limits so we just ask that you keep that in mind. Each bar has the right to refuse service as they see fit.

With all that fun stuff said we don't anitcipate any issues and we're sure everyone is going to have a great time. There are no refunds

Click Here To Buy Your Shirt Now!

Craft Beer & Chocolate Meet Again Follow Up

Jeff — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 06:54:00 +0000

Devon and Jeff here. We just wanted to say thanks to everybody who came out to the Craft Beer and Taza Chocolate - Beer and Chocolate Meet Again event at The Wine Gallery on Saturday, August 1st! We had a great crowd come out (picture at right) and the event was a big success. Thanks to The Wine Gallery for hosting, Taza Chocolate for providing the chocolate, Stephanie from Taza Chocolate (picture below with Devon and Jeff from DrinkCraftBeer.com) for coming out to help explain what makes Taza Chocolate so delicious and Craft Brewers Guild for providing the North Coast Old Rasputin and Butternuts Heinnieweisse! In fact, people seemed to like the Heinnieweisse so much that we sold out within the first 45 minutes! And trust us, we got as much as we could... there was no more Heinnieweisse available at the distributor for anybody in the state!

We have a lot of new events in the works, so keep watching DrinkCraftBeer.com!

And, of course, if you want to see all the chocolate and craft beer pairings, check them out, Craft Beer and Taza Chocolate - Beer and Chocolate Meet Again.

A night of New Glarus beer makes us want to go to Wisconsin

Devon — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:24:00 +0000

For those in the craft beer scene New Glarus is one of those famed breweries that we all know about but many don't get to try. The reason for this is New Glarus only sells their beer in one state, Wisconsin. Fortunately for us a friend recently brought back some of their beers for us to try. In short, the hype is real, the beer is amazing and we need to make it out to Wisconsin now to go buy more. Raspberry Tart, perhaps the most famous beer from New Glarus, did not disappoint. We rarely enjoy fruit beers but you know something is good when 6 guys sitting around having some drinks all exclaim various versions of "wow," "delicious" and "amazing" upon first sip. This beer goes beyond beer, it's really more like sparkling raspberry juice that is also somehow miraculously beer. While very sweet it's in no way cloying and it doesn't wear on your pallet like many sweeter beers do. Raspberry Tart seems to walk some perfect line that no other fruit beer we've tried has been able to do, perhaps that's why it's so well known.

Beer of the Month Club Review June - Gourmet Monthly Clubs

Devon — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:15:00 +0000

We're back with another month of beers from Gourmet Monthly Clubs. As always if you'd like to join the same clubs as us click here

Millstream Brewing Company John's Grocery Generation's White Ale

Appearance: Hazy, light straw colored. White fluffy, thin head that starts out 2 inches thick and quickly dissipates to nothing.

Smell: Sweet wheat predominates the aroma, and then you get some banana from the yeast. It's a fairly pleasant smell.

Taste: This is a very flavorful beer! It starts out with some chalky wheat sweetness then moves into a good bit of coriander. It finishes much drier than we expected, especially based off how it started off. This is a good summer beer that would stand up to when the weather gets colder (which is apparently July, in Boston).

Sweet Tomatoes Pizza Adds 9 Local Beers

Devon — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:18:00 +0000

We love local food almost as much as we love local beer. When we found out that Sweet Tomatoes in Osterville, MA had started featuring local beer at their restaurant we needed to find out more. Sweet Tomatoes serves gourmet pizza featuring fresh ingredients. Their flavors range from the staples like pepperoni to house specials like the "Pizza Sarah" which includes goat cheese, bacon, caramelized onions and mozzarella. Darren Bagley-Heath, proprietor of Sweet Tomatoes Osterville, MA, grew up in the UK and found himself missing his local "free house." For those not familiar with the term, a free house is simply a local pub, not tied to a specific brewery as many are in the UK, featuring local beer. Don't dismiss this effort as a simple recreation of a British Pub across the pond, Sweet Tomatoes has made a conscientious effort to take the essence of the British tradition and add American craft beer flavor. We decided to talk to Bagley-Heath and get some more details on how this new focus came to be.

DCB: What inspired you to focus on local beer?

Bagley-Heath: In the UK you would go to different parts of the country and you would get different beers. You would go in and there would be a regional flavor and flair.

When I first came to the States, the beer selection here was mediocre but now there's great beer to be had locally.

DCB: Well we can certainly agree with that, what beers have you decided to focus on?

Bagley-Heath: I had the Cape Code Brewing Company IPA and knew I wanted to bring them in as soon as I could. The idea was to bring in one beer of each style, we had the IPA from Cape Cod as well as their Hef and Red. We talked to Mayflower Brewing Company and brought in their Pale and Golden Ales and have additional offerings from Buzzards Bay like their Pilsner. We'll also be getting firkins of the Mayflower Pale Ale soon.

DCB: OK, now you have our attention! Mayflower Pale Ale on cask?

Bagley-Heath: We'll have a gravity fed firkin right on top of the bar. We really want to give people a chance to drink local beer and get people excited about it. We've undergone quite a bit of renovation lately: new floors, lighting and we've run all brand new lines for the beer. There's nothing worse than when dirty lines ruin your beer. In addition to all the new beers on tap we've also come up with a special summer shandy. An employee really enjoyed a bottled version of the summer shandy and we decided to make our own. We mix Pellegrino sparkling lemonade with Cape Code Hefeweizen, people have really liked it. We've also got a great outdoor seating area to enjoy during the summer months.

DCB: Ok, we're sold!

It's great to see more places featuring local beer and we can't think of many things better than enjoying some great pizza with fresh local beer outside on the Cape. So while you're down at the Cape this summer be sure to head over to Sweet Tomatoes. Drop by for a pint, and try some cask beer, especially if you've never had beer on cask before. We're excited to see ideas like this catch on more and we think they will. For more information and directions to Sweet Tomatoes visit http://www.sweettomatoescapecod.com/

Craft Beer and Taza Chocolate - Beer and Chocolate Meet Again

Devon — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:28:00 +0000

If you don't think beer and chocolate will taste good together you definitely need to read on. If you already know of the amazing flavors these two foods can create then you've likely already skipped ahead to see what we've got in store for you. Taza Chocolate of Somerville, MA makes some of our favorite chocolate. There's simply nothing average about the chocolate they make. Each variation takes a very small number of simple ingredients (4 or less) and manages to create something with incredibly complex flavors. The varying berry tones and bitterness from the cocoa beans combined with some special additions like vanillas beans, almonds and guajillo peppers make their chocolate a perfect accompaniment to beer.

We've paired beer with Taza Chocolate in the past, based on the feedback we go then, we knew round 2 was in order. Since our last pairing with Taza they've come out with some new products. They've expanded their Taza Mexicano line of chocolate to include vanilla, salted almond and guajillo pepper varities. We dropped by Taza Chocolate's factory to come up with some new pairing for you to try. We tried over 15 beers with their chocolate before we found these three to let you all try.

Ready for the best part? If you live in the Boston area we're having a free beer and chocolate tasting at the Wine Gallery in Brookline, MA August 1st form 3-6pm (see bottom for details). If you can't make the event check out Taza's site for locations where you can buy their chocolate or buy directly online. With that said, lets get on to the pairings!

He'Brew Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A. and Taza Mexicano Vanilla Bean Chocolate

This pairing happened almost by pure accident. We brought a cooler full of beer over to the Taza factory and this wasn't one of the pairings we expected to work...but oh man does it! The Taza Mexicano Vanilla Chocolate has a very interesting vanilla flavor since Taza uses the entire bean, including the pod, in the chocolate. Wow! This is an awesome pairing. The vanilla works with the malt sweetness of the beer and blends with the grapefruity hops in a very intriguing flavor combination. The chocolate sweetness continues when the malt stops, helping finish off the beer. We can't do this one justice on paper, you just have to try it.

Butternuts Heinnieweisse Weissebier and Taza Mexicano Guajillo Pepper Chocolate

Hefeweisen and chocolate? Yup! This may just be our favorite pairing of the three. The chocolate brings out acid in the beer like a berliner weisse. The natural spiciness of the hefeweisen yeast pairs perfectly with the mellow spice of the hot pepper creating a more complex flavor than either the chocolate or the beer have alone. First you get the tart acidity and some sweet chocolate, then it moves on to the spicy yeast and earthy spiciness of the pepper, which blends seamlessly.This is a really good example of 1+1=3 in food and beer pairing.

Hoppin Frog B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher and Taza Mexicano Salted Almond Chocolate

The Salted Almond Chocolate from Taza is simply amazing on it's own and we really needed the perfect beer to pair with this. On paper it's easy to just say an imperial stout will pair well, but we went through 7 different stouts before we found one that paired perfectly. This sweet roasty stout and chocolate go together incredibly well creating a truly decadent pairing. The result is mix of classic chocolate and nut flavors with a deep malted milk shake taste. The salt helps finish off the stout making it smoother than it is on its own. This is dessert in a glass.

We hope you all enjoy these pairings as much as we did.

Event Details

Where:

Wine Gallery Brookline

375 Boylston St
Brookline, MA 02445-6007
(617) 277-5522

When:

August 1st 2009 3-6pm

Cheers,

Devon and Jeff

Stone Brewing 13th Anniversary Ale Review

Jeff — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:15:00 +0000

It appears we might be on a little bit of an Anniversary Beer kick, between this and the recent review of Port Brewing Company's 3rd Anniversary Double IPA. The combination does make sense, though, seeing as Port Brewing is now creating beer in Stone Brewing Company's former brewery. Stone actually sold it to Port/Lost Abbey when they built their new, much larger facility. OK, but that's enough about the land owned by brewers... let's move on the the beer.

If you want to know our first impression of this beer it was, "Whoa, that's hoppy smelling!" Right away you get some major American hops in the nose, piney and a bit dank. There is some major malt aroma to this thing as well. The beer itself pours a gorgeous dark ruby and the beer is quite clear. A light tan head fills half the glass and hangs around for a little bit before receding into a little bit of residue on the glass. After looking at it and smelling it, we'd swear this was a Barleywine, but the the brewery says "Imperial Amber."

Upon first taste, it confirms our suspicions... Imperial Amber is just another word for Barleywine. Its super hoppy? Check. Its got a serious malt backbone with high alcohol? Check. Yeah, it's a Barleywine. But it's a good one!

The flavor is bitter hops up front and dark bread malt sweetness, followed by a hint of chocolate then finishing up with a bit of pineapple from the hops. This is an interesting beer for sure! It's not too sweet, just enough so that it has some semblance of balance. This is a hop-forward beer for sure, though. If you've ever enjoyed Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine, you'll enjoy this (and it came out serendipitously on the other side of the calendar from Bigfoot... hmmm, it makes you think, no?). Lastly, the alcohol does start to come out as it warms. But it's not overwhelming or even negative. It's just there and let's you know you have to take heed.

So this is definitely another delicious Anniversary Ale from Southern California, and Stone Brewing specifically. Next up from them? Vertical Epic 09.09.09. And from the rumors circulating, it's going to be quite the interesting brew!

Port Brewing 3rd Anniversary Double IPA Review

Jeff — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 01:21:00 +0000

Every year Port Brewing Company brews up an anniversary beer... weird, right? This year's, was a Double India Pale Ale, same as the first two... So Port Brewing isn't that into surprises, but at least they cop to that fact on the label.

Into the glass the Port Brewing 3rd Anniversary Double IPA poured a murky dark orange with a light tan, voluminous head. Right away you could smell some bright hops with a bit of alcohol. Oddly, it smelled sweeter than we've come to expect from a West Coast made IIPA.

The taste was nice and bitter with balancing, sweet malt. It had good flavor but ended with a bit of alcohol solvent flavors. Furthermore, we've come to expect less balance in our Imperial IPAs from the West Coast. We want tons of bittering and hop flavor!

Luckily, the malt does take a back seat and seems to be there just to balance the hops... we only wish it didn't balance it quite as much. We feel like the East Coast has little access to enamel dissolving bitter IPAs anymore. Someone send us some, please!!!

Otter Creek Imperial IPA Review

Jeff — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:19:00 +0000

Otter Creek has never been known for their "big" or "extreme" beers. That all changed with the recent hiring of their new brewer, Mike Gerhart, formerly of Dogfish Head Brewing Company in Delaware. Mike came on and Otter Creek released a delicious and much-raved-about Russian Imperial Stout. But Mike had to prove that the RIS was not just a fluke... following it up with the Otter Creek Imperial India Pale Ale surely proves that he has earned the praise that his brewery has recently garnered! It pours a clear copper with some major head that isn't going anywhere... great for catching the delicious smells this ale puts off!

The first thing you notice when you pour this beer is the aroma of crisp, clean hops permeates the room. Not sweetness. Not dank, wet hops. Hops! The beer smells dry, which is impressive for its 11% abv which would normally indicate some residual sugar. Furthermore, the alcohol is hidden much better than we expected it to be for such a dry, high alcohol Double IPA.

Once you take your first sip you get a solid hop bitterness offset by just enough malt so that this is clearly more of the supposed "East Coast Style" of IPAs (meaning more balanced than just pure hop water). The hop flavor is distinct in that it stays away from the normal grapefruit-, citrus- or pine-bomb that some of these can be. It's just a solid hop bitterness that features a delicious malt profile and a touch of pineapple almost at the end. Again, the alcohol is still nowhere to be found! Even as the beer warms over about 45 minutes, we don't taste the solvent-like flavors we've come to expect from beer that is this high-test.

Overall, this is an amazing beer. Otter Creek is definitely proving themselves as purveyors of beer for the serious beer enthusiast as well as the casual craft beer drinker. On top of this, these bombers are some of the best values you'll find around at about $6 depending on your choice of retail venue. Grab the Otter Creek Imperial India Pale Ale while you can, and while it's fresh!

Southern Tier Mokah Beer Ice Cream Recipe

Devon — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:01:00 +0000

We like beer and we like ice cream, so we thought why not combine the two? So many beers have flavors that lend themselves to dessert we thought we'd just make it official and come up with our own recipe. If you want to impress at a BBQ this summer show up a with a couple pints of this Southern Tier Mokah ice cream. Your friends will thank you. We hope you enjoy the recipe below as much as we do! The recipe below also works well with Southern Tier Java. We changed this recipe 3 times before it was good enough to share with you and we think its great now, but let us know if you make any changes for the better!

Ingredients

3 cups half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
8 large egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
12 oz Southern Tier Mocha
1/2 Mexican Vanilla Bean

We got our vanilla extract and beans from http://www.penzeys.com, we got ours in the Arington, MA locaton.

Directions

Split Vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the inside, keep pod. Add vanilla seeds and pod to the half-and-half and the heavy cream into a medium saucepan, over medium heat. Bring the mixture just to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and remove from the heat. Cover and let sit for 30 mins to infuse.

Place beer in small saucepan, cook until reduced to 1/2 cup. Set aside.

Whisk the egg yolks until they lighten in color. Gradually add sugar while whisking rapidly. Keep whisking until mixture falls from whisk in ribbon like form.

Temper the cream mixture gradually adding small amounts of cream into the eggs while stirring, until about a third of the cream mixture has been added. Pour remainder of cream in and transfer back to saucepan. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon and reaches 170 to 175 degrees F.

Pour the mixture into a container and allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract. Place the mixture into the refrigerator and once it is cool enough not to form condensation on the lid, cover and store for 8-12 hours.

Place beer reduction in separate container and cool in refrigerator.

After 8-12 hours stir in beer reduction to ice cream base.

Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's directions. This should take approximately 25 to 35 minutes. Serve as is for soft serve or freeze for another 3 to 4 hours to allow the ice cream to harden.

Burgers and Beer, Need We Say More?

Devon — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:53:00 +0000

Summer is finally here! We don't know about you but summer screams BBQ for us, specifically a good burger. We discovered B.Good burgers back when we lived in the Brookline area. If you haven't been to B.Good you need to go...now. Well, not right now, finish reading, then head over. B.Good isn't just another fast food burger place, there's an honest difference in quality and flavor here. B.Good is a local business started by two friends, Anthony Ackil and Jon Olinto. Their mission was to make fast food real. There's no secret chemicals or hard to pronounce ingredients here. Just honest good food and some baked fries that will blow you away. Seriously, don't let the idea of a baked fry scare you, we swear they're good. So what's better than a good burger? A good burger with craft beer of course! We met up with Jon Olinto to do some craft beer and burger pairings with B.Good burgers. The short story here is that we ended up with some amazing food pairings that you need to try. Sadly we did run out of time and didn't get to pair all of their burgers. The good news is we'll be back shortly with Part Two of this article where we pair the rest of their burgers. But enough talk, on to the good stuff!

Cousin Oliver with Victory Prima Pils

B. Good's Cousin Oliver is the quintessential burger, a simple beef burger topped with crisp lettuce, tomato onions and pickles. What really puts this burger over the top, though, is the addition of their secret suace. You do have to ask for this, but make sure you do! A simple burger like this cried out for a nice clean beer. We relied on a summer time staple and favorite of ours, Vicotry Prima Pils. This pilsner is crisp, clean and refreshing. While slightly aggressively hopped, as many Victory beers are, it's never overwhelming. The hops helped cut through the tangyness of the secret sauce and blended perfectly with the sweet tomatoes and juicy burger. We're getting hungry again just thinking about this. Jon had never had this beer before and instantly said he needed to go buy some after doing this pairing.

Dogfish Head Glass Review

Devon — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:44:00 +0000

While many Belgian breweries have created custom glassware for years, most American breweries glassware was the typical pint glass. Now don't get us wrong, we love the pint glass as much as the next guy, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. Sam Adams really went public with their new glassware a while back, and you'll often see it in their commercials. Now Dogfish Head has decided to come out with their own glassware as well. They were kind enough to send us a glass for us to check out. When we first got it the we liked it, but we were worried the base might be a bit too bulky. We resisted doing an immediate write up and mixed it in to our glassware. This glass has almost become a go to now. Shapes that initially felt bulky now felt sturdy and robust. The shape of the glass always seems to enhance hop aroma. There's some nice subtle styling too, a laser etched logo inside the bottom of the glass and another logo on the base. This is a really cool glass. Even cooler than the glass though is what we hope becomes a trend. We'd like to see more breweries come out with some unique glassware of their own.

If you want to pick up one of your own check them out here: DogfishHead