On Goose Island Old Clybourn Porter (two ways)

On Black Friday I made a stop in at Goose Island's Clybourn Pub to buy their release of King Henry Barleywine. Unfortunately, they sold out in less than 2 hours and had to turn away over 70 people. But I was determined to get some beer so I took a seat at the bar. The opportunity that opened as a result was the chance to try the same beer not only on the typical keg draft system we are used to but also as a cask pour.

Cask ales saw a small surge in popularity a few years ago, but the cost of dedicating an entire tap (with incompatible equipment) to warm, flat beer made it somewhat of a fad and now few places other than a couple of hardcore British pubs offer cask beers. And it's a shame. A properly managed cask beer can be sublime. Heavy carbonation and near freezing temperatures can zap the more delicate malt and alcohol flavors and aromas from otherwise great beers. Being a British innovation it stands to reason that British style beers go great on cask systems, so I had a pull of Old Clybourn Ale from both keg and cask.

The differences in the two pours were apparent right off the bat. While both were a very nice, crystal clear, nearly black ruby color, The head on the cask pour (pictured on the right) was much more dense and formed some mild lacing down the glass, while the keg pour did not.

Both beers exhibited some roasted malt in the aroma but the cask version was a bit more forward in the nose. The taste was similar with roast malt up front with both. The keg version was a bit heavier on the chocolate and coffee tastes and was quite bitter from the roasted malts. The cask version was softer in the bitterness but showed some alcohol and a bit more dark chocolate flavors.

The big difference in the two beers was in the palate. The keg version had medium body and carbonation. Not nearly as smooth as the cask version, which was almost completely flat with just a light tickle of carbonation on the tongue. The cask version was also medium bodied.

Overall I enjoyed both beers tremendously, but the cask version wins this tasting set for both it's superior appearance and more complex flavor.

On Pairings With Thanksgiving Dinner

It's the time of year where all the newspapers and bloggers compile lists.  The Best... The Worst... The Most... etc.  My favorite form of this list is when The Best gets tied to food and drink.  The best turkey recipe (Alton Brown's brined turkey is, by far, what I consider to be "the best"), the best mashed potatoes, the best stuffing, the best apple pie, and the best beer to go with the most American of holidays, the glutton-fest of Thanksgiving.  The trouble is not everyone agrees on what it is to be "the best".  One man's taste symphony is another's 5-year-old-kid-that-found-how-to-open-the-piano.

So today, instead of creating yet another list of beers to have on Thanksgiving, I have taken a cue from Metacritic and created my meta analysis of Thanksgiving beer pairings.  You can find my complete list of suggestions here.

Topping the list is Belgian Ales.  This category covers Belgian beers from trappists to tripels.  Perhaps nothing goes better with food than Belgian beers.  They are complex enough to have flavors that both complement and contrast a wide variety of foods.

A distant second goes to the neighboring style of Saison.  Saison is another good choice due to it's spicy, complex character and crisp mouth-cleansing palate.  This is my personal favorite style for the holiday.

Bronze goes to Brown Ale.  Another fine choice.  Nothing puts me in the holiday spirit like the roasty and nutty character of a brown ale.

This year I will be going the route of a first Thanksgiving style dinner and drinking Crispin's The Saint, an apple cider fermented with Belgian abby yeast and maple syrup.  It is delicious, and a nice nod to that first meal.

On Three Floyds Robert the Bruce

I don't believe any brewery has created such a devoted homebrew fanboy following as Three Floyds has. It seems every brew they concoct, no matter how wacky (Spazzerak! excepted) becomes an instant classic everyone must drink.  

Yes, I have made the pilgrimage to Dark Lord Day, and I enjoy my Gumballhead, but maybe, just maybe, Three Floyds isn't the Alpha King of craft beer. No need to turn Three Floyds into a Shangri-La of beer. Because if you do that, you stop thinking. And when you stop thinking, you turn into another yes-man. Another fanboy. Another boob willing to accept anything with three F's on the label as liquid gold. They deserve more respect than that. Be critical. Be honest. Be sincere. 

Take Three Floyds for what they are: another good craft brewery doing what craft breweries do: make good beer. And good beer is what they make, as evidenced by my latest tasting: Robert the Bruce. 

The experience starts with bitter malt and a bit of peaty aroma. As a Boilermaker, it saddens me to say that this is the perfect color combination of cream and crimson I have ever seen (such a shame from a Northern Indiana brewery). The head requires a violent pour to generate and it doesn’t last long before retreating to the sidelines. 

Clean malt character on the tongue is punctuated by cherry candy, caramel, and a touch of toffee. Sweet throughout and only slightly balanced by a low lying bitterness either from the roasted malts or hops. A bit cloying at the end, but perhaps that is to be expected from the bigger Scottish ales. The medium bodied and lightly carbonated beer goes down smooth but leaves behind a slightly sticky coating. Quite a nice beer. 

Well made and delicious - as I always expect from Three Floyds - but more complexity would be appreciated.

On Mikkeller Single Hop Sorachi Ace

Next up in my Mikkeller Single Hop Series tastings is Sorachi Ace. This is my second exposure to Sorachi Ace; the first being with Brooklyn Brewing's Sorachi Ace. Common to saisons and IPAs, this relatively new hop from Japan is probably known most for its intense lemony aromas. With alpha acids over 10% it can easily be over bitter, but I think Mikkeller has done a good job to keep it in check. 

 The beer pours a cloudy, burnt orange color beneath a shallow carpet of white foam. Lemon and honey infiltrate the nose with a bit of warm biscuits. Not unlike a crumpet with lemon curd. 

Alcohol gives way to flavors of lemon and a bit of grass. Strangely, malt flavors are more apparent in the aroma than the flavor. Hints of grapefruit linger in the finish. This beer is medium bodied and exhibits lively carbonation with generally good balance that tilts to the malt side for an IPA. 

Lingering sweetness borders on cloying but doesn’t quite cross that line. This is my second exposure to Sorachi Ace hops, and the flavor is growing on me. I see this beer pairing well with whitefish or sushi.

Single hop series reviews:

Nelson Sauvin
Simcoe

On Mikkeller Nelson Sauvin Single Hop IPA

Mikkeller out of Denmark has been performing a great service to aspiring beer afficianatos for quite some time now with their Single Hop Series.  This will be the first in at least 4 posts on Mikkeller's single hop series.  The idea, for those of you unfamiliar with Mikkeller's devotion to this project, is to brew the same exact beer and only change the hops.  From the label:

"For each version, the single hop  variety was used in the same weight for bittering, aroma, flavor, and for dry hopping.  All 18 varieties of single hop ales in this series were brewed the same week, from the same batches of malt, using the same yeast and fermentation temperatures." 

This differs from the Sam Adams Deconstructed project because the Deconstructed series of IPAs highlights the best of each of the hops in the Latitude 48 beer.  To highlight each beer, they do not necessarily use the same hoping rates for each of the different varieties, but instead make changes to best suit the individual hops.  While this likely creates a more appealing beer as a whole, it somehwhat diminishes the controlled study of a single hop beer series.

With the Single Hop Series we have a great library to evaluate the character of individual hops.  Additionally, the Single Hop Series can be used to evaluate malt character.  By evaluating not what changes, but what stays the same, it is possible to tease out malt qualities.

Nelson Sauvin starts with an unidentifiable berry candy aroma. Apple bars and  bit of funk bring up the rear. Appearance is a cloudy, burnt orange. The dense head recedes quickly. Heavy yeast sediment coats the bottom of the bottle. The flavor brings some caramel malt sweetness which gives way to an odd wine-like character. I like it, but it’s hard to pinpoint. An astringent hop bitterness continues in the long finish. Some alcohol warmth lasts in the back of my throat long after the last sip.

I think this bottle got some age on it from it’s trip from Belgium to Illinois (or I’m late to the party). The code on the top is 5??1010. If fresh, it would no doubt be better. The Nelson Sauvin hops are quite unique and I look forward to seeing them used more widely in the future.




Single hop series reviews:
Sorachi Ace
Simcoe

On Boulevard Sixth Glass

A special thanks to Tim for bringing this to me straight from Kansas City.

There comes a time in the development of every good beer drinker, home brewer, craft brewer, chef, and foodie where they develop a mild - or major - obsession with all things Belgian... at least when it comes to edibles.  Weather it be pommes frites with untold combinations of aioli or beers with untold combinations of complex flavors, the Belgians know how to create amazing flavor combinations.  Sixth Glass from Boulevard Brewing, like many American craft beers, takes on the challenge of crating a beer that stands up to the centuries of beer tradition found in Belgium.  They have succeeded.  

Sixth Glass is a complex "Quadrupel" ale and part of Boulevard's Smokestack Series.  The devil and lightning bolts on the early 20th century tonic-style label should serve as a warning to the elixir inside.  Sixth Glass proves to be as alluring as the snake oil pedaled at general stores one hundred years ago.  Just a sip turns into just a glass and just one more.

Sixth Glass pours the color of autumn leaves on an overcast day. The tan head sticks around just long enough to make some moderate lacing. A bit of coffee aroma immediately gives way to caramel and honey.... figs. A touch of ethanol reminiscent of rum. 

For taste, alcohol right off the bat. Gives way to caramel and dried fruit candy. Sweet but somehow dry at the same time. Probably due to the spicy yeast character. Mouthfeel is vinous with alcohol warmth to match and at 10.5% ABV, it’s not far off on it’s intoxicating powers either. 

Overall a quite complex beer that keeps you toasty - and tipsy - on a cold winter day. I suggest this beer for an alternative to red wine at a cheese tasting or with Spanish tapas. This is a sipper that should make an interesting pairing to many fatty foods.  I wish I had some more bottles of this.  It should only get better with age.  The best by on this bottle was 01/17/13.  Another year would have done wonders.  That said, this beer was highly enjoyable.  

On Half Acre Lager Town

Half Acre Lager Town

When I think of Chicago and beer, I don't think of Goose Island, or Old Style... I think of Half Acre.  These guys put out an amazing number of different beers each year, many of them brewed just once.  The creative output of this small brewery is reflected in their use of amazing label art.  Each beer has a unique label that is nearly impossible to walk by without purchasing.  

I recently stopped by Half Acre's North Center brewery and picked up a growler of their current limited offering, Lager Town, an Oktoberfest... er, Novemberfest, style lager first tapped on October 28th.  The beer starts with clean malt aromas with a hint of toast. Maybe a touch of esters, but it could be my imagination. The small, white head quickly recedes to the sidelines revealing a dark, burnt orange beer underneath. Malt dominates for sure, but it has more earthy hop character than I am used to for the style - which is not at all a bad thing. 

This one starts out sweet and cuddly but gradually matures to a dry and pleasing end like a relationship between two old friends. A welcome change to some of the more cloying Oktoberfests from many American craft brewers. Full bodied with moderate carbonation, this well balanced Oktoberfest is very comforting on a wet, cold day.