The Best of 2009: #2

Surly Wet

Brewery: Surly, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota

Style: India Pale Ale

ABV: 7%

Rating: 5 stars

Wet hop/fresh hop beers were all over the place this year, especially this fall, and though I may be a bit biased, Surly's was the best. For reference, here are the others I had and how I rated them:

Minneapolis Town Hall Fresh Hop 2009: 3.5 stars. Needed more balance, though I realize that's a difficult task for a fresh hopped beer. Tasted sweaty.

Two Brothers Heavy Handed: 4 stars for both Cascade and Willamette versions. Cascade had delicious burps. Willamette was a bit creamier.

Founders Dry Hopped Pale Ale: 4 stars. Lighter hops, metallic backbone.

Avery Dry Hopped IPA: 3.5 stars. Incredibly bitter. Smelled like clover.

Boulder Hazed and Infused: 3.5 stars. A good beer. As you can see, most of these are solid. But not that memorable.

Left Hand Warrior IPA: 4.5 stars. Easily my favorite beer from this brewery. Round flavor, lasting bitterness.

Great Divide Fresh Hop: 4.5 stars. "Better than Surly Wet? Close, but not quite. Delicious Delicious."

Deschutes Hop Trip: 3.5 stars. Sweetest of the bunch.

Like I said, fresh hopped beers were everywhere. So what separates Surly's effort from the rest? I don't know. Maybe it was because I was on hand for the beer's release. Everything tastes better when it's being unveiled for the first time. And accompanied by spring rolls. Maybe it's because I love that Surly touch; the grapefruit, the huge roof-of-your-mouth pull you get after every sip.

Perhaps, though, it was because this wet hopper, as opposed to most on the list above, improved as I emptied it. These beers have a tendency to wear me out after a full 12 or 16 ounces. This one had just the right amount of balance to accompany the big hop pulse. Don't get me wrong, I love my hops as much as the next guy. But this one didn't have the 'eating a hop plant' bluntness that many do. At the time of my first tasting, I called it a triumph. And I stand by that statement.

The Best of 2009: #4

Town Hall Mango Mama

Brewery: Minneapolis Town Hall, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Style: India Pale Ale

ABV: 6%

Rating: 5 stars

It took me far too long to give the mangoed version of Town Hall's Masala Mama a look. There was some initial hesitance: Kristie is allergic to mangoes and mango flavor (yeah, we don't get dessert that much), and therefore we never have them around the house. Also, mangoes aren't near the top of my favorite fruits list (pineapple is). And why mess with an already outstanding IPA? Masala Mama, sadly available only on location, is one of the can't-miss IPAs of the upper midwest.

The positive reviews kept pouring in from friends, though the online responses are strikingly polar. It seems to be a love it or hate it beer, with the haters citing the overpowering mango. More fruit than hops. You can see why this would be a concern of mine due to my distaste for mangoes. In fact, earlier in the year I got my hands on a Virgin Islands Tropical Mango, and compared the taste to paint chips.

Well, the first sip of Mango Mama eased my worries. The detractors' point is not lost: the mango is very strong in both the smell and the initial lip smack. It's big, but not bigger than the Masala hops, which carry the beer out the back of your mouth. An extremely pleasant finish.

How good was this beer? Near the end of our June patio stay, a moth found its way into the last swig of my beer. As it struggled, I weighed my options: give up on the final sip due to contamination fears, or fish the moth out and finish the beer, consequences be damned.

I finished the beer.

The Best of 2009: #10

Stone IPA


Brewery: Stone, Escondido, California

Style: India Pale Ale

ABV: 6.9%

Rating: 4.5 Stars




Unquestionably one of the most widely-sampled IPAs, Stone's had 2134 ratings on ratebeer at the time of posting. I'm certainly blazing no trails with this review. However, we still can't get Stone beers in Minnesota (I think??) and I had to cross into cheese country to get some. I'm almost positive I've had it before courtesy of Cali Uncle Mike, but not since this little project started. Want to know a cliched, embarrassing secret?

I watched Julie and Julia last night and became the seven millionth person to re-dedicate himself to his blog. I'm ashamed to admit it. But, looking back at 2009, I had a lot of great beer, 340 first timers to be exact, and sharing them with a pregnant wife isn't near as interesting as sharing them with my now 12 followers.

So, to the Stone. The standard IPA rates a tad lower than the Ruination IPA, which is stronger and packs a little more punch, but I prefer the regular ole IPA. This distinction is a good representation of what happened to my beer tastes in 2009. When I tried some of my first outstanding double/Imperial IPAs in early 2008 I was blown away. Obsessed. But, a year later, I felt the field was getting a bit watered down. Everyone was throwing copious amounts of hops into everything, and I thought the quality took a back seat to the quantity. I was vacuumed back to the straightforward, standard IPAs. Still with the big aroma. Still with the sticky, mouth-gripping bitterness. But not as super-sized.

I recall the point in my life where I didn't super size simply because it was 'the best value.' Sometimes, even though the 44 oz fountain Super America Coke is the same price as the 22 oz, you really only need 22 ounces. Sometimes I don't need the copious amounts of hops. And in the beer world, the double IPA does cost more than the regular.

Having trouble staying on task for this review.

The tasting dates back to March 5, 2009. From a bottle, obviously. On that day, I said: "The smell reminds me of the best: Furious, Two Hearted. Just want to keep smelling it." I can name 20 beers I've said that about that have thoroughly disappointed. This one clearly didn't.

As opposed to the often buttery, syrupy double IPAs, this beer was crisp and sparkling, with good carbonation and cleanliness. The citrus aroma carried through brilliantly, which is often the biggest source of IPA letdown. And the bitterness, I often describe it as a back-end grab, takes over when the flavor begins to subside. Back-end grab: the beer, after swallowing, reaches back to the roof of your mouth, grabbing the moisture and pulling it down your throat as its last gasp of life. It leaves your mouth dry and...bitter. It's the IPA's signature, and I love how it is a continuation of the tasting. The beer isn't over when you swallow.

The biggest reason that Stone's IPA falls here over the dozens of good IPAs I had this year, and the reason I prefer it to the Ruination IPA, is its drinkability. It doesn't overwhelm you, isn't difficult to choke down and is enjoyable from the first sip to the last drip. On that March tasting I said I "could drink one after another all night," and I thoroughly believe I could.

21st Amendment

What better night than a freezing Wednesday to try two of the newer beers to the Minnesota scene, 21st Amendment's Brew Free! or Die IPA and Monk's Blood. I have to force myself to type as I drink them, because my journal notes aren't thorough enough for a full post, and though I've had plenty of beers recently, I can't put together a coherent paragraph weeks after the sampling. So, for these reviews, I'll write what I think as I taste, and we'll see how that looks. I'll start with the IPA.

21st Amendment Brew Free! or Die IPA

Brewery: 21st Amendment, San Francisco, California (Contract brewed at Cold Spring Brewery in Cold Spring, Minnesota)

Style: India Pale Ale

ABV: 7.2%

Rating: 3.5 stars

The look: Classic cloudy melon IPA color. Almost like a glass of orange jello that's been dirtied up. Not much light gets through. Fair amount of head that dissipates soon after pouring. Good lace left on the glass, and yes, you should pour it into a glass.

The smell: Again, classic IPA smell. Big aromatic hops; citrusy and grapefruit. There's something here though that I can't quite pinpoint, and it's a detractor. Almost like rotten fruit. Let's hope it doesn't carry over to the taste.

The taste: Maybe if I could get that smell out of my brain, it wouldn't transfer to the taste. But it does. I even poured it into a different pint glass to make sure it wasn't the glass. It instantly latches onto my tongue, but luckily, doesn't hang around for much longer. Just tried a swig while plugging my nose. A little better. I will admit: this is the last beer from the six pack and the first where I've really noticed this off-putting aroma. I think I'll brush it off as an anomaly. Let's focus on the other flavors.

It's balanced. Bitter, but not the bitterest. Sweet, but not the sweetest. Floral, but not the floral...est. It definitely has a sturdy backbone that a 7.2% beer must, but it's the bitter bite that is the lasting flavor.

The mouthfeel: Fairly delicate for a beer of this content. Runs smoothly through the throat. There isn't much carbonation, so it's a little more flat and less sparkling than many beer drinkers might be used to. Overall, it's a pleasant visitor to the mouth.

The drinkability: If it weren't for the rotten fruit factor, I'd say high. It drinks fast and leaves a good lasting impression. However, we can't ignore the most prominent characteristic, and I think a rotten taste would discourage me quite considerably.

I liked the first four I had more than I liked the one I so closely scrutinized. Therefore, I can't pan it. I also know that it's a well-respected beer and of the reviews I read after writing mine, none mentioned a similar peculiarity. The one feeling many reviewers had was a hesitancy to expect a decent beer from a can. This is absurd. One of our favorite midwest breweries (easily the best in Minnesota), Surly, packages its beers in cans, and many breweries have gone to cans in recent years: Oskar Blues and SKA come to mind. Don't be afraid to love a beer from a can.

21st Amendment Monk's Blood

Brewery: 21st Amendment, San Francisco, California (contract brewed again)

Style: Belgian Dark Ale

ABV: 8.3%

Rating: 4.5 stars

First things first: a KILLER can. Although it's incredibly difficult to read the inscription (it circles the can in a small medieval font), it looks cool, and the monk's haircuts are spectacular. Let's crack this baby open.

Here's the description given: a Belgian-style dark ale brewed with cinnamon, vanilla oak chips and dried figs. We'll get to the smell and taste in a bit, but first the appearance. The color is outstanding; it pours a deep purple and a full tulip glass maintains the purple, but looks pretty black next to the can. It's not a thick stout black, though. It looks more like a soda, with visible carbonation and a silky swirlability. Little head and virtually no lacing.

The figs are the first and strongest smell. At first sniff, I wondered if I could distinguish it from a fruit beer, but upon further sniffings, the vanilla and the oak worked their way through. The figs are prominent, but they are subdued by the other elements.

From the first taste, I'm pretty sure I'll like this more than the IPA. It's so silky, and the figs are delicious. The vanilla and cinnamon give it a sweet creamy texture and the Belgian yeast is evident, but not overpowering. It's warm, pleasant and so drinkable. This does not drink like a beer of its substance. Even more than the slippery IPA, Monk's Blood slides down the throat effortlessly.

This is the first release in the brewery's Insurrection Series (aren't all breweries doing limited edition series right now?). It most certainly won't be around for long. Do yourself a favor, go to your nearest bestest liquor store, drop ten bucks, and be a happy drinker.

So what have I been drinking?

How about some November nuggets. Every time I post, I make a vow to become more consistent, and this time I really mean it. I've had lots of good stuff recently, from tasty porters and stouts to hop heavy fresh-hopped IPAs. November's been good to me, and here are some of the reasons why:

Michigan Stouts. In a three-day span I tackled New Holland The Poet, Dark Horse Tres Blueberry Stout and Bells Kalamazoo Stout. First time for each. Surprisingly, the blueberry stout took the honors for me. Surprising, perhaps, because anytime a fruit is mentioned in a beer's name, flags fly up the pole. I've had a lot of good fruit-infused beers in my time, but I can't help but conjure the horrifying thoughts that accompany Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat anytime I see a fruit on a beer label.

Subtlety is the key with Tres. And the fact that blueberry pairs very well with those rich stout flavors. The blueberry is quite present in the beer's smell, peeking out behind the malted wall of oats. The flavor is truer to a traditional oatmeal stout, with the blueberry shining on the back end of each swallow. Not overpowering, and a wonderful choice for a one-beer night.

The Poet gave me that classic silky oatmeal stout texture that goes down well on a chilly fall evening. You'd be doing these beers if you tried them in summer; the circumstances under which a beer is sampled factor largely into its reception. In this case, I picked the perfect night for the Poet. Well balanced sweetness to accompany the oats, with just enough bubble to keep the mouth lively.

The Kalamazoo Stout entered the unintentional derby as the favorite, and while it certainly didn't disappoint, it didn't pay out as its odds suggested. If this were a boxing title match, the pundits would be telling you none of these beers deserved to lose. What I liked about Kalamazoo: it's only 6% ABV, which is low by today's stout standards, so the complexity of flavors takes over. With the booze factor out of the way, you get a heavy dose of licorice and a nice vanilla sweetness. It has a very long, roasted linger that lets you keep tasting each sip long after it's gone. I also liked the earthy quality it possessed. Very different than the imperial stouts I've been trying, and part of me thinks I wasn't ready for that distinction. I'd like to have another.

What else excited me? Local upstart breweries, as in Fulton. Gives all of us homebrewers hope, doesn't it, that a couple garage brewers can make their way onto the tap list at the Muddy Pig. their debut, Sweet Child of Vine IPA, was a pleasant surprise. And a telling title: this IPA was especially viney--lots of garden fresh hops present. I swear I tasted basil, and strong. There are only five reviews thus far on this guy, and I seem to be the only one detecting that. I'm either getting better at flavor identification, or I'm still way off. Or I don't care. I like the cloudiness, and the hops struck me as a citrus/pine hybrid. Burps like a pale ale. In case you were wondering. All in all, a very nice debut. Next post: The Brewmasters Series/Single Batch/Unleashed/Unchained/Limited Release fad. Hits and misses.

Colorado: Day 3, Part 2

Lost a little steam last night and couldn't finish day 3, which, incidentally, is sort of how day 3 itself felt.

After the Avery excursion, I still had enough juice to cram in a stop at Boulder Beer, but was apprehensive, knowing that the product probably wouldn't match. Maybe I set myself up from the start, but despite its grander exterior, larger tap room and more global following, Boulder Beer is no Avery.

Nine samples for $11. Not bad. Of the nine, I'd had only two (the Singletrack Copper Ale and the Buffalo Gold Ale, both average), so this was a quick way for me to add seven new beers to my index. And of those seven, only two again were above average. A very disappointing collection. So disappointing that it was all I could do to muster some bullet-pointed, four-word reviews of each. In the order that I drank them and with the words used and ratings given at the time:



Pass Time Pale Ale: "Graham cracker? Sweet, but not good. Whatever. 2.5"


Sundance Amber: "Nothing to say. 2.5"


Sweaty Betty: "Frozen pea aftertaste. Banana is there. 2"


Hazed and Infused: "38 IBUs for dry hopped? So subtle. 3.5"


Planet Porter: "Yes coffee. Nothing else. No depth. 2.5"


Mojo IPA: "Tangy orange tangerine. 4"


Cask Planet Porter: "Bigger head. Flatter. Warmer. Less flavor. 2"




So there you have it. Boulder Beer may as well rename itself Boulder Below Average Beer. I'd like to get a bottle of each of these and systematically refute the brewery-given descriptions of each. Ugh.


Maybe I'm giving Boulder Beer a hard time. They were one of the first microbreweries and obviously have had tons of success. The Mojo was delish. They've probably had other specialty beers throughout the years that are worthwhile. I just haven't had any of them. Have and of you?


One final stop for the night at the Mountain Sun Pub and Brewery for dinner and what turned out to be just one half pint of suds. I was stuffed with beer, a bit worn out from the heat and ready for a nap. There were plenty of options to choose from, and I took a stab and went with the nitro tap Illusion Dweller IPA. The results were not what I had in mind. This was not an American IPA, and there was not literature telling me so. Had the sweetness of a British IPA and was flat as could be. There was a certain amount of dry bitterness, but it couldn't offset the sweet flatness. A disappointment and not how I wanted to remember a well-reviewed brewpub.


With that said, the staff was incredible and accommodating, we were greeted with a free appetizer, and though the service and speed were fine, the manager knocked a third of our bill off because of some minor, everyday mishaps. I would go there again if I found myself back in Boulder. And do a little research beforehand.


After three days:
28 new beers (16 samples, 6 bottles, 3 pints, 2 cans, 1 half pint)
Best beer: Avery Hog Heaven Barleywine
Worst beer: Left Hand Polestar Pilsner

Colorado: Day 3, Part 1

Brewery day, with both Avery and Boulder getting a visit. For those who want to glamorize breweries, Avery is a reality check. Located well off the beaten path in an industrial park on the outskirts of Boulder, the brewery would be difficult to distinguish from any other mid-size factory. The tap room was basically a garage.

Luckily, the beers aren't as generic. At $1 a sample, it's also realistic to imagine trying each of the dozen or so beers they happen to have on tap that afternoon. I tried six, plus a pint.

My mini reviews:

White Rascal: A Belgian White or witbier. Hazy lemonade, a very light color for a craft beer. One word to describe: EASY. This baby flows smoothly. Not over-spiced or packed with intense flavor, which was refreshing for this style. One of my favorite wheats I've had this summer.

14'er ESB: Hooked on the first sip. Dirty malt smell, with that English bitter hook. Tremendous lingering metallic hop flavor. A pungent punch after the light Rascal.

Hog Heaven Barleywine: 104 IBUs? Quite hoppy for a barleywine, and it's evident from the start, because it is also dry-hopped. Earthy vegetable tasted, and much more bitter, as you may have guessed, than a traditional sweet barleywine. The hops snuff out the sweetness and you get a quite potent, almost imperial IPA aftertaste. Without the syrup. Here's an interesting side note: I didn't recall that I'd had this beer before, and was giving it the keen attention as if I hadn't. I ended up giving it 4.5 stars at the brewery, making it the highest-rated beer of the first three days. I loved it. When I got home, though, I checked my records (I also wasn't sure if I'd had the IPA) and found that I gave the Hog Heaven a lukewarm review when I first had it in March.

So do I scribe another review in the journal? Treat it as new? Disregard my clearly off first opinion? I'd rather not go down that road. Once a beer is reviewed, it's official. However, it's obviously fine to change your opinions of a beer without changing the initial review. It's quite common to see revised reviews on both beer rating websites. I'd simply rather not have two entries for one beer on opposite pages in the same journal. A potential solution: an entirely separate journal with new reviews of previously sampled beer. It would be interesting, I think, to see how my taste buds and preferences change over time. I could do this by comparing beers of similar styles from year to year, as well, but I think i may give this idea a try. A sort of second chance journal. Back to the beers.

Fourteen: Avery's 14th anniversary American Strong Ale. Replacing the recently-cashed sixteen on tap. Chocolate malt sweetness, and am I picking up a tiny mint smell? Tastes of figs and cocoa. A pint of this would knock me out. Quite good.

IPA: Fairly subtle and straightforward. I took note of the particularly strong lacing this one left on the glass. Centennial hops come through, but not as favorably as say, Founders IPA. Not the best IPA I've had, but still a nice beer.

Dry-hopped IPA: A special tap room only offering. Much cloudier than the regular IPA, and much more pungent. Smells exactly like clover. Like a weedy garden. One of the most unique smells I've found. The weeds provide for a pretty strong aftertaste as well. Really bitter finish. Not really much better than the regular, which surprised me a bit.

The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest: Tapped for the first time this year while we were there, which is fun. Not a lot of liveliness here--very low carbonation. Sweet, malty smell, with a really creamy mouthfeel. Strong aftertaste of Euro hops. Has a very strange sweetness as well, almost grape. Unusual beer. I think a pint of it may be too much for me.

No duds at Avery, that's for sure, and several interesting options worthy of conversation. I passed on the Maharajah, a beer that I've had several times and love, and wasn't really interested in the brown or the porter. All in all, I was happy with the samples I tried, and would have stayed for more had I not felt it necessary to leave room for the imminent stop at Boulder Beer.

Colorado: Day 1

I'd love to tell you I didn't spend 20 minutes trying to think up a more creative title than that, but I don't want to lie. When did title-writing become so difficult? Maybe the better question is when did I start caring? Nobody needs fake chuckles at lame play-on-words headlines. Besides, it's not like any of my readers have a post with a similar title...

The goals of this trip (beyond the obvious family bonding, outdoor adventures, yada yada yada):

1. Visit any number of the numerous--and there are tons--breweries, brewpubs, saloons, gastro pubs, beer bars and watering holes in the central Colorado area.
2. Purchase, consume, ponder and review a wide selection of beers unavailable in Minnesota.
3. Leave with taste buds intact and functioning.
4. Don't alienate and/or piss off family.
5. Don't be 'that guy.'

That's sort of a prerequisite goal of any trip, outing, situation. Has being 'that guy' ever been a good thing? Unfortunately, I believe I became 'that guy,' drunkenly chucking bean bags across the cabin deck by myself well into the morning hours.

Day One.

Missed the 7:15 am flight to Denver. Several reasons. Incredible congestion at airport. One security person funneling all passengers to one bag-checking metal-detecting line. Random bag-check selection. Most remote departure gate. Whatever the reason, the four of us somehow made it onto the next flight when twelve connecting passengers missed their connection. Arrive in Denver around 11 am. Bags, shuttle, rental car, and we're on our way to Boulder, and stop number one: Liquor Mart.

This is what I love about liquor stores, and exactly what I was getting at at the top of this post. Rarely does a liquor store have a creative name, and more often than not, the facade simply says "LIQUOR." They know it, we know it, everyone knows it--you need not say anything more. How many "Liquor Marts" or "Liquor Depots" or "Wine and Spirits" are there in the country? Sure, you could throw your name in front of 'Liquor,' but people are stopping all the same. Why bother?

Liquor Mart was the stop because I read they had the best selection of singles in the area. I was surprised in general at the lack of favorable liquor store reviews in Colorado, specifically Denver. Luckily, Boulder was directly on the way to our destination, and I had a car full of booze-hungry fiends ready to splurge. I picked up a dozen or so single bottles and cans--yes! cans! (20% off mixed six packs!), mostly from mountain/west coast breweries I'd heard of but never tried. I just made my monthly exclamation point quota. Had to grab a Chupacabras Pale Ale from Mexico because I simply love the chupacabra. A label-saver if I've ever seen one.

Before leaving Boulder, we stopped for lunch at the Lazy Dog Sports Grill and Bar. Maybe wouldn't have been our top choice but we were famished and already feeling the one hour time difference. I tried the Lazy Dog Amber, which I later learned was an in-house brew contracted by Firestone Walker Brewing Company in Paso Robles, California. Oh well. It was decent, but really fell off toward the last third of the pint. Ambers are difficult for me. This one was pretty nutty, biscuity (don't like using that word. feels awkward) and had an aftertaste akin to a handful of dirt. My last two comments: "Gets worser and worser. Skunky." Decent may have been overstating it I guess.

Stomachs and trunk filled, we meandered toward the Estes Park area and location of Luther Lodge. Where, it turns out, bloody marys were being served, with Left Hand's Polestar Pilsner as chaser. I believe that was the role this beer was meant to play. I'm not one for pilsners to begin with, but this one was "like gnawing on a sock." Not even worthy of my traditional complaint about lackluster pilsners tasting like grass. No matter, the bloody was putting me in the right place.

Next up was Great Divide's Denver Pale Ale, a malty English pale ale with a bit of a metallic hop finish. I like these beers, but this one wasn't my favorite. Next. A can! I like cans, and I enjoyed canned beers from three different Colorado breweries on the trip. This one, SKA Modus Hoperandi, was my favorite beer of the night. Nice grapefruit hop smell as soon as you crack it. One of the reasons I love cans. You can't crack a bottle like you can a can. That sizzle snap followed by bursting scents is pure and untouchable. This was one of those beers I could tell I was going to love just by its color and how it rolled in the glass. Nice creamy texture; not too thin, and definitely not syrupy, but with enough flavor to satisfy. Terrific pine bitter finish as well.

My final beer of day one was the Alaskan Summer Ale, a kolsch. Again with the styles I don't terribly enjoy. On the night's spectrum, this one fell somewhere in between the Lazy Dog and the DPA. Not skunky, for sure, but not a lot to keep me coming back to the glass. Had a ciderish quality to it, like a sweet, flat British tap cider. I'm not sure the words sweet and flat could be used to describe anything in a pleasant way. Maybe a frosting-slathered graham cracker. Day one in the books.

Hitachino Nest Japanese Classic Ale

Brewery: Kiuchi Brewery, Ibaraki, Japan

Style: English IPA

ABV: 7.5%

Rating: 4 stars

80 degrees. Sun. Work done. Aromatic dinner cooking. Wife addressing neglected cleaning.

It'd be hard to get a bum rating tonight. And this one's even been aged in cedar casks...OOH!! D0 they decide to put statements like that on the label thinking the average (or above average) beer drinker will pick up on the cedar aging? I find it hard to detect, but let's find out if I can.

Nice cloudiness to the appearance--like an orange kickball that's been dirtied up for a summer. Strong, persistent head and lacing. Has the looks of a serious, sturdy brew.

Ok. The cedar is apparent in the smell. I would never have pegged it had they not blatantly labeled it so, but they win this battle I guess. There's a richness to the aroma as well; a roundness of yeast, malt and hops that says 'I ain't no Asahi, baby!'

Man, this beer is spicy. First thoughts upon tasting. Not clove or coriander, closer almost to pepper actually. Guess what else is there. Wood. My guess: cedar. Let's offshoot. If wood makes food taste better (planked salmon, etc.) and adds flavor to beer, what else could it improve? Honestly, how often have you been doing something and thought, "you know, a little wood would really set this off." Are we sure this beer's only 7%? I feel like it's taking me farther.

I'm often too cheap to buy more than one of a beer, especially in this case, where at four bucks a pop I wanted to sample as many as I could, but I wish I'd have gotten two of these. Twelve ounces goes by so fast. I wrote that having finished eleven of the twelve, but the twelfth ounce was by far the most intense. Seemingly half of the cedar spice settled at the bottom, and if all of the beer tasted like the last swig, I'd have a lesser opinion. A bitter bludgeon of sting.

With that said, I still enjoyed this immensely, and give it above average marks on both mouthfeel and drinkability on top of the points for uniqueness and its ability to send me into a state where I might use the phrase "planked salmon."

The Best of Late

Been watching too much basketball lately to dedicate time to post. This doesn't mean I've slacked on the consumption. My stash is dwindling, though, and I want to make it last as long as I can, so I've been leaning toward the wines and the liquors more as of late. With that said, I've had some great beers recently, including a well-respected beer that didn't disappoint. Here's a
mini rundown of the best stuff I've had recently.


New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red

Brewery: New Glarus, New Glarus, Wisconsin

Style: Fruit Beer

ABV: 5.1%

Rating: 5 Stars


One of the best beers in the Midwest, and certainly the best fruit beer available. I imagined it would be akin to a Belgian kriek-like cherry bomb. Quite wrong I was. New Glarus uses one pound of Wisconsin cherries for each bottle (not your 12 oz. sixer bottle, mind you) and it's evident in the pungent aroma.

I was slightly worried when I realized this wasn't going to be as tart as the sour beers, because I typically loathe cherry-flavored things. In fact, the Sam Adams Cherry Wheat was one of my least favorite beers I tried in 2008. But this cherry was different. It had immense sweetness, but not like a Popsicle or sucker. It was sweet like the gooey inside-the-pie cherries, a real richness that couldn't be faked by synthetic flavoring. There was enough tartness to keep the sweetness at bay, though, and the late sparkle scraped my mouth so that I was ready for another sip.

Kristie and I enjoyed this one together, and it's exciting to me that I now have a better grip on the types of beers she might enjoy. I wish they didn't cost $10 a bottle, but it's exponentially better to enjoy a beer with company.

This beer (and the myriad of other New Glarus crafts) are well worth the 45-minute drive to Wisconsin, and I plan on making semi-regular trips from here on out.


New Glarus Crack'd Wheat

Brewery: New Glarus, New Glarus, Wisconsin

Style: American Pale Wheat Ale

ABV: 5.95%

Rating: 4 Stars


Prior to my whimsical February jaunt to Hudson, I'd had only one New Glarus beer--the infamous Spotted Cow. Thought it was below average and not worthy of the hype I'd heard from my Madison brethren. I had no idea they had as expansive a line of reign-free beers as they do. This one sounded interesting, and both employees said they'd had it and were pleasantly surprised.

It's an interesting idea. It is, basically, a wheat beer. But it's also dry-hopped with amarillo hops. To dry-hop a beer means to introduce hops after the fermentation has begun. It's a way to give the beer an extra hop kick and bring out the characteristics of the specific hops used. It's a pretty common tactic, but this is the first I'd heard about a wheat beer being dry-hopped. Though gimmicky, the idea sounded quite interesting to me, especially because wheat beers generally all get lumped into the same clovey/spicy/orange-peely heap for me.

It tastes exactly how you would imagine. The smell is all spicy wheat, and wheat is obviously the base of the beer. But the amarillo hops kick in toward the middle of each gulp and leave the beer's lasting impression. The beer is bottle-conditioned, another common brewing practice meaning the beer finishes the fermentation process in the bottle. Always a plus, and it usually guarantees a large frothy head, which I happen to enjoy.

Potentially the perfect summer beer, though later tonight I plan to enjoy their Berliner Weiss, which I've heard is phenomenal. Light as a wheat with the bold hops of a pale ale. I foresee many more of these come July.

Stone IPA

Brewery: Stone, Escondido, California

Style: India Pale Ale

ABV: 6.9%

Rating: 4.5 Stars




It's all basically been said about IPAs. We love the citrus, love the dryness, love the hops, love the mouthfeel. This is no different, and it's an excellent representation of the style. I know I've had it in the past, before my tastes were honed, so I wasn't surprised to like it again. Had to go to Wisconsin to get it, which makes no sense to me.

Tuesday Night Hop Battle

Drank not a drop Sunday or Monday. In this economy, as is the catch phrase, a two-day hiatus deserves a reward. Since I'm a hop guy, I decided to try a couple of the hoppier options in my collection.

First, the Lagunitas Hop Stoopid. Lagunitas, as of a year ago, was fairly limited in Minnesota. Or maybe I just wasn't noticing them. Recently, however, their brews have been popping up everywhere. I liked the IPA, was lukewarm on the Brown Shugga, and could not handle the Maximus IPA.

The Hop Stoopid was the best of the bunch so far. The aroma represented everything I love about juicy hopped-up beers. The pungent citrus, in this case grapefruit and a strong passion fruit presence, gets me revved up to swig. I really took a deep sniff at this one, because I knew I grabbed something specific (the passion fruit), but it took me a while to realize exactly which of the 'fruit cocktail' canned fruits it was. For once, I knew I had a smell nailed, and it comes from 2.5 years at a preschool. Good-sized head on this one, with the lacing disappearing more than some. Looks like orange jello, which again, I can attribute to preschool experience.

The taste was exceptional. Big and sturdy on the front end, with the citrus holding sway. The key, though, was the back, when everything felt like it was being sucked out of your mouth and down the hatch via the bitterness. My mouth was full one second and dry, sticky and empty the next. I love that in a beer. Give me some boom right away, take it away and leave me wanting more at the end of every sip. This beer is sharp like a nasty cheddar cheese.

As the glass emptied, I felt a bit more metal in every taste, but I think that had more to do with the compounding bitterness than the deterioration of the beer. Overall, this was one of the more satisfying beers I've had this year. I'd put it at the top of the hops, at least.

Next, Founders Centennial IPA. This much-heralded brewery does not sell its beers in Minnesota, and I am ashamed that it took me this long to cross the border into Wisconsin to buy some. Oh, the places you'll go! (Dr. Seuss' birthday yesterday).

Nearly all Founders brews come highly recommended, and Centennial is no different. To be fair to the Hop Stoopid, I should have opened the Founders Double Trouble, but I wasn't sure I could handle another double IPA. Unfortunately, the Centennial IPA couldn't match Hop Stoopid's power.

Lately I've been tasting a lot of what I can describe no better than dust. It tasted dusty. Maybe that means the flavors weren't as clear or crisp as I'd like. Maybe that means the mouthfeel was a little fuller and stretched farther into the buds than most. Or maybe it means that I got a peculiar amount of mothballs in the flavor. I swear I tasted mothballs.

Don't misconstrue those words. Mothballs, yes, but the flavor was still good.

Still. I'm finishing the glass as I write, and the dust factor overpowers everything else. I wish I could express it better. I guess I'll have to head east again, but a couple more bottles, and try them next to a more favorable competitor. In fairness, it probably would have stacked up well next to the Lagunitas Maximus, and maybe even the Lagunitas IPA. It just couldn't hang tonight.

Victory Battle: HopDevil vs. Hop Wallop

HopDevil

vs.
Hop Wallop

Two of my first beers of 2009 happened to be two hopped-up offerings from Downington, Pennsylvania's Victory Brewing Company. I decided to pit the two against each other without prejudging them based on any of the beer ratings websites. I'll attack the competition from the various components of beer rating, and in the interest of space I'll refer to them as 'Devil' and 'Wallop.' The 'Hop' seems a bit redundant.

Appearance: Devil comes out quite cloudy, darker than orange but not quite to the candy cherry level. Let's call it light ruby. I tend to use ruby as a beer color quite a bit. Wallop is much more golden, while still cloudy. The color spectrum runs from pure gold at the bottom to a sort of amberish-melon at the top. Wallop definitely has the larger head of the two, but neither stick around for long. Edge: Wallop.

Smell: Devil reeks of floral hops, as you can imagine. It's much the same as many IPAs out there, and although I don't want to bulk them all together, this isn't an aroma I haven't smelled before. Wallop gives me a little more complexity. Yes, those monster hops are instantly present, but there's a sweet side to this one, maybe honey, that I didn't detect in the Devil. With that said, if my nose could subconsciously gravitate toward one smell, I bet it'd pick over-the-top hops. Edge: Devil.

Taste: Well. I must say off the bat that neither of these would rank among my top ten hopfuls, and that is disappointing. Devil's flavor actually made me raise my eyebrows a bit. It was, without exaggeration, like eating a fresh hop right off the plant. I didn't get any citrus, no sweetness, and not much depth. A potent kick to the taste buds. Wallop wasn't as blatant, and had much better balance. It's crispier and brighter at the start, but slows down to a smooth butter. And the hops are bold enough. Plus, there's a bit more alcohol in this one. Edge: Wallop.

Mouthfeel: I like Devil here. It has a huge pine finish and leaves the palate quite dry, which I love. Wallop is dry as well, but it's much more smooth going down than it is clingy. Edge: Devil.

Drinkability: As I said earlier, you won't find either of these on my best of '09 list (already thinking about it). Therefore, I wouldn't seek either out at my local beer store in favor of a different staple. Wallop is a seasonal, but Devil is available all year. They're both drinkable. They're both decent. I guess I just like Wallop a bit more. Edge: Wallop.

Final tally: Hop Wallop 3, HopDevil 2. It's really not that close for me. The difference in taste is enough to sway the whole argument.

Beers of the Year: 3. Surly Furious

Brewery: Surly, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota

Style: India Pale Ale

ABV: 6%

Rating: 5 stars



Hard to knock anything about this beer. This one really put Surly on the map a couple years back, when it was hard to find. Now that it's available at most decent liquor stores and on tap in many bars, I feel like sometimes I take for granted just how good it is.

The color, for one, is unsurpassed. A delicious deep amber; close to red but with that rusty orange shine that almost certainly means good things are to come. Really nice head, and one that clings and stays as the glass empties. And of course, it has that Surly dry-hopped smell.

The brewers say that the key to this beer is the Golden Promise malt, a delicately cared-for barley from Scotland that gives this beer such intense hops. I guess I can't disagree there. The hops come from somewhere anyway.

Furious has the perfect blend of bright citrus burst, dry sticky mouthfeel and bitter pine swallow. There isn't any residual spoon left behind here. It's smooth. This in fact may be my favorite beer, but its availability taints its brilliance just slightly. For the price, though, it can't be beat. If I was dropped in a store with all the beer in the world and told I could spend my last $10 on any one six-pack (or four-pack in this case), I would immediately go for Surly Furious.

Beers of the Year: 7. Tyranena Scurvy IPA

Brewery: Tyranena, Lake Mills, Wisconsin

Style: India Pale Ale

ABV: 6.5%

Rating: 4.5 stars


Tyranena made a strong second-half push to be in the running for Brewery of the Year, and this beer was the flagship. It has all the best characteristics of a juicy IPA--hops up front, bitter pines in the back, but the separation is in the middle. Scurvy IPA is loaded with orange flavor, thanks to the orange peels introduced in the brewing process.

I'm usually not too hard to please when it comes to IPAs, so this ranking reflects that in a way, but Tyranena deserved to be rewarded for the half-dozen excellent brews they put out this year. The Scurvy was part of their Brewers Gone Wild! series, one that produced some of the most potent beers of the season. No surprise, the IPA was my favorite.

It has since disappeared from shelves, so get your hands on this one if you see it. Otherwise, wait 'til next summer and buy a four-pack of this, and every other Brewers Gone Wild! offering.

Sierra Nevada Wet Hop Harvest Ale

Brewery: Sierra Nevada, Chico, California

Style: American IPA

ABV: 6.7%

Rating: 3 stars


A wet hop, or fresh hop, beer, is one made with hops that are never dried. They go straight from the plant to the pot in their fresh form. It's like getting a fresh, never frozen burger from Wendy's. Or maybe, in Sierra Nevada's case, like getting one from an In-N-Out Burger. A Wendy's fresh beef burger might be more like a Budweiser wet hop ale.

Well, the fresh hops come through. This batch of Harvest Ale is Sierra Nevada's 12th run, and they know what they're doing. The hops are big and sticky up front, with a delightful pine-ness. However, the back end of the swallow wasn't quite as pleasant. The piney flavors turn a bit brown, and the heavy end isn't what I was expecting. So this is an IPA with a backbone, they say. With some substance. Well I guess I like it beter without the substance. Just give me the wet hops.