45. Boulder Beer Flashback 30th Anniversary Ale

Flashback 30th Anniversary Ale is from Boulder Beer Company in Boulder, CO. Boulder Beer has been making good beer for a while (hence the 30th anniversary)—they’re one of the reasons that Colorado brewing kicks so much ass. After all, if you’ve got them as a basic model for what a brewery is supposed to produce, it sets a pretty high initial bar. Yet another reason why I wish I lived in Colorado.

Flashback smells malty and hoppy, with some floral notes. The sweetness does increase in the nose as the beer warms, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Flashback is a rich brown color—as Elli observes, it looks “like a nice Irish setter”—and a light tan head. It starts with a warm smooth sweet malt flavor, and moves into roasted and sweet caramel flavors with some biscuit malt mixed with light dry chocolate flavors along with hop bitterness and floral hop flavors. The end is dry and roasted, with some dark malt and burnt flavors creeping in, and some lingering bitterness. Mouthfeel is creamy and smooth with some nice bite from the carbonation. Flashback is an interesting and complex beer—the mix between IPA and brown brings together hops and a more complex malt profile—but neither of us are big fans of brown ales. This could be a possible Top 10 Best contender, but the brown ale body is not in enough balance with the hop load, even if we considered this as heading in the American Brown direction. The flatter, dryer malt profile mixed with the floral Cascade hop load is interesting, but lacking some overall coherence.

From Boulder Beer’s website: “Flashback Anniversary Ale: An India Brown Ale. Citrusy with a prominet hop aroma, finishes clean, crisp and dry with dark roasted flavors from the biscuit and chocolate malts perfectly complementing the bountiful Cascades.”

ABV: 6.88%

Grains: Belgian Biscuit malt, Chocolate malt, Pale malt, Gambrinus Honey malt

Hops: Cascade, Cascade, Cascade, Cascade, and Cascade (five hop additions)

(8/14/2009)

44. Nuova Mattina

Described as a “New Morning Ale brewed with spices (ginger, coriander, green pepper, and chamomile)” on the bottle, Nuova Mattina is from Birrificio del Ducato in Roncole Verdidi Busseto, Italy.

Nuova Mattina has a floral, zesty bouquet with notes of coriander and chamomile. The soft, cloudy burnished gold color works well with the white head and small bubbles. It has a soft malty beginning and then a spicy middle—both spicy and peppery—before finishing dry, with a slightly lingering bitterness and an underlying flavor of chamomile. Nuova Mattina is dry and sharp on the palate; the spiciness comes from yeast and ester flavors, as well as the spices added to the beer. The carbonation is good but not obtrusive, and offers a nice bit of bite in the middle. Overall, a delicious and tasty beer—the saison characteristics coupled with an interesting spice profile create an enjoyable and very drinkable beer. This one is easily a Top 10 Best candidate for the year.

From the Birrificio del Ducato website: “Production of craft high quality beers needs time, are and passion, thus at the moment we cannot dedicate as we want to creation of our web site. If you want to tast our beers you can send us an e-mail, we will answer as soon as possible.”

ABV: 5.8%

Malts: Pale malt, unmalted & malted wheat malt, oats, rye malt

Hops: Hallertauer , Chinook

Spices/fruits/herbs: Coriander, ginger, green pepper, chamomile, licorice,

(8/13/2009)

43. Half Acre Baume Hopped Rye Stout

From the Half Acre Brewery in Chicago, IL comes Baume, a limited edition hopped rye stout brewed to commemorate their new brewery at 4257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. As the bottle informs us, it is a “handsomely hopped rye stout.”

Baume is an opaque mahogany—dark brown with hints of red—with the brown head normally indicative of stouts, and the nose is both burnt and roasty. Starting out with spicy rye flavors before moving into hop bitterness and roasted malt flavors, Baume ends with some lingering coffee and roasted malt flavors, as well as slight amounts of bitterness. While there is a full mouthfeel, the beer is only medium bodied—it tastes more like a dark lager or a black beer than it does a stout. As well, it is not as creamy or as heavy as one would expect from a stout. The rye spiciness is a nice touch, and the flavors are well-balanced and interesting, but it needs a bit more body and substance to make it a full-fledged stout. Nonetheless, an interesting and enjoyable beer.

From the Half Acre website: “Big, but not huge at 7%, this American Chocolate Rye Stout fires off a lot of coffee and chocolate notes. Balances well, but rides high on hop character at 60 IBU's while the Rye finishes it dry.”

ABV: 7.0%

IBU: 60

(8/12/2009)

42. Cantillon Classic Gueuze

Cantillon Classic Gueuze is from Brasserie Cantillon Brouwerij in Brussels, Belgium. Gueuze is a spontaneously fermented sour ale aged in oak barrels and blended for bottling—part older and part younger—to make gueuze. As Cantillon’s website observes: “In the 18th century, a Benedictine monk, dom Pérignon, discovers the champaign method by blending different non sparkling white wines. One century later, a Brabant brewer blends different lambics and brings about a spontaneous fermentation in the bottle. The Gueuze is born...Gueuze became the icon of the Brussels beers.”

Cantillon Classic Gueuze has a tart sour nose and a deep golden tan color. The head is pretty limited on this one; what was there was light and white and quickly faded. Beginning tart and citrusy with candy notes and fruity esters, Cantillon Classic Gueuze’s middle merges with the front and back to close with a citric tartness that lingers on the palate. The tart and sharp mouthfeel puckers the tongue nicely—it is bright and citrusy on the tongue—and the low level of carbonation still has some bite in the body. With some warmth, the candy notes in the nose become more tangy, and the sourness becomes more prevalent in the flavor and mouthfeel with less acidity and tartness and more sour puckering flavors. A bright, sharp, and citrusy beer overall, similar to but also discernable from other sour beers we’ve had—it’s no dirty bandaid.

From Cantillon’s website: “Every blending will produce a different Gueuze. Since we work according to a natural process, it is impossible to make a standard beer. This beer is not only unique because of its brewing process, but also because it can be conserved for a long time. When kept in a good cellar, a Cantillon Gueuze will still have an exceptional taste and flavour after 20 years.”

On Saturday, March 6, 2010, Cantillon will be holding a public brewing: “the Master brewer, his family and friends invite you to the great brewing fair and propose you to experience the various steps in the really traditional production of the Lambic and Gueuze.” As if I really needed an excuse to cut out and head to Belgium...

(8/11/2009)

41. Lagunitas El Chupalupalo Pale Ale

El Chupalupalo Pale Ale comes from the lovely brewers at Lagunitas Brewing Co. in Petaluma, CA (Say “LAH-GOO-KNEE-TUSS”). This beer was specially brewed for Sam’s Wines & Spirits; we picked it up during our last trip through Chicago. Sam’s has since been transformed into Binny’s. I hope El Chupalupalo doesn’t change its name, too. That would be downright tragic.

El Chupalupalo has a biscuity malt nose with a slight grass hop aroma, coupled with a hazy reddish golden retriever color and a thin white head. It begins with low levels of biscuit malt flavor with not much sweetness before moving into a refreshingly pleasant hoppy middle—a balance of both bitterness and hop flavor, particularly piney and grassy hints, round out the main body of the beer as it heads for the homestretch. El Chupalupalo finishes dry and nicely bitter. The smooth and perky mouthfeel works well with the medium carbonation bite; overall, a well-balanced and thoroughly drinkable beer. And the label’s awesome creature is cold-crushin’ that hop blossom in his mouth—look at him biting down and sucking on that hop blossom!—this label has Top 10 Best Label written all over it.

Unfortunately, there is nothing on the Lagunitas’ site about El Chupalupalo; the only information on it was on BeerAdvocate or RateBeer. In fact, I had to work to find out anything about it at all. That's just horrific—this label is far too awesome to squander in such a manner. For shame, Lagunitas...

ABV: 5.8%

(8/10/2009)

40. Lazy Boy IPA

Lazy Boy IPA is from Lazy Boy Brewing in Everett, WA. I’ll be up front—something was wrong with this particular beer. We’ve had Lazy Boy IPA before and enjoyed it very much, but something had gone terribly terribly wrong with this one either in the brewing or bottling process. I’m gonna guess it was the brewing process, via the flavors, but it would seem odd that the beer would then make it to the bottling stage. Who knows? All I know is that the problems indicated via taste would not be ones that would resolve themselves with age in the bottle (like acetaldehyde). But I digress.

Lazy Boy IPA begins with a hoppy nose: pine, resin, and spice dominated, and there was almost no malt aroma. In terms of color, it was a clear old penny copper with red hints, and a thin ivory head. From this point, however, things took a turn for the worst. The faint malt taste was quickly taken over by piney and resin hop flavors, which then began to move into astringent, phenolic, and solvent-like flavors that continued through the close of the beer. We initially thought the flavors were from over-hopping (although there was no real grassy flavor), but as the beer warmed the phenolic flavors became increasingly plastic and smoky, and a distinctive paint thinner or lacquer/acetone-like flavor emerged. The spiciness also began creating a harsh, burning sensation at the back of the tongue. Elli dumped hers out pretty early; I soldiered on trying to see if it would get better. It didn’t. It got worse, and I scarred my mouth with the taste. Although it pains me, this beer has to go down as the second Top 10 Worst candidate.

From the Lazy Boy website: “A Northwest style IPA utilizing locally grown hops with plenty of malt backbone to give a smooth and pleasant finish.”

ABV: 6.5%
Grains: Pale, Crystal, Munich
Hops: Chinook, Cascade, Amarillo
IBU: 75

(8/9/2009)

39. Victory WildDevil

WildDevil is from Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown, PA. WildDevil is an experiment with Victory’s HopDevil beer using Brettanomyces yeast instead of their normal yeast strain, making a much more distinctly Belgian beer out of HopDevil.

WildDevil was a bit over-carbonated to start—it overflowed the bottle when we first opened it, and filled a good portion of the glass with foam during the initial pour, reminding me of some of my own carbonation issues with home brewing. But then, that’s the joys of using Brettanomyces—it wants to and will eventually eat pretty much everything it can. WildDevil begins with a hard candy malt nose mixed with slight bubblegum notes and a hop finish. It is a cloudy soft copper color with, as noted, a large off-white lacy head. Starting with a spicy candy sweetness in the front, WildDevil moves into bitterness mixed with pine and citrus notes as the beer rounds out, closing with a lingering sourness typical of Brettanomyces beers. As is typical with Belgian style beers, WildDevil has a sharp but well-rounded mouthfeel. There was also some warmth in the mouthfeel that had nothing to do with alcohol or temperature, both from ester flavors and via the carbonation bite. Overall, an interesting variation, but not as exotic as we had been led to expect—the reports we heard from others vastly over-exaggerated the sourness of this beer. While we appreciate the experiment, we’re not really sure it is an improvement over the original.

From Victory’s website: “Bold, spicy, menacingly delicious HopDevil takes on an entirely new dimension when subjected to a ‘wild’ yeast fermentation. A sharp, tart edge has been added by this fermentation that plays into the caramel sweet malt deliciously and creates complex interplay with the citrus accented hops.”

Someone appears bored with beer

ABV: 6.8%
Malts: Imported, 2 row German malts
Hops: Whole flower American hops
Yeast: 100% laboratory grown Brettanomyces

(8/8/2009)