350. Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest 2010

More Sierra Nevada and, amazingly, another fresh hop beer (and also one that has not been sitting around too long). Just when we thought there wasn’t another one to be had at this time of the year, Sierra Nevada makes use of our other hemisphere. Brilliant. This marks our eighth beer from Chico; our run down includes Bigfoot, 30th Anniversary Fritz and Ken’s Ale, Kellerweis, Celebration, Torpedo Extra IPA, Anniversary Ale 2009 and Harvest Wet Hop Ale 2008.

Southern Hemisphere Harvest is a copper color with a creamy ivory head that profusely laces the glass. The nose has a spicy hop aroma and a generic malt smell—nothing particularly distinctive. The flavor starts slightly toasty and bready with a bit of caramel in the front; the middle doesn’t have much in the way of distinctive hop flavor, although there is a good amount of spiciness and bitterness—there might be a small bit of pine flavor buried under everything else, but nothing readily apparent. Some of the breadiness comes back in the finish, and the spicy bitterness continues on from the middle, lingering lightly on the back of the tongue. Southern Hemisphere Harvest has a medium body with a medium carbonation, although it is a bit soft on the mouth. There is some hop tang on the back of the tongue, and a bit of grassiness/herbalness in the mouthfeel. A very well balanced beer—while not super distinct, it is interesting and enjoyable.

From the bottle: “Each fall, hops reach their peak flavor, bursting with aromatic oils that give ales layers of complex flavors that can only happen at harvest time. For us, fall comes twice a year—once in each hemisphere. This Harvest Ale features hops from New Zealand—where fall occurs during our spring. These fresh whole cones are picked, dried, and shipped to the brewery within days of the harvest.”

From the Sierra Nevada website: “Our newest addition to our Harvest family is Southern Hemisphere Harvest. This is the first time we know of that an American brewer has put out a beer with fresh-picked hops from the southern hemisphere. The inaugural ale will debut in late April and will feature fresh Pacific Hallertau, New Zealand Motueka and New Zealand Southern Cross hops, all from New Zealand. Like our Celebration Ale, the fresh hops in this beer are dried right after being picked then shipped immediately to Chico for brewing so that they retain their peak aromatics and flavors. To ensure the freshest hops possible, we went to the added expense of flying these hops from New Zealand to Chico so we could brew with them the week after they were picked.”

ABV: 6.7%
OG: 14.7° P

FG: 3.9° P

IBU: 66

Malts: Pale & Caramel

Bittering Hops: Pacific Hallertau

Finishing Hops: New Zealand Motueka & New Zealand Southern Cross

(6/15/10)

349. Victory Yakima Twilight

This makes lucky number six from Victory, including Saison du Buff, the collabo with Stone and Dogfish Head, plus Prima Pils, Baltic Thunder, HopDevil, and WildDevil. We found this down at Jungle Jim’s—if you haven’t been, well then, my friend, you ain’t livin’.

Yakima Twilight emerges from the bottle a hazy burnt sienna—it is a nice mix of brown, red, and orange, and there are red highlights that end up on the table when the light hits it right. The head is tan and creamy, although after a couple of minutes it is reduced to a ring around the edge of the glass. With a creamy aroma couple with caramel, brown malt, hints of chocolate and lightly roasted tangs, Yakima Twilight utilizes darker malts to build the nose. Flavors begin sweet and fruity before moving into a rich darker biscuit malt flavor mixed with chocolate, malt roastiness, and darker fruits in the middle; the finish is characterized by a combined lingering bitterness and toffee flavor. Yakima Twilight has a medium to heavy body with a chewy, rich mouthfeel; the carbonation is medium and rather creamy, helping to build the chewy mouthfeel. This is an interesting beer, but we’re not quite sure what to make of the relationship between the name and the beer—it is good, but the Yakima hoppiness is lost is the big malt backbone of the beer. We’ve got two bottles of this left, so we’re going to sock them away in the basement and see what a bit of aging will do to them. The label, however, has an excellent design; we’re making Yakima Twilight a Top 10 Best Label contender.

From the bottle: “The Yakima Valley of Washington is the heartland of American hops, having contributed uniquely flavorful varieties that have helped to redefine American brewing. Late summer harvest yields the bounty that builds this exciting ale. Vibrant and aromatic, this is their moment of glory as the vines have withered by the time you sip this. Dark malts warm the hops’ bright edge bringing harmony to the finish. Rest well hop roots! Spring will come and we’ll be thirsty again!”

Check out those red highlights!

From the Victory website: “The tenacious grip of big, juicy hop aroma and character slides smoothly into rich, dark malts. This heavyweight battle between fresh, Yakima Valley hops and dark, roasted malts is resolved harmoniously as the flavors merge to deliver complex satisfaction with a warming edge. Enjoy the twilight­ for the bright and brassy hops!”

ABV: 8.7%

(6/14/10)

348. Lakefront IPA

Lakefront Brewery is located in Milwaukee, WI; as their website informs us, we all should “Taste Milwaukee’s Heritage.” Can’t we just stick with the beer? After all, Milwaukee’s heritage certainly contains numerous distasteful things, most notably Bud Selig, who I am certain would taste like the dankest, nastiest filth this side of hell. That’s right, clown boy, I remember the Pilots. Here’s to a sharp stick in your eye. But my vitriol is not the point here; rather it is the beer.

Pouring a clear, burnished copper, Lakefront IPA has a spicy, piney, and slightly citrus hop nose with just a light touch of malt sweetness in the background. The head is a creamy ivory white that both hangs around and laces the glass nicely. Beginning with dry toasted malt flavor coupled with light caramel sweetness, Lakefront IPA moves into a spicy hop middle with grassy and piney flavors dominating and hop bitterness coming in behind the initial hop flavor. The finish is dry, although some caramel sweetness emerges, and there is some lingering bitterness that contains low levels of hop spiciness. Medium bodied with a dry mouthfeel and medium carbonation that bites in the final third to help dry out the beer; the hoppiness leaves a slight tang on the sides and back of the tongue. A well-crafted and easy drinking IPA—Lakefront IPA is crisp, quenching, and well-balanced. We look forward to trying more of their beers.

From the Lakefront website: “Pours a hazy orange with a rocky white head that lasts, and leaves soft lace on your glass as you sip this refreshing beer. American Cascade and Chinook hops dominate the aroma, yielding a citrusy, floral bouquet. The hops give a nice bitter bite to the flavor, but this beer is surprisingly well balanced with a full body and smooth malty flavor to back up the hops. It finishes smooth and crisp with a lingering hop flavor reminiscent of fresh ruby red grapefruit.”

ABV: 6.9%
Brewed: 3rd week of April

(6/13/10)

347. Port Brewing Old Viscosity

“Not Your Dad’s 30 Weight”

Another Port beer—or, our port of call tonight is Port Brewing, and more specifically Port Old Viscosity. We’ve previously consumed with delight Port’s 3rd Anniversary Ale, 2nd Anniversary Ale, High Tide Fresh Hop, and Hop-15. Port port port.

Pouring a deep thick chocolate with red highlights, Old Viscosity has a thin tan head and a dry, creamy, and rich stone fruit nose—cherry, plum, prune, and what Elli likes to refer to as a “Twizzler” aroma, by which she means a candy sweet cherry. Old Viscosity has a rich fruit flavor at the start—there is rum raisin and plum, along with a bit of alcohol flavor (hence the rum of the rum raisin). These flavors continue on into the middle, moving into light chocolate and roasted flavors in the final third, finishing dry on the palate with some chalkiness on the back of the tongue. The mouthfeel is rich, thick, and chewy, but also dry and coupled with a little bit of creaminess. The mix of dryness and creamy chewiness is effective, and helps build the overall body and mouthfeel; we’re guessing that some of this comes from the oak aging. The carbonation is medium, and has a decent bite in the middle, smoothing out as it progresses towards the end. Old Viscosity is an interesting and nuanced beer; the alcohol flavor does pick up as the beer warms, which is one downside, but other than that, a very drinkable and enjoyable beer.

From the bottle: “Everyone always ask us, ‘What kind of beer is Old Viscosity?’ We have to pause for a minute here as there are restrictions about how you can and can’t describe beer on our labels. Since you’ve already asked, we’ve decided to tell you that it’s thick, as in my chest just grew a wool coat sort of way. It’s dark and sludgy like the old 50W oozing from the crank of that old truck. Beers like Old Viscosity are revered like old school pieces of equipment we know and love. The ones that cause people to say, ‘They don’t build them like this anymore.’ We know you’ll come to love and appreciate everything about Old Viscosity even if we never tell you exactly what kind of beer it is.”

What’s wrong with this glass? It’s empty...

From the Port website: “Not your Dad’s Wimpy 30 Weight is how our original label used to describe this massive chewy and thick beer. Code named by our brewers ‘The Big Black Nasty,’ this is monstrous dark ale is brewed to no particular style. Thick and sludgy like oil from the crankcase of a wheat threshing combine, Old Viscosity blurs the boundaries of Porter, Stout, Old Ale and Barleywines. A blended beer that mixes old and new brewing traditions into one finished beer, Old Viscosity starts out with 80% of the packaged beer produced from a stainless steel fermentation. It then joins another 20% Old Viscosity (from a previous batch) that has been aging in bourbon barrels. The blend of the two beers yields an incredibly rich and luscious ale that reveals chocolate and cocoa notes melded to silky body of burnt wood, vanilla and ash.”

ABV: 10.0%
OG: 1.092

FG: 1.014

Malts: 2-row, Wheat, Domestic and English Crystal, Carafa III, & Chocolate

Hops: German Magnum

(6/12/10)

346. Heavy Seas Cabernet Barrel Aged Below Decks

Another beer from Heavy Seas; this is our third beer, following Clipper City IPA/Loose Cannon Cask and Loose Cannon 420 Cask. Sadly, we couldn’t go three for three on the cask beers from Heavy Seas, although this one was at least barrel-aged, so that has to count for something, right? This beer is part of their Mutiny Fleet of beers—all of their big beers above 8.0% ABV. We took this with us to the monthly DRAFT meeting, as having our beer for the day after the meeting would have meant that our palates would have been wrecked. Instead, we decided to just start with the big beer and wreck our palates from the get-go.

CBA Below Decks pours a hazy chocolate with a caramel colored head; the nose was creamy with chocolate, dark fruit, and some of what we’ve officially dubbed Elli’s classic red Twizzler aroma. Flavors open with chocolate, malt sweetness, and more Twizzler before opening up into the rich dark fruit that makes up the middle; the finish is dry with a fair amount of alcohol warmth. CBABD has a heavy body and something of a sticky mouthfeel with a medium carbonation. The creamy, thick, body works well with the flavors, although this does taste a bit young—it needs some more age to marry the flavors, allow the alcohol to smooth out, and to develop the complexity and nuance in the flavor and mouthfeel.

From the Heavy Seas website: “Our award winning barleywine which has been aged two ways - in either wooden bourbon barrels or cabernet barrels. While great at their release, they will evolve with aging. VINTAGE DATED and VERY limited release.”

ABV: 10.0%

(6/11/10)

345. Hanssens Artisanaal Oude Gueuze

Belgium’s in the house tonight—this is our first beer from Hanssens Artisanaal in Dworp, Belgium. Oude Gueuze pours a clear reddish honey color with a minimal white head that quickly rings the glass, although there is a fair amount of active small, tight bubbles; the nose has a big citric tartness accompanied by some barnyard and earthy aromas—it has just a bit of the funk hiding in the background. Opening with a citric earthy tartness—think crushed vitamin C tablet rubbed in a fresh loam—the tartness slightly fades in the middle, leaving a more rounded vinegar/acetic acid flavor with a slight sweetness. The finish is dry with both a chalky and mineral flavor and feel in the back of the mouth from the return of the citric bite from the front. Oude Gueuze has a light-body, which is further lightened by the bright and sharp carbonation. There is a good deal of tongue curling from the super tart and tangy elements of the beer—it is a puckery, savory masterpiece. While this may a bit too tart for the beginner, it is certainly a beer that we’ll be looking for again—I loved the tang and the curl of my tongue from this beer, and Elli was initially shocked by the tartness, but quickly got behind the flavor. Most certainly a challenging but rewarding beer, and one of the better gueuzes we can recall having—we’re making it a Top 10 Best contender.

From the Hanssens website: “A regulation of the European Community, dating ninety-seven, defines a difference between geuze and old geuze. The name old refers to the way of making a geuze and is synonym for traditional. It has nothing to do with age. The blending of old and young pure lambic is the traditional way of making Geuze. Old geuze is made of one hundred percent lambic beer, which undergoes an additional fermentation in the bottle resulting in the natural formation of foam and carbon dioxide.”

ABV: 6.0%

(6/10/10)

344. Rogue John John Juniper Ale

Lucky number 13: we continue to pile up massive numbers on Rogue; this beer is the second in the John John series, and our thirteenth Rogue beer for the year. The run down includes First Growth Single Malt Ale, Dead Guy, Shark Tooth Ale, John John Dead Guy, Mogul Madness, Dirtoir Black Lager, Yellow Snow IPA, Chipotle Ale, First Growth Wet Hop Ale, Juniper Pale Ale, Maierfest and Capt’n Sig’s Northwestern Ale. Is there a Rogue we won’t drink? Until they make a vomit flavored beer, we don’t think so...

Triple J pours the color of toasty bread crust, and is a bit hazy with a fine creamy white head; the carbonation is small and bright in the glass. The nose is lightly bready, but only lightly—there is not much going on in the nose, at least not when first poured. Flavors begin with a light soft toasty breadiness in the front; the middle has some dryness and bitterness and a light juniper flavor that lingers into the finish, which has a more pronounced bitterness as well as a light spruce flavor. The bitterness and the spruce linger on the palate; as they dissipate, there is a light alcohol/gin flavor that emerges at the back of the throat. John John Juniper has a medium body with a creamy, soft mouthfeel, and the carbonation is bright in the glass but soft in the mouth. Overall, Triple J is clean and very well balanced, although not much different than the regular Juniper Pale Ale. In fact, the only really perceptible difference is the presence of the spruce flavor that mutes the juniper (either that, or a bit less overall juniper flavor), and the light alcohol/gin taste that lingers after the beer leaves the palate. As well, we are very glad to see that while Rogue continues to experiment, that they are not just running full-tilt into the gi-normous big beer craze—John John Juniper is subtle, nuanced, and an easy-drinkin’, well-made beer. Keep on keepin’ on, Rogue.

Here’s the pint of John John Juniper I had in SF

From the Rogue website: “In their second collaboration effort, Rogue Master Brewer, John Maier, and Master Distiller, John Couchot are releasing John John Juniper Pale Ale. This ale consists of Rogue Juniper Pale Ale aged in Rogue’s Juniper Gin barrels. Gin lovers will recognize the oddity in this approach – gin is not typically aged in barrels.To craft this unique brew, John Couchot aged the Gin in oak barrels so the barrels can soak up the flavor of the gin. The barrels are then emptied and rolled by forklift from the Rogue Distillery to the Rogue Brewery. John Maier later fills these barrels with Juniper Pale Ale so that his creation can absorb the gin flavors from the barrel.”

IBU: 34
OG: 13° P
Malts: Harrington, Crystal, Triumph, C-15, & Rogue Micro Barley Farm Dare
Hops: Sterling, Golding, Amarillo, & Rogue Farm Willamette
Other ingredients: Juniper Berries

(6/9/10)