281. Lagunitas Wilco Tango Foxtrot

After something of a hiatus, we’ve returned to Lagunitas; this is our fifth beer from our favorite phonetic spellers. The previous four include El Chupalupalo, IPA, New Dogtown, and Little Sumpin’ Extra Ale. I still miss El Chupalupalo... We had this on tap @ the Trolley Stop during their monthly beer tasting—the theme tonight was canned craft beers, with several of the nine beers sampled coming from the can. The sampling list included Breckenridge Avalanche, Southern Star Bombshell Blond, Sill Pink Killer, Southern Tier Hopsun, Southern Star Pinebelt Pale Ale, Rogue American Amber Ale, Southern Star Buried Hatchet, Southern Tier Jahva, and Avery Maharaja.

Pouring a dark brown color, Wilco Tango Foxtrot has a creamy ivory head and spicy hop notes in the nose. The front of the beer is full of roasty sweetness mixed with brown malt flavors, moving into a nutty malt flavor in the middle along with grapefruit hop flavors and a small amount of bitterness. The end has a good dose of spicy bitterness that lingers on the palate. WTF was a bit more carbonated than we expected, which limited some of the malt complexity, but also lightened the mouthfeel—we’ll blame the bar and not the brewery for this element of the beer’s profile. This is a very American brown ale—with the hop profile, it could be veering towards the pale ale category. As well, the alcohol is well hidden in the beer. Unless some of the spiciness at the end is from the alcohol, there was not much we detected; while WTF is a relatively low imperial at 7.83% ABV, we still thought it worth noting.

Beware the disembodied hand...

From the Lagunitas website: “A big Ol’ Imperial Brown Ale to help you with your slipperly slide on into springtime. Rich, smooth, dangerous & chocolatey.”

ABV: 7.83%

(4/7/2010)

280. Fantôme Brise-BonBons!

Our third beer from Fantôme; the last two were Saison D'Erezée Printemps and Biére de Saison Pissenlit. Brise-BonBons! pours a hazy straw with a minimal white head; the nose has a candy malt sweetness along with some juicy yeast aromas and some herbal aromas. The flavor starts with candy malt before moving into the middle, which has an interesting bitter floral aroma—we’re not sure whether the bitterness is hop or herbal derived, as the bitterness tastes slightly like dandelion. The finish is bright and sweet with some lingering bitterness; Brise-BonBons! has a light body and a clean sharp bitterness—it drinks much lighter than an 8% ABV beer. Like all of Fantôme’s beers, excellent and interesting; we’re making it a Top 10 Best contender.

From the bottle: “With joy, and a little bit of mischief, Fantôme brewer Dany Prignon dedicates this very bitter beer to all of the many varieties of brese-bonbons—literally, ball-breakers—in the world. Specifically, this beer is meant for wise-guys, braggarts, pains-in-the-ass, muck-rakers, trouble-makers, know-it-alls, stuffed shirts, blow-hards, and bores, as well as nut-cracking, wind-bag, prattling-on, self-appointed experts on every-thing, and nose-in-the-air snobs, convinced they can do anything better than you. Dany intended to make a beer too bitter for a normal person to enjoy. The problem is, everyone loves it! Guess we’re all just a bunch of brises-bonbons sometimes...”

ABV: 8.0%

(4/6/2010)

279. Lindemans Framboise

Tonight’s beer is from Brouwerij Lindemans in Vlezenbeek, Belgium; this is our first beer from Lindemans. We had this on tap @ South Park Tavern. Always something new on tap will keep us coming back, I tell you.

Served to us in a tulip glass, Lindemans Framboise is a clear raspberry red with an ever-so-slightly pink head; the tart raspberry nose has a crisp fruit sweetness to it. Starts tart and bright before moving into sweet raspberry; the fruit flavor hits hardest in the middle, stripping away the other flavors, although this does lessen at the end, finishing with a tart citric tang that cleanses the palate. Framboise has a light to medium body accompanied by a medium carbonation that is bright, sharp and bubbly on the mouth. Low amounts of tart puckering at the start and the finish. A good beer, although the fruit presence did have more sweetness than we anticipated. A bit less fruit sweetness would have allowed some of the lambic qualities to shine through in more detail—we’ve seen more balance in other version of Lindemans fruit lambics.

From the Lindemans website: “Long before hops were common in most beers, various fruits and vegetables were used to season beers. The acidity of Lambic beers blends perfectly with raspberries.”

ABV: 2.5%

(4/5/2010)

278. Jolly Pumpkin Bière de Mars

Jolly Pumpkin is rising in over all popularity around these here parts—we’ve got more of the delicious dirty band-aid we love going on with this beer. We can add Bière de Mars to the list of delicious beers from Jolly Pumpkin—we’ve previously sampled E.S.Bam and La Roja.

Bière de Mars pours a hazy nut brown with a minimal ivory head. The nose has candy sweetness followed by vinegar and sourness, with the vinegar tartness predominating. Candy tartness opens the flavor profile, turning to sourness in the middle and continuing along to become lightly chalky and alkaline into the finish. Bière de Mars closes with some citric tartness and a sour twang, ending bright and fresh on the palate. The body is medium to light, with tight, sharp carbonation that rounds and shapes the beer effectively. Some puckering due to sourness/vinegar tartness in the mouthfeel. Another excellent beer from Jolly Pumpkin; it could use a bit more complexity across the flavor profile besides the sourness, but that’s small potatoes here. Bière de Mars is fresh and lively, and, like all of the Jolly Pumpkin beers, worth drinking again and again.

From the bottle: “Brewed with two yeasts. Mellowed in larg oak casks, and re-fermented in the bottle, our Bière de Mars is a sustaining beer brewed to comfort in the gusty ides of March and welcome in a wealth of warmer weather.

‘Beware the ides of March’ – Some guy to some other guy, a long time ago.

Please enjoy our beers in good health, Cheers & Mahalo plenty!”

ABV: 7.0%
Blend 2, Bottled 2-24-10

(4/4/2010)

277. Highlands 15th Anniversary Auld Asheville Vintage Ale

Another beer from Highland Brewing Company, which is our third—the last two were Cattail Peak Oraganic Wheat Beer and Kashmir IPA. Auld Asheville emerges from the bottle a hazy toffee-colored brown with a light eggshell head. The nosy carries plenty of rich malt and smaller amounts of dark fruit—mostly of the raisin variety. There is also something slightly spritsy in the nose, but we can’t quite identify it. Auld Asheville has a big sweet malt front, moving into darker fruit flavors of raisin, currant, and cherry, and finishing with a bit of a spicy hop bitterness. The malt also reasserts itself in the final third, leaving the fruit flavors behind to set up the finish. The mouthfeel is chewy and rich; there is a medium to low carbonation level, and a medium to heavy body that is a little bit sticky. Auld Asheville is good, but not outstanding; it might benefit from a bit more aging to allow flavors to develop and marry together, and allow some of the stickiness to subside and mellow with age.

From the bottle: “Highland’s 15th Anniversary Auld Asheville Ale has been brewed to celebrate our tradition of brewing fine quality ales and lagers. This version of an English Old Ale has a bold profile from fine British Malts, woodsy and estery aromas from traditional British ale yeast, and bittering from Styrian Bobek hops. The addition of Sterling hops provides a hint of spiciness in the nose. These flavors combined with a bright cheery redolence create a savory “Auld Ale” that will warm the dreariest of winter nights.”

From the Highland Brewing blog: “According to John Lyda, Highland’s Head Brewer, Auld Asheville Vintage Ale is a high gravity ale in the style of ‘Old Ales’ or ‘English Strong’ ales which are traditionally released just prior to the holidays. Contributing to the beer’s complexity is the use of three different yeast strains, two of which were imported from England. Because of the hopping levels, alcohol content, and the completeness of its attenuation with time in the tanks, ‘the product should cellar incredibly well and increase in complexity for at least the next year.’ Its taste is described as ‘having a bold profile from fine British Malts, woodsy and estery aromas from traditional British Ale yeast, and bittering from Styrian Bobek hops. The addition of Sterling hops provides a hint of spiciness in the nose.’”

ABV: 9.5%

(4/3/2010)

276. AleSmith IPA

AleSmith Brewing Company is located in San Diego, along with all the other jealousy-inducing southern California breweries: Stone, Port, Green Flash, the Bruery, Lost Abbey. You get the drift. Apart from the greater Denver and Seattle metropolitan areas, this is about as close to beer heaven as you can get in a single location. And depending upon your tastes, this in fact may be beer heaven.

AleSmith IPA pours a hazy caramel copper with a rocky white head that laces the glass a little, but does stick around all the way through the beer; the nose has a bit of caramel malt sweetness to it, but it also has a fair amount of hop aroma: evergreen, pine, spicy, and earthy. Starting with a soft caramel malt front, AleSmith IPA quickly transitions into hoppiness; there are more of the same pine and spicy aromas found in the nose—only this time in flavor form—and there are also some resin and herbal flavors to help round out the middle. A good dose of bitterness is developing underneath these flavors, making its presence known most explicitly as the beer rounds into the finish; as the hop flavor recedes, the bitterness rises to the forefront of the palate, lingering nicely with some spicy and evergreen flavors at the end. AleSmith IPA has a medium body with some dryness on the mouth as well as a bit of puckering. The carbonation is medium, but still soft on the palate; the tiny bubbles round the flavor with little to no sharpness—the sharpness is saved for the hop bitterness and spicy bite it brings. AleSmith is an exquisite and delicious IPA; the balance between maltiness and hoppiness is excellent, and the complexity of hop flavors is awesome. While it is a big hoppy IPA, it is more balanced than some of the other beers from San Diego—it is more drinkable, and the quality comes from balance and nuance more than bigness. We’re making this one a Top 10 Best contender.

From the bottle: “I Prefer Alesmith. It’s Pretty Awesome. That’s what our People’s Choice Award says to us. Each year at the San Diego Real Ale Festival, everyone is asked to vote for their favorite beer. In 2001, they chose AleSmith IPA over all the others. If you like your beer hoppy, you’re gonna love this one!

AleSmith IPA is brewed using only premium-quality malts, along with pounds and pounds and pounds of the freshest hops and our championship yeast strain. Even the water we use is precisely conditioned to make sure everything is just right for the best possible product. The result is a hoppy, malty hand-forged American-style IPA with a tantalizing aroma and a flavor that’ll have your taste buds in ecstasy.

The brewer’s yeast at the bottom of the bottle is living proof that this is a top-quality bottle-conditioned beer. Conditioning in the bottle gives the beer a lush, velvety texture that you just can’t get with force-carbonating. The bubble are smaller, giving your taste buds a lot more surface area to grab onto, and the difference shows from the first sip to the last.”

From the AleSmith website: “Deep golden to light amber color, and a nice off-white head, with good retention when properly served. Starts off with pleasantly strong hop flavors, balanced by a firm malt backdrop, then fades to a dry finish with a lingering hoppiness.”

ABV: 7.75%
OG: 1.072

Also, I tried New Holland Envious tonight on tap @ Thai 9. Interesting beer that got better as it warmed; the initial chocolate and fruit split across the flavor range mellowed and married much better with warmth. There was nice berry fruit complexity and some sherry-like qualities to the beer—picking it apart and thinking through what it had to offer took most of the glass. When adding comparisons to warmth, well, damn, I might have to start over and try it again. I did expect something more extreme, and was surprised by the subtlety, nuance, and careful balance of the beer. Not sure it would be something I’d drink regularly, but I did like the idea and spirit behind the beer, and would most certainly try it again if it came my way. I’d love a couple of bottles to throw in the cellar to forget about for a couple of years—something tells me that would move this from pretty damn good to exceptionally fantastic. The one downside would be that this is supposed to be a sour beer, and the sour characteristics are pretty much incognito here—drank more like a regular oak-aged beer, not a soured oak-aged beer.

(4/2/2010)

275. Buckeye Bling Bling

Bling Bling is our second beer from Buckeye Brewing in Cleveland, Ohio; our last one was Hippie IPA. As with the last post, I might as well not even bother with the website link, as their website is “still in development.” Three words: nice web presence. That guy staring into the fermenter ain’t making sales for all y’all, if you know what I’m sayin’. And I think you know what I’m sayin’.

Pouring a orangish gold (well, it’s really a urine color, but I’m not supposed to say that), Bling Bling has a light white head that hangs around. The nose is equal parts malt and citrus and floral hops, a.k.a. the Amarillo mentioned on the label. Flavors start with a soft sweet maltiness before moving on to a hoppy middle with mostly citrus and floral hops flavors and a touch of bitterness that carries through to the finish. The end is pretty clean, with the exception being the lingering bitterness that is slightly bright along with being lightly grassy flavored. Bling Bling is medium to light bodied with a crisp but light carbonation that has nice tight small bubbles. There is a light bit of tongue curling from the hops, but not that much. This is a good summer drinkin’ beer—light bodied with bright citrus-y hop flavors and a nice twang of bitterness at the end. It also hides the 6.5% ABV rather well—it tastes much lighter than that, which could potentially be the only downside to it serving as the smooth summer sipper.

Sorry, the Buckeye website’s got nothing.

ABV: 6.5%
Malts: British & Torrified Wheat
Hops: Amarillo throughout

(4/1/2010)