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December 28, 2012

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Christmas Beers Bring Christmas Cheer

What would the holidays be without alcohol? Copious and copious amounts of alcohol in all forms to help you get through the insanity of family, shopping, holiday parties and the like. Fortunately, there are plenty of holiday appropriate beers to help you get through it all. Here’s what I enjoyed during this week.

After having our own mini Christmas at our new home, my wife and I drove back to my parent’s house in Georgia to celebrate Christmas with them. I have the good fortune of having an easy-going, non-dysfunctional family, so I don’t need a lot of alcohol to help me cope. But that didn’t stop me from bringing along a bottle of St. Bernardus’ Christmas Ale to enjoy and share with loved ones.

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At 10%, the spiced Belgian strong dark ale does plenty to keep you warm and toasty. A malty nose brings hints of cocoa, plums, caramel, black pepper, cloves and that classic Belgian yeastiness. A similarly complex taste follows, with a strong effervescent quality leading off flavors of berries, plums, cocoa powder, leather, tobacco, sweet bread, cinnamon and other spices. St. Bernardus always impresses me, but it also impressed my younger brother – a newly 21-year-old frat boy – and my dad, whose tastes lean toward “dark, heavy stuff.” It was a good way to warm up on Christmas Eve.

After returning home to Columbia on Christmas Day, my wife and I tucked in to some holiday selections from my cellar. We started with a 2009 bottle of Samichlaus Classic, a 14% doppelbock from Austria that previously held the title of strongest beer in the world.

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At 14%, there’s just a slight hint of booziness on the nose, accompanied by a big, sweet malt character, hints of rum-soaked raisins, caramel, figs and a bit of maple syrup and just a slight alcohol burn on the back. The alcohol certainly hits you more on the taste, but it fades quickly into this sweet, rich, full-bodied blend of caramel, toffee, butterscotch, figs and a big malty sweetness with an almost hard candy quality. The sweetness is definitely cut well by the alcohol, which you can feel warming in your chest after a few sips.

As we settled in for the annual Doctor Who Christmas special, I popped a bottle of the 2011 Santa’s Little Helper imperial stout from Port. Last Christmas, I enjoyed the bourbon barrel-aged version but help on to the standard version for this year.

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The coal-black 10% imperial stout presented with aromas of bittersweet chocolate, a touch of booze and a little bit of licorice, all underneath a cozy cover of big roasted coffee and espresso. Those roasted malts impart a big bitterness on the front of the tongue followed with a bitter coffee finish. There was a ton of espresso, dark chocolate, roasted malts and cocoa on it, but it’s not overly chocolatey or sweet at all. There may have been a slight infection in my bottle as there was this strange almost cough syrup quality on the finish. There was a phenolic burn on the back, kind of like the sweeter alcohol finish from NyQuil. It didn’t turn me off at all, and it honestly kind of worked with the bitterness.

The third of four Christmases this year was spent at my mother-in-law’s house on Wednesday. With all due respect to my in-laws, they are a bit more … eccentric than my family, and two little ones running around only add to the insanity. That’s why I was happy to walk in to the middle of a holiday beer tasting orchestrated by my sister-in-law, which included the St. Bernardus Christmas Ale, Rogue‘s Santa’s Private Reserve Ale, Grand Teton‘s Coming Home Ale 2012 and, for dessert, some Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout. I also got sent home with bottles of each, as well as a Rogue Farms Single Malt Ale and a Westbrook Dark Helmet. Add that to the two six-packs of SweetWater Festive Ale my brother got me and the SweetWater IPA and Terrapin Liquid Bliss “reinbeers” from my mom, and this was quite a holiday helping.

Whatever you celebrated this season, and whatever you’ll celebrate in the weeks to come, may your world be filled with delicious brews and good times. Cheers to all, and to all a good night.

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October 22, 2012

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SweetWater LowRYEder and Danktoberfest

The folks at SweetWater have been a little quiet most of this year since their 15th anniversary blowout earlier this year. Growing pains have thrown their new release calendar off a bit, but they’ve recently come back with a couple new brews that have recently hit shelves.

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Up first is LowRYEder, their new year-round 6.2% ABV rye IPA that replaced their Sch’Wheat wheat ale. LowRYEder was formerly a limited-release beer released under the Crank Tank label. That beer supports Camp Twin Lakes and will be re-brewed sometime soon with a different beer going into the bottle. But the SW folks decided to give the rye IPA a promotion and bump it up into regular rotation.

LowRYEder pours a beautiful crystal clear copper orange color. There’s about half a finger of a really filmy head that dissipates really quickly. Not much lacing to it but some pretty good-looking alcohol legs.

On the nose is a big floral punch of tropical fruits. There are bits of melon, orange, papaya and grapefruit that are all really thick and juicy. It’s got a bit of a piney hop note and a good bite from the rye as well.

There’s a strong hop bitterness on the front of the tongue which continues across the palate and is pretty strong on the end along with the bite from the rye. The mouthfeel is almost syrupy and very smooth. There’s a big biscuit malt flavor in the middle of the palate and the citrus fruit flavors really pop on the back. The grapefruit compliments the rye nicely. The tartness and rye bite linger on the back, but those juicy orange and melon flavors are the first to show up.

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The other new offering making the rounds is Danktoberfest, the newest entry into their one-off Dank Tank series. The 8.5% ABV imperial Oktoberfest is the first true lager the brewery’s made, and it’s a big one at that, especially for an Oktoberfest.

The pour is a very clear copper brown color. There’s a good finger’s worth of a bubbly head although it dissipates fast. There’s some really nice, strong lacing and alcohol legs as well.

SweetWater likes to twist their styles a bit, but Danktoberfest has a  surprisingly classic Oktoberfest nose. You get those big sweet bready malts, lots of nuts, caramel and toffee. There is a slight hoppiness to it – it wouldn’t be a SweetWater beer without it – but the malt is what’s the most prevalent.

There’s a slight hop bite and a lot of malt flavor on the front of the tongue. That’s followed up with a slight carbonation across the mouth, but a good, smooth mouthfeel. The end is really nice: Sweeter malt notes start off the finish but a surprisingly bitter hoppiness lingers on the finish. There’s a lot of pine to the hops. Overall, the flavor is dominated by those nutty, bready flavors that you’d expect in a Oktoberfest.

It’s been a hot minute since my guys in Atlanta have cranked out anything new, but these two show they’re still going strong as year 16 approaches.

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September 7, 2012

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SweetWater Motor Boat

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SweetWater Brewing Co.

Atlanta, GA

Motor Boat ESB

5.6% ABV

It’s no secret that I love SweetWater. They’re the reason I started this blog in the first place and the reason I got into craft beer. And as the seasons change, the Atlanta brewery puts out a new entry in its rotating Catch & Release Series.

Motor Boat (what a great name) is their fall seasonal – “Leaf Season,” as they call it – and one of my favorites. It’s an Americanized ESB that takes the traditional British style and gives it a dose of dry-hopping, preserving the malty backbone and finish but with a bigger and more bitter bite.

Motor Boat pours a crystal clear copperish brown. (Fallen leaf brown, maybe?) There’s a finger and half of head that sticks around for a while. Some very mild lacing and alcohol legs.

There’s a very floral and juicy nose. The dry-hopping is extremely prevalent as you get a big, crisp hop bite. There’s a lot of tropical fruit on it, too. Big orange, mango and papaya notes. There’s a very slight pine to it. The sweet caramel maltiness is also prevalent.

On the front of the tongue is a very slight hop bitterness. It’s followed with a medium body mouthfeel but a big, wet, juicy fruit finish. The tropical fruits really pop on the end. That slight pine is also there. The malt backbone adds to the very smooth taste and a hint of caramel on the finish. It’s all incredibly smooth and really easy to drink.

Motor Boat is one of those beers that really fits the season. The ESB style gives it a really clean, mellow taste, something accentuated by the fruit notes from the hops. But the dry-hopping gives it just the right amount of bite, but not so much to mask the sweeter notes.

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March 8, 2012

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Appetite: Whet – Brew Your Cask Off 2012

This weekend I’ll be heading back to my home state for the third beer-related event in less than a month. This time, it’s back to the SweetWater Brewery for my second Brew Your Cask Off cask ale festival.

Cask ale or “real ale” is, in essence, beer au naturel. When beer is bottled, additional carbon dioxide is usually injected into the bottle before it’s capped and sent off for consumption. That’s why beer you get at the store is usually pretty carbonated and bubbly. But if you’ve ever had home brew, you know that additional carbonation isn’t present, and instead only the natural carbonation from the yeast and secondary fermentation sugars. It gives it kind of a flatter taste, so to speak, but is the same as any other beer just without extra carbonation.

Cask ale is the same thing: Beer is brewed as usual, placed into a smaller keg with extra sugars for secondary fermentation and allowed to work its magic. It’s unfiltered, unpasteurized and naturally carbonated. Live yeast is still present in the container as well, meaning it continues to mature on it’s own. (Again, this is noting new to home brewers. Yeast usually ends up in bottles and your brew gets better with time. Usually.)

SweetWater does an excellent job of celebrating and honoring cask ale. For the past few years, they’ve invited upwards of 100 companies, businesses, restaurants, home brewers and others to come and brew their own casks. They then invite the public to come and sample all these different beers in an event that’s part competition, part festival.

Last year was the first time I went and I was floored at how good some of these glorified home brews were. I saw beers with ingredients I never imagined being used and some casks that rivaled some of the better beers I’ve had in my life. All this week, the brewery has been teasing what will be on hand this year on the BYCO Twitter page. Here’s just a sampling:

This stuff is seriously ridiculous. My mouth has been watering all week.

One of the biggest problems last year was the cramped and confined conditions, but with SweetWater’s massive expansion, they’ve increased how many tents they’ll be able to put up, meaning this year’s festival will literally be bigger and better than ever before.

If you’re in or around the Atlanta area, this is not one to miss.

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February 21, 2012

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SweetWater Dank Tank 420 India Pale Ale

SweetWater Brewing Company

Atlanta, GA

Dank Tank India Pale Ale

8.5% ABV

In my previous post, I mentioned that A) SweetWater’s Dank Tank series gets increasingly better with each new experimental batch and B) their 420 Pale was my gateway beer. So it should be no surprise that I was really excited about their new Dank Tank entry: a full-fledged IPA version of the 420.

From the start, the 420 IPA looked like a luscious beer. The pour was beautiful, with a thick, deep orange color that through the light looked like a gorgeous sunset. The off-white head was just as thick and lasted for a good bit before dissipating with some really nice lacing.

The nose is just as luscious as the appearance. No one scent stood out, but the smell had a juicy blend of tropical fruits (mango, papaya, apricots, etc. There was a slight bit of hop, but most of the smell was tropical.

The taste followed through with the look and smell. There’s a slight hop bite on the front of the tongue, and then the rich juicy flavors just take over and coat your mouth. The hops return on the back but almost immediately give way to the rich flavors. The taste lingers over the whole mouth for a while. There’s definitely a lot of Simcoe used in the brewing. There’s almost a DIPA quality to it, with those rich, juicy flavors in most imperial IPAs.

While it’s not the best entry in the Dank Tank series – Mean Joe Bean and Ghoulash will be hard to beat – it’s another winner in my book. I love rich, flavorful IPAs like this, and having it be a bigger version of one of my favorite beers is a total sell.

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February 19, 2012

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SweetWater: The one that started it all

For me, it all started with SweetWater.
 
In 2007, when South Carolina first dropped its law against selling “high gravity” beers – “high grav” meaning those with an ABV of more than 5% – the state was flooded with craft breweries. I tried a few here and there that I enjoyed, but nothing that really grabbed me from the start. That was, until I had my first SweetWater 420.
 
Maybe I was partial because they were from Georgia, but I loved 420 from the start – the hoppiness, the crispness, just everything about it. It wasn’t a standout beer then and still isn’t now, but it’s SweetWater’s flagship brew and its best seller. It’s still my go-to brew and one of my favorites.
 
On Feb. 18, SweetWater celebrated its 15th anniversary with a huge party at its new brewery in downtown Atlanta. It gave them a chance to show off their new 114,000-square-foot facility  while tapping a few rare brews. I love visiting Atlanta and SweetWater, so when one of my favorite breweries wants to throw a big party, you can count me in.
 
My fiancee, Whitney, and I met up for brunch Saturday morning with our friend Josh and ended up getting to the brewery about two hours before the event started. Fortunately, Josh and a few of his friends tapped their stashes for a bottle share, so we hung out in the parking lot with some SweetWater employees and shared a few bottles, including:

  • Green Flash Brewing Double Stout, a light, coffee-forward 8.8% stout;
  • Ska Brewing Company Modus Hoperandi, a sticky 6.8% hop bomb;
  • Cigar City Guava Groove, a really tart and effervescent 6% saison;
  • Lexington Brewing Co. Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, a delicious 8% barrel aged strong ale that, to me, tasted like a melted Werther’s Original.

There were also a few excellent standbys – Bell’s Hopslam and Hell Hath No Fury, New Holland Dragon’s Milk, Founders 2010 Breakfast Stout and Brooklyn 2007 Monster Ale.

 


Thanks to the kindness of one of our new friends, we were able to get inside the brewery for free and shortly before the huge crowd standing outside. The new brewery is huge and gorgeous, with a new bottling (and canning!) line that isn’t even up and running yet. Onc The original brewery and taphouse is connected to the new larger taproom and event space via a proper merchandise store.

 


 

Throughout the day, different kegs of older and tweaked beers were tapped throughout the brewery. While I didn’t get the chance to try everything, I did manage to enjoy a few new and old offerings:

  • The 15th Anniversary Ale, a beefed-up version of SweetWater’s original ESB. This version, a 10% barleywine, had lighter in color for a barleywine and had a slight but mellow sweetness throughout, with a bit of hop bite;
  • Dank Tank BSP Quad, an older DT offering. It’s an 11% Belgian quad and tastes just how you’d expect: rich, dark fruits, very flavorful but not too heavy;
  • Dank Tank Creeper, a new DT beer that will be bottled and shipped later this year. It’s listed as an 11% Belgian trippel but tasted more like a flat sour to me. It was overly tart and very flat. I wasn’t really impressed by it, but hopefully it’ll be better bottled;
  • Dank Tank Ghoulash, one of my favorites. Dark, roasted and hoppy as hell, it’s an 8.5% black IPA that has a perfect balance of malt and hops.

Unfortunately, we missed out on the DT Big Ol’ Belgian Blue Balls, the aged Festive Ales and the cask and aged versions of some of the beers. But considering we got in for free and had unlimited pours, I was happy with how the day turned out.

It’s crazy just how much SweetWater since I had my first 420 years ago. They’re quickly becoming one of the largest breweries in the Southeast and their beers keep getting better and better. Their standards – 420, IPA, Blue, etc. – are great base examples of what the styles should be like, and their Dank Tank series shows that they can go out on a limb, but still produce solid and likable brews.

Here’s to 15 great years of great beers, SweetWater. Cheers.

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February 18, 2012

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So, here’s the deal …

Beer has become a passion of mine during the past few years, as it has for a lot of other people. It goes beyond just coming home after a day at work and cracking open a cold one. It’s knowing that what I’m drinking was labored over and perfected, crafted carefully by people who really love their jobs. It’s knowing that someone really put all their heart into something. It’s more appreciation for it than pure enjoyment.

More than that, I really like talking about beer with people and sharing my thoughts in hopes of introducing someone to something new. Having people show passion and true interest in it was what got me into craft beer in the first place, and its what’s helped me introduce people to their new favorite beers. 

So there’s this – Another beer blog. I’m not aiming to be different. I’m not aiming to be special. I’m just looking for an outlet to share my thoughts and, hopefully, spark your interest.

I decided to start it because of today’s event: the 15th anniversary party for SweetWater Brewing in Atlanta, GA. They’re the reason I’m into craft beer today, but I’ll get into that more in the post about today’s event.

Stay safe, drink good beer, and thanks for reading.