all the same song

Beer Review 0389: The Bruery Hottenroth Berliner Weisse

The Bruery opened in 2008, the home brew product of Patrick, Chris, and Rachel Rue. Patrick and Chris are brothers; Rachel is the wife of Chris. The first home brew batch the three made was an amber ale with Cascade hops; as the years went by, Patrick, who was going to law school, saw his beer passion become bigger than his law studies. He decided the rest of his life should be dedicated to making beer, so he got loans and started The Bruery, which is a fusion of his last name, and well… Brewery.

Located in Placentia, California, most of The Bruery’s beers are considered to be experimentations brewed in the Belgian tradition. None of their beers are filtered or pasteurized; all are bottle conditioned and use a proprietary Belgian yeast strain.

Hottenroth, a Berliner Weisse, has to be a special beer for The Bruery, as it is made in memory of Patrick’s grandparents, Fred and Sarah Hottenroth. The beer fits the Berliner Weisse style to a tee, coming in at just 3.1% ABV (alcohol by volume) and using lactobacillus and brettanomyces yeasts to sour the base wheat ale. Traditionally, Berliner Weisse beers are served with raspberry or woodruff syrup as a way to sweeten the beer. The bottle even mentions this serving suggestion, but we’ll just sample the beer sans any kind of syrup for this review.

The pour issued up a large collar of bright white foam, frothy in texture, fast diminishing. The beer was pale straw yellow in color, even paler than industrial macro-lager. The body was cloudy but contained no particles or sediment; it should be noted that the back of the bottle asks you to not disturb sediment at the bottom of the container. Lacing never existed.

On the nose, there’s some initial Granny Smith apple, tart and unripened, coupled with apple cider vinegar. There’s a solid wheat backing, which plays off well with the doughy, earthen yeast that is just a touch funky. I also pulled out a little pear and lemongrass.

The taste has a lot of tart apple up front, a gentle sourness, and then it all shuts off, only leaving a wheat flavor — it’s like the beer goes dead until the swallow, when the finish comes on moderately sour. The beer finally gives up all its flavors; unripened apple, pears, and a dash of lemon meet straw, and the finish leaves quickly. After a few seconds following the sip, the only thing left is some cereal grain. Light-bodied, Hottenroth has a light mouthfeel, foamy when swirled, and an average carbonation.

This beer is quite refreshing as Berliner Weisse tend to be, but it’s really light on flavor. Yeah, that’s the point, to a certain extent…but toward the end of my glass, this became like drinking tart water with a little apple flavoring. You can tell this is a well-made offering, but the value doesn’t match what’s here, in my opinion. It does work great on a hot, sunny day.

The Bruery Hottenroth Berliner Weisse, 81 points. Price: $8.99 US for one 750 ml bottle.

Beer Review 0388: Goose Island 2012 Bourbon County Brand Imperial Stout

While barrel aged beer was around long before 1994, Goose Island (Chicago, Illinois) made it popular in the United States when they placed Imperial Stout in bourbon barrels to celebrate their 1,000th batch of beer made at the original Clybourn brewpub. After tasting the results, it seemed like every brewery either had or wanted a barrel aging program. Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Stout achieved legendary status.

As such, I thought it appropriate to review Bourbon County, affectionately known as BCBS, for my 500th unique checkin to Untappd. If you’re unfamiliar with Untappd, it is a beer tracking service where you ‘checkin’ to beers you’ve had; you can rate them, follow your friends and interact with other beer drinkers. You can even checkin by location — for beer drinkers, it’s an awesome app, and you should download it. Then add me as a friend so we can drink together!

Goose Island opened in 1988. John Hall was the visionary, and he was inspired by the beers he had tasted in travels across the country. He started the brewery with the notion that drinkers wanted to see their beer being made, so Goose Island actually started as a brewpub. In 1995, a dedicated facility was built with a bottling plant to keep up with demand.

In 2011, 58% of the company was sold to the world’s largest brewer, ABInbev. As result of the sale, many of Goose Island’s everyday brews are now made in New York. However, Goose continue to produce the more connoisseur-friendly bottles in Chicago, of which Bourbon County is part of.

Released once each year, BCBS comes in at a striking 15% ABV (alcohol by volume) and 60 IBUs (International Bitterness Units). The malt bill is impressive (2-Row, Munich, Chocolate, Caramel, Roast Barley, Debittered Black) while there is just one hop used: Willamette. I couldn’t find any information about how long this beer spends inside bourbon barrels, but the bottle suggests it will “develop in the bottle for up to five years.” While Goose Island distributes to North Carolina, this beer isn’t in the portfolio. Thanks to Dave (Untappd user OnWisconsin) for sending me BCBS as part of a trade.

This beer poured a small, dark tan head, which was soapy and fizzy in texture. It quickly subsided, which was expected for such a high alcohol beer. The color of the liquid was pitch black; when held to light, there was just a touch of lighter brown edges. I noticed as I poured that the body appeared clear and free of any particles or sediment. There was no lacing, again, typical for a high ABV brew.

On the nose, we’ve got a massive load of bourbon and all the scents that accompany it: vanilla, toasted marshmallow, oak, and hot alcohol. Team this up with the malts, which provide a ton of dark fruits like raisin, dates, and prunes; dark chocolate, thick and chewy caramel, and a touch of burnt black coffee. The aroma is intense and awe-inspiring — dessert in a glass, indeed.

Bourbon County hits the palate with a bevy of dark fruits — raisins, cherries, and prunes, mixed with a solid and creamy note of dark chocolate. But it doesn’t take long for the bourbon to come out, and it does in the middle; hot, almost spicy bourbon delights the tastebuds, transitioning into a finish of vanilla, charred barrel, dark fudge, s’mores, caramel, and a VERY warming alcohol. After a few sips, I started to sweat. This one will put hair on your chest, but the heavy alcohol works well with all the flavors. Full-bodied for sure, the beer has a thick, creamy mouthfeel, and it is cloyingly sweet. There’s massive, unforgiving sweetness.

Bottom line on this legendary brew: it’s awesome times a thousand. Two things to critique: this beer is so sweet, it is cloying; as I sipped, I could feel my lips getting sticky. And the alcohol, while it plays well with all the flavors, is a bit much. With the drinkability being so, so, so, so, SO dangerously high, you better be careful or you’ll wind up in the floor in a hurry.

One other thing of note: I don’t recommend letting this beer warm up too much, as the alcohol becomes too dominant. So don’t pull this out of the fridge thirty minutes before you have it… just sip on it starting at fridge temp and see how it develops as it warms.

Not a perfect score, but damn close! Cheers to 500 more beers on Untappd.

Goose Island 2012 Bourbon County Brand Imperial Stout, 98 points. Price: $5.99 US for one twelve ounce bottle.

Beer Review 0387: Aviator Black Mamba Bourbon Barrel Aged Oatmeal Stout

Aviator Brewing Company are located in Fuquay Varina, North Carolina (near the state capital of Raleigh) and are appropriately named — the brewery began producing beer in an airplane hangar, using retrofitted dairy equipment.

In 2010, just two short years after opening, Aviator moved to a larger location just a few miles away, where they continue to grow. Recently, they installed a canning line and began canning some of their beers. They also have a tap house and a smokehouse, where they smoke meat and cook barbecue.

Aviator distributes to North Carolina, South Carolina, and parts of Kentucky and Florida. Today’s beer is their Black Mamba Oatmeal Stout, which is aged in American oak bourbon barrels for several weeks. Aviator makes a non-barrel aged version of this brew, but strangely enough, it’s not bottled. The barrel-aged Black Mamba is brewed with molasses, comes in at 6.5% ABV (alcohol by volume), and a very bitter 87 IBUs (International Bitterness Units). I’m wondering if that IBU number isn’t a mistake; after all, this is an Oatmeal Stout…

Release from bottle produced a small, creamy, tan colored head that lasted. The beer was very dark brown, almost black, and had a clear body that featured only a dusting of light sediment. The lacing was very nice, leaving behind creamy spider web sheets all along my glass.

The nose reminded me of a classic bourbon barrel aged stout; there’s plenty of nice bourbon up front, not too hot, coupled with vanilla and chocolate. There’s coffee and caramel, which contribute to the sweetness, and just a touch of pine hops on the back end. Lingering in the mix are woodsy oak, and the whole aroma really reminded me of a nice cake batter. Sweet!

But things began to change a little on the taste. Those 87 IBUs I thought might have been a mistake? Oh, they’re here, alright: lots of pine bitterness from the get-go, which mixes with bourbon and dark chocolate. I can’t say that the pine and bourbon mix well together; it’s fairly astringent but subsides to a nice middle of the mouth, which smooths out into more of an Oatmeal Stout with chocolate, coffee, and oaked bourbon. There’s even a creamy texture for a fleeting moment, until the finish, where the hops kick back up and deliver a massive wall of grapefruit/pine bitterness and hot bourbon. Black Mamba is full-bodied, with a thin, foamy mouthfeel.

This beer is more like a Black IPA than an Oatmeal Stout. And honestly, the bourbon doesn’t exactly play well with the hops but for half of the taste. Decent flavors are here, but this beer is odd. Worthy of a try, but go in thinking barrel aged Black IPA, not Oatmeal Stout.

Aviator Black Mamba Bourbon Barrel Aged Oatmeal Stout, 85 points. Price: $9.99 US for one 22 oz. bomber size bottle.

Beer Review 0386: 21st Amendment Marooned On Hog Island Oyster Stout

21st Amendment began operations in the year 2000 and are located just two blocks from where the San Francisco Giants play baseball. Both principal founders — Nico Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan — took a brewing science course at UC Davis, trading their successful careers to follow the passion of brewing beer.

As you might suspect, 21st Amendment is named after the actual 21st Amendment of the United States, which repealed the evil Prohibition.

This is my first Oyster Stout; yes, actual oysters are used in the brewing process. The first known use of the mollusks in beer was documented in 1929 in New Zealand; since then, you could classify it as more of a gimmick than an actual meat-and-potatoes ingredient. Often, only a handful of oysters are tossed into the kettle, and sometimes “Oyster Stout” is just a name given to the brew to suggest it could be paired with oysters.

However, Marooned On Hog Island does indeed use the real deal (specifically oyster shells), and it is a collaboration between 21st Amendment and Hog Island Oyster Company. Coming in at 7.9% ABV (alcohol by volume), the oysters are used to add a salty, silky finish to this highly malted brew.

The pour produced an average size, light brown head, soapy and fast diminishing. The color of the beer was dark brown, and when held to light, presented some ruby highlights. Body was clear, free of particles and sediment, and the lacing was pretty good, leaving thin trails of suds.

On the nose, Marooned On Hog Island smells like a typical stout — roasty, with notes of chocolate, coffee, and some sweet caramel. The sweetness reminded me of a Milk Stout. There’s a light hint of smoke in there, too.

Chocolate and caramel open the taste, and the saltiness of this beer quickly comes out. Salty chocolate and caramel can be good, but when you introduce coffee to the picture, things start to get a bit weird. The initial saltiness wears off, leaving a nice middle taste of caramel, coffee, and chocolate, very sweet; then, the finish comes on, bringing back the salt and a moderate bitterness. The more this brew warms, the more bitter it seems to get, and I didn’t think the bitterness and salt played nice. Marooned is medium-bodied, with a medium, foamy mouthfeel.

For my first Oyster Stout, I found this to be really unremarkable. The flavors are typical stout, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but the saltiness the oyster shells add didn’t contribute in a positive way, at least to my palate. Sometimes hoppy beers can be so hoppy that it registers salty on my taste buds — this was just plain stout salty, no hop presence and not worthy of a repeat performance.

21st Amendment Marooned On Hog Island Oyster Stout, 77 points. Price: $1.99 US for one twelve ounce can.

Beer Review 0385: Oskar Blues Gubna Imperial IPA

With great pride I can now call Oskar Blues a local brewery — cans from their new facility in Brevard, North Carolina, have just started hitting shelves and this can of Gubna is a fresh example.

Oskar Blues began life in 1999 in Lyons, Colorado; Dale Katechis turned his restaurant into a brewpub, and while the beer was merely a side project at first, it quickly turned into big business. With customers really liking the beer they could get at the pub, Katechis wanted to start packaging the beer for sale outside of his restaurant.

In 2002, Oskar Blues began packaging beer… in cans. That’s right, all cans. Imperial Stout (Ten Fidy, 98 points) in cans. Everything. Today, canning craft beer is a hot trend, especially since the advantages of the can really outweigh bottles.

In late 2012, Oskar Blues opened an east coast facility in Brevard, NC. The brewery sells 35% of its beer on the east coast, so the new brewery helps with distribution. Over the last few weeks, we here in North Carolina have been enjoying super-fresh cans of all Oskar Blues beers, which has been a tasty experience!

The beer up for review today is Gubna, an Imperial IPA brewed with a blend of Cascade and Summit hops. The malt bill features rye malt; after fermentation, Gubna is massively dry-hopped, and comes in at 10% ABV (alcohol by volume) and over 100 IBUs (International Bitterness Units).

Out of the can, this beer creates a large, off-white head that is frothy and loves to hang around. The liquid itself is tangerine orange colored, clear in body, and featured no particles or sediment. Lacing started to form just as soon as the head began to settle, and continued impressively down the glass as I sipped, leaving thick, puffy suds.

The nose is a little deceiving, as the rye malt comes to the forefront and gives the nose a bready, spicy scent. But eventually those Cascade and Summit hops shine through, issuing up grapefruit and general citrus, especially orange juice. Dig deeper and there’s a significant amount of pine, too; unfortunately, this is a little underplayed because the rye is so strong. And for a high ABV beer, the alcohol isn’t present.

On the palate, there’s a different story: the hops are front and center; big notes of orange and lemon. Just a smidgen of bitterness starts to develop when the rye sweeps in, offering a spiciness and turning the hops quite sweet. Flavors of grapefruit and caramel develop until the swallow, when the rye kicks up again, this time gentle, and brings about a ton of heavily bitter pine and grapefruit rind. There is a touch of an alcohol kick, but if you ask me, it plays well with the heavy bitter finish. Gubna is full-bodied, with a medium, foamy and gritty mouthfeel; the final conclusion leaves the tongue dry and ready for more.

Honestly, I was very surprised by this brew — while I tend to really enjoy IPAs brewed with rye malt, I do find that the rye coupled with the bitterness tends to give off a soapy flavor that tires my palate quickly. Gubna isn’t like that, and the rye is a welcome addition. Excellent flavors and a nice story this beer tells. Pick it up if you see it.

Oskar Blues Gubna Imperial IPA, 94 points. Price: $4.79 US for one twelve ounce can.