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Archive for August, 2010

North Coast Red Seal Ale

Posted in Beer, tagged , , , , on August 30, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Quick note:  I promise, promise, that I will get away from the super hopheavy beers the moment the weather decides to cooperate.  As long as it stays super warm out, I’m probably going to keep drinking the hops because warm/hot weather screams “drink hops now” to me.  However, September is coming quickly, and I’ll get on the Oktoberfest brews, and then into darker/maltier brown ales and bocks (and pumpkin beers!) as we get into October. 

Anyway, without further ado, another hoppy-ish beer:

Basic Info:
Name: Ruedrich’s Red Seal Ale
Origin: North Coast Brewing Co., Fort Bragg, California
Style: American Amber/Red Ale
ABV: 5.50%
IBU: 42
I drank this: from a bottle at Old Chicago, Overland Park

The first time I had this beer was while grading freshmen composition papers with a friend several years ago.  We bought it based on the fact that there was a seal on the label.  It turns out that just like buying beer for the kickass awesome name tends to lead to a good beer, buying beer for a kickass awesome label tends also to have very good results.

The Red Seal Ale is one of my favorite red ales: sharp and assertive and malty all at once.  The nose is a combination of bright, grassy hops with a strong malt profile and a hint of something that strikes me as apricot in the background, although I’m 100% sure there isn’t actually fruit in this beer.  

Malt-wise, this seems to run through every malt in the red/pale/amber/brown category, strong enough that they’re almost all I notice for the first second.  Then the hops kick in, and they’re sharp, biting hops.  They don’t make the beer hugely bitter so much as make it feel extraordinarily sharp on the tongue.  This malt+sharp feel is what I look for in a good red ale – it’s a sort of hallmark of the style to me.  The Red Seal provides this feeling in spades.  Sharp spades.  The aftertaste is a sort of orange blossom/evergreen combination. 

I really like this beer in two seasons:  Autumn and St. Patty’s Day (which is, in beer-drinking world anyway, a season unto itself).  It’s a nice bright/malty combo for fall, one that works well with the seasons changing.  And it’s awesome on St. Patty’s Day for the moment when you can’t drink one more Guinness (should such a catastrophe happen) – it pairs really well with all the Irish foods of the day: it’s malty enough to be rich enough for the heavy food while being simultaneously sharp enough to cut through the richness and feel refreshing.

It would probably also be awesome with sharp cheddar, but then so is everything else.

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Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA

Posted in Beer, tagged , , , , , on August 29, 2010 | 2 Comments »

What beer is the best beer for a hophead to drink on the occasion of her thirtieth birthday, thus occasioning a not-so-fun-but-not-the-worst-ever hangover that had to be cured by means of a giant bacon, egg and cheese* sandwich the next morning?  That would be this glorious creation, Bear Republic’s** Racer 5 IPA.

Basic Info:
Name: Racer 5 IPA
Origin: Bear Republic Brewery, Healdsburg (Brewpub)/Cloverdale (brewery/office), CA
Style: India Pale Ale (could also be considered an American Strong Ale, as it seems to be winning competitions in that category)
ABV: 7.00%
IBU: 75+
I drank this: on tap at Barley’s, Shawnee, KS

This beer looks beautiful:  it has a nice, creamy head floating on a bright, clear amber ale.
This beer smells amazing:  the hops are balanced to smell like sunshine on a bowl of citrus fruits on a bright summer’s day.
This beer feels nice:  it’s thick and smooth and soft on the tongue.
This beer tastes phenomenal:  there’s an orange/grapefruit hop profile with a touch of something that strikes me more of cypress than of pine; it’s bittersweet on the tongue from the hops, the malts, and the alcohol; the malts give it a softly sweet backdrop for all that hoppy goodness.
This beer will still love you even after you’ve moved on:  the aftertaste is sweet red grapefruit, but not so strong that you can’t still taste what you’re eating.

Just how good is this beer?  Here’s the bragging list from the brewery’s own webpage about it:  
2009 Great American Beer Festival® American-Style Strong Pale Ale – GOLD
2009 Colorado State Fair – Best of Show
2006 Great American Beer Festival® American-Style Strong Pale Ale – SILVER
2005 Great American Beer Festival® American-Style Strong Pale Ale – SILVER
1999 Great American Beer Festival® India Pale Ale – GOLD

It deserves all of these.  Plus a millionbillion more.  Do yourself a favor and try one.  (Unless you hate hops.  Then try Bear Republic’s Big Bear Stout.)

* I read somewhere that the best cure for a hangover is a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich, since the eggs and cheese have the nutrients you need to get over the hangover and the bacon provides enough lubricating grease that your stomach will be more happily able to deal with what you’re trying to cram into it.  I have no idea if this assertion is true, but I do know that a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich helps on rough mornings.  So do bananas.
** If you’re a fellow hophead and have never had anything from Bear Republic, go fix this RIGHT NOW.  The Bear Republic people know hops like no one else:  their hoppy creations sing happy songs of joyous glee.  Share and enjoy, y’all.

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For Science

Posted in Beer, tagged on August 28, 2010 | 5 Comments »

I was at Price Chopper about 20 minutes ago with Tony to pick up what we lovingly refer to as “baked fried crap” (i.e., pizza rolls, frozen chicken tenders, etc.) for dinner.  At Price Chopper, I made a fantastic wholly terrifying interesting discovery.

They’ve started making flavored Michelob Ultra.  The flavors come in the following “hip” and “cutting edge” varieties:
- Dragon Fruit Peach
- Pomegranate Raspberry
- Lime Cactus
I’m alternating between abject horror and absolute glee because these sound like the worst idea ever, but an idea that seems absolutely in keeping with the whole Michelob Ultra branding scheme (better known as “pretend beer for vapid wannabe yuppies”).

I *have* to try these.  Mind you, I’ve never actually had a Michelob Ultra because it’s just not beer.  I’m not sure what it is (the phrase “science experiment” comes to mind), but it isn’t beer.  However, beer or not-beer, I will totally try these and review them here, because I anticipate the experience being, well, an experience.  If I get really motivated, I’ll have someone take pictures of my face and post them along with my reviews.

So, readers of the KC metro area, here’s what I need to know (if any of you might have ideas).  Where might I be able to put together a mixed 6-pack?  I want to try these, but I emphatically don’t want a full 6-pack of each.  I won’t drink more than enough to review them, and Lord knows I would never try to cook with them.  I like food too much to torture it like that.  So I’d like one of each as part of a mixed 6-pack.  To round it out, bonus points if I’d also be able to get ahold of a Chelada (Bud Lite plus clamato juice), a Bud American “Ale”, and something else of that ilk (perhaps just a straight Michelob Ultra so that I have it as the flavorless control comparison to its flavored brethren).  So if any of you out there have ideas as to where I could put together such a monstrosity, please let me know.  I promise to pay you back with lulz.

note:  I’m stealing the phrase “for science” from Cleolinda Jones, whose readers occasionally send her Twilight-themed food merchandise which she then tests and reviews “for science.”  It seemed the best way to describe this undertaking.

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Boulder Flashback Anniversary IBA

Posted in Beer, tagged , , , , , , on August 28, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Now presenting my first-ever beer reviewed from a bottle as opposed to one that I got on tap, as OC’s tap selection rotates next to never and I’ve tried everything on tap that I really want to review for right now.  I’m hoping the advent of the Oktoberfest minitour in a couple of weeks changes their list up a bit.

Basic Info:
Name: Flashback Anniversary India-Style Brown Ale
Origin: Boulder Beer, Boulder, CO
Style: beeradvocate calls it an APA, Boulder calls it an India-Style Brown Ale, OC shortened it to IBA – I’m sticking with the abbreviation, especially since I’ve had a couple others like it and the abbreviation is handy
ABV: 6.88%
IBU: 65
I drank this: poured from a bottle at Old Chicago, OP

This beer is a beer with something of an identity crisis.  That this should be so should be apparent from what it took for me to list its style: there are compelling arguments for calling it either a brown ale or an IPA, and then beeradvocate had to go muck things up by calling it an APA (which I disagree with, personally – the malts are way too dark to be calling this a pale ale by any definition).  I think that IBA (India Brown Ale) makes sense, so we’ll go with that.

To drink this beer is rather like drinking a black and tan made from a really solid brown ale and a really Cascades-heavy IPA.  It’s possible to taste both styles of beer almost individually.  The brown ale is a really maple-y, sweet, heavily malted type of brown with hints of smoke running through.  The IPA part is a bright citrus/grass combination, one that gets an excellent malty backbone from the brown ale.

The issue I (sort of) have with this beer is that the flavors really never melded for me.  I felt like I was drinking two distinct beers which weren’t convinced between the two of them that they really wanted to play all that well together.  And yet I want another one, because it’s an odd style of ale to make and thus different from almost any other beer I’ve ever had.  This is a different I like: it’s unfamiliar but not trying so hard to be unique that it’s rendered itself unrecognizable (or worse, undrinkable).  It’s interesting.

Actually, what I really want is to find this on tap so I can see if time in the keg has allowed the flavors to mellow out and enjoy each others’ company.

And if we’re going for full disclosure here, what I really, really want is to find this cask-conditioned next year when I *know* the flavors have had time to fall head over heels for each other, but I’m not holding my breath on ever finding that.  It might happen at the brewery, but I’m not hauling my cookies all the way out to Boulder next year just to see how this beer aged.  It’s good, but it’s not *that* good.

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Great Divide 16th Anniversary Wood Aged Double IPA

Posted in Beer, tagged , , , , on August 26, 2010 | 9 Comments »

I warned you Thursday was likely to turn into “celebration of awesome hoppy creations” thanks to Barley’s Wednesday hophead specials.  I have to thank Barley’s for that, because I can’t imagine any other way I’d ever have managed to score a goblet of this beer for $4.

Basic Info:
Name: 16th Anniversary Wood Aged
Origin: Great Divide Brewing Company, Denver, CO
Style: Double/Imperial IPA
ABV: 10.00%
IBU: can’t find, which is sad because I’m really curious on this.  It’s going to be WAY up there.
I drank this: on tap at Barley’s Brewhaus, Shawnee, KS

This is one of those beers where I don’t even know where to begin.  I had this problem with the Hazed and Infused as well, but for a completely different reason.  The issue with that beer was that I’d had it so many times that it isn’t all that interesting to me anymore.  The issue with this beer is that there’s so much going on that it takes time to sort through it all.

I’ll begin here:  this is not a “beginner’s beer.”  Tony, who couldn’t be a called a full-on hophead but who definitely enjoys hops when he’s in the right mood, actually made what my friend Sarah refers to as the “hop face” when he tried a drink.  The “hop face” is what happens when someone who doesn’t like bitter/hoppy flavors has a sip of something which is super-mega bitter:  nose scrunches, eyebrows furrow, eyes squeeze shut, tongue exits mouth as though being stuck out would somehow save it from the bitterness.  This is a face Sarah makes when she tries approximately 75% of the beers I drink.  Meanwhile, I’ve never seen Tony make this face – Tony will happily squirt ghost chili hot sauce onto his food.  Nothing phases Tony.

Except, it appears, for this beer.

Meanwhile, I liked it.  It appears my love of the hop really does know no bounds.

If you decide to order one, here’s what you’ll encounter.  It’s a lovely dark amber, almost burnt orange color, with a skim of off-white foam.  It has a thick, woodsy-caramel nose with resinous hoppy-pine hints running through it.  The scent was really noticeable in part because of the temperature – Barley’s served this at cask temperature rather than standard keg temperature, so that it arrived warmer than one would usually expect.  I applaud this decision.

True to nearly every wooded/oak-aged beer I’ve ever had, the oak blunts the initial hop bite and takes over as the star.  However, it’s not like the hops aren’t there – they are, and they are STRONG.  It’s just that they’re not always the strongest flavor in the beer.  What this means in the case of this particular brew is that each sip comes in three stages.  The flavor profile progresses like this:
- the beer in mouth flavor:  bitter, piney, with hints of apple and oak
- the beer during the moment of swallowing (the moment which took me by surprise in that I noticed it as a distinct and separate flavor):  really strong oak/caramel malt flavor, no hop presence, definite alcohol hit
- the beer post-swallow (i.e., the aftertaste):  strongly bitter pine resin flavor

To get the best possible impression of this beer, combine everything I’ve just written into a 5 second sensory experience and combine it with the knowledge that it triggered hiccups in roughly 10 sips.  This beer has an attitude.  This beer is so awesome, it could beat Chuck Norris in a fight and run off with his trademark blue jeans.

If you want to try it with food, this might be a fantastic beer to have with an enormous pile of sweet potato fries and some barbecue sauce to dip them in (if you’ve never had that particular combination, do so).  Otherwise, it needs some strong flavors – it will trample right on over anything delicate.

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Boulder Hazed and Infused

Posted in Beer, tagged , , , , on August 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Basic Info:
Name: Hazed and Infused Dry-Hopped Ale
Origin: Boulder Beer, Boulder, CO
Style: American Pale Ale
ABV: 4.85%
IBU: unavailable.  Boohiss.
I drank this: on tap at Old Chicago, OP, during one hell of an awesomesauce thunderstorm

First of all, I’d always kind of thought that this was an IPA.  It’s not – it’s an American Pale Ale, just like the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and the Boulevard Pale Ale I reviewed last week (the Hazed and Infused being a bit hoppier than the Boulevard – I do think it leans pretty heavily toward being an IPA rather than an APA).  The difference with Boulder: the name is much, much better.

Rule of beer: awesome beer names tend to correlate with awesome beer.  Therefore, when presented with a long list of beer and no idea what to choose, go for the best name.  Chances are that the beer will be excellent (and/or it will be a barleywine, whose names are often the best)(e.g., the Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot)(<— truth in advertising, that is.  That stuff is STRONG).

So back to the Hazed and Infused.  There’s an almost sugarcane-like sweetness in the scent, mixed in somewhere between the piney hops and the caramel malts.  This is a very hop-forward beer, whose hops lean more on the herbal than the citrus side.  There’s a nice hop flavor with enough bite to be noticeable, but not enough that it actually stings.  The malts remind me sort of caramel biscuits or something, and give the beer plenty of body. 

Everything balances really nicely in this beer – it’s one of my go-to beers when I’m not sure what I’m in the mood for.  It’s a fantastic session beer: the hops are great and have a lovely flavor profile but aren’t so overpowering that it’s impossible to taste anything else.  It’s a good beer for spicy foods – it will stand up to the spice no problem.

So have one.  Have a couple – the ABV on this beer is low given its hop level.  You won’t regret it (unless, of course, you hate hops – if so, try something like the Boulder Never Summer instead).

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Paddy O'Quigley's in Leawood, KS

Posted in Watering Holes, tagged , on August 23, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Bar: Paddy O’Quigley’s Pub and Grill
Location: 119th and Roe, Leawood, KS
Type:  Irish by name, sports bar by design, meat market by night

In Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain says “You can sense a well-run restaurant just as you can sense the fear and uncertainty—the smell of certain doom—in a disorganized, flailing one. A clean bathroom tells you a lot, surprisingly. If the people running the restaurant can’t keep it clean—and this is a part of the restaurant they allow you to see—you can imagine what their prep kitchen, downstairs, hidden away, looks like.” (I’ll find the page number reference the moment my books are out of storage.  At the moment, I’m not digging through 60-odd boxes worth of books to find it and double check.)  Essentially, then, you can tell a lot about the restaurant you’re in based on the bathroom.

Bourdain’s quote makes sense, but leaves me in a quandary:  how does one begin to comprehend the bathroom in Paddy O’Quigley’s?

The problem with the bathroom at Paddy’s wasn’t the cleanliness.  It wasn’t spotlessly perfect – it was a Saturday night, so this is understandable – but it was clean.  So we’re good there. 

Here’s the issue:  there’s a full-length mirror in the stall.

No, I didn’t write that wrong.  Yes, you read that right.  There is a full-length mirror IN THE STALL.  Like, behind the door, only visible once you’re in the stall with the door closed.  So you can…watch yourself squat on the toilet?  Count your zits or wrinkles or skin imperfection of your choice in the harsh fluorescent lighting?  Hope there isn’t a camera hiding behind the mirror?  Primp?  (Primping is not happening in my world until after I’ve washed my hands.)

The thing of it is that it’s pretty much impossible not to watch yourself while you’re sitting there doing your thing.  Unless you look at the floor, which, like I said, isn’t dirty by any means, but.  It’s the bathroom floor of a bar.  The bathroom floor of a bar is nowhere on my list of “preferable things to look at while sitting on a toilet.”

Anyway, so that’s Mirror Thing Part One.  Mirror Thing Part Two is what happens when you get done in the stall and go to wash your hands:  there’s a television behind the mirror by the sink, and this television loops a commercial which prominently features women in tiny bikinis.  Seeing this caused me to look around and verify, via the lack of urinals, that I was in the women’s restroom and hadn’t mistakenly gone through the wrong door.

So to say the least, the bathroom experience was weird enough that I’d prefer not to repeat it, and I know that I’m not alone in this because there were a lot of women complaining about the stall mirrors while I was washing my hands.  This stall mirror thing is deeply unpopular.

Now, 450-odd words later, here’s what the rest of the bar is like:  if you go early enough and there’s a game on, it’s a fantastic place to watch sports.  There are a ton of screens, easily visible from every table.  On the night we were there, the crowd was happily shouting and groaning along to the Chiefs disaster game.  When the game ended, a dj appeared and started karaoke.  This is when the meat market side came out – I should have realized that the sheer number of mirrors in the bathroom meant that this bar has meat market tendencies - but the karaoke itself was surprisingly good.  The list of songs was long enough to require a binder, and there were some SERIOUSLY talented singers.

The beer list is adequate for a night out with friends when beer isn’t the focus of the evening.  They’ve got all the undrinkable crap plus a bunch of Boulevard and a few other craft brews.  They’ve got an entertaining list of alcoholic coffee drinks (aka “Irish Coffees,” one of the few nods towards being an Irish pub that I saw all evening).

Overall, this place was fun, the karaoke was pretty good, the meat market aspect wasn’t out of control by the time we left (thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for that), and the Boulevard on tap made me a happy drinker for the evening.  If I return any time soon, however, I’ll be stopping by the Barnes and Noble on the way home to make use of their facilities.  I refuse to re-enter the bathroom at Paddy O’Quigley’s until a trustworthy source has assured me that the stall mirrors have been removed.

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Boulevard Pale Ale

Posted in Beer, tagged , , , , on August 22, 2010 | 11 Comments »

Now presenting a review of Boulevard’s first beer, the Pale Ale.  I was surprised to learn that the Pale Ale is the original Boulevard beer – “Boulevard” is practically synonymous with “Unfiltered Wheat” in the Midwest, and so I assumed that the Unfiltered Wheat had come first.  The Unfiltered Wheat isn’t the first – it’s merely the most popular craft beer in the Midwest (suck it, Goose Island! :D ).  Anyway, this is the Pale Ale.  I’ll do the Wheat soon.

Basic Info:
Name: Pale Ale
Origin: Boulevard Brewing Co., Kansas City, MO 
Style: American Pale Ale
ABV: 5.4
IBU: 30
I drank this: on tap at Paddy O’Quigley’s in Leawood, KS

First of all, if you haven’t been to Paddy O’Quigley’s, it’s an experience.  Generally a good one, but one odd enough that it will be spawning a new blog segment known as “Better Know a Bar.”  I’ll be beginning that tomorrow (or tonight, if I’m not getting any other writing done).

Now, for the Boulevard Pale Ale.  This is an American Pale Ale rather than an English Pale Ale, meaning that it has a much hoppier character than the Schlafly Pale Ale I reviewed earlier in the week.  Trying both is an exercise in remembering that “Pale Ale” refers to the color more than it does style – to get a real idea of what style of beer you’re drinking when you’re drinking a pale ale, it’s really helpful to have a nationality slapped onto the label.  Without it, you’re flying blind.

Whereas the Schlafly Pale Ale nose is predominantly malt, the Boulevard Pale Ale is predominantly hop.  The malt presence in the scent only comes if you breathe it in more deeply.  Once you notice it, it’s definitely there, but you probably won’t notice it until you think about it.  This beer is a lovely clear and bright brownish orange color, but retains no head whatsoever.  I had about a quarter-inch of head when I got it which disappeared after roughly three sips.

The Boulevard Pale Ale is nicely balanced.  The hops are bright and citrus-y with a hint of pine (I think the recipe is pretty heavy on the Cascades, which is ALWAYS a good thing in my book).  The malts are light to medium in color, faintly sweet, and strong enough that they’re not hidden by the hops.  The carbonation is pretty light.  It’s not an overwhelming beer.  It’s in the category of “easy beer to throw back while you’re talking or watching sports.”  Especially watching sports:  something about this beer begs for a pile of buffalo wings.

This isn’t the bestest pale ale I’ve ever had, but it’s still really pretty good.  What’s honestly impressive to me is its age:  this beer was first brewed in 1989 (making it old enough to drink itself now – happy 21st birthday, Pale Ale!), and I gather (from what I can tell on the website, anyway, since I sure as hell wasn’t drinking beer at 9 years old) that the recipe hasn’t changed since then.  And it shouldn’t.  It’s a great gateway beer – it’s interesting enough that it’s a good way to broaden the palates of those who’d like to move on from yellow water lite “beers,” but it isn’t trying to prove anything* either.  That’s what the Boulevard Double-Wide IPA is for.

*I think here of the label for the Stone Arrogant Bastard, which very clearly *is* trying to prove something.  It’d be obnoxious, but the AB lives up to the claims on the label.  More on that when I review it.

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New Belgium Hoptober

Posted in Beer, tagged , , , , on August 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

This beer isn’t beginning the posting of Oktoberfest reviews, because, name aside, it isn’t actually an Oktoberfest.  It’s a golden ale.  I’ll do my Oktoberfest reviewing in September, as is only proper.

Basic Info:
Name: Hoptober Golden Ale
Origin: New Belgium Brewing Inc., Fort Collins, CO 
Style: American Blonde Ale
ABV: 6.0
IBU: 40
I drank this: on tap at Old Chicago, OP – they just got it in this week

This beer is New Belgium’s Autumn Seasonal.  It’s a light enough beer that it doesn’t quite strike me as a fall beer – I tend to think of fall beers as being a bit maltier/heavier – but as a transition from Summer to Autumn, this beer is absolutely right where it should be.  It’s light and bright enough that it works for the heat of August, but there’s just enough warmth to serve as a reminder that the Summer heat is (thankfully) going to be leaving us soon-ish.

For a golden ale, I was pretty convinced this was a lager style when I first got to try it.  The malts follow a pretty standard pale malt flavor profile – light and drinkable, but not clamoring for too much attention.  There’s nothing jarring or off here.  Just nice, clean light malts.

Hop-wise, these are ‘bite’ hopes more than flavor hops.  What I mean by this is that the hops feel sharp on the tongue – they don’t so much lend a citrus/piney taste as they lend a particular mouthfeel.  This is a feeling I usually find in good American Red Ales.  Anyway, the hops in the Hoptober also lend a bitter flavor that shows up mostly in the aftertaste.  It isn’t an overwhelmingly hoppy beer to drink – with an IBU at 40, it’s less hoppy than some pale ales.  There’s also a hint of warmth hiding in the beer somewhere – nothing I can quite name (this isn’t a heavy clove hit or anything) – just something slightly warming.  It may be that I noticed the alcohol more than I might have were the malts darker.

What the hops do add here is a really incredible scent.  This is another “beer that I’d like in perfume form, please” – there’s a gorgeous sweet citrus/sweet herbal nose with just a hint of the malts for base notes.  I would order this beer again for the smell alone.  Gorgeous.

Possible food pairing:  some kind of citrus marinated chicken, or chicken with an apricot glaze.  I wouldn’t do anything too spicy, because spicy food would overwhelm this beer.

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What would you like reviewed?

Posted in Learnings on August 19, 2010 | 5 Comments »

I’ll throw a post like this up occasionally to get an idea of what you all would like to see me review.  I’m open to trying anything – good, bad, fruity, sour, bitter, smoked, whatever.  So long as it’s beer.  My only request is that you give me some idea as to where I might find the beer you tell me to review.

Leave me a suggestion via the comment box.  Thanks!

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