This Month's Featured Beers - February 2010
DOM = Domestic Beer Club; INT = International Beer Club; VAR = Domestic International Variety Beer Club; RBC = Rare Beer Club
Please Note: Although we will make every attempt to ship the products listed, occasionally we may need to substitute them with equally outstanding beers. If you strongly desire to receive those listed, please contact us at 800-625-8238 so that we may note your account accordingly.
The product descriptions below are excerpts from our monthly newsletter. Click here to view it in its entirety.
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Friar’s Belgian-Style White Ale
The good Friar needs a good swirling to whip up the hefty sediment at the bottom of the glass—but you want to add that sediment to your glass when pouring to get the stylistically-appropriate look and full flavor characteristics that the brewer intended for this beer. A hard pour yields a cloudy butterscotch-colored beer capped by a frothy white head. On the nose we get a traditional Belgian Wit aroma: heavy on the coriander and orange peel notes with a wheaty twang and subtle sourness. The wheat aroma is very big on this brew! Also look for some leafy hops and herbal notes. This beer fills the mouth with rich wheaty flavors, full of the ‘twang’ so characteristic of the style and largely responsible for the very quenching nature that this style is known for. Look for some minor banana notes and apple skins as well as some thin caramel and biscuit notes as the beer warms, with bitter orange peel notes mingling with coriander and herbal, bitter hops. This beer has all the normal witbier notes, but is well-loaded with hops, giving it a domestic twist. Overall, a full-on wheat bomb that will go well with Brick or Edam cheese squares, or a Spinach and Feta omelet.
Serving Temperature: 45-50° F
Int'l Bittering Units: 16
Alcohol by Volume: 5.2%
Suggested Glassware: Pint Glass
Malts: 2-Row Pils, Wheat
Hops: Amarillo, Coriander, Orange Peel
A hoppy beer that is not shy about boasting its prowess, much like the Sheriff himself. Pours a burgundy orange color capped by an off-white, thick, sticky head. Expect bigly aromatic hops centered on floral, citrus notes. Note how the hoppy aromatics drift atop a big malt backbone, offering up wafts of caramel and a hint of gingerbread dough when combined with the spicy hops. Pine, orange rind, white grapefruit all come to mind. Quite mouthfilling—this is no light beer. And thank God. Watch for the hop bitterness to kick things off with a playful slap in the mouth, then things go all floral and bloomy, and then let up long enough for some sweetness from the malts to take center stage for only a moment before the hoppy bitterness unfurls anew, dropping a thick blanket of earthy bitterness all over the palate. Hops-a-plenty from the Sheriff of Hoppingham, er, Nottingham. This is a well-made IPA that will hold up against spicy chili (heavy on the cayenne and cracked black pepper).
Serving Temperature: 45-50° F
Int’l Bittering Units: 60
Alcohol by Volume: 6.3%
Suggested Glassware: Pint Glass
Malts: 2-Row Pils, Crystal, Wheat
Hops: Centennial, Cascade, Amarillo
A GABF 2001 Gold Medal winner, this brew yields a prominent aroma of fresh grains with some bready, caramelish notes, maple syrup, hints of coffee, a nutty-note similar to almonds, and just a kiss of spicy, citrusy hops. On the palate, expect a blend of lightly bitter hops, burnt toast, and above all, a rich, sweet, nutty character (think hazelnuts and almonds). There's a ghost note of coffee at the intro to the finish, which gives way to a back-of-the-tongue bitterness that balances the sweet malty notes through the fade. Lighter bodied but full of flavor. Enjoy with a cheese plate featuring aged gruyere, camembert, and morbier melted over pumpernickel bread wedges. If you're looking to improve your beer tasting experience, or if you're among our many members who hold regular beer (and food) tasting sessions with guests (yes, you are the life of the party!)—consider joining our Gourmet Cheese of the Month Club—cheese and microbrewed, flavorful beer complement one another extraordinarily well, better than wine and cheese according to many. Check out www.monthlyclubs.com for more details.
Serving Temperature: 45-50°F
Int’l Bittering Units: 44
Alcohol by Volume: 5.2%
Suggested Glassware: Pint Glass or Mug
Malts: 2-Row Pale, Black, Victory, Crystal, Chocolate
Hops: Columbus, Willamette
420 Extra Pale Ale was first brewed on April 20, 1997, hence the name… We'd bet a nickel and dime that's not the complete reason behind the name, but we can't confirm. We can, however, provide you with a nugget of trivia to impress your friends: the brewery was named after a local creek. This particular beer is a lighter-bodied West Coast style pale ale with aggressive hop character in the aroma, flavor and finish. Look for piney, resinous, grapefruit notes, flourishes of mangoes, passion fruit and Clementine oranges and a hint of hop spiciness. Some sweet caramel grains keep the hoppy aromatics in check in this very well balanced beer. Note how the bitter hops and sweet malt play off each other during the first few moments ultimately fading to let a semi-bitter finish take over. The hoppiness is a bit less citrusy than implied by the nose and actually offers up a slightly peppery spicy bitter bite, but this never runs amuck due to the malty backbone. A 2002 Silver Medal winner at the GABF, and great with lobster, mussels or clams. Superbly drinkable at any time of the day.
*Side Note: When mixed in equal proportions, the Georgia Brown and the 420 EPA combine to create a third very tasty beer with some of the hoppy aromatics of the EPA tempered by the Sweet Georgia Brown ale notes and the sweeter notes from the brown ale being sharpened a bit by the hoppy pale ale. Give it a try!
Serving Temperature: 40-45° F
Int'l Bittering Units: 40
Alcohol by Volume: 5.4%
Suggested Glassware: Pint Glass or Stange
Malts: 2-Row Pale, Crystal
Hops: Cascade, Centennial
Grupo Cervezas Alhambra—Granada, Andalucía Province, Spain (Southern Spain)
Note the Moorish lions on the label, a reminder of the regional heritage from where this beer is produced. This dark brown, reddish-hued lager presents a creamy, nutty nose, with caramel notes and a mild roasted malt character that is just all around inviting. Expect a creamy backbone and some slightly roasty, caramel notes, with a distinct flavor of dark rum. Look for subtle notes of anise and licorice, and enjoy the clean, caramel finish with lingering rum notes. Overall, Alhambra Negra is very pleasant beer that’s not too challenging but also possesses ample complexity to keep the connoisseurs interested. This dark lager will go down nicely with a variety of smoky, grilled meat dishes, particularly those with a Spanish or Catalonian flair. This is some of Spain’s best beer, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see this one on more shelves in the states as popularity grows with exposure. Enjoy it now while it’s still hard to find, and spread the word to your friends, especially those who appreciate beers on the darker side of the spectrum. Remember, sharing is caring!
Serving Temperature: 42-50°F
Alcohol by Volume: 5.4%
Suggested Glassware: Pint Glass, Pilsner Glass or Mug (clear or opaque)
Brouwerij De Koninck—Antwerp, Belgium (Flanders—Northern Belgium)
This Belgian pale ale is medium-amber in color with a crème-brûlée toned head. You may notice a hefty amount of sediment in the bottom of the bottle before you pour it. While it's a matter of personal taste, our panel members felt that for this style of beer, it was preferable not to swirl the bottle to rouse the sediment; we left about ¼ inch of beer behind in the bottle to achieve this. But we encourage you to do a side-by-side taste test: one from a bottle with the sediment roused and poured into the glass, one from a bottle that didn't have the sediment disturbed, and see which you prefer. There are no firm rules on this—again, it's a matter of doing what works best for you, your palate, and your aesthetic inclinations. Upon sniffing, the instant impression is “Belgian yeast”. That characteristically fruity, phenolic profile leaps out of the glass and screams “Belgian ale!” There are some minor floral, Noble hop aromas coming from the Saaz hops that are subdued by the sweet bready malts as well as a mild tart acidity. Look for notes of plum, red apples and black cherries. The Belgian yeastiness also emits a slightly spicy character, which couples with a gently spicy hop aroma in the background. The beer goes down with a multi-tiered flavor profile. First, sharp and bitter, then immediately soft and sweet, transitioning to fruity and floral and ending bready and rich. One really should allow a minimum of thirty seconds after taking the first sip to fully focus on the evolving flavor cascade before taking another sip. A re-sniff after sampling reveals notes of apple cider, a bit of which also comes through in the flavor profile. Along with apple comes notes of sweet green grapes and faint impressions of golden raisins. A somewhat powdery finish ensues, developing into flutters of floral tones and a gentle balancing Noble hop bitterness. One of the definitive examples of Belgian pale ale. This beer is deceptively complex. Go too quickly, and you risk speeding past its layered complexity. An impressive beer. Try pairing with whitefish and baked red-russet potatoes, heavy on the rosemary.
Serving Temperature: 45-50°F
Alcohol by Volume: 5.2%
Suggested Glassware: Goblet or Pint Glass
De Proef Brouwerij (The Professor Brewery)—Lochristi, Belgium (Northern Central Belgium)
Flemish Primitive Wild Ale 2008 Special Vintage Reserve
This baby has been “cooking” in the bottle, undergoing a tertiary or quaternary fermentation (it was fermented two, possibly three times before leaving the brewery) for over two years now. If your sample has been sitting, cooling for a while after receipt, then it won’t blow up on you when you pop the cork, however, the pressure loss will permit the C02 to come out of solution and the beer will send its froth out of the bottle on its own, looking for you, ready or not… so have your glass ready after you pop it and start your pour right away. The beer appears a rather hazy golden butterscotch color with a tight-bubbled sticky head clinging to the sides of the glass as it decays from towering heights. It greets the nose with a complex blend of tart citrus, currants, honeyed malts, faint Brett funk (some barn and beef broth notes), and a multitude of spices. Despite the reduction in finishing hops and inclusion of a gruit spice mix, this beer still manages to smell quite a bit like a traditionally-hopped Belgian farmhouse ale—impressive since there are so many alternative ingredients in the gruit blend. Notes of heather, yarrow and spruce come to mind. But it’s on the palate that the gruit influence becomes apparent. Expectedly, the beer goes down on the spicier side—much of it actually due to the very active yeast strains used to ferment this beer. What’s really different though is that it doesn’t follow the normal 3-stage progression of start, middle and finish. We found that it almost instantly strikes with its opening flavor profile, and that profile holds steady until the flavor fades over a very lengthy period as more complex spices and stemmy, root-like, fruit rind bitterness grip the tongue and don’t let go. Expect some floral elements to develop as well, with the bitterness hitting mid-to-back of the tongue and not quite like the bitterness you expect from hops. As it begins to warm, look for notes of spearmint, ginger, spruce, lemon seeds (as in that deep, woody, root-like bitter bite you get from chewing on them), mugwort (bog myrtle), juniper, and perhaps some caraway. As it warms further, the botanicals will continue to grow, and a bit of faint smoked malts peak through, which when paired with the minty qualities, suggest an almost mentholated tobacco quality. At full warmth, look for notes of nearly spoiled orange juice, like a low-budget Vegas mimosa. Ah Brettanomyces, you crazy drunken buffet-loving beast. Remarkably, for a lesser-hopped beer, the bitterness is harder to shake than some of the most imperial of IPAs we’ve had… The aroma hops are very faint since the gruit is added late in the brewing process in place of aroma hops, but the bitterness is huge—if a bit late-breaking. Overall, a fascinating beer that you should horde. Pair with authentic preparations of Chicken Franchaise, Veal Piccata with pickled capers, or some fully loaded Dolmas.
Serving Temperature: 50-55° F
Alcohol by Volume: 9.0%
Style: No existing style describes this beer, but if you want to label it something, try “Belgian Strong, Lightly Smoked, Wild Gruit Ale”
Suggested Glassware: Tulip, Pewter Mug or Ideally, a Leather Drinking Vessel
Saint Somewhere Brewing Company—Tarpon Springs, Florida, USA (Western coast of Central Florida)
The reference to Athena, goddess of Wisdom and War, is actually a discreet nod to Tarpon Springs and Florida. Tarpon Springs has the highest percentage of Greek-Americans of any city in the US—so a beer with a Greek theme is perfectly at home here. But there’s also a more subtle subtext: the Burrowing Owl, scientific name Athene cunicularia, endangered in most other areas of the country where it once flourished, is not quite endangered in Florida—a fact well known by Bob’s wife who is a Florida Master Naturalist. Working the local/Florida theme—nothing wrong with being proud of your home!
Saison Athene pours a sunny, orange color, befitting a Floridian brew, topped with a massive mousse-like off-white froth that literally ‘sticks around’ for quite a while. Despite being brewed in a small industrial space on Florida’s west coast, this beer smells Farmhouse fresh. Perhaps the only giveaway is that it’s not as ‘barnyardy’ as many Saison examples out there—but this is in part due to the fact that we are reviewing a ‘young’ sample of this beer. The Brett is added at bottling time and its funk-inducing character will yield a more ‘wild-smelling’ beer as it matures. As a style, Saison seems to come in two basic categories—the funky, horse-blanket type, and the freshly-hopped “barnyard IPA”—both retain a superb drinkability as a hallmark feature. This one we’d have to put in the latter category (when young), as it’s hopped with bigly aromatic, peppery, spicy hops, but Bob tells us that even at two years in the bottle, the beer still drinks great and will have developed plenty of funk, if that’s your thing! Expect notes of savory spice; the rosemary does make its way into the aroma, but it’s coddled by a hoppy bosom. As it warms, look for woody notes, almost like cedar but more reminiscent of sandalwood incense, fleshy orange, white grapefruit, faint cracked pepper and an overall yeasty spiciness. Kicks off mildly sweet, with a bit of tartness quickly replacing the sweetness and then evolving to deeply dry bitterness—what a ride! Fresh herbal hops evoke the impression of wet-hopping, which, we imagine, wasn’t unheard of in the brewing of farmhouse ales. There’s a spicy character that calls to mind the aromatic bite that you get in thick, raw carrots—difficult to describe, but you’ll know it when you taste it (try it—carrots are good for ya…). Our tasting panel experienced quite a remarkable procession of sensations, persisting beyond the usual duration of the finish as this beer has a very long-lasting fade where the spices have the last say—the chamomile, rosemary, and the very spicy yeast strain work in tandem with a high level of carbonation to leave behind a gentle nipping on the tongue and lips not unlike what you might expect from raw ginger. Like the nose, the finish gives more of the sandalwood notes, all the while a cornucopia of fruit notes offering peach, apricot, apple and orange fluttering about on the palate. There are virtually no obvious alcohol notes, yet there is a bit of warming in the belly. Lemony. Woody. Herbal. Spicy. Lingering. Leaves an impression, that’s for sure. Masterfully pleasant with some obvious, and many subtle, complexities. Pair with roasted lamb or chicken, prepared with some thyme and rosemary.
This beer will age nicely, with some of the latent spicy notes mellowing out over time if it happens to be a bit too “hot” for you now (hot as in the spice-levels, not the alcohol). Bob tells us that the color develops into a deeper golden hue, with increased levels of Brett and, almost paradoxically, it manages to get richer over time instead of drying out. Bob says you can age this beauty for at least two years—if you can handle the wait… Better pick up some extra bottles this month!
Serving Temperature: 48-55° F
Alcohol by Volume: 7.5%
Style: Saison spiced with Chamomile, Rosemary and Black Pepper
Suggested Glassware: Tulip or Oversized Wine Glass
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