Interesting Beer Info Archives - Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club

Beyond the Bottle: The Summer of Hoppy Sours

July 15, 2019 by Ken Weaver

It’s harder to pinpoint beer trends these days, when anything not bolted down gets tossed in the fermenter. But the coalescence of kettle sours and hazy IPAs certainly have this summer looking like a peak moment for hoppy sours. I’ll limit my disparagement of kettle sours (got that out of my system last month!) and head right on into the folks that are doing combos of hoppy and tartness well. If you’re digging that August Schell Basin of Attraction—go forth.

New Belgium’s Le Terroir is one of the old-school examples that sent a lot of us down this road. It’s a dry-hopped sour ale that sees long-term aging in oak foeders, before getting dry-hopped with Amarillo and Strata, and I still remember tracking this one down in Boulder a decade back: tropical, grassy, beautifully handled throughout. Almanac Beer Co. out here in NorCal has done a bunch of “Hoppy Sour” releases, with recent takes including Strawberry Hopcake (featuring a mélange of fruits, plus Sabro, Citra and Cashmere hops) and Tropical Galaxy (a Brett-focused foeder beer with a hefty dry-hop of Galaxy). Cantillon’s Cuvee des Champions and Iris are dry-hopped classics—if you can find them. And Crooked Stave, De Garde, and Prairie have also each released a variety of hoppy + sour options as of late.

Got a hoppy-sour beer you’ve been digging? Chime in on Twitter via @RareBeerClub.

Beyond the Bottle: The Lambic Life for Me

June 15, 2019 by Ken Weaver

Over the past five years or so, give or take, kettle sours have served to shift how people think about “sour beers.” Ten years ago, sour beer would more likely have been a mixed-fermentation example: a Belgian lambic, maybe, or a non-Belgian riff on lambic, probably aged in oak, probably for months or years. The yeast and bacteria involved in these complex fermentations take their sweet time. But with the rise of quick- or kettle-souring techniques, in which a firm presence of lactic acid is created basically overnight (by various means, only some of which involve yogurt), brewers can churn out lemony-tart “sour beers” super fast.

Except… they usually aren’t like the beers that made this space interesting in the first place.

If you dig kettle sours: that’s great. As the beer world expands, there’s a beer for everyone at this point—and that part’s cool as hell. But it also means there is more stuff that’s gonna be well outside of one’s wheelhouse. I love hazies, and loathe milkshake IPAs. I was grateful to see the doubly-coarse abomination that was black IPA meet an early end. And I honestly do not get the ongoing presence of one-note kettle sours—which felt like a bad idea years ago.

Once I remove the kids from my lawn, and once that massive cartooning windfall comes in (still waiting), I plan to fill the garage with lambic. The upside of kettle sours, for me and my wife, and frankly the majority of our peeps out here, is we can now magically find lambic on the shelves of California (albeit at sub-magical prices). Some of my favorite beer experiences have been from sour beers that take years to develop and benefit from careful blending skills that aren’t on the back of a yogurt container. I hope kettle sours continue to improve; there are definitely some Berliner-esque weisses and pseudo-goses that come across well. But, for now, I want nothing to do with that 9% sour IPA with pluot puree. The lambic life for me.

Beyond the Bottle: Dry, Bitter, Belgian

May 15, 2019 by Ken Weaver

In chatting with Garden Path’s Ron Extract about this month’s featured The Garden Paths Led to Flowered, he mentioned XX Bitter from Belgium’s Brouwerij De Ranke as being a point of inspiration for it. If you haven’t yet crossed paths with XX Bitter, it’s more bitter and expressive in its show of herbaceous, grassy hops than one would expect from a 6% blonde. And it’s also basically the perfect sort of beer for repeated pints: layered, not numbingly bitter, crisp with depth.

It was a bit easier to get hold of fresh XX Bitter and the similarly poised Taras Boulba (from Brasserie de La Senne) back when living in DC, as the fresh import options are a bit patchier these days in California. Our tasting crew in DC sought out these beers and any adjacent kin: Orval, De La Senne’s Zinnebir, Thiriez Extra (from France), Jolly Pumpkin’s Bam Biere… In basic terms: potent hops, but more traditionally noble/herbal/floral—plus supportive yeast.

Hoppy Belgian blonde… Belgian pale ale/IPA… Buncha overlapping terms for this general space. The Rare Beer Club has previously highlighted De Ranke’s XXX Bitter, an amped-up version of XX Bitter with 50% more hops. Up here in Sonoma County, some of the closer alternatives are session options like Redemption or, with a more neutral yeast, Aud Blond from Russian River—but still not quite that hop density + yeast combo of something like XX Bitter.

Have a dry, bitter, Belgian-inclined beer you’re digging? Chime in on Twitter via @rarebeerclub.

Beyond the Bottle: More Beers with Tea

April 15, 2019 by Ken Weaver

One of the two featured craft beers in The Rare Beer Club this month is Brasserie Dunham’s Pale Duck, a dry-hopped and tea-infused saison that has Dan Cong oolong tea added just prior to botting. Eloi and company over at Brasserie Dunham wanted to develop a new beer with tea based on one of their core offerings, Leo’s Early Breakfast IPA: a collaboration with Anders Kissmeyer that includes guava and Earl Grey tea atop a more traditional IPA framework. At least one beer made with tea has been featured in the Rare Beer Club previously, as some of the club’s long-time members may recall Biere de Goord: Jolly Pumpkin’s green-tea saison.

Best Tea Beers

If you’re enjoying Pale Duck, or just curious about beers with tea to try, you’ll likely have a few options available nearby.

Sah’tea by Dogfish Head Brewery

Dogfish Head’s Sah’tea, which originally debuted back in 2009, was probably my first tea beer (as was true for a lot of folks), although it’s been bit since this one’s seen a bottling. Modeled after a Finnish beer from the 9^th century, the wort for Sah-tea is “caramelized over white-hot river rocks,” and uses foraged juniper berries and black tea.

Hopfentea by Perennial Artisanal Ales

A more frequent appearance, Perennial’s Hopfentea is a 4.2% Berliner Weisse-style ale steeped on a house-made tropical tea blend, including hibiscus, lemongrass, mango, and papaya.

Magic Ghost by Brasserie Fantôme

And Fantôme’s Magic Ghost specifically incorporates green tea in its funky and strong Belgian ale framework. (And now that I look it up… It was featured by The Rare Beer Club way back in 2011.)

Lots of breweries are experimenting with different types of tea as of late. Got a local beer option made with tea you’re digging? Let us know what’s good on Twitter via @RareBeerClub.

Beyond the Bottle: Revisiting Weizenbocks

March 15, 2019 by Ken Weaver

It has been at least a few years since the Rare Beer Club featured a weizenbock as one of its featured selections. The most recent example I dug up was Meantime Brewing Co.’s Limited Edition Weizen Double Bock, which the club featured back in August 2014. This style, as is true for many of the more out-there traditional beer styles in the world, has tended to find more frequent expression outside its country of origin (although many of the tastiest classic examples of the weizenbock space still definitely come from Germany). But the fact that the club’s 2014 weizenbock example was from England—and this newest one from Les Trois Mousquetaires in Quebec—kinda echoes the general state of the weizenbock style overall.

The history of weizenbock generally traces its lineage back to Schneider Aventinus, which was introduced by famed weissbier producer Private Weissbierbrauerei G. Schneider & Sohn in Bavaria back in 1907. That said… writer K. Florian Klemp noted in the (since-defunct) All About Beer Magazine that bock used wheat way back in the pre-Reinheitsgebot 14^th century; in that frame, this combo of wheat + strong malty beer has at least been explored a bit before. For modern drinkers: I’ll say that these beers are some of my favorite to seek out, combining the fluffy, toasty contributions of wheat with that rich, malty focus of a bock or doppelbock.

If you’re digging the Les Trois Mousquetaires example, there’s a decent chance you’ll be able to find some other weizenbocks locally. Aventinus, Weihenstephaner’s Vitus, and Ayinger’s Weizenbock are worth checking out and on the more readily available side. My personal fav in this general space is probably The Livery’s Bourbon Barrel Aged Wheat Trippelbock from Michigan—which clearly takes everything up a few notches. Have a local weizenbock you’re digging, or a fav classic? Let the club know what’s tasting good on Twitter: @RareBeerClub.

Beyond the Bottle: Seasonal Fixtures

December 15, 2018 by Ken Weaver

Not that we could use any comfort, but the semi-solid firmament of winter seasonals can be pretty reassuring. Over the course of a year, there aren’t too many seasonal beer releases that I still keep up with, which I think makes me busy and normal. With so many signals firing in beer and beyond, I’m just not getting into seasonal habits as often as I used to. My wife and I got into snagging around February each year—back when we lived on the east coast within distribution range. Victory’s Summer Love, a golden ale that’s right up there with Firestone Walker’s 805 for us, remains a summertime staple. And we typically snag Sierra Nevada’s annual Oktoberfest collabs. Beyond that… it’s mostly winter seasonals.

Between picking out things to share with family over the holidays and/or just having things to look forward to as we head into drearier months (though appreciating the rain in NorCal at the moment), one tends to make deeper attachments to end-of-year seasonals. We picked up a case of Sierra Nevada Celebration as soon as it hit shelves, as we do. Ditto for a sixpack of Anchor’s annually tweaked Christmas ale. Going forward, any seasonal habits we pick up will probably be at our go-to breweries here in Sonoma County. Have you been keeping up with seasonals the way you used to? Which winter releases are you still looking forward to each year? Let us know what’s been hitting the spot over on Twitter via @RareBeerClub.

5 Beer Holiday Traditions
That You Should Embrace

November 27, 2018 by Kris Calef

Tradition #1: Pick a kick-ass holiday seasonal beer and hoist that baby every year when you’re hanging your lights

Let’s face it, hanging lights sucks. It’s a cold, lonely, and thankless job, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Each year, I put down 3-4 bottles of Anchor’s Christmas Ale, which more than likely makes a 2-hour job into a 3-hour job, but ever since I started this tradition, I look forward to hanging those babies. This year, a good buddy donated some aged samples for the cause, and I have some going back as far as 2005, so it may be a 5-hour job when it’s all said and done.

Our legal team would like us to inform you that MonthlyClubs.com® and The Rare Beer Club® in no way endorse drinking while hanging Christmas lights, i.e. don’t be climbing any ladders with a few winter warmers in your gullet!

Tradition #2: Share a massive ABV, barrel-aged beer with someone who claims to not like beer

I love doing this, and as a member of The Bruery’s Reserve Society for a couple of years, far too often I’d bust out some variation for Black Tuesday, their 19-20%+ ABV bourbon-barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout, on some unsuspecting non-believer. Most are shocked and had no idea that beer could be so good. It’s fun. Give it a try.

Tradition #3: Buy & drink five new holiday seasonal beers you’ve never tried

This one may be a no-brainer and add no value to the reader what so ever, but I felt inclined to point out the obvious. We’ve all got our favorite go-to’s. Set sail from that safe harbor and challenge your palate a bit on a couple of styles. Maybe plan to drink one each Friday leading up to the 25^th…Or whenever you’re thirsty. You can even make it fun by creating a Craft Beer Advent Calendar stuffed with holiday and winter beer styles you’ve never tried.

Tradition #4: Find one of your favorite holiday beers on draft at a cool bar and kick it with your favorite peeps

I used to live on Balboa Island in my 20s and we’d hit this sweet beach bar called The Saloon on the Peninsula every year in late November to lap up many, many pints of Anchor’s Christmas Ale over few games of darts and pool. It doesn’t get much better. Damn, Anchor’s getting some good press outta me today.

Tradition #5: Buy a magnum of something cool and bring it to a party

So this one has the benefit of not only making you look like some kind of super stud when you show up with a magnum in hand when everyone else is sporting a bottle of wine, but also ensures that you’ll be drinking good beer for at least the first 2-3 beers…Stay close to the prize.

Do all five traditions, Grasshopper, and it is time for you to leave… the year behind.

Prost!
Kris