Bottle Beer Tour 2: The Rebottling

It's Thanksgiving this week, so I have a little bit of time to settle in at home, eat the hell out of some food and crack open a few beers that I've collected from around the country.    So to that end, I present the Bottle Beer Tour, part 2.


Dogfish Head Brewery
Midas' Touch:  Ancient Ale made after anyallisis of clay pots in Midas' temple.  Sweet and white wine aroma.  Has more in common with a mead then a beer.  It's slightly sweet with a honey, citrus sour fruity taste.







Great Lakes Brewing
Elliot Ness:  Pours copper-colored and transparant.  Aroma has some caramel and dark fruit notes along with honey malt.  Smooth mouthfeel with a bit body.  Very malty with some slight herbal bitterness at the back.

New Planet Brewery
 Off the Grid Pale Ale  (Gluten Free):  Gluten Free beers have always concerned me on a very primal level.  It's the idea that someone is making beer without something that should be in the beer, something that might make it extra special tasty.  That being said, I am almost certain that I have had gluten free beers before without knowing it, and may not have even sensed a difference.
This beer pours transparent copper and has a floral pine hop aroma.  It starts off hoppy and bitter with hints of citrus and pine.  After that... well it get's more bitter.  The citrus and floral hops fade away leaving a deep medicinal bitterness.


Lucky Bucket Brewing
Snowsuit Belgian Ale

A seasonal beer from my local brewery.  It has a spicy, clove and citrus nose to it.  Flavor is just slightly spicy with hints of  caramel and dark fruits.  It finishes just slightly dry and kind of light.  Very drinkable for a winter beer, but this is one where I like the aroma more then the flavor.  The aroma reminds me of a spiced winter ale featured in the Joy of Homebrewing, but the flavor doesn't come through as much.


Cheers

Survivor: Harrisburg Pennsylvania

This weeks selection is an American classic, a remnant from a time when every town and city would have a couple local breweries.  Of course, from the records put forth in this blog, one could argue that time has come again.  Whatever, that was then, this is now and now we are talking about Lancaster Brewery.

The current brewery takes its cues from a brewing tradition that comes from the  backrooms and cellars of inns and taverns as far back as the 1700s.  German immigrants flooded the county with old world beer styles and built a brewing tradition that became famous in it's own right.   A columnist for the Daily Intelligencer in 1868 said, "Lancaster in America occupies the same position that Munich does in Germany in regards to the brewing industry.
 
 Prohibition and the rise of commercial breweries largely wiped out the brewing industry in Lancaster county until the microbrew revolution provided a good enough excuse to dip into old brewing traditions.

That being said... I didn't get to see the brewery itself what with being forced to actually work while travelling.   Stupid job.  Just because they pay all the expenses and give me a paycheck, they think they can monopolize my time with work.  

Whatever. 

I was lucky enough to have a brewpub next to my hotel in Harrisburg, so... you know, close enough.

Celtic Rose:  Very drinkable Irish red ale.  It has a slight berry citrus aroma.  It starts off sweet with notes of berry citrus and caramel.  Pine hops come in later providing a hint of bitterness.

Fest Beer:  There is still time to catch the last of the octoberfest beers before they disappear for another year.  This beer has a very light spicy aroma.  I taste the spice along with the malt.  It moves to herbal hops and finishes quite dry.   

Lancaster Lager: A amber lager reminiscent of Sam Adams Boston Lager.  It has a light sweet caramel aroma and a lot of roasted flavors.  It ends with very light hops in back.

Gold Star Pilsner: If you are one of those people who walk into a microbrewery looking for something like a Budwieser... well first, what the Holy Hell is wrong with you?  Second, you're probably not going to like this.  No aroma really. There's a flash of fruit sweetness detectable right off the top before its engulfed in a mass of pine flavored hops.  The bitterness is pretty big.  Not overpowering, but more than I would expect. 

Amish 4 Grain: You've had a wheat beer, right?  Sure you have.  An oatmeal stout?  Perfect winter beer.  Rye beer?  It's a slowly emerging style, but gaining some rapid ground.  Have you had all of them at the same time?  [Pauses while your mind blows]  The result of four adjunct grains learning to play nice is rather unique.  There is no aroma to speak of.   The flavor has  some fruity strawberry peach sweetness.  That flavor rises and falls quickly leaving pine herbal hops.  

Strawberry Wheat:  One of the things they pride themselves for, as I mentioned earlier, was an adherence to old world traditions including the Reinheitsgebot, a German purity law that states only malt, hops, yeast and water can be used to make beer.  Note that strawberries are not on this list.  It would been a good question to ask while I was at the brewery, but I was busy drinking.  Besides, it I probably wouldn't have gotten an answer and pissed off the bartender in the process, so we'll just leave this as a mystery for now.  This beer had the same caramel sweet aroma I got on the lager.  Sweet, fizzy mouthfeel. Lots of strawberry and floral flavors. 

Country Cream Ale:  I would like to note that lactose, a crucial ingredient for a cream ale is not on the Reinheitsgebot list either.  It has a sweet aroma that made me think of peaches and cream.

The flavor is very bitter with caramel notes and complete with a creamy mouthfeel.  I pick up some floral hops in the back.   It starts off really light and slightly sweet.  

Winter Warmer: A seasonal old ale offering from the brewery.  I don't mention color much, but this beer's transparent dark ruby color is beautiful.  It has no aroma to speak of, but lots of berry chocolate some pine and herbs in the hops.  

Milk Stout: I'm starting to really question their supposed commitment to German purity laws.  Still, this beer has a wonderful coffee toffee aroma, though honestly I like the aroma more than the flavor.  There just isn't a lot there.  Some coffee, roasted barley and a very bitter aftertaste.  For the style.

Hop Hog: The obligatory IPA from Lancaster.  It has a citrus floral aroma with just a hint of caramel.  Amazingly drinkable for a beer containing as many hops as this claims to.  The northwest floral hops are well balanced with the malt and produce something very nice.

I finally get a chance to rest, relax and remain in the same time zone for more then a couple days.  Next week, barring something unexpected I'll be dipping into my bottled beer collection

Until then, Cheers!

Back for More: Detroit, Michigan

Well..., I'm back in the motor city again.  The good news is that fact that I find a new place to get a couple beers every time I come here.  So this week it's Fort Street Brewing.

Fort Street is actually a short drive south from Detroit proper in the town of Lincoln Park.  Last week we talked about Dhestil, a microbrewery with really good food and beer complete with an almost pretentious aura about themselves as evidence by their maverick spelling of a word that has nothing to do with what happens at the brewery.

This place is the opposite of that.

This place is more neighborhood bar and grill.  More relaxing, more kick back and throw back several beers with friends.  For example, I tend to gloss over the brewery descriptions of their beers.  It can be valuable information for more eccentric beers, but often it's just what the brewer wants be to think of his beers, and I may respectfully disagree.

Here, they are worth a look for the entertainment value alone.  For example:

"Supermassive Black Hole of Deliciousness (The name of the beer alone is pretty awesome): A rye stout made with Michigan tart cherries.  Now before you go go off and say, "I'm a man!  I don't drink fruit beer;" shush!  Don't speak!  Not all fruit beers are sweet.  This beer starts chocolaty, with just a hint of tartness in the finish.  So man up!"

They didn't actually have this one on tap when I was there, which is kind of a shame.  I really wanted to try it.

The downside... okay the beers aren't as good.  They are not bad.  One bordered on undrinkable, for me at least, but not bad.  The food is really good, fairly inexpensive and interesting. I had Pierogies & Bratwurst which, if you've never had pierogies before are like little cheesy potato dumplings.  Pretty awesome.  On to the beer:

American Style Lager:  It has a slight lemon aroma and a little more hoppiness throughout, but basically a Budweiser clone.

Doug's Turbo Sarsaparilla:  This is a root beer flavored beer.  I think someone once asked me if something like this is possible.  Well, now I have proof.  The aroma is pure root beer.  The flavor is not as good as I thought it would be.  Root beer flavor starts off strong with a fizzy mouthfeel but the it just vanishes.  I'm sitting there almost thinking, "Hey!  I wasn't done with that!"  Not a bad beer, just.... Meh.

Burning Leaf:  This is the breweries obligatory octoberfest beer.  No aroma to speak of, very bitter for the style.  There are some malts at the beginning, but it finishes very dry and bitter.  Slight herbal hops flavor but mostly just bitter.  No flavor just that heavy, back-of-the-throat feel.

Downriver:  Again, no aroma to speak of.  It starts off big and malty and then it just deflates.  Just like the root beer beer, the flavor hits and runs leaving a slight dry herbals bitter flavor in its wake.

Up North Rye Pilsner:  Toasted caramel aroma here.  For a pilsner, this beer is loaded with flavors.  I imagine that pilsner purist would probably scream and yell, but you can't argue with the results.   There is berry fruit flavors on top, then it slides in to caramel.  Ends with medicinal hop flavors.

Chocolate porter: Slight coffee aroma.  Smooth mouthfeel with lots of chocolate.  It was like a glass of hot cocoa... except not hot.  And some very slight roasted notes and hop flavors, but mostly like cocoa.

SIPA:  Starts with a very very light hop aroma. Remember the beer I said was near, undrinkable... here it is. Not a hop bomb as much as a hop flood.  Piney at times but is mostly strait up bitter.  A spoon full of alpha acids.   The flavor rises and rises, like biting into a hot pepper.   It's good at first, then it starts getting a little too bitter, you make a face and finally you swear never to drink this beer again.

Count Chocula : Very light chocolate in the aroma. In the flavor the chocolate malts mixes with some pretty powerful herbal and pine hops.  Different from most chocolate porters, but the flavors clash more then they compliment.

Backyard IPA:  This one was by far my favorite.  It has a very light wine aroma.  The flavor is like slightly sweet hoppy wine.  Piney, herbal hops kind of mix and enhance the citrusy sweet flavors present in the beer.  Apparently the flavor comes from a hop I must find.