Brewing News

BRING THIS OUT: Pelican The Perfect Storm 2008

The Perfect Storm was renamed Mother of All Storms in 2010, and the name’s not the only thing that’s changed about this bourbon-barrel-aged, English-style barleywine: After three years in our cellar, the once hot brew turned luscious. A slight booziness tickles the nose as sweet caramel and cherry scents pair with refined tobacco and almonds. A slick, sherrylike mouthfeel carries elegant aged notes across the tongue; a sweet caramel base pulls dark cherries, vanilla, tobacco and pepper together. Despite this beer’s age, alcohol still snakes through its cohesive ensemble of scents and flavors, and while it could rest for another year or two, The Perfect Storm’s swell seems to be at its peak.

LAY THIS DOWN: Widmer Barrel Aged Brrrbon ’11

This bourbon-barrel-aged version of Brrr Seasonal Ale (a hopped-up amber) is like a race through the mouth among four contestants: citrusy hops, bready malts, woody tannins and spicy, hot bourbon. Tasted fresh, it’s a palate pleaser, but after a year in the cellar its threads will fuse into a rich profile. The bright orange hop notes will fade, but Brrrbon will emerge with more developed barrel notes: Likely, coconut and vanilla will accent pronounced caramel sweetness, while the bourbon’s heat will bow to a pleasant peppery spice. Put one away this winter, and you’ll have a stunning barrel-aged beer waiting next year.

Black Chocolate Stout is one of the most anticipated seasonals released each winter—but here’s a bit of information most people find stunning: No chocolate was added to this beer. Instead, the Brooklyn team carefully blends an array of dark malts to achieve its bold chocolate flavor. Find out what other flavors you can expect from this delicious imperial stout as we open it up for a sampling.

I love a good black IPA, and it just so happens this new offering from Hopworks is a great black IPA. Perhaps a bit lighter on the dark malts than other varieties out there, this beer still nails what the style is all about: It drinks like a robust IPA, but with a bit more malt weight to brace the intense hop presence.

At its peak, the Eichinger family in rural northeast Wisconsin was more than 20 strong. There was Tim and Toni, their son Jake, and a slew of colorful characters: Lothar, the bitterest of the brood; Creek, the family’s hard-nosed staff sergeant; Doris, the sweetheart; and Howler, the cool-headed womanizer. These other family members were of the four-legged variety: The Eichingers once owned a sled dog kennel in Pembine, Wis., which is now more of a retirement home for huskies in their twilight. But these old dogs still inspire Tim when he rolls up his sleeves in the brewery adjacent to the kennel. The brewery itself is named for Howler, the philandering black husky who Tim says “owned him,”and each beer is a representation of one of the Eichingers’ litter. Take Lothar, the acerbic dog prone to biting, who is naturally the face of Black Husky’s Sproose Joose II IPA, a bitter, high-alpha beer made with local spruce tips.

The kennel has slowed recently, but the nanobrewery is ramping up: This year, the Eichingers will quadruple their capacity with a 5-barrel system, expand their line of 22-ounce bottled beers and release a smoked beer and an imperial red—inspired by dogs Smoki and Harold, respectively.  –Christopher Staten

The newest seasonal offering from New Glarus isn’t quite a traditional English IPA, nor is it the West Coast variety. Drink with us as we try to figure out what makes this a Wisconsin IPA.

Three spots where the beeriness is godliness.

McMenamins Old Church & Pub

Northwest brewpub powerhouse McMenamins’ newest location makes patrons feel like saying “hallelujah.” A brewery located in the 100-year-old Wilsonville church’s basement serves up the spirit by the pint with staples like Terminator Stout and Hammerhead poured in an open-air amphitheater that hosts movies and live music throughout the week.

Church Brew Works

Religion can be transformative; the founders of Church Brew Works took that to heart when they meticulously renovated St. John’s of Pittsburgh into a microbrewery. A bar constructed of old pews, grand pillars converted from confessionals and a brew house smack in the middle of the altar almost make you feel blasphemous for enjoying a Pipe Organ Pale Ale or a Pious Monk Dunkel—almost.

Sierra Nevada

It’s a story worthy of a sermon: The 800-year-old remnants of the Santa Maria de Ovila monastery, dismantled and shipped from Spain to America by William Randolph Hearst, are now in the deserving hands of the Abbey of New Clairvaux monks. With the help of Sierra Nevada, the monks have come up with Ovila Abbey Ales, a dubbel, saison and quad brewed in conjunction with the seasons that help fund the reconstruction of this historical vestige.

You may have caught my post earlier this week regarding spruce tip beer. The verdict? I like them. A lot. Harpoon’s newest 100 Barrel series beer, Vermont Spruce Tip, is a great example. Rich, thick pine fuses with caramel and tangerine for a beer worth contemplating.

Don’t be fooled by the name: This isn’t a nutmeg and allspice IPA, but an English-style IPA that balances nuanced malt notes with a great hop bite.

If you stay three nights in Fairbanks, Alaska, you have an 80 percent chance of seeing the Northern Lights. Also known as Aurora Borealis (Aurora is the Roman goddess of dawn; Borea is the Greek name for the north wind), the ribbons of green and red light that twirl across the sky seem otherworldly, but really, it’s just science: Particles from the magnetosphere and solar wind collide with photons in the earth’s upper atmosphere, and result in streams of colored light. And because Fairbanks sits within the Auroral Oval—an arctic zone that’s so chilly, the skies are almost always clear—the city’s a particularly stellar spot to take in the show.

The best time to view the Aurora falls smack-dab in the middle of Alaska’s notorious winters, when the skies are good and dark. If your human instinct to stay warm outweighs your desire to see the lights, you’re in luck: Most Fairbanks hotels offer Aurora Borealis wake-up calls. For the heartier set, Sirius Sled Dogs leads a nighttime mush, followed by a gathering in the outfitter’s private cabin for a fireside dinner and light viewing while the pups howl. Or hit the wilderness on a one-, three- or six-hour snowmobile tour beneath the night sky. Perhaps the most luxurious way to view the lights is from Chena Hot Springs Resort’s natural rock lake, where the steamy, mineral-rich water and the green rivers in the sky remind you just how awesome Mother Nature really is.

BREWERY STOP: Just outside Fairbanks in Fox, Alaska, lies Silver Gulch Brewing & Bottling, the country’s northernmost beer maker. At the brewery, grab a growler of specialties like Hardpack (an oatmeal-wheat stout tweaked with coriander, orange peel and Belgian yeast and spiked with local espresso), or pick up a sixer of the easy-drinking, Vienna-style Fairbanks Lager.

Trust us, you’ve never had a stout like this before. Using its house saison yeast, Belgium’s DuPont has crafted one of the most effervescent, refreshing stouts we’ve ever sipped. Drink along as we take a look at this new ground-breaking beer.

For $150, two cooperative breweries make the dream of owning a brewery (well, part of one) a reality.

Austin, Texas

BLACK STAR CO-OP

The nation’s first brewery co-op began in 2006 with an idea and 17 beer drinkers; today, the sleek brewpub boasts nearly 3,000, a local-conscious menu (the toffee-coated beer nuts alone are worth joining for) and a slew of taps and kegs ranging from basic to wild. A $150 lifetime member/owner share affords voting power, eligibility for a board of directors seat, special members-only events and other perks, but the real benefit is influencing brewmaster Jeff Young’s lineup: Owners brainstorm in regular “design forums” that produce specialties like the seasonal Elba, a spiced wheat. blackstar.coop

Seattle

FLYING BIKE CO-OP

Flying Bike’s model is similar to Black Star’s—a $150 lifelong membership/ownership provides voting rights, committee eligibility, special events and swag—but beer-making classes and recipe contests (winners get their brew on tap) sweeten the deal for homebrewers. The future brewery-taproom already has 400-plus members; the first beers will pour in late 2012. flyingbike.coop

Co-op: A business that’s jointly owned, operated and democratically controlled by its open membership.

Homebrew pint glasses remind everyone that what they’re sipping can’t get any fresher. $60 for eight, etsy.com/shop/vital

Mark ever-changing homebrew kegs with Tap Boards, hand-made from wood with an erasable chalkboard face. $40, tapboards.com

Rogue’s Hazelnut Brown Nectar homebrew kit packs everything you need to brew a clone of the brewery’s rich, nutty brown ale in one box. $53, rogue.com (And win it here!)

BottleMark Design makes custom bottle caps using photos and logos uploaded by you and a first-of-its-kind digital printing process that can print 1 cap or 1,000 with no color limits. 12 cents each, bottlemark.com

An Idaho design studio customizes these waterproof labels (you pick the text and colors). Bonus: The heavy-duty labels are self-adhesive (read: no glue!) and have notch-able “enjoy by” months. $85 for 50, girlingearstudio.com

BIG TICKET ITEM: Turn a hobby homebrewer semi-pro with a MoreBeer! BrewSculpture; the one-pump Tippy model features a mash tun that tips over to remove spent grain, no heavy lifting required. From $2,500, morebeer.com

Brooklyn Brewery’s illustrious brewmaster Garrett Oliver edits The Oxford Companion to Beer, a comprehensive reference guide/encyclopedia to all things brewed; chef Tom Colicchio lends an introduction. An essential for any beer lover’s shelf. Oxford University Press, $65

Beer journalist Joshua M. Bernstein tackles every movement in beer today from nano to gluten-free to gypsy with well-written tasting notes, exclusive interviews and serious (but digestible) beer smarts in the notebook-style Brewed Awakening. Sterling, $25

Hilarious and heartwarming, Jeremy Cowan’s Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah, an autobiographical account of Shmaltz Brewing’s 13-year rise to fame, proves beer dreams can come true with a lot of work and a little shtick. Malt Shop, $25

Veteran beer scribe Christian DeBenedetti guides readers to more than 350 brewpubs, bars and taprooms every enthusiast should have on their bucket list in The Great American Ale Trail. All the hard work’s been done: The author identifies a lone must-sip beer at even dizzying spots like Portland’s Saraveza and San Fran’s Toronado. Running Press, $20

Brewery founders Greg Koch and Steve Wagner team up with beer/food writer Randy Clemens in The Craft of Stone Brewing Co., an ode to Stone that’s equal parts historical record, beer catalog, homebrewing guide and recipe book. And the brazen arrogance you’d expect from Stone? It’s there, too. Ten Speed Press, $25

Every bit as funky and far-out as New Belgium’s annual multi-city beer-bike festival, Tour de Fat: Sights, Sounds, Feeling, Flavors chronicles 11 years of performances, partying and cycling in the name of suds. Wolverine Farm, $25

George Hummel’s The Complete Homebrew Beer Book offers recipes for beginners (British and American browns), intermediates (maple porter) and pros (smoked pumpkin ale), plus thorough primers on hop varieties, equipment and more. Robert Rose, $25

The ubiquitous holiday popcorn tin gets a culinary makeover: 479 Popcorn’s revved-up varieties include ginger-sesame-caramel (pictured), Vietnamese cinnamon-sugar and Madras curry-coconut-cashew. prices vary, 479popcorn.com

Drakes Glen Creations vegan beer chocolates get their subtle flavor variations from different Mad River brews (Barleywine, Jamaican Brand Red and more) in each truffle. From $9 for four, paganchocolates.com

Italian artisans gather wild hops beneath the Dolomite Mountains and carefully grind them with oil to make Primitivizia Luppolo pesto. $16, olio2go.com

Arrange stinky, sharp and creamy wedges on Brooklyn Slate cheese boards (sourced from a family quarry in upstate New York) and write their proper names with the included soapstone chalk. From $24, brooklynslate.com

Finally: a dessert that satisfies a craving for sweet but doesn’t overpower the beer you pair with it. Lady M Mille Crepe cakes are 20 hand-made, tissue-thin crepes layered with delicate, velvety custard that scream for a barleywine. From $40, ladymconfections.com.

BIG TICKET ITEM: Lonely foodies (or really, anyone who likes antipasti) can “adopt a Prosciutto” from The Butcher Shoppe at Chicago’s Old Town Social. A charcuterie team travels four hours to a rural Illinois farm, hand-selects the whole back leg of one hog, then salt-cures it for 12 to 15 months before shipping it off to its parents. The butchers even update the adoptive family on the little guy’s growth with periodic photos. $260, oldtownsocial.com

What’s black and white and red all over? IPA color variations—that is, they are now with the introduction of Samuel Adams Tasman Red, which the brewery calls a red IPA. Call it what you will—a red IPA or a hoppy amber—but this beer pairs a thoughtfully orchestrated malt bill with a dynamic hop profile.

What to cellar and crack open this winter.

BRING THIS OUT: Smuttynose Barleywine Style Ale 2009

In 2009, Smuttynose’s barleywine had all the marks of a cellarable beer: Spicy alcohol coursed through the beer’s rich toffee malts, while dark fruit notes emerged alongside fruity yeast esters and resinous hops. After two years, the beer shows signs of maturity: Caramel scents fuse with figs, while tobacco and leather deepen the bouquet. With its alcohol bite tempered, the now creamy beer rolls effortlessly over the tongue. Prunes and figs seep into the caramel sweetness, bright hints of citrus contrast aged leather, and glowing alcohol warmth creates a dry swallow.

LAY THIS DOWN: Laughing Dog The Dogfather Imperial Stout 2011

Hefty malts and 10.9% ABV give The Dogfather the fortitude a beer needs to age properly. Today, this Russian imperial stout layers the tongue with dark chocolate, roasted malts, threads of toffee and a lactic bite; alcohol tingles the taste buds and leaves the chest warm long after the swallow. A year or two in the cellar will smooth out the alcohol notes, and invite luscious flavors to pair with the dark malts. Dark fruits (think raisins and figs) will emerge and fuse with smooth chocolate notes as the body develops a thicker, sherrylike mouthfeel that keeps the flavors in the mouth just a little bit longer.

Fresh hop beers are rolling in by the dozens this season, and we’re giving Deschutes Hop Trip a spin. Discover the idea behind fresh hop beers, and drink along with us as we sample this amazingly hoppy brew.

After 12 years, Aruba’s only local beer producer, Balashi Brewery, finally unveiled its second permanent offering: Balashi Chill. A counterpoint to the award-winning, original Balashi pilsner (a two-time Brussels Monde Selection gold medalist), the easy-drinking Chill combines a mash of barley, wheat, corn and sugar with Aruba’s famed filtered water for a crisp, refreshing sip with virtually no hop bitterness. Since it’s only available in the Dutch Caribbean, you’ll just have to make a trip down to try it. We know: Stunning beaches and chilled Chill is a tough proposition. –Jennifer Sembler

You’ve probably seen the article in our Sept/Oct issue regarding the rising trend of Berliner weisses. If so, chances are the mention of traditional syrups caught your eye. Here, we take a look at two traditional syrups, one made with woodruff and the other raspberries, and how they transform the style’s tart, lactic bite.