Friday, May 31, 2013

Unibroue Maudite Belgian Strong Dark Ale

Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is Unibroue Maudite Belgian Strong Dark Ale.

From the Unibroue website: “Maudite (damned) was the first strong beer to be retailed in Quebec. The word “Maudite” refers here to the Legend of “Chasse-Galerie” a tribute to the early lumberjacks of Nouvelle-France. The legend tells of eight daring woodsmen who, during winter, yearned to be home for the Holidays. They conjured up the Devil and all of them pledged their soul in return for flying them in their canoe to their village. As they sailed across the moonlit sky, one of them managed to free himself from the pledge by invoking the name of God, which caused the flying canoe to come crashing down to earth.”
Let’s get started!
Appearance:  Pours a cloudy amber color with an off-white head and decent lacing.
Aroma: Bready malts, dark fruits, Belgian yeast, banana, vanilla and clove.
Taste: Sweet caramel and bready malts, toffee, dark fruits, Belgian yeast, spicy, coriander with a slight hop bitterness.
Overall: Complex and clean, Unibroue Maudite Belgian Strong Dark Ale is solid.  I am accustomed to double digit Belgian Strong ales, but at 8% ABV this one is highly drinkable and refreshing.

Cheers!

Mark Harvey

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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Win tickets to The Legendary California Beer Festival - LAST CALL

Hey there!

The folks at The Legendary California Beer Festival have provided me with two tickets to give away to their event on June 29th!  What do you need to do to win them?  Just "share" this blog post on Facebook (you need to "Like" NorCal Beer Blog on Facebook first) and inspire your friends to "Like" NorCal Beer Blog on Facebook.  Once they "Like" the page they can enter as well.  Winner will be notified on Facebook and tickets will be mailed once the winner provides an address.  Please enter ONLY if you KNOW you can make the event - this is an $80 value. Contest ends midnight (Pacific Time) June 3rd and the winner will be announced on June 4th.

Read more about the event below:

Novato, California

June 29, 2013, 12:30-5pm

The Legendary California Beer Festival (CBF) is coming back to Marin County! With over 70 craft brews on tap, live entertainment, and NEW this year, a BBQ Cook-off! Click here to check it out!

Enjoy great craft beer and sample mouthwatering BBQ throughout the day. CBF is THE event of the year for any beer or BBQ enthusiast! CBF's main goal is to shine a light on the craft beer movement and celebrate great beer!

Stafford Lake Park, just a few miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, features a pretty lake with an island and is nestled in the Marin County hills near Novato. Stafford Lake is the most picturesque location of all CBF's locations and is the perfect place to spend a Saturday afternoon with great friends, live music, delicious BBQ and of course, amazing Craft Beer!

The festival benefits the Gen Giammanco Foundation - providing financial support to student athletes in Marin County.

If you can make it here's a $2 off code: CBFSD

Cheers!

Mark Harvey

If you haven’t already, please like the NorCal Beer Blog on Facebook (here)

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Mikkeller Sorachi Ace Single Hop IPA


Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is Mikkeller Sorachi Ace Single Hop IPA.

Brewed with water, malt (pilsner, cara-crystal and munich), oat flakes, Sorachi Ace hops and yeast this beer is part of the Mikkeller Single Hop IPA Series.
Let’s get started!
Appearance: Pours a hazy orangish amber with lots of floating sediment, a large white head and spotty lacing.
Aroma: Lemon, grassy and citrus hops and caramel malts dominate the aroma with a slight pale malt presence.
Taste: Lemon zest, citrus, herbal, grassy and tropical hop flavor, toasted, grainy and caramel malts.
Overall: Lemony and herbal, Mikkeller Sorachi Ace Single Hop IPA is a very interesting beer.  Since I enjoy lemons quite a lot I enjoyed this beer.  This 6.8% ABV isn’t something I’d run out and get again, but it isn’t something I’d refuse if offered.  This is a very well made single hop beer and worth checking out to see how the Sorachi Ace hop can unleash so many flavors.

Cheers!

Mark Harvey

If you haven’t already, please like the NorCal Beer Blog on Facebook (here)

Monday, May 27, 2013

Aleman- Two Brothers-Stone Dayman Coffee IPA


Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is Aleman- Two Brothers-Stone Dayman Coffee IPA.

From the Stone Brewing Company website: “Jim Moorehouse, Nate Albrecht and Brad Zeller, three pals planning to open a Chicago brewpub under the moniker of Aleman, won first place at last year's Iron Brew homebrewing competition in the Windy City (judged by none other than Greg Koch, Jason Ebel of Two Brothers Brewing, and celebrated Chicago brewer, designer and author Randy Mosher). Their style-bending IPA artfully married the assertive tropical bite of Citra hops with amazing coffee flavor and aromatics to create something truly unique and exceptional.

Serendipitously, Two Brothers recently kicked off a new adventure roasting their own coffee beans, and provided just-in-time freshly roasted java for the brew. The result is an innovative IPA that's well balanced and intensely flavored thanks to the felicitous blend of hops and fresh roasted coffee.”
Let’s get started!
Appearance: Pours amber with an off-white head and nice lacing.
Aroma: Roasted coffee, caramel malt, citrus, tropical and floral hops.
Taste: Whoa…the flavor follows the nose with coffee dominating.  Caramel and bready malts are supporting roles and the citrus hops add a great level of bitterness.
Overall: Two great tastes that taste great together, Aleman- Two Brothers-Stone Dayman Coffee IPA is just as advertised – a true coffee IPA.  Light, refreshing and something that’d I’d probably drink again, this 8.7% ABV offering is great for those who enjoy both coffee and IPAs. I wasn’t sure it was going to work…and it does…

Cheers!

Mark Harvey
If you haven’t already, please like the NorCal Beer Blog on Facebook (here)

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Cigar City Brewing Improv Imperial Dark Rye Ale


Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is Cigar City Brewing Improv Imperial Dark Rye Ale. Thanks to LetsPour (and my choice to spend WAY too much on beer) I am able to have Cigar City Brewing beers come to my home.  I don’t hold out hope that Cigar City Brewing will distribute to Northern California any time soon so LetsPour it is.

Commercial description: “What you have here is an Imperial Dark Rye Ale. Isn’t that a lot to be going on in just one beer? Well yes, it is. But that is the point. Layers. Flavor elements building on and playing off of preceding elements, like a building wave; a growing crescendum of taste bud temptation; a wall of sound expressed through flavor and channeled toward your mouth. This beer isn’t for everyone. In many ways it is more than just a little weird. It certainly doesn’t fit easily into any category. In the spirit of all great things that are conceived in the moment, but perfected through passionate repetition it started life as an improvisation and grew from there. And it might not be for you. But if the thought of big spicy rye notes, a wallop of a hop punch, multitudinous layers of caramel, sweet malt and a respectable balancing gravity sound intriguing then you might want to wing it and give Improv a try.”
Let’s get started!
Appearance: Pours a burnt amber color with a slight beige head and nice lacing.
Aroma: Spicy rye, roasted, caramel and bready malts, pine and citrus hops.
Taste: Sweet caramel, roasted and bready malts, spicy rye, pine and citrus hops and an underlying fruit and chocolate presence.
Overall: I found Cigar City Brewing Improv Imperial Dark Rye Ale to be quite enjoyable and unique.  This 9% ABV offering isn’t something I’d seek out again, but wouldn’t refuse either.  If their beers weren’t so expensive and hard to get to CA I might give this one another shot.  Another solid and interesting beer from Cigar City Brewing.

Cheers!

Mark Harvey
If you haven’t already, please like the NorCal Beer Blog on Facebook (here)

Thursday, May 23, 2013

North Coast Brewing Company Class of ’88 Barleywine Style Ale


Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is North Coast Brewing Company Class of ’88 Barleywine Style Ale.  I was happy with seeing this collaboration beer on the shelves and knew I needed to source all three (North Coast Brewing Company, Deschutes Brewing and Rogue Brewery).  So far I have two of them (missing Rogue at the moment) and plan to get them all posted once I’ve consumed them, but thought I wanted to get this review posted since North Coast Brewing Company is one of my favorite breweries around.

From the North Coast Brewing Company website: “1988 was a seminal year for the budding craft brewing industry on the West Coast. It marked the founding of some of America’s most influential breweries, North Coast Brewing among them. It was also the year Fred Eckhardt published The Essentials of Beer Style—a book that quickly became an essential reference for aspiring brewers and critics.
In recognition of the 25th anniversary of this milestone year, North Coast Brewing and two other west coast members of the pioneering “Class of ’88,”—Rogue Brewery and Deschutes Brewing—are collaborating on a trio of commemorative beers evolving from Fred’s book.
Each of the breweries will create its own interpretation of a barleywine based on Fred’s style guidelines, after which crews from the partner breweries will travel  to each other’s facilities to brew all three ales. Their common heritage and joint brewing effort will result in a cohesive set that will allow beer aficionados to enjoy three examples of the style.

“It’s amazing to look back over the beer landscape and see what’s happened over the past 25 years,” said Mark Ruedrich, North Coast Brewing’s Co-Founder, Brewmaster, and President. “America’s craft beers are setting new international standards for quality and innovation. They’re the most exciting facet of the world beer scene today.”

These exceptional barleywines will be released in March of 2013 and will be available around the country for a limited time, distinctively packaged in either 22 oz. or 750 ml bottles.

North Coast Brewing will also produce a 25th Anniversary Brew of its own, a worthy successor to its Twentieth Anniversary Ale, in keeping with the northern California brewery’s reputation for exceptional, ground-breaking beers.”
Let’s get started!
Appearance:  Pours a clear copper color with a large, dense cream colored head and sticky lacing.
Aroma: Sweet and pale malts, bready, citrus and fruit (apricot and/or peach).
Taste: Pale malt sweetness, bready, grassy and citrus hop notes, dried stone fruit with a dry and crisp finish.
Overall: Delicious and enjoyable, the North Coast Brewing Company version of the Class of ’88 Barleywine Style Ale is well crafted.  This isn’t the usual Barleywine I’m accustomed to – not as chewy. At 10% ABV this drinks more like a Double IPA.  I plan to pick another bottle for further evaluation.

Cheers!

Mark Harvey
If you haven’t already, please like the NorCal Beer Blog on Facebook (here)

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Robert Johnson's Hellhound on my Ale


Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Robert Johnson's Hellhound on my Ale. In an attempt to get caught up with beers I drank a while ago, took notes on, but never “officially” posted the review I’m going to try and get up to date…starting with this review.

From the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery website: "2011 would have marked the 100th birthday of Mississippi Delta bluesman Robert Johnson, who according to legend, sold his soul down at the crossroads in a midnight bargain and changed music forever.

Working again with our friends at Sony Legacy (yup, the same folks we did our Miles Davis-inspired Bitches Brew with), Dogfish Head paid tribute to this blues legend by gettin' the hellhounds off his trail and into this finely-crafted ale.

Hellhound is a super-hoppy ale that hits 100 IBUs in the brewhouse and 10% ABV. It's dry-hopped with 100% Centennial hops at a rate of 100 kilos per 100 barrel brew-length. Can you tell we're stoked for this mighty musical centennial?

To accentuate and magnify the citrusy notes of the Centennial hops (and as a shoutout to Robert Johnson's mentor Blind Lemon Jefferson), we add dried lemon peel and flesh to the whirlpool."
Let’s get started!
Appearance:  Pours a burnt copper color with a large white head and sticky lacing.
Aroma: Citrus, citrus, citrus with a touch of roasted and caramel malts.
Taste: Citrus hops, lemon zest, toffee, roasted and caramel malts.
Overall: Being a fan of Robert Johnson it made a lot of sense to me to pick up Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Robert Johnson's Hellhound on my Ale.  At 10% ABV this big beer isn’t boozy, but does have a slight alcohol presence.  Not sure I’d drink it again, but I did enjoy it while it lasted.

Cheers!

Mark Harvey
If you haven’t already, please like the NorCal Beer Blog on Facebook (here)

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Sleepy Dog Brewery Wet Snout Milk Stout


Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is Sleepy Dog Brewery Wet Snout Milk Stout. This is one of the several beers I brought back from a recent trip to Phoenix, AZ.  

From the Sleepy Dog Brewery website: “A dark, rich, aromatic, and malty specialty. Rottie fans tend to be pushy and territorial, so under no circumstances should you steal their bar stool.”
Let’s get started!
Appearance: Pours an opaque black with hints of amber with an almost non-existent tan head and sparse lacing.
Aroma: Dark chocolate, lactose, roasted malt and hints of coffee.
Taste: Roasted malts, lactose, chocolate and a slight coffee presence.
Overall: Sweet and tasty, Sleepy Dog Brewery Wet Snout Milk Stout was drinkable and I enjoyed it.  Nothing epic about it, but nothing bad to report.  This 5.7% ABV offering goes down a little thinner than some of the stouts I’ve been drinking lately, but it is easy drinking so that’s not a bad thing, really. If you find yourself in Tempe, check ‘em out.  It looks like they have a nice selection.

Cheers!

Mark Harvey
If you haven’t already, please like the NorCal Beer Blog on Facebook (here)

Monday, May 20, 2013

Jester King Craft Brewery Mad Meg Farmhouse Provision Ale


Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is Jester King Craft Brewery Mad Meg Farmhouse Provision Ale.  I found this bottle at Artisan Wine Depot (here) located in Mountain View.

From the Jester King Craft Brewery website: ““Provision Ale” is a rough translation of the French term “bière de provision“, which was sometimes used to describe special beers that were suitable for extended storage and aging. Brewed from relatively simple, straightforward ingredients, Mad Meg is golden colored and quite strong, at over 9% ABV. Its palate intertwines delicate farmhouse esters with earthy, spicy hops and clean malt flavors. The name “Mad Meg”, refers to a peasant woman from Flemish folklore, also known as “Dulle Griet” or “Dull Gret”, who leads an army of women to pillage hell. She’s famously depicted in Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s 1562 painting by the same name.”
Let’s get started!
Appearance: Pours a cloudy golden color with a large off-white head and sticky lacing.
Aroma: Citrus, sweet caramel and pilsner malt, spice, Belgian yeast and funk.
Taste: Citrus, lemon peel, sweet caramel malts, spice, barnyard funk, bready malts with a nice hop bitterness in the finish.
Overall: Funky and exceptionally drinkable, Jester King Craft Brewery Mad Meg Farmhouse Provision Ale is delicious.  At 9.6% ABV the alcohol is hardly noticeable.  Well worth a try.

Cheers!

Mark Harvey
If you haven’t already, please like the NorCal Beer Blog on Facebook (here)