Punk IPA (BrewDog)

And now for a highly annotated introduction: I was at State Line Liquors purchasing my biweekly contribution to Beer Club, when my buddy Justin (a.k.a. "luckiest dude currently drawing breath") pointed out that August 4 is International #IPADay. He grabbed a 750ML Punk IPA off the shelf, and on an impulse I grabbed one too.

As I observed in my review of Railbender Ale, "Scotland" and "beer" are hardly synonymous. The pointedly iconoclastic founders of BrewDog would love to change that. They are hitting the market with tons of attitude, an interesting lineup of brews (and I even exclude from that statement their "shock value" alcohol bombs of 32% and 41% ABV), and videos of them heartily demolishing bottles of Budweiser, Becks, Carlsberg, and Stella Artois. They describe Punk IPA as a "post modern classic pale ale." Let's try to figure out what in the world they might mean by that.

The pour raises several inches of fluffy and sturdy off-white foam. The beer is yellow gold with a warm orange aura, and it is quite hazy. Large sheets of lacing lined my glass when I was done.

At close range, the enticing nose is of fresh citrus, earthy hops, and butter. Knowing how heavily they've laid on the hops in this recipe, I am surprised that the aroma does not project further.

The first taste is tremendously bitter -- BUT... then comes a surprising wave of fresh malt flavor. (I wonder whether a dimension of that fresh green taste may actually be the hops flowers themselves, rather than their aromatic oils? A non-brewing amateur beer lover speculates.) It is a delicious scarcely-roasted barley taste. So, maybe a "post modern" IPA is one that treats malt as a co-star rather than a mere delivery platform for hops characteristics?

I don't detect a lot of what I think of as fruit flavors in the body, which is a distinction from most of the bigged-up American IPAs. It is a nice difference, actually. After the barley, I taste a trailing note of lilac perfume. Punk's mouthfeel is not particularly heavy for the amount of flavor delivered, and its carbonation is adequate but quite soft feeling on the tongue.

This is an intensely flavorful but hardly outlandish IPA. It is obviously influenced more by the American (and particularly West Coast) style trend than by the English tradition from which it arises, yet it is not likely to be mistaken for an American IPA. I really enjoyed drinking this one, and if price and availability were not major factors I would love to have it on a regular basis. For now it will remain for rare occasions like International #IPADay.

From the bottle's label:

BrewDog: Beer for Punks

Beer was never meant to be bland, tasteless and apathetic.

At BrewDog we are setting the record straight.

We are committed to making the highest quality beers with the finest fresh natural ingredients.

Our beers are in no way commercial or mainstream.

We do not merely aspire to the proclaimed heady heights of conformity through neutrality and blandness.

We are unique and individual.

A beacon of non-conformity in a increasingly monotonous corporate desert.

We are proud to be an intrepid David in a desperate ocean of insipid Goliaths.

We are proud to be an alternative.

Featured beer:
Punk IPA

Honorable mention:
Railbender Ale

Tripel Horse (River Horse Brewing Company)

There was a River Horse beer in our very first Beer Club lineup. I guess I'll never forget that. I also hadn't forgotten how pathetic and underdeveloped their website was when I went to look up Hop Hazard at that time, so I was sad to discover that, three months later, the brewery's online presence remains unimproved. This is a cardinal sin of marketing in the contemporary era. Seems like someone should be either hired or fired over there...

Anyway, Tripel Horse is the subject of the present critique. I set up a pint glass thinking I would be having an IPA. I changed my mind while my head was in the fridge, then forgot to grab the goblet when I settled on a Belgian tripel. Forgive me, O gods of appropriate glassware!

This pours a very hazy pale orange with foam that is fizzy, not billowy. The head is reluctant to build up and quick to die down. There was virtually no lacing on the sides of the glass as I drank. Very peculiar for the style. There was, however, plenty of yeast at the bottom of the bottle. The aroma evokes mostly tart lemon -- with effort, some sourdough bread.

The immediate impression is shandy-like tanginess, with prickly carbonation. Behind that, the sweetness of pear or white grape juice. Clove rides the warming wave of that 10% ABV. Overall very sweet and only a little sour.

I would expect much more subtlety and complexity from an actual Belgian. This was a bit soda poppy. After reading some reviews around the Web, I can only conclude that River Horse has detrimentally tweaked this recipe over time. For one thing, compare both the label and the pour in this shot versus mine below. There is no way in hell this is the same beer. My bottle couldn't have produced that much foam if I had whisked in a jigger of dishwashing soap.

So, my recommendations to the folks at River Horse: see if you can dig up that old recipe; fix the beer; then, for heaven's sake, fix the website.

From the bottle's label:

The muscles on our Tripel Horse are not from Brussels, but its soul is. Be ready for big flavors of our Belgian yeast, nutmeg and coriander if you decide to ride this horse.

Featured beer:
Tripel Horse

Honorable mention:
Hop Hazard

Red Rocket Ale (Bear Republic Brewery)

I've just tried Red Rocket Ale from our friends at Bear Republic Brewery in northern California. This blog's many devoted readers will recall that Bear Republic's Racer 5 IPA has become one of my current favorite quaffs. I really like this beer as well, so two things about it strike me as a shame: the terrible label design, and the fact that its name calls to mind certain very unappetizing visuals from South Park.

But on to more positive things. The color of the beer is darker than I expected -- not so much red as purplish brown. As I look through the glass I see lots of yeast clumps in suspension, indicative of bottle conditioning and leading me to anticipate some spicy yeast effects in the flavor. This expectation is reinforced by a bright, lemony, peppery, and yeasty aroma.

The taste is extraordinary. This flavor has moves! Supported within the medium heavy mouthfeel is a body of surprising complexity. I can chase out fruity, floral, and spicy threads and be right well entertained while doing so. The flavor starts bitter, dips down into earthy, grainy territory, then up into a lemony finish. As it warms, the underlying musty Scottish ale characteristic emerges a bit more.

This is one of the most distinctive beers I have tried in a while. I would probably limit my recommendation to friends known to be of intrepid palate, but I would drink it again myself without hesitation.

From the bottle's label:

Red Rocket Ale is a bastardized Scottish style red ale packed with distinctive flavors and an aggressive hope character rivaled by none. This unfiltered, bottle-conditioned amber colored ale, breaks all style molds.

Featured beer:
Red Rocket Ale

Honorable mention:
Racer 5 IPA

Black Hawk Stout (Mendocino Brewing Company)

According to the Mendocino Brewing Company website, the brewery came into being in August of 1983, and bottles of their product started hitting the market in December of that year. Amazingly, it has taken me this long to get my hands on one. But let's forget the past and see whether there is any future for us together.

The bottle at hand is Black Hawk Stout, and its label is illustrated, as are the labels of all Mendocino's "Legend" and "Select" series, with a bold head shot of the eponymous bird. It raises in my pint tumbler two or more inches of structurally sound head. Held to light, the beer is pitch black with ruby fringes. The nose is of buttery malt and subtle minerals.

At first taste it is clear that this ale is more kindred to the dry Irish stout style than to the sweeter Russian imperial stout style that seems to predominate in the American craft brew scene. It is mild and smoky, and not particularly sweet. It is well balanced, with the predominant note being the smokiness of grains that are roasted but stop short of being scorched. Subdued carbonation and glassy mouthfeel make it seem creamy -- though not to the downright slippery extent of that delicious Lancaster Milk Stout I had a while back. Again, dry along the lines of Guinness, but perhaps a bit richer.

Black Hawk Stout is somewhat restrained, but has a very nice overall character. I do like wrestling with the darkness of intense, hard-charging imperial stouts, but I find this lighter stout highly drinkable. Would drink again, and would recommend to fanciers of dark beer.

Featured beer:
Black Hawk Stout

Honorable mention:
Lancaster Milk Stout

Sam Adams samples at Union City Grille

As my usual luck would have it, we were out of town during Wilmington's inaugural Beer Week, but we got a chance to taste some leftover samples last night at Union City Grille.

We tried two offerings from The Boston Beer Company (a.k.a. Samuel Adams): Sample A, an oaked ale, and Sample B, a maple pecan porter. Our waiter explained to us that neither of these beers is commercially available; they are only test batches of recipes that are candidates to go into regular production. This is part of the Samuel Adams® Beer Lover's Choice® campaign.

Sample A was reddish amber with a modest half inch of head and a fairly subdued aroma vaguely suggesting toffee. It was quite sweet and brassy in flavor, almost like a Scottish ale -- not nearly as mellow as any oaked ale I have ever tasted. If anything, the contribution of the wood is in the aftertaste. Good, but not really remarkable.

Sample B, though, was outstanding! It was dense black in color, and sported two inches of fluffy foam. The nose clearly carried sweet maple, a good bit of smokiness, and the suggestion of dark, bitter undertones. Sam Adams has brewed up a delicious porter base. The structure of the flavor shows a judicious hand: this is no novelty beer, rather a highly drinkable porter with creamy mouthfeel and teases of pecan and maple dimensions, mostly towards the end.

My lovely dinner companion and I both hope that Sample B gets the nod and starts appearing on retail shelves sometime soon. Looks like other folks may be feeling the same way, if Facebook "likes" are any indication: http://www.samueladams.com/promos/BeerLoversChoice2012/index.aspx

It was fun to feel like we were getting in on a sneak preview. Hopefully we can attend some live events at Wilmington Beer Week next year and contribute direct feedback to the selection process.

Beer Club (week 8)

• Black Hawk Stout (Mendocino Brewing Company)
• Carolina Blonde (Carolina Beer Company*)
• Latitude 48 IPA (Boston Beer Company)
• Palm (Brouwerij Palm NV)
• Red Rocket Ale (Bear Republic Brewery)
• Tripel Horse (River Horse Brewing Company)

* Interesting background on this one -- more to come in beer review.

Brooklyn Summer Ale (Brooklyn Brewery)

On several occasions I have enjoyed Brooklyn Brewery's pricey but delicious Black Chocolate Stout. On one very memorable occasion I had a couple of their Brown Ales over coal-fired pizza at Arturos Restaurant in the West Village. This will be my first time sampling their Summer Ale. I know these cats do good work, and I am at the beach for a week in full summer mode, so expectations are high.

This beer's character seemed to cry out for a pilsner glass, but all I had was a heavy mug. Not that I would let that stop me. So I poured it into my mug, and the beer was a bright yellow gold, with two inches of tight foam that settled down to a half inch. The nose is of lemon and yeast, initially detectable at about ten inches. Lacing throughout the quaff was negligible.

The taste is so much like a lager you'll do a double take. Only the slightly more substantial body -- which, don't get me wrong, is still quite light -- sets it apart.

Brewed from a single barley malt variety, there is a pilsner-like simplicity and directness to the flavor contour, which cuts straight to a light, bright malt taste, supported closely with lemony hops. (The recipe uses Perle, Cascade, Fuggles, and Amarillo, according to the webpage.) The ale features a light body and appropriately crisp carbonation. Just a trace of pungent quality. A delightful subtle floral aftertaste lingers on the palate.

On the whole, the beer tastes and functions exactly as advertised: a perfect light ale for carefree consumption during the months of intense heat. Another success from Brooklyn Brewery.

From the bottle's label:

Brooklyn Summer Ale is a summer refresher with difference. The difference comes from the malt -- 100% British two-row barley, prized for superior taste. Our Summer Ale is gold in color, with a soft, bready flavor, snappy clean bitterness and bright hop aroma, and will taste best before the freshness date indicated.

Featured beer:
Brooklyn Summer Ale

Honorable mentions:
Black Chocolate Stout
Brooklyn Brown Ale