Boulder Bend Dunkelweizen (Fish Brewing Company)

Here is a representation of a traditional style from Fish Brewing Company of Olympia, Washington. They dub their Leavenworth Biers line as "the Northwest's original German-style craft biers." This will be the first beer I have tasted from this brewery. (Props to Mr. Wade Malcolm for contributing it to the Beer Club.)

I don't have a proper wheat beer glass to try this in, so my trusty Spark pint tumbler will have to do. The beer pours the deepest brown in color, only letting though a bit of light around the edges. It produces one finger or so of light brown head.

The aroma is of roasted malt, mainly. Very little hop presence is detectable, but sweetness is suggested.

The beer has a fairly straightforward roast malt flavor. The carbonation hits right up front, after which the roastiness opens a bit to hints of hazelnut, with just a touch of black pepper on the back end. The strongest impression after my first sip was the beer's creamy, mouth-coating texture. Clearly a wheat thing.

Only toward the bottom of the glass did I start noticing the pure yeast flavor I would expect in a weizen -- probably because more of the yeast had sunk to the bottom. At 4.7% ABV, this beer would be highly sessionable, if you're so inclined. There is no intense sweetness or bitterness to wear your taste buds out.

Overall, not a knockout, but not at all objectionable.

From the bottle's label:

Alpine-style dark wheat ale

Featured beer:
Boulder Bend Dunkelweizen

The Raven Special Lager (Baltimore-Washington Beer Works)

Wade Malcolm contributed The Raven to Beer Club a while back -- just after another round of layoffs had further thinned the ranks of our newsroom. The ominous symbolism was noted.

This beer has a peculiar background. It was created by a couple of Baltimoreans along with a couple of German partners, and was brewed and distributed in Europe for a year before it ever came to America. It also appears that The Raven Special Lager is the only beer produced by Baltimore-Washington Beer Works, which is why it's a good bet you've never heard of the brewery before.

This beer pours a clear warm gold with half and inch of head. It has a classic lager aroma -- slightly musty with a suggestion of grain. The German part of its pedigree seems immediately evident. Once the modest head dissipates, virtually no aroma rises from the beer.

Amidst its light body and prickly carbonation resides a simple and clean taste. The hops and the malt hang pretty tightly together, with the sweet malt gaining the upper hand just briefly before the flavor ends. Nothing Gothic or poetic on display, despite the label's claim. But a serviceable beer with a familiar taste that would probably have broad appeal.

From the bottle's label:

The Taste is Poetic

and

"...Open here I flung the shutter when with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore..."

Featured beer:
The Raven Special Lager

Anchor Steam (Anchor Brewing Company)

Wade Malcolm burst out of the gate strong with his first Beer Club contribution: Anchor Steam, one of the distinctive classics of the American brewing tradition. (After I wrote that I went to the Anchor Brewing website to check for details and in their first sentence is the phrase "the classic of American brewing tradition..." Hm. Maybe I need to go into the PR biz?) Anyway, the site says they have been making Anchor Steam out there in San Francisco since 1896. No telling how much the taste has changed between then and now, but it continues to be more or less unique in character.

From the squat brown bottle, the beer pours yellow gold to copper and very clear. I got an inch and a half of dense off-white foam with nice lacing. The subdued nose reminds me of cold champagne -- just a mild impression of yeast, any other flavor clues held close to the vest.

Sipping the beer, there is an immediate bitter hit, followed by a dense lightly roasted barley flavor. To be honest, the structure is not particularly complex in terms of having multiple layers or transitions, but its balance and the quality of the flavor is very impressive. The medium weighted, lively carbonated body drops off clean and dry, leaving a slightly astringent but pleasant grain aftertaste. It is a brief but rich trajectory.

The pint went down rapidly as I pondered the craftsmanship of the tight, controlled flavor. I kept trying to think of stylistic peers, and I kept coming up short. As good as any lager I have had, but not mistakable for any of them.

With this taste and its trifling 4.9% ABV, Anchor Steam is a true session brew! Versatile enough to stock as an everyday beer (i.e. not so slanted in any direction as to become tiresome), and certainly an ideal backyard barbecue accompaniment, but also of sufficient quality to serve without shame to house guests.

Featured beer:

http://www.anchorbrewing.com/beers/