Beer Club (week 6)

• Lucky U IPA (Breckenridge Brewery)
• Raging Bitch (Flying Dog Brewery)
• Railbender Ale (Erie Brewing Company)
• Raison D'Être (Dogfish Head Craft Brewery)
• The Raven Special Lager (Baltimore-Washington Beer Works)

Regal Pilsner (Breckenridge Brewery)

• Rich yellow gold color
  
• An inch of ecru foam, with lacing.
  
• Delicious apricot and lemon nose
  
• Much toothier mouthfeel than any pilsner I've had
  
• The cereal malt note that to me characterizes pilsners is present, but obscured by resinous hop flavors. Also alcohol flavor present, which I have never noted in any pilsner.

Featured beer:
Regal Pilsner

JavaHead Stout (Tröegs Brewing Company)

This was my contribution last week to the Beer Club. I'm always pleased to share brews from the Troëgs Brewing Company. Their HopBack Amber Ale and Troegenator Double Bock are regular visitors to our refrigerator. In fact, when I think about it, we've probably had more HopBack in the last year than any other single beer.

JavaHead is an oatmeal stout that is filtered through hops and ground coffee beans before fermentation, while that wort is still hot -- "similar to using a huge French press," Troëgs says. The resulting beer pours a nice silky, opaque black, with ruby edges in the glass and an inch of tawny, small-bubbled foam.

The nose is surprisingly sweet and floral, with undertones of malt, powdery chocolate, and a very faint hint of coffee. I find it a very inviting aroma.

When sipped, the first impression is a smooth, creamy mouthfeel. The taste opens into a deep roasty body with excursions of dark chocolate, French roasted coffee, and nutty barley. Nice complexity to sort out as you go. The main body flavor is clearly a malt note, but the coffee and hops are such close neighbors that they blend in and out harmoniously.

What we have here is a very decent stout with a little extra flavor going on, but not to the point of being gimmicky. The java and char and sweetness work well together. This is a nice compromise between a straight, creamy oatmeal stout and a bolder, more intense imperial stout. Definitely recommended, at least to try.

From the bottle's label:

JavaHead Stout passes through a blend of coffee beans and whole flower hops -- akin to a French press -- releasing cocoa, citrus, and java flavors.

Featured beer:

JavaHead Stout

Honorable mentions:

HopBack Amber Ale

Troegenator Double Bock

Saranac Imperial IPA (Matt Brewing Company)

• Attractive warm amber color
  
• Half inch or so of head, almost no lacing
  
• Caramel and slight minty alcohol on nose
  
• Caramel and butterscotch
  
• Yes, it has requisite largeness associated with "imperial" moniker, but drops off a bit after the main body.

Featured beer: Saranac Imperial IPA

Racer 5 IPA (Bear Republic Brewing Company)

I was introduced to Racer 5 IPA during the News Journal's 2010 beer bracket. (It suffered what I felt was a disappointingly early ejection in the second round, falling to Lagunitas IPA, which went on to lose to Brooklyn Pennant Ale '55 in the Sweet Sixteen.) I have since purchased Racer 5 three or four times, and it has become one of my top favorite IPAs. It's a little flashier than the house staple IPA, Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA, but it has the same masterful balance at its foundation.

The beer pours an apricot-tinged gold in color, with some particulate matter in suspension. The foam is rather white and modest in volume, and it broadcasts a truly delightful aroma of pungent grapefruit, spice, and flowers. If you like American-style IPAs, you will not be able to resist the enticement of this nose!

To the sip, Racer 5 is brightly carbonated, with a medium body. The aromatically foreshadowed grapefruit tartness is there, and rounds beautifully into tropical fruit and biscuit malt body. The taste is big and juicy, approaching the territory of an imperial in flavor dimensions. Within that bigness there is a lot of interplay between sweet malt and bitter hops characteristics, with a satisfying overall balance. The lingering aftertaste is somewhat bitter.

As I say, this has become a rotation beer for me. I'll get to craving the smell of it as much as the taste, then it's all over -- gotta go make the buy. The brewery is out in northern California, but I'm pleased to report that both Total Wine & More and State Line Liquors carry not only Racer 5, but five or six other brews from the Bear Republic line. I look forward to sampling them as well.

Featured beer:

Racer 5 IPA

Honorable mentions:

Lagunitas IPA

Brooklyn Pennant Ale '55

60 Minute IPA

Spring Fling Copper Ale (Blue Point Brewing Company)

• Almost amazing.
  
• Clear and radiant orange. An inch of fluffy white head that settled down pretty quickly.
  
• A really wonderful aroma. Rich grain character. Got me eager for a taste.
  
• Slightly sour, compact body, almost reminiscent of Anchor Steam.
  
• Ends far too bitter for my taste -- a desiccating, almost chemical bitterness quite unpleasant to me.

Featured beer: Spring Fling Copper Ale

Chang (Thai Beverage PCL)

Jason chipped this one into the inaugural Beer Club assortment -- the only import of the six, so a welcome addition. Not one I've tried before. In Thai restaurants I have always been steered toward Singha. Phil says the cashier told them Chang was "good with spicy food."

The beer pours a pale straw color, crystal clear, with large-bubbled titanium white foam that quickly dissipates to a ring. There is almost no perceptible aroma.

At first sip, I couldn't tell if I was tasting hops bitterness or carbonation prickle. The sort of corn-like main body taste is gone in a flash, then there is a slightly soapy aftertaste. Overall, Chang could be mistaken for any run-of-the-mill American macrobrew lager -- Miller High Life, maybe? The assertion "good with spicy food" is probably correct, actually.

That's not a very favorable review, but to be honest, Chang was not nearly bad as I was prepared for based on some scathing reviews I've read. In fact, the beer wasn't truly objectionable to my palate, it just offers no complexity to savor and admire. Then again, it doesn't appear that's what the producer is after. The "brewery" website is hilariously devoid of any notion of flavor, passion, or craft. Check this excerpt:

Beer Chang was conceived with the visionary outlook of the top executives to expand the beer market with a Thai taste albeit with international quality, to give the consumers an alternative with the fervent belief in the brewing and production capability of the Thais.

That pretty much says it all. Not exactly "Off-center ales for off-center people," is it?

Hey, and on a side note, what's with the "11.15 fl.oz." bottle?

Featured beer:
• Chang

Honorable mentions:
• Singha
• Miller High Life