Thoughts on Beer

Boulevard Collaboration #2

I had a chance to sample the Boulevard Smokestack Collaboration #2 – White IPA, a collaboration with the Deschutes Brewery in Oregon, over the weekend and I found it to be a great beer.  Imagine a Belgian style wit beer with more hop bitterness.

At first sip, it definitely tasted like a witbier, with nice spicy fruitiness.  As the beer hits the back of your tongue, it goes into more of the piney, herbal, stronger American hop flavor.  The hop-forward flavor wasn’t overpowering, and balanced out nicely with the witbier spice and citrus notes.

Overall, I loved how the White IPA started like a wit but then finished with a nice and firm, but not overpowering, hop bitterness. It was a very good beer, and I hope this collaboration sticks around or happens again.  It’s great to see breweries pushing styles out of the way to make a great beer.

Did you try the Collaboration #2?  What did you think?

Festival of Iowa Beers

Last Sunday was the 7th annual Festival of Iowa Beers, and each year it continues to grow. This year,all the Iowa breweries, including the newly-named Backpocket Brewing, and many of the Iowa homebrew clubs participated.

Overall, it was a great day, and a great day for beer, with interesting beers from the commercial breweries, including a new Extreme Series beer, a dark rye, from Millstream Brewing.

Just like the previous Festivals, the homebrew tent offered the most interesting beers, including several barrel-aged beers, including an imperial stout aged in a Templeton Rye barrel, along with several meads and ciders .  My favorites from the homebrew tent were the Templeton Rye barrel-aged stout, an Imperial Wit, a Duvel clone, and a Munich Helles.

As always, I look forward to next year’s festival.  Did you make it out to the festival?  What were your favorites?

Samuel Adams Harvest Collection

As the days grow shorter and the leaves start to fall, Samuel Adams has released their latest variety pack, the Harvest Collection Variety Pack, just in time for the season.  As they usually do, they have replaced one beer style, the dunkelweizen, with another German style, the rauchbier, which is a beer that uses smoked malt to lend a smoky flavor to the beer (it goes great with grilling).  I’m very interested in Samuel Adams’ take on the style.

In the pack, there are 2 bottles each of:

• Boston Lager
• Octoberfest
• Black Lager
• Harvest Pumpkin Ale
• Bonfire Rauchbier
• Irish Red

All in all, a fairly good mix pack, except for maybe the pumpkin ale (which I’ve expressed my displeasure before).  Get it while it lasts!

Have you tried the Harvest Collection Variety Pack? What’s your opinion?

New Belgium Grand Cru Abbey Ale

After sampling New Belgium’s Super Cru, I decided to try New Belgium‘s ode to another one of their original beers, the Abbey Ale, in the form of a Grand Cru Abbey Ale.  This tribute has more malt, to increase the strength, but the additional sugars keep the body low.

The beer had a nice sweet aroma.  In the taste, there were some plum and fig flavors with the aftertaste having hints of plums and raisins.  There was a little bit of alcohol warming in the finish, but overall was a nice light finish.  It was a nice strong abbey ale, and a good tribute to the Abbey Ale.

Have you tried the Grand Cru Abbey Ale?  What was your take?

New Belgium Super Cru

During the dog days of summer, I’m always looking for strong beers that go down well when it’s hot out.  I recently tried the new offering from New Belgium, Super Cru.

Super Cru is a strong Belgian ale that was formulated with the same malts as their flagship beer, Fat Tire, but double the quantity.  It also included Asian pear juice to strengthen it even more and to lighten the body.

Initially, it had a very fruity aroma.  With each sip, it slightly tasted like Fat Tire, but the Asian pear juice did lighten it up.  The pear juice was very forward in the flavor, and it changed the complexity of the beer.  It was a good Belgian strong ale that was light enough to enjoy during the sweltering summer months.

Have you had Super Cru?  What was your take?

Schlafly Biere de Garde

The last few weeks, I have been traveling around, going out to New Jersey then down to Saint Louis.  Because we drove to each place, it gave me the opportunity to bring back some beer not available in Iowa, such as some from Oskar Blues, Avery, and Schlafly.

One of the beers I brought back from Saint Louis was Schlafly’s Biere de Garde.  I’ve had many different saison farmhouse ales, but this is one of the only biere de gardes I’ve had.  Without trying to sound too simple, saisons tend to be a bit lower in alcohol with a bit more hop flavor.

This beer was a very nice farmhouse ale.  It smelled very fruity with a bit of Belgian funkiness.  The flavor had a nice malty backbone with just a little but of hop flavor.  This was a great find, and I’m glad I had the chance to try one.

Have you had the Schlafly Biere de Garde?  What did you think?