I've been out of new brews to drink for a few days now and I was itching to get something different and more along the lines of a session beer. I found a decent one in the form of an American Pale Ale (APA)called Extra Pale Ale from Green Flash Brewing Company of San Diego, California. I had heard a lot about this brewery recently and was eager to try one of their beers. My local liquor store just started stocking brews from this brewery about a month ago and it was time to try one. During my beer run I also picked up a nice IPA and Strong Belgian, but I'll wait for later to review those. Tonight, I was going to drink a nice session beer.
This beer was eager to get out of the bottle. The moment I popped the cap the foam started oozing out of the top of the short squatty 12oz bottle. The beer pours a wonderful gold color and had a nice white foamy head. The foam went to the top of the glass and then some. I had to wait a bit for the foam to settle. The head sticks around for a while. You could see that it was well carbonated and clear, not hazy.
The aroma comes out a nice sweet grassy and citrusy smell. Green Flash put in a mix of Cascade and Chinook hops in this ale. Very aromatic. The taste was initially bitter but not overly so. There is a semi-sweet taste that is well balanced with the hop bitterness. You can't help but notice the hops throughout the entire tasting. It is one that I can get very use to. There is a generous amount of premium pale malt in this beer but maltiness is not the dominant character here, the hops are.
The taste reminds me of two things, a mild IPA and a hopped up macro brew, all at the same time. This is much better than a macro brew because the aromas and hops are so much more noticeable. This is a quality session beer that tastes good cold out of the fridge. I could easily drink a few of these on a hot day.
While I don't know the IBU rating, I'll bet it's between 45-60. The alcohol content is a low 4.8% ABV so you can certainly handle this brew without a problem. I got this beer at a 10% discount and paid $7.64 for a six-pack. A decent price considering many of the other craft brews go for a couple bucks more these days.
The beer rating sites tend to go low key on the session brews and give them a modest rating. BeerAdvocate gave it a "B" rating, while Ratebeer put it in the 65th percentile with a 3.24/5 rating and ranked this at the bottom of the brewery's many products. Still, despite being a session beer, I think many craft beer drinkers would go for this beer. It has quite a character of its own and goes down easy. I'll give it a 3.2 out of 5 rating and a thumbs up. I ended up drinking two of these tonight. As the beer warms up the bitterness starts to become noticeable. Keep this cold and you'll enjoy it more.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Brew Review - Green Flash Extra Pale Ale
Create Your Own Beer Video
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Avery's Turning 15
Avery Brewing Company of Boulder, Colorado is celebrating it's 15th birthday this year. In honor of this momentous occasion, Avery is releasing it's annual anniversary ale. This year it's called: Fifteen. There will be a special release party on April 30th at the Avery tasting room from 4 to 7 pm. A $10 entry fee will get you into the celebration. Bottles of Fifteen will be available for sale as well as sampling.
According to Avery: "This years brew was fermented using a brettanomyces yeast strain, making it one of the largest--if not THE largest--batch of 100% brett beer made anywhere to date. A tart, unfiltered beer spiced with caramelized figs, white pepper and hibiscus flowers."
This is considered to be a "farmhouse" ale. It should be something special. Fifteen will be available as of May 5th in 22oz bottles. This beer has been in the making since last December and should be one of their best in years. Avery Brewing is located at 5763 Arapahoe Ave. in Boulder, CO.
Bristol Brewing Going Green
KXRM Fox 21 out of Colorado Springs posted an article about the latest push from Bristol Brewing Company to take their brewing operations green. Going "Green" is becoming more and more popular by many types of businesses and not just breweries. Read on for what plans one Colorado Springs, Colorado brewery has in mind.
Bristol Brewery Goes Green
By Laura Forbes - April 28, 2008
Green beer is normally reserved for Saint Patrick's Day Bristol Brewing Company is going green year round. Bristol has been in Colorado Springs for about 14 years. Owner Mike Bristol believes in looking to local resources to help the company help the earth.
"A lot of people brag about going green because we're doing this, but in our case, a lot of the things we attribute to being green are things we don't do," said Bristol.
For example, they don't ship beer outside of Colorado. "In the beer world distribution is the biggest problem, when it comes to an environmental footprint." said Bristol. "Its trucking beer, its dense, its heavy."
About 85% of Bristol beer stays in Southern Colorado, distributed on bristol's own truck, a mix of 20 percent bio-diesel. And about 65% of the beer goes out in draft form, so containers are reused. "As everybody knows being able to reuse is a whole lot better than recycling," said Bristol.
That was the idea behind another green move-- giving customers a ten cent credit for every six-pack carrier they bring in.
"You've got all the energy that goes into recycling, you've got to break it down and make it into something else. With ours, you bring in the carriers, and they go 50 feet and get filled up again," said Bristol.
Some of their specialty ingredients are locally grown and harvested, like the honey for Beehive Honey Wheat. And they have several green connections to Venetucci Farm. What's left behind from the barley used in beer making is known as spent grain, or mash. Bristol generates about 20,000 pounds a year. Instead of throwing it out, it is given to the farm.
Susan Gordon is a farm director at Venetucci. She said, "It had been used as a fertilizer on our fields, and we began using it as a supplemental feed for the chickens and the pigs."
"Its very helpful because it keeps our feed costs down," said Gordon. "The feed costs have really dropped since we started giving it to them."
Bristol is trying to grow organic hops at Venetucci. Its still experimental, and may not work in the Colorado climate. While Bristol says he'd like to buy from organic farmers, the quality just isn't there, at least, not yet.
"As soon as we can put out an organic beer that's as good as what we're going now, we'll jump on that," said Bristol. He says that's probably still a few years out, but it is still part of a long term plan to tap into green technology.
"Every time we do an expansion of our brewing equipment, we look at how we can be more efficient, easier on our people, easier on the world, so its sort of an ongoing thing, its part of every decision that we make," said Bristol.
He is looking at expanding his current location on Tejon Street, or moving to a larger space. After that, he says he will likely put in solar energy and heat recovery systems, probably within three to five years.
Monday, April 28, 2008
It's Time To Buy More Beer When
You know it's time to buy more beer when...
- the only beer you have left are the ones you gave low ratings to.
- the good beers that are left are all dark beers and it's getting hot outside.
- there's no new beers in the fridge you haven't tried yet.
- your favorite liquor store gave you a 10% off coupon.
- you need something new to blog about.
- the hop shortage is going to last for years and the number of IPA's in stock are going down.
- you realize the longer you wait, the higher the price for beer is getting.
- your homebrewing equipment isn't all together yet.
- another blogger gave a huge recommendation on a beer you've never tried.
- everything you have on hand is being cellared for next fall.
- the wife tells you that friends are coming over for dinner and boy are they thirsty.
- your growlers have been empty for more than week.
- you have more fingers on two hands than you have in two six pack carriers.
- your favorite baseball team blew another game in extra innings.
And the best reason to buy more beer - because you know you want to!
When do you know it's time to go buy beer?
I finally got around to buying a domain name for this here blog of mine. I figured now was the time before this blog got any more busy than it's already becoming. So as of now, you can read this blog at: www.fermentedlychallenged.com
I've also restarted using Twitter again and have added a sidebar for it to the blog.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Brew Review - Stone Imperial Russian Stout
Here it is, the end of April and it snowed today down here in the northern plains of Colorado. So what better way to stay warm than to crack open a nice imperial stout. but this was no ordinary imperial, this was a Stone Brewing Company brew. I sampled their Spring 2008 release of their Imperial Russian Stout (IRS). Stone is known for their "big beers". My previous encounter with Stone was with their Arrogant Bastard ale and that was quite an experience. So at least I knew what I was getting into this time around. I chilled this beer ever so slightly as I wanted to drink this beer around 55 degrees F. It had been in the fridge about 1/2 hour and it seemed a bit colder than I wanted it, so I let it breathe a bit before sampling.
The beer is a dark as night with no light shining through it. It poured with a dark tan head and grew to just over 1 finger high. While the head didn't last long, it did last long enough to show that it was capable of showing well. I've seen several stouts with similar heads. The only beer I've seen pour darker was the Oskar Blues Ten Fidy. The Stone IRS is a powerful brew on paper. It's measured at 10.8% ABV and an IBU of 90+. Strong and bitter by label but was it?
I could smell the rich dark malts and a hint of black licorice. The other thing you could sense is the alcohol. It's definitely has a big part of the aroma. Stone put in a generous amount of Warrior hops into this brew yet that hop smell was hidden well. While I couldn't see through this beer I could detect the slightest bit of carbonation coming up from the bottom of the glass.
The first sip of this brew told me that this beer was still a bit too cold yet. I swirled the beer around in my mouth to warm it up slightly then swallowed. There is a huge amount of flavor here. You can taste the dark roasted malts. It reminded me of chocolate, coffee, licorice. The beer is mildly bitter but the sweetness of the malts balance it well. As in most stouts, the brew coats the tongue a bit. This is one of the reasons why when sampling a wide range of beers in a single evening, you want to sample the darkest beers last. 
Comparing this beer to other imperial stouts, I felt that this beer was better balanced and less "intense" than a brew like Old Rasputin. This beer starts out strong but grows on you as you go along. The warming effect of this high alcohol brew doesn't really hit you until half way through your first 12oz glass. After the first glass I was feeling good but not overpowered. Still, I feel if you're going to be drinking an imperial stout, it's best to go with one glass as two glasses may put you over the limit.
This beer got better the more I drank it. As it warmed the malts and aromas really started coming out. I didn't know at first if I was going to enjoy this beer but by the end of the tasting I was sold on this. This is one damn good Russian Imperial Stout. The beer rating sites concur with me. BeerAdvocate gave this a top A grade, while Ratebeer put this in the 100th percentile (highest) and a 4.24/5 rating. Worthy praise and I can see why. I was really undecided how to rate this beer. I think it's best to finish your beer before passing judgement. If the beer gets better as you go, you should tend to wait to grade it. My initial rating was about a 3.7/5 but I think this deserves better. I'm going to give this a solid 4.0 out of 5 and call it one of the better beers I've had. Now granted, if this would have been a much warmer day, then I'd probably not go anywhere near this beer. But since it was snowing earlier in the day, I qualifies as a decent Springtime in the Rockies beer.
Now compared to it's brother, Arrogant Bastard, I much preferred the Stone IRS. It was better balanced and I didn't have to struggle with this despite the high ABV and high IBU. Kudos to Stone for making a truly wonderful Stout. I'll look to buy this again and perhaps age it a while and see how it tastes after a year.
Food Pairing Recommendation: I drank this brew while eating a delicious raspberry chocolate ice cream. Simply wonderful!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Odell Tapping Double Pilsner Today
Breaking news from Odell Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado. Scraped directly from their Myspace page.
Event: Double Pilsner Tapping Party - April 24th
Current mood: fermented
Category: Parties and Nightlife
Thursday Apr 24, 2008
at 4:00 PM at Odell Brewery Tap Room
800 E. Lincoln Ave.
It's that time of year when Odell rolls out their Double Pilsner.
Odell says: "Double Pilsner is our tribute to the pilsner style, heavily hopped but balanced with malt and refined on our 5-barrel system. Originally brewed in Bohemia, pilsners were the world's first clear golden lagers and the start of a dramatic revolution in brewing. Today, pilsners are still a revered part of Czech and German life and an inspiration to our brewers."
8.1% ABV - 40 IBUs
Available May - August
BE THERE!
16th Annual Microbreweries for the Environment Benefit
16th annual Microbreweries for the Environment Benefit - Think Globally, Drink Locally: 20 Breweries, $2 Pints!
KGNU and the Boulder Weekly proudly present the 16th annual Microbreweries for the Environment benefit on Friday, April 25 at The Boulder Theater.
Since 1993, the Microbreweries for the Environment benefit has raised nearly $100,000 for local environmental causes. The proceeds from this year's benefit will further the environmental efforts of the University of Colorado Environmental Center, Colorado Conservation Voters, EcoCycle and Wild Earth Guardians.
Twenty Colorado microbreweries serve their best beers for only $2 each. Participating breweries include: Arctic Craft Brewery, Avery Brewing, BJ's Brewhouse, Boulder Beer Co., Breckenridge Brewery, Bristol Brewing Co., Flying Dog Brewery, Fort Collins Brewery, Great Divide Brewing Co., Left Hand Brewing Co., Mountain Sun, New Belgium Brewing Co., Odell Brewing Co., Oskar Blues Brewery, Pumphouse Brewery, Redfish Brewhouse, Ska Brewing Co., Steamworks Brewing Company, Twisted Pine Brewing, and Wolf Rock Brewing Company.
The evening's entertainment features music by Elephant Revival and Cornmeal. Elephant Revival's funky, gyptic, soul, folk music will set the stage for Cornmeal's progressive bluegrass and roots music. The music is sure to go well with Colorado finest brews. Visit elephantrevival.com and cornmealinthekitchen.com .
And, to top it off, the benefit is a zero-waste and carbon-neutral event.
Everyone is encouraged to walk, bike, or bus to the event. Doors open and beer tasting starts at 8:00pm, and music will run to 12:30am. Admission costs $21. Tickets are available at the Boulder Theater Box Office (303-786-7030 or www.bouldertheater.com). The event will sell out.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
New Belgium Revisited
What do you do when you've got 1 hour for lunch and work just 7 miles away from New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins? You rush over there of course! I've been wanting to get back to New Belgium for a while now and took the opportunity for a quick sampling during my lunch break. I just love the atmosphere over at their tasting room. The staff is always friendly and eager to talk with you about their beers. Best of all, the samples are FREE. Can't beat that. It was still a bit early, around 11:30am, and there were only a handful of patrons there. This tasting room is well lit by the sun and gives you a real cozy feeling. A female employee that I recognized from my last visit came over and started chatting. She seemed to remember me from last time - I was shocked. Behind her was a small shelf with one of the new Fat Tire cans on display. I asked if they had any sample cans to give out but she said that was one of the few prototype cans. They would be rolling out the canned version of Fat Tire starting in June.
I sat down on a stool at the bar and looked at their beer menu. I've tried many of their beers before but wanted to get at least three that I'd never tasted before. I filled in my selections and off she went to fill my order. New Belgium gives it's visitors four free 4 oz glasses of beer to sample. Any more than that and you'd have to pay for it and get some beer to go. I was quickly served 4 beers that were fresh from the tap and were surprisingly quite cold. Here's a quick rundown on the beers I chose today: Jessica's Ale (Lips of Faith), Abby Belgian-Style Ale, Mighty Arrow (Pale Ale) and an old familiar, La Folie (Sour Brown Ale). I've had the La Folie before and knew what I was in for and put that one aside to have last.
Jessica's Ale is a special tap room only beer that is part of New Belgium's "Lips of Faith" series. Employees compete to come up with new recipes and the best are made into beers and served to the public in their tasting room. I've had one of the Lips of Faith beers before when it was the Eric's Sour Peach Ale. That was tasty, so I was anticipating something different. Jessica's Ale is billed as a spiced Porter. It pours very dark brown with red overtones. It has a semi-sweet and spicy aroma of cinnamon and ginger. It also smelled a bit like raisins to me. The taste was much like the aroma, spicy but with a nice after hit of caramel malts. It also had what I call their signature Belgian yeast taste. It's very subtle going down. This would be perfect for sipping during a quiet evening at home. 6.8% ABV. Very enjoyable. 3.5 out of 5 rating.
Abby Belgian-Style Ale - this is a Belgian Dubbel. It was a dark amber and had a nice lacy near white head. I've tasted something similar recently during a tour of a Rock Bottom restaurant nearby but this one was definitely more refined. It had the aroma of bananas and cloves. The brewers description stated that it also will smell of figs. Well I've never smelled a fig before so that was new to me. 7.0% ABV. You have to be in the mood for a dubbel. It had a nice malty flavor twisted in with a noticable belgian yeasty flavor. You have to be in the mood for this type of beer. While I enjoyed it, it wasn't my favorite. 3.2 out of 5 rating.
Mighty Arrow - this Pale Ale was a nice copper / gold color with a creamy white head. They put in a mix of Golding, Cascade and Amarillo hops with a honey malt base. I really liked the aroma of these hops up front. It's a good ale for a summery day. It has a slightly bitter finish to it, but thats just what I expected for this kind of ale. This reminds me of a mild IPA. 6.0% ABV. I'll have to get more of this. 3.4 out of 5 ranking.
La Folie - Last but not least, their famous Sour Brown ale. I've previously reviewed this beer many months ago but now am upgrading my ranking on this. I've come to appreciate what wood cask aging can do for a beer. This beer had been aged up to 3 years. It has an aroma that reminds me of vinegar but not overly so. The taste is very tart just as I remember it and I pucker a bit every time I have a first taste of it. This beer seems to be popular. Most of the patrons in the room were having it. The New Belgium employees also seem to push this beer. "Have you heard about our La Folie?" "Oh ya!" - I tell them - "That's why I came!" I like this beer in small quantities. A 4 oz glass is just the right size for this type of beer. A full glass might be a bit too much sourness for my system. It's still one of their best beers. Try this one with small sips. 6% ABV. Tart, sour, good. 3.6 out of 5 rating.
I really wanted to bring some of these brews home with me, but it was noon and I knew they would be sitting in a hot car all afternoon. So I opted to pass until another time. I'll have to get myself a small insulated cooler for my trunk and bring along a freezer pack next time. Lunch breaks don't give you time enough for the tour either. On my way out the door, they had a stack of Celebrator Beer News on hand so I took one to read later on. It's always a good time when I visit New Belgium. You can bet that I'll be back again soon.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Update on Russian River
Back in February, I reported hearing that Russian River Brewing would soon be expanding their distribution of their fine beers to other states, including Colorado. I had originally heard that April was going to be the month that this would happen but I hadn't heard anything recently about it. So, I did what any beer lover would do. I went directly to the source and emailed the owner and brewer at Russian River - Vinnie Cilurzo. Vinnie was kind enough to quickly respond to my inquiry with a nice email back to me. Here is what he told me:
"We are going to start shipping to CO in the summer, we do not have an exact date as we are still finishing up the construction at our production brewery."
"Our distributor will be Elite Brands out of Denver and the contact is Terry. She is a great person and runs a great company."
"We plan to sell Pliny the Elder and Damnation in kegs to begin with (and) bottles of Damnation and limited bottles of Pliny the Elder. Eventually we'll get Salvation there as well."
Thanks,
Vinnie
Vinnie Cilurzo
Brewer / Owner
Russian River Brewing Company
725 4th St.
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Tele: 707.545.2337 x 4
Fax: 707.545.2338
sign up for our e-newsletter at
www.russianriverbrewing.com
My taste buds are already watering anticipation. It may be just a bit longer to wait but for these fine beers from California, it will be well worth it. In the meantime, the closest thing I'll get to a Russian River is the Collaboration Not Litigation beer that Russian River and Avery Brewing jointly puts out here in Colorado. It's a mix of both of their Salvation brews. Anyone else looking forward to their expanded distribution like I am? Let me know.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Brew Review - Avery Hog Heaven
This blog post marks a semi-milestone as it is the 100th blog post to Fermentedly Challenged. It's been nearly 6 months since I started this blog and I feel like I'm just getting started. During my most recent beer run, I wanted to try a few new styles of beer. One of the styles that has eluded me so far is an American Barleywine. I set my sights on Hog Heaven from Avery Brewing in Boulder, Colorado. This is considered one of the "big beers" as it is one of the strongest beer styles out there. You know up front that you've got to prepare yourself. The beer has a 9.2% ABV and an IBU rating of 104. Yikes! I've had a few strong beers before so I kinda know what to expect out of this. Or perhaps I don't. I've seen this beer in the cooler over and over again but I've hesitated buying it as it is a Barleywine. I'm still garnering a taste for the big hopped beers like IPA's so taking up another strong beer category was something I put off until now.
This beer hit me as soon as I popped the top off the silver-foil topped bomber bottle. I could smell the hops and alcohol from 3 feet away without really trying. OK, time to prep myself for a big beer. This beer is a deep garnet color with some golden highlights coming from the bottom of the belgian snifter glass. This beer came with a nice big tan head that left a decent sized bead throughout the sampling. Now I must admit that my Spring allergies were starting to kick in and my ability to smell things is slightly impaired, but this beer broke through my congestion with little effort. It is unlike any beer I have sniffed to date. Perhaps it the high alcohol and high doses of Columbus hops that this beer had. I know that this beer has a ton of 2-row and Caramel 75L malts but whoa, it had an intense aroma. I might even say it was slightly offensive at first but later I realized it was just intensely hopped.
The taste was again different than what I expected. It had a strong mouth feel but it was lightly carbonated. I could sense the alcohol right away, a slight burn. Within the first half a glass I could feel how strong it was. Some strong beers don't hit you right away but this one does. I can taste a lot of caramel malts in this beer, but I also get a slight aftertaste which is hard to describe. It reminds me slightly of cough syrup but not in a bad way. I found myself going easy on this drink as I knew it was going to really hit me hard after the entire 22oz bottle.
This is probably one of the most intense beers I've ever tasted. It's close to one of those Flying Dog beers but with a much different hop taste and feel. The beer coats the tongue slightly and leaves you wondering just what it is that this beer reminds you of. Strong is a good word for this beer and is not intended to be drunk by a Bud or Miller drinker. It's dry hopped to the max. It "burps" well after a few quick gulps. Not sure if I could drink more of this. Certainly 1 glass was enough for me. I'm not sure just how long it's been on the shelf at the store. It had a slight layer of dust on it. That probably means it's been there several months, but that should be ok with this style as it supposedly cellar ages well.
Being a big beer, I figured that the beer ranking sites would like it and I was right. Beeradvocate gave it a B+ while Ratebeer put it in the 96th percentile of all beers with a 3.81/5 ranking. Hmm, that seems very generous for this beer. If you're not a Barleywine fan you may not like this beer initially and it will take some getting used to. After the first glass I was wondering if I really wanted to finish the full bottle. By all respects, this beer looks good, smells intense and has a taste unlike most beers I've had. It's hard to really enjoy this beer without prior experience with barleywines. So perhaps my rating of this beer is premature in coming as I've not had any other barleywine to compare it too. It's not one of my favorites but is something I may want to revisit later once I've had a few more barleywines. But for now, I'm giving it a 3.1 out of 5 rating.
