A recap of the June Perfect Pint Beer Club meeting.
Last Friday a record number of Twin Cities Perfect Pinters gathered to taste “some of my favorite beers.” At past events members have mocked me (lovingly of course) for the number of times I say, “This is one of my favorite beers.” Because of this relentless ribbing, I decided to inflict my favorites upon them (lovingly, of course). It was fun to pick beers for this one as I could just go into the store, look around, and say, “Oh yes, that’s good. ” At the same time, when confronted with the chore of picking my favorite beers I had to face the obvious dilemma of where to start.
We started with Bluebird Bitter from Coniston Brewing in England. I have sung the praises of Bluebird Bitter to anyone willing to listen for some time. Light, refreshingly bitter but balanced with caramel and biscuit malt and wisps of orange marmalade, this is simply a delightful beer. Bluebird Bitter is my “desert island” beer. Mentioning this to the group meant explaining the difference between a “favorite” beer and a “desert island” beer. To me a desert island beer is one that you can drink over and over for an extended period. It should be highly drinkable, meaning not too heavy or alcoholic. It needs enough complexity to keep it interesting, but not so much that it would overwhelm over time. Of course it needs to taste great. That to me describes Consiston Bluebird Bitter.
We followed up the Bluebird with Schlenkerla Helles Lager from Germany’s Heller-Trum brewery, famous for the Aecht Schlenkerla 
smoked beers. The Helles Lager has the heart of a solid Munich Helles style lager with bready/grainy malt sweetness and balancing spicy hops. This version is enhanced by a subtle smoke that comes from being brewed in the same equipment as the smoked beers. The smokiness here is not as intense as in the true smoked beers, making it palatable even to those who don’t like smoked beers. Staying on the lighter side, we moved next to Sunburst Ale from Flat Eearth Brewing in St. Paul. One of the many infused ales offered by Flat Earth, Sunburst starts life as the Belgian Pale Ale. An infusion of fresh apricots turns it into an explosion of sunny fruity goodness. As one attendee said, “The name is absolutely appropriate. ” This beer paired beautifully with some sliced melon that our host Alex had prepared.
From there we stepped it up a notch, moving to beers with stronger flavors and higher alcohol, starting with Traquair Jacobite from Traquar House in Scotland. This rich Strong Scotch Ale features luscious caramel and chocolate malt with hints of herbs and spice from coriander in the brewing process. It it tasty and was a big crowd-pleaser, being called, “a beer you take home to meet your mother.” One of the first beers that stood out to me as being something really special, it had been a long time since I had enjoyed a bottle. I’ll try not to let so much time pass before enjoying another.
I have a reputation in this group for being a “hop hater.” It is a reputation that is undeserved. I love hops. I just want some semblance of balance in a hoppy beer. I’m not a fan of excessively hopped and astringently bitter American IPAs and Double IPAs. There has to be some malt. If that malt has some complexity, that’s even better. To prove my point, we tasted three big, hoppy, American beers, Founders Centennial IPA, Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A from Shmaltz/Hebrew, and Maharaja Double IPA from Avery. Each of these beers expresses intense citrus or pine resin American hop character with assertive bitterness. However, in each one the bitterness is backed up by ample and complex malt that does a bit more than simply provide a hook for the hops to hang on. Each of these beers is world class and fits nicely among my favorite beers.
Next was a swing to the opposite extreme with two hugely malty beers. Koningshoeven Quadrupel, from the Trappist Bierbrouwerij de Koningshoeven in the Netherlands, is a beer that I describe as candy in a bottle, a description that others found apt. The focus here is on sugary sweet caramel malt with intense fruity and spicy cotton candy Belgian yeast character. It’s a big beer at 10% ABV, but remarkably light and oh, so easy to drink. We finished off the night with a special treat, ten year old bottles of J.W. Lee’s Harvest Ale barleywine. This English barleywine from J.W. Lee’s and Company in Manchester is to me what English barleywine is all about. Massive and complex malt with just enough bitterness to keep it from being cloying. The caramel, dark fruit, and sherry-like flavors of this beer were a big hit with everyone there. It is a beer that I find great when it’s young and even better with some age. This example held up well since 1999. It left all of us remarking about how much the world has changed since it was bottled.
To find out more about the Twin Cities Perfect Pint Beer Club click here.
On Saturday the Blue Nile Restaurant was host to a heavenly array of hoppy beers. With twenty-two beers to choose from, including three cask selections, it was a hop heads dream. They were offering $7 flights consisting of four ounce pours of three beers of your choice. With so many beers on offer, this seemed the way to go. Between my own flights and the sips I took from my friends’ glasses, I managed to taste a good number of the beers available. Here are my favorites.
The beer geeks are at it again. The theme for this month’s meeting of the try-to-taste-every-beer-in-the-world tasting group was “Darkness.” No, not the much sought after imperial stout from Surly Brewing Company. Rather this was an exploration of the murky and menacing world of dark beer. The assignment for each member was to bring “dark” beers that they had never tried. The idea of “darkness” was left intentionally vague to encourage a bit of freewheeling interpretation and exploration. As a result we sampled a huge variety of inky brews from imperial stouts to fruited porters to smoked bock and strong Belgians, with one particularly “interesting” grape flavored concoction that I will describe later. It was a beautiful evening, so we met in my garden. There is nothing like sitting in the back yard on a nice spring night drinking great beers with good friends.
have quaffed a pint of this. However, when considered in comparison to the many other great beers of the night, it didn’t quite hold up. A bottle of De Struise Black Albert proved to be quite disappointing. I reviewed this beer on the 
For the Belgians the real standout to me was Terrible from Canada’s Unibroue. This 10.5% Belgian Strong Dark ale had delicious fruity marshmallow aromas and luscious flavors of sugar, raisins, bananas and spice, always with this creamy marshmallow character in the background. It was balanced by a slight lactic acidity that kept it from being too rich. I bought myself a bottle the very next day. We were treated to a bottle of 2004 vintage Westvleteren 12. This beer is different every time you taste it. This particular example was super fruity with big cherry aromas and flavors. The fruitiness was balanced by light chocolate notes and a sharp, dry finish. This beer was described variously as having “the sensation of being dry and sweet at the same time” and “like drinking flowers.” It reminded me of chocolate covered cherries. Complex and delicious.
evening was a “purple flavored malt liquor” called Dragon Joose. This 9.9% ABV grape monstrosity is produced by United Brands International, the folks responsible for ChiquitaTM bananas. Wikipedia describes it as “berry inspired flavors with caffeine, ginseng and taurine” and “certified colors.” We described it as high-test grape soda. This is a drink designed to mess you up fast.
As with the other two of these ingredient focused events, we started off tasting an English Bitter to see how our highlighted ingredient plays out in an essentially balanced beer. This month it was Huvila ESB from Finland. A great example of the style, this beer starts with a solid bite of hop bitterness that fades into a luscious caramel and toffee malt. The yeast comes through as a subtle orange marmalade with none of the buttery character that is sometimes a part of this style. Cory paired this beer with a cheddary macaroni and cheese.
yeast character with the rich, bready wheat malt. This one was a crowd favorite. Next up was the Smokestack Series Saison from Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City. Historically a Belgian farmhouse ale intended to keep farmhands hydrated through the hot summer months, Saison is a light, effervescent, and refreshing beer with a unique yeasty profile. The Boulevard saison is true to style with a sharp dry finish and a tasty blend of black pepper spiciness with citrus and stone fruit esters. Paired with an aged gouda this was heaven.
From there we dove headlong into the world of true fermentation funkiness, the sour beers. We waded in cautiously with Rodenbach Classic Flanders Red Ale. Wine like, slightly sour, and redolent of cherries and other fruits, this beer received a mixed response. Some loved it. Some simply choked it down. Others thought it would make an excellent salad dressing. The pairing of this beer with pickled herring was the surprise of the night. The sum of the sours was less intense than either separate. It worked quite well. Next was Oro de Calabaza from Michigan’s Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales. This is a Belgian Strong Golden ale that has been aged in barrels harboring wild yeast and funk producing bacteria. Strong barnyard and leather aromas and flavors dominated, but didn’t completely cover up the fruity and spicy belgian yeast character. This was the favorite beer of the night to many in attendance.
lambic beers. Intensely sour, cidery, fruity, leathery, and complex, these beers can be a shocker on first tasting. I was really curious to see how the group would respond to this one. I encouraged them to look beyond the sour to find the complexity hidden beneath. By the end of the five ounce pour, it was beginning to grow on many of the tasters. I was happy to see that no one dumped it out. One even commented, “I don’t hate this. I think it could grow on me.”
for the 
A nice crowd gathered at the Cedar Cultural Center last night for the Zipp’s Spring Beer Tasting event. Part beer festival, part charity fund-raiser for the Cedar, this event brought together distributor, importer, and brewery reps in a showcase of over 100 regional and national beers. $20 bought your entry and included a tasting glass and all the samples you could consume. There was also a silent auction with proceeds going to support the Cedar Cultural Center. The auction included lots of beer swag, like glassware, t-shirts, and hats, along with biking paraphernalia and even a bike. Zipp’s did a similar event last fall that was not nearly as well attended. It was great to see so many people turn out to taste good beer and support a great cause.
disappointing side. By far the best beer I tasted all night was Flashback, an imperial brown ale from 
and too little malt, this was like drinking a lightly sugary, watery glass of orange-grapefruit juice. I like the beers from Lagunitas, but I’ll pass on this one. Another disappointment from an otherwise great brewery was Mom Hefeweizen from 
The real pleasant surprise of the night was 
The theme for the April meeting of my monthly “let’s try to taste every beer in the world” beer tasting group was lager. For many, the thought of “lager beer” conjures up images of the pale yellow American style lagers that have become the accepted standard for beer the world over. While those beers do occupy a disproportionate amount the worldwide shelf space, they represent only a small corner of the entire lager universe. Lager styles go from the super light American “Lite” beer to the richly caramel and high alcohol Doppelbock, with a stop at every color and flavor along the way.
much they cost, or what the quality was. They just had to be fermented with a bottom-feeding yeast. In all, sixteen beers were tasted and commented upon ranging from a 2% ABV German light beer to the 10% ABV Human Blockhead from the 
chocolate and coffee character, but none of the astringent bitterness that often comes with big roasted beers. The only possible flaw was a startlingly quick finish. Whatever you want to call it, I would seek this beer out again. Another favorite and perhaps the most “interesting” beer of the night was the Beersel Lager from 
Last night thirty beer enthusiasts gathered at the 
and drinkability of this beer. Many expressed that unlike most Double IPAs they could imagine themselves having three or four of these in a sitting.
Les Deux Brasseurs – For most this Brettanomyces fermented beer was heaven in a bottle with delightful stone fruit and cherries dancing with a gently horsey funk and light acidic sour. For some, though, the funk was too much.