Category Archives: Tasting Notes

These are my thoughts about various beers that I taste. Not as thorough as a review, but more than just casual drinking.

Summit Kölsch

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Summit Kölsch The folks at Summit Brewing in St. Paul have been busy this year. After not releasing any new beers for many years, they have released two this year with another on the way. The first was Horizon Red Ale, released in April. This week they are rolling out the first of their Unchained Series, a traditional German Style Kölsch. According to their press release we can look forward to the next beer in this series sometime in late fall.

I’m excited about the Unchained Series, which allows Summit’s brewers an opportunity to spread their wings and explore. According to the press release, “the inspiration for the series was to give the team of six full time brewers a chance to show off their skills and creativity and to have a little fun in the process. Each brewer will have an opportunity to choose their own beer style and manage the process from start to finish, from research and recipe development all the way to tasting the beer in the final stages to determine proper conditioning and filtration for the ideal flavor and aroma profile.” Not intended as license for brewers to get wild and crazy, the Unchained Series offers them the opportunity to explore seldom brewed styles using traditional methods.

The first in the Series is a Kölsch from brewer Mike “the Miz” Miziorko. The Kölsch style is an appellation protected by the Kölsch Konvention and use of the name is restricted to a few breweries in Cologne, Germany. It is one of the few remaining German ale styles, a holdover from the time before lager beers swept Germany and later the rest of the world. However, colder fermentation temperatures and a period of cold conditioning gives Kölsch a very lager-like character. Like a more delicate and slightly fruity Pilsner, it is typically a yellow to gold colored beer filtered to brilliant clarity. It’s light bodied and features a balance of pilsner malt and spicy European hops with a well attenuated dry finish. Kölsch is an easy-drinking and refreshingly light beer for summer. The Summit version is brewed with all imported ingredients using “traditional mashing and brewing procedures” that I’m told included a multi-step mash.

Here’s my notes:

German Style Kölsch
Summit Brewing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota
Style: Kölsch
Serving Style: 12 oz. Bottle

Aroma: Soft bready malt with slight DMS corny character of pilsner malt. Reminds me of the crust on a loaf of fresh-baked white bread. Malt is the centerpiece of the aroma with only the slightest hint of herbal hops and stone fruits. Simple and delicate, but still delightful.
Appearance: Deep golden and crystal clear. Moderate creamy white head that dissipated quickly leaving lace on the glass and a film on the surface of the beer. Nice to look at.
Flavor: Starts with a kick of bitterness and peppery and herbal hop flavors until balancing bready malt moves in. Well balanced between malt and hops. A bit of sweetness and the same light corny character from the aroma give some complexity to the malt. Mid palate brings very subtle stone fruit. The finish is dry with a lingering hop spice and light residual sweetness.
Mouthfeel: Light body. Crisp and clean like a lager. Medium carbonation.
Overall Impression: Light, delicate, crisp, balanced. This beer is everything a Kölsch should be. The bready malt has depth and reminds me of the great Helles beers of Munich. In the sea of überhopped, barrel-aged, high alcohol monster beers Summit Kölsch is a welcome reminder of the pleasures of simplicity and balance in beer. Nicely done.

Moaten

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The other night I had the opportunity to meet Hildegard van Ostaden, the brewer from Urthel, her husband Bas, the business and design half of the Urthel team, and Jim Ebel, one of the brothers from Two Brothers Brewery. They were at the Four Firkins touting their newly released collaboration beer Moaten. Moaten is a Flemish word meaning “friends” and represents the relationship between the brewers that led to this collaboration. Two Brothers were the first American distributor of the Urthel beers. This early business relationship led to a friendship and a mutual respect for each other’s brewing prowess. For this first collaboration, brewed at Two Brothers outside of Chicago, they chose a Belgian style Flanders Red Ale. According to Jim Ebel, they deferred to Hildegard’s expertise in formulating the recipe. She is, afterall, a master Belgian brewer and taught brewing in Belgium for many years. I got the sense from him that another collaboration is in the offing, this time an American style to be brewed in Belgium. I can hardly wait.

Moaten is an oak aged Flanders Red Ale, a traditional sour ale from north western Belgium. It is typically a very wine-like beer featuring intense fruit character, caramel malt and a bright acidic sourness. The Urthel/Two Brothers version was fermented with champagne yeast and finished off with a dose of acid producing bacteria before being aged in spent whisky barrels. The barrels had previously been used for another Two Brothers beer, so the whisky flavors are all gone, leaving only a light oak. Here’s my notes:

MoatenMoaten
Two Brothers Brewery, Warrenville, Illinois
Brouwerij de Leyerth, Ruiselede, Belgium
Style: Flanders Red Ale
Serving Style: 12.7 oz. Bottle

Aroma: Vinous. Blackberry and grape fruitiness with light caramel malt. Very faint sourness that is less than other versions of the style.
Appearance: Deep reddish-amber and clear. Very small off-white head that stuck around in a thin layer of foam on the surface. Leaves some lace on the glass despite the small head.
Flavor: An explosion of flavors that gets more intense as the beer warms. A definite champagne-like vinous quality from the use of champagne yeast. White wine grape, blackberry, and raisin. The intense fruitiness sits on a base of rich caramel malt with some light toasty notes. The malt remains quite flavorful despite a high level of attenuation. Some herbal/peppery hop flavors are apparent but subdued, as is the bitterness. Again, the acidity is lower than other examples of the style and only really comes out after the beer has warmed a bit. Some oak notes lurk in the background.
Mouthfeel: Medium body, but with a rich and creamy malt. High attenuation leading to a dry finish. Effervescent carbonation.
Overall Impression: The real star of this beer is the beautiful fruitiness brought about by the combination of malt and yeast. The use of champagne yeast makes this beer unique, taking an already wine-like beer style and pushing it one step further. But don’t be alarmed. This is definitely still beer, as the caramel malt will attest. My only wish was that the sour acidity had been higher. While Jim and Hildegard spoke of wanting a subdued sourness, I am a fan of sour beers, and of Flanders Red Ale in particular. I missed the pucker and funk. I bought an extra bottle to lay down for a while. We’ll see if the bacterial beasties continue to do their work.

Red Frog Ale

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I picked up this bottle of Red Frog Ale during one of my trips to San Francisco over the past year. I picked it up mostly because I had never heard of the brewery, Blue Frog Grog and Grill. I like those hoppy, west coast ambers, so it sounded interesting. unfortunately, I didn’t get to this one before the big move back. I’m afraid a few weeks in the back of a moving van or sitting in a warehouse probably didn’t serve it well. Here’s my notes.

Red Frog AleRed Frog Ale
Blue Frog Grog and Grill, Fairfield, California
Style: American Amber Ale
Serving Style: 22 oz. Bottle

Aroma: Caramel and light resin/spicy hops. Hints of citrus. The label mentions dry hopping, but the hop aroma is very subdued.
Appearance: Dark amber and clear. Huge off-white head that would not go away.
Flavor: Loads of caramel malt with light toast. Medium-high bitterness is less than expected. Hop flavors follow the aroma, primarily resinous and spicy with licorice notes and hints of orangy citrus. Finish is moderately dry and lingers a bit on caramel. This bottle seems a little oxidized. Could be that sitting in a moving van on the way home from California didn’t serve it well.
Mouthfeel: Medium body with high carbonation. The carbonation is a bit too high, giving it a bit of carbonic bite.
Overall Impression: A solid, middle-of-the-road amber ale. Nothing offensive, but also nothing terribly interesting. The malt is nice, but not terribly complex, a bit one-note caramel. Bitterness and hop character is less than expected from a west coast amber and from the description on the bottle that touts the “generous addition of hops” and the “aggressive” and “wild” character of the beer. It was neither aggressive nor wild. Handling in the move from San Francisco may have dealt this bottle a blow for the worse as suggested by the oxidation flavors.

Summer Beer Night

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Summer Beer NightIt’s summer in Minnesota! Really it is…even though it may not feel like it. It’s 63° and overcast as I type this, but my current reverie for summer beers goes on. It was in this dogged spirit that the Beer Geeks sat outside on an overcast and chilly evening last week to explore “summer”. Fifteen summer sippers (and maybe a couple of not so summery beers) were sampled before rain forced us to flee the picnic table and retreat into the relative warmth of the great indoors. As a reminder that it actually is summer, many of the geeks were otherwise occupied with ballgames and bike rides. We had a small but convivial group on this most un-summery of summer beer explorations.

American Lagers were in abundance for this session. The first and best of these was Minnesota’s own Grain Belt Premium. I’m not ashamed to admit that I don’t mind a “Primo” every now and again. Lightly sweet and corny with mild bitterness and some licorice hop flavor, it does go down easily when you are in the mood for something that doesn’t tax senses. Too bad about those clear bottles though. This example was a bit skunky, as are most that don’t come from a keg. The second best was Coors Banquet. Not the ubiquitous “Silver Bullet”, but the real stuff in the vaguely yellow can; the stuff Burt Reynolds smuggled to Georgia in Smokey and the Bandit (1977). Like Grain Belt, Coors Banquet is a cornbread lager featuring the sweet flavor of maize and light spicy hops. We all noted a peculiar gasoline smell in this example, but to be honest, we tasted this toward the end of the night, so it didn’t really matter that much.

Fruit beers were also popular at this event. The best of these by a long shot was Samuel Smith’s Organic Raspberry Ale. Described as Summer Beer Night“hopped raspberry soda”, this was a sweet and vaguely wheaty beer with huge tart raspberry aroma and flavor and a long sweet syrupy raspberry finish. Also noticeable was the typical Samuel Smith chalky mineral character present in all of their beers. I think that I was the most enthusiastic one in the group, but I would have been happy to drink this beer all night long. Next up was Berry Weiss from Leinenkugel. I don’t usually mind this beer, but coming right after the Samuel Smith it really didn’t hold up, tasting thin and artificial. We also sampled Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy. Cloudy yellow and quenching like liquid lemon drops this version of the classic English drink of beer and lemonade would have been great served ice cold on a 95° day. Unfortunately, that’s not the kind of day it was.

A couple of Belgian and Belgian-inspired brews were a welcome addition to our list. The standout here was Oud Zottegems Bier. I had done some research on this beer and seen it described variously as a Flemish Red Ale, a Flanders Brown Ale, and a Strong Golden Ale. In reality it is a very tasty Belgian Blond. Comparatively light at 6% ABV it has rich pilsner malt sweetness with huge candy-like honey and raisin Summer Beer Nightcharacter. There is plenty of spicy Belgian yeast that is accentuated by a dry finish lingering on spicy hops. The Limited Edition Tripel from Red Hook had a nice sweet candy orange malt character, but the sharp peppery hops and high bitterness were found to be harsh and overwhelming. Background medicinal flavors also detracted. Two Jokers Double Wit from the Boulevard Brewing Smokestack Series was universally disliked. An object lesson in “more is not always better”, this beer is so heavily spiced, especially with lavender, that one member of the group described its flavor as “old lady soap.”

Two other beers met with near unanimous condemnation from the group. The first was Sun Rye from Red Hook. The cotton candy aroma promises something rich and tasty that the flavor just doesn’t deliver. What you get is a somewhat sweet ale with light rye spiciness and then a whole lot of nothing; a middle-of-the-road rye. The other was Schell’s Zommerfest. Called a Kolsch, this beer lacks any of the delicacy of that style. I would describe it as an over-hopped wheat beer or an over-wheated IPA. Whatever you want to call it, we all felt it to be sharp and abrasively over-bitter.Summer Beer Night

The beers tasted were Grain Belt Premium, Lakefront Organic ESB, Summit Hefeweizen, Samuel Smith Organic Raspberry Ale, Leinenkugel Berry Weiss, Leinenkugel Summer Shandy, Red Hook Sun Rye, Oud Zottegems Bier, Red Hook Limited Edition Tripel, Paulaner Salvator, Boulevard Smokestack Series Two Jokers Double Wit, Schell’s Zommerfest, Mickey’s Malt Liquor, Coors Banquet, and Point Lager. Those in attendance were Michael Agnew, Chris Belsky, Wilbur Ince, Gera Exire LaTour, and Timothy Swanstrom-Stage.

Southern Tier Iniquity

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“The antithesis of Unearthly.” That is how Southern Tier Brewing describes Iniquity, their imperial black ale, referring to their imperial IPA called Unearthly. The reference is not inappropriate. Iniquity is a style bending beer that blurs the line between imperial IPA and Russian imperial stout. It’s bitter like the IPA with distinctly American hops. It’s big, black, and chocolaty like the imperial stout, but without the thick, heavy mouthfeel that one usually finds in that style. I find with most beers from Southern Tier that they are either superb or superbly flawed. Again, this one lies somewhere in the middle, neither great, nor horrible. It inhabits that blurry area in more ways than one. Here’s my notes.

Southern Tier IniquityIniquity
Southern Tier Brewing Co., Lakewood , New York
Style: Specialty Ale (Imperial Black Ale)
Serving Style: 22 oz Bottle

Aroma: Chocolate, roast, and pine tree. Slight alcohol is apparent.
Appearance: Dark brown and clear. Almost black. Clear. Little to no head. Fine film of tan head was all that I was able to raise.
Flavor: Crisp and assertive bitterness is the first sensation. This is followed by a flood of chocolate malt, a bit Hershy’s™-syrup-like, but in a good way. Reminds me of the Choklat Stout from the same brewery but not quite as intense. Hop flavor is pronounced with a mostly pine resin character and hints of citrus. Light sweet alcohol, but not hot. Long finish that lingers on chocolate after one last burst of bitterness.
Mouthfeel: Rich and creamy, but not so thick as a Russian Imperial Stout. Medium-low carbonation could have been stepped up a bit. Some alcohol warmth.
Overall Impression: While I wouldn’t turn it away, this beer is not really my cup of tea. I am not a fan of the combination of roasted malt flavors with heavy doses of citrus/pine American hops. What I did like about this beer was the crisp quality of the bitterness. It has a sharp, clean character like one might find in a great English IPA.

New Belgium La Folie

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New Belgium Brewing of Fort Collins, Colorado is a relatively new entry into the Twin Cities beer scene having made their debut here just a couple of years ago with their flagship brand Fat Tire. Since then they have slowly been adding to the collection of beers available to Minnesota’s thirsty beer drinkers. While we can now get most of the New Belgium product line, it may come as a surprise to those less familiar with the brewery that they have a series of Belgian style sour beers. These include Transatlantique Kriek, a cherry lambic style collaboration brew with Brouwerij Boon,  a holiday seasonal raspberry lambic called Frambozen, and the Lips of Faith series of beers created by brewery employees. The best of these beers is La Folie, a Flanders red style ale aged in French oak barrels for one to three years. La Folie is arguably the best beer in the New Belgium lineup. Here’s my notes.

New Belgium BrewingLa Folie
New Belgium Brewing, Fort Collins, Colorado
Style: Flanders Red Ale
Serving Style: 750 ml Bottle

Aroma: Caramel malt with hints of toast. Loads of fruit, predominantly cherries. Light acidic sourness.
Appearance: Beautiful, clear dark mahogany red. Good size tan head that dissipated relatively quickly.
Flavor: After an initial burst of balsamic vinegar-like sourness a world of malt opens up. Caramel, toast, and chocolate compete for center stage with loads of fruitiness, cherries and currents. Tart and refreshing. Dry finish lingers on sour cherry/berry.
Mouthfeel: Medium-light body. High carbonation. Dry.
Overall Impression: By far the best beer that New Belgium makes. Complex. Well developed sour that still leaves a good base of malt character intact. And that malt character retains a good bit of complexity in its own right. It’s even pleasant to look at. Nice beer. More please!

This is one of my favorite beers…

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A recap of the June Perfect Pint Beer Club meeting.

Happy Pinters Tasting Great BeerLast 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 Nick and Corysmoked 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.

Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A.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.

Rejewvenator 2009

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I Picked up a bottle of the 2009 Rejewvenator “Shmoppelbock” from Shmaltz Brewing/Hebrew. Hailed as the “second coming of Rejewvenator” on the Shmaltz website, this is a slightly different beer than last year. The base recipe seems to be the same, a doppelbock brewed with lager yeast, Belgian Trappist ale yeast, and Belgian abbey ale yeast.  The kicker this year is dates. While last year’s Rejewvenator was brewed with loads of tasty fig juice, 2009 is “the year of the date”, introducing date concentrate into the mix. Here’s my notes:

Hebrew Rejewvenator 2009Rejewvenator ’09
Shmaltz Brewing Company, San Francisco, California
Style: Doppelbock on a date with a Belgian Dubbel
Serving Style: 22 oz. Bottle

Aroma: Initially the aroma was all about caramel malt with a pronounced sugary “Belgian” banana and spice yeast character. A good deal of dark fruit aroma was apparent, but nothing that I would describe as “date”. Like a blind date gone good, the date aroma revealed itself in my glass as the evening went on and the beer warmed in my glass.
Appearance: A lovely clear mahogany/amber with light red highlights. Creamy off white foam that lingered. Legs that went all the way up to the edge of the glass when swirled.
Flavor: Rich caramel malt with a sharper bitterness than expected. Spicy hop flavors accentuate the spicy character of the Belgian yeasts. While the dates may not come through immediately in the aroma, they certainly do in the flavor, giving the beer a sweet fruitiness. The flavor of the dates, however, doesn’t quite complement the flavors of the base beer the way that the fig did in last year’s version. Alcohol is apparent, perhaps more than it should be for 7.8% ABV. Finish is sharp and dry like a lager.
Mouthfeel: Lager-like crispness with balancing residual sugar creaminess. Higher than desired alcohol warmth. Medium carbonation.
Overall Impression: While I think that 2008’s fig juice was a better match overall with the base beer, the dates weren’t bad. A nice twist on an already solid beer. I found this beer a touch boozy for the level of alcohol. Otherwise, this was a full-bodied, rich, sweet, fruity beer with the kind of style-bending complexity that I expect from Shmaltz owner Jeremy Cowan. I definitely enjoyed it.

Blaugies Darbyste

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The Brasserie de Blaugies is a tiny husband and wife operation in the small rural town of Blaugies in southern Belgium. The wife brews the beer in a tiny brewery in the garage of their farm house while the husband tends to the business of the brewery. They produce a number of traditional Belgian farmhouse ales including Saison d’Epeautre, a saison brewed with spelt, and Darbyste, a saison brewed with fig juice. The Darbyste is said to be named after the 19th century Irish cleric John Darby, founder of the Plymouth Brethren and so-called father of dispensationalism. According to their website: “A traditional style named for John Darby, preacher of temperance whose parishioners were oddly moved by a ‘soft drink’ they insisted was just fig juice . . .”  Here’s my notes.

Blaugies DarbysteDarbyste
Brasserie de Blaugies, Blaugies, Belgium
Style: Saison with Fig Juice
Serving Style: 750 ml Bottle

Aroma: Pronounced leathery and horsey brettanomyces funk. Spicy black pepper and soft sweet grainy malt. Spritzy lemon fruitiness.
Appearance: Orange colored and lightly cloudy. Big, fluffy, off-white head that lasted a good long time.
Flavor: Cidery pear and apple combined with bright lemony citrus fruit. The fruit character was enhanced by a fairly pronounced acetic sourness. Horsey brettanomyces funk. Nice wheaty bready malt still remained and gave the beer a bit of sweetness. Finish exceptionally dry with lingering pepper and clove spice. Fig makes only the faintest impression.
Mouthfeel: Very high carbonation and very dry finish just barley balanced by a malty creaminess.
Overall Impression: This was a bottle that had been sitting in my cellar for over a year. I think the wild beasties had done some developing as this beer tasted dramatically more funky than an earlier example I tried. But I’m not complaining. This was a bit like a lambic with an unusual amount of remaining malt flavor and chewy richness. Loved the fruit. Loved the funk. Loved the fullness.

Hop Heads Only

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A celebration of humulus lupulus at the Blue Nile.

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.

Founders Centennial IPA – This was hands down the best beer of the afternoon. Those who know me know that I like balance in my American hoppy beers. Founders has it in spades. This beer displays a beautiful grapefruit citrus centennial hop flavor and assertive bitterness to be sure.  The hop character is balanced by a malt profile more complex than any other beer I tasted that afternoon. Light toast and biscuit flavors add depth to the normal sweet grainy base malt to make this an exceptional beer.

Victory Wild Devil – Hop Devil has always been one of my favorite IPAs. Add a touch of Brettanomyces wild yeast funkiness and it’s just gotta be good. Wild fermented beers are not usually bitter. There is a danger that the hop bitterness and the wild yeast character will clash. That is not a problem in this beer. The wild notes are subtle, lending a light leather and barnyard to an otherwise balanced and delicious beer. Nice.

Alvinne Extra IPA – This offering from Picobrouwerij in Belgium was a delight. The bitterness is restrained compared to the American IPAs, but this is more than made up for by the delicious Belgian yeast character. Light clove and black pepper phenols blend with the hops rather than fighting with them as happens in many of these Belgian IPAs. This along with a huge peachy fruitiness really set this beer apart from the others. This is a subtle beer. The early sip I had from a friend’s glass was sublime. unfortunately I ordered my own too late in the game after my palate had already been destroyed by hops. Lesson learned.

Other standouts worth mentioning were Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA, Left Hand 400LB Monkey, and the cask version of Summit Horizon Red Ale.

There were really only a couple of disappointments in the selection of beers that I tried. Southern Tier Iniquity was one. I am not a fan of roasted malts in combination with loads of citrusy American hops, but this beer had been recommended to me by so many people that I had to try it. Unfortunately it tasted too much like roasted grapefruit for me to enjoy it. I was also not fond of the Double Bubble from Rush River. This tasted fine at first, but as it warmed strong banana aromas and flavors began to creep in. I also experienced a certain unidentifiable unpleasantness in the finish.

Overall, this was a great event. Thanks to Al for putting it on.