Friday, January 13, 2017

First share of 2017

Me and my friends Evan, Scott & John decided to start 2017 off right with a huge share on New Year's Day. We popped some bottles we had been saving for a special occasion, played Camel Up, and attempted to watch some Week 17 football (sorry about those Lions, Evan & Scott). Here's a ranking, in my opinion, of the beers we had that day.

Graveyard

Just missed:

 16. Sand City Brewing - One

I was very glad to acquire one of these cans as an extra in a trade, as I really wanted to try it. However, this double IPA which was brewed to commemorate Sand City's one year anniversary, was released sometime in October (making it in the 2-3 month range). Definitely fell off as this beer seems to be massively dry-hopped with citra and galaxy. Still quite good for being that old. 



15. Aslin Brewing - DDH Neutrino 

I complained about Aslin enough in my last post. First criticism, 750 mL of a double dry-hopped IPA is way, way too much (even at ~6% ABV). Four of us splitting it thought it was too much. Second criticism, it's really sweet.

Although not a picture from the share, I still challenge someone
 to tell me that murky brown looks like an appetizing DDH IPA. 

14. New Glarus Brewing - R&D Wild Barrel

I haven't tried much of New Glarus, thanks to their Wisconsin-only distribution (and I'm not making a trip to the Badger state anytime soon). The R&D series is something I've been wanting to try thanks to a really rad label. This version, also known as the Bramble Berry Bourbon Barrel, is a spontaneously fermented wild brown ale (aged in bourbon barrels). It was quite an interesting beer with some dark fruit jam notes, some mild tartness, a touch of vanilla & some oak on the finish. Not too many bourbon or barrel notes but it was nice. Very similar to de Garde's Poppy Van Ambre which I also liked but was noticeably more tart.



 13. Tree House Brewing - Super Sap

Whoa I almost left this beer off my ranking which could probably be considered blasphemy in many beer circles. This is a different sort of TH IPA, with a lot of piney notes and sticky hops.



12. Sand City Brewing - Infinity + One

I honestly can't believe this beer is on the just missed list. This is a fantastic, fresh double IPA from Long Island kings Sand City. Juicy and soft, this is probably the best Sand City offering I've had. 



11. Tree House Brewing - Alter Ego

A Tree House IPA missing a top ten list must be against some sort of beer nerd law. Alter Ego, while not my favorite regular TH offering (Haze? Green? It's too difficult to choose...) is still a fantastic beer with that signature juiciness and softness. Always a pleasure to drink something from Monson.




Top Ten!


10. Jester King Brewing - CRU 55

RU55 is a farmhouse red ale aged in oak barrels with souring bacteria and wild yeast. CRU55, is a special version of RU55 aged in a huge puncheon for three years. This was essentially a classic flanders red ale, dark burgundy with touch of tartness/acidity with tons of oak. Quite a treat.



9. Tree House Brewing - Native Four

As I prepared myself to try my first "sour" from Tree House, I was expecting to be underwhelmed. I thought there was no way they could make the best IPAs on the planet and excellent stouts AND nice wild ales. Well, damn. Pouring straw yellow, this bottle-fermented was first aged in oak barrels for 8 months with brettanomyces and lactobacillus. The age on this showed nicely, refreshingly tart without being over sour from the lacto.



8. de Garde Brewing -  Grand Blanc

Some oak with lots of riesling grape notes (must, juice, etc). As tart and pleasant as any de Garde.



7. Odd Side Ales -  Rye Hipster Brunch Stout

The last beer we had at the share, and we definitely went out with a bang and not a whimper. I didn't know what to expect from this barrel-aged stout packed with adjuncts. Essentially an imitation MBCP, this rye stout is brewed with maple syrup and then aged in rye whiskey barrels with coffee and bacon. This blew me away. Great coffee and maple sweetness with smooth whiskey. Note to self: seek out Odd Side.

Drunk me didn't care about the lighting on this one. 

6. OEC Brewing - Vindemia Blanc

Another incredible blended wild ale from OEC. This blend of year old ale aged in oak barrels on vidal blanc grapes and champagne currants was (as you can guess) a fusion of white wine, champagne and wild ale - lots of funk and tartness with subtle white grape must. Some of their blends may seem really out there but these CT blenders are consistently releasing fantastic and interesting ales.



5. de Garde Brewing -  Petit Peche

In my last post I was blown away by how much I liked Petit Nectarine compared to Nectarine Premiere. Unable to compare this to another dG peach beer (I.E. The Peach, Peach Bu, etc.) I thought back to Imperial Stone Bu which I really liked on my birthday share. I was blown away by Petit Peche's aroma of fresh juicy peaches. While I was distracted from playing Camel Up, I remembered a lot of peach juice and tartness from this wild ale. de Garde is just unfair.



4. O'so Brewing / Funk Factory Geuzeria -  Bosbes

Bosbes is a true American lambic, a blend of "lambic style" beer aged in French oak wine barrels for 18-24 months then re-fermented on (2 lbs/gallon of) blueberries for 6 weeks. Firstly, the color is incredible and the best I've seen from a blueberry beer. Mashing those blueberries down in the lambic blend must have been therapeutic. Secondly, it was a mistake to have this after Frampaars.

Comparing fruits is hard, since there are so many inherent biases and taste preferences and differences between two different berries, especially between two as different as the blueberry and raspberry. As I've noted before, I think blueberry is a soft fruit that doesn't bring too much to the table. However, in Bosbes, the blueberry flavor is overwhelming when combined with the funky, tannic, and dry lambic blend. It finishes with a lot of oak and was excellent. I wish I had another bottle to see how this would taste with a bit more age.


3. Hardywood Brewing - Kentucky Christmas Morning (2016)

 On Christmas day, I had Hardywood's Christmas Morning and really enjoyed it. I'm not a big fan of the base GBS thinking it's too sweet, but the coffee beans in CM add a nice level of roast and bitterness that was really pleasant (I found CM to be better than BA GBS too). I came in to KCM with very high expectations thanks to how much I liked CM and I was blown away. Hardywood ages GBS in bourbon barrels and then filters it through roasted coffee beans, leaving a lot of fresh roasted coffee with the impressive bourbon character. Glad I have a second bottle of this.



2. O'So Brewing / Funk Factory Geuzeria -  Frampaars

Levi Funk knows what he's doing. Essentially the same formula as Bosbes, this blend of lambic beer which was aged in French oak wine barrels for 18-24 months was then re-fermented on (again 2 lbs /gallon) of fresh raspberries. Frampaars was like drinking sweet and tart raspberry jam - very funky, it got better as it warmed and the fruit opened up. 



 1. Bottle Logic Brewing - Fundamental Observation (B2, 2016)

The beast of the 2016 beer trading world, FO probably deserves the hype. I came into the night expecting Frampaars to be the best beer of the night given my preference for fruited wild ales over barrel-aged stouts. I was so, so wrong. Though I haven't had the pleasure of trying many vanilla stouts, I knew something was special about FO's vanilla character. Comparing it to the (quite good) Grimm Sumi Ink, the vanilla and bourbon flavors in this blew that away. While drinking it, I compared it to tasting Breyer's basic vanilla ice cream to a high-quality vanilla bean ice cream. There's just another layer there without added sweetness. The barrel and bourbon in this was also great, with a smooth and thick mouthfeel.




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Home for the Holidays - Visiting Aslin & Virginia Share

What's a trip home for the holidays without a share with friends? Everyone deserves to take a night away from family to share some fantastic beers in each other's company. A couple buddies and I decided to do just that - and I got some sweet VA beer from them too.



We also decided to hit up Aslin Brewing in Herndon for their first ever bottle release (don't get me started on why the brewery was bottling in the first place, even more so at 750mL...).  Aslin is a super-hyped brewery with lines for crowlers of their "juicy & hazy" New England style IPAs. I understand why there's hype - there's a lot of beer drinkers in the northern Virginia area that have been deprived of good beer for a long time. While Bluejacket, Right Proper and 3 Stars are all doing great things, none of them are riding the IPA hype train that's taking over the country right now. Aslin is doing just that and has expanded astronomically since the first time I visited them in June.

Now, maybe it's just me, but Aslin's IPAs are murky messes with no depth beyond being "hazy." In my opinion, if you compare an Aslin IPA, you'll get a thick layer of hops and a lot of sweetness with no back-end to the palate, no softness, no mouthfeel. They're purely taking advantage of a hype trend. Not that they're bad brews, but they don't deserve the extremely high praise they're getting from NoVa beer geeks. Aslin still has a lot to learn, and I'm excited to see what they do with their new facility and expanded production.

/end Aslin rant

A photo posted by EDM (@hooshoppy) on



Side note: I won't be including Other Half's Broccoli or Blowin' Up The Spot in my ranking because I've previously had them and had little more than a sip so my friends could have more. As I really enjoy both beers and thought Broccoli was one of OH's best releases of the year, I was shocked by their reaction, they thought both smelled very boozy & like rubbing alcohol. Maybe I'm just used to that OH style?

The Graveyard


A new category in the ranking this week...Plain old missed:

15. Lickinghole Creek - Supreme Leader

Curious as to why this is so highly rated and hyped. This beer had way, way too much going on (bourbon barrel aged, Mexican peepers, vanilla, cinnamon, cocoa) and was super thin. Got some good spice on the nose, but the mouth feel was off and it had no barrel character. Was surprised to learn it was aged in bourbon barrels considering how bland it was.

14. Aslin - All Eyez On Me

Aslin has been one of the hottest breweries in the Mid-Atlantic (north of Richmond) and is super hyped by DC-area people for their hazy New England style IPAs. All Eyez on Me is a collaboration by Aslin with Dominion Wine and Beer, a nice bottle shop in Falls Church, VA. It's a double IPA brewed with Waimea, Vic Secret & Amarillo hops and was limited to ~100 crowlers (selling out within the hour). Unfortunately, the crowler was canned on 11/11 so this DIPA was ~6 weeks old when I got to try it and had considerably fallen off.

 13. Fonta Flora - Urban Monk

The only beers I had drank from Fonta Flora previous to this were two really nice wild ales, Need A Hug (blueberries & elderberries) and Meemaw (cherries), and they were great (even beat out Wicked Weed blueberry & cherry sours in a blind tasting). Urban Monk was disappointing. Aged on whisky soaked oak spirals, it smelled like a bit of whisky but tasted like nothing. With reports of infected bottles, glad this one wasn't. It still wasn't good though.


Just missed: 

 12. 3 Stars Brewing -  Starsky & Dutch

 I first had this beer at Galaxy Hut in Arlington last Thanksgiving and I was impressed. I was really glad to find out 3 Stars canned it and get some from my friend. The nose on this is all cocoa, has a great thicker mouth feel and is super chocolaty. Perfect non-BA dessert stout.

By the way, who doesn't love a good canned stout?
 Breweries need to do it more often!

11. Deschutes Brewery - The Abyss (2015)

First time trying this highly acclaimed barrel aged stout. Got some bourbon barrel & a lot of molasses but not much other depth or complexity.


Top Ten:

 10. Jackie O's - Oro Negro

Jackie O's continues to impress me with their stouts. This is the "worst" one I've had from them but it was still really nice, I bet the bourbon barrel version is even better.



9. Jackie O's - Bourbon Barrel Dark Apparition with Brown Sugar

Regular Dark Apparition was really good, one of the better Russian Imperial Stouts I had last year and it was the first Jackie O's beers I tried. I still rate BBA Champion Ground higher than this, but it was quite nice.

Didn't get too much brown sugar, but maybe
 it's because of having it after adjunct-heavy Oro Negro. 

8. 3 Stars Brewing / Other Half Brewing - Ricky Rosé

 Ever since I learned about this collaboration last summer I wanted to try this beer. An ale aged in chardonnay barrels with blackberries sounds just lovely. It was. Very clean & tart with great blackberry - one of the best collabs Other Half has done. 


7. Interboro - Mad Fat! Fluid 

This might be one of the best local IPAs of 2016. I think I might slightly prefer Premiere, but this was absurdly good. 
A photo posted by EDM (@hooshoppy) on

6. Cigar City Brewing -  Kalevipoeg At the Gates of Hell (Rum Barrel)

 Went into this beer with low expectations thinking I wouldn't enjoy it because it's a baltic porter aged in rum barrels (not my style) and comes in at a whopping 13.5%. It was great. Lots of rum and sweetness, not too much spice. Really well made. Rum barrel fanatics (looking at you Pirate Noir fans) should seek this out.

 5. Goose Island - Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout (2015)

 I reviewed this one last post when I had it at my last bottle share. Since I tasted it just a few weeks prior, I opted for a smaller pour to let me friends try more. This time, I didn't get as much barrel character but it was still great.

4. The Rare Barrel - Afterlight

Rare Barrel continues to kill the sour game in my opinion. I haven't had a disappointing beer from them. While this isn't the best I've had, this dark sour aged in French Bordeaux wine barrels was a delight. Got a lot of dark fruit and vanilla notes on this and it wasn't super tart.


 3. Hill Farmstead Brewery -  Earl

Bottled 1/13/16, this was my first time trying Earl, an oatmeal stout with coffee added. The roasted malts played a huge part of this beer's flavor along with the flaked oats giving the stout a really full body. The coffee was not overwhelming or bitter & HF's classic well water always adds a nice touch to the taste. A really impressive non-BA stout that is underrated compared to HF's other offerings.

A beer that deserved a better picture!

2. Great Notion Brewing - Crazy Fingers

Named in homage to The Grateful Dead, this IPA brewed with Vic Secret (Australia) and Motueka (NZ)  hops was really, really nice. Only the second Great Notion beer I've had after Juice Box, this beer was really soft and juicy. Motueka is a great hop (and I love what Other Half does with it) with really unique citrusy aromas. Gonna need some more GN crowlers soon!


 1. de Garde Brewing - Petit Nectarine

Everyone knows by now that de Garde is probably my favorite brewery, so giving this the top ranking probably isn't a surprise. But honestly, every time I have a wild ale from these guys, I'm blown away. I popped this anticipating it wouldn't be as good as Nectarine Premiere which I opened for my birthday share. It was better. I'd like to further understand the difference between "A Wild Farmhouse Ale" (Nectarine Premiere) and "A Tart Farmhouse Ale" (Petit Nectarine). Is one brewed in a coolship (hence wild) and the other inoculated with house cultures? Either way, I really enjoyed this. Despite it having less fruit added to the barrels than NP (I believe), the nectarine/stone fruit flavor was fantastic.

A photo posted by EDM (@hooshoppy) on
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