Monday Rant: It Gives You Focus

Hops. More Hops. Hop oil. Resin. Grapefruit. Sometime maybe even some orange. All are key characteristics of American IPA's that I've noticed over the three to four years that I've been indulging in the craft beer scene. Characteristics that many of you out there find appetizing and inviting. I've grown to find them overly intense, drab and boring. The race to see which brewer puts the most hops into its IPA's has not entertained me much and you're not wrong for being excited about it. It's just not my thing. It's kind of reminiscent of the multiple times the Major League Baseball home run records have been shattered since my adolescence.

Twitter has always been ablaze with the popularity of session IPA's. I've taken special notice to it with the addition of Founders All Day IPA to the craft beer spectrum (was it some time last year?). I decided to have an All Day IPA as my dinner cap on Saturday and someone almost had to mop up the puddle of drool that I left on the bar.

It was fruity and had layers of flavor other than the ones I mentioned above. It didn't appear as if it was saturated with hop oil. It was somewhere within the spectrum of being both transparent and opaque. A lovely color, too. Why don't we brew more of these session IPA's? They go down easy. The flavors seem to be more focused. You probably won't taste remnants of these brews in the ones you decide to try afterwards. The beers have a mild and bitter bite on the back, but the point is that 85 percent of the drinking experience with one of these isn't entirely on the hops. I don't think that any beer should have the main focus of the hops that are in it, but all of the ingredients that go into the brewing process. Remember that beer is quite subjective!

Then again, this is probably why I'm not a brewer somewhere in the middle portions of Pennsylvania. Still, I think it's a good thing that we are experimenting with the session brews here in the states. So many beers have hit the market that have too high ABV's and are just too complicated in the least. Whatever happened to the simple beers?

Speaking of simple, yet stunning brews...

Beer Review: Founders Rubaeus

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 5.7 percent

Appearance: This beer was a deep ruby red with purple and pinkish hues. It was almost the color of an oak-like red wine. The head was white, but still had interesting specks of an indigo color. It was somewhat fizzy, but the foam of the head seemed to fade off fairly fast. After about a minute I was able to stare straight into the body of the beer as the head completely disappeared!

Smell: Initially, this was sour and tart. Still, those two factors in the aroma seemed a tad faint. Behind the tartness, I was definitely able to decipher some fruity raspberries.

Taste: I kind of loved the taste of this one. No fruit beer has ever come close to actually tasting like pie filling, but this one took the cake...er...pie. The sweetness of the raspberries hit up front and as everything made its way to the midpoint, the tartness unfolded. I almost thought that I'd have to pick those nagging raspberry seeds from the nooks and crannies my teeth after each sip. That's how tasty and fruity this was.

Overall Rating: 

I'm glad it said "Pure Raspberry Ale" on the label of this one because, in essence, that's exactly what it was. The fruit was there big time, but there wasn't any hints of a wheat or yeast backbone present. I'm guessing that was in no way a mistake. That was the intention of brewing this. Still, the fruit really hit home. It actually smelled like a handful of raspberries was being thrust up into my nose. In no way did it feel artificial. Even with the awesome taste, I still want a bit more texture and attractive lacing to look at.

Monday Rant: Not the Physical Type

Every once in a while there's a brewery or a release of a beer that's put on as some sort of festival. The most recent one that everyone seemed to be talking about this weekend was Dark Lord Day by Three Floyds Brewing. From what I could tell, this was for the release of its Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout that comes in at a hefty ABV of 15 percent.

In numerous cases these events and releases seem to end up being chaos. I distinctly remember some Founders Brewing event going haywire when people had to purchase tickets to be able to purchase some kind of other ticket to get into an event to fight many others that seek the same rare beverage you do. Doesn't anyone else see the insanity of all this? Maybe I'm just getting more cynical by the day?

I choose not to go anywhere near places that have rare beers like this one. I'm not fighting people to be able to pay $10 for a glass of beer. I'm just fine. Awesome Pittsburgh bar announces it'll have a big Kentucky Breakfast Stout event/tapping? One thing is certain with me. I won't be there. For this very reason I've never graced my tongue with KBS and I still sleep at night. No beer is worth fighting crowds over.

Some of them also have such a high ABV that it might even be impossible to taste the intricacies of the beers. I want to taste the beer. Not have my tongue incinerated by booze. Geez. This is just another reason I'm a 60-year-old man trapped in the body of a 24-year-old.

 

Beer Review: Founders Centennial IPA

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 7.2 percent

Appearance: Centennial IPA pours a solid shade of copper. It has a haziness that's cloudy enough to keep you from seeing anything on the other side of the glass. It has a massive head that had awesome retention and left tons of lacing sticking to the inside of the glass. As I continued to drink this beer the head receded somewhat, but it remained as a fluffy layer between me and the rest of the brew.

Smell: The aroma consisted mainly of floral hop notes. other underlying scents included a bit of sweet maltiness as well as citrus and pine. This is pretty much a typical IPA scent, in a good way.

Taste: First I got the sweet malts on the front of my tongue. Then came a touch of dryness from the pine and what I figured to be grapefruit. I'm always brace myself when I drink beers of this type to be blown away by the hops that are present, but I must admit my experience with this one went well. The hops weren't overbearing at all. They were pungent, but complimented the rest of the beer's flavors really well. As the brew warms, the hops to tend to become even more pungent though. Fortunately it's not quite enough to ruin the good experience you can have with this beer.

Overall Rating: 

I went into this one fearing I was going to a ton of hop notes. I was pleasantly surprised that all of the flavors played off of each other very well. The hops tend to nip at your tongue a bit as the beer gets closer to room temperature.

Don't Drink the Paint, Sir

This is really interesting. Perhaps this is the the newest fad in American craft beer culture. It seems to have already taken a foothold in Europe. I came across an online article from Time Magazine that made mention of something called "Beertone Swatches."

If' you're familiar with Photoshop then you know what a a color swatch is. In essence, these seem to be exactly what they sound to be. CMYK and RGB codes for colors of beer. As I mentioned earlier, this fad seems to have developed some popularity in Europe with the colors of its beers. It seems to be only be in the beginning stages here in the states. This is evident by the mention of Founders Brewing being one of the first American breweries to get involved in this movement on the Beertone Facebook page.

I interestingly clicked on the Time article because the title made mention of beer colors in home decor. You most likely would have as well. Doesn't the thought of Anchor Steam-colored walls sound tempting? Sadly, the article made no mention of actually being able to buy paint colors yet. Possibly in the future?

I have previously dabbled in this kind of stuff before. The background of this blog (if you're not on the mobile version) is a vivid orange color. That's because I took a photograph of Southern Tier's Pumking into Photoshop and brought out the simple eye dropper tool. I liked it so much that I actually incorporated it into my background.

Beer Review: Founders Dirty Bastard

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 8.5 percent

Appearance: The initial appearance of Dirty Bastard is that it's an extremely thick beer. It's a very dark shade of maroon, with an off-white head. Depending on the angle in which you look at the beer's body, you can see some glowing spots of reds and browns.

Smell: The first smell is very sweet. I also picked up notes of malts, toffee and caramel. Given this beer's ABV, I figured I'd be fighting a strong scent of booze. Surprisingly there wasn't much alcohol in the aroma.

Taste: This beer was an interesting adventure until I took a few sips of it. The sweet and malty notes I discovered in the smell didn't translate as well to the taste and the alcohol that wasn't present in the smell hit me like a wall. The strong taste of alcohol and the thickness of the body made this beer a bit of a struggle. It was easier to drink once it got closer to room temperature though.

Overall Rating: 

I think that if there was less of an alcohol presence and more of the sweet and malty notes in the taste of this beer, that it would be a much more pleasant drink. This is the flagship beer of Founders Brewing, but personally I'd choose quite a few other beers by this company over this one.

To Hell With Pop Tarts: Founders Breakfast Stout

In yesterday's post I mentioned that I was able to try another beer from the stout family. I most definitely did. The bartender was glad to serve it to me and add the fact that this was his all-time favorite beer. It's pretty ironic that today is national coffee day too.