Early in 2012 I found an interesting article somewhere on the interwebs about a brewery in Alaska tossing in a load of Gummi Bears in the tanks of a Belgian Tripel. I guess the brewer (Kenai River Brewing Company) caught wind of it and made sure I was able to try it once everything was ready to roll.
To make a long story short, I did get a chance to try it and I loved it. I decided to check on Kenai's Facebook page last night and discovered that it was attempting to concoct yet another batch of this candied Tripel.
It looks as if it's going to be draft only as it was the last time it was brewed or the the instance that I was lucky enough to come across some, at least. I'm not 100 percent sure if a batch was made in 2013. Regardless, if any of you are up in the Sodoltna area during a trip to Alaska this is your heads-up!
Loads of Gummi Bears via Kenai River's Facebook page.
Appearance: Sunken Island IPA pours a dark and hazy copper. It features a very frothy, white head atop the beer that leaves your mouth watering. There isn't much carbonation to speak of, but the head leaves a good bit of ample lacing as the beer slowly travels down the glass.
Smell: This beer's aroma is very floral at first. Next, I got its strong hop character. Behind that were small tones of sweet caramel. There's a small bit of alcohol that also comes through the nostrils.
Taste: This is where it sort of went downhill for me. The alcohol was very prevalent in the taste. Mix that with the strong hop character and I got a beer that seemed somewhat dry. Then again, I haven't been a person to thoroughly enjoy every IPA I've come across.
Overall Rating:
Of the three beers sent to me from Kenai River, this was the one I liked the least. It's a decent IPA, but the alcohol and hop flavor in this one was just too much for my palette. The other two samples I was sent included the Gummi Bear Beer and Skilak Scottish Ale.
Appearance: Skilak Scottish Ale pours a dark chroma of brown. The body is a murky abyss. It appears to be so thick that not much carbonation is visible traveling towards the crown of the beer. Where the carbonation is plenty visible is the head, which is an off-white beige color and has a decent thickness to it. Not the most appetizing beer in the world judging strictly by how it looks.
Smell: This gives off quite a few pleasant aromas. The smell that was the most dominant was a scent of what seemed to be smoked peat. I'm serious. Some toasted malt and sweet caramel came in behind that initial scent. The aroma of the beer made up for lost points in the appearance department.
Taste: The sweetness and smokiness mix really well in this beer. No flavor is more dominant than the other and for a Scottish Ale, I think that's important if you prefer it to be smoother like Skilak Scottish.
Overall Rating:
This beer and I didn't get off to the best of starts as soon as I poured it. I've had a torrid history with Scottish Ales as they come off too strong for my tastes, but I was glad this beer came into my hands. It was a lot milder than ones I've had in the past and had an interesting combination of flavors.
Serving Type: Free sample sent from the brewer. Was a draft-only release and was canned for shipping.
ABV: 9.2 percent
Appearance: The highly anticipated Gummi Bear Beer had a deep gold tone to its body. It also had a tad of a hazy character to it, due to the yeast content. After all, it is a Belgian Tripel. It also features a slightly fizzy and white head. The can it came in was a classic, as its title was simply written in permanent marker.
Smell: I got two key things from smelling this beer. A strong aroma of boozy alcohol and something that was almost buttery. It's almost like this brew fermented in the can during shipping, which wouldn't be a surprise since there was a lot of sugar put into this. A very interesting balance.
Taste: For the most part, the beer's taste featured the alcohol and the butter I sensed in the smell. There was also a strong helping of sugary sweetness. As there was plenty of Gummi Bears put into the brewing process, there wasn't a distinctive fruit flavor for any particular Gummi Bear. The alcohol and the intense sweetness might be unbearable if not for the taste of butter and yeast being there to balance things out. With the butter and yeast flavors, this beer's flavor seems extremely adventurous.
Overall Rating:
I waited a good while for this beer to finally get to me. I was very excited to finally try a beer with actual Gummi Bears brewed into it. I loved the use of drastic, but still balanced flavors in this beer. Keep in mind that this isn't the most sessionable of beers, given its ABV, but is a fun drink for one or two glasses. This was a limited-release by Kenai River Brewing and was draft-only.
If you've been following the Gummi Bear Belgian Tripel that was brewed by Kenai River Brewing Co., you should know that it was released (draft only) last Friday at the brewery. Kenai River's owner, Doug Hogue said in an email that the beer has been quite the successful seller as the entire batch is almost kaput only after six days.
Hogue also said that due to the beer's immediate success that the brewery is hoping to make another batch for its fall line-up as well as canning it. A lot of us here in the lower-48 don't really have the chance to try this beer unless you actually visit the brewery in Alaska. I'm sure the canning of it will greatly improve your chances of one day trying it.
Kenai cans two other beers: Sunken Island IPA (6.8 percent ABV) and Skilak Scottish Ale (5.8 percent ABV).
There's also a good chance I can end up with a very small batch of the Gummi Bear beer. Let's keep our fingers crossed. I'm interested in trying it for myself and sharing my thoughts on it.
Word of this news has quickly circulated around the craft beer world. Apparently Alaskan-based brewer, Kenai River Brewing Co. is concocting a Belgian Tripel that features gummy bears introduced to the batch at some point in the brewing process.
The beer calls for 20 lbs of candy sugar and approximately 15 lbs of the childhood snack.
First of all, I want to meet the person that came up with that idea. I love gummy bears. I grew up eating them. Sometimes I still do. Hell, a few times I even came across some rum-infused gummy bears. This idea is one of those that can hit on one of two opposite ends of the spectrum. It can either go very wrong, or become a new fad. The next thing I know, I'll be walking into my local watering hole to find some eccentric drunk with gummy candy floating around in his craft beer.
It brings up an entertaining question that beer enthusiasts have been debating for years: What is acceptable to put in your beer?
Mainly, this debate has been around whether or not to have fruit in your beer. Now, there are many people that enjoy doing it as there are that consider it a sacrilege. Personally, I've grown out of putting fruits in most of the beers that I drink. I've made it well known that some of my favorite beer styles are made with plenty of fruit.
Corona has gone as far as to incorporate the lime in Corona Extra as a marketing ploy. It's also very common to see someone with an orange slice on the rim of a glass of Blue Moon Belgian White. If you've progressed from that stage of beer drinking and have moved on to bigger and better brews, you might see a few instances where someone uses a lemon or an orange with a certain type of witbier.
The debate might not ever end. I simply prefer a well-crafted fruit beer and sometimes a lemon with a Hoegaarden. Now we face the possibility of putting candy in our beers, something I've never heard nor thought of until yesterday. Jesus. With this style that Kenai is playing with, it might help. The few Tripels that I've had have tasted terrible, in my opinion. The fact that gummy bears are going to be brewed into beer is somewhat ironic. The gummy bear originated in Germany.
