The Beer Must Go On

AT THE HOPS!

The image above of lovely hop vines in Mike's backyard (destined to grace his terrific beers) was the appropriate backdrop for our most recent BOTB meeting. The meetings have become few and far between due to the pandemic, and we have been holding them outdoors with appropriate  social distancing. Luckily, all of us are very careful when it comes to staying protected against the virus. With winter fast approaching, meetings may become even fewer and further between, sadly, or very cold. But this one was held on a beautiful summer late afternoon, sans the usual sing-alongs with the BC3 unfortunately. 

Especially apropos to the backdrop of hops was the choice of beers this time. Beer themes are host's choice and Mike deemed that we should all choose an IPA which we had never personally had before. So without further preamble ramble, here's what we came up with.  

 

BURNING MONEY

THIN MAN BREWING

THE BEER FACTS:  BREWER: Thin Man Brewery, Buffalo, NY; STYLE: American India Pale Ale; ABV: 6.6%; IBUs: 65; HOPS: Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe

WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "IPA brewed with Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe hops."

 COLOR: Hazy wheat 

 POUR: Decent Head, with nice lacing

 AROMA: Tropical fruit, pineapple

 BODY: Somewhat more than medium

TASTE: Some of the tropical fruit noted in the aroma, a bit of dankness, clean, complex, some sweetness in there with a nice bitter bite

 OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Between I COULD DRINK THIS and CAN'T GET ENOUGH

 COMMENTS: "Love it; Overall effect is balanced; I could drink it; If you haven't tried it, you should; Don't pay attention to the green can - it isn't Genny Cream; A wee bit bitter on the end with a nice dry finish."

C-4 IPA

EASTWOOD BREWING

THE BEER FACTS: BREWER: Eastwood Brewing Company, Syracuse, NY; STYLE: India Pale Ale; ABV: 7%; HOPS: Columbus, Citra, Cascade, Chinook

 COLOR: Hazy, cloudy golden wheat

 POUR: Fairly small head that dissipates quickly 

 AROMA: Not a strong aroma, but some grass, malt and a little tropical fruit in there

 BODY: Medium

TASTE: Nicely balanced with a solid malt backbone and tasty citrus and tropical notes

 OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Between I COULD DRINK THIS and CAN'T GET ENOUGH

 COMMENTS: "Refreshing taste; Nice after-taste; Balanced, maybe a bit sweet; Smooth with a nice finish; Very drinkable; Nice, crisp beer here, very tasty."

RIOT IN THE CASTLE

MIDDLE AGES AND PRISON CITY BREWERIES

THE BEER FACTS: BREWERS: Middle Ages Brewing, Syracuse, NY and Prison City Brewing, Auburn, NY; STYLE: New England IPA; ABV: 7.8%; HOPS: Mosaic, Columbus, Citra, Simcoe and Vic Secret

WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "A collaboration with our friends at Prison City"

 COLOR: Cloudy pale, looks like a lemon wheat honey brown

 POUR: Decent Head

 AROMA: Grapefruit, citrus

 BODY: Clingy aftertaste, classic New England tropical fruit, grapefruit

 OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: CAN'T GET ENOUGH

 COMMENTS: "Nice collaboration - good balance of the two styles; Extremely drinkable, nice change-up for Middle Ages; New England style in the middle ages - ha; Awesome."

BIG 'STONER HAZY DIPA

WHETSTONE STATION BREWING

THE BEER FACTS: BREWER: Whetstone Station Brewing, Brattleboro, VT; STYLE: Hazy Double IPA; ABV: 8%; IBUs: 48; 

 

WHAT THE BREWER SAYS:  "With all late-addition hops and intense dry hopping, our dank Vermont double IPA is big, balanced and delicious. The 'big brother' of our flagship Whetstoner, Big 'Stoner packs a punch at just over 8% ABV. Pairs great with hearty or spicy food and nachos."

 COLOR: Cloudy clover honey

 POUR: Bit better than Decent

 AROMA: Grassy, hay

 BODY: A bit beyond Medium

TASTE: Sweeter and maltier than most NEIPAs, earthy and a bit of sourness in there

 OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Close to CAN'T GET ENOUGH!

 COMMENTS: Delicious; I like it a lot; A little dangerous at 8% - you want a few; Among the very top tonight; Much more of a malt presence than we normally see in a New England, and I really like that, the whole 'juicy' thing can get a bit out of hand where you lose the basic 'beerness' of a beer - this is still beer; Yeah, I like that it is a bit different."

INVISIBLE ENEMY

DISTRICT 96 BEER FACTORY

THE BEER FACTS: BREWER: District 96 Beer Factory, New City, NY; STYLE: New England DIPA; ABV: 8.0%; HOPS: Enigma, Mosaic, Azacca

 

WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "DDH'd with enigma, mosaic, and azacca. Notes of Tropical cocktail, boysenberry, and Oaked white wine with that D96 #snakefruit finish."

 COLOR: Hazy, honey wheat

 POUR: Less than "decent" head with not much lacing. Slight head quickly dissipates

 AROMA: Somewhat musty, musky aroma

 BODY: A little beyond medium

TASTE: Follows the nose at first with a bit of dankness, then some toffee and a touch of lemon and tropical fruit

 OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Between I COULD DRINK THIS and CAN'T GET ENOUGH!

 COMMENTS: "Damn good beer; Label is deceiving - it's like they know the beer will carry it; Good to Great New England style IPA; I'm not a huge fan of the dank, musky undertones, but they don't overpower, so I could definitely drink this."

TROPICAL BLAZE DIPA

SOUTHERN TIER BREWING

THE BEER FACTS: BREWER: Southern Tier Brewing, Lakewood, NY; STYLE: Double IPA ABV: 8.5%; HOPS: Mosaic, Azacca; MALT: 2-Row, White Wheat, Flaked Oats; OTHER: Pineapple, Mango, Pink Guava

 

WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "The unique combination of real pink guava, pineapple, and mango combines with brazen hops for an incredibly bold, juicy beer to blaze through the heat."

 COLOR: Slightly hazy golden

 POUR: Not much head - bit of lingering lace

 AROMA: Yeasty, like Grandma's raising rolls, some tropical fruit notes

 BODY: Bit less than MEDIUM

TASTE: Some yeast, a bit of dankness, then some fruit starts to come through, pineapple, mango

 OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: I COULD DRINK THIS

COMMENTS: "Smells, tastes yeasty, which sort of surprises me because of all the fruit; Don't really like the taste and aroma; I really like it; A very different New England - I wouldn't have guessed; Flavor was yeasty - non-tradional DIPA for sure; A bit of a sour note at the end too, which is unusual."

NEW ENGLAND SCAM IPA

EASTWOOD BREWING

THE BEER FACTS: BREWER: Eastwood Brewing Company, Syracuse, NY; STYLE: Double New England IPA; ABV: 8.5%

 COLOR: Ugly color - greyish wheat, unfiltered 

 POUR: GUINNESS CLASS - Best Head of the Day Award - nice lacing once it settles

 AROMA: No really strong aroma here, maybe subtle grass

 BODY: A little beyond medium

TASTE: Tropical fruit, a bit musty, definite alcohol presence gives a pleasant warming taste

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Near CAN'T GET ENOUGH

 COMMENTS: "Dry, slightly bitter finish; A little more alcohol taste; I like that dry finish; I like it; More of a sipper than a lawn mower or boat beer; Nice, boozy kind of vibe to it.

CITRADAMUS DIPA

MELVIN BREWING

THE BEER FACTS: BREWER: Melvin Brewing, Alpine, Wyoming; STYLE: Double IPA; ABV: 9.5%; IBUs: 88; HOPS: Citra

 

WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "Dear Enjoyer, The great Citradamus predicts that this will be the best IPA that you have ever had. Go ahead, put this beer up in your grill. Smell that? Those are hops. Citra hops. Dank-ass Citra to be exact. Your old favorite IPA does not have Citras? Why is that? Because they are wicked spendy and we bought them all, that's why. Go ahead, yuck it up."

 COLOR: Copper

 POUR: Less than DECENT head with some nice lacing

 AROMA: Slight nose, some grass, maybe orange

 BODY: Between MEDIUM and FULL

TASTE: Butterscotch, toffee, horehound, caramel from solid malt base, alcohol, then citrus and a little pine

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Between I COULD DRINK THIS and CAN'T GET ENOUGH!

 COMMENTS: "Helmet beer; Big alcohol presence; Delicious beer; With its name, I was surprised at how strong the malt presence was - though at 9.5% it kind of needs to be; You get to the citrus after a sip or two, but that caramel malt is the first thing to hit you; Not a golf cart / lawn mower beer for sure; A sipper."

FAVORITES?

As you might expect, with a bunch of IPAs, there were no losers here. All of them ranged from I COULD DRINK THIS to  CAN'T GET ENOUGH! The  were only one to score a solid CAN'T GET ENOUGH! was the Middle Ages / Prison City collaboration, Riot in the Castle.

NEW BREW IN TOWN!

6 ACRES FARM BREWERY

One of the many victims of the current pandemic has been some of the smaller, local craft brewers around the country. Many of these don't have the money, equipment and/or connections needed to bottle or can their beer and therefore must depend on on-site sales, whether that is a growler fill or belly-up-to-the-bar purchases. Here in Central New York, some have survived through the summer months by providing outdoor tables and food trucks, abiding by the necessary guidelines to try to keep the virus in check. Around here, though, al fresco dining loses its appeal as the mercury drops. As a result, some of the small craft brewers are in danger of going under. So it is exciting to see a new brewery pop up in the area at this "unprecedented time" or is it "uncertain time" (seriously, aren't you sick and tired of hearing those phrases?). In this case 6 Acres Farm Brewery is a truly local craft
brewer for me as it is located here in Mexico, NY. 

Ironically, the brewery began around the same time as the pandemic, rather unfortunate timing. Fortunately, the brewery is linked to Behling's Orchard which provides not only a convenient venue for sampling and purchasing the beer (at least throughout the fall) but ingredients used in some of the beer varieties.

Jenna Behling and Denyel Busch are the brewers, but the brewery is a family affair with mom Lori and dad Eric pitching in. The fruit beers are all brewed using fruits grown right there on the farm and the grains and hops are all locally sourced.

Behling Orchards have for years made, in my humble opinion, the best apple cider out there. One of the joys of fall for us has been heading to Behling's to pick some Macs and grab some cider. This year meant visiting the 6 Acres Farm Brewery booth to sample their wares. 

Jenna Behling served me some generous samples of the beers that were currently on tap: a Blonde Ale, an Amber Apple Ale, a Blueberry Wheat, Raspberry ale, Pumpkin Spice Ale, Oatmeal Stout and a Double IPA.

The Blonde Ale 5.7% ABV (Rae of Sunshine) was a fairly light bodied beer with very subtle pine and citrus notes. The 24 IBUs tells you there's not much of a bitter bite to it. Definitely for those who prefer lighter beers.

The two fruit beers (blueberry and raspberry) were a nice surprise. I generally am not a fan of fruit infused beers, often finding them too sweet and really tasting more like a soft drink or Kool-Aid than beer. But both of these were done with a nice subtlety so that the basic beerness came through with the fruit a nice supporting character, so to speak.

Ditto with the Pumpkin Spice beer (Pickin' Punkins). Jenna mentioned to me that she was not a big fan of pumpkin spice, but it is so popular this time of year they had to have one. But. as with the fruit beers, the pumpkin spice is pleasantly subtle, so the beer still tastes like beer.

The Amber Apple Ale was a different cat indeed. The apple gives the beer an interesting tartness that is reminiscent of a Sour more than a traditional Amber which tends toward malty sweetness. You could have told me this was a hard cider and I wouldn't have doubted it as it reminded me of some of the hard ciders we sampled while in England.

The Oatmeal Stout was exactly what you hope for in a good Stout. Nice dark chocolate flavors mingling with a bit of coffee and cocoa. What really sold it to me was how smooth it was. It was a lot like a nitro. Wonderful lingering taste afterward too. 

The Imperial IPA - as I moved into my wheelhouse with a big IPA, I was a bit nervous that it would disappoint. I was wrong. They went against the grain a bit by sticking with a West Coast style IPA rather than the current trend of East Coast IPAs. While I enjoy both, my go-to is the classic West Coast American IPA. This had a nice bitterness to it complemented by a solid malt profile. Hints of pine, grapefruit, caramel all blend nicely. At 8.2% the alcohol doesn't dominate but lurks in the background giving it that slight boozy quality that separates an Imperial from a normal IPA. Had a friend who felt it reminded him of British IPAs. I felt it was more classic American, but I saw his point.

As with many craft breweries, there is a constant rotation of styles. Right now 6 Acres is working to get some of their beers on tap at some local restaurants, which would be great to see. 

  

NA ANYONE?

We live in strange times. I know, COVID, quarantine, virtual everything. But that's not what I'm talking about. In recent years, formally "soft" drinks such as root beer, ginger ale, orange soda have become "hard" with the addition of alcohol. Hard cider is a popular drink (although I suspect cider was originally hard before it became soft, but I don't know that for sure and I don't feel like researching that right now so you'll just have to, you know, take my word). And now seltzer water has turned hard. Selzer - that stuff you drink when you don't want calories or alcohol - now has both calories and alcohol. Meanwhile, one of the latest trends in craft beer is non-alcoholic (NA) "beers" (the quotation marks are there because they can't technically be called beer and are normally referred to as "malt beverages"). 

While the US has had a sprinkling of NAs for years now, the new trend really began in Europe where DWI laws are much stricter than here. One of the things Mike and I noticed when we were in England a few years ago was that most of the beers were relatively low in alcohol, weighing in between four and five percent, with some as low as 2%.  

Just how do brewer's remove alcohol? Well the simple way is to brew a beer normally then heat it up to 173.3 degrees for about 15 minutes and the alcohol will evaporate. Unfortunately, so does much of the flavor. This is the method the big brewers used for years because NAs were such a small part of the market they  weren't too concerned with being competitive there. However in recent years better techniques have been developed such as reverse osmosis and vacuum distillation which have allowed beers to retain more of their original flavor while lowering the ABV to less than .5% - the level at which a brew can be considered NA.

Now there are craft brewers who produce only NAs (Athletic and Ceria reviewed below are two of them). 

I am aware of the "what's the point? ha ha ha" attitude toward NAs by some. Well, the point is there are times, whether medically, ethically, or for reasons of safety it's not advisable to imbibe, yet soft drinks just don't do it.

Athletic:

Athletic Brewery has gone all in with the NA movement in craft beer. Thus far they have an IPA (Run Wild), a golden ale (Upside Dawn), a double IPA (Free Way) and All Out, which is billed as an extra dark ale. I have had the opportunity to try both Run Wild and now All Out. I can honestly say that these are by far the best NAs I have ever had. Now, the truth is, no matter what beer you drink, even light lagers, the alcohol plays some role in the taste profile. Since it plays a smaller role in lighter lagers, most NAs over the years have been lagers. Now Athletic has taken a rather bold step to create non-alcoholic beers which appeal more to the craft beer crowd such as IPAs and Stouts.

 I'll begin with All Out. 0.5% ABV. This is a dark ale, similar to a stout or porter. I pours a nice dark brown color. An okay head that dissipates quickly. Real nice chocolate malt aroma here and the taste

follows the smell. Dark chocolate is the prevailing taste and it's rather pleasant. There's some caramel in there and malt as well. The body is somewhat watery which is a bit of a concession to the low alcohol I suppose.  Overall I found this a very acceptable beer if you needed to go the NA route. Unfortunately I've learned that they no longer brew this. Perhaps they will come back to it in the winter.

Run Wild IPA: Less than 0.5% ABV and only 70 calories. This is a surprisingly tasty NA. It is pretty close to some really good session IPAs out there. It has a bit of a quickly dissipating head, but that's not

that unusual even for regular IPAs. The color was a kind of coppery amber. Aroma is subtle but pleasing hoppy tropical fruit scent. While the taste has a little of that NA taste that I've seen described as metallic, it is not pronounced. Having said that, it really has many of the characteristics I like in an IPA, some citrus, a little pine, subtle maltiness. Just may be the best NA I've ever had. 

Brooklyn Brewing Special Effects:

0.5% ABV.  Pours a clear pale amber color with a decent head. The aroma was sweet. Light to medium

bodied. Taste is sweet, malty, a bit of caramel and bread. Some of that underlying NA taste, but not bad. Overall an okay NA.

Ceria Brewing Co., Indiewave: 

Brewed by Ceria Brewing Co., Arvada, CO.  0.5% ABV; 99 calories. It poured with a very decent off-white head that held in there for quite a while, with lacing that continued afterward. The aroma wasn't

strong but had a bit of a grassy, hay scent. Taste: this is an interesting one. They bill it as an IPA so I was expecting the citrus, pine tastes you expect from an IPA. While it still had that typical NA undertaste - metallic or chemical - it wasn't too strong. The thing is, I did not notice much in the way of hoppiness, especially when the can specifies Citra, Cascade and Amarillo hops. While the taste was not unpleasant, I found it had mostly a malty, grainy flavor that predominated. It reminded me more of an Amber ale or maybe a Brown Ale. What I did note was a nice kind of hoppy bitterness in there. 

Heineken 0.0:

0.0% ABV, 90 calories. Okay, Heineken isn't exactly a craft beer, but I decided to include this because of the 0.0% ABV.  Decent pour with a pretty nice head. The color is very light yellow with a snow-white head. The aroma at first pour may be its best attribute. It is pretty decent - kind of a pilsner-y scent to start out with but it fade very quickly. Body is obviously very light. Listed ingredients are: water, malted barley, hop extract and natural flavor (whatever that is).
The taste: To me it tastes a lot like a light beer which could well be damning with faint praise since I am not a particular fan of light beers. I believe you could give this to a light beer drinker and not tell them it was alcohol free and they might not know. On a positive note, it does not have that unpleasant sort of chemical (I've heard it referred to as cooked) taste that seems to be present in a lot of NAs. It has a bit of a banana taste in there. Nothing particularly offensive. Considering it is completely alcohol free, it's not bad. I would take it over some light beers I've had. It is watery and there is not a lot of flavor here, but I grabbed one ice cold on a hot day this summer after some yard work and it was quite refreshing.  But don't let it warm. It's charms fade quickly.

Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher:

0.0% ABV; 0 calories; 0 carbs. I included this one because of it's unique 0-0-0 profile. I won't go into great detail here. It has very little in common with beer. Even though it has "hoppy" in its name, don't expect to taste any hops here. For me, the overriding taste was pear. Think of this more as a flavored

seltzer rather than a form of NA. And the 0-0-0 is kind of a nice guilt-free thing. If you approach it like that it's a kind of refreshing drink, very much like a flavored seltzer.  If you like those you'll probably enjoy this. If you think of it as a beer alternative, you'll be disappointed. Despite the claim by Lagunitas that it is "IPA inspired" it bears no similarity to an IPA -  or any other beer for that matter.    

  

Wake Up Call:

BREWDOG 

Brewdog Brewing is a brewery out of Scotland that has come to the States. Located now in Columbus, Ohio, we (Mike and I) first discovered the brewery while touring London. We stumbled into a Brewdog owned pub. There we found they were huge supporters of the burgeoning Craft Beer Revolution. At the bar they had not only their beers but a number of US craft beers from the likes of Sierra Nevada and Stone. There we discovered their Punk IPA, a wonderful IPA now available in the US. I gave their Wakeup Call NA, a pseudo-stout a try. It has a great look, dark with a tan head. The aroma is a kind of burnt, smoky scent. The taste very much follows the smell. A very strong burnt, smoked taste. There is a bit of a chocolate and coffee undertaste there, but honestly, the burnt taste is overpowering. It kind of reminded me of the times that I left coffee in the coffee maker too long. In that respect, it differs from a lot of the NAs out there and you may find the burnt coffee/chocolate taste appealing. I didn't particularly care for it myself and I really liked the Rauchbier (a smoked beer) we had in Germany which was more smoky than burnt. I found the burnt flavor quite off-putting. 

Slante,

The BOTB Guys