Ace of Spades

No, not the Motorhead song, the H.U.B. Imperial IPA

Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB), Portland, Oregon
22oz bottle, 9.5%abv

Pours dark gold, clear, with little head.

Aroma is crazily hoppy. There may be some malt too, but it's all about hops.

Flavor is also extremely hoppy. Again, malt is there, but hops are the dominant flavor.

Mouthfeel is pleasantly light and crisp, especially considering the strength. It's quite drinkable, which is both nice and a bit dangerous.

Finish is quite bitter, as you may expect.

A really tasty beer, assuming you like hops (like me) -- if you don't, avoid this at all costs, you may be scarred for life otherwise...

Mirror Mirror

Deschutes brewing, Bend, Oregon
22oz bottle. 11%abv

This is a beer I've been saving since Christmas. Decided to split it with my brother-in-law since he came out for a visit.

Color is dark amber to red, with a light head that dissipates fairly quickly.

Aroma is vanilla and caramel, with a moderate hint of hops.

Flavor is also strongly malty with lots of caramel. Described on the label as a barleywine with 35% aged in oak barrels, the flavor reflects that. It's dramatically malty with lots of caramel and alcohol flavors. There are some nice hoppy notes in there too.

Mouthfeel is quite thick and rich. There's some solid hop bitterness to help clean up the balance a bit.

Overall a very rich and tasty beer. Glad I saved it for a special occasion!

Allagash Four Ale

Allagash brewing, Portland Maine
10%abv 750ml bottle

Billed on the label as "4 malts 4 hops fermented 4 times" you can understand where the name comes from. This was the last beer in the most recent big "Being Belgian" tasting I did a couple of weeks ago. I purchased this bottle because I felt that it was probably tasty, but my worn-out palate couldn't tell. I was right.

Pours dark amber/nearly brown, with a thick light head that lingers properly.

Aroma is malty, with some pleasant roast and a subtle hint of cola. Not really a hint of any of the four hops though.

Flavor is delightfully malty with some great chocolate caramel and toasty notes. Again though, the hops don't really assert themselves in the flavor.

Mouthfeel is surprisingly crisp. The finish is a bit toward sweet, but overall it's very balanced. There is some warmth as you might expect from something of this strength.

A very good beer overall. I'm going to stop typing and enjoy it...

Sahtea

Ale brewed with rye, chai tea, and juniper berries.
Dogfish Head Brewing, Delaware.
750ml bottle, 9%abv

Pours dark gold, with little head.

Aroma is strongly of chai spice, little else.

Flavor is equally spicy, with a small bit of lingering sweetness.

Mouthfeel is medium, with a subtle warmth and a finish a bit on the sweet side.

An interesting beer. Like many of the more exotic Dogfish Head beers, this one sounds better on the label than it tastes. They describe using the traditional Finnish method of brewing "Sahti" using hot rocks to heat the liquid, but it's really impossible to tell if that adds anything to the finished (see what I did there?) beer or not. I also don't really detect the juniper at all, and the rye isn't very distinctive either. It would appeal to me more if it finished (heh) a bit cleaner as well. It's not bad, it could just be better, which unfortunately has been my experience with a few of their beers recently. Their 60-, 90-, and 120-minute IPAs are great though...

Tripel Karmeliet

Belgian Tripel made with 3 grains (oats, barley and wheat)
Brouwerij Bosteels, Buggenhout Belgium
750ml bottle, 8.4%abv

Pours gold and quite fizzy, with a big fluffy white head.

Aroma is subtle fruit and bubblegum, with a bit of paper and some light clove spiciness.

Flavor is lightly sweet and grainy, but no individual grain of the three stands out.

Mouthfeel is surprisingly rich with a lingering finish with noticeable warmth.

A deceptively strong beer that is quite tasty. It's actually perfect for this 70 degree partly cloudy summer day.

Not Pabst

The glass says "Pabst" but it's about as far from PBR as you can get -- it's really Ninkasi Tricerahops double IPA. We're having beer and steaks at a little hole-in-the-wall bar just outside of town. Yay for Friday -- it makes it less depressing to be home from vacation...

Say cheese!

As in a cheesy roadside attraction! More awesome vacation fun!

An even sunnier day at the Oregon coast.

Gold Beach is the best!

Happy feet

In the Rogue River at Lobster Creek.

A sunny day on the Oregon coast. Wait, what?

I didn't think they actually existed, but between the last post and this one, the sun came out and it got even more beautiful. Probably about 60 degrees with a very light breeze.

I really like it here in Gold Beach -- I didn't used to be much of a fan of the Oregon coast, but the South coast is very different than what we get in the dreary North. We like it so much we decided to spend a couple more days here kicking back.

Beachcombing

Beautiful day to be out on a nearly deserted Oregon beach.

A little boat ride

Today's vacation fun was a 104-mile jet boat ride up the Rogue river. Beautiful scenery, lots of wildlife (we saw 9 bears, including a mom with two cubs) and a great fast boat on some fun whitewater.

What will tomorrow bring?

Beach

From the forest to the beach. Should be nice and relaxing after a couple of days spent trapsing through the redwoods.

Big trees

are big!

Beer!

Just had a couple at the Lost Coast brewpub in Eureka, Ca. Got a cool Downtown Brown logo t-shirt as the first souvenir of the trip.

Trees of Mystery

This is the "Brotherhood Tree" at the Trees of Mystery tourist trap. We figured we'd stop here on the way to our hike through the "real" redwoods. Fun but definitely a bit cheesy.

Vacation!

Headed South to check out the redwoods. Stopped for dinner in a beach-side restaurant in Crescent City. Spending the night here then spending tomorrow in the National Park.

Belgian beer tasting food pairings

We had some great food tonight to go along with the beers:

Fromage:
Delice de Brougogne: French Triple Cream/Cow's milk (this one was ridiculously rich and yummy).
P'tit Basuq: Frensh/Sheep's milk (this was a harder cheese that was really really tasty.  Less rich than the the soft triple-cream cow's milk one).
Block 15 beer ciabatta -- tasty bread.
Local peaches (I don't like peaches, but the other folks said these were good.)

Tomates au Crevettes
Fresh local tomatoes stuffed with bay shrimp, citrus, and herbs with and fresh local greens
(this was a really yummy fancy salad -- the shrimp was served inside the tomato)

Waterzooi depoulet a' la Gantoise
Traditional Ghent-style chicken stew with fresh local onions, leeks, carrot, potatoes, herbs and cream. Served with the beer ciabatta bread again.
(This is just a fancy way of saying this was a really nice chicken stew)

Gaufre de Liege
Liege-style waffles.  Yeast risen dough with pearl sugar baked in an authentic Belgian waffle baker,  topped with fresh whipped cream and fresh local strawberries.
(The waffle was absolutely amazing.  I only wish I had more room, since I couldn't finish it.)

All the food was great. Big thanks to the folks at Block 15 for the food, and to Joel at Corvallis Brewing Supply for putting the event on, and to Kendall Staggs for driving out to Corvallis from Wisconsin to bring us these great beers and be such a good host.

Allagash

All of tonight's beers were from Allagash brewing in Portland, Maine. Many of these are no longer available, so it was a real privilege to be able to taste them tonight.

Allagash Four

Belgian ale. Four malts, four hops, four fermentations.

Tasty, I think. I imagine this could be one of the better ones of the night, but it's hard to tell at this point.

Update: I actually ended up buying one of these as the only bottle I brought home. Although my palate was too shot to really tell, I have a hunch it's quite good, and it deserves a chance to be tasted properly without eleven other strong beers preceding it.

Allagash Grand Cru

Belgian monastic ale brewed with spices.

My palate is pretty much shot at this point, but this is nice, and much better than the last couple grape-beers.

Allagash Victor

Belgian ale brewed with red chancellor grapes.

The grapes are a little more apparent in the nose of this one, but it's not hugely obvious.

Flavor is also more wine like. Again not my favorite, but this one is better than the last one.

Allagash Victoria 2009

Belgian ale brewed with chardonnay grapes.
9%abv

Pretty "normal" aroma, grapes aren't really apparent.

Flavor shows more signs of the fruit, but it's not really my kind of beer.

Ok beer, but definitely my least favorite so far.

Allagash Hugh Malone

Belgian-inspired IPA
8.5%abv

Very tasty IPA-like beer.

Allagash Interlude

Belgian farmhouse ale with brettanomyces yeast.

9.5%abv

Brett aroma dominates. Flavor is rich but balanced. Subtle hint of sourness. Quite tasty, perhaps my favorite of the night so far -- the first witbier is up there too though.

Allagash Confluence Ale

Belgian ale with brettanomyces yeast.
7.5%abv

Much cleaner finish than the previous two. Brett yeast is very apparent. Tasty.

Allagash Odyssey

Strong dark ale aged in oak barrels.
10.4%abv

Distinctly oaky aroma. A bit cleaner taste and finish than the previous beer.

Allagash Curieux

Tripel aged in bourbon barrels.
11%abv

Very barley-wine-like. A bit sweet, great caramel nose. Notable alcohol warmth. Yummeh.

Allagash Tripel

Belgian Tripel, 9%abv

Yummy. Noticeable warmth, nice spice.

Allagash Fluxus 2009

Saison brewed with sweet potato and black pepper.

8.3%abv

Allagash Fluxus 2008

Strong witbier brewed with spices. 8.6%abv

Being Belgian #6

It's time yet again for another big Belgian beer tasting!

I'll blogticulate about it as best I can as we go.

Temptation

Blonde ale aged in oak barrels.
Russian River Brewing, Santa Rosa, CA.
750ml bottle, 7.25%abv

It annoys me a bit that one of my all-time favorite breweries is located in California. Russian River makes some absolutely amazing beers, and this one is no exception.

This pours clear, sparkly, and pale gold in color, with a big white head that lingers nicely.

Aroma is sour with strong notes of oak.

Flavor is delightfully sour initially, with some sweetness balancing that out. Plenty of funky brett flavors are apparent too. Oak is prominent here as well.

Finish is crisp and light with a hint of astringency.

A really, really nice funky sour beer from Russian River. Highly recommended for folks that like this kind of thing (I know there are a few of us out there).

V series Saison

Victory Brewing Co, Downingtown, PA, USA
750ml bottle, 7.5%abv

Pours golden and a bit hazy, with a thick white head.

Aroma is nice citrus and piney hops with a good bit of malt and a hint of toast.

Flavor is quite rich with a light initial sweetness that is quickly replaced by a crisp hint of toastiness.

Finish is warm but crisp and clean with solid bitterness.

A very nice interpretation of the French style from the folks in Pennsylvania.

Better than beer!

It was our 21st anniversary last week, and Trace just got back from a trip and gave me a very appropriate present -- a 21-year-old bottle of Scotch!

It's hard to believe, but the beautiful amber elixer in this bottle has been around since the days of mullets and heavy metal, just like our marriage.

It's quite the gift, and I look forward to savoring every sip of this bottle.

Thanks Trace! Happy anniversary!

Sofie

Belgian style ale
Goose Island brewing, Chicago, Illinois.
6.5%abv, 22oz bottle

Billed on the label as "80% Belgian style ale blended with 20% Belgian style ale aged in wine barrels with orange peel.". It also shows a picture of a wine glass on the label as the preferred glassware for serving, thus the wine glass pictured.

As to the beer itself, it pours pale gold, clear and sparkly with a thick foamy head that dissipates relatively quickly.

Aroma is light bubbleum with a subtle hint of what I can best describe as "that smell you get when you open a pack of baseball cards" -- meaning not really the gum itself, but the gum and some of the paper and corn starch (or whatever they use to de-stickify the gum in the pack).

Flavor is subtly gummy, as you may expect, but I'm not really getting the wine barrel or orange peel discussed on the label. Tasty though.

Mouthfeel is a bit creamy with a clean, slightly sweet finish.

Overall, a nice Belgian style ale from the windy city.

Maracaibo Especial Special Brown Ale

Brown ale brewed with cacao and spices
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, Dexter Michigan
25.4oz bottle, 7.5%abv

This is an interesting one. It pours a cloudy reddish brown in color, with a moderate pale head that lingers.

Aroma is fruity and a bit sour, with some malt.

Flavor is lightly sour with some sweetness. There is a light fruitiness balanced by some subtle roast. The cacao isn't readily obvious.

Mouthfeel is light and refreshing.

Finish is fairly crisp, with a hint of astringency.

Overall this is a tasty beer, but it seems a bit sour even for a Belgian brown. Quite enjoyable though, just not what I was expecting based on the label.

Update: As the glass warms, the cacao comes out in the nose.  Still not hugely noticeable in the flavor, but it is definitely more noticeable as the beer warms.

Upright Brewing Four

Wheat beer, 4.5%abv, 25.4oz bottle. Upright Brewing, Portland Oregon

The label describes this as a "...table beer, combining elements of American and European wheat beers.". That's a good description.

It pours pale, fizzy, and clear, with a big fluffy head that settles a bit and lingers.

Aroma is very clean, with only a tiny hint of hops. The aroma is dominated by the grain with a hint of the French Saison yeast.

Flavor is similar, light but lots of nice grain character and some subtle yeast funkiness.

Finish is dry, crisp, and clean.

A really nice beer that's perfect for a warm summer day.