Beer Club, Volume Five - Imperial IPA's

(This took me WAY too long to finish but at least I got it in before February's Beer Club!)

Much like most of the meetings so far, January's Beer Club was timed around the release of a specific beer. This month that beer was Hopslam from Bell's Brewery.

As I mentioned in my first ever blog post, Hopslam was a different kind of gateway beer for me. It was the beer that sparked my interest in moving from the more popular craft beers like Summit, Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada into looking into the hoppier side of life and harder to find beers. I owed this beer a featured month in Beer Club.

It wasn't a hard lineup for me to come up with because I had several beers that I wanted to have in a Beer Club lineup besides Hopslam, including Ruination from Stone, 90 Minute IPA from Dogfish Head and Un*Earthly from Southern Tier. I added Hop Stoopid from Lagunita's because I thought it was a great beer at a good price (around $5 for a bomber). When Zipps tweeted to me that I should add Double Trouble from Founders, the lineup was set. It was gonna be an epic month.

One nice part about doing IPA's is that the order of the tasting is pretty easy, just do it from lowest IBU to highest. The problem I had with this last time was that the Founders Harvest Ale really blew a couple of beers out of the water that followed it because it was so good. I was hoping that leading off with the highly acclaimed (but low IBU) Hopslam wouldn't have the same effect. Luckily, it did not.

Another thing that worried me was that the two beers I went to Hudson to get (90 Minute and Ruination) didn't appear to be too fresh. I noticed that the 90 Minute had a bottling date of JULY 2009. Luckily for us, it still tasted just fine (and impressive for being a half year old). But I grabbed a bottle that I had bought a couple months ago and it too was "old" so I'm guessing that there's a good chance that I've never had fresh 90 Minute IPA. I guess I have something to look forward to.

The Ruination didn't fare so well however. I don't know if we got a bad batch of it or what the deal was but it really didn't taste like the Ruination that I love and it was the consensus that it was just bad (and confirmed later by two non-beer club IPA lovers who wouldn't even finish the sample I gave them). I opened a bottle that I bought last fall and it didn't have the fresh IPA taste but was still quite good and was further proof that the most recent six pack was just bad and not just old. Damn it sucks to pour $3 bottles of beer down the drain.

The rest of the lineup was awesome though. As expected, everybody loved the Hopslam and while favorites and reviews were mixed, everybody still really liked the Hop Stoopid and the Double Trouble (although I still think the Double Trouble was very good but can't touch the Founders Harvest Ale).

The Un*Earthly finished the night and I was a bit nervous on how it was going to taste. I've had about 4 bottles of this before Beer Club and it ranged from a decent IPA to one of the best things to ever touch my lips. My only conclusion was that this stuff is just very volatile and should be drank as fresh as possible. Luckily for us, this was one of the fantastic bottles and even at a whopping 153 IBU it was still one of the stars of the show and my favorite beer of the night.


Even though imperial stouts have been creeping in as a contender for my favorite style of beer, the IIPA's defended their territory very well and this group of beers reminded me of why I'm such a hop head and did a good job at convincing everybody else why they should be too.

February's Beer Club - Bockfest!

(see the comments section for Becky's notes on January's Beer Club)

Recap of the Week

Tuesday night I had a Summit Horizon Red after work since they went down so well last weekend. Hanging the new TV in the bar was the project of the night and since it seemed like a special occasion so I figured a new beer was in order.

The Stone Smoked Porter intimidated me a bit since the Smoke Ale I had from Rogue was different and definitely situational and with Stone's reputation for big taste I was hoping I'd like this. I was shocked at how easy this went down. The smoke element of this beer was very understated and well placed. It was just put there to compliment the rest of the flavors. I rated it a 3.9 on Rate Beer and that number could climb in the future. Here are my thoughts:
22 oz bomber from Casanova. Medium thick pour, black in color. Smokey chocolate aroma. Thick mouthfeel, hints of chocolate with a smokey coffee flavor and a smooth finish. Very flavorful but surprisingly smooth.

The Stone website sums it up perfectly - Smooth, with chocolate and coffee-like flavors balanced by the subtle "smoky" character of just the right amount of peat-smoked specialty malt.

I was pleased with myself for describing this beer in almost the exact same way before I went to Stone's Website. I finished off the night with an Old Rasputin because I was in the mood for a something dark thick and flavorful after that Stone went down too quickly.

Wednesday I had a Premium at my fantasy football meeting and a Stone Ruination (which I still have yet to officially rate).

Last night we went to Granite City and I was looking forward to rating a beer or two from them since I've really enjoyed them over the years. I normally like their IPA but when I found out that they still had their Wag’s American Wheat and figured I should try it while they still had it on tap since it's their seasonal for the summer.

I also ordered a Broad Axe Stout because I figured it would go well with the meatloaf that I ordered. I can sum up both of these beers with one description - they're both partial versions of what I've been drinking as of late.

I'm doing my best to not become one of the hated "beer snobs" that the lovers of fizzy yellow beer like to call people like us and in doing so, I do two things. I realize that beers like Bud Select have their place and are very drinkable on many occasions. I also realize that beers like Killian's Red, Amber Bock and apparently these two beers from Granite City are excellent gateway beers that can lead you to exploring beers outside the Miller Lite/Coors Light range.

I won't bother with detailed descriptions on either of these because looking back on the notes I took at Granite City, they were filled with words like faint and slight. These are both great beers in their proper place which can be anywhere from a stepping stone on your way to some of the big beers out there to something for someone like me who can enjoy beers all the way up and down the spectrum.

I also asked for a sample of their Blueberry Ale since it was still on tap. I had it before but wanted a review of it. It's not on Rate Beer and that doesn't surprise me but surprisingly it was very drinkable. When I had it at the tapping party, it was a bit too sweet for me and I'm not sure if they tweaked the formula or if it's just because it's a different batch but it actually wasn't bad.

Looking forward to their Oktoberfest tapping party soon. I'm also glad the weekend is here so I can just kick back and relax and drink a whole lotta beer.

Cheers!

Last Week in Review

Well, it has been a busy month so far and thanks to some ISP problems, I haven't been able to blog too much lately.

Last Monday a bunch of us went to Lord Fletcher's on beautiful Lake Minnetonka for one of the best happy hour specials you could ask for - $4 hamburgers and $1 bottles of beer. Granted, the beer was a choice between MGD, Miller Lite or MGD Light 64, but you can't argue with $1 beers while sitting on a deck lakeside on a gorgeous August evening in Minnesota. If you're in the mood for some comedy, read some of the reviews of the 64 on RateBeer. Good stuff - http://tinyurl.com/nw5a3a

I also found out on Sunday that Casanova had Stone's Ruination IPA in stock which was curious because they said they'd update the website when they got it back in. So Tuesday night I made the road trip after work to get some. Picked up two 6packs ($18.99 per) and two 6 packs of the Stone IPA (love that stuff). Also bought 3 more bottles of Dogfish Head's 120 Minute IPA since it ages well and so I can try the one bottle I had already. Paul at work wanted me to get him some Spotted Cow from New Glarus and so I also bought a 6 pack for myself to try. Also bought a bottle of Central Waters Brewhouse Coffe Stout and a bottle of Founders Breakfast Stout off the recommendation of the Casanova website. Bought a bottle of Founders Cerise as well for something different.

Didn't feel like trying something new that night so I had my last Hoplsam instead while I watched a movie.

Wednesday the 19th was my first fantasy football meeting in the Elk's League. They have Michelob Amber Bock on tap there and since I consider this to be another gateway beer for me, along with Killian's, I thought I'd get one and rate it. This used to be my favorite beer and it was amazing to me how much it did not hold up. It still has more flavor than your average yellow fizzy beer but not as much as it should. I realized that this is just a stepping stone to the realm of much better beers. It did lead me to the conclusion that outside of this and Schell's Bock I haven't had a lot of exposure to Bocks. We'll have to fix that. As for the Amber Bock, I'm not trying to rip on it, it's still a good beer. It just doesn't compete very well anymore for me. I gave it a 2.8 rating with the following comments:
Pint glass from tap. Copper brown color, quickly dissipating head. Slight malty aroma and flavor with a slight caramel taste to it. Slightly thick mouthfeel, smooth finish with slight linger in the finish. Used to be one of my favorite beers but seems watered down and low on flavor now. Good beer for something looking to cross over into darker beers for the first time.

Thursday I realized that I didn't have to hold off on new beers until I was ready to officially rate them so I cracked open my first bottle of Ruination. It's definitely one of the best IPIA's I've ever had but I'm not sure if it's worth $18.99 vs. $12.99 for Stone's IPA. Official rating and decision to come soon.

I also had one of the Spotted Cows by New Glarus. I gave it a 3.4 on RateBeer but that seems a bit low for how very drinkable this beer is. I guess it's the "light" beer glass ceiling that's keeping it down. It has a very clean and refreshing flavor that goes down smoothly. I highly recommend this beer. My RateBeer comments:
Pours with a yellow color and thick foamy white head. Fresh, clean aroma. Smooth, thin mouthfeel. Very refreshing flavor with not much aftertaste.


Also had some Bud Selects to clean out the fridge and some Leinie's Honey Weiss from the kegmeister and finished off the night with a Hoegaarden. Very prolific beer drinking evening.

Weekend update to come soon.