Samuel

Welcome to another edition of my Friday Tasting Notes, which are now being reposted in an entirely separate blog at beerispeople.blogspot.com. I may decide to stick to posting them just there at some point, but for now I’m doing double duty.

This week, I tasted (read: guzzled with relish) a beer by the Dupont brewing house in Belgium. The beer is the “Avec les Bons Voeux de la Brasserie Dupont”, which means “With the Best Wishes of the Dupont Brewery”. The Dupont website explains that beginning in the 1970s, this beer was produced in small batches annually for a select group of the brewing house’s best clients. Today, it is distributed more widely (although it is still somewhat hard to find).

When this beer was magically transformed into a human, the first thing I noticed about it was it’s jacket. It was wearing a very stylish gray jacket from the 1980s, part suede and part acrylic knit. Kind of like this;

Next, I noticed the shoes. They were very nice boat shoes, leather also. They were certainly casual, but suggested a little bit of a cosmopolitan attitude. Here’s a picture;

These things combined really started to give me an idea of the beer’s personality. As a beer, it was inviting but not overbearing. It is a Belgian Farmhouse ale in style, which suggests a rural and not at all pretentious drink. But it’s also clearly a craft beer, and it is conscious that it’s quality is appreciated far afield of it’s rural roots in the cities and the upper classes. Many things about this beer are suggestive of that same set of contradictions. The aroma, for example, is complex but not overwhelming. It carries suggestions of yeast, citrus, flowers, hops, and even some malt. But each of the scents is balanced against the others and the no part of the smell is in any way overpowering. Or the alcohol content. This is, by any account, a big beer at 9.5% ABV – but it is crisp, refreshing, and the sort of thing I could drink all day.

Let’s talk more about the Beer as a person. He drives a very sensible, very European car. Therefore, I picked a Peugeot. Also, the model year is sometime in the late 70s, early 80s. I’m not sure why it is that so many of the characteristics of this beer person are from that era, but they are. The jacket, shoes, and car are all from the same time period. It may be because that was a time when industrialization was giving way to informationalization, and the rural was giving way to the urban even further than it already had. Or maybe I’m having an 80s kick. In any event, that’s what came to me and it’s what I’ve written. Here’s the car;

As I’m thinking more about this guy, I’m realizing that he is pretty guarded. He’s complicated. The flavor has some fruity characteristics, maybe banana or even some peach, but very subtle. And combined with some sourness, some bitterness, and even a little sweetness. It’s thick, and hard to understand. But it’s still friendly. This guy doesn’t want anyone to get too close to him. In that sense, he’s not a dog person. The level of loyalty that a dog has makes him uncomfortable. He wouldn’t have a pet at all, except that a cat showed up at his house one day and being soft hearted, he fed the poor creature. And, of course, it stayed around. But it’s not a pet so much as a room mate;

I had a hard time thinking of this beer’s favorite album. It’s an unfiltered beer, and there’s a yeasty aroma and flavor to it. It’s primal, and it takes it all in. It’s not the sort of beer to have a clear favorite anything. I thought of Jazz albums, I thought of famous french singers like Jaqcues Brel, Edith Piaf, or Charles Trenet, I thought of albums that mix genre like The Art of Noise’s “The Seduction of Claude Debussy”. The truth is, this beer has a large record collection and all those things and more are in it. But the most valued record, I think, is something both classic and modern; Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A Changin’”

The beer’s ideal weather is a fairly simple thing to talk about. It’s certainly a spring beer, and the weather in which it would be most comfortable is a wet but sunny, warm but cool, middling spring day;

Overall, I’d call this a dangerously drinkable beer. I hope that you’re able to find a bottle. The one I found was at the Willamette Street Market of Choice in Eugene. For a 750 ML Bottle, I paid $12 (steeeeep, but worth it!) It was a great beer, and it brightened an otherwise difficult evening.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next week!

Tasty beer. Blog in the background.

A cross between a Scotch Ale, an I.P.A., and an American Brown, this beer is well-hopped and malty at the same time. It is brewed with Aromatic barley and caramelized brown sugar.

I found the Indian Brown Ale to be extremely approachable and drinkable, but with no shortage of personality. Like your buddy who is really down to earth except for some harmless conspiracy theories he believes in unquestioningly.

My first impression on pouring was that the beer was a lot darker than I’d imagined. It’s really deep red brown with a very attractive cream colored head of tiny little bubbles that dissipated fairly quickly and didn’t leave any lacing at all on the glass. The aroma was first a hit of alcoholic esters, fruity. Then some roasted notes. I found a little bit of herbal hops on the nose, but far less than I would imagine from a beer that says “well hopped” on the bottle.

The flavor is amazingly complex. The interplay between hop bitterness, alcoholic fruityness and warmth, roasted malt character, and a semisweet caramel backdrop makes this beer very interesting. While there is a lot happening in the flavor, it’s all subtle enough to keep your attention without being annoying or overbearing.

I know I’ve already mentioned it but halfway through the glass I was struck again by the wonderful smell. Caramel, liquor, malt, toasted roastedness. Really well balanced.

The mouthfeel is clean and dry, but big – bubbly and round. The beer fills the mouth and tickles the tongue. Hops stay on the pallate and the bitterness becomes very clear at the finish as the caramel dissipates. A wonderful roasted flavor as well, toasty.

I’d like more hops on the nose, maybe some dry hopping would benefit this beer. It’s a little higher alcohol content than the style calls for, which is okay by me but the hops don’t balance the bitterness as I would expect from a beer with “Indian” in the name. That said, this is a darned tasty beer and, in true Dogfish Head style it kept me interested throughout.

The last thing I want to do is something new. I’ve been toying with anthropomorphic reviews from the beginning with my “what shoes” question. This time, and probably continuing in the future, I’ve come up with a whole panel of anthropomorphic questions. If this beer were to come to life, what kind of person would it be?

It would drive a 1980s Mercedes Bio-diesel conversion with a very old ski rack on the roof.

For shoes it would wear those kind of light mens’ leather work shoes that slip on with bits of elastic. Like these.

It’s favorite album would be REM, Out of Time

For a pet it would keep an Old English Sheepdog

It’s ideal weather would be 45-50 degrees, light rain, some misty fog.

There is an MP3 in this post. Last night I went to see Hot Buttered Rum at the McDonald Theatre. They were opening for the Everyone Orchestra, but really I think they were the better act. They play progressive bluegrass, tinged with jazz rock / jam band aesthetics but by and large focused on Appalachian bluegrass roots. They’re based in San Francisco, but spend a lot of time touring the country in a Bio-Diesel Bus.

Here is a tune that I took from the free and band sanctioned Internet Archive (which I assume means that the recording is free to trade so long as I’m not making any money, which I’m (really) not) recorded January 9th of this year at the Filmore in SFO. They played this number last night , and once the second verse started and I recognized that it’s about Obama’s election, I was moved to tears (and crazy-jumping-up-and-down-dancing).

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I recommend going to their website and buying a lot of their music, and going to their shows whenever they pass through your area. This band is HOT!

Bottle and Beer

This is a Belgian style ale, and overall I was very pleasantly impressed by how true to style they managed to be. With most American commercial examples of Belgian styles, I have been underwhelmed by the nods they give to their European forebearers. A particular brewery in Colorado comes to mind whose products claim to be Belgian, but all taste the same. They just have a light version, a dark version, a strong version, etc…But I’m not going to name names.

My first impression was that this is a beautiful beer. It poured crystal clear with a wealthy, foamy white head. The beer is golden straw colored. The photo posted here makes it look a little orange, which is misleading because of the mash tun drying in the background. The odor is subdued, but complex. It’s somewhat bready, floral, and mostly fruity. The yeast character is noticeable in the smell.

This beer is very lightly hopped, so the flavor is immediately dominated by the malt as well as fruity characteristics imparted by the Belgian yeast (freakish little microbes, those Belgian yeasts). The hops come through after the initial hit of malty sweetness, and they are floral, spicy. The beer is nicely carbonated, and it bubbles around in your mouth. It’s sweet, a little heavier than I would expect, and it definitely coats the mouth.

Overall, for a 6.5% beer this is quite drinkable and tasty. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a session beer, but it’s very approachable and enjoyable.

Hello friends. It’s time, once again, for my Friday beer tasting notes. This has become a weekly feature here at samuelrutledge.com, and I’ve quite enjoyed it (not only because it’s an excuse to drink good beer!) I’m hopeful that I will shortly be able to announce new and exciting changes to the tasting notes section, but today is still a bit premature. Needless to say, this feature is soon to become more interesting and collaborative.
That said, let’s get to today’s review.

Tonight, I enjoyed a draught pour of the Ninkasi Brewery’s Spring Reign. I have to admit that I was not as focused or careful in this review as I have been in past weeks. The reason for this is that I spent my Friday afternoon and early evening at the Eugene Beer and Blog, which is a weekly event where blog people drink beer together and talk blog stuff. Several conversations of interest and import ensued, none of which is relevant to this post. In any event, I was conversing with others while trying to pay attention to my beer, which was rather a mistake. I enjoyed the beer, but didn’t pay it the attention it deserved.

My first impression of the spring release was that it looked fresh. After several months of enjoying dark beers, winter warmers, and beers designed for cold weather and heavy meals, I was excited to have a glass of beer that was straw colored with a lovely, tight, crisp white head. The head retained fairly well on the glass, and it kept it’s aesthetic for several minutes after I sat down. That said, it did dissipate before long and there was little lacing left on my glass. An aside here is that there was little lacing on any of the glasses around the table, which makes me wonder if the glassware at this establishment is actually clean. But I digress.

The aroma of the beer was green, fresh, grassy. Mostly hop and with very little malt on the nose. It smelled, appropriately, rather like spring. In keeping with the theme of offering footware metaphors at the aroma point of the notes, if the smell of this beer was a person it seems like it would be at home in Tevas or in Converse All Stars.

The first impression about the flavor is that it’s hoppier than I would expect from a spring seasonal. My general impression of spring beers is that they’re pretty boring, as a whole. This one is an exception. The hops add to a fresh, grassy, floral, herby kind of affect. The flavor is not one dimensional by any means, but it also isn’t terribly deep. The malt profile is simple and understated, leaving the hops to shine but not making any real effort to balance them. This leads to a crisp, dry, refreshing beer, but one that isn’t’ terribly interesting.

As far as mouthfeel is concerned, I’ll say that this is one area where I just wasn’t paying that much attention. Frankly, it felt like beer in my mouth. It wasn’t particularly watery, but it also wasn’t overly sticky. It wasn’t big, but it certainly wasn’t little. It was crisp. That’s what I keep coming back to; it was damned crisp. And that’s good.

This is the kind of beer you can drink for hours, for days. I could get a keg of this and just drink and play with power tools for a week. Two weeks, maybe, if I was stingy with my friends. This is a good beer for spring. It’s a hopeful beer, and a beer that seems to be a harbinger of change and better times to come. It’s approachable enough that even a seasoned Budweiser drinker could enjoy it, but has enough complexity to satisfy a terminal beer geek. The downside here is that the beer is a little boring, they have not done anything very gutsy. But this is a ‘your strength is your weakness’ situation, as the approachability and drinkability of the beer are directly related to the neutrality of it. Ninkasi, I think, has done it again. A damn good beer.

At an earlier time, I wrote that people who post and share beer tasting notes that run down the various characteristics of the beers they’ve had are incredibly pretentious. I still feel that way, and I welcome your accusations of pretension. That said, I think that the best way to start brewing better beer is to really pay attention to the beer I’m drinking. That said, here are my tasting notes for the Old Godfather barley wine style ale from Speakeasy Brewery in San Fransisco. I am currently enjoying a 12 oz bottle.

Appearance: This beer poured with a rich inch and a half of off white head which dissipated to a light film of bubbles within a few minutes. The beer itself is cloudy, and richly caramel colored. As I drank from my glass, there was a moderate amount of foam lacing left on the sides.
Aroma: Like sweet bread with honey. Overwhelmingly sweet. Hop nose barely present. A lot of what seems like maybe biscuit malt.
Flavor: Moderately booozy, hops well balanced with malt, caramel followed by a strong hop finish.
Mouthfeel: A little overcarbonated. Othewise, fills the mouth up with an almost chewy sensation.
Drinkability: I could sip one all night.