Tag: IPA
Ninkasi Brewing Co. Maiden The Shade
Ahhh summer. It’s arrived in Portland, at last. Being a recent transplant to Portland, I have to admit that I struggled a bit in June. Seeing as how I was used to June being summer that is, and here in Portland June is a continuation of spring, which itself (this year anyhow) was ostensibly a continuation of winter – i.e. cool (50-60) temps and cloudy skies pretty much every day.
But once it’s arrived, summer here is pretty swell. And it really arrived all of a sudden. One day (June 30th) was gray and cool, and the next, July 1st (no kidding, it actually was July 1st) dawned with nary a cloud in the sky and temps in the low 60s. By the end of the day, they’d risen to the high 70s, and we still had no clouds in the sky. The weather then remained just like that for the next week or so. I think we saw more sun in that brief period of time than we had for the previous several months. Pretty amazing!
But this post isn’t about summer in Portland, so much as it’s about summer beer in Portland. Because when summer arrives, the whole city changes. All of a sudden every patch of lawn and park is covered with people soaking up sun, and practically every restaurant, bar, and brewpub opens up their patios. And brewers follow suit, with most breweries in Oregon releasing one or more of their summer beers.
What’s best about this raft of summer beers is how they’re all pretty different from one another. There are lighter, more refreshing styles (Cascade’s Portland Pale, Spring Pale, and Summer Gose come to mind), bigger, bolder, hoppier ones (HUB’s Galactic Imperial Red and Evelyn Sunshine Imperial IPA), and those that hover somewhere between the two (such as Lompoc’s Pilzipa). Ninkasi’s recently released Maiden The Shade falls within this overall spectrum, being both pleasantly hoppy and very refreshing.
Ninkasi is based in Eugene, Oregon, and has been brewing since 2006. They’ve grown to become one of the bigger breweries in Oregon, and are one of the few to bottle their beers in both 22oz and 12oz bottles. They have a lineup of year-round beers that are all good-to-very good, with the Total Domination IPA being a typical go-to IPA around here, and the Tricerahops Double IPA a scarily drinkable imperial IPA. Alongside this, each year they release a number of seasonals. Maiden The Shade is their summer seasonal IPA.
In my estimation, Maiden The Shade is a great beer on two counts. 1) It’s a really good beer. Super drinkable and very flavorful, with lots of hop aroma and flavor without much hop bitterness. 2) The name of the beer and the typographics on the label (see above) are a play on Iron Maiden:
Admittedly, I’ve never been a big Iron Maiden fan (honest!), but I love the approach. And I especially loved it when they released this past winter’s Sleigh’r, whose label again used both a play on words and on the typographics of a well-known heavy metal band. This time it was Slayer, and seeing as how I’ve always appreciated the occasional Slayer song*, this one really struck me as pretty awesome.
Of course, however much I may like their tongue-in-cheek naming and typographics, the most important point is that the beer itself is typically very good. I’m a big fan of flavorful-but-not-super-bitter IPAs, and Maiden The Shade fits the bill to a T. It’s not a small beer, brewed to an ABV of 6.8%, but it’s 72 IBUs are spread out nicely towards the aroma and flavor end of the spectrum. Best of all, look at this lineup of 7 different hops that they use in this beer: Summit, Centennial, Simcoe, Columbus, Crystal, Palisade, Amarillo.
All in all, I’d recommend giving this one a try. Especially good if you pair it with something on the lighter, quaffable side, like a Fort George 1811 Lager or even a Trumer Pils.
Tasting Notes
As I said above, this one is brewed to 6.8% and 72 IBUs. They use the 7 different hop varieties named above, along with 3 different malts: 2-row pale, vienna, and flaked barley.
The nose opens up with lots of orange and citrus notes, and as the beer warms a note of coppery malt enters into the mix. The palate has lots of citrus and evergreen hop flavor balanced by sweet malty notes and a very mild bitterness, almost all of which picks up at the back-end of the palate. The flavors here are well-balanced, with the malt base layer really highlighting the hop flavors. More hop bitterness comes into the picture on the finish, with pine and resin notes dominant. The finish is pretty lengthy, with those hop flavors really sticking around and making their presence known.
Like I said, go try it. It’s a summer seasonal, but just came out recently. And since summer only just started, it should be around for a couple of months or so anyhow.
*In the interest of full disclosure, I’m actually a huge Slayer fan. My interest is bookended by Hell Awaits and Decade of Aggression, which admittedly is limiting the scope of their oeuvre. But let’s face it, Reign In Blood, South Of Heaven, and Seasons In The Abyss are incredible albums and form a trilogy of true metal greatness! Yeah!!
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Troegs Brewing Co. Nugget Nectar
It happens every spring. As the weather turns towards warmer temperatures and more sun, my enjoyment of hoppy IPAs is renewed. I find myself browsing store shelves looking for my favorite hoppy beers – Green Flash West Coast IPA, Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye and Racer 5, Founders Double Trouble, Victory Hop Wallop, Smuttynose IPA, and others. Instead of imperial stouts enjoyed while sitting in front of a warm fire, I find myself looking forward to savoring an IPA while sitting on the porch, basking in a late-evening sun.
And so a couple of weeks ago I finally noticed those bottles of Troegs’ Nugget Nectar sitting on the shelf. It comes out in February, but it wasn’t until the start of March that my eyes opened up enough to see it. Having heard about what a great, hoppy beer it was, I decided that it was time to give it a try.
Nugget Nectar is brewed by Troegs every February. The original gravity is right around 1.076, based on the ABV of 7.5%, and the beer weighs in with “93ish” IBUs. The malt bill includes Pilsner, Vienna, and Munich, and the hops used include Nugget, Warrior, Tomahawk, Simcoe, and Palisade. More varieties of hops than you typically find in a beer, even for a double IPA. And those are just the hops used in the boil. After cooling, the wort is run through a hopback that contains whole leaf Nugget hops, and then the beer is dry-hopped with Nugget and Warrior hops. So exciting, a total showcase for hops!
The result? An impressive, delicious, very refreshing beer.
Tasting Notes
Nugget Nectar pours crystal clear, light amber in color, with a fluffy white head that forms and drops slowly, leaving loads of lacing on the glass. The nose is a veritable citrus bomb! Grapefruit, lemon, lime, and pine hop aromas explode out of the glass. A hint of malt peeks in, but this is a hop show. On the palate, the beer is crisp and light, with citrusy hop flavors and a notable if not overwhelming degree of leafy hop bitterness. A welcome yet soft malt backbone supports the hops. The finish is a bracing clash of bitter hops and sweet malt. The bitterness really leaps in with both feet, followed by a wave of sweet malt.
In sum: wow! This beer is great. Supremely hoppy in a very refreshing way, and ably hiding the 7.5% alcohol. Not thick and syrupy the way some high-IBU beers are, instead this one really showcased beautiful hop aromas and flavors, providing just enough malt to keep it almost (but thankfully not entirely) balanced.
Go get some before it’s all gone!
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Russian River Brewing Co. Pliny The Elder Vs. Pliny The Younger
The “big” news on BeerAdvocate last week was that Russian River Brewing‘s Pliny The Younger had overtaken Westvleteren 12 as the site’s top-ranked beer. This was notable since Westvleteren has held the top spot for ages, certainly in the several years I’ve been visiting the site. Since then, the two have see-sawed back and forth, leading to innumerable musings on the site and elsewhere.
Is this really significant? I don’t know. It coincided with the release of Pliny The Younger (a draft-only beer, it’s never been bottled) at Russian River’s brewpub, an event where the beer itself sold out in a matter of hours, in contrast to last year’s release where the beer sold out after several days. So regardless of whatever interest you want to ascribe to this beer assuming the top spot, it is certainly a sign of the (beer) times. We’ve entered a stage in the rise of beer where the release of big name beers is a very, very big happening, and brings with it lots of crowd, lots of hype, and also lots of great beer.
That’s the real upside here. Breweries such as Russian River and Founders, whose beers are rightly very well regarded and highly sought after, have been increasing their capacity during the past few years, or at least (in some cases) devoting more capacity to those beers that are the most highly sought after. And so we’re seeing more opportunities to taste many of these rare gems, whether at festivals, greater or more plentiful distribution, or more bottles out there giving you a better chance of finding one.
And so it was both exciting and surprising to see Russian River at this year’s Extreme Beer Fest. In the three years that I’ve gone they have never been there, although one year they sent out several cases of their “wild” beers to be served at the Belgian Beer Fest’s Night Of The Funk. This year, they brought three beers to the Saturday sessions, and a few more to the Friday evening Night Of The Barrels. And not only did they come to the fest, they brought with them none other than Pliny The Younger, along with its sibling Pliny The Elder. Talk about a great opportunity for a comparative tasting!
Pliny The Younger and Pliny The Elder are both imperial IPAs, and are two of the first wave that really kick-started this style back when they was first brewed (right around 2003 for Elder, 2005 for Younger). Pliny The Elder is brewed to a gravity of 1.071, 8% ABV, and 100 IBUs. Pliny The Younger is its bigger, badder sibling, weighing in at an OG 1.098, 11% ABV, and GOBS of IBUs (as their website says).
Tasting Notes
Pliny The Elder
Pours a rich, mellow gold and slightly hazy, with a pillowy white head that leaves loads of lacing on the glass. The nose is dominated by notes of pine and citrus hop flavors that leave little room for anything else. The palate is velvety textured with medium carbonation, very mellow without being soft. The flavors are not as hoppy as the nose implied, which is good, as there’s lots of great flavors going on here. The bitterness is mild and relatively restrained, letting lots of hop flavors come through, principally citrus and pine with a touch of resin, accompanied by sugared lemons, and a touch of sweet malt. The finish is substantially more bitter than the palate, with creamy lemon flavors offset by a lingering layer of resiny hop flavors.
Pliny The Younger
Pours a shade darker than the Elder, without as much of a head on top. In fact, if you look closely you can see the bubbles flowing to the surface much more slowly than in the Elder. The nose is rich with hops, similar to the Elder, but in the case their accompanied by a notably malty element that brings notes of bread and caramel to the nose. The palate is similar, with the hop flavors challenged somewhat for supremacy by the malty flavors. The fight’s a good one, resulting in a great combination of pine and resin hop flavors, and malty notes of honey and baked bread. The hops get the upper hand ultimately, but it’s closer than with the Elder. The finish is similar to the Elder, opening up with a blend of sweet malt and hops, giving way to lingering bitterness. Overall, the Younger is sweeter and denser than the Elder, a more mature and weighty version of its smaller sibling.
Conclusions
Both of these are top-notch, very drinkable IPAs. In fact, scarily drinkable IPAs. They both cloaked the alcohol level well behind a facade of hops and malt, especially the Younger. And in both, while the flavors were very hop-oriented, they offered great contrasts to one another. If I went someplace where both were on offer, it’d be a tough choice, seeing as how they’re both just so good, as well as being prototypical examples of imperial IPAs. I guess I’d just have to get a glass of both! Perhaps at the same time, so that I could compare them (as the true beer geek that I’ve become).
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Troegs Brewing Co. Scratch Beer #25 – Mustache Rye
Rye IPAs combine two of my favorite flavor elements in beer: rye and hops. Much as with rye whiskey, rye brings a spicy, resinous quality to beer that lends a real step up to your typical malt profile. So take a rye ale and pile hops into it, and you have the potential for a beautiful marriage of two fabulous flavors.
Today, you’re seeing rye IPAs crop up with increasing frequency, although I don’t know of too many that are part of a brewery’s regular lineup. Instead, most of the ones that I’ve had the chance to try have been either seasonals or one-offs from breweries. Perhaps this is because as opposed to your typical IPA, a rye-based IPA is an altogether different beer. The malt profile of the beer is more forward, more challenging, vying with hops for your palate, demanding attention in its own right. Whereas most IPAs are essentially vehicles for the hops, even if balanced with a notable maltiness, the bottom line is that hops reign supreme. In the case of rye IPAs, this isn’t so much the case.
This beer from Troegs Brewing Company is a great example, of both how awesome rye IPAs can be, and of rye IPAs being one-offs as opposed to regular features of a brewery’s lineup. Troegs makes a couple of very good, hoppy beers, including their Hopback Amber (which is part of their year-round lineup) and the highly rated Nugget Nectar, a seasonal that is a veritable showcase for malt and hops, and more hops. Both are great beers. But then there’s the Scratch Series of one-off beers that they’ve been brewing since 2007. The Series is up to number 27 now, and this beer, the Magical Mustache Rye, was number #25 in the series.
The Magical Mustache Rye was brewed in November 2009 in honor of both the Month of the Mustache (November, more info here) and the Troegs Mustache Growing Contest. It was brewed to an original gravity of 16 degrees Plato (1.065 original gravity), and 115 IBUs, for an astounding BU:GU ratio of 1.77 (bitterness units to gravity units). The malts included a base pilsner malt, with additions of munich and crystal. Hops used in the boil included Bravo and Cluster, along with Cluster and Liberty for dry-hopping.
The beer pours crystal clear and coppery, dark amber, with a fluffy white head that drops to a thin lacing. The nose has wonderful floral hoppy aromas of lavender, citrus, and a hint of pine, with a breath of malt lurking underneath. The palate is crisp with a great balance of malt and hops, with hops just barely taking the upper hand. Flavors arrive with a foundation of bready maltiness, then the hops come swooping in, with flavors of resin, pine, and herbal spiciness. Not overwhelmingly bitter, although there is more definitely more hop bitterness than flavor. The finish opens up with caramel maltiness that gives way to buckets of lingering hop bitterness.
What a fun, great tasting, and very drinkable beer. The hops brought plenty of bitterness, but it was pretty well-integrated into the overall flavor profile. If the BU:GU was 1.77, I’d have to guess that a substantial portion of the hops were used pretty late in the boil, otherwise – in a 1.065 beer – the bitterness may be overwhelming. Instead, this is a great rye IPA, and as much as I enjoy both Hopback Amber and Nugget Nectar, this is a beer that I’d really enjoy seeing as part of Troegs yearly or seasonal lineup. It’s just so good!
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Odell Brewing Co. IPA
Odell Brewing was one of the two breweries that we visited during our whirlwind, 3-hour stop in Fort Collins. When you consider that the stop also included New Belgium Brewing, lunch at a goodMexican restaurant, and a stop for groceries before we split town to head into the hills of Utah for a night of camping, you get a sense of how little time we had to really appreciate their offerings. But, luckily we did take the time to try a sampler of some of the beers they had on tap, and we took a handful of bottles with us to tide us over until the next brewery.
First off, the brewery itself is a really nice spot. They have a good-sized patio and a couple of comfortable rooms filled with tables, chairs, and couches where you can relax and use their wireless while sipping on a pint. When we were there they were offering two trays of samples. One was their lineup of regular, year-round beers, and the other was a collection of one-offs, seasonals, and other special beers that they were offering. We gave each a shot, and were quite glad we did since the two samplers were wildly contrasting.
Their regular lineup consists of an IPA, Levity Amber Ale, 5 Barrel Pale Ale, 90 Shilling Ale, Easy Street Wheat, and Cutthroat Porter. All were enjoyable (although they did not have the IPA on tap when we were there), with the 90 Shilling Ale and Cutthroat Porter being my favorites of the bunch. At this point (a couple of months later), I honestly can’t remember exactly which seasonals and other one-offs they had on-tap at the time. I know that we tried the St. Lupulin Ale, and a brett-fermented red ale, but that’s about it. What I do remember is really enjoying their year-round lineup. Each beer had distinct character, and all were very drinkable and solid.
We were both pretty smitten with their artwork as well. Each of their labels is very well done, with some great drawings and excellent design. I only wish they offered some more info about the beers themselves. Here’s the full text from the label:
Ready To Buck Convention?
We took the traditional IPA, originally shipped from England to India in the 1700s, and made it bolder and more flavorful – American style. We’ve added new varieties of highly aromatic American hops to create a distinctive bitterness profile and an incredible hop character. Hop on, hold tight, and enjoy the ride!
As much as I enjoy the enthusiasm of their writing, it doesn’t really do much for me. Nor does their website, which gives little (to no) more information. What we do know is that this beer rolls in at 7% with 60 IBUs, a respectable bitterness-to-gravity for a northwestern-style IPA. What I don’t really understand though, is how on their website they don’t even give out much information on their really special beers. Such as their recently-released Bourbon-Barrel Stout, whose webpage has no mention of gravity, malts, how long it was in barrels, etc. I realize they must think that most people are not interested, but I’m just not sure how true that is.
Anyhow. On to this IPA. 7%, 60 IBUs. Rant aside, let’s roll with that.
It pours a hazy, amber gold, with a frothy white head, and leaves lots of lacing on the glass. The nose has notes of cotton candy, orange, lemon, and lime peels, forest pines, resins, and a lick of spiciness. The palate has a strong dose of carbonation but manages to be rather smooth and velvety none the less. There is lots of hop bitterness with a sweet maltiness layered on top of it. The beer is really a tale of two contrasting flavor groups: malt honey, and even a bit of caramel on the one hand; grassy, citrus hop bitterness on the other. I wouldn’t say it’s balanced or not balanced. The two flavors groups are just so distinct without warring. The finish brings lemon curd alongside leafy, hop bitterness.
On the whole, while I would say that the flavors don’t run deep here, this is a very tasty beer. It would definitely fit the bill on a warm summer or spring afternoon. And while I’m disappointed by Odell’s lack of telling consumers anything about their beer, they definitely produce a solid lineup of year-round beers that, if they distributed anywhere near me, I’d happily partake in.
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