Beer Log: Aug: 17-31, 2012

Beer Log: Aug. 17-31

Aug. 17: Today’s Beer: Pelican Brewing’s: Kiwanda Cream Ale: New Brewery! This one is located in Pacific City, just south of Tillamook, OR. I’m very excited about its proximity to Cannon Beach. The pour sets up a crisp, golden colored ale with good carbonation, but little head. Nice light crisp taste, with a berry-like fruitiness. Very clear, no haziness at all. Little hops, but a nice light sweet maltiness with a hint of mild roasted malts. Very mild but very tasty, nonetheless.  The bottle claims that the style is an older European style that was popular in America in the 19^th century.

 

Aug. 19: Today’s Beer: Pelican Brewing’s: Doryman’s Dark Ale: Nice clear, dark color, somewhere between a porter and brown with a deep reddish hue. Thick, creamy looking head and sweet inviting smell. The first taste is slightly sour that turns sweet and caramel-like and recedes to a lightly bitter, toasted malty taste. Very pleasing. Brewed with Cascade and Mt. Hood hops.

Aug. 21: Today’s beer: Rogue’s: Juniper Pale Ale: Cloudy golden honey color and nice thick head. Piney and floral scents rise from the foam. Sweet, bright, citrus, floral flavor followed by a mildly earthy bitter. Very nicely balanced and refreshing, yet also invitingly complex. Under it all, there is also a metallic hint, possibly from the aging vessel. Overall, quite tasty.

Aug. 22: Today’s Beer: Etna Brewing’s: Blackberry Blonde: So, I stopped in a small gas station in Dunsmuir on the way to Oregon so the kids could use the bathroom. While waiting, I looked at the beer selection since there was nothing else to do. And, low and behold, a number of offerings from Weed Brewing and Etna Brewing, neither of which I’d had. So, I bought a few. Oh, serendipity. So, this is the first I’ve tried from Etna. The color is a hazy gold with a medium head and nice fruity/berry scent. The flavor is surprising. It tastes of blackberry. Very distinctly blackberry. Most berry beers could be any berry as the fruit is present, but not distinct. This is distinct. And pleasant. One of the problems with berry beers is that they are overly sweet. Not so with this one. It has a sweetness, to be certain, but it is more subtle and inviting than overwhelming. Very refreshing and tasty.

Aug. 23: Today’s Beer: Pelican Brewing’s: MacPelican’s Scottish Style Ale: Beautiful reddish hue, tending toward brown. Nice thick head, but not too thick, with a nice level of carbonation. Excellent caramel sweetness with a hint of mildly roasted maltiness. Mildly hopped and pleasant citrus that matches up well with the sweetness. Very tasty Scottish style beer.

Aug. 24: Today’s Beer: Mammoth Brewing’s: Double Nut Brown – A Brown Porter: I’d heard of Mammoth Brewing, but this is the first I’ve seen from them. The beer is a deep brown that lets through very little light. It has a nice head that dissipates quickly. It has a very powerful espresso scent that also has hints of hazel nuts. Excellent look and smell. The taste follows the scent. There is a distinct roasted hazel nut flavor blended with a nice malty sweetness. The initial taste is followed by a dark roasted coffee flavor. There is also the distinct mild sour throughout that most porters have. Very tasty and complex. 5.5% ABV.

Aug. 26: Today’s Beer: Rogue’s: Chipotle Ale: Picked this one up at the Rogue Pub in Eugene. Good pub and good food. Well worth the stop. And they have a great number of innovative beers on tap that they don’t bottle, and have things in bottle I’d never seen anywhere else. It was hard to limit my purchases. The Chipotle Ale is a nice medium amber color with a good head; present, but not too thick. There is a nice pleasantly sweet hoppy scent with just a hint of pepper. The peppery flavor hits with the first sip. It opens with a deep smoky flavor that lingers and is a bit too smoky. But, it is still intriguing. As the smoke somewhat subsides, there is a pleasant bite of heat from the chipotles, but it is pretty mild and blends nicely with the sweet maltiness. Minimal hops, but they provide a nice floral accompaniment to the pepper. Very unique and tasty. Not an everyday beer, but nice for a unique experience. The bottle references a 1575 author, Juan de la Cueva, who wrote of a Mexican dish that combined chipotles and ale.

Aug. 27: Today’s Beer: Rogue’s: Dirtoir Black Lager (Part of Chatoe Rogue Series): Rogue has a number of different brewing series that they do. This one is part of the Chatoe Rogue series that focuses on using locally grown ingredients. They grow their own hop (Independent and Revolution) and barley (Melanoiden, Carafe Special II, Black, Chocolate, Rogue Micro Barley Farm First Growth Risk) varieties. The lager yeast is a German Oktoberfest yeast. The pour is very thick and black, like the blackest stout. It had a deep brown foam, perhaps the darkest I’ve ever seen. The smell is deep and roasty. The flavor is also very deep and complex – dark and mildly burnt, deep espresso, and a mild hint of sweetness that softens the effect. Since it is a lager, it is lighter and more accessible than many dark ales. The closest comparable for me is Moonlight’s Death And Taxes. A few sips reveal a light sourness as well that is hidden beneath the powerful roasty bitterness. Excellent offering – one of my new favorites from Rogue.

Aug. 28: Today’s Beer: Southern Oregon Brewing’s: Nice Rack IPA: With image of deer horns, for a delightful pun. This has a beautiful honey color – it looks like carbonated clover honey. The pour sets up a nice frothy head that melts on the tongue with a wonderful sweet floral flavor. The first taste also is very sweet and approachable for an IPA, not the deep biting bitter that so many display. Sweet and floral though and through. Though, upon further reflection, there is a mild bitterness that makes an appearance in the aftertaste. Tasty approach to the IPA from SOB. 5.5% ABV.

 

Aug. 30: Today’s Beer: Lompoc Brewing: C-Note Imperial Pale Ale: OK, I like this one just on the basis of puns alone. First pun: it has 100 IBU (so, reference to C-note as $100 bill). Second pun: it uses 7 varieties of hop, all of which start with “C”: Crystal, Cluster, Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, Columbus, and Challenger. It pours out with a limited head. The color is a deep amber, so it’s darker than you’d expect for a pale. It also is very pleasantly sweet, and it uses dark enough malts to have a mild burnt sugar kind of flavor to it. The combination of hops is wonderfully complex and it works. It had a floral character at the start that softens into a nice fruitiness, and as that subsides it leaves a mildly earthy bitterness. Quite an excellent beer – well crafted, tasty, and complex. For a beer that boasts 100 IBU, the hops don’t overwhelm. Good strength at 6.9%.  (tag line on the label: “The cure for all curses of the modern drinking class”; nice touch).

Aug. 31: Today’s Beer: Bridgeport Brewing’s: Kingpin Double Red (Triple Hopped): This one also is brewed with rye. It sports Willamette Valley Liberty Hops. Good head that is pretty thick but also lightly foamy and melts in your mouth. Beautiful red color; deep amber and crystal clear. The flavor is very nice – a good drinking beer. Though at a sneaky 7.5%, it can get the better of you if you aren’t watching. But it is very smooth with a tasty sweet caramel maltiness. There is also a nice earthy hoppiness with a hint of citrus. Solid red/amber that has a more hoppy bite than most.