Beer Log, Aug. 5-10, 2012

Beer Log, Aug. 5-10
 

Aug. 5: Today’s Beer: Oakshire Brewing’s: Watershed IPA: Deep golden honey colored. Limited head and foam. It has a very pleasant floral-fruity scent. The first taste brings sweetness with a hint of fruitiness, in the peach/apricot family. The fruitiness recedes and is taken over by an earthy bitter. It’s is a good, middle of the road IPA. It is tough to be a standout in this variety with the intense competition and volume of IPAs available.

 

Aug. 6: Today’s Beer: Bridgeport’s: Summer Squeeze: Summer Squeeze: Great summer beer. So light and hoppy with a strong citrus presence. This may be my new summer favorite from Bridgeport – even better than the Haymaker. The citrus comes from the lemongrass and yuzu fruit that the beer is brewed with. Very limited scent. Medium golden color, similar to a blonde honey kind of color. Good fizziness, but limited head. Tasty and refreshing – as noted a great hot day kind of beer.

 

Another Today’ Beer: Seven Brides Brewing’s: Becky’s Black Cat Porter:  Super black and super dark. No light penetrates, so really this is more like a stout than a porter. But, I can get past that. It has a limited head and foam. There is a subtle roasty scent to it. The first taste is wonderful. It is initially sweet and immediately turns mildly sour and quickly transitions to a deep espresso roasted coffee flavor. The roasty flavor lingers and envelops the tongue and top of the mouth. This is the first I’ve tried from Seven Brides. In fact, it’s the first I’ve heard of them. Nice medium strength of 7%. 55 IBU. It features Wilamette valley Cascade and Nugget hops.

 

Aug. 7: Today’s Beer: Deschutes’: Obsidian Stout: OK, I have finally gotten a chance to write about the regular Deschutes Obsidian Stout in the bottle (as opposed to on tap with Nitro). This is a very good, black, stout. It pours with a nice latte colored head with a roasted flavored foam. Good roasty malted scent. It has a hint of black licorice and coffee. Also it begins with a sourness and ends with a deep bitter. Good normal drinking stout. Along with the Firestone-Walker Velvet Merlin, these are probably the 2 best everyday stouts.

 

Aug. 7: Today’s Second Beer: Burnside Brewing’s: Oatmeal Pale Ale: New Brewery alert! Another small Portland brewery for me to try – oh, goody! So, the pour reveals very little head, so limited carbonation. It has a nice golden orange honey color. Nice floral-fruity smell. Opens sweet and fruity – somewhere in the peach family. The peachy flavor takes over for a brief moment and gives way to a more bitter hoppiness, but in the background there also is a earthiness and mildly burnt sugar flavor. 5.6% ABV. 44 IBU. I’m liking this one a great deal – pleasant, yet complex. On the bottle’s description, it lists the use of Crystal, Galena, and Fuggle hops. It also boasts the use of 75 pounds of rolled oats to provide increased creaminess.

 

Aug. 8: Today’s Beer: Northwest Brewing’s: Mango Weizen: Beer fermented with mango. New brewing company! Well, for me. This one is a cloudy, honey-orange colored ale. The description is that it is 50% wheat malt, along with mango puree and a minimal use of Saaz hops, which explains the IBU of a whopping 3. Yes, 3. It is very carbonated and has a very thick head. It is in some ways like a Belgian beer with a thick foamy head that can fill a glass with foam even with the most gentle pours. Nice, sharp fruity scent. Very sweet taste and very fizzy. Too fizzy – it gets in the way. It has a small hint of sour, but would benefit from a more sour flavor. Usually the more acidic fruits like apricot or peach work well, so I had higher expectations for a mango beer. But, this one has too limited a fruity presence to make it interesting. So, with limited hoppiness and limited fruitiness, this has too little to offer. If you drank this beer blind with no description, and someone asked which fruit it was brewed with, you would be hard pressed to answer. Mango certainly does not come to mind.

 

Aug. 9: Today’s Beer: Deschutes’: Twilight: This is their summer specialty release. As such, it is light, crisp, and displays a refreshing lemony flavor that comes in part from the Amarillo hops. Not overwhelmingly hoppy or carbonated. Cloudy and honey colored. 5% ABV. Good summer drinking on the beach beer. Sweet, citrusy and smooth.

 

Aug. 10: Today’s Beer: Alameda’s: Black Bear XX Stout: Pours deep and dark and thick – lovely. Minimal head or carbonation. Deep dark roasted bitey taste, but with a  creamy sweetness. There is a hint of sourness, but only a hint. There is a mild hint of bourbon, but only a hint. There is also a mild espresso flavor as well. Toward the end, there is also a mild fruity presence that you generally don’t get with stouts. This is a very nice, tasty, and complex stout. 7%.