Sierra Nevada Brewing Company/Bitburger Brewery – Oktoberfest

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Bitburger Brewery, Collaboration, Fall, Oktoberfest, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

Welcome to Oktoberfest week here at BeerRantsAndBooks!  I know I’m a bit late in getting to this since most of the official festivities are wrapping up around now, but these beers are most definitely still in season.

Beer Name: Oktoberfest

Brewery: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company (Chico, CA) / Bitburger Brewery (Bitburg, Germany)

Style: Marzen

ABV: 6.0%

Description: Continuing their annual series of Oktoberfest collaborations, this year storied American brewers Sierra Nevada teamed up with Germany’s Bitburger Brewery to provide US drinkers a festive treat.  The beer features Bitburger’s own special blend of hops and house yeast, ingredients that they have apparently never shared before!

Appearance: It had a clean, clear copper body topped off by trace amounts of a foamy white lacing.

Smell: Light and subtle featuring an inviting blend of both sweet and lightly toasted malts.

Taste: Much like the smell, the taste offered a highly satisfying blend of sweet caramel and toasted malts, both in sufficient amounts to stand out but not prominently assert themselves.  A subtle hint of lager yeast and very faint noble hops came through towards the finish.

Mouthfeel: Roughly medium bodied with a moderate amount of carbonation.

Hype: Not really hype necessarily, but the arrival of the fall season and the brews that come with is always an event to be celebrated.  A big name collaboration on such a quintessential seasonal only adds to the fun.

Overall: Very tasty and right on point for the style.  It was malty, it was crisp, and it made me think of fall.  This was everything I could have wanted it to be and perhaps just a little bit more.  Don’t let this one pass you by!

 

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Collective Arts Brewing & KEX Brewing – Origin of Darkness (with Vanilla, Icelandic Sea Salt, and Omnom Cocoa)

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Beer, Beer Review, Collaboration, Collective Arts Brewing, KEX Brewing, Stout

Well the first beer from the Collective Arts collaboration series didn’t exactly turn out as planned (or maybe too much as planned).  We did, however, have a much better experience with this one though I for some reason again failed on getting a good picture.  Below is the label art from the brewery website.

Beer Name: Origin of Darkness

Brewery: Collective Arts Brewing (Hamilton, Ontario) & KEX Brewing (Reykjavik, Iceland)

Style: Imperial Stout

ABV: 11.5%

Description: Part of a series of collaboration beers made with brewers from across the globe, this time Collective Arts paired with KEX Brewing from Iceland.  This variant of their storied stout was aged in Bourbon barrel along with Icelandic cocao nibs, sea salt, vanilla, and lactose.

Appearance: It poured a thick black body topped by a foamy tan head.

Smell: Sweet malt upfront, followed by hints of cocoa and vanilla.

Taste: Started out with rich, creamy sweet malts taste with some distinct chocolate notes.  This was followed by bittersweet cocoa with hints of vanilla and sea salt lurking on the periphery.  Mild to moderate bit of heat on the finish.

Mouthfeel: Thick, smooth body with low carbonation.

Hype: We picked this up on account of some eye-catching bottle art and really delicious sounding mix of ingredients.  Full disclosure we drank this before the truffle beer so we went into this one pretty carefree.

Overall: I liked this a lot.  The base stout very good and the additional ingredients were used to good effect to enhance rather than dominate the brew.  

Equilibrium Brewery & District 96 Beer Factory – Sexual Fluctuation

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Beer, Beer Review, Collaboration, Craft Beer, DIPA, District 96 Beer Factory, Equilibrium Brewery, New York

And now for a different kind of fluctuation!  Right on the heels of another Equilibrium collaboration I enjoyed the other day, this next beer was a joint effort between Equilibrium and District 96 Beer Factory (which apparently has some connection to a burger place as well).  Again, this was a gift beer.

Beer Name: Sexual Fluctuation

Brewery: Equilibrium Brewery (Middletown, NY) & District 96 Beer Factory (New York, NY)

Style: Double IPA

ABV: 8.0%

Description: As noted, this was another collaboration brew, this next double IPA offers up a blend of Citra and Galaxy hops.

Appearance: It poured a glowing golden/amber body with a thin bubbly white head.

Smell: Pineapple upfront, with a light citrusy bitterness in the background.

Taste: Tropical fruit juice, pineapple, and citrus zest gave this brew a juicy front end before it came to a creamy, lightly bitter ending featuring mango and a blend of earthy/piney hops.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a moderate level of carbonation.

Hype: Slightly elevated.  I recall seeing a bit of buzz around this when it was released.

Overall: It was a good double IPA but not particularly one that stood out for me, especially in comparison to how much I loved Dreamwave Fluctuation.  Still a very solid brew though.

Aeronaught Brewing Company & Lamplighter Brewing Company – To the Moon

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Aeronaut Brewing Company, Beer, Beer Review, Collaboration, Craft Beer, IPA, Lamplighter Brewing Company, Massachusetts, New England

I picked up this beer somewhat at random last month while browsing through one of my local shops.  The can art caught my and since I’ve been enjoying these two breweries lately I figured I might as well give this a go.

Beer Name: To the Moon

Brewery: Aeronaught Brewing Company (Somerville, MA) & Lamplighter Brewing Company (Cambridge, MA)

Style: IPA

ABV: 6.8%

Description: A collaboration between two popular local breweries, this IPA was released at the end of June to bring in the July 4th holiday just a little bit early (yes – I have apparently been sitting on this review for a bit).  Appropriately enough it featured an all-American blend of Eureka, El Dorado, Denali, and Idaho 7 hops.

Appearance: It featured a cloudy, golden/light-copper body through which I could just barely make out the other side of the glass.  A thin layer of white tan foam sat up top.

Smell: Sweet tropical fruits with a haze of piney hops in the background.

Taste: Lots of tropical fruit upfront followed by a smooth transition through crackery malts before coming to a slightly bitter finish with pine and floral hop notes.  Smooth tasting and flavorful throughout.

Mouthfeel: It had a super smooth medium body with a moderate amount of carbonation.

Hype: It seems there was some excitement around this release.  It did apparently get its own party after all.

Overall: Smooth, easy to drink, and super tasty, I would call this a highly successful collaboration effort.  An immensely satisfying brew, I am really happy that I happened to grab a full four-pack of this. I enjoyed every drop and look forward to seeing what these breweries put out next.

Aeronaut Brewing Company & Finback Brewery – Improbability Drive

Tags

Aeronaut Brewing Company, Beer, Beer Review, Collaboration, Craft Beer, Douglas Adams, Finback Brewery, Hitchhiker's Guide, Massachusetts, New York, Towel Day

Happy Towel Day!  To those that may not be aware, May 25 is Towel Day, a day set aside to celebrate the life and work of English author Douglas Adams, best known for writing The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  After somehow missing Star Wars day this year, I was determined not to miss this one as well.  I wasn’t sure at first how I would celebrate, but fortunately my favorite bottle shop was there to pick me up.

Beer Name: Improbability Drive

Brewery: Aeronaut Brewing Company (Somerville, MA) & Finback Brewery (Queens, NY)

Style: IPA

ABV: 5.8%

Description: An IPA brewed with lactose and infused with orange zest and vanilla bean.  It also features some pretty awesome can art paying tribute to the book, most notably a certain free-falling whale hoping to make friends with the ground.

Appearance: Poured a cloudy, straw-yellow body topped by a layer of thick white foam that stuck around for the duration of the beer and left lacing along the glass.

Smell: Orange juice, mixed with a slight bit of cream on the ending.

Taste: Orange juice upfront, followed by citrus zest and sweet cream with hints vanilla lurking in the background with a very mild grassy bitterness.   Think orange creamsicle with a touch of vanilla on the end.

Mouthfeel: It had a super creamy, medium-plus body with a slightly less than moderate carbonation.

Hype: Elevated somewhat since this was a collaboration effort between two popular breweries, but not to the point where this was too difficult to get my hands on at the store.  Personally, my excitement level was quite high, and that would have been the case with or without Towel Day being a factor.

Overall: What an interesting beer!  Definitely a bit out of the ordinary, but that seems appropriate given what it’s paying tribute to.  I liked this a lot and had fun drinking it while looking up some of my favorite quotes from the book.

Stone Brewing Company – Fruitallica

Tags

Beavertown Brewery, Beer, Beer Review, California, Collaboration, Craft Beer, Garage Project, New Zealand, Stone Brewing Company, United Kingdom

This next brew comes courtesy of my wife.  We had a brie cheese tasting planned for the night and she wanted to get me something to compliment the meal.

Beer Name: Fruitallica

Brewery: Stone Brewing Company (Escondido, CA/Richmond, VA), Beavertown Brewery (London, UK), and Garage Project (Wellington, NZ)

Style: Double IPA

ABV: 8.0%

Description: A worldwide collaboration effort, this double IPA was brewed with kiwi, yuzu, and habanero.  You can read the full metal description on Stone’s website.

Appearance: A bright, hazy hybrid of yellow, orange, and amber topped off by a thin white head that formed with the pour.

Smell: Light fruits and some piney bitterness.

Taste: Light and fruity upfront, featuring kiwi and assorted tropicals.  Perhaps even yuzu, but I can’t honestly claim to know what that tastes like.  The back-end brought on a nicely balanced amount of heat from the habanero that rolled into a piney, resinous bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Pretty standard for the style.  Medium, slightly creamy feel with a moderate amount of carbonation.

Hype: Elevated personally, though I suppose most grizzled beer veterans don’t get overly excited about these anymore.  Stone will probably always have a special place in my heart though.

Overall: I enjoyed this, but wouldn’t quite consider something I’d drink every day.  It did, however, go quite well with the brie I so in that sense the beer delivered exactly what I wanted.  Nice blend of sweet fruit and spice without going too far into extremes.

Trillium Brewing Company & The Veil Brewing Company – Adult Human

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Boston, Collaboration, Craft Beer, Massachusetts, New England, Richmond, The Veil Brewing Company, Trillium Brewing Company, Virginia

I do plan on reviewing something other than a Trillium beer sooner or later, but I only have so much time in which to “research” these reviews and honestly this is all I’ve been drinking these past few weeks.  Talk about a good problem to have.

Beer Name: Adult Human

Brewery: Trillium Brewing Company (Boston/Canton, MA) and The Veil Brewing Company (Richmond, VA)

Style: Double IPA

ABV: 8.2%

Description: Another collaboration double IPA, this one was brewed with blood oranges.  You can get the official write-up here.  Four packs were going for $20.20 though I personally took advantage of the brewery’s willingness to split them up this time around.  It’s been an expensive few weeks.

Appearance: Super cloudy, bright straw yellow body with a thin layer of yellowish/white foam that formed with the pour and quickly faded away.

Smell: Pineapple soaked in dank hop resin.

Taste: Opened with mellow tropical fruit and gradually became increasingly bitter by mid-sip whengrapefruit and orange pith began to take over.  After sitting for a minute or two, the beer took on a nice orange cream taste here as well.  The finish I found a bit raw and hot, as a combination of earthy and piney hops joined with the aforementioned grapefruit to rather assertively close out the brew.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a moderate carbonation that left me with some happy little bubbles on the end.

Hype: On the basis of being a special release alone I’ll say high, though there had also been some speculation online about when this particular collaboration would become available.  Despite this anticipation I was able to just walk in and out at Fort Point.  Go figure.

Overall: This was good, but not quite as good as the other collaborations Trillium has put out in the past few weeks.  That’s admittedly some tough company for comparison’s sake, but it seems like a fair standard in this case.  I loved this beer until about the halfway point and then I felt the finish was just a bit too harsh for my preferences.  It’s nowhere near Never & Again levels, though perhaps in a couple of days that will tone down some.  Still a solid pickup.

 

Trillium Brewing Company & Monkish Brewing Company – Dial Up the Seven Digits

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Boston, Collaboration, Craft Beer, Los Angeles, Massachusetts, Monkish Brewing Company, New England, Trillium Brewing Company

Unfortunately I missed out on picking up another bottle of Affogato, but all was not lost as I happened upon another unannounced collaboration release.  I’ll admit I was slightly hesitant about this after my thoughts on Trillium’s last collaboration with Monkish, but I had a good feeling about this one based on the description.

Beer Name: Dial Up the Seven Digits

Brewery: Trillium Brewing Company (Boston/Canton, MA) and Monkish Brewing Company (Los Angeles, CA)

Style: Double IPA

ABV: 8.2%

Description: A double IPA brewed with muscat grape juice, this collaboration is said to be a fusion of Trillium’s Dialed In (a beer I like very much) and Monkish’s Dial the Seven Digits (a brew with which I am unfamiliar).  You can read up on the specs here in a lot more detail.  Price was $22.20 for a four-pack of tallboys which has consistently been the high water mark for Trillium cans.

Appearance: Really cool looking body on this; super hazy with an almost glowing pale yellow color.  A thin white head formed on the pour but bubbled away pretty quickly.

Smell: Tropical fruits atop a dank pine cone bitterness.

Taste: Mellow blend of tropical fruits upfront, though I picked up mainly upon pineapple, mango, and a bit of peach.  These were followed by an assertive bitterness that was a blend of dank pine resin and earthy hops.  The grape juice came through almost at the finish, cutting into the bitterness right on the verge of it peaking, giving the beer a smoother finish than it would have had otherwise.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, a bit creamy on the end beneath a slightly more than moderate level of carbonation.

Hype:  People seemed to be a bit more excited about this release than they were for the one on Tuesday.  This time there was a small line when I arrived at the brewery, despite the short notice about the release.  There was also some dude walking down Congress Street making trades for extra cans, so there’s that to consider as well.

Overall: A very good beer and definitely one that made up for any lingering disappointment about the last collaboration between these two popular breweries.  The addition of grape juice really set this apart from your typical hazy, juicy New England DIPA and brought the beer to a really enjoyable finish.  I can’t speak to the Monkish side of this, but any fans of Trillium’s Dialed In brews should definitely give this a try if they can.  On a side note, as someone who works near Fort Point, I am a huge fan of how the last two special releases have been handled.  Minimal lines and no advanced consumer frenzy really made getting these beers so much less of a hassle.

Trillium Brewing Company & J Wakefield Brewing – Affogato

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Boston, Collaboration, Florida, J Wakefield Brewing, Massachusetts, Miami, New England, Trillium Brewing Company

Catching me by surprise, the latest Trillium collaboration brew was released with little fanfare on what was otherwise looking to be a pretty slow Tuesday at the brewery.  Upon reading the beer’s description, there was no way I was going to pass this one up and eagerly paid them a visit during my lunch break.

Beer Name: Affogato

Brewery: Trillium Brewing Company (Boston/Canton, MA) and J Wakefield Brewing (Miami, FL)

Style: Imperial Stout

ABV: 13.3%

Description: To briefly recap the official description, this imperial stout was inspired by the dessert drink with which it shares a name and Vietnamese iced coffee.  Brewed with coffee beans, vanilla, and lactose, it by all accounts sounded like a sweet treat in a bottle.  Cost was $16.05 per bomber.

Appearance: Black body topped off by a thick layer of dark tan foam.

Smell: Sweet cream and chocolate on top of a deep layer of rich coffee.

Taste: Not quite sure where to start as this beer had a lot of great things going on.  Upfront it was on the sweeter side, featuring condensed milk and dark chocolate before transitioning towards lightly bitter cold brew coffee.  The finish added espresso to the mix and maintained the opening sweetness.  The vanilla addition was very subtle and only made an appearance once the beer had sat in the glass for a few minutes, which was just fine in my book.  There was a nice bit of heat on the very end as well, but nothing that would give any indication that this beer was over 13%.

Mouthfeel: Thick, creamy full body with very little carbonation.

Hype: Not as much as one might expect for a Trillium special release.  There wasn’t any advance notice about this before the breweries opened and I was able to get in and out of the Fort Point location in a matter of minutes during my lunch break.  

Overall: Fantastic, the brewers did an excellent job with this.  Not only did they nail what they were going for, they also made a beer that was absolutely delicious.  For all the hype and attention Trillium gets for their hoppy brews, they make can make a mean stout as well and this was probably my favorite from them.  My lone regret here is that I only picked up one bottle.  Definitely going back for more if possible, and I’m also going to keep an eye out for J Wakefield Brewing next time I’m in Florida.  Impressive all around.

Trillium Brewing Company/Monkish Brewing Company – Never & Again

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Boston, Collaboration, Craft Beer, Massachusetts, Monkish Brewing Company, New England, Trillium Brewing Company

I guess I kind of lucked out in having to work on Columbus/Native American Day, since I was downtown for another highly anticipated Trillium release.  Apparently I jinxed myself in the Sigtebrod review, though, as there was indeed a line for this beer when I showed up at the brewery.

Beer Name: Never & Again

Brewers: Trillium Brewing Company and Monkish Brewing Company

Style: DIPA

ABV: 8.5%

Description: Another Trillium collaboration brew, this time made in cahoots with California’s Monkish Brewing Company.  For a quick run-down, the beer was a double IPA aged on mangos and hopped with Columbus, Citra, Simcoe, and Amarillo.  Check out this link for the full story and specs.  The four-pack of cans cost $22.20 and came with a limit of two per customer.  That was on the higher end of what I am usually looking to spend, but I was curious to try this.

Appearance: One of the most interesting bodies I have come across yet, it looked like a super cloudy and murky glass of orange juice.  A thin yellow-tinted head formed as the beer poured but quickly dissipated.

Smell: Sweet tropical fruits with a little bit of heat on the end.

Taste: Started out tasting like orange and mango juice, but then a huge rush of bitter hops quickly took over the beer, giving it a sharp, spicy finish.  After letting it sit in the glass for 5-10 minutes, the beer happily mellowed out a little bit.  The juiciness became more pronounced and bitterness subdued somewhat, though it retained a spicy bite at the very end.  Honestly this beer tasted rather green to me and right out of the can it reminded me of my first time dry-hopping a homebrew with way too much Simcoe and tasting the hop-infused near-trub.

Mouthfeel: It had a thick juicy body that was nonetheless decently carbonated throughout the drinking experience.  I could also swear I felt the rawness of the hops numbing my throat after the first few sips, a sensation that went away as the beer warmed up.

Hype Factor: High, perhaps even sky-high.  This was a beer people had been anticipating for months and it drew a bit of a crowd.  As for myself, I’d been eager to try out Monkish for some time now and since I don’t really have the time or resources to get into trading this was my best chance to do so in the foreseeable future.  I will admit these initial expectations were tempered somewhat as I gave in to curiosity and read the initial highly polarized Untappd reviews, but knowing what a fickle lot us beer enthusiasts can be I took those with a grain of salt and kept an open mind.

Overall: Despite reading some of the initial reviews, I was not prepared for the intensity of the hops which hit like a roundhouse kick to the beard.  That said, I get the feeling underneath all that there is a good beer here, it’s just way overshadowed by that raw, off-balance finish.  Not sure if this extreme bitterness is a hallmark of Monkish or not, but I kind of wonder if maybe this got either over hopped (blasphemy!) somewhere along the line or released a bit too early.  Or maybe I just have sensitive taste buds.  I’m going to optimistically go with the reasoned consensus of reviewers and hope that more time in the can will do this beer some good.  I know how people feel about aging hop-forwards brews, but this one might be an exception.  Perhaps I’ll do an updated review in a month or so.