Beer Rant

Alright it's late on a Sunday I'm still up so that must mean another chance to endulge myself in some beer bloggery! I finally made it to the finish line, yes I am going to right about a fully fledged India Pale Ale.....sort of. For this IPA I chose the Infidel Lime IPA from Trade Route brewing. This brewery was once named Laughing Bhudda, and located in the ever scenic South Park. After being sued by a bunch of crochety Aussies, the name was changed, and for my own good graces the brewery moved the much more convenient Algona (think Auburn minus the classiness). So to by this beer I only had to travel a couple of minutes down the road. Last time I went you could not purchase this out of the tap, so as far as fresh goes your probably going to have to settle for the bottle. That is okay, cause this is a wonderfully different IPA that has a great flavor. Many IPAs add a little more citrus to them during the process, most of the time something like orange peels and so on. This is the first one I've ever had that went with a Lime addition. The end result is very pleasing to the senses. Now it is brewed with Kaffir lime leaves, and I'm not sure if that is why but the lime seems to take a little of the edge and sting out of the IPA. By that it has a nicely smooth and rounded finish to it, not the other extreme of IPA where it feels like the hoppiness is going to cut right through your tongue! Don't panic either, because the hoppiness is still there, and the beer makes sure you don't forget it. It is a fairly strong one for a standard IPA weighing in at a healthy 7.5% alc. The best way I can describe it is that the hoppiness of the brew will initially hit your mouth, and taper off with a smooth lime flavor on the back end. As a result neither flavor really overpowers the other, leading to a nicely finished beer with a citrus taste that complements all aspects of it. I dare say I enjoy the Lime flavor over some of the other citrus flavors I've caught added to some other IPAs in the past. And for anyone out there who is OCD or simply overly color coordinated the bottle is green like a lime, see that sesame street episode did come in handy. For a little more culture like all of their bottles, you get a lovely Asian style silhouette and their tradmark junk sail image. I did pick this one up at the brewery, but their bottles are pretty well marketed at a great many markets Top Food, 99 bottles, and I've even seen one here and there at a Fred Meyer so hopefully finding one of these delightful IPAs doesn't become a full blown quest. IPA drinkers be bold and try your tried and true favorite with a little different tinge courtesy of your friends at Trade Route Brewing.

Beer Rant

Well I promised to make the leap towards a hoppier brew, so we'll just call this one a transition beer. For those of you unfamiliar with Hair of the Dog Brewery in Portland, Oregon, they make some damn strong brews, intense, and extreme in every notion. All have a designation of being something unique with resemblence to many different flavors. Fred here is a Golden Ale, now some of you may be thinking typical blonde, blande ale associated with summer seasonals from most places. Well as I said they make intense beers, and this one definitely has an intense flavor comparable to maybe the Imperial Pilsner that Rogue makes as one of their special brews. This brew has the faint taste of pilsner, and rye, and the slight sting of hoppiness to it. The predominant flavor of it though is approaching something closer to an extremely brewed Imperial IPA, or even that of a Barley Wine. In fact it tastes very close to Bigfoot Barley Wine from Sierra Nevada due to the sweetness, and that Bigfoot is one of the hoppier tasting Barley Wines. Were it not for the faint, familiar Pilsner taste I would almost call it nothing short of a barley wine. The bottle says that the brew also includes Belgian candy sugar which may aid the cause of striving towards a barley wine. This extreme Golden Ale also tips the scales near Barley Wine limits, weighing in at a healthy 10% alc per volume. While there is a hoppy taste on the back end of tasting this beer, the high alcohol content lets you know your getting a sweet taste right up front. This beer was a very pleasurable experience, almost like solving a mystery of what kind of flavors you can pick out from such a strong showing. I'm not a big Golden Ale/Pilsner fan most of the time, but it's beers like Fred here that give me hope. So enjoy a good smack to tastebuds brought to you by a quirky little brewery in downtown Portland. PS plan on not driving for a little while, and have food before or prepare for a good shot to the nervous system.

Beer Rant

Well for this rant I originally was going to preview a nice, strong IPA. That was until I took a fateful stroll down the beverage isle at a Fred Meyer to simply pick up a soda, when something in the beer section struck my eye. It's a new Scoth Ale called Highland Ambush from Bridgeport Brewing. Now one thing that Bridgeport does well all the time is the covers on it's specialty beers (ex. Raven Mad Stout had a 3D cover that came with glasses!). This one has two warriors fighting it out over a highland stream and sunset almost poetic. Why is this important? Well because ultimately your more attracted to the initial visualization, and this draws you toward their product. Admitadely I'm not the biggest fan of all of Bridgeport's line-up, and their go to standards are kind of middle of the pack, but some of their more specialized brews have turned out to be some of the best. If it's available, especially somewhere on tap, try their barley wine it's excellent. On to the ale itself though, where they let you know up front that 33% of the beer in this bottle was aged in Oak Bourbon Barrels. This lends that wonderfully smooth finish to the beer as per usual, gives it a nice cask style feel as you sip it down. It had a sweeter, more carmelized taste to it than a great many other scotch ales I've tried. Not quite a Wee Heavy (another type of scotch ale) type of sweet, more of an accompanying flavor to the wonderful maltiness of the brew. The this one is wonderfully malted, it's not overly done to the point where the ale is threatening to malt you to death like some other scotch ales. It's extremely well balanced to the point where I think fans of even a hoppier ale could at least appreciate this one. The flavors in the ale didn't seem to weave together in terms of the standard ale and that of the added Oak Aged Ale, but rather walk hand in hand. Both distinct, but both tastes kind of helping to enhance the other. That may sound a little strange, but every sip of this delightful beer just seemed to exemplify that sentiment. Complaints? Well just one minor one, and something many other people may love, that being the carbonation. I love my scotch ales to be lightly carbonated to lend to a smoother characteristic, something closer to actual scoth. This one tended to be carbonated closer to a belgian almost. As I said nothing major just one aspect I wasn't really in favor of, but I also have previous knowledge that many of Bridgeport's beers seem to be heavy on the old carbonation so it's probably just an aspect of the brewers they have. This one tips out at 6.8% alc, so it is a little heavier than most standard ales, which scotch ales typically are. All in all this beer was a very pleasurable experience, extemely well balanced, and an overall fine package. Bravo Bridgeport I salute you, so kick back and enjoy a wonderfully malted beer, a little taste of the loch ness monster's home terf brought to you domestically.

Beer Rant

Well I'm up late just puttering around on the computer so I figured I could shuffle out another beer review. For this one you'll notice in the picture I only have a glass of a wonderfully amber colored ale is O'briens harvest ale and it's straight out of my homebar's tap. I'll tell you now it's a good beer out of the bottle, but simply heaven out of the tap. It's called a harvest ale, which generally is referred as a fresh hop on other beer labels, or wet hop ale on others. For those that have had a dry-hopped IPA before it has the citrus sting of an IPA, but intensified by the fact that it almost dries out your mouth with the finish. The wet-hop tends to have a fuller body with a smoother finish. O'briens is definitely in that category, and a whole lot of flavor to go along with it. The Hoppiness is still their to be sure, those citrus like little buds have definitely put their stamp on this beer so IPA lovers rejoice. It also has a stronger flavor more reminiscent of something approaching an Imperial IPA or even barley wine. The taste has more of sugary presence than most IPAs, and a stronger hit to. I believe the actual alcohol percentage is listed at 6.5/7%, but one glass will hit harder than your standard IPA, or even most other fresh hop style ales I've tried. This is to be sure my favorite beer in this category, it's wonderfully made and chalked full of flavor. The best part of the beer is that it's hoppiness is never overwhelming like other IPA style ales, or to bitter towards something like a stronger English ESB style ale. Sierra Nevada makes a wonderful fresh hop, but Hales has been making this one a while and practically down to a science. If you enjoy a fresh hop style ale this is your base line. This is the beer by which all other fresh hop style ales should be judged. With as many years as Hales has produced this you might think maybe quality has declined, maybe it's not as good as it used to be. That could always be true, but it's looking down with a cocky grin towards all other fresh hops as far as I'm concerned. This is a fall seasonal so sorry I don't think you may be able to find it to easy right now, mine is obviously out of the keg from the brewery that I've had for a little while now. I've found this beer in a Fred Meyer in the past so it's easily attainable when it does come out. So if you do find some have glass sit back, take in the aroma, and enjoy a strong, fresh-hopped ale

Beer Rant

Well I'll take a little break from manditory writing for a while and engage in the fun stuff. I've really been hitting the imperial stouts lately so I'll go with yet another slab of rich dark godliness in a bottle. This one comes from one of the adventure capitals of the U.S., which is already reason enough to head out to Boulder CO and play around. Boulder also happens to be the location of several great breweries that brew a variety of beers, even some of the so-called "extreme" beers. Avery brewery is one of those, and it's as expected a beer chalk full of tastes. This particular one has been aged since 2008, and it was incredibly smooth. The Czar imperial stout weighs in at a healthy 10.77% alcohol, so it's nice strong body to go along with that flavor. This one had many of the usual flavors of a stout, the chocolate and toffee particularly, but not the coffee flavor that comes with many of these stouts today. I would have to say the most unique characteristic of this particular imperial stout was it's malty aftertaste. The taste and body was definitely that of a stout, but the aftertaste was something closer to that of a regular scotch ale. This could just be from the amount of hops used in the brewing process or the direct intention of the brewer to invigorate the maltier characteristics of the brew. Aging a year gave it that great natural smoothness I love in an aged ale, or cask ale. Is this my favorite Imperial Stout? Nope, not a by a long shot. It's very good and I'd recommend anyone try it, but I do know so many better out there (see Ivan the Terrible in the old notes). The Czar does have it's own uniqueness but something about it tastes a little to standard to me. I've tried a great many Imperial stouts, and this particular one is supposed to be a more specialized brew, and to me it just doesn't taste it. For example a very standard Russian Imperial Stout is Rasputin from North Coast, I would probably rate it above this particular stout. But hey someone else out there may taste something great about it I may be missing, I would love to hear any rebuttal or critique on something I may not have picked up on. And if your a history buff who loves tiny pictures there are plenty of paintings of Russia's past czar's on the cover. This particular one I picked up from Bottleworks in Wallingford, another good store I don't quite make it to often enough. All being said it's another wonderful addition of dessert in a bottle for all the beer loving public to melt over.