Miles Davis Bitches Brew

Well I've had quite a few interesting brews lately to say the least. That coupled with a little rampant insomnia, has created a perfect environment for me to spew out some more verbage on one of these said brews. While strolling the isles of The Beer Junction in Seattle the other day, I ran into another interesting entry in the brewer's arms race from Dogfish head. For those not familiar with this particular brewery they are most likely one of maybe two reasons to visit Delaware? Anyway they make a huge variety of extreme beers, and all sorts of different flavors. Whatever profit the owner makes in fact he's dumped right back into the brewery and discovering new concoctions for us beer lovers to enjoy. New for August the brewery has delved out yet another strong brew for us to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Mies Davis famous experimentational album dubbed Bitches Brew. In fact the cover of that same album is the artwork for the label on the beer itself. It's not very easy to find a weak brew from Dogfish Head, and why stop now, this little number weighs in at a healthy 9%, for those who need the math that's about 6 Schmidts deer beers. As with the album this beer is all about fusion of a ton of different flavors. First off the main background is an Imperial Stout, so the main, and most abundant flavor of this is going to be that robust sweetness that's typical with those particular types of ales. The next part is something I actually had to read up on, because quite honestly I know about as much about this beer as Sarah Palin does about Russia. Shockingly I even read up on more than just wikipedia, to find out what exactly Gesho root is. For you see it is one of the main ingredients of this ale. The beer has mixed in an element of Africa a beer/mead type of drink from Ethiopia called Tej or Tella. Tej is made with honey, just like Braggot, or a standard Mead, using that particular element as it's sugar base. Tej is also made with Gesho root, and it's made with that root because hops were not standardly available throughout Africa when this type of brewing took place. Thus Gesho root is the bittering element like hops are in most of our standard brews, but believe me it has a much different flavor to it. Now I've had other ales that replace hops with heather or even seaweed, but this was something that was a whole new experience. I am not sure how strong the flavor of such a drink naturally is when made with Gesho, but the stout does a nice job of tempering the flavor to something that us beer drinkers in the states can reach as a familiarity of flavor. The best way to describe the flavor is bittersweet, I don't know if it's just the way this particular drink fuses with the honey or stout, but it is something that I can't quite familiarize any other way. The bitter element is definitely there, but it has a sweetness to it that is not like hops it all, it has a complete lack of citrus quality, it is more like a sweeter type of fruit. The aftertaste on the backend is definitely stout though, once it's down your throat old reliable takes it's place among the flavor palette. Now I got this one at the Beer Junction, but I also heard it was available at 99 bottles, and I think there were only about 3 left so it doesn't seem to be in great supply if your adventuring for something unique and new to cross your tastebuds. If you are though I definitely recommend this one, usually upon trying a beer something streams into my head almost immediately, but this time I had to clear the cobwebs and come up with a way to describe this kind of ale. It is like nothing I've tried yet, which is something Dogfish Head does well, and in honoring an ecletic fusion album, they have most certainly created an ecletic fusion of brews.

Creme Brulee Beer

Jeez you miss a week or two and every one is a critic. Alright so I may have been a might stagnant in my authorings, but I have some interesting beers to go over, and actually many blogs worth of material from them. I have a newcomer this time to the repatoire, an offering from the Southern Tier Brewing Company of Lakwood....Gasp New York. Yup that's right a beer sent to us from the empire state, not to be mistaken with the crime infested hood that lurks beneath Tacoma. The full title of said brew is Imperial Creme Brulee Stout, and as they say in the text world OMG! This thing is both unique and worderful, and left me, well flabergasted at how to describe this entity upon my first sip. Now I've had some wonderful vanilla porters before from breweries such as the Harmon and a couple others, but none that did it in the guise of an Imperial Stout, and definitely none like Souther Tier did it. Texture wise this brew had the feel of a straight up cream stout. Now normally stouts tend to have a very smooth, wet, feel to them, but cream stouts feel like a soft pillow wrapped in snuggle fabric softener. They are the epitomy of smooth as far as any beer I've had, and this Imperial stout has that feel to it. Now on to the main event, the flavor is a tidal wave of vanilla, and it weaves itself immaculately within the concept of this particular imperial stout. I drank this from a snifter, and it smells like almost pure vanilla extract. Don't get me wrong the same robust taste of a normal imperial stout is there, but tempered with an equal vanilla taste this beer is almost a dessert! If ever there was a chance of truly making creme brulee into a beer, then this is it. The creators of this beer obviously had a taste target in mark, and they hit the bullseye so well they make robin hood look like a hack. Now as per usual with sweet brews this one tips in at a hefty 10%, so it's not exactly the beer of lightweights. It's pretty identifiable as the label is ladened with Earth's super beast the cow. I purchased this one at 99 bottles in Federal Way, but I've seen it at QFC, Top Foods, and a new beer store that is in West Seattle that's pretty good called The Beer Junction right by the QFC off of California. Anyone that is a fan of stouts, and looking for something that is definitely something different then this is your beer.

Widmer Prickly Pear Braggot

I was feeling a tad typey, and my last blog reminded me of one I've been wanting to write about for some time. I've seen this "specialty beer" in almost every supermarket around, so for those who wish to try it should not be hard to find. The beer I'm writing about is Widmer's Prickly Pear Braggot. Braggot is a meadlike beer, where the sugar being used is a sizable amount of honey. Naturally it should have a little bit of a sweeter flavor similar to anything else made with honey. Prickly Pear's grow on cactus' and are painstakingly disassembled for fruit in some areas, obviously where they have more cactus' than our lovely pacific northwest. When your using more sugars, typically you get a higher alcohol percentage, and this beer follows suit sitting at about 10% or so. Different, well definitely it is. There are a great many flavors mashing up and partying down in this Braggot. Now to stop dancing around it, I did not like this ale one bit. Not that I did not applaud the effort and something so different, but it did not taste that good, and parts of the Braggot had the usual ring of half-assedness about it that I've come to expect from Widmer over the last couple years. I've never tried a prickly pear juice before, but this ale just tasted bland, I am not entirely certain if that is the characteristic of that particular fruits flavor, but if it is then I am not a fan. The only hint of flavor is the honey from the standard braggot, trying with all it's might to bust through that glass ceiling of flavor, alas it is being mired and drowned in a sea of blandness. Now another friend of mine tried it, and said it was okay, but nothing special. To be honest considering how different our taste buds are I was expecting a better endorsement than that from him. The bottle says 10%, but like a fair amount of other Widmer beers I have had it tastes watered down. From something that is supposedly that concentrated I was expecting way more flavor, but it never came, essentially it's the dead beat dad of brews. I don't know if it's because of Widmer being so big, the fact that they were bought by In Bev, whatever this just straight up had almost zero appeal to me. For their next shot they need to go back, actually make a drawing board, and start attaching ideas to it. By the end I was starting to think I could get a more desirable flavor out of a can of Steel Reserve. Okay I'll quit picking on the little feller, but dear lord Widmer try again, and please do it with a little bit of what the rest of the world knows as effort, jeez!

Lip Stinger

Howdy y'all, I guess it's been a little while since I typed up my last little blog, let's just say July was a very busy and chaotic month. Alas I press on to blog about a different sort of beer I was weary on tasting. This month's entry comes to us via McTarnahan's brewery out of good old rose city. For those not aquainted with the history of random breweries so much, McTarnahans was a brewery that was once seperate, but then bought by Pyramid, then of course the Microbrewery back east that purchased Pyramid. Over time they've kept their tradtional beers going, a standard amber ale, and nice little cream porter. Okay beer, but definitely nothing that's too fancy. Over the past year and a half though the brewery has been churning out some specialty brews, like a great deal of other larger brewing companies have also tried to do. Though some of their new standards are pretty much pyramid clones, the specialty ones that usually come in a 22oz bottle have been suprisingly good. Now Redhook makes a couple good ones, parent Pyramid also is giving it a go, and Widmer needs to go back to the drawing board, out of these higher profile breweries I would have to say McTarnahans is doing a much nicer job overall. Now I'll say up front that I definitely not a fan of the beer I'm writing about, but I can see how others may enjoy it, and give a standing ovation with an Arsenio woot for brewing something that is definitely not the norm. Lip Stinger is a belgian style farmhouse ale fermented with peppercorn. Belgian farmhouse ales are a nice golden smooth ale, that tastes nice in the summer, has the usual beer accompaniments like lemon or other citrus flavors. It tastes close to like a hefe, or golden ale, with the difference being that nice belgian yeast flavor. This ale itself follows all those characteristics, smooth, light, golden, with the major difference coming from the peppercorn. There is no way to escape the flavor, when accompanied with a farmhouse style ale all accompanying flavors become immediately infused and refuse to be ignored. To me it tasted like someone had sprikled pepper in my beer, I'm already vigorously against salt in beer, and now I'll go ahead and add pepper to the list. And yes your tongue will feel a slight sting as you drink it, witch is a nice nitche if your into the gimmicky side of brewing. Like I said though, this beer is awesome in trying something completely different. It's refreshing to see McTarnahans sporting a massive set of cahones on this one. If you feel like some expensive marinade this could be a great beer to cook with I imagine, may have to try it out on a steak or something, or even better some beer battered halibut ggaaaa. Now I have seen some other beers that have been made with peppercorn as well, but they are usually a pale ale, or other beer that has other portions of it that will definitely blot out most of the flavor, as opposed to this farmhouse one which walks right up and staples it to your tongue. So my cudos, props, and salutations go out to one of Portland's older breweries that's staying true to the towns motto of being weird, and trying something different.