pale ale

Beer Review #31: Central Waters Illumination Double IPA

Food and Drink

CW Illumination- beerpulse.com

Just FYI, I’ve dispensed with the beer-roundups format. From now on my beer posts will each review a single beer. I’m calling this one Beer Review #31 since my ten existing beer roundups contain three beers each.

Illumination, Central Waters Brewing Co.
Rating:  4.05/5
12 oz. bottle, 9% ABV, 108 IBU (estim.)

Man, that’s good. I gave this beer a 3.95 when it first came out two years ago. I wonder if the formula’s changed. Probably not, or Central Waters would’ve made a big deal of it, the way Sixpoint Brewing did with 2017 Hi-Res. Or Classic Coke. But “new formula!” is usually crisis PR disguised as marketing. That’s certainly not needed with this excellent brew from CW.

Too bad the aroma underwhelms. What am I smelling? Can’t say. The shy aromas hold themselves back. A bland appearance, too, a cloudy, dull amber, like a cellar-aged beer.

My wife says it tastes cellar-aged, too. It does! There’s an oxidized, buttery umami that . . . I don’t know how to finish that sentence. Something about pork. I love pork.

In the mouth it’s brilliantly complex, yet balanced. The clean, citrus hop bite presents first, with maybe a tinge of pine astringency. Then a ripe-fruit sweetness — sweet tangerine and papaya — swirls with the umami to create a proper meal of flavors:  a summer fruit salad and a pork tenderloin in butterscotch reduction. Hyperbole? Sure. But the complexity does impress. Balance comes from the sweet fruit, as opposed to sweet malt. It reminds one of Dirtwolf (Victory Brewing). But better, with more body, more drying ethanol heat, and that character of butter-like, meat-like oxidation.

Uh, oh, hold on: the aftertaste is a bit yucky. The hops in the back end are all white-grapefruit pith, blotting out the fruity sweetness. I’m sure many a hophead would appreciate it. It’s very West Coast, I guess. But hear that? That’s the sound of me sticking my tongue out.

So I was mostly right two years ago with my 3.95 rating. Good on me.

Side note:  this beer is a perfect candidate for the cellar. A year in cool darkness should knock the aftertaste down a notch or two.

[Image credit:  beerpulse.com]

Beer Roundup #9: Three Double IPA’s

Food and Drink

Hop Juice

To Buy or Not to Buy?

1 = horrible
2 = bad
3 = average
3.5 = good (many better beers out there; won’t buy this again)
4 = very good
4.5 = great
5 = rare best

A Note on the Style:  Double IPA, Imperial IPA

Imperial IPA, a.k.a. Double IPA.  A friend of mine recently asked about the terminology.  Rather than referring to an increase of ingredients or the number of fermentation stages, “double IPA” is a nickname for “imperial IPA” (from the acronym “IIPA”).

Hop Juice, Left Coast Brewing Co.
Rating:  4.14 / 5
12 oz. bottle (4-pk), 9.7% abv, 82 IBU.

From a bottle into a tulip, it pours a hazy amber, with very little head, but prodigious lacing.

Remarkably reserved, semisweet aroma. A pleasing herbal and earthy hop aroma. Some barely perceptible Wonder bread in the background, though one must strain to detect the mere whiff of grain.

In the mouth it’s an interesting sub-piney bitterness.  No, wait, I’ve got it:  it’s cold sake!  Very bitter on the backend.  Balance comes from a neutral (not sweet) maltiness. No, scratch that.  As it warms, there’s a serious candy sugar sweetness. Deep hop flavors dominate, spurred on by a sharp alcohol twang.

Medium-bodied, almost chewy. Well-carbonated, with a slippery alcohol warmth.

A very good double IPA, though not as malty as I like them. It supplies a nice sweetness, but it’s missing something. Can’t quite put my finger on it. Nevertheless, I think I’ll be buying one more 4-pack (though none for the cellar).

Palate Wrecker, Left Coast Brewing Co.
Rating:  4.18/5
12-oz. bottle (4-pk), 9.5% abv, 100+ IBU.

Wow, what a great smelling beer.  Its claim to fame is its aggressive hop bitterness.  But the sweet aroma is my favorite feature of this brew.

It’s an awfully handsome, clear golden pour into a tulip, with a big cottony head that sticks around.

The aroma really distinguishes this brew. Sweet, juicy fruits galore: red grapefruit, pineapple, and finally sweet tangerine. Perhaps a honey/floral tea character.

In the mouth, the early sweetness is all fruit juice. Yum.  The hops come on as a salty, white grapefruit bitterness. There’s almost no malt sweetness; the sweetness is fruit, only. Not candied fruit, just ripe, juicy, sweet citrus. Once it’s down the gullet, the aftertaste turns sharply bitter, as if smearing the the throat with white grapefruit rind. That hurts this beer.

Great medium-bodied richness. The high carbonation is a welcome cleanser.

Heelch O’Hops, Anderson Valley Brewing Company
Rating:  3.95 / 5
12 oz. bottle (4-pk), 8.7% abv, 100 IBU

This brew was featured in a Draft Magazine article that had everyone talking, “Three Imperial IPA’s That Rival Heady, Pliny.”  The title truncates the full names of the two beers roundly considered among the best double IPA’s, “Heady Topper” and “Pliny the Elder.”  Those two are also among the most difficult to find beers in the US.,  which is why people are always looking for close substitutes.

Heelch O’Hops ought not to have been included in that article.  (The other two beers featured:  Doozy by Mother’s Brewing and Hopothermia by Alaskan Brewing.)  Heelch O’Hops is certainly not bad.  It’s just not anywhere near the vicinity of elite class brews.

It pours a finger of white head atop a thin, clear, yellow liquid. The foam leaves lacing stuck hard.

A disappointingly subdued, peppery aroma of shy hops. No detectable malt presence in the nose.

The flavor is also disappointing in the mouth. Where’s the malt, the sweet, or the bread that I want in a IIPA? The hop character gives grapefruit pith, rather than sweet orange or tropical fruit. An astringent pine on the back end forces one to take this brew seriously.  It’s that bitter.   Finishes bitter-dry.

Thin body, with moderate to high carbonation.

A quality brew, to be sure, but disappointing that it’s merely an IPA on steroids:  it’s got none of the malt balance or bigger body or sweet fruit of the double IPA’s I love, such as Hopslam, Chillwave, Hi Res, or Double Crooked Tree. Especially disappointing at $12.00 / 4-pack.

Beer Roundup #7: Three Midwest English Barleywines

Food and Drink, Health

Whole Hog BW

To Buy or Not to Buy?
1 = horrible
2 = bad
3 = average
3.5 = good (many better beers out there; won’t buy this again)
4 = very good
4.5 = great
5 = rare best 

A Note on the Style:  English Barleywine

I prefer the malty “English” style barleywine over the hoppy “American” style.  All barleywines have a stiff malt backbone and generous sweetness, but the hop-forward American-style is often so bitter as to be indistinguishable from a high-alcohol double IPA.  Don’t get me wrong, some of my best friends are double IPA’s; I love me a double IPA when it’s got intense sweetness to offset the high IBU, like Bell’s Hopslam, Dogfish Head 120 Minute, or Founders Devil Dancer.

Despite my preference for the maltier English barleywine, it’s curious that I’ve found way more good American barley wines than English ones.  

How to explain this?  Is the English style BW less common in the US?  Not really.  Nearly every brewery that produces American barleywines also produces English ones.  The more likely explanation:  brewing a good English barleywine is more of a challenge because it doesn’t have the pronounced hops to balance the jacked-up sweetness.  Hence, many are sickeningly sweet, like Anchor Old Foghorn or Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot.

But all three specimens below are really good.

Stevens Point Barley Wine Style Ale (Whole Hog Series), Stevens Point Brewery

Rating:  4.44 / 5

12 oz. bottle (4-pk)  10.2% abv, 73 IBU.

From a very reasonably priced 4-pack ($7), the first sip has me totally psyched.

It’s not a great looking pour into a tulip glass, with barely a half-finger of white head atop the opaque, red-tinged, brown murk. Sticky lacing, with legs.

Very little in the aroma, probably just too cold. But bready, mildly floral, and of course malty in the nose, plus a grape-like, mildly acid wine character. Even after it warms, the nose remains reserved.

But in the mouth, now this is a provocative surprise. Stevens Point Brewery, for those of you not from Wisconsin, is an old-time adjunct-lager outfit, one of the oldest breweries in the US. My Midwest beer friends rarely say anything nice about SPB, so I wasn’t expecting a lot from this brew. But this is right up my alley. It’s a complex sweetness, like that of my two favorite English BW’s,  JW Lees Harvest Ale and Midnight Sun Arctic Devil. The grainy biscuit flavor is what backstops the sugar-sweetness, not any bitterness. Some will call this cloying. I love it. The sweetness rounds out with an estery, mossy oak. The butter/caramel is of the burnt variety. There’s milk and coconut, too.

The mild to moderate carbonation is a welcome cleanser and leavener of the oily-sticky feel.

I’ve gone back to Riley’s Wines and snatched up the last two 4-packs. One goes in the cellar, the other down my gullet!

Schell’s Barley Wine (Stag Series), August Schell Brewing

Rating:  4.46/5

On tap,  9.5% abv, 80 IBU.

I wasn’t expecting a whole lot, thinking of Schell as merely an adjunct-lager outfit. What an awesome surprise.

On tap at Mason Lounge (Madison).  In a snifter, a handsome pour, a clear coppery amber with a finger of white head and good retention and lacing.

The aroma is a bit reserved.  There’s a diacytel caramel, dried fruit, piney hops, and a bit of sharp ethanol.

Flavor in the mouth offers sweet caramel, stone fruit, a bit of citrus, and a floral hop bitterness on the back end.  Finishes sweet, with a hint of grassy hops.  Alcohol is hardly there.

Upland Winter Warmer, Upland Brewing

Rating:  4.05 / 5

On tap,  8.5% abv, 47 IBU.

Pours a hazy, ruddy copper, topped by a fluffy, two-finger head.

A seriously complex aroma, the sweet swirls with the hops.  The hops come as white grapefruit and a bit of must.  The lovely roasted caramel struggles to dominate and ultimately does.

In the mouth the malt/hop tension from the aroma comes down solidly on the side of the malt.  Simple syrup on the front end, sweet butter and bread in the middle, plus fig and cinnamon-raisin ice cream on the back of the tongue. Goes down with just a rumor of bitter hops.  

Feels like a much bigger beer than it is, chewy, even.

Not nearly as good as the other two in this review, but it gets points for availability, as it’s pretty common to find on tap in Midwest bars in the colder months.

Beer Roundup #4: Three Midwest Imperial IPA’s

Food and Drink

Lupulin Maximus

THREE MIDWEST IMPERIAL IPA’s

To Buy or Not to Buy?

1 = horrible
2 = bad
3 = average (many better beers out there, won’t buy this again)
4 = very good
4.5 = great
5 = rare best

A Note on the Style:

Imperial IPA, a.k.a. Double IPA.  A friend of mine recently asked about the terminology.  Rather than referring to  increased ingredients  or number of fermentation stages, “double IPA” is a nickname for “imperial IPA” (from the acronym “IIPA”).

Lupulin Maximus, O’so Brewing Co.

Rating:  4.38/5

12 oz. bottle (4-pk)  9% abv, ? IBU.

From a bottle into a tulip glass, it pours a hazy amber, with a thin white head.

A reserved aroma.  Sweet and grainy, rye bread, molasses.  Pine needles, nuts, black pepper, and leather, all overlying the sweetness.  Plus some citrus — lime, actually.

Sweet and bready up front.  Some will call this cloying; I love it.  It’s an adamant sweetness that tugs against the grassy hops all the way through this long, complex ride through flavor land.  Brown sugar and biscuit, absolutely identifiable, here.  Plus some diacetyl that makes for a butterscotch candy delight.  Wood and grass shake hands with the sweet notes and introduce the hop bitterness.  The sweetness becomes tropical fruit in the presence of the hops, mango, I’d say.  Finishes dry and salty, a long finish of simple syrup and oak aging mellowness.  The alcohol says hello before it’s done.  And, yet, there’s something not quite great about this flavor.  Too busy, perhaps?  Still, totally impressive.

Wonderful in the mouth, viscous, syrupy, creamy, despite the moderate, cleansing carbonation.  Mouthfeel is the raison d’etre, here.

Wildly complex.  So many star turns for the various flavor profiles — bitter, sweet, spice, umami, salt, tart.  Will definitely divide audiences due to its uncompromising, disparate sensations in the mouth.  Cannot find IBU listed anywhere, but my guess would be around 70 – 85; probably on the higher end, to account for the intense sweetness.

Bell’s Hopslam, O’so Brewing Co.

Rating:  4.76/5

On tap at Maduro, Madison.  10% abv, 70 IBU.

A beautiful pour in a Bell’s tulip glass.  Inch of fluffy-snow head.  And glacial lacing on the glass.

It’s often more of a challenge to write a review in a bar, given all the distractions and working on a cell phone touchscreen keyboard.   That’s particularly true of a cigar bar.  Great aroma in this beer, though the cigar smoke in here is obstructing any and all nuance.   I’m getting generic concepts of high hop bitterness, a foundation of bready grains, and a syrupy sweetness that pulls it all together.  Gonna have to find a bottle of this to try it again at home, as this is blowing my doors.

In the mouth the piney hops and candy sweetness team up to beat back the tobacco smoke.  There’s only room on my palate for one alpha flavor.  If you’re bothered by tobacco smoke, have one of these!

It’s noteworthy to find my favorite of these three beers to be the one with the lowest IBU (international bitterness units).

Founders Devil Dancer, Triple IPA

Rating:  4.43/5

On tap at Dexter’s Pub, Madison.  12% abv, 112 IBU.

So lucky to have stumbled upon this Founders tap takeover at Dexter’s Pub.  Classic kid-in-a-candy store excitement going on in here.  Each of us have ordered three beers at once, all five-ounce pours:  Backwoods Bastard (bourbon barrel aged imperial Scotch ale), Curmudgeon Old Ale, and Devil Dancer.

Incredible.  Beautiful brown poor in a 6 oz. snifter with a finger of off white head.  The aroma is surprisingly tame (maybe just too cold).  As it warms, the bubblegum/juicy-fruit gum aroma gets enveloped by citrus and floral hop bitterness.

Triple IPA?  Yes, with its 12% ABV and 100+ IBU, this drinks like an American-style barley wine.  Listed at 112 IBU, the caro-syrup sweetness pushes the complex hop bitterness to the next level of palate phenomenon.  Butter-caramel and plum/raisin in the back end.  Very mild, fruity alcohol on the breath.

Intensely flavorful, like electroshock therapy to the mouth.  Not as refined or beautiful as the Bell’s Hopslam, but definitely one to remember.

Beer Roundup #2: Three from New Glarus

Food and Drink

beer black top

THREE FROM NEW GLARUS

Just a word about the scale of my ratings.  I use the weighted average scoring system developed by Beer Advocate, http://beeradvocate.com/help/index?topic=reviewing_beers . Also, here’s how I translate my numeric ratings into actionable intelligence.

To Buy or Not to Buy?

1 = horrible
2 = bad
3 = average (many better beers out there, won’t buy this again)
4 = very good
4.5 = great
5 = rare best

I come to the New Glarus party a bit late. All this time I’ve labored under the misconception that New Glarus is a one trick pony, albeit the best in the country at their single trick (fruit beers). All this time I’ve pooh-poohed the several NG non-fruit beers that I tried early on, Spotted Cow, Fat Squirrel, Two Women Lager, Staghorn Oktoberfest. I’ve heard people defend these four beers as “true to style”, or that New Glarus has developed a following of both beer geeks and mainstreamers alike, and that that is no mean feat. And sure, their “Thumbprint” small-batch series has produced some very serious one-off brews (Anniversary Strong Ale; a very good barley wine).

Not until last month, at the urging of a friend whose beer vision I trust, did I come to these three NG brews below, all astonishing in their intense, complex flavor (i.e., without merely dry-hopping our heads off), and, what I find most impressive, doing so at low alcohol (just 5% – 5.3% abv in Moon Man and Stone Soup).

Black Top IBA, New Glarus Brewing
Rating:  4.34/5

Pours brown-tinged black from a bottle into a tasting snifter, with a khaki finger of head. Aleutian islands of lace stick permanently to the glass.

Surprise: an aroma of summer citrus fills the nose. With IBA (imperial black ale) in its name, the near-opaque abyss had me expecting roastiness. But there’s none, zero. No malt or grain or bread in the aroma at all. Maybe the slightest vague caro-syrup sweetness. The aroma is basically American IPA.

Flavor in the mouth is a shock of sweetness on the front of the tongue–the khaki froth itself is candy-sweet. Then of course the flavors of American IPA slide in and take hold with assertive hops. The profile fades into a molasses back-end. It’s all perfect, balanced, hop bitterness and bready sweetness.

This beer has cracked my top-five non-big-beer beers of all time.
—-
UPDATE: I’m revising my review after having tried another stellar IBA, Radio Free IBA, by Lake Louie Brewing. I totally loved Black Top when by itself. But next to Radio Free IBA, my malt-lover preferences assert themselves, and I have to downgrade Black Top from 4.58 to 4.34.

Also, Black Top seems to fight with a lot of different foods.

Still, amazingly flavorful, while remaining eminently refreshing.

Moon Man APA, New Glarus Brewing
Rating:  4.26/5

I’m totally amazed at this. Incredibly refreshing, yet with massive flavor for an American Pale Ale. It goes with more food than most beers, so bring it to a dinner party with confidence.

A beautiful pour into a goblet, an orangish-straw color with an amber refracting clarity, and, most of all, lacing with real stick-to-it-iveness.

Intensely pleasing aroma of grapes, honey, bread, et al.

Flavor in the mouth is kind of all over the place, but in the best way. There’s tropical fruit, sweet muffin, and bright-mild floral bitterness. Then more sweetness in the throat, Florida orange, ripe tomato, and faint shades of white gumball.

This has nearly cracked my Top 5 non-big-beers of all time, including Hitachino Nest While Ale, Saison de Lente, New Belgium La Folie, Rodenbach Grand Cru, and Monks Cafe Flemish Sour.
—
Update:
I don’t know what’s up with my taste buds, but I’ve got to downgrade this beer from 4.43 to 4.26. It’s still an exceptional small beer. But now that I’ve had the greatness of NG Stone Soup (see below), Moon Man pales somewhat.

Stone Soup, Belgian Pale Ale, New Glarus brewing
Rating:  4.44/5

Pours a viscous gold, with a huge fluffy white head that goes nowhere.

Sweet honey and malt in the aroma, with banana and pear.

First, two sweetnesses greet the tongue, honey and banana taffy.  The significant carbonation keeps it well away from cloying territory (unlike other lesser BPA’s, like Leffe Blonde, or Petrus Blond).  There’s then a flash of mild hop bitterness, white pepper, and lemon zest.

Incredibly crisp and light, while impressing with full-ish flavor. At first, because I’m more used to bigger Belgians (dubbels, tripels, and quads), I experience a confusing lack of body and phenols.  Once I’m over that confusion, I like this a lot, the way I like Fatty Boombalatty, by Furthermore Brewing

Overall, this is the closest to the real deal that an American Belgian-style “single” can be, as opposed to weaker pretenders, like New Belgium 1554, or, egads, Blue Moon Abbey.  It also goes with most any foods.  This will hold a regular place in my fridge.