St. Lupulin

St. Lupulin is a new seasonal brew by Odell Brewing Co. in Colorado. Regular readers know I don’t meet an Odell beer I don’t like, so I try not to be biased, but I have high expectations for this beer simply because of the brewer. I absolutely love the label art, seen here to your left. First, though, let’s look at the name of this beer…

St. Lupulin is a fictional character made up by the brewery… a sort of Johnny Appleseed figure, or a patron saint of our beloved friend, the hop cone! Lupulin is a powder that comes from the glands of the hop plant, in the cone. When you want to experience the aroma of a hop cone, you rub it vigorously between your hands, cup your palms, and inhale. The yellow stain you get on your hands comes from the lupulin. It is this lupulin powder that contains most of the compounds we like about hops for beer and medicinal use.

Lupulin powder

Enough biology, let’s get to the beer! The brewery calls this an “extra pale ale” so it would probably fit the American Pale Ale style. It is available from June-September and weighs in at 6.5% ABV.

The beer pours a cloudy gold-orange color with some reddish highlights at the edge of the glass. A nice white head forms, but dissipates quickly.

The aroma is all citrus hops, with grapefruit tones, but not as harsh as with an IPA, for example. I get some notes of soft fruit, too, almost like peaches, perhaps? The aroma reminds me a lot of a toned-down version of  Sierra Nevada Torpedo, but a lot more mellow.

The flavor is definitely hop-forward, with a little malt hitting the tongue, then a wash of citrusy, floral hops washing over the tongue and causing that little “pinch” of bitterness at the edges of the tongue and cheeks. St. Lupulin has a fairly dry finish with a nice hop bitterness that lingers for some time. About halfway into the sip I was occasionally getting some of that slighlty metallic “Noble twang” that is sometimes associated with European hops, so I’d be curious to know what the hop additions looked like for this beer.

The carbonation level is just right for this beer, and it’s really refreshing. The mouthfeel is a little on the thin side for me, but really this is a nice beer. Despite being so hop-dominant, there must be a fair amount of malt in this beer because it is more subtle than an IPA and it doesn’t beat my palate into submission like hop bombs do. This would make a great “lawnmower” beer or something to pair with fish or seafood off the grill. Another winner from Odell!

St. Landelin La Divine

La Divine is a beer under the St. Landelin label, brewed by French brewery Les Brasseurs de Gayant. This is the same brewery that produces the incredible biere blanche, Amadeus, that I was gushing over a while back, so I had high hopes for La Divine.

La Divine is a biere de garde that weighs in at 8-8.5% ABV and comes nicely packaged in a 750mL bottle with a swing top (Grolsch-style) cap. While researching this beer I also found that in France, at least, this beer can also be purchased in a can! The idea of drinking a beer like La Divine or Amadeus out of a can is infinitely cool, but you already know how can-obsessed I am if you’ve been reading for any length of time.

Biere de garde is a French farmhouse style beer that is similar to the more common (around here) Belgian saison style. Biere de garde, or “keeping beer,” like saisons, are meant to be brewed in cooler months, then laid down before being bottled so that they can be drunk in the warm months, when brewing is more difficult.

I poured this beer into a New Belgium snifter-style glass that can easily hold a full 12 oz bottle. The beer poured a clear, deep golden color with a just off-white head. Aroma is light with characteristic yeasty “funk” common in this style of Belgian and French beers and lots of malt. No hops that I could detect.

The flavor is mainly malt and that wonderful yeast “funk” that is found in most beers of this region. Very little bitterness and, again, no hops on the flavor of this beer. There is maybe a little sourness toward the later half of the taste, but not like a true sour beer at all… more like a little twang at the end. La Divine is a smooth drinker with a decent amount of carbonation, but the carbonation is really fine and doesn’t sizzle much in the mouth. The finish is relatively dry, but this beer is definitely all about the malt.

I have very limited experience with biere de garde, so I have to consider La Divine simply on its own merits without comparing it to anything else. I don’t know if this helps or not, but to me it seemed a lot like a Belgian/Northern French version of a doppelbock! The malt and finish are really similar to a doppelbock, but I found the biere de garde to be drier in the finish and nicer to drink, without developing the cloying sweetness that doppelbocks develop for me.

While this is not bad for a standalone drinker, I’ll bet this beer would really pair well with food coming off the grill. The malt would play right into grilled meats, and there is enough carbonation and alcohol to handle fats pretty well. According to Garrett Oliver, author of a wonderful book on pairing food and beer and the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewing, biere de garde are incredible with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I bought several bottles of La Divine at Gomer’s when they were having their ridiculously great sale (I bought this for $3.5o!) on de Gayant beers, so I think I will save the rest for November and see if he’s right.

Schlafly No. 15

Schlafly’s No. 15 Ale is their year-round beer commemorating their 15th anniversary. I happen to like pretty much everything Schlafly puts out. I know being a St. Louis based brewery they take a heavy hit from some of the the other Kansas City beer bloggers, but I think they are a solid brewery and I generally like what they are putting out. As always, though, I’m always leery of “amber ales” as this is such a generic, catch-all “style.” Luckily I ended up with one of these in my cooler from the 4th of July BBQ, so I get to try the beer without investing the $$$!

The beer pours a nice amber/orange color with a little haze and a fluffy white head. I was drinking it in my English style “Nonick” pint glass (a pint glass with the bulge near the lip), which seemed appropriate for a good balanced drinker like most ambers tend to be.

No. 15 is a wheat beer, maybe more of a “dunkelweizen” or dark wheat beer by style. According to the Schlafly website, it only has 15 IBU’s, but is 6% ABV and is brewed with orange peel and other spices.

At first I thought this beer’s aroma was similar to a pilsner, but then all I could think of was “Belgian?” I was getting a lot of Belgian yeast character out of this, but I think it was the wheat and the spices tricking my nose and brain! For me, after the original few snorts, there really isn’t much to be had on the aroma of this beer.

Even with the taste, though, my initial thought is still questioning if this is a Belgian beer or not. It must be the spices it’s brewed with, but that initial taste says “Belgian” to me, which is really strange. After the initial Belgian-y character wears off, I get mostly wheat and malt with little hops, just enough to give it a drier finish and not be overly sweet.

I like this beer. It’s more complex than I thought it’d be, but it’s an easy drinker. At 6% it’s hardly a session beer, but it’s not so complex that you have to think about each sip, either. It has a lot of surprises for me, especially those Belgian-like notes in the aroma and flavor. People who like Fat Tire would probably appreciate this, and although it has been a while since I’ve had a Fat Tire, I think No. 15 is a better “amber” than the old standby. I would actually buy this to have on hand in the fall, and I think it’d be great with food!

Happy Independence Day!!!

Happy Independence Day to all of my American readers. The 4th of July is also always a good reminder to me to thank all the people serving and who have served in the past in our Armed Forces. Thank you for your service to our wonderful country!

Every year my friend has a big bash on this day… too much food, too much to drink and too many explosives, but it’s fun! This is a good opportunity for me to thin the old bottle supply, too. I have some Miller Lite and Bud Light friends left in my cooler on our last tailgate that I’d like to be rid of. Also taking some Avery 14′er ESB, Barron’s ESB, Boulevard Pilsner (still working through my test bottles… I had a lot more of this than I knew!), Boulevard Single Wide, Moose Drool, Big Sky Brewing IPA, Anderson Valley IPA, New Holland Brewing Full Circle, Schlafly Pilsner, Torpedo and anything else that isn’t in a bomber or 750mL bottle and didn’t cost over $4/bottle! lol