Short’s Brewing Company The Soft Parade
31 Aug 2009 2 Comments
in beer Tags: fruit beer, short's brewing company, soft parade
Courtesy of Mlive.com
Short’s Brewing Company is a brewpub located in Bellaire, MI that I recently discovered on my vacation to that state last week. Bellaire is in the northern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan, in a really nice part of the state, I imagine. I bought a couple single bottles of Short’s beers, not knowing what to expect.
The Soft Parade is a rye beer with 200 pounds of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries added. There is very little information about the beer or the brewpub on Short’s website, but Beerdvocate listed the beer as having 14 IBU’s and 9%ABV.
The beer pours a beautiful deep red color (think strawberry or raspberry puree) that is pretty hazy and has amber highlights. The head on my sample was minimal and disappeared quickly.
Aroma was pure strawberries and raspberries (but mostly strawberry). It smelled wonderful, and I was expecting a thick, sweet beer, but the flavor was surprisingly tart on my first sip and I was pleasantly surprised! I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this is a sour beer or a tart beer, but it isn’t as sweet as I was expecting based on that aroma of almost pure fruit.
There is no detectable hop aroma or flavor for me in this beer, which is appropriate for a fruit beer. Hops wouldl clash horribly with these fruits! For being 9% ABV, too, I got no alcohol at all in the aroma or flavor, so it is well-hidden, making this beer something to be respected, as you could easily put several away and find yourself unable to stand up afterward!
The mouthfeel is nice and full with a relatively low carbonation. It’s really interesting to see how the brewers essentially used the properties of the fruits themselves almost entirely to make this an enjoyable beer. It is very, VERY (almost too much so) easy to drink, and it has a nice balance between sweet and tart that really hits the nail on the head. I don’t think I’ve ever had such an easy drinking high gravity beer. Now I wish I’d picked up a couple six packs of this stuff!
I Can Haz Update?
28 Aug 2009 Leave a Comment
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LOL! I never thought I would use one of those stupid “lolcatz” sayings, but, professional writer’s take note, see how easily and smoothly I was able to make a double entendre out of the word “can?” I don’t get paid the big bucks fer nuthin’! I recently reviewed a couple of newly available (in Kansas City) canned beers and wanted to give a quick update. As a reminder, the beers were Ska Brewing Company’s True Blonde Ale and High Noon Saloon’s Annie’s Amber Ale.
The bottom line? Both beers are better out of the can rather than poured into a glass! Maybe this is a figment of my imagination, as I experienced something similar with the Caldera IPA in a can, too. In the glass, all three are decent beers, but drank straight from the can I liked all three better, particularly the True Blonde and Caldera (which I think is missing a full review… how did I overlook that?!)
In any case, Annie’s Amber still has that smoky flavor, but the components I didn’t like, as well as the not-quite-so-lovely aroma were absent straight out of the can. I’m still holding my opinion, however, that if I want to drink an amber ale out of a can I’m reaching for the Fat Tire. True Blonde seemed a little hoppier to me in the can, which is the same thing I noticed with the Caldera, which was basically a grapefruit soda when drunk from the can! The True Blonde went way up in enjoyability for me, so I will be picking these cans up whenever I need lawnmower beer or have some outdoorsy stuff to do. Yum!
Brewpub Visit: New Holland Brewing Company
26 Aug 2009 Leave a Comment
in beer, cocktails Tags: brewpub, imperial stout, mint julep, new holland brewing company, night tripper, smoked lager, whiskey, zeppelin bend
I was in Michigan for a few days for vacation and visiting old friends, and we spent one day up in Holland seeing my old digs, trying to make a beer run, and visiting New Holland Brewing Company. The beer run wasn’t as good as I had hoped, and the weather was horrible the day we went up there, but NHBC was lively and I had some good beers.
When you visit the brewpub, which occupies the former Vogelzang Hardware store on 8th St. in downtown Holland, there are always three sets of beers
to choose from: Mainstays, High Gravity and Specialties. The mainstay choices are things the brewery makes year-round, like Mad Hatter IPA and The Poet stout. The high gravity series are the big beers, a lot of which are also made all year long, like Night Tripper, Existential (double IPA) and The Pilgrim’s Dole (wheat wine). The specialty beers are seasonals or one-offs that change frequently. On this visit there were 4-5, and I wish I had snapped a photo as I can’t remember them all, but one was a smoked lager, which I had, while there was a helles and a couple more beers to choose from. Thanks to NHBC’s Facebook page, I can now fill in these blanks. The specialty beers on tap while I was there were Copper Pot (Vienna Lager), Smokey Joe (smoked lager), House Lager (style unknown) and there was a helles whose name wasn’t available, either.
I tend not to like smoked beers, as the smoke can be way too overpowering for me, but I decided to try the smoked lager and see what I thought. I didn’t take tasting notes, so my recollections are the best I could do, but I really enjoyed this beer. The beer itself was a regular lager, basically in this case a vehicle to carry the smoke flavor, but the smoke was subtle and delicious. It would have paired really well with food, I think. I can’t remember a whole lot about the beer other than I liked it a lot and it was probably the best smoked beer I’ve had.
I also enjoyed a Night Tripper, which was $5.00 in a 10-ounce flute type of glass. The beer was served way too cold, in my opinion, off the tap, but it warmed up very fast after having my hands cupped around the glass for a few minutes. Again, I didn’t take tasting notes, but this is a nice imperial IPA. The carbonation is low, it is pitch black, and there are lots of nice roasty flavors along with dark fruits and quite a kick of alcohol on in the aroma and flavor. I enjoyed this beer a lot, but I found 10 ounces to be a bit much for me. I was going to do a mix of samples from the High Gravity series and while I enjoyed the Night Tripped very much, afterward I had wished that I’d done that instead of a full glass of just one.
My girlfriend wanted to have a Dark & Stormy, but they were out of ginger beer, so she had a mint julep, instead, made from NHBC’s artisanal Zeppelin Bend whiskey instead. The whiskey sells for something like $75/bottle, and their whiskey cocktails are $16 each! It seemed like an OK drink, but I think their bartenders are very much beer servers first and mixologists a distant second. It was not a $16 cocktail, in my opinion, although they did give her a nice hit of whiskey and can’t be accused of underpouring it.
They had a lot of liquor infusing in big jugs behind the bar, and I was tempted to try the cucumber-infused gin, but I passed. My stomach was so-so that day, and I just wasn’t in much of a drinking mood. New Holland started distilling their own liquors about 3.5 years ago or so, and when they first started making them available I had a “gin and tonic” there. Unfortunately, the “gin” was brandy with flavorings in it to make it taste gin-like, so it was AWFUL in a drink. That abomination liquor is now called Jumpin’ Juniper, and they do make a real gin now, but I was afraid to try it, even though I am a huge fan of Hendrick’s very cucumber-ish gin. Maybe next time!
Michigan Beer Run: Disappointing
26 Aug 2009 2 Comments
in beer, cocktails Tags: beer, butch's dry dock, michigan, mint julep, new holland brewing company
I was pumped for my trip to Michigan because I thought I would return with tons of great beers that I can’t get around here, but unfortunately, the bottle shop I had planned to hit has gone in the wrong direction with its selection since I was last there. I could have made an epic run to Grand Rapids, about an hour north of where I was, but my focus was being on vacation, not driving all over the state looking for a good beer store, so I made due with what I had access to. All I decided to buy was a mixed 6-pack. Lame, I know, but I wasn’t going to spend money on stuff I can get right here in KC! My selections:
- Short’s Brewing Company Soft Parade – a high gravity ale made with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries
- Short’s Brewing Company Huma Lupa Licious – “a complex malt and hop theme park in your mouth.”
- Bell’s Cherry Stout – I know, you can get that here, but not for $1.99
- Lagunitas Maximus IPA – 72 IBU’s and 7.5%ABV
- Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold – probably the only Great Lakes beer I haven’t had yet, I was hoping to score a 6-pack but this is all they had left
I also got the chance to sit at New Holland Brewing Company for a little while, but the weather was cold and pouring sheets of rain, so I found myself not really in the mood to drink much. I had a smoked lager and a glass of Night Tripper, their imperial stout, both of which I will review later. My GF had a $16 mint julep (more on that later, too) and I was highly tempted to try their cucumber-infused gin, but I was a little gun shy because of previous bad experiences with their gin, so I passed.
Ska Brewing Company True Blonde Ale
20 Aug 2009 2 Comments
in beer Tags: blonde, cans, ska brewing
Ska Brewing Company is a Durango, CO brewery that recently purchased a canning line from Oskar Blues. For $7.99, I found a six pack of cans of True Blonde Ale at Lukas Liquors, and Lukas also had Ska’s ESB in cans, as well as some other choices in bottles.I haven’t knowingly drunk too many blonde ales, as the style sounds about as exciting to me as “amber,” but you know I’ll try any craft beer in a can!
Blonde ale is a malt-oriented, American style of beer that is designed to be approachable and easy-drinking. Ska’s version poured a hazy yellow-light gold color. Not quite the neon of typical American lager, but not too far different from that, either. The head was white, thin and didn’t stick around for long. True Blonde Ale is 5.3%ABV and has low hops at only 39 IBU’s, as would be expected for this style.
There is not a whole lot of aroma on this beer. Initial aroma reminded me of a pilsner. There is a little malt, but really not much of anything there. The flavor is definitely malty, but not sweet, with hops to balance out the malts, although I never really get any hop aromas or bitterness out of it. The website says local honey is used in the brewing of this beer, too.
This is a great lawnmower beer. It suffers a little from a very thin body, but this is a beer designed to be a thirst-quencher, and I think it meets that challenge nicely. Of the canned craft beers I’ve had lately, I think this is the one I would like to take tailgating, or anywhere else where fairly large amounts of beer would be drunk. It’s relatively low in alcohol, it’s light and doesn’t make you think about what you’re tasting, and it has nice carbonation and a decent mouthfeel. What more could you want when you’re hot and thirsty?
Unfortunately, I’m feeling a little let down by the two canned beers I’ve purchased lately, but they’re a start and hopefully more adventurous offerings are on their way to our local KC area bottle shops.
High Noon Saloon Annie’s Amber Ale
18 Aug 2009 2 Comments
in beer
Courtesy Phil Peterson & The Ink
Annie’s Amber Ale is a canned beer brewed by High Noon Saloon & Brewery in Leavenworth, KS. According to High Noon’s website, Annies Amber is an English-style pub ale and was the brewery’s first beer, winning a Bronze Medal at the 2004 World Beer Championships in Chicago. The brewery started canning the beer earlier this year and I found it recently at Lukas Liquors in Overland Park for $7.49/sixpack.
The beer pours a clear dark amber, but with a swish of the can it becomes obvious that this is a can-conditioned brew. Once I got the yeast mixed it, the beer was pretty cloudy with a fluffy, off-white head that sticks around for a long time.
The aroma was a little strange to me, with hints reminiscent of the spice you get from pumpkin ales as well as something a little smoky. The first sip nailed me with that same smoke flavor, too, with hints of hops dancing around, but the initial flavor was really smoky and malty, although this is not a smoked beer.
The hops kick in late in the flavor, but that smoky flavor really sticks with me. The aftertaste is smoky, too, with a little pepperiness to accompany the flavor. If I didn’t know what this beer was, I would definitely say it was some sort of a smoked beer!
As is the case with most ambers, you just never know what you are going to get. At 5.5% ABV, this is close to a session beer, and there is some complexity that make it an interesting beer to taste, but as I was drinking it more there was something not altogether pleasant in the flavor… something kind of sour that reminds me of the way beer smells after a long party when you wake up the next day with half empty Ubiquitous Red Cups strewn all over the place. This is definitely not in the same vein as the amber-in-a-can that is New Belgium’s Fat Tire, but it isn’t altogether bad, either. It may have a flavor that I need to let grow on me with a few more cans. One thing this beer does suffer from is a rather thin body and watery mouthfeel, but it is an interesting beer for an amber and something I will have to try a few more times and let you know about before I make a judgment one way or the other.
Canspotting + Angostura Bitters
18 Aug 2009 6 Comments
Just made a run to Lukas Liquors in Overland Park and spotted some good (hopefully) canned beers. I am on a budget, so I bought two of the three and will review them just as soon as they get cold!
I paid $7.49 for a six pack of High Noon Saloon’s (Leavenworth, KS) Annie’s Amber Ale and $7.99 for a six pack of Ska Brewing Company’s (Durango, CO) True Blonde Ale. Ska Brewing’s canning line was purchased from Oskar Blues, incidentally. I passed on Ska’s ESB in a can, but will make a point of buying it next time. I’m a little tired of malty beers right now. Blonde’s and ambers aren’t the most exciting beers in the world, but readers know I’m a sucker for trying anything in a can!
Also, I’m catching up on the 2nd season of Mad Men and, as such, have been interested in the Old Fashioned cocktail. I bought some rye whiskey (will get Templeton Rye next time I’m in Iowa) and finally found Angostura bitters… they’ve been in the party store section of Lukas all along! Duh. Now all I need is some sugar to make simple syrup and an orange and I’m in business.
Grandpa’s Own Special Formula Cream Soda
09 Aug 2009 Leave a Comment
I was at the Johnson County Fair last night and happened upon a stand selling Grandpa’s Own Special Formula root beer, diet root beer and cream soda. I bought two 12-oz. bottles each of root beer and cream soda for about $3.50 each. If you bring your bottles back for refills, the cost is $1.50/bottle. The bottles are just brown beer bottles with a home-applied label, so I suppose if you are cheap you could bring some of your own bottles and just say the labels came off! This product is make in St. Joseph, MO.
The bottles are corked, although the corks didn’t fit all that great, so I lost one and the other three almost popped out as the liquid warmed up. None of the products are carbonated, and the guy selling it said it would last a good 2-3 weeks in the fridge with no problems. They also offered three larger sizes of bottles with Grolsh-style caps.
The cream soda looks like cream soda, pouring a sort of light tea color into a glass of ice. The cream soda is definitely made with real sugar, and it’s sweet, but has a nice light flavor of vanilla. The absence of carbonation makes the drink less refreshing than it could be, which is really my only gripe. I’ll take my bottles back next year for refills!
Schlafly Special Export IPA Revisited
05 Aug 2009 1 Comment
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I returned to the gym today after a couple weeks off and all I could think of on my drive home was celebrating my workout with a nice IPA! lol I cracked open a Schlafly Special Export IPA, which I reviewed a while back, and was really struck by how atypical it is compared with the other IPA’s I’ve enjoyed this summer. This beer is a spring seasonal, so it may be getting a little long in the tooth by now, but I was struck by how little hops I picked up on the aroma with this bottle, and my first gulp was all malt and even raisins! Very un-IPA like! I mentioned that the Special Export is definitely an English-style IPA, but wow.
This is not to say that this is a bad beer, by any stretch, but if you’re trying to get a handle on the range of this style, I would put this beer on one end of the spectrum and something like Caldera IPA or a Stone Ruination on the other side and see the huge difference in what IPA’s can offer. I might keep a couple of these for a while (another 6 months or so) and try them then to see if there is much in the way of hops lingering in the beer.
Oddly enough, though, that “cat pee” aroma is still present! lol A great Schlafly beer, but it warranted mentioning how different this beer is from your typical grapefruit bomb!
