Year-in-Beer Week 15

Ahh now we are back on schedule.

Week 15 of Year-in-Beer is Magic Hat's Elder Betty

Make-up #3

Long Trail's Pollinator:

From their website:

Features a medium amber body, balanced with a modest amount of Willamette hops. This spring ale is highly drinkable, flavorful and finishes clean and crisp.

IBUs: 23
ABV: 4.6%

Make-up #2

Make-up #2 is 21st Amendment Brew Free or Die IPA

From their website:

BREW FREE! OR DIE IPA is brewed with some serious west coast attitude. This aromatic golden IPA starts with a sucker punch of six different hops to the nose, quickly balanced by a solid malt backbone. Our top selling beer at the pub, this IPA starts big and finishes clean leaving you wanting more.

ABV: 7%
IBUs: 70
 

Make-up #1

So we missed weeks 12-14, so we are doing 3 make-up weeks.  Here's the first:

Make-up week #1 is Redhook's ESB.  From their website:

Brewed in the style of a traditional British ESB (Extra Special Bitter), we’ve been making ESB continuously since 1987, and it’s now the benchmark for the Amber beer category.  Despite having “bitter” in its name, Redhook ESB is really not that bitter at all.  This brew is all about the balance of caramel malt sweetness completed by spicy, citrusy hops.

Abv 5.8%

IBUs 28.0 IBU

Year-in-Beer Week 11

Year-in-Beer Week 11 is Left Hand Brewing Company's Fade to Black Volume 3

From Left Hand's website:

Imagine Robert DeNiro sitting in your darkened parlour near the fire in his Louis Cyphre persona smoking a Tuscan cigar. This may be the beer with which to save (or lose) your soul. Dried fruit flavors entwined with smoky pepper and licorice embossed on roasty malt sweetness open on your tongue as the slow warmth of chilis creep up on your tongue and throat, finishing in an herbal smoke ring flourish.

Year-in-Beer Week 10

Magic Hat's Demo

From Magic Hat's website:

It is a deliciously dark lick of an India Pale Ale. It’s medley of roasted malts and heady hops will have your senses dancing to the beat of a different I.P.A.

• TYPE: Black IPA
• YEAST: California Ale
• HOPS: Apollo, Goldings
• MALTS: Pale, Carafa, Caramel, Cara Vienna, Chocolate

• ABV: 6.0
• GRAVITY: 14.00 Plato
• BITTERNESS: 45
• SRM: 55.0

Year-in-Beer Week 8

Year-in-Beer Week 8 is Narragansett's Bock.

Here is the info from their website:



Roll out the Barrel: 6.5% Alcohol by Volume and 32 IBUs. This year’s Bock is a Helles Bock!  A traditional Bavarian helles lager beer brewed to bock strength, therefore still as strong as traditional bock, but lighter in color and with more hop presence.
Quality Supreme: Brewed with Light and Dark Munich malts, Pilsner Malt, and Malted Wheat.  It is hopped with Northern Brewers and Hallertau hops.  Northern Brewers is a clean bittering hop and Hallertau is a classic German aroma hop associated with Bavarian style lager beers. Winner of the Silver Medal in the 2011 World Beer Championship!
Taste & Enjoy: Gansett Bock is a deeply flavorful beer with a rich golden color and a full body.  It is drier, hoppier, and slightly more bitter than a traditional bock, but still with a relatively low hop flavor.  It offers an extremely approachable craft experience not to be confused with the double and triple bocks out on the market.  The beer pours well, producing a large creamy, persistent white head, and moderate carbonation.  Despite its full body, the flavor is not overly malty and delivers an elegant spicy character from the hops that produces a balanced, smooth finish.

Enjoy!

Spring Seasonals

March was a preview of Spring Seasonals

Overall there seemed agreement that each of the beers was good.  They also seemed to represent the different parts of Spring.  Some were more robust matching the early Spring melting snow, and others seemed almost ready for summer.

Here are the rankings:

Overall
1. Dogfish Head's Aprihop
2. Samuel Adam's Alpine Spring
3. Newport Storm's Spring Ale
4. Magic Hat's Vinyl

Individual Rankings

AB
1. Dogfish Head's Aprihop
2. Samuel Adam's Alpine Spring
3. Newport Storm's Spring Ale
4. Magic Hat's Vinyl

AP
1. Dogfish Head's Aprihop
2. Samuel Adam's Alpine Spring
3. Newport Storm's Spring Ale
4. Magic Hat's Vinyl

SD
1. Dogfish Head's Aprihop
2. Newport Storm's Spring Ale
3. Magic Hat's Vinyl
4. Samuel Adam's Alpine Spring

BC
1. Dogfish Head's Aprihop
2. Samuel Adam's Alpine Spring
3. Newport Storm's Spring Ale
4. Magic Hat's Vinyl

Year-in-Beer Week 7

Year-in-Beer Week 7 is Harpoon Brewing's 100BL Series #40 Black IPA

According to Harpoon's website:

We have enjoyed brewing and drinking beers brewed in the IPA style for a long time. Our flagship Harpoon IPA and our Leviathan Imperial IPA are two of our favorites. We thought it was about time to take a crack at the Black IPA style.

 

Harpoon brewer Matt DeLuca took over the brewhouse for our 40th 100 Barrel Series offering. A newly released specialty malt from Briess called Midnight Wheat gives this beer an almost stout-like appearance without the overly roasty attributes often associated with traditional dark malts. Flaked barley is also used in the malt bill for head retention. An intense yet diverse hop addition schedule is executed during the boil that results in a well balanced offering.

 

On top of the Chinook, Simcoe, Cascade, and Citra hops is an ample addition of Ahtanum hops that provides a fruity aroma to complement the earthy, spicy bitterness of this dark ale.

 

IBUs: 67

ABV: 7.0%

Year-in-Beer Week 6

Year-in-Beer Week 6 is 21st Amendment's Back in Black.

From 21st's website:

Inspired by Paul Revere's midnight ride, we rebelled against the British style IPA, embraced the more aggressive American version and then recast it in bold, brave, defiant black. Our Black IPA is a Declaration of Independence from the tyranny of the expected.

Back in Black is our newest year-round beer available now in six pack cans and on draft. Brewed like an American IPA but with the addition of rich, dark malts, this beer has all the flavor and hop character you expect with a smooth, mellow finish.

Year-in-Beer Week 5 Otter Creek Black IPA

Week 5 of the Year-in-Beer is Otter Creek's Black IPA.

Year-in-Beer Week 4 Bear Republic's Racer 5

This week we are doing Bear Republic's Racer 5

Here is the information from their website:

American India Pale Ale
This hoppy American IPA is a full bodied beer brewed American pale and crystalmalts, and heavily hopped with Chinook, Cascade, Columbus and Centennial.
There's a trophy in every glass.

ABV: 7.0%

IBU: 75+  

Let us know your thoughts

Year-in-Beer Week 3

Year-in-Beer Week 3 is Greenflash Brewing's Rayon Vert

From Greenflash's website on the Rayon Vert:

If Green Flash were founded in historical Belgium, Rayon Vert would have been our flagship brew. A bold layering of hops finds balance from traditional malts. Bottle conditioning with fresh ale yeast and Brettanomyces finishes the beer, adding a delightful effervescence, dryness and continuously evolving character. Rayon Vert is Green Flash.

ABV: 7%
IBUs: 32

Year In Beer Week 2 Long Trail's Double Bag

This week we are doing Long Trail's Double Bag. 

Style: Strong Ale
Ibu's: 25
ABV: 7.2%

Year in Beer Week 1 Hopticall Illusion

Week 1 of Year-in-Beer is Hoptical Illusion by Blue Point Brewing Company.

A classic American style IPA from Long Island New York.

60 IBU’s
6.8% ABV

Year in Beer Kick-off

Ok so after a slight delay here is the Year-in-Beer:

The goal is to try 52 different beers in 52 weeks.  Each beer club we are exchanging beers with the only limit that no beer may be repeated.  We then assign each beer to a week, and at some point during that week we try that beer and post 3-4 sentences either here or on our group e-mail page.

Here are the first 6 weeks (yes we started one week into the new year, so we will go one week into next year):


Week 1 (Monday January 9-Sunday January 15)- Blue Point Brewing Company Hoptical Illussion
Week 2 (Monday January 16-Sundday January 22)- Long Trail's Double Bag
Week 3 (Monday January 23-Sunday January 29)- Green Flash Brewing Company Rayon Vert
Week 4 (Monday January 30-Sunday February 5)- Bear Republic's Racer 5
Week 5 (Monday February 6-Sunday February 12)- Otter Creek's Black IPA
Week 6 (Monday February 13-Sunday February 19)- 21st Amendment's Back in Black