I’ve had a couple of brews from New Jersey’s East Coast Brewing over the past year or so. Each was of a quality that isn’t necessarily out to challenge for a World Beer Cup gold medal, but each was also a beer I’d love to take to the beach and enjoy with some friends. The brewery’s latest addition to their line-up is this 5.5% ABV American Amber Ale.
Kick Back Ale leans heavily on the hops making for a beer that is refreshingly biting and crisp — just the kind of beer you want a few of after a hard day’s work outside, or playing hard at the beach. It’s an approachable brew that isn’t too assertive on the palate and should prove to match the rest of the company’s line of products.
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I don’t normally post reviews of beer that I’m not at all impressed with on this site. It was an unwritten law within my own little brain to not take shots at breweries that were just starting out and still tweaking their recipes. That mental mantra was formulated back in 2006 when this site was first conceived. A lot has changed since then in the craft beer world. There are now more breweries than ever vying for my attention and my hard earned dollar. Not every brewery that’s popping up like crazy now is going to produce good beer — it’s just not possible.
So, with that said, here we go.
I’m all about supporting local breweries, so when I saw this bottle of Railhouse IPA and the much better Caboose (review coming tomorrow) on the shelves a couple of weeks ago, I quickly picked them up. According to the company’s website, this 7.0% ABV (and 82 IBU) IPA is brewed with six different hop varieties (Centennial, Chinook, CTZ, Millennium, Willamette and Summit) in a “hopburst” process. I’m not entirely sure what a ‘hopburst” is or what its purpose is with regard to the beer, but if its intention was to add an odd smoke-like character to the flavor profile then it worked perfectly. This beer looks and smells great, but when it comes to the most important aspect (the flavor) it goes terribly wrong.
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Originally released as a limited edition during November of last year, Flying Dog has decided to produce Pearl Necklace year round. The proceeds from the beer will continue to go to Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) — the goal of which is to plant at least 1 million baby oysters back into the Chesapeake Bay.
A dry stout by style, Pearl Necklace is brewed with oysters from Virginia’s Rappahannock River. What information I could find on oysters harvested from this river let me know that they have an understated saltiness which would explain why this 5.5% brew is much less briny than others of this style that I’ve had in that past. That said, the oysters still come through nicely, giving Pearl Necklace a subdued mineral component that goes well with it’s smooth character.
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Press Release
Alexandria, Virginia (May 14, 2012) — Bill Butcher, founder of Port City Brewing Company located at 3950 Wheeler Avenue in Alexandria, VA, is pleased to announce the release of their summer seasonal beer, Downright Pilsner, available this June. Crafted by Head Brewer Jonathan Reeves, this hand-crafted lager will be produced in the traditional Pilsner style, using authentic Pilsner malt and noble Saaz hops. The limited production Downright Pilsner is the fourth seasonal beer produced by Port City Brewing Company. Downright Pilsner will be sold at select retail, restaurants and bars in Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina starting June 10, 2012. This beer will be in limited supply as Port City Brewing Company is only producing two 90-barrel batches with a suggested retail price for a six-pack of $11.99.
The 11,000 square-foot craft brewery is dedicated to bringing great quality, innovative, handmade craft beers to the DC and Mid Atlantic market. Port City produces world-class quality beer, brewing four year-round beers along with a rotating seasonal selection. The Downright Pilsner is a crisp, refreshing, and modern version of a traditional Pilsner, which will delight all summer long. This beer has 4.8% alcohol by volume and boasts a deep golden color and is medium bodied with a soft round malt profile and crisp, spicy, hop character on the finish. Downright Pilsner gets its carbonation completely naturally as its kept in the formation tanks for up to six weeks. A unique twist on this beer is the dry hop addition of Saaz hops during fermentation. This extra infusion of hops gives the beer a refreshing bite on the finish.
Named by Washingtonian magazine as Washington, DC’s best brewery tour, Port City Brewing Company is located two miles from the King Street Metro at 3950 Wheeler Avenue Alexandria, VA 22304. For more information visit www.portcitybrewing.com.
Of the several Karl Strauss beers that I’ve received over the years, my least favorite (oddly enough, given my love of them) was a stout. The brewery’s 22nd Anniversary brew was an Imperial Stout that was formed from a blend that included barrel aging nonetheless. How could this not be my favorite of the bunch!?
Regardless of my opinion of that celebratory brew, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this latest beer from the company’s Imperial Collection. Wreck Alley, named for a stretch of sea off the coast of California littered with sunken vessels, is a 9.5% ABV Imperial stout that is brewed with cocoa nibs and Ethiopian coffee beans. And it’s tasty as hell.
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No beer is perfect. No matter how enthusiastically, fanboy-like it’s devotees may become, it’s just not possible. That said, Karl Strauss’ Tower 20 IIPA — a double IPA weighing in at 9.5% ABV and 100 IBU — just about got a perfect score from the Russian judges, and me.
This prototypical West Coast brew (part of the brewery’s Imperial Collection) is big and loaded with mountainous piles of hoppy goodness. I don’t often gush about a beer, but I will say that Tower 20 is right up there with some of the best double/imperial IPAs that I’ve had. It’s got more than enough tropical citrus, pine resin and counter-balancing malt to make the most diehard IPA fool swoon.
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I had originally reviewed Karl Strauss Brewing’s Red Trolley Off The Rails back in July of 2011 and enjoyed it quite a bit — it was nice to find a red ale that I actually liked. Usually, when I get samples like that from a brewery, that’s it. I rarely get the chance to revisit a product, especially if the company in question doesn’t distribute to Virginia. Well, with the announcement of their new Imperial Collection, the California company saw fit to send me another bottle (along with a the others mentioned in that press release).
The specs for the 2012 release of Off The Rails is just as it was a year ago — 85.% ABV and 40 IBU. Let’s see if it still tastes just as good.
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This beer from Brooklyn Brewery was part of a sample package that arrived last week. Having already reviewed Summer Ale last year, I hadn’t planned on revisiting it this time around. But, with this particular sample arriving in a can, it only seemed right to compare the two delivery mechanisms to see how the canned version stood up against the bottled.
Aside from the packaging material and appropriate tweaks to the label artwork the only noticeable changes that I picked up were an increase in alcohol percentage and a slightly more assertive hop character. The beer I reviewed last April weighed in at 4.5% ABV. This particular can arrived at 5.0% — not a huge increase, but still something to note. And while, the hop bite is sharper, it doesn’t alter the beer’s character in any tremendous fashion.
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This sample of Brooklyn Brewery’s Lager is one of three newly canned products from the company that arrived last week. The East India Pale Ale was excellent, standing up nicely to its bottled version. This 5.2% ABV lager seemed to manage just fine as well — it’s been a while since I’ve had this brew, but from what I can remember and how it currently tastes now from it’s aluminum container, it’s pretty darn good.
Brooklyn Lager is brewed with American Two-row Malt and a trio of hop varieties (Cascade, Vanguard, and Hallertauer Mittelfrueh). The final result is a beer that is clean on the palate and refreshing with a great balance between caramel malt and a lingering hop character.
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The other day I received a package from New York’s Brooklyn Brewery. I had totally forgotten or missed the news that the brewery had installed a canning line and now here were three samples of beers I’ve had at some point in the past laying before me — canned, not bottled.
Canning seems to be the new trend on the rise in recent years and, while I’m all for the convenience factor, I’m always worried that the process will throw off the taste a degree. With modern technology and new techniques, this is pretty much a moot point and really isn’t an issue most of the time, but every now and again, I get a canned version of a brew I’ve enjoyed many times over and it’s just not the same. How does this delivery vessel affect Brooklyn’s East India Pale Ale? Well, it’s been some time since I last had the brew, but from what I can remember, it still tastes just as good as it did from the bottle.
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