Redhook Big Ballard Imperial IPA Release Event

How to reach perma-smile… get off work, drive to Redhook Brewery, attend special invite release party for great tasting beer with friends, neighbors, and strangers.  Pretty simple equation, I figure…  

Summary:

A great night with great people… potentially the best beer night of my beer career!  I love the folks that were there as well as the philosophy and culture… Sums it up when I tried to ask Kim (Brewing Manager) whose idea the beers were and he *would not* tell me one person.  It was a team effort, he says.  We all contribute.  Both he and Tom were just so nice and accommodating… oh… and they know their shit. 

Thanks to Ted, Dan, and Ciea for hosting!  We got some good stuff out of it:

Detail:

Tonight was one of those nights that just puts a smile on your face… in a big way.  After getting off work, I rushed myself to the Redhook Brewery in Woodinville, WA to attend a new beer release party for Big Ballard Imperial IPA.  First to arrive, I met with Dan, who poured me a quick glass of not-yet-released Rope Swing Summer Pilsner, much to my delight.  This tasty, tasty pilsner got me started off on the right foot for sure (can’t wait till released) and I started chatting with Ted, Dan, and Ciea as we waited for others to arrive.  Much to my happiness, all three were down to earth and had a beer in hand as we talked… tonight was going to be good, I could tell.

As folks started to arrive, ‘The Belly’ a JustBeer taster, Paul from Northwest Beer Guide, Mr. Dave a JustBeer taster, Justin from The Brew Dude, Julie from Woodinville Weekly, and someone (sorry… can’t remember your name) from Ballard News Tribune, the conversations got lively and everyone started to mingle with the guests and folks at Redhook (Tom, Kim, Dan, Ted, and Ciea.  Good conversation was lubricated by some great beer and networking, bonding, and discussion ensued.  The Belly and Mr. Dave may have taken their ‘sac love a little to far, but who am I to judge?

At some point in, I recall the announcement for food and we started in on some Caesar salad, some bacon wrapped scallops (which were AWESOME), and some pork sandwiches with chips.  All very tasty and all very unexpected.  Thanks Redhook!

The team finally let us taste the new brew as we all sat down and let me tell you… it was worth the wait.  Check out the official tasting for more info (Redhook Big Ballard Imperial IPA), but needless to say it was a great brew, worthy of an official release event. 

Dinner was an amazing conversation about beer, brewing, and food.  It felt like one of those TV shows where some famous chef helps make dinner and they sits around the table with some super famous people and they talk about the food, life, and other stuff.  Very similar minus the super famous people.

For a JustBeer first, I am trying a short video of our experience… enjoy!

Snoqualmie Falls Steam Train Porter

Another dark beer on the blog tonight, Snoqualmie Steam Train Porter… it was a dark and stormy night when this was tasted and it went with the theme… what can I say? 

At its most basic, this is a session porter… not many of those, I know, but this is one.  A fine one, at that.  As you rip into this one, you can’t really smell it but the taste hooks you… mellow body, chocolate finish, well balanced and not watery at all.  That is where they nail this brew… it is light and easy, but has plenty of flavor to remind you that it is a solid craft brew but with a low ABV (5.3%) and super easy to drink.  Not sure if this is what they were going for, but that is how I am going to rate it, so there you go!

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Cashmere Suffocator

The final beer to blog about from my trip to Cashmere Brewing… queue ominous music… The Suffocator… dum dum dee dum…

Sounds ominous, but this brew is a teddy bear.  Not ABV-wise (8.6% ABV) but in the taste and texture department.  I haven’t been able to find out exactly what style this is meant to be (let me know if you know, please), but it drinks like a strong scottish ale or really smooth amber ale.  It pours a dark amber color, smells balanced between hop and malt, and goes down silky smooth and super easy.  The finish is just as balanced but pronounced in all areas.

This is the one Mr. Dave and The Belly loved so much at the Washington Brewers Festival near Kenmore, WA and I have to admit it is pretty damn good.  Not amazing for me, but would definitely buy it again. 

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Trade Route Lime

From the brewery formerly known as Laughing Budha, Trade Route Brewing Company presents their spring ale, Infidel Lime IPA.  For more information on the name change, check out the article on Beer Northwest.  Name change or not, though, they have done a pretty good thing here with this light and refreshing IPA.  Here’s to hoping they keep ‘em coming.

Infidel Lime IPA pours a light copper color with a medium head.  There is a bit of lime and a bit of hops in the nose and the body… “The Belly” notes much stronger lime influences than I do, though, so maybe he is just more finely tuned to citrus… who knows, but either way this is a good take on the classic IPA style, giving just enough variation to be interesting.  Finish is nice and bitter and eases you right into your next drink.

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Beer Wars

Beer Wars the movie launched tonight in select cities/theatres across the country.  I was lucky enough to get a ticket from Chandra representing New Century Brewing Company, so I decided to go.  Chandra, please note that I wouldn’t have gone and blogged this if it weren’t for you, so thanks!  Anyhow, I have been following the coming of this film since I found out we are on the blog list… Thanks Beer Wars.   I was happy to go and even happier that I went after I had a couple of pints over at Black Raven…  Saw Doug from Malt & Vine there, met a few other beer lovers in line for some popcorn and soda… it was a very happy crew, you could tell.

About the flick… I think I was the only dork with a notebook in the theatre (there were probably 50 folks there), but I wanted to capture a few things… so bear with me.

Overall, the “live” intro and ending were cool and they made enough mistakes to let us know it wasn’t recorded…   Most memorable point in the intro was when Anat Baron noted that she “hope it makes you fell something” and someone in the audience yelled out “i like it when you talk dirty.”  Everyone laughed and I knew what kind of night it would be.

This led into some additional insights… i.e. “American beer is like making love in a canoe… it is f’ing close to water.”  An instant classic.  That and the fact that in the early 1900′s there were 1800 breweries in America… by 1978 there were 45… and now there are somewhere north of 1400 and growing quickly.  Can you guess the makeup of that?  ~50% = Anheuser-Busch, ~18% = Miller, and ~11% = Coors.  Pretty sad, folks.

They mentioned a bunch of the “craft” breweries in the film:

• Yuengling
• Boston Beer
• New Belgium
• Stoudt’s
• Brooklyn
• Odell

But the spent the most time with:

• Dogfish Head
• Stone
• New Century

Overall, they painted a pretty bleak picture… both Sam and Rhonda of Dogfish Head and New Century, respectively, have it hard, according to the film… Sam is growing fast and taking risk and going into debt while Rhonda is just trying to make it all work.  This pitted against the big beer companies that are trying to maintain their mainstream positions while meeting the craft brew movement in their own macro sort of way.

As the story progressed, it ventured into the political side of the industry… I decided that beer + politics = suck… pretty decent equation.  Not going to say much else there. 

Then it pretty much ended.  It left me feeling a bit sorry for Rhonda… wondering how I can help.  What I like about that, though, is if I step back and extrapolate, I can think that there are a ton of Rhonda’s in the beer industry… the small brewers/companies that are just trying to make it.  So, while I can’t help Rhonda directly (although Chandra is going to help me try), I can help the craft beer movement in general… and I like to think I am doing that with this blog… and my $$$ of course (yes, I am the perfect demographic).

Overall, I had a few thoughts about what they might have missed… they did an ok live Q&A at the end, but what they were missing and what they may have missed overall was the consumer aspect of it.  I would have liked to see a bit more about how consumers feel about the whole thing… i.e. Why do consumers like beer?  What draws them to beer?  What draws a craft brew drinker to craft brews and what draws the macro beer drinker to the macros?  I think they should have had a more average consumer on the panel, for instance… round it out a bit.

I liked the flick.  It held my attention for the 2 hours and I learned a few things.  It validated the fact that craft brew is the the way forward… for many reasons, and I hope to continue to help the movement in any way I can.

DugPo Rating System©: Will ‘Watch’ Again

Hale’s Ales Nut Brown Ale

Another beer that has been in the fridge for quite a while and that need to be consumed… so I did the dirty deed and here we are with Hale’s Ales Nut Brown Ale.  This one pours a dark brown color with just a little bit of a nose.  The flavor is simple, mellow, and malty and does the body good.  A good, solid nut brown that won’t win many awards but will certainly satisfy.

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Samuel Smith’s Wheat Beer

So, after a few days in Germany it was time to return to my native land; good old Britain. A quick hop from Dusseldorf to the amazing Terminal 5 at Heathrow, a swift train to the city, and before I knew it I was meeting up with an old friend outside The Chandos, just off the corner of Trafalgar Square at the bottom of St. Martin’s Lane.

Haunt of poverty-stricken students, loafers, idlers and general ne’er-do-wells, The Chandos is pretty much an institution for cheap beer and a good kick-off point for a naughty night on the town. Now, there can’t be many more places more English than Trafalagar Square, so while it was nothing unusual to find us drinking Sam Smith’s, the fact we were after their wheat beer (in fairly copious quantities) was something of a surprise. Cheap as chips (for London) and tasting great, refreshing and invigourating at the same time, this wheat beer was well up to the mark.

I’d fully intended to spend the better part of the evening working through a selection of fine English ales, but something about this grabbed my interest and wouldn’t let go. Let’s face it, tipping back a few decent wheatbeers on a warm summer evening as we watched the world go by was just fine, and who was I to break the spell?

Don’t think this would travel well, but on draft, on a warm sultry evening in the middle of one of the best cities in the world… it was a tough one to beat. If you get the chance, definitely check out a pint of this tasty little number. Well worth keeping an eye peeled for.

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Kaufbeurer Tänzelfestbier

June 14th – almost the dead center of the year, and almost the first really sunny day we’ve had up here in the good old Pacific North-West. Of course, I celebrated (like all Englishmen must) by firing up the mower and laying waste to the hay-field that was trying to pretend it was my lawn. After an hours toil, I was more than ready to slump on my deck with a cold bottle of something-or-other, and this was what caught my eye in the fridge:

Now, I’m not entirely sure what a “Tänzelfest” is, but I do know something – this is a great way to celebrate the defeat of some long grass. The pour delivers a long golden glass of ale with a thick, strong head that lasts all the way to the bottom of the glass. Nicely carbonated, there’s nothing really remarkable about the flavour, but it’s really refreshing. Lighter, more elegant and definitely more balanced than many of the beers that have passed my lips in the past few months this stood out as something I’d turn to occasionally when the weather was warm and I needed soemthing to put a little spring in my step.

Knocked out by the Aktienbrauerei Kaufbeuren in Bavaria, I’d recommend you pick up one or two of these if you see them and store them in your fridge for one of these rare sunny days…

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

 

 

Buffalo Belgian Stout

We popped open this big bottle of fun in the cul-de-sac the other day as a taster.  My neighbor Dave had bought this at Malt & Vine a few weeks back and figured it was time.  We poured a bit in about 4 different mugs and the tasting began. 

Buffalo Belgian Stout (translated version) ended up being the life of the party with everyone one really enjoying it.  There were some tastes that folks weren’t used to and couldn’t put a finger on, but I think it was a good amount of malt that made this such a mildly pleasant stout.  The Belgian yeast was super-mild, barely leaving a hint, which made this very potable for those that aren’t used to it.  You could definitely taste the roasted malts that they are using to emulate the burning taste that originally gave this beer its flavor.  A solid head, somewhat transparent dark brown color, good smell and solid taste make this a high recommendation on the Belgian Stout list.

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Hazelnut Brown Nectar

Ahh, lunch in the Issaquah Brewhouse… halfway through a very decent Kobe burger (great wasabi relish, fries a bit cold) something bad happened. My glass was empty! I was out of beer! Luckily, the menu was close to hand and a glowing pint of Rogue’s Hazelnut Brown Nectar was soon in front of me.

I wanted to say a foaming mug, but what little head this started off with soon disappeared. Nevertheless, it’s appropriately named, for it does smell nutty and indeed looks brown, with a ruby-red tinge if you hold it up to the light. It also tastes brown, in a very good way – not sure if they throw some kind of nut extract in here, but to my tongue at least it tastes good. As the nectar part of the name suggests, it’s fairly sweet too, but not overpoweringly so.

I don’t think I could go a whole session just drinking these, but for the occasional pint it’s certainly one I’d pick up again.

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again