Coronado Brewing Co: Islander IPA

So as I continue to post about different beers, I continue to get sent beer from different breweries that may want to get there name mentioned more. Last week I recieved a package and was unsure of what it was until I opened the package up. Much to my surprise and enjoyment, the package contained two beers from Coronado Brewing Company in San Diego,Ca. One of the beers was the Stupid Stout which I will review after this one and the other beer is the one I will discuss in this post, which is Islander IPA.

So lets get started. This beer is brewed with a variety of hops and malts. The hops are the Chinook, Centennial, and the Columbus hops. The Columbus hop is a bittering hop that often gives the beer a hint of citrus. This is a big comparison to the Chinook hop. The chinook hop is one that gives the beer an aroma and palette of pine. This piney taste is often very distinguished in the beer that have the Chinook hop. The last hop that this beer is brewed with is the Centennial hop. The Centennial and Columbus hops are pretty similar. As the Centennial hop also gives the beer a citrusy aspect to the beer.

Even though the hops are the main feature of an IPA, that is not all that it is brewed with. There are also malts in this beer and the types of malts are 2-Row, Cara, and Munich. These are all very popular types of malts. These will add the bit of sweetness to the beer. They are more apparent in other types of beers. However, those are the ones that are used in this beer.

Now lets get down to the tasting of this beer and the characteristics that you will notice when drinking this beer.This beer pours to a golden orange color and has a medium head that will leave great lacing. When you first open this beer you will notice the hops immediately. The first thing that I noticed was that this beer had the piney aroma of the Chinook hop.  There are also the citrus aroma’s from the other hops but to me they came after the piney aroma.  The hops are in the forefront when you take you first sip. The piney aroma also translate the palette. However, when taking your first sip you will notice the citrus a lot more than the aroma would have made you thought. In my opinion those citrus notes consisted of grapefruit and orange. The grapefruit being the easier citrus to notice.  The malts in this beer will give this beer a bit of a sweetness at the beginning of this beer. But that sweetness is short lived as the bitterness is what is the main point in this beer. A couple of things I noticed is that when this beer starts to warm up, the piney aroma and taster become a little stronger and this beer is also a very crisp beer that I feel is great for drinking year round but would be great during the hot summers that you may experience where you live.

This beer is one that every IPA lover should try. If your not a big fan of IPA’S you should try it and this one may immediately make you a fan, go to your local beer supplier and get this one if it’s available.

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Angel City Brewing: Eureka Wit

As you all know, I go to the local Bevmo on a regular basis in search of great beer to try. However,  often my trips there lead me to the same brewers. In search of other great brewers,  I reached out to a few different breweries. A few of them responded to my emails and a few didn’t. The few that didn’t probably should have because they would be getting free publicity, but good on the ones that did. They get an extra shout out!!

One of the breweries that I reached out to was Angel City Brewery, which is located in Los Angeles, CA.  This brewery was founded in 1997.  As most breweries do, they started out as a small brewery. However, since then they have been rapidly expanding. Included in that expansion they happen to acquire  Alchemy and Science, which is a craftbeer partnership or collaboration.  They now brew and distribute more beer than they ever have.   Because of their expansion, in 2010 they moved to a new facility in the Los Angeles Arts District. That is where they currently reside.For this and other information go to www.angelcitybrewery.com

Now lets get down to the nitty gritty of this beer!!!

The Eureka Wit is consider to be a Belgian White Ale. If you are familiar with belgian beers and wittbiers you have an idea what ingredients are in them. However, each has its own unique twist on it. This one is no different. The unique twist that I noticed was the addition of Nelson Sauvin Hops. I have not noticed very many beers that have this style of hops.  What does this type of hop do for the beer? Well, what the Nelson Sauvin Hop is, is a hop that was developed in New Zealand and is actually named after grapes. That’s right Grapes!!, which is not something you normally associate with beer. However, its adds a wonderful aroma and taste to this beer.  It will give the beer an aroma of fruits which also will be noticed when this beer hits your palette. It is also a bittering hop, but nothing that is going to make your beer difficult to drink. It’s actually a very smooth bitter.

Nelson Sauvin Hops is not the only thing this beer is brewed with. This beer also contains a variety of malts such as Europils, flaked oats, and the wheat you expect in a wit. Also common to the wit’s or belgian style beers are the coriander and orange peel.

I know you guys are inching to try this beer so lets go ahead and pour this beer into your favorite glass. When you first pour this beer into your favorite glass you will notice that it pours to a hazy pale golden/yellow color.  Take the glass to your nose and inhale deeply. When you do this you will notice a variety of different aroma’s but the orange peel will definitely be more noticeable than the others. But that is definitely not the only aroma’s that you will notice. You will notice a variety of different fruits, which are created by the hops in this beer.  Depending on your senses you may smell the grapes, grapefruit, or even passion fruit. No matter what you sense I have no doubt it will be delightful.

I know you can’t wait any longer so go ahead and take that first sip. When you take that first sip your palette will be overwhelmed just like your nostrils were when smelling the beer for the first time. For me when I first took the sip of this beer, I was surprised. Due to the aroma of orange peel, I thought there would be a big presence of orange peel in the beer. However, its not overwhelming, its a hint which is perfect because you get the full effect of the other fruit flavors that are created by the hops. At the end of the beer you are left with a slight bitter and coriander. In my opinion the coriander is the lasting taste.

When thinking about choosing a beer to go with your meal, you need to take this one into consideration. This beer goes very well with a variety of different cheeses such as Pepper Jack or Feta. It also will go very well with a variety of meats and fish.  I would recommend drinking this beer chilled, I would say that 50 degrees Fahrenheit would be an ideal temperature to drink this beer.

This beer  is a great beer with its own distinct additions to it. Those unique additions are what make this beer a one of a kind and a must have. If you haven’t tried this beer, you should go out and get one ASAP!!!

 

 

Ommegang Brewery: Hennepin

Since I live in California there isn’t many times that I find a beer that is brewed on the east coast. However, as I was walking around the local Bevmo, I happened to stumble upon this one.  It is called the “Hennepin”and it is brewed by the Ommegang Brewery in New York.

This beer is considered to be a unique style of Farmhouse Ale known to some as a Belgian Saison. In the past this type of beer was brewed during the winter months and stored for consumptions during the summer months when the migrant workers were on the farm. The migrant workers were known as “les saisonniers,” which plays into the type of beer that this is.

So lets get into the ingredients of this beer. When I first poured this beer and then tasted it,  I was reminded of a wheat beer or heffeweizen. A lot of the ingredients in this beer are similar or the same as those of a wheat style beer. This beer is brewed with ingredients such as orange peel, ginger, grains of paradise and coriander.

When you pour this beer it will pour to a straw yellow or a  pale gold and will have a lot of carbonation that float to the top of this beer that allow the head to maintain itself and leave a great trace.  When you smell this beer you will get a great sense of the orange peel and the spice of the coriander, which are both very noticeable. Along with those aroma’s you get the sweet smell of the malts that this beer is brewed with, which are the Pilsner and the Pale malts. The pilsner malt is a very common malt in many European and American style beers.  The Pale malt in this beer will give this beer more color and will also add to the dryness of this beer. You will notice that this beer will have a dryness to it at the end of each sip.  Now that we went over the aroma’s of the beer, lets get into that first sip. When you take that first sip you will be immediately hit with the sweetness of the malts that are in this beer. If you let that sip, rest on your palette for a few seconds you will really start to notice all of the other flavors that this beer has in it. You will notice the orange the most, I think this is the most distinguishable flavor this beer has, followed  by the coriander that you are left with after you swallow that first sip. However, in between the two you will get a slight hint of the ginger, trust me, its very mild and probably not noticeable to many.  You will also get a hint of the yeast that is in this beer and this flavor is also very common in Belgian style beers as well. As you finish your sip you will notice a slight bitterness to this beer, it is very mild but it is created by the Styrian Golding and the Spalter Select hops. The Styrian Golden hops is a hop that is often found in Austria. It does contribute to the mild bitterness of this beer but it is often used in beer because of its aroma. I would not consider this type of hop to be of the bittering type. The Spalter Select hops is another of the aromatic variety but it also helps give this beer a sense of spiciness to it.  With all of these different aspects put together in one beer, you can expect a lot. And a lot is what you get. All of these aspects come together and make a great beer.

I was very glad when I found a beer from somewhere other than California. I will definitely have to try more from this brewer. In the mean time, I hope that all of you search this beer out and give it a try. I’m sure you will love it just as much as I did. This is truly a beer that everyone can enjoy.

Until later,

Cheers!!!

Samuel Smith: Oatmeal Stout

Over the time that I have been writing this blog I have tried many different styles of beer but I’m sure that I haven’t tried all of the different styles. The one that I am about to write about is one that I haven’t tried before.  This one is the Oatmeal Stout by Samuel Smith’s brewery in England. I found this one while browsing the selection of beers at the local Bevmo, which is a place that I go to often in search of great beers.

When we compare an Oatmeal Stout to any other stout we look at the addition of oatmeal to the brewing process. The oatmeal gives the beers a quality that a lot of people love and that is that it will give the beer an incredible smoothness to it.  Not only does the oatmeal give the beer an added smoothness to the beer, it also adds a little sweetness to the beer. So that is what the oatmeal aspect adds to the beer.

This particular Oatmeal Stout is brewed with water, malted barely, cane sugar, roasted malts, yeast, hops and oatmeal.

When you open this beer and pour it into your favorite glass, you will notice that this beer pours to an very dark/ almost black color with a great head. The aroma that comes from this beer consist of the sweetness of the roasted malts and chocolate.  These aromas are very noticeable and very pleasant to nose.

The taste is a little more in depth than the aroma’s would lead one. To start of with, you will get the sweetness from the roasted malts and the oatmeal.  That is not the full extent of the beer though, when drinking this beer you will also notice chocolate, toffee, and caramel hints. All of which really compliment each other. And as I said at the beginning the addition of oatmeal in this beer really makes this beer really smooth and easy to drink.  Even though there are some hops in this beer, they are not very noticeable at all. There is some bitterness to this beer but it is very limited, making this beer even easier to drink than other stouts.

This beer is only about 5% ABV, which is a little less that most stouts but also makes it easier to drink. So overall, if you are not a big fan of stouts, I think this one could possibly change your mind due to the fact that it is so smooth and easy to drink.