Saranac Rye IPA

Matt Brewing Co.
Utica, NY
Saranac Rye IPA

The pour is lively with a nice sudsy white head that clings well as it crackles and subsides. The color is that of golden honey – a lot of orange and deep marigold. The carbonation is well dispersed and steady, but not torrential.

The nose is that of a malted lager, not an IPA. There are faint plum notes disguising what seems like it would be a nice ABV bite. Some citrus rises up, but it’s more acidic and not set as you might expect from an IPA. The malt aroma is nice, biscuity but not quite like sourdough, nor so strong as to be termed phenolic. There is no real rye aroma at all as there is in, say, Blue Point’s RastafaRYE or Sixpoint’s Righteous.

The mouthfeel is decent but – wow, not what I was expecting. The beer tastes a bit sour at first. There is a real bitternes – I hope it’s hops – that leaves a taste that is a bit unpleasant at first, like lemon concentrate, on the sides of the tongue. The finish of the swallow is metallic and sere. There’s a certain amount of that snap of biscuit, but there is a real problem with the citric back of this beer.

To be perfectly honest, I hope this bottle is skunked. I really like MBC/Saranac and this is not impressing me., but after a few more sips, the beer is coming around a bit, but that may be me getting used to it. A slightly calmer citric/floral twang hits the top of the palate, as though this beer were aggressively dry-hopped, and perhaps rye was added in the fermenter, but this is not doing it for me. I’ll try again at a later date, but for now I can’t say I’m wild about this one.

That said, the lacing is very pretty and dense, and the overall aftertaste is one of very dry hops, so not all is lost.

 

Finished. Not a moment too soon.

 

 

 

 

Saint Arnold Elissa

Saint Arnold Brewing Co.
Houston, TX
Elissa IPA

Now that I’m in the Great State of Texas, I’m trying as many Texas beers as possible. Here’s one from Saint Arnold, a brewery with about ten selections, and which claims to be Texas’ oldest craft brewery. I’ve tried a couple of these while out at night and so far they’ve been good.

The pour immediately jumps up with a good inch of orange-tinged head that’s rocky and lively. The clarity is excellent and the carbonation is a steady string of pearls feeding the now slightly dissipated but still frothy head. The color is copper and orange, like a setting sun, but with les retinal burn.

The nose is very sticky and floral – this beer smells like West Coast hops all the way. Grapefruit and a fragrant and resinous sweetness out of what is sure to be a great hop bite. The mouthfeel is excellent. The malt kicks in at first but is quickly swept to the back of the palate by a wash of crisp hops that snaps but doesn’t sting. Those hops really impart a luscious citrus body that is complex and full but still refreshing and not overwhelming (at least not for a hophead like me).

This is as close to Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale as any bottle I can think of offhand. Perhaps it lacks some of the heavyweight punch that Sierra carries (I’m biased), but this is a truly wonderful example of American IPA. A thick trellis-work of lacing hangs around the glass, too. This beer is a must for hop lovers.

Southern Star Pine Belt Pale Ale

Southern Star Brewing Co.
Conroe, TX
Pine Belt Pale Ale

From a can and from Texas, this beer was just asking to get consumed by the ol’ Brew Yorker in Dallas. I tried Southern Star’s Bombshell Blonde the other night and enjoyed it once I fumbled the name on the first try and finally ordered it. This can of Pinebelt is a 16oz, though. It’s like a normal can, but better.

The head billows up to a fine and active orange-hued inch and isn’t going anywhere in a hurry. The clarity is hazy, which is always exciting for a pale ale – I’m willing to bit at least a little bit of dry-hopping occurred. As I write, the head has started to subside a bit and leaves behind a tight webbing of lace.

The color is a deep amber orange – an almost tortoise-shell roan. This is a beautiful brew. The nose is smells like melted orange candy slices covered in crystallized sugar. The malt is very biscuity, not heavy and bready. There is a vinous quality to the nose – certainly not unpleasant – and may indicate a high ABV. Likewise, aroma of resin emerges, much like the beer’s name hints at.

The mouthfeel is great, the beer is full, but even. Bitter spices dry the top of the mouth quickly, followed by a roundhouse of hops that don’t hit a citrus note so much as a pine note, but you are not overwhelmed as is the case with many American Pale Ales.. The result is a woody finish that is supremely dry, like a desiccated pinecone, but one that is not unpleasant. The lacing hangs about the glass like snow drifting on the boughs of those same evergreens.

This is not a typical thrashing of hops, but most hopheads will be intrigued by it, if not impressed. The beer is like Gregory Peck – dry, but with character.

So far, Texas beers are kicking ass and taking names.

Hail to the Maharaja

I’m trying Avery’s Maharaja Imperial India Pale Ale. Purchased at the Houston Whole Foods (along with a Chelsea B.C. Oatmeal Stout growler), the IIPA is pretty unique. It’s a pale ale for sure, with an aggressively hopped aroma (102 IBUs!) and a deep cloudy color like marigold. The head pours clean white and is not heavy–and doesn’t last as long as it should–but the brew leaves a really nice lace all the way down the glass. The ABV is high (9.65) and there is a certain amount of alcohol in the mouth but there are still some noticeable citrus notes throughout. Slight hints of caramel persist through the finish but, overall, I think the high ABV overpowers a bit. I like the creaminess of this nearly opaque ale, though there are more than enough IPA options that won’t leave you feeling as though your teeth are being dissolved. Worth trying for hopheads, but one bottle is probably enough.

Blind Taste Test – Pale

OK, I can’t promise too much, Dirty Harry is on MaxHD and I’ve got a few Butternuts Pork Slap Pale Ale sitting in my mini-fridge. Oh man, those guys just robbed the bank. Poor bastards didn’t realize that Inspector Callahan was having a hot dog at Jaffe’s Kwik Lunch right across the street. He’s still chewing, after wasting two crooks. So badass.

By the way this Pork Slap, while not overly hopped has a beautiful caramel color with a slight murky cloudiness and a clean aroma of hops. The head is creamy with a beautiful clinging lace that leaves rings down the glass. The mouthfeel is thinner than most pales, it is not as aggressive as some of its other canned counterparts—like OB Dale’s—or even bottled Sierra Nevada, but it has a sweetness on the tip and sides of the tongue that eases any alcoholic bite that sometimes accompanies the higher ABV pales.

Sorry, back to the taste test. In August (I know, I know), my brothers, my dad, and I had a blind taste test of pale ales and IPAs. I spent some time collecting bottles and sixers and brought them all to Nantucket where the ladies were kind enough to serve us the samples in glasses so we wouldn’t know which was which. I am a self-professed die-hard hophead, so I was pretty eager to try a lot of the brews, but it is worth noting that we had a huge pizza dinner (courtesy of Foood for Here and There, for anyone familiar with Nantucket eats) and were over-served on meat-lovers’ pies and High Life.

The Champagne of Babies

Here are the beers, in the order we sampled them, with some of the more intelligent comments that we wrote down and an average of the points we awarded each out of 100. Note that Will was in a sling, so didn’t write a score and his comments were verbal–and particularly insightful. Remember, these are all quotes, I just didn’t want to put quotes around every sub-point. Enjoy, let me know what you think.

Here’s a ‘before’ look at this pleasant Nantucket summer experience.

• Magic Hat Fat Angel
  • Good hoppiness and mouthfeel, overall poor finish. 68
• Rogue Dead Guy
  • Good head-retention, hints of honey, cloudy, perfumed. Will described this as being “like French artillery: weak, and with no range.” 59
• Lagunitas Maximus
  • Strong hoppy start but with a bitter, metallic, licorice finish. 57
• Stone Double Bastard (courtesy of Kirk Struble from Westside Brewing Co.)
  • Dark head, high, ABV, “undrinkable, tastes like liquor”, “terrible alcohol taste.” 40 (Max gave this a “fail” so only Dad’s 30 and my 50 factored in here.
• Cisco Indie Pale Ale
  • Fruity finish, peachy aroma, unremarkable. 54.3
• Stone Coast Batch 420 IPA
  • Soft aroma, no floral hoppiness, thin and undistinguished. Will said it tasted like “dandelion soup.” 65
• Tuckerman Pale Ale
  • Smooth, traditional, creamier, wheaty aroma, poor head retention. 75.3 (Harry just entered the stadium. Scorpio’s in big trouble. Here comes the “you tried to kill me” exchange. Harry makes a great shot across the football field to drop Scorpio.)
• Middle Ages Wailing Wench
  • Good sweet honey finish, sweet hoppiness but low IBU and carbonation, nutty, honey-infused but pure. Will sez: “Like Pooh’s underwear”. 80.3
• Harpoon IPA
  • No negatives but uninteresting, unbold, drinkable, good head retention but too lager-like. Will sez “like a Midwestern preacher’s wife.” 69
• Red Hook Longhammer
  • No character, hoppy but too much tip of the tongue, unexciting but drinkable. 66.6
• Cisco Whale’s Tale
  • Poison, nail polish, gone bad, meaty aroma, Velspar varnish, acidic. Will sez: “This fucking sucks.” 33 (Another “fail” from Max).
• Anchor Steam
  • Copper, good head-retention, full and tasty. 82.6
• Stone IPA
  • Acidic and fruity, perfumy after-taste, decent legs. 77.6
• Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
  • Soft, slow carbonation, professional and nicely hopped. 86

So there it is, the Davidson Blind Taste Test. I have to admit that I think sampling 14 of anything as assertive as IPA–especially after a huge pizza dinner–makes it difficult to discern a great deal. Also, the comments became decidedly shorter by round 10. A lot of these beers would be great on their own, in a proper pint glass, so my apologies in particular to Dead Guy, Stone DB, and Cisco Whale’s Tale (which we’re pretty sure was skunked. I had it on tap a few days later, and it was delightful). As you can see, the overall winners were Anchor Steam and Sierra. I would claim bias; being able to pick out Sierra should not be hard for this particular group. However, it was the last beer sampled and we were all about aled out at that point, so it’s pretty fair. A notable third and fourth place go to Tuckerman’s and Wailing Wench. Tuckerman’s was a bit lighter than the others which, after the gluttony that occurred pre-test, probably accounts for why we liked it. Wailing Wench will need a second visit. I saw some at the Union Square Whole Foods (where I got the Pork Slap) and will have to have further conversations with the beermeister there who showed the requisite enthusiasm. He chooses, orders, and stocks the beer and asked what I thought he was missing. I mentioned Dale’s which he said they’d had but were sold out and he offered to order something specially. Point being, a great selection with great prices, but I digress.

Anyway, it might have been a good idea to do the test in the afternoon with plenty of water to accompany. Will and I got overserved; here’s the ‘after’ photo. Sorry.