Boulder Hazed and Infused

Boulder Beer Co.
Boulder, CO
Hazed & Infused

The pour yields a pillowy off-white head that froths and climbs the glass and makes no indication that it wants to leave. The color is a deep amber, initially more golden before pouring the bottom of the bottle in, which turns it hazy and caramel-colored.

The nose has grapefruit, pine, and our hops’ cousin and old pal, marijuana. There are hints of pine, damp like an English forest, and really pleasant mentholated quality that climbs from the back of those pine needles.

Good effervescence on the pour; the bubbles twist erratically up and around the glass.

The first sip is reasonably delightful. The mouthfeel is very good and far creamier than one might expect. This is thanks, in part to the good quarter-inch of head that is still nestled atop the beer, locking in what is a great deal of hoppiness.

Grapefruit comes across initially, but is softer and sweeter before yielding to a fantastically dry hop snap that leaves the back of the tongue with a damper and grassier finish than many hop slap-happy brews might. The dry-hopped quality of the beer really comes through both in the nose and the finish of this brew.

While some hoptastic beers leave you feeling almost parched with their dry bitterness, this beer leaves you sated and ready to take another ride on the hopstacle course. I apologize for all the puns, but this beer is making me happy. Another fine offer from the great beer state of Colorado.

The lacing is more of a wall than a pattern. It stretches in great swaths like a tapestry of foam down the back of the glass. Even at the bottom inch of beer, a silver dollar of head balances atop the tawny brew. Pick this one up, hopheads, for a nice, lower ABV sample.

Full Sail Pale Ale

Full Sail Brewing Co.
Hood River, OR
Pale Ale

As much fun as it is to say “Full Sail Pale Ale,” this really is a lovely-looking beer. The slightly cream-colored head is dense and foamy, sticking to the pint glass even as it first begins its slow collapse. The color is amber, with faint touches of honey orange.

Full Sail Pale Ale

The nose is spicy and slightly vinous. A strong, wet breadiness with apricot and under-ripe peaches comes about, too.

The first sip has a very good mouthfeel, one that is creamy but refreshing and not at all thin. The beer is not as big and bold as you might think from a Pacific Coast Pale, but in a good way.

A pleasant malt texture hits the tongue but is neither too bread- or molasses-like. It is a crisp grain taste,. You are met with some nice citrusy hops, not quite grapefruit, but certainly a fruit sweetness that gives way to a grassier finish. This is a true pale in the traditional sense, but with a very delicate Oregonian hand. When completed, this beer leaves behind an equally delicate lacing.

This brew is smooth but with a certain amount of complexity brought about by the crispness and fruit specters that linger just long enough before you take another sip. Full Sail Pale Ale rolls as well on to the tongue as it does off it and I would enjoy this in a pub any time.

As long as we’re in the pub frame of mind (aren’t we always), I would say this would pair well with a chicken pot pie. Likewise, this would go well with some sharp cheddar to bring out the sharpness of those more subtle hops. Cheers!

Beautiful Rings. Almost as beautiful as a full beer.

New Belgium Hoptober

New Belgium Brewing
Ft. Collins, CO
Hoptober Golden Ale

New Belgium could stand up tall with Fat Tire alone, however it goes out of its way to try some really interesting styles, ranging from Trippels to Dunkelweiss to this beautiful seasonal concoction.

The pour is truly golden straw with perhaps a touch of orange, but barely. A very white, cloudy head puffs up the straight-sided glass (perhaps the wrong choice for this beer) and starts to stick as it descends.

The nose is a really pleasant mix of sticky hops – pine resin, citrus, and damp flowers – and a slight bitter grassiness which melds nicely to create an earthy yet somewhat sweet aroma.

The mouthfeel is excellent, light but full, with steady and lively effervescence. Those West Coast hops are more present as aroma hops than flavoring hops. They appear slightly at the beginning of the sip, giving way to a tarter, Noble hop bitterness, and eventually reappearing at the end.

There is a slight sweetness – citric, perhaps orange – along the palate. That resin-y, marijuana-like taste persists as an aftertaste and is not unpleasant. This brew seems to be undecided, but is remarkably balanced and interesting.

At 6%, it’s not quite a session, and at 40IBU, it’s not quite a hophead’s dream. However, it is rich and complex and drinkable, and is a great offer from a great house.

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.