Favorite Beers of the year

For my final entry of 2010, I thought I'd look back over the year at a few beers that I tried and really enjoyed.  Overall, I reviewed 43 beers this year, not bad considering there are 52 weeks in a year.  However, unless you're like me and keep an excel spreadsheet list of what you've been drinking, it can be pretty hard to keep track of them.  Unfortunately, many of the double porters and imperial stouts I tried were one offs and limited editions at bars and festivals, so I neither smart enough nor sober enough to write down reviews.  But here's a brief stroll my favorites that I was lucky enough to have a bottle of and review this year.

Snake River, Zonker Stout

HUB, Organic IPA

Brasserie d'Orval, Orval

Mikkeller, It's Alive!

Stone/Brew Dog, Bashah

Port Brewing, Hot Rocks Lager

Allagash, 2009 Fluxus

Mikkeller, Nelson-Sauvin Single Hop IPA

Rogue, John John Ale

Sierra Nevada, 30th Anniversary Charlie, Fred, and Ken's Bock

And that's it.  Not a bad list all things considered.  All these beers are four stars and above with the exception of the Fluxus, which I believe I was a little harsh on with three and a half.  The John John should get a special mention just for the creativity of using Gin barrels to age the beer, very unique and a great ale.  Of these, I'd have to say that Mikkeller's Nelson-Sauvin is my pick of the year.  This was just such an awesome beer and worked perfectly with his single hop series.  It's the only beer I gave five stars to all year.

That's it for this year of Brews Clues, hopefully you've enjoyed my thoughts, info, and reviews.  Have a great New Years party, drink lots of good beer, and look for more posts in 2011!

cheers,
Dave

Rogue Double Mocha Porter

Rogue's Mocha Porter has become something of a staple in their canon of beers.  When it first came out, over ten years ago, it was a unique and impressive combination of chocolate and coffee with a dark, yet medium bodied porter.  Over the years it evolved some and the chocolate started taking over quite a bit of the flavor, however, it still remained one of the better coffee porters on the market. 

Now in our latest beer renaissance, the mocha porter has evolved again, this time as a double in Rogue's new solid colored double bottles, which I really like.  Rogue has undergone a bit of redesign; in addition to their double and GYO (Grow Your Own) series, they've taken to listing all their ingredients on their beers.  In an a time of coveted secret recipes, it shows quite a bit of open sourced attitude, however, many of their grains and hops are homegrown, and amounts times, and temperatures are not listed, so it would be hard to replicate these recipes to the letter. 

The color pours a dark dark brown, practically black.  It's a rich and foamy head, medium lacing with a strong cocoa berry-like grain aroma and very subtle hints of chocolate and coffee.  As always with Rogue, the flavors are complex and evolving.  I'm a bit surprised that the body is as light as it is.  The flavor opens up with quite a bit of carbonation, which disguises a lot of the front end.  The beer begins to evolve into a more a hop dominant bitterness, quite a large hop flavor for such a dark beer.  As it settles down the hops mingle with some roasted grain flavor for a very nice finish and great aftertaste. 

Overall, the beer is very drinkable and has some interesting flavors.  However, for a double I'm expecting a lot more complexity, a richer body, and better balance between the hops and the grain.  Ultimately, this beer has little to offer in grain flavor other than color and aroma and has a disappointing watery front end.  The chocolate and the coffee are barely discernible and the hop bitterness, while delicious, is far too dominant over the grains.  I was pretty excited about this beer, but was a little dissapointed with the end result.  Rogue still knows how to make a good beer, but in their maturity from adolesence let's hope this is just part of the growing (your own) process.

Double Mocha Porter: **

John John Ale

For those that may be saying, "hey, you reviewed this last year as the Juniper Ale"– few though you may be – let me clarify up front that, no this is not the same beer.  Rogue has collaborated with a Master Distiller, whose name I can only assume is John, to make this very interesting Juniper Ale aged in spruce gin barrels.  I should also probably establish up front that the one liquor that I really can't stand is gin.  To me it has a sort of rubbing alcohol, medicinal flavor that I just can't get down with.  That being said, I don't mind this beer at all.  It has a very light aroma of pale ale, the Juniper flavors make it almost smell a bit lighter like a flavorful lager.  I haven't seen a lot of barrel aged pale ales, but given the unique flavors of this one I'd say it's a great idea for pales.  The body drinks just like a pale, but carrying a load of flavors on its back that open up as you sip it.  That being said, the spruce, juniper, and earthy tones don't weigh down the beer at all.  Instead, the expand your palate to really enjoy the amarillo hops.  This is a very drinkable and very enjoyable creation by Rogue.  Plus a killer name.

John John Ale: ****

Rogue Dirtoir Black Lager

Ahhh, back to the old standard, my first love: Rogue.  Technically, this beer is called First Growth Dirtoir Black Lager, but I thought I'd shorten it for the sake of the post.

I've recently been seeing a number of these Black Lagers popping up by some of my favorite brewers; Avery made an incredible one as their anniversary beer called Seventeen.  The Black Lager is a distinctly American take on the German styled Schwarzbier.  Schwarzbier pronounced "shvahrts-beer," sounds more Yiddish than German... which is simply German for black beer.  It doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily heavy or light in body, although they tend to lean towards light. This makes them quite different from their porter and stout cousins. The goal is to eliminate all fruit flavors and instead produce a very mild, almost bittersweet flavor with notes of chocolate, coffee, and vanilla: taking a few steps closer to the American Stout flavor, while still maintaining the light lager body.

The Rogue Dirtoir pretty much picks up right there in my description.  A black body with sizeable tan-coffee head and excellent lacing pours into my pseudo pilsner glass.  Very little front end on this beer, but it develops into a very nice roased malt bitterness mixed with a rich dark chocolate and finishes with a well balanced and not overpowering hop bite.  Overall, very tasty, although the clarity of the lager seems to expose the bitterness in the initial malts leaving for a slightly overpowering and lasting bitterness that carries through the sip.  This bittersweet, while probably intended, pretty much takes over the palate muting the other flavors under it.  Otherwise, this is immensely drinkable beer, and the notes from the chocolate malts do not go unnoticed.  I should add that Rogue labels this beer as a GYO or, Grow Your Own.  In fact, Rogue did exactly that: from the hops to the grains, they provided everything to make this beer.  It's another interesting step towards sustainability in the beer world.

First Growth Dirtoir Black Lager: ***

The Cracked Kettle

My first night in Amsterdam, I went to this great beer place called In de Wildeman.

It goes without saying that they had numerous excellent Dutch and Belgian beers on tap, but I was astonished to find a few American style ales on tap as well. This was a welcome surprise for me. I knew that my travels around Europe would take me to plenty of rich spirited Belgian lambics, Czech pilsners, and German weizenbocks, but I hadn't expected to see the pungent ales that I'm accustomed to having back home. I was excited by the idea that I wouldn't have to be giving up some of my favorite styled ales while I traveled around Europe.

The next day as I was biking around the canals, listening to my ipod, I passed by a window that made me come to a full stop, almost falling off my bike. Here's what I saw:

From Amsterdam

Rogue??!! In Amsterdam??! This was really too much; I had to go in. It was in this way that I discovered Amsterdam's finest spot for purchasing beer: The Cracked Kettle. Owner Jeff Cunningham is actually an American, from Boston, and he's done a great job stocking his store with a wide array of European and American beers– something for every palate.

Unfortunately, I forgot to write down all the different American beers he was stocking, but I do remember seeing Rogue, Stone, Port Brewing, Lost Abbey, Three Floyds, Russian River, Dogfish Head, Victory, Allagash, Alaskan, and Bells.

Aside from the beer selection the store just has a really amazing feel to it. Beer and wine cover every square inch of its two floors. Shelves are so stocked with beer that bottles literally hang half off. The cases extend from floor to ceiling so that you have to be careful not to kick over bottles and have to get a ladder to reach the highest shelves. The wood interior also gives it a feel more like being in someone's beer cellar or old fashioned library than beer store.

After discussing a few of the west coast smaller companies and newest brews that Jeff wasn't familiar with, he introduced me to some of the most cutting edge Dutch brewers, who are taking our American craft style to new highs.

Brouwerij de Moulen are a Dutch brewery doing some amazing work. I only tried their darker heavier beers, but it looked like they had a number of excellent varieties.

I had this Bloed, Zweet, Tranen, which was a lot like a smoked porter. I'll put up some tasting notes on it in a separate post.

They have some limited runs that have these beautiful labels that look like they were printed in the 1800's.

Of particular note from this series was a beer liqueur that they created, shown here. Yes, a beer liqueur!

I tried the Rasputin, not be confused with the Rasputin that North Coast Brewing makes. Strangely enough though, this was also a Russian Imperial Stout (I mean, the name is Rasputin) that I really liked.

The one I sampled was from a batch of only 960. It was really smooth without losing anything in richness or boldness. I don't think I've ever come across a Russian Imperial with such a perfect balance of chocolate, and yet it had just enough bite to add complexity and flavor to it.

Another recommendation was Brouwerij De Prael, based out of Amsterdam. Unfortunately, I didn't get to taste any of these so I can't say too much more about them.

Also of note was Nogne O, actually a Norwegian brewery doing some excellent beers that I've seen available in the US.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Mikkeler label. Jeff told me that unique thing about Mikkeler is that it's actually just one guy, who I believe is Norwegian. He refers to himself as a gypsy brewer because he goes around to different breweries in Europe (mostly in the Netherlands) and the US and rents the space from them to brew different batches.

After checking out his site, I was pretty amazed at how many brews he's been able to put out using this method. I was lucky enough to try the Simcoe Single Hop IPA , the Black Hole (a rip roaring Imperial Stout), and the Struise Mikkeller (a sort of IPA belgian hybrid).

I was seriously impressed by the stuff that Mikkeller is doing and from the beers that I tasted and saw, it seems like we enjoy the same beers. So of course, I was overjoyed when I went to Beverage Warehouse last week and found that they were able to bring over a few Mikkellers.

After spending some time browsing through the store and talking with Jeff, I packed up a few of these bottles and set off on my bike around Amsterdam eager to try more. Next time you're in Amsterdam, definitely stop by this shop!