Grisette

Grisette
(10 gallons)
1/27/2008

13.5 lbs German pilsner
4.5 lbs wheat malt
3.2 SRM

3 oz Liberty (60 min)
1 oz Willamette (15 min)
1 oz Kent Goldings (2 min)
34.6 IBU

Yeast: WLP565 Saison with starter

Infusion mash 150 degrees for 90 minutes

1.050 OG on 1/27

Somewhere between a wit and saison style. I'm using the saison yeast so I'm anticipating this will taste more like a saison.

Southampton Bière de garde

Rating: 3

Southampton Ales and Lagers
Southampton, NY
Style: Bière de garde
ABV: 7.2%
750 ml

One of the Southampton "750 Series" beers, this bière de garde pours with a very impressive head, retaining the head for ten minutes or more, with a dense froth of tiny bubbles. It's a deep amber colour, a little cloudy. The nose is a crisp, burnt caramel, quite bright but not overpowering. The taste at first seems to belong to a stronger, more alcoholic beer. Again, the taste is reminiscent of caramel, but without any of the sweetness of caramel. There are hints of maltiness, and there's a slightly bitter tang; it's a little reminiscent of a young, rough-around-the-edges wine, and that's exactly what's appealing it. A very drinkable, complex beer; we weren't able to identify all of the flavors swirling around.

Dubbel

Dubbel
(5 gallons)
1/6/2008

7.5 lbs Belgian pilsner
1 lb wheat
.75 lbs munich
.5 lbs caramunich
.5 lbs crystal 40
.5 lbs special B
.5 lbs aromatic
1.0 lbs light candy sugar (store was out of dark)

.75 oz Fuggles (90 min)
.25 oz Liberty (60 min)

Yeast: WLP500 Trappist Ale

Infusion mash 150 degrees for 90 minutes

1.070 OG on 1/6
1.013 keg on 1/26

I had planned to add raisins at the end of the boil, oops.

Dogfish Head Red and White

Rating: 2

Dogfish Head Brewery
Milton, Delaware
Style: Belgian Wit
ABV: 10.0%
750 ml

Pours a lovely strawberry amber color; the head isn't huge, and dissipates quickly (it was quite lightly carbonated, with tiny bubbles). Given what we read on the label about the production process, there was a surprisingly faint nose (the beer is fermented with pinot noir juice, coriander, and orange peel, and is part-aged in pinot noir barrels). The taste, however, is more assertive, with plenty of fruitiness, and hints of raisin and sherry. There's a very light spiciness, but the fruit notes are very much at the forefront, even in a beer of this complexity. One drinker also found it to have a surprising malty quality. It doesn't have the heavy alcohol taste of many 10% beers: they've done a good job of achieving a balanced, drinkable final product. The label is a piece of art in itself, a departure from the usual simple style of Dogfish Head packaging.

De Ranke Père Noël

Rating: 2

Brouwerij De Ranke
Wevelgem, Belgium
Style: Belgian Strong Pale Ale/Seasonal
ABV: 7.0%
750 ml

Pours a rich amber color with solid, not spectacular head; the head dissipated quickly. A lightly hoppy nose, and quite a hop wallop with the first mouthful - an intense flavor that showcased the best of hops with little astringent bitterness. Even with this being a De Ranke production, we weren't quite prepared for the hoppiness: we had paired it with food better-suited to a more traditional winter beer. Once we realized that the food pairing wasn't ideal, we focused on the beer itself, and concluded that it is an exceptionally drinkable brew.

Southampton Biere de Garde

Rating: 2

Southampton Publick House
Southampton, NY
Style: Biere de Garde
ABV: 7.2%
750 ml

Massive amount of carbonation, I struggled to pour the first glass. Hazy orange color, a lot of the bubbles stuck around and hit the top of my mouth as I drank this beer. Crisp dry beer with moderate malt and hop character. Has the basics of biere de garde down really well, not a huge amount of complexity past that. Overall a quality, drinkable biere de garde.

My other Southampton review.

Redbones' Northwest Beer Dinner

After years of broken promises to attend this event, we finally got around to booking seats at the thirteenth edition of Redbones' Northwest Beer Dinner.

We're not able to compare with previous years, but this was a fun opportunity to try some unfamiliar beers from a selection of Washington and Oregon breweries. While they serve Northwest brews for several weeks around the time of the dinners, they reserve some of the best kegs for the event itself, and according to some of the speakers, we were drinking, in some cases, seasonal brews no longer available anywhere else.

The full selection of beers was as follows, roughly in order of serving:

Pyramid Broken Rake Amber
Pyramid Thunderhead IPA
Pyramid Imperial Hefeweizen
Elysian Immortal IPA
Big Time Firecracker
Rogue Chocolate Stout
Elysian Dragon's Tooth Oatmeal Stout

The event takes place downstairs in Redbones, and we were seated with strangers since we didn't have enough people for a full table; the beer inevitably made this very convivial.
The beers were served at the table, and while there were occasional hiccups as to what exactly we were drinking at any given time, in the end we did sample all seven options. The food was regular Redbones fare, or at least those items they chose to serve on the buffet line, but was generally very tasty. Interspersed with the food and beer, we had brief talks by some of the visiting brewers; these were a little dry to start, but the final two were more entertaining (though they all spent too much time talking about the wonderful Northeastern brewing tradition!).

Later in the evening, one of the owners asked trivia questions in exchange for (many) prizes, although she seemed more interested in heckling than in actually asking questions (we can't complain: we had quite a haul of loot).

As for the beers, based on my quick survey, the Amber, the Immortal IPA and the Chocolate Stout were our three picks of the night; the Amber was a great, drinkable, malty-hoppy start to the evening, while the IPA was on the drinkably hoppy side. The Chocolate Stout really had a rich chocolately aroma and taste, which made it dangerously consumable, in a good way.

By contrast, we weren't huge fans of the Imperial Hefeweizen, which might have really been a Weizenbock, though there wasn't much clarity on that point.

We were agreed that these smaller beer events are starting to become our preferred method of encountering interesting new beers, or locally unusual brews.