The first Friday of each month marks The Session, a chance for beer bloggers to unite and share a pint. Veteran beverage reporter Rick Lyke has graciously agreed to host this month's tasting at his blog Lyke 2 Drink. This month's theme is The Brew Zoo. Rick explains:
The Brew Zoo is the topic selected for The Session #7. The basic rule is that either the brewery or the beer must have a real live creature in its name. We will also allow beers with prominent animal label art (think Geary's Ale from Maine and its Lobster) to be added to the Brew Zoo.
After I read this, I realized that nearly every other beer had some sort of animal connection. What was I to do? As I was heading home from an appointment this afternoon, the answer came to me. I drove past Bee Gee's Mini Mart, known to have some rare beers that you can't find in other local stores. Rumor had it that they still had some of the Stone Vertical Epic 03.03.03 and 04.04.04 (gargoyles count, right?). Turns out they didn't, but they did have Rogue's Old Crustacean, vintage 2002. This was too good a find to pass up, so I picked up a few bottles and steered home.
Inspired by its name, this beer conjures nautical adventures. When it sets sail from its home port, it is an intensely hoppy beer. This vintage sits at 120 IBU, and even 5 years later, the hops bellow out like a ship full of drunken sailors, pillaging the senses. But it's also a huge beer, cresting at about 11.5% ABV. As a result, it's a hugely malty beer. Swimming beneath the hoppy chorus is a leviathan of licorice, caramel, plum, and port flavors, poised like an overgrown lobster to rise up from the depths and destroy the noisy drunkards. This will be an epic battle worthy of Melville and Verne, one that I'll gladly be following (from the shore, of course).
Technorati Tags: beer, brewing, craft brew, homebrewing, The Session, Rick Lyke, The Brew Zoo, Bee Gee's Mini Mart, Stone Vertical Epic, Rogue, Old Crustacean, barleywine, Melville, Verne, drunken sailors, crustacean
This month's session topic is local beers (thanks to Snekse over at Gastronomic Fight Club for hosting this month and suggesting the theme). This is a relatively easy theme for this blog, since I tend to only write about regional beers. Unfortunately, Dayton is devoid of breweries and brewpubs, so I went back to my roots and picked up a growler of Mt. Carmel's Blonde Ale. Mt. Carmel Brewing is a relative newcomer to the local scene, but is quickly becoming a favorite. The tiny brewery sits in the eastern suburbs of Cincinnati--only about 2-3 miles from my childhood home (and closer still to my old elementary school). This area is not known for beer (I always assumed it was a Budmillcoors stronghold), so I was shocked when my friend Shane asked me if I had ever tried this beer that was being brewed out of that area. And surprised again at how popular the beer had become--most of my beer-savvy friends have picked up a growler or two and have good things to say.
BACKGROUND
Husband and wife team Mike and Kathleen Dewey founded the brewery back in 2005 and have built their brewery from the ground up. The couple is continually expanding their distribution area and now distribute growlers to about 30 locations in Cincinnati, as well as more than a dozen combined locations in Dayton and Northern Kentucky. In addition, you can find their beers on tap in more than 20 area locations (including one of my favorite eateries, Dewey's Pizza). In what must have been a coup for the brewing couple, the beers are also available in two locations in The Great American Ballpark, home to the Cincinnati Reds.
THE BEERSThey offer a handful of beer styles: a blonde, a copper ale, a nut brown, and a stout. There are no six-packs or single bottles--the beers are available either by the growler or draught. I've tried both the copper ale and the blonde and am partial to the blonde. For this tasting, I picked up a growler of the blonde. I was surprised, however, because the beer that I poured was more similar to the copper, not the pale blonde I had tried earlier (could the growler have been mislabeled?).
No matter, because regardless of the beer's intended style, it was highly drinkable. It had a smooth, round flavor, with a prickly bite at the swallow. The hops were mild and restrained, as were the malt flavors. I picked up faint caramel malt and a slight orange/tangerine flavor. My only critique is that the carbonation was relatively low, and lower as I moved through the growler.
Both of the Mt. Carmel beers I've tried make great session beers. Admittedly, the most recent growler I had wasn't the strongest I've had from the brewery (although I suspect that as a small brewery, they are still working through some occasional QC blips), but everything I've had has been solid. I happily support this small brewery and continue to recommend them to friends. (And I'll be happy when they start offering smaller bottles--a growler is more of a commitment than I'm usually willing to make in an evening!).
Technorati Tags: beer, brewing, craft beer, The Session, Mt. Carmel Brewing Company, local beer, Cincinnati, Ohio, blonde ale, copper ale, Dewey's Pizza, growler, draught
The first Friday of each month marks The Session, a chance for beer bloggers to unite and share a pint. In March, Stan served up stouts. In April, Alan called dubbels. This month, Jay is Wild About Milds.The name mild sounds, well, mild and mundane. Turns out, getting one's hands on one is anything but. Alan has been lamenting the lack of milds north of the border, and the comments on his post suggest that he is not alone. I thought I would fare better, since Ohio is a beer crossroads of sorts and my local brew store stocks over 800 varieties of beers. Wrong. There was ONE mild available--a whooping one, from a very surprising source--Three Floyds! Imagine, a mild from the same brewery that just hosted the legendary Dark Lord Day; a brewery that prides itself on over-the-top brews.Mild was once much more popular than it is now. Years ago, it was the British session beer of choice (as were porters before that), but over the last 40+ years, the popularity of milds has steadily declined. In response, CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) has made a major publicity push to raise public awareness, dubbing May "Mild Month."What makes a mild? Milds are generally brown in color, with emphasis on caramel, chocolate, and roasted malts (they are a close cousin to brown ales and are often considered browns on tap). Generally, they are less bitter than ESBs or other British hoppy ales. Perhaps most importantly, they are low in alcohol--under 5%, often as low as 3%. The mild is thirst-quenching beer--epitomizing the concept of a session beer.
So what about the Three Floyds Pride & Joy--does it measure up? I'm not sure. I've sampled several of these over the course of a week or so. It's an interesting beer--huge bursts of citrus hops in the nose, mingling with a caramel backdrop. Hops are pretty prevalent in the flavor, too. I pick up hints of chocolate and caramel, but like the nose, it's mostly in the background. It's a little high in alcohol, too--close to 5% makes it a little high for the style.However, try as hard as I can, I don't see this beer as a mild, based on what I know of the style. BJCP notes that a mild is a close cousin to brown ales and porters, but I don't pick up the chocolate and toffee flavors in this beer that I associate with those styles. Simply put, this beer is too bright, too hoppy, too citrus to be a true mild (although to be fair, Three Floyds notes that it is a hoppy interpretation of the style). I'm not sure that this version works. I think that as far as session beers go, until we can get more milds in the area, I'll stick with Bell's Best Brown.
Technorati Tags: beer, brewing, craft beer, The Session, mild, BJCP, Three Floyds, Bells, CAMRA, Mild Month, Beer Blogging Friday
The first Friday of each month marks The Session, a chance for beer bloggers to unite and share a pint. Veteran beverage reporter Rick Lyke has graciously agreed to host this month's tasting at his blog Lyke 2 Drink. This month's theme is The Brew Zoo. Rick explains:
Inspired by its name, this beer conjures nautical adventures. When it sets sail from its home port, it is an intensely hoppy beer. This vintage sits at 120 IBU, and even 5 years later, the hops bellow out like a ship full of drunken sailors, pillaging the senses. But it's also a huge beer, cresting at about 11.5% ABV. As a result, it's a hugely malty beer. Swimming beneath the hoppy chorus is a leviathan of licorice, caramel, plum, and port flavors, poised like an overgrown lobster to rise up from the depths and destroy the noisy drunkards. This will be an epic battle worthy of Melville and Verne, one that I'll gladly be following (from the shore, of course).
