Well, I appreciate the attempt at a Octoberfest beer. It is an awful good try but more like someone wanted to make a good tasting Amstel. That’s like taking the effort to make manure taste good. So move back to what you do well; wheat beer and marzens.

Ok, so I am making a reference that shouldn’t be brought up in such polite company as you, the reader. But, I am what I am, and it is actually apropos to the scenario. At first, I was fairly reluctant to try and merge two VERY different brews into the same blog post. Then, the idea of the title came to mind. I was rather convinced of its brillance. And, as promised, two beers, three reviews. Enjoy!

First Beer: Allagash White

Well, damn me if I tell you this is my first time with this beer, cuz it ain’t. She is really a beauty. Allagash Brewing Company is out of Portland, Maine, a hopping spot for craft beers. This beer is a as close to the textbook of “good” as you can get. While paying tremedous homage to the works of the Belgians and the Germans, it stands beatifully as a real American beer with all the education of a 4 years abroad and graduate degree from Harvard. Allagash has a number of beers that I plan to write about but for today, I am going to keep this one straight forward and simple. Drink it. At least try it! A wheat based beer with touches of clove that make it a great refreshing beer.

Second Beer: Dogfish Head Fort

There is fruit beer, and there is fruit beer. And even then, there is Dogfish Head Fort. So you might be familar with framboise. A delicous and popular belgian rasberry beer that is truly a remarkable accomplishment in brewing. This takes that idea and multiples it by ten thousand. No? Maybe my number is off… One hundred thousand. At least.  Rich in flavor but not overly sweet. In fact, it is pretty potant. 18% abv! They use soooooo many rasberries that the little yeasty fellows have so much to gobble up durning the fernmentation process that you get a massively strong fruit beer.  Yes, I said fruit beer. I know, try it. You will never have had anything like it. Period.

Third Review:

Ah, notice how I didn’t say third beer? Yup, I am talking about a beer shandy. Well, some don’t call it a shandy but it will have to do in this case.  I mixed equal parts of Allagash and DFH to create an a toned down version of the Fort. This was my summer mix. In winter, I take a chocolate stout or bock and mix it with the Fort.  Overall, it was good, but Allagash may not be the best companion for the DFH Fort. Allagash DOES do really really well with a framboise, like Lindemans, which is less alcoholic and sweeter then the Fort. Mmmmm. Try serving that at your next outdoor party, people will be amazed.  As with all of these mixtures, proportions should very to your liking. Cheers!

Trying this post from my iPhone in the backyard. And that’s good because I don’t have much to say about this beer so we can keep it short.

Love the name, hate the beer. It’s just awkward. Poor as a wheat beer and the watermelon flavoring is so unflattering.

And I’m done…

Young and hip!  Located in Vista, CA, and only 8 years old. Green Flash Brewing was started by a husband and wife who set out to make beers that were outside of traditional categories. That’s what makes their “Belgian Inspired Ales”, like this one called Grand Cru, a hair different.

It pours a beautiful shade of mahogany, and starts with an absolutely traditional smell of Belgian beer. If blindfolded, you would mistake this smell of a Belgian Dubbel in a heartbeat. Then comes the taste. Light carbonation followed by a strong malt flavor gets this beer going. It’s not a light afternoon beverage at 9% abv and really fits best in a night setting, with colder temperatures. Think fireplace with a light snow fall. Also, make sure this beer is not too cold. While cold can mask bad flavors in beers, it masks the good flavors in this one. Room temperature gets you closest to its best experience.

There is something a little off about the beer, though. Perhaps this is the “hybrid” that the company refers too. It’s as if you took a traditional Belgian Dubbel and added an imperial IPA.  Something like a 90/10 split in favor of the Belgian. I just can’t get around this mega hop flavor at the very, very end. Maybe I am crazy? Hmm, we might never know as their bottle and website keep the ingredients fairly “mysterious.”

“Mysterious dark ale brewed with rich malts and fermented with Belgian and American yeasts.”

Rogue Ales comes as close to a holy site in the Pacific Northwest as possible in the brewing world. And if you are actually in Oregon, be very careful what you say about the brewery in mixed company. It could lead to some unpleasant encounters. That said, this brewery has been pumping out the mighty spirit of the west coast brewing revolution since 1988 and one is hard pressed to criticize the sheer variety of beer they produce. It’s impressive! 

Disclaimer: I am not a huge fan of the West Coast brewing style. With a few exceptions, I really lean to East Coast and International breweries.

Now that that is out of the way, let’s talk about this beer!It’s a wheat beer, with light fragrance of citrus and a nice surprise of honey in the aftertaste. Its smooth, it’s great if you are thirsty and is appealing to those who would enjoy a Blue Moon with a slice of orange. But this beer doesn’t need the added fruit. All the taste you need is right there. Make sure it is good and cold and you are enjoying an outdoor summer activity for full flavor.

Second disclaimer:  There are other beers that bring this flavor and quality. Not many, if any, that are better but there are others. While I want to give this beer a big thumbs up, I have to do it while saying that it’s not the most original beer on the planet. If you have had your share of wheat/citrus beers, you have had something very similar to this.

Flemish Sour Ales. If you haven’t had the pleasure of drinking one, their names aren’t likely to convince you to try one. These are some the most popular beers through Belgium and the reputation of Rodenbach as a leading example.

Rodenbach started in 1821 when four brothers invested in a small brewery in West Flanders, Belgium. Over the years, various family members added to the process, including learning to age the beer in oak casks. The family kept the dream alive until 1998 when Palm Brewery purchased the company. Ability to get Rodenbach in the US came to a grinding halt and it seemed that all was lost.

Then some years later it returned. My discovery of Rodenbach was before 1998. The beer knocked me off my feet as I had never had anything like it. When I heard of its return under Palm, I was thrilled.

My thrilled only lasted to the first sip, when it was incredibly apparent that the recipe had been altered. It was still sour. It was still red. It was still from Belgium. But it wasn’t the same. It was if someone in the organization said “Let’s turn the flavor down a notch, perhaps more people will like it then.” I find this as good an idea as Ferrari deciding to make the same looking sports car, at the same high price, but hoping that if  “it didn’t go as fast,”  more people would buy their cars.

So in the end, it is still a very enjoyable beer. But it is no longer the gold standard for Flemish Sour Ale’s. Many a brewer stepped up to the plate to fill this legacy. Some examples that I will be reviewing are Vichteenaar Oak Aged Belgian Brown and Brouwerij Verhaeghe Duchesse De Bourgogne. I am actually salivating thinking about those reviews.

Brouwerij Het Alternatief  is (by no surprise) out of West Flanders, Belgium. The particular brew is titled Eerwaarde Pater. And if you click on the brewery link, I hope you are up on your Dutch because there is no English version. How does this fine beverage make its way to the US of A? The answer is 12 Percent. No, this is not some spin off of The Hitchhiker’s Guide. The answer really is 12 Percent. This importer deserves its own blog post, as they have set out to do what so many of us dream of. Travel the world, looking for the greatest beers with fantastic stories behind them.

In the case of Brouwerij Het Alternatief, brewer Piet Salomez makes it his hobby to create unique, high quality beers as artistic creations that honor the long history of Belgian beers. I have to hand it to this guy. He has been known to say that a beer can be too perfect. And as a result, it’s not unique. It takes great skill in brewing at this quality and an even greater passion to try and exceed perfection.

So what does it taste like? First, it is a full flavored beer, dark in color, and mild in smell. The real passion comes with the taste. Lightly fizzy and full of a tart fruit flavor that doesn’t dominate the experience. It is a character in the story. And it’s a story that will leave you smiling. With each sip, you will fall deeper and deeper into Piet’s vision of this brew. Your taste buds will sharpen their senses to pick up more of the subtleties of the oak and spices as you move through the glass.

Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head once said (as many others have said too) that a good beer doesn’t need to be cold to taste good. It will taste good at room temperature. That’s a great test for any beer and this one would pass with honors.  High honors. Magna Cum Laude.

An afterthought. An addition that was not included in the original plan. Sometimes, an improver.

But sadly, it’s not in this case. Atwater Block Brewery is out of Detroit, Michigan pumping out about 10 brews. The Vanilla Java Porter is my first introduction to their beers, and well, if past experience is the best prediction of future experience, I won’t be coming back to them any time soon. As you sample the beer, it easily becomes recognizable into two parts: the brew and then the flavorings added afterward. What hurts this beer the most is that the base beer (pre flavoring) is just a weak porter with little character. And it isn’t tasty while we are on the subject. Then, WHAM!  The flavor of coffee grounds covers your tongue making you think you just licked the used filter in your coffee maker. Hey, I love coffee but this just feels so out of place that you wonder if they literally sampled the brew before bottling and thought “Oh crap, this isn’t very good. What is lying around that we could add to cover the taste?” Sadly, they kind of admit to this with the description on the bottle:

“A robust Porter made with Chocolate and Coffee malts. We then add the finest coffee and vanilla…”

But I have to cut them some slack. Brewing with chocolate (and fruit for that matter) is VERY difficult. Believe me, I know. I recently brewed with both and created an absolute disaster. Capturing those flavors in the wort is exceptionally challenging and requires tremendous patience and experience. This is what makes things like Sam Adams Chocolate Bock, Young’s Double Chocolate Stout and almost every Belgian Framboise so impressive.

Don’t feel too bad, Atwater. The Lincoln Navigator comes from Detroit and is equally as wasteful. Eventually something good has to come from that irradiated wasteland. 

Dogfish Head brews 3 IPAs; a  60 Minute, 90 Minute and the 120 Minute. While there is much agreeance on the 60 and 90 Minute varieties, the 120 is a beer that people either love or hate. The 2 most common reasons people have such strong feelings about it are;

1. It’s an IPA (I will explain)

2. It’s strong. I mean, really strong.  Try 18% abv. And some years ago it was closer to 20%. They actually had to tone it down a notch.

Let me explain number one. Lots of people love IPAs. Light in color, mild in flavor and hoppy. Lots of  non beer drinkers HATE IPAs. They are the epitomy of what they hate about the taste of beer.

And that group that hates IPAs includes me. Yup, I can’t stand them. Overly carbonated, flavorless and what flavor there may be is bitter and unpleasant.  IPAs are as easy to brew as instant coffee and they just dont challenge the senses. So if you hate the taste of IPAs, this is worth the try. *see cavaet at the end*

But this beer? No way. It is fantastic. Full of flavor, smooth, and rich with a mature level of sweetness that makes it a fantastic sipping beer. And at 18% you really want to consider sipping this anyway. Think of this as something you might drink out of a cognac glass.

And in defense of those people who like traditional IPAs, they tend to find this beer disgusting. Its been called gimcky or just too over-the-top to be considered seriously as a beer, let alone an IPA. But that is okay by me. They can take the cases of Sierra Nevada off the shelves and leave me with the rare and occasionaly brewed 120 Minute IPA. 

If you can find a bottle of this, I highly recommend trying it. But be aware, at $8 to $12 for a single 12 ounce bottle, this brew isn’t going to replace your old afterwork six-pack.  It might be more suited to sharing with a friend over the span of an evening while discussing the merits of the metric system.

St. Feuillien is a fascinating brewery in Belgium. From the rich history of the monk named Feuillien, the diverse collection of beers that they brew or the gourmet recipes that they ofter on their website (including one with freshwater eel), there is something for everyone.  

The Grisette Blanche is based on a  beautiful Belgian Wit beer but has a slight sweetness due to the spices used.  This one will come down to personal preference in a battle of “sweet” versus “wheat.”  For me, I felt that the indecisive flavor of the brew left me indecisive about the brew. There is no doubt that it is a quality beverage but it was almost like a 42 year old with a PhD, an MD, and JD still trying to decide what they want to be when they grow up.  Try this one on a hot summer day as it has a compact texture (not terribly carbonated) that is likely to be refreshing while sitting in the sun.