[BW] Beer Blog

I’m going to deviate from my normal format and instead do a few quick reviews of some awesome brews I had last weekend.

Casked Deschutes Fresh Hopped Mirror Pond Pale Ale
This cask-conditioned ale I had at Deschutes’ new Public House in the Pearl District of Portland. As a huge fan of cask-conditioned ales, this didn’t disappoint. Much, much smoother than regular Mirror Pond with a way higher floral aroma. I could have drank this all night if I had the opportunity. A colleague of mine also enjoyed it, which was surprising since he doesn’t really like regular Mirror Pond.

Block 15 Chocolate Porter
Block 15 is a brewery and brew pub in Corvallis, OR that I haven’t even remotely written enough about. Block 15 has quickly become one of my favorite breweries period and definitely my favorite brew pub. Their Chocolate Porter was exactly what it claims to be. Very similar to Rogue’s chocolate stout offering, yet just a tad thinner in body. Definitely grab a pint while it’s still available.

Block 15 Ridgeback Red
Ridgeback Red is one of Block 15’s standard offerings and has claimed quite a bit of success as a beer almost everybody will enjoy. This red takes the standard west coast twist on reds in that it leans much more towards hoppy than malty. I had the opportunity to enjoy this from a pony keg that Josh from The Oregon Wine Blog brought to a recent show our rock band played. If you want to play it safe visiting Block 15 for your first time, then perhaps consider ordering a pint of Ridgeback Red.

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Brewery: Oskar Blues
Style: Red/IPA
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: A- (Community)
RateBeer.com Rating: 3.86 (97th percentile)
Serving: 12oz aluminum can

For those of you who read my Dale’s Pale Ale review, you may remember my policy on beer in cans. If you are brewing craft beer and decide to put it in a can, I will drink it like beer in a can. Last time I drank Dale’s Pale Ale straight from the can, however, this time I decided to use the proper glassware. Behold a first in [BW] Beer Blog history; using a red Solo cup as proper craft beer glassware. Think of the ping pong ball as a garnish.

Gordon is a hybrid version of strong ale, somewhere between an Imperial Red and a Double IPA. We make it with six different malts and three types of hops, then dry-hop it with a mutha lode of Amarillo hops. It is 8.7% alcohol by volume, and has 85 International Bittering Units. Originally our winter seasonal beer, it has become a cult favorite of extreme-beer lovers, so we now brew occasional batches of Gordon throughout the year.

Well folks, let’s see what an 8.7% strong/red/IPA tastes like out of a Solo cup.

Appearance - Completely irrelevant

Smell - Very sweet with apple-esque hues similar to what you’d smell from an English style barley wine. Unlike a barley wine, that smell is also accompanied by a healthy amount of hops. The alcohol is very apparent by just the smell. This is going to be interesting.

Taste - My nose pegged this perfectly. Tastes like a really mellow English style barley wine with a hop kick. Just enough sweetness and just enough hops to where this isn’t completely unbalanced. In terms of drinkability, I can’t see myself having more than one. I’m all about making a session out of stronger ales or hoppier ales, but the combination of both makes it much more difficult to consume. I’ve never had a brew like this before though, so I can definitely see how this can have a following.

Do I feel bad for reviewing a $4+ can of beer from a Solo cup? Not really, but I will admit that I’m sure this stuff is amazing coming from a tap. I understand how Oskar Blues brews in cans just to be unique and that I really should take reviewing their brews more seriously, but if they get to be unique with their brewing then I get to be unique with my reviewing. Gordon is a good craft beer, but not great. Give it a shot if you want to try something unique, but I wouldn’t say it’s a “must have.”

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Brewery: Roots Organic Brewing
Style: Red Ale
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: C
RateBeer.com Rating: 3.41 (78th percentile)
Serving: 22oz Bottle

Note: Just for fun both the Bearded Brewing Company and I have decided to simultaneously review this beer on our sites to see what each other though about this one. After reading this review, stop by the Bearded Brewing Company blog to see what Eric thought. If you’ve arrived here from Bearded Brewing, thanks for checking out my site.

Roots is an all organic brewery located in Portland, Oregon that is most notable for being perhaps the most active brewery in the entire pacific northwest in terms of environmental activism. They also created the first all organic beer festival in Oregon and I believe they were also the first brewery in Oregon to go all organic. Needless to say, their list of accomplishments is quite large.

Since I’m a fan of both red and organic ales, it was an easy decision to pick this one up. I’ve had their Woody IPA before and while it wasn’t completely unique in the oceans of IPAs out there, it was definitely delicious. Let’s see what this one is all about.

We call this a RED stout. Very full bodied complex ale brewed with a good amount of oats and barley, which lend to the nice bread and malt flavors and help Give this RED a very rich & creamy head.

Red stout, huh? I’m all for innovation, so here goes nothing:

Appearance - Mahogany body that’s still clear enough to let a health amount of light through. Pours with a healthy finger or two’s worth of tan, frothy head.

Smell - Typical hoppy smells of a red ale, but with a much higher malt tone that tags along behind the hops.

Taste - Wow, that definitely is unique. Factor in all of the standard red ale tastes, take it down a notch or two in what a typical northwest red has in hops flavor, and factor in what I’m sorting out as either a toffee or coffee hue due to the higher malt content. I see how Roots kinda sorta spins this as a red stout not by the name, but by the mixture of flavors you get. It’s definitely tasty, but it’s also difficult to review as I can’t think of anything even remotely similar.

It looks like folks on BeerAdvocate are complaining about this being unbalanced due to the hops and not the malt, but I’m going to go ahead and attribute that to said reviewers being wusses. This isn’t even in the upper 50% of hoppy beers out there, so I don’t understand that argument. I do see how some folks might complain about this being unbalanced. I, however, think this is a delicious and incredibly unique brew. Pick up a bottle if you get a chance to, if anything, try something I guarantee you haven’t experienced before.

Remember to check out the Bearded Brewing Company as well to see Eric’s thoughts on this brew.

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Brewery: Laurelwood
Style: Winter Warmer / Red Ale
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: B+
RateBeer.com Rating: 3.58 (86th percentile)
Serving: 22oz Bottle

Laurelwood Brewing Company is quickly becoming one of the prominent brew pubs in Portland, Oregon. According to their site they now have four brew pubs; one actually located in the terminal of PDX! If you’ve ever taken a Horizon flight out of PDX you’ve probably seen it.

I had heard of Laurelwood a few years ago, but for one reason or another never made it out to any of their pubs. Lo and behold I found a bottle of their Vinter Varmer seasonal ale at the Belmont Beer Station. For the most part, Laurelwood brews mostly organic beer. This one, however, is not organic. I’m ok with that though as I’m a sucker for both Oregon beer and red ales.

Appearance - Looks like the darkest mahogany you can get with a very small, yet lasting lace of a tan head. Not a lot of light gets through this one.

Smell - Smells pretty hoppy with only small hues of malt and alcohol shining through. Somewhat sweeter than a standard red ale.

Taste - To be completely honest I’m kind of underwhelmed. A lot of breweries are putting out hoppier winter ales and this one just kind of fades into the mix. The hops and malt are there, but there’s nothing tying them together. The first thing that came to mind after thinking about similar red ales is how perfect Eugene City crafted their 100 Meter Ale in comparison. Nothing unique with this one though.

I’m honestly really disappointed. Almost all of the reviews on this site are positive and it kind of bothers me that I don’t have much to say about this one. It’s not that it’s bad by any means and maybe I set my expectations too high. I would recommend, however, ordering a pint of this for a friend who maybe isn’t quite into craft beer yet. There isn’t anything threatening about this brew to put off the average person that I can think of.

Look forward to Laurelwood’s second chance somewhat soon as I still have a bottle of their organic Tree Hugger Porter waiting to be opened.

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Brewery: Eugene City Brewery
Style: Red Ale / IPA
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: Not Listed
RateBeer.com Rating: 3.36 (74th Percentile)
Serving: 22oz Bottle

From Rogue:
“100 Meter Ale is an anniversary brew celebrating the 100th batch of beer by Trevor Howard. Combining two of his award winning recipes, Natty Red and and Track Town IPA, this ale features the best of both. Rich aroma, mildly floral and big with a smooth finish! 100 Meter is made from Pale, Munich, Crystal, Chocolate and Carastan malts, with Chinnok, Simcoe, Centennial, Palisade, and Cascade hops, with a dry-hopping of Amarillo hops. Available on draft only.

Also noteworthy is this ale received a silver medal in the 2007 Australian International Beer Awards.

For those of you who may not “get” the title, Eugene is a huge Track and Field Town. The University of Oregon takes a lot of pride in their track team and is the former home of famous runner Steve Prefontaine.

Appearance: Very dark red with a couple centimeters worth of tan head.

Smell: Definitely India-style! This smells very similar to other IPAs brewed by Rogue. Also a very faint fruity smell.

Taste: Oh I’m definitely a fan. This has all the hoppiness of an IPA, but goes down smooth like a red ale. I really don’t have much to add that the description doesn’t already say. I love truth in advertising.

It’s unfortunate that this ale is brewed as a limited run. I can definitely see this being a huge hit with pubs in Oregon at the very least. It’s a very likable brew that I can see appealing to even the pickiest of IPA fan.

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