[BW] Beer Blog

Rarely do I ever create a whole post to announce a new blog I’m adding to my list of blog links, but this one is especially caught my eye. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you the Utah Beer (http://utahbeer.blogspot.com/) blog.

Why do I love this blog so much? Because Utah is probably the whackiest state in the entire US when it comes to alcohol laws. Mike does an incredible job describing them in his post about Utah Liquor Laws. In a nut shell, Utah’s liquor laws are largely based on the religious affiliation of its greater demographic.

For instance, let’s say you walk into a tavern and order a beer. That beer, by law, cannot be over 4% abv. These beers are commonly known as “Utah beer” in the rest of the US. Mmm…watered down beer.

I suppose the most appealing aspect of this blog is that Mike is a true craft beer fan living in an area that seems to despise good beer. Mike, you are a brave man and I commend your reporting from the inside.

Utah Beer
http://utahbeer.blogspot.com

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Brewery: Kona Brewing Company
Style: Porter
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: 85
RateBeer.com Rating: 3.46 (82nd percentile)
Serving: 12oz Bottle

This one has been staring back at me from my local grocery store’s beer section for quite some time. I had heard some great things about Kona from friends and coffee porters are right up my alley, so now was the perfect time to give them a try.

Before I get to the beer itself, I’d like to share some intel I’ve gathered about the Kona Brewing Company since this is the first brew of theirs I have tried. What immediately stood out to me as cool is that the company started in 1994 as a father and son operation. Also notable, and quite obvious, is that this is a Hawaiian company. I have to plead ignorance as I’m not well versed in the Hawaiian micro brew scene, but it’s great to see their brews hitting the mainland.

Pre-pouring note - Hey! The bottoms of the bottle caps teach you Hawaiian vocabulary! I’m not just drinking, I’m learning.

Appearance - Jet black, yet not very viscous. A one finger lace appeared upon pouring, yet dissipated quickly. I’m kind of surprised how watery this pours compared to other porters.

Smell - Wow, all coffee! This is about the closest I’ve ever smelled akin to an iced coffee. I don’t smell anything else coming through, so hopefully this doesn’t mean it’s a poor porter being covered up with an abundance of coffee.

Taste - Whoa, tons of coffee. Kona certainly wasn’t kidding when they promoted this as a coffee porter. This is definitely tasty, however I enjoy Midnight Sun’s Arctic Rhino Porter more. Even with that said, this is definitely the best coffee-inspired beer I have purchased from a 12oz bottle. I’d also like to point out that this beer is VERY drinkable. One can easily drink this as fast as a regular iced coffee as the alcohol content isn’t apparent at all. Kona’s website also described its reliance on malts perfectly. I didn’t taste any level of hops coming through, however apparently Kona tries to round it out with a mild hoppiness.

All in all this was a pretty good find. I’m growing more and more pleased with the variety of beers showing up in regular supermarkets and this is definitely a step in the right direction. I don’t know if this is as easily accessible in your area, but pick up a six pack if it is.

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Today has been a fantastic day. For the first time I had the opportunity to visit two places I just hadn’t had an opportunity to check off of my list of places to go: Belmont Beer Station and the Horse Brass Pub.

Belmont Beer Station
The Belmont Beer Station is THE beer store in the Portland Metro area. At any given time they have over 1000 different kinds of beers from countries all over the world. While not as physically large as University Market in Corvallis, the variety is definitely larger; especially in the international beer arena.

Also notable about Belmont is they have a Biercafe. Located in the back half of the store, the Biercafe is where you can enjoy any of the beers available to purchase, partake in tasting sessions, have a pint of select beers they have on tap, and even enjoy food from their deli.

Here’s a list of what I ended up walking out with:
-Bison Gingerbread Ale (2×22oz bottles)
-Bison Winter Warmer (1×22oz bottle)
-Laurelwood Vinter Varmer (1×22oz bottle)
-Laurelwood Tree Hugger Porter (1×12oz bottle)
-Midnight Sun Kodiak Brown (1×22oz bottle)
-Rogue Santas Private Reserve (1×220z bottle)
-Nøgne Ø Winter Ale (1x 1pt .9oz bottle)
-Hale’s Troll Porter (1×220z bottle)

Looks forward to reviews for all of these. Also, check out Belmont’s Beer Blog. It’s definitely a blog to check even if you don’t live in the Portland Metro area.

Horse Brass Pub
The Horse Brass Pub is an English-style pub located on the east side of Portland at 4534 SE Belmont. This is definitely one of the more popular pubs in the Portland area for beer enthusiasts due to not their awesome selection of beer from around the world, but the great atmosphere as well. They’re also the only pub I know in the area that shows English Premier League soccer.

What especially caught my eye was their selection of cask-conditioned beers. However, I didn’t see this section of the beer menu until after I ordered. You see, their beer menu is a standard menu consisting of five pages of beer (three of spirits), a supplemental menu that’s four pages of guest beers on tap and beers to come, and then two hand written boards at the front of the pub showing even more beers they have. I guarantee you’ll find something you like.

I showed up for lunch, so I also had the opportunity to try their cuisine. Their menu consists of traditionally English-style food ranging from the quintessential fish and chips to beef and kidney pies. I ended up ordering a chicken pot pie and it was very delicious. To wash it down I had a pint of Willamette Brewing Espresso Stout. From the menu:

With the equivalent to one shot of espresso in every pint, this stout is surprisingly light and refreshing and the perfect pick-me-up for those long winter days

This appealed to me as I was kind of dragging ass and needed a pick-me-up. While I wouldn’t call this beer a masterpiece of craft brewing, I will say it is exactly what it claims to me. Espresso espresso espresso! Went down incredibly smooth and could have had a few more if I wanted to make an afternoon of it.

Final Thoughts
All in all it has been a great day so far. If you ever get a chance to visit Portland or live in the area and just haven’t gotten around to Belmont or Horse Brass, take an afternoon and head on out to the east side. Thanks to everybody at both Belmont Beer Station and the Horse Brass Pub for being so friendly and doing what you do.

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Brewery: Mikkeller
Style: Stout
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: 91
RateBeer.com Rating: 4.14 (100th percentile)
Serving: 22oz Bottle

This beer signifies two firsts for this blog. For one this is the first Danish beer I have ever reviewed. This also signifies the first beer I have ever tried that ranks in the 100th percentile on ratebeer.com.

Who is this Mikkeller and why do they want me to drink for breakfast? This is a question that I too wanted answered. While checking out their website it turns out this brewery started out as two guys homebrewing. Apparently their brews have taken off and now Mikkeller brews over 10 beers annually.

From their site: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, many say, and if you are a beer geek there is no better way to start the day than with a powerful, complex morning stout. The unique mix of oats and coffee gives this beer large body and power, while the coffee, at the same time, creates a nice balance.

I’m sold. Let’s pour this baby!

Appearance - Jet black and incredibly viscous. Quite possibly the darkest and thickest beer I have ever poured. Leaves a relatively thin cappuccino-colored head that dissipated rather quickly.

Smell - Smells of rich oatmeal stout and chocolate. Very potent, however with only a hue of coffee smell coming through.

Taste - Wow! This tastes like an espresso shot in coffee form. The mouthfeel is that of a standard oatmeal stout and is very, very smooth. Mikkeller certainly wasn’t joking in that you could drink a pint of this in lieu of breakfast. As it warms up there are much stronger coffee hues that begin to show. To relate this to other brews, it kind of tastes like an amalgam of Rogue’s Chocolate Stout and Midnight Sun Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter.

I’d also like to note that after drinking this pint I had a pint of Rogue Shakespeare Stout, which for the first time actually tasted mellow in comparison.

All in all this is definitely a gem in the world of beer. Could this be the start of a Danish beer invasion in the US? I’m not sure, but it’s more likely this is the start of a trend to drink craft brews for breakfast. Good morning and cheers!

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Brewery: Coeur d’Alene Brewing
Style: Vegetable Beer / Spiced
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: na
RateBeer.com Rating: na
Serving: On tap

By far my favorite place to try local, hand-crafted brews in the Palouse is the Coeur d’Alene Ale House. Tonight I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a new seasonal brew on tap. How does it hold up to other pumpkin ales? Let’s find out.

Appearance - Very light in color and transparent. Only slightly darker than a standard lager/pilsner. Absolutely no head.

Smell - Smells like pumpkin pie! Really, the only smell is pumpkin pie with an emphasis on nutmeg.

Taste - I honestly kind of laughed after the first step. This beer tastes exactly like carbonated canned pumpkin pie filling. It’s so light though that it’s kind of refreshing. I really can’t add more to this as there aren’t any sort of complex hues of anything else other than pumpkin pie filling.

Overall would I consider this a great pumpkin ale, no. However, what I think this brew has going for it is that it’s the first pumpkin ale I’ve had that I could see doubling as a session beer. If you have the chance to try this while watching a football game or something, go ahead and order a pitcher. As for great pumpkin ales, check out Night Owl (my personal favorite) or Punk.

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No new beer review yet, however I’d like to share the following photo taken by Josh Gana of The Oregon Wine Blog. Isn’t it beautiful?

I also thought it’d be kind of fun to do something like a caption contest in the comments section. Anybody down?

Look forward to new beer reviews shortly.

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