KegWorks Blog

Yesterday a few of us met up for the annual trip the the Buffalo Raceway Beer Fest at the Hamburg Fairgrounds. We packed up some Keg Security T Shirts and piles of Draft Magazines and hit the road. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, beyond beer, but I’m always up for a day of fine brews, so “working” on Sunday was not an issue in the least. I was also unsure as to whether there would be much of a turnout, since all of Western New York had been completely dumped on by a winter storm the day before. But, much to my delight, Buffalonians arrived in hoards - feet of snow never slows us down (how ever could I have thought otherwise?)!

The beer fest was four hours of tastings and incessant beer chatter. I met homebrewers, home bar owners, connoisseurs and the like. And the beer? Oh my, the beer. Some fantastic breweries came to show their stuff - Flying Bison, Custom Brewcrafters, Ithaca Beer Company, Magic Hat, Yuengling, Saranac Beers… the list goes on. Consumer’s Beverage Centers brought a sampling from a number of breweries, including Great Lakes Brewing Company. I had the pleasure of tasting Great Lakes’ winter seasonal Blackout Stout - a dark, rich, creamy Russian Imperial stout with heavy notes of bitter chocolate and coffee, topped with a thick tan head - my personal favorite of the day. The CascaZilla “Monstrously Hoppy” Red Ale from Ithaca Beer Company was a treat too! To be honest, I was pleased with each and every beer I sampled. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

Check out more photos from the Buffalo Raceway Beer Fest here, on Buffalo.com.

Cheers!

TAGS [ BEER FEST | BEER REVIEW | BEER TASTING ]

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Third up was the Wild Dog Doppelbock. This Flying Dog brew was created with input from the beer loving public through the Flying Dog Opensource beer project. You can learn more about this very cool idea for collaborative beer brewing and even get the recipe at the Open Source Beer Project site. The beer comes in heavy green glass 750 ml corked bottle. Upon opening and pouring we all took note of the sweet fruity nose that reminded us of candy apples. The beer poured a bright amber with a nice tan head. Like the nose, all three of us noticed a sweet apple cider taste right away. The fruitiness subsided to a sweet malt passing into pleasant hops flavor and throat-warming alcohol finish. At 8.3% the warming effect was not unexpected.

On to our last and most exotic bottle from Flying Dog; Wild Dog Barrel-Aged Horn Dog. According to the literature that accompanied the beer, this is an experimental brew made in limited quantities (only 725 12-ounce bottles) that is only sold at the brewery in Denver, Colorado. This Wild Dog is made by aging Flying Dog’s Horn Dog Barely wine in whiskey barrels for 13 months. I have only ever had one other whiskey barrel-aged barley wine, made by Weyerbacher and aptly dubbed Insanity, and it is one of my favorite beers, so I was quite excited to get to try and compare this rare offering from Flying Dog. The Horn Dog poured a very dark and cloudy brown that did not let light through the glass. The head was pretty much non-existent and it poured almost completely still. The nose was very distinct with notes of caramelized sugar, dried fruits, vanilla and noticeable aroma of alcohol. My friend said the nose reminded him of a tawny port. The taste was huge and complex with a distinct whiskey character imparted by the barrels it was aged in for 13 months. Right away, we all noted the brew’s incredible maple vanilla sweetness backed by the very noticeable flavor and warmth of alcohol. The alcohol flavor started right in the mouth and warmed all the way down to the stomach; not surprising at 10% ABV. The hops character of the original barley wine seemed to have been completely replaced in the barrel aging process by oak and smoky charcoal flavors. With its strong whiskey flavor and heat; this is definitely a beer for whiskey lovers. My wife, who is not a fan of whiskey, did not find the beer all that pleasant. I would recommend this unique Flying Dog to adventurous beer drinkers who appreciate whiskeys and are not afraid of a beer that bites back.

I have to thank the great folks at Flying Dog for sending me four big tasty beers. One of which, Wild Dog Barrel-Aged Horn Dog, I would never had a chance to drink unless I went to the brewery in Colorado. With my thanks to Flying Dog, I also extend the invitation to any other breweries out there to send me free beer at work. I’ll drink it and write a blog about what I thought of it. Just respond to this post with a comment and I’ll tell you where to send the beer.

TAGS [ FLYING DOG | BEER REVIEW | WILD DOG | DOPPELBOCK | BARLEY WINE ]

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In the interest of full disclosure; I will admit up front, that the reason I am reviewing 4 beers from Flying Dog is that they were sent to me by the Flying Dog Brewery PR department. A comment was left in response to my blog post reviewing Jolly Pumpkin Brewery’s Bam Noire by Stephanie, from the PR department of Flying Dog Brewery, offering to send me some free bottles of beer. I, of course, responded like any beer geek would, “I would love some tasty brews from Flying Dog. Who doesn’t like beer delivered to them at work?” True to her word, a few days later a box arrived containing 3 bottles of beer, and then Flying Dog sent me another bottle of a very limited edition beer, their Horn Dog Barrel Aged Barley Wine. Awesome!

For whatever reason, I have not had much exposure to Flying Dog’s beers. I am sure I have had their beer in the past, but I can say that about a lot brewers’ product. All I really knew about Flying Dog, is that their bottles all had super cool Ralph Steadman designed labels. I am a huge fan of all things Hunter S. Thompson, so these labels always grabbed my attention as Ralph Steadman did the illustrations for most of the late great Dr. Gonzo’s books and articles. Check out the Flying Dog Website for more information about the link between the brewery and Hunter S. Thompson. The site is very well laid out, extremely informative and probably the best brewery website I have yet to come across, so get clicking on it.

On to the beers… I gathered my wife and my good friend Mike, who is always interested in trying new tasty beers, for a mini tasting in our kitchen to try out the four beers I had been sent.

First up was the K-9 Cruiser Winter Ale. The beer was dark red amber with little noticeable nose. We all found it very balanced with a steady undertone of hops layered over with sweet toffee malt. Overall, a very balanced and drinkable ale on the strong side (alc. 6.4%). My friend was glad to note that there were no spices or added flavors like a lot of other companies winter ales.

Next was the Gonzo Imperial Porter. I was very excited to receive this beer as I have not met too many imperial porters I did not love. Plus, it had great caricature of Hunter S. Thompson on the label. The beer did not disappoint, and was my favorite of the bunch. As soon as I opened the bottle I could scents of floral hops and dark roasted coffee hit my nose. The beer poured dark with a minimum dark brown head. The flavor was dominated by dark chocolaty roasted malt with a slight anise (me) or dried fruit/raisins (my wife and friend) flavor. My little tasting group found this to be a very rich complex brew that left us all with slightly different impressions. We all agreed that the beer finished extremely dry with and a nice warming feel of alcohol (9.0%).

To be continued…

TAGS [ BEER REVIEW | FLYING DOG | FLYING DOG BREWERY ]

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A KegWorks’ Holiday party tradition is a keg of Custom BrewCrafter’s Christmas Ale. The company Holiday party is this coming Friday, but I got a preview of this year’s batch of Christmas Ale. I liked it so much last year; I bought a keg of it as soon as it became available this year. Custom BrewCrafter’s is a local brewery whose production is mostly limited to kegs for bars and restaurants in Western New York, so I knew when the opportunity to get my own keg arose this year I had to act on it.

The beer is very dark, ruby red with a subdued nose that only hints at the ale’s spicy goodness. The beer tastes like childhood Christmas memories with noticeable, but not overwhelming, flavors of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. The malt used is sweet and with a toasted caramel flavor; while the hops stay in the background supplying just enough bitterness to not make this ale over sweet and cloying. I am not huge fan of spiced beers, as most tend to overdo it, but not this great seasonal ale.

A friend of mine (who I was tasting the beer with) said it reminded him of fruitcake or spiced Christmas cookies. If you live outside of Western New York, and cannot get Custom BrewCrafter’s Christmas Ale (Sorry!); go to your local brewery and toast the Holidays with a winter seasonal from your neck of the woods.

TAGS [ CUSTOM BREWCRAFTERS | CHRISTMAS ALE | DRAFT BEER ]

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My boss called me into his office again to present me with another assignment: Drink this 750ml bottle of Bam Noire from the Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales Brewery, in Michigan, and write about it. Not being one to argue, that’s what I did. The bottle has a picture of a winged dog creature that looks like a Ralph Steadman drawing (beer drinkers, you will recognize this artist from the labels on bottles of beer from the Flying Dog brewery).

Bam Noire is described as a “Dark Farmhouse Ale.” It was a very dark, slightly cloudy brown when I poured the beer, cold out of the fridge, into a Belgian style beer glass. The head was very lively with tight, tan bubbles that filled half the glass. Definitely a beer you need to tilt your glass to 45-degrees to pour and probably would be a good idea to open the bottle over a sink. I did not get much nose other than a slight citrus peel, yeasty smell, but that may have been because I was pouring it right out of the fridge and did not let it warm up at all. I certainly did not get the, “Aromas of worn leather and cool autumn nights” as described on the company website and I am not sure I would have drank the beer if I did. Seriously, who wants to drink something that smells like worn leather?

I can best describe the taste as weird. Not a bad weird, just something I was not expecting, nor had ever had before in a beer. So, maybe “unique” is a better word. Right up front, you get a very strong white wine citrus taste from the yeast that is then overlaid with the roasted, slightly-chocolate flavor of dark malt that fades back to a sour citrus with a hint of hops. It was like a beer built on top of a base of Pinot Grigio wine, like I said - unique. I expected a noticeably high alcohol content and taste, but it was absent and I assumed by the style it was about 6%, but was quite surprised when I checked online and found it to be just 4.3%. I would definitely like to try this beer again, but I would let the bottle warm up, outside the fridge, to about 50-degrees before drinking. Truly a unique beer that pairs very well with foods. I enjoyed it with some brie, fresh local apples and green olives stuffed with blue cheese.

TAGS [ BAM NOIRE | BEER | BEER REVIEW | JOLLY PUMPKIN BREWERY ]

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I finally got motivated, moved an old refrigerator that was left behind in my attic when I bought my house down to my basement, and turned it into a kegerator. Moving an old fridge down 4 narrow flights of stairs is not fun. I recommend you get your biggest friend and prepare to pay him in a lot of free beer. More to come on my kegerator set up; I’ll save that for a later post. So, I got the fridge set up, my CO2 tank filled, invited some friends and headed off to my local brewery to get a fresh keg of beer.

The great Flying Bison brewery only 10 minutes from my house, so I bought a fresh half keg of Baron Von Bisonfest. The Baron is Flying Bison’s Oktoberfest Marzen and is only available in September and October. The beer has a beautiful golden orange color with a foamy rich white head that left white lacing down the side of my glass as the pint went down. The aroma was fresh and malty with a hint of hops. Going down, the beer had a sweet malt taste with a hint of roasted nuts. It finishes slightly dry with some the freshest German hops I have ever tasted that cut the sweetness of the malt leaving you ready for the next sip. Overall the beer was great and you could tell how fresh the beer was. It must have been good beer because my guests and I finished off the whole keg by midnight. Good thing I set a growler aside for myself in the fridge!

TAGS [ OKTOBERFEST | KEGERATOR | DRAFT BEER | FLYING BISON ]

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It’s almost that time of year again; time for Oktoberfest - a true beer drinkers holiday. Oktoberfest celebrations will be held all over the world in the month of October, but the official dates for this year’s celebration from the home of the holiday in Munich, Germany are September 22nd to October 7th.

A special beer is brewed and served at the event called a Märzen or Maerzen. Märzens are lagers that are usually a bit darker and stronger than the more typical styles of lager beer served in Munich, and made to be drunk in large quantities. In 2006, 6.1 million liter mugs of beer were sold at the festival. The beer usually ranges from light to dark amber in color with sweet malts as the dominant characteristic of the style.

Two of my favorite Oktoberfest import brews are from two Munich brewers, Spaten and Paulaner. They are readily available at many supermarkets and beer stores in my area and start appearing in the shelves in early September. Both are a medium amber, very sweet and malty with very little hops. I am not positive that these are the exact beers served at Oktoberfest, but both taste great to me and are very drinkable.

A domestic Oktoberfest brew I enjoy is Saranac’s Octoberfest lager. When poured into glass Saranac’s version of a Märzen has a medium amber color a and light tight head. The nose is malty upfront with a peppery undertone of German Saaz and Tettnag hops. The taste is full of sweet roasted malt that tastes like caramel with a hint of vanilla that is cut off by the spicy bitterness of German hops that pleasantly linger on the pallet. Overall this beer is much more hoppy than German import Oktoberfest Märzen, but equally drinkable.

So grab your favorite Märzen, invite some friends, and have your own little Oktoberfest.

TAGS [ OCTOBERFEST | OKTOBERFEST | BEER | BEER REVIEW ]

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