Day 653: The Bruery Sour in the Rye

I really need to start giving myself more to work with than the following helpful hints:
post goes here (JD Salinger)

After mulling it over, I think I may have wanted to draw a parallel between Sour in the Rye and Catcher in the Rye, but at this point...who the hell knows.

Dear brain,
     Write better notes for the blog.
                                  Love, Me

Tonight's beer is The Bruery's Sour in the Rye, which is a sour rye ale aged in oak. It pours a warm, chestnut color with a medium, quick to disappear ivory head. The smell has a wonderful sourness with sweet fruity esters. There's also lots of rye in the nose.

The flavor is dry and mouth-puckeringly sour. I wrote bracing in my notes, which isn't a word I often use but in this case, it was absolutely perfect. I can easily taste the oak. There's a good lemony sourness. Then I found this in my notes:  nTextP � n e ��} � T /p>

Aliens are trying to communicate with me through my draft posts. That's the only obvious answer, right?

Beer stats

Style: Sour ale
AGV: 7.8%
IBUs: Unknown
Rating: Excellent

Previously reviewed from The Bruery
Five Golden Rings, Oude Tart, Tart of Darkness, Hottenroth

Day 548: Sweetwater Low Ryeder

Yeah, this photo pretty much sums up my evenings.

Today's beer is the Low Ryeder IPA from SweetWater Brewing Company -- a rye IPA. Per SweetWater's description, it is: "A flame throwin’ Rye IPA ignited by a 25% shot of rye malt and capped by a booty hoppin’ blast of Mt Hood and Centennial hops that makes this IPA bounce!"

It poured a deep golden color ale with a slight haze and a medium white head. There was a bit of sticky lacing left behind. It has an orange and hop aroma and the flavor falls in line with that. Lots of citrus (orange) hops. It's a bit bready. And there's a little sweetness hanging around.

Beer stats
Style: Rye IPA
ABV: 6.2%
IBUs: 45
Rating: Good

Day 466: Two Brothers' Cane & Ebel

Typos and consistency errors physically pain me. Is that strange? If I find an error in one of my posts on this blog--no matter how innocuous or how long ago--I die a thousand deaths. OK. I have a problem. I need help.

Tonight's beer review features Cane & Ebel, which is brewed by Two Brothers Brewing Company. As you can tell from the photo, I found it at TJ's. 

Eventually I'll fix this photo. My computer currently
hates me and won't actually save any changes.

Cane & Ebel is a red rye ale. It poured a cola color with a good tan head. There was immense amounts of sticky lacing all down my glass. The smell was pine hops, rye, and green bell peppers. This isn't the first beer review that I wrote that includes peppers; see proof in my review of Stone's Vertical Epic ale.The flavor was green vegetables and grass with lots of hop. It's also kind of sweet but sharp in flavor with the rye.

The description of this beer on Two Brothers' beer page is awesome: Dry, but with a creamy touch of Thai palm sugar and the spicy tang of rye, all balanced by loads of the wackiest new hops we could lay our hands on. Yep, it's an original. And that's no sin.

Beer stats

Style: Red rye ale

ABV: 7%

IBUs: 68

Rating: Excellent

Previously reviewed beer from Two Brothers

A collaboration between Two Brothers and Brasserie Castelain, Diversey and Lill(e)

My Dream Team

Beer #235 RyePA / Fifty Fifty Brewing Company, Truckee, CA

As we approach the two thirds point on our beer journey, I figured it might be time to recap where my version of the Top 25 currently stands.  As always, you can use the tags on the right hand side to navigate to this list, in addition to specific styles, breweries, states, and a whole mess of other topics.  In no particular order:

- Brouwerij van Steenberge / Tripel van de Garre
- Brouwerij Rodenbach / Grand Cru
- Anchorage Brewing Company / Bitter Monk
- Brasserie Fantome / Fantome Saison
- Oskar Blues Brewery / Dale's Pale Ale
- Brouwerij Verhaeghe / Duchesse du Bourgogne
- New Holland Brewing Company / Blue Sunday Sour
- Brouwerij Huyghe / Delirium Tremens
- Wells and Young's Brewing Company / Wells Bombadier
- Bell's Brewery / Oberon Ale
- Leelanau Brewing Company / Good Golden Harbor
- Brouwerij Oud Beersel / Oud Gueuze
- Brouwerij Saint Bernardus / Tripel
- Gueuzerie Tilquin / Oud Gueuze Tilquin
- Firestone Walker Brewing Company / Fourteenth Anniversary Ale
- Bear Republic Brewing Company / Barrel 45 Wet Hop Wild Racer 5
- Anchor Brewing / Anchor Steam
- Cascade Brewing Barrel House / Sang Noir
- Russian River Brewing Company / Supplication
- Hill Farmstead Brewery / Harlan

There you have it, twenty brewery/beer combinations so far... hard to say what I'd remove from this list if I find six or more top beers, but I'll cross that bridge when necessary.  Heavily weighted in the sours, but I'm on board with that, as they can be incredibly complex and enjoyable all at once.

With that recap out of the way, it's time to keep the wheels turning.  Tonight's beer is the RyePA from Fifty Fifty Brewing, which is on draft at Whole Foods.  It pours a hazy amber color with a persistent white head.  You're greeted by aromas of rye, malt, and citrus.  There are flavors of lemon, grapefruit, and spice, with some malt sweetness and a dry, bitter finish.  Really nice beer, very well done. While this beer won't be joining the Top 25 today, it's definitely an outstanding beer that you should drink if and when you can.

Thanks, Whole Foods!

Originally when I saw this brewery, it made me think of cheeseburgers.  As in Slaters 50/50 burger (famous for their 50% ground meat 50% ground bacon burger mix), which isn't just a Top 25 choice; it was the greatest cheeseburger I've ever eaten in my life.  Ever.  However, no relation between the brewery and the burger.  Although, if they wanted to ship me a 50/50 burger and throw in some Fifty Fifty beer, I'd be in heaven.

Thing to Think About Today:
We ended last night on a downer, with a terrible bit of sportsmanship.  For those who want even more poor sportsmanship, check the highlights from yesterday's badminton "scandal", where teams tried to outdo each other in losing so they would get an easier draw.  Honestly, watching them hit the shuttlecock into the net in that video is like watching your drunk relatives try to play at a family picnic.  It's at once comical, sad, embarrassing, and devoid of any talent.

Instead, let's think about the greatest Olympic basketball moment ever, the 1992 Dream Team.  A group brought together to absolutely destroy the competition, this team featured eleven future Hall of Fame members (um, and Christian Laettner!) and showed the world what truly elite athletes can do when they come together as a team.  Sure, the 2012 team seems primed to win the gold medal, but it's the 1992 team that helped elevate basketball to it's position as a global sport.  For an excellent read on the topic, check this recent GQ article.  To watch the greatest team ever go to town.... just click the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMxUWmgm6wY

Beer 235: FiftyFifty RyePA

Tonight's beer of choice is the RyePA from FiftyFifty Brewing Company. It's a west coast style IPA. Despite that fact, Gary sold me on it by saying it was a very malty IPA. When will I learn? I drank just enough for the review and he's in the couch possibly making love to this beer. (sigh)


Since it came in a Whole Foods growler, I didn't bother to include anything other than the glass of beer in the photo. It poured a hazy apricot color with a full off white head. It smells of citrus hops and very faintly of caramel. The flavor is bitter and strong hops first, then hints of rye and some malt smoothness. It also finished very hoppy. West coast indeed. I did notice that as it warmed up a bit, the rye was more noticeable in the aroma.

While the RyePA wasn't my kind of beer, there are a number of other offerings from FiftyFifty that I would love to try. Cheers!

Beer #23: Arcadia Sky High Rye Ale or The End of My World As I Know It

I love R.E.M. and I love Penn State. Both of those worlds came to an end in the past year and I do not feel fine. I've had enough loss in my life this past year and I don't want to deal with any more.

I'm going to focus my maudlin writing on PSU today because I just watched them get handed their asses by Houston. Ugh. Houston. Big East, really?? There were moments of Penn State genius but there were way too many Bolden-induced, cringe-worthy, why-the-fuck-do-I-bother moments as well. And I am fearful that the latter is going to become the norm starting in 2012.

JoePa is out. Tom Bradley is most likely out. Larry Johnson, Galen Hall...seriously everything I know to be true about Penn State football is null and void. I'm losing a significant portion of my identity with these changes and it hurts my soul. Ugh.
***
Today I spent some time sampling beers at TJ's Everyday and watching football. TJ's has an amazing selection of beer and I highly recommend it...especially for happy hour when they have "keg kickers" on draft. Great beer at stupid low prices.

I tried Arcadia Ales's Sky High rye ale today. Based solely on the description of rye ale, I expected a dark, porter-esque beverage.  Hmmm....I was totes wrong.  It arrived at the table all apricot in color smelling of hops.  Wow...did I pick wrong.  A good sniff of the glass gave me hops and fruit...perhaps it was my assessment of apricot color that made me think it actually smelled like apricots, but either way I was still disappointed.  It was nicely carbonated and smooth in consistency.  I would give it a medium rating on the hop-scale and it definitely had that hoppy-bitterness.

If you like hoppy beers, it would be a great beer.  I, however, do not and was disappointed.  Kind of goes with the theme of the day, huh?

I read the Beer Advocate notes and it's like we were tasting two different beers.  This is an interesting point because I went to TJ's specifically to try a new beer and then to spend the rest of the day sipping on a Stillwater Stateside Saison.  The Stateside Saison was phenomenal out of the bottle but really disappointed me on draft.  Why?  Why???