Doggie Claws, IPA, Clovenator

After a little hiatus, here I am, with three new beers to blog about. Along with the two beers Ryan posted about earlier, I brought back another two beers from my trip back to Oregon. The first being from the small but superb Hair of the Dog brewery. Their Blue Dot Imperial IPA is still one of my favorite beers. I had high hopes going into Doggie Claws, their version of a barelywine. Unfortunately, my stupidity led me to pour the yeast at the bottom of the bottle into both mine and Ryan's glass. See, Hair of the Dog beers are bottle conditioned, meaning they will continue to age if you let it. This also means there is a bunch of yeast at the bottom of the bottle that you aren't supposed to pour into your glass. I was looking forward to this beer too, recieving an average of A- from BeerAdvocate. What I can tell you though is that the beer looks to have had a golden color. The taste also had a strong carmel flavor to it but because of my mistake, I cannot properly give my opinion on the beer. Maybe next time.

Anyways, the second beer I brought back was the West Coast IPA by Green Flash Brewery. This beer smelled great. It had a great strong hop smell that I liked. The beer poured a golden orange with an off white head. One first taste, you will realize that all the citrus hops you smelled was just a preview of what was to come. This is a seriously hoppy beer. It was also a seriously bitter beer, leaving a bitterness that stayed at the back of my tongue. It was like I had a sour candy in my mouth, constantly making it water. There is some sweetness up front but it quickly fades into a citrusy hop kick. Now, I like hoppy beers, but this is even a little too bitter for me. It didn't have enough of a malty backbone to balance out the hops. This beer is definitly a sipper.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go to a local restaurant here to celebrate a friend's birthday. The restaurant specializes in Austrian food and has probably the largest portions ever. Anyways, to my surprise, they also brew beer! Well, technically they aren't a brewery as they don't have a liquor license (BYOB), but the employees are brewers themselves. We were given a free sample of a new beer one of them had brewed. I don't remember much of the color other than it was fairly dark. It was supposed to be brewed in the style of a winter warmer. I was also told that the nickname given to the beer was the "clovenator". I tried it and, wow, what an aptly named beer. Cloves were pretty much the only thing you tasted. It wasn't a bad beer, just unique.

Until next time, here's a few pictures of the beers Ryan and I talked about.

Tuesdays with Zeno

Phil and I decided to head out into the State College snow to Zeno's tonight.

Last Friday, owner Dave gave me a sample of Dogfish Head Red & White, a Belgian Wit brewed with coriander and orange, fermented with Pinot Noir juice, and aged in oak casks (89% of the batch) and Pinot barrels(the remaining 11%, then the batches are mixed). Needless to say I had to try this one again, a full 10 oz. pour, so I did tonight.

Poured a murky, orangish-amber -- quite cloudy-- with a half finger head into a globe glass. Smell: citrus, pleasantly sweet, a little typical Belgium ester essence. First taste: sweet, wow this is sweet, but not cloying. I could tell from the first sip that there's a lot going on. Sweetness fades into a little orangy citrus, other fruity/florally qualities: maybe pear? I let this sit and warm for a bit, and the head gave way to a nice outer ring with moderate lacing. This is a great beer to look at. As it warmed, I picked up a little more fruit (typical trippel-style tastes) and also some vanilla on the finish. Then some notes of Pinot began to appear as well. Overall quite tasty. The mix of oak aging and Pinot is really interesting, unique. And at 10 % this was dangerously drinkable. Glad to have tried it.

Sadly my next two didn't quite live up to the first, though they were both Pa. brews -- a real plus in my book -- and fairly tasty.

#2. East End Big Hop (draft), from the tiny East End Brewery in Pittsburgh.
Poured a dark reddish amber. A creamy 3/4 in. head with very tight carbonation. Another gem to look at. But the smell and flavor just aren't there. Frankly, there's not much aroma: faint citrus, a little sweet grain. First taste: astringent, slightly pineapple bitterness up front. I really wanted to like this more than I did. Very muted, subtle hop flavor with a malty, caramel finish. I could have a few, definitely, if in the right company. Nothing great, though.

#3. Otto's Spruce Creek Lager (draft), from Otto's Brewpub in State College
Wasn't sure what to expect here. Beer Advocate calls this a Vienna lager. I grew up stopping at Spruce Creek Tavern, home of the famous tray of fries, en route to Penn State games, though, so the name reached out to me. Poured a yellowish, apple cider amber. Minimal head, no lacing-- could be the glass. Smells grainy, sweet. First taste: a little malt, a little caramel, fades into grain. Very quaffable, but not great. Having drunk the first two, I can't do this beer its proper justice, so I'll just leave it at that.

Here's Phil's take:

Tonight was definitely fun. I got to try three different beers, all very unique and tasty in their own right. First up, Old Dominion Oak Barrel Stout (draft).

This beer poured a nice black color with a big, creamy head. The first smell you get from the beer is a dark chocolate with roasted malts. Not surprisingly, the beer tasted exactly how it smelled. It had an incredibly rich, creamy texture while tasting like dark chocolate. There was very slight bitter hops at the end but nothing overpowering. As the Stout warmed, it developed an almost milky vanilla, adding to the complexity.

The De Ranke XX Bitter (draft) was my second beer for the night-- completely different from the Old Dominion before it. It poured a golden color with a nice thick head; it was fit for a king. The beer gave off a unique minty aroma while also having hints of apple cider. The beer ended up tasting like the smell, almost a herbal medicine quality to it. This beer was also considerably more bitter than the Oak Barrel Stout. As it warmed though, the slight metallic bitterness eased up which helped its drinkability.

Finally, quite possibly the most interesting for last, Hair of the Dog Adam. Now, before I describe the beer, I should give you a little background. Hair of the Dog is a small brewery from Portland, OR. You should have seen the look on my face when I realized that Zeno's had a few bottles of their beer. You see, Hair of the Dog doesn't distribute outside the west coast and a few random places, so I was incredibly surprised to see it here. I figured that the only way Zeno's could have this beer was if one of the owners had gone to Oregon and brought some back. The bottle that was brought to me confirmed my suspicions: it was a bottle of Adambier from batch 63. The beer is currently around Batch 72 so by my calculations, the beer that I was holding was at least four years old. My mouth watered as I anticipated the opening of a bottle conditioned beer aged for a few years.

I was not to be disappointed.

Hair of the Dog Adam Batch 63 (bottle) has some of the most unique smells and tastes that I have ever had the pleasure to come across. This is not your "get drunk" beer (although it will get you close). This beer is very strong and was probably more then the original 10% abv when I drank it. This beer is something you have while relaxing by a fireplace and reading a book. It is akin to sipping on a fine cognac. The beer immediately hits your senses as you pour it into a glass. It has a very thick and sweet smell, almost like dried fruits. The beer has a nice dark color with a bubbly head that dissapears quickly. The taste is similar to what you smell. It is a mix of dried fruit sweetness, roasted malts and alcohol. Ryan even mentions that it reminds him of a chocolate cake with bacon bits that he had a chance to try at a local Austrian restaurant.

All in all, it was a good night with good beer. Remember, enjoy the beers you drink and don't be afraid to try something new every once in a while. There are so many different kinds of beer out there that it would be a shame to limit yourself to a few.

Introductions are in order

So we've welcomed you to the place, but we forgot some vital info: Who are these guys?

As my creative handle makes clear, my name's Ryan, and as I alluded to in the first post, I'm a college student. More specifically, a senior at Penn State, smack dab in the middle of Pennsylvania -- not exactly a beer lover's haven, but we'll talk more about that another time. (SC is making big strides.)

My favorite beer? I probably haven't tasted it yet. I like a big, hopped-up monster of a beer, but I really respect when someone can brew a complex, tasty, low-alcohol session that intrigues the taste buds without overpowering. There's much to be said about subtlety. I also tend to lean domestic rather than imported. Decades ago America's cities boasted a bounty of small, local breweries producing palatable -- not great by any means -- beer. In 1910 there were nearly 1,600 active breweries dotting the American landscape. By 1980 that number dwindled to 82... only 82! That seven-decade span, buffeted by Prohibition, was nasty for American beer. But we've been saved from that calamity by a surge of American craft brewers making very good beer, so why not, as a way of saying thanks, support them?

Though I won't pin down a favorite, a few have piqued my interest more than most. A year ago, Phil brought a bottle of Hair of the Dog Brewery (Portland, Ore.) Blue Dot Double IPA, 7% abv., back to State College after Winter break. Citrusy, pineapply-deliciousness in a glass. Thing is, you can't get Blue Dot anywhere near Pa., which might actually be a good thing. Getting a taste of it only once a year, if that, adds to its hoppy mystique. Hopefully Phil's nice enough to keep supplying me with my yearly fix.

Well, that's enough for now. I'm really not that interesting. Beer, on the other hand, is.