Summit True Brit IPA Review

Name: Summit True Brit IPA
Style: English IPA
ABV: 6.4%

Tonight I'm going to review what I consider to be a timeless classic from Summit Brewing's line-up: their True Brit IPA, an English Style IPA as you may have guessed from the name. Now it wasn't always called "True Brit"; In fact, prior to their image and label overhaul, it was simply called Summit India Pale Ale.

Then much like the rest of the beers in Summit's lineup, each one received a facelift, a couple got a name change, and one beer (Horizon Red) even received a different recipe change. However, True Brit just changed in it's name only.

True Brit pours a clear orange color with a foamy head that eventually becomes filmy while still maintaining retention. The visible carbonation is pretty mild carbonation and the lacing left behind is quite good.

In the nose, I'm picking up on some fairly strong caramel malts which are back up by citrus hops, grapefruit notes, and some light toffee notes.

Flavor-wise, it’s very caramel malt forward, which is to be expected out of an English IPA. Luckily the citrus & piney hops help bring balance to the overall flavor. The palate is pretty light overall and the carbonation is also very mild. It's a pretty easy easy-to-drink IPA overall.

True Brit is a good example as to how to do an English IPA correctly. It doesn't do anything exciting necessarily but it tastes great and it's easy to drink and honestly, that's what having a good beer is all about.

Summit True Brit IPA - 8.5/10

Laughing Dog The Dogfather Review

Name: Laughing Dog The Dogfather
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 10.85%

For this review, I'm trying out my very first beer from Laughing Dog Brewery, who have recently just started distributing our area. From what I've gathered, every beer they make has some reference to dogs, hence the brewery name. They are also the first brewery I have tried out that is based out of Idaho, a state which is best known for potatoes and Napoleon Dynamite.

For my first go with this brewery, I decided to take a look at The Dogfather, an Imperial Stout aged in bourbon barrels. Now before I begin I wanted to point this out. When I first saw the name and label, the first thing that popped into my head was this....

Don't tell Snoop Dogg....er, Lion

The Dogfather pours a pitch black color with a thin filmy brown head. I'm not picking up any visible carbonation but the lacing left behind is abundant and sticky.

The nose consists of a rich scent of chocolate malts, oak, vanilla, bourbon and some roasted barley. A bit boozy smelling but pleasant nonetheless.

In the flavor, things get a bit more interesting. It starts out with some chocolate, vanilla bourbon and oak notes, which are of course followed up with a nice roasted barley taste. However when it comes to the aftertaste, I'm getting a surprisingly strong piney & bitter hop flavor (for an Imperial Stout.) Mind you this is accompanied by a chocolate and roasted barley taste, but the strength of the hops in the aftertaste caught me off guard just a little bit. It is a bit boozy in the flavor but it's fairly minor.

The palate has a fairly heavy body with some mild carbonation. All of this gives it a nice creamy feel and makes drinking this just a little bit too easy...

After having this, I can safely say that The Dogfather is a very tasty and well put together Imperial Stout. As mentioned earlier, it does taste a little boozy but any seasoned Imperial Stout fan will no doubt find something to love with this beer.

Laughing Dog The Dogfather - 9/10

Deschutes Red Chair NWPA Review

Name: Deschutes Red Chair NWPA
Style: American Pale Ale
ABV: 6.2%

It's time to look at what I consider to be Deschutes Brewing's most popular Spring Seasonal offering: Red Chair NWPA, which is classified as an American Pale Ale. NWPA is an acronym for Northwest Pale Ale, but I'll be sticking with NWPA because it's easier to type.

I remember having Red Chair NWPA on tap a couple years ago down in Cannon Falls, MN after touring the Cannon River Winery, who by the way make fantastic wines. This is my first time having it in a bottle so let's see how this holds up.

Red Chair NWPA pours a hazy orange color with a thin soapy head, which has pretty good retention. The visible carbonation is quite high and it's leaves behind some pretty good lacing!

The nose is quite citrus hop forward with pale malts, light toffee mild floral hops and yeasts. If it weren't for the yeasty aspect, I would say this smells an awful lot like a traditional West Coast-style IPA.

With the flavor, I'm picking up on some pungent citrus hop notes, toffee, yeasts, and pale malts. The aftertaste is a bittersweet citra-hop flavor. The palate with this one is quite heavy body and moderately carbonated.

When you consider everything: The aroma, flavor and even the palate; It's pretty much got one foot already inside the West Coast IPA territory, with the other being in American Pale Ale. With that said, Red Chair NWPA is still a very good beer that's worth checking out.

Deschutes Red Chair NWPA - 8.5/10

Summit Maibock Review

Name: Summit Maibock
Style: Maibock/Helles Bock
ABV: 6.7%

Even though we had about a foot of snowfall yesterday (which has miraculously melted away by now), Spring is very much here....for the most part. So in honor of spring technically here, I've got myself a Summit Brewing Spring Sampler pack for us to look at.

Since I've already reviewed Summit Extra Pale Ale, I've decided I'm going to first take a look at their Maibock beer. Now I'm just going to give you a heads up, I consider this to be my favorite seasonal offering from Summit. It goes without saying that this is my first time actually giving this beer a proper review.

Summit Maibock pours a bright hazy yellow color with a nice, white, soapy head. The lacing left behind on the sides of the glass is pretty good and the visible carbonation teeters between mild and moderate.

The aroma starts things off with some strong pale malts, yeasts, light honey, mild floral hop notes and just a hint of toffee. To me, it smells like spring in the form of a beer.

The flavor,  much like the nose, starts out with some strong sweet malt notes, followed up by some yeasts, light honey, floral hops and a very slight earthiness. The aftertaste is a light but pleasant honey and floral hoppiness.

The palate is quite light in terms of body weight body with mild carbonation. Combined with the flavor, this makes it a very easy-to-drink and refreshing beer.

Every spring, I look forward to having this beer time and time again and for good reason. It's got a great flavor, it smells awesome, and it's extremely refreshing and easy to drink. I wish Summit would make this a year round offering but as the old Rolling Stones song goes: You can't always get what you want. Seriously though, if you haven't had this yet, you owe it to yourself to try it out.

Summit Maibock - 9/10

Avery Collaboration Not Litigation Review

Name: Avery Collaboration Not Litigation
Style: Belgian Dark Strong Ale
ABV: 8.9%

Even though it's a couple days late (Hey I'm a busy guy), I bring to you the One Year Anniversary review: Avery Collaboration Not Litigation; A Belgian Dark Strong Ale as the end result of a collaboration between Avery Brewing Company and Russian River Brewing Company. It's a beer that I have been wanting to try out for quite a while, mostly due to the fact that Russian River had a hand in making this beer. Plus this is the closest I'll get to having one of their beers until I have the money to visit Russian River or unless someone wants to do a beer trade.

The story behind the name is that each respective brewer mentioned above found out that the other made a beer called Salvation. The two breweries decided that rather than waste their time trying to sue the pants off of each other, they saw this as an opportunity to make a collaboration beer. A nice, feel good story when you consider the fact that a new lawsuit involving two different craft brewers seems to pop up almost everyday.

Originally I was going to try and procure a Game of Thrones beer as there have been several made since I reviewed Iron Throne Blonde Ale for my first review, but I figured this would have to do!

Collaboration pours a dark hazy mahogany color with a thin filmy head. The lacing left behind is rather sparse and visible carbonation is moderate in appearance.

The aroma has consists mainly of some fairly strong Belgian yeast notes, citrus hops, cloves, toffee, caramel malts and a slight bubblegum sweetness. Definitely a stronger focus on the hoppy and malty aspect of the flavors compared to the original Avery Salvation.

The flavor is still very Belgian yeast & clove forward, pretty much like the original but I'm also picking up on some prominent caramel malt notes, bubblegum sweetness and citrus hoppiness. The aftertaste is a mild Belgian yeastiness flavor. Pretty interesting considering the original Salvation had a rather piney hop aftertaste.

The overall palate is pretty heavy with some fairly moderate, fizzy carbonation which helps bring out the flavors just a little bit more.

Even though I love Salvation, I think I love this beer just a little bit more mainly because it's got a much more complex flavor, which at the same time, is very well balanced. Since it is just a seasonal beer, it is very much worth checking out if you happen to stumble upon it!

Avery Collaboration Not Litigation - 9.5/10

The Duluth Experience Presents: The North Shore Craft Beer Roundtable Part 2 – Crafting the North Shore Beer Scene

On April 13th The Duluth Experience will host the second of its four live panel discussions covering the business and art of craft brewing and the rise of the North Shore Craft Beer Scene. The second panel – Crafting the North Shore Beer Scene – will focus on the craftsmen and women creating delicious concoctions of water, malt, hops and yeast that give the local craft beer scene its unique flavor.

The event will bring together five prominent local brewers for a candid discussion on the art of craft brewing:

• Dave Hoops - Fitger’s Brewhouse 
• Dale Kleinschmidt - Lake Superior Brewing Company
• Jason Baumgarth - Carmody Irish Pub and Brewing
• Jeremy King - Canal Park Brewing Company 
• Brian Schanzenbach - Blacklist Brewing

Moderated by The Duluth Experience’s Tim Wilson, the discussion will cover the key elements that make the North Shore Scene unique, future trends in craft brewing, the collaborative and cooperative community of brewers elevating the region’s prominence in the industry, and the challenges and opportunities that make the scene’s past, present, and future so exciting. The events are designed to provide behind-the-scenes perspectives on the regional craft beer community and showcase the great people involved in pushing the North Shore Craft Beer Scene to the forefront of the expanding craft beer industry in Minnesota.

The event will be held from 1-2pm at Duluth’s Teatro Zuccone in the Zeitgeist Arts Building at 222 East Superior Street on April 13th. Tickets for each event are only $5 and all proceeds from the event will be donated to a local charity. For more information about the North Shore Craft Beer Roundtable call (218) 464-6337 or visit The Duluth Experience website at: www.theduluthexperience.com/special-
events/craft-beer-roundtable/

If you happen to be in town next Sunday or have nothing else better to do, I encourage you to come on down, learn about one of the fastest growing industries in our area, and there will be free beer too!

I hope to see you all there, Cheers!

- Nick

Happy One Year Anniversary from Nick's Beer Blog!!

When I first started this blog after getting off of work exactly one year ago today, I had no idea what was in store for me. In fact, I created the blog originally for just posting beer reviews and giving my two cents as to what I thought of a certain beer. After all, I had posting reviews on Beer Advocate for a couple of years and I figured it was the best way to reach people.

Since then, it has taken off in ways I never could've even imagined and I've met some truly awesome people along the way. I'm very excited for what the future has in store for me and I can't wait to see where I go.

There will be no beer reviews tonight, but I have something special planned for tomorrow night so be sure to check that out.

So on behalf of myself, thank you so much for all of your support. I'm truly grateful to have such a wonderful readership base and a shout-out to the people who have helped make this blog as successful as it has become!

Cheers!

- Nick