Weekly Duluth Beer Roundup for June 9, 2014

About a week ago, I talked about wanting to do a weekly post dedicated to the craft beer/brewpub scene here in Duluth/Superior/North Shore Area. Well, consider this to be the first post of (hopefully) many depending on the response that I get. With these posts, I hope I can raise awareness of the craft beer scene here along the North Shore and convince some of you to come up here and try our beer.

They will typically be in lieu of my Minnesota Craft Beer Week posts in terms of formatting. Expect to see mini-reviews of the beers I've had because let's face it, there is no way possible I could review every beer made by every brewery here in-depth because it is literally changing everyday. As such, some beers which I look at may not be available at times because it's either a seasonal, rotating, or a one time only beer.

This week, I have 3 beers from two different breweries: Canal Park Brewing and Fitger's Brewhouse. Next time, I will be sure to take pictures!

Canal Park 40 Acre Saison - Canal Park's Spring Seasonal Saison. This golden colored beer has a very nice Belgian yeast profile with some cracked peppers and pale malts, along with a some floral hop flavors. A bit on the stronger side (7.6% ABV) as far as Saisons go but quite good!

Canal Park Resonation #1 Belgian IPA - One of the newest selections to be added to the Canal Park lineup. The Belgian yeasts profile here is a lot stronger than 40 Acre in terms of intensity. It's also got some fairly strong heavy floral/resin hoppiness to boot. I've been craving some good Belgian IPAs for a while and this fits the bill.

Fitger's Brewhouse Timmy's Edelstoff - The Brewhouse's seasonal Munich Helles Lager and the first Fitger's beer that I've ever had when I first visited my Dad a couple years back when I still lived in Chicago. I've had this beer every year for the past couple of years and it's a lot more hop-forward this year than I recall, almost taking on some EPA-like characteristics. It's got some strong floral hoppiness with a solid pale malt base and a solid yeast and biscuit flavor. With all of that said, I still enjoyed this beer quite a alot and it's always fun to revisit this beer every year!

That's it for the weekly round-up. I promise that next week I will take more photos because I don't like drab looking posts with no visuals to speak of. To anyone reading this, I sincerely hope you get to try these beers out!

Cheers!

- Nick

Brau Brothers Bancreagie Sour Peated Ale Review

Name: Brau Brother Bancreagie Sour Peated Ale
Style: Scotch Ale/Wild Ale
ABV: 11.5%

It seems that every year, Brau Brothers releases a bomber that contains a strong beer. In 2012, it was their Barrel-Aged Quad (which I would sell my soul to have again). In 2013, it was their Rye Wyne, which is best described as Barleywine brewed with rye.

It's been a while since I've really looked in-depth at a Wild Ale, so I figured for this review I'd do something a that's more local with Brau Brothers Bancreagie Sour Peated Ale. This beer is a variation of their regular Bancreagie Scotch Ale but allowed to age for 8 months and was made using lacto fermentation and described as "bigger & smokier" than the regular Bancreagie.

Bancreagie Sour pours a clear yet clear crimson red color with a thin khaki colored head. There is no lacing retention to be seen here and the visible carbonation is subtle.

The nose starts off with a Sangria red wine-like aroma with notes of grapes, apples and cherries with some caramelized malts and vanilla sweetness in the back.

The flavor starts out with a crisp apple and sour cherry fruity sweetness with some sweet vanilla, peated scotch, caramel malts finishing things off. The aftertaste is a tart fruitiness with some noticeable smokiness. Interestingly enough, it's not as sour as the nose led me to believe but still good!

The palate has more of a heavier body to it but it comes with some mild carbonation. That said, I found this to be pretty easy to drink.

Bancreagie Sour is definitely an interesting take on the Wild Ale & Scotch Ale style depending on which point you are viewing it from but concept it works out well in the end. It's got enough sour characteristics to please seasoned Wild Ale veterans yet I think that Scotch Ale side of this beer is prominent enough to warrant the attention of craft beer fans who normally don't care for anything sour in their beers. Since it's not going to be around forever, I would highly suggest picking this up before it's all gone.

Brau Brothers Bancreagie Sour Peated Ale - 9/10

Bad Weather Migration Review

Name: Bad Weather Migration Review
Style: Blonde Ale
ABV: 5%

Today I'm reviewing a beer from a fairly new Minnesota-based brewery called Bad Weather Brewing, which opened it's doors during the second half of 2013. As you may have guessed from the name, most of their beers have a weather-theme to it; After all, we Midwesterners love to talk about the weather! Heck, they were even featured on the Weather Channel this past winter, which you can view on the brewery's website.

For this review, I'm looking at their Migration Ale or Migration Fair Weather Ale if you want to be technical. It's a Blonde Ale brewed with rose hips which, according to Wikipedia, is the fruit of a rose plant. I had no idea that roses could produce fruit, let alone have nutritional value unless you so happen to be a rabbit.

Migration pours a hazy golden color with some moderate visible carbonation. The head is ghostly white and thin and the lacing is quite soapy with no retention.

The nose starts off with a pretty yeast-forward scent with some fairly pungent floral hoppiness, some fruity sweetness which must be from the rose hips and a nice pale maltiness. Even though I have never tasted rose hips before, I can already tell that this isn't your typical Blonde Ale.

Sure enough, the flavor starts out with a fairly strong yeast and floral hop profile, but the fruitiness brought on by the rosehips is unlike anything I've ever seen in a Blonde Ale....and it works out very well! The aftertaste is primarily yeasts, some mild hoppiness and pale malt sweetness.

The palate is considerably light body and heavy in the carbonation department. Though I would've preferred the carbonation to be milder to help one enjoy the flavors, it does provide a nice crisp feel.

I don't consider the Blonde Ale to be a beer style that is most likely to break the mold, but I found this to be very good! The rose hips in particular make this beer stand out amongst others of the same beer classification. If you're ever in Minnesota and so happen to come upon this, then I would highly recommend you try this out!

Bad Weather Migration - 9/10

Great Divide Hercules Double IPA Review

Name: Great Divide Hercules
Style: Imperial IPA
ABV: 10%

It's been a long while since I've reviewed anything from Great Divide Brewing, mainly because they weren't available up here. Now imagine my surprise when I discovered last Friday when I walked into my local liquor store and saw some brand new Great Divide beers sitting on the shelf that had just arrived on the shelves; Which makes me very happy considering that I got this beer from down in Minneapolis just a few weeks back and speaking of which.....

Tonight's beer is Hercules Double IPA, a name which more than likely gets it's name from being a fairly strong Imperial IPA that clocks in at 10% ABV, which I consider to be on the high end of the spectrum in terms of ABVs for this style unless you count Evil Twin's Molotiv Cocktail.

Hercules pours a hazy dark orange color with a fairly thin filmy head. The lacing is what I would describe as moderate and I'm not picking up any visible carbonation. I do, however, see a couple pieces of floating sediment on the bottom of the glass.

The nose has a very strong citrus & piney hop scent with some apricots, mangos and grapefruits. There is some slight maltiness to be had but it's an otherwise very fruity smelling beer.

The flavor is a thankfully more balanced out with a strong citra-hoppiness with some sweet mango and grapefruit fruitness and a much more prominent caramel malt backbone. The aftertaste is a little bit more on the resiny/pine side with some light maltiness thrown in. The palate has very heavy body which comes along with some moderate carbonation.

Hercules is a textbook example of how to do an Imperial IPA correctly when it comes to flavor. If I had to point out one complaint about this beer, it's that the palate could've been just a little bit lighter in terms of weight and carbonation. Aside from that, Hercules is definitely worth checking out if you ever see it on the shelf.

Great Divide Hercules Double IPA - 8.75/10

Victory Old Horizontal Review

Name: Victory Old Horizontal

Style: Barleywine

ABV: 11%

It's been a couple of years since I've dabbled in anything from Victory Brewing Company, but that's all going to change tonight with my review of their Old Horizontal, which is their annual barleywine release. On the top label, there is some small text that says "2013", which gives us the idea that this was brewed in 2013. I bring this up because I didn't start seeing this on shelves until about 2 months ago, which I find odd because either I missed this when it first came out or it wasn't put on shelves until fairly recently.

Old Horizontal pours a hazy dark crimson color with foamy head that settles into thin filmy form and the lacing is quite abundant and sticky.

In the nose, I'm picking up a ton of dark fruit notes with some caramel malts and some fairly strong citrus hoppiness. 

The best way I can describe the flavor is powerful. Not powerful in the boozy sense, but more like "in-your-face" strong. Otherwise it's very much the same as the nose with some dark fruit/plum notes, caramelized malts and strong citrus hops. The only key difference here is that there is more of a pine/resiny flavor kick than in the nose, which is most noticeable in the aftertaste.

The palate is quite hefty with a very thick body and some moderate carbonation. It's one of those barleywines that you really have to take your time with.

Old Horizontal is a pretty good barleywine style ale but the sheer strength of flavor (again, not boozy) may be off-putting to some. I think with some aging this could be an absolutely fantastic beer; I know I'm cellaring one for myself. With that said, even in it's current state, I still think that Old Horizontal warrants your attention if you're looking for something a bit on the stronger side.

Victory Old Horizontal - 8.25/10

Bent Brewstillery Dark Fatha Review

Name: Bent Brewstillery Dark Fatha
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 9.3%

Well after a long weekend of moving and 3 days without an internet connection, I have returned! Since it's my first night back in front of a keyboard, I figured that now would be an appropriate time for a beer review.

About 3 weeks ago, I picked up some beers from down in the Twin Cities and one of the brands I got my hands on was Bent Brewstillery. I have already looked at their Nordic Blonde Ale, which I found to be very good so now I'm taking a look at their Dark Fatha Imperial Stout, or "Emperial Stout" as it's known by on the front of the label. Speaking of which, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the heavy handed Star Wars references present here; They even gave the already pimped-out Darth Vader a gold "tooth," which is original to say the very least.

Dark Fatha pours an opaque black color with a very dark brown head. The lacing retention is very good and there is some minor carbonation climbing up the sides of the glass.

Aroma-wise, it starts off with some nice chocolate malts, a vanilla sweetness, some toffee notes and some moderate roasted barley. The roastiness and malty aspects of the nose are surprisingly well balanced.

With that said, the flavor is fairly similar but with more of a roasty characteristic than before. Aside from that, you have your chocolate malt, vanilla and toffee flavors but with the roasted barley taking more of the center stage. The aftertaste is a mix of sweet vanilla, roastiness and a surprisingly hoppy flavor that comes seemingly out of nowhere.

The palate is a whole is very heavy in terms of body weight with some moderate carbonation. Despite all of this, there beer does contain a surprisingly smooth texture.

While I wish the flavor was just as balanced as the nose, Dark Fatha is still a very good tasting Imperial Stout and it's decently priced (At least what I paid for it.) Anyone looking for a good local Imperial Stout would be wise to check this out

Bent Brewstillery Dark Fatha - 8.5/10

Couple of upcoming changes

Hello fellow readers,

As some of you may already know, I moved this weekend into my brand new place. Right now, I am currently without internet until tomorrow evening at the very earliest and I'm writing this post from my phone.

Anyways, there's going to be some changes made in terms of posts. About a year ago when I moved to Duluth, I mentioned that I would focus more of my posts on the craft beer scene here.
Well, I feel that almost a year later, I have not been holding up my end of the bargin enough. Drawing inspiration from my Minnesota Craft Beer Week posts, I've decided that I'm going to do a ”weekly roundup” post of sorts every week.

The idea is this: Every week, I do a weekly recap of various beers I try at the breweries/brewpubs in the Duluth/Superior area. I'm looking to do 1-2 beers a week, permitting that I'm not too busy with other things going on in my life. These posts would be in addition to my beer reviews, of course!

Thanks once again to all my readers for your patience! With any luck, I'll be back at it tomorrow night.

Cheers!

- Nick