NYC Craft Beer Fest – Winter Edition Preview

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Nick Ladd

Winter Harvest – December 1

I love winter beer. I love beer festivals. When you combine the two, magical things happen. December 1st is the NYC Craft Beer Festival – Winter Edition which fulfills the festival half of the equation, but seems a bit light on the ‘winter’ half of the equation.

Gauging from the beer list that has been published, it looks to be pretty similar in size and scope to The Brooklyn Pour I attended in early October. I count 109 different beers or ciders from 64 different breweries. Frankly, for a festival billing itself as ‘featuring winter seasonal beers’, the list is very light on winter warmers or other body-warming styles of beer. The list is dominated by flagship brands with relatively few options to try things out of the ordinary or not readily available. Judging from the brands represented it seems that most are being brought by distributors and not the actual breweries themselves; a lost opportunity for breweries to win over the types of rabid beer lovers that attend these events. Mediocre list aside, there are a handful of gems on the list:

Dark Horse – Reserve Special Black Ale
Founders – Breakfast Stout – Commonly available, but oh, so delicious.
Heavy Seas – Loose Cannon – Not a Winter beer, but still outstanding.
Great Divide – Hibernation – One of the best winter warmers out there.
Maine Beer Co. – Peeper Ale – Not a Winter beer, but a great American Pale Ale.
Sly Fox – Christmas Ale – Solid winter beer.
Victory – Storm King – Classic Russian Imperial Stout

Originally scheduled for early November, Hurricane Sandy forced a change of date and venue. The organizers will be holding a supply drive for those in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens.

I’ll be there with a full review after the event has come and gone.

Founder’s Harvest Ale Review

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Nick Ladd

2012 Founder’s Harvest Ale

When it comes to fresh (wet) hopped beers, I am a very difficult consumer to please. The majority of wet-hopped beers I’ve tried have a distinct ‘dirty’ flavor that I do not enjoy. It is a flavor that is hard to describe, but one I chalk up to the massive amount of raw plant material that tends to go into these beers. For lack of a better word, I tend to call it chlorophyll-like. Some people like this flavor, but I tend to enjoy bright, clean hop flavors. Founders managed to impress me with this beer by avoiding a lot of the flavors I find rough or harsh in wet-hopped beers.

Beer Data:

Purchased: 11/3/12 at Bierkraft ($16.50 / 4-pack)
Consumed: 11/3/12
Bottled: 10/4/12
Alcohol: 6.5% ABV

Commercial Description from Website:

This liquid dream pours a hazy golden straw color with a white, two-finger head. Your first sip rewards you with a super juicy hop presence bursting with fresh citrus, then finishes to introduce toasted malt undertones.

Tasting Notes:

Aroma: Sweet orange peel and tangerine dominate the nose. There is a touch of pine resin and light grapefruit as well. Aromas are clean and defined; not dirty at all. The hop intensity is somewhat subdued compared to other IPAs. Very light malt sweetness. 8 / 12

Appearance: The golden appearance alludes to the fact there isn’t going to be a ton of darker caramel malt or toasty flavors in this beer. Clear, but not brilliantly so. White persistent head. 3 / 3

Flavor: The hop flavor is lighter than what the nose foreshadowed. Grapefruit flavors are much more apparent on the palate along with some light tropical fruits (pineapple). The bitterness is firm, but moderate for the style. There is a light toasty / crust-like malt character. No caramel or alcohol flavors. There is a hint of dirty chlorophyll-like flavors. 14 / 20

Mouth Feel: Very light, crisp, and dry body. Medium carbonation with a slight amount of astringent bitterness. 3 / 5

Overall Impression: Harvest is an enjoyable light and clean IPA. The hop flavor is balanced and doesn’t overwhelm you, making it quite sessionable (if that is possible for a beer of 6.5% ABV). Founders managed to avoid much of the negative flavors which I get in a lot of wet-hopped beers. If the hop intensity was dialed up and the roughness of the bitterness toned down a hair, this would be an outstanding beer. That being said, this beer is very good. 7 / 10

Score: 35 / 50 (Very Good)

Note: Evaluation done according to BJCP Scoring System. This beer was reviewed as a Category 14b American IPA.

From the Cellar: 2010 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Nick Ladd

2010 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot was one of the beers that originally showed me the interesting evolution a well-crafted beer goes through as it ages. When fresh, Bigfoot is brash and hoppy, making no excuses for its intense bitterness, citrusy hops, and big alcohol. As it ages, the hops become more integrated and nuanced while allowing the complex malt to sing. The interplay of slow micro-oxidation with the malt and alcohol begins to create wonderful fruit and sherry-like notes that turn this beer into something very different than its fresh self. Straight off the packaging line, or with a couple years age, this is a delicious beer. Drink some fresh, but stash away a few to drink slowly and see what time can do to a well-crafted beer such as this.

Availability: Winter
Bottled: 2010
Alcohol: 9.6% ABV

Commercial Description from Website:

Our award-winning barleywine boasts a dense, fruity bouquet, an intense flavor palate and a deep reddish-brown color. Its big maltiness is superbly balanced by a wonderfully bittersweet hoppiness.

Tasting Notes:

Aroma: Big rich malt hits you first–reminiscent of thick dark caramel, molasses, biscuits, and toasted bread crust. There is a lot of fruit in here as well: prunes, light apricot, and a hint of lychee. The aroma is heavy and complex with plenty of oxidized sherry-like notes. Very little alcohol is apparent as are a hint of piney hops. 11 / 12

Appearance: Hazy somewhat muddy brown color with some rust-like hues. Upon pouring, a tightly bubbled tan head forms that persists until the end–quite impressive for a high alcohol beer. 3 / 3

Flavor: The flavor follows the aroma with superb rich malt and sherry-like flavors. There are more hops apparent in the flavor, but they are a shadow of their former self with some pine-needle like and slightly citrusy flavors. The hops are very apparent in the firm bitterness that is present. 17 / 20

Mouth Feel: This beer has a big sticky mouth feel that finishes just on the sweet-side of dry due to the big bitterness still present in the beer. 4 / 5

Overall Impression: This beer manages to be complex in different ways at both a young and well-aged stage in its life. At either age, it is not a subtle beer. The flavors are intense, the alcohol is big, and the overall impression makes you want to sit back and take your time sipping and dissecting the layers of flavor present in the beer. This is truly the best example of an American Barley Wine that I can think of. 10 / 10

Score: 45 / 50 (Outstanding)

Note: Evaluation done according to BJCP Scoring System. This beer was reviewed as a Category 19c. American Barley Wine.

Fall 2012 Brooklyn Wort Recap

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Nick Ladd

The Fall 2012 edition of the bi-annual The Brooklyn Wort was held this past Saturday, October 27th at Public Assembly, a venue in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Wort is an attempt to combine two of my favorite things: a homebrew competition and a beer festival. Local homebrewers sign up and pay an entry fee to serve 5-gallons of their beer to the public and have it judged by both professional brewers and industry insiders. There is a $1000 purse at stake, with a portion awarded by a professional judging panel and a portion awarded based on the popular vote of festival attendees.

Ticket prices include pretty good tacos from Cemita’s.

From the general public’s perspective, this event looks like a lot of other beer festivals. You choose one of two sessions to attend and pay a $35 entry fee to sample twenty-five different homebrews and eat a light meal (two tacos from Cemita’s Mexican Sandwiches and Tacos). You are given a tear sheet of tickets to give to each brewer in exchange for a sample as well as an empty slip to register your personal vote for the best beer.

Crowded…

First impressions are important. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the venue there was a large slow moving line that took nearly 20 minutes to get through. Within the venue, homebrewers were set up in two different rooms, both of which were way too small to accommodate the crowds on hand. Getting to the actual tables in order to receive a sample required quite a bit of maneuvering through the oversold crowd. Do not attend this event if you are claustrophobic or short on patience. When I showed up for the second tasting of the day, there was still a considerable number of people lingering from the first session, which significantly exasperated the problem.

Overcrowding and comfort aside, the most important part of a beer festival is the quality of the beer. In many ways I think the quality of the homebrew being served very much echoes the quality of homebrew in general. Homebrewing is still very much in its nascent stages with the quality improving every year, which means events like this are often a mixed bag. Of course, in a lot of ways you could say the same thing about a commercial craft beer festival. I managed to taste 22 of the 25 beers being served. Of these 22 I rated:

5 Great – Would drink well next to solid commercial beers.
5 Good – Comparable to an average commercial beer.
7 Below average. Some technical flaws or balance problems. Comparable to a handful of bad commercial beers.
5 had serious infections or off-flavors. I ran into some seriously phenolic beers, beers tasting like DMS (rotten cabbage), unintentionally sour beers, and beers with big diacetyl problems.

I had a great time chatting with the actual brewers and hearing their reasoning behind recipe formulation. I loved that many brewers were looking for genuine, unabashed feedback on their beers, and that many brought in their recipe sheets. When people ask my opinion (we all have one), it is difficult to tell whether they really want to hear what you are perceiving or simply want a pat on the back. I try to read people, but tend to give my opinion when asked (good or bad). Carefully articulated, honest feedback is the only way to become a better brewer. If you ask for my opinion, you should be willing to take it–good or bad. I expect the same treatment for every beer I make.

My top five brewers and beers:

Rye Rye My Darling (Rye IPA) – Steve Hanson
Trois PA (Pale Ale, 100% Brett) – Jonathan Moxey
Judie Tuzke (Best Bitter) – M. Messenie & T. Lee
Prunus Maximus (Porter w/ Plum & Chili) – Marco Trauzzi
The Blushing Goddess (Saison w/ Hibiscus) – Peter Durning