Anchor Brewing Co. - Anchor Porter

Dark. Malty.  Those are probably the best two words to describe Anchor Brewing Co.'s Anchor Porter.

Anchor Brewing has been making this porter since 1972.  Anchor Brewing has been craft brewing since before craft brewing became cool again.  Anchor uses top fermenting yeast and natural carbonation which is basically the way home brewing is done.  This, of course, is the way beer was traditionally made.  And Anchor still uses a handmade copper brewhouse.

As you can see from the picture, this beer pours completely black.  Its dark.  This brew has a creamy head, smooth taste, and chocolate and coffee undertones.  The two row barley malt is roasted to give this beer a unique malty flavor without being burnt.  A generous amount of hops makes this beer slightly bitter.  Overall, this is a very good dark beer and probably one of the best porters I've ever tried.

Abbey of New Clairvaux / Sierra Nevada -- Ovila Dubbel

In collaboration with The Abbey of New Clairvaux brewed and bottled by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.  Thanks to BevMo for sending me an email advertisement I bought this beer at Total Wine because their prices are much better in general.  Kiki even gave me coupon to sweeten up our visit to Total Wine.

From the bottle: "A collaboration between Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and the monks at the Abbey of New Clairvaux, Ovila Abbey Dubbel brings the centuries-old monastery brewing tradition to America.  Ovila Abbey Dubbel features a complex and rich malty sweetness with hinds of caramelized sugar.  The aroma is a heady and layered mix of fruit and spice with hints of clove and black pepper from the unique Belgian-style yeast.  A portion of proceeds from this ale goes toward the restoration of the historic Santa Maria de Ovila chapter house on the grounds of the Abbey of New Clairvaux.  This medieval building stood for nearly eight centuries in Spain.  William Randolph Hearst purchased the monastery in 1931 and planned to use the stones for a castle even grander than his famous San Simeon.  Although Hearst's plans crumbled, these hisotric stones will rise again in a California Cistercian abbey." 

Ovila has its own website and there is a great video to check out.  Similar to Sierra Nevada's 30th Anniversary Ale, Ovila is a series.  This Dubbel is the first one and then eventually there will be a Saison (to be released in June 2011) and a Quad (to be released in November 2011).  The monks of Abbey New Clairvaux in Vina, California which (about a half hour north of Chico) came to Sierra Nevada Brewing wanting to collaborate to make a traditional Begian monk brewed beer.  William Randolph Hearst, being the superfluous bastard that he was, shipped these stones to San Francisco from the crumbling monastery in Spain that was built in the 1100s.  These stones came in wooden crates and were stored in Golden Gate park for several decades.   The city of San Francisco gave the stones to the monks in 1994  where they are slowly reconstructing this chapter house.

The monks at New Clairvaux are hardcore (and I don't mean with little boys).  They do the traditional daily prayers and support the monastery through manual labor in the vineyards.  They follow the same traditions monks have been doing for centuries.  The monks are about 60% done with the restoration of the chapter house using the sacred stones.  The Ovila chapter house stones are from the same order of the New Clairvaux monks so its cool that after 80 years,and all the years prior where Ovila was in ruins, they are returned to this tradition.

You can see from the photo that this is a dark beer and it comes in a bottle with a cork.  If you hold the glass up to light you can see that its more of a dark caramel color rather than straight black color like Guinness.  The ABV is 7.5% but it doesn't taste that high in alcohol.  The taste is very malty with some toffee flavors that make this beer seem sweet.  Its not really bitter or hoppy.  The linger is fairly short but it still has plenty of body.  When I poured the glass it was a little foamy, but as I drank it there wasn't really any lacing left on the glass.  This dubbel is quite a departure from what we're all used to from Sierra Nevada.  Their pale ale is famously hoppy, but this beer takes a completely different direction.

 The good: tastes great; obviously well researched for the style; has a cool bottle; some of the money is going to help the monks finish this historic building; its a big enough bottle you can share (or have more for you)

The bad: this beer is on the pricey side

Obviously Ovila dubbel is a limited release.  Even though I prefer hoppier beers I can appreciate that this malty beverage is high quality and meant to be special.

Cheers!

Laughing Dog Brewing - CSB How Dogs Say Hello

In honor of the OC Pet Expo I went to today, and again thanks to Kiki: CSB How Dogs Say Hello by Laughing Dog Brewing.

To be honest with you I had never heard of Laughing Dog Brewing ("LDB").  They're located in Ponderay, Idaho which is next to Sandpoint, Idaho on Lake Pend Oreille.  Where's that?  It's in Idaho's pan handle about an hour and a half northeast of Spokane, Washington.  Who cares about Spokompton?  OK, you're right.  In other words, it's five and a half hours northwest of beautiful Helena, Montana.  Ahhh.  Montana.

What's CSB?  According to LDB, Ben was the laughing dog and he said "hello" by sniffing people's crotches so a friend came up with the term crotch sniffing bastard, or CSB for short.  This beer is a British-style ESB.  This beer is copper in color.  Its hoppy and bitter but balanced with toffee malt flavors.  Flavor wise it seemed like a malty pale ale.  If you've every had a beer that dubbed itself as "copper" its like that but hoppier.

LDB claims they put their own twist on the ESB style (that's extra special bitter ale to the lay person), but to me it tastes like a standard ESB.  Maybe I need to try more ESBs.  Yes I do.  But if you look at the major craft brewers they all have one beer that is uniquely them.  Big Sky has Moose Drool.  Sierra Nevada has Pale Ale.  Anchor Brewing has Anchor Steam.  Stone has Arrogant Bastard.  New Belgium has Fat Tire.  Boston Brewing has Sam Adams.  Etc.  All those brewers make lots of good different types of beers.  But what makes them stand out is that they have one brew that is amazing and becomes their signature.  The CSB is good but I'm not sure it is unique enough to be a signature. 

In sum, the CSB was very well balanced and very tasty.  I would definitely drink it again.  LDB has a lot of styles of beer listed on their website, including a cream ale and four types of IPAs.  I'm excited to see what else LDB has to offer.

St. James's Gate - Guinness Extra Stout

I bought this beer right before St. Patrick's Day not knowing what made this different from regular Guinness.

Turns out this beer is quite different from the Guinness we're used to in the United States.  For starters, this is not as creamy and smooth tasting as Guinness Drought.  Part of that is that it seems more carbonated and has less head.  It has some notes of coffee with a burnt flavor that make this a fairly bitter beer.  Its flavor comes from the roasted barley which leaves it with a charred nutty flavor.  In short, this beer has more bite than normal Guinness.

It was on sale for $7.99 for a six pack.  This beer wasn't my favorite, but I'm still glad I tried it.

Mission Street Hefeweizen

I recently tried the Hefeweizen by Mission Street thanks to my wife Kiki who surprised me with a bottle.

Mission Street is, according to the bottle, brewed by Steinhaus Brewing Co. in Paso Robles, CA.  According to the interweb its a contract beer brewed by Firestone Walker Brewing Co on behalf of Trader Joe's, and the internets never lie.  The basics: it's 4.7% ABV, and is $1.99 for a 22 oz. bottle.  To me this tasted like a typical hefe with a wheaty-yeasty flavor.  It wasn't anything out of the ordinary.  It has a medium body and a fairly short linger, and is heavier on the toffee and malty side of things.  Hefenweizens are not my particular beer of choice, although I don't mind one every once in a while.  For the money this beer is pretty good for a couple bucks.

Stone Brewing Co. - Double Bastard Ale

Another beer surprise courtesy of Kiki  was Stone's Double Bastard Ale.  Here's what I wrote in my 33 Bottles of Beer book: "Lots of body, crazy hops.  Like Arrogant Bastard but hoppier, more alcohol, and smokier.  The taste consumes your mouth."

One 22 ounce bottle of this 11.2% ABV nectar will give you a bit of a buzz.  This beer has a great taste.  Its very hoppy and Stone says the type of hops are "classified."  Regardless, this beer is hoppy without being floral.  Its full bodied with enough linger that if you try to eat food with this beer you'll still taste the beer.  On that note, this beer is probably best when enjoyed by itself.

All in all I give it five out of five stars.