It's not as sour as a true lambic, but it has some lambic characteristics to it. This is a pretty good description of the beer.
New Glarus (at least in my experience) is pretty proprietary as regards its brewing process. While it's reasonably certain that they don't produce Belgian red, or their Raspberry Tart, using true spontaneous fermentation, it may well be that they use a proprietary strain (or strains) of yeast that impart some lambic-y sourness, as a base, to these beers. They also age in wood (the Belgian red for one year), which adds to the underlying base sourness. Interestingly, about their Raspberry Tart they say the following: "Oregon proudly share their harvest of mouth-watering berries, which we ferment spontaneously in large oak vats." "Spontaneous fermentation" is the hallmark of a true lambic, and I'm a bit surprised to see NG using that terminology. Most American brewers (nearly all, in fact) who produce lambic-styled beers have developed a hybridized model for brewing them; various Belgian wild yeast strains that they've had commercially tamed, you might say, combined with aging in wood. And the results are often terrific. But, in general, they're not nearly as sour as true lambics, normally have higher alcohol content, etc. It's obvious, though, that some of the bets craft brewers in the States are seriously smitten with Belgian-styled beers, and continue to play with how best to replicate the real thing. A very few have gone native, delvin into true spontaneous fermentation. Allagash is one, and here you can see how they brewed their first brew (scheduled to be released this year): [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD_49kfVJeE"]Allagash Lambic Video[/ame]
This thread cannot be allowed to fall to page two. So, for my birthday last week, my kids gave me a bottle of this: Nice kids. And they do know the fastest route to their father's heart. I love what Jolly Pumpkin's done with their extensive line of beers. Can't say I always love their brews - to me, they trend toward the sour and could use a bit more malt backbone - but I do always appreciate them. And I do always, eventually, come back for more. The brewery is only a few hours north of me; I need to head up there some time. They've got some beers that never make it down to Columbus and that sound awfully interesting.
I just picked up some Jolly Pumpkin La Roja in Ohio over the Fourth of July weekend. Really looking forward to cracking it open.
Tried Three Floyds Apocalypse Cow last week-- If you're in the Midwest and are a fan of big hoppy beers, pick it up. It's a Double IPA brewed with lactose.
I'm not even sure what that means, but the standard IPA not brewed with mother's milk is hoppy enough for me, thank you.
I don't know this beer, but from the "cow" in the title, and knowing lactose is a key ingredient in milk (or sweet) stout, I assume that Three Floyds is playing with a new style (or just playing, period); tossing lactose into a double IPA as a sweetener (it isn't fermentable and, so, sweetens the beer). Can't say that the combination sounds too tempting. Then again, I'm not a fan of double IPAs, imperial IPAs, etc. There's blunt instrument tendency of American craft brewers to, when in doubt (or when lacking inspiration), just add hops, jack up the alcohol content and tack on the prefix "double" or "imperial." Balance?? We don't need no stinking balance! Um, whatever. Doesn't do much for me.
Hop bombs certainly aren't for everyone, and you're right--too many brewers think that they'll create something great by just throwing in a ton of hops and jacking up the gravity. But there are craft brewers that do the hop bomb well. Three Floyds is one of them. Dogfish Head and Bell's also do pretty well. That being said, if you don't like DIPAs, then you probably won't like Apocalypse Cow.
I'm not too keen on light beers, but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by Light Coors' taste and buzzability.
Coors Light? Lemme show you the way out On a similar note, have any of you checked out the film 'Beer Wars' ? It's pretty informative and I'm sure any beer aficionado will appreciate it. And I'll never feel good about buying from anything but a craft brewery now.
The Winking Lizard chain of bars here in Ohio are popping kegs of Great Lakes Christmas Ale today at 5pm at all of their locations for a little "Christmas in July" celebration - I'll be dragging the wife up there for a few glasses tonight after work.
Was in Nashville over the weekend and popped into a semi-local brewery to check out their stuff: http://www.bigrivergrille.com/index.php They started in Chattanooga, but have since franchised in Nashville and Orlando. I tried three of their six (PDF beer menu) and thought they were all decent enough. Not anything I'd go out of my way for, but if you're in the neighborhood and want to try something local(ish) they got the job done.
bought a 6er of Magic Hat Wacko because it was labeled a summer beer, but I did not look closely enough at the label. Says beet sugar was an extra ingredient. Was not prepared for what came out of the bottle. Not saying it was horrible but I will not be getting it again. Oh, I will drink them all, but never again. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/96/48190
I'm not sure what a Baltic Porter is, but if this is an typical example, I'm a big fan. Strong and heavy but with enough sweetness to make a truly delightful sip, which is also really smart what with the 9.5%ABV.
I've not had this beer, but it's certainly stronger than the typical example. This is from the AHA Style Guidelines: Baltic-Style Porter A true smooth cold-fermented and cold lagered beer, brewed with lager yeast.. Black to very deep ruby/garnet in color. Overall, Baltic Porters have a very smooth lagered character with distinctive caramelized sugars, licorice and chocolate-like character of roasted malts and dark sugars. Roasted dark malts should not contribute bitterness, or astringent roast character. A low degree of smokiness from malt may be evident. Debitterized roast malts are best used for this style. Because of its alcoholic strength, aroma may include gentle (low) lager fruitiness (berries, grapes, plums, not banana; ale-like fruitiness from warm temperature fermentation is not appropriate), complex alcohols, cocoa-like, roast malt (and sometimes coffee-like roast barley, yet not bitter). Hop aroma is very low, though a hint of floral or sweet hop aroma can complement aromatics and flavor without dominance. Baltic Porters are not hop bitter dominated and expressed as low to medium-low. Baltic porters range from having medium to full body complemented with a medium-low to medium level of malty sweetness. No butterscotch-like diacetyl or sweet corn-like dimethylsulfide (DMS) should be apparent in aroma or flavor. Original Gravity (ºPlato) 1.072-1.085 (17.5-20.5 ºPlato) Apparent Extract/Final Gravity (ºPlato) 1.016-1.022 (4-5.5 ºPlato) Alcohol by Weight (Volume) 6-7.2% (7.5-9%) Bitterness (IBU) 35-40 Color SRM (EBC) 40+ (80+ EBC) If you want to know more, a friend of mine penned the following, rather thorough run-down of traditional Baltic porters: http://www.allaboutbeer.com/style/23.2-balticporter.html
Inspired by Minman's post, I decided to make last night's tailgating into a modest tour of porters. We started with St Peter's Old Style Porter. I wanted to begin at the source, and while I don't know if it's an old brewery, it's brewed in Suffolk and is available in pint bottles. I thought it was smooth, deep and well balanced. The Carnegie Porter was easily the hoppiest of the three. Very good too. Żywiec was sweeter than the others, but not too sweet, and the strongest at 9.3%ABV without the alcohol taste being noticble. It was my favorite but definitely in the first among equals sense.
Went to a bar in DC last night that had my favorite beer that I cannot find in Columbus... Twas fantastic. Just as good as I had always remembered...
I love finding bars while traveling that carry long lost beers. It's like finding an old friend you've lost touch with. You almost feel that the beer missed you as much as you missed it.
Oh, man, that's a damn good one. They stopped distributing in the US last year. Last I heard was that they were working on a new deal to get it back in the US.
Nashville has a pretty decent beer scene for a southern city. I was there late last year and stopped by Blackstone Brewery and Broadway Brewhouse, both near Vanderbilt. Blackstone's beers weren't overly adventurous but they were well made. Broadway Brewhouse is just a beer bar but the bar manager knew a lot about the beers he chose to feature and he had a nice selection of regional beers I hadn't seen before.