My Favorite Beer: Blanche de Bruxlles
Behold the Blanche!
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Check out that wallpaper! 😍
My Favorite Beer: Old Speckled Hen
My New Favorite Beer Is Something Old
As you all know, I’m very good at picking favorites (proof)(more proof). Well this time around, this beer is a “distinctive” beer “bursting with flavour!”
What’s so great about it?
Look at that guy taking a peek!
This is a great beer, full stop. But until last week, I had always gotten it in glass bottles. When I discovered they were canning it and included a nitro widget, I had to try it. What I found is this beer has gone back to its roots: an English Pub Ale experience. English Ale is a magical thing, packed full of esters (molecules that smell like fruit)(also my Great Aunt’s name), balanced malt and hop profiles, low carbonation, and served cool (not cold). The resulting beers are easy to drink and delicious! While this beer hasn’t been carbonated in a cask, the nitro widget does provide the fun pour made famous by Guinness!
Besides, look at that can! It claims to be “Smooth & Refreshing,” “Distinctive,” “Bursting with flavor,” and is “twin malt and four hops.” There’s just something classic about it, yet the can is bold and iconic. In short, it looks great and tastes great! What more can you want?
The pour
So let’s talk about the pour! Just like Guinness, you get a surge that foams up the whole beer when you crack open the can (or pull the tap handle). You get to see bubbles flow down the side of your glass and watch the beer ‘build’ from the bottom up! What’s really fun with this beer is that since it’s a lighter color, you can see little waves ripple downwards as the surge dies down and the head is setting up. Like a proper gentleman, this beer leaves little rings in your glass as you drink, showing you your progress and tempting you to see what kind of patterns you can make (so it’s beer AND a game!).
And who could forget this beer’s color. Like a ruddy, copper gem, this beer is brilliantly clear. It catches the light and gives you little glints and winks that demand your attention. Just look at it for yourself!
Behold the surge!
And the taste?
Look at those dense bubbles!
The first sip is a bit caramel sweet with some banana (from the English Ale Yeast), balanced with bitterness. To get to that first sip, you have to dive through the foam cap, which provides some fun textural variation. The beer has a bit of effervescence, but it’s not too gassy, which is a nice break from many of the highly carbonated beer we all drink. Returning to the beer for more sips reveals the lacing on the glass and the flavor continues to develop fruity notes (I taste a touch of red apple), breadyness, a bit of a toastyer caramel than the initial punch. The last word on this beer is a bitterness that sits around, but is gentle. Eventually that bitterness subsides and your left with a ever so slightly spicy, slightly toasted linger that I’d let sit if it weren’t for this tempting beer in front of me.
The texture of this beer is fun, it’s a little creamy smooth, but it’s also feels a bit thin. It feels light and healthy! You also notice as you drink the dense head is sticking together like a marshmallow and your brain starts to form this thought… You see, most great beers are wonderful, but the problem is eventually you get to the bottom of the glass and you’re left with one final sip. But this beer offers something special. As a consolation prize, after your last sip, it offers a treat. Overcome with this realization, you turn the cup nearly upside down and you get that glorious little foam cap, that hoppy marshmallow, that final beer snack! One final good bye from your friend, the Old Speckled Hen!
A few more for the road
But just the light of another star
My Favorite Beer: The Dark Side
Remember when I said I was great at favorites? I’m favoriting again!
Roast is something to toast to!
Dark beer is glorious! Dark beer is imbued with complexity, color, and character. The same thing that makes meat tasty (or some seared shitake mushrooms for the veggie friends out there) makes your dark beer real nice too! The Maillard Reactions that happen when you kiln or roast malt provide complexity that is the stuff people dream about. Dark beer can taste like birthday cake, smoky bacon, nuts, coffee, or something else entirely! They can be easy drinking, or challenging. They can balance sweet and spice, or they can give you a (beer-ey) hug. They can be booze bombs, table beers, or milkshakes. For all these reasons, I say
“Give me a dark beer!”
Capella Porter
The Aroma
*Some people think dark beer is “heavy.” Not true! Beer is dark (we’re talking red, brown, and black territory) because the brewer added roasted malt. Beer is “heavy” because the brewer added a lot of malt. “Heavy” is referring to the density of beer, which is mainly affected by sugars in the beer. Heavy beers are often sweet and (generally) higher in alcohol. To prove this point, try a Guinness (a very ‘light’ beer, clocking in at 4.2% ABV) along with a double IPA (often pushing 7 to 9% ABV) #TryThisAtHome
Capella porter is a jet black beer. Even the foam of this beer is a bit caramel colored and edging into the ‘brown’ territory. When you pour it cold, it smells of toasty, brown bread with the slightest whiff of coffee. As this beer warms and opens up, the aroma shifts more into espresso and a hint of boozy. It is the breakfast of champions! The head sticks around for a while and even leaves lacing on your glass (kind of similar to my favorite beer, Guinness). The beer is not overly heavy and full* and hits with roasty astringency right up front. This roast gives way to a slight sweetness and chocolatey note that guides you to a lingering finish that melds these all into a delightful linger. It’s sorta like the crispy, carnalized edges of a brownie. One of the real treats is breathing the beer up through your nose (called a retro nasal sniff) and getting that espresso fudge brownie experience!
The Finish
The finish sticks around for a while and is pleasant to experience that you don’t need another sip. As you’re contemplating the finish, you think “this is great, I can’t wait to do it again…” It’s at this moment, you’re suddenly struck with the realization that there’s some in your glass and you can do that again. It is this exact thought process that brings you to the bottom of the glass one smile at a time.
This is why it is my favorite beer…
My Favorite Beer: My head? Yeah it’s full of dynomite 🤯
I’m going to try something. I’m going to be someone capable of picking favorites! Watch out!
Ethan, in 2 paragraphs (spoiler alert!)
On the subject of favorites
I have a complicated relationship with the question “what’s your favorite ____?” I never really got it the way other folks did. From “favorite color,” which I always thought was a pointless question (what object am I picking a color for? What’s the context? Can I add metallic flakes?) to “favorite band” (why just have one?), I’ve been incapable of committing to an answer. Why would you want to pick just one favorite? Why box yourself in? Why be on a desert island with just one of anything when you could not be on a desert island and have a lot of many things?!
In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m bad at favorites. But…what if I’m not bad at favorites, but really, I’m too good at favorites?! What if I flipped this particular script and tried something?! You know what? I’m going to try something. I’m going to be someone capable of picking favorites! Watch out!
I’d like to introduce you to my favorite beer. This beer is excellent and let me explain why.
Worst way to split a tree? Dynomite!
Head Full of Dynomite
The Venice Canals are full of dynomite
So let’s start with the easy part…this beer? It’s tasty! It’s a hazy IPA and I’ll get to all about how it tastes in a minute, but first, I need to explain this beer just a little bit. This is a rotating hop series from Fremont. I was at my local bottle shop and they had this little number right next to the cash register (because they’re smart and want to sell beer). What stopped me in my tracks was the way that this beer reminded me of the sort of art my grandma would keep in her house (which I mean in the coolest way possible). My grandmother was a sculptor, painter, and general artist. She had a ton of mid-century modern stuff and always knew how to set a scene. Unlike everyone in Buschwick or Manhattan Beach, this stuff was actually made and purchased in the '50s. I’ve been luck enough to have some of her art in my room going back to my first apartment, so with that running through my mind, how could I not get this 4-pack and bring a bit of her into the world with me?
Tastes that match the look
A beer is sold for many reasons. There are price-conscious consumers who buy a beer because it’s the cheapest on the shelf (me, in college, buying Genesee beer that was $14.50 for 30 of them!), there are consumers who buy a beer because they taste great (me, last week, spending way too much money on a gueuze), there are consumers who buy a beer because there is a man at the supermarket promoting it (me, a few weeks ago, buying some Anchor Pale Ale), and there are (many) consumers buying beer because it randomly hits your deepest memories (also me, at Blackbeard’s, buying some Head Full of Dynomite). So, with that riding on it, let’s jump right in 😬😬
Importantly what flavors match the art? It does (gasp)! I just cracked open the ‘shell’ looking one (V29) and the first thing I noticed is how reminiscent it is of walking into our hop room. (Quick side bar, we have a hop room at work….it’s awesome!) Beyond just smelling like hops I get some orange juice and a wee bit sherbet aromas along with a slight caramel note in the back end. Since I was hit with the aroma right when I cracked the can lid, I circled back to the beer’s appearance, which is a hazy gold that is entirely opaque, even in my fairly small glass. The head is dense white bubbles that subside fairly quickly but leave little spider patterns on the top surface of the beer. The remaining bubbles scream “drink me!” and who am I to object?
Once you take a sip, you’ll find the beer hits with those citrus notes and sweetness up front and a bitterness on the back end. This beer is a big beer, clocking in at 16 oz and 6.8% ABV. The bitterness that is present punches through the general sweetness of the beer, and is deceptively subtle. The beer holds balance in exactly the way the hippos from Fantasia could stand on pointe. Just like those hippos (probably), there’s a slight resinous character you’ll find in a traditional West Coast IPA.
The feather version (V30) hits many of the same notes, but instead of intense citrus with a hint of caramel (possible some age on it, if I’m being honest), the latest version is more stone fruit in the hops with just a touch of lemon. In addition, it’s a little dryer, and slightly more bitter at the end. Two smash hits (not to be confused with a SMASH beer; that’s a Single Malt And Single Hop) as far as I’m concerned and this is why this is my favorite (two) beer(s)!
I wonder what’ll be my favorite next! If you’re also curious, there’s a good chance you’ll spot it here! Cheers!
Ethan
