New Beer Friday 3/9/18

 Have you heard about our Lord and Savior, New Beer Friday?

Talisman Adventures in IPA - A nice aroma of citrus peel and tropical fruit. The taste follows with more citrus like juices along with notes of mango and and a hint of pineapple. A damn tasty offering from Talisman. 6.0% ABV. Available at Talisman and Slackwater

Epic Club Lounge -  You only need one word to describe this one, Manhattan. It has flavors that are reminiscent of all of the ingredients in the cocktail right down to the whiskey, vermouth and bitters. Very tasty. On sale Saturday 3/10 at Epic’s Brewery, 10am.

Shades of Pale Aphrodite -  This Belgian style Blonde ale Has a nose of spicy caramel and apple peel. The taste is more akin to cookie dough with the added spiced caramel and herbal hops. This Belgian is less phenolic then some you may have tried, this has the added benefit of making it super drinkable. To me it’s more of an abbey ale, which I’m rather fond of. 6.5% ABV. Available at Shades of Pale.

Cigar City Guayabera -  This pale ale has a very nice citrus peel aroma, with a tiny bit of pine. The taste starts with more citrus peel that transitions into some tangerine sweetness. The end is massively better, which completely dries out the finish. This is a nice IPA, but it’s not a very good pale ale. The can does warn that it is “massively hopped up with citra hops”,  so at least you’ve been warned. 5.5% ABV. I had it at Beer Bar, It's also at the Bayou.

Cheers!

New Beer Friday 5/26/17

Happy New Beer Friday! I hope you all have a safe and long weekend. There's a lot of tasty stuff out there to help you kick off summer right.

Cigar City: Jai Alai - This IPA pours a very clear, golden copper color with a nose that has pine and citrus. The taste follows the nose, with some pine up front, followed by a huge wave of malts. The finish is full of bitter citrus and pineapple.7.5% ABV @ Dick n' Dixie's, DABC, Bayou

Perrin: Black Goat Lager - Not tried this one yet. 5.8% ABV @ Bayou, DABC

Payette: Aura: Guava and Hibiscus - Not tried this yet, sounds interesting. 4.0% ABV @ Beer Bar

Firestone Walker: Luponic Distortion #6 - It has a nose of pine and citrus - a wee bit of pepper too. Big earthy bitterness dominates the taste with grapefruit peel and pine backing up some crackery malts. Not my favorite version of Luponic, but it's still pretty great. 5.9% ABV @ Beerhive, Beer Bar

Firestone Walker: Leo vs Ursus - The nose has mango, pineapple, vanilla and caramel. The taste starts with apricot, pineapple and orange peel. Sweet caramel malts come next with tropical and earthy hops backing it all up. finishes slightly sweet. For a DIPA it has a great balance - not too cloying and easy to drink. I liked this one a lot. 8.2% ABV @ BeerHive, Beer Bar

Laughing Dog: The Dogs of Helles - The nose has apple sweet grains with floral hops. The taste has a bit of creamed corn and nutty caramel. Finishes with grassy/floral hops. 4.0% ABV @ Harmons

Laughing Dog: The DogFather - The nose has chocolate, roasted malt, plum and bourbon. The taste starts with molasses, licorice, fudge abd wood. Vanilla, raisin coffee and bourbon. A bit of ash in the finish. Nice barrel aged stout. 11.0% ABV. @ Slackwater

Proper: Hop vs Hop 7 - This is being released today. This version is hopped with Eureka and Simcoe hops. 8.2% ABV. @ Proper

Avenues Proper: New Zealand Lager - This version is hopped with Dr. Rudi and Rakau hops. Not triedit yet. 4.0% ABV. @Avenues Proper

Cheers!

Cigar City Hits SLC

Back in  January, I had the pleasure to tell you all that Tampa, Florida's Cigar City Brewing was coming to our market. Today, I can happily say that their Jai Alai IPA is in the capitol city. The beer's name pay tribute the Basque game where players attempt to catch a ball using a curved mitt, whilst the ball travels at speeds of up to 188 miles per hour.

Pours copper in color with notes of citrus and tropical fruit in the aroma. Flavor has upfront citrus bitterness with a hint of caramel and citrus and tropical fruit hop notes in the finish.

I know that Dick n' Dixie's has some Jai Alai and that bars and restaurants (including Squatters/Wasatch) will be picking it up very soon as well.

Cheers!

Cigar City Beers are Coming to Salt Lake City

Yup, my jaw hit the floor too when I heard the news, but all that slack jawed excitement aside, It is the truth - Cigar City's beers are on their way to the SLC. How could this be, you ask? Cigar City Brewing Company has until now never distributed outside of the east coast. Well you can thank a little entity called United Craft Brews LLC. A brewery group owned by Fireman Capitol out of Boston. If Fireman Capitol sounds familiar it's because it is also a controlling owner of our own Utah Brewers Cooperative (Squatters/Wasatch), along with Oskar Blues and Michigan's Perrin Brewing Company. Are you starting to see the connection?

United Craft Brews inked a deal last week that would bring Cigar City's brews to Denver and Salt Lake City, beginning in the first quarter of 2017. Utah and Colorado will be the only states west of the Mississippi to carry Cigar City's beers. SLC's M & M Distributing will be the Utah distributor. Availability will be limited at first, don't expect cases of Hunahpu probably ever. but some fun stuff may find its way here eventually. Stay close for Cigar City's arrival date.

You may have noticed I mentioned Perrin Brewing earlier. Their beers are also coming to the SLC market in the same time period as well. I'm not sure what beer they're sending, but I am sure it will be a welcome edition to our local line up.

If you come across M & M's Scott Stiltz (Helmut VonSchmidt) thank him for going above and beyond to help grease the wheels on this deal for we local beer nerds and on behalf of M & M.

Any thoughts on this crazy news? We'd love to hear from you!

Cheers!

New Beer Friday 12/4/15

I made this meme for "New Beer Black Friday" that should have run last week. As I didn't have anything new last week and I was slacking on my meme making duties, your stuck with my out dated attempt. The beers however are not outdated.

Hoppers Blonde Patersbier - This new seasonal has all the traditional fruity Belgian Trappist yeast flavors and aromatics. Hopper's version is unfiltered and well hopped with Pacifica hops, giving it a pleasant aroma of wildflower a and tropical fruit. The grains used include oats for a smooth yeast textured mouth feel. The flavor starts off crisp citrus with a honey like sweetness, then finishes dry with a lingering complex flavor of mango, strawberry and rich malt. 4.0% ABV @ Hoppers

Boulevard/Cigar City Collaboration #5 Tropical Pale Ale - Tropical fruit and berries in the nose. The taste is nice and fruity as well. More berries with a bit of mango and tangerine. Finishes slightly woody. A great balance of malt and topic-esque fruitiness. Defiantly Worth your quatloos. 7.2% ABV @ Beerhive

Deschutes EHOP - The nose has a bit of anise and cocoa malt. The taste starts with a sage/tyne spice combo that blends nicely with the malts. The end has coffee and a bit chocolate. Finishes with lemon bitters. Interesting beer spiced beer. I'm a bit on the fence about it though. 8.0% ABV @ Beerhive

These Epic beers have technically been around, but have been reworked so their sorta-kinda new. Epic will be debuting them as a series tonight at a tap takeover at The Hogs Wallow. They are all 4% ABV

Epic Session IPA - A Mosaic and Simcoe hopped IPA that has powerful and juicy nose and nice citrusy body.

Epic Single-hop Golden Ale - Featuring Centennial hops that gives it floral and citrus qualities.

Epic Witbier - a spiced Wit. Typically made with coriander and orange peel.

Epic Orchard Raspberry Ale - Tart raspberries with some coriander spiciness from the yeast. 

Kettle Soured IPA - Big lemony tartness, with equally large grapefruit peel bitterness.

 Cheers!