New Beer Friday 6/19/20

Tomorrow is the Summer Solstice - you'd never know it by the temperatures outside. I'm not complaining, this is damn near perfect weather for me. It's also excellent beer drinking weather too; warm enough for the light summer beer with enough evening chill to bring on the heavier beer cravings. Take a look at the list this week and you'll see it fits in perfectly to what I was just talking about.

Fisher - Bock: This beer was resurrected from Fisher's early 20th Century glory days. It's not an exact clone, but I trust Colby's brewing prowess to dial it in. It even comes in a retro looking Bock crowler.  5.0% - Available at Fisher.

Fisher - Plumango Sour: Very tart up front some nice mango notes. The plum gets a little lost in the base beer but it's overall a nice flavor combo that light and refreshing. Look for a malt sweet beer with with lighter alcohol than the typical bock. 5.0% In crowlers to go at Fisher.

Fisher - Staring into the Rye: There's a good dose of rye on top of a solid caramel base. Hops are herbal, sharp and balancing. Nice beer.  5.0% In crowlers to go at Fisher.

Toasted Barrel - Double Juicy IPA: Missed this one. Brewed with four different hop varietals, creating a low bitterness NEIPA.  8.5% - At Toasted Barrel today.

Shades -  PB&J: I was expecting a peanut butter bomb al la Belching Beaver, but the nut addition is pretty subtle. With a tart base beer - plus the addition of strawberry, think too much peanut butter would have made it a muddled mess. It's pretty drinkable considering what it is. 6.5% - Only a Shades.

Heber Valley - Mint n' Chocolate Stout: If you going to make a chocolate stout in the summer you'd better find a way to make it somewhat refreshing. The addition of mint may be the key. This is out now and only at the brewery in Heber. 5.0%

UTOG - Dry Bavarian Hefeweizen: They dialed down the sweetness a bit for this normally sweet wheatbier. It's time you experimented with the drier side of Hefes. 5.0% - only at UTOG.

Talisman - Adventures in IPA #6: This Juicy IPA was brewed with Citra, Amarillo and El Dorado hops. This will go fast! 5.0% - Available at Talisman. 

Lone Pine - Oh-J: This double IPA has an opaque medium orange gold color with bright citrus aromas of orange and grapefruit. Vibrant orange and light citrus in the taste with spicy citrus rind. In the finish there's a nice lingering citrus twang. 8.1% Found at Slackwater.

Returning Favorites

Red Rock - Paardebloem: It's been about a year and a half since the last batch hit. This batch may be tough to obtain for home consumption, but I've been assured that there will be plenty going to the main brewpub and RR's restaurants to take care of the dine-in crowd. This year you can expect honey sweetness with peach, apricot and pear notes. There's a hint of funk and tartness lurking beneath the fruitiness. There's a good dose of bitterness from the greens as well. A sit warms the vinious aspe t from the barrel pop out. Finishes slightly warm and boozy. 9.2% Goes on sale Friday (today) in the restaurants, Saturday at the production brewery.

Proper - Recommend Rye: Continuing with their greatest hits, Proper is re-introducing another of it's OG beers. This week we return to Recommend Rye. This is a saison at it base with rye spiciness that compliments the esters the Belgian yeast creates. This is slightly tweaked from the last time you had it so it's time to schlep your ass over there and try out the new batch. 5.7% Only at Proper.

Epic/Commons - Common Interests:  You thought this collaboration beer between Epic and the now defunct Commons Brewing was all gone. Oh how wrong you were. There's a limited amount of crowlers available in SLC for this special foedered melon sour.  This has a light-straw color with just a hint of green in the highlights. Sweet honeydew rind, clean earth and oak hit the nose. The first sip is bright with citrus-tartness, lime and pith, that fades quickly to a cooling ripe-melon-sweetness with hints of cereal grain, tilled earth and root cellar. The effervescence lifts quickly off the palate taking the acidity but leaving hints of honeydew and the harvest season. 

Cheers!

New Beer Friday 4/17/20

One of the things I miss most from my individual exile, is sitting my ass down at any given pub and socializing with all of you. Lauren Lerch (pictured above) is an obvious riot and just one of the many humans that make our beer community so much brighter. Here's to all of you, and a Happy New Beer Friday!

Roosters - On Wednesdays We Wear Pink: This version of Roosters Pink Boots beer has less hibiscus than the previous year's beer. The nose is citrusy and floral with toasted character. The flavor is fairly dry with cracker-like malts and caramel. The hops bring in orange peel and flowery hops. It's dryness just adds to its drinkability.  5.0% - Available at all Roosters locations in crowlers.

Shades - Aftershock: The flavors pack a punch of strawberry, banana and guava. There's also some fresh pineapple juice cocktail in there; I don't know if there's actual pineapple juice, or if it's just the base beers tartness mingling with the fruit cocktail. Anoter winner from Shades. 5.7%. Checking Shades' status this morning, it appears that this beer has already sold out.

2 Row - Stimulus Check: This is one beastly IPA. This unfiltered triple IPA boasts a shload of Mosaic, Citra and Idaho 7 hops. Look for a massive hop profile with a huge malt backbone. The hops are resinous grapefruit, pine, lemons, floral esters and chrewy resins. The rest of the flavors are malty sweet with caramel, earthy bread and alcohol. Oh, and did I mention 11.0% alcohol?  Available at 2 Row starting today.

Uinta Pina Colada: The use of the lactose in this "milkshake pale ale" is pretty even handed. It's not as sweet as you may anticipate. You get coconut off the top for sure and it is subtle as well. Next you get some tropical fruit juices; mostly comprised of pineapple - maybe some mango. There a good dose of bittering hops in the finish to balance it all out. Solid. At 7.0% it's basically an IPA instead of a pale ale. Available starting today at Uinta.

Proper - Hey Joe!: This Amber Ale is on the dryer side of the style. What you get is is a good dose of toasted malts with a lot biscuit flavors. Hops are floral with some minor pine accents. the whole package come close to being a brown ale without the nuttiness. Drinks really well. It's dryness keeps its drinkabilty high. 5.0% - Available at Proper.

Kiitos Tripel Dry Hopped Hazy IPA: This new hazy features Citra, Amarillo and Lotus hops. Lotus is a fairly new hop that features notes of citrus, vanilla, berries and tropical fruits. Look for medium to low bitterness with an ample amount of malt sweetness. 5.0% Available at Kiitos.

Lone Pine- Tiny Tess: This appears to be mostly available in Davis Co. at the moment. I haven't tried it yet, you have please share your thoughts.  5.0%

Stone - Enjoy By 4/20/20: Alycen the manager of the Avenues liquor store announced yesterday that she got in this year's Enjoy By 4/20/20. I'm sure it's at other locations as well, but if you want some for the big day, you'd better pull the trigger soon.

Returning

Epic - Supersize Me IPA: If you missed out on this when it debuted last month in crowlers, you can rejoice, it's now in 22 ounce bombers. This big ass IPA is made with apricots, Citra and two of the hottest new hops on the market Grüngeist and Styrian Dragon. The  Grüngeist hops add flavors of Passion Fruit, Melon, Berries, Fleshy Fruit and Sweet Pepper. Styrian Dragon offer intense floral character and moderate herbal and citrus tones. All of this is wrapped up in a hearty 12.0% IPA.

Epic would also like me to pass on that you can go to www.epicbrewingmerch.com and select the Salt Lake City location to place an order for their beer. Epic will build and box your order and all you have to do is come right inside the door to show ID and swipe your card. (you have to come inside the building to pay, according to the DABC you can't pre pay, it has to be paid for after your ID is checked). 

Cheers!

Lone Pine Brewing Headed to Utah

Lone Pine Brewing Company out of Portland, Maine has their eyes set on the Beehive State. Many of you may not be familiar with this east coast brewery; Hell, we don't many beers from that region out here period.

What will make this news interesting to many of you is the notoriety that Lone Pine received at the 2019 Great American Beer Festival. Lone Pine earned a bronze medal in the hotly-contested Hazy Imperial IPA category. The winning beer, Chaos Emeralds, beat out nearly two hundred competitors from around the U.S.

If you’re a fan of the style, this will obviously come as big news to you. Stay close, as Lone Pine gets closer to its arrival date and I'll fill you in to the where and when. I should also point out that Utah will be the only state that's not located in the north east to have these fine beers.

Cheers!