New Beer at the Beerhive

When Del Vance opened the Beerhive a couple weeks ago, he did so promising that he'd be delivering more unique beers for Utah's starved beer community.

It's a slow process getting the fridges stocked with new stuff, but they are starting to trickle in.
Yesterday the Beerhive sent me a list of some new and nearly new Deschutes labels.

Mirror Mirror
Black Butte XXI
Red Chair IPA
Obsidian Stout
Inversion IPA
Bachelor ESB

That's most of Deschutes' regular line-up, half of the Reserve Series and a third of their Bond Street Series. Not Bad considering Deschutes has only been in the market for a couple of months.

The only places you can get these beers are the Beerhive and the Bayou. Mark says he has Mirror Mirror and Black Butte XXI and says he's expecting the Red Chair IPA soon. Cheers!

Randalizing at the Bayou

Mikey loves him some hoppy beers. If your of like-mind then consider getting your ass over to the Bayou for a little "Triple A" (Alpha Attitude Adjustment). Mark has put together a Randalizer to help "spice-up" your beer enjoyment.

If you've never heard of a Randalizer or "Randall the Enamel Animal" as it's formally known, it's basically a organoleptic hop transducer module (a hop cone filter) that grabs the oils off the hops in the Randall on the way from the keg to the tap/faucet transferring all the hoppy goodness into the beer, providing a pungent and fresh hop boost to the selected beer.

Local beer lover/craftsman Bryan Perkins, put together the above customized Randalizer for the Bayou. The Randall made it's debut last night, testing it out on Four+'s Wyld Pale Ale. It was okay... They're still working on fine tuning the right hops vs. the right beer. So until the bugs get worked out, the availability of beers on it will be hit or miss.

The beer selection on the Randall will rotate and I'm sure Mark will take suggestions on combination's. As well as infusing coffee beans and fruits to the appropriate beers styles. Cheers!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Mmmm More Beer

Ok ya'll, It's time to get your panties in a bunch. The Bayou just got a shload of absolutely killer beers for you to coo over.

Some are not exclusive to the Bayou, but most are.

Eisenbahn Lust
Mikkeller:
- Beer Geek Brunch
- Beer Geek Breakfast
- Monk's Brew
- It's Alive
- It's Alright
- Simcoe IPA
- Warrior IPA
Geants Saison Voisin
Ridgeway foreign extra stout
Thriez:
- Blonde Farmhouse Ale
- Amber Farmhouse Ale
- Extra Farmhouse Ale
Boulevard:
- Long Strange Triple
- Double Wide IPA
- The Sixth Glass Quadruple
- Saison
- Saison-Brett
EKU 28
Kulmbacher Eisbock

These are best shared, cause they ain't cheep! But well worth savoring. Cheers!

More Holiday Suds Arrive!!!

Mark Alston at the Bayou has just receive a stellar list of holiday and not-so-holiday ales for the intermountain beer kindred. This years batch has some familiar labels, as well as some new, hard to find bottles that rarely find themselves to this side of the Zion curtain. Theses are special orders for the Bayou only and should last through the end of the year. Here they are. Thanks Uncle Mark!!! Cheers.

Ridgeway

Bad elf.

Very bad elf.

Seriously bad elf.

Criminally bad elf.

Insanely bad elf.

Warm Welcome.

Santa's Butt.

Pickled Santa.

Mikkeller Santa's Helper

Mikkeller From/To

Olafbrikken Kloster Jul

De Ranke Pere Noel

De La Senne Xmas Zinnebir

Serafjin Christmas Angel

Struise Tsjeeses

Jenlain Noel

Kulmbacher Eisbock

Jenlain Bière De Mars

If your not familiar with Saison or Farmhouse Ales, this is a good time of year to get acquainted with them. Saisons are traditionally brewed in the winter, to be consumed throughout the summer months. Jenlain's Beire De Mars is the only one I could find in the area. Saisons were close to becoming an endangered style, but over recent years there's been a massive revival; especially in North America.

Poured a hazy golden color body with a nice resilient white head. The nose was soft with flowery hops, sweet malts and yeast. The taste started like the aroma with a creamy balance of gentle flowery hop character against a sweet but light malt background. The end is a little earthy with a dry hop (Hallertau) snap. The bitterness is rounded and not too harsh, but the malts do tend to hang around a little too long on the tongue. Nothing super complicated here, just a simple, down to earth Saisons. If not for the price, this would be a nice summer sipper. 5.40% abv. Available at The Bayou.

BlackFriar

I'm all about the 'beer love'. If there's a good beer out there, I'm happy to pimp it to anyone who will listen. That being said, I'm a little torn about revealing BlackFriar to everyone. Selfishly, I've been keeping this one to myself. Telling only those whom I feel I can take in a fight(sorry Doug). This Scottish Ale quietly arrived into town a couple months ago and immediately became one of my favorites.

Poured a hazy ruby/orange color with a big rocky head which dissipated quickly. The nose is earthy, with peat-smoked malts and faint, sweet caramel undertones. The first thing I notice is how heavily hopped this Scottish ale is. The taste starts surprising with orange rind, caramel and dark fruit. Next comes some smoky/burnt notes with some toffee undertones. The finish has a lingering tobacco bitterness with an alcohol pepperiness. It's complex without being to scattered and slightly off-balanced. But that's it's appeal for me. This isn't your text book Scottish Ale, but it's well worth seeking out and trying. It dials in at a well-hidden 7.0% abv and is only available at the Bayou.

Warm Welcome

New to the area this season(via the Bayou) are a slew of new holiday imports from the UK. Braving the dangerous Friday night crowd at the Bayou I sacrificed my safety and liver to bring you the first glimpses and reviews of these limited availability beers.

Warm Welcome from Ridgeway Brewing out of West Sussex, England is the first of these new imports I got the opportunity to try. This beer poured a very clear ruby/brown color with a light beige cap that dispersed rapidly. Nose was nutty with a hint of molasses sweetness. The taste started clean and malty with grassy hop bitterness at the end. The finish was sweet with a dry spiciness. This is a textbook English Brown Ale. It dials in at 6% abv. A little hoppier than most but worthy of the holidays.

Sorry about the lousy pic. Bar lighting in the evening sucks.