New Beer Friday 12/18/20

We've had a lot of local beers over the last few weeks. This week is mostly about the out of market selection. Enjoy!

Policy Kings - Festival City Lager: This is the first lager to come out of Policy Kings and is named for the town of Cedar City. No notes on this. Please check it out. 5.0% - Only at Policy Kings. 

Uinta - Oatmeal Stout: Nice cocoa notes with some roasted malt and caramel. It has a nice creamy body. Would be excellent on nitro. 5.0% - Limited batch, only at Uinta on draft.

Kiitos - Winter IPA: Missed this. made with Loral and Citra hops. 5.0% - Only on draft at Kiitos.

Toasted Barrel -Tequila Barrel-aged Lime Gose: I missed this one. Sure sounds tasty though. 8.0% - Only at Toasted Barrel.

Duclaw - PastryArchy (Candy Cane): Duclaw Brewing (Not White Claw) is new to our market and is based out of Baltimore. Smells like a candy cane with chocolate. It tastes like hot chocolate with a candy cane in it. Full of powdered cocoa and earthy hops in the end. Finish.es with peppermint.  8.5% - Found at Slackwater in Sandy

Revision - Moon Wolf: Zesty citrus, tangerine, lemon, lime, and grapefruit, tropical fruit, papaya, apricot, peach, and a touch of mango and passion fruit, resinous pine, spicy grassy notes, biscuity malt, and caramel sweetness. Avery nice hazy from Revision. 7.0% -Found at Slackwater in Sandy.

Elysian - Rolling Stone:  Cereal grain in the aroma, along with some spicy hop notes. Crisp flavor...dry with some hop bitterness. Nice hop flavor in the finish. Straightforward lager. 4.8% - Found at Green Pig.

Ninkasi - Steady Orbit: Missed this one. 4.5% - Found at Slackwater in Sandy.

Returning Favorites

The following Fisher beers are back and in limited edition packaging in 15 ounce cans.

Fisher - Double IPA:

Fisher - Hazification:

Fisher - Sweater Party:

Fisher - Classic American Lager:

Saltfire Barrel Aged Imperial Dirty Chai Stout: 

Uinta - Brighton IPA:

Uinta - Deer Valley Black Beer:

Uinta - Powder Mountain Pilsner:

Cheers!

New Beer Friday 12/11/20

Two breweries debuted their first ever packaged beers this week. On top of that, we have another strong local showing full of big flavored beers designed for the holidays.

Policy Kings - 01-01-01: Policy King's first official packaged beer pours a light gold hazy color with a nice thick and creamy off white head. Aroma is more on the citrus side for hazy IPAs..lemon rind, orange and a bit of peach. But pleasing none the less. Again the flavor is more of a citrus/floral IPA, not the fruit bomb expected, It has a fairly nice medium mouthfeel that is appropriate for the hazy style. 7.6% - Available at Policy Kings.

Desert Edge - 2020 IPA: Desert Edge has been brewing beer since the mid 90s. This is their first official "high point" release in all time; I must say their debut is absolutely wonderful.  Aroma of pale malt, citrus and tropical hops, orange, grapefruit, pineapple and mango. Flavor is mildly caramel and pale malt, citrus hops, orange, grapefruit, dried papaya, mango and exotic mixed tropical fruit; finishes with nice moderate citrus and slightly piney hops. Medium bodied with moderate creaminess, nice mouth feel. This is a hazy I can get behind. 

Epic - Grandma Van's Candy Cane Stout: The flavors here are semisweet chocolate and flavors of roasted malt and bitter roasted notes. At first sip, you might not even realize that this is infused with mint if you weren't paying attention. Though that's likely a good thing, since you don't want the mint to overpower the flavor. Once again, the peppermint comes through in more of an herbal, even earthy vein than the kind of artificial profile in mint candy. In fact, the mint imparts zero sweetness whatsoever, relying on the chocolate malt and cacao to counteract the bitterness from the roasted flavor profiles. Think Brownies with mint icing. 6.0% - Available at Epic.

Shades - Slurry Series Sugar Plum: This beer is thick – like tomato juice thick. This is a super fruity and tart milkshake style sour beer. Marshamallow and lactose counter the base sweetness creating a well rounded fruit bomb. Perfect for the holidays. 5.0% - Available at Shades. Not vegan friendly.

Hopkins - Strawberry Zinfandel Sour: This has a bright vinous nose. The taste follows with mostly Zinfandel grapes dominating. The strawberry part is for the most part dominated by the grape. The tartness from the base beer gives the whole package a unripened sour profile. I found it quite drinkable. 5.0% - Only at Hopkins. 

Proper - Barrel Aged Geol: Most barrel-aged barleywines tend to nap in whiskey barrels. Proper's new barrel-aged version of Geol (Yule) was aged in Pino Noir barrels. The aroma is sweet and slightly vinous with some oak. The taste is surprisingly, not super sweet. The barrel treatment here has mellowed what is normally a big malt profile. The Pino portion combines to make an almost Port-like flavor with a nice punch of drying oak. A very nice take on the barleywine. 10.6% 

Kiitos - Mocha Brown: This has a nose full of coffee aromas. The taste follows, but is more intense. There's a ton of cold drip medium roast coffee flavors. It has a nice fresh taste with some drying toast from the base beer. If you love coffee, this will make you day. 5.0% - Only at Kiitos.

Level Crossing - XII.XI.XIII Barleywine: Brewed to honor the birth of Head Brewer, Chris Detrick's son. This is an American Style Barleywine which is more hoppy than the English style. And this delivers with a full 222 IBUs. This is a hoppy and bitter beast. There's a nice amount of toffee at the base and then it kicks into hop overdrive. This beer was designed for aging; to be laid down for many, many years. So, buy a few for your cellar.  12.1%

Lone Pine - Quantum Cuddle Kitten: Missed this one. 8.2% - Found at Slackwater in Sandy.

Returning Favorites

Tf Brewing - HollaHaze

Proper Geol

RoHa - Millenium Falcon

This week Hopkins Brewing is celebrating 2 years in business and have a special Small Batch selection for the weekend. 

Cheers!

New Beer Friday 12/4/20

There's no mystery here. Great beers for all tastes are dialed in and ready to go for you. If you missed my post from Tuesday, the last beer in our charity collaboration series is pouring right now at Fisher. Thanks again to Fisher , 2 Row, TF and Epic for making these beers happen.

Fisher - Rye-On Mikey: This is the final collaboration in our 15 year anniversary series. This is of course, a rye pale that has a big citrus aroma with a sweet malty palate that is complimented with a medium amount of rye spiciness. On the hop-side we threw in mostly Amarillo to give it a medium bitterness and a very pleasant citrus peel profile. You can enjoy this 5.0% ale at the brewery or snag some crowlers to go.

Fisher/Ken Sanders - George Hayduke: The second in a series of beers based on the book, The Monkey Wrench Gang is another rye pale ale. This is much less hoppy than Rye-On Mikey. Rye forward with citrus and herbal hops. Medium maltiness with good balance. 5.0% Available Saturday.

Squatters- Olde Castle:  The aroma has notes of caramel and a little bit of grass and nut. Along with these smells comes some smells of dark fruit and a hint of herbs. The taste begins with a lightly toasted malt flavor that has a decent showing of a slightly bready flavors and some caramel. Upfront there is a little bit of a toasted nut flavor mixed with the rest as well. As the taste advances the nut gets a bit stronger, while some hoppy flavors of an herbal and earthy nature join the taste profile. 6.0% ABV Available at most Squatters/Wasatch locations. 

TF - TochterVat: This is a father/daughter project, brewed by assistant brewer, Rita Behles and her her dad, Joe. Fruity malts with herbal hops that take on rose and clover notes. It's very botanical with light toast and a hint of granola. Never had a lager like this. Very nice. 5.0% - Available at TF

Hopkins - Strawberry Sorghum: Light toast, and a hint of strawberry. Hop aromas are low, grain aromas are between medium and medium low. Taste starts with lightly sweet caramel bread crust and a hint of strawberry, light spice, a hint of anise, and a little bit of sorghum flavor. 5.0% - Available at Hopkins.

Shades - Eggnog Cream Ale: Poured a cloudy golden copper body with minimal head and lace. The aroma has this boozy, woody aspect to it with hints of dairy and sweetness to it. The beer is medium bodied and thick at times, almost a sticky dessert sipper at times, with touches of lactic quality. Some spices and booze shine through and warm me up and there is a bit of sweetness like vanilla coming through. 6.5% - Available at Shades. Not vegan friendly.

Melvin - Star Valley: Missed this one. 5.0% - Found at Slackwater (Sandy)

Revision - Sparkle Muffin: Missed this one. 7.0% - Found at Slackwater (Sandy)

Revision - To Dream: Missed this one. 7.0% - Found at Slackwater (Sandy)

Prairie - Seasick Crocodile: Missed this one. 6.3% - Found at Slackwater (Sandy)

Cheers!

Our Fourth, 15th Anniversary Beer Is???

Our fourth and final 15th Anniversary charity beer is available starting today! Utah Beer teamed up with the guys at Fisher Brewing to brew-up a special pale ale designed for high drinkability. 

Rye-on Mikey is of course a rye pale that has a big citrus aroma with a sweet malty palate that is complimented with a medium amount of rye spiciness. On the hop-side we threw in mostly Amarillo to give it a medium bitterness and a very pleasant citrus peel profile. You can enjoy this 5.0% ale at the brewery or snag some crowlers to go.

Demand at the Utah Food Bank is way up right now, and they could use the coin coming from all of these beers sooner than later. I'd like to thank you all for your feedback and interest in these beers; they were a lot of fun to create. I'd like to thank Jordan and Dave from Epic, Kevin and "the Jakes" from TF Brewing, Brian and Wendell at 2 Row  and of course Tom, Tim, Steve and Colby from Fisher. 

You can taste their enthusiasm in each of their beers and we hope your enjoyment of the beers is equal to the fun we had in making them. If you've missed one or the other, you can still find all four at their respective breweries. 

Prost!