New Beer Friday 5/24/24

It's a big-ass New Beer Friday. There's so much you won't be able to fit it all in, Thor knows I tried. Hit the list carefully; not all of these beers are available at some places. Also, two new popular breweries have entered the market: Hitachino Nest and Weldwerks.

Beer Nerd Radio will be a "best of episode" today. It would seem everybody is out of town this weekend for some reason. Today's episode is from last year and features Kyle Luce and Brittany Watts from TF Brewing. Check it out at 2pm today on 99.9fm KUAA.

Offset - Fast Hands: This new WCIPA features HBC 586 and Strata combined with some classics in Centennial and Simcoe. These new school hops combined with the tried and true really deliver an amazing blend of stone fruit, citrus and tropical notes on top of a bit of that classic resin and pine you remember from when West Coast IPA was all there was. Dry, crisp, structured bitterness, coupled with expressive hop flavor and aroma in a really drinkable little package. 6.3% - Available at Offset.

Salt Lake Brewing - Farmer's Daughter: This cherry rhubarb ale was brewed to kick off the SLC Farmer's Market. This ale has a medium amount of fruitiness. The cherry is nice and the rhubarb  adds tartness, melds with cherry. 5.0% - Only SL Brewing. 

Silver Reef - Ramp: Missed this "strong wheat ale" brewed with Nector Hops. 7.0% - Available at Silver Reef.

Uinta - aaaaaa (AKA Six A’s = one B): If you want further info on the meaning of this lager’s name you’ll have to ask Cardi, Kylee & Taylor at Uinta’s Taproom. I'm not touching this one. This Czech Pils has a good amount of crackery malt sweetness with a big hop punch that is herbal, grassy & lingering. A nice lager from Uinta’s R&D lab. 5.0% - Only at Uinta.

Epic - Blood Orange Wheat: Very toasty aroma, not much citrus. The flavor here is a good mix of toasty wheat and blood orange. The citrus is nice and doesn't overpower the American style wheat beer at its base. 5.0% - Available at Epic - Soon everywhere. 

Epic - Small Batch Blood Orange: This is the same basic beer amped-up to 7.0%. It also comes across as fresher than the previous version. This has the same toasty wheat flavors with more body and pizzaz. The blood orange is tastier and more genuine in flavor. You can actually taste the citric acid in this one. They both fill their niche. Very nice. Only at Epic. 

Stone - Enjoy-by 7/4/24: Missed this one. Found at Beerhive, Slackwater.  

TF/Breakside - Bird: This hoppy IPA collaboration is brewed with pilsner malt, cryo chinook, simcoe, nectaron, and nectaron terpenes. An intense aroma with mandarin orange, tangerine, and weed candies drinks crisp with pleasant bitterness. If you like 'em on the dank side, you'll dig this one.  

Beer Zombies - Zombie Wars: This version was DDH with Citra & Cryo-Citra. It’s a Citra bomb! No mess, no fuss with big tangerine notes. Drinks super fresh, no cattiness, or onion. Alcohol is well hidden, given it big 9.5% ABV. Only at Beer Zombies.

Weldwerks - Juicy Bits: features a huge citrus and tropical fruit hop character from the Mosaic, Citra & El Dorado hops and softer, smoother mouthfeel from the adjusted water chemistry, higher protein malts, and lower attenuation. The end result is a beer reminiscent of citrus juice with extra pulp. 6.7% - Found at Slackwater, The Bayou.

Weldwerks - Extra Extra Juicy Bits: This Double India Pale Ale was brewed and double dry-hopped with Citra, Mosaic and El Dorado hops. It's a complex blend of malt, oats, and wheat. With notes of tangerine, pineapple, passion fruit, mango, peach, and grapefruit. 8.6% - Found at Slackwater, The Bayou.

Weldwerks - Bamm Bamm Rubble Rubble - Now With Rainbow Sherbet: Missed this Sour Ale with Rainbow Sherbet, Fruity Rice Cereal, Vanilla, Raspberry, Orange and Lemon Syrup with Marshmallow & Milk Sugar. 5.2% -  Found at Slackwater, The Bayou.

Weldwerks - Hefeweizen: A traditional German Hefeweizen recipe, using 50% wheat malt and 50% Pilsner malt. A Bavarian yeast strain, contributes banana character, but with a restrained spicy phenolic character. 5.5% - Found at Slackwater, The Bayou.

Hitachino Nest - Red Rice: Complex sake like flavors with malt sweet notes. Hints of strawberries in the nose and palate. An intriguing mix of sake, malt , and bitter notes in the finish. 7.0% - Found at the Bayou.

Hitachino Nest - XH: This is a strong Belgian Brown Ale, matured in Shochu (distilled sake) barrels. Chinook & Styrian Goldings hops are used. 8.0% - Found at the Bayou.

Hitachino Nest - Sweet Stout: A perfect mixture of coffee, chocolate, and roasted flavors in the nose and on the palate. No bitterness, with very light, sweet lactose notes throughout to the very finish. 4.0% - Found at the Bayou.

Hitachino Nest - Saison Du: Brewed with Japanese wheat and koji (malted rice) - a key ingredient in the production of sake. 5.0% - Found at the Bayou.

Here are this week's Small Batch Beer from Hopkins Brewing.

Cheers!

New Beer Friday 05/17/24

If flavor is what you crave, we have you covered this New Beer Friday. From fruity to dank, hoppy to sour, we have researched the perfect beer for you. 

Beer Nerd Radio would like to welcome our pals from Cedar City's Policy Kings Brewing Company to the radio pub. We'll get into the PK's history and of course their new plans to re-locate to SLC. You won't want to miss this episode. We go live at 2pm Fridays on 99.9FM KUAA.

Prodigy - Sole Sisters (Pink Boots): This is an India Pale Lager that is delightfully refreshing with the perfect balance of hops coming from the 2024 Pink Boots Hop Blend! A portion of proceeds from sales will go directly to Pinkboots Utah to support women and non-binary individuals in the brewing industry! 5.0% - Only at Prodigy. 

Shades - Salud: This New Mexican-style lager features lime and sea salt. Subtle flavors of lime, malt & corn. There’s a hint of sodium but it’s more of an afterthought, which keeps this lager from becoming too briny. A pretty descent lime infused mexi-lager that has plenty of balance between fruit & the base beer.

Ogden Beer/Vernal Brewing - Helles is Better With Friends: Missed this lager. 5.0% Available at Ogden Beer and Vernal Brewing.

RoHa - Moon Flower San Diego Pale Ale: Brewed for American Craft Beer Week this “San Diego Pale Ale has a dank ‘n weedy aroma that’s full of melon citrus & herbs. Taste is the same except with more chewiness from the amount of hops present. I like RoHa’s new dank & weedy hop philosophy. Mikey Likey. 5.0% - Only at RoHa.

RoHa - Shoreline Hazy IPA: Also, brewed for American Craft Beer Week, this beer debuts today and is a much more balanced a fruity session IPA. Citrus and berries mostly with some herbals hops too. Little bitterness, compared to the above mentioned pale ale. 5.0% - Only at RoHa.

Offset - EXP Tangier: Word on the street is that there was less than 500 lbs of this new Tangier hops harvested this year. Offset managed to talk their way into 11 lbs of it which wasn't quite enough to do a completely single hop Pale Ale, but almost. The Tangier was blended with a bit of High Oil Cascade, Anchovy, with a dry hop consisting of mostly Tangier with a touch of Centennial. 5.0% - Available now at Offset.

Proper - Yasuke: Missed this Dark Rice Lager. 5.0% - Available now at Proper Brewing. 

Level Crossing - Sun Slope Sour IPA: Made by brewer Paige Lewis. Sun Slope Sour is offered on nitro and has aromas of tart pineapple, ripe peach, red berries and cannabis. The acidity from the Philly Sour yeast is apparent, yet restrained, giving way to a medium hop bitterness with a pleasant tart and juicy tropical fruit finish. 5.0% - Available at both level Crossing locations. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake. The mission of FRIENDS is to preserve and protect the Great Salt Lake ecosystem and to increase public awareness and appreciation of the Lake through education, research, advocacy and the arts.

Do you love a nice Gueuze, Wild Ale or Spon Beer? Then I highly recommend visiting The Bayou soon.... very soon. That's basically all I'm allowed to say. I think you'll be happy.

Saturday Beer Bar Celebrates 10 damn years! The pub opens at 4pm Saturday with a full kitchen, 10 DJs, a ton of beer and a special surprise from 8 -11pm. 

Cheers!

American Craft Beer Week in Utah 2024

American Craft Beer Week started off Yesterday. Sadly life got in the way for me yesterday,  So sorry for the delay. Though the majority of efforts are transitioning to Utah Craft Beer Week, June 2nd - 8th 2024, with daily events. The week will conclude with the Wild West Collab Fest.

Until then please enjoy some of these special beer release and beer specials. 

RoHa Brewing Project:

Monday: New Beer Release, Moon Flower San Diego Pale Ale, draft release, RoHa only

Tuesday: Shotgun a beer with the brewers, 5 pm RoHa patio.

Wednesday: Firkin Hump Day, we tap a firkin at 5 pm sharp!

Thursday: Bluegrass Night with Theoretical Blonde

Friday: New Beer Release, Shoreline Hazy IPA, draft only available at RoHa

Saturday: Live music at 7 pm with Darling and the Debonair

Sunday: Live music 3 - 6, Honkey Tonk with Jerry Cochran and his Highball Train

2 Row Brewing 

HAPPY CRAFT BEER WEEK! To celebrate, we're doing a GIVEAWAY RAFFLE that will conclude at the end of the week, as well as $4 DRAFT POURS on a new beer every day! Check the chalk board to see when we're pouring your favorite.

Bohemian Brewery 

CELEBRATE AMERICAN CRAFT BEER WEEK with us at Slackwater Downtown SLC, Tuesday 5/14. We're geeked to join our friends at Slackwater Downtown SLC tomorrow for a Bohemian Brewery "TAP TAKEOVER" with some fantastic and unique styles of lagers.

"HANS GRUBER" EXPORT LAGER: If you're "very perceptive" you'll note this traditional German Export Lager uses only four pure ingredients: water, malt, hops & yeast. As Hans himself might say: "This is a very nice beer. It would be a shame to ruin it." This beer was featured at our recent Lagerpalooza Festival, and was created and brewed (with a little help from the squad here at Bohemian) by Ron Barnes of Kansas City. 5.0% ABV 30 IBU

BOHO "EXTRA DRY": Lightly grainy & unique malty character from a blend of pale malts, rice and corn in addition to brewing technique. 5.0% ABV 20 IBU

CALIFORNIA STEAM LAGER: A bright amber/copper hoppy San Francisco-style lager with a crisp "Anchor" profile. 5.0% ABV 35 IBU

MUNICH HELLES LAGER / Soft and bready malt character — but with a clean & crisp finish — this is a refreshing beer with substance. 5% ABV // 18 IBU

Shades Brewing

Salud Mexican Lager: Release of this New Mexican-style Lager. This brew has floral bready aroma with a complex flavor and a clean finish.

More events to come as they roll in. Cheers!

New Beer Friday 5/10/24

It's kind of a pale ale New Beer Friday this week. which is just fine by me. 

Speaking of pale ales, that's the topic of our deep dive episode this afternoon on Beer Nerd Radio. Guest tasters Kelsey Booth and Jeremy Mathews will join Steph and I as we dissect one of my all-time favorite styes. We go live at 2pm today on 99.9FM KUAA. 

Uinta - Trials and Tribulations: This new R&D pale ale features Cascade, Centennial and Amarillo hops. It has lots of citrus peel with a medium amount of bitterness that is nice and lingering. An excellent pale ale. 5.0% - Available at Uinta.

SL Brewing - Bikini Bottom: This session IPA has a citrus and herbal aroma. Tastes the same with grapefruit rind and some flowery old school hops. Some lingering bitterness creates a relatively dry finish. 5.0% - Available at SL Brewing.

Offset - Extra Special DOPO: made with Mosaic, Mosaic Incognito, Simcoe, Cryo Nelson

Kohia Nelson and Subzero Hop Kief. It's got a huge hop profile of mostly citrus, melon and berries. It's not quite dank and chewy but damn close. tasty stuff. Available at Offset, found at The Bayou.

Fisher - Reality Surf: Lotsa guava and orange peel like hops. Very nice pale ale with a medium amount of bitterness. 5.0% - Only at Fisher.

Fisher - Large Quiet Man: Missed this new pale ale. 5.0% - Only at Fisher.

Proper - Key Lime Blonde: Nutty vanilla lime aroma. Taste is similar. It’s also slightly nutty and biscuity with nice lime character. 5.0% 

Helper - Power Coupling: Brilliant clarity with a citrus & melon aroma. Tastes the same with slightly more intensely. Still clean & crisp. Such a nice crispy! 5.0% - Available now at Helper Brewing - Found at The Bayou.

Cheers!

New Beer Friday 5/3/24

Even though May 4th isn't until Saturday, you can't have enough Star Wars and beer. Saturday there will be dozens of Star Wars themed specials and gatherings at various pubs and bars, like Black Sheep's Star Wars - Salt Flats tap-takeover. 

And if that wasn't enough, Lagerpalooza is happening Saturday as well at Bewilder Brewing. Winners of the lagers only beer festival and home brew competition will get their recipes professionally made and packaged the following year. It all Starts at 11am. 

And....Cinco De Mayo is Sunday, but Saturday will also see plenty of revealers with special Mexican style ales and lagers peppered throughout the Wasatch Front and Back. 

You're still board? How 'bout South Salt Lake City's Annual Mural Fest. Visit some of the many breweries in SSL while the murals are created. Hit up Chappell Brewing, Grid City, Shades, Saltfire and Level Crossing.  

Are you still being a greedy little beer nerd? I thought so... it's Kentucky Derby day! Pubs all over will be having drink specials and I hear "interesting" hats are encouraged in places like The Garten at Mountain West Cider and The Bruce Scottish Pub. 

Speaking of drink specials: Beer Nerd Radio has Beehive Distilling in the Radio Pub. Steph and I are really looking forward to getting into some of their Iconic local spirits along with latest canned cocktails. We get started live at 2pm every Friday on 99.9FM KUAA.  

Have I given you enough??? Now on with New Beer Friday.

Salt Flats - Prickly Pear Kölsch: Toasty aroma, slightly nutty. Prickly pear starts top of palate, it’s not overpowering and allows the Kölsch to still shine. Finishes with some Smarties fruitiness. 5.0% - on draft now at all Salt Flats locations.

Shades - Spicy Burro Sour Ale: This "Jalapeño Mexi-Style Margarita" beer has Chipotle aroma for sure. Taste is the same with more chipotle and less lime. You still get plenty of the Kveik sourness but the overall experience is more chipotle sour ale and less margarita. A dash of vinegary hot sauce would round it out.

Wasatch/Squatters - Rights of Spring: This Maibock has a sweet herbal and toasty/nutty nose. Tastes spot-on for style. Sweet honey-like malt that aren’t cloying but conveys this is a Bock bier. Hops are traditional and herbal. A very nice beer… and maibocks are generally not my jam. No pun intended. 7.1% - Available at Wasatch/Squatters.

Wasatch/Squatters - Wallabier: Brilliant clarity. Not much aroma. Taste is toasty with light caramel & honey. Hops are floral & slightly herbal. Co2 is super prickly - per style. I’m really enjoying this prickly crispy boi. 5.0% - Available at Wasatch/Squatters.

Wasatch/Squatters - Limousine Driver: More clear beer! This Steamer has a slight toasty and herbal scent. Very light mouthfeel, almost too light. Some toasted grain and a hint of fruitiness from yeast. Aussie Sparkling Ale has more going on and style-wise it shouldn’t. Though it is crispy! 5.0% - Available at Wasatch/Squatters.

Offset - Extra Special DoPo: Missed this session IPA. 5.0% - Available at Offset.

Desert Edge - Coconut Porter: Dark black body, one finger off white head, good retention, no lacing. Light coconut water, mild milk chocolate and a bit of roast. It works well here, fairly straightforward porter with a good coconut flavor to it. Lighter medium bodied, good carbonation, slight char on the finish, dab of espresso. 5.0% - Available at Desert Edge.

Proper - Big Sky tiny Tree: Citra forward WCPA. Brilliant clarity… it’s tangerine dream. 5.0% - On now at Proper.

Roosters - El Doce Mexican Lager: Refreshing crisp lager brewed with a flaked maize and Citra hops.  5.0% - Available at all Roosters locations.

Roosters - Serrano Pale Ale (Maria Pale Ale): Brewed with fresh Serrano Chilis and a Citra Hop. The slight spice from the Chilis is balanced with a floral body and citrus finish.  5.0% - Available at all Roosters locations.

Roosters - Ocaso Mexican Amber Lager: Bold character with caramel and roasted malt, mildly hopped for a crisp finish. 5.0% - Available at all Roosters locations.

Uinta - Millions of Peach-ish IPA: This beer is dry-hopped with experimental hop varietals HBC 1019, HBC 630 and Alora. A thick malt bill backs up peeks of nature’s candy, citrus flashes and fleshy stone fruit drops on the palate. 7.8% - Available at Uinta.

Zar Brewing - Zardetto Prosecco: So, Untappd has this as an “Australian Sparkling ale”. I thought the Prosecco part of the name may be a play on a theme. Na, it’s straight up Prosecco, not beer at all. That being said, it’s a nice Prosecco. Not too sweet, medium effervescence.

New Mexico Craft - Bohemian Steam: Yeah, 0-2 on the new stuff at Beer Zombies. This is NOT the Bohemian Steam from New Mexico Brewing. This IS Bohemian Brewing’s Steamer. A great beer if you haven’t had it, my score reflects the BoHo Steamer. Someone screwed the pooch on this week’s menu. 

Urban Artifact - Hobnail Extra Thick: Missed this fruit beer with wild Canadian blueberries. 10.1% - Found at Salckwater and The Bayou.

Cheers!