One morning while reading The Heavy Table, Shawn learned about one of Minnesota’s newest breweries, Boom Island Brewing Company. The biggest difference between Boom Island and many other breweries that have hit the news recently, is that Boom Island was already putting its beer up for sale. I attended a quick tasting at The Four Firkins in Saint Louis Park, where I grabbed two of the first bottles released. Boom Island Brewing is Belgian-inspired brewery, based in Minneapolis. The story of Kevin Welch, brewer, is one of a homebrewer’s dream. What could turn out to be Boom Island’s “ace in the hole” is the fact that Kevin is cultivating his own yeast strains, gathered during a trip across Belgium. We review the some of first releases available from Boom Island Brewing: Silvius Pale Ale and Thoprock IPA. On its website, Boom Island also teases the eventual release of a Dubbel and Tripel in bottles.

Boom Island Brewing Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Silvius Pale Ale, American Pale Ale
ABV (Alcohol by Volume): 5.5%

Boom Island Brewing Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Thoprock IPA, American IPA
ABV (Alcohol by Volume): 8%

Show Notes
Recorded January 11, 2012
00:00 – 06:05: Introduction
06:05 – 22:12: Silvius Pale Ale by Boom Island Brewing
22:12 – 38:25: Thoprock IPA by Boom Island Brewing
38:25 – 44:17: Boom Island Brewing Wrap-Up

Show Links

• Boom Island Brewing Company; @boomislandbeer on Twitter
• Heavy Table: Kevin Welch of Boom Island Brewing

Runtime: 44 minutes
Download: MP3 (26.6mb)
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Music — When It Stings by Pictures of Then

Specs from Goose Island:

ABV: 6.2%
Color: Ruby, Chocolate
Hop Bitterness (IBU): Changes year to year
Malts: Pale Ale, Munich 10, Caramel 20, Caramel 60, Caramel 120
Hops: Change year to year
Availability: November – December

Serving Suggestions:

Preferred Glass: Nonic
Food Pairings: Ham, Turkey, Lamb
Cheese Pairings: Aged Gouda, Dry Jack
Cellaring Notes: Develops in the bottle for up to 5 years

The Review

Appearance: The body is a deep garnet, with fluffy toasted marshmallow-colored head, which quickly subsides and leaves no lacing.

Aroma: The nose is soft, but as the beer warms, the body of hazelnut appears. There is a slight alcohol hint lingering, that becomes less present when the beer reaches room temperature.

Flavor: I detect a bit of aged hops with the first sip. There’s a bitter finish that quickly fades. I can imagine there’s a brown sugar / spice duo, but it’s only a very faint notion. It’s certainly a warm, sweet brew, but at 6.2%, not alcoholic.

Mouthfeel: Christmas Ale 2011 is sweet, with very low carbonation. There is a roasted caramel toffee aftertaste. This beer reminds me of a ramped-up version of Mild Winter.

Overall: I’m pleasantly surprised by this one. When I think of a Christmas ale, Anchor Brewing’s Christmas Ale comes to mind. However in this example, Goose Island nailed it. They produced a centric, not overly-hoppy, smooth-malted ale. This beer works well throughout the Christmas gathering. I’ve been sipping on it while grazing appetizers, and plan to open another bottle to enjoy during dinner.

Thanks to Ken Hunnemeder at Goose Island for providing me this sample.

Supplementary Review (by Mike)

Appearance: The Christmas Ale poured hazy amber with a tan, bubbly froth on top. If you swirl the glass around, the beer will slowly drain off the sides. There does seem to be a bit of carbonation as bubbles cling and rise against the glass edge.

Aroma: This beer comes off as slight sweet and somewhat toasted. If you hold your nose to the glass long enough, you can convince yourself that you’re smelling banana bread.

Taste: I get a fair amount of effervescence with this beer. Not that it’s a bubbly champagne, but it doesn’t fall flat on the palate. I get that metallic tinge with slight bitterness. The real flavors here, however, are the roasted malts balanced with some sort of spice (maybe cinnamon) element.

Overall: The beer tastes rounded, and I believe it’s because of the alcohol content. It’s not too high of an alcohol content at 6.2%. But that ABV does make the beer a little warmer and leaves a balance between the sweet and the spice.

Specifications from Goose Island:

ABV: 5.6%
ABW: 4.4%
Color: Toffee Brown
Hop Bitterness (IBU): 20
OG: 14.0° Plato
Malts: 2 Row, Carapils, Dark Chocolate, Roast Barley, Rye Flake
Hops: Pilgrim, Centennial, Tettnang
Availability: December – March

Serving Suggestions:

Preferred Glass: Willi
Food Pairings: Beef, Stews, Sausages
Cheese Pairings: Gruyere, Fontina
Cellaring Notes: Enjoy within 180 days

The Review

Appearance: The body is a ruby to toffee brown. The head is fluffy white, and as it subsides, it laces the glass. I poured into a Saison Dupont glass, the only example of a willi glass I own.

Aroma: Soft, caramel roast, raisins. Fleeting finish, with peppery rye notes.

Flavor: Mild Winter is only slightly sweet. It’s very reminiscent of a British mild or a bitter, with low hop presence and a slight toffee bitterness. I enjoy the fact I’m not drinking a boozy behemoth. I could comfortably quaff a few of these at a sitting.

Mouthfeel: Sweet, low carbonation. It feels slightly like corn or unfermented grain. The beer finished with little bitterness and no alcohol heat.

Overall: Mild winter is a great change of pace for the season. When friends are bringing out high ABV brews like Russian Imperial Stouts and barley wines, or spicy winter warmers, this beer would please a broad range of beer drinkers’ palettes. I know I plan to share this brew with my family (they’re typically drinking American adjunct lagers at get-togethers).

Thanks to Ken Hunnemeder at Goose Island for providing me this sample.

With the holiday season upon us, more family and friends are regularly hosting gatherings. With gatherings come food and beverage, particularly of the fermented nature.

This week I had been in Iowa visiting friends when a message came across that Peace Tree Brewing Company had placed a recently finished apple cider on draft in their taproom. The Knoxville, Iowa based brewery is tucked away behind a 45 minute drive from Des Moines. I hadn’t been to the taproom since its beginnings about two years ago. The brewery is certainly an enjoyable space with room for entertainment including a bar with fresh offerings.

Peace Tree has been exploring their range of fermented opportunities since opening in 2009. They introduced one of the first Iowa produced beers that had an alcohol content higher than 6.5%,the Belgian-style Blonde Fatale. In 2010, Peace Tree brewed a farmhouse-style ale using sweet corn, and iterated upon it this past summer by infusing a batch with Brettanomyces. With Autumn fading, but in time for holiday gatherings, Peace Tree has now released a Champagne-yeast based cider, currently available only in their Knoxville taproom.

It sounds like this is the second shot Peace Tree has taken at creating a cider, the first having been only a 5-10 gallon batch. This time around Peace Tree has enough to serve on tap, and will as well sell about 200 bombers within the coming weeks. I stopped in for a pint in the taproom, but also took a home a growler to share with friends over dinner.

The cider was a rather hazy yellow and didn’t present itself as a light, refreshing drink. I think the cleanest looking cider I have come across is a Crispin Light, and Peace Tree’s entry looked more like a Crispin Honey Crisp. Again, this was not a cider looking at refreshment but I think rather attempting to produce a bit more daring flavor.

The cider has a big punch up front. I didn’t catch what the ABV of the cider was, but it led with the bite and followed with a residual sweetness. This cider was a sipper to best balance the flavors and prevent a clash across the palate.

Peace Tree is not the first Iowa brewery to make a cider in-house, but they’re giving it a go with one of the state’s best entries.

ABV: 10.8% ABV
IBUs:100
Malts: Pale Malt, Cara-Bohemian, Carafa III Special, and Chocolate Malt
Hops: Columbus (bittering), Citra (flavor/aroma). Dry-hopped with Nelson Sauvin and Pacific Jade

Shawn’s Take

Appearance

I’m a dork when it comes to bottle artwork. (It must be my Hibbing roots; Bob Dylan made album artwork as important in the music experience as the record itself.) As a homebrewer, I’m torn when I see a gorgeous screen-printed bomber. I respect the care it took to create the graphic, but I cannot reuse the bottle to cellar my own homemade libations. This bomber is adorned by Stone gargoyle hoisting a beer stein into the air, as if he’s proclaiming craft beer as more than just a beer, but rather a cause worthy of backing. He’s superimposed over a “15″ commemorating the crystal anniversary of Stone Brewing Company.

Immediately after pouring this brew into the glass, the rocky, caramel head permutated, like you’d see with a strong stout: the head almost fills the glass, quickly cascading from the tan fluffy top into the solid, dark body. This beer is absolutely opaque, even darker in body than many stouts or porters on the market.

Aroma

Trying not to bring any preconceptions to the table, I was impressed at the piney, resinous notes from such an obsidian-hued beer. After a few sips, and when the head subsided, the hoppy aroma became overcome with coffee notes and a subtle presence of tobacco. The intense duality of this beer is certainly something to ponder; if you sat down and drank this beer cold, it would be an entirely different monster than when enjoyed as it warmed. The hoppy notes were much stronger when the head was still present, with a pleasant piney, resinous stickiness. As the beer approached room temperature, the hop profile I’d usually find in an American IPA shifted, and I found myself experiencing a new beer: a hoppy stout with a bitter finish.

Flavor

For a beer of nearly 11 percent, the body is full, hitting the palette in many regions, covering the alcohol heat extremely well. I taste a beer reminiscent of a foreign extra stout, with bitter cocoa and tobacco notes, quickly followed by a punch of hops, both bitter and floral. As the beer warmed, the hop nose faded and I couldn’t help but think the beer had highly roasted, almost smoky malts. The chocolate malt used in the beer definitely helped to ease the shifting flavor experience from a hop-forward brew to a malt-centric beer.

Overall Evaluation

No neo-style of American craft beer has been met with quite as much resistance as the Black IPA (or in some parts of the US, the Cascadian dark ale). Though many have tried to succeed in a creating a beer with a big hoppy aroma and flavor, it’s very difficult to overcome the intense roast profile of a dark-malted beer. I can only truly cite a handful of beers claiming to be a Black IPA that actually delivered a somewhat pleasant drinking experience.

The Stone Fifteenth Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA delivered. I was impressed at its novel take on the style, by amping it up a few more percent ABV and certainly a larger sum of IBUs. This beer had a well-thought concept that delivered more than a smoky, malty, hoppy mess (as other examples of the style showcased).

I’m not sure when Minnesota will be fortunate enough to see this beauty on shelves, but I know the IPA-loving crowd here in the Twin Cities will find this brew a welcome late summer muse.

Mike’s Take

Glass raised high, a Stone gargoyle adorning the bottle of Fifteenth Anniversary urges you to take up the cause of craft and to hurriedly pour this deep black beer into your glass. A midnight sun races up from the bottom of your glass and is overcome by a tumbling tan head rushing to the top. The malt aroma pounds the air just as your nose begins to pick up the piney hop scent.

Appearance

I’m fairly certain that the producers of Spinal Tap have a trademark on the phrase “none more black”, but there is no light escaping the body of this beer. Hold the glass up to a light and you see nothing except for the hole in your vision.

Aroma

The aroma of the beer has no real chance to set in on your palette. Confusion takes over as a mixture of gum balls and cigars dominate. Like my great aunt’s kitchen, everything smells old.

The piney hop aroma is evident from the bottle, but once the glass swirls and the beer has a chance to breathe, your abilities to smell hops begin to suffer. I am reminded of cocoa powder with a lingering, subtle sweetness. But the dark malts force their way in and a musty, tobacco odor emanates.

Taste

The first sip teases your tastebuds into thinking you are drinking in a creamy, rich stout. But soon the hop bitterness collapses the mouth around your tongue and the heat of the beer causes your tongue to cling to the roof of your mouth. Without thought my tongue continuously licked the roof of my mouth, almost in a scrubbing manner. Burnt ash lingers throughout.

Overall Evaluation

My natural reaction after taking a sip of this beer is to gasp for air. My senses are overloaded and not content with allowing any of the flavors to linger any longer. In the past when drinking black malt IPAs¹ I have often felt that I may not be able to tell the difference between it and a regular IPA. Sometimes there may be an extra nutty or caramel flavor but otherwise the same. With Fifteenth Anniversary there is no mistaking this beer as an IPA. Actually, I bet most would have a hard time classifying this beer in a blind taste test. As I stated before, the aroma is confusing and my initial taste led me to believe I was drinking a stout. The high alcohol will slow you down during your session, and the heat in the beer does get balanced out by any other attributes. In fact most all of the attributes in this beer are urging you to slow down, but there’s unfortunately not any one characteristic you will stop to focus on.

Thanks to Randy Clemens of Stone Brewing Company for the sample provided to write this review. Follow this link for the Stone Brewing press release.

At the beginning of April, Stone Brewing Company expanded their distribution to the Minneapolis and St. Paul markets of Minnesota. Shawn was fortunate enough to get his hands on a bottle of the company’s Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale. I still don’t know how to classify this beer — and even Stone doesn’t give it a label — but it is of the India Pale Ale variety, only black. The beer was first released as the 11th Anniversary Ale in January 2009 but the creators were so taken with it their only conclusion was to continue production. I am joined this week by special guest Luke. Thank you to Stone Brewing for providing us with this sample.

Here is the rundown on the beer with information from the brewer’s site.

Style: (Black) India Pale Ale ABV: 8.7% IBUs: 90 Hop Varieties: Chinook, Simcoe, and Amarillo First released: January 2009

The first beer I decided to review after the announcement and arrival of Stone is the Cali-België (also known as Cali-Belgique) IPA. According to Stone:

“When reading the name “Stone Cali-Belgique IPA”, “Cali” hints that it is a California-style IPA, and this brew has an undeniable Belgian influence, indicated by the word “Belgique” (which is how Belgium’s French-speaking population says the word “Belgian”; the Dutch-speaking Belgians say “België”). We carefully selected a Belgian yeast strain that illuminates a fascinating new aspect of the beer that is otherwise quite simply Stone IPA. The result is both completely new and different, while still being recognizable as a Stone brew—and Stone IPA in particular. Think of it as an otherwise identical twin to Stone IPA that was raised in a Belgian culture. Literally.”

A quick rundown on a few key facts for Cali-België:

Style: India Pale Ale ABV: 6.9% IBU: 77 Hop varieties: Columbus, Chinook, and Centennial First released: August 2008

Stone Cali-België IPA

(As with most reviews we post here, I try to loosely stick to the form for a BJCP review.)

Appearance The Cali-België poured with a bright amber/copper body and a rocky, but quickly-fading, white head. The beer has striking clarity, and carbonation appears normal.

Aroma As aroma is the most fleeting aspect of a beer, I try to make a note of how a beer smells immediately after pouring into the glass. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I tried to avoid checking reviews and comments on the beer to prevent myself from establishing how someone else interpreted the beer. I found myself drawing close comparisons to the Belgian dubbel style (BJCP category 18B), with initial floral, clove notes. As the beer warmed slightly, and the head subsided, the bouquet opened a bit, and the stronger clove notes faded, leading to a bread-like aroma. Although pleasant, it is not quite the potent, resinous, aromatic hop attack I expected when I opened an IPA. I wasn’t put off, however; I really enjoy Belgian beers, enough to have made a trip to Brussels during my honeymoon. Whereas most people expecting an American IPA, or as I like to refer to the style–IPA 2.0– may be slightly confused.

Flavor The aroma of cloves and fresh-baked bread continues as I sampled the beer. I sampled the beer over a fifteen minute person, allowing it to warm to near room temperature. After that time, I did not notice any increase in hop flavor, like that one would normally anticipate in an IPA. The beer has a sweeter, more balanced finish, lacking the strong bitterness often present with an aggressive IPA.

Mouthfeel The Cali-België does differ from its Belgian peers in that the beer is thinner than some examples of the dubbel style. In contrast to an IPA, my tongue did not have the aggressive, hop-forward palette attack normally present. The finish is smooth and far from astringent.

Overall Occasionally, I find myself sitting with a Belgian dubbel during the fall and winter months, savoring the beer as a nightcap. This beer, however, does not need to be savored. It’s very quenching, and I was able to drink a good portion of the bomber right away, because the body was lighter, and the ABV a bit lower than a beer meant to be savored. Throughout the review, I kept struggling with the notion this beer is branded as an IPA. The Stone crew are quick to point out on the bottle, however, that this is literally the same recipe as their IPA, the only difference being the Belgian yeast strain they used for fermentation.

It’s amazing how much of a different finished product one can experience when only changing a single variable. If you’re a hop head, this might be a fun reprieve from your typical palette-crushing IPAs. If you are not (yet) an IPA enthusiast, this is a much more approachable means to move forward into the style.

Stone’s Cali-België IPA was a fun beer to try. It’s nice to throw your palette a curveball once in a while. I went into the beer expecting a typical, aggressively-hopped, West Coast IPA, but I ended up drawing parallels between the IPA style and the Belgian dubbel style. Check out this Periodic Table of Beer Styles to see how close the two styles are (at least by the numbers).

Thanks to Randy Clemens at Stone Brewing for providing me this sample.

Boulevard Brewing of Kansas City, Missouri has a wonderful series of beers that they call the Smokestack Series. The “Smokestacks” are typically limited release beers that come in 750ml bottles. For me, they represent some of the most innovative beers available in the Midwest. Last year I fell in love with the Bourbon Barrel Quad (BBQ for short) release – a heavy, cherry-like, boozy, close to 12% delicious beer. Boulevard changed-up their recipe, and how they blend their beers together for this year’s release. Jason and I decided it was time to revisit the BBQ because of this heard change. Additionally, to create a good side-by-side conversation, Jason and I brought out a Rye on Rye from last year – Boulevard’s rye wine aged on Templeton Rye barrels. If you like barrel-aged beers, jump in to the conversation. Cheers!

Boulevard Brewing Co. – Rye-on-Rye Style: Rye Beer ABV (Alcohol by Volume): 11.0%

Boulevard Brewing Co. – Bourbon Barrel Quad (BBQ) Style: Quadrupel ABV (Alcohol by Volume): 11.8%

It’s the second of our recordings from the weekend that belonged to Darkness Day. Again, this meet-up presented an opportunity for Jason, Mike and Shawn to record together. On this occasion, the three hosts and guests discuss Darkness Day as well as review three different beers.

Our first review is of the beer Rosé De Gambrinus, a Fruit Lambic from Brasserie Cantillon of Anderlecht, Belgium. While these beers can be aged for up to 10 years, they were chosen by the brewmaster as ready to drink now. This style beer is a Gueuze with fruit added during fermentation, and in this case raspberries are used.

Our second beer is the Fifteen Anniversary Ale from Avery Brewing Company of Boulder, Colorado. The Anniversary Ales from Avery are typically “wild and weird”. These are one-off beers that are meant to be aged.

Our third beer is 2010 iteration of the infamous Darkness from Surly Brewing Company of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. For the past few years, this beer has been primarily for sale on the brewery premises during Darkness Day. Spoiler Alert. This is a tremendous beer that’s ready to drink now.

Brasserie Cantillon – Rosé De Gambrinus Style: Fruit Lambic ABV (Alcohol by Volume): 5.0%

Avery Brewing Company – Avery Anniversary Ale – Fifteen Style: American Wild Ale ABV (Alcohol by Volume): 7.68%

Surly Brewing Company – Darkness 2010 Style: Russian Imperial Stout ABV (Alcohol by Volume): 10%

The Beer Genome Project #31 Show Notes

0:00-1:23- Introduction 1:23-28:16 – Cantillon Rosé De Gambrinus 28:16-49:26 - Avery Anniversary Ale – Fifteen 49:26-1:29:05 - Surly Darkness 2010 1:29:05-1:32:05 - Conclusion

This past weekend, many Midwestern craft beer fans descended upon Minnesota. Their destination: Brooklyn Center, where Surly Brewing hosted Darkness Day 2010. This episode was recorded on Darkness Eve, so stay tuned for next week’s episode to hear our discussion about Darkness Day and Surly Darkness 2010. However, the meet-up for Darkness Day weekend provided an opportunity for Jason and Mike to finally record face-to-face with Shawn and guests in St. Paul.

A number of our most recent episodes have focused on Belgian-style beers with much discussion about funky, sour, tart ,wild, spontaneously-fermented beers. This week is no exception as we breakdown no less than three “wild” beers.

Our first beer comes from Upright Brewing Company of Portland, OR – a company that draws much of its inspiration from the creative spirit of upright bass playing jazz legend, Charles Mingus. Known for its farmhouse style ales, Upright created Four, a  wheat beer made from a sour mash.

Our second beer hails from the renowned Russian River Brewing Company, in Santa Rosa, CA. Temptation, a blonde ale that has been aged for 15 months in French oak Chardonnay barrels with Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces yeasts, as well as Pediococcus and Lactobaccillus bacteria.

Our third beer is again of Portland, OR origin – Apricot Ale of Cascade Brewing Company. Apricot Ale is an 8.5% ABV Belgian Tripel-style beer which underwent lactic fermentation for 16 months, aged on French oak wine barrels, and rested on apricots for an additional four months.

Upright Brewing Company – Four Style: Saison ABV (Alcohol by Volume): 4.5%

Russian River Brewing Company – Temptation (004×4) Style: Sour Ale / Wild Ale ABV (Alcohol by Volume): 7.25%

Cascade Brewing Company – Apricot Ale 2009 Style: Sour Ale / Wild Ale ABV (Alcohol by Volume): 8.5%

The Beer Genome Project #30 Show Notes

0:00-1:18- Introduction 1:18-21:02 – Four by Upright Brewing 21:02-44:42 - Temptation by Russian River Brewing 44:42-1:03:44 - Apricot Ale by Cascade Brewing 1:03:44-1:05:43 - Conclusion