Living in Oregon, it’s easy to forget that Idaho is also part of the Pacific Northwest. Driving from Portland to the eastern boarder and into Idaho is a roughly 380 mile trip that takes more than six hours by car (if you obey the speed limits). On a quest for more craft beer flavor, I was easily persuaded by my friend Shawn Kelso to visit Idaho Falls to serve as a beer judge at the 2010 North American Beer Awards (NABA) . Four days of qualifying almost 1,200 entries seemed daunting yet exciting. Perhaps the most anticipated part of the excursion would be the Mountain Brewers Beer Fest (MBBF) that would follow the days of judging. MBBF boasts being the most attended one-day festival in the country, and draws more crowds in a single day than any other fest shy of the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. Now in it’s 16th year, this giant celebration of beer, has grown form 22 breweries to more than 100. Declared by Idaho’s governor as a “Beer and Brewing Day,” the event happens each year in June, and since its inception, has outgrown two venues. Now, since 2001, MBBF has been held at the spacious Sandy Downs on the southern outskirts of Idaho Falls. The grounds feature  a race track with wide open views of distant imposing mountains create a perfect festival environment.

My friend, Shawn, also the brewer at Barley Brown’s Brewpub in Baker City, Oregon, was no stranger to this fest and had done quite well in the past with his beers at NABA, taking home more than 30 medals in four years. It was on Shawn’s recommendation to both myself and  NABA judge coordinator, Bob Beckwith, that I became involved with one of the most interesting, educational, and entertaining beer-related weeks of my life.

A mostly mountainous state within storied The Rockies, Idaho is of substantial size, ranked at 11 of the 50 (Oregon is 10th; Idaho is slightly larger than neighboring Utah and larger than than all of the New England states combined). Idaho’s population is a different story than its massive expanse. With just over 1.54 million people, Idaho ranks 39th out of 5o states in this department. Vast pastel high desert glacially  formed hills and porous shrub-cover lava flows roll up rigid landscapes to  snow-capped high mountain peaks making Idaho easily one of the most beautiful spaces in North America, if not the world.

Though a little skeptical of setting off for nearly a week toward Idaho Falls, I finally figured out a plan that would make it feasible. There was no way in hell I was going to make the entire trek by car. You see, getting to Idaho is one thing, but that’s just over half the distance to Idaho Falls from Portland. I’ve made long car trips and monumental road trips as well, but even so, by car, Idaho Falls is still more than 5 hours from the Oregon border (again, if you adhere to the speed limit), meaning that the total drive, not counting breaks for gas, food, and sanity, is roughly 11 or 12 hours. So, I booked a flight into Boise. Though only 420 miles from Portland by way of Interstate 84, by airplane Idaho’s largest city was a mere hour away. From Boise, Shawn would pick me up and I’d make the remaining four-plus hour drive by car (Baker City where Shawn lives is about two hours from Boise).

Arriving at the Portland airport at about 9:30 a.m., I survived the annoying airport checkpoints and set up camp at one of Laurelwood’s pubs of PDX International right next to my gate. By 10:30 a.m. I was finished with a breakfast pint of Spaced Stout and ready to adhere to my section’s boarding announcement. The plane departed around 11 a.m. and soon after I was treated to a complimentary glass of Redhook Copperhook Ale. Life was good and the hops were aromatic and the malt was crisp. Before I could sneeze, what would have been a grueling drive dissipated into a quick quaff.

Shortly after touching down in Boise, Shawn picked me up and we took me to a brewery in town I’d been wanting to visit for a while. Sockeye Brewing was the home of brewer Josh King’s boisterously hopped brews. Here, after a tour of Sockeye’s cozy 7-barrel brewhouse, we enjoyed a delicious lunch matched with an assortment of artisan brews. On tap, Sockeye poured a Dagger Falls IPA, an insanely hopped Precocious IMperial Pale aka P.I.M.P., and an even more insane Hopnoxious Imperial IPA. In addition to these lupulin goliaths, I was able to enjoy their Pi Tripel, Galena Summit Kolsch, and a test taste of a powerfully complex Bavarian Hefe Rauch. With melding flavors of banana clove and smoked malt, this brew was undeniably refreshing yet robust.

Time was of the essence and since crossing into the Mountain timezone, an extra hour had slipped through our fingers. We had to make it to the first rounds of beer judging by 7 p.m., and it was now almost 3 p.m. with a four-plus hour ride ahead of us (again, provided we oblige the speed limitations). So, we reluctantly yet anticipatively pulled ourselves away from the Sockeye Brewpub, their amiable staff and uniquely palatable brews, and shot off into the eastern horizon toward Idaho Falls.

For many miles and many minutes, nothing but seemingly repetitive beauty rolled past us. In some ways it was reminiscent of a trip I made to Iceland yet with slightly more pronounced vegetation. It seemed like ions before a rest area would be found to relieve us of Sockeye’s bounties. Discouragingly the surgically clean rest area’s three vending machines, for some strange reason, would not accept our currency. It wasn’t until we reached a gas station on the Shashone-Bannock Tribes Reservation that we were finally at liberty to enjoy a spot of hydrating water (future note: pack lots of water for this drive).

After a long drive from Boise, at last made it to Idaho Falls, Idaho just a few minutes past 7 p.m. Shawn introduced me to Bob Beckwith, as he was greeted by many of the perennial faces of the fest. “You gonna save any medals for the rest of us this year?” one brewer joked rhetorically.

Most of the flights had already been assigned for this truncated first day of judging, so Shawn and I were both placed on  table where carbonated soft drinks and non-alcoholic brews were the first two tickets. After eight different super sweet beverages, my head was spinning from a sugar high. Then, we delved into a short flight of “near beers” that was something like trying to award good Samaritan badges to a group of convicts (well, that’s probably a bad analogy). After this short introduction to NABA judging, the group was dismissed for the night around 9 p.m.

Shawn and I were pretty tired from traveling all day, but after an hour settling in to our hotel room at the downtown Red Lion, figured we’d scope out the town a bit. By now it was past 10 p.m. and downtown on a Tuesday night was without a pulse. So, we did as any blue blooded American would and parked ourselves at the closest Appleby’s where we were welcomed to the neighborhood. The craft beer line-up here consisted of Widmer Hefe, New Belgium Fat Tire, and Blue Moon White. Well, at very least, we were pleased to see Oregon representing the otherwise macro market well with their flagship hefeweizen. The only dinner I had on this night was the lemons I removed from my crisp and quenching American wheat ale.

After shooting the breeze and unwinding some, Shawn and I retired to our room to rest up for the first of three consecutive 9 a.m. judgings.

To be continued…

Posted under Uncategorized

Boulder, CO—The Brewers Association recently released its 2010 Beer Style Guidelines. Updated annually, the guidelines currently describe 140 styles of beer.

For 2010, American-style Imperial Porter, American-Style India Black Ale, Belgian-Style Quadrupel and Fruit Wheat Ale or Lager categories were added and defined, reflecting the emergence of these styles as popularly available in the U.S. and other beer-drinking countries.

Since 1979 the Brewers Association has provided beer style descriptions as a reference for brewers and beer competition organizers. The beer style guidelines developed by the Brewers Association use sources from the commercial brewing industry, beer analyses, and consultations with beer industry experts and knowledgeable beer enthusiasts as resources for information. Much of the early work was based on the assistance and contributions of beer journalist Michael Jackson.

“These guidelines help to illustrate the growth of craft brewers in the United States and also offer insight and a foundation for helping appreciate the hundreds of beer types brewed for the beer lover,” said Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association.

The style revisions and additional styles will be used as the basis for the 2010 Great American Beer Festival? competition. The 2010 Beer Style Guidelines are available for download in the Publications section of BrewersAssociation.org.

Posted under press releases

Last week at the conclusion of the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago, the biannual World Beer Cup (WBC) was held.  This global competition with a majority of American entries, has run since 1996 with an ultimate goal to create “greater consumer awareness about different beer styles and flavor profiles while promoting international brewing excellence.” A panel of certified beer judges were in place to honor the top three beers in 91 categories with gold, silver, and bronze awards. The World Beer Cup, one the most prestigious beer competitions in the world, witnessed 13 Oregon breweries take home medals in 2010. Here’s a look at some of the winners.

WINNERS

Oregon breweries claimed six gold, four silver, and three bronze medals at the 2010 WBC, second to only California who claimed 45 medals (but also entered 185 more beers than Oregon). Among the Oregon winners, was Bend Brewing Company (BBC). Accomplished brewmaster Tonya Cornett continued her winning ways for BBC. Cornett won top honors in the strong ale beer style category for its Outback X, a beer Cornett describes as demonstrating “roasted malt with hints of hops in the nose leading to a rich, roasted malt flavor with a background of dried fruits and sherry.”

“The Outback X was originally brewed for our ten-year anniversary,” Cornett explains. “We re-brewed it because people liked it so much, and I am thrilled that it just keeps doing as well as it does.” This is the third gold medal for Outback X.

This year, 642 breweries from 44 countries and 47 U.S. states vied for WBC awards, making for the world’s largest-ever commercial beer competition. Winners were selected by an international panel of 179 beer judges, including Cornett, who served a first-time WBC judge this year. “Sixty-five percent of the judges are from other countries,” she says. “I felt really fortunate to judge alongside and learn so much from them.”

In addition to the gold medal win for Outback X, Cornett garnered glory for her traditional stein lager recipe, which won a silver medal for Lost Abbey Brewery of San Marcos, California. Cornett teamed with award-winning Lost Abbey Head Brewer Tomme Arthur last year to brew two versions of traditional stein lager using molten rocks to set the wort to boil. Hot Rocks Stein Lager, created by Cornett and brewed by Arthur, took silver at WBC.

BBC has won 12 brewing competition medals in the last four years. This is Cornett and BBC’s sixth gold. In 2008, Cornett was honored as the first woman to win the title of World Beer Cup Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year. BBC simultaneously won Small Brewery of the Year. “I am actually better known in the international brewing community than I am in Bend,” jokes Cornett.

Shawn Kelso of Barley Brown’s Brewpub in Baker City, Oregon, much like Cornett, has been proving that it doesn’t take a large brewery to rake in medals. Kelso, on Barley Brown’s four-barrel brew system took home gold for Shredders Wheat, in the American-style wheat category. The same brew that landed the brewpub a Silver at the 2009 Great American Beer Fest (GABF) was now at the top of the pack. Look for more great beers from Kelso and Barley Brown’s to come. Rumor has it the brewhouse could be seeking out a larger brew system in the 10-15 barrel range to keep up with increasing demand for their delicious brews.

Caldera Brewing of Ashland scooped up two wins at this year’s WBC including a gold medal for their Rauch Ur Bock in the Smoked Beer category, and a silver medal for their Pilot Rock Porter in the Brown Porter category. Look for more innovative releases from brewer Trevor Kemp and Caldera founder Jim Mills. The brewery has recently kicked of their Kettle Series in 22-ounce bottles. This series includes the Rauch Ur Bock, so you can also taste the gold medal winner. Also in the Smoke Beer category, Rogue Ales of Newport snagged a silver for their Smoke Ale.

The Pelican Pub & Brewery and Brewmaster Darron Welch won a silver medal for MacPelican’s Scottish Style Ale at this year’s WBC. The staple Pelican brew won the medal in the Scottish-Style Ale category and was one of 29 entered.

“As an experienced World Beer Cup judge, I can say that this year’s event was one of the most competitive I have seen,” said Welch. “The quality I saw even in the preliminary rounds was very high and there were lots of outstanding beers that didn’t receive medals. The fact that MacPelican’s Scottish Style Ale was honored this year is extremely flattering.”

Upright Brewing and founder brewer Alex Ganum won a bronze medal for their Gose, a mildly tart wheaten ale, in the German-style Sour Ale category. For Ganum, this is his first WBC win, but hey, it’s only the first year his brewery has been in existence. We expect a lot more bling-bling for him in the future.

Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) continues to do well in just a few years since opening to the public. HUB claimed a silver medal at WBC for their Organic Velvet ESB in the  Extra Special Bitter or Strong Bitter category. Look for Christian Ettinger, Ben Love and company to accumulate a healthy collection of beer competition medals as time goes by.

Widmer Bros took home two WBC rocks this year. Their Drop Top Amber was crowned with the gold in the Ordinary Bitter and their original Alt pocketed a bronze in the German-Style Brown Ale/Düsseldorf-Style Altbier circuit.

Rounding out the Oregonian wins Full Sail of Hood River receiving a gold in the American-Style Dark Lager field for their Black Session; Deschutes nabbed a gold for their well-known Bachelor Bitter in the Special Bitter or Best Bitter field; Hop Valley of Springfield sealed the bronze honors for their DD Blonde, American-Style Wheat Beer.

Congratulations to all the winners at this year’s World Beer Cup. Prost!

Posted under Oregon beer, beer events, beer news

Just got word from Mike Weksler of Green Bottling that he is bottling up 20 bbls of 10 Barrel Brewing’s GABF bronze medal winning Sinistor Black Ale.

Here is a commerical description of the beer:
We craft our S1NIST0R BLACK ALE using a special German dehusked black malt that is free of astringency, giving the beer a rich black color without the traditional dark beer characteristics. You will notice subtle hints of chocolate with an easy drinking balance on the back end. In the glass the dark color may look intimidating to some, but don’t let this beer fool you. Our unique combination of malts creates a very light body and smooth finish.

Posted under beer news

On a Friday we left Portland heading eastbound toward the Southeastern corner of Washington State. As previously mentioned, any trip along the gorge demands a stop at Double Mountain Brewpub in Hood River. Here we visited our friend Charlie Devereux who shared a hoppilicious pint of Killer Green and a sweet and sour snifter of Devil’s Kriek. After this needed pit stop an hour or so out of town, we continued on our way east along the I-84. Hood River is the dividing line where you can see the climate change from temperate rain forest to high desert. Douglas-Fir trees are replaced with Ponderosa Pines and wet green terrains evaporates into pillowing glacial pastels. The town also marks the end of craft beer abundance in Oregon. Dispersed along the Interstate are some great pours such as Barley Browns in Baker City and Beer Valley in Ontario, but for the most part, once you pass Hood River, you will find your self in Bud Country where cowboys and ranchers are as commonplace as tumbleweeds and livestock.

Beyond The Dalles, we crossed the Columbia River into Washington and headed up US-97 toward Yakima past giant wind turbines through a surreal country of breath taking views and rolling colorful hills. From afar the white windmills look minuscule and unimposing, but up close, they are truly domineering and appear as though they are straight out of a sci-fi movie. Jagging through no man’s land past small towns like Goldendale, many familiar names of towns and streets appeared on roadsigns and on our trusty road map. Names like Simcoe and Ahtanum make the mouth water. There was even the idea of the town of (Hop)Zilla being related to a once produced Bert Grant’s double IPA.

Eventually the landscape leveled out as we headed east on the I-82 near Topponish. From here more agricultural impact became evident. Sights of barren hopyards, unharvested corn crops, and the smell of pumpkins and peppers were quite nice. However, further east, the stench of cow and chicken manure was not nearly as pleasant.

As the sky drew its curtain for a fall evening to set in, we approached Sunnyside, Washington, a blue collar farm town with an overwhelming cowshit odor.  We were at least rewarded with the most fabulous and daring beers of our entire journey. Snipes Mountain. Situated in a large log hunting lodge, Snipes Mountain is home to some of the best beers in the Pacific Northwest. Brewer Chris Miller, formerly of the now defunct Pacific Rim Brewing Company in Seattle, has an uncanny talent for concocting some of the most innovative beers we’ve ever had the pleasure of wrapping our palates around. Miller’s Coyote Moon Brown took home a bronze medal at the 2009 Great American Beer Fest. The low alcohol mild ale is a perfect session beer with a full-bodied character. Even better, we came at the right time to quaff on Miller’s Harvest Ale which won 1st Place at this year’s Yakima Fresh Hop Festival after finishing second in 2008 (This is especially noteworthy considering the Yakima Valley is the country’s number one producer of hops). With a delicious bouquet of Simcoe and Citra hops, the highly drinkable floral ale was the zenith of an incredible day.

We were giddy with craft be delight as Miller gave us a special tour of the brewhouse where barrel-aged specialties like an Imperial Coyote Moon aged in oak left a creamy residual on our tongues. There were even some other experimental hop beers we were grateful to sample out of the brite tanks.

Coming soon: Interview with Snipes Mountain brewer Chris Miller.

Posted under beer reviews

Congratulations to the following Oregon breweries on taking home medals at this year’s Great American Beer Fest!

…And also kudos to the Washington State winners…

Also, congratulations to Chuckanut Brewery of Belllingham, WA for winning GABF’s small brewpub and small brewer of the year award!

For a complete list of this year’s GABF winners, visit http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/pdf/winners/gabf09_winners.pdf

Posted under beer news

So if you’re reading this than chances are you missed out on going to this year’s GABF (Great American Beer Fest). Don’t fret, there’s a jillion thing going on and around Portland to occupy your palate, and besides, all the best beer is right here anyways. Fresh hopped beers rising to the occasion and other seasonal styles like Marzens, Oktoberfests, and pumpkin brews make this captivating time of year one to cherish. Besides, we’ve got twitter, text, and online social networking posts to tell us about GABF. Here’s some tweets etc that we tuned into in past days:

shaunosullivanGood morning Denver with your bright sunshine streaming in and waking me up too soon. Love you all the same. #gabf

beerinatorPretty sure I swapped my #gabf glass with Tomme Arthur’s from @lostabbey last night. Mine didn’t have writing on the bottom.

Laura and Ty At gabf and new glarus has the biggest line

laurelwood1Hop Monkey in Denver ar the GABF! #fb http://twitpic.com/j7okj

pacificbrewnewsDid I really close down Falling Rock after explicitly telling me not to? My… now at Jack n Grill with Collaborative Evil crew.

BrookstonLongshot Winners To Be Announced Today (http://cli.gs/L86ue)

bsbrewingnever kissed a guy, but i’d make out with Sam Calgione [sic] if he asked. handsome devil. #GABF (via @BrennerBeer) #TMI #notenoughbeer

draftmagThe DRAFT Cover Shots from the Thursday night #gabf session have been uploaded. (327 pictures) http://bit.ly/dItU4

OakshireMattToday is the final day of GABF. Good luck at the awards ceremony, all!

BeerConnoisseurI posted 6 photos on Facebook in the album “GABF Stars”: http://bit.ly/rJzoX

OregonbeerCheck out the photo’s from the GABF http://www.flickr.com/photo… unfortunately there are too many people to reference

beersageOver 150 photos on Flickr from this year’s #GABF http://bit.ly/1451zD

beerinatorNorm from cheers is in the DRAFT lounge…

BeerConnoisseurGeorge Wendt & Me. Better Hi res coming soon! #gabf.: http://bit.ly/5W3sW

bsbrewingSomeone just booted at #gabf. Way to keep it classy, Denver. #kittylitter

bsbrewingAbsolutely no line at Coors. #gabf http://twitpic.com/j4oho

BeerAdvocateTodd: Hmm…Ithaca Outdoor on-tap @ Green Street. Fresh, hoppy, fruity, earthy, crisp, dry. Delicious! Think I’ll have another.

HumuloneRedJust got through judging tha Alpha King Change! What fun “work” it was! http://twitpic.com/j45sj http://twitpic.com/j45vt

jharbweave Just saw Garret Oliver at breakfast! How cool! #gabf

mattgunn @Mannywood5280 I don’t think I can do a third day at GABF. My body hates me.

GeorgeWendt Met so many great people @GABF last night. Come by booths 140 and 116 today at noon where I will be hanging out with The Beer Buckle team!

Posted under beer events, beer news

President Obama @ Piece Brewing quaffing the InaugerAle during the 2008 Primaries

Chicago’s Piece Brewery and Pizzeria received national acclaim when it was bestowed with the 2006 World Beer Cup Champion Small Brewpub and head brewer Jonathan Cutler was named Champion Brewer. It is also the brewpub featured in the famous Associated Press photo (shown above) of President Barack Obama enjoying a pint of their InaugerAle brewed specially for the 2008 Primaries in support of our Commander in Chief.

Along with a group of friends, I was fortunate enough to roll in for a piece of the action. We were in the Bucktown district of ChiTown to see John Doe and the Sadies perform live at the Double Door, an great music venue a stone’s throw from the brewpub, and decided to dip in for some brews before the show.

A nice, wide open sports bar, Piece was a packed house on a Tuesday night. It appeared that most folks were in attendance to watch the Cubs game on a number of big screen televisions while enjoying world class beer and pie. After about ten minutes of standing, we were finally seated near the back in a comfortable booth and started a pre-show quaff session. Several luring libations filled the beer menu despite a disclaimer that said the brewery was in the process of expanding and was forced to temporarily cut production.

Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen is an investor in Piece and on the wall his famous five necked axe is ondisplay with his autograph in a glass case. This place was right up my alley, and had I been in town longer, I would have definitely spent more time here. But I was fortunate enough to try some World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival award winning brews like the Worryin’ Ale, a medium bodied, well-hopped English-styled rye ale; the Dysfunctionale, a strong hoppy pale ale; and a bourbon barrel aged imperial stout known as Mooseknuckle (my friends laughed at me when I called our server to the side and asked him shakily “Could I please get a Mooseknuckle?”).

John Doe & the Sadies

After a few rounds of Piece’s divine brewhas, we headed over to the Double Door for an amazing set by John Doe and the Sadies that would cap an overall rockin’ night in the Windy City.

Posted under beer reviews, brewpubs, places to drink beer

Following Oregon’s Sesquicentennial and International Women’s Day, Bend Brewing’s Tonya Cornett is bestowed with a great honor and opportunity.

Tonya Cornett

As anyone in the Oregon craft beer community not living under a Rolling Rock knows, Tonya Cornett of Bend Brewing is one phenomenal brewer.  Her Hophead IPA has claimed gold at the Great American Beer Fest and her skills represented in a spectrum of styles is unprecedented.  The most recent acclaim of Cornett is the recognition of her by the International Real Ale Festival.  Cornett was just one of five international brewers asked by festival organizers, J.D. Wetherspoon to participate in this year’s guest brewing. “I am thrilled and honored to be included” said Cornett.  And why not.  Cornett is the sole American brewer representing this year and the first ever woman. Her wealth of brewing knowledge and experience is reflected in Bend’s choice brews that hold their own across the street from the world renowned Deschutes Brewing Company.  Cornett has been producing delectable brews at Bend since 2002 and is a graduate of the World Brewing Academy of Germany, a partnership between Seibel Institute of Chicago and Doemens Academy of Munich. In 2008 she became the first woman to win the title of Brewmaster of the Year at the World Beer Cup.

She will travel to the U.K. next week to brew teh beer of her liking. Asked to produce 325 barrels (over 10,000 gallons) of beer in two days, word is she will brew an amber ale with Northwest hops. According to a press release, the beer will be distributed at J.D. Wetherspoon’s 700-plus pubs, where customers will have the opportunity to vote on their favorite of the guest-brewed international ales.

The festival, billed by some as the “World’s Biggest International Real-Ale Festival”, takes place each year during the autumn. Wetherspoon’s festival organizer, Jonathan Yates, said of last year’s event, “We brewed four overseas beers in the U.K. for the festival, and it was a fantastic opportunity for our customers to sample beers not previously available in the U.K.”

If you see Tonya, wish her well, and let her know we as Oregonians are proud of her.

Posted under beer news

After driving in heavy rush hour traffic in the dark with no GPS, we somehow finally came upon Iron Springs Pub and Brewery in Fairfax, California just west of Anselmo about 20 miles from Novato.  We arrived to a bustling Friday night crowd packed to the gills in a small to medium sized brewpub.  Founded by New York native Mike Altman and his wife Anne.  Altman moved to the Bay Area via Colorado and Oregon.  In Portland, Oregon he worked at McMenamins scrubbing kegs and later in Boulder, Colorado, he tested his brewing skills at Mountain Sun Brewery.  In Long Island he spent twelve years as a professional French chef.

At Iron Springs, Altman and company make every effort to recycle every biproduct of the brewpub and is a Green Certified Business by the Marin County Community Development Agency For more on Iron Springs’ green practices, visit http://www.sustainablefairfax.org

Iron Springs’ award winning beers was a key factor in our decision to visit the brewpub.  Their Sless’ Stoutgold medal at the 2008 World Beer Cup and their Ephiphany Ale, a hoppy Northwest amber won a bronze at the 2006 GABF. won a

Here’s a look at the beers we tried at Iron Springs:

Kent Lake Kolsch: 4.5% ABV super pale straw and clear bodied with a slight fruity citrus nose.  Crisp, clean and very nice.

Chazz Cat Rye: 5.5% ABV with a similar body as the kolsch.  Very light and thin and uber-sessionable.

Shining Star Pale: 5.5% ABV golden-orange-copper bodied, filtered brew with a soft white head.  An abrasive upfront bitterness and a lasting bitter finish.

Iron Springs IPA: 6.3% ABV West Coast style IPA.  Light hazy orange-copper colored with a floral bitter bite.  A bit too bitter for my liking.  Pale, gritty, but with a lovely floral Amarillo and Chinook nose.

Casey Jones Imperial IPA: 8.0% ABV with a deep, hazy amber body. Resting again on more bittering than aromatic hoppiness. Featured Amarillo, Summit, Simcoe, and Cascade hops.  The nose was a skunky armpit bombiness.  The balance just wasn’t there.

Epiphany Ale: Winner of the 2006 GABF bronze medal, this hoppy amber ale at 5.9% ABV was a heavily hop driven brew.  These guys must have a heck of a hop contract.  Unfortunately the hops in the epiphany were too cutting for me at this particular time.

Anne Marie’s Amber: 5.9% ABV with a hazy amber-copper body and a soft beige head.  Nose and flavor caramel creamy.  So far the most balanced brew in the lot.

Boot Jack Brown Ale: 6.3% ABV, nutty nose with a copper-brown body and a small white head.  A big carbonic mouthfeel was the leading characteristic in this brew.  Easy to drink and relatively well-balanced.  So far, I didn’t find any of the beers at Iron Springs to be exceptional or terrible.  Just derrivative of so many others I’ve tasted before.

Iron Age Four Year Anniversary Grand Cru: Okay, here’s a seemingly stimulating beer.  7.4% ABV dark, dry-hopped amber colored brew with a bright citrus Simcoe high-alpha nose.  Deep chestnut waves of flavor with a minimal head.  Floral fruity, highly hopped like many of the others.  Very interesting, but basically drowned in hops like many of the others.

Dark Path Schwarzbier: Opaque , crispy, nutty, chewy body with hints of tobacco, leather, and a slight acidic coffee roasted bite.  Good to go!

Fairfax Coffee Porter: 6% ABV infused with Marin Roasters coffee, this English style porter had a viscous engine oil body and a mild coffee presence.  More like a stout. Finished on the tongue with an acidic slick presence.  Still, not too shabby.

Sless’ Stimulating Stout: 7.6% ABV.  Here’s the WBC gold medal winner.  This is a stout?  More like a porter.  Dark brown-black bodied with a wispy off-white head.  Huge coffee nutty nose with hints of toffee and lots of foreground cereal graininess..

Note: The Fairfax Porter and Stimulating Stout must have been switched on the sample tray.  It is the only explanation.

Barstow Lundy Barleywine ‘07: This 10% ABV deep burgundy-chestnut beer with a spotty off-white head was aged a year making me think it must have been hard around the edges when it first came out.  Sweet candy, caramel, burnt sugar nose with fruity, musty brown sugar, sticky residuals.  A beast to say the least.  Not to shabby.

So this concluded our tasting.  The place was a zoo.  The website mentioned the Ephinany and the Stout available to go in 22-ouncers, but only the Epiphany was for sale when we asked.  The wait was so long, as the staff appeared to be buried in customers, so we left with just our experience and headed on to the City By the Bay.

Posted under beer reviews