Pliny the Younger and Triple IPAs

Over the past few years, I've been fortunate enough to acquire tickets to try Russian River's much-hyped triple IPA, Pliny the Younger. Locally, The Bier Stein has hosted parties celebrating its release every year, often also having the Elder and a couple of the wild/sour beers on offer.

And since first trying it in 2012, my thoughts have essentially remained the same: Younger's a good beer. Not a great one, and certainly not the 4th-best in the world (as measured on both RateBeer and BeerAdvocate).

First, a bit of context. I think that triple IPAs are fundamentally flawed as a style. Here's why I say that: double IPAs are generally made to 80-100 IBUs, which is right around the bitterness saturation threshold for most folks (meaning that adding more hops at this point won't increase perceived bitterness. A beer with more than 100 IBUs listed is a marketing gimmick, not an accurate reflection of the beer's character). 

A triple IPA, by necessity, is going to have to contain more malt (to get it to the alcohol strength necessary for the style, usually 10%+). It's also going to contain more hops, but since double IPAs are already at the abovementioned bitterness threshold, adding additional hops won't actually make the beer taste more bitter. So since brewers are adding more malt and more hops, but only the sweet malt is having a notable effect, the overall result is the creation of a sweet, boozy, malt-forward beer. A barleywine, in essence. I've had several triple IPAs at this point, and they're all along these lines.

All that being said, here are my thoughts on Younger and Elder themselves.

Pliny the Elder is, in fact, a great beer deserving of being highly-ranked. It's a delicious, well-balanced double IPA that's neither too bitter nor too sweet, and it's rare enough on tap that it's worth seeking out a pint when it's in town. It's the apex of West Coast double IPA.

Younger, by contrast, is a much sweeter beer - the added malting to get it up to triple IPA strength overwhelms the hopping and makes it taste like a too-hoppy barleywine (to my palate, at least). It still tastes very good, mind you - the hops that are detectable are piney, citrusy, and well-blended, the beer's boozy without being hot, and it's a quite easy-drinking beer for its strength.

So, to sum up - Is Younger one of the best beers in the world? Absolutely not. It's not even one of the best beers by Russian River (though their standards are incredibly high). Is it worth the lines, the waiting, the ticketing, and all the associated hoopla? Nope, but it's a fun thing to do with friends. Is it a good beer, worth trying? Definitely.

The Useful Limits of Beer Evaluation

Last week, I had a couple of friends visiting from out of town. One of them had never really spent much time in Oregon, and was especially interested in trying as much local beer as possible.

I agreed for a couple of reasons. First, it's always a pleasure to drink excellent craft beer - especially with someone experiencing it for the first time. And of course, I realized it'd provide plenty of useful fodder to blog about later on.

Our trip involved 2 days in Portland, one in Eugene, and one through the I-5 corridor between them (for us, this meant stops in Corvallis, Albany, and Salem).

I'll be writing more about the individual stops in the coming weeks, but there's a very useful piece of information I gleaned from the entire experience:

My days of being able to drink large quantities of beer with essentially no ill effect are probably over.

But the hangovers and slow-starting mornings aside, my real point involves palate fatigue. During our beer adventure, my friends and I sampled an average of about 100 new beers a day - almost always by splitting taster trays or flights at the breweries we encountered.

Generally, I'd start off being able to describe what I was trying reasonably well - noting mouthfeel, balance, adherence to style, and so forth. But by the third or fourth brewery, my ability to do so deteriorated significantly - and not because of the alcohol, I don't think. Rather, I found I suddenly lacked the ability to distinguish good beer from bad - it all started to taste pretty similar, and only extremely bold or strange flavors really made an impression.

So, the real lesson here is that I shouldn't be visiting more than a few breweries in a day if I want to be able to give honest and well-considered evaluations of the beers they're offering. With friends visiting from out of town, it's tempting to want to make as much use of the time as possible, but Oregon's extreme wealth of beer guarantees that no matter how quickly or how much one drinks, there's always more breweries to visit than can be reasonably accomplished in a short timeframe.

By way of illustration, during our trip from Corvallis through Salem, we stopped at 10 breweries in one day - an incredible feat of endurance, bravado, and foolishness, to be sure. But we'd have to match that pace for almost a week just to try most of the breweries in Portland alone.

During future beer-centric trips, I'll try to put these lessons to practical use - favoring deliberation and celebration of single excellent beers over attempting to try as many things as possible.

Festival of Dark Arts

This past Saturday, Fort George in Astoria hosted its yearly Festival of Dark Arts. I'd never been to Astoria before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But the promise of dozens of dark beers from many different breweries was strongly alluring.

What I didn't realize, upon arriving at Fort George, is that they've got a brewing complex that pretty much covers an entire city block. The festival was divided up into 7 distinct bars, each featuring different stouts and porters, interspersed with various forms of entertainment - ice carving, belly dancing, fire dancing, and a wide variety of music.

Of course, FDA is primarily a beer festival, so the crucial question is, as usual, 'How is the beer?'. I'm pleased to report that the beer selection lived up to my expectations. Here are just a few highlights:

Buoy Raspberry Chocolate Stout. This was, to me, the beer of the fest. It was neither too sweet or too chocolatey, and tasted like a stout first and foremost. I can't emphasize enough what an achievement this is - so many other raspberry-infused stouts taste artificial, but this felt naturally crafted. The best part? I'd never had a beer from Buoy before - and they're located less than a mile from Fort George. My friend and I availed ourselves of this opportunity later on that evening.

Lagunitas High West-ified Coffee Imperial Stout. A bold, powerful sipper, clocking in at 13% ABV, this is a master class in how to make an excellent boundary-pushing imperial stout. I'm a big fan of Lagunitas's standard imperial stout, so I'm not terribly surprised at how smooth and rich this tasted. It's nice to know that its success isn't a fluke.

Fort George Shot in the Dark. Another delicious coffee-based stout, this one conforms pretty much exactly to my favored beer coffee flavor, as I detailed in my report on the Coffee Stout Fest - mild, light, sweet, and working with the already-present roasted malt, rather than against it.

Fort George Tuesday's Lunch. Definitely the strangest beer on offer at the festival, this one aimed to recreate the flavors of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Made with roasted peanuts and blackberries, it succeeds at this task, but at the cost of tasting almost nothing like beer. Tuesday's Lunch hereby joins the vaunted ranks of Wynkoop's Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout and Rogue's Voodoo Bacon Maple (though I'm quick to note that of these, only the Wynkoop is actually a drinkable beer).

I was pretty impressed with the organization and logistics of the festival. It never felt too crowded, and having the beers spread among different bars (with most of the bars featuring at least a few rare/interesting beers) made sure the lines moved quickly. I also enjoyed the fact that the tasting tokens were made of wood, rather than the easy-to-lose paper tickets favored by other festivals.

That said, it wasn't perfect. There simply weren't enough bathrooms to handle all of the attendees, and the food on offer at the pub was expensive and mediocre.

Still, on the whole, Festival of Dark Arts was a worthy experience, and I'd be happy to attend it again.

2015 KLCC Brewfest

I just returned from Fort George's Festival of Dark Arts - and I'll be writing about that soon - but I realized I hadn't said anything about the KLCC fest yet. Let's remedy that.

The festival was bigger than ever, with 75 breweries pouring over 200 beers, meaning there were lots of excellent choices.

All in all, I was able to sample 13 beers. Here were my favorites:

Oakshire's 8th Anniversary Ale - I was fortunate enough to stop by Oakshire's booth while they were pouring bottles of this. Released in October last year, the 8th is a sour Belgian ale made with cherries and aged in pinot noir barrels, I believe. And it's stunning, though quite a departure from their earlier years. It's acidic but not vinegary, and just sweet enough. I wonder if I could still find a bottle of this somewhere.

10 Barrel Easy Black IPA - This one really wowed me. It's a simple, light ale that deftly balances all of the elements of a great black IPA (roastiness, hoppiness, malt sweetness). So many other black IPAs tend to be predominantly bitter/hoppy or overly roasty. The folks at 10 Barrel behind this beer understand that it's the balance of these flavors that make a black IPA compelling and interesting.

First National Bank Vault Brown - Brewed for First National Taphouse by Vertigo Brewing out of Hillsboro, I wasn't expecting much here. But this brown is really nice - it's both nutty and roasty, with a pronounced sweet malty finish. I'd never had anything from Vertigo before, but I'll definitely be on the lookout for more of their beers.

The biggest disappointment for me? Stone's Bourbon Aged Bastard. Now, I've got a soft spot for Arrogant Bastard - it was the first craft beer I had that really blew me away. I had no idea a beer could be so strong and so bitter. I've since enjoyed the original and many of its siblings - the Oaked, Double, etc. With that context in mind, it's understandable that I was pretty pumped for this beer. But the sample I had wasn't great. The barrel and time have leached much of the characteristic hoppiness. The dominant flavor is wood, with a bit of whiskey caramel. Overall, the base beer is just too thin-feeling to support barrel-aging.

After checking the People's Choice results, I was surprised to see that Sam Bond's Filbert Brown took third place. I wasn't impressed with the beer I had at Sam Bond's over the summer. Perhaps it's time to re-evaluate them?

Once again, I volunteered as a beer pourer, and ended up helping out McKenzie/Steelhead at their richly-appointed booth - complete with a pop-up tent, menus for the restaurant, and several of the brewers on hand to talk with fest-goers. They were unfailingly friendly and polite, and while I'm not always the biggest fan of the beer they make, I was impressed by the people I met.

The festival itself was much busier and better attended than last year's - there was no freak snowstorm to ice the roads and dampen spirits, as was the case last February.

As always, I'm happy to support this festival. KLCC is a great public radio station, and knowing that my time and money are helping it stay on the air is a wonderful feeling.

Beer of the Moment: Barrel Aged Rasputin

Being that it's winter, barrel-aged beer is commonplace here in Oregon. Just about every respectable brewery with cellar space has something aging in barrels these days (this is a major reason why something like the Tap & Growler's tasting is possible with local-only breweries).

So it stands to reason that I've had quite a few barrel-aged imperial stouts over the past few months. Everything from Bourbon County to Parabola. But there's one release I'd never managed to catch on draft, until now.

Barrel Aged Rasputin.

Now, North Coast's Old Rasputin is a world-class imperial stout all by itself. It's becoming easier to find on draft, even in its rarer (and somehow better still) nitrogenated form, but it's uncommon enough that it's an instant decision if I happen to see it somewhere and want an excellent stout.

The Barn Light was somehow able to secure a keg of the barrel-aged version, and I dutifully and eagerly showed up to partake.

Old Rasputin's such an excellent base beer that I was worried that the whiskey barrel version would somehow be lessened by addition, as it were.  Thankfully, a couple sips dispelled that notion.

Barrel Aged Rasputin is that rare whiskey-barrel beer that preserves all of the things I love about its base beer - the minerally, roasty flavor that's somehow light on the tongue, the lingering finish - and adds intrigue of its own. Most whiskey-aged beers add layers of caramel, oak, and sweetness that utterly dominate and override the base beer. Not so with Barrel Aged Rasputin. Here, the aging process adds a subtle whiskey/oak flavor to the roast, in a complimentary, cooperative fashion. I can't say enough good things about the deft, light touch and how much a breath of fresh air it is.

It's a beer well worth trying on draft. I imagine it's equally excellent out of the bottle.

Elysian's Buyout

So, some big news: Anheuser-Busch Inbev announced earlier this week that they've acquired Seattle-based Elysian Brewing. There aren't a whole lot of details available at the moment, but my reaction is much the same as when 10 Barrel sold to them last fall. 

I'm aware that AB has in the past used its clout and size to lobby for legislation that would benefit it to the detriment of smaller breweries. But this largely hasn't worked - and the craft market's grown faster, if anything. The execs at AB aren't fools - their light lagers are stagnant or losing sales every year. Small wonder, then, that they've been buying out breweries at an increasing rate, in order to make up for the slowdown elsewhere.

It's becoming clear that AB is targeting a very specific type of brewery: mid-sized, regional, critically acclaimed, and quickly expanding. With the craft segment of the beer marketplace still growing at an astonishing rate, Goose Island, 10 Barrel, and Elysian are very safe investments for a massive conglomerate like AB looking to get a piece of that growth. 

I have no doubt that AB has the people, resources, and money to launch their own full-craft brands. It would take time, effort, and might backfire if the ownership ended up mattering to enough people. Far easier, then, to buy outright some great breweries that already have established brands with hugely devoted fans.

From Elysian's end, this sale makes perfect sense. The owners were likely offered a great deal, allowing them to expand not only production volume, but also to distribute outside the Pacific NW (and rightly so - Elysian makes some really good beer, and it deserves to have as wide an audience as possible). It's looking like all the same brewers and other employees will be allowed to stay on, as was also the case with 10 Barrel's buyout.

As I said when 10 Barrel was bought last year, what really matters to me is the quality of the product. Who owns it isn't ultimately nearly as important.

Tap & Growler's Blind Barrel-Aged Tasting

Last week, the Tap & Growler had a bevy of barrel-aged release parties, but the highlight was definitely their hosted tasting, featuring barrel-aged beers from 10 local breweries. I was really looking forward to this.

Unfortunately, the beer didn't live up to my expectations.

Why? 'Barrel-aged' isn't really a good category for a blind tasting. A brewery can barrel-age just about anything - and the lineup for the tasting reflected that. There were IPAs, winter ales, a pumpkin beer, a Belgian-style dubbel, and others. Because of this diversity, there was no real standard for comparison between the beers.

I agreed with 2 of the top 3 selected by the rest of the public. The top beer was Oakshire's - their bourbon-aged Very Ill Tempered Gnome had the best blend of whiskey flavors and a good base beer to soak them up. Second was Viking's sour red (the name of which I wasn't able to find) - I was pleasantly surprised to see they're working in sours. The barrel-aging wasn't really detectable (so I suppose it fails in that respect), but it was a respectable and very tart and bready sour. In third was Hop Valley's Oakeroo - a very sweet, malty winter warmer. I wasn't as fond of it - my third place was Agrarian's Cucurbita Maxima - a pumpkin beer without the usual hit of nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar.

The (perhaps unintended) result? The breweries that did well in public voting are ones we already know can make excellent barrel-aged beer - namely, Oakshire and Hop Valley. The others mostly came off as amateurish and flawed.

I hope that Tap & Growler continues to do these blind tastings - they're a lot of fun and very informative. I just wish they'd stick with style-based flights so there's some way to directly compare the beers.