Beers

More new beers or returning seasonals:

Verdi Verdi Good from Dogfish Head in Delaware. Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day – A Dortmunder greened with Spirulina. The website explains:

The idea for the the Dogfish Head version actually was born of beers already being produced in Southeast Asia, namely Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Thailand. The main type of beer made in that area of the world is akin to the Dortmunder/Export type lagers of Germany. Both Myanmar and Thailand have breweries producing a beer which is their regular production lager with spirulina added. Hence, Verdi Verdi Good was born.

Saint Arnold Summer Pils from the Houston brewery of the same name. The Bohemian-style pilsner tends to sell out quickly, and was long gone by the time it captured silver at the 2005 Great American Beer Festival. Teh Pils has been a labor of love from the start for Saint Arnold founder Brock Wagner. Back in 1998 he noted:
“One malt, two hops, but a tough beer.” The malt he uses tends to get doughy and clogs the hydrator. “It’s expensive and hell to work with, but worth the trouble,” Wagner said.

Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat from Jacob Leinenkuegl Brewing in Wisconsin. Due next month and the first new year-round beer since 2002. (The company’s latest seasonal, Apple Spice, was its most successful seasonal launch ever.) sunet Wheat features features a slightly fruity and citrus character, complimented by the gentle spiciness of coriander. Brewed with malted wheat, balanced with pale barley malt and finished with Cluster hops and natural flavors.

More new-to-the-shelf beers (seasonals returning, new imports, brand new beers). Information is from press releases.

Saison Imperiale from DeProefbrouwerij of Lochrist, Belgium: Saison Imperiale is a nod to the growing interest in the Saison style, alongwith growing popularity of “imperial-ized” versions of classic beer styles. The beer is light amber in color with an eggshell colored head. It is fermented with two yeasts – saccharomyces and (semi-wild) brettanomyces – giving it a traditional funky farmhouse character. A dash of coriander is also added. It has an original gravity of 1072 (18 plato), yielding 8.5% alcohol by volume. The beer is hopped at 30 IBU’s, using Tomahawk and Goldings.

Otter Creek 15th Anniversary IPA: The artwork for the label was commissioned especially for the anniversary. It features a painting by the well known Vermont artist Woody Jackson. “We chose to feature Woody’s painting on our Anniversary label,” said owner Morgan Wolaver, “because he is a local painter who can capture what Vermont means to us. The scenery in Vermont is so beautiful, and Woody really captured that quality in the painting, as well as the feeling of community. These are the things we care about. Apart from brewing great beer, which goes without saying!”

Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine: The 2006 vintage is the biggest yet, checking in at 11.26% abv. “Nowadays with technology everything is getting smaller, it’s nice to know here at Stone things keep getting bigger,” said Stone CEO Greg Koch. The 2006 Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine will be released in 22oz bottles principally because that is the only size bottle that can hold such a massive-profile beer, but also because it is the only size bottle that can fit the annual rambling soliloquy from Koch. (It says that in the press release.)

Sheep’s Secret Scotch Ale: From the Hartland Brewery in New York. Heartland Brewmaster Kelly Taylor: “Fresh Midwestern pale malts and British roasted barley impart a mellow malt sweetness, light toasted caramel background, and a smooth, balanced finish to this classic ale. 6.5% abv.”

Another gluten-free beer becomes available in April. Bard’s Tale initially will be sold in 11 states, and company co-founder Craig Belser hopes to be nationwide in 12 to 18 months. Although other gluten-free beers already are being marketed, Belser said these beers are honey- or corn syrup-based and don’t taste like traditional beer.

Belser, who lives in Kansas, and Kevin Seplowitz, from Connecticut, first launched the brand more than a year ago, but had production problems in the Buffalo brewery where it is made. It will now be contract brewed in California, though Belser said he hopes to eventually build a brewery in Leawood, Kan.

[Via the Kansas City Business Journal]

– Beer No. 3 in Anheuser-Busch’s new seasonal lineup is called Spring Heat Spiced Wheat. From the press release: ” . . . an unfiltered Belgian-style wheat ale, which is naturally cloudy. Brewed with orange, lemon and lime peels; the spice of coriander; two-row barley and wheat malts; as well as a blend of domestic Cascade and Willamette hops and imported Hallertau hops, this beer is memorably aromatic and has a smooth, complex taste.” Like the first two beers in this series, Spring Heat is available only on draft.

– Magic Hat Brewing in Vermont has released its first new year-round beer in nearly three years. Circus Boy is the brewery’s take on an American hefeweizen. From the press release: “Unfiltered and unfettered, it’s a deliciously light-bodied beer brewed for wide consumer appeal and ultimate drinkability for all seasons. Each sip of Circus Boy contains a pronounced wheat malt character, yet is free of the overly spiced phenolic yeast flavors that mar the typical imported hefeweizen.” Magic Hat points out American hefeweizens experienced 15% growth in 2005 and are now the fifth.

– Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware’s seasonal ApriHop is out. Basically fruit beer meets India Pale Ale, the beer is brewed with real apricots and finished with whole-leaf Amarillo and Warrior hops. 7% ABV 55 IBU.

The New York Times (free registration) offers an in depth look at Heineken’s $50 million campaign to launch Heineken Premium Light.

Much of the money will be spent online. To reach the intended audience of drinkers — mostly men ages 25 to 29 — Heineken USA will unleash a barrage of advertising on sites like espn.com, foxsports.com, maximcom, msn.com, stuffmagazine.com and yahoo.com. The company will also put up a separate site, heinekenlight.com, on Wednesday to complement sites for its two other brands.

The Times reports:

To woo the younger male consumers of domestic light beers, the Heineken Premium Light campaign will focus on a core attribute, smoothness. The initial ads carry headlines like “Someone smooth is waiting at the bar,” “Meet someone smooth tonight” and “Succumb to smooth.”

The goal is to entice the light beer drinker with “the notion of something a little better, a little more exciting,” said Ewen Cameron, chief executive and executive creative director at Berlin Cameron United in New York.

“It’s a relationship metaphor,” Cameron said, adding: “We talked to light beer drinkers in their late 20’s who said there’s nothing wrong with light beer, but there’s a kind of settling for it. They’re happy, but the grass is a little greener on the other side. The ‘luxury light’ idea is an exciting notion.

Who said there’s nothing wrong with light beer?

Don Russell, a.k.a. Joe Sixpack, has a scoop this week the Philadelphia Daily News: Scottish & Newcastle, which owns Ireland’s Beamish Stout, has pulled the plug on exports of Beamish to the United States.

Don reports that Scottish & Newcastle “quietly decided earlier this year to pull the plug on Beamish exports to America, to concentrate on sales of Newcastle Brown Ale. It will also ax U.S. exports of John Courage Amber Lager and McEwan’s IPA. (The more popular McEwan’s Scotch Ale is still alive, however.)”

This is a big deal to anybody in the U.S. who loves the uniquely peppery stout, but it is a really big deal in Philadelphia. There several independent taverns have boycotted Guinness for the past six years because of the brewery’s suspected ties to a number of Irish-themed tavern chains.

Don’s got the whole story – why the brewers of Beamish are upset, how the big business of beer works and what it means to Philly tavern owners. Take a few minutes to read the story.

No, the folks at Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon, weren’t stuttering when they named their first barley wine Mirror Mirror.

The press release calls it “a beer so nice we named it twice” but if it isn’t exactly double Deschutes’ Mirror Pond Ale it comes close enough. Barley clearly is the star in this beer, with hops – still distinctively Northwest – and wood adding secondary layers of complexity.

Mirror Mirror is the first selection in Deschutes’ newly created Reserve Series. The brewery plans to offer one or two Reserve beers a year, subject to how inspiration grabs the brewers. This is actually the second version. The first draft-only batch was brewed in 2004, aged in a potpourri of barrels (Pinot Noir, bourbon, port) and then blended. By many accounts, it could have used more focus.

For Mirror Mirror 2.0, started in February 2005, the brewers stuck to only French oak wine barrels. The beer was already 10 months old (four in wood) when they dry hopped it a few days and bottled it early in 2006.

You can’t exactly call a barley wine that’s 9.9% abv restrained, but the bitterness (52 IBUs) is low by Northwest standards. Hop aromas intermingle with higher alcohols to provide a perfume-like floral impression as well as typical American hop citrus character. Dark fruits, particularly raisins, arrive at the start and linger through a long husky finish.

It has the malt depth to signal this is a beer to age, but the balance to drink now – which might make it hard to keep around for long. Nonetheless, the questions are fun to think about: Will the citrusy hops continue to give way to whisky undertones? Will the emerging dessert-apple tone turn toward toffee? What direction will the wood take the beer?