With the ever popular culture of craft beer continuing its fantastic uprising, there comes the Beer pros, snobs, critics, that love to throw bigger craft breweries under the bus. Reading blogs, forums, and magazines has become a chore for me lately. Reading about these “critics” bitching about Samuel Adams and Sierra Nevada and the amount of barrels they produce instead of giving them credit and praising them for helping create the landscape of the craft beer revolution has become quite tiresome. Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada may make a shitload of beer and have huge distribution, but they make a shitload of great beer and we deserve to drink it and now I’m cussing in my post and my wife is going to give me the red ass. Damn!
Okay…enough of ranting..Let’s review some brew.
Sierra Nevada is widely available just about everywhere now. In fact, Torpedo has landed in my tiny grocery store in Mount Vernon, IA to my pleasant surprise. A brewery I will always gravitate towards for an everyday brew, a weekend drink, or especially, their limited releases they are a constant in my fridge. Here’s the commercial description:
“Torpedo is an assertive American IPA deep reddish-gold in color, with a smooth and bready malt presence and over-the-top hop aromas. The beer has a solid bitterness and a massive hop flavor, yet remains easy drinking with a pleasant dry finish.”

This is a wonderfully balanced IPA. Piney hop flavor with sweetness of the malts to mellow it out works perfect. This is now available in 4 pack tall boy cans! Too dangerous for an Iowa Hawkeye tailgate? Maybe….but the Baron plans to give it a shot anyway.

REVIEW

STYLE: India Pale Ale (IPA)

ABV: 7.2%

PURCHASED AT: Gary’s; Mount Vernon, IA

Pour: Dark amber pour with a huge, fluffy, white head.

Aroma: Floral, pine, citrus, especially grapefruit.

Taste: Perfectly balanced! Huge amount of hops, resin, citrus, and pine flavor balanced by the sweet bready malts.

Overall: A-

My Recommendation: Buy it. Buy it now. Keep buying it and keep drinking it. An awesome beer, hop heads and IPA fans will love it!

As mad as I am at this particular brewery for getting Eastern Iowa’s hopes up that they might be hitting our shelves and then bailing on us……they make some great brew. Stone’s Levitation ale (www.stonebrew.com) is an amber ale that combines roasty malts and hoppy flavor to make a fantastic beer. Here’s the description from the brewery:
“This deep amber ale has rich & roasty malt flavors, a big hoppy character, citrus overtones (courtesy of the hops and our special brewers yeast) and modest alcohol.”

Stone has a very impressive lineup of beers and they aren’t afraid to play around with their ingredients; but for this one, they just made an excellent amber ale. Nothing crazy added to it; just a damn fine beer. If available in Iowa, it would be mainstay in my fridge. The good news is that we can still drive over to East Dubuque, IL and hit up Family Beer and Liquor and bring home a six pack or two. Who knows, with craft beer absolutely crazy right now, Stone might see a market here a start supplying us with their great beer. I sure hope so.

REVIEW

STYLE: Amber Ale

ABV: 4.4%

PURCHASED AT: Family Beer and Liquor; East Dubuque, IL

Pour: Amber color pour with an off-white head.

Aroma: Roasted malt, nuts, and nice hoppy citrus.

Taste: Much the same as the aroma, maybe some toffee?

Overall: B

My Recommendation: Like I said above, you can still go to Illinois or Wisconsin to pick it up. Their products are worth the drive alone.

All right; gonna try something a bit new on the website just so stuff doesn’t get stale. Trying to think of things that I could add to the blog to go along with my passion of beer and here we have it. Now, the recipes that appear and the pictures that appear on here are all taken by me at the time of consumption.

The first pairing I tried out tonight was slow cooked baby back ribs and a Racer 5 IPA. I chose an IPA because I thought it would bring out the little spice that was in the ribs, and it did! Also, a hot day is perfect for an IPA. For my ribs, I’m not a fall of the bone kind of guy and I don’t liked them slopped in sauce either. I like to pick mine up by the bone and chew it off; still tender mind you, but not a mess. I found a recipe in the folder my wife and I keep recipes in, which is just ridiculously big, for Apple-Glazed BBQ Baby Back Ribs. The apple glaze kind of threw me off, but I’m an amateur at cooking ribs so I thought I would give it a shot. Nothing to lose.

Glad I tried it! The glaze was simple. You start by making a simple dry rub, and then a wet marinade. You rub the ribs with the dry rub, cook for 2 1/2 hours, dump the marinade on them, cook for another hour, remove, slather with sauce and then cook 15 minutes. Simple, but you have to have patience so they come out tender. A wonderful meal that I will definitely make again and the beer worked really well with the smokiness and spice of the ribs. Want the recipe? Send $5 to… kidding… here ya go! http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/apple-glazed-barbecued-baby-back-ribs  you try it please let me know how it turns out.

SIDE NOTE: I also a side dish of sliced baby mushrooms, onions, and garlic. Great stuff!

One of the most in-demand breweries in America today is Dogfish Head. Their beers are so sought after that if you get your hands on some you could make some pretty good money put hacking them off on ebay. Luckily, a trip to Chicago for me usually results in bringing a few of their beers back to the great state of Iowa. I always make sure to get my hands on some of their 60 minute because it is a fantastic IPA.

I’ll be honest, some of the Dogfish beers I’ve had, didn’t really do it for me, but I will say, no matter which ones you try, it will be a unique beer drinking experience for you. They go above and beyond most brewers out there with trying new recipes, ingredients, and flavor combinations. Luckily, they also make a great IPA. Here’s the description from the brewery:

“Our flagship beer. A session India Pale Ale brewed with Warrior, Amarillo & ’Mystery Hop X.’ A powerful East Coast I.P.A. with a lot of citrusy hop character. THE session beer for beer geeks like us! 6% abv 60 ibu Tasting Notes: Citrus, cedar, pine & candied-orange flavors, floral. Food Pairing recommendations: Spicy foods, pesto, grilled salmon, soy-based dishes, pizza. Glassware recommendation: Pint Wine comparable: Busty Chardonnay In case you care… the average 12 oz. serving has 209 calories.”

At only 6% this makes for an all-night drinking experience. This beer alone puts Dogfish brewery (www.dogfish.com) in my Top 5 wishlist (which will be coming out soon) of breweries to get to the Eastern Iowa marketplace. Fantastic hop flavor, slight bitterness, a bit of cedar taste, and a smooth malt finish. Fantastic! Once again, the nearest place to get it is Chicago, if you know of someone making a trip there, have them stop at a Binny’s a set you up with some Dogfish products.

REVIEW

STYLE: India Pale Ale

ABV: 6%

PURCHASED AT: Binny’s Beverage Depot; Schaumburg, IL

Pour: Hazy orange pour with a thick white head.

Aroma: Citrus, pine, and floral smell.

Taste: Citrus and pine, with some orange peel in there as well. Wonderful!

Overall: A-

My Recommendation: Buy as much Dogfish product as possible; try them all. If you don’t like them, it wouldn’t be difficult to find a trade partner.