Payday coming up on Thursday and I’m looking forward to adding a few beers to my fridge this week. I still haven’t gotten my hands on Pirate Bomb! from Prairie yet and hopefully I can still find it, and I’m hoping Toppling Goliath makes an Eastern Iowa drop this week as well. I need to find some of Millstream’s Raspberry Latte Stout and stock up on that as well. Last week I was able to pick up some Bells Double Cream Stout which is a favorite this time of year and I was lucky enough to get a few more bottles of New Belgium’s fantastic Hop the Pond the IPA which would be a welcome sight if it went year round. Hoping to see a few of you Friday night at Blackstone’s Border War! Onto some news tidbits!
**New Belgium Brewing** – the can craze continues as New Belgium will be offering their Rampant IPA in cans. The following comes from beerstreetjournal.com:
The hop profile heavily features Mosaic and Calypso, bringing stone fruit flavors to the front seat. We’re talking peaches, apricots, things like that. Centennials are in there too, rounding out the aroma with a big citrus blast. Rampant also offers a sturdy malt backbone to balance the flavor in such wonderful way. It is a really great beer, like really great…
New Belgium Rampant IPA will be available in 12oz cans. Release date to follow.
Style: Imperial IPA
Hops: Mosaic, Calypso, Centennial
Malts: Pale, BlackAvailability: 12oz Bottles, Draft. 12oz Cans (Soon)
**Boulevard Brewing** – Boulevard will be releasing “Last Splash” will be their 3rd release in their Backroads Beer series and this one is a wet-hopped ale. From Boulevard’s Instagram:
We’re bottling Last Splash, an upcoming wet-hopped Backroads beer, for an early November release today. This beer showcases Nugget hops that were shipped to us within hours of being harvested.
**Sierra Nevada**– this December Sierra Nevada Brewing will be sending out a wild hop IPA. According to their website these are southwest hops that were found “while scrambling down hillsides near their home in New Mexico”. This will be the 5th and final release of the Harvest series of 2014 and the hop varietal they are using is called “Neomexicanus” which has melon, citrus, and apricot aroma and flavor. Here’s some quick stats from the fellas thefullpint.com:
Quick stats on Harvest Wild Hop IPA:
- ABV—6.5%
- BU—55
- Hop(s)—Neomexicanus
- Malts—Two-row Pale, Caramel
**Bells Brewing** – Bells Brewing has released a glass designed specifically for wheat beers. Here’s the description of the glass from Bells.
Bell’s was approached by renowned Austrian glassware manufacturer Spiegelau with an exciting partnership opportunity to create a custom Bell’s Wheat Beer Glass. Knowing how big of a role wheat beers play at Bell’s, we were excited for the opportunity to give wheat beers some attention and elevate the experience of drinking this flavorful, complex style of beer. Designed to elevate the experience of drinking not only Bell’s Oberon Ale, Winter White and Oarsman Ale, the glass is poised to become the new standard for enjoying all wheat beers.
What makes the Bell’s Wheat Beer Glass enhance the enjoyment of wheat beers more so than a standard pint glass or hefeweizen glass?
• Raw quartz silica combined with Speigelau’s state of the art production methods help beer sustain head retention and carbonation
• Ultra-pure quartz material makes for unsurpassed clarity and flawless true color presentation of wheat beers
• Laser cut top lip of the glass resulting in crisp, clean delivery of the beer during each sip
• Larger body / bowl of the glass to capture and concentrate more of the delicate, complex aromas that are unique to wheat style beers
• Mouth opening delivers beer evenly across the palate to enhance the distinct mouthfeel, and harmony of sweetness and acidity that comes from the wheat malt in the beer
• Lip at the bottom of the bowl that results in a slight “slosh” after every tip of the glass, causing the carbonation to be re-activated, releasing more of the aromatics after each drink
• Thin walls maintain proper beer temperature longer
