Tag: iabeerbaron

Coming to Shelves: New Belgium, Boulevard, Founders

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boulevardHave some beers that are going to be making their way to Eastern Iowa shelves soon. Some are new and some are seasonals that we’ve seen before. From beerpulse.com.

Coming from Boulevard for the Tasting Room pack:
*ESB
*Ginger-Lemon Radler

Here’s more from the brewery:

Brewmaster Steven Pauwels encourages our brewers to brew whatever they’d like and then the best beers are given the opportunity to leave the brewery to be shared with a wider drinking audience. The two Year-Round beers featured in our upcoming package will be Unfiltered Wheat Beer and Single-Wide IPA. Rotating in from the Tasting Room series will be an ESB (Extra Special Bitter) and Ginger-Lemon Radler.

foundersFrom the Founders:
Rubaeus
Old Curmudgeon

From the brewery:

Be on the lookout for Rubaeus, our summer seasonal. It will be available in May–or earlier in some of our markets. It’s brewed with fresh raspberries added during multiple stages of fermentation.

Curmudgeon Old Ale, an old ale brewed with molasses and an insane focus on the malt bill, then oak-aged, has already started hitting shelves and draft lines. It’s our April-June specialty release.

New Belgium is releasing a familiar brew but also has a collab in the works with 3 Floyds.

From New Belgium:
Skinny Dip
FOCOllaboration w/Odell Brewing (American Pale Ale)
Gratzer Ale w/3 Floyds

gratzerGratzer is a Polish beer style composed primarily of oak-smoked wheat. More from the brewery:

NEXT WEEK:

Skinny Dip makes a comeback this summer as the Revival Beer in bottle Folly Packs. This full-bodied, highly drinkable beer made its mark as a summer seasonal.

JUNE 1ST:

We teamed up with our hometown hop heroes at Odell to brew a FOrt COllins collaboration. Our proximity allowed sharing of ingredients to create this unique Pale Ale. If only we could employ prairie dogs that in habit the space between us to courier the Fawcett malt, an Odell standard, we used to complement our favored Centennial, Cascade and Citra hops.

In the heart of the Midwest is a very small brewery with a very big reputation. In spite of their super limited distribution, Munster, Indiana’s 3 Floyds is known far and wide for beers like Alpha King, Dark Lord and Dreadnaught. We got together and brewed a gratzer with them and in June we’ll release it as part of the Lips of Faith series.

Left Hand to Iowa in Late Summer

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left handI just received word from a very credible source that Left Hand Brewing will be hitting the shelves in late Summer being distributed by Johnson Brothers. Visit lefthandbrewing.com or look below for info on their year round lineup.

*400 LB Monkey – English Style IPA
*Black Jack Porter
*Milk Stout Nitro
*Milk Stout
*Polestar Pilsner
*Sawtooth Ale – Amber Ale
*Sawtooth Nitro
*Stranger Pale Ale
*Wake Up the Dead Imperial Stout

KBS Release Event: Oakland Road Hy-Vee, 5:00 p.m. Tuesday April 1st

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kbsI received the following information regarding the highly-anticipated Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout release, this one coming from Oakland Road Hy-Vee in Cedar Rapids. I’m sure we’ll hear more from other liquor stores leading up to the big release tomorrow, if you get news on any other release times feel free to send them my way and I’ll add them to this post. Thanks!

Its Founders KBS time at your Oakland Rd Hy-Vee. We will be releasing our KBS at 5:00 pm Tuesday, April 1st. Just like the hopslam event we will hand out tickets starting at 5:00 which will be good for one 4 pack of KBS. Supplies of KBS are highly limited but don’t worry if you don’t get a KBS we have stashed back some Backstage Series Beers for some extra excitement!

 

Stone Saison coming in Mid-April

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stoneTheir first real “seasonal” beer according to beerpulse.com is coming this April. More from beerpulse.com:

Though the company has released beers like Double Bastard Ale on an annual basis, it has been steadfast that those not be considered “seasonals.” That changes with Stone Saison which is branded as a “spring-to-summer” beer according to marketing materials.

As a Saison fan I’m very excited to see what Stone brings to the table with a Saison. Their Matt’s Burning Rosids was very good, very smoky, and pretty heavy on the ABV being in a 22 oz bomber. With the Saison 6-packs I’m hoping for a more moderate 6% ABV and having a few after the first few morel mushroom hunting sessions of the spring. Here’s more from Stone:

In spring 2011, Stone bought the farm, literally, taking over 19 acres of fertile Southern California soil where we now grow pristine fruits, vegetables, herbs and more for our Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens restaurants. A taste of our homespun farm-to-table is provided in this farmhouse ale stoked with lemon zest, lemon thyme and lavender straight from Stone Farms. This spring-to-summer saison is citric and herbal on the palate with a dry, peppery finish. Thanks to the infusion of fresh West Coast ingredients, Stone Saison isn’t your everyday saison. It’s our saison — 100% Stone. Celebrate the sunny season with an authentic taste of our farm and, with it, our commitment to quality.

New to Shelves this Week: Off Color, Stone RIS, Peace Tree

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off colorSome brews and breweries hitting shelves and tap lines this week have quite a few people excited. I was lucky enough to be at the Sanctuary in downtown Iowa City last Tuesday and got to try Off Color Brewings Dino’smores! An imperial stout that really gives you the marshmallow/graham cracker/chocolate that I was hoping to taste.  Really, really enjoyed it. It would be the perfect accompaniment to a nice fall evening! I know Off Color has Dino’smores on certain taplines (Reds Alehouse,Sanctuary) but I’m not sure who else has it. Scurry and Troublesome from Off Color are available as well but I can’t tell you exactly who has them, I would contact your liquor store. Here’s more on those 3 Off Color beers, if you see more from them or know who else has their bottles/taps, drop me a line. Thanks!

Off Color Dino’smores: 
Ratebeer: 94/100
Beeradvocate: 91/100
Style: Imperial Stout
From the brewery:
Imperial Marshmallow Stout brewed with graham crackers, cocoa nibs, & vanilla beans

Off Color Scurry:
Ratebeer: 84/100
Beeradvocate: 84/100
Style: Altbier
From the brewery:
Honey beer with molasses and oats 
Don’t let the color scare you. This surprisingly dry beer retains all the aroma and nuance of honey (from bees) and molasses (not from bees) creating the perception of sweetness through cool, controlled fermentation. Because we’re sweet enough dammit. 

Off Color Troublesome:
Ratebeer: 87/100
Beeradvocate: 87/100
Style: Gose
From the brewery:
Most brewers spend a lot of time and effort keeping lactobacillus out of their breweries; it was the first thing we brought in (it still has to stay in the corner though). We blend together two different beers to make Troublesome. The first is a somewhat uninteresting wheat beer and the second is an overly acidic & funky beer fermented solely with lactobacillus. We blend the two beers together with coriander and salt at the tail end of fermentation to create a mild, lemony tartness and a fuller sensation of mouthfeel. And yes, it’s hard to make.

no coastAlso coming this week is Stone Russian Imperial Stout and Peace Tree No Coast. I haven’t had either of these beers yet so I’m really excited to give them a try. The Stone RIS and Peace Tree beers should be available for purchase tomorrow, not sure on when/if we will see them on tap. Here’s more on these two beers.


Stone Russian Imperial Stout:
Ratebeer: 100/100
Beeradvocate: 97/100
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
From the brewery:
“There’s no question that Stone Imperial Stout is revered among enthusiasts,” states Stone CEO Greg Koch. “I know, because I’m one of ’em and I can hardly wait for it to come out each year!” Some may think that a late Spring release for a special brew of this sort is an odd time for it to come out onto the market. Koch justifies this with the rationalization “What better than a warm time of year to come out with a brew that tastes great as it warms up!” That’s because “ice cold” is certainly not the appropriate way to serve the beer. Nearly without exception, the darker, richer and more alcoholic a brew is, the warmer the serving temperature should be. The Stone Imperial Stout label describes the brew as being “intensely aromatic (notes of anise, black currants, coffee, roastiness and alcohol) and heavy on the palate…expect this mysterious brew to pour like used motor oil and taste even heavier! Serve at 55 degrees.”

New Beers added to New Belgium Lips of Faith, Hop Kitchen Series

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gruitNew Belgium is added two new beers to their lineup. The first beer is going to be part of their Lips of Faith Series. Gruit Ale will be coming soon, here’s more on this brew, thanks to beerpulse.com:

Gruit Ale is the latest Lips of Faith release and uses an ancient brewing style of incorporating herb mixtures into beer. This ale is brewed with pale and Munich malts, along with wheat and oats. Other ingredients include Bog Myrtle, Horehound, Yarrow, Wormwood and Elderflower, making for an herbal, almost mint-like and floral bouquet with a bittered root taste. The flavor is bold, with the botanicals playing a big role. Gruit is 6.6% ABV.

A new beer to their Hop Kitchen series is a RyePA. Both beers are available in 22 oz bombers until May. Here’s more on RyePA:

With the groundbreaking of the Asheville, N.C. facility just a few short months away, New Belgium Brewing is celebrating the second Mothership coming to life by teaming up with Asheville’s own artisan maltster, Riverbend Malt House. The two collaborated on New Belgium’s latest Hop Kitchen release, RyePA. The India Pale Ale, which is brewed with Carolina RyeTM and malted by Riverbend, boasts a bold blend of Simcoe, Galaxy, Cascade, and Mosaic hops, giving it some spicy notes and aromas.

“Some may wonder about basing a Hop Kitchen beer on a malt, but this malt plays up hop flavors and aromas so well, it’s like a mash made in heaven…or Asheville, which isn’t too shabby,” said Matty “Smooth” Gilliland, brewing process analyst with New Belgium Brewing. “The team at Riverbend is an inspiring group and they rallied together to ramp up their production to help make this collaboration possible.”

RyePA comes in at 75 IBUs and 7.5% ABV. To read more about the backstory behind RyePA visit – http://www.newbelgium.com/Community/Blog/14-02-24/Matty-Smooth-on-RyePA.aspx.