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Night Shift Morph 4/23/15

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Is a new recipe a new beer?

Stone recently made all sorts of Stone Marketing about how they were changing the recipe for Ruination, their DIPA. They state that new hops  and hopping techniques are available, that were nonexistent ten years ago. They argue that to not change is impossible writing,”It takes a prohibitively massive ego, a stymied lack of vision, laziness, ignorance and/or delusion for one to create something and expect it to remain an exemplar until the end of time”. But does the software inspired name ‘Ruination 2.0’ really sound like brand that sells Arrogant Bastard and puts gargoyles on everything? As Lindsay on LoveBeerLoveFood.com points out, the original Ruination had a score of 100 on Beer Advocate, and still could not survive. But don’t brewers change recipes all the time? And what does it say about other era defining brews. I know a local bartender with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale tattoo. A permanent icon to the label that opened her eyes to good beer. What if Sierra Nevada decided to rename the pale ale that made then? How quickly does an icon become a has-been?

THE BEER

Night Shift Morph 4/23/15 is a one off, an experiment whereby the taste testers do not get paid, but instead pay the company for the privilege. Morph is a chance to sample “delicious … always magical, always morphing India Pale Ales” that may be great, may be sub par, and may never be brewed again. A fun concept, unless you fall in love with a recipe. But is it a new beer each time they tweak the ingredient list? If so, why not give them each a new name? I’m guessing the ephemeral nature of Morph is the reason these different beers share a name.

TASTING NOTES

Night Shift Morph IPA Night Shift Morph brewed on April 23rd of 2015 holds an aggressive white head over a pale copper body.

Steve: The nose announces a big IPA, with tropical and pine notes along with some distinctive malt. Taste is mostly grapefruit with a Ritz cracker note coming in from the grain bill that seems unique to this beer. Lots of bitterness as well with a dry finish.

Dave:  Drinks clean. A nice, tasty IPA with some citrus and tropical fruit in there. Not very sweet. Good carbonation, finishing dry.

CONCLUSION

Night Shift Morph 4/23/15 is a hugely flavorful IPA with Citra and Amarillo hops combining for a pleasant dry hopping taste. I thought it was on the upper end of sweet for an IPA, but Dave thought it was right in step with the style. We both agreed that Morph 4/23/15 was a very nice IPA from Night Shift. Hopefully these experiments will continue to be as successful, and eventually result in a great new IPA with a name all its own.

8.0/10

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The Brew Kettle White Rajah

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There is a condition worse than blindness, and that is, seeing something that isn’t there. –Thomas Hardy

THE BEER

The origins of The Barley Whine goes back to a prior craft beer boom. The 1990’s Sam Adams/Pete’s Wicked dominated microbrew explosion brought thousands of new beers to market, of varying quality. Being young and poor, we decided to see if any of the hype was worth our few dollars. Thus, we conceived the Tri-City Beer Club, a fraternal organization, founded on the principals of blind-tasting craft beer for the purpose of judging which brands were worth getting tippled on.

To this day we still prefer the blind taste test to any other method when comparing similar styles. Craft beer of the moment is an even more hyped up entity, with people selling bottles for extraordinary sums on the secondary market. While scarcity explains some of this inflation, there is no doubt a strong presumption that some beers are vastly superior to others, and worth great effort and expense to acquire. So when we heard that one of our local favorites, an IPA from the exceptional Brew Kettle, had won a blind taste test of top American IPAs in a field of over 100 participants, we could not of been more thrilled. Although we did mention White Rajah (“amazing”) in our recent review of its Cascadian Dark Ale cousin Black Rajah, it is far past time we gave this beer an entry all its own.

TASTING NOTES

Brew Kettle White Rajah

Sharply resinous, fresh White Rajah wafts up aromas of grapefruit, mango, citrus and a fresh plant smell one may only experience after a satisfying lap flaying flora with the WeedWacker™. Click on the image of the beer, you will see it comes out copper colored with white foamy head that fades, leaving strong lacing. The taste is awash in passion fruit and oranges, with some sweetness though no distinctive malted grain to speak of. Carbonation is strong, which is critical as the mouthfeel is thicker than most IPAs. White Rajah finishes semi-sweet then hits a bitter note, continuing the citrus flavors throughout. Not quite as a dry a finish as say Heady Topper, Brew Kettle’s IPA does draw you back for more by not being cloying.

American IPAs vary from their British counterparts by being a vessel for fragrant, fresh hop flavors. Rather than employ hops bitter side as a balance to malts, as the original British styles do, American IPAs are dry hopped as well, producing brighter, often floral, flavors. One downside to the fragrant hops are their precipitous decline in short order. These are beers of the moment, that change radically after a few weeks. This leads us to our biggest criticism of White Rajah, and TBK bottling on the whole; they do not date their product.

Beer is a perishable product, not unlike milk or juice. To not place a date of bottling on beers, craft brewers to a disservice to their customers, and to themselves. A craft beer fan picking up a 4 month old IPA that has no date, might simply deduce that the brewery makes bad beer. Even a ‘best before’ date would be a welcome start for the Brew Kettle to give consumers no notion how long a beer has been sitting on shelves. Look at the success Stone has achieved with their Enjoy By IPA.

CONCLUSION

“Taming The Savage Hop” is the tag link of The Brew Kettle’s White Rajah, and while Kipling allusions are likely lost on most hop-heads, it certainly describes their approach to this west coast styled IPA. But a hop is only savage when fresh, so until the Brew Kettle can address dating the bottle, you won’t know if you are getting a world class IPA, or a faded shell of former imperial greatness. So a half point taken off for poor packaging. Beyond that however if you can get White Rajah fresh, it will be one of the best IPAs you are likely to taste. And for that, we thank Brew (Kettle).

  9.0/10

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Columbus Brewing Company Yakima Fresh Hop

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THE BEER

As we have recently discussed, autumn is the time for hop harvests and therefore the rare window for fresh/wet hopped beer. GABF occurs in the same season. One brewery that stood out in 2014 judging for hoppy brews was central Ohio’s Columbus Brewing Company. Head brewer Tony Corder and his team took home a bronze medal in the American Pale Ale category, they also scored a gold for their Imperial Pale Ale Creeper. Port Brewing’s Silver 15 and Pliny the Elder came in second and third to CBC. So with these bona fides, we jumped on the chance to fill a little growler with their take on a fresh hop beer. Brewed primarily with fresh Mosaic hops from the Yakima Valley in Washington State, the specific hop breakdown was kindly shared by Tony Corder himself:

Tony Corder Columbus Brewing Yakima Fresh Hop

 

One of the great things about craft beer is the accessibility of people making the product, and the guys at Columbus Brewing are no exception; great people. Beyond the above info, we knew it was a fresh hopped ale and were amped to try it.

Columbus Brewing Brewing Yakima Fresh Hop

TASTING NOTES

CBC Yakima Fresh Hop pours out a translucent copper color with a pungent aroma of shallots, malted grains and fresh cut grass. A thin white layer of bubbles tops the brew. The palate gets hit with even more than the nose: scrumptious tropical fruits right up front from the Mosaic hops and a subtle citrus note, perhaps from the centennial addition. These hop flavors are extremely fresh, like drinking straight hop flowers, but better. Sweetness then shows itself, though without heavy grain flavors. Following the malts there is a potent bitter element, tastefully balancing out the pale malt. Our Yakima Fresh Hop sat two days in the growler and still had excellent carbonation, giving a refreshing mouthfeel. The drink-ability is high on this one. This is a delicious beer.

CONCLUSION

Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive. –William F. Buckley, Jr.

When I think about all the improvements commercial craft brewing has made in America in the past 10 years, I can see how WFB’s quotation aptly describes the evolution of change. Early improvements, such as increasing sterile brewing conditions, using proper yeasts, and educating customers on new products were relatively cheap. In an effort to keep innovating, brewers increased malts and hops making bigger and bigger beers, began barrel aging on whiskey and other things, and even took on the dangerous bugs required for sour beer. These advancements take brewery employees with greater skills, and more money for new equipment and ingredients. Fresh hops too, have a cost. Visiting farms to pick out the product you want, and then brewing with hops in fresh leaf form, that containing more alpha acids and oil than in the pellets, and clog up equipment, is a unique challenge.

It is for this reason that we are SO thankful that brewers like Columbus Brewing Company, Sierra Nevada, Deschutes, Fat Heads, and more continue to push the limits, and take the effort to brew amazing fresh hop beers. Yakima Fresh Hop was the best wet hopped beer we tasted this year. Seek it out the second you see it in 2015.

9.0/10

 

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Fat Head’s Hop Stalker Fresh Hop IPA

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The state of Oregon grows a lot of hops. This has lead logically, to a large number of breweries; Portland claiming more breweries per capita than any city in the US. No matter their location, most often work with hops in the form of dried out pellets. However,  the brewers with access to the limited window when fresh hop leaves can be used at their oily best for a bolder hop profile, one that cannot be replicated. Over the years, these seasonal beers gained a passionate following in the Pacific Northwest, leading to the Portland Fresh Hop Fest and many other autumnal events celebrating fresh hops.

Annual Yuma Lettuce Days
Let us celebrate winter crops

Then again, places like America’s winter lettuce capital Yuma Arizona also take pride in their seasonal crops. Selling all that lettuce may net you a ton of cabbage, but it doesn’t mean there is anything special about your greens, nor is it a great reason to paint your face. Heady Topper and Pliny don’t use these fresh hops, so is this just another parochial fetish of homerism, or can wet hopped beers offer something new and yummy?

THE BEER

Brewed in previous years for draft-only release at the brewpub, Fat Head’s Hop Stalker Fresh Hop IPA was first canned in October of 2014. Bless Fat Head’s for stamping a born on date! This can clearly showing ‘Canned on 10/14/14’. The 16 oz can also advises drinkers to, ‘Pour it slowly, unfiltered beer captured inside’. Surly seems to of started the trend of telling people with all that Greg Koch charm what to do with their canned beer (‘Beer for a glass, from a can’) copied by The Alchemist and now Fat Head’s. The Hop Stalker can goes further telling you to ‘drink it fresh’, ‘chill out’, and ‘Stalk a recycling bin’. What, no orders to ride a bike daily or grow a beard? These dictates to customers are becoming a marketing cliche like something out of Roddy Piper’s world in They Live. Hopefully the liquid inside the can is more innovative.

TASTING NOTES

Having not read the warning on the can about pouring too quickly, I cracked Hop Stalker and filled the pint glass as one normally would. The head is moderate in density, and dissipates at an average pace. Despite a fast pour, the beer came out a semi-transparent deep copper, not super cloudy. Nose is affirmative in its big time citrus fruits, blended serenely with pine needles and a strong dankness that foreshadows big flavor. The taste hits you right away with the pungent, fresh hop flavors of caramelized onion and citrus that only come from a wet hopped beer. Tastes like Weyerbacher Double Simcoe with a little less sweetness and more hop oil. There is a well balanced malt sweetness giving it some complexity. The finish is a predictable semi-sweet bitter bite that comes over-top the malts, along with a hint of the 7% ABV. Fat Heads Hop StalkerWith all the potent hop oils lacing your mouth, this is not a beer that compels an immediate second sip.

CONCLUSION

In the past few years, a number of breweries have taken on the logistical challenges of distributing fresh hopped beers. Founders has the consistently solid Harvest, Surly for a few years did Wet (not brewed in 2014) and Deschutes bottles Chasin’ Freshies, to name some of the most distributed. At the mercy of crop yields, and availability, wet hopped beers can vary year to year. All of the control of hop pellets goes out the window, and the wild nature of fresh hops can create beer that challenge the palette, as the brewmaster is limited in hop selections.

In this context, Fat Head’s Hop Stalker is a success. It takes the fresh hop and lets it be the star. Malts and yeast notes take a backseat to the ultra fresh hop flowers. Dank and very bitter, and loaded with what I believe are fresh Simcoe hops, the 2014 Hop Stalker is to IPAs what Islay whisky is to single malt scotch; unrefined and aggressive. With massive flavor and only a short window of availability, anyone calling themselves a hop head would be remiss to not try a fresh wet hopped IPA. Hop Stalker is a great example of what fresh hops can bring to a beer. Drink it fresh!

8.5/10

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Half Acre Daisy Cutter

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Canned Pale Ales and IPAs, still fairly uncommon in most US markets, happen to be some of the tastiest pale ales on American shelves these days. Dale’s Pale Ale rightly gets credit as the first boldly hopped beer to be canned in-house by Oscar Blues back in 2002. Since then many others such as Surly in 2006, and The Alchemist in 2011. Even the iconic Bell’s Two Hearted IPA, bottled for years, is now available in a can.

THE BEER

American pale ale may be the most popular style in craft beer, with breweries like Hill Farmstead and 3 Floyds cracking out multiple variants each year. Lusted after brews such as Toppling Goliath PseudoSue and Russian River Hill 2/Row 56—perhaps may be the finest example of the style I have ever tasted—are also generally considered to be of the APA style. Half Acre Daisy Cutter as well fits the BJCP definition. It is, according to the brewer, a ‘west coast Pale Ale chock-full of dank, aromatic hops’. Not certain what makes one pale ale ‘west coast’ and another not, but a ‘dankness’; something that reminds some of onions or marijuana scents, seems to be the central theme. So Daisy Cutter should be slightly lighter in body and ABV than an IPA, but bringing big American hop flavors.

TASTING NOTES

Half Acre Daisy CutterHalf Acre Daisy Cutter pours a translucent ruddy color with a thick, foamy, white head. The nose draws you right in with whiffs of pine, citrus, Amsterdam coffee shops and almost overwhelmed malts. Though not as pine forward as Pliny or Surly Overrated (which are DIPAs), Daisy Cutter still has a large hop scent off the pour that will lure in IPA fans. This is no British pale ale. Taste seems understated at first. When you unconsciously prepare for the palette crushing American double IPA, the Half Acre flagship starts off modestly hoppy, with a subtle malt backbone. But after a few sips you realize that instead of fatiguing the palette, this pale ale reveals itself as a nice blend of tropical, citrus, and pine hop varieties, without the cloying malt sweetness that accompanies many double IPAs. The mouhtfeel is a bit prickly with high carbonation, finishing an extremely clean aftertaste.

CONCLUSION

The modern American pale ale can be one of two things: a brewer’s modestly hopped pale ale, closer to its British cousin, appealing to the masses; or alternatively, a well hopped, yet still easy drinking ale that craft beer fans might flock to, but generally repulsing hop haters. Half Acre Daisy Cutter makes no compromise when it comes to bold flavors, choosing the less popular, more extreme path to a pale ale. Never lacking in taste, and yet never too much, this beer is a craft beer fan’s idea of a great, highly drinkable pale ale. The fact that such an enjoyable and sessionable brew comes in cans, means Daisy Cutter can bring the hops to more places, with less hassle. Another great Chicago-area APA, seek out a few cans of these anytime you get the chance.

8.0/10

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