Beer Review: Dogfish Head Red and White

Doing these beer reviews has made me really appreciate beers that show a lot of complexity and beers made with unique ingredients or with unique flavor profiles. Given that fact, and my love of all things Dogfish Head, I was really anxious to give their Red & White a try. Here is what Dogfish Head has to say about it:

A big, belgian-style Wit brewed with coriander and orange peel and fermented with Pinot Noir juice. After fermentation a fraction of the batch is aged in Oregon Pinot Noir barrels, and another fraction is aged on oak staves. The beer is blended together before packaging.

The Pour
This pours with a very light tan, pillowy and fluffy three finger head. Decent lacing is left on the glass. The beer is orange with coppery undertones and looks quite cloudy. It looks very solid and full bodied at first glance.

The Nose
There is definitely a citrus presence in the nose, tart and lemony but with some spice (the coriander, among other things) notes as well. There is also an underlying sweetness in the nose, something of brown sugar or maple sweetness.

The Taste
This is full bodied and extremely complex! It opens with a good deep fruity red wine profile, I suppose from the pinot noir, followed by a sweetness that melts into tart citrus notes, such as lemon and grapefruit. The higher alcohol content of this brew is noticeable on the finish. This beer has a very creamy, slightly syrupy mouthfeel. Spice notes and citrus come out more as the beer warms. The beer becomes very slightly crisp at the very very end of the finish.

Overall
Overall, I was very pleased with this brew. I found its complexity to be very interesting, keeping you experiencing different flavors with each sip and as it warmed. Fermenting it with the pinot noir juice really adds character and interest to the witbier base. It really takes what probably would have been a tasty, tart witbier and really makes it a beer worthy of taking to a dinner party instead of a traditional bottle of wine.

Recommended: I very highly recommend this for the beer snob out there, or at the very least the adventurous and experienced beer drinker. There are many layers of flavor to be appreciated here, but you should probably have been exposed to a good variety of beer styles and breweries before giving this a shot.

Price: $13.99 / 1 pint, 9.6 fl. oz. bottle

ABV: 10.0%

Buckbean Brewing Company teams with Grand Sierra Resort & Casino for CANFEST- Reno International Canned Beer Festival

Oh, how I wish I could attend…

Reno, NV (August 2009) — Buckbean Brewing Company, Nevada’s largest production microbrewery, will bring to Reno this October the first ever CANFEST – Reno International Canned Beer Festival, the first international beer judging and tasting for canned beer, to take place at the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino, Oct. 23, 2009.

Buckbean, a company that packages their beers in environmentally-friendly 16 ounce aluminum cans, hopes to shed light on the various breweries across the US that distribute their brews in cans and crush the many myths regarding beer in cans. Proceeds from the event will benefit The Nature Conservancy and the Great Basin Bird Observatory.

The competition will commence and finish in the Grand Sierra Theater October 23, from 6:30 p.m. -10:30 p.m. Judging will take place prior to the public tasting. Celebrities from the beer world will judge the beers individually, based on categories still to be decided. Beer seminars, beer and food pairings and a forum of brewers that can beer are planned.

Along with Buckbean Brewing Company, Big Sky Brewing Company, Oskar Blues, Ukiah Brewing Company, Maui Brewing Company, Surly Brewing Company, New Belgium Brewing Company, Uncommon Brewers, and Rochester Mills Brewing Company are a few that have confirmed they will attend the event.

Ticket prices are $35 per person and room packages will be available for attendees. For more information, please contact Constance Aguilar from Abbi Public Relations at constance@abbipr.com or by calling 775.323.2977.

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ABOUT BUCKBEAN BREWING COMPANY:

Buckbean Brewing Company recently expanded into the Las Vegas and Northern California markets. The craft beer company produces its two signature beers, Original Orange Blossom Ale and Black Noddy Lager, in 16-ounce, environmentally-friendly cans, giving beer fans the opportunity to take their favorite brew with them hiking, biking, golfing and boating without the worry of glass breaking. www.buckbeanbeer.com

Beer Review: Yazoo Hefeweizen

You know, when I attended the Craft Beers and Craft Foods event at the Southern Food & Wine Festival, I mentioned to Yazoo owner Linus Hall that I had reviewed Yazoo’s Hefeweizen on my blog. It was only later that I realized I must have lost my tasting notes along the way and had never actually posted a review. So I promptly picked up a couple singles of the brew at Midtown Wine and Spirits in downtown Nashville and worked on rectifying the situation.

The Pour
This pours in a pint glass to a deep, golden straw color with a brilliantly white 1-finger head, consisting of very small, loosely packed bubbles. The head dissipates pretty quickly, leaving pretty slight lacing, if any. The beer is quite hazy from being unfiltered. Be sure to swirl the last fourth of the beer around in the bottle and quickly pour it into your glass to get all the yeasty goodness!

The Nose
This has a good wheaty presence but with great banana in the nose as well. There is a bit of spiciness to it as well. The yeast adds a good quality to the nose, kind of a good doughy, bready note.

The Taste
This is a great Hefeweizen. Medium bodied, it’s yeasty, wheaty and thick feeling, but with enough carbonation to crisp it up and make it finish clean.  The active carbonation also helps the beer finish fairly clean. The wheat is of course the star, and it is quite tasty. Sometimes you can really pick up the yeast in the back of the throat, which is good. It’s great to taste the ingredients that way, as if by drinking the beer you are deconstructing it on your palate. As the beer warms, the banana flavor comes out more, and the spice hints noticed in the nose come out as cloves.

Overall
I’ve still not had a large number of wheat beers, but of the ones I’ve had so far, this is probably one of my favorites. Crisper than some wheat beers, it is very interesting the way the flavors of banana and wheat share the spotlight, while spice notes and good yeasty flavors appear around the edges from time to time. Overall, this is a good solid Hefeweizen, but with flavor profiles and body that make it more interesting and enjoyable. Incidentally, German tourists visiting the brewery made very favorable comparisons between this beer and good German Hefeweizens.

Recommended: Yes, it’s a very well crafted Hefeweizen that’s not just a wheat beer. Plus you just can’t go wrong with Yazoo

Price: $1.59 / 12 oz bottle (bought singly)

ABV: 5.0%