This week I picked up Tomahawk and East Kent Golding for review. I know, two hops on completely different ends of the spectrum, one a gentle earthy noble hop, the other a potent citrus bittering hop. But, since the IBUs are kept equal, this does give a nice demonstration on the effects of perceived bitterness. Jeff from Beervana recently had a post about perceived bitterness as well, read it here.

Mikkeller does a great job with the base beer on this series, the hops are definitely the showcase, but the underlying malt base has depth and complexity, allowing the variety of hop to compliment different notes from the base.

First up is the East Kent Golding version. The Goldings, with their delicate earthy and spicy flavors seem to highlight a biscuit note from the malts. The nose emits floral spiciness of the noble hops, while in the flavor the grass, and I know it sounds strange, dirt from the earthy aspects are more prominent. The palate felt a touch oily in comparison to the Tomahawk, possibly due to the amount of Goldings (usually around 3.5% AA) they had to use to achieve the IBU level as they are a low alpha acid aromatic variety.

The Tomahawk (aka Columbus) variety showcases the bitter citrus hop flavors we are accustomed to here in the Pacific NW. To balance the IBUs between these two beers you would need four or five times the amount of Goldings as the Tomahawks (usually around 15% AA). With it’s potent grapefruit aroma and flavor these hops give a crisp edge and enhance the perception of dryness. The Tomahawks have an interesting play with the malts, up front they seem to enhance the sweetness, pulling the caramel notes to the front making this version seem much sweeter than the Golding version. In the finish this one has the opposite effect, the beer has a much more sharp bitterness than the Goldings due to the pithy citrus peel flavor of the Tomahawks. The body on this felt chalky in comparison to the oil body on the Goldings.

Like our Pacific NW IPAs, the Tomahawks pull a quick sweet malt kick, quickly flushed out by a sharp dry bitterness in the finish. The Goldings are more of a steady bitterness throughout, softer and more rounded. The perceived bitterness from the Tomahawks was striking. Now I’m off to pick up a few more varieties from this series to compare two citrus varieties side by side.

I was able to make it down to the Portland International Beerfest for a few hours on Friday. The goal was to snag a few of the beers I’ve been eager to try, chat with a few friends then head out early to attend a friends birthday party. The plan unfolded pretty close, only a few hiccups on the “eager beers”.

The PIB is one of my favorite Portland beer fests, I would say my favorite, but Bailey’s anniversary party is coming up, and Puckerfest this year was pretty excellent. So if not my favorite, it is in good company. We arrived in the sweltering July heat, easily in the 90’s with not a cloud in the sky, thankfully once inside the fest the Park blocks provide ample shade, nothing worse then trying to enjoy some of these bigger ABV beers in the hot sun. Friday saw a packed house almost immediately, the line continuing around the block from the time I entered until I left a few hours later, even with expanded capacity this year. Even with the crowds the lines were never long, no giant swaths of sweaty people crowded right up next to you yelling for some arbitrary reason, yah, I’m looking at you OBF.

Turns out that a few of the scheduled beers didn’t make it this year, including the special 150 year old sherry cask of JW Lees. Preston was pretty disapointed about that one not making it, and I’m sure there will be quite a few people on Saturday that will be let down. Other no shows were the Bell’s/De Proef collaboration and Fantome Pissenlit, both of whom were at the top of my “must try” list. Well, plenty of other great beers to drown your disappointment.

Also, some of the “Mystery beers” were finally revealed, although strangly their signs behind the pouring station still read “Mystery Beer”, at that point you knew what the beer was right? Who knows, maybe they will be pouring different “Mystery beers” each day. The Cantillon “Mystery beer” turned out to be Iris, Cascade brought along Gose and Mouton Rouge. Also, I’m not sure about these two, but PBR 40’s and Iron City bottles were also being poured as “Mystery beer”… must be some sort of inside joke that I just don’t get.

Here are a few quick recaps from what I tried:

Cantillon Iris - This beer is usually available in bottles, but not sure I’ve ever had this on tap. I’d be lying to say that I wasn’t a bit let down when I found out the Cantillon “Mystery beer” was Iris, I had some far-fetched hops that somehow they landed a keg of Blabaer, Gran Cru, or Cuvee des Champions, why do I get my hopes up? Either way Iris is delicious. Iris is an unblended lambic, not a gueze like almost all of Cantillon’s other beers. Instead of blending multiple vintages to smooth out the flavor, Iris remains but one vintage at a time. Iris is also brewed with 100% pale malt and hopped partially with fresh hops and dry hopped. In contrast most of Cantillon’s beers (and lambics in general) are almost half wheat and usually only use aged hops to get less hop character, which Iris tries to showcase. Anyway, with all that blather out of the way, Iris usually more acidic with its sourness, the blending of vintages in gueze usually softens the acidity a bit. The keg on at PIB however was much more subdued then the Iris I’ve had in the bottle in the past. Maybe this was a vintage keg, but the acidity to the sourness was mellow for a Cantillon beer. The hops were mildly pleasant, showing  a bit of earthy character, overall this beer feeling much more mellow and well rounded then your typical Cantillon gueze.

Cascade Gose – I was able to try this one a week ago at the Raccoon Lodge patio BBQ party. I much preferred the version at Raccoon lodge as the carbonation was higher bringing out more of the floral esters. At the PIB they were serving this beer from the pitcher (probably due to foamy pours), so the beer was a bit on the flat side. Great hot day beer with wheat up front and a tart finish. Excellent beer, but do yourself a favor and head out to Raccoon Lodge and try this from the source.

Rogue John John Hazelnut – This idea sounded good, Rogue Hazelnut  Brown aged in Rum barrels. Although I haven’t had a Hazelnut Brown in years, I recall liking it, and although I’m not a big hard alcohol drinker, Rum is one of my favorites. Somehow this just didn’t come together for me, most rum character seemed lost, providing mostly a boozy burn to the Hazelnut Brown. With the added booze the base beer felt thin and the hazelnut flavor got lost in the mix.

Dieu Du Ciel Equinoxe du Printemps – Scotch ale brewed with maple syrup… yes please. Even on this hot day I couldn’t pass up a scotch maple beer, that just sounds delicious, and it was. Very woody with just a soft maple note that really enhanced the sweetness up front. What you had here was just a lot of good flavors that work really well together, wood, smoke, maple. At over 8% ABV this beer was still very smooth and was no task to finish even in 90 degree heat.

Mikkeller US Alive – I sprang the 5 tokens to try this one, my recommendations, keep the tokens and buy the bottle later. Labeled as a Quad… I think.. but really far from it. The carbonation really breaks up the palate keeping any sense of heaviness from this and really bringing the esters to life. Earthy and fruity up front with a dry finish with a good dose of hops present. Just another excellent Mikkeller beer, but pick up the bottle in the store and try others at 5 tokens.

I do miss the 1 token La Folie they had last year, watching the expecting patrons grimace in pain at it’s acidity and sourness. There were still quite a few beers that I wanted to try, so I’m thinking about heading back Saturday at opening to sample a few more.

Anyone have any recommendations from what they tried on Friday?

First up was the new beer from Brewdog and Mikkeller, Devine Rebel, a 12.5% barleywine partially aged in Speyside whisky barrels. I’ve been eager to try this beer since I first got word of it. Brewdog has been pumping out their imperial stout in a series called Paradox, each version being aged in a different type of whiskey barrel. This has been one incredible series, being able to compare the effects different barrels will have on the same beer, some being rather soft and buttery while others are bold and saturated with peat smoked flavors. Mikkeller on the other hand is a one man gypsy brewer, owning no brewery of his own, but managing to crank out some of the best beers in the world. If you haven’t gone and checked out any Mikkeller beers yet do it, go buy a Black Hole Imperial Stout or a Santas Little Helper and find out what incredible beer tastes like.
Anyway, on to Devine Rebel. This beer seemed to take the barrel selection from Brewdog and the beer build from Mikkeller, drawn together into a beer that will be incredibly good in due time. I say that because at the moment it is just good, but really needs another 6 months to 2 years to fully come together. Beautiful malt taste, deep notes of cherry, vanilla, oak, and caramel, but a bit syrupy up front, hops are powerful and to bitter…. I know that is kinda confusing, to much on the bitterness and sweetness? it’s just that they aren’t melding together yet, given more time to settle this beer will really start to stand out. Definitely built to age, so pick one up and open it up this winter, or buy one and try it out now and save the other for winter. I think come winter this will be an A beer, now about a B rating.

Next up was Great Divide Chocolate Yeti, the most recent addition to the Yeti series. Around 10% ABV, the Yeti series now includes, regular, oaked, bourbon, espresso, and now chocolate. The last installment in this series was the Espresso Yeti which I thought turned out really well, so this was another that I was eager to pick up. If you are headed to the Portland International Beer Fest this weekend then you will find this on tap, try it. Pours just like all the other Yetis, almost pitch black, silky smooth, with a tall brown head. Deep dark chocolate nose, roasted malts, vanilla, and big dose of hops. Like most of the other Yeti beers I thought the hops came on a bit strong, bitterness even amplified a bit more by the oak, great for aging, but when fresh they are a bit overpowering, especially overshadowing the sweet chocolate flavor they were trying to highlight. Still this beer is smooth and delicious, yah I’d prefer the hops and bitterness to subside a bit to accentuate the chocolate more, but it’s really hard to complain, this tastes damn good. I also reflect to the opposite side of the spectrum with beers like Southern Tier’s Chocolate, which is overly sweet and artificial tasting, so more props to Great Divide for another great beer. I’d give this one a B+ to A- at the moment, maybe with 6 months the hops might settle a bit and it may improve, but who knows.

Anyone else tried either of these yet? Thoughts?