Year of Beer Paintings – Day 181

Today’s beer painting is of Perpetual Imperial Pale Ale from the Tröegs Brewing Company in Hershey, Pennsylvania.  I have to admit I was a little skeptical of this Imperial IPA, because most breweries put a single IPA in a can.  Although there is no light contamination, and the breweries can just about eliminate any oxygen from the can, whenever I see a 7.5% IPA in a can, I worry about heat contamination.  The aluminum, although not a very good heat sink, transfers more heat than a glass bottle.  The good news is that this can was very fresh, and not to my real surprise, the beer was phenomenal!  I have been really happy with every product I have tasted from Tröegs!  Thanks, Rich, for taking the time to mail another batch of PA brews!

For only 85 IBUs there were a lot of floral hops in this one, and when I look at the hop bill I can see why.  It’s a very diverse group: Bravo, Chinook and Mt. Hood in the boil, and Mt. Hood and Nugget in the HopBack machine, then dry hopped with Citra and Cascade!  A process that obviously shows that these guys love beer!  You can make a beer with hop extract and skip almost all these steps, but your beer will be yellow and boring without any amazing hop character.  With this three-step hopping procedure you get Perpetual IPA!  A fine example of a fresh hop grenade!

Let the machine keep turning its gears!  I want this beer perpetually in my beer fridge, but sadly I only got one!  I should be happy I even go to try this incredibly fresh Hop Bomb of an IPA!  Cheers!

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

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Year of Beer 06.30. Perpetual IPA by Tröegs Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 180

The beer painting of the day is of Perle ai Porci Oyster Stout.  Brewed with oysters and clams by Birra Del Borgo, this Italian stout is a beer crafted with unique ingredients.  Black as night with a bit of a briny flavor, this beer is remarkable in its own way.  Oysters have their place in brewing history.  During the Victorian era in England many northern pub patrons would consume copious amounts of oysters and wash them down with English stout.  The stout came to be called Oyster Stout because between sips of beer they would shoot oysters.  Then around the early 1800s brewers discovered that adding oyster shells made the beer clarify faster.  There are several claims that in 1929 in New Zealand the meat of the oyster was included in the boiling process for the first time.  So, to my surprise, oyster stout has a long history leading up to the Perle ai Porci.

So what did I think of the Oyster Stout from Italy?  It was an excellent stout with a slight salty flavor at the end of each sip!  I liked it better than oyster ice cream, but still think the best way to eat oysters is to barbeque them, or to simply shoot ‘em raw!

Cheers to the Perle Ai Porci!  One of the most unique beers you will find in the world!  I hope you get a chance to taste this oddity, as there is probably a limited quantity available!

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

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Year of Beer 06.29. Perle ai Porci Oyster Stout by Birra Del Borgo. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 179

KBS!  Stout for breakfast!  Seriously, I was going to drink this last night but my wife warned me that if I drank this beer without her, she would… well, I won’t go into the details.  She came home too late last night after a long day of guiding visitors around Alaska, so here I am doing my part sipping on 6 oz of beautiful coffee and chocolate Kentucky Breakfast Stout at 10 AM so I can write this blog post about it.

Rich and malty, with a bitter bite, and a nutty flavor.  At 70 IBUs, the bitterness is masked by the malt.  The nutty flavor reminds me of coconut beers; must be part of the barrel aging at cave temperatures.  This beer is thick on your tongue creating a blanket of pleasure.  I can see why it is one of the most sought-after beers in the Midwest!  Thanks Patrick for mailing it to me, this was a special treat!

Cheers to Founders!  I am glad I found out about your brewery through this project!  I hope you keep on making KBS!  I know it is probably a labor of love, especially paying for the cave real estate!  I now understand why there is limited availability of this one, as it is obviously hard to make a beer this special!

The original painting sold. You can purchase a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

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Year of Beer 06.28. KBS by Founders Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 178

Deviant Dale’s India Pale Ale!  What a beer!  I love a great IPA in a can, and this is a great example.  I wish I knew about Oskar Blues when I lived in Colorado for a brief 10 months.  I was in Gunnison anyway, a town that need a brewery.  I heard there used to be a bar on campus (every university needs a brewpub on campus)!  What a great idea — the university could offer a four-year brewers degree and support the drinking habits of the students who are of age!

I have loved Deviant Dale’s IPA from the first sip I took about five years ago!  It is so good, I should have painted it ages ago, like Rasputin or Torpedo.  This beer is an icon of brewing achievements!  Great work brewers!  I hope you make more lovely batches and can them all!  Maybe don’t put this in the “Stovepipe” can, as that would be dangerous, unless shared.  So malty, yet so fragrant, I just want to swig it down!  IPA gets me into trouble as I just love the flavor so much, but it’s kinda strong.  That’s what happens when you learn to drink swillable session beers, then switch over to decadent IPA.  Well, I will stay home and keep out of trouble tonight, sipping not chugging this awesome beer!

To Oskar Blues!  I can buy your beer here in Alaska!  Yeah!

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

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Year of Beer 06.27. Deviant Dale’s IPA by Oskar Blues Brewery. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

 

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 177

The beer painting of the day is of Armory XPA from Deschutes Brewing Company.  Originally brewed as the first batch from the Portland, Oregon brewpub, this beer is a fantastic American Pale Ale!  I’m glad this beer is not called an IPA, even though it could be.  So many beers Americans call IPA should be XPA, APA, or anything but India Pale Ale.  These beers brewed in England were English Ales made for easy transport, or for specific markets outside of England (like Russian Imperial Stout), but people think they are from those places.  Anyway, the style has been changed and the beers don’t even have English Ale yeast in them, so I like that Deschutes called this beer what it is — an Experimental Pale Ale.

This beer is bold and hoppy, like an IPA, but a bit different.  I could taste American yeast and all American hops, with a hop bill of Nugget and Northern Brewer for bittering, Cascade and Centennial for flavoring/aroma, and Citra for the dry hopping.  This beast of a brew is boasting some of the best hops in the Pacific North West!  I love a big bold beer, but don’t like to lose control from too much alcohol, so a beer like this one, with high IBUs and only 5.9% makes me a hoppy beer lover!  I hope you get a bottle of this seasonal product!  When it’s hoppy, you have to get it while it’s fresh!  This one may be gone and never made again!  Well, probably not, as it is the first beer made at the Portland pub, so it has history working for it!

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

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Year of Beer 06.26. Armory XPA by Deschutes Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 176

I’ll Plead the 5th… the imperial stout from Dark Horse Brewing Company, that is.  This 11% beer should not be taken lightly; I have barley wines that have less booze in them.  I loved this one, so black, with dark, oily foam that quickly faded from my glass.  Looking into my glass felt like staring at a dark abyss of crude oil.  I think I even saw a rainbow floating in the top of the glass.  Charred chocolate and toasted malt make this beer roasty, yet mostly bitter and sour from the dark grains.  Hardly balanced, this beer will take your tongue to new heights, maybe to a place where you, well… plead the Fifth.

I painted the Constitution behind this Imperial Stout to remind us how great a Nation we have where we can “Plead the Fifth” in more ways than one!  I hope I only have to drink the beer and never get called in to court.

Cheers to Dark Horse Brewing! Drinking a beer from a place where I’ve never been makes me want to go there.  Thanks Patrick for sending me this bottle all the way from Michigan!

The original painting sold. You can purchase a limited-edition print, or order a custom beer painting at my Etsy shop.

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Year of Beer 06.25. Plead the 5th Imperial Stout by Dark Horse Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 175

The beer painting of the day is of 90 Minute IPA by Dogfish Head Brewery.  The first sip was rich and malty.  What I expected to be a hop bomb turned out to be nearly perfectly balanced.  At ninety IBUs and 9% ABV, who would have known that this ridiculously strong-flavored ale isn’t a palate crusher?  If you try to do anything after drinking even a 6 oz serving of this beer, you should rethink your plans and sit on the couch for at least 30 minutes, just to make sure you are safe to move.

Dogfish Head’s label has a Dogfish shark on it.  I thought of some of the silly beer movies and figured if this beer were featured as part of a stupid movie’s plotline it would entail a shark loose in one of the beer vats.

Dogfish Head, you did it again with another fine offering!  Malty and hoppy — a fine 90 minute boil!  Brewers do it longer!  Delaware for beer!  I’ll be sure to visit your taproom on my beer trippin’ tour in November.

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

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Year of Beer 06.24. 90 Minute IPA by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 174

Today’s beer painting is of Smoked Porter from Alaskan Brewing Company.  This was the first smoked beer I had ever tasted.  The first release date for this particular beer is 1988, but I had my first one in probably 1999.  I was intrigued by the smoked concept, but didn’t get to try another smoked beer until 2001 when I came across a smoked porter by Stone Brewing Co.

A dark robust body, with pronounced smoked flavor, this beer pours out jet black with a creamy dark head.  The flavor makes me think of smoked salmon, hence the image in the background of this painting.  What could be more Alaskan (besides oil workers) than a Grizzly chowing down on Sockeye salmon?  This beer is good for aging in the bottle.  I bought this one pre-aged — the last 2012 on the shelf among plenty of 2013 bottles.  The fellow at La Bodega bottle shop told me it was the preferred vintage, and it was excellent.  I think I enjoyed it more than I did when I was much younger.  I have higher expectations now, and this beer did not disappoint.

Cheers to Juneau, Alaska, the only state capitol not accessible by road, and home to the largest Alaskan brewery!

The original painting sold. You can purchase a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

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Year of Beer 06.23. Smoked Porter by Alaskan Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 173

The daily beer painting is of a really awesome brew known as Lindemans Geuze!  I learned that besides being a lambic beer made with spontaneous fermentation and aged hops, this beer is made from 25% three-year old brew, 50% two-year old brew and 25% one-year old brew.  The blend allows for just enough sugar to create a 6% bottle-conditioned beer.  I also learned that lambics contain a ton of wheat malt — at least 30% wheat, a fairly high quantity compared to other wheat styles.  Oh, and aged hops are used, which create a cheesy, and almost meaty smell that is musty and stale — just what this beer requires.  Stemming from generations of brewing tradition the reason why is lost (probably due to availability), but aging the hops is important.  This is very counterproductive to what we like here in hop-headed America.

I have been getting lucky drinking geuze as of late.  I was able to consume this bottle of Lindemans (pictured here in front of the beautiful brewing room), but later in the day I was at a fellow Great Northern Brewers Club member’s house for a BBQ and mentioned that I brought over a home-brewed saison but had a geuze earlier.  The host said, “Oh, I have tons of geuze in my cellar that I made a few years ago!”  He started to explain the process and finished by telling me that on a recent trip to Belgium he met the owner of the Boon Brewery, and shared a bottle of this beer with him.  My host said with a smug look on his face that the owner gave him the best compliment one can get: it was so good he would serve it to his family at dinner.  So I crawled into his cellar under the floor of his house (I wish I had one of these) to look for the geuze, and chocolate infused mead, and was amazed to see hundreds of bottles of different-flavored lambics down there, not to mention a few unopened bottles of Vertical Epic series (including a case of ’04) among other treasures.  The geuze was from 2006, meaning it was brewed in 2003.  I brought up the two bottles and sampled the geuze, and it was every bit as good as the Lindemans (which is an amazing beer) maybe even a bit more cidery.  Super good!  Way to be GNBC! I  love sour beers, especially lambic geuze!

Cheers To Lindemans Brewery!  Thank you for brewing a tart, spontaneously fermented beer that is so amazingly different than a generic lager!  I am tempted to brew a batch in the next three years.  Maybe I can collaborate with the GNBC!

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

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Year of Beer 06.22. Geuze by Lindemans Brewery. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 172

Solstice!  I always wonder why people celebrate summer Solstice, since we’re now going to lose daylight.  Not a pretty prospect for us Alaskans.  Equinox is the time for serious mourning, and that happens right at Oktoberfest.

The beer choice for today is Bar Fly Imperial Stout by Midnight Sun Brewing Company!  And it’s perfectly timed as I gave Maria, my wife and Business Manager, a whole case of this fine brew for her birthday!  A smoked imperial stout aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels, this beer is the pride of Midnight Sun Brewing Company right now.  The smoked grains, black grains, and massive amounts of grains overall are perfect for making an inky-black, ridiculously flavorful brew.  One that will have your taste buds singing, or at least singed from flavor overload.

So, if you can’t drink anything with severe potency, you might as well give up now as this beer will make you feel unworthy.  So strong and so good!  Thank you brew team from MSBC!  Once again you have crafted a fantastic product that blows away normal beer!  If I were you, I would rush to MSBC and buy one of the few remaining bottles of Bar Fly, because not only is it a cut above normal beer, I think it is one of the best beers coming out of the brewery right now!  It wasn’t quick in the making either.  Um… for my next firkin I want Bar Fly with…. hmmm actually put it on nitro and we can do something else for the firkin.

Cheers MSBC!  I love Bar Fly!  The flyest beer of the year!  Keep brewing strong bold beer and I will keep hanging beer portraits on your walls!

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

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Year of Beer 06.21. Bar Fly Imperial Stout by Midnight Sun Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.