Year of Beer Paintings – Day 243

The featured beer painting of the day is of Furious Beer from Surly Brewing Company. I went to a grunge rock band dance party last night at the McCarthy Saloon, where there was some serious fury, especially in the mosh pit. I stood on the sidelines, sipping my beer. I think that kind of seething anger and aggression is the right type of attitude to be consuming this particular beer.

The tempest on my tongue was apparent immediately. I experienced a moment of pure hop bliss when I cracked open this crimson hued ale. The American hops and Scottish malt brought out a delicious cornucopia of flavors. Citrus, pine, and caramel toffee, this beer is as true to the marketing as the can suggests. It really lit the hop fire my taste buds required, but unfortunately I shared this beer with five other people, so my 3.3 ounces did make me furious, but only because it was gone and we only had one can!

Way to go you Surly dudes from Minnesota! This beer was surely delicious! I toast to your success, making a fine IPA in the Midwest!

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

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Year of Beer 08.31. Furious Beer by Surly Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 242

The featured beer painting of the day is of Barley Legal Ale from Southern Prohibition Brewing in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. So, as you probably know, I am attempting to reach a goal of making a painting of a beer from every state in the USA during the Year of Beer Paintings. Unfortunately, there are about 30 states that do not distribute to Alaska. So, we sent an e-mail to our subscribers with a list of the missing states, and Dr. Fermento, the local beer reviewer/writer published it in his weekly e-mail, Da Rant. Keith, a beer enthusiast in Anchorage, read Dr. Fermento’s e-mail and contacted me through my Facebook page, to graciously offer to share three bottles, including this one from Mississippi. Turned out that he lives only four blocks from us, so he invited us to a barbeque and a beer tasting. We had a great time – complete strangers who met to sample great beer. I invited Keith to sample some brews from my cellar when I get back to Anchorage.

When Keith pulled out this SPB brew, I was amazed. The Barley Legal is a limited edition barley wine that is aged in rye and bourbon whiskey barrels. Only 900 bottles were released of this batch, and this bottle is 866/900. This was a perfect barley wine – rich, dark and fruity, with the taste of malt and rye. A perfect compliment to the smoked, grilled chicken we ate. The bottle is screen-printed with a work of art that looks like it was hand painted, and then hand dipped with a wax-sealed cap. The lady in a barrel made me think of sitting in a wood barrel hot tub. The beer made me think of decadence like that as well, so I put the hot tub in the background.

Cheers to unique beers! SPB, this beer is a great, handmade artisan project! Thank you, Keith, for sharing it with me for my project!

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

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Year of Beer 08.30. Barley Legal Ale by Southern Prohibition Brewing. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 241

The featured beer painting for today is the product of the collaborative genius between Anchorage Brewing Company and Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, known as the Calabaza Boreal. This sour Belgian ale was brewed at both brewery locations: Anchorage, Alaska, and Dexter, Michigan. The bottle from Anchorage is screen-printed with a horned god holding a pumpkin, looking straight forward, and the bottle from Jolly Pumpkin has a paper label with the horned god in profile. Gabe Fletcher traveled south to visit the Jolly Pumpkin in Michigan and brewed up this batch of Calabaza with Ron Jeffries. Later, Ron visited Anchorage Brewing Company, toting a keg of Oro de Calabaza to ensure a taste of the Jolly Pumpkin in this unique collaborative beer.

Brewed with fresh grapefruit peel and juice, as well as peppercorns, and fermented in large oak barrels, this beer has a taste that lingers in the back of your mind. It is sour with funk, flavors of hay, pepper, and grapefruit, charged by the smell and taste in a way that stimulates fine conversation. The two brews are different but not terribly so; more grapefruit and hay from the Anchorage Brewing batch, and slightly more pepper flavor in the Jolly Pumpkin batch. A great looking, unique tasting ale, made by two fantastic sour-forward breweries!

Cheers to collaboration!

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

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Year of Beer 08.29. Calabaza Boreal Ale by Anchorage Brewing Company and Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 240

The featured beer painting of the day is of Pipeline Stout from the Broken Tooth Brewing Company in Anchorage, Alaska. There is a pizza joint called Moose’s Tooth, and a theatre pub called Bear Tooth in Anchorage that are both owned by the same people that started Broken Tooth Brewing. The three establishments are named after three peaks in the Alaska Mountain Range. Moose’s Tooth pizza pub was started in 1995 by a couple of mountain climbers who didn’t have any restaurant experience. It was a huge success, and is always packed with up to an hour-long wait for a table some nights. A few years later the Bear Tooth opened, which was a revamped old second-running movie theater. You can enjoy a full meal with a pint of craft beer while watching a movie there. The brewery has grown alongside the two restaurants, making a pretty sweet entertainment group. Moose’s Tooth has huge outdoor concerts, bringing in big name bands like String Cheese Incident, Cake, and Keller Williams. The pizza is tasty, the beer is good, but it is the combination of all of the above that makes the Broken Tooth magical.

Pipeline Stout is a classic brew from Broken Tooth Brewing Company, and I saddled up to the busy bar at Moose’s Tooth bar to order one. It came out as expected, jet black with espresso-colored foam. The flavor is spot on, just like a nice, easy drinking stout should be. Dark grains, low hop aroma and bitterness. The flavors of caramel and dark chocolate make up the main flavor profile of this brew. I love a good dark beer, and this stout is a great example of what and Alaska Stout should be!

Cheers to a nearly 20-year success story! Good work bro’s at Broken Tooth, you put on one hell of a good show!

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

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Year of Beer 08.28. Pipeline Stout by Broken Tooth Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 239

The featured beer painting of the day is of Chimay Pères Trappistes Ale, brewed at Scourmont Abbey and bottled by S. A. Bières De Chimay, Belgium. Also known as Chimay Red, one of the most popular Trappist beers, and the most popular Chimay offering. This is the first Trappist beer to include the Trappist name on the label. This abbey started brewing beer 152 years ago in 1862. In order to make a Trappist beer, the beer must be made by monks within the confines of a Trappist monastery, using proprietary Trappist Belgian ale yeast. The proceeds from the brewery are used to support the abbey as well as charitable projects. The unique yeast, isolated by Father Theodore, when combined with the highly protected pure abbey well water, produces a unique rich flavor that really is only available in Trappist style ale.

Chimay Red is a Belgian dubbel, weighing in at 7% ABV. This beer has a quirky aesthetic that pours with a mushroom cloud of foam. It smells like fruit, raisins and prunes with a hint of nuts. The flavor is more fruit caramel, honey, dark chocolate, and toasted bread. It is a sweet, but thin beer, and you would hardly guess it is 7%. If you like Belgian style beer, this one is not to be missed!

Cheers to Chimay! Combining a monastery with a brewery is a genius idea! God gave us the gift of fermentation! I hope Alaska gets the 11^th Trappist brewery!

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

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Year of Beer 08.27. Chimay Pères Trappistes Ale by Scourmont Abbey. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 238

The featured beer painting of the day is of Hobgoblin Imported Dark English Ale from Wychwood Brewery out of Witney, Oxfordshire, England. I first drank this beer in 2011 when my wife and I were bicycle-touring around Europe. After we crossed the continent from East to West, we hopped on a ferry over to England and stayed in London for a couple of nights at a hostel. London is an expensive city, and the exchange rate was working against us. Just buying pints was bad enough at six pounds per pint. Once you convert that to dollars, you might as well be buying pints at the McCarthy Saloon, where pints go for $8 for anything worthwhile. The hostel sold this beer at the front desk, so I ended up having a few of them. It may have been one of the best beers I had in England. Actually, all the pubs I went to in England were awesome, just a little bit expensive. Something about an English pub just feels incredible. The American bar is either a little too seedy, or maybe too high end, or too hipster, but the pubs in England are perfect. “Ale is what yer drinking, how ‘bout ‘nother pint?”

The Hobgoblin has a nice dark color, amber in hue with a smoky, roasty malt backbone and a small helping of hops to make this beer an Extra Special Bitter. ESBs are not very popular these days, as IPA seems to have ridden to the forefront of popular demand. However, in England, the bitters, mild ales, cask ales (from the big engine that pumps out the weird stale beer), stouts and porters, are the popular brews. A good IPA is hard to find, there are only a few beers there that would even qualify as an IPA, which was a big surprise to me, since England is where the term India Pale Ale was coined. The beer in England has this funk that is normal there, and the Hobgoblin is not exempt, it tastes very English.

Cheers to the Hobgoblin! A great beer with a great character on the label! I am glad I was able to get a bottle way up North in Alaska!

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

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Year of Beer 08.26. Hobgoblin Imported Dark English Ale by Wychwood Brewery. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

 

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 237

The featured beer painting for the day is of Dirty Bastard Scotch Style Ale from Founders Brewing Company. Founders beer is actually not in my normal quiver of beer drinking, but since I have had so many sent to me, I have included almost all of them in this project. I still have the Devil Dancer and may paint it too. Every beer I have had from this brewery is phenomenal! I really hope I get a chance to go to Michigan; I should have gone for my college roommate’s wedding, but somehow I missed it.

The Dirty Bastard makes me think of Fat Bastard from Austin Powers, which already makes this beer a winner in my mind. This is a Scotch style ale, a wee heavy beer. Seven types of malt make this beer a very malt-forward brew. Although it still has 50 IBUs, which makes it more hoppy than many pale ales. This beer is actually well balanced with heavy malt backbone and solid hop aroma and flavor. Plum raisins and roasted malt chocolate, coffee, and smoky grains come to mind when sipping this 8.5% brew. It does not have much hop bitterness; the brewmeisters at Founders know how to perfectly hop a beer, that is for sure. Not only does this beer taste perfectly, and seems to satisfy the desire for beer after a glass or two, but it also looks great. The dark amber hue is a wonderful shade of sienna. A beautiful beer from a great brewery. Thanks Founders, and thanks Rich for sending it my way!

Slainte gu soirraidh! To Founders! May your brewery last forever!

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

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Year of Beer 08.25. Dirty Bastard Scotch Style Ale by Founders Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 236

The featured beer painting of the day is of Alaskan Brewing Company’s White Wheat Ale. This beer was added to Alaskan’s lineup in 2009. This is not your traditional witbier, but more of an easy drinking, spiced, wheat ale. A local favorite in Alaska, and a staple at many Alaskan dinner parties, this beer pairs well with salmon grilled on a cedar plank. Witbier is one of my favorite styles of ale, it is really refreshing and totally qualifies as sessionable beer. I have a hard time remembering to sip this one, and at 5.3% you really can’t chug away as it if were a 3.2% beer.

Polar bears are becoming more and more endangered as climate change melts the polar icecap. I hope they don’t go the way of the Dodo. Who knows, maybe some crazy CO2 consuming equalization algae will spring up either naturally or be created by some amazing biologists to mitigate the greenhouse effect. Either way it goes for the Polar bear, it makes for a solid looking label. I am glad I was able to put the baby Polar bear in the back of this composition. I plan on writing a drawing book when the Year of Beer Paintings project is completed called How to Draw Alaskan Baby Animals. The first entry will be a baby polar bear, because I haven’t ever seen anything so cute!

Cheers to beers brewed in Alaska, great beer for the Greatland! Keep brewing up liquid gold in Juneau, Alaskan Brewing Co!

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

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Year of Beer 08.24. White Wheat Ale by Alaskan Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 235

The featured beer painting of the day is of Firestone Walker Brewing Company’s Union Jack India Pale Ale. India Pale Ale was originally brewed in England, and sent on ships to India. It was made with higher alcohol and more hop content than regular English ales so it would travel well. The beer we call IPA today is not even close to what these beers must have tasted like in India. Today’s IPA is not made in England, the pale malt used for the base is probably not English, and the variety of barley may be similar, but has adapted to the North American continent. The most important difference is the hops, which are completely different from what the English were using way back in 1829 (the first published advertisement for English IPA). English hops have a relatively low alpha (acid) content, but the hybrids we are growing in the Pacific Northwest are very high in alpha content. A Kent Golding, or Fuggle hop may have 2-7% alpha, but PNW hops are reaching almost 20%! Everybody is trying to drink these PNW IPAs as soon as they are finished fermenting, and is claiming that fresher is better, which it is, but the original English IPA was engineered for the long haul. Maybe spoiling and stale are different problems. Sure is nice living in a day and age when our beer is kept in refrigerators, not the hold of a sailing ship!

Firestone Walker may think it is brewing an English style of beer (hence the Union Jack in the name, which is the Brittish flag), and in a way it is, but the style has evolved into this amazing American product that frankly isn’t possible to create anywhere else in the world to the same caliber. Maybe it is because I am from the Pacific Northwest (that’s right Alaska is sometimes included in the PNW, we are only three hours by plane from Seattle), but I really love American IPA. I have had Belgian attempts, which have flavors of sugar in the end product. The English IPA is weak, with very little hop content and low malt body. That all being said, this beer is a great example of a PNW IPA! Double dry-hopping and toasty malt make this beer taste phenomenal. Grapefruit and tangerine, pine and biscuit sweetness, this beer is hardly bitter, but perfectly balanced with an aroma that would make a rose jealous. Great job Firestone Walker! I will buy a six-pack of this and take it to my next BBQ!

Cheers to the Union Jack IPA, a classic PNW IPA, a great beer that tastes great even far from where it was brewed!

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

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Year of Beer 08.23. Union Jack IPA by Firestone Walker Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 234

Yeah!  We’re going back to McCathy today!  Three weeks of looking for a truck, and we finally found the perfect one, and negotiated a good deal!  Looking forward to returning to our cabin building project.  A week delay was good for the beer paintings, I have been having fun with them.

Today’s beer painting is of Carlsberg Premium Beer from Copenhagen, by appointment to the Royal Danish Court.  This is a very tasty European imported yellow fizzy beer.  It has more hop aroma than German style pils.  My first experience with this brewery was with the strong lager called Elephant Beer.  It was on my first beer poster, “Beers of the World”, that I had hanging in my college dorm room freshman year.  Corona and Heineken were also on that poster.  This poster must have been printed in the early nineties, and I was a young buck who knew nothing about craft brew.  I understood about microbrew, but didn’t quite understand the difference between a quality product like Carlsberg and adjunct-filled, cheaply made macro brew devoid of hop flavor.

I recommend buying this beer in a can if you’re buying it in the U.S., because there is no light contamination, as opposed to the green bottle when sent across the Atlantic.  When buying beers you know are not as popular read the “Born on Date”!  I got lucky with this big can.  It has an undecipherable code on the bottom, but no particular date, but it tasted fresh.  I love European pilsners, and Carlsberg in the green can is a taste of Denmark that strikes me as particularly delicious!

Cheers to Carlsberg, the Danish beer fit for royalty!  A very good refresher that tastes great even in Alaska!

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

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Year of Beer 08.22. Carlsberg Beer from Denmark. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.