Here are four new beers for your summer enjoyment! Salzburger Stiegl Radler is a delicious example of the radler style. A German concept of a sports drink, a radler is a blend of fruit soda and beer, and this one is only 40% beer and 60% soda. Our tasters agreed that this brew tasted like a Squirt soda mixed with a light lager. The pour raised no more than a single layer of fast-fading bubbles, while the beverage was a cloudy white. The nose and the taste matched with the grapefruit soda character being predominant, with only the lightest hint of lager. The Germans might have something here. It certainly was light enough to be a tasty summer treat. This is my new favorite yard work beer. Quadro Triticale is a new addition to Stone Brewing’s Stochasticity Project beers. The brew is a Belgian style quadrupel ale, which is a variety many of us know well already, but the twist on this recipe is the use of triticale grain, a wheat and rye hybrid. The resulting flavor combination packs the salty, spiciness of rye accompanied by the big sweetness fig type sugars. It’s a worthwhile experiment. The pour was dark amber brown, with no foam from a careful pour. The yeasts and malts of Belgian brews are present, creating the backbone of the beer, but it really must be the triticale grain choice that adds a unique bready spice. Additionally, after about half a glass, we noticed that the 9.3% ABV began to push a boozy taste between the rye and fig, but it was a complementary bite. Quadro Triticale should appeal to those who like big Belgian beers, but it’s not for the mellow palate crowd. Hoptimum by Sierra Nevada is a whole cone IPA, and after a trip down to Sierra Nevada in Chico, my brother returned with reports that Hoptimum was one of the brews that was worth sharing with your beer snob friends. Good call. With typical IPA characteristics, the beer presents a golden pour with modest head that left moderate lacing around the glass as the drink was consumed. Hoptimum’s deeply hoppy nose is what begins to move this double IPA to a higher shelf. And in tasting, the gargantuan spicy, piney hops dominate the flavor with a single layer of deliciousness, and secure this IPA’s place towards the top of the heap. Hop heads will love this one for its straightforward and powerful delivery of bitterness. OmegaTex Double IPA by Fort George was our last taster for this round, and with 9.9% ABV, it might be anyone’s last beer for the night. It presents as a typical IPA with a cloudy amber pour and one finger of head that quickly falls. The nose is hoppy, but again, fairly unremarkable for the variety. The uniqueness of this brew is delivered where it’s most important, in the drinking. The mouth is complex. Monster IBU notes hit the palate right up front and then are balanced immediately by the big sugars of dried fruit note malts. In the end, those sugars fade, and the hops prevail in the aftertaste with bite of mango and citrus fangs. If you’re tired of the same old IPA, this is really a tasty change-up.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 00:00:29 +0000
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