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Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club

A craft beer blog written by the experts of The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

American Beer Day

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With so many beer celebration days now, it’s hard to keep track which one is coming next. With International Stout Day just around the corner (The first Thursday in November), we have more than enough beer to talk about in the next few weeks! Today’s focus, though, is National American Beer Day.

To join in the celebration, I wanted to review a bottle from our friends at Shmaltz: Jewbelation (17): REBORN. With over 20 years of brewing, Shmaltz produced this beer in celebration of their end of contract brewing and the opening of their own brewery location in Clifton Park, NY back in 2013.

This beer pours a crazy dark mahogany with a persistent tan head. On the nose there is quite the complexity from the 17 malts with notes of heavily roasted coffee, brown sugar, and chocolate dancing over forward layers of fruitiness – figs, plums, and stewed apples. The 17 hops have faded in the last four years but you can still see some of their life in the very end of the nose with a light waft of hop spice. Underneath it all is a welcomed whisky-like booziness just to remind you that it is 17%.

On the palate, you basically experience the nose in reverse. The whisky note comes front and center, but is balanced out with some fresh roasted coffee notes and chocolate. The flavors linger out to the fruits shown in the nose but settle on a warming baking spice finish. The body on this one was so massive, it was basically a meal in of itself. Overall, an awesome beer experience and I hope I can find one more bottle to cellar to celebrate an American Beer Day in the future.

Thank you America the Beautiful and God bless our amber waves of grain!

~CJ

Beyond the Bottle: What’s Your Favorite Trappist Beer?

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The “Authentic Trappist Product” designation for beer is well regimented, with 11 breweries currently allowed to use the labeling. The ATP hexagon identifies beers made inside Trappist monasteries while adhering to certain key requirements—such as being brewed by monks or under their supervision, and generating profits used solely for monastic upkeep, or charity.

The majority of us become familiar with Trappist beer through one of the Belgian breweries: Achel, Chimay, Orval (Michael Jackson’s presumed favorite), Rochefort, Westmalle and the much-esteemed Westvleteren. There’s also Austria’s Stift Engelszell, La Trappe and Zundert in The Netherlands, Tre Fontane in Italy (with piddly distro), and Spencer here in the U.S. A twelfth, Mont des Cats in France, is technically a Trappist beer but it gets brewed at Chimay.

So, think back… Which of the above has made the biggest impact on you? Personally, I recall ideal pairings of Chimay Blue + Ashton VSG cigars back when I lived out on the east coast (and still smoked cigars). Orval’s pretty much always difficult to pass up. Westy 12’s proven world-beating or meh depending on the batch, while Westvleteren Blond is wholly different and pretty great in its own right. Plus, the Achel and Westmalle golden and brown beers are otherworldly and actually easy to find… But man, I’d put Rochefort 10 up against anything: epic malt depths and caramelization, but absurdly smooth and crisp. What’s your favorite?

Beyond the Bottle: What’s Your Go-To Gose?

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The gose style of beer has been through some worse days. The 20th century saw this German style of beer—typically quite tart, with additions of coriander and sea salt—completely cease production on more than one occasion. Ron Pattinson put together a particularly compelling history of the style over on his blog Shut Up About Barclay Perkins about ten years back, which also serves double duty as being a snapshot of what the gose scene was like in 2007. (Spoiler alert: ‘Scene’ is a strong word.) At the time, Pattinson wrote: “For the first time since before 1939 there is more than one brewery currently making a Gose, two in Leipzig itself. It’s still easier to find Kölsch in the city, so Gose hasn’t been restored to its former popularity, but the style is more secure today than it has been for any time in the last 50 years.”

Today, there are hundreds of examples. Some authentic. Some authentic-ish. And some with additions of prickly pear, or dry-hopping, or aged in tequila barrels and over 10% ABV. The combo of lactic tartness (particularly as kettle-souring practices continue to spread) with the tempering additions of salt and coriander (plus a myriad of other things) has helped fuel lots of creative attempts in this general style space in recent years. Our sense of gose broadened.

So, what’s your favorite? Personally speaking: Westbrook’s Gose (from South Carolina) has been a reliable go-to (in cans!), offering assertive tartness that aims at authenticity. Upright’s Gose (from Oregon) is another delicious U.S. take, but employs French saison yeast instead of focusing on lactic acid—resulting in more of a curious wheat beer. And while purists may shake their heads at Perennial’s Suburban Beverage out of Missouri (using Key limes, Meyer lemons and Valencia oranges), it’s exactly the interpretation of ‘gose’ I’d want at the beach.

Whether traditional or (may the brewing gods have mercy on our souls…) barrel-aged, we’re curious what you’re digging on the gose front. What’s hitting the spot lately? Let us know on Twitter: the Rare Beer Club’s over @RareBeerClub, and you can find me @kenweaver.

Beyond the Bottle: What Was Your First Sour Beer?

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Sour beers can be a shock to the system for newer beer drinkers. So much so that it’s hard to forget your first. Couldn’t tell you my first IPA, first stout—even my first smoked beer (I’m pretty sure it was a Schlenkerla, tho). Sieve memory. But I do remember my first sour beer.

It was a 750mL bottle of Cantillon’s Lou Pepe Kriek. I’d snagged it from a nearby institution of alcohol known as Chevy Chase Wine & Spirits, in DC. It was where you’d go, especially a dozen years ago, for the weird stuff: cold-shipped Finnish Sahti (thumbs up), ice cider from Quebec (thumbs up), and pale lagers from places you’d never heard of (wiggly thumb). The damn thing cost like $25, which was ludicrous. It smelled like vinegar. My wife (now entirely fond of sour beers) was like, You’re on your own. It was awful and I drank the whole thing.

Revisiting that beer three years later (in 2008): One of the best things I’d ever tasted.

Dear Readers: What was your very first sour beer? (Ideally not said Lou Pepe.) Was it great? Was it harrowing? Have you revisited it since? Hit us up on Twitter: Rare Beer Club’s exactly that (@RareBeerClub), as am I (@kenweaver).

Beer Popsicles: Lemon Pale Ale

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Beer PopsThis is not only a great recipe for summer barbecues this super fun frozen treat is perfect for any warm summer day! Try different combinations of beer and fruit to make them your own!

Ingredients:

  • ⅓ cups Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice (approx. 4 large Lemons)
  • ¼ cups Sugar
  • 1 cup Pale Ale Beer

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients together in a pitcher or measuring cup with a spout. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze for at least 6 hours.

When ready to serve, run the molds under hot water until the popsicles release.

Depending on the beer you use, the level of sugar and lemon juice can to be adjusted to fit your taste.

Recipe and photo from: www.TastyKitchen.com

Mantelligence Awards Our U.S. Microbrewed Beer Club With #1 Pick!

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It’s always fun to get recognized for being the best! We’re excited to announce that our U.S. Microbrewed Beer Club has been chosen as the best beer club in America by the online men’s lifestyle magazine, Mantelligence. In fact, of the eight beer clubs on their list, Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club membership options were awarded three spots!

Mantelligence pointed to our rigorous selection process and high quality beer selections as key differentiators between us and the competition, as well as the ability to create custom memberships combining our beer club options with any or all of our five other top quality clubs (Wine, Cheese, Cigars, Chocolate, and Flowers). Check out Mantelligence’s list of the Best Beer of the Month Clubs.

The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club | 1-800-625-8238 (Outside USA call: 949-206-1904) | P.O. Box 1627, Lake Forest, CA 92609