Featured Beers - October 2020

This pale lager from Diamond Bear presents a bright golden hue with a hint of haze, capped by an effervescent crop of white foam. On the nose, we picked up inviting notes of pear and apple skins along with a crackery, lightly bready undercurrent overlaid by some herbal and mildly woody Nugget hop notes. Look for the theme to continue in the flavor, which comes across really well balanced among that simple bready core malt character, the herbal...

Expect the color of deep cola with flashes of garnet when held to the light. On the nose, this porter is very true to style: Look for roasted malts, touches of dark chocolate and coffee, black currants, spicy hop notes, and a hint of licorice. The aroma profile comes through on the palate as well, although the hint of licorice seemed to fade away in favor of a plum-like note. While there are many “shades” within the porter styles, roasty notes are usually fairly prominent, and Pig Trail is no exception, presenting strong, roasty, coffee-like flavors...

This New England-style IPA presents a super hazy golden color capped by a vigorous head of rocky foam. On the nose, look for citrus juice and rind conjuring grapefruit, orange, and lime, with secondary notes of melon and passion fruit. On the palate, this hazy IPA comes through super juicy with orange notes backed by a lime impression, some stone fruit, a touch of honeydew, and a light jasmine-like floral tone. The malts come through with a bready, crackery impression, and there’s a robust, round, and creamy feel to this hazy brew thanks to plenty of flaked oats...

A chocolate peanut butter porter? Yes! Dark “peanut butter” beers are, actually, a thing. A few breweries have experimented with this style, and for DuClaw it’s become one of their most popular beers, eventually accounting for over a third of their sales and snagging a GABF Bronze Medal. The beer first came about when it won DuClaw’s first ever homebrew competition in 2011, and it was so popular that it has become a year-round beer. Brewed with an all-natural peanut extract that contains no allergens, Sweet Baby Jesus! pours an opaque, almost black...

Pouring a well-hazed orange hue, Walk It Off boasts quite a robust head of rocky, persistent foam that drops plenty of lace as it slowly recedes to a lasting collar. Dry-hopped with Citra and Mosaic, this IPA offers up a fruity amalgam of citrus rind and ripe tropical fruits in the aroma, backed by an herbaceous spice note, orange blossoms, hints of melon, and a touch of piney woodiness. In the flavor department, citrus zest and a deep resinous herbal character take prominent roles, merging into a fairly bold hop bitterness to grasp the palate firmly and keep this brew dry...

Presenting a medium amber hue in our glass and capped by a fluffy light beige head, this IPA offers up a good look as it delivers plenty of olfactory interest. Look for a luscious aroma with plenty of caramel malt merging with the hops to deliver notes of candied citrus, apricot preserves, citrus blossoms, earth, and a wisp of pine. The flavor largely follows suit, with the malty core offering a robust and flavorful caramelized structure as the hops conjure a bit of a fruit cocktail impression with vibrant citrus character amidst softer floral tones. We felt the overall flavor arc...

Known as Wiener Original in its Austrian homeland, Ottakringer’s Vienna Lager is a benchmark of the style and based on a century-old recipe. Winner of gold medals at the 2019 World Beer Awards and the 2017 Austrian Beer Challenge, this brew presents a crystal clear light amber-copper hue topped by an ample head of light beige foam. On the nose, it’s classic Saaz noble hops right away, offering herbal spice notes which meld with light floral, earthy, and mildly woodsy impressions, with just a wisp of lemon rind. A toasty, bready malt undercurrent comes through...

Presenting a cloudy straw color and capped by white foam, this brew offers an engaging aroma as we lean in. Expect classic witbier notes including coriander and lemon impressions accompanied by a little green apple and a unique tart and lightly funky (a highly technical term) character thanks to the Petrus influence. Like the aroma, the flavor is, well... wild. We got the classic crackery, wheaty witbier malt core and yeast-driven phenols, but the lemony character is amped up by the tart acidity. There are touches of apple and wisps of berry and melon. A bit of residual sweetness...

Liefmans’ Kriek Brut is one of the best cherry beers we’ve rated over the years. Only 250 cases of this were sold in the U.S. this past year, and we’re taking pretty much all of their remaining inventory; the brewery is pulling this from the U.S. market going forward. This mixed-fermentation beer starts with a Flemish brown ale aged on fresh whole cherries, which then gets blended with aged Oud Bruin and Goudenband, before being matured for another 18 months. Kriek Brut is a masterclass in cherry beer—and an absolute pleasure to dig into.

Ommegang’s Valar Dohaeris is one of the most highly rated releases from their beer series inspired by Game of Thrones, and it’s been resurrected briefly from its original 2017 release. This bright, effervescent golden ale is depectively light but quite potent, brewed with pilsner malt, wheat, flaked oats, and flaked barley malt, along with Hallertau and Tettnang hops. The beer is fermented by Ommegang’s expressive house yeast. Valar Dohaeris’ second and final release was brewed in 2020. This much smaller run saw more limited distribution, with about 1,000 cases or so allocated for the U.S. market.