Heavy Seas

New in Bottle – Heavy Seas Marzen

Heavy Seas Beer out of Baltimore, Maryland was recently having an identity crisis.  Essentially, Heavy Seas was carrying two brands – Clipper City, and Heavy Seas.  Not to be confusing – they were both the same brewery, just different lines. Continue Reading →

CASK ALERT! Heavy Seas Loose Cannon IPA

First and foremost, this will annoy the Inside The Perimeter snobs, because this cask is outside your realm.   Taco Mac Crabapple will be tapping their first cask tomorrow – Wednesday 1/13/10.   It will be Heavy Seas Loose Cannon.

Loose Continue Reading →

Posted in Heavy Seas, New Releases

New In Bottle – Heavy Seas Pale Ale

A couple of weeks ago, the first of the rebranded Clipper City series finally made it out of Baltimore, MD. That was the Marzen, offered year round.   The next rebrand is here – the very popular Pale Ale.   Prior to this release, both the Pale Ale and the Marzen pretty much local beers only. Pale Ale is an American Pale Ale, that is both hoppy and malty.  Ingredients –

Hops – Fuggle, Golding, Cascade

Malts – Uncertain, but caramel flavors play a big role.

In this Pale Ale, you will note piney floral hops, with some citrus, with some bitter citrus in the finish.  Malt are in no way an afterthought with this ale.  Pale Ale is clean, balanced and very drinkable, and since the ABV is fairly low, very session able. (5% or less.)

Availability – 12oz/ 6pks year round.  Draft offerings also.  Estimated retail around $9.00

4.7% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Casks, Heavy Seas

CASK ALERT! Dry Hopped, Oaked, Holy SHEET! TODAY!

Holy Sheet (Ãœber Abbey Ale), is a strong Belgian Dark Ale offering by Heavy Seas Brewing ( Baltimore, MD.)  Abbey ales fall into the Belgian Strong Dark Ale category and have more sweet flavors compared others strong darks.  The Belgian style yeasts tend to produce more alcohol, and at 9% ABV Holy Sheet has just that.  Tasting notes for Holy Sheet – you’ll taste some dark fruits – raisins, figs, dark cherries, and candied sugars.  Belgian yeast funk and some alcohol are present too.

This cask is actually dry hopped and oaked, so you’ll be looking for that increased complexity over what is already going on above.  I’m still awaiting word on which hop was used for dry hopping, but American Oak chips were added.  It is rare that I have seen an Abbey ale casked, oaked and dry hopped so this is a real treat.  Steve, one of the brewers at Heavy Seas is a cask genius and is responsible for the casks that have made it into Atlanta.  Every one I have tasted has been delicious.

The is cask is tapping at Taco Mac Crabapple this Saturday 3/6/10 as a finale to their anniversary week.  5 pm!  Special thanks to founder of Heavy Seas Brewing -Hugh Sisson. He personally sent this cask to Crabapple for this event.  I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Hugh on numerous occasions, and he is one of the nicest individuals I’ve ever met.

Taco Mac Crabapple – 3/6, 5 pm

685 Crossville Road, Suite 146
Roswell, GA 30075

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Heavy Seas, New Releases

New in Bottle – Heavy Seas Marzen

Heavy Seas Beer out of Baltimore, Maryland was recently having an identity crisis.  Essentially, Heavy Seas was carrying two brands – Clipper City, and Heavy Seas.  Not to be confusing – they were both the same brewery, just different lines.  The Heavy Seas line has been carried in Atlanta for a while, but the Clipper City beers didn’t make the trip.  Actually, Clipper City beers didn’t make it far out of Maryland at all.  I got to talk briefly about this dilemma with Founder/General Partner Hugh Sisson on a recent trip south.  The Clipper City brand is popular, especially in it’s hometown of Baltimore. So is Heavy Seas.  Solution? Move Clipper City beers over to the Heavy Seas side.

The rebranding is complete, and the first Clipper City turned Heavy Seas beer has arrived in town.  Once known as MarzHon, you’ll get to know it as Marzen.  MarzHon was a play on words as a local joke to the people of Baltimore.  (Everyone is “Hon”.)  Marzen arrives in Atlanta well decorated.  It just won it’s 4 medal in 4 years at the Great American Beer Fest.  That’s fairly unheard of.  This beer is an easy drinking,  nearly sessionable (under 5%, this is 5.2 – close enough) malty marzen, with notes of caramel, toasted malts, and bread.

Ingredients –

Hops – Strisselspalt, Columbus (Bittering)

Malts – Pale Malt, Vienna Light, Crystal, Munich

5.25% ABV

Availability – Year round, 6 pks.  Draft Offerings.

Special thanks to Kelly at Heavy Seas.  Also Steve, brewer & Cask genius behind the awesome casks that hit the Atlanta scene.  He is responsible for the tasty goodness, and I’m looking forward to more…

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Allagash Brewing, Bell's Brewing, Casks, Heavy Seas, Now Tapping, Shmaltz Brewing

The Porter Beer Bar Hosts – Firkin Madness!

The Porter Beer Bar, nestled in Little 5 Points kicks off “Firkin Madness Week” starting tonight!  Owner Molly Gunn has set up a great lineup of firkins, each tapping at 6 pm, and flowing until gone.

Here’s the lineup —

Tuesday – (Note — Porter closes at 11 pm today)

Bells Two Hearted Ale — IPA, 7% ABV.  Lots of Centennial Hop flavors.  Pale & Caramel Malts.

Wednesday

Allagash Black — Belgian Stout, 7.5% ABV.  German 2 Row Barley, Torrified Wheat, Oats.  Belgian Dark Candy sugar. Hints of chocolate and coffee.

Thursday

Schmaltz Lenny’s RIPA – Double IPA, 10% ABV.  Boasts Warrior, Cascade, Simcoe, Crystal, Chinook, Amarillo, Centennial.  Dry hopped w/ Simcoe, Amarillo, Crystal.  Lots of malts too.

Friday

Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale —IPA, 7.2% ABV.  3lbs hops per barrel, hopped 3 times.  Great on cask!

Aventinus Eisbock –  Eisbock, 12% ABV.  Highly rated bock.  Slightly boozy, with malts and caramelized sugars.  Dark fruit flavors.

Saturday

T’Smidje Reserve — Details forthcoming…

Again, it all kicks off Today (1/19/10) at 6 pm. New cask every night through Saturday.

The Porter Beer Bar
1156 Euclid Ave NE,
Atlanta, GA 30307
www.theporterbeerbar.com

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Casks, Heavy Seas

CASK ALERT! Heavy Seas Loose Cannon IPA

First and foremost, this will annoy the Inside The Perimeter snobs, because this cask is outside your realm.   Taco Mac Crabapple will be tapping their first cask tomorrow – Wednesday 1/13/10.   It will be Heavy Seas Loose Cannon.

Loose Cannon contains more than 3 lbs of hops per barrel and is hopped 3 times.  (Thus the hop cubed in the title.)  First hopping is kettle, second the hop back, and finally – dry hopped.   I have had this cask before, and I can attest it is FANTASTIC on cask.   7.2% ABV

Details –

Taco Mac – Crabapple

685 Crossville Road

Roswell, Ga 30075

@tmaccrabapple (Twitter)

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Clipper City Brewing, Heavy Seas, New Releases

New in bottle – Heavy Seas – Yule Tide

Yule TideFor those of you who aren’t familiar with Heavy Sea’s mutiny fleet, here is the run down.  Mutiny fleet is a series of 22 ounce bombers, brewed for a limited time in small batches, large on flavor, and often- alcohol.  Previous releases include Big DIPA (Double IPA), Prosit! (Imperial Octoberfest),  and Great Pumpkin (Imperial Pumpkin Ale.)

Next up, and in time for Christmas — Yule Tide.  Yule Tide is Belgian Tripel Ale.  Brewed with Trappist yeast (see previous posts about tripels & trappists) and Belgian candy sugar.   Yule comes in at 10% ABV, which could definitely help you get through Christmas parties and family gatherings…

Quick look —

Hops — 2 varieties

Malts — 4 varieties

ABV — 10%

Offering — 22 oz. Bottles

Grab it quick, as Heavy Seas Mutiny fleet bottles don’t stay on the shelf long.

Tasting notes –  I have had this on cask and bottle. It’s really enjoyable tripel with sweet hints on the palette and nice carbonation.  The 10% can sneak by you.

by Reid Ramsay