Headlines

Avery Coconut Porter (aged in bourbon) debuts this week

Avery Coconut Porter will be the newest release in  the brewery’s ongoing Botanicals & Barrels Series this month. Each beer features hand selected barrels and one botanical. The lineup includes Vanilla Bean Stout, Tangerine Quad, Apricot Sour, and Raspberry Sour.

Avery Coconut Porter is a Continue Reading →

Posted in New Holland Brewing, Coming Soon, Headlines

Campfire beer. New Holland Dragon’s Milk Reserve S’mores is coming soon

New Holland Dragon’s Milk Reserve S’mores is coming to the coveted “Reserve” series in the near future.

By now, the Holland, Michigan based brewery’s Dragon’s Milk, an imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels, is pretty iconic. For years, New Holland has been releasing a year-round imperial stout, which has garnered a bit of a cult following. For many, a barrel-aged imperial stout knows no season.

Rewarding that love of big stouts, the brewery created the Dragon’s Milk Reserve Series, a special series that takes Dragon’s Milk to new heights. Entries into the series include the ridiculously tasty Coconut Rum, Vanilla Chai, and hitting shelves now – Mexican Spice Cake. Soon, your campfires can be enhanced by S’mores Dragon’s Milk Reserve.

This future 11% alcohol by volume imperial stout boasts hints of toasted marshmallow and graham cracker (plus, it’s aged in bourbon).

Hints of toasted marshmallow and graham cracker compliment the chocolate character of Dragon’s Milk, giving this Reserve a flavor reminiscent of campfires and summer nights.

New Holland Dragon’s Milk Reserve S’mores will be available in 12 ounce bottles and draft. The brewery has not yet announced this release.

Style: Imperial Stout (w/ Marshmallow, Graham Cracker. Barrel Aged. Bourbon.)
Availability: 12oz Bottles, Draft.
Debut: TBA

11% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Offshoot Beer Co., Headlines

The Bruery creates Offshoot Beer Co. and finally brews an IPA

April Fool’s Day 2017 has come and gone, and The Bruery’s “joke” has turned out to be not a joke at all. Offshoot Beer Co. is a very real thing.

Patrick Rue has said for years that The Bruery will never release an IPA. Technically he will always be right. The closest they’ve ever come is Humulus Lager, which is hopped like an IPA, but uses an lager yeast. Sneaky, sneaky. When Rue started The Bruery in 2008, the India pale ale scene was already crowded. He never saw the point in going down that route.

Nearly a decade later, the IPA still dominates craft brewing. Plus, the talented team at The Bruery most certainly has had an itch to go hoppy. Even if it is the time to release the venerable India pale ale, no amount of hops will make it fit The Bruery or Bruery Terreux’s branding.

Joel Kennedy, marketing manager for The Bruery tells Beer Street Journal that the big ideas around there usually come from Patrick Rue. Any IPA that was going to come from his team would have be from a different brand. Offshoot Beer Co. was born.

It wasn’t until the 2nd of April that fans of The Bruery started to realize this was no joke at all.

Offshoot Beer Co. is the third brand approach by the California based brewery and will specialize in IPAs. Initial releases like Perjury, Delayed Gratification, and Out of Context all got their start on the brewery’s 3 barrel experimental brewhouse, headed up by Andrew Bell.

Hazy IPAs, aka “New England Style IPAs” are hot right now, and that’s exactly where Offshoot Beer Co. begins their hoppy journey. “Fashionably Late,” and “Better Late Than Never,” each sport an 80’s theme and embody everything the haze fans crave. Those in 16 ounce cans, a first for The Bruery, thanks to mobile canning.

Offshoot Beer Co. shows off the the whimsical, playful side of The Bruery. If you can’t already tell, the names are poking fun at themselves from the get-go. Each month expect two new cans to surface. New styles, new names, even new themes. For now, you have to sign up on the interest list in order to get your hands on these cans, and even then, limited to pick up at the brewery (At least for the foreseeable future).

The Bruery and Brewery Terreux have always carried an air of class and sophistication. With Offshoot Beer Co., the weird (and hoppy) side of The Bruery we always knew was there is about to show, and starting this month – you’ll finally get to taste it.

 

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in New Belgium, Coming Soon, Headlines

New Belgium’s Fat Tire series is expanding with Fat Tire White Ale

New Belgium Fat Tire White Ale, a new addition to the brewery’s “Fat Tire” family, debuts in August.

Later this summer, ordering a Fat Tire won’t be limiting your choices to just the iconic amber ale. For the first time in 25 years, New Belgium is putting a true Belgian-style white ale into full scale production.

The authentic white ale will feature Seville orange peel and coriander from Fort Collins, Colorado based Old Town Spice Shop, less than a mile from the brewery. New Belgium selected Seville oranges over Valencia oranges because thanks to their ‘brighter” aroma, and less cloying sweetness.

“Fat Tire Belgian White captures the spirit and flavor of a truly authentic Belgian White beer” – Peter Bouckaert, New Belgium’s Belgian Brewmaster

New Belgium Fat Tire White Ale will be available in 12 ounce bottles, 12 ounce cans, and draft starting August 1st.

Style: White Ale (w/ Orange Peel, Coriander)
Availability: 12oz Bottles, Cans, Draft
Debut: 8/1/17

5.2% ABV
;

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Avery Brewing, Headlines

Avery Coconut Porter (aged in bourbon) debuts this week

Avery Coconut Porter will be the newest release in  the brewery’s ongoing Botanicals & Barrels Series this month. Each beer features hand selected barrels and one botanical. The lineup includes Vanilla Bean Stout, Tangerine Quad, Apricot Sour, and Raspberry Sour.

Avery Coconut Porter is a chocolatey porter, brewed with fresh coconut, and aged for a few months in bourbon barrels until ready for the big time. This release was slated for around this time last year, aged in rum barrels. The lot of barrels that Avery received didn’t pass muster, so it was back to the drawing board. Hopefully a year of recipe tweaks have done well by this beer.

Copious quantities of coconut coupled with time basking in Bourbon barrels compliment the chocolatey and sumptuous nature of this delicate porter.

Coconut Porter was set to be bottled May, 2016. The brewery has not announced a release date yet.

Style: Imperial Porter (w/ Coconut. Barrel Aged. Bourbon.)
Availability: 22oz Bottles
Release: Early April, 2017

9.5% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Founders Brewing, Headlines

Founders KBS rises again. One of the best years we’ve ever tasted

Founders KBS. Still one of the most widely known beers in America. As we roll into the spring filled days of April, KBS is making its national return.

In case you are someone that has never had the joy of Founders KBS, make it your goal this year.

According to Founders, Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS) is the most sought after beer they produce in their Grand Rapids, Michigan home. (Counter argument: whisper the letters CBS near a beer geek and see what happens.) The phenomenon can be traced back to over a decade ago.

Around 2001. 

Over the years of covering KBS releases at Beer Street Journal, we’ve mentioned little pieces of the story of how this beer came to be, and it all starts in 2001. Co-founder Dave Engbers was eating chocolate covered espresso coffee beans that a taproom regular had given him. After washing the beans down with a porter, the meshing of coffee, chocolate, and beer nuances gave him an idea.

2003. 

The brewery’s other co-founder Mike Stevens called the Jack Daniels distillery and asked for used bourbon barrels to fill with beer. According to Founders, that was a bit of a silly thought in the early 2000s. Those first barrels were filled with Breakfast Stout, another fan favorite, and left to age. The duo were close to mimicking the flavors in found in that taproom epiphany from the previous year. Something was still missing.

The birth of KBS.

We’d like to tell you there was some sort of “Birth of Christ” moment that brought Kentucky Breakfast Stout into the world. Ultimately, like every brewery tweaking recipes it was a few simple changes – the addition of espresso beans and chocolate to a new imperial stout base. The beer phenomenon was born.

The meteoric rise to fame eventually sent the barrel-aging underground to a nearby gypsum mine that Founders uses to age KBS for a full year. What was once just two barrels has grown to 1,000s in order to quell the thirst of the barrel-aged loving horde. Even with a football field’s worth of oak, that still won’t be enough.

2017.

Write this down. The 2017 edition of Founders KBS is stunning. Stop listening to some know-it-all that will try to tell you that this beer wasn’t as good as it was (insert year here.) With any barrel-aged beer, there will ALWAYS be minor flavor fluctuations. This isn’t pale ale we are talking about here. This year’s release is big on vanilla flavors, that turn over to a symphony of chocolate and coffee, finishing with a lingering alcoholic heat. This is the good you need in your life.

Founders KBS debuts nationally once again starting April 1st in both bottles and draft. New for 2017 – 750 milliliter bottles.

Do us a favor. Don’t sit on this beer. Don’t wait for some special day in the future that may never come. Open it with friends or loved ones. No better time like today.

Style: Imperial Stout (w/ Coffee. Chocolate. Barrel Aged. Bourbon.)
Availability: 12oz Bottles, 750ml Bottles, Draft.
Latest Return: 4/1/17

11.8% ABV

Image: Beer Street Journal

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in The Bruery, Funky Buddha, Headlines

The Bruery & Funky Buddha team up on Guava Libre

The Bruery Guava Libre, a collaboration with Florida’s Funky Buddha, is coming later this year.

If you need to know just one thing about Funky Buddha, it would have to known their love of food inspired beers. Maple Bacon Coffee Porter, Moro Moro Blood Orange IPA, and Sweet Potato Casserole are prime examples. Teaming up with California based The Bruery, the duo has another food-inspired beer headed your way in the near future.

The Bruery Guava Libre is based on the Cuban dessert pastelitos de guayaba. The tempting dessert incorporates guava paste, cream cheese, powdered sugar and puff pastries.

Echoing the pastry, the breweries created an imperial cream ale brewed with guava, turned dessert-like thanks to milk sugar and vanilla beans.

This sensory getaway transports you to a corner bodega with our friends at Funky Buddha in South Florida to recreate the flavors you’d find in a “pastelito de guayaba.” Championing the big, bold flavors that both our breweries are known for, we brewed an imperial cream ale, adding lactose and vanilla to impart sweet, custard-like ribbons, and guava for filling its conceptual authenticity. It’s a collaboration that’s equal parts inspiration and admiration.

The Bruery Guava Libre will be available in 750 milliliter bottles around the same time fall seasonal Autumn Maple returns.

Style: Cream Ale (w/ Lactose. Guava. Vanilla Beans.)
Availability: 750ml Bottles
Debut: Fall, 2017 (Estimated)

7.5% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in SweetWater Brewing, Headlines

SweetWater brews with wasabi in future ‘Torikumi’ release

SweetWater Torikumi, a collaboration with Colorado based Telluride Brewing,

This release is where the brewery’s side project series known as “Dank Tank” is going to a get a little weird. SweetWater Torikumi is a blonde ale, infused with wasabi.

Wasabi, which shares its family with the likes of mustard and horseradish, is pungent. The vapors alone will wake you out of a coma. According to SweetWater, a lighter style was chosen to accentuate the flavor of wasabi, while still being crisp and drinkable. The idea is NOT to destroy your senses with each sip.

RELATED: SweetWater Wookie Down, because 420 Fest

This isn’t wasabi’s first rodeo in brewing. Back in 2014, Dogfish Head created Rosabi, an imperial pale ale brewed with the aromatic plant. Foodies were instantly in love the ale.

Sumo Danko vs King Dragon Fish: Two men enter, one man leaves. Sumo Danko hails from the back hills of Georgia, is feared and revered for his fists of fury, oversized sack of hops, low-grade narcolepsy, and a penchant for buggery.

King Dragon Fish is a mountain dweller from TaHellYaRide, with an insane ability to break trees with his ankles, occasional bouts with gout and high altitude Tommy boy foolishness; usually found face down….

SweetWater Torikumi will be availalble in 16 ounce cans and draft. The brewery has not yet announced this beer.

Style: Blonde Ale (w/ Wasabi)
Hops:
Malts: 2 Row Wheat, Carapils, Oat Flakes, Rye

Availability: 16oz Cans, Draft
Debut: TBA

7.5% ABV

by Reid Ramsay