Vegetable/Fruit Beer

21st Amendment Arriving Soon!

THIS TIME FOR REAL! Coming in a matter of days to Atlanta is 21st Amendment Brewery.   21st Amendment hails from San Francisco, California.

It all started back in 2000 when Nico Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan got to the business of Continue Reading →

New In Bottle – Founder’s Cerise

Michigan sour cherries are quickly making a  name for themselves in beer.  The cherry flavor and sour notes make them blend very well in beer.  There are a few beers on the shelves now using them, and they are nothing Continue Reading →

Dogfish Head Aprihop IPA

Dogfish Head Brewing’s most popular seasonal is back on the shelves and drinking QUITE nicely.  Aprihop is this tasty beer I speak of.   Aprihop is an American IPA with a twist — Apricots.

Some knee jerk reactions from some beer drinkers Continue Reading →

Now Tapping @ Beer Geek Tuesday

Tonight, in addition to the French Broad Wee Heavy-er Cask at Cypress Street will be 3 beers recently released.  In now particular order –

Sweetwater’s BSP Quad – Belgian Quadtruple, 11% ABV.  American interpretation of the Belgian Continue Reading →

Posted in 21st Amendment Brewing, Uncategorized

21st Amendment Arriving Soon!

THIS TIME FOR REAL! Coming in a matter of days to Atlanta is 21st Amendment Brewery.   21st Amendment hails from San Francisco, California.

It all started back in 2000 when Nico Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan got to the business of brewing.  The friends met in 1995 in San Francisco.  Shaun O’Sullivan, once a paralegal and a photographer went to San Fran to take a job as assistant brewer at Triple Rock Brewery.  Nico Freccia — actor, writer, and restaurateur had yet another love — homebrewing.  In hopes to promote beer culture in the Los Angeles area, Freccia began writing for the Celebrator Beer News, a popular beer publication in the west.  Freccia and O’Sullivan took brewing science classes at UC Davis, and the rest is history.

The name 21st Amendment refers to the amendment to the United States Constitution repealing what I call the dark times — aka Prohibition.  Freccia and O’Sullivan examined San Francisco culture prior to Prohibition and found that local neighborhood breweries in San Francisco provided  not only a place for hand crafted beer that reflected the culture of the neighborhood to be served, but a place for people to gather, exchange conversations, ideas, politics and philosophies.  Prohibition destroyed this.  Taking a direct quote from their bio —

“In 1920, Prohibition wiped out this culture and put the “local” out of business.  For 13 years, social interaction was largely driven underground, to the speakeasies, where regular citizens became a nation of outlaws. “

So tragic, and true.  21st Amendment Brewery seeks to recapture the essence of those small neighborhood breweries, with a celebrated brewpub in the heart of San Francisco, and amazing craft beer to share.

All of 21st Amendment brews are in cans.  The initial offerings in Georgia will only be 2 brews —

Brew Free or Die IPA — IPA, 7% ABV.  West coast IPA brewed with Warrior hops, and finished with Columbus and Cascade.   Dry hopped with Amarillo, Ahtanum, Simcoe.  Malts include 2 Row Pale, and Imported Munich.  70 IBU’s.  Best selling beer in the 21st Amendment Pub.

Hell or High Watermelon — Wheat beer, 4.9% ABV.  Wheat beer, with secondary fermentation with fresh watermelon.  Uses Magnum hops, and 2 Row Pale and American Wheat malts.  The watermelon flavor is solely pureed watermelon. No extracts or syrups.  Yeast is a top fermenting ale yeast.  17 IBU’s

Monk’s Blood depicted in the image at the top will not be shipping immediately.  And be sad readers. It’s freaking delicious.  It’s a Belgian Dark Ale with… well, lets talk about it when it finally gets here.

Promo posters are leaking into stores now.   Check back here and @AtlBeerMaster on Twitter for up the minute sightings.  Here’s your proof it’s on the way  – CLICK ME

WELCOME 21st AMENDMENT!!!

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Founders Brewing, Seasonal Return

New In Bottle – Founder’s Cerise

Michigan sour cherries are quickly making a  name for themselves in beer.  The cherry flavor and sour notes make them blend very well in beer.  There are a few beers on the shelves now using them, and they are nothing short of incredible.  Founder’s Cerise is brewed right in the heart of sour cherry territory – Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Cerise is a fruit/vegetable beer chock full of cherries.  53 lbs in fact.  Harvested from Benton Harbor, Coloma, Grand Rapids and Traverse City.  The cherries are added at 5 different stages of fermentation in order to achieve a perfect balance of sour cherry and malt palette.  Cerise has a big malt bill to compliment the cherries, caramel being notable.  Cerise has a sweet, crisp mouthfeel.

Ingredients? Still searching.

6.5% ABV

15 IBU’s (not bitter at all!)

Availability – Seasonally during the late spring/summer in 12oz/4 pks  and some draft offerings.

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Dogfish Head, Seasonal Return

Dogfish Head Aprihop IPA

Dogfish Head Brewing’s most popular seasonal is back on the shelves and drinking QUITE nicely.  Aprihop is this tasty beer I speak of.   Aprihop is an American IPA with a twist — Apricots.

Some knee jerk reactions from some beer drinkers is NOT to drink fruity beers.  If you want to deny your palette of this beer, fine.  However, I wouldn’t recommend it.  Aprihop is a unique and tasty blend of IPA meets fruit.  Pilsner malts and crystal malts are used with Amarillo hops to create a tasty IPA base.  Apricots are then pureed  and added to the beer.

Why is this year drinking so well? Dogfish openly admits that Aprihop basically “got away” from them over the last few brewing runs.  The apricots and sweetness were becoming over accentuated and for the 2010 batch the fruit and sweetness were scaled back to its original recipe quantities.  With the sweetness lessened, Aprihop gets back to focusing on the hoppy, citrus vs. fruit balance.  Brewer/Founder Sam Calagione called Aprihop “A fruit beer for people who hate fruit beers.”  I think he accomplished it.

Ingredients —

Hops — Amarillo

Malts — Crystal, Pilsner

Adjuncts – Fresh Apricots

Availability — March — May.  12oz/4pks, Draft Offerings

7% ABV

Fun Fact: Aprihop was first brewed in 1997

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Beer Backstory, Seasonal Return, Unibroue

Hot or Cold – Unibroue’s Quelque Chose

Here is a brew that challenges your accepted notion of beer.  For most, beer is served cold in a glass or even out of the bottle.  Acceptable for most beers all things considered.  Just pouring Unibroue’s Quelque Chose into a glass is just one of the options for this beer.  Quelque Chose travels to Atlanta from Chambly, Quebec and was first brewed in 1996.   The name translates literally into “Something” perhaps because this beer really IS something.  It’s versatile, and can be served as a normal chilled pour, hot (160 F) or over ice as an aperitif (short drink served as an appetizer.)

Quelque Chose is officially classified as a fruit/vegetable beer and uses a top fermenting ale yeast.  Lots of wild dark cherries are added to this beer.  They are soaked in a slightly bitter beer base prior to being blended into the final batch. Roasted dark malts round out Quelque to give you a roastly, sweet and sour cherry experience.  However, this beer is a fun one to experiment with.  The flavors you note will change with each way you drink it. So be sure to try it out and see how the favors change.  (On ice, cold pour, hot.)  To heat I suggest a saucepan.  You get more aroma as your warm it.  Quelque Chose was developed as a warm drink for cold winters.

Quelque Chose is back for its limited engagement in 750 ml corked bottles, around $10 dollars a piece.  Highly doubtful that this beer will find its way to tap handles, but if it does trust me I’ll let you know.

8% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Dogfish Head, Now Tapping, SweetWater Brewing, Terrapin Beer Company

Now Tapping @ Beer Geek Tuesday

Tonight, in addition to the French Broad Wee Heavy-er Cask at Cypress Street will be 3 beers recently released.  In now particular order –

Sweetwater’s BSP Quad – Belgian Quadtruple, 11% ABV.  American interpretation of the Belgian Quad style.  This strong beer has a lot going on, including hops and brett yeast.  Some sweet with dark fruits.  While 11%, it doesn’t really taste that way.  Limited release from the Dank Tank.

Terrapin Rye Squared – DIPA, 8.5% ABV.  Note citrus hops, malts, sweet tones in this season offering from Terrapin.  Rye add some spice and pulls it all together.  Seasonal release.

Dogfish Head Black & Blue – Fruit Beer, 11% ABV.  Belgian golden ale w/ pureed blackberries and blueberries.  Flavor seems to meld seemlessly w/ the golden ale.  Not often found on draft. Limited release.

Also, don’t forget the French Broad Cask! All tapping as a part of Beer Geek Tuesday’s at Cypress Street in Midtown.  While there, make sure you geek out with beer manager Wes Anderson.  It all starts at 7 pm tonight!

Cypress Pint & Plate
817 W Peachtree Street Northwest
Atlanta, GA 30308
 

by Reid Ramsay