Posted: February 21st, 2008 | Author: Stacy | Filed under: Beer Reviews, Brewpubs, Craft Brew, Events & Tastings, Gluten-free, Newsworthy, Tripel, What's that in your fridge? | No Comments »
It’s time for the finale in my three-part Green’s gluten-free beer review series. I’m kind of wishing all six other styles were imported to the states so I’d have a few more gluten-free beer choices, since this puts me at the end of the line for what I’ve been able to find so far.
On opening the bottle, a lovely malty aroma wafted out and nearly fooled my nose into thinking I was going to have a regular beer. The Quest pours nicely, with finer carbonation and a decent (but not truly Belgian Tripel-quality) head — not nearly as airy and, well, huge as what I’m used to seeing. In under a minute it went from a 1″ head to a .25″ head, as you can see in my photo. But the color is a nice honey gold/red and very clear, though probably not what I’d describe as a “blonde.”
As with the Endeavour dubbel, this beer needs to warm a bit to taste good. My first sip was tart and a bit off-tasting. Not tart and weirdly fruity/grapey, more tart like a dry cider but without the apple taste. Not even lambic or geuze tart, which still has a fruitiness to it. Gone, though, is the up front acrid sorghum bitterness and metallic flavor in my mouth.
Once Quest warms up, it tastes moderately like a traditional tripel — definite spicey aroma, warm feeling in the mouth, honey tones to the sweetness. But there’s a slight bitterness to the finish, just a little bite that’s not quite right.
So far, this is the most convincing “Belgian” style gluten-free beer I’ve tried. I don’t think it’s an every day drinker like the New Grist ale could be, but for the price it’s worth the occasional splurge. And again, if I hadn’t had regular beer within fairly recent memory, this would probably be sweet ambrosia on my lips!
Posted: February 20th, 2008 | Author: Stacy | Filed under: Beer Reviews, Craft Brew, Dubbel, Gluten-free, What's that in your fridge? | No Comments »
Green’s Endeavour does look nice in a proper glass.Apparently, Green’s has
nine gluten-free beer styles, but
Merchant duVin only imports three of them in the US. Bummer, kind of.
Today’s selection is the Endeavour Dubbel Ale. What a weird beer. On pouring, the color is just right for a dubbel, it smells right, the head is a little more convincing that in the Quest. But this beer is like Two-Face; one beer when cold, another when warmed to around 50 degrees.
Fresh out of the fridge, Endeavour tastes more like a Flemish Red Ale than anything else. Grape soda flavors, large carbonated bubbles, a strange savory/sweet tang, and raisiny esters abound. A bit off-putting if what you’re looking for is a dubbel and not a weird Flemish Red. (If you’ve never had that style before, I do recommend Duchesse De Bourgogne from Brouwerij Verhaeghe — it’ll make your taste buds freak out)
Once it warms up, this does begin to taste like a dubbel. The carbonation is finer, I can taste more of the subtle sweetness and there’s a banana ester nose. There’s still some tartness in the finish that’s not quite right, but it’s still probably the sorghum adding it’s weird tart/bitter flavor to the beer. At last, this is not so bad to drink!
Kathy reports that she saw Green’s being sold at our local Fred Meyer, which is interesting but not entirely surprising. Since we live in the hippie/nutty-crunchy part of town, the Hawthorne Fred Meyer tends to carry lots of gluten-free and alternative options. But at $6 for a 16.9oz bottle, it won’t be a frequent repeat purchase.
Next up, Green’s tripel!
Posted: February 18th, 2008 | Author: Stacy | Filed under: Beer Reviews, Cider, Gluten-free, What's that in your fridge? | No Comments »
Kathy bought this at Trader Joe’s the other day because we’ve not seen granny smith cider for sale before. It seems to be a TJ’s brand, based on my brief Google research. Sadly, no images to be had!
It comes in a green bottle (of course!) with a screw-off cap. On first opening it smells strongly of a green apple Jolly Rancher. Thank goodness it doesn’t exactly tase like one! It’s definitely tart, but not at all dry, with an assertive apple flavor. The sulfite levels seem pretty low since I didn’t even get a stuffy nose from drinking it. It’s not overly sweet or carbonated and does come off as being more of a tasty soda than a cider. Think alcoholic Izze.
The checker at the store was surprised that it was alcohol when we bought it, since the label makes it look like a fun soda and has nutritional information on it. 160 calories of reasonably refreshing cidery goodness!
All in all, it’s not that bad. And if it’s at TJ’s low $4.99/6-pack price I’d probably buy it again for hot summer days.
Posted: February 17th, 2008 | Author: Stacy | Filed under: Beer Reviews, Craft Brew, Gluten-free, What's that in your fridge? | No Comments »
Green’s Discovery Amber AleI was super excited to find that
Green’s makes three styles of gluten-free beer. So far, gluten-free beer hasn’t been about a “style” so much as lack of gluten and quasi-beerness.
On pouring, Discovery is certainly amber colored, if a bit cloudy. The head is more akin to a foamy soda than a regular beer. Once again, the acrid bitterness of sorghum is present on first taste, though the aroma is very convincingly like a malt amber. It’s carbonated more like a Coke, with large bubbles that are a little overpowering and cover the flavor of the beer. As Kathy put it, “It’s like a Belgian beer soda.”
It paired fairly well with psuedo-Thai curry for dinner, though there’s something in the finish that isn’t quite right. It’s not as smooth and creamy as a malt beer; more rough and tangy like a tonic water without any lime. There’s clearly something about the addition of sorghum that adds a strange taste to the beer. I wonder if there’s a different way to get the proteins in the beer without using sorghum at all… They use millet, rice, and buckwheat in addition, so the millet could also be to blame for strange flavors.
Green’s is a bit expensive for regular consumption and I don’t think I’ll bother with Discovery again. I’m hopeful that their dubbel and tripel are more promising!
Posted: February 17th, 2008 | Author: Stacy | Filed under: Beer Reviews, Craft Brew, Gluten-free, What's that in your fridge? | No Comments »
Lovely packaging for New Grist Session AleIt’s an awesome sunny pre-spring day here in town, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate it than blogging in the sun from my backyard while sipping a beer after having done some yardwork. Kathy and I walked over to
Belmont Station on Friday evening and bought four gluten-free beers that I haven’t seen elsewhere, so I had to buy them. And a cranberry cider. But back to the beer…
I’m having a Lakefront Brewing New Grist Session Ale, which actually does taste like beer! It’s a lovely clear golden color with a nice light bubble on the tongue. While clearly not as malty as a “normal” session ale, it has a proper beer aroma of light hops and the metallic tang I associate with lager style beers. I think New Grist is probably more of a lager than an ale in flavor, but if they fermented it at ale temperatures then I guess it’s an ale!
Like the other sorghum beers I’ve had, this one does have an acrid bitter tang to the flavor that must be from sorghum since it really doesn’t taste like hops bitterness. It’s more back of the tongue, again like Stella Artois or even Japanese beers. I’m finding that having sorghum beer with food masks the bitterness pretty well without losing the flavor of the beer. Part of the success of the New Grist ale is probably that it’s also made with rice, so it’s not purely sorghum like Bard’s Tale or Redbridge. That probably explains the nice golden color, too.
I also have to give kudos to Lakefront Brewing for the nice packaging design for New Grist. It’s funky and art nouveau and makes me feel like I’m having a craft brew made by folks who care about all the details. As someone who frequently chooses to try a new beer based on the label design, I would have picked up New Grist even if I weren’t on a gluten-free mission right now.
If I could never drink malt beer again, New Grist would definitely be an acceptable surrogate beer. Of course, I haven’t tried the three styles (a dubbel, a tripel, and an amber) of Green’s gluten-free Belgian beer we bought, so I may change my mind… But I could certainly see fortifying myself with the occasional New Grist in the summer when a light, slightly bitter beer sounded delicious on a hot day.