Oakshire Hindsight ESB

I'm finally getting around to composing this Friday's tasting notes. Most weeks, I write the notes as I drink the beer at my Kitchen Table, but this week I enjoyed a beer that is not (at least not yet) available to be enjoyed in Bottles. Instead, I went down to the new Cornucopia Bar and Burger (on Pearl Street just north of 5th) for their grand opening and a tasting of Oakshire's new ESB.

I enjoyed this beer immensely, and especially so as I got to pick the brain of the brewery manager, Jeff Alhouse, about its pedigree. The thing that makes this ESB stand out from the other Oakshire brews is the yeast, a Fuller’s English ale yeast that’s incredibly dry and neutral. That keeps the beer remarkably true to style.

But to the anthropomorphization, you shout! Or maybe you don’t, but that’s what I’m going to do next anyway. I had a good time working on this, as I was brainstorming and bouncing ideas around with my friend Anthony (who turned me on to this tasting event. Hopefully beginning next month, he and I will be doing one joint tasting each month, where we give each choose for each other a beer to taste ‘blind’. We’re still working out details on that. More to come.

The Oakshire Hindsight ESB came to life as an American fan of English Football. He follows Manchester United, but is roots for anyone to beat the US team when the world cup rolls around.

For footwear he wears, fitting a European Football fan, Adidas Samba. He’s worn the same brand of shoe since high school. He likes the simplicity of not having to decide, and they’re muted enough in black and white to go with just about anything. That’s important to this beer, as it’s all about balance. Its motto is “all things in moderation, including moderation.”

The beer’s favorite musical style is Ska, but its favorite album is Rubber Soul by the Beatles. It’s definitely working class, but has dreams and aspirations of ever more. So, the beer’s actual job is as something like a parts clerk, or a factory worker. But it’s dream job is an international secret agent.

Its ideal weather is a perfect day, high summer when the world is still decked out in Erin green, but after the rains have died down. It’s a 75-80 degree day with medium/low humidity, and a few fluffy white clouds somewhere just this side of the horizon.

Its car is a beat up late model Ford Taurus that was a hand-me-down from a friend who couldn’t sell it or give it away to anyone else. But in the garage it’s restoring an Austin Healey Sprite. The car will probably never run, but the part the beer enjoys is the hard work and the hours spent in the garage working while sipping, interestingly enough, an Oakshire Hindsight ESB. Which is funny, since it isn’t in bottles. But maybe the beer has a kegerator.

This beer is bright, crisp, and fun to be around. It’s very straightforward, with almost no esters, phenols, or other off flavors. It tastes like malt at first, and like bitter hops on the finish, and that’s all. Nothing hiding, no mixed messages, it’s a purist beer. And it’s excellent. But there’s some subtle unexpected notes. Something floral. Something bready. Something characteristically English (I thought there was some Maris Otter or something in there, but Mr. Althouse told me not so). Actually I was reminded of the Bluebird Bitter I had, which is pretty much the quintessential English Bitter.

Overall, this is an imminently drinkable beer. It doesn’t have many surprises in store, and if I had to identify a weakness I’d say that it’s a little one dimensional. But that’s not really a weakness, as simplicity seems to have been the idea. So I’d call it a successful brew.

Until next week, readers, if you have any suggestions for beers you’d like me to review, please leave a comment.

PS – sorry no pictures, I’m writing this on my lunch break at work and don’t have time or wherewithal to go on an image hunt. Maybe I’ll add them in later.

Avec les Bons Voeux de la Brasserie Dupont

Welcome to another edition of my Friday Tasting Notes, which are being reposted from my main blog at www.samuelrutledge.com. I may decide to stick to posting them just there at some point, but for now I'm doing double duty.

This week, I tasted (read: guzzled with relish) a beer by the Dupont brewing house in Belgium. The beer is the "Avec les Bons Voeux de la Brasserie Dupont", which means "With the Best Wishes of the Dupont Brewery". The Dupont website explains that beginning in the 1970s, this beer was produced in small batches annually for a select group of the brewing house's best clients. Today, it is distributed more widely (although it is still somewhat hard to find).

When this beer was magically transformed into a human, the first thing I noticed about it was it's jacket. It was wearing a very stylish gray jacket from the 1980s, part suede and part acrylic knit. Kind of like this;


Next, I noticed the shoes. They were very nice boat shoes, leather also. They were certainly casual, but suggested a little bit of a cosmopolitan attitude. Here's a picture;


These things combined really started to give me an idea of the beer's personality. As a beer, it was inviting but not overbearing. It is a Belgian Farmhouse ale in style, which suggests a rural and not at all pretentious drink. But it's also clearly a craft beer, and it is conscious that it's quality is appreciated far afield of it's rural roots in the cities and the upper classes. Many things about this beer are suggestive of that same set of contradictions. The aroma, for example, is complex but not overwhelming. It carries suggestions of yeast, citrus, flowers, hops, and even some malt. But each of the scents is balanced against the others and the no part of the smell is in any way overpowering. Or the alcohol content. This is, by any account, a big beer at 9.5% ABV - but it is crisp, refreshing, and the sort of thing I could drink all day.

Let's talk more about the Beer as a person. He drives a very sensible, very European car. Therefore, I picked a Peugeot. Also, the model year is sometime in the late 70s, early 80s. I'm not sure why it is that so many of the characteristics of this beer person are from that era, but they are. The jacket, shoes, and car are all from the same time period. It may be because that was a time when industrialization was giving way to informationalization, and the rural was giving way to the urban even further than it already had. Or maybe I'm having an 80s kick. In any event, that's what came to me and it's what I've written. Here's the car;


As I'm thinking more about this guy, I'm realizing that he is pretty guarded. He's complicated. The flavor has some fruity characteristics, maybe banana or even some peach, but very subtle. And combined with some sourness, some bitterness, and even a little sweetness. It's thick, and hard to understand. But it's still friendly. This guy doesn't want anyone to get too close to him. In that sense, he's not a dog person. The level of loyalty that a dog has makes him uncomfortable. He wouldn't have a pet at all, except that a cat showed up at his house one day and being soft hearted, he fed the poor creature. And, of course, it stayed around. But it's not a pet so much as a room mate;


I had a hard time thinking of this beer's favorite album. It's an unfiltered beer, and there's a yeasty aroma and flavor to it. It's primal, and it takes it all in. It's not the sort of beer to have a clear favorite anything. I thought of Jazz albums, I thought of famous french singers like Jaqcues Brel, Edith Piaf, or Charles Trenet, I thought of albums that mix genre like The Art of Noise's "The Seduction of Claude Debussy". The truth is, this beer has a large record collection and all those things and more are in it. But the most valued record, I think, is something both classic and modern; Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A Changin'"


The beer's ideal weather is a fairly simple thing to talk about. It's certainly a spring beer, and the weather in which it would be most comfortable is a wet but sunny, warm but cool, middling spring day;


Overall, I'd call this a dangerously drinkable beer. I hope that you're able to find a bottle. The one I found was at the Willamette Street Market of Choice in Eugene. For a 750 ML Bottle, I paid $12 (steeeeep, but worth it!) It was a great beer, and it brightened an otherwise difficult evening.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week!

Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale

Dogfish Head Indian Brown ale’s bottle bills it as “A clean, well-hopped brown ale with aromatic barley, caramelized brown sugar and whole-leaf Liberty & Goldings hops.” Beer Advocate goes on to say that it is;

A cross between a Scotch Ale, an I.P.A., and an American Brown, this beer is well-hopped and malty at the same time. It is brewed with Aromatic barley and caramelized brown sugar.

I found the Indian Brown Ale to be extremely approachable and drinkable, but with no shortage of personality. Like your buddy who is really down to earth except for some harmless conspiracy theories he believes in unquestioningly.

My first impression on pouring was that the beer was a lot darker than I’d imagined. It’s really deep red brown with a very attractive cream colored head of tiny little bubbles that dissipated fairly quickly and didn’t leave any lacing at all on the glass. The aroma was first a hit of alcoholic esters, fruity. Then some roasted notes. I found a little bit of herbal hops on the nose, but far less than I would imagine from a beer that says “well hopped” on the bottle.

The flavor is amazingly complex. The interplay between hop bitterness, alcoholic fruityness and warmth, roasted malt character, and a semisweet caramel backdrop makes this beer very interesting. While there is a lot happening in the flavor, it’s all subtle enough to keep your attention without being annoying or overbearing.

I know I’ve already mentioned it but halfway through the glass I was struck again by the wonderful smell. Caramel, liquor, malt, toasted roastedness. Really well balanced.

The mouthfeel is clean and dry, but big - bubbly and round. The beer fills the mouth and tickles the tongue. Hops stay on the pallate and the bitterness becomes very clear at the finish as the caramel dissipates. A wonderful roasted flavor as well, toasty.

I’d like more hops on the nose, maybe some dry hopping would benefit this beer. It’s a little higher alcohol content than the style calls for, which is okay by me but the hops don’t balance the bitterness as I would expect from a beer with “Indian” in the name. That said, this is a darned tasty beer and, in true Dogfish Head style it kept me interested throughout.

The last thing I want to do is something new. I’ve been toying with anthropomorphic reviews from the beginning with my “what shoes” question. This time, and probably continuing in the future, I’ve come up with a whole panel of anthropomorphic questions. If this beer were to come to life, what kind of person would it be?

It would drive a 1980s Mercedes Bio-diesel conversion with a very old ski rack on the roof.

For shoes it would wear those kind of light mens’ leather work shoes that slip on with bits of elastic. Like these.

It’s favorite album would be REM, Out of Time

For a pet it would keep an Old English Sheepdog

It’s ideal weather would be 45-50 degrees, light rain, some misty fog.

Deschutes Brewery, The Abyss

My experience of this phenomenal beer began with the bottle. The graphic design of the label is simple, elegant, and speaks volumes about what lies underneath. As I’ve undertaken this beer reviewing project, I’ve begun to recognize that presentation begins with a good looking bottle, and so I appreciate the effort that went into crafting this one. The top of the bottle is dipped in black sealing wax, much like the red wax you’d find sealing a bottle of Maker’s Mark bourbon. It’s beautiful, and only slightly difficult to get through in order to reach the beer beneath.

The Abyss is an Imperial Stout by Deschutes Brewery. It is part of their reserve series, and I had a bottle from the 2008 vintage. It is labeled as 1% ABV, and its bottle claims that it is brewed with licorice and molasses, and that a third of the batch is aged in Oak and Oak Bourbon casks. The 22 Oz bottle I bought was at Sundance Market in Eugene, and I paid just under $10 for it.

Pouring this beer, I was struck immediately by its richness. It pours a deep brown black, so dark that it seems to absorb light. It’s thick, and the texture of the beer as it clung to the glass while I poured it led me to expect a sweet beer. The head with lustrous, and coffee with cream colored. It left beautiful brown lacing down the sides of the glass, not too thick but nonetheless pronounced.

The beer in the glass allowed no light to pass through. It was, indeed, a dark @$$ beer.

The aroma is complex, very alluring, seductive. If the aroma were a person, it would wear three inch black patent leather pumps, nothing ostentatious, but certainly elegant and a touch cocksure. The aroma begins with roasted malt as the first and dominating characteristic, giving way to molasses, bourbon, and maybe a hint of chocolate or coffee. The licorice advertised on the bottle is not at all evident in the smell of the beer.

The first hit of the flavor is that it’s much, much drier than I expected. From the look of the beer as it poured, I expected a cloying, sweet beer. I was surprised to find the fermentation to be nearly complete, and without a lot of esters or other strong reminders of a high temperature fermentation. It’s very clean. After getting over the initial shock, I find the flavor a bit astringent, and very warm. The 11% ABV is certainly apparent all the way into the stomach. This beer would be really comforting on a snowy day. The flavor is a little bitter - all from the roasted grain and the licorice root, no hop character I can perceive. The astringency seems to come from a combination of licorice root, oak barrel, and dark roasted barley. It is by no means overwhelming and is certainly not a liability. The molassas bitters show themselves in the aftertaste.

The mouth-feel is dry, bright, and very warm. It’s remarkably drinkable for an 11% beer: dangerously so. My one criticism is that as the glass progresses, the licorice seems to overtake some of the other flavors and interfere with the complexity. A friend assures me that after aging, this is less of a problem. The only issue I see here is how to exercise the willpower required to posses such a beautiful thing and allow it to age without breaking into it. I was able to finish a 22 of this in an evening, but any more than that would be a remarkable feat for anyone. Certainly not a session beer, but again, at 11% what would you expect? With a wonderfully complex flavor, this is a beer that is comfortable to sip slowly for a long, long time.

Widmer 09 Belgian Style Ale

Last Friday was a rough day following a rough week, and I did not manage to share a beer review with y’all. However, on Sunday I enjoyed the new Widmer brew and made some notes to post.

This is a Belgian style ale, and overall I was very pleasantly impressed by how true to style they managed to be. With most American commercial examples of Belgian styles, I have been underwhelmed by the nods they give to their European forebearers. A particular brewery in Colorado comes to mind whose products claim to be Belgian, but all taste the same. They just have a light version, a dark version, a strong version, etc…But I’m not going to name names.

My first impression was that this is a beautiful beer. It poured crystal clear with a wealthy, foamy white head. The beer is golden straw colored. The photo posted here makes it look a little orange, which is misleading because of the mash tun drying in the background. The odor is subdued, but complex. It’s somewhat bready, floral, and mostly fruity. The yeast character is noticeable in the smell.

This beer is very lightly hopped, so the flavor is immediately dominated by the malt as well as fruity characteristics imparted by the Belgian yeast (freakish little microbes, those Belgian yeasts). The hops come through after the initial hit of malty sweetness, and they are floral, spicy. The beer is nicely carbonated, and it bubbles around in your mouth. It’s sweet, a little heavier than I would expect, and it definitely coats the mouth.

Overall, for a 6.5% beer this is quite drinkable and tasty. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a session beer, but it’s very approachable and enjoyable.

Ninkasi Spring Reign

Hello friends. It’s time, once again, for my Friday beer tasting notes. This has become a weekly feature here at samuelrutledge.com, and I’ve quite enjoyed it (not only because it’s an excuse to drink good beer!) I’m hopeful that I will shortly be able to announce new and exciting changes to the tasting notes section, but today is still a bit premature. Needless to say, this feature is soon to become more interesting and collaborative.

That said, let’s get to today’s review.

Tonight, I enjoyed a draught pour of the Ninkasi Brewery’s Spring Reign. I have to admit that I was not as focused or careful in this review as I have been in past weeks. The reason for this is that I spent my Friday afternoon and early evening at the Eugene Beer and Blog, which is a weekly event where blog people drink beer together and talk blog stuff. Several conversations of interest and import ensued, none of which is relevant to this post. In any event, I was conversing with others while trying to pay attention to my beer, which was rather a mistake. I enjoyed the beer, but didn’t pay it the attention it deserved.

My first impression of the spring release was that it looked fresh. After several months of enjoying dark beers, winter warmers, and beers designed for cold weather and heavy meals, I was excited to have a glass of beer that was straw colored with a lovely, tight, crisp white head. The head retained fairly well on the glass, and it kept it’s aesthetic for several minutes after I sat down. That said, it did dissipate before long and there was little lacing left on my glass. An aside here is that there was little lacing on any of the glasses around the table, which makes me wonder if the glassware at this establishment is actually clean. But I digress.

The aroma of the beer was green, fresh, grassy. Mostly hop and with very little malt on the nose. It smelled, appropriately, rather like spring. In keeping with the theme of offering footware metaphors at the aroma point of the notes, if the smell of this beer was a person it seems like it would be at home in Tevas or in Converse All Stars.

The first impression about the flavor is that it’s hoppier than I would expect from a spring seasonal. My general impression of spring beers is that they’re pretty boring, as a whole. This one is an exception. The hops add to a fresh, grassy, floral, herby kind of affect. The flavor is not one dimensional by any means, but it also isn’t terribly deep. The malt profile is simple and understated, leaving the hops to shine but not making any real effort to balance them. This leads to a crisp, dry, refreshing beer, but one that isn’t’ terribly interesting.

As far as mouthfeel is concerned, I’ll say that this is one area where I just wasn’t paying that much attention. Frankly, it felt like beer in my mouth. It wasn’t particularly watery, but it also wasn’t overly sticky. It wasn’t big, but it certainly wasn’t little. It was crisp. That’s what I keep coming back to; it was damned crisp. And that’s good.

This is the kind of beer you can drink for hours, for days. I could get a keg of this and just drink and play with power tools for a week. Two weeks, maybe, if I was stingy with my friends. This is a good beer for spring. It’s a hopeful beer, and a beer that seems to be a harbinger of change and better times to come. It’s approachable enough that even a seasoned Budweiser drinker could enjoy it, but has enough complexity to satisfy a terminal beer geek. The downside here is that the beer is a little boring, they have not done anything very gutsy. But this is a ‘your strength is your weakness’ situation, as the approachability and drinkability of the beer are directly related to the neutrality of it. Ninkasi, I think, has done it again. A damn good beer.

Bourbon County Brand Stout

This brew is from Goose Island Brewing Company in Chicago, Illinois. The bottle says that it was brewed in celebration of the 1000th batch of beer brewed at their brewpub, which is now firmly established on my (long and growing) list of places that I’d like to visit one day. This is an intense beer by any measure. It weighs in at 13% ABV, which means that I will enjoy this all evening. It is aged in bourbon barrels for one hundred days. The 12 oz bottle I am drinking cost $4.99, and I found it at the Market of Choice.

This beer pours black, thick, viscous. It clung to the side of the glass as I poured it down. It must have a very high finishing gravity. The other thing I noticed as I began to pour it, even before sniffing at the glass, was the aroma; boozy, bourbon, roasty. This is an aroma that would be at home in a cordovan leather wing chair with a cuban cigar. The smell of this beer wears ten year old $1000 shoes. It nearly took Taylor’s nose off (she hates this kind of beer). The first hit of the flavor winds you a little. It’s a molasses, bourbon, chocolate, beer milkshake. After the initial hit, the flavors separate from each other and fill your mouth up. It’s a big, chewy beer. It’s a syrupy beer. In fact, it’s kind of a cloying beer. This is not necessarily a liability, but it necessitates very, very slow sipping. Other flavors hiding behind that initial wall of taste are sour, bitter, and fruity. There’s also a hint of some licorice/anise spice. But these are muted compared to the primary flavors, which are god damned overwhelming.

My overall impression is that this is a great beer, a big beer, an impressive beer. The one thing is that on drinkable/approachable it scores really low. Even seasoned craft beer drinkers might find this one overwhelming. It puts other ‘big’ beers to shame. But so what; let them drink water. We’ll drink this sweet ambrosia of the gods.