Beer Blog [ADD A NEW ENTRY]
06/25/2009 | Nugget and Breakfast Stout along with AHA Conference
Author: Pete Czerpak
I went to the American Homebrew Association Homebrew Conference late last week over in Oakland and it inspired me to write up a blog on some recent beers and some cool things I saw and tasted there. I actually only made it to "Club Night" which is pretty much a festival atmosphere with open taps and a social time. Similar to NCHF, each club (maybe 30 or so), had a booth and between 6 and 30 taps flowing. There were some real interesting bar setups with beer engines, Randalls, hop-filled espresso machines, and even gravity poured casks. There were occasional secret bottles poured also if you had the beeriness to ask for something special.
Cool beers and sights of note were a 100% Simcoe hopped black IPA and brett finished saison from MTC in the East Bay, a hoppy pale ale served through a Randall packed with Amarillo hops, a three beer doppelbock decoction experimental series run by some Washington state brewers (I guessed beer C as decoction), beer taps attached to an old El Camino (I had the drivers side rear bumber tap with the London Pride bitter clone), and beer served from a urinal.
On to some beers that aren't homebrews. They are two opposite sides of the spectrum and both are extremely reputable regional breweries that are unobtainable here in CA and probably west of the Mississippi as well.
Nugget Nectar (Troegs Brewery, PA)
7.5%ABV and 93 ibu brings this into the world of bastardized IPA, imperial amber, or something in that realm. Its a pretty pale amber color with a brilliant white foam atop the bottle poured glass with the appearance of an octobrefest. Reported grain bill is pils, vienna, and munich malts which is similar to the malts reportedly used in Victory Hop Devil, which also comes across as pretty nicely balanced in the malt to hops arena - maybe its the germanic Pennsylvania heritage that both brews have or the desire for more complexity beyond thick hoppy bitterness.
The nose wows me with its floral hugeness - its not the pine and citrus of more straightforward simple IPAs. More grass and field and herbal - Troegs says they use four hop additions plus a massive hopback along with dryhopping to get this all into the bottle - Nuggets, warrior, Tomahawk, Simcoe, and Palisades are the cones of choice and probably why the layers of fresh hops just roll out of the bottle and the glass so nicely. Its not a huge bitter punch but much more like the hops in the 90 Minute IPA where the layering effect does it all. As the glass sits, mint seems to be noticeable as well. Look past everything so obvious and maybe some finely toasted malt emerges in the aroma to surprise you which is another hint that the grains aren't so simple and do more than just hide in the background here.
On tasting, the malts and the hops seem to merge together so perfectly making this beer just swallow so easily. Its based off Troegs Hopback Amber but with extra everything and I'd even liken it to a super-sized Boont Amber if one did exist, but a heck of a lot more hoppy. I need to request another bottle from some friends with more easy access to this stuff.
Breakfast Stout (Founders brewing, MI)
The complete opposite side of the spectrum from the hop nectar mentioned above, is this chocolate and coffee infused massive oatmeal stout. Anchoring all the flavors together is 8.3%ABV so it sits solidly as a lightweight imperial stout.
Immediately apparent on opening it is the sharply acrid and rich coffee aroma. Its sharper smelling than either fresh roasted coffee beans or brewed coffee. I'm wondering if it is due to the cold alcohol extraction of the oils and the carbonation induced release of these notes.
The head quickly disappears on pouring into a brandy snifter glass while the liquid color is close to pure black. I think the combination of dark grains and then roasted coffee really pulls any hope away to see through the beer, so I don't even try. Swirling the glass helps to make some mocha and chocolate notes appear along with the still overwhelming coffee superiority. Its a beer with a coffee superiority complex for sure.
Well balanced dark grains and smooth malty notes are in the taste. None of the coffee or real dark grain acidity that I was expecting based on the overwhelming nose. Mouthfeel is medium and just about right - not so sweet as to make it a sipper, not so weak as to make it taste thin and wimpy. The smooth roast aftertaste hangs around pleasantly for awhile as well reminding me of how much I could use some further samples of this stuff to share with some friends who love brew and who love coffee. The chocolate notes in this are less sweet and more bitter than seen in more marketted imperial stouts like the Rasputin or the Stone greatness.
If you're ready for a knockout punch of coffee aroma, open another one of these up soon.
cheers and hopefully we'll get the pictures working again soon so you can see some of the beauty of these beverages in the glass rather than just in word.....
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