The Best Things We Drank: April 17 - 23

After last week's short two-beer list, this week we found a ton of delicious beers in our glass. We'd be remiss to cut it short so grab a beverage (a beer if you can) and settle in because there is a whole lotta stuff we're excited to tell you about.

Starting off with the best of the best, it turns out all of these were enjoyed at our favorite haunt. As usual we opened and shared bottles (the good and the bad because it's only fair) with our friends and relished the reciprocation. Big thanks to Chris for the tasty treats below that he brought to our attention.

Holy Mountain The Grey Tower (Blend #3) - Described as a blended Saison, the aroma is more Brett than Saison (a happy turn of events for us) with the flavor being comprised mostly of oak, a bit of Brett and imperceptible Saison. It's a winning combo in our book.

Almanac Blueberry Jack - This beer follows the trend of most of the Almanac beers we've had by being amazing. From the start with that gorgeous label this dry hopped and barrel aged fruit sour excited us. Upon opening cattiness was prevalent in the aroma but as it warmed both the aroma and flavor leaned more toward sour, much to our delight.

The Libertine Wild IPA - The first beer we've had from this brewery, it is a great wild/open fermented IPA. Apparently it is heavily dry-hopped but done so in such a way that the aroma of the hops used is showcased rather than their bittering qualities and it really is the wildness that more pronounced than the hops. Works for us!

Southern Tier Thick Mint - We've had plenty of Southern Tier's sticky sweet beers and while we enjoy them, they tend to be over the top. This one isn't as tooth achingly sweet and as expected it smells and tastes just like those iconic cookies. A great dessert beer for sure, if we had any of those cookies left we'd be interested to see what they taste like together. Would they clash? Would they be meh together? Would it blow our mind? Perhaps next year we'll find out.

Sunriver Cocoa Cow - This was not the first time we'd had this beer but this time around we had it in a bottle instead of on draft. Some beers are significantly different between formats so maybe that's the reason why we enjoyed it even more this time. Maybe not. Maybe we'll have the opportunity to do a side-by-side sometime. In the meantime we'd be happy to have more of this chocolate-milk-meets-beer sweet stout.

The second half of this week's round up rated only a teeny, tiny lower than the first half. They did however show more diversity both in style and in where we drank them, in case you think we don't get around ('cause we do).

Little Beast Brewing Fera - Little Beast is the new brewery from Charles Porter, most recently at Logsdon, and last week they officially hit the scene at OP Wurst. A 100% Brett Saison, it is light and easy drinking on its own but also pairs wonderfully with cheese (see the big hunk below), our favorite beer pairing food.

Matchless Voss IPA - This is one of those recently popular, hazy IPAs and as such, isn't much of a looker. Ignoring that one finds a delicious grapefruit flavor from the Simcoe and Mosaic hops and Norse farmhouse yeast, the region which it hails from and the basis for the name of the beer.

Samuel Smith's Organic Perry - There's plenty of Samuel Smith around currently due to a passport-style promotion meaning more than the usual availability. Similar to a cider, but using pears this has a bright, fruit aroma and a flavor that is of actual pears (as it should be) and not overly sweet.

Pyramid H7 Unfiltered Imperial IPA - Sent to us by the good folks at Pyramid, it is part of their Brewer's Reserve series and uses seven hops - Apollo, Chinook, CTZ, Simcoe, Amarillo, El Dorado and Calypso - thus the name. Presenting with a rich copper color and a distintly boozy nose (no surprise for 9.5%), the flavor starts a bit harsh but mellows midway through, finishing with a nice hop hit.

Block 15 Alpha Northwest-style IPA & Atmosphere Pale Ale - Both were enjoyed at The Hoppy Brewer during a Block 15 event and both are dry hopped. Perhaps less important in the IPA, it's that dry hopping that elevates the pale ale to what our hop-favoring taste buds desire.

Loowit Lager - Lagers are a hard style to impress us but we have to congratulate Loowit for creating a straightforward, clean lager that will be something particularly refreshing this summer.

Belching Beaver Peanut Butter Latte - This was a bit of a happy accident as we thought we were picking up a Belching Beaver beer Chris brought to our attention earlier. Turns out it was an IPA with a label similar in color that he was talking about but we were very pleased to find this to be super drinkable with a nice (not fake) peanut flavor that was mildly sweet. And clocking in at a mere 5%? Absolutely!

Crooked Stave Serenata Notturna Blueberry - Belgian golden ales aren't generally in our wheelhouse but here the base beer contributes a hay-like (note, not manure-like which we do also enjoy) characteristic that in combination with the use of blueberries and the aging in oak barrels has created a super easy dranking (yes, not drinking) 12%. Proceed at your own risk with more than one bottle.

Double Mountain Sweet Jane - It used to be that the biggest hits from Double Mountain were their fruit beers, which are amazing, but either the taste buds are a changing or perhaps they're dialing in their non-fruit recipes. This one, in addition to a beautiful, colorful label has a sweet aroma to begin and a somewhat sweet, but not cloying flavor. A very clean beer.

Kudos to you if you made it all the way through this post in one sitting and/or actually read the whole thing instead of just skimming. We'll work on drinking less amazing beer this week so next week's post won't be such a tome (kidding...we'll drink as much yum as we can).

Bottle Caps

Some bottle caps are plain, some are utilitarian in design, while others are unique and distinctive to a degree that at a glance one is able to recognize the brewery and/or specific beer. Those in the latter category, like the labels and artwork on some bottles, are great marketing tools. But once the bottle has been recognized, purchased and the time comes to drink the beer most bottle caps are simply pried off and tossed aside. That is unless the person prying the cap off has a future crafty/artistic project in mind.

One application that I've seen with increasing regularity is using the bottle caps to create interesting bar or table tops. Both Saraveza Bottle Shop & Pasty Tavern and Occidental Brewing have done this and I never fail to take some time looking over the bottle caps in front of me whenever I visit.

Another use is for jewelry. Beer Babes Bottle Cap Art makes very cool earrings out of bottle caps - ones they've collected or you can supply your own. I currently have two pairs and can't wait to have the next pair made.

Photo courtesy of Double Mountain

A third use is to make a piece of wall art. Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom in Hood River recently posted a picture of the wall art version of their logo they crafted out of bottle caps.

If you're a bottle cap saver like I am, regardless of whatever those bottle caps might be used for in the future, prying them off with minimal damage is the best policy. I was given the heads up about how to do this by the Beer Babes. Go to Home Depot or your favorite home improvement/hardware store and pick up one of these. I swear it'll be the best $.50 you've spent in a long time, or possibly ever.

Single Hop Fest - Year Two

The second year of Amnesia's Single Hop Fest was very similar to the first - a light crowd at the start, a packed house by the time we'd made it through the offerings and headed out, great laminated descriptions of each beer atop the jockey boxes and the same beer took top honors in my book. The differences were minor and were improvements on what was already a good first fest. There were printed programs with details about each beer and instead of the 4-oz or so sample from last year for one ticket, this year saw only a slight increase in ticket price but each ticket got you (at least) a half pint.

In case you didn't read the post from last year or you've forgotten (how dare you!), my favorite beer last year and again this year was Double Mountain's Cluster F*#k. I recall looking for it after last year's fest and having a hard time tracking any more down but I don't think it will be that difficult this year. I noticed Apex had it on tap within the last week and I'm hopeful that it'll be turning up at more bars. I would love to see this, or any Double Mountain beers for that matter, in bottles but I guess I'll just have to be patient on that front, settling for now to enjoy their great beers when I find them on tap.

Beyond Cluster F*#k, a couple other beers I really enjoyed were Terminal Gravity's Double IPA, with Simcoe hops, and Amnesia's Ripplin Tripel. Terminal Gravity was the only brewery to submit two beers of the same style but made with different hops. I fully expected to like both of them and was surprised to find I didn't enjoy their Double IPA made with Columbus hops. Hopefully I'll be able to retrieve that little nugget of hop preference from the depths of my mind for use in the future. Besides being tasty, I was completely surprised to find I enjoyed the Ripplin Tripel. The aroma was very Belgiany however I was pleased to detect zero Belgian characteristics in the flavor. Chalk up another beer I'm glad I didn't miss the opportunity to sample.

Besides an interesting line up of beers and an opportunity for me to continue my beer education it was a great afternoon of drinking with friends. If you went I'd love to hear what your favorite beers were.