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Terroir and elegance often walk hand in hand,
with thought-provoking subtleties.
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Read about it today, experience it tonight.
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Rogue Ales Kells Irish Lager, Oregon
Bright yellow color with just a touch of cloudiness.
This lager is classically clean, with hints of
lemon, honey, floral tones, and slight yeastiness.
It is smooth and refreshing.
95 points -- tasted 3/14/2008 -BF $5 for a 22 ounce bomber.
Divino and
Wilbur's Total Beverage carry this beer.
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Morland Old Speckled Hen English Fine Ale, England
Pours with a rich, light amber color.
Aromas of orange pekoe tea on the nose.
A smooth brew with offering flavors of
caramel, banana, vanilla, sweet tea, and a hint of orange creamsicle.
Not bitter or too malty,
it is a great brew for taking with you since it is served up in cans.
94 points -- tasted 3/14/2008 -BF $9 a 16 ounce four pack.
Heritage Wine and Liquors, Wilbur's Total Beverage,
Reserve List Eagle Bend,
Crossroads Wine and Spirits in Grand Junction,
Libations Wine and Spirits,
and Liquor Barn on Broadway carry this beer.
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Mackeson's Triple Ex Stout, Bedfordshire, England
An ebony colored opaque Milk Stout with a thick dark tan head.
Sweet, with flavors of mocha, molasses and vanilla.
Smooth, not too carbonated and slightly floral.
A hint of smokiness on the finish.
91 points -- tasted 3/14/2007 -BF $8 a six pack
Wine Company, Wilbur's Total Beverage,
Crossroads Wine and Spirits in Grand Junction,
and Heritage Wine and Liquor carry this beer.
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Lion Stout, Ceylon, Sri Lanka
Dark brown color with a lighter tan head.
Milk chocolate and vanilla aromas escape on the nose.
Its roasted profile offers flavors of fig,
molasses, and cream, followed by a touch of balsamic and sassafras.
The finish offers a burnt espresso flavor.
This brew is considered an extra stout.
93 points -- tasted 3/14/2008 -BF $8 a six pack.
Wine Company, KaCee's Wine & Spirits, County Line Liquors,
Highlands WineSeller (bombers only), Libations Wine and Spirits,
and Wilbur's Total Beverage carry this beer.
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Jerome Cerveza Negra, Mendoza, Argentina
Smoky!
Creamy!
This beer pours dark and opaque with a thick creamy head.
On the palate this brew offers smoked grain flavors,
black licorice, bitter chocolate, molasses, roasted coffee bean and fig.
Hoppy sweetness weaves throughout the canvas of flavors.
This is a serious Sweet Stout.
97 points -- tasted -BF $5 a 22 ounce bomber.
Divino, Wilbur's Total Beverage,
Libations Wine and Spirits,
and Heritage Wine and Liquor carry this beer.
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Welcome KCUV and Jack listeners. We know you were looking forward to our wine reviews,
but since Saint Patrick's Day is Monday,
we were compelled to taste some beer for this issue.
Next week's issue will feature a collection of wine, sold in Colorado,
that pairs well with ham.
(Of course if you are not a fan of ham, these wines go well with
Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, Mexican, and any other spicy cuisine.)
We are excited to have you onboard!
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Lagers versus Ales
There are two types of yeast used in the production of beer, ale yeast and lager yeast. In my quest to find the stylistic differences between the two, I was able to pin down some answers with the help of a few articulate brewers at this year's Great American Beer Festival.
Brewers add or 'pitch' yeast into wort, a boiled concoction of water, hops, and grain malt. Yeasts eat the sugar in the wort and produce alcohol. Ale yeasts ferment from the top of the wort and prefer warmer temperatures. Lager yeasts lie at the bottom of the wort when performing their duties and prefer cooler temperatures. Ale yeasts have been used traditionally for brewing in the warmer months and the resulting beer is consumed during the cooler months. Because the yeast begins fermentation quickly and works from the top of the wort, ales tend to have more solids suspended in them.
Conversely, lager yeasts have been used traditionally during the winter months. The word lager means 'to store' in German. Wort would be pitched with lager yeast in the cool months, but the fermentation would not take place until spring. The sediment in the stowed container of wort would settle for months before fermentation would begin. American style lagers are produced quickly and are very light in flavor. They are not representative of what lager yeasts can do when given the proper amount of time.
When following the same water, hops, and malt recipe, each beer will retain some of the same flavors when fermented with the two different yeasts. Ales will be heavier in flavor and lagers will be crisper and cleaner. Look for micro-brewed and imported lagers and ales to truly explore the flavor differences. Understanding the nuances of each style allows us to appreciate why the brewer chooses one yeast over the other.
Styles of Stout
About two-hundred years ago London porters were very popular. Stout was originally created as a stout porter, a fuller bodied porter beer. Many breweries produced a porter and a stout, with the stout using hops to create more bitter flavors. Stouts and porters are ales.
Dry Stout
Sweet Stout
Oatmeal Stout
Foreign Extra Stout
Russian Imperial Stout
American Stout
Dry or Irish stouts are created by using roasted unmalted grains along with pale malt. Roasted unmalted grain will give the beer deep color, without offering much sugar. Very bitter hops is another ingredient that made the dry stout different from the Porter. Hops is used mostly for bittering, rather than its floral flavors. This style is not sweet.
Sweet, cream, milk, oyster stouts are created like dry stouts, but they often have lactose added to them to create a creamy flavor. Ale yeast will not consume lactose (milk sugar) so it is leftover after fermentation to add body and sweetness to the beer. Hops are low to moderate in bitterness in a sweet stout. Sweet stouts are also called milk stouts and cream stouts. (Both terms are no longer legal in the United Kingdom, so brewers there use the sweet stout designation.) Hops is used mostly for floral flavors, rather than its bittering components.
Oatmeal stouts have oats added to the wort to give the beer a more viscous mouthfeel. Oatmeal is usually used instead of milk sugar to add body, but the oats do not add more sweetness. Oatmeal stouts are generally between dry stouts and sweet stouts in sweetness. Hops is used mostly for bittering, rather than its floral flavors.
Foreign extra, tropical, extra stouts are similar to India Pale Ales in that they are heavily hopped for their antiseptic qualities. The hops is used for both bittering and its floral flavors, but the hops antiseptic qualities are relied on to impart longevity.
Russian Imperial Stouts are the strongest of all the stouts. They have high alcohol levels and intense complexity. They can be any level of hoppiness and usually have an assertive bitter flavor. Russian Imperial Stouts have prominent malt flavors. They are often aged to soften their aggressive profiles.
American stouts are a version of a foreign extra stout with plenty of hopping. Their distinction is that they use hops grown in the US, like Cascade, which imparts citrus tones. American stouts are known to be dry, sweet, and in between, but they use a lot of finishing hops.
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Vocabulary
Finishing hops are hop flowers added to the end of the brewing process,
while the wort is still hot,
to add a touch of bitterness and a touch of floral flavors.
The fragrant oils in the hops flowers are very volatile
and evaporate with boiling.
Bittering hops are added to the boiling wort to add bitterness.
Hop flowers do not add any floral flavors when boiled,
but rather are added for their astringent qualities.
Dry hopping methods place hop flowers in a cheesecloth or similar container.
The hop flowers are then added to the wort after it has cooled,
generally when the yeast is pitched.
Dry hopping adds the most floral flavors to a beer.
Hop flowers contain oils that are measured in alpha acid units.
The higher the alpha acid rating, the more astringent the flower.
Hops have subtle, but distinct flavor differences.
Hops have been cultivated for hundreds of years for their use in brewing beer.
The astringent qualities of hops preserve beer from many organisms
that would spoil the beer.
The floral flavors in hops are highly desired by many beer drinkers.
Hops are grown in regions known for brewing beer and are named by that region.
Many brewers will list the hops used in their products.
Wine vocabulary will return next week. To read wine terminology go to the
vocabulary
page on our web site.
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