Just like I promised last week, Minnesota Beer Month starts now!

Which is actually kind of fitting, I think, because on Saturday we will be observing Christmas in September aka The Autumn Brew Review. Can you believe it? Because I can’t. I feel like it was just yesterday that we were queuing up in the virtual version of a charge scene from Braveheart.  Or Best Buy on The Day After Thanksgiving. Your call.

Sidenote: If you see me at the brew review, please come say, “Hi,” and let’s have a cheers, okay?

For this week’s tasting, Marcus and I are joined by Jillian, who is a forever friend.

I figured it would be nice to get another lady’s perspective, right? Right.

Today, we’re travelling across the state to Lift Bridge Brewery in Stillwater, Finnegans in Minneapolis and Brau Brothers Brewing Co in Lucan.

Can I just beg you all this once to ignore the amount of head going on here?  Let’s just say that it was a MAJOR flashback to the Kat Can’t Pour Beer College Days Of Old.

Lift Bridge Farm Girl Saison

Lift Bridge highlights the beer’s dry malt finish and spiciness that only Belgian yeasts can create.  Smooth and well-rounded…

Kat: I’m looking at a golden honey color and a really warm scent. Inviting. On first taste, there’s a lingering effervescence. A honey flavor carries throughout. I get more of a warmth from this beer than one would expect for something that goes for a citrus fruit taste with the orange peel. More orange stuffed with cloves at Christmas time and less morning glass of juice.

Marcus: This beer has a nice golden color, and smells very fruity. When I taste it, I get a little banana. I don’t think that the aftertaste really lingers. Sometimes, I want a little bit more at the end, but in this case, it makes me want to drink more of it. Very good for warm days.

Jillian: On first glance it has a wheat/honey tone. I think the scent is light and almost honey-ish as well. This Saison isn’t very heavy to drink, not that any of them are. The carbonation hits you right away. Very present. I think the texture and mouthfeel of the beer almost adds to the spiciness of it.

Finnegans Irish Amber

Finnegans writes that this brew is a fully-flavored, medium-bodied ale with a creamy, malty finish.

Kat: What to say…It’s an amber beer that comes off as light chestnut-colored. I practically have to stick my nose into the beer to get a real whiff of anything. We’ll call that…neutral. It’s really easy to drink and hits directly on the middle of my palate. I almost want to describe it as being a little bit chewy.  

Marcus: Light amber. It smells musty to me. You get a hit of maltiness after the initial sip. The taste really sticks to the top of my mouth instead of rolling to the sides of my tongue. I can’t say that about most beers.

Jillian: This is definitely amber. I’d even go so far as to say that you could describe the coloring as tangerine. The straight ale flavor developed over time for me, which is good because I didn’t find the nose to be especially pleasing. It’s much more full-bodied than I was expecting. Very Irish.

Brau Brothers The Ring Neck Braun Ale

Brau Brothers describes its creation as “biscuity, toasty, awesome-y malt goodness.” It then goes on to give a sip-by-sip flavor profile, so, if you want to know more than the first sip (or our opinions), you should head on over to the website.

Kat: This looks thick to me, like molasses. I say this in comparison to the other beers we tasted today and not in comparison to a line-up of, say, other darker beers. There’s a  definite coffee/chocolate smell. The taste is very true to scent, and I get that sort of acrid, dark burnt-caramel taste throughout. I find there are more bubbles to this than I would expect for a beer with this flavor profile. It really lightens the beer up in an unexpected way.

Marcus: You can tell from the bottom of the glass that it’s a brown beer, not black or anything near that. I think it has a sweet, malty smell that almost reads as caramel. It tastes much lighter to me than it smells or looks. The malty taste lingers and definitely builds progressively.

Jillian: It looks dark to me and smells dark to me so I’m not surprised when it has a really warm malt flavor right away. The most overwhelming flavor in this beer is a sort-of bitter caramel. It’s not overpowering by any means. If I was a big dark beer drinker (on the whole I enjoy lighter beers more), I could drink this in a more regular rotation. It goes down too easily for what I was expecting when I first picked up the glass.

Our Preferences…

Marcus and Jillian

1. Lift Bridge Farm Girl Saison

2. Brau Brothers The Ring Neck Braun Ale

3. Finnegans Irish Amber

Kat

1. Brau Brothers The Ring Neck Braun Ale

2. Lift Bridge Farm Girl Saison

3. Finnegans Irish Amber

Kat Magy has spent a lifetime in Minnesota with a love for beer, traveling Up North, sprinkles and running marathons. She also blogs at Tenaciously Yours, and you can follow her on Twitter @kljwm.

Some of you may be wondering why I decided to focus on New Glarus beers this week. Since, you know, we can’t get them here and I’ve only dedicated a week thus far to tasting our homegrown brews.

My answers:

1. We’re going to have more than enough time to taste Minnesota beers. We might even be lucky enough to have an all-Minnesota month! I know. I KNOW. It will be fantastic. In this instance I counsel patience.

2. My brother, Billy, is working on his master’s degree over the border (again, I know). So for the last year we have been employing him to ferry over sampler packs of New Glarus beer every time he returns home. Since he spent the summer in Texas, we decided to celebrate his return to The North (and the return of our beer deliveries) with a tasting.

The tasters at Pearl Street Brewery in La Crosse, WI. Spring 2012.

Like I promised in the first week, there would be a point where we would taste more than three beers because I have no self control. Or, more truthfully, because we were confronted with a situation where we had four different beers in the sampler.  As well as the latest beer from New Glarus’ Thumbprint Series.

I know, I know. You wouldn’t be able to choose either. And why should you have to?

Up this week: Totally Naked, Saison, Spotted Cow, Fat Squirrel and Two Women

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Totally Naked

Totally Naked has a fine mature aroma with no coarse bitterness.

Kat: Going into this, I knew that Totally Naked was going to be a light beer color-wise, but I’m still taken aback by just how light yellow it is. This has a really crisp lager scent. Very straightforward and unsurprising. Taste-wise I think it’s light, subtly fruity and that it kind of stays with you after you’re done drinking. It almost seems to intensify over time which is not something I would expect from this type of beer.

Marcus: It’s really light – almost Chardonnay-ish. Is that something you can say about a beer? I don’t usually compare beers to wines unless I’m noticing the oak scent of something. I would drink it in the summer and I would drink it if I needed to drink large quantities of something.

Billy: It smells like white wine, and it’s nearly the same color as a white wine, really. I think it’s very light and very smooth with a touch of sweetness.

Saison

With three Belgian yeast strains, the Saison is fully bottle conditioned. Fresh hops snap with lemon zest and peppery ginger notes.

Kat: I definitely “get” the initial lemon-citrus scent on the nose and that continues on through the actual drinking of the beer. I love when things go down like that – it’s kind of like matching your belt to your purse to your shoes. They don’t have to “go” together to be good, but sometimes we can do without the surprise of another element. I would have to say that if the pepper does “hit”, it’s more of an aftertaste than anything else. That may just be the dryness, though. It’s obviously a Saison, but not a jaw-dropper.

Marcus: I love the smell. It’s not as cloudy as I would expect, but that’s kind of a non-factor. You can get the fruit flavor but I never taste the pepper. I’ve had one pepper-based beer that has set the standard for all other beers that claim a “pepper” note in their flavor profiles and I have yet to drink another one that would give it a good run for its money.

Billy: I’ve never had a saison before.  Wow. The scent is very strong. It smells similar to a weisse beer and tastes that way as well. I get the lemon but the pepper just isn’t there for me. Also, it has really great carbonation. Not overpowering, but consistent.

Spotted Cow

Spotted Cow is concisely described as being fun, fruity and satisfying.

Kat: There is no nose at all for me here. I could describe the middle as broadly-fruity per the description, but that might be generous. There’s a light touch of sweetness. Even though Spotted Cow is the star of the New Glarus lineup, the biggest praise I can give this beer is that it’s non-offensive and totally honest. It’s a beer. It’s crisp. It leaves a solid, simple aftertaste  and nothing lingers.

Marcus: It has a very light, almost warm grain scent, so you have to get into it almost immediately. You need to know more. Taste-wise, I think that it has a heavier taste for a lighter beer. It doesn’t just float across the palate like most light beers. The finish really leaves me wanting more.

Billy: This is pretty straightforward to me. It has a good beer flavor. I’m especially impressed by the finish – every beer should finish like this, really.   

Fat Squirrel

Clean hazelnut notes result from the fact that Fat Squirrel is loaded with six different varieties of 100% Wisconsin malt.

Kat: It’s a brown ale, so, in the glass it looks 100% the way you would expect. Brown. Not too thick. I think that this is really, consistently malty (and warm!) from head to tail. And, they do not kid about the nut flavor that comes from that. It’s very true to advertising, and the nut flavor really lingers, permeating everything.

Marcus: Very malty smell. Very malty taste. I can believe and understand that they used six different kinds. I get where the “nut” flavor is coming from but I’m really getting some caramel in there, too. This is definitely not a beer designed to showcase any sort of hop flavor. An easy finish makes it really drinkable.

Billy: Fat Squirrel has a very nice aroma and a strong nutty flavor that is just as they intended it to be. I think the nut flavor comes across in a much lighter manner than you might see in similar beers while still accomplishing the same full flavor.

Two Women

Two Women is crisp, well-balanced and satisfying.

Kat: There is an initial scent but it’s really nondescript as far as “noses” go in my book. It also comes across as bitter to me when it rolls over the sides of my tongue. If I were forced to commit to one word that would describe this flavor, it’s “brown.”

Marcus: No scent at all. I find the lager aftertaste to be very similar to Totally Naked. But I’m not impressed.

Billy: This has a good lager flavor. While it has very little scent compared to other beers, it does have some. I think it would intimidate some people because of its color, but the taste really shouldn’t.

So, what are we bringing?

Our Preferences…

While we agree on our least-favorite bottle, this week is really all over the board.

Kat

1. Fat Squirrel

2. Saison

3. Totally Naked

4. Spotted Cow

5. Two Women

Marcus

1. Saison

2. Fat Squirrel

3. Spotted Cow

4. Totally Naked

5. Two Women

Billy

1. Totally Naked

2. Spotted Cow

3. Fat Squirrel

4. Saison

5. Two Women

Cheers!

Kat Magy has spent a lifetime in Minnesota with a love for beer, traveling Up North, sprinkles and running marathons. She also blogs at Tenaciously Yours, and you can

follow her on Twitter @kljwm.

Welcome, survivors! And if you’re only here because you check the site every day, I’m still glad you’re with us.

The fact of the matter is, today marks Round Two of You’re Bringing What to my Party?!  Which means that, yes, we made it through Round One unscathed.

So with that, we will party on.

This week: Odell 5 Barrel Pale Ale, Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Great Divide DPA.

Why pale ales? Because we all know that we’re going to need something crisper to drink when we get hit with an unseasonably hot day in September. And because, unlike last time, I thought it would be healthy for us to escape Minnesota for a bit.

 

Did you notice that one of these things is not like the others?  

DPA and 5 Barrel are both English-style Pale Ales, and Mirror Pond is an American Pale Ale. For those of you who are not familiar with the difference between the two, while the American Pale Ale has British roots, it is not made of all-English ingredients. All-English ingredients, while not a requirement, are a hallmark of the English Pale Ale style. Additionally, you’ll often find that the American Pale Ale lacks some of the buttery, balanced flavors that are typical of English Pale Ales. But what it lacks in the department of buttery and balanced, it makes up for with a crisp hop flavor.

What you’ll notice this round: Our breweries are unabashedly vague in their descriptions of their beers beyond the fact that they are hoppy. Either the beers I chose this week are that incredibly nondescript (please accept my apologies in advance if that is the case) or we need to get them some new copywriters. I err on the side of them needing new copywriters.

Since we were up north for this tasting and, sometimes, more is more, my father, Bill, joined us. I knew you wouldn’t mind that I included his notes and opinions, as well.

Odell 5 Barrel Pale Ale

Odell writes that the 5 Barrel gets an infusion of fresh whole hop flowers and four hop additions during the kettle boil.

Kat: The 5 Barrel is preceded by a really strong hop aroma. However, the actual hop flavor is much, much milder. I really appreciate that because even though I am a hop fan, I’m not a hop maniac like some drinkers. I’d also say that the mouthfeel of this beer is on the order of something with big bubbles like club soda. Big bubbles don’t necessarily “work” with every beer, but here I enjoy them.

Marcus: I find it to be slightly hoppy, with a little bit of caramel. I’d say that it smells much hoppier than it actually is and I love the smell of the hops. I could sniff this all day and be happy.  But scent is not why beers are brewed. In terms of drinkability, it’s very clean with a slightly bitter finish.

Bill: For me, it’s crisp but I really taste an alkaline bitterness that I find to be off-putting.

Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale

Deschutes tells us that Mirror Pond has a distinct hop nose and hop-forward flavor, and that it is aromatically complex, multilayered and unmistakably “right.”

Kat: What I’m getting on the nose is more of a black tea. I get the hops in the middle but they’re extremely mild. Nothing about this is really “forward” hop-wise. The rest of the beer tastes really smooth to me, for lack of a better term. I guess that’s what you get when you go for “unmistakably ‘right.’”

Marcus: This has a far less hoppy scent, but a much hoppier flavor. It leaves more of a lingering aftertaste, too, which I think is a really good thing. Most of the time I don’t want to forget that I’m drinking a pint halfway through it. This beer does not let me down.

Bill: The nose on this is drastically muted. The flavor is very balanced but it almost has a metallic taste to me.

Great Divide DPA

Great Divide, despite a label proclaiming the DPA to be a “Denver Pale Ale”, says that it is a classic pale ale. It has a malty middle and an equally hearty complement of hop aroma, flavor and bitterness.

Kat: I would be doing y’all a great disservice if I didn’t tell you that I have a major thing for Great Divide’s graphic design. The bottles, the case art, all of it. I would drink Great Divide beers just to be seen holding the bottle, so to that end, please do not ever pour it into a glass for me. All of that aside, something about the nose of this beer is outright offensive to me for reasons I am unable to pinpoint. The mouthfeel is fine, and the maltiness of the beer is actually really nice. I have to say that I was a little bit surprised by the hoppy finish. It just didn’t feel predictable or logical to me.

Marcus: I’d have to say this is definitely the maltiest of the three. But, I still don’t know that I would describe it as truly hoppy – that might be a bit of a stretch. A strong hop flavor isn’t required to make a great beer, but striking a good balance between the flavors in your glass is. It’s borderline seasonable, so I’d be able to drink this without complaint through the fall.

Bill: There’s a subtle floral scent that I enjoy – I think they really found a good balance of malt and hops here.

I know you’re dying to know what pale ales you should be bringing to the party.

Our Preferences…

Marcus and Bill

1. Great Divide DPA

2. Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale

3. Odell 5 Barrel Pale Ale

Kat

1. Odell 5 Barrel Pale Ale

2. Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale

3. Great Divide DPA

Cheers!

Kat Magy has spent a lifetime in Minnesota with a love for beer, traveling Up North, sprinkles and running marathons. She also blogs at Tenaciously Yours, and you can follow her on Twitter @kljwm.

Who are we?

I’m Kat and this is my husband, Marcus.

And, obviously, we’re taking up residence ’round these parts because we love beer. I know I didn’t have to say it, except I kind of did. You know, address the stranger danger.

Some of you might be wondering, what is You’re Bringing What to My Party?!

You know when you have a gathering of friends, everyone brings a six pack/growler/home brew and you end up with That Weird Potpourri of Beer That You Never Would Have Amassed Independently?

That.

Except, now, we’re bringing the party.

Starting today, we’ll be bringing you tasting notes and our take on different beers. Sometimes we’ll taste hometown brews, and other times we’ll sample things you have to beg, borrow or steal for. Typically, we’ll taste beers in groupings of three (watch..this will be the first thing to fall by the wayside) and we’ll give our opinions on each.  

What I can promise: there will always be a theme and we’ll always be totally honest. There will be moments where you want to fist-bump with us, and other times where the words you’re reading are going to make you want to hide your head in your hands. That’s to be expected. Hide away. We’re getting our sea legs on this one. So are you.

Since we’re not super-tasters, we will review the tasting notes for the beers before sampling them, rather than going in blind. Why reinvent the wheel, right? We live in a world where more is more and I’d like for us to be able to get a little more in depth when we’re able.

So, I hope we’re all on the same page, because I don’t know about y’all, but I think it’s time to get tasting!

A side-by-side tasting of wheat beers would probably be most appropriate at the beginning of summer. Right?  

But, once I was done catching up with Bryan at The Four Firkins over one of their Friday tastings, these were the first bottles that made sense to me. And, for our first column, it’s probably only right that we taste Minnesota beers.

So, with just a few short weeks in the season remaining, we sip.

The Inaugural Line-Up: Surly Cynic, Lake Superior North Shore Wheat, Schell’sHefeweizen.

And, after the pour, in their original order.

Surly Cynic
According to Surly, Cynic contains floral notes as well as honey, black pepper, peach and apricot.

Kat: It’s weird to admit this but I think this is one Surly beer I have never tried before.  Confessional aside, this has a really crisp first bite to it. After the initial taste, you can definitely get the honey and stone fruit flavors as it continues to bloom. That’s when the floral aspect of Cynic’s flavor really starts to open up.

Marcus: Very light. It starts out light and ends light. The taste really peaks midway.

Lake Superior North Shore Wheat
Lake Superior describes its North Shore Wheat as tasting of bread, banana and sunshine. Period.

Kat: There is an initial, muddled rush of flavor. It’s extremely sweet to my palate. I would consider it more caramel/butterscotch than banana OR bread. But that might also be the sunshine coming through. It’s wonderfully vague as the tasting notes in that regard.

Marcus: This really sticks to your palate more – the taste lasts a bit longer. I don’t know if I’d say banana or not, but it’s definitely drinkable.

Schell’s Hefeweizen
Schell’s Hefeweizen is said to have fruity, citrus-like tartness, as well as layers of banana, clove and bready-malt.

Kat: This almost burns at the initial taste. I wanted to blame it on effervescence, but it’s not that, really. I will say that the burning also helps to warm the chest. There is more of a wall of flavor right at the front. It doesn’t build. It just hits you. And the flavor disappears just as instantaneously as it came.

Marcus: I agree with the burn at the beginning, but I think there’s a more mild flavor in the middle. The after-taste fades to literally nothing. I have nothing in my mouth right now. Nothing.

Our Preferences…
The good news is that if we were forced to do it all over again, we would. They’re all drinkable.  We solemnly swear if we ever taste something where we’d warn a friend off of it before grabbing one from the community fridge, we’ll do the same for you. Friends don’t let friends drink bad beer. That being said, this isn’t your elementary school’s track and field day where everyone gets a ribbon.

We plan to give separate rankings, but this week we agree on the order. On the weeks we don’t agree, y’all will get two lists.

1. Surly Cynic
2. Lake Superior North Shore Wheat
3. Schell’s Hefeweizen

Cheers!

Kat Magy has spent a lifetime in Minnesota with a love for beer, traveling Up North, sprinkles and running marathons. She also blogs at Tenaciously Yours, and you can follow her on Twitter @kljwm.