1) Big Sky Brewing Company’s Trout Slayer – sweet enough to be a cream ale, but with enough of a hop presence to push this into the realm of pale ales. If I had to guess, this is Big Sky’s gateway drug, designed to lure in the unsuspecting “lite beer” lover into the world of craft brews… 4/5 in that regard, but 3/5 taken without any pretense.

2) Fort Collins Brewery’s Retro Red – a well-balanced, malt-forward American Amber Ale. I have a hard time remembering anything about this beer, and I don’t think it is due to alcohol’s affect on memory. Nothing to write home about, 2/5.

3) Harviestoun Brewery’s Old Engine Oil – as dark and smooth as black velvet, but I wouldn’t go so far as to compare it to engine oil. That’s not just because I created and named a beer Oil Stout long before I heard of this beer. This is just too smooth to give it a crusty old name like that. Think Sam Adams Black Lager, but richer and smoother. 4/5

4. Samuel Adams Longshot Double IPA – this beer gets an extra point right off the bat for having Mike “Tasty” McDole on the label. Check out the Brewing Network if you don’t know what I mean. In my opinion, Tasty needs the point as this isn’t a fantastic beer. I know I’m one of the few beer nerds out there who would say this, but there is such a thing as too many hops. This beer comes off very complex and cloying. In my opinion, the perfect IPA features one or two hops and lets them shine without balancing them out with a lot of malt. Sorry Tasty, but 3/5.

5. Sarnac Brewery’s Irish Red Ale – maybe I bought an old bottle – I did buy this in June – but this just tasted like old beer. There was a funk about it that just ruined the experience for me. It was too sweet and seemed to use American hops and malt – although that would disqualify it from being an Irish Red Ale. Hm. I’m disappointed in you Sarnac. I guess they can only make so many fantastic beers before hitting a dud. 1/5

6. Urthel Brewery’s Hop-It – Wow. A hoppy Belgian ale. The label even features the statement “superior hoppy blond ale”. And a goofy, bearded, dwarf-thing surrounded by hops and Christmas lights. At 9.5% ABV, this all seems normal by the time you finish the bottle. Very sweet and crisp, this beer tastes like a hoppy, ultra-fizzy Trippel that’s just fun to drink. 5/5

I end the week with NG’s newest Unplugged brew, Imperial Saison. The Unplugged series allows the head brewmaster at NG to brew whatever he wants and release it throughout the year in relatively hard-to-find 4-packs. These tend to be pretty wild. The Imperial Saison is no exception. Weighing in at 8.7% ABV, it’s probably best they only sell these in packs of fours.

It pours much darker than a standard saison, and the aroma is quite a bit deeper and richer. There’s quite a bit of orange and spice aroma, blended with a hefty amount of musk. It’s a very pleasant and unique aroma. I could really see buying an air freshener of this to plug into a kitchen outlet. I  can’t say that about most beers, or most aromas for that matter.

It’s heavy on the tongue with a strong, musty orange flavor, ending with some spice – just like the aroma. This is a beer that could benefit from some aging. The alcohol is a little too apparent for my tastes. There’s little to no hop flavor as most of the bitterness seems to come from the spices. It’s a nice, mellow, warmth, but I keep getting the feeling that this tastes young. At 8.7% ABV, the feeling is fleeting.

Any interesting and brave entry into the NG lineup, I don’t expect this one to return any time soon, but it’s worth checking out if you can find a 4-pack.

The funny bit for me is that the picture of the proposed spacecraft:

reminded me immediately of the spacecraft in the movie, Contact, which was capable of the exact same thing…

which was based on Kepler’s model of the universe…

which represented a detailed (but flawed) representation of a heliocentric universe…

which helped explain the patterns of movement of heavenly bodies such as Earth’s moon, featured predominately in the movie Apollo 13…

which, of course, starred Kevin Bacon

Thank you.

No? Well you try linking Kevin Bacon to Kepler.

Stone Soup is one my favorite NG brews. It is now one of their year-round regulars. Most breweries keep a pale, a wheat, a stout, and maybe a brown as regulars, but not NG. Stone Soup is some kind of a belgian. I’m not sure if it really fits into any single category. It’s very light colored – as you can tell from the photo. It is incredibly fizzy like a belgian. Very sweet with a sourness to it and a light body. Think of a Trippel without the huge alcohol, or a Berlinerweiss with some malt oomph to it! It’s got some perceived lemon to it, with a dry finish. This is in essence, a Belgian session ale.

Very tasty and very refreshing. And very unique.

Those who think they know me and my musical preferences are a little surprised to hear that I’m a big fan of Regina. Her most recently released album, “Begin to Hope” introduced me to her and led me to her fantastic “Soviet Kitsch” album, but seeing her live at Lollapalooza in 2007 really locked in my fan status. Seeing her play “Poor Little Rich Boy” on the piano and using a chair as percussion, and “Apres Moi” while it actually started to rain are forever secured their place in my cool concert memory bank.

I’m getting a little burned out on sub-par IPAs, so I was glad when I poured this beer and the first thing I noticed was how absolutely clear it was. Even as it was cascading into the glass and building up head – immediately out of my (quite cold) fridge – I could see right through the beer to the other side of the glass. Impressive for an IPA to say the least. I’ve noticed that most IPAs are a little cloudy and generally take a long time outside of the fridge to clear up. Not here. Hearty Hop is more clear than most IPAs, and also a tad bit darker. This beer is Amber if it’s anything.

The aroma is nicely balanced between hops and malt. No punch in the face hop aroma, but it’s certainly there. I smell a little grassiness from Cascade hops and some mellow English hops. Neither one over powers the other. I take a big swig – as I’m apt to do – and am surpised to not find any of that grassy hop flavor I had just smelled. I take another drink just to be sure. And another. Nothing. But it sure is tasty.

This beer is very drinkable. It seems slightly lighter on the tongue than most of their beers which is pleasantly appropriate here. It’s balacned drinkability is probably the only thing counting against it here. Nothing jumps out at you while drinking this. The strong caramel malts are balanced by a decent amount of hops, but I wouldn’t call this a particular hoppy beer. The hops aren’t very pronounced at all in fact. When I think of an IPA, I think of a hoppy beer. One where the hops take center stage, rather than co-star with malts. I can see why they don’t label this as an IPA on the bottle – it just doesn’t taste like an IPA to me. I know there’s a thin line between pale ales and IPAs, but this really seems like a hoppy pale ale rather than an IPA.

As the beer starts to warm up, the hops start to come out. I’m still not reminded of an IPA, but I get a flash of Dead Guy. Tasty, but not an IPA. I just noticed on their site that it’s 6.2% ABV. Impressive. I wouldn’t have guessed it that high. Hops, malts, and alcohol are dangerously balanced here and that very balance is the only thing wrong with this beer. Methinks a better (but not as catchy) name would be Hearty with Hops.

Maybe that’s why I like New Glarus’s Coffee Stout so much (you didn’t think I was going anywhere with that story, did you?). It reminds me of those perfect cups of mocha coffee that I would have in that perfect little shop with friends. For a coffee stout, I believe this beer is perfect. The aroma, for one, is heavenly.

It took me a long time to get to my first drink tonight because I kept inhaling the beautiful aroma. It’s like the perfect small cafe mocha that you know you shouldn’t have spent $5+ on, but you did, because you feel you deserved it. There’s a hint of chocolate in the aroma, but a lot of sweet cream. Hidden somewhere amongst that expensive coffee smell is a trace of English hops. But again, I love that smell.

The flavor hits you with a malt sweetness with not as much coffee flavor as you would expect. It’s there, but it’s not punching you in the face. And it’s not a “coffee” coffee flavor in the same sense that most craft beer doesn’t taste like “beer” (I know how much all you beer snobs love to hear that, myself included). That sweetness is immediately followed by a quick surge of roasted grains and a little astringency, but that’s OK because the sweetness comes back and glides you out the other side with a hint of a slightly dry, slightly astringent, and slightly hoppy flavor. Astringency here is a good thing. I believe some degree of astringency in a stout is a must, and you can usually get it from roasted grains. This beer is no different.

Except in the body. This isn’t as full bodied as most American stouts – and that’s a good thing! Most American Stouts can be treated as a meal. They’re cloyingly sweet or roasty with a very heavy mouthfeel. The NG Coffee Stout isn’t cloyingly anything. The body is medium with a slight tendency towards full, with what I can best describe as a “round effect”. I don’t know what that means. Balanced I guess, with no sharp edges.

The first time I had this, Brittany had bought me a 6-pack of it as part of a Valentine’s gift of 24 NG beers – I love her by the way. I had one bottle and wasn’t exactly impressed. I was expecting this huge coffee flavor that I was used to. Like mixing Folger’s insta-drip-coffee with a big American Stout. I wasn’t expecting a tasty premium coffee that just so happens to be a beer.

I am sure you have read the letter sent to you from the president of the Brewers Association, Charlie Papazian, in opposition to the proposed increase in tax on alcoholic beverages. Being a brewer myself, I completely agree with Papazian and the stance of the Brewer’s Association itself that this tax would only cause harm to small brewers.

Thank you for your time.

Yeah, it’s a little corny, but I can’t help but wax eloquent when it comes to brewing – especially when it’s local brewing. Hopefully the tax increase doesn’t pass. Iowa is hurting enough with the bogus 6.5% ABV cut-off line.

For more information on the tax increase, check out the Beer Activists’ coverage of this and Charlie’s letter to Grassley, who happens to be a ranking member of the US Senate Finance Committee.

I picked a mix pack that would give a good variety, and one pack of one of their Unplugged beers, which I’ll get to later. To start off the week, I’m reviewing one of my less-favorite of their’s. Let me preface this by saying that everything they make is delicious and I would have no problem drinking any of their brews regularly. Some, however, are less delicious than others. This is the case with their Organic Revolution. So you say you want a revolution? Well, many seem to, but I couldn’t care less. Like most of us who have grown up on farms and around actual crops, I don’t really care if the veggies I eat/drink are organic or not. I think many of us would agree that the term itself is pretty ridiculous… but I digress. This beer proudly proclaims that it is organic, and it’s going to start a revolution.

Maybe not. I was hoping it would list the style of beer, or at least hint at its contents rather than just saying it’s “organic”. So I guess it’s a bit of a surprise when you pour it into the glass, like the mystery flavor in a pack of AirHeads. It pours very light with a big head that recedes very quickly to form a nice little creamy head. Notice that I poured it into a New Glarus pint glass *wink*. Something you can’t see in the poor quality photo is the sheer number of bubbles in this thing. The chill haze took quite a while to clear up, but once it did, you can see that this is a very fizzy beer.

It’s light in color with a somewhat muted aroma. I have a hard time picking anything out from the smell. It does smell much hoppier than it looks. The smell is a mix of German/Belgian malts with I would guess American hops of some kind, possibly mixed with some Czech. It’s not a bad smell, but it’s nothing special. It’s nowhere near as good smelling as some of their other offerings, which I’ll cover later this week.

The taste is as hoppy as you would expect from the smell, but that doesn’t mean it’s very hoppy at all. If I had to compare the flavor to another beer it would be NG’s own flagship brew, Spotted Cow. Only hoppier. And with somewhat of a funk. A good funk, but not one to write home about. For those who haven’t been fortunate enough to try Spotted Cow, think of the best cream ale you’ve ever had. In this beer, however, there’s a decent balance of malt and hops, with the hops winning the race by a second or two. The body is medium and finishes drier than what the body hints at. I could see drinking one or two of these in a sitting, but it’s not a session beer.

In conclusion, I’m not sure NG really wants to start a revolution with this beer. It’s mediocre in almost every regard. Nothing stands out and nothing is particularly memorable. It’s still a well-balanced and easily drinkable beer that I would choose any day over industrial “craft” beer. So in short, the revolution will not be televised.

Rest assured I’m starting the week with my least favorite of the week’s beers. And for you NG veterans, don’t hold your breath for the (quite possibly) best beer in the world, the Belgian Red. Alas, for some unknown reason I forgot to pick up a bottle. So, that will be on NG Week #2, or even #3 in the unknown distant future.