Beer mayhem at Oliver Twist

After some problem with the distribution (due to the cheap dollar everyone wants to buy, so it was difficult to get a free container) the beers for the US-beer Mayhem at Oliver Twist has finally arrived.

At least the menu is ready and we are all waiting to get the opportunity to get hold of some draught US-beer again.

It was a while now and I have not got the opportunity to drink some great US-micros since the NY-trip at the end of March. Looking at the list it seems that we can return to the "normal" line of US-micros from all over the country.

Also seems that Jugge has also got some beers again from the Fort Collins Brewery (hope they know about that this time, :-)), hope it will be as good as when we visited the brewery last year.



Hope ya all turn in, at least you that has the opportunity!

QUICKTAKE: Green Flash Imperial India Pale Ale

Oh, what can you say?, maybe as it says on the bottle;

"Its all about the hops!"

This is a beer from San Diego and is in the category "San Diego style IPA"; meaning a super-hoppy, high gravity ale, and probably everything I want in a beer, at least when I have my hop-monster moments.

The beer has a very orange color with a light high head. It has a aroma with citrus and pine hints. And the taste is a strong hoppy backbone with the same pine and citrus touches as in the aroma. This is a real hop-monster (101 IBU) but still very balanced and extremelly easy to drink, only problem is that you want more of it. With 9% ABV it feels amazing that you can create such a great beer when the alcohol is not noticable as in this beer.

Great brew, and as the brewmaste says; "Its all about the hops!".

This beer is really amazing and I am already rearranging my toplist to find a suitable spot for it (not easy, but I will have it a try at least, :-)).

As a brewery I discovered this brewery during this years GABF and we tested both the pale ale, WIPA, and this IPA. For a small local brewery in San Diego and only 5 years old this is a great brewery and I will try to test more of them as soon as I get the opportunity.


Green Flash West Coast IPA at Falling Rock in Denver

Cheers!

A beer trip of Norway?

If you ever wanted to do a beer trip in Norway then you should check this blog entry over at Knut Albert.

The micro market is very tiny in Norway but at least it is growing and based on the regulations in Norway it is impressive to see that some people dare to make a try of brewing beers at all.

The Oliver Twist beer list at Stockholm Beer 2007, Part II (USA)

Last post was the beers from Canada, and that was new for this year at Stockholm Beer, short, but very large compared to other years when we only had Unibrou to test.

But now over to a larger list, the planned US-micro beer list with beers to be sold at this years event.

Have fun...

Alaska
Alaskan Brewing Co
Alaskan Smoked Porter
Alaskan Amber

Colorado
Avery Brewing Co
White Rascal
Ellie's Brown Ale
Old Jubilation
Out of Bounds Stout
Hog Heaven

New York
Blue Point Brewing Co
Toasted Amber Lager
Hoptical Illusion IPA
No Apologies Double IPA

Oregon
Deschutes Brewery
Black Butte Porter
Obsidian Stout
Mirror Pond Pale Ale
Inversion IPA

Delaware
Dogfish Head
90 Minute IPA
60 Minute IPA
Raison D Ètre

Colorado
Flying Dog Brewery
Gonzo Imperial Porter
Old Scratch Amber Lager
Flying Dog Classic Pale Ale

Colorado
Great Divide Brewing Co
Titan IPA
Denver Pale Ale
Ridgeline Amber Ale
St Bridges Porter
Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout

Massachusetts
Harpoon Brewing Co
Harpoon IPA
Munich Style Dark
Octoberfest
Smoked Porter
Kellerbier
UFO Raspberry

Colorado
Left Hand Brewing Co
Jackman’s American Pale Ale
Sawtooth Ale
Milk Stout
Black Jack Porter
Imperial Stout

California
North Coast Brewing Co
Red Seal Ale
Old Rasputin
Old Stock 2007
Brother Thelonius
Le Merle Belgian Style Saison

Colorado
Odell Brewing Company
5 Barrel Pale Ale
Cutthroat Porter
IPA
90 Shilling Ale
Double Pilsner

Colorado
Steamworks Brewing Co
Steam Engine Lager
Conductor Imperial IPA

Oregon
Rogue Ales
Juniper Pale Ale
American Amber
Chipotle Ale
Shakespeare Stout
Honey Orange Wheat
Kell´s Irish Style Lager

California
Stone Brewing Company
Stone Smoked Porter
Stone Ruination IPA
Stone IPA
Arrogant Bastard Ale

Georgia
Terrapin Beer Company
Rye Pale Ale
Golden Ale

Pennsylvania
Victory Brewing Co
HopDevil Ale
Victory V Twelve
Storm King Stout

California
21st Amendment Brewery
Watermelon Wheat (Can)
21A IPA (Can)

!ALL INFORMATION ABOVE HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY JUGGE AT OLIVER TWIST AND THROUGH THE HELP OF "BK", THANKS!

Also go to the official festival site for more information; Stockholm Beer 2007

How about an IPA and a Leatherlips?

If I have to choose a particular style of beer, it must be an IPA, and almost always from the US. Do not remember all of them, but my current list of great favorite IPAs looks like below;

1. Pliny The Elder
2. Blind Pig IPA
3. Leatherlips IPA (The Tap)
4. Two Hearted Ale
5. Bell's HopSlam
6. Stone IPA (India Pale Ale)

There are certainly other options, but I have to choose those available for me, and types that I sampled several off.

To mention a very special beer for me and my beer experience and one on the list it must be the Leatherlips IPA from The Tap / Haverhill Brewery.

You could wonder by the choice, the rest of the list is high on sites like beeradvocate and ratebeer, where did then the Leatherlips come from? Well simply because of the experience. Here we found ourselves (me and my girl friend) in a very cold Boston in feb-07 (visiting the extreme beer fest held by beeradvocate), when we find this very tiny pub called Bukowski's Tavern and found a new beer to love.

The great thing with this beer is actually not the taste in first place, a great example of a IPA that you can drink a lot of. No the most important thing about this beer is the alcohol, simply coming with only 5.00% ABV!.

The rest of the great IPAs I have ever tasted and liked has been something like 6.5 and above, for example Stone is 6.90%, blind pig comes with 6 and pliny is even up to 8%. So thats why it is so great, here we have a great example of a US-IPA, with a very big fresh, dry hop aroma and very balanced regarding bitterness.

But drinking it you can not imagine that it is only 5%, it be much more!, its sort of fills your mouth with a very dry finish of hop forever, and it just simply tell you to; drink me, take an other one!

It was surely the winner for us during the weekend, not even the extreme beer fest could out win our experience at Bukowski's, when we returned to have a Leatherlips.

A fun thing is that when we first sampled the beer, we thought Leatherlips IPA from Tap, simply meant that it was on draught, we later understod that the name had to do with the brewery.

Hopefully we will have our new england beer tour next year (or at least in a couple of years) and then The Tap in Haverhill, Massachusetts will be on the short list.

An other fun thing was after we returned from the night of the barrels at the extreme fest we were so filled up with oak flavours and vanilla that we could not distinguish between the leatherlips and a Hercules Double IPA for a couple of minutes (the color help us after a while), that also says a lot about how great the beer is, Hercules IPA comes with 9.1%, but here we could not actually feel the difference at first, just that something was wrong.

So thanks to the brewmaster Mike Labbe at The Tap providing such a great IPA, with the very nice feature, that you can drink a lot of it. Hopefully we will drink "on the tap", next year.

"UPDATED 080806:"

And yes we did! On July 15th 2008 we arrived to Haverhill and could enjoy the place and of course the Leatherlips IPA + a six pack that we brought home almost intact.