Pirate Invasion

Can a can be good?
My latest discovery of an exceptional beer came in a can by Pirate Life Brewing. This double IPA or IIPA ('Imperial IPA' as it is branded, review here) is rich, full flavour, very hoppy, decidedly bitter and packs a punch with 8.8% alcohol content. It's one of the better beers I've tasted and is the best I've ever tasted coming out of a can by a long way! I have always associated cans with weak, cheap beer but, happily, times are changing.

Quality Concerns
This pirate discovery was a long way away from anywhere that I thought may be able to present decent quality for something as delicate as a craft beer. Quality is always a concern when you're a long way away from a brewery.  However, this manufacturer has done two things right: they've cranked the alcohol content up to about as high as you want a beer to ever go and they've put it in a can. Despite the dubious aesthetics of a tube of metal, cans are actually quite good at maintaining quality. It keeps the beer dark and if sealed with an inert atmosphere (e.g. Nitrogen rather than ambient air) it can slow down any potential oxidation (which makes beer taste stale, like wet cardboard). The high alcohol content also helps preserve the beer and maintain longer lasting flavour stability.

Packaging information
The next delightful discovery was the detail on the packaging, and specifically the little diagrams around the neck of the can describing how this beer was made. They included the type of hops they have used, and this information is becoming increasingly important to me when selecting a beer to drink.  This beer contains Centennial, Columbus, Mosaic and Simcoe hops. I discovered Mosaic recently at a local brewery in the UK (more later) and it is without a doubt one of my favourite types of hops.  It is worth noting that this beer is more of a hops bomb than anything I have eased before. I thought Hop Hash from Sweetwater in Atlanta was impressive at 100 IBU.  This pirate IIPA has an estimated 120 IBU - it will blow your socks off!

This beer had a beautiful head retention.  Wheat was mentioned as one of the ingredients, so clearly they have mastered part of the beer making process.   The distributors are clearly doing something right by getting this all the way up to Gladstone, which is a long way away from this beers home which is Hindmarsh, Adelaide in South Australia.

My overall impression is that this is one of the nicest craft beers I have tasted and it has changed my perception of what quality you can get in a can.

Goose Migrates to Texas and the UK

Sitting at Houston airport and looking at what is available on draft I see the Goose and it's an IPA.  No hesitation there, I order a pint and its a good choice.

It turns out the company, Goose Island Beer Co., is from Chicago, Illinois. The video about their history is well worth watching.  The founder, John Hall, says he didn't know anything about breweries before he started out in 1988. Everyone needs a support network and the Chicago Beer Society (established 1977) provided this essential fraternity.  The brewery was established as a brew-pub, which in my opinion always makes it easier to get your product to market, but more importantly enables you to stay in touch with your market and receive feedback on product quality and preferences.

Like all growing businesses they needed extra capacity and expanded to a 25,000 barrel per annum business with the addition of the Fulton Production Brewery in 1996 - described as 'trial by fire'.

Greg Browne says 'barrel aged beer was invented in Chicago', and this highlights some of the innovations that craft beer producers have introduced to the industry.  Surprisingly they use bourbon barrels and wine barrels, depending on the beer, and they estimate to be using 5,000 barrels.  The innovation theme is great, especially when Tom Korder says 'learn what can be done with beer' through experimentation.  They have video clips of their brew masters shoving delightfully juicy things into the barrels. Watch the video!

On reflection, sitting in the airport I thought it was a rather long flight for a goose to fly all the way from Chicago to Houston with a keg of IPA around its neck but it turns out that Goose Island sells beers in all 50 states and exports to the UK. Honk, honk!

There are some brewer's notes, recipe information and a list of awards on their product page for this beer. Although my beer came in a rather unattractive plastic cup, I like the look of the bottle and label and will be looking out for it in future. 

Here is a link to the rating for this beer on Beer Advocate.

A little extra info on this beer:

Style: American IPA

ABV 5.9% 

IBU 55

  

Saint Arnold in Houston

Yesterday I was travelling along the Interstate 10 on the way back from Louisiana and spotted the Saint Arnold brewery in Houston. I hadn't know where it was before, so it was a chance sighting and another example of seeing things jump out at you when you are interested in them.

At dinner time in a hotel in Houston, that shall remain unnamed, I was asking the waiter what craft beers they had available. 'Beers?' he asked, and then rattled off the usual list of bland, uninteresting, mainstream, nation-wide-mega-brewhouse insipid products.  I started asking for specific brands of beer that have gone mainstream in the US with the hope to fish something out of the situation. Once, again, the real challenge here was a traditional hotel setting with a wine menu, but not a beer menu, and a waiter with no clue about beer.

Out of desperation I went around to the bar and asked them to start unpacking beers so that I could look at them. This is a common problem. People behind a bar expect that you know what you want to drink and expect you to be able to ask for it by name. Fortunately they had some beer from Saint Arnold's brewery and I selected the IPA, one of my favourite styles. 

I can honestly say that I was delighted with this gem. The colour was a rich amber and the aroma was fragrant leading to sensory anticipation before the first sip.  The beer is well hopped. It tasted quite complex and had a long, drawn-out, bitter tail that whipped my thirst away. I found it easy to savour and nursed it through the duration of my dinner, which is probably just as well because the alcohol content was a little higher than what I was expecting. 

Looking at the producers webpage for this product, the Elissa IPA, they have done a fantastic job of describing the beer, listing it's awards, sharing the ingredients, stating the specifications (e.g. bitterness 52 IBU, alcohol 7.1% by volume) and adding some character by discussing relevant history and trivia about the beer and it's name.  

Typical for the American market, this beer has a 'citrusy flavour'.  They make 'three hop additions in the kettle as well as a large dry-hopping in the fermenter'. It sounds like a lot of hops and certainly tasted like it, although the IBU rating is not as high as I thought it may be. I'm going to have to hunt out some really bitter beers to educate my palate. 

When I'm back in Houston I'll be hunting for more craft gems and I'll have to try squeeze in a brewery tour.