Widmer Brothers Rotator IPA Series

X-114 IPA

ABV 6.2%

Falconer's IPA 
ABV 7.0%
 

O'Ryely IPA 
ABV 6.4%

Spiced IPA 
(Ale Brewed with Tea and Spices and with Tea and Spices Added)
ABV 7.0%

Even since I read about Widmer's Rotator IPA Series I knew that it was meant for a Bottle Battle. As each IPA was released I made sure to put away a bottle for the big day. When the Spiced IPA showed up down here a week or so ago it was finally time to stage the fight.

First off let me brag. Ellen poured them for me blind and I identified them all correctly. Admittedly they all are fairly unique but it did make me feel that perhaps my palate and taste memory are improving. That's a cool little side benefit of doing these battles. We may not be classically trained but we sure are getting good with recognizing certain flavors and qualities in beer.

Colors ranged quite a bit: X-114 was clear golden yellow, Spiced was hazy yellowish orange, Falconer's was clear orangy brown and O'Ryely was hazy dark orange. Aromas differed greatly as well: X-114 was the most aromatic with big floral and grapefruit notes that bordered on cat pee, Spiced smelled herbal and perfumy with Cardamom dominating, Falconer's had the least hop character in the nose, instead smelling of sweet roasty malts and the O'Ryely had an earthy, malty aroma. Flavors didn't stray too much from aromas but as far as bitterness on the finish we agreed that the Falconer's was the most bitter followed by the X-114 and the Spiced. The least bitter was the O'Ryely which had just a mild bitterness to go along with a nice rich, malty finish.

We both agreed that the winner would have to be either the X-114 with its amazing aromatics from those Citra hops (X-114 is what the Citra hop was called before it had a fancy name) or the O'Ryely with its earthiness (perhaps from the Rye?) combined with a nice mildly bitter finish. Ellen ended up going with the X-114 while I went with the O'Ryely since the X-114 was just too citrusy for me (bordering on soapy tasting). Coming in second to last was the Falconer's. We've tried multiple beers using the Falconer's Flight blend of hops and we just don't care for them. Bringing up the rear was the ambitious Spiced, certainly a fun idea but it smelled and tasted a bit too much like a bar of soap or some detergent. Thanks, but when we're drinking IPA we like the hops to be the focus.

Split Decision: Ellen chose X-114, I chose O'Ryely

Beers with Dark in the Title — Bridgeport vs. Widmer

Bridgeport Dark Rain
(Black Pale Ale)

ABV 5.6%

Widmer Brothers

W '12 Dark Saison

ABV 5.5%

As a final farewell to the dark days of winter, here is a battle featuring two beers with "dark" in their name. Let's all raise a glass to daylight savings. As far as we're concerned the loss of one hour of sleep is well worth it for some light in the evenings so we can grill without wearing a headlamp. 

As expected, these beers were completely different. Really the only thing they share is an attempt to be dark in color. Both achieved this admirably with the Widmer showing off a reddish brown color and the Bridgeport looking a bit darker with none of the red. In the aroma they both went their separate ways, the Widmer revealing a typical Belgian yeast character (banana, clove, bread) while the Bridgeport focused on piny, spicy hops with some cedar and soap notes as well. In the flavor the Widmer asserted itself as the front runner with a sweet, dark maltiness complementing the Belgian yeast flavors. The Bridgeport, on the other hand, was a bitter beast. Sharp and clean with a harshly bitter, soapy, cedary finish. Seemed to us like the bitterness overwhelmed the chocolate malts.

Both of these beers hail from breweries that are mainstays in the Portland beer scene with a reputation for solid year-round beers and intriguing seasonal offerings. As of late, however, we have enjoyed more of the Widmer stuff. As a matter of fact, I just went and looked at the Bottle Battle archives and found that of 5 battles featuring Bridgeport (this being the fifth) they have lost all of them except one which was a split decision. Could just be bad scheduling on our part, but that's a rough record.
 
Winner by Unanimous Decision: Widmer W '12

Yet Another IPA Battle — Green Flash Brewing vs. Boulevard Brewing

Green Flash Brewing

West Coast IPA

ABV 7.3%

Boulevard Brewing

Single Wide IPA

ABV 5.7%

The selection of IPAs and Beerworks seems to be never ending. Man we love living on the west coast!

The Single Wide IPA hails from Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City and was recommended by a friend in Seattle. The West Coast IPA is a heavy hitter from Green Flash Brewing in San Diego that we've tried on draft before.

The aromas were both impressive but quite different with the Single Wide offering up floral hops, grain and citrus and the West Coast countering with funky, earthy piny hops. Hops were dominant in both throughout the flavor but the West Coast really took it to another level with an intense caramel maltiness along with the piny bitterness. The Single Wide finished moderately bitter and the West Coast finished with an intensely harsh, long lasting, burnt hop bitterness. Neither really fit our palates — the Single Wide lacked a bit in body and flavor and the West Coast was completely over the top and seemed more like a double IPA.

We both went back and forth on which we liked better with Ellen finally choosing the Single Wide because the West Coast was so intense she couldn't imagine drinking an entire pint. While I agreed with Ellen that the Single Wide was a nice, easy drinking IPA, I ultimately chose the West Coast because after tasting it the Single Wide just seemed weak in comparison.
 
Split Decision: Ellen chose the Single Wide, I chose the West Coast

Pale Ales — Deschutes vs. New Planet (Gluten Free)

Deschutes Red Chair NWPA
(Northwest Pale Ale)
ABV 6.2%

New Planet
Off Grid Pale Ale
(Gluten Free Beer)
ABV 5%

This wasn't much of a fight. As a matter of fact it was a bit sad. The Off Grid just got destroyed by the Red Chair. Total domination. For the sake of New Planet and gluten-free beer drinkers everywhere we can only hope that the bottle we tried was stored improperly or somehow infected because it was really bad. It was an undercarbonated, thin mess of a beer that had vegetal notes and tasted mostly of sweet malt extract. There was little to no hop presence aside from a barely perceptible bitterness in the finish. If this beer was even close to what other gluten-free beers taste like we extend our deepest sympathies to beer-lovers with gluten intolerance.

The Deschutes on the other hand was amazing. Perhaps its positive attributes were heightened by the dismal competition, but we loved every part of it, from the tropical fruit hop character in the aroma to the smooth and balanced malty base that complemented the hops just right. It's a beer that is so well crafted and easy to drink that it might cause you to contemplate drinking the whole six pack. It's a seasonal release so hurry and get yourself some while it's still around!  

Winner by Unanimous Decision: Deschutes Red Chair NWPA

West Coast IPAs — Lagunitas vs. Deschutes vs. Sierra Nevada

Lagunitas IPA
ABV 6.2%

Deschutes Inversion IPA
ABV 6.8%

Sierra Nevada
Ruthless Rye IPA
ABV 6.6%

Have we mentioned that we like hops? Seems every time I go to Beerworks I come back with a mixed selection of IPAs. These bottles hail from three well-respected left coast breweries that appear to love hops as much as we do.

Ellen poured the beers so I could try them blind. Knowing that the Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye was in the mix had my senses on high alert for any of the spicy characteristics that rye can give to a beer. The first beer I tasted was obviously Lagunitas. It was clear, bright orange and featured intense piny and citrusy hop aromas with a hop candy flavor and mild bitterness. They continue to make beer exactly for our palates. As much as we love their beer we continue to suspect that all of their IPAs are the same beer with different labels. We'll have to do an all Lagunitas IPA battle soon to put that theory to the test. 

The second beer was more of a reddish amber and had some tropical hoppy notes in the aroma as well as some black pepper. It had a medium body with a bold bitterness throughout the flavor and into the finish. The final beer was orangy brown in color and had some serious funky, musty, marijuana notes in the aroma. The flavor started sweet and malty and finished with citrus rind and a bit of grains with moderate bitterness. 

I guessed that number two was the Rye due to the black pepper character but, as usual, I was wrong. The harshly bitter number two was the Inversion, a beer that I've always enjoyed on its own but when compared with the other two just didn't stand up. They funky one was the Ruthless Rye which we had really been looking forward to tasting. Perhaps it was a victim of our expectations but it just wasn't ready for the big time yet either. So the Lagunitas emerged victorious — yet another beer in their lineup that is so good it's beginning to get a bit suspicious.     

Winner by Unanimous Decision: Lagunitas IPA

Stone Collaboration Beers — The Alchemist/Ninkasi/Stone vs. The Bruery/Elysian/Stone

The Alchemist/Ninkasi/Stone
More Brown Than Black IPA
ABV 7.4%

The Bruery/Elysian/Stone
La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado
(Ale brewed with pumpkin, yams, toasted fenugreek, lemon verbena and birch bark)
ABV 5%

Stone Brewing in Escondido, CA continues down their path of world domination with a fun series of collaboration beers. They are often adventurous and ambitious brews so we always like to give them a try if we see them. We ended up with two in the fridge at the same time so we thought we'd let them have at it.

When compared to the rich, reddish brown La Citrueille, the More Brown Than Black (MBTB) looked pretty darn black to us. Based on the specificity of the name we had expected it to be a lighter brown. Instead it was quite dark, so dark in fact that neither of us were sure why they chose to point out its browness in the name.

The MBTB managed to quickly overcome its misleading name with a blast of grassy, piny, spicy hops in the aroma. The flavor was a hop assault as well with more piny, resinous hop character dominating the dark roasted malts. If you like massively hopped beers you should definitely look to pick this one up. The aroma alone will make you weak at the knees.

The La Citrueille was a bit confusing. Despite the laundry list (pumpkin, yam, toasted fenugreek, lemon verbena and birch bark) of brewing adjuncts it came across as a medium bodied, refreshing, pleasantly bitter beer. In the aroma we got floral hops, cedar and a pronounced cardamom presence which was weird since that was one of the few things they didn't add to the beer. Ellen had some fenugreek in her spice collection so we sniffed that which was exciting but neither of us could detect it in the beer. It finished with a mild coffee bitterness and was all in all a solid, well-made beer. 

Split decision: I chose More Brown Than Black because my craving for hops is ballooning out of control and Ellen chose La Citrueille because she is a sucker for anything French.

More Winter Seasonal Madness — Lagunitas vs. Anchor vs. Boulevard

Lagunitas Sucks
Holiday Ale
ABV 7.85%

2011 Anchor
Our Special Ale
ABV 5.5%

Boulevard Brewing
Nutcracker Ale
(Winter Warmer)
ABV 5.9%

Our exhaustive research of winter beers continues. You can go ahead and throw quotes around "research" if you want, but we assure you that this is serious business. This battle featured two California breweries versus one from Kansas City that has impressed us with its beers in the past. 

We were both disappointed to find that Lagunitas chose not to brew its excellent Brown Shugga due to capacity issues at their brewery. Their self-deprecating label revealed that they were disappointed as well, but decided to cave to the cash and keep pumping out their classic IPAs. They promised Brown Sugga next year so we'll see. The beer itself is much like most of their popular IPAs — high ABV malt bombs with fantastic hop aromas and moderate bitterness. For hopheads like us it tasted excellent. Our only concern is that the last three beers we've had from them seem very similar (Lucky 13.alt, Maximus IPA and this Holiday Ale). I hope they're not all just the same beer with different clever labels. It also didn't seem particularly "winter beery" if you know what we mean.

The Anchor Our Special Ale is more of a typical winter beer style — dark and malty with a secret blend of spices added for complexity. It smelled slightly sour with some hints of banana and tasted like Christmas with clove, cinnamon and cardamom and cola coming through. The finish was mildly bitter. We thought it was quite a festive quaff. 

Finally, the Nutcracker caught our attention as it was billed as a wet hopped winter beer meaning fresh hops were added to the beer shortly after being picked. Unfortunately it seemed like the fresh hop aromas were lost among more prominent aromas of apples and Belgian yeasty esters (despite not using a Belgian yeast). It had a smooth body and featured roasted malts, orange peel and piney hops in the flavor with a sharp, acidic, long-lasting finish. As you can tell, it had a lot going on and seemed to incorporate it all pretty well.

As far as a winner, we disqualified the Lagunitas because even though the beer was good they made no attempt to do anything special with it to make it seasonal. We could not agree on which of the remaining two beers was best so we had to call it a draw. We recommend buying both and hosting a battle of your own. Send us the details.     

Draw: Ellen chose the Our Special Ale, I chose the Nutcracker.