Lost Coast Brewery, out of Eureka, California, is the maker of several great beers such as Downtown Brown, Great White Beer, and Alley Cat Amber. Tangerine Wheat is one of their two fruit beer offerings, the other being Raspberry Brown. Tangerine Wheat is a refereshing beer that is great for warm summer weather, BBQs, and easy drinking. Continue reading
Over the summer while I was visiting Southern California I searched for a brewery in the area and found Hangar 24 Brewery in Redlands, California. I arranged for a visit and tried all of the beers on tap at the time. More on the brewery tour in a future post.
Hangar 24′s flagship and most popular beer is Orange Wheat, a wonderful summertime, or any time, American style wheat beer made with oranges. The oranges in this beer are organic and are sourced from local growers from the Inland Orange Conservancy. The oranges are pureed whole and added to the beer giving it a strong orange natural flavor.
Where I Found It. I tried this beer at Hangar 24 Brewery in Redlands, California on June 6, 2009.
Serving Type. I tried Orange Wheat from the tap into a plastic cup.
Appearance. This beer has a pale yellow pastel color and has a cloudy appearance, as you would expect a wheat beer to be. The head was frothy and lasted a good amount of time, especially for a fruit beer. With the style of beer in mind, it has a refreshing appearance like grapefruit juice.
Smell. The aroma and bouquet of Orange Wheat is primarily related to the oranges in the beer. It has a strong smell of fresh squeezed orange juice, orange rind, and orange rind. It has an inviting tangy smell accompanied by a hint of grainy and bready aroma.
Taste. Orange Wheat is exactly how I think that an orange beer should taste. It has the perfect blend of fresh natural oranges and beer and does not taste nor like orange candy like some other of the orange beers on the market. Just like the smell it has flavors or orange juice and slightly tart and acidic making it clean and crisp. The malt reveals itself as a slight grainy sweetness of wheat and barley while finishing more dry than sweet. There is little to no discernible bitterness in this beer.
Mouthfeel. This beer is light bodied with a refreshing amount of carbonation. Orange Wheat has a slight and pleasant orange aftertaste.
Drinkability. This beer is thirst quenching and very easy to drink. It has an ideal blend of orange and beer and tastes fresh both with regard to the beer and the oranges. It is crisp, light, and easy to consume several in one sitting. Although it might be best suited for a warm summer day, it is also great for any time of day in any California season.
Rating. My ratings below are on a five point scale with five being the best score.
Lips of Faith beers by New Belgium Brewing Company are special releases that are available around St. Valentine’s day. They describe these beers as “funky” and “fruitful” and Dark Kriek is no exception. It is a big sour cherry ale with lot’s of complexity and flavor. New Belgium describes the Lips of Faith releases as follows:
For many years we’ve celebrated Valentine’s Day at New Belgium Brewing by creating a special small batch beer for our family and friends. These beers tend to be a little funky, fruitful and straight from the heart. This year we decided to share the love.
On the same page, they describe Dark Kriek as follows:
New Belgium Brewing’s Dark Kriek is a limited edition Belgian kriek or cherry beer. Much darker than a traditional kriek with a dash of sour cherry up front, our Dark Kriek is actually a blend of two beers. We start with a light, dry, tannic beer aged two years in oak barrels and combine this with a heavier, dark ale and cherries to create one smooth cherry blast of love.
Although I enjoyed this beer, especially after it warmed up to probably about 50ºF, it is not for the casual beer drinker and it is not a sweet and sour lambic like Lindemans’ lambics.
Where I Found It. I found a 22 oz. bottle of this special release beer at BevMo in Sacramento, CA.
Serving Type. I poured from the bottle into a glass.
Appearance. Dark Kreik has a frothy head that lasts a long time. The head has an eggnog-like color with a touch of pink from the cherries. The beer has a dark amber-red color that reminds me of redwood or mahogany. Although very dark, this beer is crystal clear.
Smell. The aroma has a a dark, roasty malt quality like that of a barley wine. It is, however, just a touch yeasty smelling. The bouquet has a rich fruit sourness like that of dark cherry and cassis. This sour bouquet is the prevalent smell in the beer especially as the beer warms up to an appropriate drinking temperature.
Taste. When consumed too cold, Lips of Faith Dark Kreik tastes sour and the other interesting flavors are subdued. After this beer warms up a bit, the flavors are much more pronounced. This beer is sour like a sour lambic ale but unlike other lambic ales like Lindemans’ kriek, this beer is not fruity sweet. Instead, it has a roasted malt sweetness that is more like the molasses sweetness that you might find in a barley wine. The fruit flavor is not lost in the sourness but is enhanced by the other flavors to create a nice dark cherry flavor.
Mouthfeel. The mouthfeel is what I like least about this beer. It was thick and syrupy with some chalkiness probably caused by tanins.
Drinkability. Dark Kreik is a interesting, complex, and tasty beer to try. It is a strong beer with unique flavors and sourness but is not a session beer. A 22 oz. bottle of this beer is perfect to share with somebody else. With that said, I would pick up this beer again, if it were available.
Rating. My ratings below are on a five point scale with five being the best score.
On February 23, 2009 I brewed up a batch of Blood Orange Hefeweizen using a recipe that I found in Extreme Brewing [Amazon]. The recipe, photos, and details of brew day can be found in this previous post. After 3 weeks in the secondary fermenter and 2 weeks in the keg, it was finally ready to drink.
I poured the beer from the keg into a glass and the following is what I experienced.
Appearance. This beer has a yellow tan head that doesn’t last very long. It is hazy, as a hefeweizen usually is, the has a deep red-orange amber color.
Smell. The blood orange hefeweizen that I brewed has a strong clove smell and a hint of banana. It has a citrus and dark ripened fruit bouquet, which, for me, seemed to be a characteristic of the blood oranges. The smell is not terribly sweet and I was expecting a lot more of the blood orange smell.
Taste. The banana aspect of the blood orange hefeweizen is more prevalent in the taste. The yeast also gives it a clove spice quality. When the clove flavor is combined with the unsweetened blood orange flavors, it reminds me just a little of orange-spice herbal tea. Where the tea is very in your face with the flavors, in the beer thse flavors are more subtle.
Mouthfeel. This batch of homebrew did not reach the target final gravity. It ended up with a little more body than I wanted creating a slight surup-like sensation on the tongue. It seems to leave a bit of a yeasty aftertase in your mouth.
Drinkability. Despite the fact that this homebrew recipe wasn’t quite what I expected, it is a drinkable beer. Especially while is cold out of the keg, it has a refereshing quality to it. The uniqueness of it is a drawback, however, to having more than two at a time.
All in all, I thought this was an interesting beer to brew and drink. I’m not sure that I would brew it again any time soon. If I did try brewing it again, I would use a more neutral flavored yeast. I think the hefeweizen yeast might have overpowered the taste and smell of the blood oranges.
It had been nearly 2 years since the last time I brewed a batch of beer and I was eager to start brewing again. I had recently purchased a copy of Extreme Brewing [Amazon
I found the recipe for this beer on page 96 of Extreme Brewing but as usual I had to substitute a few ingredients. Here is the version of the recipe that I brewed:
Three days before brew day I made a 1.25 L yeast starter with a quarter cup of light dry malt extract. I bought it to a very gentle boil on an electric stove. While wearing silicone oven mits, I pulled the flask off of the heat when it looked like it was about to boil over.
Yeast Starter for White Labs WLP380 Hefeweizen IV Yest
The following are some pictures that I took on brew day. The first picture (and the first picture in this post) are of the blood oranges. I used two store bought blood oranges and two home grown (by relatives, not me) blood oranges. Can you guess which were store bought? The home grown ones were blood red in color while the other oranges were more pink and brown.
Below I’m adding the liquid wheat malt extract to the boiled water. More Flavor in Los Altos, CA packages their LME in convenient bags. I thought that this wheat LME was a little dark, which will probably hide some of the redness from those really dark blood oranges.
Liberty hop pellets, measured out to 0.5 oz and ready to be added to the wort.
Liberty Hop Pellets
Beer 47 in a Tumblr
