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.

Lost Coast describes Tangerine Wheat Beer on their website as follows:

A refreshing citrus ale, Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat combines our Lost Coast Harvest Wheat with natural tangerine flavors. Brewed with a combination of wheat and crystal malts, and finished with Perle hops.

Where I Found It. BevMo in Sacramento, CA

Review Date. July 24, 2009.

Serving Type. 22 oz. bottle into a glass

Appearance. The head of Tangerine Wheat Beer is thin and white with very loose bubbles. The head lasted only a few seconds and just barely longer than a soda. The color of the beer is a burnt orange honey color and it has a slight haze.

Smell. The bouquet of this is a strong tangerine or sweet orange and you can almost smell all parts of the tangerine from the peel to the flesh. It’s almost like you just opened up a fresh tangerine. There is little to no malt aroma or hop bouquet. Although the smell is strong it is not like candy.

Taste. If you like fruit beers that do not hide the fruit, then Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat Beer is a beer for you. This flavor is full of the citrus of the tangerines with enough of a malty sweetness to remind you that this is still a beer. There is also a hint of bitterness in the finish. The fruit even gives this beer an ever so slight tartness that complements all of the other flavors.

Mouthfeel. This is a medium to light bodied beer, which is not over-carbonated, keeping it as a beer and not a soda. It does, however, feel a bit watery.

Drinkability. Tangerine Wheat Beer is refreshing, smooth, and thirst quenching. On a warm sunny day this beer is the perfect complement.

Rating. My ratings below are on a five point scale with five being the best score.

• Appearance (20%): 3.0
• Smell (20%): 4.5
• Taste (40%): 4.0
• Mouthfeel (10%): 3.0
• Drinkability (10%): 4.0
• Overall: 3.80

Information

• Name: Tangerine Wheat Beer
• Brewery: Lost Coast Brewery
• Style: fruit beer
• Alcohol by volume: 5.0%
• Hops: finished with Perle hops
• Malt: wheat and crystal
• RateBeer Info for Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat Beer
• Overall Score: 43
• Style Score: 76

Other Reviews

• Must Love Beer – Lost Coast Brewery Tangerine Wheat
• Left 4 Beer – Tangerine Wheat (Lost Coast)
• Beer Advocate – Tangerine Wheat

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.

• Appearance (20%): 4.0
• Smell (20%): 4.5
• Taste (40%): 5.0
• Mouthfeel (10%): 4.0
• Drinkability (10%): 5.0
• Overall: 4.6

Information

• Style: American Wheat, Fruit Beer
• Brewery: Hangar 24 Brewery website, twitter, facebook
• Alcohol by volume: 4.6% abv
• Other ingredients: whole pureed oranges
• Beer Advocate rating: 3.83 (as of September 5, 2009)

Other Reviews

• Summer of Beer – Hangar 24 Brewery, Redlands, CA
• Beer Advocate - Orange Wheat
• Rate Beer – Hangar 24 Orange Wheat

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.

• Appearance (20%): 4.0
• Smell (20%): 4.0
• Taste (40%): 4.0
• Mouthfeel (10%): 2.5
• Drinkability (10%): 3.0
• Overall: 3.75

Information

• Style: Belgian kriek, fruit beer
• Brewery: New Belgium
• Alcohol by volume: 8%
• Other ingredients: cherries
• Beer Advocate rating: 3.6 (as of May 29, 2009)

Other Reviews

• Better Beer Blog – Beers in Review: New Belgium Mothership Wit, 1554, Mighty Arrow, Frambozen and Dark Kriek
• Beer at 6512 – Review: New Belgium Lips of Faith Dark Kriek
• Food, Beer, and Travel – New Belgium Lips of Faith Dark Kriek
• Krausen Rising – New Belgium – Lips of Faith Dark Kriek
• JustBeer: A simple beer blog – New Belgim Lips of Faith Dark Kriek
• Fermentedly Challenged – New Belgium Dark Kriek review
• Beer Advocate - Lips of Faith Dark Kriek
• Rate Beer – New Belgium Lips of Faith (Dark Kriek)

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.

Recipe

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:

• 6.85 lbs of liquid wheat extract (65 minutes)
• 0.5 oz Liberty hops 4.5% AA (60 minutes)
• 0.7 oz really old (but sealed and refridgerated) Czech Saaz hops 3.2% AA (20 minutes)
• 0.5 oz Liberty hops 4.5% AA
• White Labs WLP380 Hefeweizen IV Ale Yeast
• 4 blood oranges
  • Grate the orange part (the white part is very bitter) of the rind of 2 of the oranges
  • Peel, section, and chop all 4 blood oranges
  • Heat fruit in 1/2 gallon of water to 160°F, cover, turn off heat, cool.
  • Add to primary fermenter
• 2 blood oranges
  • I sampled the beer going from the primary to the secondary I added because I wanted more blood orange flavor.
  • Grate the rind of one of the oranges
  • Juice both the blood oranges
  • Bring the mixture barely to a boil.
  • Cool and add to the secondary fermenter

Yeast Starter

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

Brew Day

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

The boiling wort is ready for the hop pellets to be added.

The picture below is the “tea” of chopped blood orange sections, which have sunk to the bottom,, and grated blood orange peel, which is floating on the top. I brought this mixture to 160°F and left it there for about 10 minutes. After it cooled down I dumped the entire contents into the primary fermenter.

The wort chiller was one of the best pieces of homebrewing equipment I’ve purchased. I chilled the wort in about 16 minutes.

Adding the wort to the primary fermenter. I cooled it down to about 75°F.

At the time of writing, it has been about 3 weeks since brew day. The last sample I took had a gravity that was very close to the target so I’ll be kegging this weekend. After the beer is properly carbonated I’ll sample it and post a review.

Others Who Brewed this Recipe

• Beer Brewing Blog – Blood Orange Hefeweizen
• Homebrew Talk – Blood Orange Hefeweizen
• Hop Cast – Episode 30