Anderson Valley straight outta Cali is a brewery that’s been around since the 80s. Offering every style under the sun ranging from pale ales and pilsners to porters and stouts and everything in between, the people there have made some pretty cool beers in the last 30 years. Something I’ve seen around for a while and was recently able to finally try is their Framboise Rose Gose. While we’re on the topic, “gose” is German and is pronounced like “goze-uh” if you were curious. Moving on, the Rose Gose is a sour wheat beer with raspberry puree and rose hips added into the brewing process. The rose gives the beer a light floral note and the raspberry provides not only an additional flavor and scent, but also gives it a mellow pink hue which is not common in beer. The taste is fairly tart and a bit salty, but that is to be expected with a gose style beer, most of which are brewed with some level of salt. I would tell anyone considering getting into the style to try the Framboise Rose Gose as their introductory sour.
Rhinegeist Andromeda is another beer I was able to get my hands on recently after having seen it around. As far as American pale ales go, I would slide this closer to the “citrus” end of the spectrum and away from the “floral” end. That’s not to say there aren’t some pine notes, but it’s clearly more of a citrusy pale ale. I was able to pick up tangerine, grapefruit, and peach both from the smell and the initial taste, but what I liked about this beer was that none of the flavors overwhelmed the others. Even though there were multiple fruity flavors intertwined, there was also the dry grassy mouthfeel that a lot of people look for in pale ales. Rhinegeist pumps out a lot of different beers covering a wide range of styles, and in my experience, it’s unlikely that if one of their creations makes it to the shelves, that it won’t be high quality. Andromeda is just another Rhinegeist beer to add to my list of theirs which was worth trying and that I would recommend to others.
Duvel, which is a Belgian strong ale from the Brewerij Duvel Moortgat in actual Belgium, isn’t what I would call a “craft beer,” since it’s so popular in other countries and has been around for a very long time. I put it on this list because even though it’s not something new or a crazy style, I believe that there are many people who have never heard of or considered trying this beer even though it’s been under your nose this whole time. As a Belgian strong pale ale, Duvel has a fairly high ABV at 8.5 percent, which is apparent in the taste. It’s not boozy in a negative way, but you would be aware of it. Duvel is simply a time tested example of a great Belgian ale, which takes bits and pieces from many other beer styles. Citrus and lemongrass usually in a pale ale fill the nose alongside banana and clove, which is usually reserved for wheat beers and hefeweizens. It’s both bready and yeasty, so clearly there’s a lot going on, but if you like both of those styles of beers, I wholly believe you should get a taste of Duvel because there’s a reason people have been drinking it for so long. It has all of the best parts.
10W-40 is not usually something I would try to convince people to drink. Until Hi-Wire Brewing made a beer with the same name, 10W-40 has been a kind of motor oil. The reason they gave the beer this name is because is looks the same. Hi-Wire has released multiple versions of this Imperial Stout with varying flavor profiles, but I would like to specifically talk about the German Chocolate Cupcake 10W-40. The initial profile is very chocolatey with some coffee and caramel. The coconut is intended to give the beer it’s “German chocolate” vibe. In some sips, I really felt that they succeeded in that, but in others I tasted cherry and ended up with more of a “chocolate covered cherries” aftertaste. It’s interesting because depending on your palate, you may taste both, you may only pick up on one, or you may very well have a different experience entirely than I did, but that’s one of the great things about beer is that people can experience the same thing in very different ways.
-by Josh Helton
