Club Corner
Beer of the Month Club November 2024
PORTERS AND STOUTS As the nights get longer and colder, it’s time to break out the dark beers. This month we’ll be mostly focusing on the darker and richer end of the spectrum, with a fun light bodied porter to round out the bunch. Porters have been around since the early 18th century, originally made, so barmen could pull from a single cask instead of the typical tactic done by the porters of the time, which was to mix the lighter and heavier styles on tap that day together to cut the higher ABV beers. These new beers used malted barley and a touch of hops to create a stronger dark ale without being overly boozy. The adjective “stout” was first applied to beer as early as the late 17th century, and had usually denoted a stronger style of beer. The word became intertwined with porter over time as there were a wide range of strengths, and the stronger ones were regularly called “stout porters”. Over time, there became a slight difference in these two beers, with stouts normally being introduced to nitrogen to give a smoother, creamier mouthfeel and having a wider range of strengths, while porters tend to not be nitro’d and stick generally between 5 to 7 percent ABV. With the rise of craft brewing, these styles underwent a renaissance in the start of this century with an eye towards experimentation and having great shelf life. While not the craze it once was, these beers are still some of the most exciting being made. Cheers! Justin Malesheetz Beer Buyer Dokkaebier Chuseok Porter Oakland, CA USA This beer is brewed for Chuseok, a major Korean harvest festival that is celebrated on the 14th through 16th day of the 8th lunar month. It is a light bodied porter brewed with pumpkin, rice, persimmon, cinnamon and ginger. Molasses in color with notes of ginger, persimmon, and coffee on the nose. Soft on the palate with the fruitiness of a good cup of coffee, toasted barley notes, and an earthy and spicy finish. $5.99 per can / $141.74 per case Suggested Food Pairing: Minestrone soup, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, japchae Perennial Take 10 Imperial Stout St. Louis, MO USA Brewed with peanut flour and salt, fermented with chocolate sauce, and steeped on whole roasted peanuts. A deep black with a nose that shows notes of chocolate and sea salt. Lush and mouth coating with flavors of toasted peanuts, mocha, and a salty pretzel like finish. $9.99 per can / $235.59 per case Suggested Food Pairing: pour over ice cream, chocolate icebox pie Brouwerj de Molen x Jopen Sin and Remorse Imperial Stout Bodegraven, South Holland, NL A multi-grain beer made with 38% rye, 24% oats, and a small amount of wheat. Opaque black with a nose of baking chocolate and black coffee. Malty and soft without being cloying. Notes cinnamon, vanilla, and chocolate graham crackers on the palate with a long chocolatey finish. $10.99 per bottle / $130.13 per case Suggested Food Pairing: Pork mole, South Indian beef curry, black forest cake, braised short ribs Midnight Sun T.R.E.A.T. Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter Anchorage, AK USA Brewed with pumpkin, cocoa nibs, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Black with notes of baking spice, chocolate, pumpkin bread, and black coffee. Boozy and luscious on the palate where the clove and nutmeg stand out along with a dark chocolate fruitiness on the finish. $6.99 per can / $152.18 per case Suggested Food Pairing: Chocolate babka, pumpkin pie drizzled with chocolate sauce
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December 2022 Beer Of The Month Club
Holiday Beers This month we have four different beers to cozy up with from three different breweries bringing you three different styles across two countries divided by a common language. First up an English Winter Warmer in the form of a Nut Brown Ale imported from Oxfordshire. From Connecticut we have a Double Dry Hopped Hazy Double IPA with holiday spices and a Double Pastry Stout meant to invoke spiced eggnog. Finally an imperial stout from Oklahoma with cacao nibs, chilies, Christmas spices, coffee & vanilla beans. Happy Holidaze -Sam Ridgeway Brewing - Warm Welcome Location: Oxfordshire, England Winter warmers are a common offering in England for the holiday months. Ridgeway’s winter warmer is available to us in the form of a Nut Brown Ale. Full of flavor for a style thats light in body, Nut Brown Ales are malty, nutty, and thirst quenching with a slight hop bite. Beer style: Nut Brown Ale 6% abv Serve 40-45° F Abomination Brewing - Gingerbread Fog Location: North Haven, CT A double dry hopped hazy double IPA with spices. Fruity and Juicy like most Hazy IPAs tend to be with a slight spicy gingerbread character that slowly creeps in with each sip. Fun! Beer style: Spiced Hazy Double IPA 9.1% abv Serve 40–45° F Abomination Brewing - Santa’s Black Blood Location: North Haven, CT An imperial Pastry Stout with eggnog spices. Chocolatey, spicy, and a bit creamy. A full bodied decadent slow sipper that will not disappoint anyone with a sweet tooth. Beer style: Imperial pastry stout 13.3% abv Serve 45–55° F Praiirie - Christmas Bomb Location: Oklahoma The holiday version of their infamous BOMB! Another spiced Imperial Stout with cacao nibs, chilies, christmas spices, coffee, and vanilla beans. Note: This beer is different every year. If you like stouts and haven't tried Prairie’s offerings, I recommend trying anything from their amazing line up. Top notch! Beer style: Holiday Spiced Imperial Stout 13.0% abv Serve 45–55° F
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Beer Of The Month club October 2022
Põhjala Porters! Specifically Baltic Porters are an interesting style. Unlike traditional Porters that are brewed with traditional ale yeasts, Baltic Porters are brewed using lager yeasts. Baltic brewers tried their hand at making their own version of the Imperial Stout and ended up creating the Baltic Porter. So technically, the Baltic Porter is almost a lager version of an Imperial stout that has made a name for itself around the world as a style. Pohjala is from Estonia, at the edge of the gulf of Finland in the Baltic sea. They know Baltic porters well and tend to brew them in the fall months as things cool down and nights get longer & darker. Variations on a theme. On top of being a go-to for a traditional Baltic porter, Põhjala are also playful and have fun with modern treatments of their beers, so to really have fun with the style I’ve lined up some variations for you all. Öö meaning “night” is one of their standard straight forward Imperial Baltic Porters and in my opinion, the best of them. Killer example of the style! Pime Öö meaning “dark night” is the Imperial Stout counterpart to Öö and a great example of what happens when a Baltic brewery focus’s on brewing an Imperial Stout. Baltic Porter Day was brewed for Baltic porter day this year. It’s an imperial Baltic Porter aged in Palo Santo wood, a hard dense wood with very unique characteristics. Jätku leiba is an Imperial Baltic porter brewed with toasted rye flakes & aged in Bourbon and American Rye Whiskey barrels. Yum! .
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