DRAFT Magazine

Finally, tasting notes for the beer that’s monopolized Monday Night Football advertising since the season began. And they’re good! The hazy, orange, unfiltered wheat beer presents a similar profile to AB’s other wheat, Shock Top; fans of that brew will undoubtedly find a friend in this beer. It smells orangey-sweet and light, and the aroma carries through to the flavor. The swallow isn’t as smooth as other wheats on the market; rather, it’s bubbly, and a pleasantly grainy mouthfeel focuses on earthy malt and wheat. Orange juice erupts in the flavor, alongside a hint of coriander. Grain lasts on the tongue after the drink, and a 4.1% ABV makes the experience easygoing. Touchdown, Budweiser.

…besides Zingiberene, that is. In the Sept./Oct. 2009 issue we raved about the crazy-tangy, hopless ale crafted with real, raw ginger, but the cozy Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Schmohz Brewing pours a host of inkworthy brews. Thank God for the Internet. Below, our five favorite crafts from the humble yet pretty genius brewery.

Kiss My Scottish Arse
This 9.3%-ABV Scotch ale pours an ominous shade of dark brown with a big khaki head and a flat cola consistency. Boozy, malty, and smooth, the swallow’s characterized by caramelized, roasty malt, dry hops, wonderful chocolate notes and, of course, alcohol.

Barleywine
We scored a sneak peak of the brewery’s yet-unnamed barleywine, crafted to celebrate Schmohz fifth anniversary; the beer pours on Dec. 17. Frankly, it’s one of the best barleywines we’ve tasted. Low in carbonation with virtually no head, the beer’s smooth and brandylike with a hint of sourness. You can smell the alcohol a mile away.

Miracle Off 28th St.
One of only two Schmohz beers with residual sugars, this 9.2% old ale is the sweetest and heaviest of the bunch. Rife with spice, caramel, and light fruit smells, the beer presents a lightly roasted, toffee malt flavor that carries the scents through the mouth.

Pickle Tink
A wheat beer brewed with Michigan strawberries, this is a pleasantly left-field take on a fruit beer. First, it packs a 7.3% ABV — and you’d never know it. Light and a bit tart, it’s not terribly fruity; the strawberries aren’t obvious, and serve mainly to give the beer a slight sour pucker. The pastel-orange color’s gorgeous. It’s off the taps for now, but catch it again in May.

Bone Crusher Stout
Perky for a stout, this smooth, 6.4%-ABV brew cajoles you into drinking more than one. The aroma is low but savory and roasty, and the taste is fresh, dark and roasty with hints of cocoa, coffee, dark fruits, and malt. Hops balance out the nicely dry swallow.

Anheuser-Busch is swimming in seasonals; we sampled three:

Michelob Marzen/Oktoberfest
This marzen — which just snagged a GABF bronze in the American-style amber category — is a pretty dead-on example of the style, though not quite as malty as Beck’s. Its aroma is just a bit malty, while the taste leans toward toasty with a hint of hop bitterness. The mouthfeel is appropriately smooth; it’s malt-focused but not sweet. Overall, the drink is slightly drying and balanced — ideal for stein-swinging sessions. The brew’s available on shelves through October.

Beck’s Oktoberfest
It’s not the most robust example of the style, but this is the sort of beer you want to be soaking in at Oktoberfest. Brewed according to the German Purity Law with pilsner malt and Beck’s proprietary yeast strain, the beer seems a maltier, sweeter version of the Beck’s we’re used to. The aroma’s malty with a bit of toast; it grows sweeter as the beer warms. It tastes of sweet bread with a lingering toasty malt flavor and a slight hop bitterness with, appropriately, no noble hop flavor. A deep orange color and a frothy, ivory head make for an elegantly festive appearance, and the 5.2% ABV means you can celebrate all night long. Beck’s Oktoberfest will be on shelves through October.

Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale
Available through November, this subtle spice beer hits all the notes we love in a fall seasonal: The brew glows bright orange with a sandy head, and smells like fall spice — a bit warm with some pleasant earthiness. The beer’s brewed with golden delicious pumpkins, but the taste leans more toward seasonal spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, and ginger than pumpkin sweetness, though the spice is mild. It’s relatively hoppy for a pumpkin beer, and a hint of alcohol makes the brew appear stronger than its 5.5% ABV. A moderately carbonated concludes the beer cleanly.

It comes as no surprise that the brewery that’s certifiably shaken up the West Coast would rock its fall seasonal just as hard. The Bruery’s opaque, brick-red Autumn Maple is a table beer to be sure; it’s a spiced brown ale that packs a 10% ABV punch. A huge smell of malted milk balls and hops gets special treatment from an alcohol sting and a yammy tang — yes, the beer’s brewed with real yams. The swallow is awesomely constructed: It’s all taste and small in the mouthfeel, a balance you don’t come across often in beers this flavor-packed. Molasses, maple syrup and spice — all added to the brew — combine to counter more yam sweetness and tang. A sugary sting marks the back of the swallow, but overall, the drink’s smooth. This is a strong brew; alcohol stretches through the swallow commencing in a chest-smacking warmth. It might benefit from a bit of aging, but even now, Autumn Maple’s certainly one of the most thought-provoking fall seasonals produced. Find it on shelves through early winter.

Along with Cerveceria Jerome, BarbaRoja is furthering evidence that great beer can be found in Argentina, and Barrel-Aged Red Ale is just another example. This extremely fresh, cloudy reddish-copper brew emanates caramel and alcohol aromas through its persistent khaki-colored head, backed by a healthy dose of smoked Patagonian malts. And while the aroma is enticing, the mouthfeel and flavor profile are what really proves its quality. Smooth and milky, the liquid easily washes over the palate while dried cherry sweetness sticks to the taste buds. While red ales are usually more compartmentalized, this brew is rather seamless from start to finish, with hops, malts, and dark fruit notes running together, joined — but not overwhelmed — by the heavier-than-usual presence of alcohol. Buy two bottles: At 9% ABV it’s worth laying one down to age.

We a love a good kolsch; shame that they’re so short-lived. Summit’s late-fall version, part of the brewery’s Unchained Series, is a solid example of the style: It pours dark golden but brilliantly clear. A mild malt scent with fruit ribbons wafts from a puffy, white head. An earthy, grainy malt sweetness dominates the taste, but a slight hop astringency is perceptible in the background. In all, it’s light but characterful, and wonderfully refreshing. Good show, Summit.

We’ve spoken before about our incredible willpower: We’ve managed to resist temptation and sock away gems like Mad River John Barleycorn barleywine, Pelican Grand Cru, Pike Monk’s Uncle, and a La Choulette Ambree biere de garde. This week, Mr. Postman brought us two imperial stouts we reluctantly must cellar away. Wasn’t it Mariah Carey who said, “If you love a beer, let it age?”

Anyway, we’re unhappily storing two rockstar brews: Odell Bourbon Barrel Stout and the latest version of Deschutes The Abyss. Odell’s brew is a barrel aged stout that sat four months in bourbon barrels from Kentucky’s Buffalo Trace distillery. The result is a 10.5% ABV monther loaded with cocoa, vanilla, and bourbon flavors… cocoa, vanilla, and bourbon flavors we won’t experience for another year. Interestingly, the brewery’s moving the brew into a new series of bombers that includes a forthcoming India barleywine and another brew hopped strictly with cones grown in Colorado.

The fourth incarnation of The Abyss is a blend of two imperial stouts: 33 percent is aged in oak and oak bourbon barrels, while the rest is a young version. It tops out with an 11% ABV and molasses and licorice notes. We’ll keep you posted on our holdout.

We’ve been waiting to taste this “beer from the roof of the world” since we first saw the colorful label. We were equally stoked when we noticed the back of the bottle reads, “Thank you. Peace.” after the beer description. So we gave peace a chance.

The good: The mild beer’s soft mouthfeel appeals to a worldly palate — it is, after all, a light lager. But the brew’s sweeter-scented and bigger-headed than most U.S. varities. Saaz hops lend crispness, but no astringency, and local barley donates a sweet taste profile. The better: Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, is the world’s highest plateau, making the brewery the highest in the world. That, coupled with the brew’s Himalayan spring water and 30 percent Tiben huskless barley, makes for a beer with some terroir. The best: The brewery will donate 10 percent of its profits from U.S. beer sales to Tibetan charities. The beer will be available across the country by the end of the year.