Brekle's Brown - Anchor Brewing Company

Brekle's Brown
American Brown Ale
Anchor Brewing Company
San Francisco, CA

I like the feeling of walking into a beer store with no shopping list, and finding something new and unusual... and it's extra nice when its from a brewery I like. That's what prompted me to snatch up Brekle's Brown when I saw it on the shelf.

Anchor in a big bottle!? I did a double take when I first saw it. I haven't noticed too many 22oz bombers from Anchor - either I'm not looking hard enough, they don't make enough or they do and it doesn't make its way to Jersey. It was like the first time you played World 4 on Super Mario Brothers 3 on NES - where the turtle shells are huge, the pipes are huge, and the blocks are so gigantic, they break into 4 normal sized blocks when you smash them!

...also, I know this bottle will look sharp in my ever growing collection of empty bottles.

Apparently Gottlieb Brekle, the first brew master of what would become Anchor in the late 1800's, was pretty into malts. For this recipe Anchor's put an emphasis on malt as a tribute to Gottlieb, a man who most likely was a prospector and found his gold in beer instead of in dirt. With one foot in the past, Anchor also plants a foot firmly in the future of American Brewing. This beer spotlights Citra, a new hybrid of hops that started popping up in beer in the last few years.

Citra isn't just a clever name. This stuff is potent.

When I poured it, the burnt color sort of sets off a Pavlovian response, and I thought I knew what I was in for. I really enjoy brown ales, and I have had enough to think I know what brown ale should taste like. Anchor proved me wrong.

The beer has an intense and super complex flavor. The malt character is strong - and with a lot of cinnamon and brown sugar in the front end. But the flavor of the citra hop defies what I'd expect to follow, making the beer bitter but tasting really citrus-y. It reminds me of orange flavored chocolate - something we had in my house as a kid around the holidays. I know that "orange flavored chocolate" might be one of those nuggets that end up being thrown out with the heart-shaped box they came in, but in this beer, it works really well.

If you like Brown Ales, this is worth checking out. It takes a couple sips to let the beer break you in, but when it gets you there, it's a great place to be. Gottlieb's legacy has left us with a beer thats worth thinking about, and a beer company worth drinking to.

--Joe

Research:

anchorbrewing.com
http://www.brew-dudes.com/citra-hops/557

Palo Santo Marron - Dogfish Head

Palo Santo Marron
Brown Ale
Dogfish Head
Milton, DE

I don't live far from DE so fortunately for me, I have an opportunity to try out a lot, if not all, of Dogfish Head. Dogfish Head is the reason I started actually tasting beer, not just drinking to get crazy. It still makes me crazy sometimes, and at 12% ABV, Palo Santo Marron gets me feeling warm after the first few sips.

Palo Santo (Spanish for "holy wood") is a type of wood that according to the tale on the bottle, comes from Paraguay. It is one of the hardest woods available on the planet. Outside of brewing in Milton, its also used for cricket bails, police clubs, mortar and pestles and even as an insulator for wiring in the San Francisco Street car system (Thanks wikipedia!). It also is a fragrant wood which adds to the complex flavor of this ale.

I credit my understanding of what I'd call "Malt Beverages" to my college experience. They were what you got when you were partying econo - cheap, big, high in alcohol, and awful to taste. The classification of a "Malt Beverage" is really just an indication of high alcohol content usually created by adding an ingredient to the brewing process to boost ABV. As I'm sure you can imagine, Dogfish Head did not create their own 40 guzzler with this.

I should probably talk about the taste, but I'm finding that describing beer flavors can be boring. It is more similar to the Scotch Ale I had recently than it is to a lager, so I don't want to sound too redundant. It comes in strong, and like the bottle says there is definitely vanilla and caramel going on. It leaves a little tart and a little smokey and maybe even salty, like a good Port wine. If you drink it too fast, besides having a lot of fun, you might also get a sticky ring around your mouth.

Dogfish Head wants you to know about this beer, and in order to do so, they posted a really incredible series of youtube video's where they describe it a lot better than I ever could (though I was still set on trying!) Find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWNo2oKNmTU


--Joe