#gruits

[hermitwoods]

Meet Butch Heilshorn, sample Earth Eagle’s Beer, and get a signed copy of Butch’s new book, “Against All Hops”. Dec. 30th, 1-4, Hermit Woods Winery. #eartheaglebrewings #beerlovers #gruits #nhwine (at Hermit Woods Winery)

[debihasky]

disFRUTA ! 🍎🍐🍊🍌🍉🍇🍍 inspirado por un caption de @_rafarrocha_ ❤️ #debihasky

[sheppardsbrew]

CBC Barleywine Festival, International Gruit Day, and Super Bowl Beers

Barleywine Festival

Cambridge Brewing Company had its annual Barleywine Festival yesterday. It was pretty awesome.

To start off with a diatribe, CBC is one of those places that doesn’t get enough attention. I think a lot of that has to do with the brewpub being around for so long, but CBC makes some of the most unique and elaborate beers and hosts a variety of awesome events. Their barrel program is easily the best in Massachusetts. Will and Jay do a great job, but you don’t hear about them as much as you should. You should visit CBC, have some great beer, and some great food.

The Barleywine Festival features several years of CBC Barleywines. If you are unfamiliar with barleywines, here’s a great link from Imbibe Magazine with a little history as well. CBC has two main barleywines called Arquebus and Blunderbuss. The menu featured multiple years of these beers, but they’re not the same beers of different vintages. Each beer is aged in a different type of barrel, some are dry-hopped, and therefore, all are unique. In a way, CBC has a diagonal of these beers.

On the night, I was able to try all but one of the barleywines available. No, I did not order all of them myself; I shared with friends. These were some strong beers and to try all of them would have been dangerous.The stand out to me was the 2009 Blunderbuss. This was aged in a port barrels and had a nice maple syrup nose with a great dissipating coconut aftertaste. I loved both the complexity and the flavors in this beer. Oh, CBC also had a special menu for the event. I was able to have the venison tacos and the s’mores, both of which were phenomenal. I would love to see the tacos become a permanent thing, but as a periodic special, they would also be welcome.

International Gruit Day

Not to talk too much about CBC, but Sunday is International Gruit Day and CBC is going to have a bunch of gruits on. Gruits are an ancient style of beer that were more prevalent before hops become the predominant bittering, aromatic, and preserving ingredient. CBC has some of their own gruits as well as collaborations with Eagle Earth and Mystic. Mystic will also have the collaboration gruit as well as one of their own in their tap room. I will probably be headed to CBC prior to the Super Bowl party that I’m attending.

Super Bowl Beers

The Super Bowl is Sunday and you will want to be prepared. This means beer. While supporting the local team, I would also recommend supporting your local brewery. For me, this means drinking Trillium. While I love Trillium, this is more a result of superstition than anything else. I was drinking Trillium during the two rounds that the Patriots won. I will be headed to Trillium tomorrow to pick up some freshly packaged Congress Street IPA. I’m also interested in picking up more Vicinity and trying Publick House IPA, though that might take a back seat to the Congress. If that’s too much IPA for you, check out the Broken Angel (Strong Belgian Pale) or the Pot & Kettle (Porter).

Here are some other New England beers I suggest you check out.

Massachusetts has some great breweries. I’ve been a big fan of Wormtown for a couple years now and it’s worth it to check out Be Hoppy or Hopulence, Wormtown’s two IPAs, if you can find them. If you can find them is the key here. Anything from Tree House is great. I had a Double Shot Colombia La Primavera last week (Thanks Matt!) and it was phenomenal. Tree House is a truly terrific brewery. I recommend getting there earlier if you are going to the brewery.

Connecticut is a bit overshadowed as there really isn’t much there. It isn’t like Massachusetts (particularly the Eastern part of the state) and there isn’t the hype that there is in Vermont and Maine. However, New England Brewing Company has some of the best hoppy beers that there is, or so I am told. I haven’t had any of their beers, but I’m hoping that changes on Sunday.

You know how I feel about Hill Farmstead. It’s the best brewery in the world (I will talk about these rankings later). If you can get your hands on Heady Topper, Lawson’s, Foley Brothers, or Fiddlehead, more power to you. However, I think the drops are done during the week for the first two and Foley Brothers Fair Maiden may be hard to find.

Portland, Maine has one of the best beer scenes in the country. Leading the way is Allagash who create some crazy and elaborate beers. However, for the purposes of longevity, you really can’t go wrong with a classic like Allagash White. The “new” Portland is led by Bissell Brothers, a hop centric brewery who are churning awesome canned beers. The Substance is a creamy, hoppy pale ale that you can really session, despite the 6.6% alcohol. I believe Lux is the beer that is getting released this weekend (or tomorrow). Austin Street, Banded Horn, and Oxbow are other breweries’ beers you could look out for.

Rhode Island and New Hampshire, don’t think I forgot about you. New Hampshire has classics like Smuttynose that is one of the more established breweries with a wide range of offerings. I personally would check out some of Henniker’s stuff like the Working Man’s Porter. Rhode Island has Grey Sail’s Captain’s Daughter. I’m not sure about the availability but I was able to get some cans last week.

It’s a Celebration...!!!!

So what do you do if the Patriots win? Is there a beer alternative to champagne to celebrate? WHY YES, THERE IS. Enlightenment’s Brut (Biere de Champagne) is the choice here. It is a time intensive, multiple fermented, champagne-like beer. This was one of Enlightenment’s first beers (if not their first). I bought this for New Year’s but was tired and did not feel like wasting such a fine, celebratory beer. You should be able to find this where Enlightenment is sold (like a Craft Beer Cellar or Redstone Liquors type place). You will not be disappointed.

[chefariella]

Week Two: Shopping List

Happy Week Two everyone! Here is the list for the week. Before going to purchase ingredients, feel free to review the recipes first. Some ingredients you may currently have in your kitchen, cross those off; if you have allergies to any, cross those off and add what you prefer! I would recommend separate your shipping into two trips, the first half of the week early this week and the other towards…

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[beerinmybelly]

Exhilaration (Earth Eagle Brewings)

Style: American Gruit brewed with Sweet Gale, Yarrow and Wild Rosemary

5.6% ABV

  For those wondering, Earth Eagle is what some Native Americans referred to the common wild turkey as.  In honor of turkey day and local breweries, I figured I might as well crack open another wonder gruit from Earth Eagle Brewings and give it a try.  For those wondering, the reason I have not done a bottle review for any of the Earth Eagle Brewings beers is because they all came in the same growlers (they don’t have a bottling line yet) and I plan to do a growler review on its own at some point.

  The beer, Exhilaration, pours a beautiful light candied brown, bordering on orange and amber, with a great tightly packed white head that fizzles down to about a quarter of a finger’s width scrim.  The body of the beer is a murky haze, but it does seem to be mildly translucent.  Lacing is practically none existent, sliding down the glass in loose bubbles before I can really look at it. On the nose this beer smells terrifically earthy.  Moss, loam, and big whole grain bread smells fill the nose, with light lemon citrus and faint celery notes.  The rosemary can also be felt strongly in the background of the smell, producing a feel that is much akin to how mint hits the nose.  In the taste, this beer blows me away.  I honestly don’t have the spice knowledge to properly name all of the tastes I am getting, but I will take a stab at it anyway.  On the ‘normal’ beer side of the tongue there is really creamy yet crisp yeast and bread, almost like a sourdough biscuit or pizza dough.  There is also light lemon citrus adding to the crispness.  The beer begins as a sweet savory spice opening into bready citrus notes and then slowly working into the sourdough bread and yeast that sits in the mouth as a pleasant and lingering presence with slight notes of citrus.  The more I taste of it the more I note a light tartness with the yeasty flavor that is very strong in this beer, and it still reminds me of sourdough bread.  This beer tastes fantastic.  On the mouth, this beer feels perfect.  On the lighter end of medium bodied, which makes it very drinkable, it is crisp and smooth, with only the faintest ghost of a prickle from the carbonation.  The mouth is left slightly ichored in thick spittle that is begging for more, while the mouth feels refreshed and slightly dry.  Overall this beer is incredible.  It feels refreshing and exhilarating (hence the name) and is wonderfully complex and interesting on the tongue.  I think I’ll try pairing this at Thanksgiving dinner because this beer’s breadiness is begging to sop up other flavors.  This is the best gruit I have ever had, and honestly, it is one of the best beers I have ever had, and I don’t say that lightly.  I am so going back and buying another growler of this.  If you are in the New Hampshire area then get the hell over to Portsmouth and try this beer, it is delicious, fresh, cheap, and all around amazing.  I have found a new local brewery to drool over, and I am beyond happy.

  4.7/5