Fifteenth Meeting

Tonight we're tasting American IPAs, brought to you by Brother Derek Weinberger. Colin, Derek, Joe, Mike, and myself are present this evening, so a few people brought multiple beers. This week we'll be tasting quite a few that are familiar to us, while there might be 1 or 2 that we haven't seen before.

Normally the host would present the first beer, however Derek's isn't properly chilled, so on to Mike's Bear Republic Racer 5. I've been excited to try this one, as it's not available in MN. It has a nice A- rating, and it comes in at 7% ABV. It's the standard IPA color and it has a quality nasal feel. It's on the citrusy side of IPAs. It's got a good malty, thick flavor. Joe said, "I like them when they're thick." That's what she said. On to the rating...

BPA: 3.46

Next up: New Glarus Moon Man. I've never seen nor heard of this IPA, but it gets a ncie rating on BA. It's a mere 5%, and it's yellower and cloudier than the last one. It smells hoppy, but it is completely balanced. It's crisp, with a pronounced presence of sea monkeys in my glass. A popular beer.

BPA: 3

This next one is very familiar to all of us. We pwned a lot of these during our fantasy baseball draft. Rush River Bubblejack IPA is the name, and 6% is the game. We're now reminiscing about how drunk we were after 12 guys drank a 16 gallon keg of this stuff a few months ago. It's a little lighter in color than the last few. It's not quite the way we remembered it tasting in contrast to the other IPAs we just tasted. It seems maltier than I remember from that fateful night in mid-March.

BPA: 2.94

Neggs up we have Great Lakes Commodore Perry. Great Lakes is a solid brewery that recently made its debut on the MN beer scene. This is also our first beer from the great state of O-H! I-O! Comes in at 7.5%. Newwwww rrrrrecooord! (Mariokart) A little more amber in color. A mild hoppy smell floods the nose to those who are bold enough to allow it entrance. It's pretty hoppy, but there is a strong bitter taste on the back end. This is on the opposite side of the spectrum as Racer 5. The Racer 5 was citrus, followed by malt. This one is hops, then bitterness at the end.

BPA: 3.14

Another familiar brew is Surly Furious. This is #50 on the BA top 100, and the fourth ranked overall IPA. It pours a darker amber and smells of sweet, syrupy hops. It's about as hoppy as a single IPA gets, however the alcohol content qualifies it as an IPA instead of a double IPA. Let it be known this has been consumed at a previous baseball draft as well.

BPA: 3.94

Odell is another brewery that's new to MN. St. Lupulin is their APA. You dig? It's 6.5% booze. There hasn't been a lot of conversation regarding this beer due to us finding Lebowski on none other than the Tv Guide Channel. Howbizaaa. On to the score.

BPA: 3.06

Now we are going to taste Sierra Nevada Ianthorpedo. Brewed in an Olympic-sized pool in Canberra, or so I've been told. 7.2. Another dark amber color, with a fairly hoppy nose-spot. This one tastes pretty syrupy and has a nice pine flavor.

BPA: 3.18

Lastly, we have Grand Teton Sweetgrass, which is an IPA that comes in at 6.5%. This one is tastier than I thought it would be. WOW, the first reactins to this beer are positive. Derek just spilled his beer all over the place. Photographic evidence to follow. Derek is having issues. Noob brain slur?

BPA: 3.32

Well that was a high quality tasting. Next up: maritime beer club aboard the SS Sarah Menden. Ahoy!

Beer Stats

Since we've sampled over 100 beers, I thought I'd provide an update on the statistics about the delicious stuff we've been drinking.

By Country:

US- 72
Belgium- 18
Germany- 9
Canada- 2
Austria- 2
Czech Republic- 1
Scotland- 1

By State:

California- 20
Colorado- 11
Minnesota- 10
Michigan- 9
New York- 5
Oregon- 4
Wisconsin- 4
Illinois- 3
Pennsylvania- 3
Massachusetts- 1
Missourri- 1
Montana- 1

By Brewery (Min. 3):

Town Hall- 5
Bell's- 4
Stone- 4
Founders, Goose Island, Great Divide, Lagunitas, New Belgium, Ommegang, Russian River, Sierra Nevada, Victory- 3

And beers we've tried that are in the top 100 of BeerAdvocate:

16

In our upcoming meetings, we'll probably do another IPA night, and we're also planning on padding Missourri, Colorado, and Wisconsin's stats when we do a lite beer taste test night.

I also took the time to calculate the average BPA given by each Brother over the course of the last few months. Keep in mind we didn't start giving a BPA until a few meetings in, and some people have missed meetings, which could affect their score depending on what meetings they missed. Here are the stats:

Joe- 3.492
Colin- 3.178
Tom B- 3.116
Derek- 3.114
Tom J- 3.092
Mike- 3.073
Brent- 3.012
Belfry- 2.98

All scores- 3.10

As you can see, all of us are really close, except for Joe, which is due to him missing a number of meetings and being present for high scoring categories, such as sours.

Fourteenth Meeting

We meet at Noob Tom J's house to initiate him into non-Noobhood. This will be our first repeat category, but seeing as how it's 95 and humid outside, hefeweizen seems to be appropriate. We'll also be celebrating the tasting of our 100th beer today.

First up is Franziskaner Hefe-weisse. This hef is from Germany and garners an A- rating on BA. COMIN IN AT 5! Pours a nice cloudy orange and it smells of orange peels and diatemacious earth. Bananarama concert in the mouth. Has the mouthfeel of a classic Deutsch Hef. Ja? Was machst du am Wochenende? Ich trinke Franziskaner!

BPA: 3.37

Next up is Colin's web redemption. Last time we had a hef night, he brought Weihenstephaner's Pils instead of the Hef. Tonight, he brings the hef. This is regarded as the gold standard among German hefs. This one goes down our throats at 5.4% ABV. It also holds the #38 spot on BA's top 100. Also, this happens to be the 100th beer we've tasted during Beer Club! Prost! This pours a similar cloudy orange. Colin just shouted "Penis in the butt!" This one tastes slightly different than the last one. It's a little less fruity, but it's crispier.

BPA: 3.38

Belfry's offering is Schneider Hopfenweiss, which is classified as a Weizenbock, although the bottle claims to be a hefeweizen. We theorized that a Weizenbock is basically a high ABV hef, because this one comes in at 8.2%. This one is a collaboration between the Schneider and Brooklyn breweries, and is a combination of a hef and a pale ale. This one pours about the same color as the others, except it definitely has a hop profile coming in through the nose. It's pretty tasty. Basically a good hef with some hops.

BPA: 3.42

New Glarus Crack'd Wheat is our next sampling. New Glarus generally has some solid offerings, so I'm excited to give this a taste. This received yet another A- on BA, and it's 5.2%. This one pours a bit lighter than the previous ones. There's a slight hoppy taste, and that's confirmed by the fact that it says "Amarillo hops" on the bottle. DOUBLE RAINBOWWWWS!! WHAT DOES THIS MEEEAN??

BPA: 3

We will now be tasting Hacker Pschorr Hefeweiss. Another A- on BA, and another comin' in at 5.5%. The smell is yeasty and barny. It tastes light, wheaty, and a bit fruity. A pretty classic-tasting hefeweizen. It's a bit on the wheaty side, but refreshing on an evening such as this.

BPA: 2.8

Welp, we're diverting from the style a bit here. Derek brought Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Weizen. Which is a smoke beer. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just a goofy pick. It tastes SSSSMOOOKIN!!. This stuff really tastes like it smells: a bonfire. There's talk about not even ranking this because of how off-topic this is.

BPA: 2.23

Last, we have Widmer's Hefeweizen. It's actually labeled an American Pale Wheat ale on BA. It's definitely a lot lighter tasting than the others. It's very drinkable, and I could drink a ton of these on a hot day. We're watching the ESPYS, and they're boring, except for Erin Andrews. Oh Snap. Mike just accused Derek of bringing skunky beer.

BPA: 3.1

That'll do it. We had 6 pretty refreshing hefs, and 1 beer that cleared the sinuses. It's still hot as beans outside, so I'm not going to leave until I have at least a couple more side beers.