Archive for the tag “Anchorage Brewing Company”

03 Dec 2016

Mosaic Saison – Anchorage Brewing Company

mosiac-saison_bttl6.5% ABV
Purchased at Capitol Beer and Taproom ($14.99?/25.4 oz. bottle) and poured into tulip glasses.

This saison made with brettanomyces and “fermented in oak tanks” pours a pale, lemonade yellow with a fluffy, mid-sized ivory head.  Mosaic Saison offers a lovely nose that blends the funkiness of the farmhouse with the zest of a hop field – lemons, grapefruit peel, wild yeast, grass, and hay all show up, indicating tart and refreshing flavors ahead.  The first swallow is all that and more – with the barnyard funk, cracker-y Mosaic hops, and abundant but not overpowering citrus, it tastes like your favorite saison mixed with your favorite pale ale, with all of it cohered and given shape by the rich, oaky notes. Smooth, delicious, and complex, this outstanding beer has all the makings of a hot weather habit-former, and more than holds its own against beloved Anchorage staples like Bitter Monk.

  5 Toasts

 

 

   5 Toasts

 

Posted in 3-4 Toasts, Beer Review, Saison and tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment
21 Mar 2014

Arctic Soiree – Grassroots Brewing and Anchorage Brewing Company

 

grassrootsanchorage_arctic_saison_bttl6% ABV, 12 degrees Plato
Purchased at Pangaea Bottle Shoppe ($14.99/25.4 oz. bottle) and poured into tulip glasses.

This “ale fermented and aged in oak tanks with brettanomyces, lime juice and hibiscus” is another collaboration beer between Alaska-based Anchorage and Grassroots, a Vermont farmstead brewery.  Arctic Soiree pours a gorgeous, burnished color that is equal parts ruby red grapefruit flesh and ruddy apricot, with a mid-sized, bone white head.  It has a bright nose of barnyard must, brettanomyces, citrus juice, grapefruit, and oak tannins.  Sweet, candy-like citrus and white wine grapes push to the front on the first swallow, backed by tart and flowery notes courtesy of the lime juice and hibiscus.  Papaya, oak, aspirin tablets, cantaloupe, and other more rounded melon flavors emerge on later swallows.  This is a very refreshing and original beer, a worthy successor to last year’s Grassroots/Anchorage collaboration Arctic Saison, with none of the potentially offensive and discordant components over-asserting themselves.

toasts-4.5   4.5 Toasts

ArticSoiree

toasts-4.5   4.5 Toasts

Posted in 4-5 Toasts, Beer Review, Farmhouse Ale, Saison and tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment
23 Nov 2012

Love Buzz Saison – Anchorage Brewing Company

9% ABV
Purchased at Taylor’s Market ($13.99/25.4 oz. bottle) and poured into tulip glasses.

This barrel-aged saison from Anchorage Brewing Company pours a shiny peach with a decent-sized ivory head, and a nose that comes on strong straight out of the bottle.  Green grass, candied citrus, grapefruit zest, and sour grape smells come to the fore, and the aroma seems to promise a mouth-puckering sour.  However, it’s more citrus-y tart on the first swallow, although those flavors change shape multiple times on the finish.  Love Buzz Saison was aged in pinot noir oak barrels with brettanomyces, but the effect on the palette is closer to white wine.  Overall, my first impression of the beer was not particularly favorable, as an unpleasant raw grapefruit taste came to dominate the palette.  However, when I distributed the yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle between our two glasses, those flavors rounded out into more palatable peach and tangerine tastes.

 

    3 Toasts

 

   3.5 Toasts

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