Magnolia Strong Beers 2009
Strong Beer Month is here!
With all the excitement surrounding SF Beer Week, it’s easy to let the genesis of this event, Strong Beer Month, slip right by. Each February, 21st Amendment and Magnolia Brewpub Gastropub collaborate on a series of high alcohol beers, and release them upon a waiting San Francisco beer crowd. It’s the perfect hyper-local beer experience, since these beers are brewed as a collective project, and then only available on tap, and for a limited time. It also let’s the brewers stretch themselves and experiment with new styles that might not normally be available outside of say, Liebzig Germany.
Last night I dropped by Magnolia with fellow homebrewer Matt to try their strong beer offerings before all of the craziness of SF Beer Week takes over. We settled in and ordered them all. (All of the beers are paired with cheese and charcuterie offerings, however, that’s a topic for another post.) As an added bonus – which really can be chalked up to the advantages of supporting your local brewpub – we ran into the resident brewers, Dave and Ben. Dave talked up his more experimental offerings for a few minutes, but then had to take off to start promoting SF Beer Week. Ben was extremely gracious, and stuck around for a few minutes to walk me through the line up, and discuss the challenges and opportunities of brewing strong beers.
Let’s dive into some tasting notes, shall we?
From the left: Gose to Heaven, Antwerp Placebo, Old Thunderpussy, and Tweezer Triple.
Gose To Heaven 8.5% 30 BU’s - The first of two of their experimental beers this year, this is a traditional wheat beer style from from Leipzig, Germany. It’s brewed with coriander and a touch of Himalayan pink salt which is designed like most salts, to not be noticeable on it’s own, but accent and enhance the existing flavor profile. Here Dave of course ramped everything up to 11 as he raised the alcohol level to 8.5%. The result is something that looks like a wheat wine, but without much in the way of phenols or esters.
Antwerp Placebo (The Plumber) 9.7% 45 BU’s – The second experimental beer, it is brewed with Cascade hops (think Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – a signature hop of northern California) and pepper. The pepper is subtle, but blends nicely with the grapefruit nose from the hops.
Old Thunderpussy Barleywine 11.5% 95 BU’s - This is a classic Barleywine. Tons of dark fruit, raisin and toffee flavors, and an overwhelming amount of body, generated from the enormous malt bill. As Ben pointed out, there is no better friend to a Barleywine than a really stinky cheese.
Tweezer Triple 9.9% % 25 BU’s- Slight green apple finish but overall a super smooth brew, which is dangerously drinkable for something with such a high alcohol content. It perfectly nails that slightly creamy finish that I really like in high alcohol belgium ales. Ben pointed out that this is a favorite every year, but that every year is unique. It’s fairly dry, with hints cherry and spice.
Smokestack Lightning Imperial Stout 10.7% 50 BU’s – Matt’s favorite for the evening. Huge smoke profile, but it in fact doesn’t contain any smoke at all – all of the color and roast is from the dark roasted malts. It’d be killer with a dessert made with really dark chocolate.
Promised Land Imperial IPA 10.5% 150 BU’s – Ben described this as their ” Proving Ground IPA on steroids.” They add ten pounds of Cascade hops in the service tank to create a huge floral aroma and total calculated bitterness of 150 BU’s (That’s Bitterness Units and for the non beer-geek inclined, it’s a lot). This was one of the few beers that the aroma of the beer was able to overcome the alcoholic smell that all of the beers had. Ben pointed out that such a hoppy beer can be very hard to pair with food, but I respectfully disagree, and found they have a fantastic pairing right on the menu: their sweet and spicy duck wings are rich enough to stand up the aggressive hops, and the fatty meat contrasts against the high alcohol. Plus I’m really fond of the celery root salad they serve along side it. And do you know anywhere else in the city where you can get a great duck dish for seven dollars?
Ben’s excitement for these beers is palpable, and he provided some great insight into the process that creates them. He explained that with beers like these, which are special brews, you often don’t know exactly how the beer will come out. I’ve heard brewers discribes themselves as working for the yeast, rather than vice versa, and these beers illustrate that. Big breweries often blend to overcome minor variations in the beer, but since each of these is a limited edition snowflake, they are all unique. This year, he pointed out how all of the beers “laid down really nicely,” and I have to agree. The extremely high alcohol is fairly noticeable in the aroma for all of these beers, but barely evident the taste. These beers are dangerous stuff – luckily, our waitress was quick with the water refills.
Now I think it’s time to get over to 21st Amendment and see what Shawn and Jesse have come up with. I’m particularly curious about this “Monk’s Blood” they have listed on the Strong Beer Month website.
Tags: Magnolia, SF Beer Week, strong beer month
