Epic Imperial Red Ale

Give it up to the SLC, and Utah in general for that matter. The brewing scene has been rocking of late, especially since alcohol laws were modified a few years ago. And breweries have responded with a flurry of creativity. Take Epic Brewing for instance. According to their website, they are Utah’s first brewery since prohibition to brew exclusively high alcohol content beer. I was lucky enough to get a bottle from the good Dr. Caldwell, actually, the other Dr. Caldwell, who happened to be in the SLC last weekend.

He brought me a bottle of Imperial Red Ale, which is part of the brewery’s Exponential Series. It’s a big boy at 8 percent alcohol by volume, which is why I’m writing it up as a potential Saturday morning breakfast beer. Being a red, it’s a little more balanced to the malt side of things with a soft core of velvety breadiness and a bead of hop work that creates an almost fresh fruit on pastry taste. Not that it would necessarily pair well with fresh fruit on pastry, but that is what comes to mind on the nose and first sip. The Amarillos come through well enough, and the dry hop addition of Centennials give the beer a little it of a dry finish.

A nice color with loads of apple red and a cinnamon flecked head give the beer a pretty appearance in a good bowl glass.

I could see this beer paired with a breakfast of more complexity. I’m thinking of eggs Benedict or Florentine, a big bagel with cream cheese, lox, red onions and capers or perhaps a flavorful seafood omelet of some kind.

I haven’t seen this available in Montana yet, but keep an eye out. I plan to ask Worden’s if they can get their hands on some.

Prost,

GG

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Ah, the weekend is upon us, and I have your Saturday breakfast beer all lined up for you. This week’s edition is the Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast. I love the name of this beer for the fact that it recognizes that in all of us who love breakfast, a little geek must be found. Some of us are bacon geeks, some of us are egg geeks or toast geeks. My buddy Jon is a coffee geek. And me, I’m a breakfast geek through and through. So this beer is aptly named.

My buddy Jon, the above mentioned coffee geek, shared his bottle of Beer Geek Breakfast with us in an early morning breakfast on Mount Sentinel recently while we were filming our entry to the New Belgium “Clips of Faith” Beer and Film Festival.

Rich coffee, molasses and hints of smoke and spices characterize this beer. At one point, we actually considered pouring a shot of coffee into the beer to see what it would do to the flavor profile. We cooked up some Daily’s Bacon some fresh eggs and some toast, which provided a warm backdrop for the morning-chilled beer. I actually had to warm this bad boy up for a few minutes in cupped hands to release some of the coffee aromas, but once it opened up, it revealed a very nicely balanced beer with bit oat body and that natural acidity in coffee that really adds a new and interesting layer to this and other coffee beers.

I suggest this beer for a hardy English breakfast with sausage and strong meaty flavors.

Prost,

GG

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When the Replacements wrote “Beer for Breakfast,” I don’t think they had craft beer in mind. Judge for yourself:

All I wanna do is drink beer for breakfast
All I wanna eat is them BBQ chips
All I want is someone just to try to protect us
You can try but you’d never wanna try to defend us

But, the song does bring up a good point. What’s your motivation to have beer for breakfast? Last night a group of people gathered at a local St. Patrick’s Day party, (a few days late) discussed beer for breakfast. The majority of people had consume beer for breakfast, but it was mostly a common thread of after-party necessity, early morning fishing/camping/hunting trips or the ubiquitous Montana red beer.

No wonder there is such a stigma about having beer before noon. These experiences will definitely make you think twice before popping the top on a cheap canned beer with your Wheaties.

When I talk about breakfast beer, I mean the thick, over-indulgent and decadent craft beers the world has to offer today. And by breakfast, I mean the I’m-going-to-sleep-late-and-make-chocolate-chip-pancakes-today kind of breakfast, not necessarily your oatmeal and coffee and run-out-the-door kind of breakfast.

Which brings me to today’s Saturday Breakfast Beer, Rogue Ale’s Chocolate Stout.

This rich, cocoa-tasting stout exudes breakfast in its silk, coffee-like blackness, cream-colored head and biscuity maltiness overlaid with dark notes of chocolate and burnt cream. Which makes it a perfect partner for chocolate chip pancakes, crepes drizzled with melted dark chocolate and even saltier fair like bacon and eggs with a chocolate scone.

The cascade hops give this beer a slight bitterness that blends perfectly with the darkest of chocolates that you dare to put in your morning foods.

Having come of age in Oregon, this was likely one of the first breakfast beers that I tried during an outing to our favorite towns along that rocky, surf-pounded coastline. And it’s been one of my favorites to return to over the years. I try to keep a couple bottles around for the impromptu chocolate pancake breakfast or the evening chocolate tastings that inevitably occur when I get a sweet tooth for that most decadent of foods.

Prost,

GG

Rogue Ales Chocolate Stout

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The premise of this article: “Breakfast Beer: Cuz You’ve Been Sober For, Like, Eight Hours,” from D.C. Foodies is that breakfast beer should somehow match typical breakfast foods, eggs, pancakes, bacon, etc., etc. And so it offers up a few typical, although great, craft beer choices.

I would contend that coffee beers do not corner the market on breakfast beer selection.

One of my favorite breakfasts consists of Tamari eggs with Furikake. This light, yet salty and flavorful breakfast is a perfect match for Rogue Brewing Company’s Morimoto Soba Ale. And almost any variation of a seafood omelet can be a great match with this light and grainy beer.

Another great and underrated breakfast beer is the delightful Belgian-style tripel. The sweet malty tones are big enough for maple bacon, spicy hashbrowns, Belgian waffles, you name it.

One of my favorite Belgian-style tripels is Tripel Karmeliet from Brouwerij Bosteels. Some call it the Champagne of beers, and I would have to agree.

Both of these beers are available at Worden’s Market or online.

Prost,

GG

Tripel Karmeliet

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Jubelale 2010

When a former co-beer blogger wrote that Deschutes Brewing Company’s Abyss was like drinking a stack of pancakes, I immediately wanted to go have one for breakfast. Ever since I heard that, I’ve been intrigued by the idea of a breakfast beer review. They say your palate can change throughout the day, so I figure morning tasting could be just the ticket to learning even more about what tastes are going on in the beer.

And this has led me to starting a new feature post each Saturday called Breakfast Beer. Each week I’ll select a breakfast beer that I’ve tried on some other weekend and write it up from that perspective.

I realize Saturday has nearly ended here, but I wanted to write a brief note about a fantastic Saturday Breakfast Beer, which also happens to be from Deschutes Brewing Company. It’s the Jubelale 2010. Where Abyss is a huge beer with deep structure and great balance, Jubelale 2010 is slightly different. It’s good though, really good.

The smell coming off the tan foam right after it’s poured is slightly masked. It was almost as if this beer needed to open up a bit like a bottle of wine does. But the first taste on the palate was rich with dark molasses and black licorice. It had a sweet dank to it that was very interesting. After about 20 minutes, the nose on this beer came alive with the complex hop characteristics, most notably a perfect bitterness that seemed to really bring out a dark chocolate kind of scent on the nose.

This beer bears very little resemblance to Deschute’s yearly winter ale, but then again, it doesn’t have to. It says a once-a-decade beer right on the label.

We poured this beer on a Saturday morning after putting in an hour’s worth of work pulling up tac strip at a buddy’s remodel project. With the sun shining down and temps hovering around 60, it was a perfect setting for a beer than can instantly change your perspective about what a beer should be.

Here’s another review of this beer from the Seattle PI that I thought was entertaining.

Jubelale 2010 is available at Worden’s Market.

Prost,

GG

"like pouring pancakes out of a bottle."

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