Posts Tagged ‘Brooklyn Brewery’

Brooklyn Local Two

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Tonight I will continue tasting my local Brooklyn beers with another numbered selection from Brooklyn Brewery, this one called Local 2.

This Local pours a barely hazy, deep copper color with a thick, off-white head. The nose is lightly spicy. Coriander and cinnamon aromas meld with the nuttiness of the dark malts, and just a bit of alcohol spiciness rounds it out. Overall pleasant, but just a bit mild for a nine percent beer.

The light spiciness seen in the aroma is more fully featured in the taste. Caramel and toast flavors from the malt and brown Belgian sugar form a springboard that the yeast character jumps off of. Black pepper, coriander, and nutmeg flavors explode in your mouth, accompanied by a significant alcohol warming. This is a big, rich beer, wholly unlike its little brother One. The palate is just right: full enough to support the flavor, light enough to stay out of the way, and dry enough to drink another glass.

+Brooklyn Local 2

3.8 (4-6-8-5-15)

Brooklyn Local One

Monday, May 16th, 2011

I haven’t posted for a while. I apologize. In my defense, I have been busy. I’ve moved from my idyllic residence on College Green in Iowa City to an apartment in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. In honor of my new home, tonight I will be tasting a beer brewed by my local Brooklyn Brewery called Local 1. For extra credit I’ll be drinking it out of my Peace Tree glass.

I don’t know if it’s just cause I brought it home on the subway, but this beer is very active. It pours a hazy pale straw with plenty of head (maybe due to the carbonation). The nose is rich with herbs and fruit from the hops. The malt lends a mild sweet character. Unfortunately, that herbal note ends up seeming just a bit soapy.

The flavor is sweet. Rich herbal hops and a yeast spiciness add to the complexity, but ultimately, the pale malt flavor and sweetness pervade the flavor. This is a drinkable beer: refreshing, yet flavorful. But it is neither flavorful enough to drink very much of nor dry enough to drink very much of. Perhaps given the price tag that’s not much of a problem.

+Brooklyn Local 1

3.6 (4-7-7-3-15)

Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen Weisse

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

This next beer is the result of a collaboration between Hans-Peter Drexler of Weissbierbrauerei Schneider and Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery. It comes in two forms, one brewed at each of the breweries, and the two have slightly different hopping regimes. Both are called Hopfen Weisse (“Hop Wheat Beer”); when made in Kelheim the full name is Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen Weisse.Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen Weisse This one is dry hopped with saphir (have I been in a rut recently?). In case you are curious, when made in Brooklyn it is called Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen Weisse and it’s dry hopped with amarillo and palisade.

The Hopfen Weisse is a very cloudy tangerine yellow. It has a bit of off-white head. The aroma is much like you would expect from a hefeweizen: strong clove and banana and some bready, wheaty, and toasty malt notes. In this one, however, there is a distinct citric hop aroma. The nose is delicate but remarkably complex. The already carefully balanced hefe character has found a hoppy companion.

The flavor delivers on what the nose promises. Likewise light and delicate, it is a dance of wheat breadiness, yeast clovitude, and hop citricity (that’s right). There is just a hint of alcohol warming, not enough to tell you that it’s over 8 percent by volume. A bit of sweetness keeps the alcohol at bay to let the cloves and exotic fruit flavors shine. That sweetness refrains from hanging around long enough to be cloying, maintaining the delicacy of this beer.

As my friend Jan says about this one, “Nom, nom, nom!”

++Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen Weisse

4.3 (3-8-9-5-18)

P.S. In case you were wondering, that is my saphir single hop homebrew in the backgroud waiting to get racked.