posted on 3 June 2009 by dan
You really should be pumped about this. As you may or may not recall , a few weeks back I wrote about Mad River (and I’m assuming you don’t, you hopefully having better things to do than commit my posts to memory). The brewery came to town for the Craft Beer Conference and hosted a little get-together over at the Cambridge Common.
During which get-together the M.R. CEO Eric Spieth promised me we’d get an allotment of the next entry in their limited High Gravity Series - a double imperial red (!). Now, in the ole game we play, reps promise this and that and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t, so generally I take these things with a grain of salt. But Spieth strikes me as exactly the kind of guy that should dominate the business world - genuine, grateful, generous (not to mention passionate re: his product). I believed him.
And with good reason. It’s all about to become a reality.
Our rep who handles M.R. gave me a little tap on the shoulder yesterday and - ever so hush-hushedly - informed me the DIR should be in soon enough, definitely before it gets too hot out. Then he gave me a little nod and I gave him a little nod and he put his finger next to his nose and sidled off backward. If he was wearing a hat, he might have pulled the brim over his eyes as he stepped into the shadows. It was a very Deep Throat moment (uh, in the Woodward and Bernstein sense).
So get puh-puh-pumped. It’s en route. It’s coming. I’ll let you know.
dJp
Tags: BRAND NEW, double imperial red, mad river
Category: The Beer Blog | Comments (0)
posted on 3 June 2009 by dan
I posted this originally during the Craft Beer Conference week, but, well… I had another glass of Orchard White last night and it’s so gosh darned tasty and whatnot, I feel the need to move it up to the top of the blog. And so, without further ado…
So, it’s Craft Beer Conference week here in lovely Boston, which means we’re flooded with brewers in town. Good, good stuff. We’ve been bar-hopping all week, trying out the newest brews and this that and the third. Everywhere we go, it’s been on lips: The Bruery finally has MA representation.
The Bruery’s Orchard White is often cited as the number one beer coming out of the States today (depending on who you ask, of course - some people might tell you that distinction belongs to Budweiser). It’s a witbier, a style most are familiar with through Blue Moon, or Sam White, or some other such you find people tossing citrus rings into at bars. Derived from the Belgian word for white, these brews are so-called because, while they’re not perfectly white, they’re much, much lighter than the palest pale ales. Brewed with spices, they blast the tongue with citrus and the like.
But this Orchard White, it’s something different. First of all, there’s a bit of lavender in the recipe, and you can taste it immediately. Second, it’s bottle fermented and unfilitered, like most in the style, but somehow comes out wearing those characteristics on its sleeve. Where lots of witbiers can come out tasting manufactured, this Bruery brew tastes like a Belgian Saison Farmhouse. Jeff put it best: it’s like taking a bite out of the Belgian farming countryside. And that’s good. It’s very good. Every sip is chewy, different from the last. If you want a beer experience unlike any other you’ll find in an American Witbier, pick this up. It’s only 10 bucks for a full 750 mL. You won’t be disappointed.
dJp
Tags: American beer, BRAND NEW, California, Farmhouse, Orchard White, The Bruery, white beer, witbier
Category: Beer Reviews, The Beer Blog | Comments (0)
