Oliphant 2blazed2bphased Peaches & Cream Sour

Oliphant 2blazed2phased Peaches & Cream Sour. 5 % Alc./Vol
Oliphant Brewing, Somerset, WI.

A few weeks back, I made the final pilgrimage to Oliphant of the year, number four for 2019.
It was important that I make the journey before year's end for I'd purchased a Smug Club membership and still had more beers coming to me. They don't follow over to the next year, so if I didn't make it, I'd lose out. I had two more crowlers coming to me and talked the staff into dropping the cost of two crowlers from the price of the 12 Days of Tangus boxed set. That's right, 12 crowlers of Oliphant sours, most that I hadn't tried yet. All for a mere one hundred dollars.How could I pass this up?

So, here we are with number two from those seven, another in the series named for a condition of intoxication that deals a lack of ability to function, in some way or another.

Clear, bright golden color, large and lasting ivory head.

In the nose: Tart at the start, fruit fast behind. Salt and cream detected.

In the mouth: Sour kicks it off at the outset, fruit comes in, flashes of peach, then it settles down. Sweetness, cream persists, eventually subsides. There are delectable delights in this. The fruit is somewhat subtle, downright manageable, never too anything. Just enough of everything. And especially refreshing.

A perfect example of the combination of the parts being the better than the individual elements.

Sour ale brewed with peaches, sea salt, and lactose.

There is just one song you should hear while drinking this beer and it's in the video above.

Oliphant Supertalentfragilistic Imperial Stout with coffee, sea salt, & chipotle peppers

Oliphant Supertalentfragilistic Imperial Stout with coffee, sea salt, & chipotle peppers. 9 Percent Alc./Vol. Oliphant Brewing, Somerset, Wisconsin.

It's been a few months since I've made the trip to Somerset and stocked up on some Oliphant beers. I miss them so, and yearn to return. But, luckily, I don't have to cross the St. Croix to get their stuff. More and more of their beers are being crowlered with new, amazing Jeremy Hughes artwork and being taken over the border to find a place on local shelves. It's only a handful of stores, though, so you've got to get out there. This can was purchased at 1010 Washington in Minneapolis, which is located guess where. Zipp's. Stinson, Minnehaha Lake, Elevated and a few others...very convenient, but it's not the same as going to the source.

Solid ebony, under a slim brown ring of foam.

In the nose: Cocoa, coffee, cream, and then the peppery heat. Cinnamon? Quite a mix going on, here.

In the mouth: An explosion of flavors, starting with the big malts and bursting out with the peppery heat. Typical coffee/cocoa, rich malt aplenty, then the chipotle makes a big splash on the palate. The heat and the sweet are keeping perfect time, here, with the spice at an extra edge on it.

Big malt, smooth chocolatey/coffee flavors, all smothered by the chipotle. And I don't mind it.

supertalentfragilistic

next up in a series of never ending madtness. this is the flavor of a parking lot full of bargain hunters and the lonely, joining collective hive minds. savings equals power, power equals hunger, hunger equals thirst. you can almost hear them buzzing with dealzzzzzz.

russian imperial stout w/ coffee, chipotle peppers, & sea salt. 9% abv

Oliphant Super Squishy Blackberry and Raspberry Sour

Oliphant Super Squishy Blackberry and Raspberry Sour. Berry Sour Ale. With lactose, vanilla, coconut, and sea salt. 5% ABV. Brewed and crowlered by Oliphant Brewing, Somerset, WI.

You know what I said a little bit back about how I can only do sour ales in small doses? And remember the thing I've also said before about how my fascination with the Oliphant Brewing Company is akin to comic book collecting in that I can't help myself from trying them all, in a maniacal desire to complete a collection?  It's as if I had to buy that issue of Marvel Team Up where Spider-Man and the Thing battle the Basilsk because I have to have every appearance of Benjamin J. Grimm, even though I don't collect Marvel Team-Up, and am not as obsessed with Spider-Man as I am of the Thing...but I still like Spider-Man, too, I mean, who doesn't. I just don't need every appearance. I like him, just not in every single comic book.

And that's why it's time for another sour, this time from Oliphant. Yeah! Let's drink it...

Opaque, dark berry-colored, thick pink, lace-leaving  head. Good God, it's beautiful.

In the nose: Sweet meets tart. Berry upon berry. Creamy, salty, and, by Crom, coconut. It's all there. The legends are true. It's wacky, it's weird, and it just might work.

In the mouth: Whoa, that's good squishy. Big punch of berries and tartness, and this coconut comes right on in. Whoa, that wasn't expected, vanilla and cream pops up next. This is something else. Salt stays right in time with the rest. This one is really the sum of all it's parts, and then some.

I think it's pretty damned delicious. I wouldn't drink it on the regular, but it's a nice tasty treat for now and once in a while and then again.

I like the contrast between the salt, the sweet and the sour. I like that it uses that vanilla & lactose but isn't trying to muck it up by also making it an IPA, for the love of Benji.

Therefore, I heartily recommend that you check it out, and then go crazy, Broadway-style.

super squishy 
we called this super squishy because we are not very creative. if you have ever met any of us, you have probably said to yourself, “ wow, these guys are rectangular as a money bill; meaning they don’t have fun and wouldn’t know what to do with fun if it flew toward them like a speeding projectile”. so what can i say on behalf of all of us? nothing. we expect that you will enjoy this on an adequate level, at most, but also you might not like it, and that is fine too. back to my saltines!

raspberry & blackberry sour ale w/ coconut, lactose, & sea salt . 5% abv

Eastlake Kirby Picker #8: Sour Beet Gose

Eastlake Kirby Picker #8: Sour Beet Gose. Brewed with pickling spices. Bottled Dec. '17. 5.5% BV.

Clear, light crimson coloring, slim, soon-gone head.

In the nose: Now this is funky. Wild yeast aromatics, herbs, vegetables, spices. It doesn't scream "beets!' yet, but I'm sure we'll get there. Very much on the strange side.

In the mouth: intense puckering from the start, sour and a bit sweet at once. Some of the salt is coming through, if not a real beet flavor. Nicely spicy, though. Medium bodied, long-lasting sour, and refreshing. Easy-drinker, for the sour-head. A unique twist on the frequently fruited Gose style. Unless there are other beet versions out there. Maybe there are, but I'm dumb to them.

Stepping up to the plate is Kirby Pucker, our rotation of brews that undergo a second fermentation with lactobacillus.
Every iteration in the series is a unique Eastlake take on postmodern American sour beer. Pucker up! After all, Lake Street Is For Lovers. 

Dogfish Head SeaQuench Session Sour

Dogfish Head SeaQuench Session Sour. Three parts German-style beer: kolsch, Berliner Weisse, and gose, "blissfully brewed with lime juice, lime peel, black limes, & sea salt."

Here's one I could have written about when I had a few kegs on at Acadia, but I've already established that I'm not too fond of taking notes at work. It was an enormously popular, and we'll bring it back soon. When we drop a beer like this, it's not, as people like to say, "getting rid of it." It's a rotation, folks, we move to something else. Also, the affordability of the pints of this one made some of the more expensive sour ales on tap fall from favor. It hadn't occurred to me that choices were being made not on the nature or the quality of the sour ales available, but on the affordability. Well, duh, why spend $10+ dollars on a 12 ounce pour when you can get a pint of $6 or $7. When all you want is the sour. I guess.

I got a can as a sample from a Sample Man who did not know that we were already on our second keg of the stuff. Fine, I'll use it to review, and so I crack the can and take the notes and away we go....

Alc. by Vol. 4.9% ........

Lightly hazed, bright yellow, slim white head.

In the nose: funky, wild, spicy. Tart. Vegetal, fruity. Lotta lime.

In the mouth: Starts tart and very refreshing. Lime flavors take command, and there's nothing going on butt the tart and the sour.  Bright and citrusy. And the salt, tons of salt. Lightish bodied, low bitterness, lean malt body. And oh, so refreshingly sour.

I like it. This is a great one for summer, of course. But, not for me, I need to switch it up for something hoppier, something beer-ier. But, by all means, you go right ahead. Drink it up.

New Belgium/Perennial Lips of Fatith: Salted Belgian Chocolate Stout

New Belgium Lips of Faith , NB + Perennial Artisanal Ales Salted Belgian Chocolate (Brewed in the USA) Stout. Alc. 9% by Vol. 

Oooh, lookout that! It's solid black, with a huge, toasted tan head, looking utterly fantastic. Utterly.

Aroma: Gadzooks, if I had to say it, I'd say, yeah, salt comes first. Loads of salt, and then comes the cocoa…along comes sweet chocolate and it's all coming together.

Taste: there it is, the chocolate, and yeah, the salt, and the sweet, the dark, the deep, the delicious. Yeah, it's starting to get really good. Yummy chocolate stout. Mmm, Belgian chocolate…but, …salted?

I have something to confess to the entire world, and I have to admit that I just don't care what happens to me after I announce this to one and all. Here it is…are you ready? Okay….I don't get salt. When a recipe reads "add salt to taste", I have no idea what they're talking about. I never taste food and decide that it needs salt. I don't know what that means. How did I miss that, why don't I have it? In converse, I do feel the need for pepper, at times, but, still, never salt. I don't even know what salt does, or why! This thought never enters my mind: "ooo, I need to salt this!"

So, judge me, now, go ahead, I don't care. And I don't know why you'd want to salt your chocolate stout, but I can taste it. So, the sweetness is down some, there we go…the sweetness is staved off, and you get your salt, …if you want that. (Actually, reading their notes, they say the salt is there to "express sweetness." Not sure if I agree there.)

Time to read that label…."Best enjoyed by March 27, 2016." Whew, got that covered. "Dessert is best poured and the brewers at Perennial agree, so we dreamt up a beer that would bring together chocolate sweetness, Belgian yeast, deeply roasted malts and just the right shake of salt to pour a creamy stout worthy  of a cherry on top."

This is typical of so many of the NB labels. It starts making sense, then falls apart. How the hell does a "shake of salt" "pour a creamy stout"? And what the hell does a "cherry on top" have to do with the thing? (Oh, it's dessert, I get it, duh….sometimes, I am so slow…)

No matter. Despite that nonsense, it's a good beer and I can drink it.

Schell's Goosetown Gose-style Ale

Schell's Goosetown, Ale Brewed with Coriander and Salt. August Schell Brewing Company, New Ulm, MN.

I am not the world's authority on the gose style of ale. Here's an easy tutelage upon it. (I know, you could have done this yourself. Okay, I found a better one, check this out. ) I won't correct you if you say it wrong. I probably say it wrong all the time. The name suggests that we should be calling it "goose"…one would think.

Well, let's open up a can and find out what it's all about.

Clear, golden coloring, small, soon-gone head. Despite no foam on top, lots of bubblation coming up from below.

Aroma: a little citric, a little sour, lightly spicy, a bit of hops. Hmmm.

Taste: wet. clean. Light-ish in the body. Definitely refreshing and downable. A judicious amount of spice, and maybe I can taste the salt? Sure, I can.


Before I go further, I want to read the gobbledygook on the can. Time to get out the reading glasses: Schell's Goosetown- a loud and lively gose-style ale with a citrus bite. So, that's on top. What's on the bottom? "In the late 1800's, hearty German immigrants settled in a neighborhood near the Minnesota river in New Ulm, affectionately known as Goosetown, where they raised gaggles of rowdy geese who wandered around wherever their webbed feet pleased." Okay, that's telling me a lot. now I at least know where the name comes from…

So, about the beer. I still don't have a handle on the gose. Tried one from another brewery that tasted more like a geueze. I've tried real German ones, and they're probably closer to this. It doesn't quite give me what I am looking for, but this is a brewery that's always going to try to find a German slant on things, and why not? For a refreshing light ale, there's nothing wrong with it. It's quite tasty, if not too complex, but who cares? It does the trick. Probably won't return to this too often, but it did the trick.