Every year at this time, Peaks and Pints’ friend Simon sends out an anxious little email asking his most craft-crazed friends — brewers, homebrewers, us, anyone for whom craft beer is less a casual dalliance and more like lifeblood — to send around their personal lists of favorite craft beer, so we can all discover something new and/or gently mock each others’ weird tastes in lumberjack doom Kölsch beers, South American sour IPAs or Russian imperial funk. And every year, we dive into this venture with an all-consuming fervor while blithely ignoring the obvious fact that any list of this sort, given the thousands of releases every year across countless styles, borders on ridiculous, and it’s all sorts of delightful indulgence. So, here are five craft superlative balm for Simon that we call Craft Beer Crosscut 3.29.18: A Flight of Delicious.
Block 15 Love Potion #9
6.3% ABV, 24 IBU
We’re in love with Block 15 Brewing’s Love Potion #9. First, it’s a raspberry rather than cherry stout, and melts like a chocolate truffle on the tongue. Second, it succeeds because the intense, silken dark chocolate that floods the mouth is immediately followed by the slightly tart berry. Third, craft beer is, for its style, dry. Each sip is an infusion of intensity but never excess, allowing our senses to revisit the sensation of a liquid truffle over and over again. Give us a few minutes and we’ll come up with a total of nine reasons why we could drink two pints of this potion.
Pacific Brewing & Malting Co. Rocky Road Stout
7% ABV, 30 IBU
Bethany Carlsen developed a love for craft beer and started making her own beer about eight years ago when she left her job as a personal trainer to start serving at The Ram in Northgate — with an eye on a brewer job. After a few months an assistant brewer quit and The Ram offered her the part-time position. She took it, and was quickly moved up to being the full-time assistant brewer at the Seattle Ram. She was there for two years before the head brewer position opened up at the Puyallup Ram. Bethany was the head brewer in Puyallup for a little over a year. She left the Ram and joined the Pacific Brewing & Malting Co. where she quickly earned the head brewer job. She teamed up with Tacoma’s own Ice Cream Social for Rocky Road Stout, which is a hearty chocolate stout with cocoa nibs, milk sugar and marshmallow. To finish, she ages it on a heap of amaretto-soaked oak cubes giving it a signature nutty flavor.
Perennial Fantastic Voyage
8.8% ABV
Perennial Artisan Ales brewer Jim Leabig wanted to drink a German chocolate cake, so he brewed Fantastic Voyage — a harmonic melange of coconut and imperial milk stout. Loads of coconut, lactose and black malt balance each other to provide flavors reminiscent of chocolate covered coconut with light vanilla and a finish smooth like silk sheets. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet, light to moderate bitter and delicious to super delicious.
Fort George Fields of Green
7.6% ABV
The latest batch of Fort George Fields of Green has hit the street. Each batch of this hyper-limited IPA is a unique experience. You can explore what you taste by looking for the codename stamped on the can and checking the Astoria brewery’s webpage for the recipe. This batch’s codename is Desdemona, brewed with 2-Row barley, pilsner malt, flaked wheat, white wheat and oat malt and hops of Strata, Citra and Azacca. Expect a delicious hazy IPA full of tropical and citrus notes.
Ninkasi Tricerahops Double IPA
8% ABV, 84 IBU
Ninkasi, the mythical god of beer, is the inspiration behind Ninkasi Brewing Company, the Eugene, Oregon brewery that brews Tricerahops Double IPA. Hops explode in the nose, cascading pithy grapefruit, sticky pinesap and floral notes atop a caramel foundation. It hits the tongue hard with sweet caramel before a blend of Chinook, Cascade, Summit, Centennial and Palisade hops offer floral, fruity, and earthy notes, yet with a malt background. It’s hop-forward, full-bodied and strong. Yet the balance with the malt lends enough depth and a spicy complexity to make it very interesting. Resinous, citrusy, woody, and powerfully bitter, the hop flavors slowly unfold and last well into the aftertaste.
