Utah ReCap

"...shot off a flare gun in the basement...religious documents hidden in the walls...no jail time." (Snippets of conversation overheard at a neighboring table.)

I’ll not bore you with much detail regarding our Utah trip except to say we didn’t really do all that much. (Certainly not as much as some folks, judging by what passes for casual conversation in Utah's brew pubs.) The big thing for Mrs. Beer Rant and I was to see our oldest daughter and our granddaughter, who's not even a year old yet! That was the fun! Some will recall from previous posts that a lot of my “vacation” time usually involves U-Haul trucks and bonding moments with my daughters. This Utah trip was no exception and I did manage to hurt my back in the process – just a bit – but as something of a reward, I was allowed to track down six examples of Utah-brewed beers during the trip. I’ll try to “tick” them off in something of a Quick Riff format for the sake of brevity.

Place: RedRock Brewery, Salt Lake City
Beers: Bamberg Rauchbier and Oatmeal Stout
The Bamberg Rauchbier arrived with a weak head but a nice brown orange color. Smells more sweet than smoky – perhaps malty, but the smokiness builds and there is a smoky taste up front when you drink it with a dry finish. A decent example of the style but not the best smoked beer I’ve tried.

The Oatmeal Stout was opaque with a sturdy head; it looked great. It had a thin mouth feel and didn’t strike me as being as distinctive as the Rauchbier.

Place: Desert Edge Brewery, Salt Lake City
Beers: Utah Pale Ale and Happy Valley Hefeweizen
The Utah Pale Ale arrived straight from the tap, a straw-wheat color with a medium head. The smell was of pine and grapefruit for sure. The taste was slightly sweet with a decidedly strong bitter grapefruit taste. Lacing in the glass was heavy and this one was much better than the beer I tried during my quick visit last year (the Latter Day Stout).

The Happy Valley Hefeweizen showed up a cloudy, light straw color with a taste that came across somewhat weak after trying the UPA.

Place: Iggy’s, Centerville
Beers: Uinta Cutthroat Pale Ale and Squatter’s IPA
Both beers arrived in the bottle so I poured them myself. The Cutthroat Pale Ale was sweet, malty smelling with heavy lacing, an orange-bronze color and a fizzy head. The taste was malty but overly light and thin; not as sweet as most pale ales I recall but definitely malty and good.

The Squatters IPA was a dark straw color and did not smell the least bit like I think an IPA should smell (but I’m not the beer expert). Frankly, it didn’t taste that much like an IPA to me either, but the 6% abv is evident as you drink it. A great beer but only a fair example of the style, I think.

If I had to pick winners from the trip, I'd have to say RedRock's Rauchbier, Desert Edge's Utah Pale Ale, and the Uinta Cutthroat Pale Ale.

Politics, Religion and Beer, Oh My!

As an added bonus, I picked up a copy of Beer in the Beehive by Del Vance, a book I’ve been looking for since first seeing it mentioned at UTAH BEER. As a student of history, I like the book a great deal and the illustrations are top notch. However there’s a political/editorial bent to much of the text that I don’t much enjoy so I’ll not go into a detailed review of the book, except to say, if you’re amassing a collection of books related to the history of brewing, Beer in the Beehive is a required addition. If you’re looking for the definitive history of Utah brewing, again, this is the book you must acquire.

A Tale of Two Stouts

Since I’m going to be away from the computer in a couple of days and not able to post anything, I thought I might double up a bit here and try a pair of oatmeal stouts, one from Nimbus Brewing in Tucson, Arizona and the other from Breckenridge Brewing in Colorado.

First up was the Nimbus Oatmeal Stout. I’ve tried the Nimbus Nut Brown Ale and put it about mid-pack for quality. I still struggle with the whole chimpanzee motif on their labels, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve decided the monkey thing won’t prevent me from trying their other beers. Their Oatmeal Stout has a rich smell in the bottle, smelling of nuts and toffee or maybe caramel. In the glass more of a vegetable scent is evident. Pours very dark as you would expect with a nice tan head. Taste is oaky with a strong hint of burnt grain, which surprisingly isn’t unpleasant. Decidedly better than the Brown Ale.

The second oatmeal stout of the day Breckenridge Brewing’s Oatmeal Stout. This one had an insignificant smell in the bottle and some vegetable smell in the glass. Frankly, the taste seems as insignificant as the smell to me. It’s possible I didn’t cleanse my palate sufficiently between pours, however I believe I did and would have to say that of the two oatmeal stouts, I prefer the Nimbus offering to the Breckenridge oatmeal stout.

Will I try the Nimbus Oatmeal Stout again? Sure. Will I try the Breckenridge Oatmeal Stout again? Probably.

I can't find any hard and fast ratings for the Nimbus Oatmeal Stout. Here’s a link to the Nimbus Site:

http://nimbusbeer.qwestoffice.net/oatmeal-stout.html

So, in fairness, here's the Breckenridge site:

http://www.breckbrew.com/beer/oatmealstout.html

Okay, I've tried a few other beers over the past couple of days and my notebook is filling up even as I neglect to make new postings. Sad part is, I won't be able to make postings for a few days after tomorrow, so maybe tomorrow I'll post an omnibus beer tasting post to catch things up a bit. Hold on to your hat!