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  • Frosty 10:40 pm on December 10, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    Ho ho ho holy moley. Ninkasi Sleigh’r is awesome! 

    2009-11-19 18.14.59I love winter time in beer land. More so than any other season, brewers seem compelled to pull out all their tricks and come up with new and fun beer concoctions. And because its so cold for most of America, they tend to be on the darker side, which of course makes Frosty a happy boy. Ninkasi’s winter brew, Sleigh’r, is no exception. Now, yes, I’ve been hard on Ninkasi in the past, but to be fair all their beer is just so damn hoppy. Imbued with all the narcissism only a guy with a beer review blog can have, I’ll go ahead and claim that they heard my cries, and have decided to make a brew truly worthy of my lofty praise. ;) Either that, or they just mined the stream of awesome brewing they’ve always had. And struck gold, they have.

    Sleigh’r is a Dark Double Alt, and its does its style proud. Super dark, super malty, and super yum. It has the great distinction of being one of the few 22’s I look forward to drinking straight through, regardless of the drunken consequences. As I froze my tukus off putting up Christmas lights the other weekend, just the thought that it was in the fridge warmed my bones.

    It won’t be around long, so for those of you with a sense of taste (skylark: Alameda Papa Noel a 1? Come on…), pick some up, ditch the egg nog, and make Santa proud.

     

    • Ivana Goodbeer 8:38 am on December 11, 2009 Permalink

      We should leave this beer by the fireplace on Christmas Eve for the big man. Perhaps we’ll find a few extra ‘toys’ on the following morning! :)

  • Frosty 10:30 pm on July 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    July Rundown: Ninkasi Summer, Session Black, McGowen Wit 

    Sorry for the delay all. I was busy getting bitten by mosquitos (some call it camping), and not drinking beer. Then when I decided to drink again, I had a fridge full of Haymaker, Mothership Wit and Stumptown Tart to get through. For those worried about my liver, yes, I did spread it out over a few days. Luckily I did manage to sneak in a few extra new beers here and there. Most were good. Some not. Such as…

    Ninkasi Radiant Summer Ale

    hop-field

    I have decided that the Ninkasi Brewery is one that I just don’t “get”. The thing is, they seem to have this unhealthy obsession with hops. With the exception of their respectable Oatmeal Stout, every beer I’ve tasted of theirs has been a cheek smashing hop fandango. Without much effort you can imagine what their Summer seasonal was like then. First sip. Decent, if a little hoppy. The problem was those other sips. I started by thinking to myself, eh, 4 rating maybe 3. But with every sip, the score went down. Until finally the rest was undrinkable. Not to mention the face that SwillJockeys wife made when she tried it. Remember those “bitter beer face” commercials? Yeah that.

    Full Sail Session Black Lager

    sessionI have decided that I just have an affection for “Black” beers. Note the distinction from Porters, Browns and Stouts. Those are awesome too, but there is something special about a 1554, Lompoc Strong Draft or Session Black that just makes them awesome. Perhaps its the manliness of having your beer be more daunting than the wiener with the IPA next to you. Maybe it’s the fact that even though you can’t see through it, its still got that easy drinking feel. Whatever it is, I dig, and Full Sail’s new Session Black is full of it. Its a crisp dark lager, that balances machismo with easy drinking for a nice summer pick. Although I didn’t get to drink it from one of those impy little bottles (a big mention in the Full Sail marketing material), I can report that the draft didn’t disappoint. To use the vernacular of the cool kids, with LTD03 and Session Black, Full Sail is “the hotness” this summer.(do people still say that?)

    Chris McGowen Wheat White Wit

    ChrisWe like Chris McGowen. Why? Well apart from him being a nice guy, he’s one of the stable of local Favorite Amatuer Brewmasters that routinely supply me with tasty concoctions. His latest edition is one I affectionately call Wheat White Wit. Cause although to beer snobs there’s a distinction, when I asked Chris what he made, those three words all made it into the descriptive response. But hey, whose counting? Its free beer! Super duper cloudy (Chris spilled grain in the beer..doh!), it was a nice easy drinking wheat/white/wit beer. Perfect for a summer BBQ. If you can get your hands on some, I highly recommend taking his advice and mowing the lawn while chugging it down. There’s something about controlling a 3ooo rpm spinning blade of death and alcohol that just go together.

     

    • Jon 12:50 pm on July 25, 2009 Permalink

      I just chugged my bottle of Chris’s wheat beer after a visit to the gym. The beer is very dry, and extremely refreshing. Delicious!

  • Frosty 12:36 pm on December 21, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Ninkasi redeemed – Oatis Oatmeal Stout. 

    I don’t normally like Oatmeal Stout, but Ninkasi did a great job with this one, giving it the distinction of now being the 4th best stout Ive ever tasted. Sorry Abyss.

     

  • Frosty 2:22 pm on March 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Ninkasi Believer Double Red Ale 

    Ow my mouth…aka Aftertaste attack, OMG the aftertaste…did I mention the aftertaste?

    Some time ago, Skylark was waxing poetic about this brewery in Eugene, Oregon called Ninkasi. It had something to do with the brewmaster but I can’t remember whether he met him, slept with him, stole his dog or what. He spoke with a salvating tone about the opportunity to try one of these hard to find beers.

    So imagine my delight when I saw a bottle at my local beer pusher. ‘Here’s my chance to see what all the fuss is about’, I thought. I’ve often been a big fan of the red ales (Karl Strauss Red Trolley was an early favorite), so I decided to grab the intriguingly titled “Believer Double Red Ale”. From the bottle:

    The ancient Sumerians worshipped the beer they made, and praised the Goddess Ninkasi for the miracle of fermentation. Beer is a staple of civilization. Worship the Goddess.

    Well, my friends, count me among the non-believers. ‘Cause OMG the aftertaste. The shame is that the flavor of the beer as you drink it is actually pretty good. Its when you stop that all hell breaks loose. Its like it alive. The face twisting after taste literally feels like it wandering around my mouth, punching every taste bud it finds. I’ve had cheek smash before, but this is more like cheek ultra-violence. “Like rubbing a piece of cedar on your cheeks”, the wife says.

    I’m not ready to write of Ninkasi just yet, as they have some good sounding beers in the stable. Instead I just warn you to proceed with caution, its “that time of the month” and  this Goddess is vengeful.

     

    • Ivana Goodbeer 8:13 pm on March 23, 2008 Permalink

      It is like sucking on a hunk of cedar. (Great for keeping the moths away!)

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