Back with week two is a Summertime showdown of some great beers for a muggy afternoon.
This weekend, we shot a round of clays, hit the pistol range, saw a show in town, got a free Father's Day burger (thanks, Elevation Burger!) and kayaked all afternoon.  I'm very tired, and it seems like a great time for a beer.

So let's start off with one I'm sure everyone has had (or at least, had the chance to have):  Trader Joe's "Josephsbrau" Dunkelweisen
This beer is available in Trader Joe's stores in states where alcohol sales are permitted.  This one came from Virginia, because we Marylanders have great laws for beer (namely, it's taxed less than everyone else nearby), except where you're allowed to buy it.  There are only a few grocery stores that have a grandfathered alcohol sales license, and not a TJ's among them.  Oh well.

TJ's contract brews their alcohol, much of it from very interesting places.  Their iconic wine label, Charles Shaw (AKA "Two Buck Chuck," though it's only $2/bottle in CA, everywhere else it's $3.50 or higher) is made by the Franzia conglomerate.

Aaaanyhow, this stuff is out of San Jose, CA.  It's relatively cheap, especially if you're out West and all the "proper" dunkels are coming over the pond from Germany, and then across the country in a truck.  That's expensive, and it does no favors for the beer.  Let's see how this one survived the trip East.


Nose nails you with some serious sugar and malt.  Brown sugar, lots of candied apple aromas.  Hints at underattenuation (i.e. the yeast didn't eat all the sugars they should have).
Flavor backs that up, with a bit more carbonation that I was expecting.  It lends a light crispness, but that sweet malt flavor still comes through.  The bottle claims it's 18 IBUs, but it doesn't taste like it.
Finish is relatively clean, despite the residual sugar.  It's sweet, but it doesn't coat the palate.  That caramel flavor holds a bit and then backs away without much protest.
I say it's a solid B.  It's nothing spectacular, but it's a relatively inexpensive, easy-drinker.  Not too bad on a hot afternoon.
My wife, on the other hand, completely slammed it.  She faults it principally for being nowhere close to a traditional dunkelweisen, and that is true.  It's underattenuated, with no roast flavors, the malt is way too overpowering, there's virtually no hop flavor...  and where's the yeast?  She says, if they put 'dunkelweisen' ON the bottle, then they ought to put dunkelweisen IN the bottle.  Compelling argument; I guess I'm just inclined to let it slide because it's American and our breweries, by and large, haven't quite gotten the hang of wheat beers.  Without my generous handicap, she says I should be giving it a C minus.  So this one, it's important about whether you're a purist for style, or if you can accept a little concession.

Her choice?  Dogfish Head's Festina Peche.

This beer has been around for a few years now, and it's always a treat to see what they've done with it since the last iteration.  For anyone not familiar, it is a "Berleiner Weisse" style ale, the only one of its kind made in an American brewery.  It's an old German style made as a sort of work-around to Reinheitsghebot.  The old purity law stated that you could not use anything other than malt, hops, water, and yeast to make beer.  So for anything with additional flavors, it had to be done at the tap.  In this case, they would make a large batch of lightly soured, crisp, mild ale (think alcoholic lemon selzer) and then add fruit flavors at the tap in the form of sugar syrups.  The beer was ordered either plain or "mit schusse" (with juice), the most popular flavors being an herbal/minty green syrup and a berry flavored red.
Dogfish interpreted the style with peach juice to make what many beer geeks consider the ultimate Sumertime sipper.  Because the peaches are added prior to fermentation, and it undergoes both a yeast and a bacterial fermentation, there's virtually no residual sugar.  The result is a crisp, tangy beverage that's lightly sour and doesn't stick to the palate while still being moderately hydrating.
Nose is ultra dry, with a SweetTart and lemon rind aroma.  Flavor is exceptionally crisp, with very light grain and a fully but dry peach fruit flavor.  There are no hops in this beer, and no bitterness at all. In fact, in many states, DFH is forced to label it as "malt beverage" because they have laws that, like Reinheitsghebot, mandate certain ingredients in order for something to be "beer."  But you know what?  It's beer to me.  And damn good beer, too.  This is a no-holds-barred A++, but ONLY if you like the style.  A lot of people just can't get into sour beers, and that's OK if it's just not your thing.  I will say that this year's batch is much less sour than previous years.


How to follow that up?
Here's some homebrewed hefeweisen:

This is a 65/35 mix of Pilsener malt and German malted wheat.  Triple decoction mash, with a proteolytic rest and a 2-stage saccarification.  Weihenstephaner yeast, and 100% Hallertauer hops, to about 15 IBUs.  Keg conditioned, dispensed with a modified dip tube (so as not to suck off all the yeast in the first three pours).  Perfection.
I'm not going to rate my own beer, since that would be a bit gauche, but I will say that it's reeeeally close to as good as Weihenstephaner.  Maybe one of their beers, on a bad day?  Thing is, they don't have bad days, so I guess we'll never know.
But I'll say this.  You like hefeweisen?  Drink Weihenstephaner.  The dunkel crown probably belongs to Erdinger, though.  Spaten/Franziskaner maybe a #2 or #3.
Anyhow, here's some more homebrew porn:


Hmm...  what's that commercial keg in there?
It's Victory's 100% Tettnang Tripel they made for the Craft Brewer's Conference:

Oh, it's good, too.
Victory regularly bottles and distributes a tripel they call "Golden Monkey."  It's one of the best American-made Belgians to be had, and is certainly on the list of must-drink-in-your-lifetime beers.  This one simply uses 100% Tettnang, so it's a slight bit greener and resin-y than the regular.  Otherwise, it's very much the same.  But the concept of a single-malt-and-single-hop Belgian tripel is intriguing, to say the least.  Usually, you see that kind of experimentation in a Pilsener or a pale ale.  Not Victory.  They kicked the ABV all the way up to 11.  Percent.  And it's fantastic.
Crisp but malty, blanced but bold.  Yeast, malt, and hops all work together, and there's Victory's unique house flavors behind it all.  Just...  110%.  Drink a Golden Monkey and you'll see.

But what to pair that with?
How about stuffed pork chops, sauteed carrots (in butter, duh), and we'll try to keep up the resemblance of a healthy meal with a nice salad.  The chop is stuffed with a mixture of crazins and pistachios, with some fresh herbs, panko, and enough butter to make it all stick together.  Hellz yeah.

Niiiiiice....I'm polishing off a glass of Homebrew Helles right now.

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Nice review! Your homebrew looks awesome. I have had Golden Monkey, it is probably my favorite offering from Victory.
Nice paring the Tripel with the chop. The Dogfish Head's Festina Peche sounds like something that I need to try.

Bump for the day crew.

Drank the last of my Helles Rauch last night, probably been in the fridge 5 years. was STILL outstanding!

Homebrew trippel and ipa on tap here.

ETA:  I'm off to look for the Victory you mentioned.  Noble hopped trippel sounds very intriguing.  They make some fine beers.

Great review.



Have you tried the Costco Kirtland beers they sell, their IPA a Pale ale and a few others, also brewed in San Jose?  Just wondering how they rate with you.

They're OK.  I forget who actually brews them.

But they're about on par with Sam Adams' contract-brewed stuff.  Which, for the record, I think that was a mistake.  Not contract brewing in general, that can be fine, but letting it get out of house.  Beermaking is something you need to get your hands dirty for.  You need to be present, and you need to watch the process.  You can't just throw a recipe to someone and expect it to come out the way you want it.  Good brewers are all artists, but not all artists paint the same way, you know what I mean?

BBC/SA saw the opportunity maybe 15 years ago, and they had a choice of whether to try to appeal to the mainstream and go after quantity, or to appeal to the enthusiast market and go after quality.  Them brewing a lot of beers under contract is really more of an effect than a cause, but it holds the same.  I just can't help but be disappointed that a company who, as recently as 4 or 5 years ago put out some amazing beers, is now ho-hum.  The initial release of the seasonal doppelbock was incredible.  The 'old' festbier used to be great, too.  Now...  it's hardly a shadow of what it used to be.

And I see those same choices in the Kirkland product.  I see a siezed market opportunity without the artistry.  I see the appearance of craft beer without the substance of it.

Which isn't to knock it, really.  It's still not bad.  But it could easily be better if someone had taken the time and care to make it so, and that's what I find disappointing.