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What's Brewing: Presented by Consumer Beverages
by Willard Brooks and Chris Groves
Community Beer Works That IPA
ABV: 5%
> by Willard Brooks
Was delighted to have this on draft at the Moor Pat in Williamsville. This is CBW’s new all year-round IPA made with simcoe and mosaic hops. As with their former flagship IPA (“The” IPA), this is a delightful IPA from CBW. It pours a nice golden color, with a light and spritzy mouthfeel with just the right amount of body. Citrus and resinous notes, perfume and floral notes and lightly dank on the palate (love that dank). At 5%, you might guess this to be more of a pale ale. Nice easy drinking sessionable IPA—definitely one of the best anywhere. Seek this one out and try it with some thai food or a bahn mi—that would be an interesting trial indeed. Niagara Seafood taste test anyone? Available at Buffalo’s better bars and restaurants as well as in the Community Beer Works brewery tap room at 15 Lafayette Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14213. Visit CommunityBeerWorks.com
Gordon Biersch Schwarzbier
ABV: 4.3%
> by Willard Brooks
Gorden Biesch fully embraces authentic German lagers in a way that very few breweries in the USA do. Schwarzbier—which literally translates as Black Beer—is black in color and has a pleasant roasted malt quality—sort of a lager version of a stout. At 4.3% this beer is extremely drinkable, with a nice rounded lager mouthfeel and a coffee aroma and flavor with a slight residual sweetness that balances nicely with the roasty flavors of the carafa malts. This beer goes very well with the chef’s chocolate cake. It’s is a daily drinker if ever there was one. This is pure love in a glass! Available year round at Gordon Biersch at the Walden Galleria at P102 Galleria Drive, Cheektowaga. Visit GordonBiersch.com
Goose Island Matilda - Belgian Style Pale Ale
ABV: 7%
> by Chris Groves, Certified Cicerone
So the legend goes that Countess Matilda of Tuscany mistakenly dropped her wedding ring in a spring while visiting the site of Orval Abbey. She prayed for it’s return upon which a trout appeared in the water with her ring in it’s mouth. In gratitude for this miracle, she helped to fund the Monastery there. What does this have to do with beer? Matilda (beer) from Goose Island is an homage to the absolutely wonderful beer produced by the Trappist Brewery of Orval Abbey in Belgium. The beer pours a golden orange with a slowly dissipating head. I’ve used a wide mouth goblet to allow the beer to fully open up with aromas of dried apricot, spicy hops and clove hovering just above the rim. Diving deeper into the flavor, a honey sweetness melds with spice and tart ripe fruit on its way to a drying finish. The special kick here is that Matilda is refermented in the bottle with Brettanomyces yeast, giving it distinct characteristics that will develop for years to come if you so choose to cellar a bottle or seven. Matilda is a sweet old lady, smart as a whip and better with age. Visit GooseIsland.com
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