Pike Kilt Lifter

At the end of our Alaskan cruise, my wife and I were dropped off in Seattle. Now, while I am very biased towards Portland's beer history, Seattle is a great beer town, full of well-known and obscure brews alike. One of them is the Pike Brewing Co., situated a couple blocks from the historic Pike Place Market. Being one of the more widely distributed of Seattle's breweries (they distribute to WA, OR, ID, MT, UT, and AK in the United States and BC in Canada, but not Nevada!), I had to check it out. Unfortunately, I only had enough time to dash in, pick out a bottle I thought looked cool, and dash out. That bottle: Kilt Lifter, a Scotch-style ale that was first brewed in 1990.

Pike itself was opened in 1989 by Charles and Rose Ann Finkel under Seattle's Pike Place Market, in what they call "one of the smallest breweries with the tallest smokestack". There, they brewed their Pike Pale, an Amber ale, and XXXXX Stout, but it wasn't long before they expanded to the Kilt Lifter, as well as numerous other styles, such as a barleywine, IPA, and even Belgian-style doubles and tripels. Pike got a big boost when it was spoken of favorably by the late great Beer Hunter Michael Jackson in 1991, and they've never looked back. They've won numerous awards at many festivals and judgings, and All About Beer magazine ranked their IPA as one of the 5 best in the country and one of the 10 best in the world. Now, as far as Kilt Lifter's awards go, I may have missed some (mostly because I was tired when prepping this entry), but in 2006-2008, Northwest Brewing News rated it the Best Northwest Scotch Ale. (Pike Brewing Website → History)

Here come the stats:

Pike Kilt Lifter
BREWERY: Pike Brewing Co., Seattle, WA, USA
STYLE: Scotch ale
FIRST BREWED: 1990
CALORIES/SERVING: ~190 per 12 oz. bottle
BITTERNESS: 27 IBUs
ABV: 6.5%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 15.58° Plato (1064)
MALTS: Peated, pale, crystal, Munich
HOPS: Magnum, East Kent Goldings
SERVING TEMPERATURE: 45-50 °F (7-10 °C)
FOODS TO PAIR WITH: Pike pulled pork sandwich, salmon sandwich, Kilt Lifter mac n' cheese (all of which are on Pike's brewpub menu)
AWARDS: 2006-2008 Best Northwest Scotch Style Ale as voted by readers of Northwest Brewing News
INTERESTING FACTS: It's their most popular beer, equally popular amongst men and women alike, and it's "extremely popular around St. Patrick's Day", which is odd considering that it's a Scottish styled beer on an Irish holiday

Much of the info comes from Pike's Flash-based website; first brewed and awards come from History, and bitterness, ABV, OG, malts, and hops come from the Kilt Lifter "page". The rest of the information comes from Pike's own Head Brewer, Drew Cluley. Thanks again for the info!

The beer poured very smoothly, revealing a medium amber color and a white foamy head. The nose was very malty and sweet, with just a touch of hoppiness to it. The beer itself tasted malty and carbonated in equal amounts, perfectly balanced. As the beer warmed up, a little smokiness emerged as the maltiness and carbonation waned. The finish started off a little stale, but actually ended up quite nicely. Overall, a pretty good beer.

I am more of a wheat beer and stout fan, and not usually one for strong ales, but I really enjoyed this beer. Check this one out the next time you're in Seattle or anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.

Prost!

Redhook Copperhook Spring Ale

Today's entry covers a beer from one of my favorite craft brewers, Woodinville, Washington's own Redhook Brewery; that beer is their Copperhook Spring Ale. Now, I know you're thinking "hey, wait a minute, it's not spring...it's halfway through summer!" I would like to note that I bought it in spring, and it's been relaxing in a cold, dark fridge ever since just waiting to be drank. It gets its chance today. Looking back on previous entries, I'm surprised I've never done a brewery history on Redhook, at least a comprehensive one.

The history of Redhook starts in the Scandinavian working-class Seattle neighborhood of Ballard in May 1981, when Paul Shipman and Gordon Bowker founded the brewery. The first batch of their Redhook Ale was poured in 1982. Unfortunately, Seattleites were "maybe a little confus[ed]" about this beer, called the "banana beer" because of its flavor. Less than 1,000 barrels were sold that year; sadly, this beer is no longer available in that initial form. However, their next brews, 1983's Blackhook Porter and 1984's Ballard Bitter (now known as Longhammer IPA) were met with much greater acclaim, and 1987's ESB (Extra Special Bitter) became their flagship ale. To keep up with demand, they moved out of Ballard and into a new brewery in nearby Woodinville in 1994, while expanding their east coast presence with a brewery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1996. As previously mentioned, Redhook and Portland's Widmer Brothers Brewery merged to form the Craft Brewer's Alliance in 2007, which was finalized in 2008. (Redhook's history link, not direct-linkable; go to Redhook main page → About Redhook → Redhook History)

The history of Copperhook itself is not nearly as long-winded. It began life in 2001 as two different beers: the Chinook Copper Ale, and the Chinook Stock Ale, later renamed Late Harvest Autumn Ale. Chinook Copper Ale was sold year-round, but only in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. It was pulled from the shelf in the summer of 2005 due to a redesign of the bottle and label layout of all Redhook products, combined with Redhook's leasing of the name "Chinook" from Yakima Valley's Chinook Wines. Instead of dealing with all the rights issues associated with continuing to lease the name, Redhook re-christened it as Copperhook Spring Ale, their spring seasonal, in the spring of 2006. It was still temporarily available only on the west coast at that time, with their delicious Nut Brown Ale filling in on the east coast, but as of spring 2007 it is now available nationwide with the exception of Utah and Oklahoma (like all their beers).

On a side note, their Nut Brown is sadly no longer available, but may be due for a glorious comeback soon. One can only hope.

(The above info comes from a combination of recollections of the many Redhook brewery tours I've taken and a phone call to the Redhook Beer Guru on August 7th, 2008 at 2:45 PM PDT. Thanks again, Guru!)

DISCLAIMER: This beer has a soft spot for me, having gotten me through most of my junior year of college. I have tried to be as objective as I can in reviewing this beer.


Here come the stats:

Redhook Copperhook Spring Ale
BREWERY: Redhook Brewing Co., Woodinville, WA, USA
STYLE: BeerAdvocate calls it an American Pale Ale
FIRST BREWED: 2001
CALORIES/SERVING: 174 per 12 oz. bottle
BITTERNESS: 20 IBU
ABV: 5.7%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 13.078° Plato (1053.18)
MALTS: Carapils, Caramel
HOPS: Willamette, Saaz
SERVING TEMPERATURE: 40-50°F (4.4-10°C)
FOODS TO PAIR WITH: Barbecue, salads, seafood
AWARDS: (none)

Most of this information comes from Redhook's Copperhook website (not direct-linkable, go to Redhook main page → Our Ales → Copperhook). The rest were answered by Redhook's Beer Guru.

It makes sense that Copperhook pours a copper color into the glass, accompanied by an average-sized soft foamy white head which stuck around a longer than average amount of time. The nose was a grainy texture with accents of subtle sweetness, almost fruity in nature. The taste of the beer itself was hoppy at first, quickly transforming into a malty flavor with carbonation. The aftertaste was a little bit of stale hoppiness, but it didn't stick around; within 30 seconds it had evolved to a slight maltiness that was pleasant on the tongue.

This is a light ale that is perfectly suited for the spring and summer months. It's flavor masks its 5.7% ABV well, making this a higher ABV session beer in my mind. Since Redhook's seasonals for this part of the year are their Sunrye Summer Ale and their newly-nationally-available Late Harvest Autumn Ale, you'll have to wait until mid-January 2009 to pick up a six-pack.

Prost!

Widmer and Redhook Breweries Merge

My dad forwarded me an article from the Portland Business Journal about Widmer Brothers Brewery of Portland and Redhook Brewery of Woodinville, WA, merging to form a new company, Craft Brewers Alliance. The co-CEOs of the new company are David Mickelson, president and COO of Redhook, and Terry Michaelson, president of Craft Brands Alliance (Craft Brewers Alliance's marketing and sales arm, created before the merger). Kurt Widmer (guess which brewery he's from) is chairman of the board, and Paul Shipman (recent chairman and CEO of Redhook) is chairman emeritus. You can read more about it in this Portland Business Journal article (if the link is stale, here's a PDF version).

I think this is a good thing for both breweries, especially Redhook. According to a January 5, 2007 Oregonian article, Redhook hasn't posted an annual profit since 1996, compared to Widmer's double digit growth between 2002 and 2006. Since both companies A.) are partially owned by Budweiser and B.) have been working together for at least a few years now, I think this merger will go over well, so long as their beers remain separate. You know, keep the Widmer beers Widmer and the Redhook beers Redhook. I do like my Widmer Hefeweizen and my Redhook Chinook, and it would be a shame if they decided to combine all the beers and dropped or combined some.

I do have to say that the Widmer/Redhook conglomerate now presents some decent competition to Sam Adams, the other large craft brewer on the market today. Who knows, we may see some Widmer and Redhook commercials on TV in the next few years.

Apparently, Widmer and Redhook released a joint press release (on Widmer's site, or from here if that link gets stale) about the merger back in November 2007, and have been talking about it long before that, so the Portland Business-Journal is a little slow on the uptake.

Prost!

Hale's Red Menace Big Amber Ale

The next beer that I purchased while up in the Pacific Northwest was a Hale's Red Menace Big Amber Ale in a Tacoma grocery store. The bottle stood out for me because I'm interested in Cold War history, especially between the Soviet Union and the United States. I also liked it because it had a statue of Lenin from the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle on the bottle, which brings back some memories of wandering around Fremont with my fraternity (Free...mon-t! Free...mon-t!), where this beer was brewed. I had to have it.

Hale's Ales Brewery wasn't always situated in the quirky artistic Freemont district, but was founded in 1983 by Mike Hale in Colville, Washington State, a city about 70 miles north of Spokane (for those of you not into geography, it's over on the other side of the state). On July 4th, they released their flagship, Hale's Pale American Ale, the Northwest's first microbrewed pale ale in the Northwest, which quickly became a regional bestseller. Two years later, they released Hale's Irish Ale & Wee Heavy, which introduced the concept of seasonal beers. In 1986, a second brewery in Kirkland, near Seattle, was opened to keep up with demand. In 1992, the Colville brewery moved to Spokane, and in 1995 the Kirkland brewery moved to its current Fremont location, increasing production from 20 barrel brew length to 50 barrel brew length. The Fremont location boasts a brewpub and is now the only location that actually brews Hale's beers. It is unknown (by me) if they still own their Spokane location.



Here are the stats:

Hale's Red Menace Big Amber Ale
BREWERY: Hale's Ales Brewery, Seattle, WA, USA
FIRST BREWED: 2004
CALORIES/SERVING: Never been tested
BITTERNESS: ~35 IBUs
ABV: 5.4%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 13.735° Plato (1056)
MALTS: Caramel, Carastan, Black
HOPS: Centennial
SERVING TEMPERATURE: 42-44°F (°C)
FOODS TO PAIR WITH: Shredded pork sandwiches, rich meats
AWARDS: 2004 Spring Beer Festival (Portland, OR) Winner, 2005 North American Beer Awards Silver Medal, 2006 North American Beer Awards Gold Medal, 2007 North American Beer Awards Bronze Medal

I got some information from Hale's Red Menace page, and the rest from a phone call to the brewery placed on June 29th, 2007 at 3:30pm PDT. Thank you very much Jay!

The beer had a nice aroma from the first pour, and its color was a reddish-amber that was unusually cloudy for a filtered beer. The head was nice and white, and it lingered for a long time. When I first tasted the beer, I was blown away by its intense hoppiness. It was incredibly strong, much stronger than other ambers I've tried before. It had a big bite that I personally did not enjoy, but it finished clean with a slight grainy-nutty undertone. Subsequent bites became more enjoyable, but still had that bite. It also did not leave a strong aftertaste.

Now, just because I don't enjoy a beer does not mean that it's a bad beer. Everyone is different, and this beer was just too hoppy for my personal taste. I always try a beer once, and I never bad-mouth a beer, but I still may not enjoy it. However, if you enjoy big hoppy flavor crammed into an amber beer, then this beer is perfect. Pick one up the next time you're in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, or Alaska. It certainly is a Red Menace.

Будем!