Beers with animal names

West Coast here, many apologies for the long absence my good friends and fellow beer-lovers. I started a new job last Monday and I’ve been settling in at work and had depressingly little to drink. That all changed this weekend though, as I enjoyed both the Blind Pig by Russian River Brewing Co. and the Shark Attack by Port Brewing Co. while watching my Hawkeyes beat Penn State.



First up, the Blind Pig. I must admit, I picked up the Blind Pig because it shares its name with a bar in the town where I went to law school. The Blind Pig is an IPA with 72 IBUs and 6.1% ABV. Russian River Brewing Company is one of those breweries on the West Coast whose star has been rising for a while, and with beer like this you can see why. It poured out a dusky, straw color with mild carbonation. The Blind Pig has a floral and hoppy nose. It’s fairly bitter, with lots of pine, hops, and alcohol in the mouth and a strong vegetal finish. The Blind Pig isn’t the best IPA I’ve ever had, but it was very solid, and based on it I’ll be drinking more of the Russian River Brewing Co.’s stuff in the near future.

Next up was the Shark Attack by Port Brewing Company. The Shark Attack was described on the bottle as a “double red ale,” whatever that means. It clocks in at 9% ABV and poured with a beautiful hazelnut color and nice foam. The nose is apples and ramen flavor-packet, make of that what you will. It has a very syrupy mouth feel, and tastes like cider with notes of apples, yeast, and cinnamon but ends with a bracing alcohol finish. The strong malt flavor overtakes the “hoppiness” you might expect from a red ale. All in all it was a thoroughly enjoying beer, and paired quite well with the pizza and football. The Shark Attack is definitely worth checking out for the unique taste and feel.

Costco? Really?

Costco makes beer. I will repeat this.

COSTCO MAKES BEER.

Growing up in Massachusetts, where blue laws continue to restrict the sale of intoxicating liquors in towns across the commonwealth, the fact that Costco even sold beer was revelatory. And now they make it? This bears investigation.

Note: Wikipedia claims that Costco is the largest retailer of fine wine in the world. Who knew?

OK, so they don't actually brew it, but it's got their Kirkland Signature logo and typical boring packaging on it. Initial reports said this was brewed by Gordon Biersch in California: the same folks who make Trader Joe's house brand. Mine, however, are from New York Brewing Company in Utica, NY, which definitely makes this an East Coast brew. Nevermind that Costco is from Washington State.

Yup, those are apple cider donuts. It's September in Massachusetts. You know you want one.

Kirkland Signature beer comes in a 24-bottle variety pack of four different flavors, and they're honestly not bad. They do have some problems with either balance or texture, but the flavors, surprisingly, are quite refreshing and good. Let's go worst to best.

Kirkland Signature Pale Ale
Immediately, I'm hit with a soapy lemon-citrus aroma and flavor that's pretty thin on the tongue. It's astringent but not unpalatable. Unfortunately, all of the flavors are at the front end of the sip, with absolutely no follow-through or finish except for a buzzing dryness. The alcohol oddly took the reins and drove the flavor considerably. This wasn't a beer I particularly enjoyed, but it would likely be pretty refreshing on a hot summer day. I want to say this had "clean aromas" but really, it was just the aroma of cleaner.

Kirkland Signature German Lager
OK, this is definitely the wrong color for the lager I expected (more golden brown than blond), but it's was pretty delicious. It was malty, with medium body and lovely depth of flavor. Imminently drinkable, I think this beer was a conscious return to a Bavarian lager and a corresponding rejection of the American macrolager that Costco otherwise sells an enormous amount of. I was surprised, and ultimately encouraged, by Costco's direction with this beer: by rejecting the Budweisers and Millers of the world, Costco is showing a willingness to promote better beer, and that's a good start.

Kirkland Signature Amber Ale
With darker roasted malt comes deeper flavor. That's the idea, right? I was glad, then, that the Amber Ale picked up some good malt depth, with a little bit of sweetness and roasted goodness along the way. Unfortunately, this remained thin on the back end of the sip. While this isn't a bad beer at all, it does take a curiously long time to develop any additional layers of flavor on top of the basic "grain - yeast - hops" profile. Once it does, though, its bigger yeasty flavors do complement sandwiches and other starch-based foodstuffs, but it trades-off in commensurately diminished refreshment.

Kirkland Signature Hefeweizen
This one was really aggressively carbonated and had a lovely depth of flavor. Decent malt sweetness dominated, and gave way to a really smooth aftertaste. Per the mold of a Hefeweizen, there wasn't a whole lot of hop bitterness going on, which made it the easiest to drink of the four. I missed some of the spicier notes that hops can bring to the mix, so this felt a little unbalanced in that regard. Nonetheless, this was overall the best of the four. It was solidly beer flavored, wasn't too rich, and held an excellent and long-lasting finish.

So overall, definitely a good buy. At $18.99 per 24-pack, this was a great deal, but above and beyond that, it was decent beer. I hope Costco learns from its missteps and tweaks the Pale Ale more, because it's not fabulous. But at less than 80¢ per bottle, I could be begrudgingly drinking this because it's cheap, and I'm not. I'm drinking it because it's tasty.