New Beer Friday - October 26 Edition

By Chris Siciliano

What in the world is he looking at?

At Siciliano's, we're big fans and supporters of every Grand Rapids/West Michigan brewery. No question about that. But we'd be lying if we said that Brewery Vivant does not hold a special place in our heart. How could it not when headbrewer Jacob Derylo is as much a part of our family as he is the family at the brewery?

Apart from being Sarah's brother, this writer's first cousin, and the boss' nephew and godson (insert Sicilian godfather comment here), Jacob was an employee at Siciliano's way back when the homebrew craze first began in earnest. Homebrewers have him to thank for lending a hand in turning Siciliano's into the store it is today.

Anyway, this is all to say we're proud of him, proud of him for landing a spot on the cover of Grand Rapids magazine this month, and also for making some damn tasty beer. Keep it up, Jacob!

Special congratulations to the boys at Mitten Brewing Co., who are celebrating their first weekend in business, and also to the folks down at Hopcat, who yesterday announced their plans to open a new location in East Lansing. Good things continue to brew in Michigan.

New (and Returning) Beer

• Breckenridge Christmas Ale, $1.89/12 oz, $18.39/mini keg - "The chill of a Colorado high-country winter calls for a beer with extra flavor and strength. Here it is. At over 7% alcohol, with a sturdy texture and rich flavors of caramel and chocolate, our holiday seasonal is the fermented equivalent of a good fire" (source).
• Detroit Brewing Co. Sanders Chocolate Stout, $1.69/12oz - "A traditional Irish style commercial stout (with a touch of acidic twang and at 12° Plato OG) with about 1.5 pounds of pure process cocoa/BBL added in the brewing process. Sanders Fine Chocolatiers are a fixture of the detroit community, but also some real beer fans. For that reason, they wanted the beer to taste like stout first, and chocolate second. The beer ends up coming off as a great traditional commercial stout, with some subtle and complex cocoa notes" (source).
• Short's Magician, $1.69/12oz - "A lustrous dark red London ale with a rich malt combination that lends complex notes of toasted caramel, raisins, chocolate, and roasted toffee. Very light hop additions let the true malt characters promenade throughout the duration of this pleasurable experience" (source).
• Shorts Black Cherry Porter, $2.19/12oz - "This Short’s brew is available seasonally, as soon as the local Northern Michigan sweet black cherries are ripe. Eight different malts, in conjunction with three varieties of hops, provide the deep radiant flavor profile and create the dark opaque color. A slight purple lace from the fruit puree enticingly leads into smooth soft hints of roasted chocolate and pleasurable black cherry flavors. This is quite possibly the most anticipated beer we offer" (source).
• Dogfishhead Burton Baton, $4.09/12oz - "This oak-aged gentle giant has been gaining popularity over the past few years and is now available year-round. For Burton Baton, we brew two "threads," or batches, of beer: an English-style old ale and an imperial IPA. After fementating the beers separately in our stainless tanks, they're transferred and blended together in one of our large oak tanks. Burton Baton sits on the wood for about a month. When enjoying the Burton Baton, you'll find an awesome blend of the citrus notes from Northwestern hops melding with woody, vanilla notes from the oak. The wood also tends to mellow the 10% ABV of Burton, so tread cautiously!" (source).
• Timmerman Pumpkin Lambic, $11.99/750ml - "Two traditions are brought together here in a unique complacency, namely an original succulence never tempted before. The result is sublime, liberating a graceful taste tinted by a controlled acidity on the lambic confused with the dry fruity of the pumpkin and the discreet sugar added. By crossing the middle of the mouth appears a taste of brown sugar remembering and accentuating the convivial touch of Halloween" (source).
• Staropramen Czech Pils, $1.69/12oz - "Pale gold in colour with delicately flowery aromas and a taste in which hop crispness and malty softness combines to highly drinkable effect" (source).
• Avery The Beast Grand Cru, $8.99/12oz - "The Beast is a seducer - accomodating, complicated, powerful, dark and created to last the ages. Beyond this, it’s futile to attempt to describe Him. He will unveil Himself differently to each of His followers. The mark is in His constitution. Brewed with two-row malted barley, honey malt, and imported Belgian specialty grains (aromatic, pale wheat, roasted wheat, and Special B), hops (Magnum, Galena, Saaz, Hallertau, Tettnang, and Hersbrucker), brewing sugars (raisins, dates, blackstrap molasses, alfalfa honey, turbinado, and dark Belgian candy sugar), water, Belgian yeast and another hellion of a yeast strain.OG: 1.138" (source) 
• Rogue Chatoe Series Pumpkin, $11.49/22oz - "The newest addition to the Chatoe Rogue series is Pumpkin Patch Ale, a beer made using fresh pumpkins grown in a patch that borders Rogue’s 42 acre hop yard. The pumpkins are picked, loaded into Rogue’s farm truck, driven immediately 77 miles to our brewery in Newport, quickly roasted, and pitched into the brew kettle to create a batch of Pumpkin Patch Ale" (source).
• Steinlager, $1.79/12oz - "Steinlager Classic has a robust hop nose of fresh-cut green grass and a full flavour delivered by the green bullet hop, grown in Nelson at 41 degrees latitude, the perfect hop-growing location. The body of Steinlager Classic delivers a full flavour that is perfectly balanced with a dry, tangy finish and crisp clean bitterness" (source).

Picture of the Week

Katie stocks the shelves with the latest offering from Rogue,
Rogue Chatoe Series Pumpkin

Cheers!