Brooklyn Brewery introduced their lager in 1988, and this past weekend, they debuted their a special doppelbock version to celebrate the brewery's 25th anniversary. It's made with German and American Two-row Pilsner malt, along with Munich and caramel malt, and hopped with Hallertauer Mittelfrüh, Saphir, Cascade, and Willamette hops. This bottle-conditioned beer clocks in around 9% ABV, and will be available with labels from four different Brooklyn artists from now until May.

This hefty brew pours a rusty orange, and the texture is rich and dense, with wonderfully delicate fine carbonation. It doesn't have the rum-raisin like sweetness of, say, Ayinger Celebrator, and wouldn't be right for pairing with chocolate like that beer. Instead, Brooklyn's anniversary brew finishes with a wall of bitterness that would make this better for pairing with aged cheeses or perhaps a thick-cut pork chop, or roasted sausages with sage and nutty farro. It's intense stuff—not the kind of thing we'd likely drink more than one glass of—so gather your friends if you're going to crack open a 750 mL bottle.

Have you tried Brooklyn's new brew yet? What did you think of it?

About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. She lives in San Francisco. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

Beer sample provided for review consideration.

[Photo: Maggie Hoffman]

The folks at Dogfish Head are constantly experimenting, but they haven't released a new year-round beer since 2007. This month, Sam Calagione and his team are offering up a new core beer that brings together beer and wine in one 12-ounce bottle. Sixty-One is the brewery's classic 60 Minute IPA with one addition: syrah grape must from California. It will be sold in four-packs in all 27 states where Dogfish distributes.

I've never experimented with pouring red wine into a glass of beer, but I'd imagine it would look pretty much like Sixty-One in a glass: bright cherry red, redder than any red ale you've seen. The scent brings together hoppy-floral/fruity and grapey floral/fruity: if anything, it smells more like rosé than IPA. But once you taste it, you'll know this is most definitely not wine. It's dry and bitter, with just a little sweet fruit-punch flavor up front. The flavor roll out separately but ultimately aren't quite integrated: it's a bit of a confusing experience. (As confusing as someone pouring grape juice into your glass of beer? I don't know.)

To be honest, I'm not sure I'd ever choose to drink this instead of a regular (always-tasty) 60 Minute IPA. The fruity flavors might make Sixty-One an especially good accompaniment for grilled pork with plum salsa or tacos filled with seared prawns, but it's not going to be a four-pack I purchase often.

Have you tried Dogfish Head Sixty-One? What did you think?

About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. She lives in San Francisco. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

Sample provided for review consideration.

[Photo: Maggie Hoffman]

The beers from Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas, have a devoted following—mostly the flagship Bock, best enjoyed in copious amounts alongside copious amounts of barbecue. Their Christmas beer also has its adherents—we have to admit we found that peachy, nutty dark wheat beer a little disjointed. But we're always curious about a popular brand's new releases, so we eagerly cracked open a sample of Shiner's new spring beer, a farmhouse ale that will be available through March.

Belgian yeast gives this brew some spicy, fruity character—there's no spice added, but y'all are experts on what yeast can do now that you've read up on it. The scent hints at cardamom and white pepper, and the beer has a floral flavor up front that veers toward chamomile tea (or soap, if you're sensitive to floral flavors in your brew.) Light malt flavor fills out the core—it reminded us of the flavor of saltine crackers.

This isn't the most flavorful farmhouse ale you could try—if you're new to this style, it's worth calibrating your palate on Belgian examples like Saison Dupont and Fantôme Saison, plus domestic brews from breweries such as Ommegang and Hill Farmstead (plus Southampton, Boulevard, and Lost Abbey, if you can get your hands on them.) Still, this Texan farmhouse ale is plenty food-friendly, with a slight malty sweetness that will work well with Thai food, ham with mustard, or the delicate flavors of bratwurst.

Have you tried Shiner's new seasonal? What did you think?

About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. She lives in San Francisco. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

[Photograph: Wes Rowe]

While I was traveling this month I missed the release of Almanac Beer Company's new series of California Table Beers, but that doesn't mean you should miss the beers, which are now selling in four-packs at Whole Foods, Bev Mo, and specialty beer shops around the Bay Area.

The Extra Pale Ale (6% abv) is made with California two-row barley and whole dehydrated mandarin oranges from Blossom Bluff Farms—the sweet scent of citrus mingles with Cascade and Columbus hops nicely. When the dry hops and mandarins are added, they also toss in some American oak chips. "This gives us a delicate oak character, but without a lengthy aging process that would sacrifice hop aroma," says Jesse Friedman of Almanac. Bitter hops (and mandarin peels) slice through the malty, delicately oak-tinged base, wiping out the more subtle floral side and finishing totally dry. We'd drink this with Indian food or fried seafood—it's a bit intense on its own.

We preferred the Honey Saison (4.8% abv), a part-wheat beer brewed with honey from Marshall Farms and fresh local ginger root, which blasts forward in the scent but turns out to be a mellow addition to the rich, earthy flavor. The creamy character of this beer is wonderfully malty and wheaty, but it ends up refreshing thanks to a generous dose of Mt. Hood and Saaz hops. All that grain makes this beer especially food-friendly; serve it with Chinese or Thai food; the ginger will latch in nicely.

If you're local to San Francisco, you should check out Almanac's bigger bottles as well. We especially enjoyed their tart Summer 2010, which was brewed with Cherokee, Marion, Ollalie, and Boysenberries.

About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

Sample provided for review consideration.

[Photo: Maggie Hoffman]

Ska Brewing Company of Durango, Colorado, is on a campaign to encourage year-round stout drinking: they're releasing a new stout for each of the four seasons. Will that mean citrusy stouts for summer and peppermint stouts for winter? We'll see, but I like the idea of adapting the style for every type of weather. The first release is this Saturday, 9/22, and it's a milk stout brewed with ancho, guajillo, and Anaheim chiles, plus cocoa nibs, cumin, cloves, and cinnamon. Ska's Autumnal Mole Stout will be available everywhere Ska is distributed.

I didn't know quite what to expect when I cracked open the can. Sometimes spiced beers can end up with an odd dried-spice flavor that tickles the back of your throat. This stout has a quite sweet—and recognizably mole-like—scent, with hints of dry chocolate and peppers, but the flavor is pretty mellow, with prominent (but integrated) spice, and especially prominent clove. The flavors are somewhere between milk stout and chocolate phosphate; this isn't a particularly rich or viscous beer, and may leave you craving something a bit creamier. It's pretty lightly carbonated (almost not foam upon pouring) but fizzy enough to clean the palate after some barbecue—try brisket or burnt ends. It would also be delicious with big bowls of chili, especially if you make it Cincinnati-style with cinnamon, allspice, and clove.

About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

Sample provided for review consideration.

[Photo: Maggie Hoffman]

It's hard to choose between beers at a bottle shop as great as Belmont Station in Portland, Oregon. The many pumpkin brews from Elysian called my name, and I nearly grabbed the New Belgium collaboration with Alpine brewing, but in the end I saved my pennies for this big bottle, the sixth edition of the De Proef Brewmaster's Collaboration Series. The Belgian brewer collaborated with Hair of the Dog's Alan Sprints at De Proef to create a blend of Flanders-sourced lambic with a collaboratively-brewed version of Hair of the Dog Fred (a Golden Strong ale.)

I chose right; this stuff is really exceptional. Up front, the orange-colored beer, which clocks in at 7.5% ABV, is fresh and fruity, clean-tasting and bracingly refreshing, with bright tangy apricot and orange candy flavors that slide into something deeper and earthier. You don't forget there's lambic in this brew as you swallow; the finish is horsey in just the right way. The combination of grassy hop flavors mingled with the earthy lambic is interesting, and the leathery texture adds complexity.

Try Flanders Fred with Cowgirl Creamery's Red Hawk or other creamy and funky washed-rind cheeses. Then serve the rest alongside a chicken roasted with carrots and parsnips.

If you're in Portland this week, you can taste Flanders Fred alongside its base beers at Belmont Station on Tuesday, August 28th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (Event listing here.)

About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

[Photo: Maggie Hoffman]

In their tap room on August 25th, Odell Brewing Company in Fort Collins, CO will release their fourth Single Serve release this year, Deconstruction Golden Ale. Named for Derrida's theory of deconstruction, the beer was created by blending the final recipe brew with smaller pilot batches of the beer that were brewed with different yeasts and aged in various barrels.

We got the scoop from Odell's Eli Kolodny:

The first 5 barrel pilot batch was brewed in February and was barrel aged in wine barrels exclusively. We then brewed a pilot yeast prop (a mixture of our house ale yeast, wild yeast, and lacto) in March of our Deconstruction "cocktail" to add to the first main production batch. That entire batch was barrel aged in various oak barrels. Some were red wine, some specifically Zin, and some older Woodcut barrels. After that another production batch was brewed in June with our house yeast. The barrel components were tasted, and all those that met the flavor profile we were aiming for were combined with the second batch prior to bottling. That's the long and the short of it.

We snagged a preview sample and gave it a taste. It's a rich, spicy brew for fall, with fine and lively carbonation, that balances buttery and caramelized malt notes and a touch of nuttiness with a delicate lactic tang. Deconstruction is a big, mouthfilling beer at 10.5% ABV, perfect for cooler autumn days, and more interesting than your standard marzen or pumpkin beers. (Though we might recommend aging it a little to let the alcohol integrate a bit with the rest of the beer.) Serve it with nuts, crumbly aged cheeses, blue cheese, and prosciutto, or with barbecue (go for pork ribs and burnt ends.) We'd be curious to try the last sips of this luscious beer with a slice of pecan pie.

[Photo: Maggie Hoffman]

This double-strength version of Firestone Walker's Double Barrel Ale pours maple-syrup brown, and smells a bit mapley as well—deeply rich and sweet with hints of caramel corn and bourbon. With twice as much malt and hops as the original DBA recipe, this Imperial Special Bitter was partially fermented in oak barrels and then aged for a year in those barrels as well as some retired bourbon barrels.

Though the first sip seems as sweet as you'd expect from the scent, there's a bitter layer too that holds the sugar in check. (Firestone Walker always manages to get their beers in balance, and though this one is heady, heavy stuff, it's not way out of line with their other brews.)

You'll notice a little smoke and a little vanilla from the barrels—it's as if bread pudding with whiskey sauce has been recreated in beer form. It's an obvious match for creme brulee, but don't be afraid of opening it earlier in the evening and serving it with a savory dish. Try pork belly or roasted goose, a salad with pecans and blue cheese, or go with Peking duck—yes, you can make that at home.

Have you tried this limited release from Firestone Walker? What did you think?

Sample provided for review consideration.

About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

[Photo: Maggie Hoffman]

I eagerly anticipate the release of Cascade Brewing's apricot beer each year. It's fruity, tart, and tangy, with a mouthwatering lactic acidity and a hint of tannin from the oak barrels it's aged in. It's a fun beer to drink.

Making this beer is an intensive process. I asked my contact Chris Crabb about the details. She wrote:

The base beer is finished and has been barrel aged for between 6 and 9 months. The apricots get tested to make sure they are ripe, then checked to make sure they aren't bruised, rotting, etc., then washed, then pitted, then weighed in 25 pound buckets so the brewers know how many are added. When it comes time to add the fruit, half of the aged beer is transferred to a stainless steel tank, where the fruit is added and will sit for another 6 to 8 months. At the end of that period, the other half of the base beer will be blended in."

[Photo: Chris Crabb]

The beer ends up fresh and rich with apricot flavor, but not sweet or thick. The tanginess is a bit like sour yogurt or apple cider vinegar. Hardcore sour-beer fans may find this beer lacking the complex dimension of bretty Belgian sours, but this beer is tart in an easy-drinking way, and an excellent, delicious introduction for those who haven't tasted a ton of sour beer.

Serve it up with pork chops or just break out the cheese and crackers (Ritz and cheddar or walnuts and Manchego) or save a bottle for Thanksgiving—this beer will be excellent with turkey and cranberries, and it can handle all the flavors on your holiday table.

This beer is available in Oregon and will have at least some distribution in Northern California (through Artisan Distributing), Southern California (El Dorado), Massachusetts (through Atlantic Importing), North Carolina (Freedom Beverages), New York (SKI), the Seattle, WA area (self-distributed), Pennsylvania (Bella Vista Beer), and Florida (through Florida Micro Beverage Distributing.)

About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

Sample provided for review consideration.

Smuttynose used their Finest Kind IPA as a starting point for this limited edition beer released in a 750 mL bottle. They added 30% rye malt and brought in Aromatic malt in the place of their usual C-60. They increased dry hopping to four times the level of Finest Kind, using Simcoe and Amarillo hops.

The scent is sweet and spicy, with hints of strawberry and nectarine. Rich malt flavor is brightened with a serious hit of hops. The finish is super dry and clean, with a lingering bitter piney note and a bit of crackery malt. It's a beer that evolves during each sip from the sweet scent to the round malty core, to full orangey hop fruit flavors, and then the super dry finish.

Bring this one along to a barbecue, serve it with bratwurst, pork chops, or carnitas tacos. (We have an awesome recipe for those here on SE.)

About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

This single-hop pale ale from Russian River Brewing Company is named for the location in the experimental hop yard where Simcoe hops were developed. "Row 2 / Hill 56 describes the exact location of the first ever Simcoe hop vine in the experimental hopyard that Jason Perrault was working with when he and his co-workers first breed Simcoe," Vinnie Cilurzo wrote us. "It was the second row over and the 56th hill." This beer is part of Russian River's new 'Hop Grower Tribute Series', and this one honors three Yakima-area family farms: Carpenter, Perrault, and Smith. Cilurzo says that "most of the beers we will do in the series will not be bottled and will be draft only at the pub," but Row 2 Hill 56 was released in bottles a few weeks ago, and I bought it at City Beer Store in San Francisco. It's 5.8% ABV.

Let me tell you, this is a truly delicious beer. It's quite creamy, with a bitter and super-dry piney finish to cut the rich golden malt. There's some fresh juicy orange rind character too; it's bright and lively. As usual with Russian River, there are lots of warnings on the label urging you to drink it while fresh before the wonderful hop character fades. Heed the warnings, guys. I gotta say, if you offered this to me alongside a Pliny, I'd probably reach for this one first.

About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

The words on the lower half of this limited-edition bottle from Stone Brewing Co. read "Ruining Palates for Ten Years." And this one is definitely a palate-wrecker, a blast of bitter hoppiness that'll leave your tongue piney for days. "This is completely unrestrained," pronounced one taster at SEHQ. "I think other beers are afraid to go this far." According to the brewery, they used 5 pounds of hops per barrel, including about a pound each of Citra and Centennial in the dry hop. That's double what's in the regular (but not at all shy) Ruination.

There's caramel, peach, and citrus flavors in this beer, but they're just enough to support the bitterness, and the 10.8% alcohol barely shows. (Until you're wandering in a hop-and-alcohol-induced daze.) Carbonation is a delicate prickle; this is a rich beer in addition to being a bitter one, which also inspires us to pair it with food. Try marmalade-glazed pork chops, or crisp pork belly and mustard, aged cheese, or juicy bratwurst. A little salt, a little fat, and a wallop of bitter hops.

Sample provided for review consideration.

About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

I thought the era of making every beer Imperial was over, but this new big-bottle beer from Gordon Biersch shows that it's still worth doing. The IPB, as they're calling it, is made with Hallertau, Tettnang, Spalt and Saaz hops, and clocks in at 6.5% ABV. It's rich, bold, bitter stuff, with a hefty, almost chewy malt backbone. (Think graham crackers and wheat biscuits, plus plenty of bitter hops.) Though it lacks the lightness and crispness of a pilsner, it works for those times when you can't decide between cracking open a pilsner or an IPA, and you're yearning for malt.

This beer would be right at home with salty meats—try grilled bratwurst or pastrami sandwiches. It would be a nice counterpoint to pulled pork or smoky ribs (don't forget the baked beans cooked with burnt ends.)

Have you ever tried an Imperial Pilsner? Samuel Adams makes the Hallertau Imperial Pilsner, and Heavy Seas has the Uber Pils. What do you think? Is this a style you'd seek out?

Sample provided for review consideration.
About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

Since Sam Adams launched its Single Batch Series last year, it's been a bit of a mad scientist's lab for craft beer crossbreeds, producing one-off creations like blonde barleywine, Baltic IPA, and rauch bock. They grabbed our attention with their latest releases in the series by dusting off a couple of seriously old and almost-forgotten styles: Gose and Sahti. Sam Adams isn't the only brewery to produce modern versions of these obscure ales, but they're certainly the largest.

Gose is a style of unfiltered wheat beer accented with salt and coriander that originated in Germany. Verloren (6.0% ABV), which is German for "lost," is cloudy gold with a fluffy white head. Its aroma is pungent in the glass with coriander, stone fruit and floral esters, and plenty of wheat. The first sip tricked us, feigning the tartness found in other Goses. With subsequent tastes we decided it was actually a combination of the salt and peach and apricot flavors rather than a lactic character. Don't let the salt scare you off, it really makes the fruit pop. Think of Gose as Wit's eccentric cousin.

Verloren is a soft, light-bodied, and very refreshing hot weather beer. It finishes dry and relatively clean, with just a little lingering wheat. It would be great with fish, a simple salad with vinaigrette, or, if you want to be the one to bring the geeky beer to the picnic, the bright fruit and salt would pair great with barbecue. We'll be picking up more of this if it's around this summer.

Norse Legend (7.0% ABV) is the brewery's take on the rustic Finnish Sahti, the juniper-spiked beer of Vikings. It pours a dark, reddish amber with a fleeting head. The juniper berries Norse Legend was brewed with and aged on are front and center in every aspect. Like a bottled evergreen forest, there's earth, wood, and sap. It starts spicy and herbaceous and goes all the way through. The full-bodied sticky malt beneath, slightly sweet and bready with dark caramel, is similar to that of a Scotch ale with a spicy rye kick. Pair this with salmon or something with the earthiness to match.

Have you tried these beers, or others from the Sam Adams Single Batch series?

About the Author: Jonathan Moxey is a Harlem-based homebrewer, BJCP beer judge, and Cicerone Certified Beer Server. He hosts private beer tastings for Tapped Craft Beer Events.

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[Photograph: Jessica Leibowitz]

We drink more than our fair share of oatmeal stout—there's something about the creaminess that always calls to us. But we haven't seen a ton of oatmeal porters, so Widmer Brothers' new release in the Series 924 collection drew our attention.

The toasted oats add a bit of nuttiness to this coffee-tinged, lightly roasty beer, but it's lighter-bodied and more crisp than you'd get from most stouts, with that touch of milky sourness that you often find in classic porters. You wouldn't characterize this beer as super-rich and creamy, but if you're looking for a refreshing dark beer option for a cool evening, it might do the trick. Widmer Brothers Oatmeal Porter also has a significant hop flavor (the Cascade hops are unmissable, though they also use a hop called Alchemy) which increases the refreshment-factor, though some might find the hoppiness a little distracting. Try this beer with ribs or a pastrami sandwich.

Available in four-packs of 12 ounce bottles, 22 ounce bombers, and draft. Sample provided for review consideration.