Dos Costas Oeste

Happy Mother’s Day beer lovers!  We broke into my brother’s stash of “special” bottles over the weekend to celebrate the holiday.  In the beer frig were some hold overs from the fall like Pumpking  and three bottles with matching labels. 

 These beers are a collaboration between Cigar City Brewing in Tampa FL and The Bruery in Placentia, CA, hence the name, which translates to “Two West Coast Breweries”.  Both breweries produce outstanding beer so I was expecting quite a treat.  First, Why 3 different bottles?  It turns out that the brewers wanted to experiment with aging this saison in 3 different types of wood: Cedar, Grapefruit wood and lemon wood.  The bottle we opened over Mother’s Day dinner was the red -labeled, cedar variety.

So on a beautiful May afternoon, I poured this deep orange beer into a goblet and took in its aroma.  I could detect Belgian yeast and coriander, but could not pick up the other ingredients right away.  My sister-in-law Irene noticed the orange scent, but no one could tell that ginger is also used in this brew.  These flavors mixed well on the palate as we drank it.  The fruity overtones made it perfect for this spring day.  At 9% ABV, it’s not meant to drink all day long.  But as a precursor to a great meal it was right on the mark.

Dogfish Head Saison du Buff

This beer comes with quite a pedigree.  It is a collaboration between Dogfish Head, Victory and Stone Brewing Company.  I wasn’t aware of the history of BUFF until I did some research.  It turns out that this beer is named for a meeting held by the heads of the three breweries back in 2003.  9 years ago Sam Calagione of Dogfish, Bill Covaleski of Victory, and Greg Koch from Stone formed Brewers United For Freedom of Flavor and  called a press conference to bring attention to the lack of choice in the mainstream beer world.  At the time only one journalist felt the need to attend.  

Fast forward to 2012: the craft beer wave has made these brands household names and turned Sam into a rock star.  Funny how things can change. 

Unfortunately, mainstream beer hasn’t changed: it’s still watered down and, for the most part, tasteless.  To show the world just how interesting and flavorful a beer can be, these three brewers have concocted a brew containing parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (yeah, just like the song).  And I’m here to tell you: It works!

Similar to how these 3 idiosyncratic brewers were able to meld their own personalities together for the collaboration, the four spices blend nicely into a refreshing saisson. Here’s my tasting notes:

Pour:  Uniform fluffy white head

Nose:  Citrus with a slight hop fragrance

Taste:  Strong spice up front though one spice does not dominate, nice hoppy finish, not overpowering.

Aftertaste:  Now I’m getting some of that rosemary on the back of my tongue.

Overall: Very refreshing and drinkable.  At 6.8% ABV, it truly can be a go to session beer for the summer.