If you’re a true hophead, and I mean a purist, you already know what it means, or at least what it tastes like. Dank. It’s a popular term used to describe a particular hop aroma and flavor in certain beers, although the exact definition of what truly causes a beer to smell or taste this way differs slightly from one person to another. There are even one or two opinions out there that challenge the using the word as a beer descriptor at all, considering its use in describing the aroma of another popular flowering plant from the same family as the hop. But it’s just too accurate of an adjective of hoppy ales to put down. The purists – not the stoners – know it. Still, what does it mean exactly?
There are a few clues in the terms that often precede or follow “dank” – piney, earthy, resinous. But while many hoppy beers have some level of pine like flavor, the latter two words seem to be more common. “Earthy” usually means some sort of herbal like or grassy flavor, and resinous, although a little similar perhaps to pine, well, is its own term of pure hop goodness. All of these give a little insight into what a dank tasting, hoppy beer is like. But to truly understand the meaning, well, you have to feel it.
That’s right – feel it. Have you ever heard someone actually use the word? I think I truly understood what dank meant when I first heard it used to describe such a beer, but it wasn’t in the word itself that I knew, it was in how it sounded. After tasting a particularly good hoppy – and dank – beer, it rolled out of the mouth of a friend of mine as if he had just heard two full sets of blissfully gratifying and sweat infused blues music. More times than not, it spoken with an inflection of deep down, raw satisfaction. Imagine leaving a James Brown show, when he was at his prime no less. He wouldn’t have hit you with the “funk”, said as if you were reading classical literature. He would’ve hit you with the f-u-n-k. That’s how a dank beer is. Forget the adjectives – I say dank is an emotion.
But don’t take it from me. Few beers hit these notes as perfectly as one particularly funky, and dank, IPA that has built up quite a bit of buzz in the last several months. This weekend, Deviant Dales IPA from Oskar Blues Brewery in Colorado will be taking its place among the taps at Local Roots Restaurant here in Roanoke. Reportedly, it’s an elevated and extremely well dry hopped version of their Dale’s Pale Ale, and is not to be missed. Let it warm just a bit for all the flavors to uncover themselves. All the elements are there – piney, earthy, resinous hops flood both the aroma and the flavor in this deliciously complex and flavorful beer. In lesser hop bombs, it can sometimes be easy to pick out the moments at which each hop characteristic runs across your tongue. In Deviant, you’ll taste its slight pine, puckering grapefruit and bitter rind, big herbal earthiness, and resinous hop flavors as they are occur all at once, not unlike funk band instrumentalists going on their own solos but staying within a groove, building one heck of a deep, soulful blues jam, all held in check by a bass line of perfectly placed deep caramel malt. This malt and the carbonation give the beer a wonderful feel and help those hoppy – dank – flavors coat the mouth, making sure that the raw satisfaction lingers for some time. As it finally begins to show signs of fading from your taste buds, you’ll most likely say it, as my friend did. And even if you don’t, one thing’s for sure. As a grin likely starts to unfold on the edge of your slightly puckered mouth, you’ll definitely feel it.
First, Blue 5 Restaurant expanded their almost completely craft beer selection from sixteen to a mouth watering forty six taps on hand. This was almost immediately followed by bringing in some of the most buzz worthy craft beer from across the country, such as Avery’s Maharaja Imperial IPA and annual releases like Foothills’ Sexual Chocolate stout. So what’s next on the chalkboard of beer related projects for the restaurant? Did someone say “beer garden”?
Yes, this Saturday, April 21st, Blue 5 will create, in the words of manager Chris Coleman, a “pseudo” outdoor beer garden which will coincide with the second annual Roanoke Twilight Criterium bike race, once again running through the streets of downtown. According to Coleman, it will be located directly in front of the restaurant, from which turn one in the .60 mile race will be easily within sight. Making the event even more enticing, race sponsor and regional brewery Devils Backbone (Nelson, Rockbridge Counties) will be the featured brewery. Along with their popular Vienna lager, the brewery is apparently bringing a few of their other fine brews, none have appeared in Roanoke so far. The list includes their Gold Leaf lager, Maibock, White Stag IPA, and possible first choice for their upcoming “Trailblazer” limited release series, their delicious Begian Congo pale ale.
Roughly a week and a half ago, the delivery driver’s wishes, and mine, came true. Six packs of the two brewery’s two flagship beers, their crisp and clean tasting Vienna Lager, and their razor sharp, hop imbued Eight Point IPA, started showing up in stores here in Roanoke. In less than a year after the official ground breaking at the Rockbridge County facility, bottles are now in stores. One might think the brewery would be happy to have reached this point. The question “ok, what’s next?” is definitely inevitable, but feels a little impatient, right? As it turns out, Devils Backbone is well ahead of that question, and seems almost as impatient to answer it as fans of their beer might seem to ask it. A visit yesterday to the brewery revealed a couple of those answers, and if what I sampled is any indication, our im-patience is about to be well tested.
As part of what the brewery plans to call their “Trailblazer Series”, Devils Backbone will start to roll out additional beers as limited releases starting in the very near future. As many craft breweries do, Devils Backbone will offer these as slightly off the beaten path, more complex beers for the beer curious to try their taste buds out on. The first, a Belgian style pale ale called “Belgian Congo”, on tap currently at the brewery’s tasting room, will be the first in the series. I had the wonderful opportunity to try this flavorful beer when I stopped by the brewery yesterday, and if this beer is any indication of what’s to come with the whole series, we’re all in for some very delicious and exciting beers.
The brewery listed the Belgian Congo as a pale ale, although initially I had heard that it was some form of IPA. Labels, labels, labels…throw them out right now. Good for general direction, but when you get down to it, as I’ve written before, they’re horrible for specifics. Their Belgian Congo is a wonderful label busting beer, a hybrid of hoppy beer brewed with an (obviously) Belgian yeast strain, and by virtue of these elements and others, is one of those with many layers to it. Pale golden in color, it is very aromatic and grabs your attention with a blend of crisp apple and pear. These also show up in the flavor of the beer as well, due to the hops and/or type of yeast used, yet off somewhere in the distance there also an orange citrusy one as well. Alongside runs a slight edge of more typical pine hop flavor and low bitterness, both of which are a bit more subdued than the fruit like flavors but certainly present. What’s beautiful about tasting this beer is that none of these elements overshadow another. There are plenty of flavorful beers out there, many of whose flavors overlap some, but not completely, and they’re certainly deserved of praise. But there are those in which everything seems to be working at the same time, apart yet together, not unlike a group of modern jazz soloists playing their own solos yet listening to each other, working within one solid groove. You tend to get a little wonderfully lost in those moments, in those beers, which this is definitely one of.
Saturday is coming, and you can see the cascading foam from here, can’t you. St. Patrick’s Day is almost here, and even if you’re not really “into” beer at all, you already know what you’ll likely have. You’ll do so because it just seems like the correct thing to do, or at least more so than dressing up like a leprechaun. Even those beer geeks who have resigned themselves to a life of hoppy ipas are only slightly resistant to the idea, and are becoming less so as we inch towards the weekend. It’s practically synonymous with the holiday, after all. A Guinness just seems like the logical choice, doesn’t it, on a day when many folks will make less than logical decisions. (That reminds me, will you hand me my beer mug shaped sunglasses?)
Whether or not you are a craft beer aficionado or somewhat new to the scene, you know their name. They are one of the largest craft breweries in the US in terms of production, their “Off Centered” ales are some of the most recognizable around, and never mind their owner was the focus of a Discovery Channel series focusing on craft beer. Their most popular beers, a series of India Pale Ales, are often only referred to by their roll off the tongue abbreviations: 60 Minute, 90 Minute, 120 Minute. Based in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Dogfish Head owns a spot in the national craft beer scene that few other breweries do, an instantly recognizable name no matter what your own familiarity with craft beer may be. No matter if you’re a fan or not, you know their beer. And this weekend, in Roanoke, you can get to know them – and a couple of their harder to find beers – a little bit better.
Chances are good that on a few occasions you have lived out your own version of those famous commercials in which a flawlessly beautiful, sunny day on the beach, complete with Adirondack chairs, crystal blue water, and the distant, lazy sounds of passing seagulls is made complete with an ice cold bucket of beer by your side. Personally, I’ve never argued with such a setting, and I prefer it to most others. Any other. On days such as these, I simply choose a different beer to stock the bucket with, and if you’re reading this blog, you may have as well. My bucket, or more likely cooler, is usually supplied with plenty of good, craft beer that seems to fit the day rather perfectly. The only way to up the ante, I’ve found, is if you can stick something local down in the ice, if you can find a brewery nearby. In Virginia Beach these days, this is not a difficult thing to do. In operation for roughly a year and a half, and just a mere seven miles or so from the surf, Beach Brewing Company has been supplying locals with well made craft beer for their blissful days on the beach, or just about any other occasion.
My own city of Roanoke has been lucky enough to be the recipient of some of MacDonald’s and his passionate brewers’ beers. On a recent chilly, windy March day, I sampled their Hammerhead IPA. As I took the first sip, I enjoyed the beer’s initial touch of sweet maltyness that quicky turned the stage over to citrusy hops and a slightly puckering bitterness. The pattern of foam lacing stuck its way down the sides of the glass, and reminded me of how the last bit of a crashed wave looks before being pulled back out to sea. As my taste buds were wrapping themselves around the lingering flavor of the hops, I smiled and looked forward to the next sip. All I need now, of course, is my Adirondack chair, a crystal blue ocean, a beach full of warm sand, the sun, and my cooler.
