As Bay Area breweries reopen and the weather warms, spring is the perfect time to visit a beer garden, hoist a favorite pint or try something new. Here are some newcomers to check out from breweries around Northern California and beyond — and exciting news for Trappist brew fans.
It’s fairly rare to see a new release from one of Belgium’s Trappist breweries. Most make a limited number of beers, which stay the same for decades. So it’s always big news when that changes — and especially so when it involves Chimay’s Scourmont Abbey, a Trappist brewery that dates back to 1862.
The brewery typically sells three beers, known colloquially as Chimay Red, Blue and White. But for the brewery’s 150th anniversary in 2012, the monks created a special beer for the occasion — and they used a green label for the limited run of 150,000 bottles, which promptly sold out.
Now, the monks have begun brewing that anniversary beer under the name Chimay Verte, or Chimay Green, as a new beer in their portfolio. It’s a strong blond beer — at 10-percent ABV — brewed with Saaz and Hallertau Mittelfrüh hops. It will be slightly spicy, with hints of clove, ginger and rosemary from the house yeast, along with aromas of mint, bergamot, lime and eucalyptus. The beer will be available in Belgium by June, if you’re lucky enough to be able to travel there, and this fall in the U.S. sold in 11.2-ounce and 25-ounce bottles.
Meanwhile, closer to home, San Francisco’s Fort Point Beer Co. is launching a new beer series in 16-ounce limited edition cans, starting with the just-released Natural Magic. It’s a hazy pale ale brewed with Feldblume malt from Alameda’s Admiral Maltings, along with flaked oats. The result is a fruity explosion of mango and ruby red grapefruit. The brewery’s taprooms are still closed, but you can order Natural Magic and other Fort Point beers for next-day delivery via https://fortpointbeer.com/shop. Future releases from the series will come from the brewery’s R&D and experimentation lab, with beer available only at the Lower Haight location.
Chico’s Sierra Nevada Brewing is releasing its popular seasonal, Hoptimum Triple IPA, and this year’s edition is the strongest and hoppiest yet at 11-percent ABV and 75 IBUs. This year’s hop varieties include Magnum, Idaho 7, El Dorado and Mosaic varieties, and then it’s dry hopped with Citra, Mosaic lupulin powder, Loral and Magnum hops. It’s available in six-packs of 12-ounce bottles through August.
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, a Delaware brewery, just launching its first non-alcoholic wheat beer, Lemon Quest, nationwide. At just 90 calories per bottle, Lemon Quest is brewed with fresh lemon puree, blueberry juice, acai berries, monk fruit, sea salt and Hopsteiner polyphenol-rich hop pellets. Dogfish Head partnered with the Nature Conservancy to develop this beer and promote nature and an outdoor lifestyle.
And this one’s not new, but its Bay Area availability is: Trejo’s Cerveza, a Mexican lager named for “Machete” actor Danny Trejo and created to complement the actor’s Trejo’s Tacos was previously available only in the Los Angeles basin — it’s brewed by Burbank’s Lincoln Beer Company. Now four-packs of the 16-ounce cans are being shipped throughout California.
Contact Jay R. Brooks at BrooksOnBeer@gmail.com.
May 11, 2021 at 11:30PM
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Major Trappist beer news, plus 5 new beers from the Bay Area and beyond - The Mercury News
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