Beer in the U.S.A

An amazing selection of new Beers from the Land of the Free have arrived here at the Oak Barrel and we are STOKED about it! While it’s always fantastic to drink local, sometimes you need to pay homage to those breweries that set the benchmark for different styles, regardless of where they’re from.

Kicking off with Founders Brewing. Let’s give a solid amount of praise to Michigan. Detroit was a pivotal industrial city for America, Eminem is definitely worth mentioning in the scope of early 2000s Rap (depending on who you ask,) the Upper Peninsula is some damn beautiful countryside, but all that aside: Michigan makes some tasty beers!

Founders Centennial IPA

It’s 2019 and we’re all drowning in a sea of IPAs. West Coast, East Coast, New England, triple dry hopped – but this IPA, this one actually set the benchmark for what makes a “good” IPA. Being used by Beer Judge Certification Program (colloquially known as BJCP) and used for all judging in the US and to the best of my knowledge, all the competitions out here too! Not as sweet with the malt as many US IPAs, not as heavy handed with the bitterness as others either but vibrant and complex, bursting with citrus and complimented by a strong malt backbone with pine accents. We didn’t get much of this baby, but it’s travelled all the way from Michigan in it’s very short life and I’d suggest getting your hands on it ASAP, with this style fresh is best!

Founders KBS 2019 !

Only just kicking off the fourth month of this year and Founders have already dropped this bad boy in our laps! The label reads “Is good for everything a flavored stout ought to be good for”, and I’m going to have to agree with them. Anyone who has come into the shop and had a chat with me about my excessive admiration of all things Stout will also know that I get more than a little upset when breweries go over the top with the adjuncts and make a beer that reads well as opposed to tasting good: This beer tastes SUPER good. Brewed with coffee and chocolate and aged in Bourbon Barrels, this beer has all the fun you want but kept well in check. Great warming booze, without being hot, noticable coffee without getting acrid and beautiful silky chocolate sweetness without being cloying. This is my winter warmer pick of the year, given we’ve finally had the turn of season!

Dolly Parton called Tennessee the greenest state in the land of the free, but I am almost positive that she was talking about its neighboring state: North Carolina. They have an incredible craft brewing scene that just continues to grow, there are also a whole bunch of HUGE breweries that have set up in NC as their second home, the likes of Oskar Blues and Sierra Nevada (a brewery I will always respect for their use of whole hop cones!) but one of the first ever “craft beers” I ever had in the US came from this glorious brewery: Wicked Weed, I loved it and I kept on drinking them because once I had my first sour from them, those $1 PBR tins didn’t look so appealing anymore. So I’m very excited to finally have some beers from this brewery on the shelves for you guys to try.

Wicked Weed Marina

These guys have always done kick ass sours and this is no different, there is one pound of peaches to each gallon of this beer. I’m not the best with my metric conversions, but I’m under the impression that’s a lot of peaches, and it does taste like it too. Good acid drive coming through keeping this beer zippy and fun, well rounded out by bretty earthy notes. Not to be missed.

Wicked Weed Montmaretto

A part of the Barrel aged series done by Wicked Weed, this beer is also pound of fruit per gallon intenseness, but this time with cherries instead. To add complexity to this vibrant (also incredibly colored beer) a portion of it was aged in barrel with almonds to impart that nutty Amaretto sex appeal.

Lastly but not leastly we’re going to round out this tour of the US we’re going to take you to Colorado. I don’t have many fun facts to share about Colorado, it’s really beautiful and Denver is the Mile High City, but New Belgium doesn’t operate out of Denver so the point is moot, but the beer is not!

New Belgium Felix

I’m not sure about the rest of you but I wait with baited breath for the next New Belgium release, the last limited that came and went quiet quickly was the Oscar, another one of their Barrel Aged experiments. Now they come to us with Felix, a single foeder Golden Sour aged in apple flavored whisky barrels. The love child of the relationship between NB and Leopold Brothers in Denver, CO (the Mile High City!) tart and citrusy bursting with apple sweetness, with warm vanilla vibes from the time spent in oak, thoroughly moreish!