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Rock Art Brewery: A River Runs Gruit

Rock Art Brewery: A River Runs Gruit

ABV: 5.2%

IBU: 0

Availability: Rotating

@untappd says: 3.66/5

I am Gruit on the Windowsill today!

When I first saw this beer at Rock Art Brewery in Morrisville, VT, I thought to myself; what the hell is a gruit ale? Well, luckily, American Craft Beer had the answer for me. The word gruit, or grut, is German for herb. A gruit is any brew that uses an herbal mixture for flavoring or bittering instead of hops. Back in the day, gruits dominated the beer market, but around the 15th or 16th centuries, their popularity ended. Why? For one, German beer purity laws—they passed in 1516 and stated that beers could only contain water, barley and hops—made it a no no (or “nein nein”) to make anything resembling a gruit. It’s also believed that religious conservatism helped bury the style, as many of the herbs used back then were aphrodisiacs. Can’t have a bunch of horny drunks running around now, can we? Thankfully, microbreweries started popularizing the style again in the 1990s.

A River Runs Gruit is a cleverly named—great shout out to the classic novel, and eventual Brad Pitt film—is an ale brewed with herbs, chamomile, rose hips, elderberry and lavender. The lavender and chamomile stood out the most for me. Overall, this brew was a very weird experience. Thankfully, I like weird. I love that this ancient style, which seemingly has endless possibilities for herb combinations and flavorings, is making its comeback. This one was very flowery and tasty, once I got through the hop-less weirdness of it all. I dug it!

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Two Roads Brewing Company and Lawson’s Finest Liquids: Typecast Farmhouse IPA

Lawson's Finest Liquids and Two Roads Brewing Company: Typecast Farmhouse IPA

Hops: Wye Challenger, Cascade, Centennial

Special Ingredients: Vermont White Cedar, Connecticut Balsam Fir Tips

ABV: 6.5%

IBU: N/A

Availability: Limited

@untappd says: 3.7/5

We have a really atypical collaboration on the Windowsill today!

I love a good collaboration brew, so you know I was excited to find out that one of my favorite local breweries, Two Roads Brewing Company, and one of Vermont’s finest breweries, Lawson’s Finest Liquids, had come together to create a very unique Farmhouse IPA—the Typecast. For those of you know know Lawson’s story, it shouldn’t be a surprise that these two made a beer together. They already make a lot of beers together. If you’ve ever had any Lawson’s in a can, know that it was actually brewed at Two Roads. The two have had a solid contract brewing relationship for a while now.

Now onto the brew. A farmhouse IPA? Sounds wild, right? What is it? It starts out as a farmhouse ale (aka saison), and then it’s dry-hopped to perfection. One extra cool thing about this beer is that it uses all local ingredients. It uses Cascade and Wye Challenger hops grown in Connecticut, as well as Centennial hops grown in Vermont. The Typecast also includes Vermont white cedar and CT balsam fir tips in the boil. Overall, this brew wasn’t really for me, but it’s definitely an eclectic style, with some pretty good flavors that you might like. Cheers!

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Alvarado Street Brewery: Kettle Cooler

Alvarado Street Brewery: Kettle Cooler

ABV: 5.0%

IBU: “Low”

Availability: Rotating

@untappd says: 3.88/5

There’s nothing cooler than today’s Windowsill beer!

How do you make a kettle sour? No, this isn’t an old timey joke, and there’s no corny punchline, this is a quick how to lesson! According to the Home Brewers Association, you can make a kettle sour in five easy steps. •1. Mash, lauter and sparge as you would for any beer. •2. Conduct a brief, 10-15 minute boil for sanitation, and then cool the wort to 100 degrees Farenheit. •3. Pitch a culture of pure lactobacillus into the kettle and cover. Allow the lacto to sour the wort over the next couple of days, using a heater to maintain the temperature. •4. When the wort has reached the desired level of sourness, return the kettle to the heat and boil for 60 to 90 minutes, adding hops to your heart’s content. •5. After the boil, chill and ferment with standard brewer’s yeast.

That’s it! Now go out and try it!

Today’s Windowsill brew is a kettle sour from Monterey, CA’s Alvarado Street Brewery, which came to me courtesy of my good buddy, @beer_shark. It’s called a Kettle Cooler, and is a rotating release from the brewery. It’s inspired by Cactus Cooler soda, with added heaps of mandarin orange, pineapple puree and vanilla beans to Alvarado’s regular kettle sour ale. I’ve never had Cactus Cooler, but if it’s as tart, fruity and refreshing as the Kettle Cooler, I’m all in for one!

Check this one out on Instagram, now. Don’t forget to like it, and follow Beers on Windowsills!

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Tröegs Independent Brewing: Nimble Giant

Tröegs Independent Brewing: Nimble Giant

Hops: Simcoe, Mosaic, Azacca

ABV: 9.0%

IBU: 69

Availability: Every June

@untappd says: 4.13/5

After 16 months, we’ve finally found the Giant on the Windowsill today!

You know what I love about Hershey PA’s Tröegs Independent Brewing? No, it’s not the umlaut (although… it kind of is); it’s the fact that they pride themselves in supporting their community. They view the brewery as only one part of the Tröegs community, and they support local vendors, producers and causes they believe in. This means they sometimes hold tree planting events, or 5K races, and they try to use locally sourced hops and ingredients wherever possible. Keep that going!

The Nimble Giant is one of Tröegs’ most famous, and anticipated, yearly releases. It has dropped into cans and kegs every June since 2016, but this was my first time trying it. Let me tell you, this double IPA was worth the wait. It’s brewed with three top notch hops, Simcoe, Mosaic and Azacca. That’s only part of Tröegs’ “ingredients + people + process” beer-making formula. The people part comes from the innovative hopping technique they developed for this brew. They dubbed it Hop Cyclone, and it ensures that the hop oils get to every drop of beer in those tanks. The process? Tröegs found a small window of time during fermentation that optimizes the dry-hop additions. The Nimble Giant is truly a giant at 9% ABV, but the flavor profile from the hops and techniques shows how nimble Tröegs can be. Amazing!

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Front Porch Brewing: Reverse Mermaid

Front Porch Brewery: Reverse Mermaid

Hops: Citra, Simcoe, Mosaic

ABV: 6.3%

IBU: N/A

Availability: Rotating

@untappd says: 3.9/5

Behold! A majestic mythical creature is on the Windowsill today!

A couple of weeks ago, I took a trip to Vermont. On the way home, needing to pee, I remembered that my good friend, @beer_shark, had told me about an up-and-coming brewery in Wallingford, CT named Front Porch Brewing. I decided to stop by, and picked up a couple of four-packs. Front Porch was founded in 2017 by four partners (I had trouble tracking them down, but one of them is West Haven, CT native Ryan Voytek. I’m hoping that, as time goes by and this brewery continues to grow, we’ll all know a lot more about these guys. Check out some photos from my brief visit!

The Reverse Mermaid was quite delicious. It’s a double dry-hopped IPA brewed with Citra, Simcoe and Mosaic hops. I love those hops on their own, and they combined really nicely in this beer! I also love the can art! It brings up an interesting philosophical debate. Would you rather be stranded on an island with a mermaid (human on top, fish on the bottom, like Ariel), or a reverse mermaid (fish on top, human on the bottom)?… Think about it.

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Burlington Beer Company: Orbital Elevator

Burlington Beer Company: Orbital Elevator

Hops: Simcoe, Mosaic, El Dorado

Malts: Oat Malt, Flaked Oats

ABV: 8.3%

IBU: 40

Availability: Rotating

@untappd says: 4.15/5

We’re getting scientific on the Windowsill today!

Have you heard of the space elevator? No, I don’t mean the thing Roald Dahl’s beloved character, Charlie, gets into in the oft-forgotten sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (although that elevator does go into orbit… so maybe it is?). Anyway, the space elevator is a potential way for human beings to travel into space using an elevator-like contraption involving, essentially, the same tech as the lift in your apartment building or office. Once the tech is available and perfected, this concept would save billions over NASA’s current strategy of launching rockets. That’s good, since we’re apparently gonna need that money for a Space Force now… you know, like G.I. Joe had…. Anywho, if you want to find out more about the “orbital elevator” concept, check out the Youtube video BBCO sent me. I can’t link here, so just google “Space Elevator—Science Fiction or the Future of Mankind?” It’s animated, and pretty awesome.

OK. We’re here to talk about the beer. The Orbital Elevator—which gets its name from Burlington Beer Company’s fascination with the space elevator concept—was really a special brew. Billed as an oatmeal Double IPA, it’s a DIPA brewed with Oat Malt and Flaked Oats. This gives the brew more of a fluffy mouthfeel, which I really enjoyed. The hops used—Simcoe, Mosaic and El Dorado—give the Orbital Elevator that tropical “fruity pebble paradise” of flavors and aromas we all love in our IPAs. Another winner from BBCO!

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SingleCut Beersmiths: Barrel Aged Heavy Boots of Lead

SingleCut Beersmiths: Barrel Aged Heavy Boots of Lead

ABV: 11.0%

IBU: 55

Availability: Rotating

@untappd says: 4.29/5

It’s not the sabbath, but we’ve still got Iron man on the Windowsill today!

For today’s SingleCut Beersmiths rock n’ roll inspiration, I give you the following lyrics, from Black Sabbath’s Iron Man…. “Heavy boots of lead / Fills his victims full of dread. Running as fast as they can / Iron man lives again.” As you can see, that’s what today’s beer is named after, and I think it’s pretty appropriate for this barrel-aged version of the Heavy Boots of Lead, an imperial stout that, if you’re not ready for it, might have you running scared.

Luckily, I was ready for this brew because it won the Instagram story poll this weekend. You wanted me to drink it, so I did. This incredible stout from SingleCut is aged in rye whisky barrels for a year. It also has some added Oregon honey for a touch of sweetness. The result is a chocolaty, smooth, creamy stout with just enough whiskey and honey flavor to put it near the top of my list of favorite stouts. It’s so good that, like the Iron man, must have been created in that great magnetic field, indeed!

Head over to Instagram for more great SingleCut brews!

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Zero Gravity Craft Brewery: Little Wolf

Zero Gravity Craft Brewery: Little Wolf

Hops: Horizon, Citra, Mosaic

Malts: Barley, Oats

ABV: 4.7%

IBU: 40

Availability: Year-round

@untappd says: 3.68/5

Something’s howling on the Windowsill today!

You can’t talk about Zero Gravity Craft Brewery’s Little Wolf Pale Ale without talking about Humulus Lupulus. No, that’s not one of those funny latin names they put under the Road Runner at the beginning of the cartoons. Humulus Lupulus is a plant. More specifically, a hop plant. While Humulus is the word used to describe the genus where all hop plants live, lupulus is the latin meaning “little wolf.” The plant was named this way because of its diminutive size, and the way it tends to grow, choking out all other plants like a wolf does sheep… or at least how they did back when the plant was named.
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The Little Wolf is a pale ale that I enjoyed during my trip to Vermont. Like with yesterday’s Wilson’s Plover, I have to thank @americanflatbread for the Windowsill. The beer is brewed with barley, oats and a solid combo of hops: Horizon, Citra and Mosaic. It’s definitely sessionable, absolutely crushable, and overall pretty damn tasty. The Little Wolf is a perfect complement to the delicious flatbread pizza we enjoyed for lunch that day.

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Veracious Brewing Company: 29 Pews

Veracious Brewing Company: 29 Pews

Hops: Citra, Other “Brewery favorites”

ABV: 6.1%

IBU: N/A

Availability: Year-round

@untappd says: 3.74/5

Pew! Pew! Beer and product review on the Windowsill today!

I’ve been looking to buy my own growler for a while now, and when I saw this Stanley 64oz growler on sale on Amazon I figured, why not take the plunge? This past weekend, I took it out for a spin! What’s good about this product? First of all, it’s stainless steel, which is good for many reasons. I love my stainless steel coffee cup because it keeps my coffee hot, or iced. This growler works the same way. It’s double wall vacuum insulation keeps your beer cold, and does a better job of keeping your beer pressurized than a glass growler with a screw top does. Speaking of the top, that’s lined with stainless steel too, so your beer only touches pristine stainless steel. My other favorite thing is the heavy-duty handle, which makes pouring super easy. Did I mention it’s leak proof and dishwasher safe? Really solid product. This growler, or any other stainless steel growler with a vacuum seal, is a better option. Glad I purchased this one! If you want a more robust review, check out my IGTV channel!

And now, the beer inside this kickass growler! I purchased this brew on my visit to Monroe, CT’s Veracious Brewing Company. The 29 Pews is their “house” IPA. Why 29 Pews? Well, the tasting room at Veracious is paneled with wood from 29 re-purposed church pews. That’s why it’s 29 Pews, and that’s why it’s the “house” IPA. As far as the hop build, it’s made with heavenly Citra hops as its base, and four other “brewery favorites.” It’s full-flavored and very drinkable. Solid choice for my Growler, I think.

For the purposes of full disclosure, I want to say that I purchased this on my own. However, I was approached by the company after posting it in a story of mine, so you will probably see more Stanley products on my sill in the near future. All reviews will be honest, though.

 

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Zero Gravity Craft Brewery: Wilson’s Plover

Zero Gravity Craft Brewery: Wilson's Plover

Hops: Azacca

Malts: Pilsner

ABV: 6.2%

IBU: 20

Availability: Rotating

@untappd says: 3.7/5

‘Tis the Saison on the Windowsill today!

Some beers are for the birds. While today’s brew, from Vermont’s Zero Gravity Craft Brewery is not for the birds, it is named after a local bird—the Wilson’s Plover. The bird was named after famed ornithologist Alexander Wilson (I wish my friends named a bird after me) in 1814. It’s a coastal wader, meaning it basically sticks to the coast, and sand bars and what not, wading around, living that beach life. Perfect summer bird, for a perfect summer beer.

I really enjoyed this Saison. I had it during my trip to Vermont a couple of weeks ago—I’m still going through all the beer I photographed and bought there, so bear with me—at American Flatbread Burlington Hearth in Burlington. American Flatbread is where Zero Gravity got its start, so it was a cool place to eat lunch at with the fellows. The Wilson’s Plover is a saison brewed with Pilsner malts and Azacca hops. The hops really bring out that dry saison finish, which made it really refreshing and gave the beer style a uniquely American twist. Good stuff!

Check this post out on Instagram for a few photos from American Flatbread, too!