The beer looks like black coffee and the head looks like coffee with cream in it...how fitting! The aroma fits the name spot on as it smells like *sniff* yup *sniff* coffee. Oh sweet, sweet coffee, we would drink this beer on a hot summer day as an iced coffee replacement or on a cold day, just based off smell alone! And therein lies the most interesting thing about this beer. It seems to feel equally at home being light and refreshing as it does being dark and roasty. We can't think of many other beers that are able to walk this line. This tastes like mildly sweet, creamy coffee. Jeff is very addicted to coffee and loves beer and thinks this beer might actually pose a problem in his everyday life...if it was available here. The oatmeal goes great with the coffee and helps to smooth out the beer. The lack of acidity from the cold-press coffee works great in this brew! This is just a very well done coffee stout that we would session all day! 

 

 

This beer poured an amber orange and slightly hazy with yellow tinges around the edges. The hop aroma from this beer got us excited before we even picked up the glass, that's generally a good sign. The aroma is just jam packed with hops, it's everything we've come to expect from a good west coast IPA. Every once in a while a beer is so good we sort of forget we're writing a review. This was one of those times. We realized we had finished our glasses before taking careful notes. Luckily we hadn't poured all of it. On second pour, there is some great citrus notes and just serious hops! A little bit of dank, wet grass which is quite nice. Oakshire's tagline is "Humble Brewers of Delicious Beer". That's actually a great way to describe this. The beer isn't over the top in any way it's just a really well made IPA that satisfies. Dry, aggressive bitter hops evolve into light citrus notes.  This is a really good hop-forward west coast IPA. We wish that more brewers in the East Coast made beers like this. The malt is just there enough to keep it from being pure bitter hop tea...which is great! Sadly this beer is only available via limited distribution in Oregon right now. Though hopefully that will change soon. 

You may not have heard of Oakshire Brewing Co. yet, but you will. Oakshire, a small brewery located in Eugene Oregon is poised to do some amazing things and we think the craft beer world is going to take notice sooner rather than later. The Pacific northwest has always been a driving force in craft beer and Oakshire is yet another example of great breweries still starting up. While many businesses have slowed or held off on expansion during a tough economy Oakshire business has been booming. So what makes them different; how come they seem to be able to do what many others haven't been able to? Simply put...it's all in the beer. We were fortunate enough to sample their Watershed IPA, a fantastically hoppy west coast IPA as well as their Overcast Espresso Stout, a beer that somehow feels both refreshing and soul satisfying. What gets us even more excited though are all the small projects brewer Matt Van Wyk is working on. We set up an interview so he can tell you more about those.

DCB: What go you into brewing?

Van Wyk: Like most brewers, craft brewers, I started out with a home brewing hobby. In the late 90's more craft breweries started popping up. I was a science teacher I started volunteering at a few breweries which eventually turned into an assistant brewing job. I thought that would last for a couple years and I'd go back to teaching because I had a degree in that. But it's been 8 years and it's sort of worked out ever since. I have a biology background and have taken several chemistry courses. So the background knowledge coupled with a love of brewing and drinking good beer meshed together into a new career.

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From Smuttynose's Big Beer Series, the Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale is one of our most anticipated limited beers each year. Smuttynose's interpretation of a Saison, it's normally out during the heat of summer, when it is one of the few big beers that can really quench your thirst during a heatwave. This year, though, it came out a little later than usual in mid-September. While it's a little cooler out lately, this beer is no less delicious!

A quick historical note, Saison was traditionally served to Belgian farmhands in Wallonia during the summer. It was kept low-alcohol and dry to be thirst quenching. Modern interpretations have often kicked up the alcohol a bit.

The Farmhouse Ale pours a golden coppery color with just a slight bit of haze. This is one you're going to want to pour carefully, because the white head is huge and doesn't go away any time soon! To get the picture in this review it took about  10 minutes of repeated gentle pours followed by time spent waiting for the head to die down. The color is a bit darker than a traditional Saison, but then again this beer has a much higher alcohol by volume than a traditional Saison at 7.5% abv.

The smell is apparent as soon as you pour it and that great head explodes, spicy Belgian yeast notes and sweet malt dominate. You don't get much hop aroma in the nose. There is no alcohol apparent, even as it warms.

The taste combines candy sweet, but not cloying, malt and black pepper from the yeast. It's a great pairing that works to balance both sides. The carbonation is strong and you get a second foam-up in your mouth, which makes for quite the interesting mouthfeel! While it's sweet up front, you get a very dry feeling in your mouth at the end. This works to help the beer as it brings it back to it's traditional, thirst-quenching dry and low-alcohol roots.

In the end the Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale is a perfect late summer beer. The higher alcohol makes it perfect for slightly cooler evenings, while the crisp, refreshing and spicy Belgian yeast makes it good for warmer days.