It’s that time again! A new round of small-batch special brews are hitting the taps right about now – unique beers you’ll find nowhere else and limited to just a thousand pints (or so) per Zerodegrees! So, this is what we have for you this month:
Cherry Kriek 5.4%
Brewed: Cardiff
A slightly sweet and sour wild cherry lambic style beer made in a zerodegrees way. Lambic beers are fermented using wild yeasts in the air and aged in oak barrels for years to give a sour tart flavour. Zerodegrees Kriek was aged for 9 months. For this beer, cherries are then added to give the beer a pleasant and full fruity sweetness that offsets the sour base before a pleasing and refreshing tart finish.
Often known as cassis, framboise, kriek, or peche, a fruit lambic takes on the colour and flavour of the fruit it is brewed with. It can be dry or sweet, clear or cloudy, depending on the ingredients. Notes of Brettanomyces yeast are often present at varied levels. Sourness is an important part of the flavour profile, though sweetness may compromise the intensity. These flavoured lambic beers may be very dry or mildly sweet.
Food Pairings
Fish and spicy food
Soft stinky Cheeses
Dark chocolate cake
Lambic is a type of beer brewed in the Pajottenland region of Belgium southwest of Brussels and in Brussels itself at the Cantillon Brewery. Lambic beers include gueuze and kriek lambic.
Unlike most beers, which are fermented with carefully cultivated strains of brewer’s yeast, lambic is fermented spontaneously by being exposed to wild yeasts and bacteria native to the Zenne valley in which Brussels lies. This process gives the beer its distinctive flavour: dry, vinous, and cidery, usually with a sour aftertaste.
Strong Dortmunder Lager 8%
Brewed: Cardiff
Inspired by the Dortmunder Lager first brewed in Cardiff in 2013. Made popular in the 19th century in Dortmund, Germany, these pale golden lagers exhibit a classic clean character with notes of biscuity malts.
Bitterness is akin to a German Pilsner with an aromatic aroma. well attenuated body, and a crisp carbonation
Dortmunders are from Dortmund and Helles are from Bavaria. These beers are golden in color with medium carbonation, and should exhibit a biscuity/bready malt flavour. Balance defines Dortmunders as they possess the malt profile of a Helles, the hop character of a German Pilsner, and are slightly stronger than both. The water used to brew these beers may be high in mineral content which can show up in the finish. These beers are crisp, clean, and have no fruity esters. The ABV will generally be 4-6% and the bitterness around 23-30 IBUs.
Food Pairings
Spicy food
Cheddar Cheeses
Dark chocolate cake
Vienna Lager 5.3%
Brewed: Bristol
Vienna Lager ranges from copper to reddish brown in colour. The beer is characterized by malty aroma and slight malt sweetness. The malt aroma and flavour should have a notable degree of toasted and/or slightly roasted malt character. Hop bitterness is low to medium-low.
Food Pairings
Grilled Meats and Vegetables
Mild Cheeses
Almond Biscotti desserts
Distinctly amber coloured Vienna lager was developed by brewer Anton Dreher in Vienna in 1841. Austrian brewers who immigrated to Mexico in the late 19th century took the style with them. Vienna lager is a reddish-brown or copper-coloured beer with medium body and slight malt sweetness. The malt aroma and flavour may have a toasted character. Despite their name, Vienna lagers are generally uncommon in continental Europe today but can be found frequently in North America, where it is often called pre-Prohibition style amber lager (often shortened to “pre-Prohibition lager”), as the style was popular in pre-1919 America.[citation needed] Notable examples include Great Lakes Eliot Ness, Devils Backbone Vienna Lager, Abita Amber, Yuengling Traditional Lager, Dos Equis Ámbar and Negra Modelo. In Norway, the style has retained some of its former popularity, and is still brewed by most major breweries.
Dry hopped German-Style Pils 5%
Brewed: Reading
Pours a dark straw to golden colour with nice carbonation. Head is a nice creamy white colour and long-lasting. The aroma is of strawberries, orange peel, and light spice from the hops used for the dryhop. Crisp and refreshing with some body.
Jeff’s new takes on historic styles. Pils (not Pilsner, which comes from Czech Rep.) has been brewed in Germany for 100+ years but dry hopping in tanks (not casks) is a recent phenomenon in craft brewing in the U.S.
Dry hopping in fermenter is only a fairly recent phenomenon in craft beer so this technique was employed to take the lovely aromatics of a Pils to the next level while exhibiting some of the new aromatic German hops (Hüll Melon).
Food Pairings
BBQ Chicken Pizza or Peeking Duck Pizza
Blue Cheese and Grapes
Lemon Cheesecake
