Season 2, Episode 14: When Mother’s Day is right around the corner, you have to do something special to celebrate, so the “I Love Beer” Show went out at featured Rogue Brewing’s “Mom Hefeweizen”, brewed especially for the occasion on their latest show broadcast LIVE at Cheers Bar in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to craft beer from Rogue, we also tasted Anderson Valley’s Summer Solstice which was an amazing tasting cream ale, and the award winning black imperial stout “Labyrinth” from Uinta Brewing located in Salt Lake City. It didn’t take long to run out of these craft beer samples for the audience of craft beer drinkers at the bar.


Because of the success we had reviewing Anchor Brewing’s Summer Ale from our last show, we decided to stick with the “summer” and “San Francisco” theme and check out the craft beers from Anderson Valley Brewing in Boonville, California, specifically their Summer Solstice Seasonal Ale, a smooth tasting slightly sweet sessionable beer with a creamy type taste.

mdbeerWe visited Anderson Valley at a recent beer festival at Sunset Park in Las Vegas and must say they were pouring some of the tastiest brews at the event, which made our search for a cream ale very easy when we were able to find it at our local craft beer store. Anderson Valley markets this beer as a “cream soda for adults” and they are correct! At just 5.5 alcohol, the beer’s creamy taste is quite noticeable and refreshing, making it a perfect accessory for a hot summer afternoon BBQ. We received a 100% favorable rating from the folks at the bar who sampled this beer after the show. If you liked last week’s selection for a summer-type brew and are interested in a unique creamy taste in a beer, we recommend you give this craft beer a try!

And of course with Mother’s Day around the corner, we had to somehow fit in that theme into the show as well. It was Rogue to the rescue as usual! There’s no need to mention how much we love the beers from Rogue if you’ve watched any of our “I Love Beer” shows before, so just having “Mom” on the label was good enough for us! Here’s what we have to say about the “Rogue Mom“: perhaps the best hefeweizen EVER! This Belgian style blonde ale pours a hazy golden orange color with a white finger width head with decent retention and is infused with rose petals just for Mom! The wheat aroma smells great with slight hints of citrus and produces a orange-zest floral character and a touch of rose on the backend. The mouth-feel is perfectly light for a crisp, clean finish that – predictably – became the hit of the show.

But that wasn’t good enough. We needed to pull a 180 on taste and finished off with the Labyrinth Black Ale from Uinta Brewing in Salt Lake City, Utah. Never heard of Unita? Then you’re not watching enough Beer Shows! With this selection, Uinta has broken into our Top 10 list of favorite breweries across the nation. Seriously – we’ve featured them before on the show and so many of their selections have proven to be that good!

Labyrinth is an American Double / Imperial Stout multiple award winner and part of Uinta’s Crooked Line of craft beers. At 13.2% alcohol, it is not for the faint-hearten beer drinker, but if you’re a stout drinker, this is one of the best you’ll find. From its jet-black pour to the chocolate, bourbon, vanilla, licorice, coffee, and fruity complex combination, you won’t find a more deliciously tasting and smelling beer. It’s actually amazing how well balanced and smooth this craft beer tastes and we found that the high alcohol content is very well hidden as well. While obviously not a session beer, you do have to like the heartier types of craft beers to fully appreciate how incredible this chocolate and licorice stout really is. If you are, this craft beer is highly recommended.

Does your mom enjoy a craft beer every once in a while? Get going to your local craft beer store and go for any of the selections featured on our Mothers Day show. They were really that good – and the crowd certainly agreed with our taste reviews. An excellent Summer Ale, an amazing Hefeweizen, and a tremendous Stout – What else could she ask for?

 

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