Goodbye Coney Island, Hello Off Color, and WBC Hits Shelves

Sad news, for me anyway. I discovered this morning that a subsidiary of the Boston Beer Company, Alchemy & Science, has purchased the Coney Island brand from Schmaltz Brewing. That in itself isn't bad but news that the new owners will "probably pull back distribution of the Coney Island beers to just focus on the New York metro and New Jersey markets" is.

I like to grab a bomber or two of their brews when I'm in Chicagoland and I guess that's not going to be possible anymore. Too bad. I reviewed Albino Python here and Sword Swallower here.

Speaking of Chicago, not only will I have a couple new flavors from Metropolitan within my grasp when I'm down there later this month, but also some brews from Off Color. As per Binny's blog, Off Color's first two bottled brews will be available – Troublesome, a "blended" wheat beer and Scurry, a dark honey ale. Troublesome is a blended gose concoction which involves a "somewhat uninteresting" wheat beer commingled with "an overly acidic & funky beer fermented solely with lactobacillus". Scurry continues the rare German bier style trend by being a Kotbusser, an ale made with honey and molasses – not unlike Berghoff's Germaniac.

Why the odd styles? Co-founder John Laffler said, "If you go into Binny’s, there are 50 well-made (India pale ales). Why the hell would you throw your hat in that ring? Plus this is what we’re more interested in."

I look forward to trying their brews.

Has anyone tried Wisconsin Brewing Company yet? Their beers hit store shelves yesterday when I was unable to consume. A friend said he thought the porter was awful but that the amber lager was good. He also remarked that the lager tasted slightly differently than Capital's but that the difference was not worth paying $.50 more per six-pack. (Capital is $6.99 at Woodman's while WBC is $7.49.Unless prices have been raised recently.)

It's quite a stark contrast between Off Color and WBC. OC is reluctant to jump on the bandwagon and play the IPA game. On the other hand, WBC has a brewmaster with a professed fondness for German lagers and who had never commercially brewed an IPA before yet half his portfolio now is IPAs.

Coney Island Albino Python

Coney Island is a refreshing island of lagers in a sea of craft ales. This subsidiary of Schmaltz Brewing Company – the folks who give us He'Brew beers – brew lagers and only lagers which, as they say, amaze your oral sensibilities and arouse your liquid curiosities. Albino Python is billed as a white lager brewed with spices. Before your very eyes CI has transmogrified the witbier into a lager.

My photo isn't too bad this time around so you can more or less see that the beer is a hazy, fairly deep yellow no doubt due to the oats in the grain bill. The head is full with nice big bubbles but doesn't stick around too long. Sticking your proboscis into the glass, one is treated to an enchanting aroma. There's an earthy spiciness courtesy of the fennel and ginger, which supplant coriander, that is finely balanced by the orange peel. This is one of the best smelling beers I've ever taken a whiff of. It's like beer pheremones.

Gustatorily, there is a lot going on here. The orange and spice are quite upfront to the point where they are at the border between bold flavor and over-powering. And they taste as great together as they smell. It is not that they combine to form some third flavor but rather each is distinct and go well in tandem with the spices following the citrus. I am going to assume you know what orange tastes like and try to describe the spiced flavors here. The best way I can think of it is to imagine the sweet anise flavor of fennel coupled with the mild, floral taste of dried ginger as opposed to the sharp, bright flavor of the fresh root. (Less gingerols and more zingerone, you might say.)

Once these flavoring agents have had their way, you get a moderate amount of hop bitterness which was decidedly on the earthy, spicy side which lingered into the aftertaste where it joined the lager crispness. As the beer warms, the orange becomes especially pronounced. This is a rather light beer by which I mean you don't get a lot of malt backbone and so it has an airy mouthfeel.

There is a multitude of flavors here and you get one after another which makes for a wonderful drinking experience.

Junk food pairing: Baker Smoked String Cheese. This stuff has only the barest hint of smoke so it plays nicely with the spices in the beer. Plus the creamy texture worked well against the bitterness/crispness.