Beer of the Week! 11/30/21
Another squashed photo! These are 16 ounce cans.
Elder Pine Ji-biru Rice Lager
Regularly $16.99 / Now on Sale for $15.96
Foeder-Aged Rice Lager
Paul Davidson and George Lin met while both were brewing at Flying Dog Brewing Company — the brewery that started in Colorado and relocated to Maryland. While working together they did what, apparently, one does when not brewing, they talked about starting their own brewery. Since 2018, that brewery has been Elder Pine Brewing & Blending Company built on the Lin Family’s Christmas tree farm in rural Gaithersburg, MD.
Walk into the Elder Pine tasting room, and you are greeted with racks and racks of barrels in which beer sits aging — bourbon barrels, whiskey barrels, tequila barrels, wine barrels — about 80 barrels in all, all of them cooking up brews for the Elder Pine blending exploits. However, we can only be teased by what they can do with their unblended beers. Let’s let them tell you about their Ji-biru Rice Lager …
“Ji-biru is brewed with the finest Floor-Malted Bohemian Pilsner Malt alongside Puffed Jasmine Rice, Puffed Red Rice, and just a tiny touch of Floor-Malted Bohemian Wheat for a beautiful frothy foam on top. After lagering in stainless steel for two months, we sent Ji-biru into our foeder to lager in oak for another two months. At the tail end of lagering in our foeder, Ji-biru was lightly dry hopped with Motueka before being transferred back into stainless steel for carbonation and a final month of lagering. The result is unbelievably clean, snappy, zippy & delicate with impressions of oily lemon zest, puffed rice cereal and gentle American oak.”
Now, most rice lagers we’ve had have been very clean, very crisp. That’s pretty much the calling card of the rice lager. However, the Ji-biru … we don’t know if it’s the rice choices, the touch of wheat, or the foeder lagering, but it boasts a stunningly fun taste and a surprising roundness. After this introduction to Elder Pine, we can’t wait to see what else they have to offer!
Bonus Beer of the Week (‘Cause variety is the spice of life.)
Brooklyn Black Ops
Regularly $14.99 / Now on Sale for $13.96
Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
We’ve always believed the Brooklyn Black Ops to be Brooklyn’s legendary Black Chocolate Stout aged in bourbon barrels. However, now that we look, we can’t find anything to confirm that belief. One thing we can be pretty sure of is that this year’s Black Ops is not your daddy’s Black Ops.
Gone is the cork and cage bottles. Gone is the surprisingly light-bodied, dry stout fermented with Champagne yeast. What we have here is a silky smooth, rich, off-dry stout aged in Four Roses bourbon barrels from Kentucky. Where the previous Black Ops was a beer you had to meet halfway, this Black Ops is already there!
Remember!
You can see our entire beer inventory on Untappd.com!