Beer of the Week! 01/10/23
Vibrissa In the Hollar
Regularly $13.99 / Now on Sale for $12.96
Dark Franconian Landbier Style Lager
A couple of years ago, Vibrissa Beer launched their In the Cut, a Franconian style Landbier (still available today). In the Hollar is a dark version of that brew, giving us a little to unpack.
So, Franconia is a region within southern Germany that sits within Bavaria. Its major cities are Nuremburg, Würzberg, and the famous brewing town of Bamburg. In Franconia, brewers will make Landbier — “beer of the land” or “country beer.” They’re lagers that can run between 4% and 5+% ABV with an amber-ish malt profile and spicy European hops. Some finish sweet, and some finish dry.
Now, more than one beer pontificater says that “Landbier” less describes a style and more the way the beer is treated, and that the use of that term outside of Franconia is more about marketing than making beer. So, the In the Hollar is a dark version of a lager that’s not supposed to be dark and may not be a version of a lager at all. Don’t worry. We’re beer geeks. We care about that stuff so that you don’t have to.
The In the Hollar is a beer that really wants you to taste the grain, and taste it you shall. The whole thing reminded us of the crust of toasted pumpernickel. Vibrissa makes the In the Hollar with Pilsner malt, Spelt, Chocolate Wheat malt, and “a touch” of roasted malt all to good effect. Its hopping is moderate enough to let the malt shine through and yet still contribute to the beer’s dry finish. If the colder weather sends you looking for those dark flavors but even porters are too much for you, Vibrissa, fortunately, has a 4.4% ABV solution right here.
Bonus Beer of the Week (‘Cause we like our beer drinking like we like our cars, with dual shock absorbers!)
Grimm Electric Mainline
Regularly $18.99 / Now on Sale for $17.96
Hazy IPA
A lawyer and economist walk into a bar. They look around and realize that craft beer is no joke.
In the aughts, two Oregon friends — Roger Worthington and Jim Solberg — decided that there was money to be had and beer to be made from expanding hop options. The way they saw it, the hop industry was still mostly geared towards the mega-beer market. As craft beer grew, it would need hops developed with craft beer in mind.
So they reached out to a couple of hop growers on one end, and on the other, they reached out to Oregon State University, funding a hop breeding and research effort that they would, in turn, benefit from. In 2008, the Indie Hops Flavor Project was born.
Not that you would know or anything … just two guys with money and a wacky scheme … nothing special … not like they’ve contributed much to anything in 15 years … oh, except the Strata hop. You know, that hop that’s been the center point of a couple of beers we featured this past year — the hop that learn.kegerator.com called “the brand new darling of craft brewers” in 2018? Yeah, that’s theirs.
The Grimm Electric Mainline (from Brooklyn) is a hazy IPA made with Mosaic, Citra, Columbus, and Simcoe as well as Indie Hops’ new hop, Luminosa. Indie Hops says it gives off flavors of “candied orange peel, marionberry, peach-lemonade, and liquid sunshine.” We certainly do get a clean and bright hop taste off this IPA, shining through its light haze like a winter sunrise. On the finish, the Citra and Simcoe bundle together to give you some citrusy and piney notes.
Seriously though, it’s just amazing to think about it. If you had told us in the aughts that IPAs would one day taste like this, we would’ve thought you were joking.
Remember!
You can see our entire beer inventory on Untappd.com!