New Beer Weekend #14

Good Morning and happy weekend to everyone!

Its no secret that I love a good lager, so anytime I hear of a new local brewery focusing on lagers, I like to give them a try. Although I am far from a brewer myself I've heard many brewers say that brewing an excellent pale lager is one of the hardest things to do, so in my opinion, its a great way to judge the quality of a brewery.

I recently heard about a new brewery in the Western suburbs of Chicago - Goldfinger Brewing Co. - that was focusing exclusively on lagers. I hadn't heard of them and it turns out that is because they were slated to open this spring, but had to delay opening due to the pandemic. They only opened their "doors" to the public at the end of July. The story behind the brewery (and the name) is quite cool. It is not actually a James Bond themed brewery ... rather, the brewer's ancestor - Markus Goldfinger - was a brewer in Krakow, Poland in the 19th century.
The brewery is actually named after Markus. In the lobby of the brewery they have memorabilia, documents and other historical stuff from the original Goldfinger brewery in Poland.

With all of that interesting back story, I knew I had to try their beers, so I recently stopped in and picked up a crowler of each of their beers - a lager, a pilsner, a Vienna lager and their Oktoberfest märzen.

I drank the pilsner last weekend, so I am not going to over it here, but I am going to cover the other three in this first post.

First up is their Original lager. This appears to be their "flagship" beer. This one uses a single decoction mash.


Pours a dark golden color. Crystal clear. Thick, two finger head white head dissipates quickly leaving no residual head on the beer. Aroma has notes of toasted bread, slightly sweet. I can't shake a hint, just a hint of smokiness coming through on the nose. Taste has notes of toasted malts, mildly bready, with a touch of sweetness. Light spicy hop notes on the back end. As the beer warms that smokiness on the nose becomes subtle, but noticeable in the flavor profile. Feel is light, crisp, easy drinking. Really bright vibrant carbonation.

This was a delicious lager one that I could easily drink all day.

Next up is their Vienna lager - this one uses a double decoction mash.

Pours a dark mahogany color. Clear when held to the light. Thin white head dissipates very quickly. Almost no head retention as has been the case for the other beers from Goldfinger. Aroma has notes of sweet dark bready malts, some dark fruit notes with a noticeable spicy hop note on the back end. Its really lacking in any toasted quality on the nose like you'd expect from a Vienna lager.

Taste follows the nose with some dark bready malts, no toasted quality to it as it was on the nose. Light toffee and caramel sweetness comes through. There is a really robust distinct hoppiness to this beer. They list it as 28 IBUs which is in the range of acceptable, but for me, its pushing too hoppy for what I like in the style. Coupled with the lack of toasted malts, it ends up missing the mark. Feel is light to medium bodied, with bright carbonation. It presents as a very drinkable dark lager. Somewhat dry on the finish.

Overall this was a nice lager thats enjoyable to drink on its own. But judging this one to style, it really needs more of that nice toasted malt quality they get out of their original lager. The hops are a bit much for me for this style, but thats a preference thing.

The last one is their Oktoberfest ur-märzen.

Pours a dark mahogany color - this is probably the darkest märzen I have ever seen ... thick four-finger off-white head dissipates quite quickly. No residual head is retained outside of a small splotch of foam on top of the beer. The beer itself is crystal clear when held up to the light. Aroma has notes of bready malts, there is a slight nutty quality to the malts, a touch of malty sweetness but its not caramel, or anything like that - just a light sweetness to the malts. A hint of spicy noble hops comes through. Frankly, it smells really good.

Taste follows the nose with rich bready malts, lightly toasted, with a hint of sweetness. Really impressed with the richness of the bready malts in this one. There is no graininess, but as on the nose, there is a slight nuttiness to the flavor. The sweetness is very restrained and it ends up as a very dry märzen which in turn allows the hops to really play a nice role in the overall flavor profile. Its not very hoppy, but the spicy noble hops definitely come through on the back end and linger into the finish even. As it warms I start to get a bit of a dark fruit vide from this one - akin to what you might get from a rich malty bock or doppelbock. Feel is medium bodied, a tad chewy. Bright vibrant carbonation, but very smooth. Pretty dry on the finish.

Overall I think the best comparison for this is the Ettaler märzen - it goes in the same direction of really showcasing the rich malts making it a decadent beer. This one isn't one that I'm likely to knock back more than 1 litre of in a sitting (in fact, 1 litre might be a bit much ... ), but its delicious nonetheless.

My overall impression of Goldfinger is that they are on the right track with their lagers - they're doing all the right things to turn out amazing lagers, its just now a question of honing in and improving their recipes. Their pilsner needs a bit of work as does the Vienna lager, but their original lager and Oktoberfest were delicious. I will be absolutely picking up whatever they brew and am really excited to see where they go!

Time for some chores now, so I'll check back in later this evening. Have a great Saturday everyone!

 

First new beer this weekend is a 12% imperial porter with marshmallow, vanilla beans, cocoa (sic) nibs, and coconut: Voyager's Getaway from Humble Forager Brewery.



"Imperial Pastry Porter," ehh? Well, I don't particularly love the "pastry stout" label, but at least it avoids the whole "adjunct" controversy.

For me, the standard bearer in pastry stouts is easily Angry Chair. Unfair as it may be, that's what I'm looking for in a pastry stout/porter: thick, creamy, low bitterness, and the flavorings soar.

How does Voyager's Getaway fare?

The appearance isn't encouraging. Yes, it's got a nice large head, but it disappears quickly, leaving no lacing or topper to ever tell the tale it was ever there. If you swirl the glass, you can see tiny sediment particles clinging to the glass and slowly sliding down.

These kinds of visible imperfections are perhaps expected in a pastry porter, and they're not glaring, but I can't see any way to rate the appearance above a 3. It is, at best, "Okay."

The aroma is nice, but I mean it with all the positive and negative connotations of the word nice. Vanilla and marshmallow are strongest; coconut is present; the malt base provides a syrupy-like sweetness and molasses. You really have to hunt for the chocolate, and there's a metallic tinge that is undeniably unwelcome.

Thankfully, that tinge does not translate to the palate, and everything comes together quite nicely. At first syrupy, it quickly yields nice notes of coconut, with a growing balance of chocolate, vanilla, and marshmallow. Coconut lingers through most of the sip, and the chocolate grows on the back third.

Slick, but not full bodied, which is a bit surprising for a 12% ABV pastry stout/porter. Very low but present alcohol heat; virtually no sting. I expect a bigger body all around, but it's still a pretty enjoyable sip.

Only two of my last 12 ratings were +rDev; this one falls into the majority. That's not to say it's bad - but I definitely don't think it's worth the $6+ asking price (and that's in a four pack).

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/58881/511604/?ba=Roguer#review
3.71 / -11%

Cheers!

 

Good catch! I fixed it. stupid autocorrect

Oh yeah, I drank the whole crowler and really enjoyed it. Hopefully they can hone in the recipe a bit.

Oh, I would love that - but they are very slowly and deliberately releasing their beers - I assume its a limited space thing for them. According to the bartender, baltic porter is up next, so I'm hoping that list is in order and the Czech dark and schwarzbier will come later this year.