Two Brothers 15 for 15 series, #5

From Facebook:

#5 in the 15th anniversary series is Take Two, a hybrid beer. Brewed using two sources of water, two barley types, two hop varieties, an ale yeast and a lager yeast.

Take Two will be released to the market July 2nd, stay tuned for events and more release dates for the remaining ten beers...

Two Brothers 15 beers for 15 years anniversary series update

Someone check me if I'm getting the numbers wrong:

1 - Red Eye Coffee Porter
2 - Bonfire Dunkelweiss
3 - Dark Mild Ale
4 - White Rye

Number 5 comes out soon. I've  had both the Bonfire and the White Rye so far. Both are delicious. Bonfire is a really solid Dunkelweizen, easy drinking, bold roast and cocoa flavors over a creamy wheat base. The White Rye I'll be posting a review of tonight or tomorrow.

Two Brothers News (including two collaborations)

1 - Testudo, a Biere de Mars made with Cleetus Friedman of City Provisions. Rare Tea Cellar green tea, lemongrass, brettanomyces yeast. Released at City Provisions on April 12th.

2 - nothing but a twitter post so far, but Two Brothers  has collaborated or will be collaborating with Castelain.

Additionally, while I was in absento Two Brothers announced some kind of celebration is going on involving some old favorites, celebrating their 15th year. Something like that. Anyway, Red Eye Coffee Porter is out and possibly even around town (you might still be able to get growlers at the brewery). This is a summer project, so expect a whole lot of delicious, harder to find Two Brothers beers starting now.

Outlaw IPA coming in cans around the first of May. More posts on that as it gets closer.

Solidarity! Celebrating Craft Beer in Chicago. Tomorrow, March 31st, 1pm.

Stone Brewing Company, one of the nation's largest, most popular, and arguably tastiest craft breweries made their entry into the Chicago market, officially, two years ago this weekend! Joyous quafting of their delicious beers happened everywhere. A bacchanalia of Stone beer hit the city between the eyes and in the liver. Celebrating that two year anniversary, Stone invited some other heavyweights, a couple local, to join them in pouring beers this weekend.

1pm, Timothy O'Tooles. Downtown Chicago AND Gurnee locations.

Joining Stone with rare beers and the usual selections:
Two Brothers Brewing Company
Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales
Three Floyds Brewing
Great Lakes Brewing Company
New Belgium Brewing Company

Farmhouse's Brewer's Banquet TODAY/TONIGHT

Chicagoland breweries, locally raised, grown food, networking and beer relationships. It's pretty cute of an idea, and one we should all encourage restaurants to do more.

Here's a great summary of the event from blog girlslikebeertoo. Also, totally true blog name.

29 taps, from Half Acre, The Local Option, Finch's, 5 Rabbit, Three Floyds, Revolution, Two Brothers, Flossmoor, Metropolitan, and Haymarket. Seriously, count it up dudes and dudettes, that's still probably only half Chicagoland's breweries/brewpubs when you include some of the new ones on horizon.

Chicago Beer Event - Rare Cask Night - Two Brothers and Metropolitan Brewing Companies

Where: Fountainhead
What: Two rare casks from Two Brothers and Metropolitan Brewing
When: Monday, January 31st, 2011, 7pm
Why: Because you like beer? Stop asking stupid questions.
How: Now you're just being obnoxious.

Metropolitan Dynamo CACAO lager (Whoa...) and Two Brothers Dry Hopped Northwind Imperial Stout.

Two Brothers Oh Brother! Tripel

If you're a Two Brothers Brewing Company fan, like OMG Beer! you're looking forward to finding this beer. OMG Beer! hasn't found a bottle just yet, but one of our favorite fellow blogs, A Good Beer Blog, reviewed Oh Brother! Tripel recently. It's ok, he's canadian, but he likes beer.

Brasserie Jo and Metromix Spring Beer Festival

Last night, Brasserie Jo hosted the Metromix sponsored Spring Beer Festival. Advertised as 20+ beers for 20 dollars, the promoters definitely understated the amount of beer available. In fact, though counting while beer drinking is generally something the FDA does not recommend, there were approximately 48, maybe 50 beers. A bargain, for twenty dollars, and Chicago knew it. One half of Brasserie Jo was bursting at the seams with Chicago's microbrew fanatics. Rightfully so, since Two Brothers, Metropolitan, Tyranena (and their IPA championship semi finalist Bitter Woman IPA), Round Barn, Dark Horse, Lagunitas were all in attendance. Two fantastic Belgian-focused distributors, Vanberg DeWulf and Artisanal Imports were also pouring. It's impossible to break down just how many amazing beers were quaffed, but some standouts were the Tyranena Bitter Woman IPA and Headless Man Alt, Scaldis Prestige (also called the Bush Prestige), and the Lagunitas 2009 Correction Ale.

Two Brothers Bonfire Dunkle Weiss

More Two Brothers beer, the Bonfire Dunkle Weiss is from their artisanal ale series.
Poured reddish-brown from a 22oz. bomber into 500ml Spaten glass. Pretty big bubbly tan head rose up quickly, with an earthy aroma of nuts, grain, and fruit and a yeastiness typical of German wheats. Delicious nutty and fruity apple flavor, smooth sweetness and maybe a bit of chocolate. Doesn't come off as carbonated as the big foamy head suggests. Leaves behind a nice bread and nut aftertaste, no cloying sweetness, nice dry finish, some bitterness and spice on the tongue too. The banana flavor common to german weizens comes through with the bit of chocolate, and reminds me of a chocolate banana bread.

Two Brothers Beer School at Brasserie Jo, Part 2

After Bare Tree Weiss Wine and Domaine Dupage French Country Ale, why naturally you need to start on dessert. The final two beers for the night were the Northwind Imperial Stout, a Russian Imperial Stout with a velvet chocolate texture and a delicious roasted malt character, and the Red Eye Coffee Porter, a coffee-infused Baltic Porter (think Imperial and less chocolate flavor).

Northwind Imperial Stout comes in at only 7.5% ABV, maybe a little light for an imperial stout, but with all the great flavor and warmth. Velvet chocolate layered with a hint of hops and a huge roasted malt flavor wrap around caramel. The great texture and almost creamy feel of this dark dark ale comes from flaked oats. Jason Ebel suggested going for a robust spicy food pairing, maybe Thai Spicy Basil Chicken, an interesting but unexpected pairing with an imperial stout.

The evening's spotlight - for me anyway - was on the Red Eye Coffee Porter. A thin brownish head kicked up a huge coffee nose, and a hint of spice, perhaps from the hops. This is like a whole new style of beer, the way the coffee flavor maintains its uniqueness and makes this beer almost a merging of iced coffee and ale. I thought I detected hints of dark berries and plum, along with alcohol. The 9.3% ABV is hidden well though, and this beer is extremely easy to drink. Drinkable desserts, you can't go wrong.


The next tasting at Brasserie Jo (who served delicious appetizers after the beer was finished) will be on March 17th, at 5:30, and Jason Ebel will be joined by Urthel Brewery's Hildegard Van Ostaden.

Two Brothers Beer School at Brasserie Jo...

Tonight, Jason Ebel spoke about beer at Brasserie Jo, focusing a little on the Two Brothers history, and highlighting the maltier, winter offerings of the brewery. One hour and four beers and Jason Ebel converted a room to the cause of craft brewing, though surely some present were already devotees.

The night began with Domaine Dupage French Country Ale, a Biere de Garde, inspired, according to Jason, by an ale from Le Brevent, France. A great brew to start a night of malty brews with a great caramel toast aroma, Domaine Dupage is a sweet full bodied ale brewed with vienna and munich malts. A hint of yeast in the aroma suggests the country ale influence (think French, amber version of saison maybe), but its the balance between sweet toasted bread notes and spicy hops in the finish that make this one of the easiest drinking Chicago-brewed ales.

The next stop on the Two Brothers beer train was the aptly named Bare Tree Weiss Wine. Brewed to barley wine alcohol levels but with the ingredients of a German Hefe Weizen, this beer is an annual, but little talked about Two Brothers special. Yet to be released, this was a sample right out of the aging tank, with no carbonation. This is how homebrewers drink their beer just before calling it finished and getting around to the bottling or kegging phase. This is franken weizen! The aroma is pretty true to the Hefe Weizen style, but with a little more punch in the nose. The first sip was sweeter than the aroma suggested, and besides apricot and banana, which the accompanying tasting notes suggested, I got a bit of green apple too. This beer ended drier than most hefe weizens, and stuck to the tongue. Same feeling as an imperial IPA, without the pine.

Two beers still to talk about, the rest of this week is dedicated to Two Brothers. Third at the tasting was Two Brothers Northwind Imperial Stout, and fourth was the newly released artisan series beer, Red Eye Coffee Porter. Two other favorites, Heavy Handed IPA and Cane & Ebel Red Rye, were missing from the tasting, but need to be discussed as well.

A New Two Brother's Artisan Ale - Red Eye Baltic Porter

Not to be confused with Two Brothers Cane & Ebel Red Rye, the newest beer in the Artisan ale series from Two Brothers is a Baltic Porter brewed with 100% organic, fair trade coffee. The Brothers describe the end result as a balance of coffee and chocolate flavors with soft and clean finish. Baltic Porters come with a hefty alcohol content and the Red Eye Baltic Porter weighs in at 9.3% ABV. Can't wait to get my hands on a bottle. I'm very curious about how the coffee flavor changes the flavor profile of the porter - does it push the flavor closer to that of a stout, while retaining the lighter, mouthfeel of a porter? Or will the coffee flavor be more unique than the burnt roasted, coffee-like flavors of a stout?