Brew Review: Empyrean Brewing Co.

As a follow up to my last post, here is a quick review of two Empyrean Brewing Company beers available in stores right now. Just in case you’re new to the world of beer, here’s a quick breakdown of a few key terms. ABV is Alcohol By Volume. This tells you how boozy your beer is. Pretty easy. IBU is a little more obscure. It stands for International Bittering Units and a beer’s IBU score helps tell you how bitter/hoppy a beer will be. Generally a low score on the IBU scale (like a 20) means that a beer is more mellow and a high score (like a 60) means that your beer is packing a lot of hops. Now we’re all up to speed. I am by no means a beer expert so I’ve given you the official description in addition to my own impressions for the following Empyrean beers.

Barrel Aged Big Old Red Ale

8% ABV    44 IBU

Their Take:

“Our Big Old Red Ale for 2014 was brewed in February and aged in a mix of rum and bourbon barrels for seven months. The ale is dark amber with ruby highlights. Waves of malt sweetness hit your palate first in this beer, caramel and smoke that twist into fruit flavors of apricot and fresh cherries. The wood and aging flavors finish the beer with a dry-oak character, hints of sherry, leather, rum and bourbon. Go Big Red!”

My Take:

This beer is super flavorful. It takes you off guard a little bit at first, but I’ve grown to appreciate the complexity. It tastes like a barrel in the absolute best way. This beer is from Empyrean’s ongoing “Carpe Brewem” small batch series. I would recommend snatching up the limited release Empyrean four-packs whenever you can. They are always unique, imaginative, and showcase craft brewing at its finest.

Food Pairing: Sharp cheeses and caramel desserts 

Aries Märzen Oktoberfest

5.3% ABV    28 IBU

Their Take:

“Smooth and bready sweet up front, with a clean, dry-herbal hop finish. In the tradition of the Bavarian Märzen beers of Germany, we cellar our fall lager in cool tanks for the length of the summer, producing an exceptionally clean-smooth flavor. With its pronounced malty “Vienna- bread” sweetness and herbal Nobel hop finish, there’s an Oktoberfest in every sip.”

My Take:

This is a pretty classic Oktoberfest beer. Very smooth, very drinkable. It isn’t as caramel heavy as some other Oktoberfest beers, which makes it really versatile when it comes to food. If you’re looking for a solid Oktoberfest that wasn’t made my Sam Adams, Aries is the way to go. Get it before it's gone!

Food Pairings: Pork dishes, slow-grilled meats, and bold cheeses