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 

Empyrean Brewing Company- Lincoln, NE

To begin my journey into the world of local brewing, I decided to go straight to the original source. Empyrean Brewing Company was founded in 1990, which makes it Nebraska’s oldest brewpub. On the first non-holiday Monday of each month, Empyrean opens its doors to the thirsty citizens of Lincoln for a unique and entertaining tour.

Since this was my first official brewery tour, I was not quite sure what to expect. I pulled up shortly before 7 and there was a line of people down the block. Only 150 people are allowed inside, but thankfully we were among the lucky few. Once the line started moving, we were issued a drink ticket with our group name and made our way inside.

The tour is broken down into two parts: the standing around part, and the actual tour part. Turns out the standing around part is just as much fun as the actual tour. Every person gets to enjoy two free Empyrean beers while waiting for their tour group to be called. In the waiting area, they have Beer Pong, Ping-Pong, and a game called Polish Horseshoes (or Frisbeener), which involves Frisbees and beer bottles perched on posts. Truth be told, I did get hit by a rogue Frisbee, but that was the only low point of the evening.

Since it’s October, this month’s Empyrean tour featured a variety of Oktoberfest beers. We were given samples of Hofbräu Oktoberfest, Spaten Oktoberfest, and Sam Adams Octoberfest. In addition to delicious beer samples, Empyrean’s operations manager Jim Engelbart served up some fun beer knowledge about the origins of Oktoberfest and why brown glass bottles are better for beer than green or clear bottles. The second leg of the tour featured Empyrean’s Aries Märzen Oktoberfest and Third Stone Brown, as well as a Q&A session with head brewer Rich Chapin. He gave us some insight into the company, a few tips on how to start home brewing, and his opinions on sour beers and the future of craft brewing.

This tour was an absolute blast. Every month’s tour has a different theme and features different specialty beers, so even if you’ve been on the tour before, it is well worth your time to check it out again. Next month’s tour is on November 3^rd and will feature “feasting beers” which are meant to compliment the upcoming holiday mega-meals. Make sure you check out their website and Facebook to stay up to date with special events and promotions, and check back here later this week for a review of some Empyrean Brewing Company beers.