Lagunitas Cruising With Ruben & The Jets
Today we have another creative ale from the inventive minds of Lagunitas Brewing to enjoy on this Happy New Years Eve! This beer was brewed to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the release of Frank Zappa and Mothers of Invention’s album of the same name and apparently Lagunitas plans to continue to release one special beer in honor of the 40th anniversary of every studio album by Zappa. A very nice concept and wonderful tribute, it will be interesting to see what they come up with next time. Though Lagunitas insists this is a “DoppaDooAyDoo Style Ale” the word on the street is that it is an Imperial Stout with a solid 8.6% ABV and that’s good enough for me to be curious. I’ll have to determine who I agree with after giving it a shot, so on we go. This beer pours with a solid three fingers of wonderful frothy head that tastes quite sweet and is a solid, relatively dark tan color. After settling for a few minutes there is still a nice fine layer present and plenty of lacing on the glass. Color is very black with only a little bit of a red hue shining through when brought to light. Aroma is of malt, malt and more malt. Some sweet creamy smells, others slightly roasted, all dark. Not bad at all, upon my first sip I thought there wasn’t too much to the flavor until I started swallowing and noticed all of the interesting roasted flavors, reminding me of charcoal and making me wish I’d cooked up my steak first. The initial taste is simple and on the sweet side but not overbearing in any way. As it finishes you are left with a much drier and unique roasted malt flavor. The body is medium and the mouthfeel is a bit on the dry side for a brew but it is very easy to drink so long as you don’t mind dark stouts. For the lack of intense flavors other than toasted malt this beer does a darn good job covering up the alcohol, you can tell it’s there but it doesn’t taste like ethanol at all. After drinking close to half a bottle I am noticing an almost fruity characteristic but it is hard to pinpoint, more in the pitted fruits category and certainly not dominate at all. Definitely an interesting brew and something that should be very approachable for someone wanting to try an Imperial Stout. Unfortunately I only have one bottle because a stout would go lovely with the meal I plan to cook up momentarily, oh well. To all a good new year, and be safe out there. As always give it a shot and ride your bike, even if it is snowy out there and only getting colder.
January 1st, 2009 at 11:53 am
I picked this up the other day, and actually didn’t realize it was an Imperial Stout. Looking forward to trying it.
January 1st, 2009 at 6:44 pm
I think there is a Lagunitas Frank Zappa beer event at a beer bar in NYC that I’m going to be on the look out for. Nice description of the beer. Thanks.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:52 pm
I too had no idea what I was getting myself into when I purchased this brew but figured if Lagunitas wanted to give tribute to something they care for it would undoubtedly be a tasty brew and well worth my money. As well any festival involving Lagunitas I would be honored to attend, hope you find it and enjoy.
January 6th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
The very idea of one of my all time favorite albums (along with the others to date) being used to market beer gives me the dry heaves.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Sounds good! Where’s mine?
January 7th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Cal, Gail says yours is in the mail!
January 7th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Hah!
Wrapped in my royalty check I guess. 😛 🙂
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:09 am
The good folks at Lagunitas have apparently had a bit of a “falling out” with the Family.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Scared me for a moment but oh well. So long as Lagunitas continues to produce quality craft beer I couldn’t really care less about their drama with the Zappa clan or what have you. Though they may not be able to follow through with their plans to include the cover art on their future bottles of commemorative beer or any other material that happens to have a copyright, but they shouldn’t need any sort of permission to simply make a commemorative beer it just means no royalties for the family. Meh.
March 20th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
just found a bar in nyc that sells it plan on drinking up their stock asap!!!
March 20th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
just found a bar in nyc that sells it looking forward to drinking up their stock asap!!!
March 20th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Hope it all works out for you 🙂
April 7th, 2010 at 9:41 am
Great post! I like the blog!