Two Brothers Laughing Panda Green Tea IPA

Brewed By: Two Brothers Brewing Company in Warrenville, Illinois

Purchased: 22oz bomber bought at Binny's in Illinois; 2013

Style/ABV: India Pale Ale, 6.75%
Reported IBUs: 70.2

Oh shit. Things are getting legit! It looks like Two Brothers made some updates to their website. They've upgraded from some 1993 GeoCities page to some 1996 you-just-got-AOL page. Maybe in 15 years their website will catch up to the millenium. Who knows. I'm just busting balls, of course. Two Brothers is busy making beer and paying the rent for their Roundhouse. To quote Ali G: "respect." About Two Brothers:

Two Brothers are based out of Warrenville, Illinois, a town not far from Chicago. Two brothers was founded in 1996 by brother Jason and Jim Ebel. Their brewery and Tap House Restaurant are both located in Warrenville. Their distribution and production seems to be increasing with each year, and along with their beer you can buy home brewing equipment and supplies at the Tap House Restaurant. If you get the chance, swing by and check out their Roundhouse. It's an awesome joint, and needs all the love it can get.

Tonight's beer is all new and cutting edge. Hopefully that translates to that fresh hop money shot. Hops: it's what I crave. The Laughing Panda is also brewed with green tea. I happen to enjoy a glass of green tea, and I think it has the potential to mesh well with an IPA. The back of the bottle reads:

A panda enters a restaurant, sits down and orders a sandwich. After he finishes the sandwich, the panda pulls out a gun and shoots the waiter, and then stands up to go. "Hey!" shouts the manager. "Where are you going? You just shot my waiter and you didn't pay for your sandwich!"

The panda yells back at the manager, "Hey man, I am a PANDA! Look it up!" The manager looks up the definition for panda: "A tree-dwelling mamal of Asian origin, characterised by distinct black and white colouring. Eats shoots and leaves.

Can you say, hiiii-yooooo. Maybe I'm just projecting, but that joke is one bear away from being racist. But it's cool, because no one likes pandas anyway. Brown Bears > Chicago Bears > Polar Bears > Bernstein Bears > Black Bears > Pandas. Anyway. 

Credit to the colorful bottle art, the green label is eye-catching and compelled me to walk over and check this beer out. The beer pours into a filtered, apple-juice-colored body, with 3-fingers of sticky, off-white head. In bright light, the body is a nice golden/honey color, the head is white with a hint of gold, and there is moderate-sized, lazy carbonation streaming upwards. The head is pillowy, leaving nice lacing, and seems to be sticking around.

Two Brothers Laughing Panda

The aroma here suggests that this is super fresh. I'm pulling off big grapefruit, mango, and citrus. There's some oranges, hints of toffee and sweet, bready malts, and some orange candy sweetness. I'm also getting some big apricot, light peach, strawberry, and fresh grassy wetness.

For 6.75%, this has a hell of a dense body. It reminds me a bit of the Unicorn's Revenge and the Ninja vs. Unicorn by Pipeworks. The taste features big, dense, bready sweetness, with big candied citrus, grapefruit, orange, apricot, and earthy hops. The finish is malty and juicy, and then dry. There's a light herbal character, and some earthy spice abound as well.

Drinkability is excellent on this, as you don't notice the near-7% ABV at all. Palate depth is great, while complexity is just okay. The mouthfeel is medium-full. This has an impressive body for the ABV, and starts off with dank, bready, sweet orange, grapefruit, citrus, grass, and apricot; that rolls into some juicy citrus, earthy hops, mild spice; the finish is bitterness, big earthy spice, drying, and some mild woody kick. The bitterness is well compensated by nice flavor and malt. Good stuff.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5 Untappd)

This is a Decent Above-Average. If you're looking for a dank, juicy, full-bodied IPA, this will fit the task. There's a nice earthy bitterness to this beer, along with some nice hop spice, and big apricot in the aroma/taste...plus the big body. I'm curious how much the aforementioned things are influenced by the addition of the green tea. Either way, this is a tasty IPA. You could pair this with wings, a burger, chicken, pizza...whatever, really. Tasty stuff, and basically a steal at 7 dollars a bomber. 

Random Thought: And then there I was. Taking apart a netbook. It's about on par with breaking down a laptop, which isn't that rough. It seems that the smaller you go, the harder it is to take apart. I'm looking at you, MP3 player. At this point, my success rate has to be around 50%. I've definitely destroyed my fair share of electronics, but I've also fixed things and successfully put them back together. I guess you can't win them all. All I have to do is replace a LCD panel and I can cross that off my bucket list.

Rodenbach Grand Cru

Brewed By: Brouwerij Rodenbach (Palm) in Roeselare, Belgium   

Purchased: 750ml bottle bought at Binny's in IL; 2012? 

Style/ABV: Flanders Red Ale, 6.0%

Reported IBUs: ?

I'm finally getting around to review Rodenbach's Grand Cru. About Rodenbach: 

Rodenbach is a brewery based out of Roeselare, Belgium, founded by the four Rodenbach brothers (Pedro, Alexander, Ferdinand, and Constantijn) in 1821. You can read about the brothers and family on Palm's website, or get the tl;dr version on Wikipedia. After 15 years, Pedro and his wife, Regina Wauters, bought the brewery. In 1864, their son Edward took over, until his son, Eugene, took over in 1878. Eugene was the owner that traveled to England and saw how they aged beers in oak barrels and blended old and young beers. This method of brewing is what Rodenbach has become famous for. In 1998, Palm took over the brewery. To read more, definitely check out the Palm or Rodenbach website.

Tonight's beer, the Grand Cru, is a Flanders Red Ale that is a blend of 33% young beer, and 67% old beer that is aged in oak vats for 2 years. This is classic stuff, and there's no point in me reviewing this beer except to circlejerk about it, so let's do that.

DAE shitty lighting? This one is deceptively dark in low light, bordering on dark brown or black. In reality, this is a ruby red, semi-transparent, moderately carbonated beer. I kicked up a thin pinky's worth of soda-brown head that quickly dissolved. I would have fears that this is flaccid, but it won't be.

Rodenbach Grand Cru

I want to say my bottle is a 2012, but I'm not sure. Either way, this has a nice developed tartness, with noticeable vinegar, red apple cider vinegar, cherries, and apples. There's also big woody oak on the nose, aggressive fruit skins, and malt sweetness. There's a hint of cherry cola-vanilla sweetness. When you look at this like a wine, it definitely has a vinous, red wine-like character, with hints of grapes. It is reminiscent of a red wine with big tannins.

The taste is initially sour, with big sweet tart candies, cherry skins, and sour granny smith-esque apples. There's some plums and grapes as well. There's big vinegar in this, with apple cider vinegar, and pickled fruits/vegetables. There's also an underlying oak/wood/vanilla profile, with some hints of cherry cola sweetness. This is more sour than the Duchesse De Bourgogne, but not as sour as the Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge. It's also a million times better than the very average Bourgogne des Flandres. 

This is tart, with just enough pucker to make things interesting. This is light-bodied, refreshing, and drinkable. There's some big acidity in this, but it doesn't deter drinkability. The carbonation is soft, but moves things along. Palate depth is good, complexity is okay. You get candy sweetness, grapes/plums, and then tart cherry/granny smith apple up front; that rolls into some sweeter malts, vanilla/oak/wood, light cherry cola; back end is acidic, maybe flirts with raspberry, and finishes with some sour/dry. Nice stuff.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5 Untappd)

This is a Strong Above-Average. This is a lovely beer in just about every respect. One unique thing about this beer is that much of the funk is subdued. There's a hint of earthy Brett in this, but you get much more oak/wood, and vinegar tartness. The funk really plays off the sour. This beer is a classic, is available at many stores, and ages well. It's also reasonably priced. So stock up on a few bottles of these. This beer pairs well with steaks, grilled red meats, grilled meats in general, aggressive cheeses, fruity desserts, maybe even dry chocolate desserts...anything that goes well with a tart, fruity, acidic character.

Random Thought: I'm a big fan of Lou Malnati's, but tonight I had one of their vegetarian deep dish pizzas. It was made with two cheeses, had big tomatoes on top, and had too much garlic or seasoning. It just wasn't that great, for whatever reason. Also, the tomatoes were a bit watery, which detracted from the richness of the cheese. Then again, the other pizza we ordered (thin crust) was fantastic. So there's that. 

5 Rabbit Huitzi Midwinter Ale

Brewed By: 5 Rabbit Cerveceria in Bedford Park, IL  

Purchased: 750ml bottle bought at Walgreens in Chicago, IL; 2013 

Style/ABV: Belgian Strong Golden Ale, 8.7%

Reported IBUs: 22

Another night, another local brew...

5 Rabbit brewery is an Illinois-based craft brewery launched in 2011. The brewery has a unique perspective, focusing on Latin-themed craft beer. The company is lead by CEO Andrés Araya, Creative Director Randy Mosher, and brewmaster (and former Goose Island employee) John J. Hall. Despite some fighting within the company, it seems like 5 Rabbit is moving forward. 

Tonight's beer, the Huitzi Midwinter Ale, is a big ol' Belgian Ale with a Latin twist. If you roll over to the Huitzi page, you can read what is on the side of the bottle:

"Huitzi is a winter beer that doesn´t wallow in the dark cold days of this season. Like it’s namesake, the Aztec hummingbird god Huitzilopoctli who smashed the winter to allow the sun to return, Huitzi looks forward to the brighter promise of spring. We think of it as a winter cooler."

This Belgian Strong Ale is brewed with hibiscus flowers, ginger, thai palm sugar, and local Chicago honey. Clocking in at 8.7%, this beer has a Pilsner and Vienna malt base, uses Glacier hops, and features chamomile in addition to the Hibiscus and ginger. This one is available between January and April.

5 Rabbit Huitzi Midwinter Ale

The pour yields a cloudy, reddish-orange beer, with a centimeter of brownish head that quickly crackles away. Swirling this doesn't even kick up head, but there are some alcohol legs. In bright light, the beer is a juicy orange color, and looks to be both unfiltered and quite swampy. There's definitely carbonation present, so hopefully this isn't flaccid in the mouth (phrasing).

The aroma is really nice...with vibrant and sweet mango, tropical fruits, and bright citrus. It reminds me of the Sam Adams' Summer Ale and the Sam Adams' Verloren. You definitely pick up some berry and flowery aromas on the nose, and there's some underlying Belgian Strong Ale: clove, wheat, Pilsner malt, white sugar/vanilla/honey. Maybe a dash of ginger spice. 

Straight up, the carbonation leaves a lot to be desired, especially for the style. But otherwise...wow. This is intriguing, with clean ginger, fruity-citrus grain, big tea-like floral character, lots of hints at chamomile and Hibiscus, hints of clove and pepper, and a really nice dry finish that leaves big citrus-grain on your palate. The Belgian base -- surprisingly not a big character here. I'm also getting a ton of lingering berry/orange jam (the natural stuff, not the fake, sugary, Smucker's shit) on my palate.

This is slick and juicy, with a medium-light to medium-full mouthfeel. There's not enough carbonation, and the beer drags a bit because of it. On the other hand, the beer has a nice dry finish, and it leaves a ton of lingering fruit on your palate. Palate depth, great; complexity, okay. Up front is a brush with carbonation, Hibiscus, tea-like berries, big clean ginger, and grainy citrus; the middle rolls into some more citrus, maybe a dash of floral hops, some chamomile/tea; the back end is lingering grain citrus, and the finish is dry. You get residual, jammy fruits left in your mouth. Spectacular money shot.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5 Untappd)

I'm a big fan of the style, but this is a Light Above-Average. Nice stuff, 5 Rabbit. The jammy finish is dynamite. My only gripe is where is the carbonation? This does a really good job taking the Belgian base and turning it into something unique. This almost veers into Belgian White territory, with hints of apples and grape...but yeah. You could definitely pair this with a fruit salad, fruity desserts, ceviche, or lighter Mexican foods. This is intriguing and delicious...I hope they make it again next year.

Random Thought: You know it's a good weekend when you get two Hawks games in a row. I can't complain. Tomorrow...I may bust out the Rodenbach.