Episode Notes

Episode 73: Federation Brewing’s Utopia Planitia Dry Hopped Red Ale

It’s the Two Minute Beer Review!

I’m Andrew Burkum and it’s that time again where we take on that massive craft brew aisle to find the hidden treasures waiting for us there.

This week we’re taking a look at Utopia Planitia Dry Hopped Red Ale from Federation Brewing in Oakland, CA. Will this one send us on a voyage to the final frontier or should it be left in drydock? Let’s find out!

All right, let’s just get this out of the way up front. I’ve been a Star Trek fan all my life and the very name of this beer is clearly pandering to geeks like myself. In Star Trek lore, the Utopia Planitia shipyards are where all the great Federation starships such as the good old Enterprise are designed and built. The facility is in orbit around the planet Mars, so a Red Ale makes perfect sense! So I came for the nerdy name—but did I stay for the beer?

In the glass, this beer is a beautiful red-amber color. It smells of baked bread and raw grain with just a tiny bit of rye spice in the background to make things really interesting and exotic.
But what about the taste? This one is definitely interesting. It’s a little more bitter than I had anticipated for a red ale. But that bitterness up front mellows out to a very nice sweetness. Then, right at the end of the sip comes that rye—its spicy grainy flavor hanging out after the swallow.

This is an excellent use of rye—one of the best that I’ve seen and if you listen regularly you know I’m a sucker for a good rye beer. Sometimes as a component it can get lost in the mix but in this beer that pungency is really the star in a very big way.

The bitterness on this one is full-tongue engaging and hangs out as well. And although the overall mix doesn’t have a ton that really screams “red ale” at me, I absolutely love what it does have to say.

This is a great example of a solo-drinking beer. It doesn’t require any food or anything else to enhance its incredible flavor profile. It is easily my favorite rye-including beer of 2019 and one of the best brews that I tasted in the year. It comes in at 7.4% alcohol by volume, is available in cans and on tap at their tasting room in Oakland and is a Two Minute Beer Review Recommendation!

That’s all for this week, but I hope you’ll join me next week as we take a look at White Crow White Chocolate Stout by Ordnance Brewing in Boardman, Oregon. Is this one as rare as an albino raven? We’ll find out next week.

Look for links to this week’s beer and brewery in the show notes, and don’t forget to let us know what you’re drinking and what you’re thinking about the show. You can find us on Facebook or tweet us @2minutebeer, using the number two.

The Two Minute Beer Review is a part of the Phoenix Podcast Network and is brought to you by Zane-It, where you can find all the best costumes and makeup, Central Valley Youth Legal Services and Superfan Sandra Hay. If you’d like to support the show you can leave us a tip or sign up for a small monthly donation by clicking the link in the show notes or by supporting the Phoenix Creative Collective on Patreon. Our music is by Rialthos. You can find more at Rialthos.bandcamp.com.

That’s all for now but we’ll see you next week as we continue on our quest to taste all the beer!

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