Recently in B- Category

So I'm catching up on a bunch of beers I've had recently. I usually jot down some notes whilst drinking, then polish them up later (and maybe throw in a movie review or write a screenplay or something), but I've been slacking on the polishing piece, so I've got about 5 more posts ready to go here. First up, one of the more common Belgian beers you'll find in the US:

Duvel - My true gateway into the world of craft beers was Brewery Ommegang, which was sold to Duvel Moortgat in 2003. Back in the day, I got me a case of Duvel, expecting something... Ommegangy, but I remember being a bit disappointed. It was better than most of the swill I was used to, but it wasn't a revelation, like the Ommegang beers I'd had at the time. But that was a solid 6 or 7 years ago, so I figure it's worth giving them another shot.

It pours a light, clear yellow/gold color with a billowy head and lots of lacing as I drink. It's very aromatic and smells strongly of Belgian yeast, cloves, etc... Taste is very sweet with an unexpected tart finish. Hints of a lingering tart bitterness as well. Mouthfeel is a bit on the harsh side, lots of carbonation. It has a bit of a bite to it, no doubt due to the lemony tartness, but is otherwise not quite as complex as I was hoping for... It works well enough for one glass, but the entire 750ml bottle was a bit much for me and it was grating towards the end. It's a fine beer, certainly a step up from something like, say, Stella (and a mile up from typical macro junk), but I think my initial impression way back when was probably right on. B-

Beer Nerd Details: 8.5% ABV bottled (750 ml, caged and corked bottle). Drank from a tulip.

I didn't realize it, but I had another beer from Duvel Moortgat in my fridge (Maredsous 8, a dubbel), which I'll be reviewing sometime this week. I liked that one better than this, but it wasn't particularly mindblowing either.

There's been some discussions in the beer blogosphere lately about Elitism and Approachability. The question posed by Zak Avery (in the first link) is what constitutes elitism in beer? Now, I'm relatively new to the whole beer blogging word, but I get the impression that Zak takes some gruff for seeking out, drinking, and writing about obscure or hard-to-find beers.

I see this sort of thing a lot. Many beer bloggers seem to write about things that are only available in limited quantities or in a certain region of the country or whatnot. This can be frustrating in that the beers sound great and yet are not easily available to me. However, I certainly don't find that sort of thing "elitist". Drink what you like. Even if it's something I don't care for, I won't hold it against you. And I think that's the rub. Elitism isn't about what you drink or write about, it's about how you perceive others. If ever get my hands on a bottle of, say, Westy 12, that might make me a big beer nerd, but it doesn't make me "better" than anyone, nor does it qualify me to make judgements on others based on their not having had such a rare beer.

Approachability is a different beast altogether. In his post, Tandleman shares his anecdotal experience at a pub that serves a low ABV pale ale and a higher ABV hop-bomb. Most "ordinary" drinkers aren't looking to have their mouth set on fire by a hop bomb, they just want something that tastes good. In my own anecdotal experience, I've found hoppy beers to be a hard sell most of the time. My brother, for instance, doesn't even like the standard Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Even among my beer loving friends, some aren't big fans of hoppy beers.

I can see how this could lead to some confusion about elitism though. If a beer geek like myself tells someone that they might not like HopDevil (or whatever) because it's quite bitter, they might think me a bit of an elitist, depending on how I worded it. I suppose the sensitive among us would feel a bit awkward about drinking what they like when I'm trying to find the most interesting beer on the menu. Does that make me a snob? Maybe, but so long as I'm not belittling you for drinking a Lager, I'm probably not elitist either.

I'd wager that the same confusion exists in other fields. Take, for instance, movies. Elitism certainly exists there, but only because there are a lot of high-falutin movie-nerds that think that anyone who likes Hollywood movies are sheep. And the more you dig into the world, the more obscure and weird things get. After a while, liking Kurosawa isn't good enough for some people, you have to be a full fledged Ozu addict if you want to be considered a movie lover. This isn't to say that Ozu is bad or anything - indeed most film lovers probably should check out some of his work - but the notion that you can't be a film lover if you haven't seen Tokyo Story or Floating Weeds is kinda silly.

Stan Hieronymus has an interesting post on the subject, where he references categories in the wine world. Stan notes that it's probably not a direct translation to beer, but there are some things to be learned about. The first four categories are pretty straightforward:

Overwhelmed, 23%, buy wine but don't know anything about it
Satisfied sippers, 14%, buy the same brand
Savvy shoppers, 15%, look for discounts
Traditionalists, 16%, like old wineries and are brand-loyal

That leaves two categories: Image seekers (20%), and Enthusiasts (12%). The former spend the most money on wine; the latter expend the most verbiage on it. These are the only two who care enough about wine to read articles or blog posts about it.

Image Seekers are obsessed with quality and will pay through the nose to get even a minor increase in quality. Enthusiasts are all about "interesting" and experimental offerings. And apparently those two groups are at each others throats in the wine world. As Stan notes, things are a bit more relaxed in the beer world, which is a good thing (and perhaps the worries about elitism aren't as big a deal as everyone's saying).

I suppose, technically, I fall under the Enthusiast category, though I certainly have leanings towards the Image/Quality seeker as well. I suspect that is mostly because I'm relatively new to this whole thing and thus am a little comfortable spending a lot on beer. I still hesitate to spend more than $20 on a single bottle, but for now, I'm ok dropping some money on something as interesting as The Bruery's Coton, for instance. I suspect I will settle into a more strict Enthusiast in a couple of years. My guess is that if you graph quality versus cost, you'll get an asymptote. Assuming that my idea of quality could be quantified (which it probably can't), there'd be a limit to what is practically achievable from a cost standpoint. At a certain point, moving up the curve becomes so costly that the minute gains wouldn't be worth it.

Until then, I'm going to seek out and try new and novel beers. Of course, what is new and novel to me might be old hat to someone else, but that's ok. We're not elitists here, right? Anyway, last weekend I tried my first sour since starting the blog. I suppose I've had some others before (does Fantome count?), but I've never had a Gueuze before:

Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René - Pours a golden orange color with a good sized, light colored head. Smell is kinda like a musty white wine. There's some typical belgian yeastiness in the nose, but it's overpowered by the white wine character. The taste starts off sweet, but that quickly yields to an intense sourness. The finish is dry and tart. As I drink, it strikes me as a more intense version of champagne. The carbonated mouthfeel is probably a big part of that. It's not something I'm particularly a huge fan of, but I would like to explore various sour styles as well. B-

Beer Nerd Details: 5% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank from a tulip glass.

Sometimes I worry about my beer tastes becoming too reliant on novelty. It's certainly fun trying something new all the time, but at some point, this has to run out right? That, or I'll end up playing with Lemerchand's Box and disappearing or something (hopefully not).

Does TRON: Legacy count as an animated film? There is certainly a ton of animation in the film. Even some of the supposedly "human" characters are animated (notably the pre-disappearance Flynn and CLU), albeit sometimes poorly (you can see that uncanny valley effect quite clearly on a couple of occasions). Well anyway, I went in with very low expectations that were thus met. It was entertaining and pretty to look at, and the music was awesome, which is about all I could ask of it. This iRi post gets at one of the things I really like about TRON (the way the grid seems so alien), but I have to say that the effects described in that post are probably less pronounced in the sequel (in particular, I was disappointed by the light-bikes). The other film of my double-feature (and the only one I was actually drinking during) was Despicable Me, which had a few really funny moments (and I love the minions), but which is ultimately nothing too special. As kids animation goes, it's no Pixar, but it's probably a step above average.

I've never really been a fan of Stouts and when I started this blog, one of the things I wanted to do was better familiarize myself with the style. I took a bit of a detour into Belgian Strong Darks during the holidays, so I have a bunch of Stouts that I've been buying that have been sitting in my fridge or on my shelf waiting. They're certainly good winter beers, though I wouldn't recommend drinking a stout while watching an animated kids movie. Kinda weird, actually, but that's what I did:

Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout - Pours an opaque black color with a small, relatively light colored head that leaves lots of lacing as I drink. Smells a bit on the roasty side with some nice maltiness coming through, maybe even some caramel. There's only a very light roastiness in the taste though, which is instead dominated by rich chocolaty flavors, some of that caramel, and a solid malty sweetness. There's some bitterness there too, but it's dry, like dark chocolate. Indeed, this is almost like drinking a good dark chocolate. It's a full bodied brew with surprisingly good carbonation given the small head and high alcohol, which makes one heck of a smooth, drinkable beer (a bit dangerous when it comes in at 10% alcohol!) I get the feeling that lesser breweries would totally screw something like this up. All of the complex elements here are very well balanced. As I said, I'm not much of a stout drinker, but this one is probably the best I've ever had. I don't think that will last, but it's still an impressive effort from Brooklyn (and my new favorite beer from that brewery). A

Beer Nerd Details: 10% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank from a pint glass.

Founders Breakfast Stout - Before I get into this one, a disclaimer: I don't drink coffee. I wouldn't say that I hate coffee, but I don't particularly like it either. So while this beer is currently ranked on BA as the 7th best beer on the planet, I am not likely to enjoy it quite so much. So if one of my three readers happens to be a beer nerd, be forewarned, I'm gonna rate this one relatively low. Like the Brooklyn, it pours an opaque black color, with a bigger, darker colored but still light brown head. Some lacing apparent, but not as much as the Brooklyn. Smells much more roasty with some coffee thrown in for good measure. Now, I do usually like the smell of coffee, but this beer isn't really doing much for me on that front, which I find odd. The taste is also dominated by roasty coffee flavors. There's some malt sweetness there too, maybe chocolate, but it's overpowered by the coffee. There's a complexity in the taste, but I just can't get past the coffee. As far as mouthfeel goes, it's got good carbonation and a nice full body. A little less smooth than the Brooklyn stout, but still quite drinkable (assuming you like coffee). Really, this just ain't my style of beer. I'm glad I tried it and it's certainly not a poorly crafted beer, I just don't like coffee... If you do, you'll probably love it. B-

Beer Nerd Details: 8.3% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank from a pint glass.

So there you have it. I loved one and didn't care for the other. I'm looking forward to some of the other stouts I have waiting in the wings though, including one from Stone and, given my taste it should not be surprising that I have some Belgian-style darks that are kinda pretending to be stouts, like Allagash Black and Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence (which says it's a stout on the bottle, but is classified as a Belgian Dark on BA).

A little while ago I picked up Flying Dog's variety pack and in between all of the holiday beers and whatnot, I've been working my way through them and their awesome Ralph Steadman artwork.

• In Heat Wheat: Sweet, light, crisp and wheaty - a rather typical wheat beer. More details here. B-
• Tire Bite Golden Ale: Light and crisp, perhaps a small step above crappy "fizzy yellow stuff", but not by much. C-
• Old Scratch Amber Lager: Nice amber color, medium body, a little sticky and overall, it's a very drinkable session beer along the lines of Yuengling lager (maybe even a little better, but that's hard for me to admit!). B
• Snake Dog India Pale Ale: A nice west-coast style hoppy, earthy IPA. It does well on its own, but pales (pun intended!) when compared to other good IPAs (including Flying Dog's own Raging Bitch Belgian-style IPA). B
• Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale: Solid hoppy pale ale, a little darker than the IPA, but a nice quality session beer and maybe the best overall beer in this pack. B
• Road Dog Porter: Dark and a bit roasty, it wasn't quite as complex as I'd have hoped. I've never been a big fan of the style though, so that's probably part of my distaste. It's not bad, but definitely not my thing. C+

Overall, while most of them are quite drinkable and solid beers, none are really all that exceptional. This isn't to say that they don't make exceptional beers though: Raging Bitch IPA is actually a big step up from the Snake Dog IPA, and I've heard good things about the Gonzo Imperial Porter.

Yeah, I've been a bit of a sucker for Holiday ales this year, probably because I love a good Belgian Strong Dark Ale, of which there are many Holiday variations. As such, I find myself playing Belgian Roulette, picking up beers based solely on the fact that they're from Belgium and have pretty holiday pictures on the label. Last night, after my Samichlaus adventure, I had a couple of other beers:

Scaldis Noël: I saw this tiny little bottle with the fancy foil wrapping at the store and thought it might be a good idea to play some Belgian Roulette. The bottle only contains about 8.5 ounces, which is quite the odd size for a bottle, but then, it also comes in at a hefty 12% ABV, so I'm actually glad it wasn't too large. Pours a nice dark amber color with minimal head. Smells a bit boozy, and tastes that way too. It's sweeter than the Samichlaus and maybe a bit more carbonated, but the flavor isn't as complex. Indeed, I didn't really connect with this beer all that much. It's certainly not bad, but it reminded me a bit of how I felt about Mad Elf, though at least I had the small bottle around this time. B-

Beer Nerd Details: 12% ABV bottled (250 ml). Drank from a tulip glass.

Between beers, I cleansed my palate with a single cashew.

Weyerbacher Winter Ale: Not a Belgian, but I picked up a sixer of this and gave a few away to my beer club homies, saving a couple for myself. Pours a clear dark brown color, with about a finger of head that leaves some minimal lacing as I drink. Smells of roasted malts and maybe a bit of spruce. Tastes like it smells, with a dry roastiness coming through strongly, but the spices seem a bit lost. Mouthfeel is good, with solid carbonation and good drinkability. I'm not terribly familiar with Weyerbacher, but I was expecting something a lot stronger and more assertive than this. Instead, I got a pretty decent session beer (technically just a hair stronger than most session beers, but I think it would work fine) and there's nothing really wrong with that... It actually reminded me of a less complex 2010 Anchor Christmas Ale (which makes a bit of sense, as they're both classified as "Winter Warmers"). Not a bad beer by any stretch of the imagination, but I would have liked a bit more complexity (it probably didn't help that I had had two relatively intense monsters before cracking this one open, but still). B

Beer Nerd Details: 5.6% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank from a goblet.

Well, I've nearly exhausted my supply of holiday seasonals, but look for a few more posts before the holiday, and apparently one New Years beer as well (I'm excited for that one, which I totally lucked into without even realizing it - keeping this one a secret for now).

I don't know, maybe this just isn't a good year to be drinking beers with "elf" in the name. Not that any were super bad, just that none of them really connected with me. I had high hopes for this one, as I've heard many good things, but I found myself disappointed:

Tröegs Mad Elf - Pours a light, clear, reddish color, with a relatively small head that dissipates pretty quickly. Smell is a bit fruity and musty. Taste is sweet, with some of that cherry taste, and very boozy. The strong alcohol taste isn't nearly as well balanced with other flavors as this weekend's other big holiday brew, Three French Hens, but it's not out of control (like the Insanely Bad Elf I had on Thursday) either. Carbonation is low, which makes it a relatively smooth drink, but drinking a whole bomber of this gets a bit cloying towards the end. It's not bad, but I just didn't connect with it at all. B-

Beer Nerd Details: 11% ABV bottled (22 oz bomber). Drank from a tulip glass.

I'm getting close to the end of my Holiday brews, but I think I've got enough to tide me over until Christmas. So far, so good, even if there've been a few missteps.

On the first Friday of every month, there's a beer blog roundup called The Sessions. Started by Stan Hieronymus and hosted by a rotating group of bloggers, each Session has a chosen topic, and this month's is being hosted by BeerTasters.ca and covers the general topic of Wheat Beers:

Feel free to take this topic in any direction you like, specific reviews, historical information, or any other twist you'd like to use. Wheat beers are a pretty wide topic and actually cover German style Weizen, Heffe Weizen, etc. along with Belgian style Witbier and even Flavoured Wheat beers.

There are very few guidelines here, just have some fun drinking Wheat Beers in the fall instead of the summer.

So there. I'm no expert on the style, but I've had plenty of wheat beers over the years. One of the reasons I wanted to start this blog was so that I'd gain a better understanding of beer, and while I've had a few great wheat beers lately (notably, Unibroue's Blanche De Chambly, a great beer I didn't even realize was a wheat beer, and Dogfish Head's Namaste, which is also pretty good, in a more traditional wheat beery way), I've found that having to write about beer makes me think differently about beer. While I've been drinking lots of craft beer over the past couple of years, I've only been blogging about it for a few weeks, so I'm not sure if I can trust my memory on the beers I just mentioned. So tonight I tried out a semi-local Hefeweizen:

Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat - I've had several Flying Dog beers, while they're eminently drinkable, they're rarely exceptional (the one exception might be the Raging Bitch IPA, which was pretty great). This shouldn't really matter, but Flying Dog also has amazing labels on their bottles. Apparently the owner of Flying Dog was good friends with Hunter S. Thompson, and through that connection came artist Ralph Steadman. He's got a distinctive art style, and the labels on all of Flying Dog's beers are awesome. Anyway, I found myself in a beer distributer the other day, and the Flying Dog variety case seemed like a pretty good idea, and among the variety was this Hefeweizen. It pours a light orange/yellow color. There's a bit of a haze too it, but I could still see my hand through it pretty easily. Smells a little yeasty with some citrus thrown in. Sweet, light, crisp wheaty/yeasty taste with a finish that's a little more tart than bitter. A little bit of citrus flavor, but the character of this beer isn't especially strong. It's light and refreshing, but it's not lighting the world on fire either. Like most of Flying Fish's offerings, it's quite drinkable and would make a nice summer session beer, but it's not exactly the best wheat beer I've had or anything. I'll give it a solid B-. Not something I'd seek out regularly, but it's still pretty good.

Beer Nerd Details: 4.7% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank out of a pint glass.

Later in the night, I had a few IPAs, which I must admit, put this one to shame. Part of that might be that wheat beers aren't often meant to be huge flavor bombs, but I do like the wheat beer style, and there are many that I'm looking forward to trying. So here's a list of other Wheat beers I'd like to try (that I've never had before):

• Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier (duh)
• St. Bernardus Witbier
• Victory Whirlwind Witbier (pretty sure I've had several of these one night, but it's been a while)
• Victory Sunrise Weissbier

Any other recommendations?

Earlier this week, I lamented the beers of Yards, a local brewery that I've never really connected with. Last night, whilst on a drunken quest for pizza, I spied a sixer of Boxcar Brewing's Original Ale. I'd just recently heard about this online, as the brewery is apparently located in West Chester, PA, which is where I live, so this is probably as local as it gets (distribution is limited to Southeast PA at this point). As we've already established, I'm a total homer, so I immediately picked up the six pack and anxiously awaited the pizza and beer meal I was about to consume.

Boxcar Original Ale: Pours a light, hazy yellowish color, with a small head. The head did retain itself and there was lots of "lacing" as the beer nerds call it as I drank. The smell was lightly sweet, with some citrus thrown in for good measure. Taste was also a bit mild, with some malts and hops coming through, and a hint of that citrus flavor as well (it's a bit lemony, which is a nice touch). BA calls it an American Pale Ale, but it feels more German in style, maybe even something with wheat in it. It strikes me as a nice summer ale, light and crisp. Unfortunately, when you put all this together, you don't really get anything that stands out too much. I don't really detect anything wrong with it, but at the same time, there's nothing particularly amazing about it either. It's light and mild, which is fine, I guess, but not something I'm going to immediately run out and shove into people's hands telling them that they need to try it. This is apparently the only beer that Boxcar makes right now (having just launched earlier this year), and it shows a lot of promise. With some tweaking, I think this beer would come out better, but as of right now, there's not much to differentiate this from the throngs of other startups. I'm sure part of this is my homer instincts talking, but I'll give it a provisional B- (I suspect some might rate it lower).

Beer Nerd Details: 5.0% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank out of a pint glass.

I don't really understand why new breweries start with this kind of mild beer. I suppose it's inoffensive, but at the same time, it's not particularly memorable either. I look forward to new and hopefully more ambitious efforts from this brewery. Even if I don't see myself falling back on the Original Ale too often, I think it does show a lot of potential from this tiny upstart. In any case, Victory remains the champion home team for now.