Recently in B+ Category

Unlike the harvest ales I've covered so far this year, Ommegang's take on the trend is decidedly less hop-based, instead focusing on a complex malt bill consisting of freshly picked barley, oats, wheat, and rye. This is pretty much in line with Ommegang's identity of Belgian brewing in America, as traditional Belgian styles aren't very hoppy, instead focusing on malt and yeast for their flavor profile (perhaps part of the reason for good Belgo-Scotch relations, but I digress). Clocking in at 5.8% ABV, it's also one of the lower-gravity offerings I've seen from Ommegang (the only thing lower that I can think of is Witte). Let's see how they fared with this harvest ale:

Ommegang Scythe & Sickle - Pours a darkish golden orange color with a few fingers of fluffy white head and plenty of lacing. Smells strongly of banana esters and a little clove, big Belgian yeast character. Taste pretty much follows along, big and bold bready, biscuity flavors along with a lot of assertive Belgian yeast spice, a light fruitiness, and even a little bitterness emerging in the finish. Mouthfeel is highly carbonated and effervescent, but medium bodied and easy to drink. Spicy with a dry finish too, probably a good accompaniment with food. Overall, this is a really enjoyable beer, and it would make a fine go-to beer during this time of year. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 5.8% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank out of a goblet on 10/28/12.

So Ommegang recently redesigned their website and rebranded their entire lineup of beers. I have to say that I find most of this unnecessary, though not entirely unpleasant. I suppose their label designs were in a bit of a rut, and the only label I'll really miss is Hennepin, but the new labels with all the silhouettes. Their website certainly needed an update and the new design is pretty but... damn, it's pretty much unusable. It's like one of them horrible Flash sites from '02 or something. As usual, it's what's in the bottle that counts, so as long as Rare Vos, Hennepin, Abbey Ale, and Three Philosophers are the same beer, I don't really care about the labels... Next up on the Ommegang front is their 15th Anniversary ale, which appears to be another Belgian Strong Dark Ale...

As it turns out, I'm in the path of a hurricane wrapped in a nor'easter topped with a smattering of kick ass. But this Frankenstorm doesn't have me worried. I've battened down the hatches, I've got plenty of potable liquids in the form of beer and whiskey, and I think I might even have a flashlight or something in case the power goes out. So maybe I'm being punished for all this heretical beer I've been drinking, but damn, it was worth it.

This beer is a Belgian-style golden pale ale that's been aged in French oak Chardonnay barrels. The only other beer I've had with a similar treatment is Russian River's Temptation, which is setting the bar rather high. Fortunately, Worry is distinct enough that it carves out an identity all its own. Big thanks to Jay from Beer Samizdat for slinging this stuff my way, as fancy small-batch barrel-aged west coast beer like this usually doesn't make it's way out here:

Heretic Worry - Pours a bright golden color with a finger of quickly disappearing white head. Smells of musty, bready yeast along with just a slight twang of earthy funk and maybe some white wine. Taste is very sweet, with very little of that Belgian yeast character, but plenty of oak and that vinous grape and pear character emerging in the middle and intensifying through the finish. There might be some natural fruity tartness to this, but nothing like the lactic acidity of Temptation, which is what makes this beer so distinct. Mouthfeel starts off well carbonated, but that gives way to a more wine-like, cidery finish. Deceptively easy to drink for such a big beer. Overall, a solid, intriguing beer, not quite like anything I've tasted before. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 9.8% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a snifter on 10/19/12.

So I'm no longer in the shadow of the serpent riders, but I have a feeling that Heritic will be returning to this blog again at some point (either via distribution or trading, who cares which?) In the meantime, I'll have to make my peace with other wine-barrel aged monsters (which seem to be more common these days). And in all seriousness, I'm pretty well set for the Frankenstorm. I even have water.

Tired Hands Brewing Company continues to be the most interesting new local brewery around here, and it seems I'm not the only one on board. Apparently Tired Hands is in the frontrunner for RateBeer's coveted New Brewer of the Year award. Despite only having launched a few short months ago, Tired Hands' brews hold six of the top 10 spots on RateBeer's charts. Score one for the home team, let's have a look at some more of their beers:

Tired Hands Single Hop Saison (Nelson Sauvin) - The second in a series of beers showcasing different hop varietals and blurring the line between saisons and IPAs. Last time I was at Tired Hands, I was most pleased with the Simcoe version, and now I get to try the one made with New Zealand hops known as Nelson Sauvin. Pours a very light, cloudy straw yellow color with a finger or two of head... Smells utterly fantastic, bright citrusy fruit and some floral notes matched with a hint of bready, spicy yeast. Taste packs a whole lot of flavor, lots of that juicy citrus hop character and saison yeast spice come out to play, punctuated by a dry, earthy bitterness in the finish. The mouthfeel is a little low on the carbonation... It's still really good, but I wish there was a little more here. Easy enough to drink, and certainly a solid offering, but I enjoyed the Simcoe slightly more... on the upper end of B+

Beer Nerd Details: 5% ABV on tap (8 oz). Drank out of a wine glass on 10/13/12.

Hophands - This is one of their sorta flagship brews, a rather light pale ale that's quite well balanced. Another straw yellow beer, slightly cloudy, finger of bubbly head. Smells of grassy, citrusy, piney hops, not quite as potent as the Nelson Sauvin Saison, but well balanced citrus and pine aromas with a bit of floral character. Taste is light and hop forward, again with the combo of citrus and pine and grassy hops, some low intensity bitterness in the finish. Mouthfeel is crisp and light, very easy drinking, downright quaffable stuff. Clocking in at 4.8% ABV, I could drink this all night. Overall, a really nice pale... that I should really try by itself some time. Provisional B+

Beer Nerd Details: 4.8% ABV on tap (4 oz). Drank out of a mini-pint glass thingy on 10/13/12.

Tired Hands/Stillwater ArtiSnale - A collaboration with Stillwater Artisanal and a most excellent local beer bar (if you read this blog, you've seen lots of pictures of beers from this place), Teresa's Next Door (which is really just down the road a bit from Tired Hands). This is a big stout brewed with... snale shells? Ah, I see what they did with the name there. Kinda riffing on oyster stouts, I guess. Pours a very dark brown color with a finger of light brown head. Smells of roasted malt and coffee. Taste follows the nose, lots of roasty malt and coffee flavors, but the finish takes a light, sweet, pleasant turn that I can't quite place. In RateBeer's newsletter, they mention that there's "a touch of salinity, likely from the usage of escargot shells" which is probably what I was detecting in the finish there. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, making this drink like a smaller beer, but that's actually very nice. Not my favorite beer evar, but very well crafted stuff and apparently the snales actually added something to the proceedings. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV on tap (4 oz). Drank out of a mini-pint glass thingy on 10/13/12.

I apparently just missed out on Vampire, their Halloween-themed IPA brewed with blood oranges that seemed to be turning heads. Ah well, the joys of the small local brewpub - no way I'll be able to keep up with all their brews, but it's probably worth trying!

This marks the second beer I've had from Great Lakes that's named after a nautical disaster. The other, Burning River, was named after the tendency of the Cuyahoga River to catch fire. This one is named after a doomed freighter, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, that sank rather suddenly and unexpectedly. Oh sure, there was apparently a pretty bad storm, but no distress calls were sent, experts are baffled as to what caused the sinking, and none of the crewmen's bodies were found. Plus, the so-called "Mighty Fitz" apparently suffered a number of mishaps during its maiden voyage, including a collision with a pier and the fact that the champagne bottle used to christen her refused to break the first couple times they tried. Somewhere in Ohio, a failed screenwriter clings to a tragically unused X-Files spec script attributing the sinking to aliens or perhaps an outbreak of giant fish-people.

Oh yeah, the beer. This is apparently one of the country's best regarded porters. Not a style I'm particularly fond of; quite frankly, I find them to be a little bit samey (with the one exception being Everett, a beer I should have rated higher as it looms much better in my head these days than it did in comparison to other mind-blowing HF beers that day). I should probably rev up a double feature or two at some point to cut to the heart of the matter, but for now, I'll just continue to be a little baffled at just how beers like this get rated so highly by the Beer Advocate set. Maybe I just don't get porters.

Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter - Pours a dark brown color with a finger of tight-bubbled tan head. Smells like a typical porter, lots of roast and toast, maybe some coffee and bitter dark chocolate too. Taste goes in a similar direction, lots of toasty, roasty, burnt flavors, a little light on the bitter dark chocolate, maybe some coffee. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, medium bodied but not at all heavy. It's actually got a really nice feel. Overall, this is a well constructed take on a typical style. Porters aren't really my thing, so I don't quite have that enthusiasm for this that the rest of the beer dorks do, but it's definitely one of the better porters I've had. Could easily become my cigar smoking accompaniment (a position generally held by Founders Porter these days). B+

Beer Nerd Details: 5.8% ABV bottled (12 oz.) Drank out of a snifter on 10/5/12.

Great Lakes continues to be a sorta ho-hum brewery for me. I quite enjoy many of their brews, but I've never really had something that really lifted my kilt, if you know what I mean. Still curious to try some of their bigger, seasonal/special release beers though.

Are there Canadian breweries outside of Quebec? Because every time I get my hands on some fine, craft brewed Canadian beer, it winds up being from some small French Canadian brewery. Not that I'm complaining. I've pretty much loved everything I've ever had from the likes of Unibroue and Dieu Du Ciel, though I admit that I must delve a bit deeper into their respective catalogs. So when these Hopfenstark beers started showing up locally, I figured I'd give them a shot.

Historically, Captain Swing was apparently a fictional nom de plume signed to threatening letters during 1830s riots when laborers were losing their jobs to industrial threshing machines. Captain Swing was a sorta mythical figurehead to the movement. Why this would matter to French Canadians is anyone's guess, but I'll admit, it's a pretty cool name. Does the beer live up to this reputation?

Hopfenstark Captain Swing - Pours a clear, deep copper color with a couple fingers of tan head. Smells of caramel with a slight floral, piney hop character. Taste features lots of that caramel malt flavor, along with just a bit of piney hops, leading to a nicely balanced bitterness towards the finish. No real fruitiness apparent at all, which is a little surprising. Mouthfeel is rich and creamy, with tight carbonation giving way to a very slight slickness in the finish. Overall, this is very nice, if a little straightforward... It's labeled as an American Barleywine, but this feels more like an Imperial Red than a barleywine. Regardless, it was solid, and I enjoyed drinking it, so call it whatever you want. I'll give it a B+ and leave it at that.

Beer Nerd Details: 9% ABV on tap. Drank out of a tulip glass on 10/7/12.

A favorable first experience with Hopfenstark, a brewery that I'll probably seek out again at some point. Though, in general, I'd like to try out some more crafty Canadian beers.

Tonight was beer club, a meeting of beer minded individuals from my work who get together once a month to share good beer, a good meal, and good company! We typically congregate at a local BYOB, and this time we hit up America's Pie, probably the best pizza joint in West Chester. Lots of food and beer and mirth was had by all. Things started small but grew as the night progressed, so this picture doesn't quite capture all the beers that arrived later:

(Click for bigger image)

For the sake of posterity, some thoughts on each beer are below. As per usual, these beers were not consumed under ideal conditions, but hey, these were really fun conditions, which, come to think of it, are ideal enough for me. But you may want to take these notes with a giant rock of salt. Anywho, here's the impressions I'm left with (in the order of drinking, not necessarily from the picture above):

• Lakefront Pumpkin Lager - A strangely muted flavor profile that features all the typical pumpkin pie flavors nonetheless, this was actually a decent way to start off beer club. Very aromatic, light, spicy, straightforward beer. Not going to light the world on fire, but a worthy brew. B
• Duvel - This is generally considered to be a classic beer, but I have to admit, I've always come away somewhat underwhelmed by Duvel. I feel like this bottle was much better than any of my previous tastings. Sweet, spicy Belgian yeast character in the nose and taste. Last time I had this, I was a little turned off by what I perceived to be tart, lemony notes, but that didn't appear to be in tonight's bottle at all. Strange. I still wouldn't call this one of my favorites or anything, but I could bump it up to a B
• Original Sin Hard Cider and Dana's Homemade Applewine - I tend to call this event "beer club", but lots of other alcoholic beverages make appearances. This usually amounts to wine, but some folks who don't like beer will go for some cider too (especially this time of year, I guess). Me, I don't really care for that sort of thing. I tried a couple offerings and thought, yep, that's got apple flavor, and left it at that.
• Cigar City Guava Grove - One of my contributions for the night, this is a big, delicious ball of spicy, fruity saison goodness. Great orangey color, spicy Belgian yeast character in the nose and taste, with a level of fruitiness, presumably coming from the guava. Generally considered to be the best beer of the night, I jokingly mentioned that I wished I kept it all for myself. But I kid. Anywho, exceptional beer. I really must figure out how to get my hands on some more Cigar City stuff. A-
• War Horse India Pale Ale - Probably suffered a little in comparison to the Guava Grove, but yeah, it's an IPA, focusing on the earthy, floral notes, with a strong malt backbone and a fair bitterness in the finish. I found it to be somewhat unremarkable, but it was generally enjoyed by the group (we are easily amused). B-
• DuClaw Mad Bishop - Ah, it was about time someone broke out the other major seasonal style, the Oktoberfest. Not one of my favorite styles, but as these things go, I found myself enjoying this one quite a bit. It seemed a little sweeter than your typical, authentic examples of the style, but that's not a horrible thing in my book. Very nice. B
• Lindemans Framboise - Another offering that was popular with the cider/wine crowd, I found it a little on the cough syrupy side of things. Nice raspberry flavors and it's pretty thick and sweet for such a tiny ABV beer, but I don't know, maybe I'm spoiled by better lambics at this point. B-
• Great Lakes Nosferatu - This is one of them Imperial Red Ale beers that goes heavy on the citrus and pine hops, certainly a welcome development at this point in the night. Even with my palate probably being in pretty bad shape, I found this to be quite good. And you've just gotta love the label/name of this beer too. I should pick up a bottle of the stuff and give it a fair shake, though I'll still hand it a B+ rating, making it one of the better beers of the night.
• Lagunitas New Dogtown Pale Ale - One of those late arrivals, this one actually held its own against some of the bigger beers I'd been drinking. Big citrus and pine character in the nose and taste, making it seem more like a straight up IPA than a lowly Pale Ale. Quite enjoyable and again, one of the better beers of the night. B+
• St. Bernardus Tripel - Another beer I've actually reviewed before, though this time my feelings on the beer haven't changed much. I didn't have a lot of it tonight, but it's pretty much exactly what I remember about it. Excellent Belgian Tripel, if not quite my favorite.
• Yuengling Oktoberfest - At this point in the night, my palate is pretty well wrecked, but again, it seemed like a really solid, traditional take on the Oktoberfest style. Not exactly my thing, but I could probably put a few of these down in a session if duty called for such. Indeed, I might even prefer this to the ubiquitous Yuengling Lager... B
• Lavery Stingy Jack Pumpkin Ale - My other contribution for the night, I think this one comported itself quite well. It's got that big, chewy pumpkin pie thing going on here, but the balance of malt, pumpkin, and spice was pretty well honed here, as I really enjoyed it. Now, again, I was pretty well in the bag at this point, but the bomber I brought seemed to go pretty quickly, and folks seemed to enjoy it. I'll give it a provisional B+

Phew, that ended up being quite a list of beers. Oddly, they were all pale colored - not a single stout to be had. The closest thing to a dark beer was Nosferatu, which probably couldn't be counted as pale, but it's no stout either. Not that I'm complaining. Indeed, I shall declare this gathering yet another success. I'm already thinking ahead to our next meeting...

Maryland's Evolution Craft Brewing Company has been making the rounds in the Philly beer scene for the past few months, and I've been lucky enough to try a few of them. In particular, I've enjoyed their IPAs, which are decidedly of the East Coast variety. I'm actually not a big proponent of making that coastal distinction (there's room for differing takes on a style within that same style - an IPA is an IPA, dammit), but apparently that's a thing, and Evolution's Lot series of IPAs certainly qualify as East Coast. There's more of a malt backbone, perhaps a bit less straight bitterness, but to me, it's still the same style. Whatevers, here's Evolution's flagship IPA:

Evolution Lot No3 IPA - Pours a clear golden orange color with a finger of whitish head. Smells of big, piney hops, with some orangey citrus and floral notes. Taste is along similar lines, tons of citrus, pine, and floral hop character, with a solid malt backbone and a light bitterness in the finish. Mouthfeel is well carbonated and medium bodied, drinks really well. Overall, this is a very well crafted IPA, would make a great go-to beer. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 6.8% ABV bottled (12 oz.) Drank out of a tulip on 10/5/12.

At this point, I've actually had Evolution's Lot No6 a few times - it's a double IPA that's basically got the same flavor profile as the above, but amped up a little more. It's a really nice beer, and I'm happy to see Evolution expanding. Perhaps I'll get my hands on some others soon...

I actually had this at a beer club outing last year, and I loved it so much that I went out and bought a bottle. It was a big, rich imperial stout mixed with typical pumpkin pie flavors, but very well balanced. Or was it? This was a beer that really shined in the beer club setting, where I was only trying a few ounces, if that. And as pumpkin beers go, this was the first time I'd had a pumpkin stout, a combination of flavors that was surprisingly good. But maybe I've fallen prey to a classic market research problem. Fair warning, serious nerdery ahoy. Feel free to skip to the review below.

Remember the embarrassment that was New Coke? Longtime readers know I'm a huge fan of Coke and I really freakin hate Pepsi. Why did Coke reformulate their time-honored, classic formula? Well, Coke had been losing ground to Pepsi, and then this classic ad campaign came out: The Pepsi Challenge. Basically, Pepsi went out and asked a bunch of loyal Coke drinkers to take a sip from two glasses and pick which one was better. The participants preferred Pepsi by a rather large margin. Coke disputed the results until they started running their own internal sip tests... and got pretty much the same results. So they started fiddling with their fabled formula, making it sweeter and lighter (i.e. more like Pepsi). Eventually, they settled on a formula that consistently outperformed Pepsi in the challenge, and thus New Coke was born.

Of course, we all know what happened. New Coke was a disaster. Coke drinkers were outraged, the company's sales plunged, and Coke was forced to bring back the original formula as "Classic Coke" just a few months later (at which point New Coke practically disappeared). What's more, Pepsi's seemingly unstoppable ascendance never materialized. When it comes to the base cola brand, people still prefer Coke to Pepsi, sip tests be damned! So what's going on here? Why do people buy Coke when sip tests show that they like Pepsi better? Malcolm Gladwell wrote about why in his book Blink:

The difficulty with interpreting the Pepsi Challenge findings begins with the fact that they were based on what the industry calls a sip test or a CLT (central location test). Tasters don't drink the entire can. They take a sip from a cup of each of the brands being tested and then make their choice. Now suppose I were to ask you to test a soft drink a little differently. What if you were to take a case of the drink home and tell me what you think after a few weeks? Would that change your opinion? It turns out it would. Carol Dollard, who worked for Pepsi for many years in new-product development, says, "I've seen many times when the CLT will give you one result and the home-use test will give you the exact opposite. For example, in a CLT, consumers might taste three or four different products in a row, taking a sip or a couple sips of each. A sip is very different from sitting and drinking a whole beverage on your own. Sometimes a sip tastes good and a whole bottle doesn't. That's why home-use tests give you the best information. The user isn't in an artificial setting. They are at home, sitting in front of the TV, and the way they feel in that situation is the most reflective of how they will behave when the product hits the market."

Dollard says, for instance, that one of the biases in a sip test is toward sweetness: "If you only test in a sip test, consumers will like the sweeter product. But when they have to drink a whole bottle or can, that sweetness can get really overpowering or cloying." Pepsi is sweeter than Coke, so right away it had a big advantage in a sip test. Pepsi is also characterized by a citrusy flavor burst, unlike the more raisiny-vanilla taste of Coke. But that burst tends to dissipate over the course of an entire can, and that is another reason Coke suffered by comparison. Pepsi, in short, is a drink built to shine in a sip test. Does this mean that the Pepsi Challenge was a fraud? Not at all. It just means that we have two different reactions to colas. We have one reaction after taking a sip, and we have another reaction after drinking a whole can.

The parallel here is obvious. Drinking a small dose of a beer in the context of beer club (where I'm sampling a whole bunch of beers) can lead to some distortion in ratings. I usually mention this bias in my beer club posts, but despite my usual snark when bringing it up, I do think those ratings are a bit suspect.

In this particular case, the beer did not fare quite as well upon revisiting it in a more controlled environment (sheesh, I'm a nerd), though I suppose the fact that I aged this beer a year or so also has something to do with it. Yet more distortion! I suspect a fresh bottle would have more of that rich, chewy stout character and a more biting spice presence, whereas this aged bottle showed a lot more pumpkin and less in the way of stoutness. Spicing was clearly still strong, but not quite as bright as they seemed last year. Ok fine, I admit it, all of my tasting notes are unreliable. I hope your happy. Anywho, here's my notes:

Cape Ann Fisherman's Imperial Pumpkin Stout (2011 Vintage) - Pours a black color with minimal, rather light colored head. Smells very sweet, with a huge pumpkin pie component, with both pumpkin and spice asserting themselves. Taste is again very sweet, with some caramel flavors, a little in the way of chocolate, and even a little roastiness, but those pumpkin pie notes are here too, and they get stronger the more I drink. This seems to have lost some of its punch from last year, though it's still big and flavorful stuff. Mouthfeel is rich and creamy, a little spicy, but this doesn't drink like an 11% beer. Definitely not as great as I remembered, but still very solid and overall, as pumpkin beers go, this is still one of my favorites. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 11% ABV bottled (22 oz. bomber). Drank out of a snifter on 9/29/12. 2011 vintage.

Yeah, so maybe I'll try to find a fresh bottle of this stuff and see if it fares any better. I've actually never had any of Cape Ann's other Fisherman's beers, so I should probably get on that too...