B

Beers that have been rated B-, B, or B+

The Session #64: Pale in Comparison

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session_logo.jpgOn the first Friday of every month, there’s a beer blog roundup called The Session. Someone picks a topic, and everyone blogs about it. This month, Carla Companion wants to talk about an unsung hero:

What is the one beer style usually makes up the first position in the sample flight, but yet is usually the one that we never get really excited about? The Pale Ale.

Your mission – if you choose to accept it – it so seek out and taste two different pale ales. Tell us what makes them special, what makes them forgettable, what makes them the same or what makes them different. Then, share it with us.

First of all, I love the idea. One of the cornerstones of this blog is that of the Double Feature. Pick two beers of similar style, compare and contrast, all whilst taking in a filmic double feature. It’s a really helpful tactic for learning about beer, especially when used with beers that sometimes have very similar flavor profiles… like pale ales!

Pale ales have a weird rap here in the beer nerd community. You never hear people raving about pale ales the way they do for the latest hopped-up double IPA, face melting Imperial Stout, or Brett-dosed sour bombs. And yet, a lot of folks will tell you that they got into craft beer the moment they tasted something like the classic Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Indeed, a lot of breweries got their start with pales, even ones we think of as being extremist or weird. Stone’s first beer was their most excellent Pale Ale (which seems to me like Arrogant Bastard’s little brother, very flavorful). Hard as it may be to believe, Dogfish Head’s Shelter Pale Ale was their first foray into “off-centered” beer. Pale Ales are a cornerstone of the craft beer world, a stepping stone for fledgling beer geeks, and a fantastic alternative to macro light lagers for regular folks.

Indeed, it’s not like there’s a shortage of big selling pale ales. Locally, we’ve got Yards’ Philly Pale and Victory’s Headwaters, both of which apparently do gangbusters (and oh yeah, they’re excellent too). I’m no stranger to huge face-melting beers and I have to admit that sometimes the notion of checking out a “simple” pale ale seems like it might be boring, but there’s plenty of interesting stuff going on in the pale ale world right now. I didn’t go bonkers for Maine’s Peeper like most folks, but it was an intriguing change of pace, a very interesting beer. Even if it wasn’t particularly my thing, I love that they did something different with their beer, and that’s the sort of stuff I like to try.

Speaking of which, I think it’s about time to try out a few beers, as ordered. One is eminently interesting and experimental, the other is a bit more on the standard side, though it’s got some interesting aspects too…

Victory Bavarian Mandarina Pale Ale

Victory Bavarian Mandarina Pale Ale – Victory recently released a series of beers utilizing experimental German hops, including this one, which has just received it’s official name: Mandarina. Pours a golden orange with a finger of head and a ton of lacing. Smells of herbal, spicy hops, with a an orange citrus note and a little caramel malt too. Taste has a nice malt backbone, but it’s not huge – it provides a nice background to highlight these new hops. Plenty of those citrusy, herbal hop flavors coming in the middle and more spicy bitterness emerging in the finish… Mouthfeel is surprising for a pale ale, a little heavier than expected, but quite nice nonetheless. This is actually the second time I’ve had this beer in the past couple weeks, and on the second tasting, I think I got a lot more of the orange character than the first time. Overall, a very solid, interesting change of pace. B

Beer Nerd Details: 6% ABV on tap (16 oz). Drank out of a nonic pint on 5/31/12.

Alesmith X

Alesmith X – Pours a bright straw yellow color with two fingers of fluffy white head and some lacing as I drink. Smells of more grassy, citrusy hops, along with a nice bready yeast and malt character. Taste is sweet, with that bready yeast and malt really coming through, though not in a strong or overpowering way. Light grassy hops and citrus come through a bit in the taste as well. The finish is relatively dry, with a very slight bitterness. The mouthfeel is hit with a huge carbonation at the start, very effervescent, but it smooths out by the finish, which is quite nice. Despite the bite from the carbonation, it’s a light, crisp, and refreshing beer. In a lot of ways, this reminds me of a Belgian style pale ale (I bet if you were to substitute something like a saison yeast in the same recipe, you’d end up with a similar, if a bit spicier…), but it still feels like an American Pale Ale. Overall, I’m really enjoying this beer! B+

Beer Nerd Details: 5% ABV bottled (22 oz. bomber). Drank out of a tulip glass on 5/31/12.

Overall, the Alesmith was lighter in color and body than the Mandarina, and it had a more traditional, grassy citrus pine hop character, while the Mandarina hops brought a specific orange character, with lots of more herbal notes. Both are very good beers, and I’m really happy I got to try them. I also got to try one of the other Victory beers that was experimenting with new hops, this one called Polaris. It was an IPA, and thus not suitable for this post, but it was quite good, reminiscent of those New Zealand hops I’ve been digging lately. I love that Victory is playing with experimental hops, and the Pale Ale format really does provide a good platform for highlighting these new varieties. As summer goes on, I’m sure pale ales will be a staple of my beer diet…

Homebrew Review: Earl Grey Bitter

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So how did my little experiment of brewing a beer with Earl Grey tea turn out? Very well, I think, though the tea itself didn’t wind up being one of the prominent flavors. On the other hand, the citrus came through quite successfully, and I’m sure at least part of that came from the bergamot in the tea. It makes the beer distinct from most traditional English bitters, but it doesn’t overwhelm the more common English flavors and thus retains the feel of the style. It was almost exactly what I was hoping for…

One of the interesting things about homebrewing is that you get to see the full process of how a beer matures and ages. You can try it super-fresh, pre-carbonation even, and then you get to see how bottle conditioning matures it into something different over time. In this case, immediately after fermentation, the beer had some nice citrus aromas and flavors, but it was also quite thin. I like to try one homebrew a week after bottling. It usually takes at least two weeks for the bottle conditioning to produce enough carbonation, but I’m impatient and like I said, I like to witness the process in action. That first week didn’t seem to do a whole lot. There was some carbonation, but the beer ultimately felt really thin and watery, in a very bad way. But something magical happened in that second week, I think, and the beer really came into its own. Despite remaining a light, quaffable beer, it really filled itself out and became a well rounded beer in those second and third weeks. And here at six weeks, it’s still going strong:

Kaedrin Earl Grey Bitter

Kaedrin Earl Grey Bitter – Pours a golden orangish color with half a finger of head. Smells of earthy, pungent hops, with some citrus lightening the mood. If I really look for tea, I can kinda find it, but I’m not sure if it’s actually there or if it’s just the power of suggestion. The taste is surprisingly deep and full flavored. There’s a solid malt backbone, with a surprising amount of citrus (I’m pegging that as the orange peel) leading into a light, earthy hop finish. It’s certainly not as earthy as your typical bitter, which was part of the point of this exercise, so I’m quite happy with the taste. The mouthfeel is smooth, well carbonated (I probably could have gotten away with using even less priming sugar), but very light and quite quaffable. The first week I had this, it was awfully thin, but it has filled itself out as it’s matured. Overall, I’m really loving this beer. I don’t get a ton of “tea” character out of it, but there’s plenty of balanced citrus. I count this among the best three batches I’ve made… B+

Beer Nerd Details: 4% ABV bottled (12 oz.) Drank out of a tulip on 5/12/12.

I’ve actually slowed down my brewing activities for summer. In part this is because I don’t really want to deal with the hot temperatures, but it’s also because I still have a few cases of homebrew in the cellar that I should really drink down before taking on some new batches. I’m still looking to do a Belgian Dubbel style beer for my next batch, which will probably be a really nice Fall/Winter beer.

Yards Saison

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The summer saison is upon us, so I decided to revisit a beer that disappointed me many moons ago. I’ve mentioned before about how Ommegang Hennepin was my Craft Beer revelation, but being a fledgling beer nerd at the time, I had no idea what I was really doing. All I knew about the beer was that it was a saison style beer, so when I went to the beer distributor looking for saisons and saw this local offering, I bought me a case of the stuff (grumble, grumble, the PA case law is evil, grumble) and was a little crestfallen when it turned out that the beer wasn’t as good as Hennepin. It was a fine beer, much better than the macro swill I was used to at the time, and I had no problem finishing the case (I had roommates at the time who helped with that task), but it was still a little disappointing. As it turns out, the saison has the least coherent style definition in the history of beer, so my strategy of trying other saisons was doomed to failure anyway. But all this was a long time ago (almost a decade? Yikes…), so I figured it was time to revisit the stuff:

Yards Saison

Yards Saison – Pours a slightly hazy yellow gold color with a finger of whitish head. Smells a little like a Belgian Wit – this is clearly a spiced beer, though some of that may be the result of yeast. Lots of spice on the nose, clove, orange peel, maybe some peppery notes, and just a hint of light fruitiness. The taste is lightly sweet with some spice character evolving throughout the taste and aftertaste. The mouthfeel is relatively light, well carbonated, a little spicy harshness, and some dryness that strangely gives way to a less dry finish (not bad, but it is different). Overall, this is certainly a nice, flavorful, non-funky take on the saison, but it’s not really best in class either. I certainly enjoyed it, but my earlier impression of the beer (which was not bad, to be sure) hasn’t changed very much. Solid beer, but not really lighting the world on fire. While not quite a session beer, it is hitting the spot after a warm day though… B

Beer Nerd Details: 6.5% ABV bottled (12 oz.) Drank out of a goblet on 5/18/12.

As summer approaches, I’m sure more saisons will be reviewed… indeed, there’s one in the pipeline right now that will lend even more credence to the aforementioned notion that the saison style has the most incoherent definition in all of beer.

Sixpoint Resin

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Ah, the words we use to describe hops. Some of them don’t sound very appetizing. Weirdly, this seems to be the case for my favorite hops. The big, American citrus and pine bombs that are so popular actually have some rather weird descriptions hurled at them. Cat urine? Um, what? Sounds rather gross. Apparently some hops really do give off that sort of aroma, but not having cats, I can’t really say. In any case, I don’t get that sort of description when it’s being used as a positive (I mean, I love me the smell of something like Weyerbacher Double Simcoe – does that mean I like cat piss?) Dank? Yeah, that’s not usually something I want to drink… and I’m not much of a weed guy either (dank being something that’s apparently positive in that realm). Ditto for the word resin, which also has that pot connection, though at least its standard definition isn’t super disgusting. It’s got a more neutral connotation, so it’s got that going for it…

Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love beers that people describe as having dank, resiny, cat uriney hop flavors and aromas, I just don’t tend to use those words to describe it, with the exception of resin. I actually love that piney, resiny flavor that comes from some hop varieties like Simcoe, Chinook, and Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus. So when I saw this beer’s name, it sounded promising! Sixpoint is a brewery I’ve not had much experience with, and those energy drink looking cans never really inspired much confidence, though I don’t know why. They’re distinctive and well designed, so let’s give them a shot:

Sixpoint Resin

Sixpoint Resin – Pours a hazy orange brown color with a finger or two of head that leaves plenty of lacing as I drink. The smell is full of sweetness and fruity hops, with just a hint of pine (with a moniker like “Resin”, I was expecting more of that piney aroma). Ah, I see, the pine comes out much more in the flavor, which starts very sweet, with a big, resiny pine flavor, followed by some more citrusy hop character. Bitterness doesn’t really emerge until the finish, and it intensifies through the aftertaste. Mouthfeel is light and bright, plenty of carbonation, but quite drinkable for such a big beer. Overall, a very nice DIPA, something I could certainly go for again! B+

Beer Nerd Details: 9.1% ABV canned (12 oz.) Drank out of a tulip on 5/12/12.

A promising start for Sixpoint, and I’m sure I’ll have some more of their stuff at some point, though who knows when?

Devine Double Feature

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I think the reason I have a high opinion of Brewdog stems wholly from this beer. It happens to be a collaboration with Gypsy brewer extraordinaire Mikkeller, which probably has a lot to do with it, but except for one curious case, I’ve had a very positive experience with Brewdog beers. This one was a revelation though, and might be my favorite from either brewer. I wasn’t a big barleywine guy at the time, nor was I particularly well versed in barrel aged beers, so this one was a big turning point for me. Unfortunately, they’ve only made two batches of the stuff, one in 2009 and one in 2010. I managed to get my hands on one of each last year, and they’ve been aging in my cellar ever since. I do hope they get together again and make something like that 2009 version, because it truly is sublime.

Anyway, I cracked these beauties open recently whilst taking in a pair of documentaries about filmmaking. Waking Sleeping Beauty tells the story of the animation renaissance at Disney from 1984 until 1994. Reasonably interesting stuff, though the story isn’t quite as compelling as the origins of Pixar (which, actually, is rather intertwined with the general Disney renaissance). The other documentary I watched covered a decidedly different type of film. Machete Maidens Unleashed! covers the “untold story” of exploitation filmmaking in the Philippines in the 60s and 70s. It was completely unintentional, but this documentary actually covers the making of the movies I watched whilst drinking Devine Rebel the first time… Speaking of which:

Brewdog and Mikkeller Devine Rebel 2009

Brewdog and Mikkeller Devine Rebel (2009) – To recap, this beer is fermented with both ale and champagne yeast, features a single hop (which I believe is that fabled Kiwi hop, Nelson Sauvin), and is partially aged in Speyside whisky barrels… It pours a deep, dark brownish amber color with minimal head. Smells strongly of fruity malts, with plenty of well matched Scotch aromas. Taste is sweet, lots of rich malt character, some fruitiness (maybe raisins), and a bit of that barrel aged vanilla and oak Scotchiness. Mouthfeel is rich and creamy, very smooth, but with enough carbonation that it never gets cloying. There’s a little booze character too this, and I feel like I can taste the age of the beer, but it’s still damn good. Well balanced, complex, unique. Overall, a fantastic beer. A

Beer Nerd Details: 12.1% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank out of a snifter on 4/27/12. Batch 243, bottled on 7/5/09 (same as the last one I had).

Brewdog and Mikkeller Devine Rebel 2010

Brewdog and Mikkeller Devine Rebel 2010 – As it turns out, this beer is not quite the same recipe. I think the general idea and process was the same (ale and champagne yeast, Nelson Sauvin hops, and partially aged in old Scotch barrels), but they say: “More malt, more hops, more oak and more alcohol than last year’s edition.” And indeed, this one is a whopping 13.8% ABV! The appearance is a little more on the brown side, with just a hint of that amber color, and about a finger of head (though it disappeared quite quickly). The aroma is very similar. Sweet fruit aromas (raisins), Scotch, and booze. The taste is much more powerful. Lots of booze. There’s a fruity malt character, but the Scotch and booze overwhelmed some of that character. Still lots of complex flavors, but perhaps not as well balanced as the original version. Mouthfeel is a little bigger and fuller. More carbonated, less smooth and creamy, more warming alcohol. Cleary shares DNA with the original Devine Rebel, but quite distinct. Still a good beer, but not quite as perfectly balanced. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 13.8% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank out of a snifter on 4/27/12. Batch 406, bottled on 11/2/10.

It was an interesting (and intoxicating) night. I would love for them to make some of this stuff again, but who knows if that’s on the horizon. In the meantime, I’m going to have to make do with another of their collaborations, called I Hardcore You, which is actually a blend of Mikkeller’s I Beat yoU and Brewdog’s Hardcore (which, incidentally, I reviewed in a double feature post of their own a while back!)

Hopwired

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The crazy growth of craft beer is certainly not limited to the U.S. Here we have a beer made with malt and hops grown exclusively in Mordor New Zealand. To give a misleading, overly broad, and probably deathly wrong summary of geographic hop characters, European hops tend to be earthy, herbal, spicy and pungent. American hops have a citrus and pine character that is quite different (even U.S. grown European hop varieties – like Fuggle – tend to have more citrus than their European counterparts). Well, the Kiwi hops used here are apparently also quite citrusy, but while American varieties tend towards grapefruit, NZ hops seem to be more tropical. On their website, they say: “Passion fruit, limes, oranges and Sauvignon Blanc grapes to name but a few. A local Marlborough winemaker even said it smelled like gooseberries… Gooseberries? When did you last actually smell a gooseberry??”

IPAs do tend to get a bit on the samey side sometimes, so it’s really refreshing to try a beer like this that has distinct and unique flavors, while still conforming to the general idea of the style:

8 Wired Hopwired

8 Wired Hopwired IPA – Pours a clear, deep golden orange color with a finger or two of white head that leaves plenty of lacing as I drink. Smells strongly of fruity, bright and citrusy hops, with maybe a bit of a floral component as well (this becomes more prominent as it warms). The taste is quite sweet, plenty of light malts here, with a bracing hop bitterness emerging towards the finish. That fruity, floral hop flavor makes its way into the taste as well, and as mentioned above, it’s distinct from that grapefruit and pine character of American hops – more tropical, I guess. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, with tiny bubbled carbonation, and a relatively dry finish. Overall, this is quite a nice change of pace, and I’m really glad I got to try some of this stuff. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7.3% ABV bottled (500 ml capped). Drank out of a tulip on 5/5/12. IBUs: 70. Hops: Southern Cross, Motueka, Nelson Sauvin.

A good first showing from these hobbits brewers of NZ, and I’ll almost certainly be checking out some of their other stuff. If I can find it!

Philly Beer Week: Iron Hill and Dupont Spéciale Belge

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Well, folks, it’s been a long week, and while I wasn’t able to post anything due to technical difficulties, I was (of course) still partaking in some interesting beer. The most exciting thing that happened was a quick Philly Beer Week preview event in which I got to try Brasserie Dupont‘s first collaboration beer, made specially for Philly Beer Week 2012 in collaboration with Iron Hill’s brewer. I won’t belabor the story about how the collaboration came to pass, but while the beer was made specially for Philly Beer Week, I’ve also heard that it will be getting a wider distribution (according to the PBW website, it will be available “coast to coast” after its introduction in Philly).

For the uninitiated, Iron Hill is a local chain of brewpubs that’s become quite popular and well respected around here. I like them a lot, and Dupont makes some of my favorite beers, so I was quite looking forward to this beer:

Dupont Speciale Belge

Iron Hill and Dupont Spéciale Belge – I should probably explain at this point that my notes here are sparse, so take this review with a grain of salt. The short story is that I really enjoyed the beer. It’s a pale amberish color with tons of head, but it’s brewed with Dupont’s distinctive yeast, and that pleasant Belgian yeast spice and ester character is the driving force behind this beer. Lots of spice in the nose, and compared to Dupont’s bigger saisons, it’s got a lighter, fruitier felling to it (from the yeast, not the hops). According to the story, it’s made using smoked malt, but I wasn’t really picking up any smoke at all (a friend who was also in attendance didn’t pick up on it either, but I’ve resolved to buy myself a bottle of the stuff and try it again anyway, so I’ll have to look a little harder next time). Light to medium bodied, it’s actually very refreshing, which was really nice because this event was outside and it was quite warm. Overall, a really nice beer. Does it rival the classic Saison Dupont? Well, maybe not, but that’s a pretty high bar to clear. I’ll give it a tentative B+ or maybe even A-, though again, I’d love to try this again.

Beer Nerd Details: 5.75% ABV bottled (750 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a flute? Goblet? Whatever that glass in the picture is… on 5/16/12.

I’m trying to decide how active to be during Philly Beer Week. A lot of the events are in the city, which aren’t really that convenient for this suburbanite, but who knows, maybe I’ll hop on a train or two and attend some events. Definitely looking forward to the Hill Farmstead event at Teresa’s, but as of right now, I haven’t really planned out anything else for the week.

Mikkeller Green Gold and Gypsy Contracts

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So I’ve written about gypsy brewers like Mikkeller or Stillwater before, but a recent comment about contract brewing got me to thinking about the differences between contract brewers and gypsy brewers. For the uninitiated, contract brewing is basically outsourced brewing. People who can’t afford breweries themselves find a facility with excess capacity, and leverage that to establish their brand and start building a revenue stream. So I guess the question is: aren’t these gypsy brewers just glorified hipster contract brewers?

Contract brewing has something of a negative connotation amongst beer nerds. There’s a perception that these brewers are cheating and that the final product would be better considered as something made by the actual brewery involved. The extent of the outsourcing seems to be somewhat variable. There are apparently companies that are really just marketing firms that rely entirely on the contracted brewer for the beer stuff (not hard to see why contract brewing would get a negative reputation in that case). Then there are companies that have a little more control over the end result. In reading around about gypsy brewers, it seems like they have a much more active role in the process. They’re physically at the rented facility, making the beers themselves, with minimal involvement of the host brewery.

I suspect we’re going to see the devaluation of the term “gypsy brewer” over the next few years as the marketers pick up on the hype and attempt to exploit it. Pretty soon, we’ll have “gypsy” brewers making beer at a Miller or AB Inbev plant. Riiiight. In the meantime, it appears that folks like Mikkel Borg Bjergsø (Mikkeller) and Brian Strumke (Stillwater) are the real deal, and their beers really show that, like this IPA from Mikkeller:

Mikkeller Green Gold

Mikkeller Green Gold – Surprisingly dark amber color with minimal head. Tons of hops in the nose, full of pine, and some citrus too. Taste is also dominated by pine and citrus hops along with a very prominent, dry bitterness that hits in the middle and lasts through the finish. There is a nice malt backbone though, enough to balance out the bracing hops. Lightly carbonated and medium bodied, it’s not quite refreshing, but it’s still easy to drink… Overall, another winner from Mikkeller. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7% ABV on tap. Drank out of a pint glass on 4/1/12.

This is a relatively straightforward brew (apparently one of Mikkel’s first IPA recipes), but Mikkeller continues to be one of the more interesting brewers out there (Gypsy or not). I’ve got another review of his stuff coming soon, and I’m sure I’ll continue to explore his ridiculously large selection of beers.

April Beer Club

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Tonight was beer club, a meeting of beer minded individuals from my work who get together for a meal and lots-o-beer once a month. We had a good turnout this month, with quite a few interesting beers to try. As usual, we hit up a local BYOB, this time a sushi place that seems to be a regular beer club venue. Good food (and the waitress put these amazingly intricate designs on our plates – see photo below) and good times were had by all.

April Beer Club

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For the sake of posterity, some thoughts on each beer are below. As usual, these were not ideal conditions, so take it all with a grain of salt or whatever superstition floats your boat. In order of drinking (not in order of the picture above):

  • My Homebrewed Earl Grey Bitter – The first thing we opened was my most recent homebrew, an English bitter style beer brewed with Earl Grey tea. I’ve actually been sampling this on a weekly basis since bottling, and it keeps getting better. At week 1, it was still very thin, but by week 3, it had really matured into a really nice beer. It is a low gravity beer, so it’s not a powerful beer, but it’s actually got a lot of flavor packed in for an approximately 4% ABV beer. I don’t know that you get a really big Earl Grey component, but there is more citrus here than in your typical bitter, which is exactly what I was going for. It’s got a really nice nose, with a light earthy hoppiness and plenty of citrus (from the hops, but probably more from the bergamot and orange peel). The taste matches, and while it is a light and quaffable beer, it’s not thin or watery. It’s got a certain delicacy to it that wouldn’t stand up to stronger flavors, but it’s still exactly what I was going for. I’ll probably do a separate post on this at some point as well… For now, I’ll give it a B+
  • War Horse Peace Bomber German Lager – I’m pretty sure this is a tiny brewery, but one of our beer cub peeps visited New York recently and picked up a bottle for us to enjoy. It turns out to be a pretty straightforward lager, sweet but muted malt character, not a lot of hop character but enough to match the flavors. A solid beer. I’m not too familiar with the Vienna Lager style, but this seems like a worthy example, even if it’s not really my thing. B-
  • Philadelphia Brewing Fleur De Lehigh – For those of you not in the know, Lehigh is an Eastern PA town with the third largest city in PA (Allentown). Also notable for Lehigh University, who I seem to recall had some recent sports success, but I don’t really know or care about the details (probably because it had something to do with the contemptible sport of basketball)… The beer looked like a wheat beer and the nose is very much in line with a Belgian wit beer, light with very interesting and heavy spicing. But I didn’t get much in the way of wheat out of the taste (Update: probably because there was no wheat in the beer! It’s actually classified as a standard Belgian pale ale.) Still, it’s got a similar sort of light-bodied summer-drinking character. It’s not something that knocked my socks off or anything, but it would make a nice warm-weather quencher. My friend Mike gave this a nice writeup in Epikur magazine (though he only gave it 2 out of 5 stars) I’ll say: B-
  • 5even Dillon Imperial Pilsner – This was the other beer club homebrewer’s beer, and it turned out great. Sweet, assertively hopped but not overpoweringly so, and a nice, quaffable mouthfeel. B+
  • Lester’s Fixins Bacon Soda – Bonus non-alcoholic review! Bacon flavored soda? Sounds disgusting? Well guess what? It is disgusting! Ok, so maybe it’s not that bad, but I didn’t really care for it. Overly sweet and not really much in the way of bacon flavor. (unratable!)

    Bacon Soda

  • Lagunitas Hop Stoopid – I’ve had this before (I even reviewed it), and it’s just as good as last time, though I will say that it wasn’t quite as bitter as I remembered (not that it was a bitter bomb last time, but still). Great citrus and pine character, highly drinkable beer. It shall remain at the most excellent A- level I rated it before!
  • The Bruery and Cigar City Collaboration: Marrón Acidifié – This was my other contribution for the night, and it’s another beer I’ve already reviewed in detail. I’m really hoping that we’ll get to see more of this stuff, but I have a feeling this will be the last I ever see of this collaboration. As sours go, I think it may be my favorite, and as I’ve noticed before, it goes exceptionally well (luckily, a fellow beer club member had stopped at famous West Chester chocolatier Eclat recently and had a nice dark chocolate bar available, which really goes well with the Flanders Oud Bruin style). Excellent stuff. A

And we called it a night after that. I had also brought a Founders Porter (reviewed recently) and a Centennial IPA (review forthcoming!), but we never cracked them open. We also didn’t get to the DuClaw Soul Jacker (a blend of Blackjack Stout and Devil’s Milk barleywine), but maybe I can pick a bottle of that stuff up for later! I will leave you with a picture of a plate of sushi:

Sushi plate and design

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Beautiful stuff, and each of our plates had custom, hand-drawn artwork that was just as intricate and pretty.

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

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Back in the day, when I was still trying to wrap my head around the daunting complexity of the beer world, I put together a dorky list of beers I should try. It was based on recommendations from friends and things I read on teh internets (because that’s a trustworthy and reliable source, right?) Anyways, this was one of the beers suggested to me (by frequently mentioned beverage compatriot Padraic), and in true Kaedrin fashion, I picked up a bottle about two years later, and here we are:

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja – Pours a dark amber color with a a bit less than a finger of whitish head. Smells funky, with some Brettanomyces character and that twang that makes me expect sour flavors, but there’s also some malt sweetness peeking through. The taste is very sweet with a tartness emerging in the finish. It’s not super sour, but that twang is there, along with some of that barnyard Brett character. Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied. The sourness makes it more of a sipper, but it’s not heavy. Overall, quite solid, a nice example of the style. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7.2% ABV bottled (750 ml capped). Drank out of a tulip glass on 4/21/12.

Yeah, so I’m, uh, still working through that list of beers I made in 2010. For the most part, I’m not actively pursuing the list (rather, the list of stuff I want to try that resides in my head has grown exponentially – I should really post a most wanted list or something), but I’ve actually made a great deal of headway. One of these days I’ll pick up a bottle of Rodenbach, as was also suggested to me way back when. I do not forget these things… it just sometimes takes a few years for me to get to them.