C

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

Port Barrel Aged Scotch De Silly

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Oh boy, I’ve been down this road before. I can’t stand even the slightest hint of diacetyl in my beer. That buttery/butterscotch flavor that seems to be a common component in a lot of English pale ales just kills a beer for me. I’ve been over this before, so I won’t belabor the point, but this was a Scotch Ale made in Belgium, then aged in Port barrels, what could go wrong? Diacetyl, apparently.

Port Barrel Aged Scotch De Silly

Brasserie de Silly Port Barrel Aged Scotch De Silly – Pours a deep, dark amber brown color with a finger of whitish head. Smells sweet, lots of vinous fruit (presumably from the port), but uh oh, is that diacetyl I’m picking up here? Taste starts off well enough, nice rich malt backbone, some fruit, a vinous note from the port, maybe a hint of oak, but also that slight diacetyl note that I just can never stand in beer. And it lasts through the finish, too. It’s not super prominent, but it’s really dragging this beer down for me. Mouthfeel starts out great, full bodied and rich, but it thins out a bit towards the finish. Overall, dammit, this is an otherwise excellent beer, but I will brook no diacetyl. Would still prefer this to most crappy macro beers, but it’s a big disappointment. C+

Beer Nerd Details: 9% ABV bottled (750 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a tulip glass on 11/22/13. Vintage: 2013.

I really enjoy a glass of Porto from time to time, so it’s depressing that every time I try a Port barrel aged beer, it turns out like this. One day, I’ll get one that works. One day.

November Beer Club

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Tonight was Beer Club, a gathering of beer minded friends from work who get together every month at a local BYOB for libations and fun. This month, we hit up a local BBQ joint, which is always nice. Got me some smoked Chorizo, Brisket, and some fixins which made for a great accompaniment to all the beer. And there was a lot of it this time around. The picture is actually missing a bunch of bottles because we did not account for people showing up later with their own stuff.

beerclub-november13.jpg

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So yeah, lots of stuff this month, so these notes are almost certainly useless, but for the sake of posterity, I’m including them anyway. Because I’m a good person, that’s why. Yeah, let’s get to it: in approximate order of drinking (not necessarily pictured):

  • Southern Tier Krampus – An “Imperial Helles” is sorta like a contradiction in terms, but hey, it’s an amped up Helles, and it works well enough. Nice uncommon hop character gives an otherwise clean beer the punch it needs. Really quite nice. B+
  • Ithaca Excelsior! White Gold – Bottle wasn’t quite a gusher, and we managed to not lose any, but it was hugely carbonated and most of us poured a cup of foam that resolved into more normal beerlike appearance in a minute or two. Once we got to it, it was pretty damn good. Nice Belgian yeast character, wheat is there but not as dominant as you might think (slightly reminiscent of something like St. Bernardus Tokyo). This was one of the first beers we tasted, and I liked it a lot, but we revisited it towards the end of the night and damn, it got almost (not quite) sour. Big fruity esters started showing up when it was warm. Again, not quite sour, but it was going in that direction. All in all, I enjoyed this more than the Ithaca Excelsior Rye beer I had recently… B+
  • Victory Root Beer – Yep, it’s a root beer! I’m no expert (hay, there’s no alcohol in this!?), but it’s really good as root beers go.
  • Sprecher Bootlegger’s Bourbon Barrel Hard Root Beer – Not sure I would have pegged this as having anything to do with a bourbon barrel, let alone an alcoholic beverage at all, but perhaps the power of suggestion lead me to believe that there was some bourbon present in the taste. Or something. Ultimately, it drinks like a good root beer, which is nice…
  • Avery White Rascal – A beer I’ve had before and greatly enjoyed, it doesn’t quite fit in with a tasting like this – it is easily overwhelmed by the other brews of the night. Still, I like this as a lawnmower beer on a hot day (alas, it’s pretty cold here these days). B
  • River Horse Double Wit – I don’t know if it’s the 7% ABV or the way this was spiced, but it didn’t really connect with me. It’s not bad at all, and other folks appreciated the different take on spice and booze level, but it never quite hit me where I wanted it to. B-
  • Ken’s Homebrewed Schwarzbier – We need to get on Ken to start entering his beers into untappd or something, because these are getting good. Not my favorite style, but it’s a nice dark lager style beer, clean and crisp, lighter than it looks, and quite flavorful. Toasty but not quite full on roast. Me likey. B+
  • Kaedrin Xmas Dubbel – My homebrewed dubbel, with a slight dose of cinnamon when I was bottling, is actually drinking really well right now. The regular dubbel has really matured and changed a lot over time, getting more and more raisiny, but this one was more subdued (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I’ll leave it at B+
  • Lost Abbey Deliverance – One of my other contributions, and a beer I’ve reviewed before! It’s still great. A-
  • Atwater Vanilla Java Porter – While opening this directly after Deliverance was a supremely bad idea, I still get the impression that this would underwhelm. It does have a nice vanilla character, but it’s a little thinner than I generally want out of a stout and while I’m not a big fan of coffee, it’s nonexistent here. Certainly a drinkable beer and would be welcome change of pace at a macro bar, but it’s not something to really seek out. C+
  • Spring House Big Gruesome Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout – Can I just point you to a review from a couple weeks ago? No? Well too bad, cause that’s what I’m doing. Still a B+ in my book.
  • Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale – The younger, weaker, smaller sibling to Really Old Brown Dog is a rather straightforward brown ale, which naturally has its merits (nice toasted malt and some heft to it) but again, should’ve probably opened this earlier in the night. Still glad I tried this, just to give context to Really old Brown Dog if not for its regular solid nature. B
  • Saucony Creek Chocolate Cherry Schnickelfritz – An object lesson in things sounding better than they taste, this seems to be a relatively well made imperial milk stout, but it’s got this artificial feeling cherry aspect that sorta ruined the beer for me. Not an abomination, but not particularly good either. I guess all the beers I bring can’t be winners! C
  • Ommegang Game Of Thrones #2 – Take the Black Stout – These Game of Thrones beers are actually pretty solid introductions to the whole Belgian beer world, and they work well enough for beer dorks too (a neat trick, appealing to the jaded hardcore and mainstream alike). I actually would call this more of a roasty Belgian Strong Dark rather than a full on stout, but to each their own. It’s got a nice Belgian yeast character, spice and light fruit, with a hint of that roasted malt too, but the carbonation (and presumably attenuation) cuts through more than your typical stout. Still, it’s very good, if not my favorite Ommegang beer. B+
  • River Horse Special Ale – No idea why this was opened so late in the night, but it’s such a profoundly average beer that I doubt it would have made that much of an impression earlier in the night. There’s absolutely nothing wrong wit it, and it’s certainly a step up from fizzy yellow stuff light lagers, but its not really something to get excited about. C+
  • Victory Harvest Ale – I totally fell in love with Victory’s Harvest Ale last year (and while I’m not a big Pils guy, the Harvest Pils was pretty good too), but this year’s take fell completely flat to me. Not bad, per say, but something about this is rubbing me the wrong way. Perhaps it was a different hop variety, perhaps they used their Kolsch yeast instead of their normally clean IPA yeast, but whatever the case, it didn’t inspire like last years. Again, it’s pretty good, but it’s disappointing. And I had this a couple weeks ago straight from the source too, so it’s not just palate fatigue talking here! B

Yikes, that was a lot of beers. Luckily there were a lot of people in attendance, so my tastes were limited on most of these (yet another reason to take my notes with a grain of salt), but this was a really fun installment. Here’s to hoping the December one will be just as great!

September Beer Club

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Tonight was Beer Club, a gathering of beer minded folk from my work who get together every month at a local BYOB for libations and fun. I should note that what I call beer club is offically called “social club”, and there are frequently attendees who want nothing to do with beer. We’ve often had folks who bring wine or even stuff like sake or just plan, non-alcoholic root beer. In short, usually, only a portion of attendees are drinking the beer. Well, we had a great turnout tonight, and most everyone drank most every beer. I think only one beer was left unopened (a Brooklyn Oktoberfest), and most everything else was kicked almost as soon as it was opened. So it was an impressive showing tonight! Check it:

September Beer Club

For the sake of posterity, some half-remembered thoughts on each beer are listed below. Standard disclaimers apply, these are not ideal tasting conditions and I was only half paying attention and you’d be a fool to trust most of these ratings. Except for the ones I’ve had before. Those are mostly awesome. Here goes:

  • Ken’s Homebrewed Pumpkin Ale – Really nice pumpkin ale homebrew from my friend Ken. He had kegged it and transferred to a growler this morning, so the carbonation was a bit on the low side, but it was otherwise a pretty damn good take on the style. I was going to say that it’s the best homebrewed pumpkin ale I’ve ever had, but it’s also the only homebrewed pumpkin ale I’ve ever had, so that doesn’t really tell you much. But it was good, and I liked it. B+
  • Stone Enjoy By 09.13.13 IPA – I know, heresy! We drank this almost a week after we were supposed to “enjoy by”, and yet, I can’t help but thinking that I enjoyed this more than the fresh bottle I had. I didn’t get that weird plasticky character that I had from the fresh version, though I could kinda see where it came from. The slightly faded hops actually improved this for me! I know, heresy, right? I still feel like I’m pretty sensitive to faded hops these days, but this one tasted fine. Perhaps it was stored better than my last bottle? I’ll still leave it at a B, but better than the last bottle I had (which was also a B)
  • Neshaminy Creek County Line IPA – I’ve not reviewed this, but I’ve mentioned it before on the blog, and I enjoy it. A local brew, this is your typical East Coast IPA, well balanced, more malt character than your West Coast IPAs, but a nice light hop character too. B or B+
  • Kaedôme Saison (regular version) – My regular ol’ homebrewed saison is still drinking pretty well. The hop character has mellowed a bit and never quite achieved the Nelson Sauvin awesomeness I was hoping for, but it’s still a pretty kickass saison and seemed to be very well received by the beer club crew. The Brett version of this is still in secondary, and probably has a solid month or two left it in before I bottle. I’ll leave this at a B+
  • Lexington Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale – Proof that “Bourbon Barrel Aged” does not always translate to “good”… this wasn’t especially bad or anything, it was just sorta bland. It was pale in color, and I didn’t get much bourbon or oak out of this at all… nor did I get much else. Which is to say, it’s better than most macros, but nothing to write home about. Perhaps it would fare better in a non-sampling context, but for tonight it was a lowly C+
  • Erie Brewing Mad Anthony’s APA – Oh wow, this is just awful. It’s got a certain blandness to it, but also a diacetyl note that I always hate. Some might be willing to put up with that, but not I. F
  • The Alchemist Heady Topper – I don’t need to say much beyond my review, but yeah, it went over pretty well with the beer club peeps. Still a solid A in my book.
  • Saucony Creek Captain Pumpkin’s Maple Mistress – Extremely sweet and a little boozy, this is an interesting take on the pumpkin ale. It’s got some spice, but not quite your typical pumpkin spice, and I can sorta detect that maple syrup character as well. It’s unbalanced, but in a sorta endearing way. One of those beers that’s excellent in this sort of sampling context, but which would probably become cloying if you tried drinking a whole bottle. I enjoyed it well enough and will give it a B
  • Finch’s Fascist Pig Ale – I didn’t really get much of this, just the dregs of the can, but it seemed like a nice enough amber ale. I’ll give it a provisional B, but even considering the context of beer club, I need more of this to really give it a fair shake.
  • Samuel Adams Fat Jack Double Pumpkin – You know what, I really enjoyed this beer. It’s a more-or-less traditional take on a pumpkin beer, pumpkin pie flavors all the way, but perhaps the lopsided affair of Captain Pumpkin’s Maple Mistress made this one appear better by comparison. It’s not as interesting, but it’s maybe a better crafted beer. B or B+
  • Cascade Kriek Ale – One of my contributions for the night, this sucker is just as good as I remember it, maybe even better. It was a big hit with beer club peeps as well, and definitely the most unique beer of the night. I love this stuff and might be tempted to upgrade it to A status, but I’ll leave it at A- for now, trusting my previous judgement.
  • FiftyFifty Imperial Eclipse Stout – Heaven Hill Rittenhouse Rye – My other contribution, and another eye opener for the beer club crew. I’ve had this before and absolutely loved it, which is one of the reasons I wanted to bring it to beer club. Happily, it went over very well. A

And that just about covers it, another successful night, and I am already anticipating the next meeting!

August Beer Clubbery

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Tonight was Beer Club, a gathering of beer minded folk from my work who get together every month at a local BYOB for drinkery and fun. A light turnout this week, so we didn’t actually get through every beer pictured below, but we made a valiant effort and actually drank a few that aren’t pictured. I know, I’m disappointed by my neglect to capture those additional beers in photographic form too, but we’ll just have to live with this:

August Beers

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Standard tasting note disclaimers apply: these notes are not trustworthy in any way, shape, or form, because whatever, I had fun tonight. In approximate order of consumption, not necessarily how pictured.

  • Fantôme Saison – One of my contributions, it seems that Fantôme hasn’t quite emerged from their smoky, rubbery funk phase just yet, though this one wasn’t quite as janky as the one I reviewed recently. It actually had more of a Saison Dupont feel, with just a bit of smoky, barnyard funk to make things interesting. I’ll keep it at a B+ and pine for the lemony, sour Fantômes of yore.
  • Dale’s Pale Ale – Pretty standard fare, but excellent as such beers go. Always a good choice, and I’ll hit it with a B+, just like before.
  • Kaedôme Saison (regular version) – So my regular homebrewed saison is actually drinking quite well at this point, big spicy yeast notes, plenty of Saaz hops, not as much Nelson Sauvin hops as I was going for, but quite a pleasant brew nonetheless. About half the batch is still in secondary, dosed with Brettanomyces (like Fantôme, hence the name of this beer). Probably still a few months away from that sucker, but even this non-funky version is doing pretty well. Another B+
  • Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale – Rock solid hoppy amber ale, not quite as mindblowing as some of those hoppy imperial reds, but a worthy, highly drinkable beer. Yet another B+. I swears, not everything in this post will be rated the same.
  • Ken’s English White Beer – My buddy’s homebrew, this one was made with wheat, rose hips, and an English ale yeast. A rather odd combination, but it works out reasonably well in the end. Nice wheat character, not much in the way of rose hips, but some English yeast character (thankfully without the diacetyl note that I often get from such yeasts)> Not a mind-blower, but a nice summer beer. B-
  • Ken’s Roggenbier – Another of Ken’s homebrews, and possibly my favorite of the homebrews tonight. Nice spicy rye character mixed with hefeweizen notes from the yeast. Really nice combination that works very well. B+
  • Port City Essential Pale Ale – Terrible. Ok, not quite that bad, but not particularly good either. A sorta muddy mess of hops and malt, never quite coalescing into good.C+
  • Dominion Oak Barrel Stout – Now this one is legitimately terrible. Ok, so some people like that British diacetyl note sometimes, but I cannot stand it, and it just overshadowed everything else about this beer for me. Not undrinkable, but definitely not good. D
  • Stone / Farking / Wheaton W00tstout – Ah, now we come to my favorite beer of the night, the Wil Wheaton collaboration with Stone and Fark.com, a huge imperial stout made with pecans, wheat, and rye, partially aged in bourbon barrels. Great rich sweetness, a hint of that bourbon and oak, with a nice overall malt character. A bit heavy, but quite a nice beer, really glad I got to try some. A-
  • Ken’s Irish red Ale – Another homebrew, this time a pretty straightforward Irish Red that was made with potatoes, a pretty nice combo. Sweeter than your typical Irish Red, though it keeps that same flavor profile and works well enough. I’ll go with a standard B for this one.

And that just about covers it. For those who saw the Eclipse beer in the picture and are upset that we didn’t get to it, do not fear, I reviewed it a while back. You’re welcome. See you next month…

June Beer Club

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You know the drill: a bunch of beer-minded colleagues and I get together at a local BYOB and drink our faces off. A low turnout this month due to scheduling, but still good times. I was negligent and forgot to take a picture of the beers on offer, so I made this fancy artist’s rendering in MS Paint:

The middle one is a lambic, which is why its in a green bottle.

I think I may have missed my calling. For the sake of posterity, some half-remembered notes are recorded below. You’re welcome.

  • The Captain’s Invisible Moon – Which, if named after the style, would be “The Captain’s Cream Ale”, which just sounds gross. Unless you’re a big Chris Evans fan. Like, a really big fan. Oh yeah, the beer. A homebrewed cream ale, it came out pretty well, kinda like a wheat beer, but with that smooth texture of a cream ale. Really easy drinking and a good way to start the night.
  • Brewer’s Art Ozzy Ale – Nice Belgian yeast character, lots of spice (clove) and again, pretty easy drinking. It’s a perfectly cromulent beer, but nothing to go nuts over. B
  • Boulevard Coffee Ale – This was one of those beers I got from the BIF trade, but since I wasn’t a big coffee guy, I figured I’d share it with some people who might appreciate it a bit more. The coffee wasn’t overwhelming at all, which is nice, especially since this isn’t a stout either. Lots of malt character with that coffee taking a prominent place. It’s not really my thing at all, but I was glad I got to share it (even though, uh, it seemed that a most beer club peeps were also not coffee people either). C+
  • Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale – I have actually had this before (and incorporated it into my Choose Your Own Adventure Beer Review epic), and in this setting, it stood out pretty darn well. I could probably be tempted to upgrade the rating, but I’ll leave it at a B for now.
  • Oude Gueuze Tilquin à l’Ancienne – This is the green bottle in the artist’s rendering above! One of my other contributions of the night, this one is every bit as good as I remember, and compares favorable with the big boys at Cantillon and 3F (at least, when it comes to their regular lineup). Still an A- in my book.
  • Dark Horse Tres Blueberry Stout – Another of my contributions, I actually bought a Dark Horse variety pack a while back, and since Dark Horse apparently loves to make stouts, they have a sorta numbered series of beers, this being the third. It’s got a big blueberry aroma and even a little taste, but it doesn’t feel artificial either, which actually kinda works. B
  • Boulevard Love Child No. 3 – Label sez it’s aged in bourbon barrels, but I should have inspected more closely, because this sucker is actually a wild ale. A malt-forward base with some very tart, sour notes that hit quickly, but fade towards the finish, making this a pretty darn good drink. Decent funk, actually one of my favorites of the night. A-
  • John Henry West Indies Pale Ale – A pale ale aged on rum oak spirals… I would have expected that boozy rum to dominate, but it doesn’t. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really add much either. I feel like the rum and oak sorta fought the hops, sorta canceling each other out. What we’re left with is fine, I guess, but not as flavorful as you might think. B-
  • Dark Horse Too Cream Stout – Another of Dark Horse’s stout lineup, this one is a milk stout. Smooth, but big and burly, it’s a bit of a bear, but it actually acquitted itself really well considering it was the last beer we opened. B

Well, there you have it. We’ll return to normal review blogging for the next few days. It is actually Philly Beer Week, so I should probably hit up some other places this weekend and write about a few things I’ve already seen. Or something.

J.W. Lees Port Cask Harvest Ale

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I’ll be the first to admit that my palate isn’t the most refined of them all, but one of the things I appear to have absolutely no tolerance for is Diacetyl. It’s a byproduct of fermentation that can yield powerful flavors of butter or butterscotch to a finished beer. I know what you’re thinking: Butter and Butterscotch are awesome! And yes, it is, but you wouldn’t put a pat of butter in your beer, would you? That’s kinda gross, is it not? Well, to me it is, but to some, low levels of diacetyl are actually desirable (high levels, not so much). Notably, a lot of English pale ales tend to lean in that direction. Not all of them are like that, of course, but that just makes sampling British beers a bit of a crapshoot for me. In this case, an expensive crapshoot, as I (wrongly) assumed that a port cask aged barleywine would have minimal diacetyl.

J.W. Lees Port Cask Harvest Ale

J.W. Lees Port Cask Harvest Ale – Pours a cloudy orange brown color with half a finger of off white head. Smells of toffee and some fruitiness, presumably from that port cask. The toffee has that buttery diacetyl note that I generally hate in British beers. And yep it’s prominent in the taste too. I’ve had worse examples of this, but I just can’t get on board with that particular character. Otherwise, it’s got some nice port notes, and some caramel and toffee that are nice. Mouthfeel is rich and smooth, full bodied. Overall, it’s clearly well made, I just can’t get past that diacetyl. C+

Beer Nerd Details: 11.5% ABV bottled (adorable little 9.3 oz bottle). Drank out of a snifter on 6/1/13. Brewed in 2011.

A pity, as I like a good Porto every now and again and you rarely see US beers aged in Port barrels. Yeah, so anyway, I’m probably not going to check out the various other barrel aged treatments of this stuff, especially given the expense (for a tiny bottle, no less). Fortunately, I had some other great beer this weekend that would make up for this one, so stay tuned.

Smarch Beer Club

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Due to a calendar misprint, the Smarch edition of beer club came later than normals, but we had it all the same. For the uninitiated, beer club is where a bunch of booze-minded folks from my work get together and sample beers and usually other beverages of choice. We always hit up a local BYOB and tonight, we didn’t even get banned! Good times had by all, and we got to drink some pretty good beer too:

Smarch Beer Club

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In accordance with tradition, I will henceforth record some disgruntled, freakish opinions on each beer below. You know, for posterity. Of course none of these notes are reliable because I wasn’t in a sensory deprivation chamber and didn’t chemically cleanse my palate after every sip, so read them at your own risk. In order of drinking (not in order of picture, and due to some tardy attendees, some are not even pictured):

  • Kaedrin Fat Weekend IPA – My homebrewed IPA, one of the last bottles at this point, seemed to go over pretty well. Again, I hope to do a more detailed review at some point, but in short, it came out super dank, very piney and resinous hop character dominates the flavor. A little overcarbonated, but I should be able to correct that in future batches. I’ll refrain from rating right now, but aside from the carbonation issues, I really like this.
  • Wagner Valley IPA – I’ve used this description before, but it’s perfect for a beer like this: It reminds me of the sort of thing you’d get in a John Harvard’s brewpub, circa 1998. Totally an improvement over most macro lagers, but not particularly accomplished either. C+
  • DuClaw Naked Fish – A beer we’ve had before (at beer club, even), and my thoughts haven’t changed much at all. It’s got a really nice raspberry and chocolate character mixed with a really low-octane stout base. Easy enough to drink, but it’s not going to blow you away. B
  • Ken’s Homebrewed Oktoberfest – New homebrewer Ken brought one of his first batches, an Octoberfest beer that probably still needs some conditioning time, but was drinkable as it was. It had some apple-like off flavors, but it was actually sorta pleasant anyway…
  • Magic Hat Pistil – Super light, flowery, herbal, crisp and refreshing, would make a great summer beer. Not something that will blow away jaded beer nerds or anything, but it was actually a nice palate cleanser and certainly a lot more pleasant than macro stuff. B
  • Flying Dog Lucky S.O.B. – A pretty straightforward Irish Red Ale. Not bad or anything, but not particularly distinguished either. Nice malt backbone, easy drinking stuff. B-
  • Kaedrin Stout – Another of my homebrews, this thing is about a year and a half old, and it’s actually drinking really well! Complex malt character, caramel, roast, dark chocolate, still packs a whallop of flavor and hasn’t really lost anything over the year and a half in my cellar. On the other hand, this has always been a beer that’s worked well in small pours. Still, I think I may revisit the recipe next year, perhaps amp it up a bit more, give it some more hops, get a higher attenuating yeast. It’s pretty good right now, but it could be great.
  • Boulevard Harvest Dance Wheatwine – It’s like a hefeweizen, only moreso. In my limited experience with big wheat beers, I’ve always gotten cloying, sticky sweet notes that just made it unpalatable. But this drinks like a slightly boozy hefeweizen. Huge banana and clove weizen yeast character in the nose, and you really don’t get that big boozy flavor until the finish, and even then, it doesn’t quite feel like a 9.1% monster. Still not my favorite style, but this was among the best I’ve had. B+
  • DuClaw Bourbon Barrel Aged Devil’s Milk – The regular Devil’s Milk is a wonderful little barleywine, this bourbon-barrel aged version makes a nice complementary offering. It’s a huge, bourbon forward beer, lots of caramel and vanila, much less in the way of hops than the base, but still an eminently drinkable brew. Would like to try again sometime, but I’ll give it an tentative A-
  • Weyerbacher Riserva (2012) – Picked this up at the release at the brewery this past weekend (will have a more detailed post later, stay tuned), even briefly crossed paths with Rich on Beer and fam on my way to pick up some Riserva and the last NATO beer (Zulu, which, again, will be covered in a separate post at some point). Anyways, Riserva is an oak aged beer made with raspberries. It’s going to be distributed, but as American Wild Ales go, it’s pretty solid stuff. It’s not a top tier Russian River killer or anything, but it’s got a place at the table, and I’m continually surprised at how well sour beers go over with the beer club crowd. Even non-beer drinkers gave this a shot and really enjoyed it. For my part, I found it to be a bit hot, but otherwise a pretty solid beer. Funky, intensely sour, but with a nice oak character balancing things out. A little astringent and boozy, but still really enjoyable. Not sure about knocking back an entire 750 ml of this, but I’m sure it will happen someday. B+

And that about covers it. Good times had by all, and already planning next month’s meetup, since this month happened so late.

La Trappe Double Feature

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La Trappe always seems like a lesser Trappist due to the fact that they’re the only one not located in Belgium. On the other hand, they seem to be the only Trappist that does much in the way of creative new beers. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Breweries like Chimay and Westmalle trace their recipes back to the 19th and early 20th century, originating and codifying some of the styles we know and love today, like dubbels and tripels. La Trappe, on the other hand, coined the nebulous style Quadrupel way back… in the 1990s. And they’re still going. Both of today’s beers were first released within the past couple years (though one is simply an old beer that was barrel aged).

Alas, since I have no pre-bankruptcy Hostess snacks to pair these with, I had to settle for my normal pairing of beers with movies. In this case, since we have two very different beers, one relatively light (but not super pale), one relatively big and dark, I went with the cinematic whiplash pairing of ParaNorman and A Separation. I can’t say as though I recommend the pairing, but each movie was pretty good in its own right, especially A Separation, which I found a little languid at the start, but slowly and deceptively turned into a captivating movie. I felt sorta like the frog placed in cold water that was slowly heated to boiling, cooking me alive in the process. Or something. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, beer:

La Trappe Isidor

Koningshoeven La Trappe Isid’or – When I first saw this, I thought it was a Lord of the Rings tie-in (Yeah, yeah, not the same spelling, so sue me in nerd court. I’ll totally go free because of the Irony defense.) But no, this was brewed to celebrate the 125th anniversary of La Trappe, and is named after their first brewer, Brother Isidorus. It pours a hazy light brownish orange amber color with tons of fluffy white head. Smells of fruity, spicy Belgian yeast, one of them bananas and clove affairs. Taste is sweet and spicy, again with the lighter fruits and lots of Belgian yeast spice, more malt character than you typically get out of a Belgian pale, but it’s not a dubbel or anything. It’s actually a hard beer to classify, which isn’t to surprising whenever you’re talking about Belgian beers, but it’s very fruity and doesn’t really fit in with the usual pales, nor is it particularly dark. Somewhere inbetween. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, medium bodied, spicy, relatively dry, all in good proportions. Overall, a very well crafted Belgian ale. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7.5% ABV bottled (11.2 oz) Drank out of a goblet on 12/30/12.

La Trappe Quadrupel oak aged batch 7

Koningshoeven La Trappe Quadrupel Barrique (Oak Aged) – Batch #7 – I previously had batch #3 of the oak aged Quadrupel and really enjoyed it. That one was aged in a mixture of new oak, old Port wine barrels, and previously used quadrupel barrels, and it was all a pretty great match with the beer style. This time around, we’ve got a batch that was aged in old Scotch barrels. The distilleries in question (Bowmore, Tamdhu, Strathspey and Laphroaig) seem to be a mix of Speyside and Islay, which can be troubling. In particular, I’ve found that beers aged in old Islay Scotch barrels are a bit challenging in that the peaty, smoky flavors really tend to overpower the beer. Now don’t get me wrong, I love me some Islay Scotch (Ardbeg 10 is a standard at my house, and their Uigeadail is a recent acquisition that I’m sure will find a place in the rotation), but mixing those strong flavors with a beer that is as highly attenuated as this seems to be a lot trickier than, say, mixing stouts with bourbon. I thought perhaps the Speysides would calm things down a bit, and indeed, this isn’t the worst attempt at an Islay barrel aged beer, but it’s not particularly special either.

Pours a dark brown color with some orangey amber highlights and almost no head, just a ring of bubbly stuff around the edge of the glass. The smell is mostly Scotch, lots of peat, some smoke, and some of that base Quadrupel spiciness and fruitiness, though the Scotch character is clearly the star here. Taste is all Scotch, lots of peat, but that smokey, medicinal character comes out a lot more here and overpowers things. Mouthfeel is much less carbonated than the usual quad, making this feel a little gloopy. Overall, this is a lot less balanced than the regular Quadrupel or even Batch #3, and the flavors just aren’t meshing well. As it warms up, things even out a bit, and like I said, I like me some Islay Scotch, but it’s still not working that well. C+

Beer Nerd Details: 10% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a goblet on 12/30/12.

It looks like Batch #7 is the odd man out, a misfire in a series of otherwise pretty well received oak aged beers. Batch #8 is supposed to also use Scotch barrels, but they blended that with new oak, which I think could really help tone down some of that peaty, smokey flavor (the reviews on RateBeer and Beer Advocate seem to bear that out). Batches 9 through 11 were aged in old Malbec barrels, and batch 12 used old Bourbon and Cognac barrels. So yeah, pretty much every batch of this sounds great, but avoid #7.

Novembeer Club

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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 to share all our brews and wines and whatnot. As per usual, much merriment was had by all, lots of beer and wine and good food. It ended up being a rather small gathering by our normal standards, but still plenty of fantastic beer shared by all.

Novembeer Club

(Click for bigger image)

For the sake of posterity, some thoughts on each beer are below. Standard disclaimers about the fact that I wasn’t in a sensory deprivation chamber whilst tasting these, and in a lot of cases, I was only sampling rather small pours, but whatevers. Take these descriptions with a grain of salt if you’re really concerned, but you really shouldn’t be, because I’m pretty awesome. Or not. Whatever. Here’s what I had (in order of drinking, not necessarily in order of the picture above):

  • Kaedrin Abbey Dubbel – My homebrewed abbey dubbel style beer seems to still be conditioning, though it’s getting better every week. Right now, it’s quite tasty, if a bit boozy, and the carbonation doesn’t seem to have fully taken hold of the brew. This is actually somewhat expected, given that the brew came in much stronger than I had originally intended. I suspect this will be drinking fabulously in a few weeks or so… I wll refrain from rating right now, just cause I want to give it some more time to mature…
  • Turkey Drool Homebrew – A friend of a friend of a friend contributed this homebrew, which actually seemed to fall a little flat, especially when compared with other brews we had tonight. There didn’t seem to be any off flavors, per say, but on the other hand, what was there was very subtle if not non-existent. From the ingredient list, I was expecting much more out of this. Again, not the worst thing evar and certainly drinkable, but also completely forgetable. C+
  • New Belgium Snow Day – A strange, but mostly enjoyable brew. BeerAdvocate classifies it as an American Black Ale, but I would say that it’s more of hoppy red ale than that implies. Maybe some winter warmer base here, but quite a nice hop character to it. Overall, very drinkable stuff, a nice hop presence, but it’s not going to light the world on fire either. B
  • Great Lakes Christmas Ale (2011) – Kaedrin friend Dana procured this last year, and has held on to it since then. Apparently a highly sought after beer, this is a very light colored winter warmer style offering, reminiscent of a deeper English pale ale that doesn’t quite contain any of that diacetyl character I associate with it. Sweet, a very light spiciness, flavorful, but not quite blowing me away either. I can see why this is a prized holiday brew, but it’s not something I go out of my way for… B
  • Westmalle Trappist Tripel – A classic, which I have already reviewed in detail. For the most part, it’s as good as evar. On a personal level, I’ve cooled somewhat on the tripel style, though I still quite enjoy one every once in a while… A
  • Kona Pipeline Porter – Holy coffee, Batman! This is apparently a porter, but it’s heavily influenced by coffel flavors all throughout, sorta light a lighter Founders Breakfast Sout. I’m not really a fan of coffee or porters in general, so it’s pretty amazing that I didn’t tink of this as the worst thing I’ve ever tasted. It’s actually pretty solid and goes down easily. That being said, I don’t think I’d ever really seek to try this again… B-
  • Weyerbacher Winter Ale – Another beer I’ve had and reviewed before. For the most part, my feelings remain unchanged. It’s a fine beer, a pretty standard winter warmer, but I’d like to see more complexity and flavor out of this one. B
  • Monk’s Café Flemish Sour Red Ale – One of my contributions for the night, this is one of those beers often recommended to sour newbies, and it actually did seem to go over really well with the beer club folks, even those who don’t go in for normal beertastic stuff. A nice malt backbone and sweet fruit character followed by a very slight sourness that nevertheless cut through and made this one of the more flavorful brews of the night. Overall, definitely a nice beginners sour beer, something I’ll probably try again at some point as well… B+
  • Nebraska Hop God – Reserve Series Aged In French Oak Chardonnay Barrels – Yet another of my contributions for the night, this one turned out to be interesting, if not quite what I expected from a beer called “Hop God”. Hops certainly play a role in the flavor profile, but it’s mostly defined by that oak Chardonnay character, with some booze peeking through as well. It’s really quite nice, though I wish I had a better palate for white wine. B or B+
  • Victory Storm King Stout – Once again, we get a beer I’ve had before. It’s a beer I’ve come to appreciate more and more over the years, but I still wouldn’t rate it among the highest imperial stouts. Still a solid stout with a big hop presence. B+
  • Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout – My last contribution for the night, this is just as good as it was the last time I had it. Beer club peeps seemed to enjoy, though there were a couple that don’t particularly enjoy those bourbon flavors, and thus didn’t care for this. Me, I’ll leave it at an A.

And there you have it. Another successful outing, as per usual. Alas, we didn’t get to all the beers we brought (I was particularly interested in Lancaster’s Winter Warmer, but I’m sure I’ll catch up with it sometime). Already looking forward to next month and some more holiday brews…

The Oak Bolleville

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Picobrouwerij Alvinne is a relatively new and tiny (apparently several orders of magnitude smaller than a typical micro-brewery, which is pretty small by itself) brewery in Belgium. They make the typical Belgian styles (blonde, bruin, tripel, saison), but they seem to have garnered international attention by hitting up less common Belgian styles, like imperial stouts, and by experimenting with barrel aging and blending.

My initial experience with Alvinne was with The Oak Melchior, and it was a pleasant enough experience that I picked up another bottle from their oak series. Unfortunately, this beer doesn’t quite live up to the promise of that first beer, even when it comes to the abstract stuff. It’s named after an obscure commune in France (rather than after Biblical fan-fiction) and “The Oak Bolleville” just doesn’t roll off the tongue as well as “The Oak Melchior” (no Robert Loggia impressions needed here). Unfortunately, what’s in the bottle hasn’t fared so well either.

On paper, it seems like it would be great. The base beer is a Russian Imperial Stout called Mano Negra which is aged in barrels formerly used to age Cognac for 10 years and Calvados (apple brandy) for 8 years. This is the same treatment that Melchior got, and I enjoyed the results of that one fair enough. The nose had a sour twang to it, but the taste took on some interesting oak character (without any real sourness). This was unusual, but I remember wondering what the same treatment would do to a bigger, darker beer. Alas, things did not quite turn out so well:

Alvinne The Oak Bolleville

Picobrouwerij Alvinne The Oak Bolleville – Pours a very dark brown color with beautiful ruby red highlights and minimal head. Smells a little on the funky side, that prickling sensation I associate with sours comes through clearly, maybe a little oak and booze along for the ride too. Taste is sweet, with the small amount of sourness peeking through. Unfortunately, that sourness cancels out most of the other flavor that I’d expect in a beer like this. It feels like all those constituent flavors are waging a war against one another and what’s left in the end is mellow and a little vinegary. Mouthfeel is distressingly thin, only slightly carbonated, a little acidic, not at all what you want out of an oak aged stout, even a sour one. Overall, it’s not the worst semi-sour barrel aged beer I’ve had, but it’s not particularly accomplished either. C+

Beer Nerd Details: 10% ABV bottled (750 ml capped). Drank out of a snifter on 10/13/12.

Alvinne still seems to be producing some interesting stuff, I’d particularly like to try their Beer Geek Wedding, though who knows if any bottles of that stuff will make it over here. So I’ll give them a mulligan on this one and hope the next fares better.