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Febrewary 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. An interesting turnout this month, as a few stalwarts were absent, but new attendees picked up the slack. This time around, we visited a Mexican BYOB with quite the ostentatious decor:

February Beer Club

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Phew, that place has some brightly colored furniture. But amazing salsa and good food too. For the sake of posterity, some thoughts on each beer we tried are below. As usual, conditions were not ideal, so you can and should be skeptical of my notes. In order of drinking (not in order of the picture above):

  • Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball Ale – Wow, very rich malt flavors here, like a Scotch ale, but with something more. I got a distinct barrel aged character out of it, though this not one of those versions (apparently there are bourbon, port or brandy barrel aged versions, which I’d love to try). Fantastic beer, got the night going in style, though it may have set the bar unreasonably high for the following beers. I’d love to get me some more of this. A candidate for best of the night. A-
  • Appalachian Jolly Scot Scottish Ale – A somewhat local PA beer, this is another malt-forward ale that, unfortunately, didn’t stand up too well to the Hairy Eyeball. It was fine, to be sure, and I’d probably really enjoy one of these by itself, but it came off as being a biton the thin side after the rich flavors of the Hairy Eyeball. B
  • Blue Moon Belgian White – I know, it’s brewed by Coors, but hey, it actually worked really well at this point in the night. After two malt forward beers, it was a really refreshing change of pace, and I honestly have no problem with this beer anyway. Obviously not something I would ever go out of my way for, but a lot of places that only stock macros will have this on tap, and it’s actually a nice beer. No, it won’t melt your face, but it’s a good gateway beer. Lots of wheat and citrus, it’s refreshing and made for a nice palate cleanser tonight. B
  • Tommyknocker Imperial Nut Brown Ale – Big brown ale brewed with Maple Syrup, you do get that character coming through pretty strongly here. A big, rich ale, no real hop presence, but lots of malts and that maple syrup adds a nice richness to the proceedings. Very well done, and another candidate for best of the night. A-
  • Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye IPA – Well hopped (citrus and a little pine), plenty of balancing malts, and some of that distinctive rye character (though I never got the full-on rye bread character people seem to talk about). It didn’t blow my mind, but a very solid beer that I could probably drink often. B+
  • St. Bernardus Prior 8 – Not pictured (late arrival), but it’s a classic. Already reviewed here.
  • Southern Tier Creme Brulee (Imperial Milk Stout) – Another beer I reviewed a while back, this is one of the more interesting beers of the night. Massive aroma, intense flavors of chocolate, caramel, vanilla, maybe even some coffee. I could just sniff this stuff all night. Great stuff, maybe even a little better than I remember (though I think my chief complaint last time was that it’s a bit too sweet to drink a whole bottle). A strange beer because I wouldn’t call it one of my favorites, but it’s so distinctive and interesting that I’d highly recommend it to just about anyone. A great dessert beer.
  • Dominion Ale – Any beer that follows the intense flavors and aroma of Creme Brulee was probably doomed to failure, and this turned out to be a rather standard English Pale Ale, a style I’m coming to dislike quite a bit these days. I always feel like there are buttery off flavors in these beers, and this one is no exception. I even threw in a small slice of orange, which helped mellow it out a bit, but blegh. Not a fan of this beer. D
  • Kaedrin Christmas Ale – My homebrewed winter warmer style beer (a kinda spiced red ale), this thing has to be my best beer yet. Very nice spicy aroma, picking up lots of that cinnamon and clove, tastes quite nice, almost creamy mouthfeel. I really hope this wasn’t some sort of fluke. I should really do a recap of all my homebrews at some point on the blog, so no rating for now, but I would seriously put this up against any of the winter warmer style beers I’ve had over the past couple years.
  • Boxcar Brewing A Long Winter’s Night – This is probably as local as I can get. The (tiny) brewery was literally a few blocks away from where we were tonight (and this limited edition brew doesn’t even warrant a page on BA, apparently). This winter ale was very interesting. I didn’t get a lot of spice or anything out of it, but it was a very nice cloudy brown color with… it’s hard to describe. Roasted chocolate? But not at all like a stout. More like a brown ale, but with no coffee and some chocolatey overtones (to be honest, it’s very much like their regular brown ale, but perhaps less nutty). Very solid beer. B

All in all, a pretty great night! We didn’t manage to get to all the beers in the picture, though I ended up taking a can of pale ale home with me, so perhaps a review of that in the coming weeks… That’s all for now.

The Whip

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Back in March, we had a beer club outing at The Whip Tavern, an English style pub. At the time, it was a bit cold and pouring rain, so we resolved to come back later in the year and sit outside. Well, a few weeks ago, we did just that. England doesn’t really have a reputation for great cuisine, but both meals I’ve had here have been really great. The first was Bangers and Mash, and it was perfect. This time around I had some delicious duck contraption. For whatever reason, it seemed like the taplist was a bit more limited this time around, but I still managed to get my hands on a few seasonals and interesting beers nonetheless. I’m going from my sparse Untappd notes and memory here, so take the following with a grain of salt (also no pictures – sorry):

  • Dock Street The Great Pumpkin – Another pumpkin ale, this one somewhat more subdued in the alcohol and spice departments, which isn’t really a bad thing, but which also doesn’t really set this apart from any other pumpkin ale. Pretty standard stuff, though certainly something I could drink a few of… B- (Beer Nerd Details: 5.5% ABV on tap. Drank out of a half-pint glass.)
  • Weyerbacher Harvest Ale – It’s the time of year when hops are harvested and breweries grab a portion of fresh “wet hops” (normally hops are dried in order to preserve them) to make various hoppy styles (a practice that deserves a closer look on the blog at some point). This beer gave off a really fantastic hoppy aroma. It’s a little on the earthy/grassy side, with just a little citrus peeking through. The taste was nice and bitter, with an almost spicy hop character to it. Perhaps this is just me buying into the hype, but it tasted fresh. It’s not a face melter or a revelation or anything, but a well executed IPA. B (Beer Nerd Details: 6.2% ABV on tap. Drank out of a half-pint glass.)
  • Leavenworth Boulder Bend Dunkelweizen – Not terribly familiar with the style, but it was kinda like a stout mixed with delicate wheat flavors. I have to say, I didn’t really care for it. No off flavors or anything, it just wasn’t working for me. Perhaps the roasty flavors were the cause of my issue, but whatever. I didn’t have a problem drinking or finishing it, and it was certainly more interesting than a macro, but still not particularly inspiring. C (Beer Nerd Details: 4.7% ABV on tap. Drank out of a half-pint glass.)
  • Theakston Old Peculier – I’ve always heard good things about this beer, but I must have gotten a bad bottle because I didn’t care much for it and the flavors I got out of it don’t seem to match up with much of the BA nerds’ thoughts… I got a distinct apple aroma out of this, which is typically a sign of problems. I also got some raisins in both the aroma and taste. It wasn’t undrinkable, but it wasn’t particularly good either. D (though I may revisit it at some point). (Beer Nerd Details: 5.7% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank out of a pint glass.)
  • Innis And Gunn Oak Aged Beer – I had this the last time I went to the Whip as well, perhaps because it goes really well with one of the desserts. This time around, I got a better feel for the oak and caramel/toffee flavors in the beer and was quite pleased that I got another. So I will up this to a B+ (Beer Nerd Details: 6.6% ABV bottled (11.9 oz). Drank out of a half-pint glass.)
  • Spaten Oktoberfestbier – I was going for a German Octoberfest beer; what I got was a skunked bottle of dishwater. Yes, it was in a green bottle, and it was bad. I couldn’t get much out of this beer at all, and didn’t finish it. This does kinda bring up the question of how to rate beers that are clearly defective, but in this case, it’s all due to the green bottle choice, so I have no problem giving it an F. (Beer Nerd Details: 5.9% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank out of a pint glass.)

Well, there you have it. Even considering that the drafts were mostly half-pints, I probably drank too much, but it was still a fun night out (we even stayed long enough to play a couple rounds of quizzo). I’m sure I’ll be returning to this place at some point soon.

Fiddler’s Elbow

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I’m so used to Americanized versions of English styles that I thought it might be interesting to wade into some actual British versions. In this case, we have a simple, hoppy pale ale, though oddly, it’s a beer that brewer Wychwood doesn’t even list on their website. In searching around, there are apparently a few different versions of this beer, some of which even incorporate wheat in the recipe. My “imported ale” version doesn’t say anything about wheat on it and seems to have a higher ABV than the British version, though who really knows. Information about this specific beer is a bit sparse, though I love the evocative name of the beer (my nerdy assumption being that it was the old-timey equivalent of medical condition now known as Wii-elbow – ok, it’s also apparently the name of a nearby town in England, but that’s just boring). I should note that I also love the artwork on all of Wychwood’s beers (and even the unique bottle itself features the witch logo ingrained in the glass). They’re actually quite appropriate for this time of year:

Wychwood Fiddlers Elbow

Wychwood Fiddler’s Elbow – Pours a hazy golden orange color with less than a finger of big-bubbled head. Aroma is very distinct from typical American pale ales. Smells hoppy, but with lots of malt and yeast character as well. Even some caramel and toffee notes in the nose. The taste is more malt focused, again with the buttery toffee (perhaps even too much of that, and it’s got an almost burnt or toasted character to it as well – perhaps it’s butterscotch, typically a sign of a problem), though there is a small hop bite towards the finish and in the not-to-pleasant aftertaste. The hop presence here isn’t anywhere near as pronounced as American varieties. It’s got a medium body, and that overpowering toffee/butterscotch flavor makes it less quaffable than I’d really want for a beer like this. It’s an interesting change of pace for me, but it’s also not something I’d really go out of my way for either… I have to wonder if I perhaps got an old bottle, or one that had some other defect. It was certainly drinkable, but something seemed very off to me. D

Beer Nerd Details: 5.2% ABV bottled (500 ml). Drank out of a tulip glass on 9/4/11.

I’ve had a couple of Wychwood’s other beers, so this was quite the disappointment. I will one day return to this brewery, but I don’t see it happening anytime soon, as I have quite a backlog of bottles to get through and we’re coming up on my favorite time for seasonal beers…

Septembeer Club

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Today was beer club! The event seems to have waned a bit in recent months, but we’ve always got a core group of about 4-5 folks who always come and always bring new beers. I’m pretty excited for the next beer club meetup in about two weeks, which will be at The Whip, an English style pub that we went to a while back. Anyway, tonight’s offerings included:

Septembeer Club

No real theme this month, though one member had just gotten back from a cruise and thus had smuggled some Caribbean beer. Otherwise, it was kinda stoutish this month. Here’s what we had (listed in order of left to right from the picture above):

  • Cayman Islands Caybrew – This is apparently the premium beer of the Cayman Islands. And it is quite bad! Well, no, it’s not the worst beer ever, but it’s got a very typical American Macro aroma and flavor going on, very Millerish (think High Life or MGD), and it’s packaged in a green bottle! Would probably be decent after sitting in the sun all day, but it didn’t really do anything for us tonight. D+
  • Belize Belikin – Another Caribbean lager in the style of a Macro, this one even less flavorful and nondescript. It’s pretty horrible. D-
  • North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout – My contribution for the night, and probably the best beer I had all night. Nice and sweet, with a surprising hop aroma and flavor. Perhaps because of that, it’s got a nice, almost fruity character to go along with the typical sweet and roasty flavors. At 9%, it’s got a bit of a booziness to it, but very well matched. I quite enjoyed it. I’ve had a couple of these before, and I believe I have another one in the fridge, so perhaps I’ll do a dedicated review at some point. For now, let’s give it a B+, though it might eek its way into A- territory, depending on my mood.
  • Mackeson Triple XXX Stout – Apparently once a classic British Milk Stout, this beer has since been acquired by Inbev (scourge of the beer world) and discontinued, though for a time it was contract brewed in the US (but even that brewery is now defunct). There is apparently a 3% version (non XXX?) brewed by Wells & Young in England, but this one was a 4.9% Milk Stout brewed in Trinidad & Tobago (no idea if this is the same recipe as the discontinued beer, or if it’s still owned by Inbev). Whatever the case, it’s actually a pretty solid Milk Stout. It reminded me a lot of the Lancaster Milk Stout I reviewed recently. Not especially my style, perhaps a little too roasty or coffee-like, but definitely well made. B
  • My Homebrewed Stout – My other contribution. It’s definitely come out a bit more on the roasty side than I planned, but then, it’s also got a nice caramel characteristic as well. It seemed to go over very well with the Beer Club crowd. Some even preferred it to Old Rasputin! Personally, it’s not exactly what I was going for, but I do really enjoy it. I should probably catch up on all my homebrews in terms of reviews at some point, but for now, I’ll give it a solid B (it’s also still a bit on the young side, so it may even get better).
  • DuClaw Naked Fish – The bottle sez it’s a Chocolate Raspberry Stout and boy does that aroma sell it. It smells very much like that raspberry syrup that you get on fancy dessert plates, with some chocolate and very faint roasty aromas also around. In terms of taste, it’s more dark chocolate than raspberry, again with just a hint of roastiness. I did enjoy this, but it also seemed a bit on the light side (which makes a bit of sense for a 4.6% beer). I’d rather have it hit with more sweetness and a richer, deeper body. Still, this is pretty well done. I’d try it again. B
  • Allentown Brew Works Funky Monkey – Beer club member from Allentown brought this local brewpub growler of a beer I can’t seem to find any listing for. It’s a saison-style beer, and from the aroma and taste, I’d say it’s got a very light dose of Brettanomyces as well (and given the title “Funky” Monkey and that the Brew Works makes other saisons Monkey Wrench and Space Monkey, that sorta makes sense). It’s actually quite good, nice and sweet with just a bit of that distinctive Brett twang. Not sour at all, but definitely funky. B
  • Dana’s Homebrewed Imperial Wheat – The bottle was a bit of a gusher, but once we got it settled down, it was pretty darn good, though the Imperial Wheat style can be a bit weird. The typical wheat flavors are there, but in a muted fashion. Very sweet and extremely boozy – so much so that it sorta overwhelms the typical wheatines. Not sure if that’s typical of the style or what, but I did enjoy drinking this, even if it was a bit on the strong side. B

And that about covers the beer. As usual, take the ratings with a grain of salt, as conditions were not ideal for uber-beer-nerdery (but they were ideal for fun, so there). I do kinda fudge the club name a bit, as it’s more of a “beverage club” or even just a “supper club”, meaning that not everyone who comes drinks beer. In the past, we’ve had Sake, root beer, and almost always wine. This month was no exception – we had a bottle of Coppola Merlot, which to my palate tasted quite sweet, with a nice dry finish. But then, I just finished sampling a bunch of roasty stouts. All in all, another successful outing. Look for the Whip recap in about two weeks! And it would probably make sense to do a fall seasonal theme next month too. Exciting!

The Curious Case of Brewdog Storm

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In case it’s not entirely obvious, I’m a complete sucker for barrel aged beers. I don’t talk about it much on this blog, but I’m also a fan of Scotch. So beers aged in Scotch casks are doubly appealing to me. Enter Brewdog’s Storm, an 8% IPA aged in Islay whisky casks. For the non-Scotch nerds among my readers*, Islay is a small island off the Western coast of Scotland that is the home of 8 active distilleries. There are, of course, lots of variations between each distillery, but one of the central characteristics of Islay Scotch is a smoky character derived from peat (think Laphroaig, Lagavulin, and Ardbeg, though there are less peaty varieties of Islay Scotch). So when someone says they’re aging a beer in Islay whisky casks, you should expect to find the smoky, peaty, almost medicinal flavors of the scotch somewhere in the taste.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, something went dreadfully wrong with this beer, perhaps compounded by a mysterious labeling snafu.

Brewdog Storm

Brewdog Storm – Pours a hazy golden orange color with almost no head, and what was there had big bubbles (i.e. it was mostly just the way I poured). The nose is full of Scotch whisky, peat smoke and not much else. There are some subtle beery aromas around if you really look for it, but they are faint. The taste is extremely smoky, with some sweetness and not much in the way of bitterness (which really only comes out in the aftertaste, mixed in with some additional peatiness). There are maybe some interesting complexities in the taste, but it’s also not particularly well balanced. Mouthfeel is thin, definitely too light on the carbonation. Overall, it’s completely overpowered by the peat smoke and scotch aromas and flavors. I like scotch (because I’m manly), so I thought maybe this might be ok when I started the beer, but it was ultimately not a good experience. The base beer was apparently an 8% IPA, but it absolutely does not stand up to the scotch at all. Also, as discussed recently, aging an IPA is a tricky proposition. Hop flavors tend to fade with time, which definitely seems to be the case here (especially given that it may be an older bottle than I initially thought, see below) – I really don’t get any hop aromas or flavors, save a little bitterness in the finish. It’s an interesting idea, but there are some major balance issues here and it’s really not working for me. A tentative D – given the nerdy mystery below, I’m not sure what to make of this. Perhaps a “fresh” bottle would be better.

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV bottled (11.2 oz). Drank out of a tulip glass on 9/10/11. Label sez: Batch 13, best before 2/2/12.

Hmm, I looked a little closer at my bottle and I noticed that the batch and date details were on a sticker. I carefully peeled it off, revealing:

Brewdog Storm sticker thingy

Sorry about the craptacular picture (you can click it to see a bigger, blurrier version if you like), my old phone isn’t quite up to the task, but what the hell? It says best before 2/2/10 on the original label. No wonder it’s so bad! I suppose it could have just been a labeling mistake (which has been known to happen) that was band-aided with the sticker thingy… or it could be a really old bottle (which might explain why this didn’t taste particularly fresh) that was re-labeled in order to trick people into thinking it was “fresh”. I don’t know what to make of this. Anyone ever run into that sort of thing?

I’m scratching my head over this. There are numerous points of contact that could be the source of the problem, so who knows where the fault lies. If there actually is a problem. It seems the nerds on Beer Advocate were also not very taken with this beer, giving it a C (for reference, PBR gets a C+). Even if it is just a bad beer, I’m still not soured on Brewdog. I have a few Devine Rebels (which, granted, were a collaboration with beer-god Mikkeller) aging right now, and another of their Scotch barrel aged beers, though Paradox uses a stout as its base beer, so I’m hoping that will work better.

* Actually, I estimate that at least 33% of the people likely reading this are big Scotch fans and probably know a lot more about Islay whisky than I do.

Farsons Lacto Stout

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So I did some “research” last night. By which I mean, I went out and bought a bunch of beer and drank some of it. I’m trying to figure out what to homebrew next, and one of the candidates is a milk stout. Basically, I wanted to make a beer that was sweet and chocolately, with some roastiness thrown in and maybe some other complementary flavors (caramel!) Definitely not coffee, as that’s one flavor I just can’t get into. So looking around, there are a number of imperial stouts that might match my criteria, but I didn’t want to go for a really high O.G. beer, so I kinda settled on Northern Brewer’s Milk Chocolate Stout. It sounds pretty great, but I wanted to try out some milk stouts before I really committed to brewing a full batch of this stuff.

A trip to Pinocchio’s later, I have a few milk stouts to try out. First up is this beer, bought on a whim:

Farsons Lacto Stout

Farsons Lacto Traditional Stout Beer – I didn’t initially realize it, but this beer is made in Malta. The label looked very European, maybe British, so I kinda assumed that’s what I was getting. Apparently the brewery’s origins come out of a desire to serve a British Garrison stationed in Malta, so I guess the marketing department did it’s job. Then again, the beer is named “Lacto”, which ain’t exactly a pleasing name… The beer itself pours a deep black color with a couple fingers of big-bubbled, quickly-disappearing head. Smells unexpectedly of raisins and not much else, though there is a strange mustiness that I could sometimes pick up. The sweet raisins are in the taste as well, and something chalky or tinny (hard to describe – not a pleasant flavor though), but none of the usual stout flavors – no roastiness, no chocolate, no caramel, no forward bitterness, though something is clearly balancing out the initial sweetness, making the finish dry. The raisins show up again in the aftertaste. The moutfeel is kinda weird too – it’s not very well carbonated and it’s also a relatively light bodied, almost watery beer. Now, it is a very low ABV beer, but that’s usually why lactose is used – to add body to a low ABV beer. This whole thing is very strange to me. Even throwing out my expectations of a stout, this doesn’t really work well as its own beer either. D

Beer Nerd Details: 3.4% ABV bottled (11.2 oz). Drank out of a pint glass on 8/7/11

Well, this is certainly not a beer that I’m looking to emulate, I can tell you that. Fortunately, I don’t think the recipes I’m looking at are this bizarre. I had another milk stout this weekend that was much better though, so I think there’s still hope. Hopefully that review will be up tomorrow.

Julytful Beer Club

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Get it? Julytful, like delightful! Eh, so yeah, good beer puns are sometimes hard to come by. Consider yourselves lucky, as a British attendee to this month’s beer club contributed this one, which superceded my initial thought of Brewly Beer Club (which isn’t the worst possible beer pun, but still pretty terrible). For the uninitiated, the beer club is basically just a bunch of folks from my work who get together once a month to enjoy a nice dinner together… along with lots of different beers and wines and other alcoholic wonders. A relatively small group of people this month, but lots of beer (thanks mostly to a club member who was just on vacation in Ohio recently, and thus was able to bring a bunch of beers we’ve never seen or heard of before!). Here’s what we had:

July Beer Club Beers

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For reference, here are some brief thoughts on each. As usual, this isn’t exactly ideal tasting conditions, so take them with a grain of salt, but still… From left to right in the picture:

  • Troegs Dead Reckoning – Very nice porter. Roasty and smooth, but not overpowering. I’m not normally a huge fan of porters, but this one’s pretty decent. Not something that’s lighting the world on fire, but good in it’s own way. Unfortunately, it was probably overshadowed by a couple of stouts we had later in the tasting… I’ll give it a B
  • Ohio Brewing Verich Gold – A kolsch style ale that’s not particularly good. It reminded me of a typical Bud/Miller/Coors style beer, with a bit of a twang. It’s a beer that might be ok on its own, but when drank side-by-side with a bunch of other good beers, it just pales in comparison. I suppose it just ain’t my style of beer.. but then, it was also pretty much the unanimous worst beer of the night among beer club peeps. D
  • Thirsty Dog 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale – Probably the worst time of the year to drink a winter warmer style beer, but I quite enjoyed this spicy beer. It’s relatively dark, but not roasty. Very spicy with a full malt backbone. Some folks thought it was almost too spicy ,but I quite enjoyed this beer. B+
  • Great Lakes Holy Moses White Ale – Seriously one of the best Belgian wit beers I’ve ever had, rivaling the likes of Victory’s Whirlwind Wit and Ommegange’s Witte. Very effervescent, almost lemony, but with lots of balancing spiciness of the light variety (coriander, orange peel, etc..) Right up there at the top of the list for wheat beers. B+
  • Thirsty Dog Cerberus Belgian Tripel – Nice fancy foil packaging, with a beer to match. Extremely sweet and boozy, it’s a bit hot for the style, but very good. There was a bit of a twang to it that I could place, but which differentiated it from other examples of the style. Quite good. B+
  • Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA – I’ve had this beer a few times before… and have never really enjoyed it. It’s not particularly bad, but it’s definitely a victim of circumstances, as I always find myself trying one when I’ve already had much better beers. By the time I got to this tonight, it just wasn’t doing it for me. Again, not a bad IPA, but not particularly accomplished either. C+
  • Hoppin’ Frog B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher Oatmeal-Imperial Stout – We tried to drink the beers listed here from lightest to darkest, and this one ended up being the last beer of the night… and the best! Dark as night and seemingly thick, with a nice brownish head. Very sweet, chocolaty, and roasty, with a nice booziness apparent. A wonderful imperial stout. The name of the bear stands for “Bodacious Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout”, and it’s well worth the moniker. A-
  • Hoppin’ Frog Turbo Shandy – A shandy is normally a beer mixed with a citrus flavored soda like 7up or Sprite. Usually this is something that happens after the fact – a beer coctail, as it were. But some breweries release shandies right in the bottle… and in this case, the beer really does taste like a 7up/Sprite… Extremely sweet and crispt, maybe some lemony/lime feeling to it, and you can’t really even detect the relatively strong 7% ABV. Would perhaps make a good lawnmower beer, but not particularly something I’m all that interested in… C+
  • Rogue Shakespeare Stout – Another oatmeal stout, this one was second to last in the drinking order, and quite a solid example of the stile. Very chocolately, but with a surprising earthy feel to it. This is quite good, but not great. B+
  • Red’s Rye Pale Ale – I know next to nothing about Rye beer, but I have a few more of these in the fridge, so expect a full review in the nearish future. Initial impressions are quite positive.
  • My Homebrewed Saison – This actually turned out far better than I was expecting. It seemed to be a general success with the folks of beer club, and it’s the first beer I’ve made so far that I really enjoy drinking from start to finish. It’s very light in its way, but it makes up for that with some Belgian yeast spiciness and a nice hoppy aproma/taste character (though it’s not particularly bitter). My favorite batch so far. Makes me want to pour my last batch down the drain!

And that covers all the beer we had… Someone did bring a bottle of Australian wine, but they said they were a bit disappointed by it (no idea what it was called). Good times, as always, and I’m already looking forward to the next meetup.

April Beer Club

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Every month, a bunch of friends and I get together at a local BYOB and drink lots of beer. I seem to have run out of beer puns for this month, but there was no shortage of beer at tonight’s gathering (despite only 7 attendees):

April Beer Club

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No real theme this month, but lots of new beers, along with some new ones. Not all of the pictured beers were cracked open, but most of them were (I believe only 4 left unopened, though there was still some beer left in a couple bottles). For reference, here’s what I tried:

  • Sea Dog Wild Blueberry Wheat Ale – Intense blueberry aromas and very fruity taste. Overwhelmingly blueberry. Not bad, but not especially accomplished either. C+
  • Unibroue Éphémère – Again, an intense sour apple aroma and flavor, this one is much better balanced and an interesting beer. I’ve actually had this a few times before, and it’s something I’ve always enjoyed, even if it’s not my favorite of Unibroue’s offerings. Everyone seemed to enjoy it though, and it’s probably a good gateway craft beer. B
  • Southampton Biere De Mars – A very nice looking beer, with a nice spicy aroma and a flavor that is quite unusual, but still drinkable. The consensus among attendees was somewhat mixed, but I enjoyed it, even if it’s not exactly a favorite. There’s a flavor there that I couldn’t quite place, but which made this a rather unique tasting beer. Fellow beer club members had a similar feeling. I’ll give it a tentative B
  • Ommegang Rare Vos – One of my all time favorites, I’ve actually got a bottle of this in the fridge, so expect a full review… at some point. A great beer though, and very popular with the beer club crowd, even with the non-beer nerds.
  • Victory Prima Pils – I have had many of these over the years, and it’s one of those beers that tastes very different out of the bottle than it does on tap. And honestly, I think I prefer the bottled version. For a pilsner style beer, it’s extremely hoppy, but I rather like that distinction. Well worth a try, and probably something I’ll give a more thorough review to later. For now, I’ll leave it as a B+
  • Oskar Blues Gordon Imperial Red Ale (aka G’Knight) – One of my contributions for the night, and a solid DIPA. Expect a full review at some point in the near future. Beer club crowd seemed to enjoy it, despite it’s hoppy nature.
  • Peak Organic Simcoe Spring Ale – It’s got that pine resin aroma and flavor from the Simcoe hops, but it’s otherwise a pretty standard IPA. Not particularly popular with the overall beer club crowd, but it’s solid, if nothing special. B
  • Long Trail Pollenator – Holy shit, is this a terrible beer. And of course, I ended up taking more of this than most other brews. I immediately regretted the decision. Tasted like skunked piss. My first F since starting the blog.
  • Oscar Blues Ten Fidy – A very roasty 10.5% stout. I enjoyed it, but those who don’t typically go in for stouts didn’t seem to care for it. Not to get all sexist or anything, but all the guys seemed to enjoy it, while the females seemed to dislike. I have a couple more of these, so expect a full review at some point in the indeterminate future.
  • Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy – Smells and tastes of a sorta carbonated lemonade. Very little beer flavor and I really did not enjoy, though some of the more girly beer club members seemed to like it. D
  • Blue Point Spring Fling – A very average pale ale. Not bad, but absolutely nothing special about it. Profoundly average beer. C
  • My Homebrew Tripel – I brought a nice 22 oz bottle of my tripel, which has really undergone a transformation since bottling. I’ve been trying about one bottle per week since I bottled, and it’s gone from an overly-sweet and under-carbonated beer to something much more drinkable. It used to be a very bright orange color, but it has since matured into a more appropriate lightish brown color. The taste is still a little too sweet and too alcoholly, but it’s still a pretty good attempt, and I have a feeling it will mellow out with more time. Expect a more thorough review of this homebrew at some point. If nothing else, I do believe it came out better than my first attempt. This was one of the first beers we opened though, and someone did mention that it could have been a bit of a palate-killer because it’s so intense (but luckily most people only took a small sample). It certainly was a strong beer – more than one person commented that they got the sorta wine-flush feeling from the alchohol. So far, I’m pretty happy with this beer, and I think it’s only been getting better with time.
  • Dana’s Maibock Homebrew – Fantastic homebrew brewed by my friend Dana from a Mr. Beer specialty kit. Very sweet with a nice tang in the finish that I couldn’t quite place. Still, very enjoyable beer, maybe my favorite from Dana’s homebrewing efforts. Most of the Mr. Beer stuff is pretty average (and Dana also brought a Red Ale which was pretty normal stuff), but their specialty kits seem to produce some really good beers, and this one is a prime example (I also rather enjoyed Dana’s specialty Tripel from a while back). We made a deal to trade some of my tripel with some of her maibock. Excellent stuff

So yeah, I suppose you could take the ratings above with a grain of salt (as conditions were not optimal for tasting), but I think the ones I actually rated are pretty accurate. And several of the others will be reviewed on this blog in the near future. It may seem like the above are pretty low, and there were definitely a couple of real stinkers, but some of the ones I didn’t provide a rating for will most likely come in to the B to A range, so there were definitely some great beers that were available tonight…

All in all, another successful outing for the beer club. I was surprised at the amount of beer that we ended up getting through, even if we did leave some of the beers pictured above unopened (though I will say that the only unopened beer that I’ve never had before was the Breckenridge Vanilla Porter). As always, I’m already looking forward to next month!

Triple Play

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The Phillies are in the playoffs, which basically means lots of beer drinking (hopefully continuing throughout October). Tonight, a solid win to take the series to 1-1 and three craft beers:

Yards Extra Special Ale (ESA) – Drank straight from the bottle, so I don’t know the color, but it seems like a dark beer. Not quite a Porter or a Bock, but along those lines. BA has it as an “Extra Special / Strong Bitter (ESB)” and that seems appropriate. It’s got a lightly bitter, chocolatey finish that actually works reasonably well. This isn’t exactly my preferred style of beer, but it was very drinkable and I’ll probably have another one later this week (game 4?) B-

Beer Nerd Details: 6.3% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank straight from the bottle (like a man!)

After this, I cleansed my palate with a helping of Doritos and grabbed another brew:

Dundee Oktoberfest – Holy crap, it’s a stealth macro! If you count Genessee as a macro, I guess. I don’t especially care about that sort of thing, but I was a bit surprised. Anyway, I saw this one and thought I should give it a shot given my recent Shoktoberfest Adventures. It smells of an Oktoberfest, but the taste is a little different. Not bad – a little spicier than your typical Oktoberfest, but otherwise pretty similar. Probably somewhere near the bottom of recent tastings, but still a lot better than typical macro beers. B-

Beer Nerd Details: 5.5% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank straight from the bottle (like a man!)

Some more Doritoes and pretzels, and now the coup de grâce:

Fire Island Lighthouse Ale – Wow, is this bad. Maybe I just got a stale bottle, but it was very bland and not at all interesting. About the only thing it had going for it was a medium drinkability and good carbonation. Taste was stale and bland. I’m surprised I managed to finish it. D

Beer Nerd Details: 5.2% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank straight from the bottle (like a man!)

Go Phillies.