American Strong Ale

Collage – Conflux No. 1

by

This collaboration between Deschutes and Hair of the Dog is aptly named, and is thus pretty complicated, so stay frosty. It’s a blend of four different beers: Deschutes’ The Dissident (a Flanders Oud Bruin) and The Stoic (a rather light colored take on an Quadrupel), and Hair of the Dog’s Fred (from that nebulous American Strong Ale style) and Adam (an old ale). So that’s a lot of stuff to combine, but then take the result and age in a variety of barrels. And I do mean a variety: Rye Whiskey, Cognac, Sherry, Pinot Noir, Bourbon, new American Oak, and new Oregon Oak. Naturally, the beer is finished off with another blending exercise, this time with all the results from the barrels. So get out your scrapbooks and prepare your embellishments, it’s time to drink a collage.

Deschutes and Hair of the Dog Collage Conflux No. 1

Deschutes and Hair of the Dog Collage – Conflux No. 1 – Pours a very dark amber color, almost brown, with half a finger of light head. Smells of dark fruits, oak, vanilla, but also an unexpected vinegar note (I did not realize that The Dissident was a sour when I cracked this open and recorded my initial notes). Not necessarily a bad thing, I just didn’t realize this was going to be a sour. The taste is quite complex, lots of varied fruits, cherry, grapefruit and the like, rich caramel, toffee, a certain mustiness, leather, spice, oak, vanilla, bourbon, vinous notes, wine, and other boozy notes with the sourness picking up towards the finish but not in an overpowering way. As it warms, those sour notes do start to become more prominent, but it’s still part of a whole, rather than a really defining characteristic. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, rich, chewy, full bodied, and just a bit of acidity from the souring aspects. Overall, this is incredibly complex, I keep picking out new notes as I drink, even if it perhaps doesn’t come together into a unified whole, it is still a fascinating beer that I would gladly try again. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 11.6% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank out of a snifter on 8/30/14. Bottled: 4/30/12. Best After: 4/30/13.

Hey look, I finally managed to drink a barrel aged Deschutes beer after the Best After date. Of course, I only bought this beer a couple weeks ago, so it’s apparently still available after two years. Not sure if my local beermonger was holding on to these and finally decided to let it fly, or if it’s something Deschutes is still releasing… Whatever the case, I’m glad I got to try some.

Lost Abbey Agave Maria

by

It used to be that you’d see the occasional Bourbon barrel aged beer. Everyone would lose their minds, and they’d fly off shelves, and it was all well and good. I, for one, welcomed our bourbon barrel overlords, but the past few years have seen brewers diversifying their barrel aged offerings. You’ve got rum barrels, apple brandy barrels, and wine barrels galore.

Enter the dreaded tequila barrel. Lost Abbey brewer Tomme Arthur even decided to double down on this offering, brewing the base beer with Agave syrup. The fine folks over at Lost Abbey run a pretty tight Keebler tree, so despite some rightfully dubious responses, I figured I’d drop some coin on a bottle of this stuff and see what the deal is. In short, while not “worse than undrinkable”, that’s also setting the bar too low. I’d rather drink this than most macro slop, and it is a unique, interesting beer, but it’s not something I’d go out of my way for again.

Lost Abbey Agave Maria

Lost Abbey Agave Maria – Pours a murky dark brown color with a finger of khaki head. Smells very sweet, with an almost honey-like note, something kinda like char, and plenty of barrel character. The taste explodes with sweetness up front, very sugary sweet, something like honey (presumably that agave doing its thing), and less of that barrel character than I’d like. I suspect that a 750 of this would get cloying, but the 375 format just barely clears the bar. But then, I’m an odd duck, so your mileage may vary. The mouthfeel is full bodied and rich (so that part of the barrel treatment works), sugary, highly carbonated (way to go Lost Abbey!), with a bit of saccharine stickiness in the finish. Overall, this is an interesting, unique little beer. Not something that makes me want to try a lot of other tequila aged beers, but I’m glad I tried one. B

Beer Nerd Details: 13.5% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a tulip glass on 7/19/14. Vintage 2014A.

I’m all for barrel diversification, but you know what, you should probably also just throw some Serpent’s Stout in Bourbon Barrels, because that would be killer. Yeah, Deliverance has BBA Serpent’s Stout in the blend, but I’m sure the straight up juice would be even better. Ah well, I’ll just stop pretending like I actually know better than people who do this for a living now. I’m a moron.

Hair of the Dog Fred

by

There’s an old saying in the wine world: “There are no great wines, only great bottles of wine.” Once a wine is put into a bottle, there are any number of things that could influence the taste when the bottle is opened. How old is the bottle? Where was it stored? What was the temperature? Did you have it shipped during the summer? What kind of light exposure is there? Even if you assume all that was fine, there are also cases of cork taint and other such unlikely occurrences. There’s natural variation in bottles, and no one even pretends that different vintages are supposed to produce the same result. There’s a million things that could lead to a bottle being great or a total bust, and that’s before you start talking about subjective matters of taste and context.

If this sounds a little naive, that’s because I don’t know that much about wine. But I do know beer, and I know that the same thing applies here (as well as with other tipples, like whiskey). Many of the same caveats apply, some even moreso than in wine (for instance, because of compounds in hops, beer tends to be more susceptible to light than wine). Bottle conditioned beers can change significantly over time. Funky beers with Brettanomyces and other critters are wildly unpredictable (we could get into the whole consistency debate, but I’ll have to save that for my next Fantôme review…) Highly hopped beers can taste differently from week to week, even if they’re stored properly. Read about hops, and you can see that crops change significantly from year to year (and I’m not just talking about yield here, things like Alpha Acids and oils that drive aroma can vary from year to year).

This sort of pedantry can manifest in annoying, stupid ways, such as the continual insistence that this year’s batch of Pliny the Younger/Hopslam/Black Tuesday/whatever is not as good as last year. They often aren’t identical, to be sure, but such utterances seem driven more by hype or rarity or ego than anything more reliable. Likewise, I often see some folks who finally land that white whale beer, only to find that they don’t care that much for it and wonder Did I get a bad bottle? Because surely a bunch of strangers on the internet couldn’t be wrong, right?

But every once in a while, you will run across a genuine bad bottle. A “sick” bottle of Fantôme, an old IPA that was sitting in sunlight, or maybe a beer that has some off flavors (metallic or tinny beer, soy sauce stouts, overwhelming diacetyl, etc…) Some of this may be poor QA on the brewery’s part, others might be a problem with shipping or storage. It’s tempting to hold a grudge against a brewery or a particular beer if you’ve had one bad experience with them, and it doesn’t help that we are so awash in great beer from all over right now because why try a beer you didn’t like before again when you can just grab something new?

All of which is to say that I had an issue with this Hair of the Dog beer. I was wary from the moment I opened the beer to a practically nonexistent puff of carbon dioxide. When the pour produced absolutely no head whatsoever, I knew I was going to have a problem. I’m perhaps more sensitive to carbonation issues than most folks, and to be honest, I’ve been wrong about low carb levels before. However, in looking at other reviews of this, it seems that most reviews mention “ample” or “above average” carbonation levels. I got what I felt was a flat beer. So… bad bottle?

Hair of the Dog Fred

Hair of the Dog Fred – Pours a pale orange, light brown color with no head whatsoever. Almost no pop when I opened it either, which does not strike me as a good sign. Smells very interesting though, sweet, boozy, biscuity malt, maybe rye, some fruity hops, almost like a pastry with booze. Taste has a sticky sweetness to it, lots of hop character built on top of a biscuity, bready malt and well integrated. Alas, the Achilles heel is the carbonation, which is practically nonexistent… It feels medium to full bodied, a little syrupy and sticky, definitely boozy but not overwhelmingly so. If it were even a little carbonated, this would be a much better beer. Oddly, from looking around, it seems that this does normally have a medium to high carbonation factor, so I don’t know what’s up with this bottle! Aside from the carbonation, it’s obviously a well crafted, interesting beer, and I can drink it, but this is ultimately disappointing. B-

Beer Nerd Details: 10% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank out of a snifter on 6/13/14. Batch 93.

Looking at the reviews a little more carefully, it seems like there is some variation between the batches. A couple of other people have gotten practically “still” bottles like mine, but most seem to indicate a higher degree of carbonation. So not a great first impression, but I’ll have to give Hair of the Dog another chance someday…

March Beer Club

by

I won’t lie, this was a really good night. I went a solid week and a half without beer before completely falling off the wagon this past weekend (as planned, to be sure) and drinking a bunch of beer (and bourbon, and moonshine, and other stuff) during Fat Weekend (a gathering of portly individuals from across the northeast, and some points west, for drinking, fun, and fatness). Now here I am a few scant days later, drinking more beer (again, as planned). For the uninitiated, beer club is a gathering of beer-minded individuals from my workplace who get together once a month for beer and revelry at a local BYOB. This time around, we returned to a classic Beer Club venue, Jimmy’s BBQ. Lots of smoked meat, dirty corn, beer, and fun was had by all:

March Beer Club

(Click for larger image)

Meat induced thoughts on each beer are below. This is for posterity, so I will be sure to be honest, though you might want to take this with a grain (or giant block) of salt, as this BYOB wasn’t a hermetically sealed isolation chamber that is ideal for precise tasting notes. Caveats aside, here we go, in order of drinking, not necessarily in order pictured:

  • Kaedrin Fat Weekend IPA – This year’s batch finally got that Simcoe and Amarillo loving that I’ve been trying to get for a few years. My only issue is that I’m still getting a handle on this kegerator operation here, so I feel like I frittered away a significant amount of aroma in the process of trying to get the carbonation and pressure right. I think I’ve figured out this process well enough that I won’t ruin future batches, and it’s not like this one turned out bad or anything. Indeed, just a few of us housed 3 whole growlers during Fat Weekend (we would have done so on Friday night if I didn’t insist we save one for Saturday). So yeah it was good, and it compared somewhat favorably to tonight’s IPA lineup, which was considerable. I’ll give it a B for now, though I think it could easily go higher with some slight tweaks to recipe and kegging procedure.
  • Dogfish Head 90 Minute – The old standby, I feel like the last couple times I’ve had this, it hasn’t been quite the mindblower it once was for me. Still a rock solid brew, though I might downgrade it to a B+
  • Maine Lunch – One of my contributions. In case you can’t tell by the first three beers of the night, we overcompensated for the past couple of beer clubs and brought a shit ton of IPAs this month. Not that I’m complaining, as they were all pretty damn good (to spectacular). This one was a really nice citrus and pine take of the style, in competition for my favorite Maine beer. B+ (though it might go higher outside of this setting)
  • Petrus Aged Pale – Nothing like a sour to cleanse the palate, eh? A very nice oak aged sour beer, something I’ve had before, and one of those things I’d use to help convert the heathens to the world of sours/good beer. B+
  • DC Brau On The Wings Of Armageddon – Many thanks to Dana for rocking the DIPAs tonight, including this rarity (at least, to us PA folk), which turns out to pretty much live up to the hype, a super piney, dank take on the DIPA, nice body, really well rounded and delicious beer (along the lines of those Pipeworks IPAs I had a while back). Really fantastic, and I hope to someday snag a few fresh cans of this for myself. A-
  • Sixpoint Hi-Res – Alright, so we’re getting to a point where specifics about given IPAs are starting to blend together in my head, but I my thoughts on this one are that it comported itself very well in this rather strong lineup of IPAs and DIPAs, actually better than I was expecting (though I’m not sure why, as Sixpoint has always been a pretty solid brewery for me). We’ll go with B+ and leave it at that.
  • John’s Homebrewed Porter – A relative newcomer to beer club, John made his first batch of beer in about 20 years recently. He went with a pretty straightforward porter that, to be sure, turned out well. But he’s working on some interesting stuff in future batches, including a port wine soaked oak beer, possibly even a wile beer, so I’m quite looking forward to it. B
  • Alchemist Heady Topper – Yeah, we’ve already beaten this one to death before on the blog.
  • Bell’s Hopslam – Another one we’ve covered before, but I certainly ain’t complaining, as I do really enjoy this beer and this is the first time I’ve ever had it out of a bottle. Thanks again to Dana, who brought a crap ton of DIPAs tonight.
  • Ken’s Homebrewed Coffee Porter – No real coffee added, but it used some sort of special coffee malt. Not sure if that’s malt soaked in coffee or something like that or if it’s just roasted to a point that it gives off coffee character, but whatever, it came through well in the beer and did not overpower it at all. Granted, coffee porters aren’t really my thing, but this seemed to work reasonably well. B-
  • North Coast Pranqster – A nice little Belgian pale ale, very sweet for it’s relatively middling ABV, but still well carbonated enough that it works really well. I enjoyed, and it fit after all those IPAs. B+
  • Widmer SXNW – It came in a fancy box, so it has to be good, right? Well, it’s made with Pecans, Cacao beans, and Green Chiles, so I was fearing another hot pepper beer, but it turns out that the dominant character came from that cacao. Huge chocolate notes in the nose, with a corresponding taste. The chiles are there, but in the background, just providing some complexity. Overall, it’s an interesting beer, though not one I’d really seek out again. B
  • Humboldt Black Xantus – So I didn’t realize this when I bought it, but this is apparently one of them barrel aged Firestone Walker beers, even if it’s bottled under the older Nectar Ales brand. That barrel aging comes through loud and clear, and it’s quite nice, but there’s also apparently a coffee component that also shows up, though it’s not as dominant as, say, BCBCS. One of my favorites of the night, though not quite Parabola levels awesome (but still regular beer levels awesome). A-

So there you have it, an enjoyable night had by all. Already looking forward to the next installment of beer club…

Firestone Walker XVII – Anniversary Ale

by

Every year, Firestone Walker invites their neighboring Winemakers to the brewery to tie one on and blend a series of barrel aged component beers for their Anniversary Ale. The Winemakers (no strangers to blending) are divided up into teams and compete to make the best blend. It’s apparently quite cutthroat, though fortunately, no murders this year. I’m trying to be concise here, because this is a subject I’ve already described in wonky, exhaustive detail before. Suffice to say, for barrel aged fanatics like myself, this is one of the most interesting releases each year, and they can vary dramatically too.

The XV blend heavily favored barleywines, and most of the component beers were aged in bourbon and/or brandy barrels (and oh yeah, it was spectacular). The XVI blend was more equitable, a much darker brew though barleywines still had a slight edge overall. The other big change in XVI was the inclusion of Tequila barrels into the blend. This year, things swing back towards the barleywine a bit, though not as much as XV. Here’s the component beers:

  • 30% Bravo (13.6% ABV) Imperial Brown Ale. Aged in Bourbon and Brandy Barrels.
  • 25% Stickee Monkee (15.3% ABV) English Barley Wine. Aged in Bourbon and Brandy barrels.
  • 15% Velvet Merkin (8.7% ABV) Traditional Oatmeal Stout. Aged in Bourbon barrels.
  • 15% Parabola (12.8% ABV) Russian Imperial Oatmeal Stout. Aged in Bourbon Barrels.
  • 8% Double Double Barrel Ale (12% ABV) Double Strength English Pale Ale. Aged 100% in Firestone Union Barrels.
  • 4% Helldorado (11.5% ABV) Blonde Barley Wine. Aged in Bourbon and Brandy Barrels.
  • 3% Wookey Jack (8.3% ABV)- Black Rye India Pale Ale. 100% Fresh, Dank & Hoppy 100% Stainless Steel

So we’ve got around 67% barleywines, 30% stout, and 3% Black Rye IPA (which sorta splits the difference between the two). Also notable is that this year’s blend “only” utilizes 7 component beers (while the previous two used 8), and that PNC with Tequila barrels is nowhere to be seen. So this comes in somewhere between XV and XVI in terms of the components, and I will say that it does taste more like a barleywine than anything else, though I don’t quite think it reached the heights of XV:

Firestone Walker XVII - Anniversary Ale

Firestone Walker XVII – Anniversary Ale – Pours a brown amber color, garnet tones, a finger of light tan head that sticks around a bit. Smells of various spirits, boozy but not hot, some caramel-like notes and bready malt too. Taste starts off sweet, quickly moving into a rich caramel note, maybe a hint of fruity malt character, then comes various spirits and the one-two punch of oak and vanilla. The spirits here seem much less Bourbon focused than in years past, and looking at the component beers, perhaps that Brandy is asserting itself more than in previous years, though not in a dominant way. Call it the power of suggestion if you like, but this taste is very complex and evolves as it warms up, with the various flavors emerging or mellowing as I drink. The taste profile is more akin to a barleywine than anything else, closer to XV (which was clearly barleywine) than XVI (which was much more muddled, though still very nice). Mouthfeel is full bodied and rich, but velvety smooth. Some pleasant booziness, a bit of heat, but given the cold weather of late, this is a welcome feature, not a bug. Overall, yep, it’s fantastic. Better than XVI, but not quite at XV levels. But when you’re playing at this level, these distinctions are really splitting hairs. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 13.3% ABV bottled (22 oz. boxed bomber). Drank out of a snifter on 2/14/14.

Of course, all of Firestone Walker’s barrel aged beers are spectacular and worth seeking out. It’s seeming like I’ve missed out on last year’s release of Velvet Merkin (local beermonger sez that government shutdown last year delayed and maybe even limited distro in this area, which could be total BS, but I still hope to track down a bottle somehow, someway). Rumor has it that Stickee Monkee will be coming to bottles and seeing distribution for the first time this year as well, and then there’s their first wild ale, The Feral One. So what I’m saying is that I’m going to be hunting for lots of Firestone beer in 2014 (because don’t forget about world class bottles like Sucaba and Parabola)

February Beer Club

by

Tonight was beer club, a gathering of beer minded individuals from my work who get together about once a month at a local BYOB for good company and libations. As per usual, a good turnout, with a good representation from the core team, but also some very welcome new faces. About half of us are, at this point, avid homebrewers, so discussion veered into a rather nerdy realm from time to time, but that’s all good, and there was also a nice contingent of non-beer drinking peeps who were bemused by our nerdery, but steered the discussion other ways as well. Good times had by all.

February Beer Club

For the sake of posterity, initial thoughts on each beer are captured below. As you might guess, conditions here are not ideal, nor did I always drink a full portion, so take this with a gigantic grain of salt if you dare. Or not. I am pretty awesome, so I’m sure these inchoate notes are all you’ll really need. In order of drinking (not necessarily in order pictured):

  • Heavy Seas Gold Ale – A pretty basic Blonde Ale, comparable to most macro slop, but a step above such extremes. B-
  • Kaedrôme Saison – This is drinking well, though it still has not carbonated as well as I’d have liked. I don’t know if this is because the yeast is just so old and overstressed or if it’s because it’s been so cold lately and my cellar is just so cold that it’s taking the beer a while to condition. Whatever the case, the flavors are at the right place, and there is enough carbonation to make it drinkable, it’s just that I wish there were more. B
  • New Belgium Lips Of Faith – Coconut Curry Hefeweizen – Holy curry, Batman! At first, the curry seemed to overpower everything else, but as I drank and as it warmed (we had some of this later in the evening as well), the coconut and hefeweizen notes came out a bit more. Its a very interesting, weird beer, but I don’t think it’s quite the right combination of flavors for beer. C+
  • Stone Matt’s Burning Rosids – I think you all know how much I love me some saisons, even weird, incoherent takes on the style, but this one seemed to be filled with a sorta burnt rubber band aid flavor that overpowered everything else. Perhaps not totally undrinkable, but I’m really, really happy I only tried a smallish sample of the stuff. D
  • Green Jack Rippa – I’ve seen this around and been curious about an “English Triple” beer, and it was an interesting beer, though it came off as being incredibly boozy, which is a bit odd for an 8.5% beer. To be sure, that’s not a whimpy ABV, but it’s also not something I’d expect to be quite so powerfully boozy. It had a nice malt backbone too, but not enough to stand up to the booze. C+
  • Ken’s Homebrewed ESB – A light take on the style, though perhaps it just seemed that way because we had this after the boozy bomb previously mentioned. Still, very easy drinking stuff, malt forward but quaffable. B
  • Wells Sticky Toffee Pudding Ale – Now, this beer club group occasionally visits an authentic (at least, to us Yanks, it seems so) British pub called The Whip Tavern. They have this rather spectacular dessert called Sticky Toffee Pudding, so hopes were somewhat high for this beer. To be sure, I was tempering my expectations by the fact that a lot of English ales, even stuff like this that is flavored with adjuncts, come off with hints of diacetyl, but in this case, my fears were unfounded. It’s nowhere near as good as the actual dessert, but it had a really nice toffee/caramel character that worked really well for the beer. B
  • Chimay Tripel (White) – A beer I’ve obviously had many times before, and it’s just as good as ever, though I seem to have veered away from a lot of the Belgian styles that initially hooked me on good beer. Still, this is a nice one. I’d probably downgrade to a B+, but it’s still very nice.
  • Starr Hill Psycho Kilter – A nice take on the Scotch Ale style, certainly not a top tier effort, but a nice, malt forward, relatively low carbed beer that doesn’t quite bely its relatively high 9.3% strength. B
  • Kaedrin Bomb and Grapnel (Bourbon Oaked Version) – This is the version of my RIS homebrew that was aged on bourbon soaked oak cubes. In this version, the charred oak really comes through strong. Not a ton of bourbon, though it is there. The charred oak is pretty strong at this point, which makes me think that perhaps I should have soaked the oak cubes in bourbon for longer than the 1-2 weeks I employed. Still, this turned out well, though the blended version seems to be the best version. B+
  • Lost Abbey The Angel’s Share (Bourbon Barrel Aged) – A beer I’ve had and reviewed before. It is still pretty fantastic stuff. A-
  • Deschutes Jubelale – Another beer I’ve had a few times this year, and it’s a nice winter warmer style beer, malt forward with lots of spice, quite enjoyable (and surprisingly did not suffer from a no doubt beleaguered palate at this point in the night). B

And that just about covers it. Already looking forward to the March beer club, where I’ll be able to share some Fat Weekend IPA…

January Beer Club

by

Just in the nick of time. This was scheduled for earlier in the month but got delayed due to snow and other such things. But we persevered, and Beer club marched on. For the unawares, beer club is a gathering of beer minded folks from my work, who get together once a month at a local BYOB for beverages and fun.

January Beer Club 2014

(Click for larger version)

For the sake of posterity, some thoughts on each beer are below. As per usual, these are off the cuff responses with no formal notes, so they’re basically useless for you, but I’m including them anyway because why should I care what you think of my drunken recollections of these beers? In order of drinking (and not in the order pictured above, and there are definitely a couple beers not pictured at all because I took the picture early and didn’t feel like updating it later and why are you so confrontational about this, it’s just a thing, and fine, you want to fight about it? Let’s do this thing. Or not. Whatever. What were we talking about?)

  • Stone Double Bastard – Probably not the best beer to start off a tasting with, but it worked just fine, and it was as good as I remember. Which is to say, it’s good, but not mind blowing. B+
  • Unibroue Éphémère – This is not as apple-flavored as I remember, though that character is still fully present in the beer, which is a pretty solid Belgian Wit style affair and would make a great summer beer.
  • Boxcar CarKnocker IPA – The uber local (i.e. within a couple miles of my house) brewery’s take on a standard IPA, it’s decent, but not quite as good as their original (kinda, sorta Belgian style) IPA. B-
  • DC Brau The Corruption – A beer I reviewed in more detail just yesterday.
  • Bell’s Midwestern Pale Ale – A fine offering, but perhaps sampled too late in the the night, as it sorta suffered in comparison to the other IPAs. B-
  • Boxcar Belgian Tripel – One of uber-local Boxcar’s best beers, it’s still a pretty straightforward Belgian style tripel. Along those lines, it’s pretty good. Not a top tier effort, but quite nice. B+
  • Element Brewing Dark Element – A rather nice India Black Ale (or whatever you want to call that hoppy stout style), this sucker had just a hint of roast, a nice malt backbone, and plenty of dank, piney, resinous hops. One of the best of the night. A-
  • Ken’s Homebrewed Hybrid Thingy – A sorta beer/wine/mead hybrid, this was made with some barley, copious amounts of honey, and muscat grapes. This is some crazy Dogfish-head style shit, but it actually worked pretty darn well. Clocking in at around 10% ABV, this thing didn’t feel like it at all, making it dangerously easy to drink. B
  • Kaedrin Bomb and Grapnel (Blend) – This is the version that contains a blend of straight RIS and Bourbon Oaked RIS. It turned out pretty darn well, though the oak character is a bit muted here. I don’t know that I’d be able to pick it out blind, but regardless, it turned out pretty well and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Look for a triple feature (with all the variants) soon. I’ll give it a B+ for now, though it could easily be higher.
  • Spring House Satan’s Bake Sale Mint Chocolate Chip Stout – One of my contributions, this was a fascinating sorta Girl Scout Thin Mint beer. Not sure if I would have reacted so positively if I drank the whole thing by myself, but it’s a perfect beer for the setting. The mint chocolate chip character comes through strong, but not in an overpowering way. Very nice, and I enjoyed muchly. B+
  • Boulevard and Sierra Nevada Terra Incognita – A whiskey barrel aged beer that shows off that character pretty well. I still think that stouts and barleywines work better on that front, but this was certainly a fine effort. B

And that just about covers it. Good times had by all, and I’m already looking forward to the next installment (which should be sooner, rather than later… hopefully!)

November Beer Club

by

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

(Click for larger version)

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

by

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!

June Beer Club

by

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.