TLDR Beer Club

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Trying the Sam Adams Double Bock tonight

Pours a reddish brown color that looks a lot like much of the stained wood in my house. It has a bubbly tan head that dissipates quickly. The aroma is of first of alcohol but is then syrupy sweet, almost like maple syrup. Upon first tasting the bite of the alcohol hits first. It is shortly replaced with a strong sweetness and finishes with another bite of alcohol and a very malty aftertaste. Not very complex and the alcohol taste is too pronounced for my tastes. 2.75 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]'s

[Blarg]

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Tonight I had Anchor's Steam Beer. It pours a rich amber color with a white head. There was nothing remarkable about the smell, it smelled to me a lot like a pilsner or a lager like Yuengling. The beer has a smooth, malty, fruity taste to it. I can't discern the actual flavors except for possibly a light touch of banana. Worth checking out if you can pick up a bottle but not terribly exciting 3.25 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]'s

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The first time I tried this, I really loved it. After a while, they changed it quite a bit and I completely lost interest. It's anything now like it was after they messed it up way way long ago, 3.25 works for me. Big disappointment for us old farts who saw it decline.

[The X-Factor]

I tried Shiner Bock last night for the first time at a friends house. I thought it was pretty good and better than your average beer such as bud or miller.



It was very rich and smooth. It had a nice tangy taste to it as it went down as well. I will drink again. I gave it [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] and a half [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Not bad at all but nothing to go crazy over like I have had at the flying saucer.

This was my first review so let me know what I can do to improve next time I give one.

X

[MrWookie]

Black,

I have a bottle of the SA Double Bock waiting for a review, too. Sounds like I'll be sad. Oh well.

X,

This is a fine review, and I agree with 2.5. I did a summer research program at Texas A&M in College Station, and the only thing to do in that hole of a town during the summer was to go to this cowboy bar (I don't like country music) called the Dixie Chicken and put away beer by the liter. Other than BMC, Shiner Bock and another local brew called Ziegenbock were the only options. I wound up liking the Ziegen a little better, but having both certainly saved my sanity.

[MrWookie]

Tonight, I was planning to do a head to head of the DFH 90 and 120 min IPAs. The 90 has been the bar by which I measure all other hoppy beer, and Beers of the World just got the 120 in recently. I was aching to try it. Unfortunately, the 90 must have been a bad bottle. I didn't taste the hops at all. The fact that it was still pretty decent is a testament to its malt, but it was more like a 3 heart beer instead of a 4.5-5 heart beer. I decided to try the 120 anyway, even while fearing I might have lost my ability to taste hops. I paid $9.95 for a single 12 oz bottle. This beer weighs in at an epic 18% ABV, though, so it's somewhat understandable. If a beer that packs 4x the alcohol of regular beer costs 5x as much, I can deal with that.



The beer pours a nice reddish gold with a modest head. As I'm drinking it, it laces my glass a little, but it's largely dissipated. I noticed some sediment in the bottom of the bottle. Figuring it for the yeast, I swirled the last little bit to mix it all up before adding it to my glass. It wasn't like most yeast, though. It added an opaque swirl to an otherwise clear beer that was slow to diffuse into the rest of it. After a few min, though, it's now a consistent cloudy color.



The beer smells dominantly of evergreen trees, mostly noble fir, one of the most aromatic fir trees. There's also a little caramel sweetness in there, too. Sipping, it's largely a mix of sweetness and pine. The dominant pine flavor is pretty unusual. Most other IPAs or barley wines are citrusy or floral with their dominant flavor. The maltiness of this beer is delicious, but I'm kind of surprised it's not as overwhelming with hops and bitterness. I'm going to award this beer [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. There's no denying that this is a great beer. However, if I'm going to pay $10 for a single 12 oz bottle, I want it to practically make me cream my pants. The DFH World Wide Stout lives up to this. The 120 doesn't. It's one of a kind, and I'm glad I tried it, but I won't be buying it again. For the same price, I can get a 4 pack of the DFH 90, and if it tastes like what I remembered it should (not what I got tonight), then I'll get more pleasure from 4 of those than one of these, and they'll get me twice as drunk, if that's my goal. Similar idea with the Curieux, the Old Rasputin, or the Old Ruffian. You could call this the epitomy of a "balla" beer. Flashy and extravagant, but when you get down to it, you can do better for less money.

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Wookie,

Let us all know what you think of the SA double bock either way. It tasted a bit like brandy to me which I'm not a fan of and in general your tastes are probably different from mine.

I'm drinking Chimay Bleue right now and man am I impressed.

It pours a cloudy amber color with a thick tan head. The aroma has a slight hint of alcohol, but is largely floral in scent. The taste hits your first with a sweetness, followed by a spicy twinge. It finishes with a good taste of roasted malt and an afterthought of alcohol. At 8% ABV it is disguised well. An excellent beer and worthy of at least 4.5 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]'s

[MrWookie]

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Chimay Blue.

What I forgot to note is that while the DFH WWS tastes of alcohol, the 120 doesn't much at all. I could drink 3 of these no problem and then curse the [censored] who gave them all to me.

[kidcolin]

Hey y'all,

Tonight I picked up 4 beers at my new favorite grocer in town (the bacon from the butcher is AWESOME).. I picked up 3 22oz's: Stone's Old Guardian Barley Wine, Anderson Valley's Brother David's Belgian Style Double Ale, and La Fin Du Monde. Also picked up a 12 oz. bottle of Old Rasputin Imperial Stout.

I started the night off with the Imperial Stout. I won't give a long review for this. I liked this a lot. I liked it more than Sam Smith's Imperial.. The roasted flavor came through a bit more. I'm not a major stout head, but I could really see myself drinking this regularly.

On to the main attraction: Stone's Old Guardian Barley Wine. The bottle says it's a limited early 2007 release. It cost me $5.00, which I think is pretty fair, considering the 11.26% ABV punch.





This is only my second trip down barley wine lane, so I wasn't sure what to expect. As you can see, it poured a darkish amber color, with a very healthy head. The nose left me guessing.. I smelled some floral hops, but it wasn't very strong or pronounced.

I let the head settle some and took a sip. First impression: resiny hops. A strong pine flavor came through. I was having trouble characterizing this one, to be honest. Aside from the resiny hops and pine flavors, I couldn't distinguish much else. A little bit of an alcohol finish, but it wasn't overwhelming and I enjoyed it.

Ultimately, I don't have much else to say for this beer. Leaves me second guessing my palate, I suppose. Looks like I have some work to do! I give it 3.75 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]'s, though that could go up easily. I definitely enjoyed this beer a lot, but it didn't knock my socks off. It did, however, get me fairly drunk.

Pick this up if you have a chance, and share with us your thoughts.

[MaxxDaddy]

I spent this past weekend up in Boston and took part in the BeerAdvocate Extreme Beer Festival. My girlfriend came along and we both found some really good stuff...2 ounces at a time. A very awesome experience I must say. Cliffs notes at the bottom.

The weekend started off well. I stayed at my cousin's place, since he goes to Berklee School of Music. He didn't come to the beer fest because he was a member of the press for the Boston Wine Expo, which fortuitously came to town on the same weekend. I brought a bottle of beer I had been eager to try and thought I'd share it with him: Jolly Pumpkin La Roja



I had heard this was pretty funky, and that it was. It gushed out as soon as I popped it open (Perhaps the transportation got it all riled up). The smell was totally unique, at least in my experience. It was copper/amber in color, with plenty of head, thanks to the gushing. It had a big sour smell, with apples and oak interlaced with some spice we couldn't pin down. It's apparently brewed in the Biere de Garde style, so it's not a Flemish Sour. The taste was quite interesting as well. It had sort of buttery white wine feel to it, with some caramel, spice, and the sour apples making themselves known. The finish was pretty tart with a hint of oakiness. This was certainly a mindblower, at least for me. I can see how some people really wouldn't be into this sort of thing, but I like it. 3.75 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

After that we grabbed a bottle from my cousin's stash. The previously rated (and loved) Allagash Curieux. I won't go too in depth, as Wookie pretty much nailed it. I didn't quite catch all the fruits that he did, but the toffee flavor and bourbon hints really made it a nice treat. I'd give it a low [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] and a half [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].

And this was just the day before the fest. On Saturday, my girlfriend and I got there at exactly 1:00 and stood on a long, winding line that went around the corner of the Boston Center of the Arts. Obviously that was fun in sub-freezing temperatures. When we made it inside, we were greeted with bracelets and plastic 2 oz. sampling glasses. In typical nerd fashion, I printed a list the day before of beers that we were interested in trying. A lot of the things at the festival were brews either specially made for it or brews that you won't find in bottles. I honestly can't say I remember them all, but I'll point out some highlights and my thoughts on the whole experience.

Samuel Adams 3 Weiss Men : This one you can only find at festivals. It's a weizenbock that weighs in at 10% ABV. You would've had me completely fooled based on the style. It poured more like a hefeweizen, smelled more like a hefeweizen...you get the idea. Plenty of banana in the nose and taste. The finish tasted like bubble gum. A very smooth brew, and I had no idea it was that strong. Well done Sam Adams.

Magic Hat Thumbsucker Imperial Stout: This beer was actually retired by Magic Hat, in terms of making it in bottles. I have no idea as to its availability at the brewery. This was my favorite imperial stout of the festival. Definitely not overdone in any way, and had all the elements I like in my impies: not overly hopped, a sweet coffee and chocolate taste, and a nice bitter finish. Here's me enjoying my first swig:




Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout: This is a seasonal offering from Founders Brewing up in Michigan. According to the description in the magazine I was holding in that picture, it's made with "tons of chocolate and coffee and aged in bourbon barrels for a year." Well, based on the aroma alone, the bourbon definitely had some influence on the brew. The taste was somewhat disappointing, tasting like burnt coffee and rye with bourbon in the background. My girlfriend the coffee drinker was not a fan, though she doesn't like dark beers in general.

Here are my awards for the festival:

The "Should I applaud them or should I stay away forever" Award: Anheuser-Busch. That's right, our favorite macrobrewery came to the fest and showed off its attempts at craft beer. The only one I tried was an unnamed prototype that weighed in at a massive 17% ABV. It was basically a sugar bomb trying to hide all that alcohol. I personally respect them for giving it a go, but perhaps it's just not in the cards...

The "Awkward interaction with a brewer" Award: Kuhnhenn Brewing Company. I earlier talked about tasting what thus far for me is my favorite beer, their Raspberry Eisbock. According to their website, and the Hop Devil Grill, they're coming back to New York City on the 22nd. I tried to start some conversation about it with one of the two Kuhnhenns and he said "Umm...I'm not aware of that." So that was interesting. I'm not one to badmouth in a situation like this, given that it's really awesome for brewers to come and share all their special stuff, but it seemed like they were really disinterested and the guy I talked to was just pouring samples and sliding them back. I did end up having another sample of the eisbock though, so all is well in the world.

The "Wait, this is beer?!" Award: The Wind Cried Mari, from the Cambridge Brewing Company in Massachusetts. This is brewed in a style known as gruit. It smelled pretty much like flowers. I'm not much of a flower person, but according to other reviews of it, it smells like heather and lavender. This particular beer was aged in Chardonnay barrels. Obviously, barrel-aging is a huge trend now. Anywho, I couldn't really taste the influence of the barrels here, just flowers really. That's not to say it's bad in the least, rather really confusing. A good experience I say.

Brewer of the Festival: This one's a tie, going to Oskar Blues Brewing and Port Brewing/The Lost Abbey. For those who are unfamiliar with Oskar Blues, their claim to fame is that they can all of their beers. They're based at of Lyons, Colorado and they have a pretty extensive distribution. We talked to one of the guys pouring and he told us that even though it's less cost-efficient to can beer, it's actually way better than bottling, as it keeps beer fresher. Obviously, UV light can't penetrate the can, but also it minimizes the amount of oxygen left in the can. You can visit their website to see a video on how they came upon their can "revelation." The first beer, and their highlight in my opinion, we tried from them was their Old Chub Scotch Ale. This was my first Scotch Ale, and it was awesome. Huge malt aroma and flavor, with caramel, coffee, and some smokiness. I'll have to buy a six pack and do a more thorough tasting. I missed out on their flagship beer, Dale's Pale Ale, but i think having the Old Chub was enough to convince me to try all their stuff. I went back for another sample of the Old Chub and the guy serving me said "Once you've had your first Chub, you're never the same." My girlfriend laughed when I looked at her...

The other brewer of the fest is based in San Marcos, California. There's a lot of history that goes along with Port Brewing, which I won't delve into here, but The Lost Abbey is essentially a new brewery operation from the people who brought the Pizza Port breweries to California. My favorite beer that I tried from them is their Older Viscosity, a bourbon barrel-aged (really?) version of Pizza Port's Old Viscosity barleywine. I couldn't really sense the bourbon, but it had more of a sherry smell than anything else, along with some dark fruitiness. The taste was along the same lines, with some chocolate thrown in. We ended up talking to their manager/chef Vince, who was extremely nice and talked about how they're trying to expand to the east coast (I think they've already signed on with Massachusetts). We told him we were planning on coming to San Diego in May, and he told us to come visit them on the weekend and taste some beers with him.

Beer of the festival: Cerise Cassee, from the Cambridge Brewing Company. This is their Flemish Sour Ale, described as being "100% sour-mashed, fermented with tart cherries and our house Belgian strain." Both of us picked this as our favorite beer. It poured a beautiful red and smelled of sour cherries with some barnyard funkiness in the background, believe it or not. The taste was full of cherries and slighlty acidic. The finish was so sour, I actually puckered. What a treat. Here's me going for sample #2 and singing its praises:



Overall, we had a really great time sampling all this great stuff from great brewers. KB4Z, you should definitely check out Cambridge, if you haven't already. I think for my next beer run I'm going to have to pick up some Flemish Sours after this experience.


Cliffs Notes Tried tons of beers over the course of two days. Highlights included Jolly Pumpkin La Roja, Magic Hat Thumbsucker, Samuel Adams 3 Weiss Men, Oskar Blues Old Chub, Port Brewing Older Viscosity, and our personal favorite: Cambridge Cerise Cassee, a Flemish Sour Ale brewed with cherries. Guys from Oskar Blues and Port Brewing/The Lost Abbey were really friendly...try their stuff!!

[MrWookie]

Nice TR. I saw the Old Chubb in BotW, but I had no idea what to think of beer in a can there. I'll take your word and pick up a sixer next time. I also [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Scotch ales.

As for me, I was in Montreal last weekend. I didn't do an extensive beer tour because I was dancing the whole time, but I got to do something of a Tour de Boreale. I didn't try their Blonde (pale ale), but I tried the other three that were available:

Boreale Blanc: A Belgian white that was surprisingly not sweet and not especially fruity. On the plus side, though, this let the spices, esp. cloves, come through nicely. It's a little different from the fruitier whites like Allagash and Hoegaarden, but it was good. If you think Belgian whites are a little too sweet for you, but you're willing to give them another go, this is one to try. [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] and a half [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].

Boreale Noire: A stout. It had a nice smokiness to it along with some hops. It was a little on the watery side other than a creamy (presumably nitrogen) head. The complexity was nice, but the malt was lacking. [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] and a half [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].

Boreale Rousse: A red ale, and a lackluster one. It didn't have much in the way of hops, and the malt was only decent. I wouldn't bother ordering this one again, esp. if the others were available. [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].

I heard good things about the Griffin red ale, but I didn't get to try it myself. Really, I think should be able to do better than these beers given the reputation for microbrews in Montreal, but touring all the brewpubs was just not on the itinerary. I'll just have to go back [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].