TLDR Beer Club

[kidcolin]

Deschutes Twilight Ale

Picked it up on a whim, and the 6 pack diasppeared pretty quickly. This is an APA. Pours a light straw color, as the description on the box indicates.

Nose consists of hops with a nice amount of citrus. Not much head, maybe about 1/4-1/2 inch. (EDIT: I've read other reviews where they indicated a bigger head. Maybe it's my glass since I broke my last pint).

Strong flavor of hops and malts, but not overwhelmingly so. It isn't trying to dominate you with the hops. Mixes well with the malts for a nice, subtle bitter flavor, but without the overkill of a strong IPA. Goes down pretty smooth. Nice hoppy bite at the end for a perfect kick.

For me, this is an ideal summer beer. Very refreshing. Perfect for enjoying a beer or four on a hot summer day. I give it [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] .

EDIT: And drinkability is through the roof. Doesn't beat up the palate, doesn't really weigh you down, and is only 5% ABV so you wont' get hammered too quickly.

[MrWookie]

APA, so, something like Sierra Nevada's ubiquitous offering? How does it stack up?

[kidcolin]

Ha.. I was going to post the comparison, but I like watching you be a stickler for it in this thread.

As we all know, Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale is the gold standard APA. I too find it quite enjoyable, but find it just a tad overrated. Comparatively, the Twilight and SN have similar textures, though I found the Twilight to be a little bit lighter.

Personally, I think the Twilight Ale has a bit more complexity to the taste, but not by much. The hop flavor is a little more subtle and its citrusy fruit blend adds just a little more flavor than SN's offering. This is what pushes it beyond the SN APA, IMO.

I haven't had a SN's APA in a while, but off of memory, I'd give it 3.5 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]'s.

[MrWookie]

Heh, you caught me. I'm a sucker, and I like posting about beer more than politics [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]. Thanks though [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

[JPinAZ]

[ QUOTE ]
I believe my course of celebration will be obvious...

[/ QUOTE ]



Awesome. When I was looking for Celebration Ale images I came across this.

[nails]

IMO, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was the pioneer, but it is no longer the gold standard it originally was. I like every Sierra Nevada beer I've ever tasted, and some of them (especially the porter and Celebration) continue to stand up very well against their peers. But the APA category has evolved a bit over the past 25 years, and I don't think SNPA can hang with the best of the APAs anymore.

Don't get me wrong -- I still enjoy SNPA. Some friends of mine have a bar in their house with SNPA perenially on tap, and I'm always good for a pint or five there. I also like the fact that it's an "old reliable" that is often available at even the most beer-illiterate bars and restaurants.

But I do think SNPA has fallen into the second tier of APAs -- good, maybe even great, but not top shelf. I think Three Floyds Alpha King is the current standard bearer when it comes to APA.

[MrWookie]

Whew! I just got back from spending way, way too much money at Beers of the World, and I must say, I'm going to have a whole lot to review in this thread. I plan to do a Tour de Ommegang, Tour de Unibroue, Tour de North Coast, and a Tour de Hefeweizen. I also found an oak aged Scotch ale that I'm really anxious to try, along with a couple other impulse buys. My only hope is that you folks out there can step up to the plate and try a few new things to go along with me over the next couple weeks. Who's with me?

Before I get to all those other things, though, I decided to pick up a bottle of Avery's Hog Heaven barley wine (at the recommendation of another lounger) to wrap up my Tour de Avery. For those of you who've been following my beer reviews, I've been staunchly underwhelmed with this brewery on the whole. Their Maharaja Imperial IPA was pretty solid, but I wasn't at all impressed with their quadrupel and their imperial stout, and their Grand Cru and their brown ale were mediocre. Now for their barley wine. I didn't have my hopes up, but considering that barley wines aren't all that different from imperial IPA's, I figured this would be something they'd be most likely to get right. I decided to have it with dinner tonight, some moderately spicy Thai food left over from last night. This beer ran me $6.39 for a 22 oz, so it wasn't all that expensive for this sort of beer. Here's a picture of the bottle:



Pouring it into a glass, it smelled great. I could smell the hops and maltiness quite strongly. Its head wasn't quite as large as some, but it was not overly flat. I poured it pretty aggressively to get the head I got. It smelled enough of fruitiness (citrus, mostly) that just before I finished it, I noticed a fruit fly had drowned itself. Oh well. I picked the little bugger out and was not going to let perfectly good beer go to waste. Here's a picture. As you can see, I also got a new goblet today [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]



Taking my first few tastes, though, it didn't taste as strong as I expected based on the smell. Is this evidence that a good goblet helps your olfactory? Maybe. Anyway, I could taste the hops and the familiar barley behind them, but neither was as potent as some. To it's credit, though, it wasn't a mega-bitter hop bomb like Sierra Nevada's barley wine. It was pretty easy to drink. However, it lacked some of the flavor of the Great Divide barley wine I reviewed not too long ago. This beer is a barley wine, and barley wines are good. However, it's not as good as some others, and I'd much rather drink Great Divide's offering. I give it [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. I don't think this stacks up quite as well to it's peers as the Maharaja, but it's not nearly the disappointment that Avery's imperial stout or quadrupel were. It's not too bad for the price, but if I'm paying for premium beer, I'll generally spend a buck or two more for something I like better. All in all, I don't think Avery, as a brewery, really cuts the mustard. They've managed some decent offerings, but I've had better versions of just about everything they make. I don't plan on buying any more of their beer.

[snowden719]

So over the past week I've had a bunch of different belgian beers, so I thought I'd give some ratings on what are some decently common and decently respected belgian beers.

First was St Bernardus 12/abt
Pours dark red, almost purple with a medium off white head. Aroma is a bit yeasty, dark fruits, vanilla, some bread. Flavor is caramely, dark fruits, alcohol. Nice warmth to it. Very smooth, a bit velvty on the palate. Not as good as I was expecting, but still quite nice. Flavor and aroma could be bigger.

Overall 4.5/5





Next up were the Westmalle Abbey Dubbel/ Tripel

I thought the double was overall a solid amount better than the tripel, and that the tripel was a bit boring for me. I'm usually not a big fan of the breadiness associated with tripels, so if you're into tripels you may really like it. My notes on the beers were as follows

Dubbel
Pours dark brown with a slightly tan head. Aroma is chocalate, some caramel, dark fruits, brown sugar, yeast. Flavor is dark fruits, toffee, yeast, sourness. Finish if bitter and sour, decently short. Mouthfeel is a bit thin.

Overall 3.5/5


Tripel

Pours golden-orange with a medium white head that last the whole beer. Aroma is yeast, bit of sourness, bread, apples. Flavor is sourness with pears, apples, breadiness. The sourness doesn’t really combine well with the other flavors, especially the breadiness.

Overall 3/5



Next up was a brew from ommegang, the rare vos. I thought it was really interesting, in many ways a cross between american and belgian styles. It had the yeastiness of most belgians and the candy sugar taste, but a nice hoppy back to it. My tasting notes were:

Amber color with a medium head. Aroma is belgian yeast, citric hops, fruit. Flavor is a bit of caramel malt with strong belgian yeast notes, bit of clove. Finish is dominated by citric hops. Very bitter for a belgian ale. Mouthfeel and finish are very nice.

Overall 4/5



Finally was the grandaddy of them all, Westvleteren 12. This is the one that has been ranked number one beer in the world the last few years by ratebeer and beeradvocate. Although the beer is ridiculously hyped due to the difficulty in finding it, I can say that it is jsut as good as people say it is.

Pours dark brown, almost black with a medium tan head that dissapated a bit quickly, but left a nice small head throughout the glass. Aroma is dark fruits, yeast, honey,raisins bit of floral notes. Flavor is strongly dark fruit, bit of coffee, raisins and honey, with some alcohol notes and and yeast and citrus in the finish. FInish is nice and long, mouthfeel is thick and very nice, almost velvety. Alcohol adds a nice warmth to the beer

Overall 5/5

[milesdyson]

i had tried the alesmith extra pale ale and was not very impressed. it was really too bland.

But, I have heard nothing but good things about the Alesmith brewery. So, I picked up a 22oz of Alesmith's Yulesmith, which is a "holiday ale" which they brew twice a year. The summer version is actually a double IPA and the winter version is an imperial red ale. I picked up the summer version - the double IPA.

I opened the bottle and put my nose to the top and smelled. Wow... hops. Potent, delicious smelling hops. I poured it into a pint glass somewhat gently and was rewarded with a nice 1/2", very dense/frothy head. I took another whiff of the beer, and the hop profile was intense. You can tell this has a kick. FWIW it's, I believe, 9% ABV.

So, I take the first sip. Mouthfeel is a little thicker than other IPAs/double IPAs I've had, it really coats your mouth and tongue. The flavor is, as expected, very hoppy at first. I'm no pro at determining which hops are which, but all I can say is that these ones are damn good. The flavor goes from intensely hoppy to strong hops, slight alcohol, and finally to a solid malt base and aftertaste. Very nice, very balanced. Not at all overpowering, just really really good.

This is the best IPA I've ever had. If you try this and don't like it, I don't know what to tell you. It was a bit pricey at $5.99 for the 22oz, but IMO it is well worth the price and I will not only buy this version again, I will be looking forward to its incarnation as the imperial red.

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].75

[MrWookie]

I went hunting for Alesmith beers at BotW yesterday. Alas, they don't carry them [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]